Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization

It’s celebration time. After ten months of hard work, you and your team are launching your new corporate web site. Ties are getting loosen up, Champaign is served and everybody is giving high fives….except one person, the IT guy, sitting alone pensively in a corner of the room.

You walk up to him and ask him what’s wrong. His answer catches you by surprise:

“Sure, this is all nice, but did someone thought about search engine optimization? »

The room suddenly goes quiet and people look to one another: What is search engine optimization?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art behind creating and designing a web site that will rank in the first results of a specific search term, on the top search engines and directories. With over 80 billions of web sites out there, the advantage of ranking first in your field is undeniable.

Investing in SEO, whether through time or finance, is hands down the best return on investment your can make. If you sell tomatoes and your site comes up first every time someone searches for tomatoes, you are improving your chances of closing the deal. Will your prospect find your site first…or will he find your competitor’s?


The science behind SEO


The key to having a web site that ranks high on the top search engine is content. If you offer the quality and quantity of content people are looking for, the search engine will reward you by sending masses of qualified traffic to your doorstep.

The search engine will list your site and many others when someone searches for one of your keyword. That’s why it is important to find the relevant keywords that should represent your website. You have to ask yourself the following question: What is your target audience likely to type when searching for your product if he was ignoring your business’s existence?

After you rank the keywords depending on their difficulty (using Search guild difficulty tool), you can incorporate theses words in your page’s copy and in your HTML codes, such as in the titles, Meta keyword and description.


How to find the proper SEO expert

So who should be managing your SEO campaign? Well, if you have the time and want to save a few bucks, you can try it yourself. It would be easier and more effective to hire a professional SEO firm to run your campaign. Since there are many self-proclaimed experts on the Internet, ask to see their portfolio and results of their past clients. The last thing you want is to hire an unethical SEO firm that will get you banned from the search engines.

As a final note, remember that search engine’s goals are to rank the best, most usable and informative site first. Having a web site that people will be happy to come back is the key for a top ranking.

Search Engine Marketing

pay per click marketing

Pay-Per Click Marketing

Let me begin this article by asking this simple question: Have you ever considered paying a small fee for each customer to visit your site?

There are roughly 350 millions users surfing the Internet, divided in two groups: Buyers and non-buyers. How can you focus your campaign on the first group, saving time and money by removing the second group from the equation? The answer lies in a technique called Pay-per click marketing, the supreme tool in guiding qualified prospects to your web site.


What is pay-per click marketing?

Pay-Per-click marketing was designed to give website owners a precise control on their marketing campaign.

The process is simple: You place a bid on select keywords representing your products and services. Every time a search is made on theses terms, your ad appears in the right column of the results page as a sponsored link. Clicking your ad will lead the user to your site, and you pay a small fee for the referral. The visitor find a relevant site and you have a prospect interested in buying your product. Everybody wins.

Not only will this marketing strategy gives you a closer grip on your advertising budget (as you can decide how much a click should cost you), you only pay when your advertisement is clicked.


How do I start?

The trick with PPC is to write a clever and persuasive ad if you want to beat your competition. Here is what a basic PPC strategy looks like:

1. First, you need to decide which keywords you want to bid on. Write on an excel sheet all the top searches terms that describe your business or service. Add words that are relevant to your product, such as cheap, discount, low value etc…In other words, reinforce why your customers should buy from your site.

2. Second, you must decide on which platform you want your ad to appear. The two most popular are Google’s AdWord or Yahoo’s overture, as they hold about 80% of the market. Submit your ad based on your keywords, decide on a title, link the ad to your site and you’re done!

3. Finally, track your ad’s performance by analyzing the reports at your disposition. Both systems offer a high degree of accountability, offering multiple online tools to analyze your results, such as the click through and conversation rates.

No other advertising techniques provide such a well-chosen audience. Just remember that a catchy ad doesn’t sell your product by itself, as it is only a part of your marketing effort. When well managed, PPC offers the best return on your marketing budget.

pay per click marketing

viral marketing

If this is the first time you hear the expression Viral marketing, you probably get the mental picture of a slimy and contagious virus. Indeed, viral marketing is found in every corner of the Internet, in forums, e-mails and on web pages. It starts by being nothing, and can grow quickly, getting bigger with every exposed person.

The challenge with using viral marketing is to publicize your web site’s address, hoping that it will spread the contagion and expose your web site to the masses. Would you like to know the scary part? There is no vaccine to stop the propagation...


Viral marketing is the equivalent of word of mouth, in a more powerful Internet version. While a study on consumer habits revealed the average consumer will tell 7 other persons about his favourite restaurant, he will nearly double his audience by telling 13 persons about his online buying experience.

The success stories of this practice are numerous: Who never saw the “wassup’’ spot from Budweiser? Or what about the movie Blair witch project, cashing in more than $ 137 millions in profit. This movie was a huge success with the teen market; all originated from is creepy original website.



The benefits associated with viral marketing are many: The interaction with your audience, the low cost of operations and the rapidity with which you can track the results are obvious.

It doesn’t matter if your company is big or a small. The success of your viral marketing campaign will rely on mainly two aspects: innovation and visibility.

Innovation is about developing an original concept for your campaign and giving what you have, like a free online flash game, original articles, or free screensavers. The word “free” is probably the strongest in the sales dictionary. Give something for free to your public, and you will reach a global audience in a matter of minutes.

Improving your visibility depends on who you choose as the transmitters. You can look in your entourage, like within your friends, parents and colleagues. Good for start-up, although the Internet gives you more advanced options:

- Forums: Often referred as online communities, becoming a regular contributor on a forum with people sharing the same interest is very effective, and most importantly low cost. Extra tip: Put your URL link in your message board signature.

- Article directories: Writing articles on your field of operations will show you as an expert on the subject, inevitably exposing your brand to the Internet public.

- Blog: Publishing original content every day on your blog is a sure way to get your website more visible on the Internet.


In the end, viral marketing can have powerful results, either positive or negative. Offer a bad service, and watch your credibility fly off the window. Give something good to your public and sky is the limit.

viral marketing

e-mail marketing part two

e-mail marketing - the facts are...

if you're NOT properly educated about how to collect, manage, and store e-mail addresses...
if you don't know how to avoid being accused of spamming and how to deal with the anti-spam organizations should you be accidentally "blacklisted" as a result of a few forgetful subscribers...
if you don't know how to format your e-mail so that it will be displayed professionally in the majority of e-mail clients...

e-mail marketing can be very frustrating, and it can produce very disappointing results.
On the other hand...

if you ARE educated and you DO know what works, what doesn't, and how to AVOID the dangers and pitfalls, you can dramatically increase the income of your online or offline business!
that's why this "advanced guide: will show you everything, from growing a super-responsive opt-in list as quickly as possible, to generating the highest possible revenue from every e-mail you send. to protecting your business from being wrongly accused of spamming and knowing how to effectively deal with it if you are.

and explain when you should mail, how you should mail, what you should write, and when you should send it so that you are guaranteed the best possible results from each and every e-mail.

if you don't want to be left be hind and loss all that exrta money checkout "The Insider Secrets to Email Marketing -- Version 2006 " writen by the good people at the internet marketing center.

e-mail marketing

e-mail marketing.

so there you are, sipping on your Manhattan at an after hour with a few colleagues and friends. Like every thursday the discussion focus on your respective business, discussing business strategies and marketing tips. you wait for a pause in the conversation, and you announce that your company is thinking about using e-mail marketing in his next customer acquisition plan. glasses are put down, and brows are frown all around the table. isn’t this the reaction you expected? after all, isn’t e-mail marketing a nicer word for spam?


what is e-mail marketing?


spam or not, e-mail has officially become the standard for communicating on the internet, with the number of e-mails users growing daily. rarely will you pick up a business card that won’t contain an e-mail address.

e-mail marketing is the practice of sending sales letters or newsletters by e-mail to a coveted audience. While some find it annoying to scour through an inbox full of sales messages, e-mail marketing is one of the most cost-effective campaign a business can run. every e-mail sent to a potential customer should follow the principles of direct response, meaning each message is to request an action from the receiver: either direct the customer to your website by clicking a link, or simply forging your customer relationship by exposing your brand.


how can it help my business?


a couple of years ago, almost anybody would have been excited to receive a single e-mail. now in 2006, e-mails communications are under strict laws, not even mentioning the overzealous spam filters that might block your message from finding its recipient.

risked or not, the benefits associated with e-mail marketing are undeniable:

- increased response time: your customer and you can communicate as quickly as it takes to send a quick message, opposed to the delays with traditional phone and mail systems.

- cost reduction: contrary to regular mail where a good chunk of your budget is spent on postages costs. e-mails cost only a few cent, and can be sent anywhere in the world.

- firmer control on your campaign: electronic tracking makes it much easier to track and analyze the response on an e-mail marketing campaign, than having to wait for the responses from a traditional mail campaign.



final thoughts on e-mail marketing.

since it’s a thin red line between spam and an official e-mail, you have to be careful. we strongly recommend building a list of e-mail addresses earned through your website, instead of renting a list and blindly send your company’s name to a list of person that most probably do not care about whom you are.

in e-mail marketing, personalization is the key. the more your message is personalized to its recipient, the greater your chances are of building a relationship. it’s about putting the right message in front of the right person, at the right time.

e-mail marketing

internet marketing explained

welcome to the internet marketing spot blog page. here i will try and teach you about the diferent types of marketing styles and how to implement them into your own internet business.