SEM Blog: Website Marketing Blog

Interesting news coming out of San Francisco. I’m not really surprised that these talk are going on. Google has been extremely vocal about the Microsoft takeover. They obviously think a Microsoft takeover of Yahoo would be bad for the internet in general. I wonder what affect this will have on adsense if it ever materializes. At first glance it might be thought that Google’s paid ad reach would sky rocket but that may not be the case because Google already powers such a huge percent of daily searches.

See the link below for details.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080409/bs_nm/yahoo_google_dc

The mobile market has expanded to the point where many people rely primarily on their cell phone. Almost all cell phones currently available are capable of receiving SMS text messages and accessing the internet. With the average consumer having their cell phone on hand more often then their laptop, this market is perfect for taking advantage of but also requires a bit of finesse or you’ll wind up turning your audience away.

Before you even start thinking about Mobile Marketing, I highly encourage you to become familiar with the Mobile Marketing Association’s (MMA) Best Practices Guidelines and their Mobile Advertising Guidelines to fully understand what’s considered acceptable protocol and what isn’t. Also, the Mobile Marketers Mobile Outlook 2008 is a great read for more detailed information on the topic.

The options are really limitless in this form of marketing as each day it seems that cell phones become that much closer to becoming a laptop. Starting with the basic SMS text messaging and MMS marketing, you have the option of providing one or two way communication with your audience. Your audience can opt in to receive your marketing material, respond back to you to request more or different material, and even submit information to you that you can use in a number of ways. Advertising on mobile sites is a viable option now as well and even google adsense has broken into that market. But it doesn’t just stop there, games and applications for your phone are full of advertisements and sponsorships and you paid for them.

Having been a big fan of the Heroes TV Show, I actually opted into their mobile marketing campaign which is fairly viral. I was sent at least one text message a week, offered a gateway to their WAP site, and even asked to reply back to them and help figure out clues for some mystery relevant to the show. It was very captivating in a viral marketing sense. Also, if you have frequented a bar recently, you’ll notice several of them have a tv screen advertising unit they call BarCast which lets you text and picture message their service and have that broadcast on the advertising board.

The options really are limitless, but the audience is a lot more thin skinned about how you approach the situation.

You have 364 days left to take advantage of this, so you’ll want to set an alarm to remind and come back to reference this post.

Today the internet goes dead. Every news source and trusted form of information now lay suspect as the dreaded Fools Day leaves its mark. But what’s that you say? Your social bookmarking sites are flooded with hilarious or concerning stories that you can’t help but click on? Your search engine of choice offers to let you to search into the future? And of course, you can’t simply click the link and read it and be done with it. No! You must send it out to everyone you know so that they too can share in the hilarity.

Congratulations. You have provided some giddy marketer with the results desired from there viral marketing campaign. April Fools day is all about capturing the attention of your specific audience and giving them something to gab about. So while Google is just doing it for the giggles because, let’s face it, we live in their world, everyone out there is fighting for a piece of the pie. The following is a list of the April Fools Pranks from this year that definitely make the grade.

• Newsflash: Digg Admits It’s Rigged and Just a Game
• Clinton Drops Out!!!!
• NASA to Burn Sponsor Logos into the Surface of Mars
• Betamax to HD-DVD Converter
• Match.com Works For eHarmony Founder

So what do these sites gain by putting up this little piece of humor for the world to see? Traffic, and lots of it.

So how can you take advantage of April Fools Day 2009 like everyone in marketing should?

1. Create a fake news story or product/service based off of a popular buzz term.
2. Make sure it at least makes you smirk before you launch it. Test it out on your friends.
3. If your target is the U.S. then launch it right at Midnight EST.
4. Use social bookmarking sites and sites specifically tailored to listing April Fools Day Pranks submitted by users.
5. Keep tabs on what blogs in your niche write about, the cool April Fools Day Pranks they’ve seen and either comment on them or send the publisher the link right as you go live.
6. Know when to call it quits. YouTube directed every featured video on their site to a Rick Roll. Shortly after they reverted back to normal and many people clicking over to see the prank most likely surfed around for a bit.

So next year when you’re planning your April Fools Day Prank, I’ll be one year closer to living on Mars with Project Virgle’s Plan B.

In the world of PHP and MySQL, databases have become a daily part of a webmasters and end users online experience. The database is the heart of your web site, without it most sites would not exist. Because the database is so critical it’s important to keep a fresh backup copy on hand in case something goes wrong.

Anyone with access to cPanel can easily save a backup copy of their database using the following steps.

1. Log into your cPanel (your domain.com/cpanel or domain.com:2082 or whatever your host requires).

2. Select the phpMyAdmin icon under databases OR Select MySQL Databases and then Scroll to the bottom and click phpMyAdmin (whichever your cpanel requires).

3. On the left hand side select the database you want to backup.

4. On the right hand side select the Export tab at the top .

5. On the right side towards the bottom check the box which says “Save as File”.

6. Below the “Save as File” select which type of compression you want (none, zipped, gzipped).

7. Click “Go” on the right hand side, this will begin the download of your database.

After reading my last post about defining viral marketing you’ve probably gone out and created a killer product or found something popular’s coattails that you can ride one. After taking all the time to get the process started, you realized that you’re not sure exactly what the benefits of viral marketing are. To ease your worries and as a way to convince you to credit me when your product catches on, I’ve decided to outline for you some of the key benefits of viral marketing.

A big benefit of viral marketing is how inexpensive it can be in comparison to nearly all other marketing methods. Take that product you’ve created and send it out to some influential people in your niche for free. As a professional blogger, I review every thing that I’m sent in the most honest fashion possible. I even carry the product around with me if possible for at least a week before passing judgment. In that scenario, your cost is the loss of one product for a review and a wide audience of people to come in contact with it first hand outside of a retail environment.

Another great benefit of viral marketing is the wide audience you’ll be able to reach. I’m sitting here writing at Starbucks on my Eee PC that I fell in love with after reading a review on it. Do you know how many people, from little kids to grandma’s, ask me about it on a daily basis? That product has just trickled down three levels and I’m only one small factor in the reach the original review had.

The process can easily work with services as well. Take a cool concept like OwnMyTeam.com which is growing it’s numbers to achieve their goal of owning and operating a professional sports team. They’ve spent no money on advertising what so ever and have made more growth through sending info out to influential individuals in their niche to the point that their traffic is steadily beating their only stateside competition even when the competitions biggest marketing piece came from a misleading review of their services posted in the New York Times. People are 10 times more open to an idea if it comes from someone they deem to be at their level.

These benefits don’t end once you’ve finished the campaign either. The trickle down effect can spread infinitely further than your normal ad campaign. But watch out, if you’re product sucks, viral marketing can ruin you over night.

I saw this video on YouTube and wanted to share it here. Google engineer Matt Cutts talks about 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dSMFiCjwwE

Matt again mentions importance of high quality content as well as the importance of targeting a specific niche. He also mentions the Google’s Local Business Center

https://www.google.com/local/add/ and how you can submit for free and show up on Google Maps at no charge. Also mentioned was the importance of having a website well suited for a mobile device. Overall mobile device load time seems like an important issue for 2008 so hopefully we can get some good blog discussion here on that issue.

 

Please see our Directory Submission Service page for ordering.

Below are answers to our most frequently asked questions. If you have any additional questions please feel free to email us.

Q. What forms of payment to you accept?

A. We accept Paypal.

Q. Can I spread the submissions out over several weeks/months?

A. Yes you can. Please email us with any instructions after your order.

Q. How many of the directories will add my site?

A. While we can’t guarantee any specific number of listings we have found around 50% of the directories will add your listings.

Q. Should I enter the email address I use everyday for these submissions?

A. You need to use a valid email address but you may not want to use the email address you use everyday. Many directories send out emails that may contain a confirmation link so the directory can determine that the submission was manual. For this reason you may want the numerous emails to be sent to an address that you can check but is not the one you use for regular communication.

Q. Do all directories send out these email confirmations?

A. Not all directories send out confirmations but many do.

Q. What if I don’t have time to click on the email confirmation links, will you do it for me?

A. Yes, if you contact us and let us know that you would like us to click on the email confirmations we will use a gmail account for your submissions so that we can access it to click the email confirmation links. You will also receive login information to this email if you would like.

Q. Can I alternate descriptions as well as titles for my submissions?

A. Yes, please email us indicating the varied descriptions.

Q. What if my site is already listed in some of the directories you will be submitting it to?

A. If a directory gives an Already Listed message upon submitting, we will replace that directory with another directory so you will still get the number of submissions you ordered.

Q. When will I receive my submission report?

A. The report will take:

1-2 days for 100 submissions

3 days for 300 submissions

4 days for 500 submissions

5 days for 800 submissions

7 days for 1000 submissions

 

Q. I have numerous sites; can you give me a discount?

A. Yes, please email us and we can work out a bulk discount.

Many people refer to a site having extra links in Google’s search results as being an authority site. For example see:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS176US215&q=golf+gifts&btnG=Search

The links to the interior pages of a site are given at Google’s discretion when a site is deemed worthy enough to feature them. This is very useful to the site owner because it brings more attention to the search result; it also takes up more of the space on the top of the first page, which is excellent for the site owner trying to drive traffic.

Now check this out:

http://www.google.com/search?q=walmart&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS176US215

Not only does the top result have extra links it also features the site’s search box so users can easily search for merchandise. The buttons are also custom in that they have the site’s name right on the button “Search walmart.com”. Other sites that return a search box in the results include:

Target:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS176US215&q=target&btnG=Search

PetCo:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS176US215&q=petco&btnG=Search

Several months ago one of the moderators on http://www.webmasterlighthouse.com/forums/index.php

Wrote me to tell me he had listed my directory on his Squidoo lens under Top 10 Web Directories http://www.squidoo.com/seonutshell

I went to check out what was called a lens and I thought it was a great form of marketing. At the time of writing this post 315 users have already ranked the lens. This means 315 users personally visited the lens and it is very likely all were someone tied to the field of SEO. That equals targeted marketing.

With a little time and effort a user can create a content rich lens for free. More about Squidoo can be found on their about us page http://www.squidoo.com/squidoo

Pretty much all of the internet and that little thing attached to it that we call reality are completely infatuated with social networking in one form or another. The rate at which people interact through networks like Myspace, Facebook, and LinkedIn continue to grow on a daily basis. And of course you have to take into account how many blogs, social bookmarking sites (Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us), and forums that people frequent day to day so they can catch a glimpse of how everyone else sees it.

If you stand back and look at the whole picture, what you see is a marketing dream. All it takes is one splash, something to captivate even one individual and spread like a virus through all of their avenues of communication. But unlike conventional marketing, you can’t approach viral marketing as straight forward.

The goal behind viral marketing is for you not to see it as marketing at all. In essence, the product or service being marketed needs to either be so appealing that it can explode onto the scene or you’ll have to attach it to something that already has. From there, your target audience is in the drivers seat and ultimately they’ll be the ones spreading your viral marketing or stopping it in it’s tracks.

Let’s take a look at two examples using a similar strategy:

Mountain Dew Commercial: An already well known product has been attached to a pop culture reference. You know it’s an advertisement, but until the Mountain Dew sign at the end, it’s just another Chuck Norris joke.

Will It Blend?: This is a series of videos dedicated to showing how insanely powerful this device is. Instead of paying for infomercial spots where they blend up a nice smoothie, they’ve torn through everything from an iPhone to GI Joe’s. They’ve cut out the obvious and stepped it up a notch.

Which method is actually the more successful of the two? Will It Blend has become so popular that every new video hits the front page of Digg the day it’s launched. But which of the two products are you more likely to buy? I’d say Mountain Dew.