Web Advertising - Say It Loud, Say It Bold

"Six Questions That Produce Successful Web Advertising" was an article written by Jerry Bader that caught my eye this morning. I'm always looking for ways to improve my marketing services.

Reading the article, I found a couple remarks that struck a chord with me and my philosophy on web marketing. Here's the first one:

You would think that everyone in business would be able to tell you what they do and why you should be doing business with them; unfortunately the sad truth is many business executives can't. In fact one of the biggest problems in designing websites has always been getting appropriate raw material that can be turned into meaningful presentations: a handful of badly written brochures and a few out-of-date photographs are not going to make much of an impression.

Jerry lives in MY world! I sometimes don't get much from my clients in way of material, so I create very visual web sites to help disguise that fact. While I believe it helps the marketing message, I think it can only go so far. You need to use professional copy and product images.

The other issue the article addressed that is so relevant:

There are many methods that can be employed to drive appropriate traffic to your site: search engine optimization is only one. Have you written and published articles and advice on what you do, have you created a blog or a MySpace page to create a community of interest, or have you issued press releases on new developments and product releases? If you're relying solely on search engine optimization as a substitute for marketing, you are not doing everything you can to attract new business.

Search engines do supply some good traffic, but you must prove yourself worthy of their rankings. Getting "communities" on the Internet to endorse your site and send traffic to it, traffic which, by the way, is pre-qualified for your marketing message, is a great way to increase your search engine exposure too. One method without the other, seems to be putting all your eggs in one basket.

Internet Marketing - Why Is It So Difficult?

I some times feel awfully inarticulate and I don't understand it because I'm a voracious reader and love words. Anyway, I've never been able to put into words how different Internet marketing is from old-style marketing, and it frustrates my clients as well as myself, I know.

This article by Mike Moran says it for me in a way I like. He says

If you understand the kind of culture change you need, and how to bring it about, you'll be more accepting of the time it takes to really make it happen.

Read the rest of Mike's article.

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Article Marketing Works

Here's how:

I wrote a series of three articles on Search Engine Optimization for web site owners, sent them out to my opt-in list and submitted them to article directories like Article-DirectorySite.com.

A lady from Florida called me because she is concerned with the SEO 'expert' she's paying for. She read one of my articles, followed the link to my web site, found my toll-free phone number and called me up.

After a brief discussion, she asked me to submit a proposal to her.

Article martketing works..and there's the proof!

Article Directory Site

Since I'm such a proponent of writing and submitting articles to directories to gain incoming links and targeted traffic, I've gone and launched Article-DirectorySite.com.

I know there are lots of great article directories out there, but, ya know, I can do it better! Being a web designer and developer gives me a leg up in getting my article directory to rank well in the search engines, IMHO. I'm optimizing the crap out of this site and know how to pursue other methods of promotion so that my clients' writing can get them good traffic, links and search engine rankings in turn.

I'm really excited about this new venture, although it does add to my workload, I think it's a real value-added service for my customers.

If you've got articles you'd like to submit to the article directory for FREE or if you're looking for FREE, quality content for your web site, newsletter, blog or ezine, Article-DirectorySite.com is the place.

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Changing face of web media

In the course of submitting my client's podcasts made from his articles, I found some changes in the podcast/blog world going on.

I've heard some rumblings the last few months about video - ads, YouTube, etc. Going to my quite lengthy list of podcast directories slammed it home for me. A few of them, I'll guess the number is between 5-10%, have gone to all video submissions.

The sad thing about those directories is that the videos are not of informational value. You can only watch the asian guy do his creepy dance so many times, and you won't learn anything from it at all.
To my tastes, vid is for a visual demonstration of something we want to, you know, LEARN. It's why I like podcasts so much. I don't think end-users have the equipment for video yet either. Besides viewing on line of course. Shoot my MP3 player is only about a year old!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)...

Keep Up or Shut Up!
That's what I really wanted to title this post, but, well, I'm doing SEO on this blog too.

Here's the occasion for this slight flame:
I spoke to a prospective client at length about SEO and a redesign of their website (FrontPage, YUK!). They are using Javascript navigation, table-based layout, fonts that can't be read by anybody but them, the list goes on.

After signing this 'client', their server guy, ok, I'm gonna name names here - Matt at Pioneer PC - feeds them a line about how PHP and MySQL are incompatible with their inhouse Linux server which also hosts their web site. Duh, PHP and MySQL were MADE for Linux! Since I'm not a server person, and do my best not to speak on issues I have no expertise in, I checked for sure.

Then, he has the gall to look up a couple articles on the internet and send them to the client. He tells me in a phone con that the site is SEO'd because the Meta tags have their keywords. Meta tags - geez that's about 1999 info there.

In the end, I lost the job, client is happy with the current site, I guess because the server guy says it's good. Hey, golly, what about the people who will actually use the site?

Having gotten that off my chest, I'm embarking on a quest to inform people about SEO in 2007. While I keep up with the industry and research the subject every single day, I guess my humble opinion is just not enough.

I'm putting out the call for SEO experts and their articles, so that when I talk about SEO, I'll have backup to prove my view. If you do REAL SEO, send me your articles for publication, I'll give credit where credit is due, and we'll help reinforce each other's position.