Category Archives: Internet Marketing Manager

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Internet Marketing Tricks For Your Blog For 2010 and 2011

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Author: Brennan Deitschseo services toledo ohio

Date: December 16, 2010

Isn’t the idea of Pay Per Click campaigns great? All you have to do is develop a keyword list and ads that are relevant. Additionally, advertisers only have to pay when their ads are clicked on. Sounds fantastical, doesn’t it? If you have invested your time and money into Pay Per Click programs such as Google Adwords, you will understand me when I say that PPC management is not always profitable. Sometimes there is too much competition for certain keywords and companies can not afford to place high bids to achieve high rankings. The easy solution is to only focus on long tail and niche keywords. However, what do you do if that approach is still not enough?

SEO Blog

Manipulate Your Visitors Into Creating New Keywords

Manipulate your consumers into developing a keyword list for you! You do this by creating a blog and writing unique and fresh content and include words that you might not find in all the various keyword tools found on the internet. Manipulating others should be easy for all of us as we have been practicing the craft of manipulation since we were able to speak. If you have kids, you know what I am talking internet marketing tips 2011about. One final note on behalf of this digression; kids are excellent manipulators! I think I made my point!

Commonly, when internet marketing experts write blogs and content for SEO purposes, they commonly use keyword tools. They research keywords and transfer those keywords into the content of their blog. It can be extremely difficult and costly to compete for those keywords organically and in Pay Per Click campaigns. Instead of inserting those keywords right into your blog, think of other variations of the keyword. Often readers will use your blog to educate themselves and they may even use the same keyword variations from your blog on a search engine to find your website. If you do not believe me, that is ok. Here is an example from some of my work as an Online Marketing Manager.

I was hired by the Vietnam Veterans of America to head their internet marketing strategies to help them raise more funds with their car donation program. One of the first strategies I implemented was keyword research. After researching the competition, I developed a keyword list that looked something like this.

Donate car
Donate your car
Car donations
Donate car to charity
Vehicle donations
Donate my car
Car donation tax deduction

(My beginning keyword list had at least 1,000 keywords). While this keyword list is a good start, all of the competition is already investing their SEO strategies and money on those keywords. The fact is that those keywords are too costly and are too broad.

This is where you have to think outside the box. What specific product or message is your website selling? Referring to my example again, all the car donation proceeds benefit homeless veterans. With that in mind, the keyword list will require you to brainstorm for new keywords and throw away those so called “keyword tools”.

This is how my new keyword list looked:

Donate your car for veterans
Veteran car donation
Donate car Vietnam veterans
Car donation homeless veterans
Donate car Vietnam veterans of America
Donating car to veterans charity
Vehicle donations for veterans
Donate car Vietnam veterans
Donating cars veterans
Donate my car Vietnam vet
Donate car for homeless vets
Car donation tax deduction veterans
Donate car veterans Michigan
Car donations disabled veterans
Donate car to disabled veterans
Give car to veterans

Hopefully you get the idea. I used the generic keyword “donate car” and “car donations” and made them into more specific keywords. When I first started working for the Vietnam Veterans of America, the keyword “veteran car donation” received an average of 10 searches per month.

After two months of using those new long tail keywords in my blog at helpourveterans.wordpress.com, I noticed that the amount of searches including donate car for veterans tripled. I discovered this trend using Google Analytics. Analytics showed me the actual keywords users were typing.

I focused on writing content that included many different variations of car donations and veterans. This also makes the blog sound less promotional. I sometimes would even write blogs that never mentioned the target keyword of car donations. The most successful blog does not always promote a product or service, but it should stir up the emotions of the readers. Regardless, after potential donors left my blog, they used my blog as a reference and used keywords that the competition was completely missing.

What This Keyword Targeting Strategy Means To You:keyword tools for seo

This strategy is perfect for new businesses or any business that fits into a niche market. This SEO technique will make it easier to achieve top ranking organically and it will lower your costs per click. (CPC) Here is another example to help you understand:

Estimated CPC for the keyword “donate car”: $5.00-$10.00
Versus
“Car donation for veterans”: $1.50-$2.00

This is because there is less competition for the keyword car donation for veterans. Using niche keywords such as car donation for veterans will not bring you as much traffic, but it will allow you to operate at a budget you can afford. It was especially critical for the nonprofit charity. In addition, the more targeted a keyword is, the higher the conversion rate! After I made those adjustments, the conversion rate jumped to 10-20%. The conversion rate for the generic keywords was no higher than 4%! Job well done!

I was then hired by other car donation organizations to run their campaigns as well because of the great results I achieved. I did this by thinking outside the box and allowing the general public to establish hot new keywords for me! Many reputable bloggers already do this, but they may not even realize it.

My advice is to write blogs in a non-promotional manner and stir up the emotions of your visitors! Stop relying on keyword tools to develop keyword lists and generate your own! Start your own blog and keep an open mind when writing the blog. Make sure you track your progress using analytics. When you start to see a trend in new keywords, add them to your website and use them in you Pay Per Click programs. If your competition isn’t using those keywords, you can achieve top ranking organically easily!

Unpaid Advertisement:

-Brennan Deitsch

Toledo, Ohio

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Google Analytics Help: The Beginners Guide

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How to Install Google Analytics| Track Visits and Conversions| Analytics Not WorkingGoogle Analytics How To

Ah ha! I know who you are! I know how you found my blog, I know your general location and I know your IP address! Well, ok I do not know everything about you, but I have a good idea. No, it is not magic, I am using Analytics to track my thousands of visitors to my blog. Installing Analytics is a great way to measure the success and failures of your blog or website.
Analytics could be considered the “CSI” tool for the internet. It allows users to look at statistics of their website with a magnifying glass. Having a website to help promote or sell your business is mandatory. However, not tracking how users interact with your site is a sure way to miss some great optimization opportunities.
Just in case you were wondering, there are many free analytic tools available that will work just fine. The one tool I am going to focus on is Google Analytics. Google Analytics is by far the best free and readily available tracking software. All you need to do is create a Google account and follow the instructions. However, sometimes novice users are unable to figure out how to install Google Analytics. If I get enough responses, I will create a free How to Install Google Analytics video for you!  The ball is in your court my analytical thinkers.
Google Analytics tracks many different types of data such as:
how to install google analyticsSetup Google Analytics
Visitors:
How did they find your site (website referral etc.)
What city they are located in
What ISP they have
What browser they use (Internet Explorer, Firexfox or Chrome, etc)
What operating system they run on (Windows-XP, Vista, 7 or Mac)
What type of internet connection they have (Broadband, DSL, Dialup and T1)
Their IP address (number that identifies computer on the internet)
How long they stayed on the site (Bounce Rate)
What pages they visited
Language spoken
What search engine they used
What keyword was typed in
Are they a return visitor
Did they fill out an form or make a transaction (Conversion)
In addition, Google Analytics can be used to create custom reports that include all this information in an easy to read format. The reports can be scheduled to be sent by email automatically!
Using Google Analytics is the best way to see how users interact with your site. It also is a great way to use the trial and error method to see what changes are working and what are not. For instance, you notice that 70% of users are coming from the Google search engine and only 30% are coming from Yahoo. That means that the site needs to be optimized for the Yahoo search engine. Even more commonly, you notice that all of the Internet Explorer users are leaving your site upon entry. That means that your site may generate some errors for IE users.
It is not recommended to ignore some of the highly detailed aspects of Google Analytics. But if you do not use it to its full potential, you should at least use it to track changes in traffic and conversions (sales).
If you manage pay per click campaigns such as Google Adwords, Analytics is even more important. To get the highest ROI, it tracks how and where your money is being spent. One nice trick that Google Analytics offers you is the report on what keywords are used to find your website. You can use those keywords in your pay per click campaign. I will often find great niche keywords that I can add to the keyword list. In addition, I can find some great negative keywords too. This can increase your CTR, quality score and ROI.
Installing Google Analytics is fairly easy. First, sign up for a Google Account and create an Analytics profile. Input your URL and you should see some HTML code. The code is what is needed to install Analytics on your site.
FTP into your website. Contact your webmaster if you are unsure of how to do this. Now, copy the Analytic code. Go to the homepage in your directory (usually index.html). Open that file. Next, you will see the HTML code. Google Analytics needs to be inserted right before the closing body tag. It will look like this: </body> Paste the code right before the closing body tag.
If installed correctly, go back to your Analytic profile and you should see a prompt saying “Analytics installed successfully, gathering data”. If you see that message, you did it correctly! One important thing to remember is if you want to track other pages of your site, the code will need to be installed on that page as well in the same manner.
You are one step closer to perfecting your site. Google Analytics is free and there is no obligation or contract to use it. The information gathered from Google Analytics is not shared with your competition. Google Analytics simply tracks how users interact with your site.
Do not confuse conversion codes with Analytic codes. A conversion code is only used to track conversions for pay per click campaigns. They are not the same.
Google Analytics is easy to use to gather basic information. However, to maximize Google Analytics, you need to become familiar with the interface and practice the different types of reports. Internet Marketing Managers are even becoming Google Analytics certified. If you want visitors to come back to your site, I suggest you track how they found your site in the first place.

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Does Hiring A SEO Company Make Sense Anymore?

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Local SEO Company| SEO Services Ohio| Hire SEO Expert| Ohio and Michigan

 

While many respected retailers across the nation complain of lagging sales, the consumer market on the internet is booming. Many successful businesses have discovered that electronic commerce is a great way to make money. Many businesses have replaced their large stores with a website! The internet has allowed companies to complete transactions easily online and cut operating and payroll costs. Today, many companies operate out of a warehouse and send their products out for delivery. It is just that simple!
how to get top rankings onlineLet’s use Circuit City as an example. They had a well know national chain of retail stores. They saw a decline in profits and decided to close all their retail stores and conduct all of their business online. According to Circuit City, they are getting much better results.
However, reality chimes in and asks the question, how do they sell their products online? There are hundreds of correct answers to that question. Many small business owners are eager to market their business on the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. They discover that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the methods to market their business online.
Some aspiring business owners hire local SEO companies to complete the SEO services. However, is it a better idea to hire a SEO company or just hire an individual on payroll to complete the SEO strategy?
There are thousands of SEO companies available that claim to give businesses top rankings on the top search engines for many different keywords. They all have the same sales pitch. However, businesses need to understand that most sales pitches are truly outdated.
Here is how the process usually works. A business pays an SEO company $400-$600 to achieve better rankings on search engines. The SEO company gives their best effort and optimizes the website as promised. Their work is complete after a month.
At first, the business does notice an increase in traffic and positioning. Both parties are satisfied temporally. However, two months pass and the business notices that their website is beginning to fall in the rankings. Why is this? This is because the search engines rate websites on fresh content. Search engines love websites that update weekly or even daily. Websites that go untouched for weeks at a time will fall into extinction. The $400 seemed like a fair bargain at first, but we can now see that it is a waste!
If I was presenting this article to a 200 seat classroom, I would see 200 online business owners raise their hand and admit to experiencing this exact situation. There is no reason to feel embarrassed. Online Marketing Manager in OhioAchieving top ranking on search engines requires time, creative writing and constant updates.
So what should these 200 business owners do now?
I would suggest to follow what many successful online businesses do today and hire an Online Marketing Manager to market your business. Many businesses hire individuals to manage their entire internet marketing campaign. Here is what you should expect from an Internet Marketing Manager.
  • College Educated (Bachelor degree preferred)
  • Good writing skills: Proper English and grammar
  • Basic knowledge of web design including; HTML, XHMTL, XML, CSS and PHP.
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
  • Website architecture
  • Pay Per Click Management (Google Adwords, Bing and Yahoo Search Marketing)PPC management
  • Social Media Management: Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and LinkedIn, Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, etc.
  • Blog Writing: be able to write unique articles relevant to your product or service.SEO blogs
  • Link building: knowledge of how the link building process works.
  • Internet awareness: are they aware of the vast resources available online to market your business.
  • Analytics and tracking: Google Analytics and ability to track progress
  • Open-minded: internet constantly changes. A creative thinker will prosper with internet marketing.
In summary, hiring an Internet Marketing manager is the best way to achieve long term success. Your online business needs to have someone available to make updates to the website and write unique content daily. Establishing top ranking on the organic search is a long term commitment. However, the end result is getting the most bang for your buck! Good luck in finding the right Online Marketing manager.

SEO Company Toledo| Web Site Optimization Tricks| SEO Expert Michigan

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Question of the day:

Are SEO experts destroying the internet as we know it?SEO company in Toledo

Brennan: “Like a dog chewing on its own tail!”

spam on the internet

The invention of the internet has changed our life! We can do anything online now. We can shop, research, write journals, pay bills and even bid on online brides. It even opened the doors for new jobs. Such as Internet Marketers, Search Engine Optimizers (SEO), Digital Marketing Specialist, Pay Per Click Managers, Blog and article writing and Social Media Management.
SEO started out as an innocent and useful art that increased the ranking for many websites across the globe. First, the keys to find success for top rankings was to optimize the HTML code on the sites. Then the art of building links was realized. However, those were in the days that Dogpile and Lycos were cool.
Individuals studied SEO and were able to charge $400 for ten hours of work. That comes out to $40 an hour. Not too bad. In 2001, SEO experts began to write books on SEO strategies. People like me would read the book thinking they knew everything. But what they failed to realize is that there is no definite strategy to get top ranking on search engines such as Google. Every business and website architecture is unique and will deliver different results. Plus search engines own the advertising space your website link appears on. Why would powerhouses like Google allow you to get top rankings easily?
Many SEO companies failed to deliver the top ranking results they had promised and panicked. This is where blackhat SEO was born. Inexperienced internet marketing managers then decided to build links anywhere and everywhere. The anonymity of the internet allowed users to join forums and add keyword rich signatures even if the forum was not relevant to their site. They would not add one piece of useful and relevant information to the discussion. They would just promote their site.
For example, there could be a forum that is dedicated to showing support for cancer patients. This individual joins the forum and writes a message like this “Buy Nike Shoes” with a link to their site. This is called SPAM! Imagine this situation going on everywhere on the internet. Finally, the search engine giants such as Google and Yahoo put their foot down in a big way.
They were forced to introduce intricate algorithms that detected spam like this. Google made it even more difficult to achieve top ranking on their search engine for the targeted keywords. Now website content was viewed as the king.
However, the large amounts of spam also forced blog owners and forum moderators to stop allowing hypertext links to be detected by web crawlers. This is a simple code written that is called “nofollow“. This was to reduce the amount of spam on the internet. With nofollow tags on blogs or forums, the links are almost worthless to the link building process. This made spammers hesitate to promote their website because it was a waste of time.
I have discovered many websites and forums as an internet marketing manager. I would venture to say 60% of them have been forced to Nofollow links due to spam. This has reduced the impact SEO has on search engine ranking. The importance of a link is now based solely on its source, relevancy and keyword. Just like those annoying telemarketers that continue to call you, Spamming the internet ruins the experience of everyone involved.
The bottom line is this. There is no hidden secret to SEO. There also is no SEO company that can guarantee 100 links a day and top ranking. Internet marketing is extremely competitive. You have to find a niche market and establish a good reputation. To achieve top ranking, you also have to establish a loyal following. You do this by getting involved with the online community by writing unique content on blogs and social media platforms.
Remember this line: “link building should come naturally, not forced”.
By this I mean, users should share your link because they found it useful and want to spread the word about your product or service. It should not be a way to manipulate Google into giving your website top ranking. I guarantee you that if you try to manipulate Google, you will eventually get caught and you will get the famous Blackhat. What good would it be if your website is nowhere to be found on the internet?
My suggestion is to play nice! Take an ethical approach with your internet marketing strategy. If the internet continues to be filled with spam, link building will become obsolete. Learn how to optimize your website content and architecture first. Then use the social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Myspace to build awareness. Would it be prudent to risk your job or career? I certainly hope not. Save the internet and save some jobs!

spaming the internet

What is Internet Marketing? What does an Online Marketing Manager do?

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Many ask me what I do for a living. I tell them that I manage online marketing campaigns for companies in Ohio and Michigan. I then get a blank stare and the only response I get is “huh?”. Well I am here to tell you what I do in more detail.

Internet Marketing is getting more involved and complex as internet technology advances. When the internet first began to be popular with the public many years ago, no college institution offered internet marketing classes. Mainly because not many people shopped online. However, especially in the last five years, millions of people choose to purchase items on the internet. The internet allows people to research on products in more detail than ever before and buy items in their pajamas at any time of the day. Naturally, internet marketing companies began to see the internet as a great return on investment. The truth is, they were absolutely right.

I will quickly share my career path to becoming an experienced internet marketing manager. First, I earned a degree in Electronic business (E-Business). This Associate’s degree gave me the knowledge to develop web sites using HTML, XHTML and CSS. I also learned about different types of marketing such as business, international and of course; internet marketing.

To understand web design and internet marketing even further, I received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Toledo focusing on Computer Hardware and Software. I learned the basic programming of computers and this helped me understand what powered computer technology.

After graduating I began to expand my online marketing skills by learning Pay Per Click Management. I learned the tricks of managing Google Adwords. Google Adwords is the small ads that appear on the top and right hand side of the Google Search Engine (See picture below). I setup Adwords campaigns and write the ads. It may seem simple to you. But it can be quite involved. pay per click managementI also optimize the content on web sites to increase the exposure on the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. This is an art in itself. This craft is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Included with SEO is called link building. Link building is the delicate process of adding links to your site on other blogs, articles, forums and web sites. Each link is seen as a vote that your website is useful and should rank high on the search engines. However, this is not as simple as it sounds, it is a big part of the internet marketing process. To put it in perspective, Google rates websites on over 200 factors. I have realized that I have to know what I am doing or I will be wasting my time and my clients time.

The social media world has added another spectrum to internet marketing. I am sure all of you have a Facebook, Myspace or LinkedIn page right? Well these social networking sites offer businesses great opportunities to market their business for free. I manage Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and LinkedIn pages as well. It allows me to meet new people and hear what they have to say.

Internet Marketing Manager OhioSEO expert in Ohio

Think of internet marketing in the same way you would think of a marketer from 1970. The goal is simple. Build awareness and focus on the target market. The fundamental principles are the same. However, there is less face to face interaction and there is some technical knowledge required. A successful internet marketing individual requires one to be a detailed, analytical and creative thinker. The internet allows all of us to communicate with anyone in the world. It is your job to persuade them to believe in you!

Questions or comments? Feel free to leave a comment!

Facebook is for all ages! Find your old friends with online social media sites

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Facebook is for all ages! Seriously!
facebook old people

Facebook

Do you know what your Grandma is doing right now? Perhaps she is knitting a sweater. Maybe she is trying to figure how to make your Grandpa stop snoring. Finally, maybe she is just taking a nap. They all seem like good activities for a 93 year old, right? Guess again.

How about creating a Facebook account?

That is right! Grandmas of many ages are creating Facebook pages to find friends from years ago. Even more amazing is the fact that they are able to communicate with some of their old friends via email or directly through Facebook. The smile that comes to their faces is something you will never forget. It seems to remind them of their youth. Imagine being able to communicate with an old friend from 60-80 years ago? Sometimes, the only way the elderly can keep a smile on their face is by thinking of how much fun they had in their youth.

Many elderly folks across the globe are able to create Facebook pages with the help of their children and grandchildren. It can be a frustrating process to explain to some of them because they do not even know what a computer is.

Let’s be honest. We all know of a grandparent that despises the idea of being social. If you add their grumpy demeanor and idea of learning about new technology, it might send them to an earlier grave. As a grandchild, it is our responsibility to make sure that they see the positive aspect of the internet. With some of the negative connotations that the internet is portrayed by the media, this is one way to expose people of all ages to the bright spots of current technology.

In the end, the process is well worth it. In fact, you might have a hard time getting them to let go of the mouse. However, take it easy at this point because two things could happen:

1. They will think you said “Look there is a mouse in your house”.

2. You will have to explain what a mouse is.

Either way, you can be satisfied to know that your loved ones were able look back at their youth and smile. Let’s give Facebook two thumbs up for restoring the youth of our loved ones. Support local nursing homes and see if they allow their occupants internet access. If they do, volunteer your time and show them how to create a Facebook page. You might be surprised at their reactions!

Facebook on labtop

Facebook

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