Simple Online Marketing

Current blogs

2009-06-07T21:44:00.001-07:00

Here are a list of the current blogs I'm working on:

http://silverstatepolitics.blogspot.com/
http://beautyacademyblog.blogspot.com/
http://a1poolservice.blogspot.com/
http://bestfoodblogs.blogspot.com/
http://lasvegasbusinesses.blogspot.com/

A great way to get new customers: Online Directories

2009-05-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

Another way to get more exposure online is through online directories. A great one here in Las Vegas is: www.IsearchBusinesses.com

find new customers

2009-05-13T14:03:00.000-07:00

You know best who your customer is… figure out what your customers will be searching for. Are they “do it yourself” types that will go online and try to find answers to questions, that you can help with? Be part of the online community that your customers will be a part of. If you do landscape, you’ll probably be dealing with new homeowners, trying to figure out where to start, or people taking over foreclosed homes and are trying to fix things up, try to be a part of this conversation or start it yourself. If you offer a service for businesses, be a part of the business discussion on how they can separate themselves form the competition.

Social Marketing

2009-04-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

I found this great list of online social networks... maybe you can find one that will fit your niche.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

Make a Trade

2009-01-29T14:33:00.000-08:00

During this down time in an economy it's a great time to start trading your services -- you might not have it in your budget to market... but you know you need to market to get new clients... so why not trade your services to a marketing company?

I do online marketing... but I know a great company that specializes in Marketing and Networking... check them out at www.swannv.com

Gain an edge on your competition

2009-01-22T12:52:00.000-08:00

If you're trying to get an edge on your competition during this Economy you need to think outside your normal marketing plan.

If you gain most of your new clients through online marketing efforts, but are seeing a slow down, it's time to make your self standout to against your competition. There are still people out there looking for your services, you just don't want to loose them to your competition. If you offer a weekly or monthly service offer your service and half price -- (and cut your service amount in half). There are many people out there that still need their pool service, home cleaned, pest control, hair done... but they're looking to cut their budget... so offer to do it for them at half price if they can go a little longer in between services. You'll be able to gain a new client and when things pick up again you can go back to your regular schedule.

*This also work well if you have a client calling to cancel. You can offer to cut their price and service in half... It's a great way to show flexibility to your client, and your client will stay loyal.

Don't give up

2008-09-19T14:01:00.000-07:00

It can be very intimidating to do online marketing. The key is to start small, get familiar with the all your options and then have fun with it. The most important thing is to not give up. So what if you haven't blogged for a month... start today and spend 5 minutes doing it.

Try to spend 5 minutes a day devoted to it... whether it's posting on craigslist or posting to your blog... the key is doing something!

http://www.google-success.com/

2008-06-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

I read this today and thought there were some good tips:

We often hear the SEO advice that ‘Content is the King’, and search engines like Google favor good quality content. Many people confuse it with creating more pages, and they often end up in buying software like spam site generators, automated content generators and scrapping tools. Many others buy cheap articles and stuff their websites with copies of the articles. However, search engines are not lookinig for such useless garbage which hardly offers any value to the site visitors.

Quality content in short is link-worthy content which is original, conceptually unique and serves as a useful resource for information. And, it refers to the text part of your website. Though keywords matter in your page copy, your page should not look like a keyword stuffed page for search engine robots; you should write for your site visitors focusing on readability and usefulness.

Good quality content has other rewards, too. If people find your content useful and spreading information, they will naturally want to link to your site, and give referrals. Thus, useful pages meant for people can attract links which are very valuable for your ranking in the search engines.

If your pages are copies of pages on other sites, search engines like Google will perceive your site to be of poor quality offering no value. You should therefore create content which people will find useful in your niche. It is better to have few pages with quality content than having thousands of pages filled with garbage. Good content will attract referrals and citations to your site and boost your ranking naturally.

Links to Blogs

2008-06-13T16:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a list of links from the blogs that were created yesterday by the women at the workshop:

http://www.lasvegasliving.blogspot.com/
http://www.marketingitems.blogspot.com/
http://www.antioxidants4you.blogspot.com/
http://www.saferbetter.blogspot.com/
http://www.super-berry.blogspot.com/

This was a SWAN sponsored event. www.swannv.com

Blogging 101

2008-06-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

Today I taught a hands on class at Panera Bread hosted by S.W.A.N. All of the women that attended where great and I think they gain some valuable skills to help promote their businesses.

Below is an outline of what we did in this classs:

1. Blog
www.blogger.com . Should be updated 3 times a week. Link to your website and to other relevant websites in your industry. Quality Content -- Interesting content will keep you readership returning. Update your blog regularly. Gogglebot, which is Goggle's web-crawling robot loves content. The more you update your blog, the more frequent the search engine spiders will return to it. Take part in forums that are related to blogging. Ask other bloggers for their opinion on your blog and take their suggestions to heart. Submit your blog to directories. Submit your blog's url to Technorati, Daypop, Blogdex, and Popdex. (these hints were taken from http://www.blog-hints.com/Rose_DesRochers_on_Blogging-_Developing_a_Readership.html

2. Craigslist
Always have an ad running so people can find you. Be part of the discussion groups. Look at what people are looking for - maybe you can hlep!

3. Submit to search Engines
(I have the links below on an earlier entry about SEO).

Need Help?? Online Marketing 101

2008-06-06T20:29:00.000-07:00

Are you missing out on new clients because they can't find you online?

Get Help:

Thursday, June 12th

10:00 am - 11:30 am

at Panera Bread

7175 W Lake Mead Blvd

Come get hands on help with your online marketing

Learn more about Blogs, Search Engines, and a Q & A Session

Panera offers Free WiFi so bring your Laptop!

(or use ours)

$25 at the door

*this is a SWAN sponsored event.

www.swannv.com

8 SEO tips

2008-06-05T14:08:00.000-07:00

Help People Find Your Web site: 8 SEO Tips
By Kim Komando

Experienced Web designers will tell you, "Just build it — and they won't come." It's true. Simply putting up a Web site won't bring visitors. It takes work to entice customers to your site once, and even more work to make them come back.

One way that most people find Web sites is to use search engines such as Google.com. Google accounts for nearly half of all Internet searches. Yahoo! and MSN are the next most popular search sites.

Good rankings in search results are essential to helping people find your site. Many people don't go beyond the first page of the results pages. Furthermore, top is better than bottom on the list.
Search engines use sophisticated algorithms to order search results. Good page rankings do not happen by chance. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of creating Web pages that will garner high rankings.

Each search engine uses a slightly different algorithm. Moreover, most adjust their algorithms regularly. However, the basics of SEO hold true for all search engines. Although SEO is tricky, a carefully planned approach can increase traffic to your site.
Here are eight steps to successful SEO.

1. Choose Keywords Wisely
Keywords are the words that customers use to find your site when using a search engine. The idea is to optimize your page for these words or phrases. You should choose keywords that accurately reflect your business. They should be specific enough to target potential customers, but not too narrow.

Of course, you'll probably have numerous keywords. The best approach is to pick different keywords for different pages. If the name of your business is well known, use it as a keyword for the About Us page. But most customers will be searching for your product or service, not your name.

For help with keywords, check your server logs to see what search terms have worked for your site. Also, try search terms to see what works on your competitors' sites.

2. Use Keywords Wisely
Your site's keywords should appear in each of your page's "meta title." The "meta title" appears at the very top of the browser window, above the menu bar.

Also, the keywords should appear regularly throughout the opening Web page. It is especially important that they appear frequently in the opening paragraphs.

However, resist the temptation to overuse keywords. This is called "keyword stuffing." The search engines can spot it and will reduce your page rankings. Tools are available to help with optimal keyword density. However, avoid software that writes the site's pages. Search engines can sniff these out, too.

Here's the SEO golden rule: Never sacrifice quality of content for keyword placement. This will affect your page ranking. Most importantly, your site won't appeal to visitors.

3. Test Keywords with Pay-per-Click Advertising
Google's AdSense, MSN adCenter or another pay-per-click advertising program will test keyword effectiveness. You will see if your keywords will bring traffic to your site. Also, you will ensure your keywords target paying customers. Pay-per-click can be expensive. However, used correctly, it will bring customers to your site.

Pay-per-click isn't a replacement for search engine optimization. It should be used in conjunction with SEO to help you evaluate keywords. If your results are poor, consider changing keywords.

4. Build Up the Links to Your Site from Other Sites
Search engines view inbound links as a vote for your site. Therefore, the more incoming links, the higher your page will rank.

There are limits, though. The search engines must view the linking sites as quality addresses. Having disreputable sites link to yours can harm your rankings.

Offer to exchange links with sites that are related to your business. If they have a higher rank, all the better. Ask disreputable sites to remove any links to your site.

To pull up a list of sites that link to yours, try using a search engine. Simply type "Link:yoursitename" in the search box.

5. Keep Your SEO Campaign Ethical
Using deceptive techniques to boost page rank will have the opposite effect. It can even get your site banned from the search results. Once you're banned, it is virtually impossible to get back in.
Therefore, it's important to avoid anything unethical.

Don't overuse keywords. Don't use hidden text such as small fonts or text the same color as the background on your pages. Don't create mirror sites — identical sites linking to yours. Also, make sure content varies significantly from page to page. Having similar content on multiple pages may appear deceptive to search engines.

Cloaking, or hiding a page behind your page, is also not good. With cloaking, two pages are built. The search site spiders will see one page that is rich in keywords. Visitors see the other page, which might not be related to the keywords.

There is an exception: If you have a Flash site, it's almost impossible to optimize. Search spiders don't understand Flash. In this case, you can build an HTML site that opens behind it. Just make sure it contains the same content as the Flash site.

6. Submit Your Site to the Search Engines
You want to make sure your site is indexed by the search engines. If your site has numerous inbound links, the Web spiders will find it automatically. Web spiders "crawl" the Internet and update an engine's database of sites.

If your site doesn't appear automatically, you can submit it for indexing through a submission service or on your own. The big three search sites have forms for submitting Web addresses.

Here are U.S. links to the submission pages:

Google: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
Yahoo!: http://tinyurl.com/5oclp (registration required)
MSN: http://beta.search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx

7. Monitor the Progress of Your SEO, But Be Patient
SEO doesn't happen overnight. It will take months to get good page rankings. Trying to rush your SEO campaign can lead to mistakes. And the consequences of these mistakes can be severe.
However, it is important to monitor your progress. Do searches with the major engines for your
keywords to see how you rank. You might also be surprised to find you start popping up for related terms. That's a bonus.

Results will fluctuate. Rankings change daily or even hourly. Check frequently for an accurate gauge of where you stand. Don't worry about the minor ups and downs. But if you notice a downward trend, take action.

As your site traffic increases, so should sales. If sales aren't increasing, re-evaluate your site content and navigation. Good copywriting and pointers go a long way in increasing sales.

8. Consider Outsourcing
Search engine optimization is an ongoing process, and can be a full-time job. Some companies specialize in SEO.

Hiring an SEO company to optimize your Web site will be expensive. Prices will vary depending on your site, services offered and length of time. However, the advantages might make it a wise investment. You are hiring experts who will achieve better results than you. And the increased business from good SEO hopefully will more than cover the costs.

Bad SEO can be more harmful than no SEO. So it is important to find the right company to handle your campaign. Ask to see the company's code of ethics. It should explicitly address deceptive SEO techniques.

Of course, the company should also have a good page ranking itself. But don't rely on this alone. Contact the references the company provides. Visit sites the company has worked on and note the quality of the copywriting.

Next, the company should be able to provide a detailed plan. It should include a variety of methods to improve your rankings. Of course, its methods — and pricing plan — should be clear.
Watch for companies that create unrealistic expectations. For example, if it guarantees a top spot in Google for a popular term, avoid it. Also, if it promises fast results, it could be using deceptive techniques.

Before you consider outsourcing, however, you might want to try SEO management software that can help find keywords, submit pages, and track results. It's less expensive than outsourcing.

Remember, though, search engine optimization can only do so much. Well-optimized pages might bring visitors, but only a good product will convert visitors to customers.

The reason for this blog

2008-06-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

This blog is for the benefit of small business owners who might not have the budget to have an "in house" marketing team or the luxury of outsourcing their marketing efforts. Please feel free to comment or ask questions -- we'll do our best to answer them.