Starting a small business

If you’ve seen the current state of the United States economy, you might be hesitant to think about starting your own business. In the following roundtable discussion, small business owners sit down to discuss the challenges and rewards of being able to own and successfully operate a small business during these tough economic times.

The Real Cost of Buying Links for SEO: $4 Million

I was reading a copy of the Inc. 500 issue on my flight back from Dallas this weekend and came across an article about a seasonal online retailer that was “penalized” right before the Holidays for paid links. He estimated the revenue loss due to plummeting organic search visibility at $4 million in sales.  Now he’s “thanking” Google for the spanking because he’s mended his ways and is reborn as a social media enthusiast.

I’m not sure I buy the “social media has turned things around” story exactly, but I do wonder how many companies and consultants roll the dice and take shortcuts and loopholes to get ahead only to find out later it’s worthless? The notion of paid links is an old story (Paid Links Evil? Dec 2005) but many of the tactics used to shortcut results for SEO will always be a fresh topic of discussion.

It turns out the retailer in the Inc. story was doing SEO internally then hired two SEO companies to help out. The story goes on to say that a SEO company was to “reach out to relevant sites and ask them for links. Instead, one of the companies admitted it was paying for links.”  That’s worded in a way that makes you think maybe the retailer didn’t know the SEO company was buying links.

We don’t buy links at TopRank Marketing.

We never have. Not ever in 10 years of being in the search marketing business. As far as the retailer in the Inc. article, it’s surprising because buying links isn’t cheap.  If a company didn’t know the SEO consultant was buying links, it’s peculiar any way you look at it. Where did the money come from to buy the links? How did the SEO company not report what it was doing? How did the company owner not know what the SEO company was doing?

I polled followers of @leeodden on Twitter whether they or someone they knew knew had ever been penalized for buying links. Almost all of them said yes. When I’ve mentioned that we never buy links to other search marketers, the disbelief was like I told them I didn’t need to breathe air.

The point of relating this story to you isn’t so much about the risks and rewards of paid links, defining exactly what “paid means” (what about a 3 way barter?) or even judging those that sell and buy links. The point is that the online retailer in the story says social media tactics were largely ignored and now they’re committed to blogging, Tweeting and being active on Facebook. He claims all is now well in their SEO world. “We’re back on top.”

The point:  Why didn’t the online retailer commit to a better online marketing strategy in the first place?

It’s been promoted for years that paid links can carry consequences.  People like Google’s Anti-Spam Czar Matt Cutts make their perspective clear and make it easy to report paid links. Right or wrong, it’s the way search engines want to play.  Obviously, paid links with the right anchor text from very authoritative and relevant websites have a positive impact, or SEOs and website owners wouldn’t participate.  It’s important to note that Google doesn’t have a problem with paid links per se, but with paid links that pass PageRank.

The question I have for companies that rely too much on shortcuts and loopholes is, “Why not suspend the “free money now” attitude and invest in a smart and competitive online marketing program that can get results AND stand the test of scrutiny?”  Won’t a customer focused marketing effort that provides optimized and linkable content to a growing social network earn more links, more traffic and more revenue anyway?

I don’t think there’s much reason to put your brand and revenue at risk if you have a long term view of how the search and social web works. The investment in understanding and engaging customers plus the staff, software and time to implement content, analyze performance data and ongoing content marketing is well worth the cost and there’s virtually no risk.

“Don’t bring a sword to a gun fight”

Years ago at a search conference discussion about black hat and white hat tactics, Tim Mayer, ex head of Search at Yahoo! made the comment “”If you’re being entirely organic and going after ‘Viagra,’ it’s like taking a sword to a gunfight. You just aren’t going to rank” when discussing acceptable tactics in really aggressive industries like “PPC” (pills pron casino).

The temptation and pressures to profitability are great in industries that are flush with heavily optimized and marketed web sites.  However, most companies don’t fall in that category and I think smarter and more creative marketing can still win for the vast majority of websites, especially in the long run. We’ve seen it happen with our own clients nearly 10 years.

Why rent when you can own?

The reason I’ve never participated in link purchases or endorsed the practice isn’t as much about Google’s rules on paid links that pass PageRank. It’s because I could never understand why anyone would “buy” something with such risk associated with it when they could “earn it and own it”?   With roots in Public Relations, our online marketing agency has been accustomed to earning media placements and often times highly desirable links since we started the business in 2001. It can take more time to see aggressive results, but when you focus on making creative content and doing the hard work of promotion to earn traffic and links, the cost is one of investment vs. the often higher cost of advertising with no equity in what you’ve purchased. Then there’s the cost if the links are devalued by the search engines and subsequent lost revenue. I’d rather build, promote and earn those links that will be in place indefinitely.

Using that strategy, Online Marketing Blog has accumulated a substantial number and quality of links (according to Majestic SEO). The devil is in the details with this sort of thing of course, since it matters very much what the topic, anchor text and PageRank are of the link sources. But suffice it to say, we experience very good results in each of those areas as evidenced by over 21,000 different keyword phrases that sent organic traffic each month and top visibility for important and challenging keyword queries.

What’s your experience with managing risk with SEO tactics? Have you experienced what the online retailer above went through and focused anew on a sustainable and longer term online marketing strategy?

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TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. |
The Real Cost of Buying Links for SEO: $4 Million | http://www.toprankblog.com

OpenCamp Blackhat SEO with Social Media

The first content session I’m attending at OpenCamp is by Gio, aka Giovanni Gallucci, a longtime search and social media marketer based in Dallas. The topic is “Blackhat SEO” and the room is packed!
The session was cut a bit short due to technical difficulties with getting the conference started and Gio took it in stride and was both entertaining and informative – the right mix for a morning tech crowd.

Gio says “Black hat is simply another way to automate a time-consuming process. In other areas of marketing and life in general we encourage automation in order to maximize efficiency and get a leg up on our competitors”.

According to the conference session description, the nature of this session doesn’t allow liveblogging or tweeting, which i think is a load of crap, so I’ll liveblog it anyway.

Speaking of liveblogging, I am writing this on an iPad and the brilliant WordPress app deleted the first version, so I am writing now from memory on a notepad app.

The session is basically about what Gio does on a daily basis for his SEO clients. Based on insights from Woopra analyticz Gio says these are 5-6 social media sites you need to focus on to drive traffic and affect your search visibility:

- Media sharing: YouTube and Flickr
- Social Bookmarking: StumbleUpon
- Social Networks: Facebook & Twitter

When you undertake your social media marketing efforts, don’t let “little people” and naysayers hold you back. Gio gives Cali Lewis as an example with her growth of online shows and current success with GeekBeat.TV

As far as as Geolocation services like Gowalla, Foursquare, Whrrrl, etc Gio says these are cute and fun, but that there’s not much measurable social media marketing value to them. (If you don’t buy that, check out Mashable.com for FourSquare case studies)

We’re 15 min into the presentation and thee’s no black hat SEO yet

YouTube lists are unreal for driving search traffic. Organize your individual videos into lists and optimize them. Find other videos that are highly trafficked and add them to lists that include your own videos. If you’re not creating video, you’ve got to get started.

Tools: tubetoolbox.com (Now we’re getting into the automation and almost black hat stuff). With YouTube ToolBox, Gio says you create a message in 2-3 sentences, mail merge their username and then create multiple versions of the message with different content and the same call to action. Then you can schedule the sending of messages to YouTube users that have been harvested at the rate of about 20 messages per hour. Something like: Hey “username” I saw that you commented on a video about XYZ and wanted to let you know about another similar video and would love your opinion.”.

I have to note, using automation tools like this must be done by someone that REALLY knows what they’re doing or you will suffer consequences. Managing risk vs. reward is important and for the record, my agency doesn’t use automation in this way.

The key to getting YouTube videos ranked high is activity on YouTube. with Flickr, you can add comments with a link back to your content.

Take advantage of current events. Gio shows a video of ComicCon geeks talking about how comic are not geeky anymore. Thee’s some irony to a code geek making fun of comic book geeks.

When going somewhere offline to get photos or video for content, blend in. Gio tells a story of buying a cowboy getup to blend in at a rodeo or maybe it was somewhere else like that where there was a concentration of cowboy types.

Keep it fresh. For example, make a presentation the day you give it.

Tool: tweetaddr 3.0. Using this tool makes it appear as if you’re communicating with Twitter via a web browser (when you’re not and actually using an automated follow tool).

“Can’t is not an option”. Gio gave an example of a how a school with only 200 kids earned 68,000 votes on a list of top schools.

“Show up and just get it done”. If you look like you’re supposed to be there, no one will bother you. (Regarding collecting content or promoting online content in the offline world).

Tool: Bookmarking Daemon – Put in your social boomarking accounts and it will randomly pick your content and promote it.

According to the room monitor, that’s all the time we have. You can find out more about Giovanni on his blog: Blog.gallucci.net and get a copy of his social media manifesto at: gallucci.net/smm

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. |
OpenCamp Blackhat SEO with Social Media | http://www.toprankblog.com

LED vs. LCD vs. Plasma TV . Which one is the best for me?

The TV industry has nowadays been split up into the LCD vs. Plasma enthusiasts with arguments on both sides. Although each technology has its downsides and strong points one can see that when targeting a certain environment a particular TV technology is best suited.

LCD vs Plasma VS LED tvs

The LED technology should first be taken into view since it is just an enhancement of LCD TVs. The Liquid Crystal Displays as they are called on their full name consist of a matrix of small crystals which when excited with the help of an electric current turn at a certain angle to produce colors. They produce better quality HD video output than Plasma and the ones LED backlit manage to achieve more natural coloring than the older but still widely sold simple LCD with fluorescent back lighting.

Moreover, the Plasma TVs is made out of cells which contain rare gases such as neon that when applied a certain amount of electricity to them light up producing a certain color. From this fact the black produced by this type of TVs is much better than the one from a LCD display although they have a big downside when creating white images and this is when the TV sucks most current. As to test a Plasma television before buying it one should always run a “all white” test with some sound on the background as to see if the extra current does not affect speaker output in any way which in normal situations should not happen.

From a quality point of view there is not much difference between products, for both tend to have the same life length which has been attested in standalone tests and by manufacturers. Color accuracy on the other hand depends on lighting as Plasma TVs have a more natural look in normal to low lighting rooms while LCD and LED displays offer better color richness in bright light situations. The big downside for LCD is on the viewing angle issue which for many is a definite choosing criteria as they have a room arrangement which implies higher viewing angles.

All in all, both these television building technologies are somewhat similar in terms of what they offer when compared to their downsides but if one has a certain arrangement which favors the use of LCD/LED or Plasma he/she should first turn to that type of TV before considering some other type.

©2010 Mike's Quarter - the internet blog. All Rights Reserved.

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How small businesses help create jobs

It has long been a fact that small businesses help to create jobs. However, credit is extremely difficult to come by due to the current economic woes being felt by the United States economy. In fact, only about 40 percent of small businesses are seeing their credit needs met.

In the following video, Karen Mills of the Small Business Administration (SBA) provides some feedback and advice for small business owners on how to help their businesses grow, and she also describes the important role that so many small businesses play in contributing to job growth.

SES San Francisco 2010 Wrap-Up

QR code on the side of a building? Geek cool.

Last week the West Coast SES Conference and Expo moved from San Jose back to its roots in San Francisco. It was a well attended show (5,000+ in 2009 vs. 6,000 in 2010 registrations), despite the illusion created by the voluminous Moscone.

As part of Connected Marketing Week, SES included a great mix of sessions. In fact, there were quite a few new sessions and solo presentations such as the one by Andy Beal on Online Reputation Management and the one on Content Marketing Optimization by moi.

Networking events were popular, but of course anything with free booze and thirsty smart search marketers equals popular. Networking opportunities like the black hat / white hat brings an interesting mix of people together. There were specialized training sessions as well and a full exhibit hall. I thought the hall closed a bit early, 3pm, but hey – if the vendors want to go home, let them go home.

White Hat, Black Hat Who? - Mike Grehan & Matt McGowan

I talked to Mike Grehan, VP and Global Content Director for Search Engine Watch, ClickZ and SES Conference and Expo, who said the conference programming mix was well received. On the launch of Connected Marketing Week, Mike says,

“I’ll borrow the motto from the UK special air service: Who dares wins!”.

Mike’s partner in crime, Matt McGowan, who is Vice President and Publisher for Incisive Media’s Interactive Marketing Group, had a few things to say about the event:

“The Connected Marketing Week “test” has now been proven.  While all of us @ Incisive Media were pretty sure it would work out (remember, it was past and prospective attendees who asked us to do this) we never really did know how it was going to play out until now… the response from delegates, sponsors and speakers has been resoundingly positive.

Most of the partner events in their own right had strong attendance with @ 200 people registered for 140Conf,  100 for IAB, 100 for the E-mail and Search Marketing workshops, almost 100 for OMS and just about 6,000 for SES SF.  We plan to build on this year’s success and we hope to see you at the 2nd addition of Connected Marketing Week in SF in 2011 (with many of the same partners and a few surprises) if not before!”

TopRank Online Marketing had a great experience at SES San Francisco with a mix of liveblogging, speaking and moderating 3 sessions as well as plenty of networking. I gave two new presentations: One for a long running session on Blog and Feed SEO and another for an all new session called Content Marketing Optimization that I gave solo. It was a full room and such great attendance was very much appreciated.

Here are a few of the blog posts published by other search engine marketing bloggers on the presentations given by TopRank plus one post from Yahoo.

• aimclear blog – Think Outside the Blog: Tasty Tips for Feed SEO
• PageTraffic – SEO Through Blogs and Feeds — SES San Francisco 2010
• Bruce Clay blog – Content Marketing Optimization SES San Francisco
• Search Engine Roundtable – SES SFO: Content Marketing Optimization
• Yahoo Advertising Blog – Lessons-from-ses-day-3

One of the great things about attending industry conferences is the opportunity to connect with our current clients and meet new companies to work with. Both PRWeb and Marketo exhibited at SES San Francisco:

TopRank Client Maria Pergolino and co-worker from Marketo

TopRank's Adam Singer & Client Meg Walker from PRWeb

Quite a few of the software and technology companies that exhibit at shows like SES are the kinds of companies we work with at TopRank Marketing, so spending time at the exhibit hall is very productive for multiple reasons.

TopRank's Mike Yanke diligently liveblogging SES

In the spirit of our conference liveblogging schedule post for SES San Francisco, check out the nifty Flash thingy below made by Thomas McMahon to navigate to all the liveblog posts Mike Yanke and Adam Singer put up during the week. Congrats to SES for a great show and to Mike and Adam who did a great job covering the event for Online Marketing Blog.

What’s up next? I’m looking forward to speaking at the next SES, which is in Hong Kong, on “The Business Value of Social Media”.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. |
SES San Francisco 2010 Wrap-Up | http://www.toprankblog.com

Behind the USB to RS232 converter

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As we strive every day to keep up with the technological advances we find some times when one has to take a step back as to manage to get things done and this is the case of the RS232 connection. While some older devices still feature this type of connection the modern laptops and desktop computers have opted for the obvious multi-connection and speed advantages of the USB but how does one connect the USB with RS232?

To begin with, adapting the USB to RS232 connection is not that simple as it sounds. Under the hood of this small adapter one can find a special circuit which translates the USB signals and boosts up the voltage. The USB works on just 5 volts while RS232 needs around 12V to operate correctly and thus a simple wire to wire connection between the two will not work.

Furthermore, special software is always needed for this converter which can at times be a downside even for people running the driver-full Windows 7. Having to carry a driver CD with you all the time may not seem as a big thing but with the RS232 serial connection growing older by the day one can see the fact that it is a matter of time until manufacturers will stop producing drivers for the latest operating system.

The converter comes in a wide variety of shapes and sizes as to suit the needs of everybody. One can get it in a cable form which is best for many situations since it gives the user the possibility of directly hooking it up to the peripheral device so that there will be no other interconnections as to produce signal interference and have other compatibility issues. There is also the slim USB stick like converter which fits better when one has a laptop or a netbook for it is a sleek design which favors design over a fixed connection.

All in all, the USB to RS232 is one of the best alternatives as to still use old hardware but one has to remember that cheap converters or even the most expensive and well engineered ones have problems when interacting with certain devices. This is sometimes not due to the converter but more to the fact that some hardware is just not compatible with the modern USB connection so testing this with a borrowed converter could be a good alternative to buying something that one will not be able to use.

©2010 Mike's Quarter - the internet blog. All Rights Reserved.

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B2B Marketing Tips From SES SF

What’s the quickest way to catch a fish? Offer the right bait.

What’s the quickest way to get a B2B marketer to an SES session? Title it ‘B2B Marketing Tips.’

What’s the quickest way to get you to read this post? By diving right in to the top 5 tips shared:

1. Your conversion goals must become more sophisticated**
   Yes, probably even yours.  For the simple reason that you should always be testing and always be experimenting with something new.  The keywords that convert today may transform into completely new derivations tomorrow.  Always be tracking and always be testing.
2. Segment transactional from educational keywords*
   Keywords that drive sales tomorrow will rarely match the keywords that drive inquiries today.  Your transactional keywords are your bottom of the funnel phrases that represent a user closest to the buying cycle, while educational keywords are top of the funnel phrases used by someone looking for more information.  Third party tools and research can help identify what keywords lead a user down the path to a sale, while looking at repeat visits in analytics can help identify keywords that are educational.
3. Build custom strategies for transactional and educational keywords*
   Build different marketing strategies for different keywords. Working with transactional keywords?  Put as few barriers between the prospect and the sale as possible.  If you are working with educational keywords, developer softer offers via landing pages that freely provide information to hungry users.
4. Start conversations in social networks via member profile targeting**
   As business professionals flock to social networks like LinkedIn, these same professionals can be reached via member profile targeting.  Target users with paid social campaigns by their likes, interests, workplaces and industries.  The offer needs to be nothing more than the invitation of conversation.   Bonus tip? Headlines with questions tend to generate a robust response rate.
5. Don’t fear the multi-tier landing page***
   It can fly in the face of everything we believe to create a landing page that features multiple steps.  Some companies, however, have reported campaign response boost of more than 80% by transforming landing pages featuring one form to multi-tier pages that direct users to a landing page specifically targeted to their needs.  And the best part about these inquiries?  Once received, they are practically sales-ready.

Thank you to the panel of this session, to whom the tips above have been attributed:

Moderator:
Patricia Hursh, President, SmartSearch Marketing

Speakers:
Lauren Vaccarello, Sr. SEM Manager, Salesforce.com*
Andrew Chang, Marketing Manager, LinkedIn**
Scott Brinker, President & Chief Technology Officer, ion interactive***

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. |
B2B Marketing Tips From SES SF | http://www.toprankblog.com

Flat screen TV stands and wall mounts

Getting a wide screen TV is part of the problem but having to place that big screen in a room is the other, but happily manufacturers have plotted out one or more solutions for it. Although choosing between a TV stand and a wall mount is the decision of the buyer, knowing firsthand some details about either option is a good thing.

For starters, any type of mount or support for the flat screen TV should be sturdy and feel firm as it will probably be responsible in case of a $500+ broken television set when it fails. Materials such as steel or aluminum are a must, at least when talking about the wall mount, for they are flexible and long lasting from one side and from the other they do not break as they grow old. Also, in the case of a factory flaw inside the mount, they do not break apart like plastic does, but rather twist and turn thus shielding the TV from a brutal drop.

Stand or a wall-mount system for your Flatscreen TV?

In the case of the TV stand one can choose from a wide variety of small tables or special thin desks which allow storage to be an extra feature here. For the ones which are really pretentious about their media collection the trend is to buy a whole multimedia style closet in which one will fit the flat screen TV along with DVD players, CD and DVD collection or any other type of device which fits into this category.

Compatibility of the stand or mount with the TV is a must, but harder for one is to get a stand that will naturally fit inside the room. Interior designers state it is advised to choose a design which can fit into any interior such as a black and steel one or something which has many pieces of glass, although this doesn’t generally mean a fancy stand. Oak or cherry tree furniture is also a good way to get compatibility with the room even if it is not quite the most modern design in the world but for the ones which want something classic as to fit the modern flat screen TV this could be the solution.

In conclusion, flat screen TV stands and wall mounts offer a good way of integrating the TV inside a room without so much effort and giving it the stable support it needs so the only problem the buyer will have to tackle is the stand color as to match the room.

©2010 Mike's Quarter - the internet blog. All Rights Reserved.

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How to use social media for small business

If you are a small business, or if you are thinking of owning a small business, then having a web presence is extremely important. Not only does building a web presence get your brand seen by potential customers, but it also allows you to build up your online credibility as an owner and as someone who is knowledgeable about what it is that they are selling.

At the very minimum, study up on the latest social networking sites. You won’t have to look very far before it becomes abundantly clear which ones you should be using for your business. Figure out how to create a ‘fan page’ on Facebook or how to create and (more importantly) use a Twitter account to get into direct contact with your customers. Check out the following video for more pointers on how to use social media to leverage small businesses.