Web traffic: It's all in your title

Increase traffic to your business site or blog

One of the many things I do to extinquish any hope of having available free time is to write articles for various Websites. As most of us have heard many times, basic keyword selection and weighting is vital for being discovered on the Web. I have found, however, that keywords are not the most powerful tool in gaining traffic to a Website.

First in line (it may seem obvious) is to choose a subject that a great many people are interested in learning more about. Being first on Google on a banal topic is of little importance since the traffic to your website or blog will be negligible.

Second in importance is the title you choose for your site. If your title selection matches a key search phrase or reflects the words that an average person would use to conduct basic research on a topic, you will do well.

Keywords, of course, are a strong support, but they are number three in importance ( in my humble opinion).

If you want to create a basic website that will be a winner, be sure your title(s) on your Website is a natural search term.

Give Your Customers A Book

Recently, I put my book on Mobile Search and Local Search Marketing on Amazon. It's a short "how to" guide on how to increase your company's profile in local markets and Web phone searches. Now, when I consult with small businesses on local search marketing, I give them a copy of my book - I also use it while prospecting. One added bonus, is that it sells on Amazon. The revenue, while small, is always a pleasant surprise. If demonstrating expertise in your chosen field can help build your business, then self-publishing seems like an excellent tool. Today, with POD technologies, the only expense required to get your book on Amazon is the amount that you pay for a review copy (or two). I've found that customers really respond to an expert's opinion and experts always have a book!

See Photos Online - A New Small Business

I'm sure most people have heard about how IStockphoto revolutinized the stock photography market almost a decade ago. I've profiled David Lewis, an amateur IStock photographer on this blog before. In addition to his day job, David submits photos to IStock. He typically makes about $50,000 a year in additional revenue from his photos - not a bad deal. I've gotten into the habit of writing short tutorials on various topics and now I have a new book on selling photos on IStockphoto. I think it provides some valuable tips if you have an interest in selling photos online. See a photo of the cover and a link to Amazon in the sidebar.

Mobile Search Marketing

Mobile search and local search marketing are giving small business a tremendous opportunity to market their products to their local community. For early adopters, it also provides a chance to stake out a dominant position in search results. How important is mobile search? By 2011, their will be more searches via cell phones than PCs. I've written a new ebook on mobile search for Amazon Kindle. Check it out! Mobile Search Marketing

Insurance Agent Jobs

A long time ago, I wrote a post about how to find a good company if you were looking for a job as a health insurance agent. It got a respectable number of views, but nothing great. Recently, however, I've noticed the views taking a dramatic uptick. For a brief moment, I was surprised. It's rare that an old article catches fire without updates or new links. But, then, of course it hit me. The economy. Millions of folks looking for something, anything. There's nothing wrong with being a health insurance agent. It's a great job. It's also a job that's always hiring since most people can't last in this demanding profession.

I thought about all the companies that are looking at this time as a boom time - Avon, Mary Kaye - all the independent sales jobs.

These are the jobs that benefit from a dive in the economy. Welcome to hard times.

Online Advertising with Affiliate Marketing

Can affiliate marketing grow into non-traditional areas?

We've already seen how an upstart company like IStockphoto can change all the rules in a category such as stock photography. Now talented amateurs can compete alongside professionals in a business category that was once reserved for a relative handful of competitors. Now, thanks to IStock there are literally thousands of competitors in this category - mostly amateurs. The result was that the cost of stock photography dropped dramatically. Some photographers may argue that the quality has fallen as well, but it is not a winning argument. Stock photography will never return to the old paradigm.

The same could be said for digital printing. Customers are no longer limited to their local printers, electronic files can be sent anywhere. The cost of printing is now lower thanks to the expansion of competition.

Affiliate marketing has allowed amateurs to enter the domain of professional advertising agencies. When an individual signs up as an affiliate of a company, he places advertising online (at his own expense) for a company. If his advertising results in a sale, he gets a commission on the sale. In effect, the company gets free advertising and the individual gets commissions on the sale of products that he doesn't own. To date, this type of advertising has been the province of second tier companies like florists or golf products. Disney, however, is now testing this concept with their "movie club".

I can't help but believe that these challenging economic times might force more mainstream companies to consider the possible benefits of affiliate advertising. It's hard to argue against free advertising when economic times are so challenging. If I'm right, we may see advertising agencies struggle against this new challenge. After all, how do you compete against free? The expansion of affiliate marketing seems to be inevitable in this bleak economy.

Small Business Marketing with PowerPoint

Small Business Marketing Tip

If you have a small business, then you understand that every marketing effort you undertake must work on several different levels. You don't have the staff or the budget to undertake a slew of different marketing tactics. For example, if you pay a graphic artist to create an ad, it should work for the local newspaper or the high school yearbook. You want to get the most value out of each marketing investment you make.

Get the most marketing value from a PowerPoint

If you have created a PowerPoint for your business, don't confine your presentation to you laptop computer. You should also upload it to a service like SlideShare. How does that help?

If you tag it with the correct wording such as "Small business consultants in 'your city'", you have an excellent chance to become a high return for a search for small business consultants in (you guessed it) your city. Of course, you will need to change the tag information to make it appropriate to your business. For example, new home construction in Smallville.

Put your Small Business at the top

Thanks to Google's emphasis on Local Search, you have an excellent change to get a high ranking with a PowerPoint presentation. Take advantage of it.

Advertising in Tough Economic Times

Don't Forget Direct Marketing

Every time the economy turns sour, businesses always cut back on advertising. It's understandable but counterproductive. You may have to make your budgets tighter, but you can be smarter with your decisions.

For example, we hear that everyone is cutting all media except for Internet. Does that make sense? Are your current customers searching for you on the Web?

Your most valuable asset is your current customer base. If you had 30 seconds with a customer to convince them why they should keep buying your product instead of cutting back, what would that message be? It has to be strong, direct and clear. Work on it till you get it right.

Drop them a line.

Automated Telephone Calls for Marketing

Marketing technology doesn't have to be used
Everyday at around noon, I get an automated telephone call on my cell phone. It's a recorded message from a company that sells a service that will create these recorded phone calls for small business. It's the most irritating interruption to my day. I can't think of a poorer, worster, lamer, (choose your word) marketing plan than to send out unsolicited recorded messages to customers and potential customers. Why can't marketers understand that just because a technology exists you don't have to use it? I don't mind recorded calls from my library telling me that a book I reserved is available. It's performing a service and I can understand it helps the library save money, etc. But a recorded message in sales? I immediately understand that they don't care about me as a potential customer, they're simply trolling the waters. Now, let me think, which customers or potential customers do I want to send that message to....

Marketing with Image Search

Thanks to Google's Universal Search, there are a lot of new ways to appear at the top of search engines. One of these is Image Search. Google will be returning appropriate images back to searchers is a "blended" results page. It's another chance to get to the top of Google results in a very competitive field. Each returned image, of course, will link back to the site that supplies the image.

To help your chances of your images being found by Google, make sure that your image tags provide detailed information on what the image is about: 2009 Ford Mustang Image. Also, make sure that it is found next to relevent text about the 2009 Ford Mustang.

Of course, it helps if you are not competing in the consumer marketplace. For example, in some large, slow-moving, business to business categories, it is still possible to add an image that will be picked up by Google. Identify the image with the keyword that you want to target, "variable information printing image". Long-tail key words have the best chance to find a top image return in Google results.