Article on the timing of events with Site Build It

Article on the timing of events with Site Build It - Firstly let me say that I think Site Build It, it rocks. When I started on this journey, that I am still on, I started reading everything about mail marketing, web marketing etc etc. I had already been ripped off with the developers of my first site so I was not going to let that happen again. But then I was shown SBI and I have not looked back. 

However, there are ways that you can make you use of SBI better, not by using something else, not by not reading the manual, which you should do about 5 times. (The devil is in the detail!!), but if this is your first site then you can maximize your SBI investment with timing. Why, well when you start you are probably going to go through stages, reading the manual, research, writing, reading, putting up pages, adding links etc etc, it is at this stage, prior to monitorising your site that timing is everything to maximize what site build it does for you and what you can do for yourself FREE. Here is the timing. 

• Buy site build it and stop reading any other web marketing stuff 
• Read the manual 
• Re-read the manual 
• Do the Brain thing 
• Document everything 
• Write loads of copy 
• Start putting the copy up 
• When you get to 40 pages 
• Become a Zealot (See Hints and Tips at Site Central) 
• Start doing the mini hum thing 
• Ask for a DMOZ listing 
• Write some articles and send them off 
• Apply for Google Adesense 
• Get as many links as you can 
• Then Monitorise your site with Google 
• Then add your newsletter stuff 
• Then add your affiliate links. 
• Now read all the other SBI products (keep re-reading the manual) 

OK, OK now you are asking why that order. Well a lot of it is covered in the manual so a lot of it I will just glance over, but the middle bit I will dwell on. Now I am supposing you want the best results for the cheapest price – right. 

OK If you are new to this you probably either want to put up loads of content or a sales page. If you read the manual you will see the content must come first, content, content and more content. 

Now I presume you have bought your site, you have done the brainstorm thing and got everything in hand, you have loads of content. OK now you have built the site to about 30 to 40 pages, make sure they are spell check, linked and look good. 

Now go off and become a Zealot. Details are on the tip and hint’s site build it site. Just go to the site and do the quiz, if you fail do it again, if you fail read the answers and keep going until you pass, one you do then put forward you site. 

Now why do things in this order, because as soon as you have put up any adds or a few links to affiliates the webmasters they deem you as a commercial website and say you have to pay. If you have no ads etc, then you get in if you have a good content site. 

Now do not just put up you main page, put up every page in every section you can. Try doing three pages a day until you start getting the replies back saying you have been accepted. 

Now do the same things with DMOZ 

(News just in – Value Exchange started Excellent – I got an email prior to Ken's Newsletter so I went straight in and so far I have got three ‘good’ links) 

Now build your E-bay page and link to your site from that – see details in MYNAS at Site Central Hints and Tip’s 

Now apply for Google Adsense, follow the instructions at site build it. Again if you do this in this order you will avoid not getting onto Adsense because you are already advertising one of their clients. Just one of the things that can fail you. 

OK now go for the mini hubs that are also in the tips and hints. 

OK, now that has probably taken a bit of time and during that time Site Build It, your new links and other work have probably now got you up in the Alexa rankings, now is time to add your Newsletter forms, your Google Adsense code and start the work on the affiliates site. 

I hope that this helps, as the man said ‘It’s all in the timing’.

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Organic Search vs. Paid Placement

Search Engine Metrics… Organic Search vs. Paid Placement - Let me preface this report by citing advertisers in 2004 have spent 4 Billion dollars on search engine marketing according to (SEMPO) the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization. 

Website marketers cited Search engine positioning was the top method to drive traffic to their sites (66%), followed by email marketing (54%). Source: Direct Marketing Association. Accordingly, the most cost effective way to market your web site online is to obtain several top 10-search engine rankings in the major search engines for your keywords. 

According to a recent Jupiter Research Survey, searching on the search engines is one of the main uses of the Internet among 79% of users. Source: September 2002 Jupiter Research Survey. So that being the case, whatever your promoting you’ll want to make sure it can be found on the first page of the search engines results page. 

The reason is numerically simple. An Iprospect Survey in 2002 reported that 78% of web users abandon their search if the first 3 pages don't provide an answer to their question, and 28% don’t scroll past the 2nd page of results. Source: Media Post article reporting results of Spring 2002 IProspect survey. 

Combine those facts with the Internets explosive growth rate of 1.8 Million people worldwide going online every week for the very first time, Source: Official Guide To Internet Promotion and you can soon appreciate what a top 10 ranking can mean to you. 

Google receives approximately 39.4% of all search engine traffic. Yahoo receives approximately 30.4%. They’re simply the largest search engines being utilized online today. 

Bringing up the rear is MSN at 29.6%, and AOL 15.5% then Ask Jeeves with 8.5%. Source: Nielsen//NetRatings January 2004 

How much traffic is that? Well, Google and its partner sites were reporting a whopping 250 million searches a day in February 2003. 

Overture and its partners were reporting over 167 million searches per day. Inktomi reported 80 million followed by LookSmart with 45 million per day. 

FindWhat reported 33 million while Ask Jeeves reported 20 million, Alta Vista reported 18 million and finally Fast reported 12 Million searches per day. Source: Searchenginewatch.com 2004. 

With all said, you can easily see how your search engine rankings are directly proportional to the traffic your web site receives, and your site traffic is directly related to your potential to profit online. 

Oh, and in case your wondering how much money is spent online; a recent Forrester Research Report indicated that online spending reached $95,700,000,000 million in 2003! 

That's a cool 95.7 billion dollars. Projected online spending is estimated to grow to $229 billion in 2008! A whopping 139% increase in online spending! Source: Forrester Research 

Now with these facts in mind I’m confident you can clearly see what a top 10-search engine ranking can mean for your bottom line. Although it does leave a question unanswered in my mind, what has a higher ROI… organic search engine optimization or paid search? 

According to SEMPO’s key analysis, the U.S. & Canadian SEM Industry Size Estimate by tactic in 2004, organic SEO accounted for 12% of the market share or $492,057,200 while Paid Placement accounted for $3,341,878,176 or 81.8%. 

Interestingly, 9 out of 10 respondents are actively engaged in organic SEM marketing programs accounting for 89% of the respondent advertisers. This trend can be contributed to the average cost of popular keywords continuing to escalate. 

If the escalation continues to rise it could make paid search engine advertising exponentially cost prohibitive for all but the largest advertisers… the 900lb gorillas! 

Simply put, ROI is outpacing inflation: SEMPO’s key analysis indicates advertisers could afford to pay on average 33% more for their keywords and remain profitable, while they say prices have gone up 26% on average in the last 12 months. That’s leaves a 7% advertising margin to maintain current profits for 2005! 

SEMPO’s data also noted that advertisers will get smarter about managing their paid placement programs before they cut back on spending. 

This is also consistent with a report released by Nielsen/NetRatings indicating that the growing demand for search engine advertising is outstripping the supply of currently available advertising space. 

These findings seem to indicate the inventory of keywords is approaching a critical demand problem however; most advertisers felt they still have some degree of price flexibility in their paid placement programs before they will reach the threshold of diminishing returns. 

Is there any wonder why organic search engine positioning has gained popularity for online marketers in 2004? Could it be higher (ROI) return on investments? 

SEMPO also cites that 43% of advertiser respondents have shifted their budgets away from other marketing programs for Organic SEO. 

So what does it all mean? Let the numbers speak for themselves. 

Organic SEO is undeniably gaining favor over the lower ROI paid advertising. This is evidenced by virtue of the fact that paid advertising is becoming less profitable. 

Although paid advertising will continue to hold a large portion of the market share, as paid advertising returns diminish and keyword costs soar my early 2005 forecast is for the materialization of a progressive organic SEO market trend to facilitate the need for advertising space.

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Search Engine Copywriting Explained

Search Engine Copywriting Explained  - Copywriting in the world of marketing has always been an expensive process and the main aim of the copy is to attract the reader attention and lure him into buying a product or using a particular service. Copywriting in the online world has pretty much the same meaning, but I believe it is slightly difficult, as here the main aim is to not only grab the readers attention but in order to make it more effective, it is also important to make the copy rank well in the search engines, so that the targeted audience actually get to read it. 

Search engine copywriting refers to the process, where a copy is written in a way, where it not only reads well to the reader, but also repeats specific target “keywords?within the text, in order for that copy (webpage) to rank well in search engines for those keywords. 

Copywriting experts believe it is ideal to have around 300 words on a page with one or two targeted search terms cleverly placed within the text a few times. Along with the text, it is also important to optimize other elements on the page such as the title text, headings, description and keyword tags, and alt text. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of SEO Copywriting 

Advantages 

Long term Rankings: It is believed that this method helps in maintaining SEO rankings for much longer as compared to other optimization techniques, even when search engines change their algorithms. Although many search engine optimization experts believe that this is a myth. 

Quality Content: It not only helps in the optimization process, but also helps to have quality and well written content on your website, which is likely to get you returned visitors or referrals. 

Disadvantages 

Works for Less Competitive Search Terms: It is believed that this technique works best for less competitive search terms. Competitive search terms refer to highly searched keywords such as sex, insurance, credit cards, cars, etc. Although this can aid the optimization process for highly competitive search terms too, but to be competitive other more robust optimization techniques will also be needed. 

Does not work for all Sites: Many sites cannot accommodate enough text on them, for e.g. it can be difficult to optimize certain pages/sites which have too many graphics, flash, etc. and little space for content. Many webmasters are not willing to alter the text, as it may affect the aesthetic appeal of the site. 

Expensive Process: Search engine copywriters are expensive people, and hence this whole process can be very expensive. They usually charge on per page basis, and the total expense largely depends on how many pages are to be optimized and the number of keywords being targeted. Another reason why it can be expensive is that you have to depend on the copywriter for all further changes to that page, and hence it can become a permanent expense. Making alterations to that page yourself, unless you know exactly what you are doing, can ruin the optimization of that particular page.

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The First Step In A SEO Marketing Campaign

PPC Advertising – The First Step In A SEO Marketing Campaign  - Often, sites view seo and PPC marketing as exclusive marketing techniques. Each marketing method has its advocates. In reality, both have a place in the Internet marketing process. If you intend to pursue a major seo effort, a PPC campaign is a critical early step. 

PPC For Testing 

Let’s say you have a site offering a service or product in the travel market. You’ve put together a healthy budget and decided to go for broke. Yep, you’re optimizing and trading links in an effort to go after keyword phrases with major traffic and competition. For instance, you’ve decided to have a go at “Europe travel”, which has roughly 400,000 searches each month and major competition for high rankings. You spend two years trading links, adding content and so on. Miracle of miracles, you pop on to the first page of search results. You start shopping for your private jet only to realize a very disturbing thing. You are getting thousands of visits, but few sales. After running calculations, you find the site is converting at 1 in 10,000. 

Houston, we have a problem. 

A PPC campaign should be used to test your site against keyword phrases before you spend the time and money on an seo campaign. The best platforms to use for your campaign are Google Adwords and Overture. Yes, click fraud is a problem, but less so on these platforms. 

After opening accounts and laying a credit card down at the PPC alter, you need to give some thought at to how you will test your keywords. Here’s a hint. The campaign should be designed to test the keyword phrases, not maximize sales. This may sound like a strange statement, but keep in mind the purpose of the campaign. You are determining whether you have picked appropriate keyword phrases for the seo campaign. So, how does it all go wrong? 

With both Overture and Adwords, you have the ability to designate the reach of your keyword phrases. Most pick the “broad match” option, which is terrible for testing. With broad match, your advertisements are going to appear for your keyword phrase AND variations of the phrase. Since the ad is appearing on a variety of keyword phrases, the results can give you a false impression of the value of the primary keyword phrase. 

Going back to our example, we start a Google Adwords campaign for “Europe travel” and use the default broad match option. After a month, we are happy to find the ads converting at 1 in 70. Having validated the keyword phrase, we set off on the long seo campaign. But are we really sure about the validity of the keyword phrase. Since Google has been known to seriously expand keyword phrases under the broad match option, how do we know that the true keyword phrase isn’t “European travel”? We don’t unless we take a few additional steps. 

The first step is to limit the PPC advertisements by bypassing the broad match option. Instead, you want to limit the appearance of the ad only to searches for the exact keyword phrase. In Adwords, this is known as the “exact phrase” match. To designate it, you simply place brackets “[]” around the keyword phrase. Second, you need to track traffic originating from the ads. This can be done using tracking tools on your server or through the tracking options offered by each PPC platform. Regardless of your choice, the resulting data will give a much truer picture of the value of the particular keyword phrases. 

Nothing is more aggravating then getting top rankings, but miserable conversions. The only way to beat this problem is to test, test, test. Using PPC campaigns at the outset of an Internet marketing efforts can save you a lot of headaches later on.

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Redesign Them and Explode Your Sales!

Popup Ads - Redesign Them and Explode Your Sales!  - Most people put popup ads and Spam in the same category; they genuinely don't believe in their effectiveness. 

However, marketing statistics show that popup ads are powerful marketing tools that can significantly increase your sales and subscribers to your opt-in list or newsletter. On the flip side, popup ads are the third most hated entity on the Internet, behind Spam and adware. This is because most popup ads are the rude interrupting variety that traps the user into an unending loop. 

It is possible to produce Popups that provide relevant information to users in a non-intrusive way. You just need to be sure that you are providing relevant information to the visitors to your site (information that they are already actively looking for. 

If you are using conventional popup ads on your site, you may have noticed oh, in the last year or so...that your opt in list has been continually declining. You can attribute this decline to the advent of the popup blocker. Just in case you're not familiar with pop-up blockers, here's the short summary…over the past year, a lot companies, even the major ISP's (Internet Service Providers) such as AOL, Google and Yahoo have been releasing software designed to block pop-ups, so that anyone who has the software installed can control how many pop-ups they see from what website or even block them totally. In lots of cases, the average Internet user doesn't even know that they have a popup blocker installed on their toolbar. 

There is new technology available now that lets you create a new type of popup ad. This ad is an animated floating ads that look and behave like pop-ups but are essentially a part of the main web page, so popup blockers can't stop them. 

Unlike conventional popups, which open new browser windows, these ads are part of your web page. 

Using this new technology, you can: 

1. Conduct polls and surveys to can get useful feedback from your visitors/aid your marketing efforts 
2. Capture email addresses from visitors by offering them free information 
3. Use your thank you pages to introduce your visitors to your other products. Since they are already in a buying mood, there is a pretty good chance that they will be receptive. 
4. Add "tips of the day" and change them every so often to generate interest. 

As a smart internet marketer, I'm sure you know that by capturing the visitor's email address, and then following up with them via an effective auto-responder campaign, you can more than double your chances of closing the sale. By using the new popup ads, you can do exactly that!

READ MORE - Redesign Them and Explode Your Sales!