Webs 4 Small Business Blog

Opening an Online Store - Part 1 - Startup Costs

2008-04-16T20:27:00.003-04:00

As an internet consultant working with small and micro businesses, I get to see a lot of websites and online businesses that are in their infancy. The most common question I get is “I’ve bought or built this great online store but no-one is buying anything. What do I do now?”

Unfortunately, in lots of cases the question comes too late to avoid either significant losses (time or money) or much frustration. What I find is that many new online store owners think that if they build a great website, or pay to use someone else’s they will magically begin to make money. In the next few posts we’ll take a look at some of the things you should consider before investing in an online business. We’ll start by looking at profitability then consider the viability of the business and finally we’ll explore traffic building considerations.

While many of the barriers to entry of a traditional retail store are removed in the internet space, in the end an online business is still just that, a business. So, fortunately, or unfortunately, many of the business principals that apply in the real world absolutely apply online. Let’s look at one of business considerations that anyone considering an online store should look at BEFORE they invest: profitability.

Ultimately, most new or prospective online store owners have a primary, if not single, goal: Make a net profit. Net profit is basically defined as total revenue (amount customers pay you) minus expenses (whatever it costs you, in resources, time and money, to deliver your services or products). As early as elementary school, we all learned enough business math to know that if you have less revenue than you have expenses you end up with a negative (less than zero) profit. In the business world that is called a net loss. While there are certainly points in a business’s lifecycle where a net loss may be expected or even planned, a business that consistently losses money is not a business. Rather, it is a failure. So, before getting started, you need to make sure you understand what your expenses will be and how much revenue you’ll need to actually create a profit. The first thing to understand is “startup costs.” These are the expenses incurred even before the business opens its virtual doors.

Startup Costs.
You may think that this is not a consideration because everything on the internet is free, Right? Not so fast. There are startup costs for any online business. Some are fixed, tangible expenses, while others are less tangible but just as real. In either case, you aren’t really profitable until you earn enough revenue to cover these types of costs.

Domain registration.
Web hosting setup fees.
Website design. Professional services can be very expensive.
Inventory. Does your business or service require an in-house inventory before you can begin selling?
Owner time investment. This is often overlooked, but you have to consider this. The time you spend starting an online business is time you can’t spend in other places. For instance, you may be giving up overtime at your ‘day’ job to spend time on the online store. You’re probably losing time with your family. Some of these may not work very well in a spreadsheet, you should at least account for them as startup costs.
Any other resources you need to spend to get your online business off the ground.

These are just some of the startup costs you should consider. As you plan your online store think about any ‘out of pocket’ things you will need for your unique business. As we said earlier, net profit is the revenue you make minus the costs you incur. Before you business can become truly profitable you have to generate more revenue than your startup costs. As a start up business you’ll only be able to make an educated guess as to what your revenue will be, but you should be able to pretty accurately determine your startup expenses.

Up next we’ll look at additional expenses you have to consider once your online store is open for business.

The Power of Blogging

2008-03-24T16:46:00.003-04:00

Ever wonder if your small business should have a blog? Well, here's a great example that shows what a creative blog can do for your small business website.

The founder of Riverbank Consulting (and of Webs 4 Small Business), Aubrey Jones, manages a number of specialty blogs including a number dedicated to Golden Retrievers. Remember how we've talked about 'niche' blogs in previous posts?

One of those blogs was recently featured in a CNN.com story about pet blogs.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/03/21/dog.blog/index.html

In just the first 12 hours after the mention of the blog on CNN.com, the blog received over 12,000 page views and dozens of reader comments. The best part is that the blog had only been around a couple of months when it was first discovered by the article's writer.

Lot's of traffic is nice, but what does this mean to the business? It means everything!

1. Affiliate marketing opportunites. Ads for relevant products (dog products in this case) have now been delivered to thousands of targeted visitors (dog lovers)

2. Google AdSense sponsored link placement. The site incorporated 'inline' and sidebar sponsored links that have generated thousands of clickable links.

3. Traffic re-direction. By including links to other complementary sites, visitors were given easy access to other revenue generating sites. Check out the link to http://my-golden-retriever.com/. Lots of dog lovers took the time to click the link because they were already in the neighborhood. And guess what they did on the new site? That's right found great 'stuff' to buy online.

4. Relevant, quality, back links. Notwithstanding the direct links from CNN (what's their page rank), dozens of back links have now been created that link to the blog site. Those not only drive traffic from other sites (remember our advice to the mouse trap seller about Location, Location?) but will also likely increase the blog's importance in Google's index. That means higher rankings and even more of that 'free' organic traffic we all are seeking.

5. Expertise in a field established. If you were looking for a golden retriever 'expert' wouldn't someone featured on CNN.com be a great choice.

How did this blog make it to CNN.com? Quality Internet Marketing. Part of Aubrey's strategy was to make sure his blog was listed in every top 'social' venue including blog directories and social bookmarking sites. The plan was to get it in all the 'locations' that dog lovers might be hanging out. (If you haven't read the whole Selling Products Online Series I'd recommend taking the the time).

And of course, there was some luck involved. But as the Roman philosopher Seneca once said, "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." Is your small business prepared to meet opportunity? Obviously, every blog is not going to be featured on CNN.com, but in this case, without the blog it never would have happened.

The great thing is that all the benefits seen here can be acheived for your small business even if on a smaller scale. If you don't have a blog, definitely expore the topic. If you've never blogged take a few minutes to watch our training video on using Wordpress. You can get started with a simple blog for free like we show you in the video or go with a much more flexible option with a small investment.

Or course, if you'd like help, we're available in what ever capacity you need. Whether you just need expert advice, help setting up your first blog, our want to let someone run your blog for your small buisness, we have the services to fit your needs.

Contact Webs 4 Small Business today to get started! You can reach us by phone at 877-468-6402 if you'd like to schdule a one-on-one consultation. The initial consultation is free so you've really got nothing to lose.

Web 2.0 SocialBookMarketing gets easier with Tagza

2008-02-26T17:17:00.005-05:00

Regular readers of the Webs 4 Small Business blog will recall the story we told of an online mousetrap seller. One of the key components of finding customers for his product and spreading the word about his great products was social marketing.

One of the best ways to 'spread the word' today is by taking advantage of some of the new social bookmarking sites. These sites allow members to easily submit interesting and informative links. The links are then included with other submissions on the site and become part of a searchable directory. Also the links are often indexed by search engines like Google and Yahoo!. Remember the great 'content' the new internet marketer learned about? Well, think about all the interesting and informative links right on his website.

One of the social bookmarking sites we recently discovered is Tagza.com. Tagza allows registered users to easily submit links to a variety of topics. Among other cool features is that this web 2.o bookmarking site allows a great amount of customization in each submission. For instance you can add html tags to show emphasis or add videos like YouTube or Google Videos. Remember how the shiny objects attack potential customers?

Once the a new link and description are submitted to Tagza they immediately show up on the upcoming links page. This gives site viewers an opportunity to catch fresh posts. As space permits new links move to the front published links page. Again, another great opportunity to catch an interested visitor.

Another benefit of submiting links from your interesting content is that the link now becomes part of the Tagza website so there is a chance the link will be picked up by Google. A quick quick of Google found over 25,500 indexed Tagza pages.

So, jump over to Tagza, get registered and submit a few links. You'll be sure to find this a great way to find new mice killers.

Website Hosting Account - Selecting for Your Small Business Website

2008-02-25T10:47:00.003-05:00

This is part one of a multi-part series exploring website hosting options for your Small Business website.

An Overview - What you'll need to consider

For any small business owner looking to start an online business one of the first decisions you’ll need to make is where to ‘host’ your website. There are countless hosting options and providers. While there are lots of options you’ll need to understand some basics about hosting before you make your decision.

Let’s start with a definition. A ‘host’ is a service that allows a domain owner, like you, to rent space on a ‘web server.’ The web server is where your website pages will reside. When a visitor types your domain (i.e. www.mysmallbusinessdomain.com) into a web browser the host accepts the request and displays your web pages. Hosting options come in many flavors ranging from free services, to shared services to dedicated solutions. The ‘right’ hosting solution for you will depend on the unique needs of your business website.

When looking for a hosting provider you’ll need to know a few things about your business needs and the services that you will need. The key things to consider are:

Website Design Tools. These tools allow you to create your website using online tools. These ‘wizards’ allow a novice to create a relatively sophisticated website with limited technical ability. Generally these online tools work best for small websites with limited complexity.
FTP Access. If you’ll be using a website designer to build or maintain your website or if you’re going to use desktop software like Front Page or Dream Weaver you’ll need the ability to add pages directly to your website. This is done through a process called, FTP.
Bandwidth. This is how much ‘stuff’ will you move from the web server to the visitor’s computer. Sites that are mainly text will likely have limited bandwidth needs, while very graphic sites may have larger needs. Also if you’re selling downloadable products online such as eBooks, software or hi-resolution graphics you may have very large bandwidth needs. Also, here you’ll need to consider how much traffic you anticipate having. A small niche website may have very few visitors, whereas a more general website might anticipate thousands of visitors a day.
Feature/Functionality. A website that simply provides information likely has very minimal functionality needs, whereas an ecommerce website may have extensive needs. For instance, you may need the ability to accept payments online, store information in a customized database or host interactive features like forums or feedback forms.
Branding Ability. If you’re building an online business you may have the need to build your ‘brand’ online. This may mean that you don’t want to have logos or information from other sites displayed on your website. Also, here you’ll need to consider your domain name. It may be important that your domain name is unique (i.e. www.mydomain.com) or you may be okay with a shared domain name. (i.e. mydomain.freehosting.com). Generally your internet marketing plan will determine your branding needs.
Budget. For most, if not all new small businesses, start-up resources are limited. You’ll need to understand how much you can spend on things like hosting fees, domain renewals and website design. Fortunately the internet offers a wide range of ‘free’ hosting options that may help you stretch out your limited budget.

While you may not know all the answers early in your business’ life, it is important that you at least take the time to understand your overall needs. Selecting the right hosting service the first time can save you time and money. In the upcoming sections of this series we’ll explore each topic in more detail and look at some of the specific hosting providers you may want to consider.

In the next part of this series we’ll look at each of the above considerations in more detail starting with website design tools. If you need help setting up your online business now, consider contacting Webs 4 Small Business. Whether you just need advice or you need help getting your online business running, we can provide services tailored to your needs. Visit us on the web at www.Webs4SMB.com or give us a call today for a free consultation at 1-877-468-6402.

WordPress Blog Training - Webs 4 Small Business Training Series

2008-02-18T21:21:00.004-05:00

Welcome to the first Episode of the Webs 4 Small Business Training series.

In this episode you'll learn how to setup a WordPress blog account, customize your template and publish your first blog post.

Since this is our first training video we'd appreciate your comments and feedback. We'd also like to know of any topics you'd like to see covered in this series.

Please take a moment to leave a comment below this post or send us feedback by email to contactus@Webs4SMB.com.

Your feedback will help us make this training series valuable to you and other Small and Home Business Owners.

The Power of Keywords and Cheese

2008-02-08T14:53:00.000-05:00

Ahhh... the Power of Cheese... er, Keywords....

If you're following along with this blog you realize that our tale of the online Mouse Trap seller is coming to a close. To wrap it all up we're going to review what we've learned and of course offer up a couple more shameless plugs. (hopefully subtly....).

During the course of our story, we've learned that even though the Internet offers some great advantages for small business owners, selling online is really not all that different from selling in the 'real' world. We haven't touched on them all here but the standard marketing pillars of product, price, promotion and placement all hold true, even on the internet.

First you have to provide a product or service that will provide value. Whether it's a mouse trap, a cookbook, flowers or even affordable internet marketing services for small businesses (subtle enough?) it has to offer some type of real value to potential and actual buyers. The great advantage the Internet has is that the products can even be virtual. Ever see an ebook for sale in a Borders or Barnes and Noble bookstore?

We didn't really explore price during our time together, but we did see a priceless video about an exploding whale. (If you haven't seen this video yet what are you waiting for?) and a whole bunch of priceless mouse trap videos. Price on the Internet, just like in the real world, is about determining and matching market value and meeting business objectives. So you don't go away with questions about pricing here's a pretty good overview of internet pricing from another marketer. Just please make sure you come back here after you check this out and, oh yeah, tell a few friends about the wonderful blog you found at http://www.webs4smb.com/. (yeah, I know, not as subtle)

What we really talked about over the last few weeks were promotion and placement, although we called them Location, Location, Location and Shiny Objects and sort of jumbled them together. That's called taking literary license. For the internet seller, placement or distribution of your product and how you promote it will likely be very different than a local retailer.

(By the way, if you clicked the literary license link above you confirmed that I mostly write for my own amusement.)

While you can certainly 'localize' your internet business, it's most likely that you're going to sell, place, your product or service across the globe. That puts a whole new meaning on how your location is defined. As we saw with our mouse trap seller in town his customers likely lived in a close neighborhood with a mouse problem or they went shopping at the grocery store next door.

In our online hunt for the elusive mouse killers we found out that location means places like search engines, content websites and forums. The grocery store next door became the list of Google search results or the DiaryofaMouseKiller blog or the website with the catchy name of MouseKillerAnonymous.com. To locate near the mouse killers on Search Engines we learned that we have to optimize our website through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). We talked about how the words you use on your website and how you use them can increase how high links to your pages appear in SERPS.

Oh, yeah, why the 'power of keywords' title? To illustrate how the selection and consistent use of keywords can help you get into the right neighborhoods let me share some recent stats from this very website. Since I started the whole 'mouse trap' themed pages on January 15th, pages from http://www.webs4smb.com/ (which includes this blog) are now consistently ranking well for some interesting terms according to Google's webmaster tools. In January this website was ranking in the top 10 SERP spots (first page) for searches for 'mouse killers,' 'mice killer,' 'mouse killer,' and 'mice killers.' And don't forget, the first 'mouse trap' post was January 15th so these pages made the top 10 in less than 2 weeks. Too bad we're not selling mouse traps, right? (Fortunately, we're also getting top ranks for words that match services we actually do sell.)

We also learned that you need cheese to attract mouse killers (interesting that both mice and their killers like cheese). The cheese, or website content really becomes intertwined with your online promotion because its how you attract potential customers and make them stick around.

We even got a cold and sneezed all over the place. Of course, we were really talking about viral and social marketing. We learned that a great way to get the word out was to hang out where our potential customers hang out, like in social networking sites. Our goal in viral and social marketing is to let other mouse killers spread the word about our mouse traps, or cook books or small business pay per click management services. (hint: click the link and win a new car... okay, not true but you will find a great option for leveraging SEM).

Speaking of SEM, we also learned that, unlike in school, it really is okay to 'cheat' your way to the top of search engine results pages. We learned that search engine marketing is a great way for online sellers to quickly gain visibility for their products or services.

Whew, did we at least touch on everything we've learned? Hopefully what you've learned in the last weeks is that it is important remember that your online business is, well, a business. Just like any business you have to use sound business practices to get customers and keep them. Hopefully you've learned a little more about some of the unique ways you can use the internet to market you products and services.

What's next? We'd recommend that you spend some more time learning about the topics we've covered: Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Viral and Social Marketing and quality content. There are lots and lots of quality free sources available online that can help you learn more on each of these topics.

Here are a couple of sources we provide (of course we'd start here):

Webs 4 Small Business Blog (the one you're reading now) has a great series on blogging. Think of blogs as keyword rich content that has a great SEO benefit for your business website. Remember our 'mouse killer' 2 week SEO results.
Small Business Internet Marketing is currently featuring a series on how to incorporate ebooks into your business website strategy.
Internet Marketer Handbook has a great series on ways to build traffic for your business website.
Free Affiliate Marketing Program delves into the world of affiliate marketing. Think of affilate marketing as selling someone else's mouse traps and getting a commission on each sale.

Here are a couple of resources provided by other marketers:

Web Marketing Today offers a plethora of resources on internet marketing. Definitely check our the videos. We've featured some on our own sites. Also, definitely sign up for the newsletter as its one of the better ones out there.
Business Internet Mastery covers the full gamot of internet business topics. Jay and Sterling's podcasts are great. I recommend loading them up on your iPod so you can listen to them while you're waiting in line or on the treadmill.

Well, that's it for the adventures of the mouse trap seller. I hope you've learned something and maybe even found it a little humorous. If nothing else I hope you checked out the video of the exploding whale.

We'd like your feedback. Was this series useful? Was it interesting? Did you print it out so you could save it forever? Maybe you hated every word of it? Did it offend your more sensitive side? Are you a member of PETA and are upset about the exploding whale? Whatever you feedback we'd appreciate your comments and we'll post the good and the bad.

Lastly, we'd like to know what topics you'd like to see here? If the topic appears to be generally applicable to small business website owners (or wannabes) we just may put some posts together about it.

Finally (that does come after lastly, right?) No Mice, or mouse killers, were harmed in the making of this series of post. And, the whale was already dead before it was blown up.

See you soon!

Webs 4 Small Business can assist you as you start or grow your small business. Contact us today for a free phone consultation.

SEM Gets Your Shiny Objects to the Top of the Page

2008-01-30T17:30:00.000-05:00

What do you think about the segue from Search Engine Optimization to Search Engine Marketing at the end of the last section? Pretty smooth for an Internet Marketer I’d say. Anyway, I’ve now destroyed the whole point so let’s just jump back in.

As a mouse trap seller to-be, you’ve discovered that it is a very good thing to be at the top of search engine result pages. But you also learned that, I hope, that it can be pretty darn complicated and time consuming to get to the top of the list. Taking steps to get to the top of the list through SEO methods should be part of your plan, but what if you want to sell mouse traps today, not in months?

That is where Search Engine Marketing (SEM) comes in. Remember the listing at the very top of the search engine result page? Also, think about the ones on the right hand side of the page. Forgot? Take a look at our Google search for mouse traps again.

The websites that were listed in those spots did something very special and very super secret to get those prime spots. “What did they do that was so special and super secret?” you might be asking. Well, I can’t tell you about the super secret part, but the special thing they did was to PAY for the spot.

That’s right, they paid to get those great spots. Isn’t that cheating you may ask? (You’ve got a lot of questions today…). Nope, it’s just how it’s done. Think about the commercials for Fruit Loops Cereal that show during the breaks of a children’s television show. What about the product placement ads during your favorite movies? Didn’t you notice the bag of Reese’s Pieces on ET? Paid search results or sponsored links, also called Pay Per Click ads, are no different.

So how does a mouse trap seller get in on this wonderful super secret special way of getting top placement on search engines? The most prominent program today is Google’s AdWords ™. AdWords allows you to display sponsored links on Google search results as well as on content sites that display Google sponsored links. As a matter of fact take a look at the top of this webpage. You’ll notice, and hopefully click, two sponsored links just above the post title. Most search engines have similar programs such as Yahoo!® Search Marketing and Microsoft® AdCenter.

Speaking of clicking on ads, the great thing about Pay Per Click is that you only, well, pay per click. That’s right, you only pay for the ad if someone reads it and clicks its, thereby visiting your website. How’s that for a great value? Think of it as running an ad for your mouse traps in an International magazine with billions of subscribers. Think how much that 1 by 1 inch ad would cost. Lots and Lots… But now assume you got the same exposure, but only had to pay based on how many people actually saw, read and took the time to visit your business website. Much better deal right? That’s Search Engine Pay Per Click. Even better, something the clicks only cost pennies each.

The premise is pretty simple to use these services although they can be quite overwhelming for new mouse trap sellers. Basically you select keywords and phrases for which you think your potential customers will search. As an online mouse trap seller you’d likely select keywords like as ‘mouse trap, ‘rat trap’ and ‘kill mice.’ You’ll then create short ads that will be displayed when someone searches on a keyword you’ve selected. Lastly, you’ll ‘bid’ on placement for the ads. The bid determines how much you pay for each time your ad is clicked and how high up it appears on the list. Bid low, pay less, but show less and lower. Bid high, pay more, but show more and higher up on the page or in the list of results.

As a new mouse seller you might consider using an expert to manage your Pay Per Click campaign. There are a number of companies that will do this for varying fees. Shameless Plug Alert! Riverbank Consulting offers Pay Per Click Services for Small and Home Businesses through its Webs 4 Small Business services. I warned you a plug was coming….

So that’s an overview of Search Engine Marketing and Pay Per Click advertising. There is much more that you can learn about Pay Per Click. To get you started here are a couple of blog posts where you can read for even more information: Internet Marketer Handbook and Small Business Internet Marketing. You may also want to check out Google and Yahoo! for more information about their specific services.

If you’re keeping track we’re almost done with our lesson. Next up we’re going to take a final look at marketing an online business… Okay, here’s one more mouse trap video to hold you over until the next section.

To be continued...

Review of Webs 4 Small Business Blog

2008-01-28T09:02:00.001-05:00

Webs 4 Small Business Blog was recently reviewed by the folks at Pro Blog Reviews.

Here's an excerpt from the review:

"Still I dug deeper into the archives to discover some really well written posts on how to use blogging as a way of helping the small business owner"

You can checkout the full review at Pro Blog Reviews.

While you're there make your you check out some of the other reviews and discover some of the great blogs you may have missed.

SEO - A Shiny Object Mice Killers Can Not Resist

2008-01-24T18:05:00.000-05:00

We’ve got cheese, in the form of great content, like a video of an exploding whale, and we’ve got our first shiny object to attract the mouse killers, viral or social marketing. If you haven't clicked the exploding whale video you've just got to do it now. Go ahead, I already apologized to PETA for both of us.

As a quick regression, when we were talking about viral/social marketing I forgot to mention my favorite place to sneeze when I’m trying to spread my viral message. Check out the blogcatalog blogger community. I’ve found it to be a great way to spread the word and meet some great people in the process. Make sure you stop by my profile and add me as a friend if you decide to add your blog. I’d love to hear from you and the ‘shout’ or comment would give you another chance to spread a little of your viral joy. Hint.

Okay back to this section… The next shiny object we are going to look at is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In a nutshell the whole reason for Googles, or Yahoos! or MSNs continued existence is that when someone needs to find information about, say, mouse killing, they can find it in one of those places. They type is a search query in the little box like ‘videos of mouse traps’ and the search engines scour their databases to find websites that will most likely have a video of a mouse trap.

The search engine then shows you a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) that is basically a list of the top 12 or so website links that it thinks will satisfy your request. If you’re following along at home take a look at the Google SERP for our mouse trap video search.

We may each see slightly different results, but in general you’re going to see some webpage titles, like Cool Videos – Mouse Trap or How to set a mouse trap or Crash the Bowl. You’re also going to see a description under each of those titles. I found ‘A man uses Doritos to lure a mouse to a trap…’ and ‘Mouse Trap That’s a way to get the cheese without being caught by the trap… Funny Videos.

Notice something about the bolded words. Yep, they match what our mouse killer typed into the search box. So the lesson here is that if you want to attract mouse killers, your content should be relevant to what mouse killers would search for. The title of your website and the description obviously have a lot to do with how highly your page ’ranks’ in the search results.

The other thing you’d find if you dug into the pages listed on the SERP is that the content within the page is relevant to our search. For instance the search words or ‘keywords’ are likely included a number of times within the webpage. Likely the videos are ‘tagged’ with terms like; mouse trap, mouse and video and any images may have descriptions that include mouse trap.

The search engine would also look at things like, how many times were these links clicked when other people searched for mouse trap videos. It would look at how many other websites decided to become neighbors with the web pages it thought were relevant. The thought is that if lots of ‘other’ websites think a website if ‘relevant’ than maybe it is.

Obviously, Search Engine Optimization is a great deal more complicated than what I’ve described here. I’d recommend finding some sources dedicated to SEO to get more details. Take a look at this SEO information right from the horse’s (Google’s) mouth. You may also consider finding a company to help you polish up your shiny object by providing SEO services. There are great companies and really, really bad ones. Google also has some great tips on what to look out for. I’d be remiss if I didn’t plug my company’s SEO services so check out the article What Should You Look for When Selecting an SEO Partner and the Riverbank Consulting Approach to Search Engine Optimization.

In a nutshell, though, Search Engine Optimization is about trying to make your mousetrap show up in that to 13 links. To do this you have to make sure your website is relevant, in the eyes of the search engines and real people. That means having page content that matches the search, being in the right neighborhoods and have tiles and descriptions that make mouse killers want to visit your website.

Last thing on SEO: you may have noticed that the top 2 or 3 listing in the search results and all the ones in the right column said ‘sponsored links.’ That means someone paid to have those links show up in the results. That makes a great segue into our next shiny object, Search Engine Marketing.

To be continued.

Oh, yeah, you can get help with your website by visiting Webs 4 Small Business or calling 877-468-6402.

But wait there's more... You can email us at contactus@webs4smb.com.

And, if you act now... we'll throw in a set of Ginsu knives... Sorry, not really...

Viral Marketing and Attracting Mouse Killers

2008-01-21T09:41:00.000-05:00

We hunted for mouse killers and we found where they hang out. Search Engines, Blogs and content websites about mouse killing seem to be favorites. We also see that we need content and other shiny objects to attract them into our website. Let’s look at viral/social marketing as the first or our shiny objects.

Unlike the name, viral marketing is not about making your potential customers sick. Rather, it’s about making word of your great mouse trap, or other products, spread like a virus. Basically, you’ve got to create the high-tech version of word-of-mouth marketing. You job is to set the message into motion and then let the viral aspect do the work, with a little nudging from you.
Ever notice how easily and effectively a cold passes from person to person? It’s really not as easy as it looks. A number of things have to be just right and interestingly, although maybe not for readers with a weak stomach, those right things have a lot in common with making viral marketing easy and effective.

First the cold virus needs a living host to survive. In the internet world a living host is an active blog site, forum or content website. Just like a cold virus, if it is passed on to a doorknob, for instance, it will soon die unless someone, a living host, touches the door handle and picks it up. The lesson here is that for viral marketing to survive the ‘virus’ has to be spread to vibrant, active, highly trafficked sites. You’ll need to look for sites that have high readership, relative to other sites in your niche, and have fresh content.

The other thing a virus or viral marketing message needs it needs is a way to spread. For the cold a robust sneeze works great, or being left on the front door knob of a busy office. For viral marketing to work you have to essentially create a sneeze and make sure you hit lots of front door knobs.

The sneeze in viral marketing case is spreading your message, and website link, over a wide range of places. You’ve found the places where the mouse killers hang out so you know where to sneeze. Content related blogs are great places to drop your message and link. Find (and actually read) several good blog posts about mouse killing (our whatever you’re selling) and then add meaningful comments making sure that you include a link to a relevant page on your website.

These comments will serve multiple purposes. First they deliver links to your website. This make you become a next door neighbor of an already established store. Remember the next door grocery store? Next, they build your credibility as an expert in your field. This goes back to the (and actually read) comment. Your posts need to be on target with the site you’re at and add value to the discussion. Otherwise they’re just so much spam to be ignored and likely deleted. Lastly, and most importantly, they attract mouse killers to, wait for it… YOUR MOUSE TRAP WEBSITE. (You got the ‘How I Met Your Mother’ reference, right? Can’t help it, I enjoy the show.)

The last thing a cold needs to flourish is for it to spread. Your marketing message, reputation and links now need to be spread by others. By creating a credible reputation, by attracting mouse killers to your website and then by delivering high quality services and products you have created potential carriers of you viral message. You can even do things to encourage them to spread the word like hosting a dead mouse photo contents, giving away free somethings, offering to exchange links or whatever interests your target audience.

I think I’m beginning to feel feverous so enough of the cold virus analogies. We’ve learned that for viral marketing to work we have to find active, complementary websites, blogs and forum and sneeze on them (okay, last cold reference). Once we’ve started the viral message on its way we then help it along by prudently dropping our message in other places and encouraging others to do so also.

Next up we’ll look at another shiny object, search engine optimization, where we’ll learn a little more about attracting those mouse killers who hang out at Google and Yahoo!.

This is the point in our series where we're obligated to throw in our shameless plug. If you need help getting your small business website off the ground or in growing your existing business, Webs 4 Small Business can help.

We provide small and home office businesses with affordable, budget friendly internet services including internet marketing planning, search engine optimization, pay per click advertising managment. We also provide Raleigh, NC and Triangle business with on-site consulting services through Riverbank Consulting.

Visit us on the web at Webs 4 Small Business or contact us at 1-877-468-6402 to get started today.

To be continued...

Selling Products Online - Shiny New Mouse Killer Hunter Weapons

2008-01-17T17:23:00.000-05:00

So, you’ve found out where the mouse killers hang out. And you’ve figured out that you’ll need some shiny new weapons in your arsenal if you’re going to be successful in catching a few.

In Internet Terms the cheese is content and the shiny objects are viral/social marketing, search engine optimization and search engine marketing. These Internet terms are really just ways to make sure you are ‘near’ websites of ‘the same interests.’ On the Internet being near something means being linked to and from it. That link can be anything from a blog comment that contains your URL to a banner ad to even a sponsored link. It means making sure that when the mouse killers are reading about mouse killing at another website, they to see a link to your website.

Let’s look at these new internet marketing tools. First let’s explore content. Content in its simplest form is a bunch of words, or pictures or videos or sounds that appear on a website or a blog. For the mouse trap seller content might be images a mouse riding a frog (seriously, click the link I found a picture of a mouse riding a frog). It might be articles about the joy of mouse killing or 101 things to do with a dead mouse or even an article exploring the confessions of a reformed mouse killer. Maybe it is a video clip showing the new Super-Duper X 1000 mouse trap in action. Whatever the type of content, the important thing is that it is relevant to mouse traps. Videos of exploding whales might indeed be fun to watch but they really won’t help here.

The value of the content is really two-fold. First mouse killers like to view pictures of frog riding mice and read about the exploits of other mouse killers. So they will seek out articles, pictures and videos on the subject. And once they find a good source of content they will likely come back there next time they want to catch up on the latest. And, even better, when other website owners like the mouse killer blog we came across earlier see the articles they will create a link to your article. And viola, you’ve got a next door neighbor. This is the beginnings of a viral/social marketing shiny object that we’ll cover later.

The second reason is less fun, but it is all about search engines like Google and Yahoo!. They eat up content, almost literally. All other revenue sources notwithstanding, search engines stay in business by delivering highly targeted content to searchers. If someone, say a mouse killer searches Google for ‘stories about mouse killing,’ the results page (SERP) better have a bunch of links to websites with stories about mice and killing them. If it were to return links about, say PETA, the mouse killers are likely to go somewhere else, like Yahoo!, to look for stories. Google lost a customer, but more importantly they lost the possibility that you’d click one of the ‘sponsored’ links on the page. Sponsored links is another shiny object that we’ll cover shortly, but suffice it to say that Google makes a lot of money on those clicks.

One last point about content: It needs to be ‘keyword rich’ meaning to attract mouse killers it should include words like ‘mouse’ and umm… ‘trap.’ But be careful, content that is too rich can be overkill and actually make it harder to find. That’s something for another shiny object, search optimization.

So, we’ve got our cheese content. Now we’ll explore the shiny objects like viral/social marketing, search engine optimization and search engine marketing.

To Be Continued...

Selling Products Online - The Hunt for Mouse Killers

2008-01-15T16:28:00.000-05:00

Back to our tale of Selling Products Online...

To catch you up... Now comes the hard part of selling your Mouse Traps online... Location, Location, Location and, oh yeah, Competition.

When you first buy a domain and build a website your location is much, much, much worse than that back alley site you considered earlier. Your location is almost literally ‘No Where.’ You can’t get drive-by traffic, depend on the grocery store next door because no other website is next door to yours. Your only way to get buyers is for them to magically drop out of the Internet sky. Of course if they know your domain name (http://www.best-mousetraps-ever.com/) they could type that in but who, other than you and your family knows that?

And what if mousetrap buyers did drop out of the Ethernet sky? Would they land on your website? In your small town (go back and read the last post) there is only one or two other competitors for that sky dropper. But on the internet there are possibly millions of competitors. Do a quick Google search for ‘mouse traps.’ Go on, I’ll wait…. How many competitors? I found 184,000 when I checked. What if you sell ‘shirts?’ That Google search comes back with 257,000,000 competitors. So if you sell mousetraps you have a 1 in 184,000 chance of catching that sky dropper, right? Nope. As a new website owner you’re most likely not even included in that list of 18,000 competitors. You are in ‘No Where’ location. For you SEO wonks, maybe you’re in the mythical Google Sandbox.

So what do you do? If you were in town you probably run an ad in your newspaper, on the local radio station or on a local TV channel. But on the internet ‘local’ has a different meaning.

Local (get the tie in with ‘Location?) on the internet really means ‘of same interest.’ You have to get your website in front of potential buyers who want or need to kill mice one at a time. That means your location now becomes whatever websites mouse killers frequent. So where do mouse killers hang out on the Internet?

Obviously they frequent search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN. According to Yahoo! searches for ‘mouse traps’ and similar products (like ‘rat traps’) were at the high end of 15,000,000 last month. Google searches would be many multiples of that. So you have to be located on the search result pages (above the other 177,000 competitors) of the major search engines. How do you get that location? In Internet Marketing terms that you need to do Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing.

According to most studies, the majority of mouse killers, possibly 80%, start looking for mouse traps on search engines. (This statistic is true for more than mouse killers) That means the other 20% start somewhere else. That somewhere else is likely a content website such as http://www.mousekilleranonymous.com/ or a blog such as DiaryofaMouseKiller.myBlog.com.

So your hunt for the mouse killers has been successful. You’ve found out that they, you potential customers hand out on search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN. They also hang out at popular content websites and blogs. Now that you’ve found them, how do you catch them? With cheese and shiny objects, of course.

To Be Continued...

Selling Products Online – If You Just Build it They Won’t Come

2008-01-15T16:25:00.000-05:00

So you have a dream to make money selling products on the internet. Easy right? Well, not so fast. Just like selling something in the ‘real’ world, selling something on the internet takes more than desire and luck.

Many first time online sellers have created or acquired products that they thought would sell well and, in their enthusiasm, spent lots of time and or money is setting up a website, paying monthly hosting fees and possibly paying for product inventory. They toasted ‘launch’ day and then waited… And waited, and waited, and waited..

Building a baseball field in a corn field apparently worked for Kevin Costner, but for the rest of us it is not so easy. Building the best baseball field, or the product, or the service is just the first part of what it takes for ‘them to come.’ You have to let them know that you built it, whatever ‘it’ is. And, while the principals may be the same as in the offline world, letting people know you built it can be a daunting, albeit rewarding, task.

Let’s say you’ve just decided to sell mousetraps. You decide to set up shop in your local town to sell the mousetraps. What would you do next? You’d pick a location, buy an inventory of mousetraps so your shelves aren’t empty and then open the shop. Think about where your location would be. Would you locate on a back alley on the bad side of town or on Main Street? Maybe, even better, you’d locate near a large community of houses where you’ve heard there is a big mouse problem because of the adjacent landfill.

What about your shop? You’d decorate it, put up a nice flashy sign, probably with a picture of a dead mouse on it. You’d install a cash register and shelves. You’d then display the mousetraps in an appealing way (if that’s possible…). And then you’d open the shop. What if you did nothing more? How many mousetraps do you think you’d sell? If your guess is anything beyond ‘almost none’ you’re probably wrong.

So what did you miss? You’ve got a great product, a great location and a great shop. Heck, you even have with a nice picture of a dead mouse on the sign out front. What you’ve missed is ‘MARKETING.’ How do people know about your new store? Maybe a few drive by on the way to work? Maybe some are your friends and family? Maybe some were shopping at the grocery store next door, that by the way also sells mice traps and even for less money. The reality is that without marketing; letting them know you’re there, they won’t come.

Now sell that same mousetrap on the internet. Your shop and sign is that great flashy website. Your inventory is simply pictures on the website because you’re using a drop shipper to handle distribution. Sound’s good so far… No need to lease a shop, no need to by inventory upfront and you can work whatever hours you want. Now comes the hard part… Location, Location, Location and, oh yeah, Competition.

To Be Continued....

SEM, PPC, SEO - Making Sense of the ABCs of Internet Marketing

2007-12-19T17:22:00.000-05:00

The key components of an Internet marketing program include Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Paid Placement, Affiliate Marketing and Viral/Social Marketing. The goal of all of these is to increase a website’s traffic (number of people who visit) however each uses a different tactic to meet this goal. An effective Internet marketing program leverages a mix of these components to maximize their value at a particular point in the overall program.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an attempt to increase your website’s ranking in ‘organic’ (non-paid) search results in Google™, Yahoo!™ and other search engines. Search engines use complex, proprietary algorithms to determine how a page ranks. In general higher ranking is achieved by optimizing the actual website content to increase its relevancy to certain search words (keywords). Additionally, SEO attempts to increase the website’s perceived ‘authority’ by acquiring quality links to your website from other complementary sites (back links). Finally higher ranking websites are highly visible to search engines meaning most or all of their web pages are indexed by the search engines.

Many aspects of a complete SEO effort can be outsourced, but some aspects are more effective when controlled by those most familiar with the product or service. SEO generally has a longer-term ROI than other Internet marketing methods because a website’s authority is generally built over time. It is important to know that SEO is never truly finished. Competition and buyer preferences change and evolve over time, therefore, the authority of a website changes and must be re-evaluated routinely.

Effectiveness of a SEO program is measured in terms of search result rank, search engine saturation and overall visibility. Result rank is determined by how high a website appears in organic results. Saturation is an indication of how much of a website is indexed by search engines and overall visibility shows how many references are found for a website.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) essentially is a shortcut to increased search result rankings. By sponsoring links in search engine results, advertisers can ensure that relevant links are displayed along with search results whenever certain keywords are searched for. These are generally displayed above or in a separate column beside organic results. Advertisers bid to determine ranking and only pay when links are clicked by a visitor.

SEM can be, and probably is best, outsourced. Experienced SEM practitioners can maximize the results of a pay-per-click program by increasing the quality of website visitors. Additionally, knowledge of the bidding process and keyword selection can significantly reduce the amount paid per click-through over time.

SEM has the shortest term ROI as resulting traffic is immediate and measurable. The ability to tightly control expenses, all the way down to cost per click, makes the expense very predictable. Negatively, there is little if any residual value effect of SEM beyond potential relationships with new buyers. SEM is predominately a point in time exercise, although it can be very effective during a campaign.

Paid Placement is similar to traditional print or media advertising. Advertisers pay a fee to have their ‘ad’ displayed on a website or alongside search engine results. Ads are often ‘banners’ that include a marketing message that entices viewers to click the ad and be transferred to the advertiser’s website. Paid placement also includes sponsored links on content pages, paid reviews or ‘pop-up’ ads that appear before or on top of a content page.

Paid placement can include SEM tactics, but here the sponsored links appear on content websites rather than search engine results pages. Placement is based on relevancy of selected keywords and the displaying website’s content. The advertiser has limited control over where ads appear. Ads on content sites generally rank higher for lower bids than on search engine results.

Direct placement of ads on specific content sites is generally based on a set fee or per million impressions (displays). Direct placement allows an advertiser to specify specific website, durations and potentially exact placement on a page. This is most effective if a product or service would appeal to visitors of a specific website. For instance, Dell might place an ad on a computer buying guide website.

Purchase and management of direct placement ads can be outsourced, although it requires less expertise and oversight than SEM.

Affiliate Marketing allows website owners to resell products or services for a percentage or set fee commission. Commissions may be paid for sales, leads or even website visit referrals. Almost all major retail stores support affiliate marketing programs and generally use a third party service to manage the relationship with affiliates. While affiliate marketing allows a product or service provider to extend its marketing capability it is still responsible for all aspects of distribution.

Affiliate marketing can be outsourced in part or whole. Generally the affiliate marketer selects an affiliate management provider to handle acquiring and managing new affiliates.

Although not an absolute, Affiliate marketing tends to be most utilized by product or service providers who have a wide range of products to offer. This increases the likelihood that content site owners are going to assign valuable screen space to a product. Alternatively the provider may offer higher incentive commissions or target very specific content sites.

Viral/Social Marketing is similar to traditional ‘word of mouth’ advertising although done through websites. Marketers attempt create ‘buzz’ about their products by leveraging social networks, emails, blogs, videos or other venues that allow viewers to easily ‘spread the word.’ This form of Internet marketing is often associated with the term ‘Web 2.0‘ because it tends to leverage more user driven venues and content rather than commercial content sites.

Viral/Social Internet marketing, much like SEO is an ongoing effort and similarly it is possible to outsource all or some efforts in this area. Development of complex marketing campaigns would likely be outsourced to a marketing firm specializing in leveraging the Internet, however, smaller campaigns and the tactical aspects could be handled internally or by your SEO/SEM partner.

In closing, an effective Internet marketing program will leverage some or all of these components in a complementary way. Each component brings visitors to a website through its own unique tactics, timeframe and cost. If planned and managed properly, each component can be utilized by the next one to create even greater value. A successful Internet marketing plan will consider the short-term, long-term and budgetary goals of the product or service provider, deploying the components that met those goals.

Visit Webs 4 Small Business to learn more about how we can help you optimize your website.

You can also 'jump to the first of the line' with Search Engine Marketing. Find out how you can get Guaranteed Website Traffic from search engines.

Did you found this information valuable and want more like this delivered right to your inbox? Subscribe to the Small Business Insider Newsletter and you'll get a free course on Blogging as well as a valuable coupon.

Keeping Safe on the Internet this Holiday Season

2007-12-10T19:07:00.000-05:00

As a small business website owner, you are likely 'exposed' to the dangerous elements of the Internet much more than a casual user. It is important that you take the time to thing about protecting your personal and business data as you roam the Internet.

This time of year it is particularly important to 'double-check' your protection since it is likely that your employees may be using your office PCs to do a little last minute Holiday shopping.

Here are some tips provided by Comcast and McAfee that will get you started.

1. Use anti-virus software and tools -- Install active and up-to-date anti-virus software on all computers to detect and remove viruses and keyloggers that can steal customers' identities when using their bank or credit cards online. Comcast customers can also download a free Comcast Toolbar, which includes anti-spyware, a pop-up blocker and alerts about Web sites that are potentially unsafe.

Eliminate viruses and spyware with McAfee VirusScan.

2. Use anti-phishing software -- Phishing is a term used for Internet scammers who imitate legitimate companies in e-mails to entice people to share user names, passwords, account information or credit card numbers. Make sure to also install anti-phishing software to ensure you don't get duped by these kinds of online scams.

3. Turn operating system updates on -- Ensure the operating system's automatic updates are turned on. Most operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows and Macintosh, include free automated security updates to protect computers and files from hackers.

4. Install a firewall -- A firewall is the first line of defense against online threats. It monitors the data passed between a computer and the Internet. Of the 70 percent of Americans that believe they have a firewall installed, only 64 percent actually have it enabled.*** If customers already have a firewall, make sure that it is enabled.

5. Secure your wireless network -- One in ten Americans have been the victim of online identity theft. Secure access to home or personal networks with a password to make sure that others cannot access any personal information by hopping on to your wireless network. Those who are especially vulnerable are those who live in apartment buildings or densely populated neighborhoods.

Get Free Shipping on Products to Secure Your Business

6. Choose a secure password -- When a Web site requires a username and password, create a secure password by combining different numbers and letters. Remember, the longer the password the better. In addition, always completely log off of a Web site after completing an online transaction. Finally, never allow unauthorized persons access to secret passwords. If they must be written down, keep them well hidden.

7. Above all, be skeptical -- The Internet not only presents enormous possibilities, but also serious risks. Make good decisions. Use the same common sense in a real world shopping experience when shopping online at home. Does an online offer seem too good to be true? If it does, it could be a scam, which is why you should shop from online retailers that you trust.

8. Don't be afraid to "Get Help" -- Through Comcast.net's Security channel, anyone can access a range of helpful information such as instructions on how to check to see if operating system updates are on, guidance on choosing secure passwords, how to secure a wireless network and other helpful tips to keep children safe online this holiday season.

You can read the full article at http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/NEM07410122007-1.htm

Riverbank Consulting provides a website, SecurePCNews.com that offers ways to protect yourself and your small business from email scams, identity theft, viruses and other online dangers.

Search Engines and How They Work

2007-11-26T17:50:00.000-05:00

Search Engines and How They Work

If you're doing any type of business on the internet than search engines like Google and Yahoo! could play a large role in the success or failure of your business. Even though most internet user have experience using search engines, many don't know how the engines work.

For website owners it is important to understand how, at least at a high level, search engines work so they can take advantage of the website traffic that only search engines can deliver.

Search Engines are special sites on the Web that are designed to help people find information stored on other sites. There are differences in the ways various Search Engines work, but they all perform three basic tasks:

- They search the Internet - or select pieces of the Internet - based on important words,

- They keep an index of the words they find, and where they find them, and

- They allow users to look for words or combinations of words found in that index.

Early Search Engines held an index of a few hundred thousand pages and documents, and received maybe one or two thousand inquiries each day. Today, a top Search Engine will index hundreds of millions of pages, and respond to tens of millions of queries per day.

Before a Search Engine can tell you where a file or document is, it must be found. To find information on the hundreds of millions of Web pages that exist, a Search Engine employs special software robots, called spiders, to build lists of the words found on Web sites.

When a spider is building its lists, the process is called web crawling.

In order to build and maintain a useful list of words, a Search Engine's spiders have to look at a lot of pages. How does any spider start its travels over the Web? The usual starting points are lists of heavily used servers and very popular pages. The spider will begin with a popular site, indexing the words on its pages and following every link found within the site. In this way, the spidering system quickly begins to travel, spreading out across the most widely used portions of the Web.

To increase the likelyhood that the spiders find your website make sure you are listed on high ranked websites like Merchant Circle. You can create a free business page and blog that will not only increase your chances of being found but also be another place for potential visitors to find about about your website.

Submit your business listing for free to the MerchantCircle.com business directory.

Once the spiders have completed the task of finding information on Web pages, the Search Engine must store the information in a way that makes it useful. There are two key components involved in making the gathered data accessible to users:

- The information stored with the data, and

- The method by which the information is indexed.

In the simplest case, a Search Engine could just store the word and the URL where it was found. In reality, this would make for an engine of limited use, since there would be no way of telling whether the word was used in an important or a trivial way on the page, whether the word was used once or many times or whether the page contained links to other pages containing the word. In other words, there would be no way of building the ranking list that tries to present the most useful pages at the top of the list of search results.

To make for more useful results, most Search Engines store more than just the word and URL. A Search Engine might store the number of times that the word appears on a page. The engine might assign a weight to each entry, with increasing values assigned to words as they appear near the top of the document, in sub-headings, in links, in the META tags or in the title of the page. Each commercial Search Engine has a different formula for assigning weight to the words in its index. This is one of the reasons that a search for the same word on different Search Engines will produce different lists, with the pages presented in different orders.

You can get a customized Page Critic Analysis Report from Webs 4 Small Business that tells you how YOUR webpages should be set up to make sure give the search engines what they are looking for when they review your page.

An index has a single purpose: it allows information to be found as quickly as possible. There are quite a few ways for an index to be built, but one of the most effective ways is to build a hash table. In hashing, a formula is applied to attach a numerical value to each word.

The formula is designed to evenly distribute the entries across a predetermined number of divisions. This numerical distribution is different from the distribution of words across the alphabet, and that is the key to a hash table's effectiveness.

When a person requests a search on a keyword or phrase, the Search Engine software searches the index for relevant information. The software then provides a report back to the searcher with the most relevant web pages listed first.

Not sure what keywords you should use? Picking the right, or wrong ones, can make or break your chances at online success. Consider getting a customized Key Word Report from Webs 4 Small Business that tells you which keywords you should and should not consider for your site. These keywords are specific to YOUR website not a generic list of keywords.

So, why are search engines important to business website owners? Simple. You need traffic and Search Engines have lots of it. And, their purpose is to drive traffic to sites that they think match their visitors' needs.

The way to get a portion of that traffic, is to optimize your website (you've likely heard of Search Engine Optimzaiton or SEO). That way when a someone searches for a keyword that is relevant to your website, the search engines includes a link to your website in the search results. That puts traffic and potential visitors just a click away from you website.

Visit Webs 4 Small Business to learn more about how we can help you optimize your website.

You can also 'jump to the first of the line' with Paid Search Engine listings. Find out how you can get Guaranteed Website Traffic from search engines.

Managed Internet Advertising Service for Small Businesses Announced by Riverbank Consulting

2007-11-19T12:42:00.000-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Nov 19, 2007 – Raleigh, NC — Riverbank Consulting, Inc.,leading edge technology and internet consulting company for small businesses, today announced that it has launched a managed internet advertising service for small businesses. Delivered through its Webs 4 Small Business service Riverbank Consulting can now assist Small Business Website owners by providing guaranteed, targeted traffic and buyers to their websites.

Once of the biggest challenges small business owners face is effectively leveraging the Internet to grow business. Many spend substantial amounts of money on a business website, but don’t realize any benefits from the investment because visitors can’t or don’t find it. Paid advertising services offer businesses the opportunity to rapidly gain exposure for a new website, or revitalize an existing one.

Aubrey Jones, President and founder of Riverbank Consulting, Inc. noted that "having a business website alone is just not enough, you also have to make potential visitors and buyers aware of the website to generate targeted traffic.” “Paid advertising, such as Pay-Per-Click, is an excellent way to drive targeted, quality traffic to a business website. Like any marketing effort, however, without expert management the investment can be ineffective and unnecessarily expensive” added Mr. Jones.

Small Businesses will benefit from this new service by setting their own budget, as low as $99 per month, and allowing Riverbank Consulting experts to ensure that the investment is effective. Leveraging well known services such as Google Adwords (TM), Yahoo!(R) Search Marketing and Microsoft (R) AdCenter, Riverbank Consulting determines the right mix of online advertising to meet the business owner’s objectives as well as his or her budget.

“Small businesses need exposure for their websites and they also can’t afford the time or effort it takes to create traffic organically. This services let’s them jumpstart their website traffic” notes Mr. Jones.

This new service provides small business owners with guaranteed, targeted traffic for as low as $99 per month, with no long term commitments. By including managed paid internet advertising in their overall marketing efforts they can quickly see the results of their investment in the Internet. Learn more details about this new guaranteed traffic service at their website.

About Riverbank Consulting

Founded in 2006, Riverbank Consulting, Inc. brings big business technology and internet experience to small businesses and organizations without bringing the big expenses and time requirements. Through a variety of services Riverbank Consulting allows organizations to take advantage of the technology it needs to become and stay efficient. Founder and President, Aubrey Jones, brings over 13 years experience building, supporting and managing large scale commercial internet solutions as well as non-profit internet solutions.

Riverbank Consulting, Inc. provides Raleigh, NC and Triangle Area small businesses local, on-site consulting services. Through services like Webs 4 Small Business services Riverbank Consulting also offers global internet technology services.

Are you a Small Business Insider? Become one today by subscribing and receive a free internet marketing course.

What You Should Look For When Selecting An SEO partner

2007-11-07T10:47:00.000-05:00

Every company offering SEO related services promises results but few deliver on that promise. To be the exception when it comes to delivering on that promise a SEO partner must take an approach that ensures quality results that meet YOUR business objectives.

There are lots of 'unethical' approaches to SEO that can actually get you banned from search engines. Unfortunately, some SEO companies still use these as a 'quick-fix.' Unfortunately, you get left holding the bag. Make sure the SEO company can explain their approach in terms you can explain and if they can't you should keep searching.

Here's what to look for:

First, they should demonstrate that they understand your business need.

Just giving you a questionnaire is not enough. At the beginning of any engagement, they should take the time to understand your business objectives. Your business is unique and a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach rarely actually fits every business. By taking the time to understand your business they should be able to tailor their services to best meet your business objectives as well as your budget.

Look for a free consulation to get started. Quality SEO Partners like Webs 4 Small Business will take the time to understand what you need before they 'put you on the clock.'

Second, they should use a proven model of optimization that offers 'realistic' expectations.

Ignore marketing hype like "Rank #1 in Google in 24 hours" Search engines do not make public the process or rules they use to crawl, rank pages or index website pages. Further the processes and rules change often as the search engines attempt to increase the value of search results. Of course if your keyword phrase is "one of a kind white unicorns hand made by a grandmother in Peoria" then you actually have a good shot of # 1 ranking if anyone actually ever searched for that. Otherwise, it takes time and lots of work to get high rankings.

To compensate for this lack of public information, an SEO partner should rely on a proven model to ‘uncover’ the rules.

1. Analyze – Determine where your pages rank today. From this you can learn what may be ‘right’ about these higher ranking that can be applied to other pages. Webs 4 Small business provides a FREE SEO ranking report to gets you started or you could select a full customized ranking report that gives you all the details about where you website is strongest and weakest.

2. Target – Every web site is unique. Rather than a set of ‘canned’ optimization recommendations they should determine the right optimization options for your website. To accomplish this they should use a range of methods:

Expert Review. While many SEO partners have great in-house experience they should also turn to other experts who study search engines to determine the most likely ‘rules’ used to determine how pages are indexed and ranked.
Best Practices. They should look at the top ranking competitors in your space to determine how they optimized their pages, particularly those aspects that could influence page rankings.
Learn as they Optimize. They should consider implementing changes to larger sites in stages. Start by optimizing your highest value pages first, then, based on the results modify the optimization approach if needed before continuing.
It’s More than Google. While organic search results are a key portion of any optimization effort, they should know that it takes much more to get quality traffic to your website. They should be able to help you go beyond the search engines to find your new traffic.

3. Optimize – They should be able to provide the detailed information you need to understand what needs to be done to your website. They should also be willing to let you make the changes rather than forcing you to allow them to make the changes at substantial per hour fees.

4. Analyze - SEO is not a one-time effort. Your business changes, your competitors change, your prospects and customers change and the search engines refine rules. This means you will need to periodically review your ranking and re-optimize your site. You should expect your SEO partner to provide 'follow-ups' to ensure that you got results.

Look for a free follow-up evaluation of your website after undertaking steps for optimization.

Third, their approach should be comprehensive and include all the aspects that bring traffic to your website, not just search engines. Make sure they will provide:

Detailed Site Analysis - You need to understand from where your site is starting.
Keyword Analysis - All keywords are not created equal. They should help you understand which ones to use, and as importantly, which ones not to use.
Page Structure Recommendations - Content, headers, keyword placement, it all matters.
Engine Submissions - Each engine is unique. 'Submit a link' programs are not effective.
Paid Search - The internet is like any business, sometimes 'free' isn't worth even that. You may even want to consider a managed Pay-Per-Click service to get you started.
Reciprocal Links - As with keywords, all links are not created equally.

Finally, the right SEO partner should work hand in hand with you to make sure the changes recommended for your website are the best fit for you. They should share their approach to making the changes to your website and should be flexible to make changes in a way that best supports your business needs.

Selecting a SEO partner can be intimidating. With all the marketing hype, it is easy to get fooled. In the end SEO is like any other business service you use. You should be able to understand the benefits, and limitations, it offers and make an informed decision about how to invest your money.

Looking for a hand getting your business website off the ground? Webs 4 Small Business can help you get started with a complete business website for only $249 or you can start optimizing your business website for only $295.

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