Friday, September 25, 2009

Time for Internet Marketing

Internet marketing takes time. Let’s say you started a new site today, including getting a new URL. It will be some time - weeks or months - before Google even indexes your site. It could be the greatest web site in cyber history - no matter, it will take time for the search engines to check out your site, make sure it’s legit and start presenting it in search results.

Your next step should be SEO and PPC. They take time. Many regard PPC as instant gratification internet marketing; it can get you on the front page of search results in no time. While that is true, only between 20% and 30% of surfers choose from paid search results. You need SEO and SEO takes time.

Other internet marketing methods take time too. Have you heard a lot about social media marketing? It takes time. Blogging? More time. Researching ways to optimize your social media and blogging campaigns? Full time.

Who has time for internet marketing? You do. Time is money. The more time you spend on your internet marketing – all of it, from SEO to participating in forums – the better the payoff will be.

You can hire others to do it, but that costs money. Get through the mystique of internet marketing, and you’ll find it’s DIY friendly. Indeed, you’re probably the best person to do it. If you have the time.

Where will you find the time? You’ll make time. Set it aside; regularly; daily; without fail. Do so, give your internet marketing enough time and you’ll start to be found, make contacts and generate business.

By Stephen Da Cambra

Friday, September 11, 2009

Content is King on the Internet


There is little else to say - on the web, content is king. In the interests of not leaving you with a blog entry of 10 words, let’s look at why.

Before we begin, for the purposes of this article, content means well researched, well-written and identifiable web copy and images.
Web content is a commodity. It is the main ingredient of the product offered by a growing number of companies. Search engines, social media sites and web directories that is, all of which need content to survive.

Pretend you started a search engine. As with any other business, the first task is to determine your product. That’s easy: search results. Step one done. Your products are the search results that your engine produces when a surfer enters a keyword.

Step two is to identify your market, or potential customers. Easy again: web surfers. Step two done. (This is so easy. I wonder why everyone doesn’t start a search engine or social media site – or did I speak too soon?) Your customers are internet searchers and you want as many of them as possible to use your search engine.

If your engine produces pertinent, high quality results for your customers, they will be happy and more likely to use your engine again; and maybe they will tweet about it.

If your engine produces poor search results, your customers may be confused or frustrated. When that happens, not only will they tweet about it, they will devote entire entries about it in their blogs and start a “Hate Your Search Engine” community on Facebook. The bad vibe will go viral and you will be out of business by teatime.

That’s why content is king on the web.

(Well, it's one reason anyway.)
By Stephen Da Cambra