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July 31, 2010 by

Dallas Online Internet Marketing For Networking Marketing Distributors

In recent days, I have been approached by various people in Dallas who have second businesses in the MLM, direct sales, and network marketing industries.  They have asked for all forms of help with their start using online internet marketing.   If you are in a similar position with a MLM/direct sales/network marketing business then here are some tips to help you get started.

First, be sure that you are allowed to market online in any manner.  Some of these businesses, like deregulated electricity, may have tight restrictions on letting their distributors use the internet to grow one’s business.  Make sure that you are all clear on what you can and cannot do.
Second, understand that most likely you will have to build some other web property(ies) in addition to the site which the corporate office assigns you.  This does not mean that you have to go out right away and buy a domain and web hosting, although you may wish to do so at some point.  Instead, you may control pages on Web 2.0 sites, pages and channels on video-sharing sites, social bookmarking accounts, and you may be syndicating articles on various topics.  No matter what path you choose, just realize that you probably will be controlling accounts and pages on websites other than what corporate gives you.

Third, and probably most important (!), make sure that you are VERY clear on the type of person you want to attract to your content using the internet.  In addition, you must be very clear on what it is that you want that person to do AFTER they become aware of you and your corporation.  The people with whom I have spoken never really had a defined person and a defined message in mind when it came to the topic of internet marketing.  Here is a better example:

  • I asked one of these people who approached me about what he wanted in his network marketing business.  He said that he wanted to dominate the Dallas market for his business.  When I asked him why he wanted to use online and internet marketing to attract just a Dallas audience he told me that he wanted to meet everyone face to face in order to convince them to take action and join his down line
  • I asked him if a video explaining his story would be just as good in order to use internet marketing to expand his awareness outside of the Dallas area.  He said that he simply wanted to meet people in the area face to face
  • We decided then to use an internet marketing strategy which involved online event directories/calendars, press releases announcing his events which were being held in public places, social media (including MySpace, which everyone seems to forget!), local forums, and Dallas-specific SEO
  • We also decided to help him “lead” with the business opportunity rather than the product.  This meant that he would target keywords (for SEO purposes) which dealt with Dallas-specific terms people are entering.  Such terms could be “Dallas residual income”, “Dallas work from home”, or “Dallas business seminars”
  • An online marketing keyword and competition analysis would then be done on those Dallas-specific keywords which had the underlying psychology of someone who may be inclined to take action right away or, at least, attend a free business seminar

Hopefully you begin to understand that by narrowing down the list, and being specific on what you want to accomplish, you THEN can begin to use more-interactive social media (e.g. Facebook and Twitter), sound SEO techniques, and intelligent website targeting to reach your audience.

Should you need any internet marketing help for your MLM/direct sales/network marketing business then feel free to contact me through the Contact link at the top of the page.  If you found this article helpful, or believe that it can help someone you know, then you are welcome to share it on your social networks, social bookmark accounts, or e-mail lists.  Thanks!

Filed Under: Network Marketing, Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
July 15, 2010 by

Dallas PPC – When Is Pay Per Click Better Than SEO

A common question many Dallas area business owners have asked me is if it is better to follow a SEO strategy or a pay-per-click (PPC) strategy.  The answer depends on the actual keyword being chosen. Ideally, if your budget allows for both strategies then you should consider doing both.  If your budget, however, is constrained then here is an example to help you determine which is best for your specific situation.

At the time of this example, the Google Keyword Tool says that the following keywords have this data:

  • The keyword phrase “Nail salon Dallas” has 2900 searches per month, has some degree of seasonality (but nothing skewed or out of the ordinary), and has an average cost-per-click (CPC) $0.83 per click.  Note that the CPC is not a “fixed price”; but it is the best available data you will have to work with that is not from a paid keyword research data mining software program
  • The keyword phrase “Nail salons in Dallas” has 590 searches per month, and has a posted CPC of $0.05 per click.  This extremely-cheap pay-per-click cost may not be realistic, and an inexpensive CPC would require ideal optimization of the ad and landing page for the keyword.  Nonetheless, you can be conservative and assume that the keyword would cost, in reality, somewhere around $0.30 per click

One other assumption:  let’s assume that if you rank # 1 in the “organic” (left-hand side) keyword results (not including the Maps listings) for a one-month period, then you will receive  roughly 40% of the searches.

Here is the math for our example:

  • If you were to rank # 1 for “Nail salon Dallas” then you would receive 40% of the  2900 searches for the month.  This would translate to roughly 1160 visitors for the 30-day period.  To buy 1160 visitors (clicks), you would have to pay roughly $962.80 per month at an average of $0.83/click
  • If you were to buy all 590 clicks for “nail salons in Dallas” (which would take longer than thes one-month period) at $0.30 per click (our conservative adjusted CPC) it would cost you roughly $177
  • 590 clicks for “nail salon Dallas” would cost you on PPC, at $0.83 per click, roughly $489.70

Let’s assume that your SEO efforts will get you roughly 2 months (60 days) of ranking # 1 in the search engines for the keyword.  If the cost, in terms of time and cash outlay, are cheaper for SEO then it is advantageous to pursue a SEO strategy instead of a PPC strategy.  This assumes that you are willing to follow the rules for intelligent and optimization.

{AUTHOR NOTE}

Please note that the pay-per-click costs we are discussing is not the Google Content Network.  This post is about the traditional Google Search Network, Yahoo’s PPC network, and the Bing/MSN AdCenter network.

If you need any help designing a pay-per-click (PPC) strategy then please feel free to contact me at your convenience.

Filed Under: pay per click Tagged With: , , ,
July 12, 2010 by

SEM Help To Appear On Page One

If you need SEM help, which stands for “Search Engine Marketing”, then there are a few intelligent things you can do in the next 30 minutes before you hire anyone to do online marketing help for you.  It all depends on your goals, so take the next 30 minutes and ask yourself questions such as:

  • are you already appearing on page one of the search engine results for a high-traffic keyword?  If so, you simply may want to rank higher and/or get other web properties to appear on the first page as well
  • are you advertising on Pay-Per-Click (e.g. Google AdWords)?  If so, you may wish to get some SEM help in order to improve your ad’s position and/or increase click-through rates thereby lowering your overall per-click costs
  • you may want to appear on the “Universal Search” components which Google offers such as seeing a physical product (or book) you are selling appear as the image on the search engine results return page
  • are you looking to appear on the first page for real-time updates?  If so, there are ways to be found on the new “Updates” feature on the Google sidebar
  • do you have a local business?  If so, you probably want to get ranked first on the Maps as the map listings often help search engine users because of their visual appeal

Within this 30 minute window, then you want to detail out the resources you already have and what you still need to help facilitate your goals.  These could be:

  • outsourcing articles based around the high-demand keyword terms
  • creating a social media account and learning how to use it properly for updates
  • double-check the “Quality Score” of any Google AdWords advertising you are doing.  Do what you can to raise the Quality Score in order to ensure relevancy for the end visitors.  By increasing the Quality Score you are doing what you can to reduce the overall per-click cost for your ad
  • claim your Maps listing if you have not already done so
  • enhance your Maps listing with images, videos, coupons, and other helpful information
  • ask a small batch of happy customers to leave a review on your Maps listing(s)
  • map out the process of a quality, one-way link building campaign to improve your current search engine results page rankings

Hopefully this 30 minutes will be well-spent as most local business owners I have met have not yet asked themselves the important questions.  By doing so the owners and decision-makers will be able to get more for their money as they can ask for/request targeted SEM help to accomplish specific goals.

Filed Under: Page One, Tips Tagged With: , , , , ,
July 12, 2010 by

Plano SEO – Different Results For Same Search Term

One thing which anyone should know before attempting to improve a business listing for a Plano-related keyword phrase is to understand the risk of different search engine result page listings.  This may be a tough concept for even moderately-experienced Plano SEO experts to convey, but it is necessary.

Most people can understand that Google, Yahoo, MSN/Bing, and the other search engines will return different results because of their proprietary algorithms and formulas.  What is not so clear is the different results within the SAME search engine for the SAME keyword.  How is this possible?

A real life example is in order to help explain this.  I wanted to show this to a business client in Collin County, Texas (of which Plano is a large part); and I had him type in his business’ preferred keyword which we had identified as already having over 150 searches per month.  I called him at his office in North Plano and asked him where the web page indexed by Google was showing up on the page.  He was not logged into the search engine through any e-mail address or other service owned/operated by the search engine.  I then had him log in and re-enter the keyword phrase.

Different results!

I then had him log out and meet me at a coffee shop about 2 miles away from his office.  I explained that Plano SEO is a “moving target” and wanted to show him what I meant.  We logged onto the coffee shop’s wi-fi, but did not log into the account on the search engine.  Due to the different I.P. address and being on the wi-fi the results were, yet again, different than the other two times he attempted to enter the keyword.  All of this was within 30 minutes of my first calling him and having him enter the keyword into the search engine on his office computer.

To be fair, most of the top results were still on the first page.  The order, however, was quite different.  As far as I know, when he logged into the search engine’s account, he was not part of any social networking component of the search engine which may have affected his results.
The question, then, is how to achieve consistency in order to have the end consumer click on the link which – ultimately – will result in the visitor coming to your web page/property?  The best way is to continue to provide quality, authoritative, one-way links from good third-party websites, continue to provide useful keyword-rich content on your website, and to ensure that the web property to which you are sending the traffic is well-optimized for the keyword phrase(s) which have demand.  This should help you get good rankings within the same search engine as well as across the other major search engines.

The latter factor is the topic for a future post about any form of local search engine marketing, and we will use either a Dallas or Plano SEO example.

If you found this article to be useful then please consider sharing it with your friends by way of e-mail, social bookmarking sites, your social networks, or on any of the social news sites.

Filed Under: Page One Tagged With: , , , ,
July 8, 2010 by

Internet Marketing Tip – Why Continue To Build Links If You Are Number 1

Recently I was asked why a business owner should continue paying a SEO expert if the business’ site now ranks # 1 in all of the search engines for his preferred keyword term. This is a great question, and one which business owners should consider when investing in any form of internet marketing help.

I will approach this question in two ways. One will be a simplified “real world” example; and the other will be in the language of a business owner’s mentality.

The first is that you have remember that you “leap-frogged” someone else’s web page in order for you to rank for # 1. This means, by definition, that someone else can leap-frog you at some point (even the next day) AND the search engine always has the right to change its algorithm (and your ranking) at its sole discretion. You must continue to provide new content and links which lead the end customer – whom the search engines must protect – to content which is appropriate, authoritative, trustworthy, and relevant.

In other words, by becoming # 1 in the search engines for your desired keyword, you are now the “heavyweight champion” of your keyword. This also means that you must “train harder” to defend your “title.” Before you were # 1 in the search engine results, you – and everybody else for the keyword – was looking to take down the “champion.” Now that you are the champ, you must remember that everyone is out to take your coveted top spot!

The second is a reminder of the “big picture” regarding being ranked # 1 for your favorite term. Remember that being ranked #1 for your favorite term is a TEMPORARY reward for being the most authoritative, relevant, and trustworthy page in the estimation of the search engine’s CURRENT algorithm equation. This is vital!!

Let’s also assume that the business owner in this example carefully selected a keyword phrase which has a the underlying psychological indicator of a “buyer” or a sense of “urgency.” Let’s also assume that the keyword phrase has quantifiable demand by all of the major keyword research software (free or paid) that most SEO experts use.

Even though you may remain the # 1 listing for a lengthy period of time for the organic (natural, or non-Pay Per Click) listings on that keyword phrase, there are some significant factors to consider. You can lose your rankings because:

  • someone else becomes smart and out-optimizes and out-links you
  • someone else provides more authoritative and relevant content than you have
  • the search engines start to embed pay-per-click listings above the natural/organic results; and, to the average search engine user, they cannot discern if a link is a paid or regular link.  This means that your current # 1 ranking is now, in essence, # 4 or # 5 on the page
  • the search engine decides to place a visual representation, like a Maps display, above your # 1 rank
  • the quality of your links may not be 100% authoritative.  When the algorithm changes, the quality of your links may have a lesser score, and you could drop in the keyword results… even off the first page after having been # 1 for some time!

The list goes on and on;  and the main point is that once you become # 1 for a relevant, in-demand keyword term you MUST DO MORE THAN YOUR COMPETITION in order to “stay the champion.”  Whether you do SEO in-house, use software, or outsource it you must continue to cement your position as best as you can by providing quality, relevant, authoritative information to the end user as the search engine has one quest:  to keep the end user loyal to the search engine so that he/she has the best odds of clicking a link (or subscribing to a service) which puts money in the search engine’s accounts!

Remember that the main sites people use for search (Google, Yahoo, MSN/Bing) are all (or are a part of ) publicly-traded companies.  They are there to profit as much as you are.  If you want loyal customers AND gain market share in your niche, then those 3 want market share even more.  Keep this in mind!!

Should you need help with your search engine rankings, then be sure to contact me by the contact link at the top of the page or by e-mail at info@morethanseo.com

If you found this post to be helpful then please consider sharing it with your Twitter/Facebook/social bookmarking/social media and e-mail lists.  Many thanks!

Filed Under: Page One, Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
July 7, 2010 by

Dallas Event Online Marketing

When talking with business owners and decision makers after the completion of Chamber of Commerce meetings, networking groups, and other Dallas area networking events, I notice that many of these people express frustration with not being able to get the word out about their open-to-the-public events.  Whether it is an annual event at a retail store, a golf tournament, a charitable event, a workshop, a small conference, or any other event open to the public these business owners seem completely at a loss as to advertising their events outside of the newspaper.

The beauty of today’s technology is that these decision makers now can post their events on various internet sites which will give the event more exposure AND syndication to more people who may be qualified.  There are several categories of sites designed to help increase attendance at these local events which are open to the general public.  For example, if a Dallas-area retail store wanted to get more people to its annual fall sale then it could:

  • promote the event via free and paid press release distribution services
  • promote the event on the online event calendar sites, which send the upcoming events to people’s e-mail addresses who have subscribed to receive these notices
  • promote the event on local review sites
  • promote the event on local classified ad sites which allow for event listings
  • promote the event on Dallas-specific sites which syndicate the content such as the event calendar on Dallas.com
  • promote the event on the business’ specific social media properties like Facebook and Twitter

There is an art to this process, especially if you are looking to “tag” your content with keywords which get large amounts of demand.  Several Dallas-specific keyword phrases relating to activities, events, and entertainment get thousands of searches each month; and it would be helpful to put your content in front of those searchers as well.  You can do this by promoting the event and/or your profile page on event sites  by using these high-demand keywords.

Should you need help with any Dallas-Fort Worth online marketing for your event, or events in any other area in the U.S., then please contact me to discuss how I can help.

Filed Under: Event Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
July 6, 2010 by

How To Appear On Page One – It Is More Than Just SEO

I have met many business owners who express a desire to learn how to appear on page one of the search engines.  When I ask some more pointed questions, they usually stop and think for a while because the questions force them to evaluate their goals.

For example, I ask them if they have done advanced keyword research.  This would include category keywords, derivations of these terms, synonyms/prepositions/plural and other grammatical modifications, etc.  I then ask if they have done keyword research for buying phrases or other terms which indicate urgency or a need to purchase right away.

The business owners usually stop for a few moments and then ask more questions.  The business owners and company executives who are willing to be humbled early are the ones who are going to be successful.  By admitting that they are not on top of every keyword phrase alternative and derivation, these decision makers give themselves the chance to let the marketplace tell them what phrases people are entering as well as what sites are getting rewarded by the search engines currently.

In addition to getting the coveted # 1 spot for a buying keyword phrase on Google, there are many other places where a company can appear on page one of the search engines.  Using Google as the example, a company can:

  • get its content, posted on a third-party site like an article directory or Web 2.o site like Hubpages.com, ranked on the first page
  • appear on the Maps listings with the keywords emphasized
  • appear on the “updates” feature (currently found on the sidebar of a Google results page) which updates with content from sites like Twitter and Facebook
  • have a video, press release, or other social media content appear on the main results for the keyword
  • buy traffic through the AdWords pay-per-click service
  • have a physical product (or book) sold through a third-party site appear on the first page of results in Google

These are just some of the ways in which a business can get on page one without having to have his/her website rank for one of the top spots in the “organic” listings on the left-hand side.  Keep this in mind as you construct your content for the appropriate sites and/or as you optimize your own website or blog.

Should you need some help with making a worthwhile effort to appear on page one for terms which have demand (and indicate possible buyers) then you are welcome to contact me by clicking the contact link near the top of the page.

Filed Under: Page One Tagged With: , , , , ,