Learn how to start your own blog (even free if you wish) and see why 11 million blogs are already out there and why the blogosphere is growing at 12,000 new blogs every day. Discover how to search-optimize a blog, how to build a subscriber base for it, how to use it to sell products and services.
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Archive for June, 2005
Blogging e-Book Now Available
Wednesday, June 29th, 2005Google going after Paypal
Monday, June 27th, 2005Google is starting it’s own paypal service. For more, see:
Wall Street Journal article.
Vonage and Qwest have serious support problems
Friday, June 24th, 2005Thinking about switching to a Vonage Internet phone? Think again.
We had a business phone with Qwest. On 6/22 we requested, through Vonage, to transfer this number to my Vonage Internet line. Qwest released the number for Vonage on 6/23. My business line - listed in DEX with an ad for $165 a month - now doesn’t work.
Vonage says they can’t do anything about it. Qwest says they can’t do anything about it. Well, I sure can.
We’ll keep you posted on how long it takes Vonage to get me connected. Meanwhile, my listed business number in the yellow pages, Internet local directories, and all my Internet web sites doesn’t work.
Right now both Qwest and Vonage and pointing fingers at each other - saying it’s the other guy’s fault. I don’t care whose fault it is - until it is resolved, it’s the fault of both.
Update: Qwest says they notified Vonage on 6/21, then dropped me on 6/23. That is a normal path.
OK Vonage - the ball is in your court…. Why didn’t you pick up the number?
Update: 6/27 - my business phone is still dead, and Qwest and Vonage still point fingers at each other. We are dropping Vonage completely, but Qwest says it will take 2 weeks to restore my service. Meanwhile, between them, there will be a bill sent through the state attorney general.
Need a Publisher?
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2005We do technical writing if you need help in this area, but if you are interested in publishig you have several alternatives today:
- Traditional - Publishing your book through a traditional publisher. Most are good at editing, marketing and distribution. I’ve made big money on this route.
- Vanity - Paying to have the book published. This works if you are speaking and traveling a lot and can sell the books as you go. As a large quantity is printed at a time, the cost per book is low. You are taking the risk.
- Online Publishing - You email your book to the publisher. They print them in small quantities. Startup costs can be about $500. You market and distribute, but they do put your book in the distribution channels and you see it on Amazon and other online bookstores.
- e-Books - You print your book to an electronic form using a program such as Adobe Acrobat and save with a password. You then sell it from you web site using PayPal. There is no publisher - you keep the entire sale price.
I’ve used all three of these in publishing books. For more infomation on how they compare check the comments.
Search Engine Positioning with Overture
Tuesday, June 21st, 2005Overture, now owned by Yahoo, has changed the name of their PPC services from Position Tech to Precision Match. Your paid ads go not only to Yahoo, but also to MSN, CNN, AltaVista, Alltheweb, Infospace, Go2Net, Excite, Dogpile, Sympatico, Metacrawler, and more.
To get started, just go to
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com
and sign up for a Sponsored Search. This costs a minimum of $30, but you can apply it as a deposit for your click-throughs. You may wait and explore a bit before signing up. For a client we worked with this week, we did not sign up until the very last step when we were actually bidding.
Overture is the only major system in which you can actually purchase a position in the search engine. The three highest bidders will show up at the top of the page in positions 1, 2, and 3. Other high bidders are shown in a column at the right.
To start, go to:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
and enter a sample keyword phrase you wish to bid on. This will return all relevant phrases and how many times each of those was used in searching the last month. Print this out, as this is a good list to work from.
(Below updated 7/11 for changes in Yahoo in June)
For the next step, you want to see what it would cost you to use any of those phrases. To do this, enter Yahoo’s search marketing site:
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com
Click on Manage My Accounts (upper right of page), which takes you to a secured page. Then choose Sponsored Search, which takes you out of a secured page. Under Tools on this page, choose Use Bids Tool. This will open a window to enter a phrase to check the bidding on that phrase.
Sponsored Search -> Manage My Accounts -> Sponsored Search -> Tools | Use Bids Tool
Enter one of the keyword phrases from your competition list and check the current maximum bids. Play with this tool to find a keyword phrase with good popularity but a low bid. You don’t have to shoot for the #1 position - the second or third position will still put you at the top of the listings.
Now go back to:
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com
and wind your way down through the Sponsored Search wizard. Choose the free route for now. You’ll see a page for entering your keywords phrases. Enter yours on the right side of the page and then the wizard will show you current bids for all the top positions. It will estimate your monthly cost.
Note: Don’t let them set it up (paid route). It’s expensive, and they set it to maximize your click-throughs. You want to set it to maximize your qualified click-throughs. That’s different.
Our advice is to start slow. Delete all but a single phrase for now. Don’t let the price to capture all your clicks scare you. You can bid where you want and then set the budget for that bid. Your site will rotate on the listings to keep you on budget, but always be at the bid position when it is there. You are paying for position.
It takes a maximum of 5 days before your site is active. Before then, go to:
http://dtc.overture.com
and log in to your account. Turn Content matching and Advanced options OFF for starting. This will minimize your unqualified click-throughs as you start up. You can always edit this page and your ad at any time. Yahoo also has lots of tools available.
This will get your started. We are available on a consulting basis if you need it. We just got one site up to their bid position (#2) in three business days. It’s fun!
Do I need a business blog?
Saturday, June 11th, 2005In case you haven’t read it, be sure to catch Business Week’s article on how blogs will change your business in their May 18 issue.
Here is a teaser quote from it:
“Go ahead and bellyache about blogs. But you cannot afford to close your eyes to them, because they’re simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself. And they’re going to shake up just about every business — including yours.”
Internet Marketing loses Corey Rudl
Saturday, June 11th, 2005Corey Rudl, one of the leading Internet marketing innovators, died in a motor racing accident in California on June 2. Pray for his wife and family. He was only 34, and had turned a $25 investment into a business turning 40 million in sales.
For more information visit his website at
http://www.marketingtips.com/
Using the Local Directories
Thursday, June 9th, 2005For years those yellow directories have charged businesses high prices for those listings we all need. Now you can get them for free from the Internet - along with a map to your site on some of the engines.
The importance of being in this local directory can’t be overstated. A local directory maintains business data by location. Search by keyword and location, and the directory returns businesses related to that keyword. It works like the published yellow pages, only it is online and you can search by category, location, or business name. It easy to get use to using the online local directories instead of that thick printed directory you have been using in the past. You can access the Google local directory, for example, at:
Try a sample search. For example, try "galleries" and "97034" in the two text boxes. You will see all the galleries in the area of the zip code. You will also see a map of the area with the galleries marked.
You can zoom in or out on the map. You can also click the word "satellite" under the map and you will see a satellite view of the area. Click on a business name and you will see the related pages from the organic search engine.
| A9 Local (Amazon) |
http://a9.com |
| AOL Local |
http://localsearch.aol.com/ |
| Ask Jeeves Local |
http://local.ask.com/local |
| Google Local |
http://www.google.com/lochp |
| MSN Local |
http://local.msn.com/ |
| Yahoo Local |
http://local.yahoo.com/ |
Get your business in these local directories while they are still free.
Google is World’s top media company
Thursday, June 9th, 2005Google is now the world’s leading media company - all in just ten months.
With Google’s estimated worth is hovering around $80 billion, the search engine is now worth more than any other media company, including the media goliath, Time Warner, who was purchased by AOL five years ago for a reported $106 billion.
Businesses are using Blogs
Monday, June 6th, 2005More and more businesses are choosing to use blogs. When General Motors wanted to stop rumors that it was discontinuing the Pontiac and Buick brands this spring, they took it directly to the customers with their company FastLane blog. Their blog draws over 150,000 unique visitors a month. And General Motors is not the only company with a blog - the list includes Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Boeing, and a growing list of others.
A blog is simply and online journal with posts arranged in reverse chronological order - the latest is first. Blogs can easily be added to any web site, and some of the blogging software is free. The “cost” is in keeping it up-to-date and doing the research necessary to insure accuracy.
One of the major benefits of a company blog is that it is not so much a posting site as a listening post. They engage your company with the community. Although the blog posts are generally written by a single person (such as the company CEO), a blog supports comments from any reader. This engagement of a company with its target audience is essential for understanding the wants and needs of that audience and addressing them quickly and directly.
A second benefit is you are adding good content to your site with the blog posts, and this content is dynamic, constantly changing. The search engines love this.
Why not let us hang a blog on your website?