Cathy Stucker - The Idea Lady

Attract Customers and Make Yourself Famous

Google Me This

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Do you ever do a search for your name in Google, Yahoo and other search engines? How can you control what is found?

When someone wants to know more about you, chances are they will go to Google and enter your name. What they find could determine if you get a job, a new client—or even a date! If you haven’t done a search for your name, do it right now. I’ll wait here.

So, what did you find? Ideally, your web site came up first, followed by other results from quality sites that present you in a positive light. But that might not be the case, so here is what to do next.

If you do not have a web presence, get one. Set up a web site and/or blog and start adding content to it. It may take a little time before it shows up in the search engines, but the sooner you start, the better. You should also look for ways to build your presence on other sites, by syndicating articles, creating profiles and more.

What if you found negative stuff? Maybe you found an ill-considered forum posting, some inappropriate photos on MySpace, or a nasty blog post from a rival. First, if you can control it, delete it. Take those photos down from MySpace, or kill the whole profile. They may still exist in an archive somewhere, but once removed they will drop in the search engine results.

If you do not control the page, ask the person who does to remove the item. They may or may not, but it might be worth asking. If they don’t, or to deal with the things that can not or will not be removed, the best answer is to bury them. Add new content to the web that will cause the bad stuff to drop in the results. Even your mother will not look at search result 132 for your name.

Create a positive presence on quality sites by posting articles, making positive and intelligent comments to blogs and forums, and setting up profiles and pages on high-quality sites such as Amazon.com (set up your profile by clicking on Your Amazon.com, then Your Profile), EzineArticles.com (and don’t forget to upload several great articles), Squidoo.com and others. Look for sites that allow experts to contribute content, especially sites in your field, as the content can enhance your expert reputation.

Set up profiles on video sharing sites, such as YouTube.com, and add videos. Make sure your name is in the video description. You can also upload photos to photo sharing sites such as flickr.com.

Don’t forget about social networking sites. Profiles and pages on sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn often show up near the top of search results when someone’s name is searched.

Continue adding content and profiles to the web that will drive the old, icky stuff down in the search engine results, and steer searchers to content you control.

Figuring out Where to Start

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If you are just starting out with a new website, it can be pretty tricky figuring what your first move should be. 

There are so many ways that you can promote your new website, and it is easy to let overwhelm prevent you from actually getting off the ground.

So with that in mind, I am going to break it down for you and suggest how you can conquer the choice effect and pick up your first few drops of momentum. Once you are moving, picking up speed is much easier, but those first few steps are the ones that matter right now.

Let’s Break down Internet Marketing

For the sakes of simplicity, let’s think about website promotion in 4 categories. Each category is a consideration on it’s own, and whilst they can all be thought of as being interlinked, it is simplest to start with if we get to grips with each on it’s own.

Social Media

All those things like Twitter, Facebook, Technorati, Digg etc! There are literally hundreds of social media tools that you can consider using for your site. Don’t worry though, none of them are absolutely essential. Just pick one to start with, which ever one you can understand the most easily, and work on finding ways to use that. Unless you are already an expert on social networking, it is easiest to learn one at a time rather than rushing in and trying to learn ten.

SEO

SEO is all the stuff you do to get free traffic from the search engines. This is in my opinion one of the most important bits to get right. Good SEO results take time, but once you have developed good search engine ranks, that will continue to bring you free traffic. There is a lot to learn, but if you start with the basics and build a solid foundation right from the start, you can learn more about SEO as you go along.

Paid Advertising

I’m talking about things like banner Ads, and most notably; Adwords. Paid advertising is great if you have the cash to put into it, but you have to be very careful about how you do it. Sometimes it is only possible to break even with PPC programs and you might find that repeat custom is your only way to make it profitable. My recommendation would usually be to take your time. When you have the time to test and know exactly how much money (if any) your Ads are bringing in, then you can start experimenting with PPC.

Email Marketing

Perhaps the single most important aspect here, yet also the most often neglected. I could write pages about the importance of a good mailing list, but suffice to say for now; setting up a good email marketing strategy should be number one (or at least top 3) priority from the outset.

Just Starting? Here’s What to do

Promoting a new website is not necessarily a one size fits all activity, your own situation, and market might be better suited to different mediums. But if you are at risk of being overwhelmed, having a simple plan to start off is better than being paralysed into inaction.

So here’s my recommended plan to get you started with your new website business:

Set up your site first of all, get it working. Then you can start laying the foundations of your SEO efforts. Just build a couple of links and write some good content to get your site bulked up a little. In the meantime, figure out how you are going to sign up new email contacts and get a working mailing list.

Figure out a plan that will help you to keep on top of your email marketing. This is all important because it is very easy to never get round to actually using the email contacts you gain.

Once that is set up, pick up a social networking site of some sort and learn how to use it. My first one was Twitter, but you can pick whichever site you “get” the most easily.

Once everything is running reasonably well, start to learn the basics of setting up and tracking an Adwords campaign, and if you then feel comfortable, set up a cheap Ad and see how it goes. Never set up an Adwords campaign without using conversion tracking. If you can’t track successful sales you can’t know whether it is worth the money you are spending, so always track.

Once you have gotten that far you should have a much better idea of what you are doing, now you can start to develop your skills in more depth, getting started is the biggest hurdle though. Just remember this: you don’t need to do things perfectly, just doing something is what matters.

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Mark Johnson is the founder of Marks Marketing blog, a blog for internet entrepreneurs and info-preneurs. He blogs about everything from starting an internet business to maximizing your Adsense profits.

Facebook Ads vs Google Ads – Which is Better?

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This is a guest post from Mark Baartse, founder of .Shopping Cart Reviews..

Did you know that Facebook is the most popular site on the web? It beat Google to the top spot in 2009. Yet, despite its popularity, when you talk about advertising, most of the talk is still about Google.

In competitive industries such as insurance, when you click on an ad in Google it can cost the company up to $20 for just one click – no wonder your insurance premiums as so high! Yet, while insurance companies are handing over millions to Google, Facebook is sitting in the corner quietly waiting for some attention – and offering a lot less than $20 a click.

So what’s the difference between Google and Facebook? They are quite different. People searching on Google generally have a lot more intention – they are more interested in buying. If you go to Google and type in “home insurance”, then there’s a fair chance you are interested in home insurance.

In Facebook ads are targeted based on interest. When you create an ad you show them to people who have expressed an interest in that area. You sell gardening supplies? Facebook ads allows you to target people who have expressed an interest in gardening. If it’s a local business, no problem, just target people in your city.

A big catch with Facebook ads is creatives – the actual ad you see. Usually you make an ad, and then you run it for the duration of the campaign. More sophisticated advertisers will create several versions and swap them to see which performs best. With Facebook, people get bored. Quickly. Have you been annoyed by Facebook ads that keep showing up? If you want to get lots of clicks boredom is your enemy so you need to change your ad constantly, perhaps as often as every 1 or 2 days! Just changing the picture is a good start.

As Facebook users typically have less intention than a Google user, they are less likely to buy (although I’ve seen some successful direct sales campaigns on Facebook). A good strategy is making a Facebook fan page and sending your visitors there instead of your website. By doing this, if they add you (or “like” you in current Facebook-speak), you get to have an ongoing connection with them and engage them in your company. In addition, their friends see that “like” in their news feed and some of them will then also “like” you. I know of people who got 5 users by seeing “like” in their news feed for every one they paid for.

Facebook advertising is likely to explode soon, so my advice is to get in now, beat the rush before it’s too late!

Mark Baartse is founder of Shopping Cart Reviews, an ecommerce resource site covering some of the latest shopping cart innovations such as Prestashop and OpenCart.

Finding Profitable Niches

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One of the problems many new Internet marketers face is figuring out what niche they are going to operate in. It is hard enough to find a profitable niche. Finding a profitable niche that is not overrun with competitors may seem nearly impossible.

The secret to finding a profitable niche? Going deep to find sub-niches that are popular but have little competition. You want to find a niche: (1) that gets a significant number of searches, (2) where it is possible to create web pages or websites that rank well in the search engines and (3) where it is possible to make a profit. 

Let’s say that you are interested in the travel niche. That is a popular and competitive topic. Even sub-niches, such as hotels, air fare, and vacations, are highly competitive. There are lots of people searching on those topics, but there are also many competing sites.

Your next step might be to drill down further into the niche to find long-tail keywords where you can be competitive. Think of long-tail keywords as those that do not get the same number of searches as the top level keywords, but still get enough searches to be profitable. For example, “discount air fare” or “Costa Rica air fare” or “discount Costa Rica air fare.”

Another advantage of many long-tail keywords is that people searching for these terms may be more likely to be ready to buy than those searching for top level keywords. As an example, who do you think is more likely to buy right now: Someone searching for “digital cameras” or someone searching for “Canon Digital Rebel XSi”? Anyone who is searching for a broad term such as “digital cameras” is probably just starting to gather information. On the other hand, someone looking for a specific model of camera has done their initial research and they are much closer to a buy decision.

Another group of likely buyers are those who are facing an urgent problem. Someone who is in pain (physical, emotional or financial) will gladly pay for a solution to their problem.

How can you find out how many searches are done for the keywords you have identified, and what the competition is for those keywords? There are lots of tools that can help you. The Goodle Keyword Tool can show you the number of searches done for keywords, but it will not give you specifics on how many other pages are competing for those keywords. A tool I have found useful for determining both the number of searches and how many competing pages there are is Micro Niche Finder. Although it is a paid tool, it can save you a lot of time and help you identify profitable niches.

By targeting a specific, narrowly-defined niche, you do not limit your profitability, you attract exactly the right customers. Be a big fish in a small pond by seeking to dominate a tight, profitable niche rather than trying to be all things to all people.

Why Should Small Businesses Have a Social Media Friendly Website?

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This is a guest post from Phyllis Zimbler Miller of http://www.millermosaicpowerof3.com.

According to a webinar I attended, approximately half the small businesses in the U.S. do not have a website for their businesses.

Believe it or not, this could be good news for these businesses.  Why do I say this if I believe every business should have a website?

Because many, many businesses – whether they’ve had a website for some time or have a new website – have an “old-fashioned” website that is not social media friendly. 

What is an “old-fashioned” website?  It’s one that doesn’t offer potential customers/clientele a connection with the business owners – one that doesn’t offer people the opportunity to interact on Twitter or a Facebook (business) page or a blog with the real people (by name) of a business.

What does your website home page say?

Imagine a website whose home page touts its products or services without any information about the people behind the products or services.  And when you go to the ABOUT page all you read is how long the company has been in business.  Maybe there are the names of people in the business or maybe just the “we have been in business.” And certainly no blog, no Twitter or Facebook page links.

Now imagine a website whose home page introduces you to the people behind the products or services that the business offers.  The Twitter and Facebook page links are prominently displayed “above the fold” (before you have to scroll down).  There’s a photo of the business owner with an email more personal than info@company name.  And there’s a blog that enables people to leave comments about the blog posts.

If you were considering buying a specific kind of product or service, which website would be more likely to engage you?  And I’m not even mentioning that the second website probably has an email optin box to capture your emails and stay in contact with you.

Now you may be thinking: 

What’s the big deal about potential customers/clientele being able to interact with me/my business on the Internet?  They should just buy my products/services.

Wrong!  They shouldn’t just buy your products or services.  Thanks to Facebook, Twitter and a host of other social media sites, today people expect to have a relationship with the person whose products or services they are buying.  They want to know whose reputation stands behind the company’s offerings.  What are the company people like?  Do they truly understand the potential buyer’s needs?

Think of your own buying habits

Do you frequent a neighborhood restaurant not just for the food but for the feeling of connection with the restaurant owners?  I know I do.  I love it when the waiters at the family-owned restaurant Al Gelato in Los Angeles automatically put a lemon in my husband’s water. 

We are social creatures – and social creatures like connections with others.  Thus when I come to a “cold” website that doesn’t seem to have real people behind it, I’m unlikely to feel welcome.  Yet when I come to a “warm” website with the company personality up close and personal on the home page, I’m much more likely to stick around and see if the site has information/products/services for me.

What is the ideal for your business website?

The ideal is, first, have a website.  If you don’t have one already, get one.  This will serve as your home base for connecting with potential customers/clientele on the web.  (And, yes, this is equally important for both online and offline businesses.)

Second, make sure your website is social media friendly.  If it isn’t, make changes right now: 

When people land on your site’s home page they should immediately know your name (and your photo) and that you are the site’s owner. 

Then make sure you have an active Twitter account and a Facebook (business) page and encourage people to interact with you on those two sites. 

Plus, if you can commit to publishing new blog posts approximately three times a week (by you or by guest bloggers), definitely consider having a blog.  It’s a great way to interact with your potential customers/clientele.

If you want more convincing that social media works, watch this short video by Chuck Hendershot of Exit Realty Group NJ: http://budurl.com/socialmediapraise

Phyllis Zimbler Miller has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing.  Get her FREE report “Twitter, Facebook, and Your Website: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3 for Your Business” at http://www.millermosaicpowerof3.com