Getting to the top of Google (the poem)

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Niche Internet Marketing

Getting to the top of Google
(a poem by Dan R Morris)

Beautiful pictures and
colorful web design
are no help to search engines
for their bots are blind

Progress is made
when Google figures out,
through the words alone
what your site is all about

Words are the bat
that hits the home run
Through smart use of words
And you’ll climb to #1

The search engines really can’t see. They can only read. And there are millions upon millions of sites on the web to read. If a search engine is to be successful, it’s goal must be to deliver web pages that provide the most relevant information to it’s “customers’” search queries.

In order to do that successfully, it scours the internet for your webpage and anything else on the internet that refers (or links) to your webpage.  Since most people aren’t the best about creating search engine friendly web pages, Google has figured out how to learn from others what your site is about. If 1,000 other sites link to yours from pages about stamp collecting, the search engines are going to think your site is about or related to stamp collecting.

Then it combines that information to the words on your webpage and figures out what your site is about. Headlines, Titles, photo names and internal and incoming links really help Google understand your site.

After it figures out that your site is about stamp collecting, and a hundred other sites are about stamp collecting – it must determine which is #1, #2, etc. . . That’s where your internal site structure, the number and value of incoming links, the size of your website, how old is your website, how long people stay on your page before hitting the back button even how long it takes to load your web page become important.

The first question you must determine is whether Google understands what your site is about. Load your site into Google’s Webmaster tools and you’ll see what they think it is about.  And search your site for keywords using Google’s Keyword Selector tool, too. That’s another way to see what keywords it pulls out. Once you’ve successfully taught the search engines that your site is about stamp collection – move on to the next step – and prove that your worthy of the #1 spot.

Each Friday, I post my notes from my meetings during the week about internet marketing and moving websites to the top positions in Google’s rankings.  The Friday morning e-mail changes each week and covers topics like article marketing, use of videos, internal site structure, backlinks, and even offline topics like press releases, postcard marketing and capturing customer contact info. Please sign up below and ask as many questions as you need!

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Your message determines your audience

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Local Small Business Marketing

Don’t underestimate the power of your message. When you connect with your audience with the right message, they’ll also connect with you.  And in some instances, the message alone will set you light years ahead of your competition.

I was listening to Paul Winkler, a local investment coach, talk about how to hire a good investment guy on his radio show the other day. He was talking about asking tough questions before actual hiring the guy to run your finances.

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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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Marketing small businesses is more than keywords

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Local Small Business Marketing

Internet marketing for small businesses is marketing. It’s not a separate category, or something special some companies do. The internet is part of our lives and with the advent of the iPad, it’s soon to become a larger part.

I find it interesting that most of my “business” clients don’t really do much “marketing”. They do some advertising, but that’s about it.  I get the sense that there’s a “build it and they will come” mentality among small business owners. Well, guess what? There is a better mouse trap.

Let’s try this. . . think of the internet as a tool you can use to reach your current customers. That’s it. Don’t think beyond that.  What would that allow you to do?

internet marketing for small business

internet marketing for small business

Well, e-mail is an internet utility that is virtually free. If you’re about to introduce a new product, you could tell all  your current customers using e-mail – for free. You could invite them to a Grand Opening. You could even help your neighbor and invite them all to his Grand Opening. (If it’s next door, wouldn’t they stop in to say hello?)

Simple enough.

Now, if you can see how efficient that is, and ultimately how successful you could be doing that . . . how do we get more of our customers’ e-mail addresses?

You could have a pad of paper by the cash register.  You could have a drawing where people toss their business card into a fishbowl. You could call them all and ask for it. You could even put a form on your website where they type their name and e-mail into it themselves.

So the next question would be how can you get more customers, so you can get more e-mail addresses, so you can send more notices, so you can make more sales?

That’s where it gets personal. For a real estate client we use Craigslist. A buddy of mine uses eBay. My folks use Google.  A car dealer may use billboards.  And a personal injury lawyer may just find the best tool is the back page of the yellow pages. That’s where you really start to make headway.

My challenge to you is ask your clients how they think they got from not knowing who you were to hiring you.  Let’s put together a road map of how someone who’s never heard of you, eventually hears about you, is impressed with you and then hires you.

When we can master that and begin to understand the “ladder of value” we’ve already got in place, then we can start creating a network to find more people who want what you do.

Therein lies the art. the joy. the wonder of internet marketing.

And therein lies success.

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Local Business Marketing: It’s not all me

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Local Small Business Marketing

Some important folks visited my blog this week. I say important because they’re important to me, but it’s not like the guy who invented Oreo’s stopped by to read this stuff. :) They’re stopping by occurred the same time I was working with a new client. And unfortunately the lesson I was trying to teach the client, I hadn’t adopted myself.

In our first meeting together, I was explaining what my role would be. I was explaining how my job was to bring new clients in the door using the internet, how I was going to go about capturing the information about the new clients and then how we were going to keep marketing to them via e-mail or mail or whatever.

Well, it occurred to me while I was there that the local business had a job too.  While it’s my job to get new clients there, it’s the local businesses job to keep them there and leave the door of possibility open that the person would come back.  What I mean by that is their job is to be friendly, clean, current and fair. Even if you have what the client wants, if the place is not inviting – they’ll unsubscribe from our e-mails.

That lesson came back on me. It’s hard to have a dirty blog, but it’s not hard to have outdated information. After getting back from my meeting with them, I took a look at this blog and realized the About Me section is from the first week I started. Lettersfromdan has morphed over time and that part is just not relevant.

What my important visitors thought when they visited, I’m not sure. But I can tell you right now the About Me section doesn’t reflect what I told them I was writing about. So this weekend, it’s time to take my own medicine. You can read the old “About Me” section right here, otherwise, I’m committing to you that all parts of this blog will be up to date.

Thanks for stopping by!

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The custom blog magnet tool

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

I gotta tell ya, this blog comment magnet is the coolest tool I’ve seen in a long time. There are a lot of tools out there, and some of them are pretty ingenious. I love programs like Market Samurai and Traffic Geyser, and Firefox plug-ins like “Screen Capture Elite” and “Google Global”.blog magnet tool

But seldom do I actually promote products. In fact, over the last 2 years I’ve only promoted 3 products. I did so for the P90X Beachbody folks for a while, but with all the informercials they didn’t really need any help.  And then I’ve been a huge fan of GoBrevity (which you can read about here) and SiteBuildit. Those are two great services.

But then today I came across the Maxblogpress Subscribers Magnet, which for some reason I call the blog magnet tool. This is a WordPress plugin that does the work of 3 other things and also does a few things that nothing else can do. I’m going to list out a few things it does, but I really want you to go to their site and see the video.

Just seeing it is enough.

So, should you enable these things, here’s what it can do:

  • Add an opt-in floating light box to your site – with a time delay if you want. (Also available in aWeber).
  • Add an opt-in form to your sidebar (which is available free with WordPress Plugin)
  • Add a “subscribe me” button to the comment form at the end of each blog post (not sure if that’s available elsewhere)
  • AUTOMATICALLY fills in the name and e-mail address of your visitors when they arrive at the site. That means they only have to press the “subscribe button”.
  • Add an opt-in box to the beginning or end of every post
  • Add a floating footer bar at the bottom of screen with newsletter opt-in form embedded
  • Silently subscribe anyone that leaves a comment on your blog. They’ll then automatically get a “thank you for leaving a comment” e-mail, along with the “confirm your subscription button.
  • Fully customize everything – and it works with AWeber, 1shopping cart and most other opt-in box providers.

I’m not sure if that’s enough or not. The plug-in costs $147, but now you can finally have an e-mail capture strategy, design and tool. Truly an amazing tool – one I’m proud to help promote.

I urge you to check out this sales page of theirs: http://danmorrismarketing.com/blogmagnet – and see for yourself. If you’re a local business and you’re driving traffic to your website, this is the best hands off method to help capture that traffic.

Check it out . . . and take a look at their form below.

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How to get a double listing (indented) in Google

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

Have you ever wondered how to get a double listing in Google? Some people refer to them as indented listings, either is fine.  An indented listing is not often thought about during the web design process, but from a search perspective it can push your traffic through the roof.

A double listing is the culmination of two pages on your website ranking well for the same keyword. They don’t have to rank 1 and 2 for the keyword, but they do need to rank on the same page.  When they do appear on the same page of the search results, Google uses the indented listing to show they’re from the same site. It’s really just an efficiency thing for Google.

Double, indented listing in Google

So, how do you go about getting a double listing? As far as difficulty goes, it should be as difficult as it was to get your first page ranked for that keyword.  And then just a smidge harder.

If you want a formula, start with the title tag and description tag. For the page of your site that currently ranks on the first page of Google, how often does your keyword occur in both of these, and what percent of the total tag is your keyword?  Figure that out, then write a title tag and description tag for a second page that matches the number and density.

The key here is to use the same keyword, but write a different title and description.

The next phase is to analyze the components of the webpage itself. On the page currently ranked, what is the density of your keyword and where in the page does it occur? You’ll want to mimic both the density and placement on the second page. But again, keep in mind the rest of the content needs to be different. Just keep the numbers the same.

That was the easy part.

And the hard part. . . maybe. . . where are the links coming from that are going to the original page? Backlinks? Blog links? Other interior page links? One way links? anchor text links? etc. . . (You may want to use Market Samurai or the SEO Quake tool bar to help figure this out).

Once you do figure this out in a quantitative way, the goal is to mimic what you did on the first – without using the same sites. You can use some of the same sites to link to the second page – but ultimately you’ll want different links with simliar pagerank.

The folks at Google aren’t idiots. They may just notice if everything is duplicated. The key here is to create a natural web of links to both pages. And the second key is to have the patience to not expect results tomorrow. Do these things then wait a bit and see what happens.

If you’ve had luck with double or even triple listings – and have a “secret”, we’d love to hear it.

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The Structure of Social Media for Small Business

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in What is Social Media

Structuring your social media platform as a business gives you an opportunity not available to a consultant or sole proprietorship. While I spend a good deal of the time branding my own image, a company has the option of allowing it’s “employee faces” to brand themselves as employees or to make the “employee faces” anonymous giving all the credit to the company.

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Free Website Domain Name

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

Why do people search for “free website domain name”? I can only assume they have an idea for a perfect website concept but don’t want to pay to reserve it. Well there is a way to get a free website domain name, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have to pay.

What is Domain Name Service

Some people ask me about the definition of domain name and other ask what is domain name service. These are basically the same question. GoDaddy is a service that, among other things, sells website names. Examples of a website name are Amazon.com, www.thinkgeek.com, or www.benefits-of-resveratrol.com. You think of them as the names of the websites, but in reality they’re called domain names.

Definition of Domain Name

I don’t have any idea what the definition of domain name is. But I can tell you it is a code word that represents a number. See, websites are really just numbered pages and the name is the clever way to represent that number. For example: www.google.com is just a human friendly version of the website’s address 72.14.253.99. If you just typed 72.14.253.99 in the address bar, it would take you to www.google.com.

(Don’t want to get technical, but that number is called an IP Address).

How to Choose Domain Name

This is super easy. Go to GoDaddy.com, type in the super great name you came up with and if GoDaddy says it is available, then buy it. Done.

But if your goal is to strategically choose a domain name, then you might want to read this article 5 Steps Before You Get A Domain Name.

Finally, How To Get a Free Domain Name

My favorite website for securing free domain names is SiteSell.com. This is a website building service that features everything you could possibly need. Keyword/Domain Name Search Tools, SEO analyzing tools, link building tools, Search Engine Monitoring and Traffic monitoring tools, e-mail list builder, newsletter creator, blog creator, etc. . . etc. . . etc. AND when you use their service you get a free domain name AND website hosting.

There’s nothing better.

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Teenagers Can Make Money Online

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

Teenagers can make money online as easily as anyone else. In fact, in many cases computer-savvy teens can make faster money than adults still ‘learning the ropes’. A teen’s best bet to make money is owning a website that earns dollars from Google ad clicks.

Suppose you’re interested in ring tones as are all your friends. 99% of the ring tones sites are one that feature ones you can download or create. Most of these companies buy Google ads to make it easier for you to find them. So create a website ABOUT ring tones, not necessarily with downloadable ring tones. On each page of the site write something about the different kinds, stereo vs mono, tones vs songs, downloading vs creating, etc. And put Google ads on the site for people to click to go to other ring tone sites. The ads alone will bring in plenty of money.

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