The hyphenated domain name dilemma

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: ,
Posted in An Internet Marketing Journal

It seems the hyphenated domain dilemma is rearing its head again.  However this time I’m hearing from SEO guys that hyphenated domain names actually hurt your search engine rankings.  I’ve found no evidence that this is the case but I do have plenty of evidence to the contrary. Not only that, hyphens can increase the number of  visitors you get once your site shows up in the rankings.

Let’s start with some hyphenated domain names that are #1 in Google for their search terms. For those people who think you can’t get to the top, this should dispel that myth:

Website Keyword
http://front-porch-ideas-and-more.com Front porch ideas
http://www.dog-obedience-training-review.com/ Dog Obedience Training
http://www.windows-vista-update.com Windows vista update
http://practical-home-theater-guide.com Home theater guide
http://digital-photography-school.com/ Digital Photography Tips
http://www.digital-photography-tips.net/ Digital Photography Tips
http://www.digital.mississippi-photo-gallery.com/ Digital Photography Tips

So if you’re at all concerned about hyphenated domain names, you can clearly search for any of these terms and find these domains at the top of the list. Most of them are in the #1 position. And the digital photography tips page is dominated by hyphenated domain names. Dominated.

It’s clear from these domain names that the site owners are likely adept at using SEO techniques to help their domain names climb the ladder. Perhaps they are so adept they can overcome the fact that they have hyphenated domain names.  And perhaps a search for sites with lesser skilled developers would prove the point better. But since these are more skilled developers AND they still chose the hyphenated domain name  -wouldn’t that further indicate hyphens aren’t bad.

In fact, check out SiteBuildIt’s Results Page to see a list of sites in the top 1% of Alexa’s rankings built mainly by people who’d never built a site before. Notice that most of them are hyphenated. Hyphens are one of the notions Site Build It teaches in their course (the best website building course on the net, in my opinion).

As I further explain in this YouTube Video (Does a Hyphenated Domain Name Make Sense?), hyphens can often increase the number of visitors, reduce confusion and quickly show visitors what your site is about. Suppose you were searching for “money making ideas from home” and you saw these two websites pop up in Google’s results:

http://waystomakemoneyathome.com or http://ways-to-make-money-at-home.com

Which one draws your attention the fastest?

Some domain names should be hyphenated whether it hurts your rankings or not. Check out this domain for a popular restaurant in Philadelphia:

It’s clear from a marketing perspective that han-dynasty-philadelphia.com would have made better sense.

If you still believe hyphenated domain names will hurt your search engine results , I invite you to help sway my thoughts. What makes you believe this to be true? When asked if hyphens or underscores would be better, Matt Cutts of Google himself said hyphens would be better than underscores. While not totally related, he did not say that you should avoid using both.  Please leave your thoughts, I look forward to a different opinion.

(Also check out what Google prefers: hyphens or underscores)

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Matt Cutts: Google’s Public Face

Posted By: DanRMorris | Posted in An Internet Marketing Journal

Ever heard of Matt Cutts? I’m guessing that if you’re not in the internet search community, you probably haven’t. (Unless you know his mother or something like that). Well, Matt works at Google. He’s the guy that Google puts in front of the cameras when there’s something to be said about their Search Engine.

He’s a face, an information source and a  personality to whom we can learn from, listen to and interact with. Google, one of the biggest companies on the planet, chose to give their Search Engine a face.

Did you notice how Tom Hessey of Sprint stars in the Sprint commercials? How about the Papa John’s guy being front and center in their marketing?  Even radio disc jockeys in the last 10 years have become more than just a voice.

Why Does a Face Matter?

Because that face matters. There is so much sincerity, honesty and trust that can be built with a smile than can ever be created with a tag line. Think about this. . . when was the last time you really felt like the people at your local telephone company, the DMV or that vending machine downstairs really understood you? How about Wal*Mart?

Now, turn around and think about your business.  Now that you’re looking at doing social media – have you considered the value of the human voice for your company? Have you considered how much more personal a picture is on Twitter than your company logo?

Narrow that even further. Think about that one person who buys your product and for some reason returns it.  Did you give that person enough reason to come back? Not every product fits every customer. . . that’s just part of the deal. But with a human voice, a smiling face and some sincerity – you can limit that person’s negative or blase feelings to the product itself.

Getting to know the people behind the company can do more for conversions than a perfectly sized, red opt-in box may ever do. Isn’t it cool when you know someone who works for the company? Don’t you feel more connected? I sure do wish I knew Matt Cutts better. . . and the only reason I say that is because I’ve seen him in action on video. He seems pretty cool.

That “connected” feeling truly turns into profits in the long run. How many times have you heard someone say

  • “I know a guy that works at X. . . they’ve got a great operation over there”?
  • “I met the weather guy from Channel 4 – he’s pretty cool. . . “
  • “Hey, when you get there ask for Trudy, she really helped me the last time”

Conversely, when there’s no face involved, you rarely hear someone say “Come by my office some day, our vending machine rocks”, or “You should use my hosting company, they never answer the phone but they have good prices.”

How Do You Introduce a Company Face?

First, determine strategically who should be this new face. There’s no sense in picking a lame duck, a summer intern or a mean-spirited person. That seems obvious I suppose – but you’d be surprised who don’t take time to think about it.

Will that person represent your brand well, inside and outside the job? Will you choose multiple people depending on their area of expertise?

Then just do it! Have them create their own Twitter Account that you tweet about from the company account. Introduce them on Facebook, BlogTalkradio, Cinchcast, YouTube and LinkedIn. In fact, look up Matt Cutts on YouTube to see what he does.

Have that person track questions they get asked and start making relevant response videos for YouTube. Use them by name and even write a press release for your local media.

Upload some photos throughout the web using the company name as the photo’s file name. That way internet searchers can find the face associated with the company name.

Consider buying Ask(Thatperson’s name).com and use it as the teleseminar or webinar registration page. Have that person answer WikiAnswers questions with the personal profile built and branded to the company.

Don’t limit yourself. People love a face.

 

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How to send an RSS Feed to your Twitter Account

Posted By: DanRMorris | Posted in An Internet Marketing Journal

Oooh. . . this is pretty exciting actually, especially for small business owners who would like to have a Twitter account, but really don’t have the time to keep it up-to-the-minute fresh. Here’s a free, great method to supply your Twitter account with great information about your niche.

Wait. . . does that even make sense? Isn’t Twitter a social media  property that really requires personal networking?  Despite every social media expert in the country saying the opposite, you definitely don’t need to be present all the time and you don’t need to be creating relationships.

To say that is mandatory is to ignore the usefulness of NPR, PBS, Wikipedia and the Weather Channel. All of those mediums are watched and subscribed to by people just looking for information. So be that source for those looking for information. This is one way to do that – send an RSS feed directly to your Twitter account.

In a short 5 minute watch you can see me lay the whole thing out in this short video clip:

Watch the RSS Feed to Twitter video

But the steps in prose are this:

  • Figure out what it is you want to send to Twitter. Are you wanting your audience to get information, information and offers, advertisements, or entertainment.
  • Find the information you’re looking for by searching Google and then clicking the “more” button for Blogs. Basically you want Google to find you information on your topic specifically having and RSS feed.
  • In the URL bar, at the far right is an orange RSS symbol (see graphic in this post), click it and pick the one that says “Subscribe to RSS feed”.
  • Copy that RSS feed URL bar address, and then open a new tab and go to TwitterFeed.com
  • Create an account, including adding in your Twitter account log-in information. When it asks you to add RSS feed, paste the URL spot and give it a nickname.
  • As long as you have a Twitter account, you’re done. If not, you’ll have to get a Twitter account first.Now go watch the movie before you ask questions. I think made it much clearer there.

Go watch this movie!

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Why business tracking tools are important

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in An Internet Marketing Journal

Business tracking tools are everywhere, but most businesses are not using them. Tracking phone numbers if you place ads in newspapers, tracking the open rate of your e-mails, tracking sales to customer contacts. . . .How do you know where to put your money if you don’t know what’s really working?

Some businesses rely on the overall “marketing effect” to drive sales. They track sales dollars versus marketing dollars to determine if the marketing is a success. But what if I took away the Yellow Page completely and your sales stayed the same? That would save $1,500 / year.

What if, instead, I increased the frequency of Craigslist ads and your income increased by 200%? Without tracking you’ll never know what works. What doesn’t work well. And what is clearly a waste of time.

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Marketing to non-customers

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in An Internet Marketing Journal

No matter how many small businesses we meet with, not everyone will use our services. Some companies really just want the DIY Internet Marketing tools. Others want to hire us but really have a hard time expending any money whether it be marketing dollars or cash register receipt tape.

It’s these companies that we’ve decided to serve better.  We’re in the process of creating content for our newest venture http://onlinemarketingedge.com. OME, as we call it, will be a do it yourself site. The goal is to provide the tools to small businesses that they’ll need to turn the internet into a revenue center.

Since some companies are really DIY oriented, our products are going to be easy for them to navigate. For instance we just created a 30 page “how to dominate Google Places” report. It goes through everything from how to find out if a page already exists for your company to -once it is set-up- how to encourage customers to leave great reviews there.

Internet marketing is a whole new world to most small business owners. In fact, marketing for some of these small businesses is getting the fax from the Yellow Pages and initialing it for them to print it. That’s it. Sometimes you’ll find a company that regularly advertises in the local youth baseball stadium Program, or ValPak kit. But most just find everything in the internet world to be foreign and a bit scary.

But that brings us to the importance of what we’re doing, which is why we’re doing it. How many people come into your store, visit your website, call your 800 number, take a free sample, call and ask a question, or any other activity that doesn’t involve them buying something or “becoming a customer”?

And how many of those people do you ever see again?

The bottom line is this . . . those people have already raised their hand and have declared they’re interested in what you do. They might not be in the buying mood – but they’re interested. Some of them want what you’re offering but it just might be too expensive for their state of mind. Does that mean you should dismiss them?

We think not. Despite wanting to serve those customers in our traditional method, we’ve decided it better to be of service period, than nothing at all. So our DIY site is that. It’s our chance to be of service to those who just weren’t ready.

To some extent we do that now with Dan’s Notes, which you can subscribe to here. That’s a collection of internet marketing tips and ideas from my weekly meetings. But it’s not exactly a “how-to” guide. OME will be the how-to. It will be the step-by-step, screen shots, 1-2-3 how-to document that will get them from nothing to nothing less than famous.

In providing this kind of information, we hope the knowledge we provide our new DIY customers will be enough to move the nickel, someday. But if it isn’t – perhaps they’ll appreciate the help. Who doesn’t need prospective future clients who are already – appreciative? But most important of all – there’s no better way to get a prospective customer to come back than to give them what they need . . . now.

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It’s hard to connect content and marketing

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in An Internet Marketing Journal

Business schools just don’t understand the value of content in your marketing efforts. Rarely do I run across a business owner who truly appreciates the term “content”. And we’ve found even those who do, don’t have time to create it because “they’re too busy marketing and finding new customers”. Connecting Marketing and Content

The bottom line is this, if you don’t understand that the internet has changed the game – then content will never make sense. For most people marketing classes were about the three P’s and “location, location, location”, and branding. And in all of those cases, the examples in the book were billboards, product packaging and sales letters.

That’s it!

To expect Master’s degree wielding marketers to grasp the Shift from post cards to websites is maybe too much to ask. But in the same breath, aren’t those same people the ones who shop, research and buy online?

Somehow, it still baffles me when I can’t make the connection between the content on the sites they’re currently buying products from – and their inability to translate that to marketing analysis.

Building the bridge between yesterday’s marketing classes and today’s marketing environment is the key, for sure. I find once business owners fully understand how the web works, what Google’s role is and how consumers find goods – the light bulb will have gone off. I’m not yet sure if it’s the mechanics of Google or the mechanics of the internet – but one of them solves the other.

Words. It comes down to words. When you search for “Honda 355 Motorcycle 600 cc Nashville”, Google’s job is to find something to return to the person searching that matches their query. And the ONLY thing they have to go on, is words.

I heard you screaming in the back. Yep, you’re trying to tell me that links are just as important. Well, you have the right idea – but you’re not using the right “words” to convey it. A link is code someone types onto their website that references yours. No matter what, that link is made of words – even if it’s a picture.

Together, the words used to link one page to the next, the paragraphs of text on web pages, the names of the photos you’ve loaded up to the web pages, the title of web page and the words people use when they comment on your posts – that is content.

Content + Search Engines = Marketing

If you’ve got great, structurally correct content – then you’ve got a marketing plan any professor would be proud of. (Even if that means you have to show them how many units you sold first).

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Piggyback Marketing: not just Reese’s Pieces in E.T.

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in An Internet Marketing Journal

Strangely, this week has been the week of piggyback marketing discussions. I have no idea why because I’ve spent little time on the subject in the past. But it has been tremendously appropriate this week.

On Monday,  I met with a gentlemen who is selling an incredibly useful and revenue producing service. But no one knows it exists, and the few that do aren’t properly incentified to delve further and learn more about it.

And then on Saturday, I spoke to a friend who’s selling a product that isn’t highly sought after by her target market. That sounds odd doesn’t it?  Why would you have a product that your target market isn’t looking for? Despite them not looking for it, most who could use it would end up with happier and more fulfilling marriages.  Not every product has a built-in audience, unfortunately.

So how do you market products and services like this?

We market an antioxidant supplement that’s different than any other supplement on the market. The problem is no one knows to ask for the benefit we offer. Even though lots of folks know what antioxidants are – and millions are searching for them, we know it’s not worth the effort to get to the top of Google for our keywords. (That’s like battling giants). Thus, have decided on a piggybacking strategy instead.

We use infomercials. How are they piggybacking, you ask? Well, we didn’t create our own television station, nor did we invent a new kind of TV.  Instead, we’re advertising on TV stations and Radio stations that already have a built-in audience. Unlike SEO, we’re not reaching them at the exact moment they’re looking for us – but we’re reaching them and creating awareness and identity.

Piggyback marketing is the art of identifying businesses with an audience similar to your target market -and then offering your services to their market. Often times companies will do this as a service to their customers, while other times an affiliate arrangement has to be negotiated.

So how do you start a piggyback marketing strategy?

The one and only important thing to know is who your target audience is. That’s it. If you know who they are, you can begin step 2 which is figuring out where they are. Once you figure out who and where they are, all you need to do is meet the people who are already serving them.Guest Post

Erica Douglass of Erica.biz has long held the belief that guest post blogging is a fantastic way to build a relationship with your target audience. In fact, she wrote a book and teaches about guest post blogging. If you can make a name for yourself, with solid guest posts, you’ll begin to receive attention and will be able to market products and services. This is especially helpful if your product or benefit would be sought after IF your audience knew it existed.

If you really want to know the details of exactly how to do that, get Guest Post Secrets and learn from the master.

Another way to hop onto traffic that someone else has created is by uploading an e-book to Clickbank.  That’s a passive way of getting your product onto websites who are serving a similar audience.  In a similar story, I recently learned of a self-published author who got her books on the counters of book and gift stores – and ended up selling hundreds of thousands of them. She understood that the bookstores she chose were catering to her audience already.

And if you’re really good, like the people at MARS, Inc., get your product mentioned in next summer’s cinema Blockbuster. Product placement, though a separate strategy, is piggybacking on the efforts of others. Remember when E.T. enjoyed munching on Reese’s Pieces? That’s marketing genius there.

Just like SEO, piggyback marketing is the art of standing in front of the traffic (wherever that may be).  However, SEO requires your audience to be looking for you. Piggybacking gives you the opportunity to send out your message to an audience that will be receptive to it.

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A Career in Internet Marketing?

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in An Internet Marketing Journal

You know what’s interesting about a career in internet marketing? I don’t know anyone who is doing it and is unemployed. Nope, not a single person.

You may have to answer this question for me, because I just don’t know the answer, but back in the late 1980′s were there any C++ programmers who didn’t have jobs? Fortran? Basic? Like internet marketing now, I think there were more jobs open than people looking.

I believe there will be a day when internet marketing is no longer a career, but something as fundamental as knowing how to use QuickBooks, or how to do payroll. It will eventually become a necessity of doing business, successfully.

Despite some notable celebrities declaring the internet to be dead, it’s in fact in its infancy. I believe the iPad is the first application that is taking the internet to a new level. Perhaps that could be said about the iPod – but that was just a new application for your phone.  If you know anyone with an iPad, they’ll tell you that they do use the internet differently now.

Some day the internet and your TV will be one thing. You’ll be able to click on Regis Philbin’s tie and buy it directly from the company website that made it. You’ll be able to download Rachel Ray’s recipes directly to your stove top computer. And you’ll be able to access your fridge from the grocery store to make sure you actually do need milk.

The part that really makes internet marketing a good career choice is its ability to create income when you’re not employed. Affiliate marketing, pay per click ads, electronic products and even physical product sales are always at your fingertips.

Since companies hire internet marketing gurus to help increase their sales, the end of those consulting contracts means you just have more time to dedicate to your own websites, products and direct income. It’s a marketable skill you can use for others or yourself.

I don’t think “doing just to do” is the best way to learn the trade however. You can spend a lot of time learning lessons many have learned before you. Teaching yourself how to write effective copy, install autoresponders, build squeeze pages, create affiliate links and read html is a bit daunting.  I’d recommend you take a course that teaches you how to do “everything” with one site, so that you can take those lessons and use it for any site.

The one I recommend is the e-Learning course SBI puts out. It does take a little focus and some time, but do you really think you’re going to absorb it all in 3 days anyway? The best part about the e-Learning course is that it includes:

  • The internet marketing course that is taught at Universities
  • A Wordtracker Pro Keyword research account
  • Keyword analysis tools
  • A domain name of your own
  • Hosting for your website
  • Newsletter software
  • Customer contact capture autoresponder software
  • Complete integration with Social Marketing tools like Facebook
  • Forums for in-depth question, case studies and learning
  • A complete series of how-to’s, like how to make money from your site
  • And more. . .all in video, audio and written format

It doesn’t get much better. So if you’re looking to make internet marketing a career, a second income or a way to escape your current job . . . PLEASE check out SBI’s e-Learning Course now by clicking this link:

SBI e-Learning Course

You’ll be glad you did, and you’ll learn more of what works in this short course than in two years training yourself.  If you’ve taken the course, please leave a comment and share your experience – otherwise, ask me about it and I’ll tell you more.

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Getting Website Traffic – Stuff You Don’t Hear About

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in An Internet Marketing Journal

So Darren and I are putting together a video series called 10 Minute Traffic Tips. You could ask why I suppose, but I don’t think the answer is very sexy. Darren came up with the idea, well then I really liked the idea. So we decided to do it. Yep, that’s about it. traffic to your website

So at the NAMS conference, I thought I’d take advantage of the opportunity and shoot some video with website owners that  you don’t see in these kinds of tutorials. My goal was to find real website owners who were able to garner massive traffic to their sites. I wasn’t so interested in the likes of Willie Crawford and Lynn Terry – but not because they’re not interesting.

You might say they’re two of the most sought after interviews or relationships in internet marketing.  And they’re both sincere, genuine and interesting people whose success is hard to deny. But I really didn’t want to be another gawker, another coat tail. When you’ve attained success like that – how many interviews do you get asked to do?

I would like our series to be more about traffic tips and less about me trying to ride the tails of success to climb my own ladder. If our readers demand that, I’ll take that demand to them and show them with legitimacy, that our intentions are honorable and customer-driven.

Our series will feature some very high profile internet gurus because we all want that nugget, but the bulk will be the little guys who’ve amassed massive traffic out of the spotlight. When you’re not in the spotlight, your name doesn’t help your traffic – it must be gotten other ways.

Ashton Kutcher, for example, what can you learn from his “traffic methods” that really doesn’t boil down to star power? I’m not saying he’s not savvy. . . but I am saying how can his “conversion rate statistics” be translated into stats the Anyday Man can follow? How many no-names announced they wanted to beat Oprah to 1,000,000 followers? And then how many of them actually did?

So keep your eye out for announcements on our upcoming series. You’re going to learn things no other course has even touched. For example we’ve already interviewed someone who purposely created a video to go viral – and then amassed 60,000 actives in her database. How about someone else who’s mastered guest blog posting to the tune of 4,000 extra hits to her website the day any of her guest posts come out. We’ve also spoken with people who use SEO, affiliates, syndication and more.

It’s fascinating to do the interviews. Wait till you have 10 minutes to watch them.

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Keyword research is like studying for a test

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , ,
Posted in An Internet Marketing Journal

Keyword research is truly like studying for a test. If traffic is the answer then keyword research is the text book.

When people are searching for you, the only tool they have at their disposal are words. Letters and numbers are what people use when searching for products, services, information or entertainment. Put together those letters and numbers entered into the search box are keywords.

A thorough understanding of these keywords is paramount to the success of any webpage, in terms of people finding it via the search engines (ie. . . Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc.)

At the NAMS 4 event in Atlanta, Georgia I sat with Lynn Terry, Susanne Meyers, and Karon Thackston on a keyword research symposium.  We talked about search statistics, keyword density, wordtracker, and 10 other vital tips.

And while I’ve been rewarded with #1 positions and great relevant traffic to my clients’ local business websites, I was floored by the information Lynn, Susanne and Karon had at their fingertips. These ladies know their stuff backwards, forwards and upside down. This information is so good, I learned a ton to make my business better.  We recorded this 90 minute mastermind session, and are offering it just for you.

This MP3 download:

  • delivers almost 90 minutes of focused discussion, tips and techniques for easy and practical keyword research.
  • breaks down complex keyword research ideas into manageable pieces.
  • explains the various research tools and how to choose the right one for you.
  • gives you an easy plan of action for finding the best keywords for use with websites, blog posts, articles, and social media.

I guarantee your SEO knowledge will increase, your rankings will get better and your traffic will be more relevant after listening to this audio.  Go to the NAMS site and get it now!

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