Friday, December 16, 2005
We hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas and Happy and Prosperous New Year. Thank you for letting us be a small part of your lives.
There seems to be a battle going on between Yahoo and Google over paid links.
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/002955.html
http://battellemedia.com/archives/002123.php
A recap of the recent Chi town Search Engine Conference
http://www.searchengineguide.com/searchbrief/senews/006339.html
Ratings on the search engines - no surprise Google leads - interesting though more people are searching which is good news for everyone.
Click here
Top 99 search terms with 9 letters from A9.... hmmm
http://blog.a9.com/blog/2005/12/14/the-99-top-9/
Tim and Lisa
Thursday, December 15, 2005
First an example of some good marketing - If you search for Auto Tape Measure in Google -
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=mozclient&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=auto+tape+measure
Who do you see at the top of the list.... Black and Decker - excellent marketing. So what you want to find is someone that isn't doing it.
What do you get if you search for home depot elf... one result. If you had something related to hardware / gifts for me you could plug your ad in there and get some unexpected traffic.
If you search for Bud Light Venus - there are no results in the ad box - so probably for ten cents or so a click you could drive some traffic.
Hopefully this gets some creative juices flowing. The main thing is to think of things for your target market - and it doesn't have to be commercials it can be topics within a show. If it is a show topic you need to try and get the ads setup the day of the show. People have very short memories. Commercials usually run more than once.
Stuff you can use -
Tax time is coming soon - check this article out.
http://www.sbtimes.com/articles/05/12/2.shtml
Speaking of taxes this site gives some good info on mileage deductions.
http://smallbusinesstaxcenter.com/records/mileage1.php
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Pre Game -
Fed Ex
Ford F 150 BCS
Comcast HDTV
GMC
1st Quarter
Budlight / Venus
King Kong
Energizer
Cardiezem HBP
Home Depot - Elf
--
Nissan Z
Best Buy (Games)
According to Jim
--
Dominos 5 buck deal
Nissan Frontier - shift offroad
Diet Pepsi - Vending Machine
Hope and Faith - Christmas Freak
--
Nissan Frontier - compact trucks
Michelob Ultra
Subway - Chicken Bacon Ranch
Auto Tape - Black and Decker
--
Fedex
Phillips - sense and sensability
In Justice
--
Subway - Chicken and Bacon
Visa Check Card
Snickers
So what do those commercials have to do with anything - these people spend huge amounts of money on their campaigns - I have found though that many don't branch out to the web. Let's face it, many people watch TV and surf. What stops them from searching Google for some keywords they find in ads. Using the commercials above try and find some searches where there are no Adwords - don't worry if it's not your niche - just use if for practice. I'll give you my results tomorrow.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
I did find an interesting thing this morning - MSN may pay you to search - would you switch if someone did this???
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=2649
Monday, December 12, 2005
A nice way to get out of the sandbox from Google -
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=57368
I watched two excellent football games on Sunday and it got me to thinking that I probably hadn't shared with you a good (cheap) way to promote your site and bring more traffic... which in turn brings more sales. It does take some work and some money - so if either of these are in short supply for you then you may not want check out the blog in a week or two.
To help learn about the concept you need to do a little work - tonight watch the first quarter of Monday night football. Even if you don't like football one quarter shouldn't be too much for you to wade through. As you watch the game write down all the commercials that you see - as well as any advertisements you may see. Even if your audience would hate football just bear with me. We'll talk some about those commercials tomorrow.
Friday, December 09, 2005
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20051208DannySullivanCuttsUp.html
Enjoy your weekend.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/051206-114834
Search engine strategies is going on in the big C - here's a place to catch some updates on whats going on.
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/051205-141249
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
http://www.blitzpromotions.com/blitz256-DEC05.htm
Enjoy your day.
Monday, December 05, 2005
Google has now made it possible to seperate content bids and "normal" bids. Instructions can be found here -
http://perrymarshall.com/google/separate.htm
Some excellent info on creating niche sites -
http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18376
Friday, December 02, 2005
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-mistakes-software-mistakes/
We hope you enjoy your weekend - hopefully we'll get some Christmas shopping done today.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=1874
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
http://www.intuitive.com/blog/next_up_google_shopping.html
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Click Here
A nice article on linking / link networks and the changes from Jagger -
http://www.webguerrilla.com/linking/the-truth-about-reciprocal-link-networks/
Monday, November 28, 2005
I had a lot of fun with my daughter - we goofed off on World of Warcraft quite a bit. Lisa and I also watched a bunch of sappy holiday movies (think Hallmark). It was a very enjoyable time away from the computer... and if you haven't taken a list a few days away, remember the old saying all work and no play.
If you've heard about Sony's "rootkit" and the hub bub surrounding it then this is interesting.
Click Here.
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Are you really targetting your customers ?
http://www.enquiro.com/marketing-monitor/know-your-target-audience.asp
People are still searching for stuff on the web - you can find numbers below.
http://www.dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi?article_id=34827
Some Thanksgiving recipe ideas
http://www.recipelink.com/thanksgiving.html
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
http://www.demc.com/artman/publish/article_66.shtml
Google analytics has halted new accounts for now - apparently they grew too fast....
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/wp-trackback.php?p=36
Monday, November 21, 2005
A nice thread on someone that is trying to start things off with zero cash - more info here -
http://www.smallbusinessbrief.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3177
Some comments from the Google pub relations guy at a recent conference.
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=56221
Friday, November 18, 2005
https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login
Have a great weekend.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
What exactly is web spam - learn more here.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
A nice article on this can be found here -
Click Here
Or you can check it out from Google here -
http://www.google.com/analytics/index.html
I kind of feel sorry for those programs that cost hundreds of bucks a month.
An excellent paper concerning page rank -
Click Here
Monday, November 14, 2005
Is the Jagger dust settling???
Click Here
Ebay is now offering some pretty awesome marketing research stats - more details can be found here.
A nice article on links - more info
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Click here
We'll be taking a break tomorrow since it's Veterans day - and hey I'm a vet... good excuse anyway for a day off :o).
I served in the 3 ID - in Schweinfurt Germany when there was still an East and West Germany.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/06/technology/06google.html?pagewanted=1
Enjoy your day.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
http://www.demc.com/artman/publish/article_58.shtml
Monday, November 07, 2005
Google has filed another patent - apparently soon they will be individual results for each searcher....
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?threadid=8547
The "official" patent can be seen here -
Click here for the patent link -
Is Yahoo in the process of a big update?
http://webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=55461
Enjoy your Monday!
Friday, November 04, 2005
Some good info about Jagger Changes -
http://webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=55306
Thursday, November 03, 2005
http://webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=55284
And Jagger part three isn't up just yet -
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
http://www.blitzpromotions.com/blitz255-05nov.htm
An excellent article on creating passwords -
http://www.antionline.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=271347
(scroll down to post three)
Firefox has an excellent program that lets you check useful SEO stats as you surf.
http://www.pandia.com/sew/105-check-seo-stats-while-you-surf.html
Monday, October 31, 2005
Friday, October 28, 2005
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=54970
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/31688-65-10.htm
Thursday, October 27, 2005
http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/2013
and the "new" site can be found here -
http://base.google.com/
although I got a database error - so maybe it's not ready just yet.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
How did XML site mapped sites fare -
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=54883
It's not over till its over - make sure to check out Google Guy's post on this page -
http://www.searchengineworld.com/forum912/4-2-20.htm
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Part 1 -
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/31509.htm
Part 2-
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/31688.htm
Friday, October 21, 2005
How to contact Google if new results are full of trash -
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/update-jagger-contacting-google/
An excellent conversation is going on here as well - next week - after some more dust settles we'll give some observations.
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=54379
You'll have to register but it takes about a minute to do that.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?threadid=8261
http://www.searchengineworld.com/forum912/1.htm
Just don't PANIC until after the dust settles.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
http://www.wilsonweb.com/art/design/menu-builder.htm
If you haven't subscribed to their newsletter yet, you should.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/002654.html
Monday, October 17, 2005
http://www.nichebot.com/
Thursday, October 13, 2005
http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/1949
We mentioned before about Google and dupe content - check out this -
http://www.threadwatch.org/node/4091
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/1940
Monday, October 10, 2005
http://www.demc.com/artman/publish/article_50.shtml
Enjoy your Columbus Day!
Friday, October 07, 2005
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/
Enjoy your weekend.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
http://www.seroundtable.com/
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/results/article.php/3552906
Also if you didn't get a chance to check out the October issue of our Newsletter you can find it here.
http://www.blitzpromotions.com/blitz254-05oct.htm
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
http://www.businesslyceum.com/compete.html
It seems like that the states want in on income they may be loosing from taxes more details here -
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3552921
Enjoy your day.
Monday, October 03, 2005
http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16848
Friday, September 30, 2005
http://ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/building/article.php/3551461
Enjoy your weekend.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3551586
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
http://www.hsus.org/hsus_field/hsus_disaster_center/disaster_preparedness_for_pets/
Monday, September 26, 2005
http://www.demc.com/artman/publish/article_41.shtml
Make sure you check out the other articles as well.
Friday, September 23, 2005
http://123promotion.co.uk/tools/googlebanned.php
A nice list of video and audio downloads from business leaders - best thing no charge to download.
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/av_speakers.html
Have a great weekend.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3550681
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
http://www.wordtracker.com/keyword-research-guide.html
How big is Microsoft - pretty big -
http://www.rjdudley.com/blog/TheMassivenessOfMicrosoft.aspx
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/does_googlebot_visit_more_often_because_of_my_blog.html
Thursday, September 15, 2005
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=3076
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
A great resource for disaster planning (for you and your business) can be found at the link below.
http://www.youngandsuccessful.com/newsletter/ys_weekly_090805/
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
http://webreference.com/authoring/design/usability/
Some good stuff there if you dig for it a bit.
Monday, September 12, 2005
http://www.trendwatching.com/
A newsletter I look forward to getting.
Friday, September 09, 2005
http://www.scambusters.org/hurricanekatrinascams.html
Have a wonderful weekend.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
1. Protect your computer - 8 good hints about keeping your computer safe.
http://channels.lockergnome.com/windows/archives/20050907_eight_steps_to_system_security_2005.phtml
2. 20 things you can do to make sure your website is accessible.
http://devwebpro.com/devwebpro-39-20050825TheTop20ThingsYouCanDotoMakeYourWebsiteAccessible.html
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=7673
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/31072.htm
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Building business relationships, interesting newsletter stats and more.
We hope that you and your family had a wonderful holiday weekend.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Are alt tags worth it -
http://www.searchengineguide.com/aws/2005/0830_aws1.html
An excellent guide to wordtracker - click save as since it is a pdf file.
http://tanny.com/keywords/keyword-research/Wordtracker-Guide.pdf
Earlier we said that Yahoo was going to be creating a service similar to AdSense - you get paid for your traffic. Their beta is open and details can be found here -
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/nl/aug05tu.php
Again enjoy your weekend.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
http://www.redcross.org/
http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=7257
Earning money with Adsense and others -
Tidbits -
There are more folks that pay publishers than Google.
Yahoo is in beta with something that will compete with Google.
A note from About on mixing up your ads.
Monday, August 29, 2005
Friday, August 26, 2005
http://scholar.google.com/
Thursday, August 25, 2005
1) They are moving toward a "portal".
2) The more real estate they have - on your desk, when you search, your home page - the more "eyes" they have, the more advertising opportunities exist - although for now they say they won't. Recently they eexpanded the number of ads at the top of listings from two to three - there is only so much more they can do there .... unless they choose to fill up the whole page with paid ads
Have a good one.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
1) They've revamped their desktop product -
Click Here
2) They have a new IM Product -
http://www.google.com/talk/
More details about it can be found here -
http://www.google.com/talk/about.html
So.... why do you think Google launched these products. I'll let you think about it for a bit and I'll give you my thoughts about it tomorrow.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
First thing is about "mobile search". If you've not thought about it - now is the time to do it. Why because everyone has a cell phone - soon they will all be able to surf the web. Some details about research etc. can be found at the following link.
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=7254
Thursday, August 18, 2005
It's about "good" writing and Google.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=1874
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
http://photo.stamps.com
You can now put pictures on a stamp - they are a bit expensive but if you mail a lot of things for your business (advertising / etc.), it could make the difference of someone opening it and not. How much of a difference the only way you would find out would be to test it.
Just make sure that the only change on the envelope is the stamp.
Have a good one.
Monday, August 15, 2005
The links to the summaries are here -
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?threadid=7186
Friday, August 12, 2005
Continue working on the project from yesterday - here's some info you may (or may not) be interested in.
Trump has a blog - hopefully my blog is not as boring.
http://donaldtrump.trumpuniversity.com/
Lots and lots of cool stuff on "how things work".
http://science.howstuffworks.com/
Have a great weekend.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
1) Find your niche in this directory -
http://directory.google.com/Top/Reference/Directories/
Say my niche is paintball -
I would click sports -
Then paintball -
2) Visit each of the sites in that list
3) Request a link from each of those sites / add your site to their listings.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Monday, August 08, 2005
Tell then enjoy 30 things you can do on the internet - some things I didn't even know about.
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/printable/article/0,aid,120784,00.asp
Friday, August 05, 2005
http://www.bizweb2000.com/gazette/
Thursday, August 04, 2005
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3524751
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3524411
Have a great day.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Now take the snippet of code and add them to your site - does the content for the ad reflect what you're optimizing the pages for. If not then ....
1) Tweak the title tag.
2) Add content to the page.
3) Tweak the product descriptions / names on the page.
4) Tweak the other meta tags.
Upload the page changes.
Refresh the page - does it reflect what you want now in the ads - if not tweak some more. If so delete the ads and go to the next page. Work on every page of your site. This will be your project for this week.
Friday, July 29, 2005
Thursday, July 28, 2005
If you have a bunch of links you can use the following tool to check them.
http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html
Also you're going to add this to your "To Do" list to do monthly.
Also personally visit the links on your links page - any with a PR of zero - or that have changed their content remove them from your list.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
1) Create the following headings across the top -
Date ~ Traffic (this can be page views / visits - doesn't matter just be consistent) ~ Orders (number of orders for the day) ~ $$ (value for the orders) ~ Profit (profit on those orders) ~ Subscribers ~ Current ~ New (Total subscribers to your newsletter, number of new subscribers for the day).
2) Daily start tracking these numbers.
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Your homework today is if you don't have one - create a Google Adsense account - don't worry we won't be adding advertising to your site, but there will be a tool we'll be using in the near future.
You can create an account here -
https://www.google.com/adsense/
Then click on click here to apply - getting an account is super easy.
Make sure also to check at the adsense blog - save it in your bookmarks.
http://adwords.blogspot.com/
Monday, July 25, 2005
Here is an excellent article on that subject -
http://1x.com/advisor/maher16.htm
Friday, July 22, 2005
Thursday, July 21, 2005
If you contact one new person a day by the end of a year you'll have contacted 260 people in a year. If you get two new links for your site a day - by the end of the year you'll have 520 new links. If you saved $5.00 / day - by the end of the year you would have $1825.00.
Why not take a small step today.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
http://www.wilsonweb.com/art/misc/xml-sitemap.htm
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
http://www.demc.com/newsletters/7_13_05.html
Monday, July 18, 2005
When you get a note to exchange links -
1) Would visitors to your site enjoy / benefit from the link - if not - trash can.
2) Visit the site - is the link to the links page on the index page of the site - if not - trash.
3) Check out their links page - would some links their benefit your user - are there any that are offensive - if so trash - if no benefits trash.
Have a good one.
Friday, July 15, 2005
1) People still search mostly for information on the web.
2) People are starting to use the internet more than the yellow pages.
3) Most people still can't distinguish between paid listings and organic listings.
So what can you do -
1) Include information / tutorials on your site. Include research / info keywords in your paid / organic listings.
2) If you use the yellow pages - think of transferring some of those funds to paid local search listings.
3) If you have the cash use both organic and paid listings.
If you want to waste some time this weekend - look no farther than here -
http://www.miniclip.com/Homepage.htm
Tim
Thursday, July 14, 2005
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3519361
Think of some ways you can take advantage of the findings - tomorrow I'll give you some of my thoughts.
Tim
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
http://www.associateprograms.com/search/newsletter263.shtml
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
If you use firefox then you definitely want to get the google tool bar plug in.
You can find that at the link below.
http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/
Till tomorrow have a great day.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
So we'll regroup and resume posting on or about July 12th.
Till then enjoy your summer and remember to take some time to smell the roses.
Tim
So we'll regroup and resume posting on or about July 12th.
Till then enjoy your summer and remember to take some time to smell the roses.
Tim
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
It basically tells Google when to spider your site.... who wouldn't want to be able to do that.
So you could get Google to crawl pages that are deep within your site - and / or let them know when you make changes to your site.
Either way it is a win win situation.
Tomorrow we'll talk more about creating the actual site map.
Monday, June 27, 2005
This week is going to be short for us - no posts on Friday - no posts next week.
This week we're going to be talking about Google sitemaps - and overview is here -
https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps
Don't stress about it - we'll go into a step by step process.
For now though make sure to create a Google account if you don't have one yet.
Special Deal -
Get a $100 gift from Sandals for purchasing this -
http://webmaster.sitesell.com/blitzpromotions.html
Friday, June 24, 2005
http://www.louvre.fr/llv/musee/alaune.jsp?bmLocale=en
Have a great weekend!!
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Long Link
So what does this mean - don't ever put all of your eggs in one basket.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=46557
http://toprank.blogspot.com/2005/06/googleguy-answers-google-bourbon.html
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/29727-2-10.htm
The main thing I believe that Google did on this update was to remove things with duplicate content. You can find sites that may have your content by going here -
http://www.copyscape.com/
So what steps can you take -
1) Offers to provide you with "content" should be taken with a grain of salt - if they are sending it to you , then they will be sending it to hundreds of other folks as well.
2) If you write an article that is going to be an optimization page - put it on only one page - you may link to it from other pages, but don't send it out to others.
3) If you are sending it to others then realize the page won't be ranked well - but again put it on only one page within your sites.
4) If you have duplicate content within your sites work on making only one instance of the content - link that content from other places if you wish - delete the page where the dups were at.
Have a great day.
Monday, June 20, 2005
Friday, June 17, 2005
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
Enjoy your weekend!!
Thursday, June 16, 2005
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/29727-2-10.htm
You can click on his user profile and gain some useful information. The main thing is that as with algo changes most of them aren't done all at once - so wait for a bit before making any drastic changes.
Have a good one.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
My Grandfather made a big impact on a lot of people -
1) He called people on their birthdays and anniversarys - he had a huge book with names / dates and phone numbers (at least 300+ or so). Without fail on that special day you would get a phone call from him. The minister at the funeral asked how many had been called and of the 500 or so in attendance probably 3/4ths raised their hands.
2) He truly cared about young people - sports events, graduations, plays, youth group meetings, he was there. You could tell from the number of young people at the funeral that he had made a difference in a lot of their lives.
So what does this have to do with running your business. If you truly care about your customers they will know - and tell others.
Have a wonderful day!
Tim
Monday, June 13, 2005
Thursday, June 02, 2005
http://www.marketposition.com/mp-0505.htm
and the patent -
quote -
High scores are also assigned based on the amount of time a user spends on a page. But how can Google know how long you're browsing a page and whether or not you accessed it from your bookmarks? Now you know what things like My Search History and the Google Toolbar are really for (cue ominous-sounding music).
And what happens if people used to spend 30 seconds on average looking at a page, but now only spend an average of 5 seconds looking at that same page? You got it. Page score goes down.
end quote -
So how can you make them spend longer on the page -
Again -
1) Provide useful - updated information.
2) Explain things that may be obvious to you - ie how to use that uber fishing fly to catch more fish.
3) Offer tips on the use of the product.
4) Offer uses for the product that they might not have thought of.
5) Provide customer testimonials.
Tomorrows issue today -
Check out these funnies -
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2994
One other note my grandpa is very ill - they live in Oregon and one of his requests was for me to be part of his funeral. He has lived a rich full life, but they don't expect him to live for the next week or two.
This means that their could be some delay in blog postings. We plan on taking our laptop, but we will only be checking emails a couple of times a day. Please do keep us in your thoughts and prayers.
Have a good weekend.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Taken from -
http://www.marketposition.com/mp-0505.htm
Traffic, Clicks and User data -
Quote -
The patent implies that Google is tracking not just how many clicks a search result is getting, but also what kind of traffic is going to the page in question. Higher relevance is awarded to pages that are accessed through browser bookmarks, for instance, since those pages are assumed to be more valuable to searchers.
End Quote -
So....
1. Make sure your site is interesting.
2. Make sure your let your visitor know that you make changes - so it is important to bookmark your site.
3. Give them instructions on how to book mark it.
4. Offer useful / relavent information besides just trying to sell something - such as....
Your selling jewelry - give them some useful tips on how to keep it clean, how to get it appraised, tips on storing it etc. The more useful information you give them the more likely they will be to bookmark it.
More info tomorrow.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Friday, May 27, 2005
If you have a chance - take the SEO Quiz -
http://www.socengine.com/seo/guide/seomoz-quiz.php
If we get a chance we'll do the same and post our scores on Tuesday as well.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Again taken from here - http://www.marketposition.com/mp-0505.htm
RATE OF DOCUMENT CHANGE -
What helps :
Blog or News pages that change frequently.
Greater weight is given to changes in the title .... hmm.
What doesn't:
Changes to nav bars - navigation structure
Java / Ads etc.
The rate of change -
If you accelerate the rate of change you're given more credit - so monitor your competitors - note their rate of change if any.
Make it a goal to goal slow - say change every month or so - if your competition increases their rate of change then you do the same - to every couple of weeks.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
1) Make a list of your top ten or so competitors.
On your spreadsheet list -
1) Terms
2) What postion they are in Google.
3) Start monitoring the page changes - update when they changed / what changed.
4) Do this for a month or two.
5) Monitor their positions -
It may actually take more than a month or two to find a trend.
So what is an easy way to monitor page changes - you can find out more information from this site.
http://www.thegrid.org.uk/about/help/updates.shtml
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2178631
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Make sure to read the complete newsletter here -
http://www.marketposition.com/mp-0505.htm
We'll just be adding our comments to the discussion -
Document Age:
First - think for a moment - which page do you think should rank higher.
1) A page that has been online a week.
2) A page that has been online for three years.
Note that I didn't say changed last week - but has been online a week.
Google obviously likes fresh / content. I agree with the article that probably in instances where newer topics are discussed that fresher pages may prevail -- but if your optimizing for fishing lures then older - fresh pages are key.
So take away things -
1) Old pages can be made fresh with content updates and getting fresh links to them from other sites. If you're still getting all the links to your home page it's time to mix things up.
2) If you redesign your site it is now even more important to keep the structure.
We'll talk more about the patent tomorrow.
Monday, May 23, 2005
http://www.marketposition.com/mp-0505.htm
Most important (and something we'll be discussing some tomorrow and Weds) is the patent application and what it may mean for your site.
Monday, May 16, 2005
Friday, May 13, 2005
http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/opt/article.php/3503596
Have a great weekend.
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Do you have a plan on contacting someone even if they don't order from you? Believe it or not some folks won't order the first time or the fifth or even the tenth.
You can find more information about creating a follow - up plan at the link below -
http://www.blitzpromotions.com/blitz185.htm
Tim
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
If you want a break try http://www.20q.net/
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
http://www.wilsonweb.com/articles/12design.htm
Make sure to save it / print it out. We'll be discussing it more as the week progresses. For now just download / save it / read it / print it.
Have a good one.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
This weekend do the following :
Get 5 - 10 volunteers to visit your website while you're watching them (not all at the same time of course).
Ask them to:
1) Order a specific product.
2) Contact you with an email.
3) Tell you what your normal shipping time is.
4) Order 3 additional products.
5) Ask them to sign up for your newsletter.
How did they do?
If you notice that all of your test subjects struggle with a certain task - you may want to think about making that task easier. Things that may be super simple to you - may be extremely difficult to someone visiting your site. Ask them for input on things they found hard, ways that you could improve your site.
For tomorrow - download and read the following .pdf on search engine optimization.
We'll discuss this in depth starting next week.
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/presentations/organic-seo-itzone.pdf
So make sure you save it somewhere.
See you Monday. Don't forget to HUG your Mom this weekend.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Garden #1
Make sure that your site is viewable using Firefox.
http://www.getfirefox.com/
Explorer has held the crown for many years - but Fire Fox is slowly but surely catching up. If you haven't viewed your site in Fire Fox make sure that you do.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
http://thinkbig.yahoo.com/
Monday, May 02, 2005
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Some people come to me and ask why isn't their business doing well on the net. After a few conversations I learn that they haven't done anything to promote / grow their business. For some reason they think that business will just magically appear. This of course couldn't be further from the truth. Without constantly planting seeds (promoting), your garden will not produce anything. Sure on occassion you may get a plant or two but you will never get a crop.
Tomorrow we'll start our conversations on preparing your garden.
Monday, April 25, 2005
Friday, April 22, 2005
Congress is looking at extending the ban on internet taxes -
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3498991
A good blog for seo information -
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/
Have a great weekend.
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
For the next bit we're going to be using the analogy of your business as a garden. We're going to cover a variety of topics and hopefully as you relate it to a garden it may just make things clearer to you.
Here's an overview of the lessons.
Preparing your garden.
- tilling the soil
- what makes a garden grow
- choosing your seeds
- rouge plants
- watering your garden
- fertilizer anyone
- tracking growth
- harvesting your crops
- getting more from your harvest
- starting the process again
We hope you'll enjoy it - we'll start tomorrow with preparing your garden. Please note that each topic may take a couple of days to cover.
Have a good one.
Tim
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Friday, April 15, 2005
Thursday, April 14, 2005
1) Explain everything - then explain everything again. While shopping on the net is easy for you, this will be the first experience for them. Explain exactly how the process works. Explain what happens after they push a button.
2)Inspire confidence - even though they may not have shopped - I'm pretty certain that they have heard horror stories about the web. Make them feel secure - offer them an alternate means of ordering your products - the phone.
3) Explain what happens after the order - how long does it take the order to be processed, when will it be shipped etc.
4) Detail how you will communicate with them.
Have a good one.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
1. I live in a very small town - while we do have a Wal-Mart :o) - say I want something that isn't mass produced / but unique. Lets say I want a certain video game.
2. I now have a choice - I can drive two hours to the nearest "big" city that may have it - or I could buy it online. If I drive the four hours I'll spend an extra $20 or so dollars in gas. Online I find the game - same price as the store in the big city - shipping is four bucks.
I don't know about you but I would much rather save the $16 bucks. Next time I need to make the purchase I'll think about the video - how easy it was - didn't have to drive - came to the door - no traffic hassles - no big gas expenditure - so I buy something on the web again.
Once you do things a few times it starts to be a habit. So even if gas prices do come down after my happy experiences of buying on the web, I'm more likely to continue that.
Tomorrow we'll talks some about dealing with these first time buyers, to make their experience a pleasant one.
Monday, April 11, 2005
Have a great Monday.
Friday, April 08, 2005
http://searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156191
Have a great weekend.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/opt/article.php/3490576
Pay particle attention to code you can add to your site to kill the auto link.
http://www.threadwatch.org/node/1562
Even if you don't have links to books - I think this move by Google definitely bears watching.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
After trying various methods (and none of those working), I decided that it would be much easier just to reinstall xp - but this time to include service pack 2 - and to stay far far away from windows explorer.
1) I made sure all the important files were backed up - emails, code, programs I own that are downloads only, passwords etc. I backed all these up to an external hard drive. You don't want to back up settings etc., because these might have been compromised by the malware.
2) Check again to make sure you have everything. Don't forget your bookmarks, you may also want to include your address book.
3) Format the hard drive. There is a fast method - which I've found doesn't do the job, and a slow method.
4) Reinstall XP
5) Reinstall all the drivers and programs that came with the computer.
6) Install and update your virus protection / firewalls.
7) Install SP 2.
8) Download any additional windows updates.
9) Install your other programs and make sure they work.
10) Run a virus scan.
11) Take a break.
12) Setup your email.
13) Install Mozilla.
I have a slow internet connection - not by choice we just live in the boonies - the whole process took about six hours or so. I figure though that it was time well spent since my computer runs faster and the spyware doesn't take over things (knock on wood).
I had the leisure of planning my reinstall. Sometimes you won't have that luxury. Make sure if you haven't backed up things in a while that today (or this week) you do it.
Tim
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
http://www.processlibrary.com/
Just enter the process in the search box and you'll find out what the process is. They do sell a product - which I don't own yet which is supposed to remove some of the pesky ones.
Monday, April 04, 2005
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3493061
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3493061
Monday, March 28, 2005
Friday, March 25, 2005
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3492496
Have a wonderful weekend.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
One of the better explanations of it can be found here -
http://www.marketposition.com/mp-0305.htm#TWO
Some take away notes:
1. The sand box may be easing up a bit - it has been long thought that Google sometimes put's new sites in a sand box of sorts before allowing them to be ranked.
2. Some changes on how links / linking works. The 15 tips they include there are excellent.
3. Stale sites rank worst - if you haven't updated the content of your site in a while - make it a priority to do it today.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/keyword_research/
http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/2/
http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/1/
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
http://www.demc.com/newsletters/3_16_05.html
There was an excellent article in that latest newsletter about niches - you can find it at the link below.
http://www.demc.com/newsletters/3_16_05.html#4
Have a good one.
Monday, March 21, 2005
I will also take my own advice and not use explorer (using firefox now). I don't know if using firefox would have saved me, we shall see. I'm still working on reinstalling things so hopefully you have a more productive Monday.
Friday, March 18, 2005
MSN starts a new PPC program -
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3490346
More info on tracking eyeballs -
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3490486
Have a great weekend.
I did manage to find some excellent articles for you to review -
I mentioned eyetracking before - some more great information can be found here -
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3490486
MSN is going to launch its own pay per click program - similar to Goggle and (Goto / Overture / Yahoo Search).
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3490346
Have a great weekend.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Test Basics -
Testing is trying different things in order to improve our results.
You can test any number of things - your ad copy, pictures on the site, colors etc.
Just like in an experiment you have to use a control - in our case the site before we change things - and the experiment - the changed site.
You need to make sure you test only one change - why? If you test more than one thing at a time then you won't know what made the change.
Have a good one.
Monday, March 14, 2005
Friday, March 11, 2005
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb213516.htm
Thursday, March 10, 2005
http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/opt/article.php/3488166
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
http://entrepreneurs.about.com/cs/marketing/a/visitortracking.htm
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
http://smallbizpromo.blogspot.com/2004/08/this-week-were-going-to-be-talking.html
You can also see the whole series at a glance - just remember to scroll down to the August 9th post first - then scroll up.
http://smallbizpromo.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_smallbizpromo_archive.html
Friday, March 04, 2005
http://creativecommons.org/find/
Have a great weekend.
Thursday, March 03, 2005
If you aren't tracking the numbers you should be. Say your site gets a hundred visitors a day and you make one sale a day. With everything remaining constant (mostly the quality of the visitor) if you got 200 visitors you would make 2 sales, 300 visitors 3 sales, 1,000 visitors 10 sales. I think many people don't grasp that concept. It is VERY powerful.
If you cold call 10 people and make a sale - if you cold call 20 you should make 2. There are many different variables of course, but the numbers should remain constant. I think next week we might expound a bit more on the power of numbers.
Have a good one.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Now you need to create an action plan. Let's say you have a goal to save $20.00 a day or $100.00 a week. List five or so ways you can achieve this. Saving is all about either making more or spending less. So you could perhaps do the following.
1) Save loose change in a jar - $5.00 / week.
2) Eat the value meal for lunch - $10.00 / week.
3) Eat out only once a week instead of three times - $40.00 / week.
4) Plan grocery shopping - coupons / buy in bulk / track sales etc. $20.00 week.
5) Review expenses - do I really need all those things on the phone / 3 cell phones etc. $25.00 week.
Make sure to put the money you save in the bank.
Tomorrow we'll talk more about numbers.
Tim
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Lets say for instance that you have this long range goal.
I will double my business in five years.
Currently let's say you're doing $100,000.00.
So in five years your goal would be $200,000.00
Each year you would need to increase your business by $20,000.00.
So the first year you would need about $2300.00 / week in sales.
Year 2 - $2700.00
Year 3 - $3100.00
Year 4 - $3500.00
Year 5 - $3850.00
Say your goal was to save $50,000.00 in five years.
(Not counting your interest ) That would be $10,000 / year - $193.00 / week or $38.50 / day (just the work days of the week).
Breaking the goals down will make them much more doable.
Tomorrow we'll start talking about the doing.
Tim
Monday, February 28, 2005
A very informative article on when people open emails and how it varies by season.
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2927
Tim
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Friday, February 18, 2005
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Next week we're going to work on turning these goals into a reality (think turning mountains into molehills)
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Today - using yesterdays template - write five long range goals you want to accomplish in your family life. Sometimes it hard to quantify love - but you could have a goal like - In ten years I want to have enough money saved for my childs education at the college of her choice. (Insert that dollar amount somewhere in the statement).
Five by tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
You should remember that you don't want to be vague - in other words grow my business beyond my wildest dreams, while that may be good we want some solid numbers. Provide better customer service would be a good goal - but again there is no way that you can see if you achieve the goal. So a good goal would be - In 5 years I want to increase my business by 500%. ... or In 5 years my returns / refunds will decrease to 0.1%.
So today write five long range goals for your business.
Monday, February 14, 2005
Friday, February 11, 2005
"Yahoo's Tim Mayer said speed is a major concern, and to ensure fast loading page the company uses standards to reduce file size. Tim went on to say Yahoo's crawlers prefer fast loading sites and that they really don't put a lot of emphasis on validation. They have not seen a correlation between validated sites and good quality relevant sites. "
You can view the entire article here -
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3482116
We hope you have a wonderful weekend - don't forget your goal homework.
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Your business
Your health
Your wealth - this is different than business - when do you want to retire... how do you want to retire.
Your family -
Spiritual -
Yourself - what would you like to learn how to do - what hobbies would you enjoy - if you could go anywhere where would that be
Now write these headings down on a sheet of paper -
Your homework for the weekend is to jot down some general things under each heading - think 5 or 10 years from now. Dream BIG!!
Have a good one.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
The goal ( :o)) of goal making should be to provide you with some steps that you can take daily to meet them. In order to do this the first thing we need to do is create some long range goals. Like we talked about these can be dreams but they need to be specific as to amounts / times. These global goals don't have to be as specific as short term ones - think 5 or 10 years down the road.
So a good one might be - I want to double my business income in five years. I want to be able to pay for my child's college tuition in 10 years.
Tomorrow we'll talk a bit about the types of goals.
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
To create a good goal it must have the following components -
1) It must be clearly defined - losing weight is not a good goal - lose 10 pounds by June 1st is. So it must have
a) Specific - think numbers
b) Time - must have a time limit
c) Clearly defined - make more money in my business - that isn't clearly defined - make $1 million dollars by next year is - but not really as clearly defined as I like - we would call that a global goal. Get 20 new customers in 6 months is a great goal.
Lets think a bit about Global Goals - these are long range goals or dreams that you may have.
Homework - keep thinking about goals - but start focusing now on your global goals a bit more - where would you like to be in ten years from now.
More tomorrow.
Monday, February 07, 2005
If you haven't done so yet make sure to check out the start of our goals guide which you can find in the last issue of our ezine.
http://www.blitzpromotions.com/blitz246-febr05.htm
Friday, February 04, 2005
Got this in the email this morning and it's an excellent article on how USA Today gets more subscribers to its newsletter. With a little tweaking it would be valid for almost any business.
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2907
Have a wonderful weekend.
Tim and Lisa.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
1) Review their site for how to link - many of them will include clear instructions - ie how to link, who to contact, if you qualify for the link etc.... by the way - you need to make sure you have this included on your site, it will make your life much easier.
2) Contact them using the information they provide in #1. Make sure to chart on your spreadsheet when you contacted them, put their link up, when they put yours up, etc.
If they don't provide that information -
1) Contact them using a contact form or email address - make sure to
a)Address them by name if possible.
b) Explain how / where you will link them.
c) Mention something about their site that lets them know you visited.
d) Include your - link information, how to contact you, what to do if they have questions.
Then do it - it's not fun, it will take a while, but it does help.
Tim
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
http://www.marketposition.com/mp-1204.htm#ONE
One note when you get the part that talks about links to get first - you can also use those directories as a good starting off point to gather links.
Gather sites that are in similar categories as your site.
Then go to the sites / review their links page and gather some more.
It's usually much easier to gather numerous sites before actually contacting them.
When you gather the site information make sure to get -
URL-
Site Name-
Page rank -
How to link -
Contact Information -
Tomorrow we'll talk some about the contact process.
Tim
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Here is the link to the newsletter -
Enjoy -
http://www.blitzpromotions.com/blitz246-febr05.htm
Monday, January 31, 2005
Friday, January 28, 2005
http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Search-Engine-Optimization-Help/The-Various-Search-Engines-Their-Whims-and-Wishes/
We're supposed to get some ice this weekend - and if we do then it may take a while to dig out / get power restored - so we'll see you Monday (or later :o)).
Thursday, January 27, 2005
1) Sites that aren't competitors.
2) Sites that look good without excessive popups / ads / etc.
3) Sites that deliver a service for visitors of your site - ie you sell baby gifts and link to a parenting advice site.
4) Sites that have a PR greater than zero - a PR of zero may mean they are in trouble with Google - beyond this don't worry much about PR - think first of #3 - a service to your readers. If it's an excellent site and they have a PR of 1 - rest assured that as word gets around their PR will climb. Conversely if their site is junk and has a PR of 9 forget them because their deeds will eventually catch up with them.
5) Make sure the sites resources page has a clearly visible link for the front page. It is better if it is a text link.
6) Review their links page - do links actually link from the site or do they use a code to link. I would be wary of linking to sites with a code because that doesn't actually deliver you any PR at all.
7) Take a moment to review some of the links from their links page - what are they like - would they provide value to your customers.
Next week we'll talk about the actual process of finding links.
Have a good one.
Tim
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Creating the links page.
Can you be peanalized for certain linking practices.
Keeping track of your links.
Creating your linking text.
Getting your website in order.
Tomorrow we'll talk some about the process of getting good links.
Monday, January 24, 2005
Does Google have an aging delay - this article makes some good sense.
http://www.searchengineguide.com/claiborne/2005/0117_sc1.html
Hope to get things back on track tomorrow.
Tim and Lisa
Friday, January 14, 2005
An idea of getting prospective links into your inbox can be found at the link below -
http://links-for-you.com
We'll be taking Monday off so we'll see you on Tuesday.
Enjoy the weekend.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=361407
Tomorrow we'll review a bit about what we've talked about so far.
Monday, January 10, 2005
http://www.strongestlinks.com/directories.php
It is a list of various directories on the web as well as costs involved with submitting your site to them.
Have a good one.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
http://www.blitzpromotions.com/blitz245-05jan.htm