2008-11-06 Hi Everyone, If you're still looking for something fun yet educational to do on Friday, come see me, Jennifer and Stoney at the Learn About Web conference in Kennewick, WA. I especially encourage all of those in the Tri-Cities area to check out this event put on by Bright Web Marketing. I hope to see you there! If not, maybe I'll see some of you in Vegas for PubCon because that's where I'm heading right after Washington. Drop me a line if you're going. Have a great week. Rachel Phillips
Google Website Optimizer: Always Be Testingby Manoj JasraA few months ago Bryan Eisenberg and John Quarto-vonTivadar released an in-depth guide on testing using Google Website Optimizer called, "Always Be Testing." I had the opportunity to go through the book and thought that anyone could read it and quickly implement a testing framework using Google's website optimizer. I recently got the chance to interview co-author Bryan Eisenberg to get his thoughts on his motivations for writing the book and the benefits readers can get from it.... Comprehensive Guide to Keyword Research, Selection & Organization, Part XIby Stoney deGeyterOrganizing your keywords into an effective marketing strategy is the most important of the four phases of keyword research outlined in this document. While most often SEOs and keyword researchers focus on the research phases, organizing your keyword properly can truly help you create a vastly more successful optimization and marketing campaign. Comprehensive Guide to Keyword Research, Selection & Organization, Part XIIby Stoney deGeyterThe process of organizing your keywords is similar to the process of splitting a single core term into multiple cores, only its done in a much more fine-tuned scale. With core terms you were dealing with multiple themes, or different ways to search for the same product. In this phase we are working with only a single core term and deciding how to segment literally hundreds of phrases into manageable groups that are similar in nature. The Evolution of Online Advertising Technology - More Targeting, Less Privacy (Part Two)by Scott BureshEven with the cookie-type behavioral advertising technology, there was a way for users to prevent these ads from targeting them. They could set their machines not to accept any cookies at all by setting their browser security setting to high. This solved the privacy issue, although many websites would (intentionally or not) render improperly with this setting on. Online or Off, it's All About Follow Throughby Jennifer LaycockAnyone with a brick and mortar presence who has tried to calculate the true ROI of organic and paid search knows how hard it can be to tie an offline sale with online research. We know shoppers end up conducting multiple searches and visiting multiple sites before they end up buying and that they usually end up buying offline and yet we fail to tie our marketing efforts together with any type of consistency. Where Do You Set AdWords Match Types?by Diana AdamsIf you read my last post where I asked "Can You Make Sense Of Match Types," you learned about the four different match types: Broad match, "Phrase match", [Exact match] and -Negative match. We discussed how knowing the match types is only one part of using them. It's equally important that you know where to go to set and how to tell Google that you want to use a match type other than broad match.... Your Blog is Reallllllly Boring...by Mack CollierI'm noticing recently that a lot of business/company blogs are very stale and boring. Here's some simple ways you can add flair and personality to your blog. Return to the Top of this Page
Return to the Top of this Page In response to... Marketing in Hard Times: PricingDiane, thanks so much for this insightful post. Our new start-up in smack in the middle of setting our pricing strategy and this really hits home. I absolutely agree that perception is much more important than reality when it comes to pricing. Look at companies like Amazon.com that call their strategy "value pricing." Value means the consumer feels like they are getting a fair price for the entire experience, not necessarily the lowest price. Our new start-up will be competing against Walmart (Alice.com), and we intend to do exactly what you've mentioned in this post. Mark McGuire In response to... Marketing in Hard Times: PricingPersonally I think a lot of people on the internet are not making the money they should. Many times I see pricing that I would bet is actually loosing money. I think a significant part is newer businesses, that are not selling anything and instead of realizing that they are not getting customers to their website, immediately think it is price and start lowering their price and many tend to do it too much. I think that many miscalculate their profit. Profit is NOT sales price - cost. At the very least, about 3% (as average) should also be deducted for credit card processing fees. Most are drop shippers and also forget to deduct the drop fee. For example, the average new store owner would probably think a 25% markup would be a good profit and it would be for a higher priced item. But how about the lower priced items? One of the largest wholesalers charges a $3 drop ship fee. Some charge $4, $5 and more. So for a $20 product the new store owner charges $25 thinking they make $5 on the item. I have had people actually tell me this. The truth is, they do not come close. When they sell it for $25 and pay a $3 drop ship fee and another 3% for credit card processing fees, their real gross profit $25 - $20 cost - .75 processing fee = $1.25 which is no where near the expected 25%. It is ONLY 5% and that does not include the cost of returns for that particular item. We decided a long time ago not to compete on price (although we do pay attention to price). In fact when we get a call asking us to beat someone's price, we politely tell them to go back to the store they got the price from and make their purchase. We think customers should shop for bargains, but we do not support the back and forth bartering. The reason is simple. It is not worth our time. Who would want to get call after call asking you to beat someone else's prices? We are NOT a flea market, nor do we want to be. And we certainly do not mind loosing a sale or 2 now and then. So cut your prices if you want to, slash them to the bone, it is your right. But on lower priced products, we would rather sell 1 item and make $20, then to sell 5 items and make $4 each. Way less work, less aggravation and less returns. And yes, we are very profitable and have been since we stopped pricing to beat everyone else. Frank Return to the Top of this Page Skaffe.com Directory: Show off your website Express Submit today.Quality directories like Skaffe.com offer you strong search engine exposure. Sporge Directory from Skaffe.comUnder new management! All new with low submission prices. WoW DirectoryPowerful and affordable directory marketing services. Submit your website today! New! Team Skaffe Directory from the editors of Skaffe.comUp to 4 links for every submission. Free submission for non-commercial websites. Free SEO ToolsThinking of buying SEO software? Then try the best SEO tools free first! Return to the Top of this Page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Can't Crack Google - Need AdviceBLOGS AND BLOGGING Article Series On Business BloggingECOMMERCE Help With Forum Member Subscription ServicesREVIEWS New Calendar Marketing Concept New Venture: TameMyCredit.com I Need Your Help Deciding On A Domain NameSMALL BUSINESS ISSUES Need...Advice On Fund Raising Event Starting A Distributorship Finding A Wholesaler Without A Brick And Mortar StorePREVIOUS WEEK Small Business Forum Update For October 28, 2008 (If you like our search engine news, you'll love our small business news.) Return to the Top of this Page
Newsletter InformationThis newsletter may be freely redistributed by email in its unedited form. We encourage you to share it with others. | News Navigation:Conference Sponsors:     Ebooks SEO Training & Info Analytics Business Services SEO & SEM Firms SEO Tools & Services Link Building PPC Advertising Keyword Tools Directories Domain Registration Web Hosting | ||||||||||||
To unsubscribe/change profile:
click here
Email list management powered by Listcast
No comments:
Post a Comment