Guerilla Internet Marketing http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com Most recent posts at Guerilla Internet Marketing posterous.com Sun, 09 Dec 2007 17:29:09 -0800 Special Wordtracker Offer for December - 15% off! http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/featured/special-wordtracker-offer-for-december-15-off http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/featured/special-wordtracker-offer-for-december-15-off Wordtracker has a great offer for December that requires no coupon code. In addition to a 15% discount on one year subscriptions, they're giving away a 9 part mini-course on how to use Keyword Research to maximize online profitability. This is a must read for any person looking to make more money online! This is a special promotion and to receive it, you must click the link below: Wordtracker Special Offer Area No Promo Code required to obtain this special limited time offer! This is a great deal, and if you are not using the most popular keyword research tool yet, now may be the perfect time to start!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:00:47 -0700 Special Wordtracker Offer for November - 15% off! http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/special-offers/special-wordtracker-offer-for-november-15-off http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/special-offers/special-wordtracker-offer-for-november-15-off Wordtracker decided to extend their October promotion and is currently offering a 15% discount on one year subscriptions until November 30. This is a special promotion and to receive it, you must click the link below and enter the special promo code: Wordtracker Special Offer Area To obtain this promotion, enter the following promo code: us-annual-15 This is a great deal, and if you are not using the most popular keyword research tool yet, now may be the perfect time to start!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:49:52 -0700 DoFollow - List of Sites that Follow http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/link-building/dofollow-list-of-sites-that-follow http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/link-building/dofollow-list-of-sites-that-follow Just a quick post about a neat little list I stumbled upon. Courtney Tuttle has a big list on her site (currently over 200) of blogs that are part of the DoFollow movement and actually give link credit for comments posted on their blogs. If you're not clear on what DoFollow is, check out a previous post I did letting people know that I installed it. Please do not use this list to do blog spamming with. If you are going to comment on these blogs, it shouldn't purely be for the purpose of increasing your PageRank and incoming links. You should only make worthwhile comments to these blogs! Go check out The D List and be a part of the link love!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:55:59 -0700 Accessible design is the law - Target being sued! http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/web-design/accessible-design-is-the-law-target-being-sued http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/web-design/accessible-design-is-the-law-target-being-sued A lawsuit against Target has now achieved class action status, in a claim that the retailer's web site is inaccessible to the blind, therefore violating federal and state discrimination laws. This story is making headlines and is bouncing around the web as if this is something new. In reality, back in 1996 the U.S. Justice Department ruled that Web sites are public accommodations and must therefore offer access to the disabled to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). What does this mean? It means that designing with the needs of the disabled is the law, and companies that don't take their needs into account can and will be penalized. This may scare some site owners because they are worried about being sued. In reality, designing a site to be accessible isn't terribly complicated, and besides the fact that you will not be alienating the disabled, you could benefit by inviting a whole new channel of shoppers into your web site. I have read several reports that claim disabled web shoppers are some of the most loyal customers the web has to offer. Once they find a comfortable and convenient place to shop, they keep coming back. Anyway, here are a few resources to help with accessible design guidelines: W3C Accessibility Guidelines Designing Accessible Web Site National Federation of the Blind

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:27:33 -0700 Special Wordtracker offer for October - 15% off! http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/special-offers/special-wordtracker-offer-for-october-15-off http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/special-offers/special-wordtracker-offer-for-october-15-off Wordtracker is currently offering a 15% discount on one month and one year subscriptions until October 31. This is a special promotion and to receive it, you must click the link below and enter one of the following promo codes: Wordtracker Special Offer Area To obtain this promotion, enter one of the following promo codes:
  • us-affiliate-monthly-2007 {for 15% off a one month subscription}
  • us-affiliate-annual-2007 {for 15% off an annual subscription}
This is a great deal, and if you are not using the most popular keyword research tool yet, now may be the perfect time to start!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:05:21 -0700 Response to 'Are Internet Marketers the next Used Car Salesman?' http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/seo-ethics/response-to-are-internet-marketers-the-next-used-car-salesman http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/seo-ethics/response-to-are-internet-marketers-the-next-used-car-salesman This is in response to an article written by Terry Brock entitled "Are Internet marketers today's 'used car salesmen?'" I came across this article today in a Google search for Internet Marketing. It was a news result blended in the middle of the normal search results, but that's another story. Anyway, you know that I recently wrote an article about SEO ethics entitled "What happened to ethics? SEOs that hide their methods and mislead clients" so obviously I do feel that there are some clear issues in the Internet Marketing industry. However, my article differed from Mr. Brock's in that it clearly outlined specific examples of where these issues are to help educate businesses on what to look out for. I didn't say that the entire industry was corrupt or make equivalent blanket statements. As with any industry, there are good people and bad people out there... Anyway, Mr. Brock's article does not give specific examples of 'bad behavior' in the industry. He doesn't tell people specific things to look out for. He basically goes on a rant about the industry and compares Internet Marketers to used car salesman. His only specific critique is that some of the high profile speakers in the industry do not have the same personality they have on stage when approached in person. I'm not sure what this has to do with anything... Doesn't any speaker create a certain persona when on stage and in the spotlight? Don't people who are presenting have to overemphasize their speaking, body language, physical movements, etc. in order to command a presence and entertain an audience? Aren't there even some strange people out there that are more comfortable presenting to a group than presenting one-one-one? (Not me! :) ) The article perplexed me and I wondered what exactly was the point of this article, and how did something like this even manage to get published. The article lacks focus, doesn't present a strong argument, and isn't really informative. It doesn't explain what Internet Marketing is, what the benefits are, what specific strengths and weaknesses the industry has, and what ways a consumer can become educated on what to look for when comparing service providers. Then I found a link to the author's site and the point became very clear - self promotion. Obviously most writers in business publications are writing with the purpose of self promotion. They want to become an authority in their niche, get their name out there, promote their company, etc. That's fine, but normally publications don't allow blatant self promotion like this. If you take a trip to his site you will notice that he is a public speaker who speaks to, coaches, and educates people that they shouldn't focus on e-commerce, they should focus on building relationships. He says "We have to focus on the Relationships of Business, not the Electronics of it. We need to be able to focus always on the human needs, not just the latest and coolest technology that is out there.". While I agree that building relationships is extremely important and a key element to any Internet Marketing campaign, there is A LOT more to it than that. Clearly Mr. Brock is attacking the Internet Marketing industry with the goal of promoting his own public speaking and coaching services. It is comical that this attack does not have anything concrete behind it, but it is even funnier that when you go to his site and click around, you will see that him and his approach is straight out of an infomercial - something you would see running on TV in the middle of the night. If any comparison can be made to today's used car salesman, I would say late night get-rich infomercials are just that...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:04:59 -0700 How Survivorman can teach you lessons to help your business http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/business/how-survivorman-can-teach-you-lessons-to-help-your-business http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/business/how-survivorman-can-teach-you-lessons-to-help-your-business I just read a great article over at J. Timothy King's Blog entitled 7 Entrepreneurial Secrets of Survivorman. In it he describes the similarities between being a survivalist and an entrepreneur. I happen to be a huge fan of Survivorman, and if you haven't seen it yet I suggest you check it out one night. Les Stroud a.ka. Survivorman is dropped off in the middle of nowhere in various places around the globe left to not only survive with little to no equipment, he also films the ordeal himself, carrying around and setting up camera gear to document the experience. It's a great show that is not only entertaining and inspiring, it can also teach you some basic survival methods and as Tim King points out, these lessons sometimes parallel some helpful methods for entrepreneurs. What are some of these key lessons? You'll have to go to the original source for the in depth analysis, but some of these center around preparation, diversifying your efforts, conservation of resources, and having the ability to break away from relying on traditional methods to achieve results. The article is a great read for any entrepreneur, but an even better read for an entrepreneur that happens to be a fan of the show! :)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:45:53 -0700 Can you navigate the web without clicking? http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/web-design/can-you-navigate-the-web-without-clicking http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/web-design/can-you-navigate-the-web-without-clicking This is a very interesting usability study. It looks like this site has been around for a while but I stumbled upon it last night. It's entertaining at the very least, but I think it's thought provoking as well. Are people so set it their ways that user behavior can't be modified or adjusted to change the way people think about navigation, and the web in general? The web is dynamic and constantly changing, but how drastic have these changes been? Is technology limited by the ability of users to adapt to it? Enough with the philosophical debate, check out the site and have fun! http://www.dontclick.it/

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Wed, 19 Sep 2007 19:16:19 -0700 DoFollow - finally got around to installing it! http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/link-building/dofollow-finally-got-around-to-installing-it http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/link-building/dofollow-finally-got-around-to-installing-it I have been meaning to do it for a while, but I finally got around to installing the DoFollow Plugin for Wordpress. I am sure I will start getting more SPAM filled comments, but I can definitely handle moderating them and weeding the bad ones out for the time being. Blogs are supposed to be about user interaction, and link building is a huge portion of SEO, so why not spread the link love?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Wed, 19 Sep 2007 17:53:51 -0700 What happened to ethics? SEOs that hide their methods and mislead clients http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/seo-ethics/what-happened-to-ethics-seos-that-hide-their-methods-and-mislead-clients http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/seo-ethics/what-happened-to-ethics-seos-that-hide-their-methods-and-mislead-clients Some SEOs, consultants, and agencies hide their methods and ultimately mislead their clients. How do they do this? By not disclosing or blatantly lying about their methods used to obtain rankings and/or traffic. Why do they do this? Short-sighted thinking... Here are some examples of where this happens: Paid Inclusion This is probably where I have seen the most blatant lies being told by agencies. Many will setup a paid inclusion account for the clients URL and shortly thereafter will brag to the client that they obtained a top ranking in Yahoo in such a short amount of time. What the client doesn't know is that the agency/consultant used some of the funds the client paid them to 'buy' these rankings. Does it take some SEO and Internet Marketing know-how to achieve these rankings? Yes. However, they were not achieved through natural methods and ultimately will be turned off if and when the client decides to end the relationship with the agency or the agency decides it wants to stop paying for this. Just in case you're not clear on what paid inclusion is, it's a method to get into Yahoo and a couple of other engines quickly by paying a fee and ultimately paying on a cost-per-click basis. This allows for a quick indexing, and some argue a preferential treatment for ability to rank highly. This is not like pay-per-click or sponsored search where your listing appears in an area separate from the natural results and is labeled 'Sponsored Listings' or some variation. These paid inclusion listings appear directly in the natural results. Paid Text Links For some time now, SEOs have been using targeted paid text link ads with keyword rich anchor text as a tool for ranking highly for competitive terms - with great results too. The problem is that Google has publicly expressed displeasure with this and is threatening to remove sites from their index that both buy and sell these ads. Will they really do that? Is it just a threat? I think so, and I'm personally not worried about it but potential risks like these should be explained to clients before implementing such methods. Many SEO consultants and agencies mislead clients by purchasing these ads and implementing them on their own with the goal of achieving good rankings for the client. While their intentions may be good, the client should be aware of the risk involved, and should also be clear that if these listings are stopped for any reason, it will have a significant impact on the clients rankings for the terms targeted in the text link ads. Many consultants and agencies are vindictive and will be more than happy to see a client's rankings plummet if and when they decide to terminate the relationship. Outsourcing Many if not all of the larger agencies outsource some portion of their work. Sometimes it's limited to on aspect like link building or reporting which involves a lot of 'grunt work', other times they outsource key functions like search engine optimization and pay-per-click management and just keep account managers on staff to maintain the relationship with the client. Is this a terrible thing? Not necessarily. As long as they have strict specifications and standards for their work, and it is approved by experts within the company, an agency can deliver consistent results while having the ability to pass along a cost savings to the client. However, many agencies when questioned will lie and say that all work is handled in house. Some may go a step further and not only deny the use of outsourcing, but also strongly attack the use of sending work outside of the company... Lies about experience levels of staff Savvy business people will look at the Internet Marketing industry and see that:
  1. It is relatively new
  2. It is not taught using traditional education (college, etc.)
  3. Agencies providing these services are growing at extraordinary rates
  4. The talent pool is very small
What does this add up to? There is not a lot of experience out there! Most of the larger agencies are in a constant cycle of hiring inexperienced people and losing experienced people. If a company has doubled in size in a couple of years, that means half the staff has worked their for a very short amount of time. Sure Internet Marketing methods and strategies can be taught, but I have witnessed environments where people with no experience were handed accounts within a couple of weeks of starting. Obviously this is not the best situation for the clients that this 'newbie' is handling. Do clients know about this lack of experience? Are they told the truth when asked? Often times the answer is no. Using shady methods to drive traffic An uneducated client may have their focus on the wrong numbers/metrics. Many choose to focus on rankings, many others focus on traffic. Obviously these factors are important in the overall equation of measuring the success of a site, but standing by themselves, these numbers don't mean anything. Take traffic for example. I had one experience with a client who brought in an additional consultant to help work on his campaign. He met him through a friend, said he had a lot of experience and proven methods for driving tons of traffic to a site. The client was so focussed on traffic that he forgot about quality. He paid the consultant and sure enough, the consultant lived up to his word and brought tons of traffic to the site. Good right? Wrong! After checking through the statistics, the massive amount of traffic that was sent to the site turned out to be driven by ads sent out to a farm of the shadiest sites on the internet - porn sites, gambling sites, etc. Almost all of the traffic was from countries outside of the US that not only couldn't buy the client's product, but were from countries notorious for hacking and other illegal activity. Most importantly, not one of the hundreds of thousands of visits sent to the site over the course of a month turned into a successful sale. The client wanted traffic and he got it. The consultant may have given the client what he wanted, but did absolutely nothing to contribute to the success of the web site and probably caused significant long term damage to the site and the company's reputation because of his methods. Setting unrealistic expectations/False promises There are many consultants and agencies out there competing in this space. There is enormous demand for Internet Marketing services as companies are realizing the tremendous success that a solid campaign can bring them. As any industry grows like this, it attracts many shady individuals that are looking to make a quick buck. When researching companies you will often see many claims like 'top rankings guaranteed', 'money back guarantee', etc. Obviously claims like these should make shoppers weary. How can someone guarantee the ability to rank any company for any term? There are various degrees of competition - some phrases are easy to rank for, some are extremely difficult to rank for. While there are proven methods and techniques to drive traffic and achieve good rankings, it's not an exact science and specific results cannot be guaranteed. Even solid agencies with good track records can fall into this category. While they may not have claims like this in their literature, often their sales staff can get out of hand (they are salespeople after all...) and make boisterous claims like these when pitching services. Now obviously this is short sided thinking and setting up unreasonably expectations in the beginning of a relationship will lead to a quick and unhappy end to that relationship. However, in the interim, the salesperson and the agency make some money. There is such a pool of demand that many are not concerned about building long term and lasting relationships. When a client leaves, they can fill that slot with someone else... Honesty is the best policy Professionally and personally I am known to be honest to a fault. Does this often make life more difficult than if I told a few white lies here and there? Sure it does. However, I believe clients should be aware of what I am doing and how it can effect them both positively and negatively. They should be made aware of potential risks, and if they don't understand a particular method or strategy it should be explained to them. If work being done on their behalf involves setting up accounts with various partners, clients should have control over these accounts so that they could smoothly transition elsewhere if the relationship terminates for whatever reason. Any marketer (through traditional media or the Internet), is ultimately working on the client's behalf and it's that company's image, reputation, and future on the line. If we as marketers are looking to build long term relationships with our clients, we should be honest and forthcoming from start to finish. After all, honesty is the key to a solid foundation in any relationship.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:17:48 -0700 FREE Web Site Audit for Isotx.com http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/web-site-analysis/free-web-site-audit-for-isotxcom http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/web-site-analysis/free-web-site-audit-for-isotxcom This is the first in a series of web site audits I am doing for a few companies/individuals. Isotx is an up and coming company that develops mods for popular games like Half Life 2 and Command and Conquer and also created software for managing a gamers mod collection. They just completed a redesign of their web site and are looking to increase recognition of their products and increase their user base. You can learn more about the FREE web site audits and how you can apply for more or keep reading for the review and analysis of Isotx.com. Rather than have a long, drawn out story, I'll get right to my analysis of potential issues and suggestions for improvement.

SEO ISSUES

Keywords Targeted/Additional Content Nearly all of the incoming traffic from engines is generated by searches for Isotx or the names of software they have created. This is great that Isotx has name recognition, but clearly there is a large amount of traffic that can be gained by targeting more generic terms. Keyword research should be done to find these terms, and optimized content pages should be built to target these keywords/phrases. Homepage header/intro content There is nothing on the home page that describes to users or search engines what the site or the company is about. There should be a header tag with the target keyphrase in it along with a keyword rich paragraph describing the company and its offerings. This applies to interior category pages as well. Canonical issue - 301 redirect from isotx.com to www.isotx.com Currently, Google and others see this as two separate and distinct sites as a proper redirect has not been put in place. Because of this, there is not only potential for duplicate content issues, but also the link popularity is being spread across both versions. Currently, isotx.com is a PR3 and www.isotx.com is a PR4. The site would be in a much better position if all the link popularity was put in one place rather than spread between the two URLs. Additionally, there are some internal links which point to http://www.isotx.com/index.php - everything needs to point to the same place. Main Content Pages They should be setup to have SEO friendly page names instead of URLs like http://www.isotx.com/index.php?view=3542. This is not only bad for search rankings, it also makes analytics difficult because the page names don’t identify what is on the page. Additionally, all of these pages seem to have the same title which has no keywords/phrases in them. If the pages are renamed, be sure to setup 301 redirects from the previous URLs to the new ones. Links A link building campaign should be done to increase the number of backlinks in Google. Care should be taken to insure links are on relevant sites and anchor text is focused on target keywords/phrases. Forum The forum/message board should be upgraded to allow for a more SEO friendly page naming schema. URLs like http://www.isotx.com/forums/index.php?topic=3199.0 currently are not being spidered by Google and a lot of additional traffic could be gathered if the URLs and page Titles in the Forum were static. The Title tags of the topic pages do have the name of the post as the Title, maybe the forum can be adjusted so that the page names are named after the post names as well. XML Sitemap – I do not see an XML sitemap present or a robots.txt file. Not only do these help spiders crawl your site better, they also can allow you to login to Google Webmaster Tools to get detailed information about your site, find potential issues that may affect proper crawling of your site, get detailed link reports, etc.

SHOPPING SECTION

The section is separate and not well integrated into the site. I’m not clear on where the division lies between the Isotx site and the Amazon site, but if the product category and individual product pages can be customized, here are some changes that should be made: Page Titles – have product names in them but have ‘Isotx – Web Store:’ as the first section of each title. This area provides no benefit and the first words are the most important and should be reserved for keyword rich content. No specials featured on store front page I wound up seeing the special in the right sidebar after looking at the site for a long time, but it doesn’t stand out at all. It blends into the design and is almost camouflaged. This needs to be more prominent and jump out at the person. Navigation The navigation for the store needs improvement. The images for all categories are very similar and do not clearly define what that category is. Additionally, there are subcategories within certain categories that require multiple clicks to get to an actual product. The golden rule of e-commerce is the less clicks from start to finish (checkout), the better. No upsell when adding products to cart It’s a fact that average order amounts can be increased significantly by upselling customers in the cart process.

MISC. ISSUES

No about page I found an about page after just clicking around, but it’s not labeled clearly. The anchor text should be changed from ‘ISOTX’ to something like ‘About ISOTX’, ‘Who We Are’, or ‘About Us’. No Support Page/Link I see there is a support section in the forums, but no direct link from the home page. It seems to be common practice for software companies to prominently display a support link. Custom 404 Error page – current 404 error page is the plain vanilla and scary looking server error page which provides no navigation to get to areas of the site. Run Link Checker There is a bad link on http://www.isotx.com/index.php?view=3945 , there may be more and not only do these hurt user experience, but they can also interrupt crawls from search engines. Other sites I found listings in search engines for modtoaster.com, iron-grip.com, and irongrip.net. These domains are currently redirecting to isotx.com, but they are 302 moved temporarily links. These need to be changed to permanent 301 redirects. If there are any other domains out there that may mirror or redirect to Isotx, then those need to be checked as well. Header images for category pages The header images are very large and push content down the page. In a perfect scenario the key is to have the call-to-action(s) above the fold (before any scrolling). With the current design, there is little to no space above the fold on average resolutions. Bottom Nav not centered I’m not sure if this is intentional, but the bottom navigation area is left aligned as ested with both IE7 and Firefox 2. The rest of the site is centered so the aesthetics seem off. Email Marketing Isotx said they do little to no email marketing although they have a lot of registered users. An email marketing campaign should be developed and implemented to increase repeat traffic and ultimately increase revenue when a plan for monetization is in place. Monetize site Other than the newly added store, I don’t see anything that ‘monetizes’ this site. Take advantage of traffic, especially if you are doing a service and giving something away for free. If you want to sell products on the site, they need to be marketed with promotions featured on the front page, specials for forum members, etc.

Conclusion

Many of these issues are very common on lots of sites out there that haven't been aggressive in focusing on SEO and other Internet Marketing strategies. However, Isotx has a good deal of traffic and by making some of the changes above, they can greatly increase those numbers and more importantly, their user base. You can learn how you can have a FREE web site audit done for your site or check out the Isotx site and learn more about their mods for games.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:37:35 -0700 A clueless Internet Millionaire? http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/internet-marketing/a-clueless-internet-millionaire http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/internet-marketing/a-clueless-internet-millionaire Why many niche site owners may soon be dominated by competition... I had a meeting with an owner of a site today that sells a niche product and is currently doing over a million in sales per year. His site has been around for about 8 years and he got into the Internet game early on. He doesn't have much competition, but even niche markets are starting to see an influx of competitors as people realize these untapped markets exist and capitalize on them (why do you think I was meeting with him ;) ). His site has barely changed or evolved in all of this time, and he hasn't really seen the need to evolve because he is doing well and his sales have continued to increase steadily year over year. Could it be so? Could you make a million dollars a year with a site and not know a thing about Internet Marketing? I met with him to explore a drop-ship or affiliate relationship and the conversation eventually evolved into possible taking him on as an Internet Marketing client. Anyway, the conversation inspired me to write about some of the misconceptions this person and other uninformed people tend to have regarding Internet Marketing, and how even successful people out there may not have a clue about how to run a site effectively. Natural vs. PPC He wasn't too concerned about not having great rankings because he feels that the overwhelming majority of people click on paid ads rather than natural results. This of course is not the case. Most people click on natural results, and if you have a listing in both places you have an even greater chance of capturing a particular web searcher (3 times as likely according to Google). Why do PPC if my affiliates are doing it? He pays his affiliates a 20% payout and the terms he would have to bid on are quite cheap and convert well. Why would he rather pay a big commission to an affiliate if he could get sales at a cheaper cost? Also, having an additional listing in the paid results means he has a better chance of getting the sale. Think about it, if he is listed naturally, also has a paid listing, and has one or more affiliates with paid listings, then he is dominating the results for that search. The other beauty about PPC is that it can be tracked down to the sale and down to the keyword. Why not build out a campaign of a few hundred keywords and see what the cost per conversion is and whittle it down to the ones that are the most profitable and in your budget? Not having relationships with affiliates Affiliates are like salespeople for your company. Would you ignore your salespeople? Would you not attempt to help the less successful salespeople or reward the top performers? Would you not keep them aware of new offerings, specials, product changes, market changes, etc.? If you want them to be effective and work hard for you, you need to help them, educate them, and reward them. This particular site owner had no relationship with his affiliates, they may as well have been strangers! Keeping ties with original webmaster(s) He currently has relationships with two individuals that maintain and market his site, and have been doing so since the beginning. It's nice to form lasting relationships with people, but sometimes you outgrow people as your business grows, much the same way a small business usually outgrows their accountant once their business expands and gets more sophisticated. The people he is working with haven't updated the site in years, don't seem to know the first thing about Internet Marketing, and in fact have given him bad advice in regards to certain SEO techniques and tactics. Oh, wait I forgot, everyone and their mother claims to know SEO and Internet Marketing now... :) Making Assumptions when Real Data Exists The beauty of the Internet is that EVERYTHING can be tracked. Beyond basics like traffic, visitors, and sales, any site owner should know key performance stats like conversion rate, cost per conversion, number of orders, average order amount, percentage of repeat vs. new customers, etc. This person didn't know any figures besides total sales and total orders, and those figures were obtained through a notebook! :) Web analytics are the most powerful weapon in a site owner's arsenal. Once you have a steady flow of traffic and business, you really need to make the most of that and dive deep into user behavior to understand how your site is living and breathing and how your customers are interacting with it. Google Analytics should be the bare minimum, but once established one should make the investment into something more sophisticated like Omniture Sitecatalyst to really get a handle on what's going on. Email Marketing, or lack thereof Expanding on the above topic, I asked this person if he does email marketing. He said no because he didn't think he had many repeat customers. First, how do you know how many repeat customers you have if you aren't tracking it. Second, maybe you would have repeat customers if you did email marketing and sent them special deals to entice them to come back and place another order. Email marketing can be a beautiful thing because again, it can be tracked. You can get a bottom line number on how much revenue each campaign generated to see if you are getting a return on your investment. You can do subject line testing to maximize open rates; you can even see where most people are clicking in the actual email! Not being aggressive When a small company like this gets some success on the Internet, they have a hard time changing their mindset from thinking small to thinking big. They are reluctant to spend money to hire trained professionals to work on their site. They keep the 'mom and pop mentality and are not aggressive in trying to make their site work harder for them. Sure, he's making a million dollars per year. Not bad... What if he invested 50k a year and made another 500k per year, would it be worth it? I think so! Besides, even the niche spaces on the Internet are facing increasingly fierce competition. Him and many others have a great head start and that history gives them an edge, especially in their ability to rank well naturally, but that doesn't mean someone who is savvy in Internet Marketing and E-commerce couldn't come in and overtake them in due time. Not wanting to get as many customers as possible This builds upon the previous topic, but there are many different ways to get customers on the Internet. Some cost money, some do not, but it can all be tracked down to the sale. Why not experiment with every shopping engine, every PPC engine (not the low-end shady ones) and see if you are getting the ROI you want? Him and many others assume things are not going to work or don't realize how sophisticated tracking has become. The shame of it all I have witnessed others that fall into this category who made a smart move and got on the Internet early, only to see their success slowly dwindle until they didn't have much of an Internet business at all. One example is a lead-gen site I ran for a number of years with a few business partners. It was a very clean business with all revenue coming from sales of leads and sponsorships. At it's height it was making just shy of a million per year with the vast percentage of that being profit. I left the company several years ago to take an executive management position at a large Internet Marketing agency and they never replaced me. They left the site as is, did no marketing, and just relied on existing natural results to drive traffic and leads. This was another niche industry which has now been targeted by some heavy hitters, and as a result, the company I left is making under 200k/yr now and may be closing up shop soon. The game has changed. The barrier to entry has grown considerably, and to be successful now you need to be constantly working on marketing your site, making it convert better, and trying to maximize revenue from repeat visitors. This requires an investment, but an investment that is essential to survival and success in this new age of the web where things are getting more professional, and e-commerce is getting down to a science. It's a war out there, treat it as such! ;)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Thu, 30 Aug 2007 20:42:13 -0700 Image resizing - Unbelievable technology coming! http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/web-design/image-resizing-unbelievable-technology-coming http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/web-design/image-resizing-unbelievable-technology-coming Image resizing is going to change by leaps and bounds. Check out this video of an up and coming technology. It allows continuous resizing where the content is preserved. How it works They break images up into columns and seams and define different levels of 'energy' to remove areas that are insignificant so that the overall image is preserved. It also allows for enlarging images while identifying these 'energy' areas and building out around these insignificant seams. It's really unbelievable and you have to watch the video to really get a handle on what is happening! You can view the paper written by the brains behind this technology (Dr. Ariel Shamir and Dr. Shai Avidan) by going here. It turns out that Dr. Shai Avidan has recently joined Adobe so hopefully we'll see similar technology integrated into their products in the coming years.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Sun, 26 Aug 2007 18:19:42 -0700 A look back at SEO 10 years ago... http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/search-engine-optimization/a-look-back-at-seo-10-years-ago http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/search-engine-optimization/a-look-back-at-seo-10-years-ago SEO 10 years ago, how easy life was back in the old days... :) Why was it easy, well, there weren't so many rules, there wasn't even close to the amount of competition, and more importantly, there were a lot fewer people who even knew what search engine optimization was. It was an exciting time when people with little to no money could setup a site and have a viable business, without the typical barriers to entry that business entrepreneurship normally brings with it. Let's take a look at some of the techniques used back then to see how much the game has changed... Keyword Stuffing SEO was pretty much all about keyword stuffing. Anywhere you could fit them, you put them. META tags were a big factor, as was the on page density. Often you would see sites with huge blocks of hidden text (same color as background color) stuffed to the gills with keywords. Also used were comment tags, ALT tags, or even plain blocks of visible text with keywords-a-plenty. There wasn't a lot of competition back then or spiders that were as sophisticated as there are now, so people targeted every keyword they could think of on the homepage. Now we need to target at most a few keywords per page because of the extremely competitive environment we are in now, but back then things were a lot easier. Doorway Pages People talk about landing pages now, usually in the context of PPC campaigns, but back then people would create what was called doorway pages, which were basically nothing but keyword stuffed pages with little to no real content. They were written purely for the search engines, and usually just had a big 'Enter' link somewhere in the middle of the page. Back then you had to manually submit each page to the search engines, so this would give you a shot at getting multiple pages in the first page of search results. Often with a little know how, you could get half or more of the first page results of most of the search engines. Again, most people put no thought into SEO and there was much less competition, even in the sheer number of sites that were around. Submitting to the engines XML sitemaps, what are those??? Back then, it was a manual process, one by one, for each engine and each page. There were also a lot more players in the industry. Since then, so much consolidation has occured in the search industry, with many companies swallowing up the smaller players and now we only have to worry about a handful of engines. Back then there were sites like Webcrawler, Altavista (the original Google :) ), Hotbot, Lycos, Yahoo (when it was free and you got listed fairly quickly...), OpenText, Magellan, Excite, Northern Light, etc. etc. Eventually there were services like Submit-It! where you could submit your site to multiple engines with one click, but all in all it was a laborious process that needed to be repeated for each page and also repeated periodically to ensure your site was re-indexed. SEO Elements As I mentioned earlier, it was all about keyword stuffing. Back then, the META keywords tag was a big factor unlike now when they are largely ignored. Title tags and page names were largely ignored by most webmasters back then. This is why the word 'home' began being ignored by search engines because the title tag for most sites read 'Home Page' or some variation! :) It also wasn't out of the ordinary for pages to be named index, index2, index3, etc. Newsgroups - the original social networking :) Back then, there were no blogs, social networking sites, video marketing, etc. About the closest things there were to that was newsgroups. They were topically focused message boards that required news reader software and you could post and respond to topics. This was a supplemental way to market sites back then, but eventually became so abused that newsgroups became havens for tons and tons of spam. Initially though, it was a nice place to get the message out, and search for topics and messages related to your industry where you could respond with helpful advice. Site Design There are still many sites now that are designed on a shoestring budget by people with little to no design abilities, but back then, the Internet was rampant with horrible looking sites that were difficult to use. Remember when many sites adopted the teal background color - was that really an upgrade from the grey??? ;) Sites were also littered with animated GIFs, 'under construction' signs, etc. It wasn't a pretty sight! Things progressed from there to getting 'plugin crazy' with technologies like Shockwave that required numerous downloads and long loading times, during an era where broadband Internet access was practically non-existent. This led to Flash which did offer quicker loading times, but to this day is often abused with entire sites designed in Flash, splash pages with long introduction movies (still see these on some sites today), which obviously do nothing for SEO or usability for that matter. Analytics Analytics, often referred to as web stats back then, were very basic. Webtrends was the golden child back then, which required downloading the server log files locally where they would be analyzed and the data would be compiled into reports. There were some web based statistics programs back then, but they all worked off the server log files which provided very limited data. Back then everyone would talk about 'hits', but they all had their own definitions of what a hit actually was. Some counted every file access (including images), and some used the term hits to refer to visits or visitors. Now we are more worried about ROI than anything else, which involves tracking conversions, conversion rates - quality traffic. This was an impossibility back then. Times have changed... As you can see, times were simpler then and top rankings were much easier to achieve. Now, sites are competing with a much larger volume of competitors, and for most industries, the competition is not just large, it's well educated. Internet marketing agencies have become very successful in the past few years as businesses large and small see the value of the Internet, and the competition for visibility getting fierce. There is definitely a science to Internet Marketing now, and while not an exact science, it requires skilled professionals who can not only market the site, but dissect it to ensure it is easy to use, converts at the highest rate possible, and has a decent design that doesn't distract from the goals of turning traffic into sales or leads. It's not easy now, but the war is certainly a lot more interesting! ;)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:50:58 -0700 Importance of URL and page naming in SEO http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/search-engine-optimization/importance-of-url-and-page-naming-in-seo http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/search-engine-optimization/importance-of-url-and-page-naming-in-seo Most people with basic SEO knowledge know that it is imperative that you put target keywords/phrases in the title tag, but many disregard the importance of page naming in search engine optimization, and even more don't realize the importance of buying a domain with keywords in it. The naming of pages is a vital piece of any good SEO strategy. Pay close attention when you do searches on the web and you will see that the search terms are highlighted when they come up in the URL of the site. This is the first place the spiders look when they are trying to match the keyword to the search term, and the closer to the root level, the more weight it carries. For each page of your site their should be a primary keyword phrase you are targeting, and then at most 2 other secondary phrases. Depending on how competitive the keyword phrase is, you may need to go down to 1 target keyword phrase per page for higher density. Take a look at this very page to get an idea of establishing structure to page naming. You will quickly see that the keywords/phrases targeted on this page were SEO, Search engine optimization, and page naming. They are mentioned in the URL, the title tag, meta tags, and the H1, not to mention throughout the copy. Wordpress generated this page and named it the title of the article, but in a perfect world, all of the extraneous words would have been left out. If you are getting ready to launch a new site, it is a tremendous benefit to have your primary keyword phrase in your domain name. For very competitive terms, this can make all the difference. Here is an example of an optimal naming scheme at the root level: Best of luck!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Mon, 20 Aug 2007 02:25:32 -0700 Update to Google Webmaster Tool http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/update-to-google-webmaster-tool-5 http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/update-to-google-webmaster-tool-5 Here's a quick news flash for webmasters - Google made some updates to their Webmaster tools. Some may seen inconsequential, but here is a quick rundown: Improved analysis of robots.txt files, better reporting of errors and issues, and support for the 'unavailable_after META tag'. More on Google's Webmaster Blog.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:26:29 -0700 Tips from a top user of Digg! http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/social-networking/tips-from-a-top-user-of-digg http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/social-networking/tips-from-a-top-user-of-digg Are you wondering how to get the most out of Digg? Do you yearn for an article reaching the first page and enjoying the avalanche of traffic that these articles get? Do you have dreams about your viral marketing efforts actually paying off? If so, then read this great article from Tamar Weinberg who is the 69th most active user on Digg with 121 first page stories!! In it she describes some of the do's and don'ts of using Digg which should apply to most social bookmarking/tagging sites in general. Read the full Article: 11 Tips to Enhance Your Digg User Experience (and Hopefully Bring You Front Page Fame)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:44:42 -0700 The New Site Waiting Game http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/internet-marketing/the-new-site-waiting-game http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/internet-marketing/the-new-site-waiting-game You setup a new site and did everything by the book. You did keyword research and determined the words and phrases you wanted to target. You bought a domain with your holy grail keyword/phrase in it. You designed and coded the site taking aesthetics and usability into account. You made sure everything was search engine friendly, optimized titles, metas, H1s, proper 301 redirects, etc. You wrote quality keyword-rich content, uploaded the site, created and submitted an XML site map to the engines, etc. etc. etc. Now what??? While you may get indexed within a couple of weeks (after submitting your XML sitemap of course), it could take 3 months or longer to have a shot at achieving decent search engine rankings. Age is a definitely a disadvantage in this regard as well if it was a totally new domain name and site. As with links, the engines look at the age of a domain as a factor in viewing it as an authority. What can you do in the meantime to drive traffic/sales/leads?
  • Get links!!! - You can read a good primer on this in my Link Building Basics article, but this is definitely one of the most important things to do if you want to obtain decent rankings. I recommend kickstarting a link building campaign with a combination of directory listings and some paid text link ads.
  • Get your name out there - Post to blogs (blog outreach), submit to forums/message boards, and use any other social media that is relevant to what you are trying to promote. Be careful not to just post commercials, you need to post something informative and relevant that can help the community. Often times, giving free information and advice is the best way to generate tangible revenue.
  • PPC (Pay per click) - Pay per click, also call SEM or Search Engine Marketing, is a keyword targeted advertisement. While you do have to pay for these listings rather than organic/natural listings which are free, PPC can be a beautiful thing as long as campaigns are properly built out and the cost per conversion is tracked. The best aspect of PPC is that it is instantaneous. No need to wait for the engines to spider your site. You pay to be listed and you're there (once your ads are approved) and everything can be tracked so you know your total spend, cost per click, and cost per conversion (lead, sale, etc.).
  • Press Releases - another technique to create a buzz while providing an SEO benefit is to send out a press release. You can do this electronically through PR Web and they will distribute it to a list of media contacts. Keep in mind that the release will have to meet their guidelines and be approved, so be creative and make it newsworthy! These releases are indexed by Google and if picked up by other news sites can really help get you noticed.
  • Keep building out content - depending on the type of site you are running, this could be anywhere from essential to important. Obviously if it is anything content based or a site where you require repeat visitors, you need to keep it fresh. Also, you want the spiders to see a freshly updated site where new content is added regularly. Make sure you build this content out in a strategic manner to target phrases that you want visibility on.
  • Analyze statistics - this is extremely important for any site, but especially a new site. You want to look at your analytics to see if there are any usability issues, what marketing efforts are working and what aren't, and when you do get indexed, what phrases are bringing you traffic. You may be surprised and find that you are getting traffic for phrases you didn't target and not getting traffic for the ones you targeted. This may open the door to some opportunities or may require you to go back to the drawing board.
    One key thing to keep in mind is make sure you have a reasonable sample before making snap judgments. If you've only had a handful of people come to your site, don't make the assumption that their behavior is indicative of a trend, especially if they all came from a single source!
  • Monitor competition/industry - this should always be an ongoing task. Keep abreast of your industry by signing up to Google Alerts - they will notify you of any stories related to a keyphrase you submit. Make sure you always monitor your competition! Think of it this way, if you were fighting a war wouldn't you rather have a satellite watching the enemy's every move rather than fighting blind?
This is just a brief list of things you should be doing, most are ongoing and never ending. Internet marketing and search engine optimization is something that can be easily taught, but it is a never ending battle. Gone are the days when a site could be optimized, launched, get top rankings, and stay there for years with little to no work. The Internet is a different place now, and to compete in this space requires constant effort. Best of luck with your new site launch!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:17:13 -0700 Why you should use Flash and images sparingly http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/why-you-should-use-flash-and-images-sparingly-5 http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/why-you-should-use-flash-and-images-sparingly-5 If you are worried at all about receiving natural traffic from search engines, you want to make sure your site is as 'Search Engine Friendly' as possible. With that being the case, search engines do not inherently see images and Flash. While engines may look at the ALT text in images and may read Flash files and get some text and links from them, they provide little benefit and wreak havoc on the organic rankings of a site. Is there a happy medium between SEO and Aesthetics? Of course there is! Obviously a site limited to text only is not attractive and can make it difficult to properly market your product/service, but that is not what I am recommending. The extreme example of what you should avoid is one of the Flash sites that were commonly setup a few years back. These sites usually had a long intro animation, and the entire navigation and content of the site was embedded in a Flash application. If your site falls into this category - you need to redesign it immediately. An eye-pleasing Flash banner or animation can do wonders for promoting your product or service and make more a memorable presentation, but make sure there is plenty of text based content and the navigation of the site should be done using text as well (maybe a DHTML dropdown?). How do I know what the engines see? You can do this in the Google search results, but if you haven't already, you should really . Although some complain about the PageRank data it supplies as being outdated, I think it is helpful. Among other things, you can view PageRank data, look at cached version of sites, backlinks, etc. Specifically to the toolbar, click on the PageRank button, then click 'Cached snapshot of page', then at the top of the page click the link that says 'Show cached text only'. To accomplish the same thing in the search results, click the 'Cached' link under a listing, then click the 'Cached text' link. The bottom line is, if you don't see you target keywords/phrases here, then neither do the engines.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock Sat, 11 Aug 2007 16:48:31 -0700 FREE Web Site Audit! http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/internet-marketing/free-web-site-audit http://www.guerillainternetmarketing.com/internet-marketing/free-web-site-audit FREE Internet Marketing analysis from a professional, could it be so? :) I thought a great way to kick start this site would be to offer some FREE web site audits to a select group of lucky people. The only catch if you call it that is I want to document the analysis on this site. What will the site audit include you ask? Here are some of the things that will be looked at:
  • Search engine friendliness - How does the site look to search engines? Are there any issues that are making it difficult for you to obtain rankings?
  • Links - Recommendations on how to improve the quality and quantity of the links pointing to your site
  • Content - Are there enough content pages, are they keyword rich, are there enough words on those pages?
  • Call to Action(s) - How can the placement of them be improved to increase conversion rates?
  • Technical issues - Mirror sites, re-directs, errors, and more will be looked for.
  • Design/Usability Analysis - Is the design aesthetically pleasing and more importantly, is the site easy to use?
  • Misc. Marketing Recommendations - Maybe you need to build out a pay-per-click campaign, maybe you should do more Social Networking, or maybe there is a way to monetize your site that you haven't thought of...
If any of this sounds interesting to you, please go to the FREE Web Site Audit and fill out the form. All the best, Brian

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/232285/me.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36URU106sxk5 Brian Hancock brianhancock Brian Hancock