On our blog talk radio show this week Charly and I talked to Don Christie who is an expert in Search Engine Marketing. We discussed a number of different things and Don is really great at explaining things in simple terms. to get the full benefit of what he had to share we recommend you listen to our interview here:
Don talked about the importance of having the right keyword phrase. Quite often this is not the phrase you think your customers are looking for but something different.
Don’t focus solely on Google to place your advertising - MSN gives you good value for money and Yahoo has its place as well.
While everyone is trying to optimise their Google ads to appear as number one of the first page in the search results, this is not necessarily as important as it seems. Ads that are displayed in position number 2-4 still get clicked on and generate a reasonable amount of sales. The added advantage is that they are less costly as well.
According to Don it is also of paramount importance to have a fully optimised landing page that really matches your ad and doesn’t send your potential customer somewhere they don’t want to go. For Google to be happy, it has to be very specific. Don gave the example of a “Red Wine” ad – it is not good enough for this ad to lead to a page of a liquor wholesaler, it has to go to a page that talks specifically about red wine, the different types, vintages etc.
Don has a special free report available on his website. it is called “Adwords Secret Strategies Report” and contains some good information. Go to http://www.donchristie.com to download it.
What does the term keyword mean exactly? I was often pondering whether they are called “key” words because they hold the “key”, they are all important for unlocking your website for your visitors….or whether they are called key words because they are the words your potential customers type on the “key”board to find what they are looking for?
Whatever the case, they are of crucial importance to your online success. A keyword does not have to consist of a word only, it can be a phrase as well. They are entered into a search engine and then the results will appear on the computer screen. The results are links to web pages and to ads (Adwords ads). Read the rest of this entry »
Todays guest, Shannon Cherry, shared some amazing information on creating and submitting Press Releases to gain the exposure that you want for your product or service.
I loved Shannon’s description of what a Press Release is really for. A Press Release is designed to ‘tease’ journalists enough that they want more information. It’s kind of like a Strip Tease, where you give a tantalising glimpse of the final product – and get paid to show more!
A Press Release is used to help journalists determine what they want to report on.
Given that – if you want to be successful with a Press Release – you need to be sending your Press Releases to the places that your Target Audience reads / listens to / participates in. Isn’t it amazing how knowing your Target Audience flows through all aspects of your buiness? Read the rest of this entry »
With lots of new websites and blogs springing up virtually every minute it becomes more and more important to make your online presence unique. Of course your website needs to have a professional look and feel about it. It needs to function well and it should be easy to navigate.
One thing you want to avoid on your website is boredom.
It seems obvious but there is nothing more off putting than a boring website – have a look around and find the ones that simply don’t appeal to you, the ones that bore you, the ones you don’t bother reading any further. It might be different for each individual but in general boredom is generated by a number of things:
too much text that is poorly formatted and monotonous. People are so stressed out and time poor that they don’t want to read a lot – at least initially. Once you grabbed their attention and they know that you offer worthwhile material they will be willing to read more because they know that you will not be wasting their time
lack of images or photos (remember the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words)
the text is not broken up into manageable “chunks”, lacks sub headings and maybe a splash of colour
the same old format all the time – think about putting up an audio or a video instead of written text, people have different ways of absorbing information, intersperse the written word with other mediums
bad colour choices – this will of course depend a lot on your target market. Any colour has its place but make sure they harmonise as a whole (you can use a “colourwheel” to help you determine which colours match – there is a fascinating site you may want to check out: http://www.ficml.org/jemimap/style/color/wheel.html)
print that is too small or hard to read (like white on black background)
remember: less is more
think “google” – white background, black print, a splash of happy, clean primary colours, the occasional picture or symbol for special occasions….I am not advocating thay your site becomes a google “clone”…but I believe that part of its success is the simplicity of its design, the primary colours and the lack of clutter on the page
I hope that this has given you some food for thought when designing or redesigning your web page.
Today, Charly and I discussed more marketing strategies for offline businesses. We talked about Pay Per Click Ads and spoke about affiliate marketing, Twitter and the importance of having a blog attached to your website.
Blogs do much more than deliver good quality information to your prospects and customers. They can help you to be perceived as an expert in your field. They help convert prospects into buyers as they establish trust and offline businesses that have a blog attached to their website can charge premium fees, as people are willing to pay more for a service delivered by somebody who they perceive as an expert.
To find out more about affiliate marketing listen to our show and have a look at Charly’s Squidoo lens here:
Working in the IT industry seems to be more stressful than working in other occupations. Coming from a non technical perspective and never having worked in the IT industry I always assumed that it wouldn’t be a very healthy way to earn your living.
I thought about the long hours of sitting in front of a computer causing neck and shoulder strain and back problems, not to mention repetitive strain injury from constantly typing on the keyboard and using the mouse.
Only recently I realised that professionals who work with technology are quite used to the fact that technology “goes wrong” and “lets you down” at the most inconvenient times. They just go about fixing it and it often takes a lot of time. Once the problem is fixed they continue on their path trying to achieve what they set out to do in the first place. This way of working would not suit my personality. What is unclear to me is how they handle deadlines. Do they assume a certain amount or percentage of “down time” and calculate that into their quotes when the give an estimate how long a job is going to take? Or do they hope for the best and when things do go wrong they work through the night or whatever it takes to finish the job?
New research has shed light on a whole lot of other issues that workers in the IT industry are facing that are causing extra stress. Read the rest of this entry »
Connie and I are always on the lookout for new opportunities to help our readership Balance your Mind And Body Connection. When we were invited to contribute to the Wealth Attraction Giveaway, we thought it would be a good idea to be part of it.
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On our blogtalk radio show last week and this week Charly and I were discussing some information from a seminar I attended a few weeks ago. The seminar was about winning customers during the recession. The room was packed with small business owners and nearly all of them had “bricks and mortar” businesses and a few had home based businesses. More than half the people in the room had no web presence.
The speaker started out by talking about what is different during a recession and which things are to the advantage of small business. Advertising space is being sold off cheaper as even large companies cut their advertising budgets. Some premium spots or particular types of advertising which normally are prohibitively expensive might be within reach now.
We also talked about website essentials, what things to add to your site to gain prospects’ trust, why analysis is important, ways of analysing what happens on your site and a number of other things. Listen to our shows to find out about long tail keywords, links and link building, pay per click advertising and more!
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Todays guest, Shannon Cherry, shared some amazing information on creating and submitting Press Releases to gain the exposure that you want for your product or service.
