Browser Results - This blog post is about ranking sites depending on the browser you are using. I’ve noticed recently with my sites that depending on the browser with Google my ranking varies. Below is a graph from the post that shows how much results vary from browser to browser and about home equity loans.

Devaluing Directories - It seems that Google is targeting directories. This article shows how Google seems to be manually de-listing directories that allow paid links. If this is true this will affect a lot of web marketers and how they try to link.

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Google Analytics - I actually found this plugin a few weeks ago, and implemented it into my blog. It’s quite nice because it automatically generates your tracking code for every post you create. Before installing Google Analytics I used the BAStats and found it to be buggy and rather inaccurate. So far I have been quited please with Google Analytics. However, there are many of you out there that prefer that Google doesn’t know your stats. I am told that HitWise provides a good analytics package.

Keyword Density - Last week I found a tool that spidered your site and came back with your keyword density. However, it had one major drawback—it only showed single words. Having a tool that shows keyword density on single words AND phrases would be quite helpful. Therefore, I was excited when I found such a tool at www.WeBuildPages.com. There is one glitch that I am not quite sure how to get past. When I did a query for this blog I found that the number 8217 showed at the top of all my lists. In case you are wondering the number 8217 is computer language for apostrophe. Yet, it’s not such a glitch that I wouldn’t use the tool. Bonus: Listen to their Internet Marketing Song Anchored Text: Internet Marketing Services

Keyword Suggestions - As you might have guessed from the last few SEO Fridays’ I do a lot of keyword analysis reports. Truly, if I can find tools that make this job quicker I am all for it. One site that is extremely helpful is www.CheckRanking.com. From their site: “This is a free and unique keyword suggestion tool. Its helps you determine which keywords to focus on. Focusing on highly search keywords with low competition is always the best market strategy. This tool was created to help website understand their market. Its helpful to those who focus on search engine optimization or Google Adwords, or simply both.” Enjoy! Anchored Text: Free Keyword Position Reports

Learn more about Internet Marketing and SEO

My business partner, Janet Meiners, recently did a post on Marketing Pilgrim that talked about a new religion—Googlism. Of course, this is a spoof done by Google, nonetheless, I felt it gave an adequate portrayal of Google’s popularity.

A while ago, I was so enamored with Google, and their superiority as a company that I wanted to name my first born Google DotCom Wilson. If it was a boy I was going to call him Goog, and if a girl Dotty—pathetically geeky, I know.

First, I am certain, no woman, after carrying a child for nine months, would allow a man to do this. Second, no man should be permitted to be a father if he is willing to subject his child to a lifetime of relentless teasing and persecution.

I truthfully cannot tell you what possessed me, even for a short while, to think this would be okay. I often found myself telling people that it is a rare day that you could write a press release about the birth of your child. Looking back on these words my only defense is that I must of been possessed by the evil marketing demon, a demon that plagues even the best of us.

I recently read an article about an Australian couple who wanted to name their son 4real. However, the government put a stop it. The couple put on the birth certificate Superman, but planned on still calling the newborn 4real. Which gave me the thought of how I could still placate my future wife with an ordinary vanilla name, but be able to slip in the nickname of Goog or Dotty…. hmm, this idea doesn’t seem as good of a press release .

Category: Search Engine News

A friend sent over an article about some entrepreneurs who have created a business around buying niche domains. This is sort of what I did with my car insurance and life quotes website. The entrepreneurs entire business plan is to buy domains in relatively uncompetitive niches and then own the niche through powerful Internet marketing. It looks like they succeeded and are now multi-millionaires from their efforts.

Category: Internet Marketing, Marketing Ideas

I have to admit that Dina Giolitto has become one my favorite bloggers on copywriting. The advice she offers and the way she writes is on the mark, clear, and fun. I recently read an old blog post of hers on how to write effective web copy and I felt she was right on target. She offers ten bits of advice but I only want to offer commentary on a couple of her tips. To really get a good understanding I would recommend that you take a look at what she has to say on the subject, and also follow her blog. ~Paul W.

Analyze the audience. I like to refer to this as the IG Principle (IG=Internet Grooming). I feel that so many people don’t groom themselves for the Internet when they start out. Not only do you need to understand the audience you are writing for, but more importantly you need to know how you want your audience to perceive you. Believe me, this is a lot easier to do than trying to understand your audience.

Adjust your tone. I have found that having a casual and friendly tone—even for large corporations—is much more effective in gaining your customers trust. However, I do recognize that this cannot always be the case. When deciding on your tone, do a competitive analysis of your competition’s websites. Take a gauge on their different tones and see what resonates with you best. Yet, I would never advocate copying their style. Do this to gain a better understanding on what’s out there. You should then add your creativity and magic in order to establish what’s best for your website.

Stay on track. Here’s a pet peeve of mine, that I often do! I have even seen billion dollar companies fall into this trap. The best way to stay on track is to have an outline for your different pages. An outline allows you to recognize the direction you should stay on and not deviate. No matter how cool the facts are if it’s not pertinent to your message leave it out.

Power up the headlines. Dina has another article on how to write powerful headlines that is worth reading. I don’t think people understand the power of titles when it comes to blogging. Have you noticed that most of my post titles have the keyword I am optimizing for and then the title afterwards. A lot of people have yet to realize that Google snatches your blog titles and indexes them with in hours of your posting. If this is the case then why not sneak in a few keywords. I have seen an increase in my traffic by doing this little trick.

Category: SEO Copywriting

Sorry for the tardiness of SEO Friday. Yesterday was quite crazy. Being a small business owner you sometimes have to run around putting out fires, instead of doing what you would rather be doing—blogging. Today is less hectic, and I am catching up on all my Friday tasks that had to be put off.

www.seomoz.org - Ryan at ioventuresinc.com once again directs us to another invaluable SEO tool. At SEOMoz is an in depth page on search ranking factors. What makes this page amazing is that SEOMoz has reached out to all the SEO masters and aggregated their advice. You are able to see what really is important to those who actually succeed at Internet marketing. Link Gratitude: Utah SEO

tools.seobook.com - If you are a newbie at Internet marketing, or need to brush up on your SEO you need to check out Aaron Wall’s book on SEO. Aaron truly is the leading authority on anything search engine. Also, he offers some great tools that you should checkout. I really like his keyword tools, but really he has too many tools for me to highlight just one. If you want to become a master follow Aaron’s advice and use his tools and you will see serious success. Link Gratitude: Free SEO Tools

www.searchwho.com - A very cool tool. On the site they say this is “a simple utility” wrote in house for some testing but there are some key things I really like about it. However, what I like most is that it shows the keyword density of your site. When I did MyMarketer it showed that my top keyword was “your.” Obviously this is something I am going to need to change. Yet, unfortunately, the software isn’t complex enough to show combination of words. Still definitely something to look at. Link Gratitude: Search Engine

I had to laugh when I came across the error in this ad. It makes it even more funny that the ad is promoting an institution of “Higher Education.” Let this be a lesson to always proof read your ad campaigns before launching them. ~Paul W.

There’s so many websites that require our email addresses these days that I truly can’t keep up with all the stuff I’m sent. This was the case with the email I read today from netmarketingmegacourse.com. I don’t ever remember visiting their site, but I have no doubt that I have. The email I received I thought was quite basic but also could be very helpful to some. I offer it to you so that you have one less email you need to figure out in your inbox. ~Paul W.

10 Web Site Design And Writing No-No’s

1. Don’t load your web site with a lot of high tech
clutter. Your visitors may miss your whole sales
message.

2. Don’t use unnecessary words or phrases on your
site. You only have so much time to get your visitor’s
attention and interest; make ever word count.

3. Don’t make the mistake that everyone will totally
understand your web site message. Use descriptive
words and examples to get your point across.

4. Don’t write your strongest point or benefit only
once. You should repeat it at least 3 times because
some people may miss it.

5. Don’t push all your words together on your web
site. People like to skim; use plenty of headings
and sub headings.

6. Don’t use site content your target audience isn’t
interested in. If people are coming to your site to
find info about fishing don’t include soccer content.

7. Don’t use 50 different content formats all over
your web site. Use the same fonts, text sizes, text
colors, etc.

8. Don’t use words your web site visitors might not
understand. People are not going to stop and look
in a dictionary, they will just go to another site.

9. Don’t let selling words and phrases go unnoticed.
Highlight important words and phrases with color,
bolding, italics, underlining, etc.

10. Don’t forget to use words that create emotion.
All people have emotions, people will have more
interest when they are emotionally attached.

This is my second post for SEO Friday. You may have noticed that in these posts I offer anchored text to those who contribute. If you desire an anchored text link to your site please send over to me some of your favorite SEO tips. I also provide SEO tips that I discovered on my own. If I highlight your site or tool please contact me and let me know what keywords you would like anchored in my posts. ~Paul W.

SEO Presentation - I’ve attached a power point presentation from Google engineer Matt Cutts. Matt’s presentation is decent and offers some great suggestions on how to better SEO your blog. I wish I could find the audio or video. If anyone has suggestions let me know.

Page Rank Table - This was sent to me from my friend at newlifehabits.com. I am not sure where he got it from, but it makes for interesting conversation. I was recently discussing with another friend on whether Google’s page ranking is more a vanity tool now than what it was originally designed for. Either way, I’ve learned to never second guess the Google gods. If they are still using it, I will also.

Backlink Builder - Ryan at ioventuresinc.com (this is a Utah SEO company) showed me this gem. Basically, this tool, by WebConfs.com, is a great resource in finding sites using certain keywords that allow you to submit your site. If you are doing link campaign this is a must!

My good friend Jenny emailed me the below excerpt last Friday morning:

I was woken up about 6:30 with a banging on my door (my neighbour) telling me that my car had been broken into and so was hers and the cops were on their way. I panicked at first thinking of my golf clubs in the trunk.. However when I got down there aside from a car full of glass from the broken window, and a massive rock (I mean like a boulder) in my front seat nothing was stolen.. Not even my ipod sitting on the front seat. Stupid junkies looking for cash it had to be.. They did not take anything at all.. even my neighbours camera was sitting on the front seat and they did not take that.. It was more than super annoying..

This real life story is quite applicable to marketing. As marketers we get huge boulders to crash through users realities but then we leave behind the most valuable objects. We are so focused on our own agenda that we miss the obvious. Believe it or not, in the end we only annoy our users because we are not taking what they want us to take.

It’s really the small things that make the biggest difference. Here are some of the top things that I think web marketers overlook.

Consistent contact - We work so hard to drive traffic to our sites and to even get the users email address. However, I find it is rare, even for the big companies, to consistently keep in touch with their user base. I once heard that if you do email marketing right, each email address should be valued at $1. So, if you have 5,000 email list you should be making that much or more every time you send it out. The religious website, MeridianMagazine.com, understands and monetizes on this principle flawlessly. Last time I advertised with them they had 60,000 email list. They send out a daily and bi-weekly email to their readers. If you ever get a chance take a look at how they do their advertising. I personally believe they make more then $1 an email, but I don’t have hard proof for this belief.

True Permission Marketing - We’ve worked hard to get our communities trust, they let us market to them, but do we ask them to be a part of our marketing? The idea is simple, create a marketing campaign that incorporates parts of your community. For example, if you are an herbal company doing a sale on your arthritis salve, call up a user who orders the salve and interview him or her. Then name your sale after the user and post the interview. It gives a human face to your sale, and often times it also creates an unpaid sales rep—the user you interviewed.

Monetizing - This one seems so obvious, but I don’t think people truly optimize their campaigns for the most money. One of the best examples I can give is GiveUsAllYourMoney.com. I am not sure why they built this site, except for a good laugh (which they got a hearty one from me). It is such a great lead generator, but in no way have they monetized it. It saddens me to see such a great idea wasted. I would buy this site from the creator in a heart beat, just to see if I could create a strong lead generator!

Strategic partnerships - A few years ago an old friend convinced me to start a speed dating company. This was at the beginning of this craze and we put our hearts into the company. After two months of trying all my marketing tactics we decided to give up on the idea believing that there was a lack of interest. Three days later I received a phone call from one of Utah’s largest online dating website. They wanted to partner up with us and help promote our little speed dating company. With their endorsement we doubled our price of admissions and were hugely successful for a season. Lesson learned: two companies working together are more successful then one.

Originality - It’s amazing how unoriginal things are on the web. Someone comes up with a great idea and thousands of people copy the idea—usually unsuccessful. A little originality goes a long way. Do you remember the website milliondollarhomepage.com? Really cool site that actually worked. However, you saw similar sites popping up all over the web copying the idea. I never saw any of these sites be able to pull off what these guys did.

Friendship - Not too long ago I wanted to name my first born child Google Dot Com Wilson—true story! Thankfully common sense reined me in (not to mention, no woman in her right mind would let me name our child that). Yet, why would I even be willing to name my child after a super mega company? Reason: Google has branded themselves as my friend. I have always felt that Google has had my best interest in mind, even though I know they are also trying to make a mighty big buck. Understanding this, I have really tried in my marketing campaigns to be a friend. Would I sell this to my friends or my own mother? If not, then I shouldn’t market it. If your customers can feel this friendship you will always make more, even if you also give up more.

Giving Back - If Google is my friend, I would say Yahoo is my nemesis. Why? Simple, my perception of Yahoo is straight corporate greed. If they can’t make a buck off of you then you don’t matter! Yahoo really knows how to put the incorporated back into to Yahoo! Inc. Now understanding this mindset of mine realize that Yahoo does something really well to hide their grubby money fingers—service. Google does this also, but Yahoo markets their humanitarian deeds better (which, in my opinion negates the goodness behind the deed, but it’s still well thought out marketing). We all know that Yahoo is lagging far behind Google. How do you win people over and quick? Do something really nice for them! In the last few months you’ve seen Yahoo really push their imagine into the altruistic painting of life. Anything from America’s Greenest City to Awarding Do-Gooders. You want to be an expert marketing thief, let everyone think you are their friend while you steal their wallet. This Yahoo has done superbly well.

I know that there are many other things that we as marketers forget. However, I hope this eclectic list can be useful in your marketing endeavors. At least remember that if you are going to make the effort of smashing into a car with a boulder be sure to take the iPod that is sitting in plain view.