August 6, 2006
Rare Search Engine Optimisation Videos By Google
These are rare videos straight from Google. Nothing very new because most of this search engine optimisation
stuff is already on Google's web site. But this is the live human touch. The "Master" speaks:
Video 1: Qualities of a good web site
Google's Search Engine Optimisation Video.
Video 2: Questions and answers on some SEO Myths.
Google's SEO
Video 3: Should you Optimize your web site for Search Engines or for visitors?
Google's video on Optimising Your Web Site
Video 4: - Questions on static vs. dynamic links does PageRank flow the same to both?
Pitfalls to avoid with dynamic links?
Can Sitemaps alert site owners when their site has been hacked?
Can you do geotargeting within Google’s Quality Guidelines?
Google's video on Page Rank, Sitemaps etc
Video 5: Merging domains with 301 directs?
How to create a site architecture with themes and keywords?
URLs with too many parameters – can you serve up static HTML to Googlebot instead?
How to do split A/B testing?
Google's Video on 301 directs, themes, keywords and split testing
Video 6: - 1. Should I worry about results estimates for supplemental results?
2. using the site operator?
3. with negated terms?
4. special syntax such as intitle?
Why do 301 directs take so long to be reflected in supplemental results?
Video 7: Does Google Analytics play a part in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS)?
When does Google detect duplicate content?
You want to mark my page as porn in SafeSearch–what do you recommend?
Is it okay to make hyperlinks in option elements?
Video on SERPS, Duplicate Content, hyperlinks
Video 8: What’s the difference between an index update, an algorithm update, and a data refresh?
video on various Google updates
Video 9: All about datacenters (including werewolves vs. unicorns!)
Question about google datacenters?
Should all datacenters on the same Class C block be roughly the same?
Video on more SEO technical issues
Video 10: Lightning Round!
Is it possible to search just for home pages?
Can you use strong and em instead of bold (b) and italics (i)
Will we ever see kitty posts again?
What are Google SSD, Google RS2, and all those other things Tony Ruscoe found?
Does Google rank blog sites any differently than regular websites?
Does Google treat .gov.pl links with the same weight as regular .gov links?
Sorry! you'll have to wait for this video.
There you have it! Are you the wiser? What's the number one thing you've learnt?
It should be that in building your web site give Google what they want.
"Keep It Natural"
Posted by David at 5:05 PM
July 11, 2006
Your Langing Page Is About To Fry
Google is about to update its algorithym to weed out landing pages that are used as devices to target Adwords traffic at low cost per click to higher paying keyword web sites that are providing poor value for web users. A small quantity of Adwords advertisers will see an increase in their cost per click as a result.
If you're a small business entrepreneur who will be affected by Google Landing Page shakeout you need to take action. Best action is to change your strategy away from "Google Arbitrage" to providing good content sites.
Posted by David at 9:37 PM
June 16, 2006
Google Adds Dayparting to AdWords
Google has added dayparting capabilities to google Adwords so advertisers can schedule the showing of their ads.
Small Businesses Worldwide Can Now Schedule Their Pay-Per-Click Ads.
The dayparting feature, which Google is calling "ad scheduling," is available today in the AdWords campaign management interface. It enables advertisers to automatically adjust their bids, or pause and resume their campaigns based on the time-of-day or day-of-week.
Small businesses and local advertisers might want to schedule their ads to run only during business hours.
Small business marketers can benefit because using third party software that have access to Google's API they will be able to get better insight into trends from Google.
Posted by David at 8:48 PM
March 29, 2006
Internet Advertising: The Internet Is Boosting Growth In Advert Spending
Is the increase In Internet advertising spend a threat or an opportunity to Internet entrepreneurs?
Advertising expenditure on the Internet will account for almost half of this year's growth in advertising spending, according to Zenith Optimedia, the media buying group.
The increase in UK advertising spending is expected to total £556m, of which £255m will be spent on the Internet. This year's overall advertising expenditure is expected to be £12.2bn against £11.65bn last year.
The Internet has become the fastest growing segment in advertising over the past few years. According to Zenith Optimedia, advertising spending on the Internet is expected to total £1.1.bn this year, compared with £7m in 1997.
The increase in the uptake of broadband has meant that more people spend their free time online, prompting advertisers to spend more on Internet advertising. Advertisers like the fact that the Internet is an accountable medium where they can see who has clicked on their adverts and the impact on the advertising expenditure.
The main source of growth for Internet advertising has been search-based adverts, according to executives.
Anthony Young, chief executive of Zenith Optimedia, said online advertising would continue to develop as part of the core marketing strategy. "Marketers are looking to diversify their advertising risk into different channels beyond traditional media."
The growth in Internet advertising has hit radio and regional newspapers. Publishers have said the decline in print classified revenue was partly due to the decline in consumer activity but have been busy buying online recruitment, property and auto sites.
The world cup is expected to provide a boost to budgets. Spending on advertising overall is predicted to grow 4.8 per cent this year against 3.3 percent last year.
So what impact will the increase in Internet advertising spend have of small businesses?
Based on the research carried out by Zenith Optimedia my take on the impact on small businesses are:
1. An opportunity for skilled Internet entrepreneurs to exploit opportunities relating to Google Adsense, Overture / Yahoo MSN and small niche targeted advertising web sites.
2. An opportunity for skilled Internet entrepreneurs to benefit from pay-per click advertising where cost per click, value per click and conversion is geared more towards writing effective direct response ads ("salesmanship in print").
3. An opportunity for skilled Internet entrepreneurs and SEO (search engine optimization) firms to benefit from getting web sites to rank high in the search engines.
4. An opportunity for skilled Internet entrepreneurs who can drive traffic to web sites and use the "funnel method" to drive and convert prospects towards higher product propositions.
5. An opportunity for entrepreneurs to use the "two step" method to drive traffic to web sites to build their lists and convert prospects, also following up prospects and customers offline with higher priced products and services.
David
Small Business Resource
Posted by David at 3:19 PM
March 14, 2006
Pay Per Click Fraud
How big of a deal is pay per click fraud? A lot of people ask me about this.
Last week Google agreed to settle a class action lawsuit for $90 million for click fraud. They're going to give advertisers a credit for future clicks, based on improper charges going back to 2002.
Ninety million bucks sounds like a lot of money, but compared to well over ten billion dollars of clicks they've sold since AdWords started, this is spare change. It's less than 1%.
A lot of people are paranoid about click fraud. I haven't talked about it a great deal, so let's talk about this right now.
How are click prices determined in the first place? By advertisers' bids. And how are bids determined?
Well obviously a lot of people determine their bid prices by guessing a number and then bidding. But the right way to determine your bids is to figure out how much a click is worth in the first place, by tracking conversion of sales or sales leads. Then pay accordingly.
Are you doing that?
If you're not, you're losing WAY more money than click fraud would ever cost you. A few months ago I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about click fraud. They were interviewing this guy who sold private airplanes, and he was complaining that he didn't know what he was getting for his Google AdWords investment, he'd seen signs of click fraud and his faith in the whole system was being shaken.
It seemed pretty clear that this guy had no idea what his cost per lead and his sales conversion was. So he was throwing darts in a blizzard. Sort of like a store owner who never takes inventory, complaining about shoplifting.
Let me repeat: If you're not tracking conversion of clicks to sales leads or sales, it's costing you WAY more money than click fraud.
Last year I had what amounted to a click fraud problem on one certain keyword. For about 3-4 days I had 3X the normal amount of traffic. But you know what happened?
My Click Thru Rate went up, my ad moved from the No.3 position to the no.1 position and once it was in No.1, Google started charging me less for clicks because of the high CTR. I got 4X the traffic but it only cost twice as much. The cost per click went from 19 cents to 7 cents.
Again, for those few days I was spending twice the money as before. But not 4 times. Google's CTR formula inherently gives you discounts for click fraud. Not a total solution, but it does help.
If you've paid much attention to this you see that Google doesn't say very much about it. Why? Because they just can't. If they told everyone what techniques they use to detect it, people who do click fraud would find more ways to get around it.
What I can tell you is that if someone clicks on your ad twice or more in 30 days, you only get charged one time. The most obvious kinds of click fraud, like your competitor repeatedly clicking on your ad, are easily detected and you don't get charged. Furthermore, AdSense advertisers who get caught for click fraud get clicked out.
You know what's way worse than click fraud though?
Trashy "AdSense sites."
If you syndicate your ads on AdSense, these sites cost you WAY more in terms of crappy, costly traffic than click fraud ever does.
We've all seen them - sites full of junky, nonsense text and non-content, whose only purpose is to get people to click on AdSense ads.
You don't want your ads on those sites. Not only do they do a disservice to Internet users in general, they bring you only the lowest quality visitors.
I'm not against AdSense sites - the late Ken Giddens had hundreds of quality examples in his portfolio, with real articles and real content. What I am against is filling web pages with garbage that looks like content to a search engine but not to a real person. And there are undoubtedly dozens or maybe hundreds of gurus teaching people how to do that. This is worse than click fraud.
How do you protect yourself against that? You HAVE to bid separate prices for your AdSense traffic, and you have to track its conversion rates separately. And you may want to deliberately exclude certain sites from showing your ads.
THIS is the No.1 biggest place where Google advertisers lose money. They make money on Google traffic and give it all back on AdSense.
Buyer beware!
Posted by David at 3:52 PM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2006
How to Build Traffic To Your Website With Content
Every small business that has a website should take advantage of free traffic... Here's how to use content to build, advertise and drive traffic to your online business
Why is Content Important?
Are you new to online marketing? Or are you one of the millions of frustrated website owners watching helplessly as your site fluctuates up and down (even on and off) the search engines?
Is your traffic suffering as you try to stay on top of the most current methods of finding traffic, only to find that they are ineffective for bringing targeted traffic or stop working soon after the search engines catch on?
There is a reason that staying in the search engines is vitally important. The amount of people who are searching for information online is increasing rapidly.
An Ipsos-Reid poll showed that people are starting to rely more heavily on the internet with increases in the frequency of internet usage in North America the UK and Asia. At the time of the poll 72% of Americans were online within the previous month, and that number continues to rise.
How are they finding information on the internet?
According to research published by GVU (Graphic, Visualization and Usability Center), most users novice, expert, young, old, male and female find new websites from two main sources: hyperlinks and search engines.
Pew Internet & American Life Project also published statistics about search engine use which indicated that '84% of online American adults have used search engines. That amounts to 108 million people. On any given day, 56% of those online use search engines.'
How many of these potential visitors are finding YOUR website? More websites are created each day leading to increased congestion and competition for the top spots in search engine results. How are you able to compete? Well first of all, how do search engines bring you traffic?
Two of the most popular methods of getting traffic from search engines include PPC Pay Per Click and SEO Search Engine Optimization.
PPC:
Pay Per Click is advertising provided by the search engine providers (Google, Yahoo! and others) where you PAY for top placement. Their strategies for placement differ slightly. Some search engines will give you higher placement if your ad has a higher click-through rate (meaning more people click on your ad in ratio to the amount of times your ad was shown), others give top positions to the highest bidder.
In either case, you PAY. It is a quick way to get listed in the search engines and a smart way to get your traffic flowing but it is not the cheapest AND you could spend far more than is profitable for your business if you don't know what you're doing.
SEO:
There are a lot of companies working behind the scenes' to help website owners get plenty of traffic from the natural search engine listings. Natural listings mean the search engine has ranked you according to the value it believes your site will offer an individual searching for a specific word or phrase.
Understanding exactly WHAT the search engines want to see when ranking sites requires knowledge of the algorithms. These algorithms change all the time as search engine providers try to outwit the search engine optimizers trying to find loopholes in the ranking system.
Some SEO companies will promise you top spots for a certain cost. Some are honestly creating optimized websites others may be using techniques that could possibly get your site BANNED from the search engines entirely (once the search engine catches on). However, optimizing your website for better placement in the search engines is a technique that you should become familiar with and use to your advantage.
Both of these traffic methods have their pros and cons for generating traffic from the search engines. You will find out more about using them properly later on. But first you need to know what REALLY works
Content is KING!
Before you start to think that this is another SEO technique that may or may not work depending on the current algorithms of the search engines, think about it
EVERYTHING on the internet is CONTENT.
The internet is a veritable treasure trove of information. Good, bad, valuable or not, the internet is all about providing information to people. That is why smart internet marketers know that people want information from their websites not just SEO enriched pages of advertising.
The loopholes that search engine optimizers have been trying to use for high ranking in the search engine has created a plethora of sites that boast high keyword ratios, thousands of irrelevant hyperlinks and sometimes even redirection. These redirected websites try to create an optimized web page that the search engines will rank high but actually redirect the viewer to a less search engine friendly site.
Well, the search engines caught on. The websites that were getting the highest placements weren't always providing quality information or useful content. In fact, they not only lowered the ranking of these sites they even removed them from the listings completely.
This sent a shock wave through the internet community and smart marketers realized that there is only one sure way to convince the search engines that they were meant to be at the top: Quality Content.
Not only do the search engines love content, but visitors do too. By providing visitors with useful information and relevant links to other sites, they come back again and again! And that's not the only benefit.
Because website owners are now hungry for content, there is a huge market for informative articles that other website owners can use on their sites. By offering information to these sites in exchange for a hyperlink to your website, you get even more exposure, both to search engines AND customers.
So, how do you harness the power of content? How do you pull the most benefit and profits from your information?
Find out right in the next article
David
Small Business Resource
Posted by David at 9:02 PM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2005
News! Google Adwords No More Minimum
Over the weekend, the AdWords folks sent out a pretty important notice: The 0.5% Click Thru Rate minimum is effectively going away.
Also going away: the Normal - In Trial - On Hold - Disabled designations. Instead, they'll either be Active or Inactive. And Google will simply tell you how much more you have to bid to become active.
This is going to do two things:
1) The immensely frustrating experience of losing your disabled keywords 'forever' will change. Instead of getting disabled, the minimum bid price will just go UP. So now you've got more than just 1000 impressions to get that pesky thing up and running. In fact, you've got as longas you need, IF you're willing to pay, as long as you're willing to pay.
2) It means that the difference between stupid advertisers, who have money and no brains - and smart advertisers, who use brains instead of brawn - that gap will grow even wider.
This has not yet been implemented, but will be implemented in the next few weeks. So, you ask, is this good, or is it bad?
Simple answer, it's good if you're smart and bad if you're dumb. It also means you can make more mistakes and get away with them, IF you're willing to pay.
It means a few other things, too:
3) The 0.5% minimum effectively is no more. You can show your ads at 0.1% CTR, if you're willing to bid enough.
4) The Five Cent Minimum is going away too. You can pay as little as 1 cent, IF your CTR is high enough.
5) There are some categories where you can't get a 0.5% minimum because you're targeting a very unique kind of high value customer, different from the guy all the other advertisers are trying to reach. You may be willing to pay a lot for that visitor. If that's you, this could open up some new opportunities.
How this *really* affects you depends on Google's minimum threshold formula. (They're not saying exactly how it works.) There's all sorts of ways they can cook this thing, and we'll just have to wait and see how things change. I'll be watching closely; I've got a lot of campaigns that run at 5 cents, and I'll be especially interested to see how it affects those.
This does put Google in a position of being able to slowly raise the minimum bids, without ever really telling you exactly what they're up to.
Being that they're a public company now, none of this is very surprising, is it?
Regardless of how the exact details playout, AdWords will continue to be a game where the dumb bloke who just walked in off the street pays through the nose... And the educated guys and gals get the sweet deals. The race goes to the swift - and to those who value education.
Perry Marshall
Posted by David at 5:32 PM | Comments (0)
June 29, 2005
Peer-To-Peer File Sharing Legal Or Not?
Recently there's been much reference to copyright laws. Yesterday The US Supreme Court handed an important victory to entertainment companies fighting online piracy, while also giving technology companies a powerful tool to defend themselves against copyright laws.
Legal experts said it was the most important case on the Internet age. The court unanimously ruled that Internet file-sharing services can be held legally responsible if they distribute products that permit illegal downloads. But, the court added, they will be held liable only if their intent is to encourage breaking the law.
The court stressed that peer-to-peer file sharing, which permits people to exchange music, films and other forms of digital information, can be legal if the intent of the distributor is not to encourage illegality.
'If the object of distributing a device is to infringe copyright then this is illegal'.
The unanimous ruling of the US court means the closely watched case of MGM v Grokster is sent back to the lower court, which had ruled in favor of file-sharing services Grokster and StreamCast.
At issue in the Grokester case was whether the file-sharing services should be held liable even if they have no direct control over what millions of online users are doing with the software they provide for free.
This may not be the last word on Internet file-sharing; a key US Senate committee said yesterday that it would review the ruling for "its impact on copyright law and innovation."
FT
28.6.05
Posted by David at 1:54 PM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2005
Corey Rudl - Tribute to An Inspirational And savvy Internet Marketer
I wrote about my shock of hearing the death of Corey Rudl. He was instrumental in inspiring me to learn HTML, resulting in me building this web site (small business resource) by hand coding every page, apart from this bolg. Here's Yanik Silver's tribute in the form an an email. It's lengthy!
Hi David
This is probably one of the hardest emails I've ever had to write. Now after returning from Corey's funeral and with a deeply saddened heart I'm finally ready to send this out.
* *
My wife, Missy, woke me up Friday morning (June 4th) with an email from a subscriber giving his condolences to me about Corey.
What????!!...
I had been playing video games until 3 in the morning and I was planning on sleeping in - but I suddenly sprang out of bed. Surely, this must be some kind of weird mistake or something else....
I logged onto to a couple message boards since they are the central outlets for info and right there on Tony Blake's board was a memorial banner for Corey Rudl. It was surreal. Corey was the passenger in a Porsche Carrerra GT that lost control and crashed during a track event. (I've included the AP post on the accident at the bottom of this note).
Many of you reading this will know immediately who Corey is.
In Internet marketing circles Corey is a legend. Corey was one of the true pioneers. I believe he was the very first (even before Amazon) to build an affiliate program. He was one of the first to sell downloable ebooks with his 'Car Secrets' book. He was responsible directly and indirectly for thousands (probably tens of thousands) of significant successes online. His site says Corey has personally sold over $40M and I wouldn't be surprised if that figure expands by 100x when you count his students. That's just a small indication of the impact he's had.
Just reading the message boards and tribute sites you can see how deeply this has impacted people. Most people never knew Corey personally like I did and they still feel a tremendous loss. I hope seeing this outpouring from people all over the world will give Corey's wife, Tracy, and his family a small amount of comfort in these trying times.
Now I wouldn't say Corey and I were 'best buds' but in the last few years we had definitely developed a much closer, personal friendship. I have about 8-9 good friends from the Internet world and I would consider Corey in that group.
Corey and I really became much closer friends because we were both in Dan Kennedy's Platinum group so we met at least 4x/year. Kennedy would always give us grief about having the "Internet guys" in the Platinum group especially because many of the existing members wanted to pick our brains for online info. We couldn't present right after another - Kennedy wanted us spaced out to handle the Internet guys in small doses. It was certainly in good fun and the bond between us grew from there.
I was probably one of his closer "Internet" friends. Though it actually wasn't business - we never did promote anything together - it was more personal. (Though we did consider doing a joint seminar.)
We'd hang out after meetings sometimes and go to dinner or a bar together. One meeting was in Los Angeles - we all went out together on the town to a cool LA club staying out until 4 am.
Then January of last year for my "30th Birthday Bash" I managed to get Corey out of 'semi-retirement' from speaking. I'm not certain but I think my Bday bash was the first time he had spoken in a few years. I may be wrong. I was extremely thankful and he did me a personal favor. It was a pretty big coup and thanks to him and everyone else part of my incredible line-up we had over 520 people there.
I have no idea if he already decided he wanted to speak more but after that Corey began appearing again on stage. I was glad because he able to have an impact on even more people. I'd only seen Corey speak a couple of times and it was really him out there. It was exhausting to watch him because he spoke so fast but it wasn't just an act. That was him. He was full of enthusiasm and excitement about the Internet business and he wanted to help compel people that it really was possible.
Just a few months ago I stayed at his new home in La Jolla, CA with his wife Tracy and their cute chocolate lab, Wally. I was invited to their wedding but couldn't make it. So this was the first time I'd seen their place. Pretty amazing and very cool. I was impressed and made some mental notes for myself when I build a house.
I loved this 'moat-like' feature of stepping blocks surrounded by water leading up to the front door. Another standout for me was the "Infinity" pool that looked like it dropped off right into the Pacific. Their place was completely wired inside and out and definitely my style. But I think one of Corey's favorite feature was his garage. It was a 4/5 car garage with carpet. Nice. He had a Ferrari 360 Spyder in there and his brand new baby, a Lamborghini Murcielago.
One of the funniest things he'd seen in awhile was me trying to get into the Lamborghini. It was the scissor doors which are very cool but not exactly the easiest to jump in and out of. I landed very gracefully with a resounding plunk as we got into the car. ;)
The car was a rocket and boy did that thing get stares. When he dropped me off at the Airport - there were 2 people who actually came up and got pictures of him in his car. Pretty funny.
We shared a lot of similarities which makes this even harder to grapple with. We had the same sense of adventure and both were blessed with the opportunity to pursue it. We talked about going off to Russia to fly MIG jets together next summer and going backwoods skiing.
I actually came out to his place so we could go Baja racing in Mexico. It was one of my favorite trips. I've got a fun
slide show that shows Corey having a ball in Baja - www.surefiremarketing.com/baja (I put this together awhile ago so you can just disregard the last page about my copywriting course - I have no intention of making this email a commercial for anything.)
Funny side note - he was in DC at my Underground seminar just a month ago and he couldn't understand why people kept asking him if he was still sore (you'll get it if you watch the video). He never knew I put the photos up of him from the Baja racing trip we did together. He was a bit ticked off at me - but had a laugh about it. Unlike me, Corey didn't want all his "adventures" to be public.
Corey wasn't that close of friends with too many people in the Internet marketing circle. I actually felt privileged to be friends with him.
He didn't keep up on the gossip, the rumors, the "kindergarten' stuff. He simply worked hard building up his business. And he really built it and ran it like a "real business". I know some people have expressed their uncertainty about the Internet Marketing Center continuing without Corey but I have absolutely no doubt it will. Corey built a great team around him and they were running the place already without him for the most part.
As so many others have already said - Corey has left a lot of people better off. He's inspired and taught many.
A couple of the personal lessons (some small and some big ones) I learned from Corey:
1. Live life. Sounds cliche, doesn't it? But Corey really did. Corey died doing something he loved and I think it would be a big mistake to simply take away the lesson that you've got to play it safe after this. Yes, racing might be a bit dangerous but he really lived. And my philosophy is "You can't worry about you're going to die - you can only worry about how you're going to live."
2. Build up a team. In Baja Corey yelled at me for still having many of my emails routed to me. He really tried to hammer home to me that I needed a team and systems in place. I don't know if I ever want as many employees Corey had - but having a team in place is paramount if you want to grow beyond a certain point.
3. Pay for the best. One of my favorite sayings I heard comes from Tom Phillips of Phillips Publishing. He said, "Pay for the best and you'll only cry once". Corey would tell me about how much he paid for top accounting, legal and consulting. Trust me it was a lot but to him worth every penny because he was building a real organization.
I'm sure more will come to me as my mind clears up.
One of the things I remember being most grateful to Corey for was for increasing not just my expectations for my personal life but my business as well. He was inspiring to me with what he had accomplished and also how he coaxed me
a bit to step up my 'game'.
Of course, business will go on as usual. Orders haven't stopped coming in over here and I'm sure orders haven't stopped for Corey's products during this time (which is a great thing about an Internet business). Things go on however I know Corey's spirit and influence won't be forgotten in our Internet community and beyond.
Usually I sign off by saying "All the best" - but I think a better sign-off is "Be the best". Corey really was the best at what he did and if we strive to be the best - we might just wake up one day to find we are.
You'll be missed my friend.
Be the best.
Posted by David at 5:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 9, 2005
Small Business Internet marketing: 4 Quick Tips for Choosing the Right Domain Name for Your Website
I just finished talking to a customer who wanted advice on choosing the right domain name for his web site. He's new to Internet marketing and is confused about .com, .net, .co.uk, .org, .biz and all the other dots. This was my reply to him:
I have my favorite newspaper bookmarked. But when I'm in front of another person's computer, sometimes I type in the name and up pops ... a porn site. Darn, did it again! Forgot to type in "the" as part of the newspaper's name.
You certainly don't want your customers taking unplanned detours when trying to get to your website.
The Internet's answer to "location, location, location" is "domain name, domain name, domain name." So you need to choose a name that will lead customers to your site without confusion or delay. Here are some quick tips:
1. Describe your product in the domain name (e.g., "livelobsters.com") for those who don't know your company from a hole in the wall but know what product or service they're looking for.
2. Have a second domain name that uses your company name for customers who do know it.
3. Keep the spelling simple and obvious. One letter missed or mistyped can take a customer to a strange destination.
4. Stick with the .com extension, even if your top choices are already taken. Though you have a much better chance of getting your first-choice domain name if you go with a different extension, it'll be a guessing game for your customer when you don't finish it off with ". com."
NB: It's also good to get .net, .org and .biz extensions to prevent competitors trying to steal your business idea should you hit on a winning formula.
If you want to generate ideas for a unique domain name get domain name generator tool
David
Small Business Resource
Posted by David at 10:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 7, 2005
Death Of A Savvy Internet Marketer
It was late Friday evening when I opened my email to read that Cory Rudl had been killed in a racing car accident. I was momentarily stunned. I thought it was a joke! But who would play such a trick on me? I went downstairs and quietly told my wife that the Internet Marketer whom I've tried to model my business on was dead.
I've seen a picture of the car crashed and read the news but I still cannot believe that Cory Rudl is dead.
My heart and prayers go out to his wife and family. I pray that God will comfort them at this time and that out of this tragedy good will come. God is mysterious!
Cory's passion for racing cars was matched only by his passion for Internet marketing. He built a substantial Internet business with annual sales of over $6 million. Over the past ten years he's generated more than $40 million in sales. He was the "complete Internet Marketer"!
I met Corey Rudl four years ago in London, England at a conference. My first impression was that he's young and quick with his tongue. He spoke fast! I later discovered that this was in keeping with the natural pace of the Internet and his dedication to being on its cutting edge.
Cyberspace will zoom on but it won't be the same without Cory Rudl. It was only two days before his death that I received an email from him telling me how tired he was at just completing a project and that he needed some sleep. Even if he did not send the email personally, it had his signature all over it.
Many said he was the first to invent "Affiliate Program" and I have no doubt that he was.
I can see him now at the Hotel in London on that cold autumn's day describing how I can profit by becoming his affiliate and the special bonuses I would earn. I still have that power point presentation.
Wherever you are Cory Rudl I'm in no doubt that you'll be the fastest speaker. Cyberspace will not be the same without your passion and zeal. You got your wish even though you never intended it to be this way.
David
Small Business Resource
Posted by David at 3:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 12, 2005
Why UK Small Businesses Should Be Advertising On The Internet
Spending on Internet advertising rose by 60% last year, outstripping radio advertising for the first time, a new study revealed. The study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers showed that companies spent over £663 million on Internet advertising while £637.4 million was spent on radio advertising.
Internet advertising now accounts for 3.9% of the total spent by advertisers.
Analysts said that increasing take-up of fast Internet connections was partly responsible for the switch from more traditional forms of advertising.
The question for small business owners is why are they failing to take advantage of marketing their business, products and services on the Internet, that is pound for pound cheaper and more targeted compared to marketing on radio and other traditional forms.
Small business surveys reveal that most small business owners never consider the Internet as a marketing medium for their business. Their experience of the Internet post "Internet bubble burst" is almost nil. It appears many small business entrepreneurs lost faith with the Internet and simply gave up. Despite the fact that the Internet has changed post the "dot-com boom" many entrepreneurs still refrain from even considering the Internet as a marketing and advertising channel.
Most businesses give up before investigating whether to try marketing on the Internet even though it's the ideal medium for entrepreneurs who are working with small budgets to acquire customers at low cost.
Paul Pilkington, the director in charge of the study, said: "The Internet is coming of age. Advertisers understand how accountable it is as a medium, and how they can much better target their advertising than they can, say in outdoor advertising"
The study showed that Internet advertising is most popular among financial services companies, followed by recruitment and travel companies.
The automotive industry has also increased its spending. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, the trade body that commissioned the research predicts that online advertising would be higher than spending on outdoor advertising in the next few years.
The message is clear, UK small businesses should not be sitting on the fence they should be active users on the Internet. They should be active users of the many advertising and marketing techniques used by small businesses in the USA. These techniques include pay-per-click advertising, banner advertising, co-registration, traffic brokers, organic search, joint venture marketing, publicity (PR), affiliate marketing and viral marketing (or affinity marketing).
They should use tools for tracking and testing their ads to increase conversion rate so as to optimize their return on investment (ROI).
The Interactive Media research Group (IMRG) in their first annual report published recently said it expected 4m more Britons to shop online this year, taking total shoppers to 24m, more than half the UK's adult population. IMRG also states that consumers are expected to spend 35% more buying a host of items from clothes to CDs.
Such is the pull of the Internet, large retailing groups - Kingfisher, Argos, Dixons, Tesco and Boots are spending money on developing their internet offering.
If ever there was a time for small businesses to get on board and start advertising on the Internet it is now NOT tomorrow!
At Small Business Resource we are helping many of our clients to market their products and services on the Internet. We apply a systems approach that focuses on traffic generation and traffic conversion. We can help you optimize your ROI.
Furthermore, we guarantee our service at take away much of the risks.
You want to implement the many marketing strategies mentioned above just send an email and we'll do the rest.
David
small business resource
Posted by David at 9:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 29, 2005
Why Is Google Up To In Buying Web Traffic Log Analysis?
Google said it would buy Urchin Software, a web traffic log analysis program, for undisclosed terms. Google intends to offer the software to its advertisers in an effort to help them maximize their returns. The deal is scheduled to close before May.
But why is Google getting into traffic log analysis when thousands of Internet Service Providers already provide traffic log analysis as standard in their hosting package?
What's even more perplexing is the fact that the vast majority of Internet users, particularly small businesses seldom look at their traffic logs.
Established providers such as Web Trends have provided traffic log analysis software for many years and together with ISPs and thousands of bespoke (desktop and server side) web log analysis software already available it is not clear what Google's plans are in acquiring Urchin Software.
A wealth of information is available in a web traffic log however it takes time, patience, testing and tweaking to really benefit for this information. Furthermore interpreting the information in web logs is not as simple as it may seem. That's why large companies have paid thousands of pounds to Search Engine optimisation companies to analyze their web logs and optimize their search engine ranking to generate increase traffic to their web sites.
Whatever Google’s intentions the fact remains that it's difficult to see how small business owners are suddenly going to change their habit unless some financial incentive was involved.
David
Small Business Resource
Posted by David at 3:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
