Month: July 2008

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Move Forward or Die – What to Embrace to Grow Your Business?

Even I get fatigued with staying on top of my business for the Web. It’s hard work to blog, write a newsletter, stay up-to-date in your field, tweak your website for organic placement, and manage your pay per click program on top of your regular business maintenance issues like billing, selling, and then actually doing the work you get paid for. But, if you don’t stay on top of your game, moving forward constantly, you WILL die. Well, not literally, but figuratively your business will, really. You must constantly be moving forward to stay “in the game” to win new clients for your business.

Too often businesses forget that to grow that they must be looking for new ways to reach out to prospects and clients. You simply cannot grow your business by being static or doing the same old things. Being a successful business person is all about being dynamic. That means actively growing your business, looking for new opportunities, and stretching to reach more people on the Web in new ways. Same old same old will not cut it in today’s competitive environment.

So what are the new things you can and should embrace to help grow your business and win new customers? Here are my top five web recommendations:

  1. Start blogging – there are too many benefits that you get from blogging to not be doing it now!
  2. Consider a monthly e-newsletter – keep your name in front of prospects with well written pieces and make sure to archive old newsletters on your website.
  3. Make sure you are using pay per click advertising – but only supplement your business by targeting the keywords where you cannot place organically. Your budget doesn’t need to be big, but consistently work on keeping your name in the marketplace in front of prospects and customers.
  4. Watch industry forums and post comments on the top forums and blogs making sure to link back to your own website. Choose websites that have “extreme authority”. In my industry for example, I routinely post on the Google Search blog, Microsoft’s adCenter and other top search blogs, and other industry expert’s blogs. Always post insightful commentary never spam. Google usually picks up these comments as links back to your website and they can really work for you to build authority and traffic.
  5. Start now with a syndicated article program. Hire a ghost writer to research and write articles for you. Post at least one a month for six to twelve months to build authority for your business and to get new one way in bound links to your website. This strategy does work, and can really help to improve your organic placement. Archive the articles back on your own website. Make sure you write to cater to a broad audience, don’t just write for others in your trade, try to write for the broadest appeal and largest syndication possible.

If you are not moving forward aggressively to build your brand through my five easy steps you should take a careful look to see if you need to resurrect your business plan for growth. Remember if you are not moving forward your business will die!

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Link Generating Articles Take 4 Months to Reach Google

I’ve been very closely monitoring links and organic activity on Google for a client that we have been aggressively been writing feature articles for directory syndication. What I have found out about the process is interesting. There is about a three to four month delay before the results hit Google. So you must be patient with the process and continue to write while waiting.

Specifically, we have been writing 800 to 1,000 word articles typically focused for this client on bringing traffic to his website through broad syndication. He is a bed bug exterminator and the articles have been focused to the real estate and property manager industry as well as providing interesting information to home owners on the topic of bed bugs.

It has taken Google four months to really show a difference in his number of in bound links. Last month he had 600 links reported by Google and this month there are over 3,000. We have written a total of just under 10 articles so far and the increase in the number of Google reported links has positively impacted his organic placement on top terms in Google finally this month.

The bottom line is that feature article writing for directory syndication is an excellent way to get one way in bound links, but that you should expect to wait 120 to 150 days or more for the results to really impact your website’s organic placement on Google.

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The Economic Down Turn and Petroleum Costs Hurt Everyone!

Several months ago our Realtor clients and mortgage broker clients were really hurting and unfortunately for many, that situation has simply not changed.  What I am seeing is that this slow down and cut back of expenses is now migrating out of the real estate and mortgage industry into broader market sectors.

We are seeing many clients in many types of businesses tightening their belts, stopping peripheral services, and actively working to trim the expenses that they can control. You can’t easily control what you spend for gas, for electricity, or for food, but you can trim, or bring in-house, certain services that you typically outsource. This is what I am seeing finally in our my service industry.

Many clients who have employed our blogging services are tasking a junior team member to start blogging. Some are moving to Indian firms, and some are stopping blogging altogether.

As the cost of petroleum and mortgage crisis impacts more businesses and causes commodity prices to rise, I expect to see more cut backs and more do-it-yourselfers trying to take over webmastering their website, cutting back on their website updates, and bring their blogging services and pay per click management services in house.

My firm has been in business for nearly eight years and we are in this for the long haul. We will continue to offer value and practical solutions to all clients. Trust me, we’ll be ready to help you when you have the need and desire to outsource these areas that you may have had to pull closer to yourself for the time being.