I am writing this article to draw your attention to using pay-per-click as a research tool, although you should feel free to make a profit at the same time  (Of course this assumes that you already know how to conduct thorough keyword research prior to launching your advertising campaigns.

*  Tracking software, such as the free Google Analytics and may commercial packages, will provide you with the exact key phrase used by all of your visitors to get to your PPC landing pages.  If you set up your advertising campaign so that each ad group (group of related keywords) delivers traffic to a separate landing page, you will know only what words have been included in the users search phrase, but you won’t know the exact phrase (unless you use only exact match keywords).  For example, bidding on a term such as “buy green lamp” set up as a broad match, would get traffic from people who searched for phrases such as “buy a used green lamp in Columbus or Dover,” “buy green lamp,” “buy a green lamp in need of repairs,” “buy expensive tiffany green lamp” and many more.  Clearly those visitors are looking for very different sorts of green lamps to buy.  Based upon the search phrases that your discover and the number of people you identify using them, you may want to create new permanent pages for your site stressing those phrases.  You can work on your SEO for those pages in order to get organic search engine traffic to those new pages.  This effectively allows you to spread the cost of your pay-per-click campaign across many years.

*  Test your headings (headlines) on your PPC landing pages.  Set up two pages for the same ad group.  The pages should be identical in every other way except for the heading.  It’s possible to set up some content management systems to do this or buy inexpensive software to alternate the pages for you.  It’s also very easy to simply change the landing page to the different version within your ad after you have received a sufficient number of clicks to provide your with useful data—at least 100 clicks.  Compare the conversion results from the two versions.  If one version clearly out performs the other, then keep that version and begin to test it against another altered headline.  Keep doing that until you are sure that you have come up with the world’s best possible headline for that page.

*  Next, use the same test format as with the heading tests to vary a totally different content variable.  For example, you may want to test two different product images against each other.  Or you could test one page with an image and another that has a short video display.  

Make sure that on each of the content related tests you are only changing one variable.  Do not change both the headline and the image at the same time, or it will be difficult for you to determine which variable it is that makes the difference in your conversion results or the relative impact of each.  (Actually, if you have some statistical sophistication, you can set up a test in which you change multiple variables at once across multiple versions of the landing page.)

The main point to go away from this article is that you should be using your PPC campaigns to do more than bring visitors to your site and hope that they will buy something.  PPC can be expensive, so maximize your benefits from those dollars to accomplish as much as possible.  Test, analyze and use the data that you wisely collect!

Post from: Google Watch

Get the Most Out of Your PPC Dollar

As more and more businesses look towards the internet as a great medium for expanding their businesses, the role of internet marketing becomes crucial in their strategy for success. Bringing businesses and millions of customers on an interactive platform, internet marketing is known to successfully impart increased customer awareness and brand visibility among masses. Successful internet marketing plan consists of proper planning and the proper knowhow of online marketing techniques. Let’s see how Internet marketing works and how you can make the most of it.

Retaining Customers: Once you have a product to offer and a website to help you market it, you need to see how to convert potential customers into real time customers who will continue to do business with you. Only those customers will visit your website who are looking for a unique products or services, that are similar to the services or products that you offer through your business. You need to provide as much information about your product as you can so that a customer gets the full picture of the products or services that you have to offer and the benefits he/she will have from buying them.

Value Added Services: Loyal customers are necessary. The only way you can assure plenty of those is by giving them reasons to shop with you again and again. This can be achieved by offering various value added services like newsletters, web content, e-books etc. or any type of vital information about other upcoming products and services.

Networking: Networking forms the basis of any kind of business, be it online or not. This includes marketing your website and staying current on your products and services. It will specially help in providing a good inflow of loyal customers and increasing your revenue through progressively consistent sales.

Streamlining Your Marketing Efforts: – You need to recheck your marketing plans on a regular basis to see which of the components are working and which of them have become obsolete. There is no need to waste time and money on failed strategies. Ineffective methods need to be done away with instantly.

Customer Interaction: You will also need to employ proper customer interaction tools in order to bridge the gap between you and your customers. This does not mean interacting with each of your customer personally or speaking with them; including a small customer feedback system in your website will suffice. It will let you know their needs and wants and will help you improve on your products and services.

Seeking Help: Internet Marketing doesn’t come naturally to all. If you are not in tune with the business of Internet marketing then taking help from experts in the industry can prove to be of great help. They can chart down the best and the most cost effective marketing strategies and designs and help you get a view of your very own marketing campaign and the results it will deliver even before it has its been implemented.
 
You can use Internet marketing effectively for improving customer relationships and performing effective brand building campaigns which would result in increasing your profits exponentially.

Post from: Google Watch

Internet Marketing

Do you sell products online? Whether you run an online retail store or if you sell on eBay, internet marketing should be a component of your business plan. When you market your products, you increase your earnings potential.

In terms of internet marketing, there are many successful approaches. These approaches include article directories, purchasing advertisements, banner exchanges, and search engine optimization. Yes, you should implement each of these steps, but also examine unconventional approaches, such as Twitter.

Twitter is a social networking website. When you register for a free account, you can search for other users. You can then become a follower. This means that you will receive their messages, also known as updates or Tweets. Many will do the same for you. Search for contacts on the Twitter website based on name, location, or email address. Also, exchange contact information on online communities, like internet forums.

As previously stated, Twitter is a social networking website. All types of posts are allowed, but many expect social messages online, not advertisements. This does not mean that you cannot use Twitter as an internet marketing tool. It means that you must take the clever approach. As for how you can do so:

Ask for feedback. With an advertisement, your Tweet may say “Buy eco-friendly products at affordable prices.” Yes, this may work, but you will find some individuals who think “great, another advertisement.” So, instead ask for feedback. Provide a link and ask your followers to review the product in question. Do they think it can help the environment, is the price affordable?

Offer promotional codes. Even if you use affiliate links to generate income, you should be provided with moneysaving promotional codes. Offer these to your members. For example, your Tweet could include the message “Eco-friendly products available for sale with a moneysaving discount for all my Twitter friends.” Yes, this is still an advertisement, but you are offering an incentive.

Host contests and Tweet about them. A great way to generate traffic to a website, including a website where products are sold, is to offer something free. Whether it be a free sample or a contest, people love free stuff. Instead of advertising a product you have for sale, highlight a contest on your website. This will get people to your online store. To increase sales, have your contest landing page filled with products.

Incorporate personal messages into your advertisements. As previously stated, the use of promotional codes is a great way to not only increase your sales and website traffic, but to generate interest. Instead of just staying “Save $25 with a promotional code provided by me,” incorporate a personal message. Mention you are extending the offer to your Twitter friends because you want to help them save money. This extra personal message goes a long way.

Use @replies. Mentioning the products you sell is okay to do on Twitter, but be limited in your messages. Do not send 10 messages a day highlighting the products you sell. Instead, try one a day. Also, rely on the use of @replies. You can reply to those who send you updates or use Search.Twitter.com. Only reply with a clever advertisements when the situation calls for it.

The key to using Twitter as an internet marketing tool is to do so cleverly. Internet users tend to sway away from advertisements, so make yours advertisements in disguise.

Author: Richard Henderson

Post from: Google Watch

5 Clever Ways to Market Your Product on Twitter

The largest network operators providing the PPC advertising background are Yahoo!Search Marketing, Google Adwords and Microsoft adCenter.

The prices practiced by these service providers are similar in terms of packages, but high variations appear because of the level of demand for keywords. The creation of PPC advertising campaigns can be conducted in several ways, and while some web developers work independently, others hire professionals. Thus, there are two types of campaigns with their specific categories: content match and sponsored match.

Thus PPC advertising focused on content match develops campaigns that use the business web site or other pages together with newsletters and e-mails to target more relevant visitors and thus generate profit.

The sponsored match model however involves only the ad display on the result pages in search engines. Thus, the advertiser makes profit when the click on the ads results in a transaction, while the displayer, whether search engine or website makes profit with every click on the ads regardless of profitability or relevancy to the advertiser.

The issue with PPC advertising is that it represents a model that has often been subject to click fraud. Dishonest people sometimes click on ads on purpose with the intention of making one lose money. The other situation is when the websiter advertising online orders the clicks on the ads to generate more money. Most search engines have taken all sorts of measures against such abuses, and the main safety program consisted in the implementation of automated systems capable to detect fraudulent clicking. Yet, the system is not 100% safe and breaches do exist.

Post from: Google Watch

About PPC Advertising

By pay-per-click advertising, PPC advertising in short, people usually refer to the marketing pattern used by most advertising networks and search engines. When one of the ads gets clicked on, the advertisers pay for the ads, which in fact explains the name of the concept as such. All business owners activating online choose key phrases or keywords that define and address a target market. When someone researches for one of these keywords, websites will display not only page content but relevant ads too. Another name for such forms of advertising is sponsored links or sponsored ads, and they are nearly everywhere on search engine result pages.

The largest network operators providing the PPC advertising background are Yahoo!Search Marketing, Google Adwords and Microsoft adCenter.

The packages are sometimes similar in terms of price, but high differences appear because of the level of demand for keywords. There are several ways of conducting PPC advertising campaigns and lots of businesses actually higher professional agencies to do this part of the Internet marketing promotion from A to Z. Thus, there are two types of campaigns falling in different categories: content match and sponsored match.

Thus PPC advertising focusing on content develops campaigns make profit by using the business website, other web pages as well as newletters and emails.

The sponsored match variant on the other hand involves only the ad display on the search engine result pages. Thus, the advertiser earns money when there is a transaction resulting from the ad clicking, while the displayer, whether search engine or website makes profit with every click on the ads regardless of profitability or relevancy to the advertiser.

The issue with PPC advertising is the risk of falling victim to click fraud. Dishonest people sometimes click on ads on purpose with the intention of making one lose money. The other situation is when the websiter displaying an ad orders the clicks on the ads to generate more money. Most search engines have taken all sorts of measures against such abuses, and now, the systems are capable to detect illegal clicking automatically. Nevertheless, the system is not perfect and there are lots to do to improve it 100%.

Post from: Google Watch

Pay Per Click Advertising

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a term widely used today by many e-commerce sites. For the past few years and the next ten years or so, search engines will be the most widely used internet tool to find the sites that people need.

Most people using search engines use only the ten top search results. Making it to the first page, especially to the top three, is a barometer of a site’s success in search engine optimization. You will get a higher ratio of probability in being clicked on when you rank high. The more traffic for your site, the more business you make.

But, it is essential to grab ahold of that spot or make your ranking even better. As I aforementioned, each day is a new day for all e-commerce sites to make themselves rank higher using search engine optimization. It is imperative to make your site better and better everyday.

Exactly what is search engine optimization and do you have to use it? The answer to why you have to use it is an easy one. You need search engine optimization to be number one, or maybe at least make your site income generating.

With search engine optimization you will get the benefit of generating a high traffic volume. Lets just say you get successful sales with 10 to 20 percent of your traffic. If you get a hundred hits or more a day, you get a good turn out of sales already. If you get only twenty to ten hits a day, you only get one or two buyers, if any at all.

How is search engine optimization defined? Search engine optimization is utilizing tools and methods in making your site top ranking in the results of search engines. Getting yourself in the first page and better yet in the top half of the page will ensure that your site will generate public awareness of your sites existence and subsequently generate more traffic, traffic that could lead to potential business.

Search engine optimization requires much work to be fully implemented. There are many aspects you have to change in your site to get search engine optimization. These will include getting lots of information about the keyword phrases that are popular in regards to your site’s niche or theme.

You may also need to rewrite your site’s contents so that you could get the right keyword phrases in your site without making it too commercial but light and informative. There are certain rules and guidelines to be followed with making your sites content applicable and conducive to search engine optimization.

You will also need to collaborate with many other sites so that you get link exchanges and page transfers. The more inbound and outbound traffic generated by sites is a key components search engines uses to rank sites.

Try to search the internet for useful help. Tips, guidelines and methods for search engine optimization are plenty to be found. Read many articles that can help you optimize your site in search engine results. The more knowledge and information you gather the better. This will all help you in getting those high rankings. This may require a little time and effort on your part but the benefits will be astounding.

If you can part with some money, there are many sites in the internet that can help you in search engine optimization. There are many sites that help in tracking keyword phrases which can help your site. There are also some content writers that have lots of experience in making good keyword laden content for your sites that have good quality. A good source for freelancers is www.guru.com

Act now and see the benefits garnered with search engine optimization. All of these will result to better traffic and more business for your site and company.

Post from: Google Watch

SEO and Why You Need It

There are so may Internet marketing tools out there that claims to make you rich in a few months, but many of them never delivers what you expect. We have tested a lot of Internet marketing tools, and at the end there are only a few of them that deliver results that are worth the money spent on them. We can call internet marketing as web marketing and e-marketing.

It’s now up to you to decide what Internet marketing tools you need the most to instantly improve the revenue from your online business. Here are some important tools needed to achieve success in your internet marketing. Increasing Web Site Traffic: Getting traffic to your web site is of course the most important factor for your online business success. There are so many traffic generating tools, systems and methods and this is where we list the best of them.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): From doing SEO we can increase the traffic to websites; from some SEO we can improve your website search engine ranking. If your website traffic is increasing you will get very good online business. Keyword Research Tools: Keyword research tools are very important tool internet marketing tools, there are so many keyword research tools online, important thing in keyword research select correct keyword from which customers are searching. It will increase your website traffic.

Email Marketing Solutions: Using email marketing solutions to promote your online business is a very effective way to become successful. Email marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing.

Web Design Templates: By creating attractive websites we can attract customers online, it will give good business to you, Website design is a process conceptualization planning, modeling execution of electronic media content delivery via Internet in the form of technologies, use proper templates in creating websites. Submit your Site: There are so many search engines they accept online submission where we can submit blogs and forums and ads .from this also we can develop business and online traffic. All you need to do is to search for the right tool and implement it at the right time.

Successful internet marketing includes vast strategies and various techniques. But, these are the major points which needs to be right in order to achieve success in you internet marketing. It is definitely not easy to gain profitable internet marketing business, nevertheless, you need be in constant search for the right tools and tips to make it happen.

Post from: Google Watch

Necessary Tools To Improve Your Internet Marketing

With the advent and growth of Internet every advertiser wants to make use of the online advertising to reach their targeted people. Going for online advertisement is the best option for advertisers these days because they can earn good traffic for their products/services.

PPC is one of the easiest way to get targeted visits to your website. PPC is offered by some companies to help individuals and companies get to the top of search engines.

PPC advertisements are located on the right side of search pages. If you do not have the time to conduct and manage a PPC campaign yourself, you can outsource this function to companies that does this for you to get your advertisement to your desired position. Advertising cost is only incurred when someone clicks on your website, besides the fee you pay for the professional PPC management service.

The most common search engine platforms for PPC are, Google, Yahoo & MSn, with Google leading the pack as the most favored search engine for PPC.

An advertiser must look for an online marketing company that provides PPC services that are effective, targeted and of course building more leads.

It is pretty easy to find online marketing companies which are capable of implementing all the techniques of PPC in order to make their advertisers minimize their advertising cost and as the same time maximize their profit.

PPC services can be hired to run PPC campaigns on Google, Yahoo & MSN. Different kinds of PPC advertisements can be done to suit different advertising budget. The advertiser can choose how much to set aside for the PPC and what kind of advertising to do.

PPC mainly includes placement of an ad on the search engine for a specific set of keywords. Once SEO manages to attract users to those keywords and encourage them to click the ad it leads to the success of the concept of PPC.

Therefore, PPC is one of the most preferred advertising tool to promote products and services over the internet in a short period of time because of the high search volume on these search engines.

Post from: Google Watch

Increase Your Profits With The Right PPC Keywords

Most of the internet marketers have misunderstood that those keywords which are commonly used are the ones which are good for advertisers. Though it is true, but still it is not the main factor in the competition. It is an important job to choose the suitable keywords for an advertiser which would bring in more traffic.

Providing terms that are descriptive can draw a better group of people. Using a phrase like “cook books” instead of just “books” will commonly result in more conversions due to the fact that it will appear to people actually searching for cook books instead of just books. Providing a term like “Italian cook books” can result in even more conversions.

There isn’t much benefit to an advertiser if the receive many clicks but below average conversion rates. Viewers who are merely clicking on ads and not purchasing anything are only costing the advertiser money. Drawing more likely candidates requires well targeted keywords. This results in a better conversion rate and better ROI.

Creating keywords requires examining your web site and picking out the words and phrases that describe it. You should also look at other web sites in the same target market. Try to figure out why those sites are good or not and look at how they word their advertisements and content. If they are reaching the target market you should attempt to leverage their terms and phrases where possible.

It helps to consider how a customer might think, too. According to Google, it is a good idea to create a list of search terms that consumers might use when performing an Internet search for specific goods and services. Think about the various ways they may spell some of those terms, too. For example, someone searching for low calorie foods might type “light foods” or “lite foods.” To make sure you attract the greatest number of consumers, be sure to incorporate all possible spellings when creating a list of keywords for your site.

It is vital that you keep track of a campaign’s effectiveness. Google’s conversion tracking tool and Google Analytics can help you do this. They can be used to evaluate each new campaign and any revised versions you may use. If you are disappointed with the clicks an ad draws you can make changes as necessary. Then you can evaluate the results of the changes and fine tune things further if you need to.

Post from: Google Watch

Google Adwords Advertsing Help

Adwords service has brought success to several companies by furnishing them with a huge amount of highly targeted traffic form Adwords from as low as two cents per visitor. However, there are possibly as many webmasters who have paid for Adwords and seen only a small benefit or have indeed made losses. If the latter is applicable to you, then the following might be of some benefit.

Firstly you need a layout for your ad. You must then decide on the best text for the title. Take your time to get this right. The customers see this first when they look at your ad. A poor title will not bring visitors. Figure out which keywords to use, being careful to attract only the visitors you are looking for.

When you start your campaign, write down as many keywords and phrases as you can. You have to be innovative because all of the obvious keywords will have a high bid price and are probably prohibitively expensive.

Put yourself in your customers shoes and make a list of keywords he would use. Then study your list and keep those that best meet your needs

When setting up you ad, Google will suggest a bid price, always go below this as it is not necessary to bid so high. The number of click throughs you get has a huge effect on your position. You can pay half the price, get twice the clicks and you will have the same position as a guy who pays twice the price and gets very few clicks.

Once you have your keywords in place, you can start thinking about your daily budget. I would start on the conservative side and see what happens. After a time you will be able to see how your efforts are paying off and which keywords are working the best.

Keep a close eye on your sites performance. Keep trying to improve, change something around, and try something new. You will soon find that little things can mean a lot, and can substantially improve performance from Adwords.

The worst thing that can happen is for Google to disable your ads. If this happens you will have to start over. Begin from the beginning and try to find where you went wrong

Post from: Google Watch

How to get traffic from Adwords

As with any affiliate marketing product, getting started can be difficult, and becoming successful can be even more so. Becoming an affiliate on Clickbank ” as one of the best ways to make money online ” can be a popular first choice for anyone looking to make a profit with affiliate marketing.

The first step when you start marketing is to find the products or services you want to sell. These must be unique enough to stand out in a crowd but also something you are interested in. Make sure your product is not something that disinterests you or you risk quitting before you make any real money.

A website for your chosen products should be created. Keep the site very simple, don’t clutter it up with referrer links and affiliate ads that are not related to the merchandise you are offering for sale.

You can create a blog, though that can be time consuming because you need to keep it updated regularly. Instead, you may want to simply do a review site and either review the related products together or review the single product with the Clickbank Hoplink somewhere at the end. Try to optimize these reviews with keywords.

Once you have completed the website, you can already move on to the next step. Here is where keeping your interest in the product becomes very important ” the next step is article marketing, by writing keyword articles that you submit to free article directories.

Writing articles can be time consuming, more so if you do not find what you are writing about interesting at all. The articles need be only 300-500 words, but they should be decently comprehensive and contain at least 3% keyword density in order to ensure max hits.

Websites like ezinearticles.com can help you post what ever you want. Just start with something like 20 articles each with sifferent keywords and eventually you will start getting the hits you desire.

Google keeps website articles, like those found on ezinearticles.com, in their search engines for three weeks. Keeping that in mind, you should post three articles about every three to four days.

However, if your article was effective, you should have received anywhere from 20-400 hits per article. Every 100 hits should give you 20-50 hits to the site you are affiliated with, and if that website has been fashioned correctly, you should get at least 2-3 sales per 100 hits. Thus a set of 20 articles (which can be completed in just a few days) can earn you over $1,000 in income.

Once your website is in the first or second page of the search rankings, you can let it go on making money and start on your next project, exponentially increasing your passive income.As you continue to use this method, your website will also start to show up higher in search rankings, which will give you hits in Google without having to write a single article.

You need to make sure that you choose a good niche that is known to make sales but is not too competitive. If you can find this niche, you can use this free and simple strategy to get your Clickbank affiliate marketing business started before you learn some of the more complicated methods.

Post from: Google Watch

Getting Started With Clickbank

Those who have been in the industry since the late 90’s have seen huge changes in SEO. The industry has really matured. But in the grand scheme of things, if you were to plot SEO on a product life cycle chart you would see that the industry is still in its’ infancy. SEO – Introduction Stage – Starting about 1998

Companies who were around in the introduction stage often had to build product awareness and develop a market for SEO. In the early ‘2000’s, many of our clients had just build their first websites. This was a significant investment for them and they thought that now that they have a website, the online sales would just flow in. Many didn’t realize that they had just invested serious coin into an over-priced business card. Because nobody could find them.

At this point, there was little consistency in the product. And as the algorithm got more complex, the SEO offering varied more. Some companies were offering to “submit to hundreds of search engines” (some still are) whilst others were offering usability, analytics and site architectural input in addition to on-page and off-page SEO.

SEO – Early Growth Stage – we’re still just at the beginning of it.

In the early growth stage, smart SEO companies are beginning to think about building their brand and to increase market share. Demand is increasing as more customers understand the benefits of “getting found”. There is some competition at this stage but because the market is broadening so much, competition is limited and there is still a huge amount of camaraderie within the industry. 10 years into it, it?s easy to assume that our industry is more mature than it actually is. We’ve only just begun.

Customer Implication

Demand has already started to increase but it is going to skyrocket. And it’s going to come from all types of business from very small customers to Enterprise type of businesses.

Up until recently, the neighborhood dry cleaner didn’t care if someone across the country found their website because they deal within a 5 km radius got very little benefit from optimizing their website. Now as local search gets much better, those local business will become much more serious about the opportunities online

It is also likely that we’ll see a lot of growth from Enterprise clients. These clients previously resisted SEO due to the complexity of working within legacy back-end systems. As technology increases and back-end systems become less expensive for more capability, we’re going to see companies replace their antiquated CMS’s with Search Engine Optimization friendly options.

Another change that this stage of the product life cycle will bring is in our relationship with the client. As SEO becomes a bigger part of the mainstream marketing mix, our customers will become more and more knowledgeable about SEO (we?re already starting to see this).

We’ll move from having a sales / consultative role to being a thought partner. Our clients will have a good understanding of what needs to be done but they’ll outsource it to us because we’re more efficient at implementing.

Competition Implication

With high growth in revenues, low barriers to entry, and no certification required, the SEO industry is prime for attracting any and all new entrants. There have always been new competitors. But the face of our competition is going to change greatly. Up until now competition has focused primarily on small start ups and web design firms who decide to add a search component. Some stick around but many are wiped out with the next major shift in the algorithm. This phase of the SEO life cycle is going to attract better capitalized, stronger competition from many sectors. These new entrants are attracted to SEO by the potential for profits not by the fit with their offering.

We are already starting to see traditional media firms seek to protect their eroding revenues by grabbing a slice of the online pie. But WalMart has shown us that future competition could be anyone. And it will be.

No all new entrants are attracted by dollar signs. There are also companies that are feeling increased pressure to offer a more well rounded package. As the integration of offline and online marketing services increases, customers are putting more pressure on agencies to handle the full scope of their marketing spend including the online component.

Although we’re already starting to see increased competition, many existing SEO companies aren’t feeling the pinch yet because demand is also increasing. One implication of increased demand coupled with new entrants to the market is the impact on supply. We’re starting to experience a shortage of experienced SEO talent SEO talent is a scarce resources. And this scared resource is not yet being renewed at a fast enough pace. Whilst some colleges are starting to offer digital media / internet marketing diploma, these grads know very little about what it takes to optimize a website.

Moreover, what they do know is limited to theory. It?s one thing to know that links are important to ranking. Its an entirely different thing to know how to effectively build links. So what?

Who cares where we are in the product life cycle?

Although we’ve already experienced a lot of growth, this growth is nothing compared to what we?re about to experience. In this next stage of the SEO life cycle, we?re going to see shifts in our clients, competition and product offering. Knowing that this is coming, will allow you to prepare. If we know that face of our competition is going to change from other small to mid sized SEO’s to large Agencies and Enterprise size companies in totally unrelated industries then we can prepare for this by determining how we’re going to differentiate ourselves from the new entrants.

And if we know that there is going to be increased pressure on skilled resources then we should be developing in house training programs now. The future is now. And it’s only just begun.

Post from: Google Watch

SEO is about to Grow Up

What will ultimately replace search engines?

This is a question I am asked frequently, and therefore have given considerable thought to. Ultimately, whatever it is, it has to compensate for the weaknesses of search though right? So, what are the weaknesses of search relative to the ideal search solution (he says knowing that we’ll never stop searching for things we need, so search itself will never die, only transform into something more efficient)?

a) the potential to be gamed by people ? and we all know this is a tremendous issue for search b) poorer conversion rates than word of mouth, meaning a better solution is possible c) too many irrelevant results ? people need a means to cut through the ?crap? to reveal the most relevant results d) local search results are questionable ? too many small local business have no representation, or do not appear at all in localized search results

This then begs the question; what if a solution could be found that would minimize all these weaknesses?

As it happens, I think I have found the solution, or at least what I believe Yahoo is working towards (and if Yahoo is, I’m assuming Google is too) ? integrating word-of-mouth (WOM) into search. Let me elaborate.

Intuitively I?ve known for sometime that search engines would use what they could glean from social media to help improve their algorithms. For eg.; when Yahoo bought Del.icio.us, I gave them full marks for the purchase because it made perfect sense to me that Yahoo could then integrate bookmarks into their algorithms to reduce reliance on the much abused linking elements. In fact, both Dave Harry (Google Bookmarks the New Ranking Signal?) and Bill Slawski (Google Bookmarks and Personalization) have written about this method of personalization extensively.

What I couldn?t fathom though ? was how search engines could possibly integrate word of mouth into their results, to dramatically improve results. Everything found so far in Google, Yahoo, and MSN patents seems to suggest personalization based on your own behaviour. Our behaviour though is often based on the knowledge of friends. As individuals, we are experts at very little, and tend to rely greatly on our networks of friends and acquaintances for advice aka word-of-mouth. This WOM element is completely abscent from present day search results ? and as searchers we?re currently forced to gather friends? thoughts and recommendations from elsewhere, and they?re certainly not integrated or woven into the algorithms.

Then – came the AHA moment!

The AHA: Stumbleupon, Del.icio.us, Google Bookmarks (when shared), and a few others, are forms of word-of-mouth. They enable the passing of information amongst friends ? online. WOW! HOMERUN! TOUCHDOWN! GOAL!

How Can Search and WOM Be Joined?: Its simple really! If you begin to look at each of the social media for their strengths, you?ll start to get glimpses of the jigsaw puzzle Yahoo is constructing (my understanding of Google?s vision is less clear). Stumbleupon and Del.icio.us are essentially opinion sites. You voice your opinions (word of mouth knowledge) about web sites, pages of specific web sites, products, and even services. Thumbs ups and associated comments on Stumbleupon and saves on Del.icio.us could be viewed as recommendations. This is a form of word of mouth! – Search Engine Optimization

Now, lets take it to the next level, and start to reorganize the search results based on the cummulative opinions (thumbs ups and downs, and saves) of your ?friends? ? as identified by their (ie. the search companies) summarizing your friends on various networks (including Yahoo mail I might add). Relevant pages (as determined by in-page and off-page factors) can then be reordered to show those liked by the most friends first, followed by those favoured by sequentially fewer friends. Those with a negative friend score ? completely buried. In the middle ? all those results not yet scored by friends. Where insufficient friend input exists (eg. how many of your friends will have given a thumbs up to a 2007 Nissan X-Terra?), possibilities include:

a) searchers seeking out more knowledgeable friends in the space b) the engines themselves could layer feedback from the masses on top of standard search results c) the engines can merely revert to the algorithm as it would otherwise exist at that time

This means your friends opinions have a tremendous impact on the results you see?!

Interesting eh? Might even be a solution to the local results problem search engines face. Will you be happier with the search results? ABSOLUTELY, and if not, merely modify the “trusted friends” in your networks, and your results will change. In essence;

“you are responsible for the quality of your own search results”!

Now, I can hear a collective “whooooooah” from all readers. How you ask can the major search engines do this if all searchers aren?t on Stumble or Del.icio.us? You first need user critical mass on Stumbleupon, Delicious, Google Bookmarks et al for this to work! Well, consider; if you’re not on Stumbleupon or Del.icio.us, then the search engines would merely revert to their algorithms they would otherwise be using. How convenient!

It also means much less gaming of search engines, and social media sites. Wow – a win-win all around!

Conclusions: In the end, its the ultimate solution and a win-win all around:

1) Searchers are given information they can make much better decisions with – when they need it. Searchers become responsible for their own results, and have the power to constantly improve them. Noone else to blame but themselves if they don?t like the results.

2) Search engines themselves are happy, because well, searchers are happy. Also, with the integration of WOM into search, search plays an even bigger role in the purchase decision ? meaning more searches, and higher revenues.

Post from: Google Watch

The Future of Search: Integrating Word-of-Mouth into Search

Super affiliate traffic is the newest membership site to be launched on 9th December. It the combination of knowledge and experience gathered by two of the most respected internet marketing geniuses, Eric Rockefeller and Howie Schwartz. Maybe you have heard about these guys before but in case you haven’t then you should know they are absolutely brilliant.

With their experience in the internet marketing field you are certain you will be in for a treat. I am speaking of about 11 years of experience with plenty of successes behind them. These guys surely know what works and what doesn’t. Super affiliate traffic will combine their experience and expertise into a well laid out membership site.

Super affiliate traffic will be presented as a membership site where you will have access to all of the resources you need to succeed. It doesn’t matter if you are a newbie or an advanced marketer; super affiliate traffic will be loaded with content for marketers of every description and skill level.

Super affiliate traffic will also provide you with all the tools and knowledge you will ever need to succeed. You will have access to all the latest videos, e-books and programs that these guys themselves use to become successful. Any training that is necessary will also be readily available in the member’s area of the super affiliate traffic website.

The supper affiliate traffic membership site will aim at providing you with internet marketing skills important to every marketer who wishes to be successful. The main focus will be free traffic generation using web 2.0, paid traffic methods like Google Adwords and training on how to become a successful affiliate marketer. You surely cannot ask for more from super affiliate traffic.

All the free traffic generating methods using web 2.0 will be covered by Howie. He will guide you step by step and show you exactly what is required to maximize your traffic. And of course he will be available to personally coach you as well.

If you would like to invest money in generating traffic, then Eric well explain in depth everything you need to know about this. It doesn’t matter your experience you are almost guaranteed to learn something new about paid advertising in super affiliate traffic. Remember, in super affiliate traffic you are not being coached by any newbie internet marketing guru!

To top everything off both Eric and Howie will come together and show you exactly what you need to do to convert this traffic into sales. This is the part of super affiliate traffic that is most exciting; where the money starts flowing. If you want to be apart of this flow then you know where to be on the 9th December.

Post from: Google Watch

Super Affiliate Traffic: Increase Website Traffic On Auto-Pilot