Seigfried Designs: Philadelphia Internet Services

Unprofessional Slander - Response

2008-12-26T11:15:00.000-08:00

This one goes out to you, Mr. 2 post 'anonymous' blogger who is using my company name in their spam blog (you could at least have deleted the first post in your archive, an obvious bit of spam blogging on top of your own pile of slander).

Any and all comments, opinion and advice given on the Seigfried Designs blog are from my own personal experiences in a professional industry. All articles/posts in this blog are to be considered my opinion. It's is ME after all writing this blog, Alex Seigfried, and I have no intention of obscuring myself anonymously online when I make comments on other companies and their services.

There is not a single lie in any blog I write, period. I'm sorry you don't like what I have to say about your company, but at the same time I would be remiss to not keep my clients informed of poor business plans and practices in my industry. If I could be more generic and say 'listing site' instead of your company name, then i would, but the fact is there are plenty of other companies that fall under that same category that are very GOOD at what they do. You, just don't meet those standards.

Trust is the most important word in my life. Sometimes my point of view doesn't jive with other companies, but that's the nature of the first amendment and I will not be bullied into altering my point of view by Mr. Monopoly or any other poorly thought out business proprietor.

In this company, Seigfried Designs, you shake the hand of a real person, someone you can meet and share a conversation with. I stand 100% behind this blog.

P.S. Spelling errors on my blog are inevitable, since I'm not an English major nor does spell check catch everything. However spelling errors on a clients website are a no-no, and ADVERTISMENTS, articles and blogs meant to PROMOTE a business are simply unacceptable.

Video - The Flip

2008-10-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

Last year I bought a video camcorder called The Flip and it's a really amazing device. So small it fits in your pocket, with an hour of digital memory and so easy to use a child could figure it out. What makes this device so compact is that it only shoots 'web quality' video, which means low resolution video that looks great online or in powerpoint presentations but you can't shoot a TV show or DVD movie with it. But for the purposes I'm using it for, web quality video is all i need. It's all ANYONE needs for their website, Youtube or personal home videos.

It's cheap. $130 for a digital camcorder is a great price.

Stick The Flip in your pocket and walk around your home or business, shoot video, interviews and personal messages. Video is the single most important multimedia you can have on your website, now and in the future. Nothing is more personal than a video, you'll connect with your visitors in a way that a block of text or a picture cannot. Be honest, open and yourself and watch your sales leads spike. Then distribute your video to Youtube, Veoh and many other video social networks, use thier 'embed' links on blogs and other websites... spread yourself around. Remember, it's not about having a website, it's about having a 'web presense', so get out there and let people know more about you and what you do.

Blogger vs Wordpress

2008-08-27T07:26:00.001-07:00

There seems to be two camps, when it comes to using a blogging service online.

Blogger or Wordpress

Both are good at what they do, but some people perfer one over the other. The difference comes from 'who is using the service'. Many people hire a web professional to create and maintain their blog, but some people like to do it themselves.

This is why web professionals like Wordpress the best, because they can have complete control over every aspect of their blog. Mainly because web professional know CSS and various programing languages that allow them to take full advantage of Wordpress.

However, there are also clients who just want the initial blog set-up and then THEY will do the changes and updates from there on out. These people prefer Blogger because the interface and usability is simple and straight forward to the non-technical minded. Having setup two blogs for clients, I've found they prefer Blogger and rarely have any problems adding widgets or content to their sites.

Pros & Cons

Wordpress:
Pro -complete control
Pro -static pages
Con -Doesn't allow for the running of javascript or any scrips via templates
Con -customization requires you to completely replace CSS, so there is no fiddling with existing code.
Con -interface if more for technicaly minded people
Pro -great community to lean on for support/troubleshooting.

Blogger:
Pro -Google search engine loving (self-promotion on Google.com)
Con -No static pages (you have to setup your own navigation to articles)
Pro -easy to use n00b interface
Con -easy intigration of html/java scripts via widgets
Pro -CSS is laid out so that you can alter the original code AND recover the default settings if you mess up.
Con -terrible support/troubleshooting good luck getting anyone to answer you.

Warning: Google Website Optimizer and Google Analytics

2008-08-27T07:24:00.001-07:00

There is trouble in paradise, for some reason, after utilizing Google Website Optimizer, all of my "Content" information stopped being recorded on my main Google Analytics Account. I'm currently working on a fix and will post my results here.

New Service - Blog Creation & Setup - Philadelphia Blogs

2008-08-20T10:24:00.001-07:00

Following trends and the natural progression of information technology online, we are now offering Blog Creation and Setup for all major blog services.

Blogger, WordPress, LiveJournal Profiles & More.

We can:

Helping you get started by creating an account and teaching you how to make self-updates.
Making your blog stand out from the crowd by customizing templates for a unique look.
Intigration of your blog into an existing website.
Helping you make a website in Wordpress that is part blog and part static pages, that you can self-update.

Securing Your Gmail Account: New Threat - Philadelphia Web Design

2008-08-20T10:17:00.001-07:00

If you use Google products then there is a good chance you have a Gmail account. If your not sure then use your login and password for Adwords or Analytics to try and login to Gmail.com.

Your account is going to become unsecured if you don't take immediate action, within the week.

A hacker at the annual Defcon hackers’ conference in Las Vegas, has found a way to access your Gmail account and steal your ID information. He's releasing the tool next week to the general public. Link to article on hungry-hackers.com

How to Protect Yourself:
Google has recently made SSL encryption available to all Gmail accounts, for every action you take while using your account.

Log into your Gmail Account.
Click the Settings Tab.
At the bottom of the page, select "always use https'
Save your Settings.

Google Website Optimizer - Philadelphia Web Design & Internet Marketing

2008-08-13T07:04:00.000-07:00

Google's new tool takes the guesswork out of effective page design.
http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer

Before this tool came along, designers like myself would look at our website's page traffic and make guesses as to why one page was delivering results and another was failing. We were not only subject to our own guesswork but clients would happily chime in that they felt the color of a button or a spinning, flashing, animated gif would make the difference between success and failure.

No more.

With Google's new, FREE, tool I can now test different pages or different content on each page and get measurable results.

How it used to work:

Design a page.
Wait for Statistical data
Re-design whole page, one link, one picture...etc. (whatever I felt might make the page better)
Wait for Statistical data
...repeat forever....

How it works with Google Website Optimizer:

Design 5 different pages and/or 5 different pieces of content (picture, picture and text.. any kind of content from a link to a massive flash animation)
Google randomly serves up all 5 variations to visitors of your site
Get Statistical data on which pages/content was most effective
Use the most effective page/content on website.

It's the difference between Waiting to React & Taking a Pro-Active approach to web design. I encourage everyone to use this tool. Whether you are creating a new web page or you just need to trouble shoot existing web pages, this tool is for you.

Trouble with Bounce rates? Test new content.
Arguing about the best design for your site? Test the page.
Can't figure out whether flash animation or static pics is best? Test it!

Back to Basics - Philadelphia Web Design

2008-07-21T11:38:00.000-07:00

After reviewing the past couple of posts I realize I've been yapping on about social media. Well no more, it's back to basics people! I was asked by a few people at the conference I sat the panel of: "Where Should I Start?" Here are the top five things I think you should concentrate on, take them in order for best results.

Step 1
The Website
Your main brochure, your online store front, your little slice of the internet.

Let's go back and review that fact that you need one.

All of you.

Pizza shops, doctors, lawyers, bloggers, convenience stores, mega-malls, everybody should have at least a one page profile. You don't need a 50 page, blow-out animated, fully interactive super-site, all you need is presence. Get it listed on Google maps with a nice shiny new domain and you'll, at the very least, start getting some local lovin' from your customers.

Step 2
Create an Email List & Mail to It
If people like your product/service, ask them for an email address so that you can inform them of future events, specials and advice.

Do it ethically, go out of your way to MAKE SURE that the people you add to this list want to receive correspondences from you. The better the list the more likely it is that people will help you grow it by referring their friends, family and associates. Remember, a referral is worth 1000 cold sales contacts.

Step 3
Search Engines
Millions of people use search engines to find information on services and business, get involved.

Google has 66% of the online search market as of July of this year, it's the gorilla of search. This is where you want to start. Submit your website so that it gets listed on Google and wait two weeks. If you had a professional design your website than ask him to optimize it and if he can't get someone who can. To be honest, optimizing is a never ending battle against the forces of evil (listing sites, spammers and black hat marketers). To circumvent this problem, do a basic optimization and then take advantage of PPC and Social Media instead. Also use the tools at Webmaster Tools.

PPC
Use the Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC) program: Adwords
Hire a professional, you can teach yourself but I don't advise it. I've covered this in a former post.

Step 4
Social Media
You're internet presence needs to be more than a website, think about your business as an all encompassing online entity.

I've been going on and on about this for a while now and I don't want to get too far into it.
Take the basic step of Googling your businesses keywords and look around for blogs, social networks, and forums that talk about the sorts of things your business does. Then have a conversation with people on those websites. DON'T SELL. Just talk. Get out there and be an expert at something, help people, give your opinion, gain a reputation as a knowledgeable person and you'll get referrals. Then start a BLOG!

Step 5
Shoot Video
Get yourself a camcorder and start shooting video of your business and yourself.

Get interactive, create a Youtube profile, start with either a tour of your facility or a personal introduction. Move on to giving seminars, lectures, informative video on processes, advice on how to save money or improve a product. Above all be yourself and create a personal connection with the online communities you interact with in Social Media (above).

Those are the steps in order that I think you should work on, you can go out of order if you want as long as website is still #1 on your list. This is a very general list and I can expand on any one of them, on request.

Making Your Blog Buisness Friendly - Philadelphia Social Media

2008-07-16T06:53:00.000-07:00

For the past two weeks I've been doing searches for blogs that would be appropriate for my client to advertise on. It's the dream of many people to blog for a living, to get paid to write about subject matter that is important to you. Well I have to tell you... you're making it difficult for me to pay you any money. So I've decided to put together some tips and guides to making your blog more attractive to businesses looking to capture your reader's interest.

Location Keywords
Since many of my clients are the contractor type, they have a service area. So the first thing I do is try to find blogs tied to location. However not many people think about putting a city, state or county name on their blogs. After all, most blogs are supposed to have a global appeal correct? Well not really. Some blogs talk about local issues, other blogs are geared toward the right demographic I'm looking for, while still more blogs happen to talk about the sorts of things that compliment my client's services. Examples: A blog about West Chester Courthouse Cases, A blog on Flipping Houses (if my client sells windows this is useful to me), A blog on being a retired Electrician (the tips and advice compliment home remodeling companies). Placing some location specific keywords somewhere on your main blog page (anywhere at all, doesn't have to be in the title) will open one more door of opportunity for you.

*You should NEVER write a blog for the purpose of gaining advertising. The result will be disingenuous and poorly written. Write what you want to write about, there are plenty of advertisers out there looking for your type of reader.

Posting Statistics
I want to see some sort of statistics on the amount of people view your blog. I DO NOT want to see all the clicks you have received during the history of your blog. I want to see a monthly count of Unique Visitors and if possible, how many are repeat visitors. Placing Google Analytics on your blog and then posting up the monthly results for those two items on the first of the month would be very useful to me.

Frequency of Posting
I'm not interested in a blog that doesn't post, at minimum, once a week. Ideally I'd like to see a post every day, but that's unreasonable for many bloggers who aren't being paid. I have to see that your producing articles on a frequent enough basis that it will draw readers back to your blog.

Adsense
If you use blogger, and even if you don't, placing Adsense on your blog will give me the ability to place ads on your website. If a business, like my client, is running a Content Network Campaign and I can pick your website on a list of available blogs, I don't even have to go looking for your blog. This is a no brainer, you get paid AND I don't have to do random google searches to HOPE I run across your blog in the haystack that is relative search engine results.

Take a Hand in Your Own Success
If you think your blog speaks to a businesses demographic, approach them and ask if they would like to place a link on your blog. It can't hurt. In many cases a business owner won't understand what your talking about, but if they are at all web savvy it will get them thinking about it and they may call you up a month or two down the road. Don't forget, business owners have to spend their marketing capitol carefully, the smaller the business the more careful they are. Let the owner stew over the idea for a while, they generally come around.

Make A Media Kit
If your not using Adsense but would like to sell space on your blog via banner ads, you should create a price list. Clearly state in your Media Kit what your offering, size of ad, length of term, cost and payment methods. If you're having trouble figuring out what you charge a company for a banner ad or text link on your blog then just think about what you'd like to be paid per article, ideally. Shoot high and lower your costs if you can't get any interest. The more traffic your blog gets and the frequency of your postings will weigh heavily on the price you can ask for. There is no industry standard for blog advertising so be prepared to bargain. This subject deserves it's own post, to be honest. There are so many different ways to charge for advertising online that several comparisons need to be made.

PayPal Buttons
Easy to make and implement on your blog, a perfect way for me to buy a link off of you with the company credit card. Set up the payment button, I pay you, you get an email to put up my link... as simple as that.

Creation of Social Content - Philadelphia Internet Marketing

2008-07-09T07:16:00.001-07:00

Normally I don't link to articles but rather digest information I read and then write my own opinion and take on things. But I'm going to make an exception this week for two reasons.

1) This is a very good article.
2) I have to prepare for the Social Media Panel I'll be sitting July 16th (next week)

So hear is Matt McGee with 12 Tips on Creating Content for Social Media

Modular Success: Building Blocks for Do-It-Yourselfers

2008-07-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

Through trial and error I’ve been discovering the best way to provide affordable internet services to small business but still retain the quality needed to succeed. After several versions of ‘Per Project’ cost proposals and trying out ‘All Inclusive Retainer’ services I’ve come to find ‘Modular’ services are the perfect solution.

What is a Modular service? I define it as a simple building block, a simple service that when combined with other modular services create a greater whole. Like Lego’s each modular piece (website, landing page, ppc campaign, 3 month link campaign, 2hrs of social media research) can be taken individually or in sets. Sometimes one module can be broken down into several smaller modules. The key is making sure that each service provided in this manner is a benefit and useful to future services. A client may not have the budget to afford a new website, ppc campaign, email campaign and research all in one go, but most can afford one or two at a time. The creation of a modular series of services, is a balance of time spent and self-sustaining work (low maintenance website or a self updating blog). This business model has let me become one of the most adaptable and flexible web service providers in my field.

Applying this same idea to other businesses and organizations you can see where some are succeeding and others failing.

Dell provides businesses with ‘All-in-One’ packages, you pay an enormous sum for everything you could ever need and many things you don’t. You get the Computer, Monitor, Peripherals, Operating System (Windows), Audio software, Virus Protection, Browser, Movie Maker, Solitaire, Paint… the list goes on. They give it all to you for one single stunning price that guarantees you’ll not be buying anything from them again for a few years. There are payment plans if you wish to pay 30% more for your computer over a longer length of time… what a deal.

Now the savvy consumer does a little research and finds out he can build a computer and get his software for almost half the cost if he’s willing to buy it in pieces. Although there is a learning curve to overcome, putting your own computer together is not as difficult as it might seem. BUT WAIT! Along comes this great idea, a modular idea, to provide pre-built boxes with ONLY the features you want. Newegg, Tiger Direct… suddenly you’ve got choices again. You can buy your computer in pieces and have them slap it together for you and it’s STILL cheaper than buying from Dell. In fact you can pretty much get anything you want, any software, peripherals, monitor, computer case color and have it shipped right to your home. This is the face of the new business model, giving people the tools to do it themselves.

A subtle change has taken place as the younger generations use an increasing amount of ‘do-it-yourself’ tools throughout the service industry. Realtors and Travel Agents are hardest hit by this idea and you can ask them how Travelocity and Realtor.com are changing the face of their businesses. People are increasingly using the internet to find things out for themselves where in the past they would have hired a professional to look for them. The Stock Market is another example, with online trading you can go and be your own broker or even play with your friends money (if they’re the trusting sort). The Modular business practice takes advantage of the ‘do-it-yourselfers’ by offering them pre-packaged products they can snap together and reach their own goals. Do you want to go on vacation to Florida? Go to Expedia.com and they have packages, or individual travel plans you can purchase as well as bundling a rental car into the mix as needed. Separately, while you’re putting together your dream vacation you may see an ad for swimwear, which is also something you might need. Now how long do you think it’s going to take for complimentary businesses like that to figure out that if they have a common payment and shopping cart system, they can make a bundle? If Expedia and Ralf Lauren decided to share a Pay-Pal account then the customer could buy everything they need in one place, quickly, easily, and on their terms it would create an even stronger incentive for customers to shop in one place. Now imagine the entire internet was linked in such a way, no more hopping around from site to site to buy things here and there, no more paying for shipping 6 different times in 6 different places. Each company could create a Module of it’s services and products and link it into a National or Global payment system. The idea is a little ‘out there’, at the moment, and not very cost effective with current technology, but it’s coming.

So what can you do to move toward a more modular model? I use the three tenants of Time – Money – Quality to craft well balanced services that are easy to understand and use. You can have two but never all three tenants, and you have to ask yourself what’s the most important two for your type of business? For me it’s Quality and Money, keeping the cost down while providing a superior service. The means I have to sacrifice Time, the time it takes me to do the project as well as putting in some time before hand to setup a modular system. As an example a roofing contractor may want to consider creating a modular system for new roof installations. One module could be for an Estimate, the next for selecting and purchasing materials for your home, another for scheduling a time and implementation of the installation. Each module would cost a reasonable amount, the customer could then walk away or proceed in buying the rest of the modules to complete their new roofing installation at their own pace, in their own way. There are endless variations to the module system, each module should be easy to understand, a reasonable cost and simple to close the deal. Your customer should walk away from the experience of purchasing an ‘Estimate Module’ with a feeling of satisfaction and control so that they will come back and take the next step in completing the entire roofing project.

To close, the Modular business model allows a non-expert the ability to put together a package of equal if not greater value than an expert. If you’re a professional and your modules are professional then the whole experience will come off professional, no matter how unprofessional a customer can be. Make your modules fool proof so nobody is made to look the fool and you’ll profit from the new ‘do-it-yourself’ generation.

Video & Your Website – Philadelphia Web Design and Internet Marketing

2008-06-25T08:01:00.001-07:00

As a business owner you realize the value of running a commercial on TV, it’s the single most effective way to sell your product. All the elements are there, a large captive audience (or too bored to change the channel), targeted demographics, visual branding of your logo and products/services, and the opportunity to put a face to that Yellowpages listing you shelled all that money out for.

But advertising on TV is expensive and unless you have a serious budget dedicated to it, this is out of the reach of most small businesses and professionals. End of story, you no longer think of video as part of your business plan and so for years have let the idea molder away in the back of your brain.

Well wake up.

Somewhere in the past 5 years the majority of Americans switched from Dial-up internet service to Broadband. During the era of Dial-up, video was not an option, it took far too long to load and play. But with the rise of Broadband came a greater capacity for dense media to be viewed and thus the creation of Youtube, Viddler, Veoh, CBS Online Shows…etc.

It cost companies thousands of dollars to put an ad on Television.
Get the video shot by a professional videographer: $2000
Buy ad space on television: $5000-Millions

It cost companies hundreds of dollars to put an ad on the Internet, sometimes LESS!
Get the video shot by a professional videographer: $2000
OR Shoot the video yourself: $0
Place on your website: $200
Place on Youtube: $0

It is cheaper than ever to get video to your customers and because of the distribution of online content it can reach a broader audience than TV ever could. Let’s also be honest with ourselves, TV is going to become just a facet of the internet in the very near future. So it’s time you figured out how video on the web works so that you can make the transition.

Online Video is low quality: If it wasn’t it would load slowly, skip, pause, buffer and generally just get in the way of your message. Shoot low quality, save yourself a few bucks if your hiring someone to do your videos. Many high quality videos that are converted into low quality just look terrible, so start at low quality to get an idea of what your getting.

The Blare Witch/ Vonage Effect: Camcorders are your quick and easy way to funny, viral and personal video. If your one of the many service contractors out there you want a one-on-one, personal connection with your clients, nothing gets more personal than talking to your camcorder as if it’s a home movie. Get real. You shoot a video that looks like stock footage, with happy shinny actors and you will exude a feeling of fakery. People these days want to see the real company, the real stuttering, sweating, but generally good nature guy who’s trying to provide a beneficial service to people. For examples see: Youtube… you may have heard of it.

Attention Spans or a Lack thereof: Keep it short and to the point, unless your doing an information based video. If visitors aren’t there to learn something then they have the attention span of goldfish for specials, coupons and you screaming SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY! I suggest something funny, as it sticks in people’s heads better and has a high ‘did you see that video’ factor for friends and family.

Go Viral: Create a video that makes people want to show it to their friends and then make sure they can send that video everywhere. Providing a link, the file itself or tags from Youtube will allow people to pass your video along via their regular communications and blogs.

So go buy yourself a digital video recorder ( I prefer “The Flip”) and start shooting video.

Comments on Blog

2008-06-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

My fault, I left the comments on for this blog. You have to ask me for a link before I allow thoughtful comments. If you have something to say that's of note or that you make a good point I'll publish it in a post, request a link by clicking the Contact link on the right.

I appreciate and encourage comments, just don't think I'm going to let just anyone link off of my website. This blog is not an SEO tool, it's for informing my clients and interested parties.

Social Media Panel - Philadelphia Internet Marketing

2008-06-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

I've been invited to sit on a panel of experts to talk about social media, here in Philadelphia. Local IT professionals and entrepreneurs are going to be populating as small conference room looking for advise on how to use social media as part of their internet marketing programs.

I'm having trouble coming up with what to say. Not because I don't have a lot to say on the matter but I hold a negative view of social media as an advertising market. Most people who go and speak about this sort of thing, at conferences, are the usual Twitter fiends who are happy to ride the bandwagon of 'future promise' and 'incredible traffic'.

The problem with utilizing social media as an advertising tool is that it's not made for it. Most social media: blogs, myspace, shelfari, 43things, ListofBests, Twitter were created primarily as a way for people of similar interests to get together and talk about what they love.

Not a whole lot of people go to a social media outlet with a desire to have some company selling at them. "Hi! I'm R00f3rman345 and I wanted to drop you a line about this great shingle rebate!" Who wants to get that kind of stuff in their message box? That's spam.

If you create a a full profile for your company on myspace and you sell filing cabinets, how many people do you think are going to visit you? What's their interest? If a person is looking for a filing cabinet they're going to look for one on Google or Staples.com, nobody thinks to go to myspace. The only people who can successfully get sales through myspace are music bands and magicians.

People visit social media because they have a shared interest. AND YES, there may indeed be a dozen or so people (at most) in a geographical region who want to learn about 'Deals on Wheel Alignments', but the number is so puny as to not even pay for the effort of setting up a profile to begin with. Especially if you pay someone to set it up, you're never going to see a return on that investment.

The only social media I can see of relative use to a business is a blog. Some place where people can read interesting things on a daily or weekly level. Some examples of interest would be 'Contractor Reviews' (still kind of boring), Expert Opinion: Ask Yea Old Pluber Man (more interesting especially if he has a voice), About My Business (like this blog, learning about how I do things and talk about tech trends).

You may make the argument that it doesn't matter what you put on social media, you're just posting up a profile or an article for a good inbound link (search engine optimization). To that I say... SPAM spam Spam SPam sPammmmm. Way to go, you've just helped to devalue search engines and your own business a little more with each slapped together article you post. There is a reason that Google has to keep changing it's algorithm to get relevant results, and it's you.

A little advice, there are two ways to run a business: Milk a business or Grow a business. If you're just sticking things in social media for a link then your looking for a short term profit without a long term agenda. Give it enough time and you'll tank your business and deflate any trust between you and the consumer. Think long term, earn a consumers trust, Grow your business and the referrals will keep rolling on in.

Inevitable Evil of 'Local Listing Sites'

2008-06-17T07:23:00.001-07:00

I'm fuming mad this week, I've had it up to my ears with listing sites who scrape the yellowpages and toss together sloppy and innacurate information about my clients. Spelling errors, incorrect phone numbers, misdirected email addresses, wrong street address, wrong catagories of services... it's unbelivable.

The focus of my wrath today is BytheZip.com. At first glace this is an everyday local listing website that promises to get you ranked well on search engines. Benine, no big deal, lets see what they can do for us... right? WRONG. (My client signed up for their service without talking to me first, so I take no responsibility for getting in bed with this company)

After three weeks I started my usual quarterly session of Googling my client's name to see what comes up. Well let me tell you I've found a load of crap that I'm very unhappy about. First off BytheZip.com uses, what i now call, a 'lazy link' on it's website and other affiliate and third-party sites.

What is a 'lazy link'? It's a link that was put together by a lazy code monkey that looks like this:
See more about PJ Fitzpatric here: http://www.bythezip.com/Companies/1000011804.htm

When it should look like this:
See more about PJ Fitzpatric here.

They use this lazy link everywhere, they're spamming the following websites with poorly crafted and often outright wrong articles and listings:

Technorati.com
yourvirtualmainstreet.biz
wordpress.com
localbizpress.com
philadelphia.craigslist.org
delaware.craigslist.org
gtrends.4rev.net (dig link)

They wern't given permission to do this, they are just doing it over and over again. This makes my client look like a real tool to these online communites. Also, nothing written in those articles is approved or goes through myself or my client before it's published. If it had they wouldn't have started a blog with Guard spelled as Gaurd or placed us on a national Dig link when we're a local company. This kind of blatent misuse of name for better rank on a search engine is unethical and worse, damaging to the reputation of my client.

And there are tons of these sites doing this every day. Here is a list of some of the worst offenders:

Yellowbot, Superpages, Hotfrog & Insiderpages.

The problem is, you can't stop them from running around posting up incorrect phone numbers all you can do is go to their site and complain or join their services and correct their incompentence yourself. So every 4 months I have to get on search engines and fix the crazy, lazy, irrisponsible websites out there.

Lesson to take away from this? Google Thy Self. Frequently.

Misleading Terminology and Statistics: Philadelphia Internet Marketingd

2008-06-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

This week I'd like to point out a few misleading ways some companies sell their online services to 'internet virgin' businesses out there. Most business owners don't know anything about search engines, websites, blogs, social media or even how to properly use their own office computers. So it's no surprise that certain online service providers use misleading sales tactics to secure some 'sucker money'.

First off let me say that I'm not talking about the crazy local web dude who charges you a massive lump of cash and then disappears the next day.

I'm talking about BIG players, who should know better but employ tactics that are unethical to get the maximum profit off your ignorance. Yellowpages.com (a subsidiary of AT&T), InsiderPages.com, BytheZip.com, ServiceMagic.com... mostly listing sites although I'll cover a few points that independent operators use as well.

1 ) Raise Your Rank on Google by using our listing service.
Let's start with SEO (search engine optimization), the term most used is 'raise your ranking' on Google/Yahoo/'insert search engine name'. Listing sites employ a sales tactic in which they tell a business that by getting their website listed on there's that it will improve your rank on search engines. The misleading part of this sentence is that it's not YOUR website that is getting better ranking but rather that they use THEIR website to place high on a search for say... 'swimming pool contractors'. That may be a bit confusing so let me use a visual example:

Go to Google and do a search for 'swimming pool contractor':

You'll see I've circled in red, "ServiceMagic.com", this is one of the listing sites I mentioned. You pay Service Magic a monthly fee and then their website comes up when people do a search for 'swimming pool contractor'. Not your website, in fact your website just gets a link off the servicemagic.com website... next to all your competitors. Your business website IS NOT getting a better ranking for being listed here AND your competitors are all lined up right next to you when people click on this link.

1) Impressions
Another misleading tactic is how some companies bandy about the term 'impressions'. An impression is how many times somebody has viewed something. So say if your website on google got 23K impressions that means 23K people looked at your listing on Google... they DID NOT go to your website. If they had went to your website it would be called a 'click' or 'visit'. Impressions are simply an indicator of the amount of potential traffic on a search engine, not actual traffic.

However if we're talking about an Online Newspaper, you're very interested in Impressions. You want to know the average rate of impressions to get a feel for how many people visit their website, and whether it is worth your time to buy ad space there. Now the way I handle this is that you should always take the number of impressions a website gives you and cut it by 1/2. So a website that says it gets 10K impressions, should be reduced to 5K impressions.

Why do I cut it their number in half? Because Impression tracking doesn't take into account multiple visits to the same page by a single visitor. So if you assume that everybody visits a page at least twice then you get a more (but definetly not perfect) accurate number of real traffic.

3) We're ranked 16th most popular website on the Internet
This is a despicable tactic used by Yellowpages.com and I encourage you to spread the word wide and far. Yellowpages.com is indeed a very popular website... Nationally. However most businesses don't operate on a National level, they service a local area. Do not be swayed by arguments that they're going to generate tons of sales leads for you because of their popularity. Ask for specific numbers of visitors in your service area, whether by state, county, city. If they can't give you a hard number then don't bother. Unless you're servicing a major urban area you're going to find the numbers in say... southern Delaware, less than stellar.

That's it for now, my little daughter Maya (8 months) is being demanding today. I'll check in next week as usual.

A Conversation I Had This Week...

2008-06-04T07:20:00.000-07:00

"Below is a response to some questions I received about Wikis and MMORPGs in regards to business..."

Wikapedia is an online encyclopedia, so unless your contributing information that is of an educational nature you can't use if for business. However anyone can build a Wiki, for any reason at all. Wikis do have a high learning curve for creating one yourself, you have to learn how to code them and then upload them to your server. However there are services like: www.wetpaint.com that will allow you to use their pre-built templates and software to make creating a Wiki very easy.

I think you mean MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games), nobody i know uses the term MMOLGs, that I know of (and all my friends and I play these games quite a bit). The majority of people who play MMORPGs are gamers and play game oriented MMORPGs. The economies for these games are tied to the game in such a way that any real world cash that is made is simply to improve your gaming performance (Ex. selling 'gold' for cash so that people playing World of Warcraft can buy better armor and items). What your talking about with Neuromancer is a slightly different type of MMORPG called Second Life (the largest of a handful of this type). There the purpose is not so much a game as interaction with other people. Whether that is to sell things that you make, teach a class online, show off your nifty avatar or play games made by other people. You CAN make money in Second Life but the Linden Dollar has a poor exchange rate compared to the US Dollar. I think this is the game you want in investigate, it's free to download but has options for monthly subscription for more features www.secondlife.com (anyone can join).

My experiences with Second Life (about two weeks of monkeying around) leave me with mixed feelings. On paper it's a very good idea, but in practice it isn't quite there yet. Most of the people I know who have tried it only lasted about a week or two and then got bored with it. My one friend Don actually tried to turn a profit by selling credits to play a game he built inside Second Life and charging people a fee to sit in a chair and watch movies. He's the 'get rich quick' type and he kept at it for about three months, in the end he wasn't making enough to justify the time he was spending at it.

Problems with Second Life:
1) User created items requires a certain amount of craftsmanship and creativity, it's very 'artist' centered.
2) Second Life can't maintain a population, I'd say only 5% of all MMORPG players still play it. It's just not that great.
3) Linden Dollar transactions for cash are low so it's hard to make a buck.
4) Visuals and lag are not very good.

That being said there are a ton of possibilities for MMORPGs and if designers start really thinking about it they can be a huge resources to just about every business sector out there. You had mentioned that there is a huge amount of people playing MMORPGs (not to mention games in general), which is true. I missed opportunity I saw recently is Budget Hero, which is a game that was created to inform people about how the US budget is spent each year. It allows you to choose several goals and then allows you to make changes to try and balance the budget while trying to meet those goals, without busting the bank. Now if this game had actually been a little more comprehensive and if they had set up a way to retain the data of each individual who played it, the government could use thousands of people's ideas on how to fix the budget. Among all those entries I'm sure there would have been many options that a politico might not have thought of. Co-op gaming can be used to gather all kinds of data and idea like this, creating a hive mind to answer questions and accomplish goals. If a website like http://galaxyzoo.org can help scientists identify a million galaxies in record time, utilizing online participation, why couldn't there be a game to do it even faster?

Designing for Sales – Philadelphia Web Design

2008-05-28T08:03:00.000-07:00

Your website is your online brochure, your portfolio, business card, the digital store front of your business. The first glance a visitor gets of your website is extremely important, you get an average of four seconds to make an impression which will color a visitors entire experience with your company.

You wouldn’t allow your cousin to design your logo/brochure for $50, you wouldn’t pay a contractor $200 to layout your store, and you wouldn’t hire a guy to answer your phones for minimum wage (at least you shouldn’t if you value the reputation of your business).

So why would you pay peanuts to have the brother of your receptionist, who’s taking IT at the local community college build your website for $300? The old axiom is true, “You get what you pay for.” And if your skimping on website costs then the first impression your going to make is a bad one.

So we’ve established that you shouldn’t cheap out on web design, but now what? What makes for good design? Pretty pictures? Going the slick, fancy, Flash Animation route? Tons of orange and gold because it’s your company colors?

If you’re like most business owners, websites intimidate you because it’s ‘new’ and ‘technology’. But keep your head! A website is not as difficult a project as you’re making it out to be.

Ask yourself, What is the job of my website?

Gathering Sales Leads for Services or Products?
Clarifying Information on a Topic?
Presenting a Portfolio of Work and Clients?
Providing a Database of Useful information?
Creating Social Interaction on a Community or National Level?

Once you’ve figured out what you want your website to do, then all you have to do is design with that goal as the main (and I suggest ‘only’) focus. Websites that try to do too many things loose focus and if your website is all over the place, then your visitor is going to get lost in the morass you’ve created.

Some designers will tell you that making a website functional is the most important aspect of web design. Others will tell you that it’s the style and branding that catches visitors attention. The real answer is that it’s a combination of both. If you’re designer has no idea how to get your email form setup and creates dead links in your navi bar with little ‘under construction’ icons, fire him. If your designer creates a highly functional e-commerce site that has the visual appeal of drying asphalt, get your money back.

A web designer has to have a grasp of coding and a good sense of composition. The best designers are those who can wear many hats. An artist who’s learned how to code. An IT guy who’s taken some art classes. A code monkey photographer. A renaissance painter who dabbles in C++. There are so many varied skills required in creating great design that you either need a team of designers/coders/video/animators/marketers (web design company) or one of the above mentioned Renaissance men.

Good Design Tips (Appearance):

Create an appearance that mimics your business ethic: clean, open, bright, subtle, rich, new, high tech, old world, one-on-one, personal service, corporate power… whatever best describes the way you want other people to view your business. Don’t look cheap, boring, plain… you can be a 400lb slob but your website should reflect your inner super hero.
Use your company colors, many businesses have a logo or color they associate themselves with but then design their website in something else entirely. This is a bad idea, get those colors branded into people’s heads.
Use photos you’ve taken yourself or stock, make sure they’re clear, clean and well lit (unless your advertising caves for sale or vampire stuff). Poor quality photos reflect a poor quality business.
Details, don’t leave a pixel dangling, a header slightly off-center or a border off-color.

Good Function Tips (How your website works):

Get to the point with as little steps in between your visitor entering the site and the information they’re searching for. If you sell pots, make sure they get to the pot page and then directly to the order form. Nobody cares about your funky intro. Nobody cares what your calendar of events are. Nobody cares about your Flickr photos. Get to the point. I’ve found that if people get what they want, they’ll browse the rest of your website after the finish doing business with you.
Always have your contact information and your order/service request form on every page. Top of page for phone number, everything else in the footer. Don’t make people think about how to contact you or order your services, make it super obvious.
Don’t get unique with your navigation. If people have to search around for your information then you’ve already lost. There are standard conventions that visitors have gotten used to that you NEED to observe. Always have a contact page on the Navi bar, always have the header link back to the homepage, Always keep the navigation bar on the left or top of the page and keep it consistent throughout the website. Funky navi bars that pop out of nowhere, float across the page or are only revealed after you click something are a navigational nightmare.
DON’T make your Navi bar in flash. As unbelievable as it sounds not everyone has the plug-in (another reason, among a thousand more, not to design your entire website in flash) and if they’re running a Script-blocker it won’t show up.
DON’T design your website all in Flash. Search Engines can’t see it, people have trouble loading it, some rare people can’t see it. Designers who use all flash sites are usually kids out of college with out a clue about visitor expectations, marketing to search engines or loosing people while they’re pictures load up. If you write me and tell me that search engines can now view flash links I will loose my shit, seriously, who cares about links? No search engine in the world cares more about the links on your site in comparison to the content you’ve just made invisible.
No dead links, AT ALL. Not in your Navi, not in your content, not anywhere! If you’re building a page do NOT link it into your website until your done. DO NOT put up little under construction icons. Your website will look unfinished, amateur, not put together and that is EXACTLY how people will think of your business. There is nothing that pisses of a visitor more than clicking on your navi bar, looking for information, and getting a dead link. You might as well hang a sign on the homepage that says, “Unprofessional Business!”

Google Pay-Per-Click / Testing the Water

2008-05-21T07:11:00.001-07:00

Sponsored Search or PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising is generally viewed as either a bane to Google’s main search engine (by the user) and a horribly expensive way to do business (by the advertiser). While the first point may ring true, with the current state of lousy advertising standards, the second point is a vile myth.

First off, people who tell you that you’re going to end up spending thousands or even hundreds of dollars on a PPC campaign are dolling out bad advice. You don’t have to spend more than $20, if that’s what your budget is. The fact is, nobody knows what your budget is going to be until you TEST THE WATERS.

Creating a test account on Google to suss out the real numbers of people searching for your product or service is something every business should invest in. PPC is NOT for everybody but you won’t know until you check things out. If you come up to me and say, “Oh, nobody clicks on those Spamy links.” or “It just doesn’t seem applicable to what I do.”, then you need to have your head examined, because your making a financial decision based on rumor and not hard facts.

Do you have $100 lying around? I have bills bigger than that and for a serious business this is not a lot of money. Google only takes credit cards, so it’s not real money anyway, just a small pile of accumulated debt that looks insignificant to the $4K you spent on IKEA furniture last weekend.

Here is How You Do It: (for people who are under the impression they are professionals)
1. Come up with a bunch of keywords you feel are relevant to what you sell, who you sell it to and where those demographics are located. This is a trial and error process that should be constantly tested and reevaluated till you get the right mix of words and phrases (a whole other article in itself).
2. Go to www.adwords.com and sign up for a new account. Select the Standard Account setting. Fill out your personal information.
3. Time to write an Ad, you’ll notice you’re limited to how many characters per line so get to the point and don’t use words like ‘best’ or ‘most’ (outlawed by google). For now keep it simple, we’ll get into writing effective ads in another article. Type in your main URL and then type in the URL link to the product or service on your website (you can make them the same but the ads will be more effective if visitors are taken directly to what they are looking for).
4. Set up your advertising location, be as specific as possible, I like to use the polygon to draw an accurate shape around counties in a state my clients serve. DON’T sign up for national by mistake, you’ll blow out that $100 in less than five minutes.
5. Set your daily budget at $10, Set your maximum per-click rate at $0.01 (this is for testing purposes, use the minimum and we’ll work up from there, later)
6. Now all you need to do is give Google your credit card info and your ads are off and running.

Alright, what is the purpose of setting the keywords at one penny? Well Google will run those ads in their system for a very short while, but it’s enough time to gather data on how many Impressions each keyword get’s before the ad is shut off. Why is it shut off? Well because DESPITE Google saying the minimum bid is one penny, they lie. In fact you’ll be forced to bump your keyword costs up to a minimum after a few hours. Anyway, the Impressions are the numbers you’re interested in right now, not having your ad up and running. You’ll quickly see which keywords get more traffic, which you’ll keep for now and remove the keywords that don’t perform well.

Impressions are the number of people who typed in your keyword in a search engine. They viewed your ad, but didn’t necessarily click on it. If ‘super ball’ get’s 1000 Impressions but ‘uber ball’ only get’s 3, you want to keep ‘super ball’ in your list.

There are exceptions to this rule, such as when you’re dealing with a highly specialized product. Say the keyword phrase ‘waste oil collection’, you may only get 40 Impressions, but it’s exactly what your business does, so keep it on hand for when we get *serious with your $100.

*With any type of PPC campaign Clicks are your goal, getting people to your website. But we are assessing if you need this service, NOT how many clicks you can get for spending little or nothing. Don’t expect sales at this point, we’re doing a research project.

Raise your keyword per-click costs to their new minimums ($1, $5, whatever Google tells you it is, it’ll be highlighted for you). Make sure that you can pay for at least ten clicks with your daily budget, so you’ll have to readjust from $10 to whatever the cost ($5/click would be $50).

Let it run for 24 hours.

Come back and repeat the process of raising keyword minimums and daily limits. The goal here is not to gather a ton of clicks; in fact you’ll be lucky to get any but to access the amount of traffic out there for your product and services.

Keep doing this till A) you run out of money B) a month has passed

Now you’ve got good data on what keywords work and if the Pay-Per-Click campaign is viable for your business. If you’re getting Impressions by the thousand/per day, PPC is right for you. If you’re getting a dozen or less than a hundred on all your keywords or even 85% of your keywords/per day then PPC is not for you.

If you find PPC is right for you then it’s time to move to the next step. Creating a budget and keyword list for a real campaign. The less in your budget ($50), the less keywords you should try and compete for. So choose the best keyword that gets good Impressions and is most relevant to your business and put all your money behind it. The more money, the more keywords, but start low and slowly grow your list so that you can keep a handle on costs and good data on what works and what doesn’t.

Email Campaigns - Philadelphia Internet Marketing

2008-05-14T06:11:00.001-07:00

Today I woke up and to find a short message from a woman named Dyhan, who works for a company called 'Insert Boring Company Name'. She was pitching me to improve the Search Engine Profile of my website. After rolling my eyes and sipping my coffee I hit the SPAM button and sat down to ponder the error of Dyhan's ways.

Things she did wrong:

Didn't even bother to visit my website and see that I provide the service she's pitching.
Didn't have a link to her company website.
Sent a three sentence paragraph that was as generic as a Halmark Get-Well Card.
The email was unsolicited, I've never heard of their company before (not could I look them up since 'Insert Boring Company Name' turns up 24 companies on Google, without a link I was lost)

There are do's and dont's when it comes to Email Campaigns and she pretty much did everything a lazy campaign manager should expect. I'm fairly certain this woman/company bought or scraped together a general list of business emails and sent out a mass mailing. There was no research, no unique pitch to set her services apart from any one of a hundred different SEO companies.

You cannot expect to succeed if you don't do your research. Companies do not want to hear the same thing over and over and over. Your not the only guy in town, the internet is a huge town with thousands of vendors. The internet is not a world where your car has broken down in the middle of upstate PA and there is only one auto-mechanic shop in a 30 mile radius. Simply hanging a sign outside your door, "Search Engine Optimization for Sale" will not cut it. Much as it doesn't cut it for any other business with competition. Be unique!

First rule of a great Email Campaign, NO UNSOLICITED EMAILS. That's right, don't ever buy a list of emails you don't know anything about. This is the fast track to being banned by your ISP and loosing your email privileges. Most people treat unsolicited emails in one way, they hit the SPAM button, and that will kill your efforts very quickly. You need to collect emails from people who WANT to receive information from you. Former customers, referrals and demographics who you've ASKED if they want to receive the material and said YES. You may not have 10,000 emails but the 100 you do have are more likely to buy from you. In fact, out of 10,000 emails you'll probably only get 10 sales leads, where a carefully gathered email list of 100 will most likely bring in two to three times that.

I won't get into not linking your company to your email, that's just armature and not worth talking about.

Letting Your Fans Promote Your Business

2008-05-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

Referrals are the best kind of advertising, nothing can beat someone telling their family or best friends to use your services because your a great company. Here at Seigfried Designs we try to utilize referrals so much that it's 98% of all our business. This week I ran across a great idea that I'd like to share with you and expand upon, to get your customers working for you.

Create a Digital Handout
The idea here is to create a page on your website that is a flier for your business, one place where all your important information can be copied, downloaded, linked to and sent via email quickly and easily. "Did you like our service? Tell a friend with our Online Flier!"

Things to make sure you include on this page:

A very brief description of your business and services, no more than a few sentences.
logo
one picture, preferably something to do with your business (if you recycle oil, then a tanker or a filter, if you sell dolls a doll, something people will remember)
Contact Information
Link to Email and Website
Link to Google Maps for Directions
Link to .zip, .stuffit, .rar file that includes this webpage and all files. To download for print or burn to CD.
Links to Service Agreements, Warranties, Guarantees, Coupons and other important documents.
Link to download brochure, business cards, stickers. Formatted to easily print from Microsoft Word at low resolution (keeps file size down) I would go with a non-traditional format for the brochure so that you can fit more catch phrases and information on a single side of a single sheet of paper. A tri-fold design would be less effective than say, 9 squares of information.

Social Media – Is it Right for You? – Philadelphia Internet Marketing

2008-04-30T11:44:00.000-07:00

Social Media is a term that refers to communal websites and applications that rely on many different people working together towards a goal. Wikipedia, 43things, Twitter, Myspace, each of these websites relies on the interaction of dozens and sometimes thousands of users to create interesting content. Everything from finding a date to making lists, this new social media is very popular for many reasons.

Because there is so much traffic on these websites you’ll find many Internet Marketers trying to ‘leverage’ the audiences on social media websites for sales leads and announcements of new products/services. In some cases this is done tastefully and with the spirit of the website’s purpose, other times it’s blatant spam.

A common misconception is that if you get links on Digg or Delicious or Myspace you’re search engine rank will skyrocket. In truth it’s very rare that such an occurrence will happen and just placing links on these social media outlets won’t pan out the way you hope. That is… unless you’re providing great content.

Content, content, content, what do I mean when I say ‘great content’?

I mean something of value, something that will not only draw people to WANT to read what you’re providing but make them hungry for more. You simply can’t rehash the same old article on ‘How to fix your Air Conditioner’ and expect people to stick around. There are dozens of websites providing the same sort of content, so what makes yours stick out? What about writing a column where a retired Air Conditioner Contractor gives you the skinny on the fun stories he’s accumulated over the years? How about a Q&A session? A survey? Horror stories and advice on how it could have been avoided?

You want to be compelling and you also want to focus on your audience.

If you go on Myspace and try shilling handicap walkers and Ensure your not going to get much attention. The demographic for Myspace is 14-25 so try pitching things that a teenager would be interested in. Same with 43things, if your trying to sell a book then go find people who like your type of book. Don’t just pop in and say, “Hey check this out and buy it!” Start a conversation, get involved, treat it like a hobby not a job.

Now most people will say, “I don’t have time for this.” And to them I say, “Make time or social media is never going to be an effective Marketing tool for you. Ever.” Social Media is not for spammers, it’s for people with a genuine interest in what your talking about. Hiring on a web company to ‘leverage’ (that term is bandied about a lot lately) social media isn’t going to get you great traffic because they could care less about your product. They’re there to put in some hours and skim a few sales leads, enough to make it look as if what they’re doing is justified.

You are the one who started your business, you’re the one with expert knowledge and you are the only person who can really use social media effectively. Ask your Internet Marketer to research places that you could find interesting people in your demographic and go make friends.

Using Keywords in Your Advertising - Philadelphia Internet Marketing

2008-04-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

You may have seen an ad recently that went something like this:

"Our Environmentally Friendly Tires are a
commitment to the Community and the World
To learn more about our GREEN tires go to Google and type in: "greentire"

This is in response to a growing problem with search engines, too many websites competing for the same keywords. If you're a Tire company and you've found the keywords you've been using getting swamped by spamy listing sites ("Philadelphia Tires" is a good example) then this can be a compelling work around.

What you want to do is create a page on your website or create a landing page that is optimized for the keywords you want to use. Make sure the keywords have zero competition, since 'greentire' isn't even a word it has hardly any other website trying to utilize it.

Now your asking the question:
"Why don't I just point them to a URL like www.greentire.com, instead or www.phillytires.com/greentire?"

A: No reason what so ever, but this is the 'hip new thing' in Internet Marketing so I'm giving it some lip service. One advantage is that you don't have to pay for the domain but given the cost of a domain is under $10 it's not a huge budgetary concern. You could definetly use this technique to create a whole new 'buzz word' and spin off product for your company.

If you've got a business that's consistently hammered by spam websites using your relevant keywords, then take advantage of this idea. Use keywords that aren't traditionally what people would think of, but you can train them into using.

Example:
If you have a new product like "light tubes" which reflect sunlight from your roof and into your basement to light up your house, try the following.

Run an Ad that basically says: Learn more at Google by typing in "Light My Room"
Then when they're on your optimized web page have links and mention other phrases. Like: "Light My Bedroom", "Light My Garage", "Light My Apartment"... etc.
Eventually people will learn to do searches for your products by using your keyword phrases. "Hmmm... what was that website with the light tubes... oh yeah! Light My... um....Light My Apartment!"

Landing Pages & Domains: Philadelphia SEO

2008-04-17T11:25:00.000-07:00

You’ve got a website and you’re comfortable with the idea of how it’s structured and how people move through it. The typical layout is a Homepage that has links that navigate to your service pages, products, articles, contact info and appointment scheduler. It’s all self-contained and interconnected, the way everyone else’s website works.

However you’re probably having trouble getting your website to come up under multiple searches. You may have the first position for ‘philadelphia dolls’ but you can’t seem to get yourself optimized for other search terms: ‘swarthmore dolls’, ‘exton toys’, ‘unique gifts pa’…etc.

Instead of stuffing keywords into your webpage copy until it resembles an intersection covered in election posters, you should think about landing pages. Instead of having just one big website, break the mold and develop several smaller websites/ landing pages. You can optimize each landing page for the keywords you want, tailoring your copy without degrading the quality of the information.

Step 1: Buy a domain with your keywords in it, the closer the better. (example: ‘philadelphia dolls’ = www.philadelphiadolls.com [.net, .org, .biz, doesn’t matter].

Step 2: Set up a sub directory on your primary hosting account. If you website is www.example.com, then create a folder on your host www.example.com/philadelphiadolls.

Step3: Make the domain www.philadelphiadolls.com an addon domain to www.example.com and point it toward the sub directory you just created.

Step4: Upload your landing page to the new sub directory as the index.html file.

Step5: Submit your new domains to search engines and wait for results.

Submitting new domains can take time and so does attaining good ranking on search engines, so have patience and wait a few months. When it comes to Organic results on search engines, change comes slowly. Meanwhile you can start using the new landing pages in your traditional advertising. After all you now have a brand new domain, targeted specifically to your product or a location, so push that new website to your demographic.

The Advertising Firm’s ‘Internet Services’

2008-04-09T08:08:00.000-07:00

There are all kinds of Internet Service providers that offer all types of services. This causes business owners to have a heart-attack trying to figure out whom to hire. We come in all shapes, from single proprietors to small teams of 30 all the way back to your cousin who took a CSS class in college (if you don’t know what CSS is, this is not a surprise and you should read the rest of this article).

Many businesses already have a PR/Marketing firm or use a Graphic Designer who is producing their TV, Newspaper & paper advertising. It’s an established relationship, comforting, trustworthy and so the day will eventually come when they call you and say, “Hey! We now do Websites! “

This is where you need to suppress the urge to cry thanks to the Gods and buy whatever they are selling you. Because in 9 times out of 10 it’s the worst thing you can do for your business.

It’s been my experience that large companies who have never done web work or internet marketing will hire a young college kid with zero experience or an older fellow who’s making the transition out of IT (Most of these guys believe anyone can create a website, which is patently wrong). They trust their ‘new’ department with your entire online profile, your reputation, the way you sell your business to new consumers. It’s the equivalent of opening a new store on Main Street and having it run by your idiot son-in-law.

Worse still, you may have a very big and impressive PR firm who believes they already know the Marketing game, so how hard could it be online? This will probably go down by them telling you that you need a website (which is true) and then they’ll use traditional paper, TV and radio ads… a brochure, to promote it. They just let your website sit there, no consideration for search engines, no attention to fresh updates or setting up a reason for visitors to come back after their first visit. Many companies don’t even do Statistics tracking, which is practically criminal (imagine if your idiot son-in-law not only ran your shop but he also doesn’t tell you if anyone came in and what they looked at?).

So what should you be looking for? How do you figure out who to use?

By writing down the following questions and interviewing a potential Internet Service Provider. There is no reason for you to walk into this sort of situation in the dark so I’m going to let you in on a few hints.

How long has the company been providing Web Services (Design, Internet Marketing)?

If they’ve been doing it less than 3 years, which is where most companies that can’t do what they say they can die off, then you need some follow up questions.

How long as your Designer/Developer/Marketer been doing their work?
What education or real world experience do they have?
MEET the person doing the work; don’t just take the sales guy’s word on their competence.
Do you have examples of work, references?

Do you provide Monthly Statistical and Marketing Reports and how detailed are they?

Avoid anyone concentrating on ‘Impressions’ or ‘Clicks’; anyone can get these with the massive influx of web traffic in the world. What you want are sales leads, good hard leads that will make you money.
Request that you want to know how people come to your website, where they come from geographically and how many of them are leaving the website before completing a sales request.

What is your Website Navigation Plan?

Just having a website is not enough, slapping some pages together haphazardly will cause a visitor to leave before completing your goal (sales/information/phone call/form submission…etc). Have a goal and make sure that visitors are not sent through a maze of web pages to get what they’re there for. You should never be more than 2-3 web pages away from completing your goal, the less the better.

Are you providing me with Organic or Pay-Per-Click (sponsored) Search Engine Services?

There IS a difference and some companies won’t bother to tell you what they’re doing to get you to ‘rank’ well on Google. Organic are the numbered listings on a search engine in the center of the page. Pay-Per-Click (sponsored) listings are listed on the top and right hand side of search engines. They’re very different things and achieving rank in either one is a completely different process.
Organic: How are you going to improve my rank? They should talk about Tags, keyword content, links and maybe PR (page rank). If at any time someone says they can ‘guarantee you top listing’, run far far away. Nobody can guarantee you this and they’re likely going to scam you for as much money as possible before leaving. Organic listings are a constant game to appease Google while still providing relevant information on your website. You can be listed high one month and back 5 pages the next. Expect flux and expect to be doing it for a very long time.
Pay-Per-Click: Can we begin a 3 month trial before committing? Can you do keyword research to see what average costs will be per month? Will you provide reports on an Ad’s performance? What will my Ads say (get them to show you the ads before putting them online)?

Make sure that the company is using your domain name in every ad and linking that ad to a landing page on the same domain.
Make sure you’re not running multiple Ads all pointed toward the homepage.
Make sure that you’re not running just a single Ad with a hundred keywords, which is an ineffective practice.

If your Firm/Independent Advertising company can’t answer any of these questions to your satisfaction then find someone else who can.