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Saturday, March 25, 2006
There is No Shortcut

Tonight I attended an “Introduction to Pilates” class at Mariner Square. It was a really fast introduction, so I picked up a Pilates book we have to learn a little more and really enjoyed this quote, in the book, from Stephen R. Covey…

“We live in a modern society that loves shortcut techniques. Yet quality of life cannot be achieved by taking the right shortcut. There is no shortcut. But there is a path. The path is based on principles revered throughout history. If there is one message to glean from this wisdom, it is that a meaningful life is not a matter of speed or efficiency. It’s much more a matter of what you do and why you do it than how fast you get it done.”
If you take the shortcut, you miss the learning process of getting there.

Think about this quote when you’re waiting for your website to be #1 in Google. It takes time and patience.

There is No Magic Bullet

I just read a great interview about a gentleman who earns $10,000/day from AdSense. He says “there is no magic bullet…through testing you can always improve.”

I spoke about this before…making minor changes to your website can have a dramatic effect on your overall bottom line. Learn from Yahoo, Google, Amazon. All are successful websites that haven’t really changed that drastically over time, but only improved on a good thing. Check out the path or growth of these sites at Wayback Machine.

Anyhoo…

Stephen Covey is right. There is no shortcut, but there is always a way.

Have a great weekend.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 1:08 am

Comments: None | Filed under: Uncategorized, Web Marketing


Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Read This Headline! Click Here Now!

I was writing an email and looking for that perfect Subject line and it dawned on me that writing or choosing a Subject line in an email is the same as writing headlines for your website, marketing campaign, advertising, etc.

Subject lines and headlines both need to be concise and to the point and intriguing enough for the reader to proceed further (i.e. opening the email or buying a product).

An Attention Getting Device

I learned in my first days of public speaking to open your speech with an attention getting device. Something that would grab the audience by surprise and redirect their attention to you, the speaker, and what you were going to say.

Grab the attention of your audience. Get them interested.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 12:17 am

Comments: None | Filed under: Uncategorized


Friday, March 10, 2006
Make People Trust You on The Web

I was looking for email newsletters that would integrate with my Goldmine software and found a site that looked legitimate, until I clicked on a link that took me to this page:

Sorry, The page you are looking for does not exist
Please goto www.internetmailmanager.com and start there or contact support.

We truly apologize for any inconvenience.

Immediately I’m skeptical and hesitant about trusting this site or going any further, knowing full well I can just go back to Google and find someone else (I did).

Provide an Error Free Website

Obtaining profit on the web requires being credible and building trust. You can drive traffic to your site, but if they get there and you immediately provide dead links, “under construction pages” and 404 error pages to your visitor, your credibility goes down, way down.

Keep your site free from errors and you’ll get more people to trust you. More people buy from people they trust.

Enjoy your Saturday and stay dry. ;-)

P.S. Here is a good article on Gaining Trust Online

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 11:23 am

Comments: None | Filed under: Web Design


Thursday, March 9, 2006
SEO Benefits Us All

I was just talking with a gentleman yesterday who wanted to learn more about SEO (search engine optimization) and how we do it.

He brought up a good point about how most websites are not optimized for the search engines (or humans for that matter) - even the Fortune 500 companies.

He’s right. But what if every website was optimized? (I’d be out of a job)

Optimizing Your Website Benefits All of Us

I was just looking for “late payment fees Visa” on Google and most of my results came up short. Now imagine if every website was optimized? I would have a mountain of information to choose from and maybe get the results I wanted.

Optimizing your website will not only benefit your company, but it will also benefit your visitors who are searching for this information.

And who do we want to impress more? Ourselves or others?

Cheers.

Learn how to optimize your website in only 10 steps.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 6:52 am

Comments: None | Filed under: SEO


Tuesday, March 7, 2006
Make Money With Google AdWords

Before I forget, the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, March 5, 2006, had a good article about how Google makes their money - mostly through your advertising called “Sponsored Listings“.

Here are some of the highlights:

“An ad at the top of the page receives roughly double the clicks of others”

“Where an advertisement appears depends on a combination of how much a business is willing to pay, and how much the ad has to do with the search.”

“One company could pay less than another and wind up in a premium location, as long as Google believes its ad is the most relevant to the user’s search.”

Getting Started

It’s easy to get started advertising on Google…and I quote:

“Placing an advertisement on Google can cost as little as $5 and take just a few minutes.

  1. Draw up a three-line advertisement, no more than 100 characters total.
  2. Enter the keywords that will activate your sponsored link, such as “cheap airfare” for an ad about discount travel.
  3. Bid in an auction for those keywords, determining how much you’re willing to pay. The minimum bid is 1 cent per click. The maximum is $100 per click. You can’t spend more than $250,000 a day.
  4. Give Google your billing information and wait for your ad to appear.”
That’s it.

The beauty of advertising on Google is that you only pay what your budget allows. And if your budget can’t allow it, your choice of keywords can certainly make up for it.

Mike Swartz, says “Check it out“.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 4:01 pm

Comments: None | Filed under: SEO


Tuesday, March 7, 2006
Promote Your Website Through Partnering

After The Apprentice (yes I am addicted) an advertisement said to go to Yahoo.com and type in “the apprentice fantasy game“.

I thought it was interesting that NBC (the apprentice) said go to Yahoo to search for “the apprentice fantasy game” instead of telling me to just go to Apprentice.com (Notice on the Yahoo/Apprentice Game site there is an advertisement for Fusion, which they promoted on the show today).

Partnering

Do it to promote your website. Whether online or off, the ultimate goal is to draw traffic to your website.

Linking

Partner online. Do it to promote links to your website. I’ve mentioned before that quality links to your website - will obviously generate traffic - but also help you achieve higher search results.

Where do I start?

Who are you partnering with right now? Do they have a website? Do you belong to clubs or charity organizations? Are you a member of your local chamber of commerce? Get added to their online member directories. Add yourself to the online yellow pages and other online directories specificlly related to your business.

If you’re on the web, make sure you’re found on the web.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 12:04 am

Comments: None | Filed under: SEO, Web Marketing


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