Internet Marketing

The Two-Headed Monster Believes in Cohesive Marketing

Two-Headed-Monster

Each week I receive calls and emails from a variety of people wanting help with “stuff”. This stuff can typically be put into a social media bucket, SEO bucket, or website design bucket. In most cases they blend together and reside in a big internet marketing bucket. Regardless of the stuff (or really problems and issues) that drives the call or email, I generally make a point of stopping them from looking at one thing and I force them to look at their internet marketing as a whole. Holistic Internet Marketing is Essential I believe in holistic internet marketing. I don’t believe there Read more

Internet Marketing is a Battlefield

Internet Marketing is a Battlefield

Winning the Internet Marketing War Requires a Marketing Recognizance Mission, Bulletproof Armor, and a Strategic Plan of Attack Make no mistake, internet marketing is a battlefield.  You’re going to war against a million other websites and you need to have sufficient weaponry to compete and to walk away unscathed.  You need to know your enemy, you need armor for proper defense and you need a clearly defined plan of attack to win the online battle. When was the last time you performed a marketing recognizance mission?  Have you looked at your competitor’s website recently?  Or even Read more

Browser-Based Enlightenment

Path to Enlightenment

Open Up Your Browser and Take a Good Look at Your Online Presence Immanuel Kant defined enlightenment as “The emancipation of the human consciousness from an immature state of ignorance and error."   The term enlightenment reminds me of the small business owner and his undeveloped view of internet marketing and more importantly, how he and his company fit within today’s internet dependent culture. Now don’t take that comment as a negative view on the small business owner or small business in general.  I love the average small business owner.  I am a small business owner and this Read more

Successful Internet Marketing Begin With Goals

Internet Marketing Keyword Cloud

When a potential client approaches me about launching an internet marketing campaign, SEO project, or even requests a quote for website design, the first word out of my mouth is usually “goals”. Before I can even begin to contemplate your project, formulate requirements in my head, or provide a quote, I need to understand your business goals. That means you need to do too. Why does it really matter?  For me, I only want to engage with you if I can help you and help make your project a success. To determine if that is possible, I have to obtain an idea of what success means to you. Read more

Conflicts Within Marketing, Social Media, and ERP

Since college I have loved ERP software.  I embraced the concept of an order entry system back in 1993 when I created a tiny Lotus 123 script to enter a basic sales order.  From that day on I was hooked.  I mean really hooked.  I fell absolutely in love with technology and could not turn back no matter how hard I tried. After college I found a temporary position at a barcode and data collection distribution and before I knew it, I was a full-time employee running their operations.  Why?  Because I fell in love with the ERP system they installed three months before my arrival.  That Read more

Web Analytics 2.0 Hits the Stores

Today I ordered Web Analytics 2.0, which is the second book by Avinash Kaushik, the best selling author of Web Analytics: An Hour A Day.  As an avid website designer, SEO nut, social media fan, and overall Internet marketing addict, I can’t wait for delivery of my new purchase. I already subscribe to Avinash’s very popular blog Occam’s Razor, which provides insightful discussion on Google Analytics and the software’s newest functionality.  I enjoy his blog entries and cannot wait to immerse myself in an entire book of his Internet intelligence. You can learn more about Avinash Read more

Internet Guru Matt Cutts Talks Sock Puppet Marketing

Last week Google’s Internet marketing Guru Matt Cutts posted a new video in their Webmaster Central Channel on YouTube.  I love these videos because they are short and to the post and without any pitch or longwinded verbiage cluttering the real message.   The video that caught my eye was Matt Cutts’ discussion on Sock Puppet Marketing.   Yes you read that correctly.  Mr. Cutts is talking openly about puppets. Puppets aside, the discussion was in relation to an individual or company creating fake Internet personas for marketing purposes.  While Matt did not go into how Google would Read more

Wise Businesses Watch Google Search Trends

Google-Trends

A very wise business owner I know frequently talks about search volume and search trends when discussing Internet marketing and in particular search engine optimization. He is a data guy, an entrepreneur, and a highly technical individual who always looks beyond simple numbers to peek behind them or even in front of them. He wants to see changes before they occur and wants to know the future so that he can react quickly. He is smart and has used this business practice to ride out storms and downturns. That being said, we Internet marketing consultants know that this request is not Read more

Website Promotion Promises – Are They Real?

If you have a website and your email is listed on the Internet, you've probably received unsolicited offers for increasing your website's ranking on the Internet. Over the last few years, these offers seem to multiple like a virtual plague. I myself receive so many of these emails, they are perpetually trapped in my spam filter. If you've ever read these offers closely, you will quickly become suspicious. The emails come from gmail accounts without phone numbers or website addresses. They offer promises of first page ranking on Google and website traffic increases beyond your wildest Read more

Internet Marketing Consultant or Website Designer?

Is an Internet marketing consultant really necessary or do I just need a good website designer? This question is asked by a lot of small business owners who are contemplating a new website or the redesign to an existing website. While I'd love to provide a simple answer that yes, a website designer is the only real services needed, I'd be lying. From my own firsthand experience, I can tell you, a lot of hard work goes into promoting a website and reaching that coveted page one search ranking of Google. It doesn't happen overnight and it is not something that just happens. Top search engine Read more