Merchant Services Charge-back Horror: Why Paypal Is The Only Way:
November 1, 2008
photo credit: David Boyle in DC
There are reasons why I had the outrageous gall to re-start my online marketing company without capital: I had done it all before to the tune of millions, didn’t need a physical location, was selling a service with very little hard costs other than our time, and had re-created RISMedia.com (Real Estate Magazine’s website) as a Wordpress blog, with links to me and advertising to get leads from Realtors, who spend alot online.
Everything went well at first: we did over $1000,000.00 in the first 18 months and it looked like were back for sure. Our overhead had risen with our growth to $45,000.00 per month. Then this economy hit, and this article is about what happened to our merchant account when that happened.
Fast Wordpress Seo Guide - Step By Step With 6 Plug-ins
September 22, 2008
photo credit: adria.richards
Steps for performing SEO a wordpress blog using 6 plug-ins. This guide assumes you know basic html, css and are familiar with using basic tools like FTP software. Read more
New Low Prices For A Social Media Blog: Only $479.00 Down!
September 9, 2008
Be sure to check out our new pricing structure: see our services: now you can have a social media marketing system blog by purchasing stand-alone services, or complete with ongoing monitoring, strategic content posting and promotion, and ongoing training, promotion and support for as little as $379.00 per month on our new annual plan.
Why have a website that nobody sees? We promise traffic and functionality that puts you in control of your own destiny.
The best things on the web are either free or so inexpensive that anybody can get in the game - it is consistent performance and success that are hard to find!
The Slow Death Of Seo As We Know It
August 13, 2008
Not so long ago (I started my first company this industry in 2001) there was a race on to get to the top of the list – it was a wide open free-for-all with everyone shuffling to grab a huge emerging market: the need for search engine rankings and online PR of all kinds.
Now that race includes video, and another new trend: with more and more websites coming online, branding is taking back over, and small websites are seen less and less. We go to Expedia to buy Airline tickets, for instance, and now cheap Tickets.
Social Media Marketing: When The Water Is Low…
July 18, 2008
photo credit: Margaret Anne Clarke
In logging, there is a saying:
“When the water is low, the stumps will show”
It refers to the cylclicle nature of the industry, and how only the toughest survive when things are hard.
Recently I heard it said another way referring to the real estate industry in last year’s Leadership conference:
“When the water is low, you can see who has been swimming around naked!”
So true! It is the toughest of times that determine the real winners in any industry: success in Real Estate, IT, or any business requires endurance: but not just financial endurance, sometimes it is merely the attitude of the survivors that brings them through.
I once worked for an auto dealership that had six franchises until it started shutting them down one my one then went bankrupt. As salespeople, nobody knew exactly when to bail, or if there would be new opportunities with new ownership. As all the best used car inventory started disappearing off the lot to pay bills, the prospects became more and more bleak as a salesperson. With a family to support, I was one of the first to bail. But I never forgot the fact that those who stayed were so busy that they made a ton of money in the last few weeks, as bargain hunters hit the lot looking for fire sales, and bonuses where paid in cash to retain a sales force.
People who are truly fearless can sometimes benefit from everyone elses panic.
The water is low right now, for many of us, but tomorrow will come.
Scott Lauri Hits Hard With North Brunswick Real Estate Blog
July 3, 2008
Be sure to read this article: 1rst page Organic results: North Brunswick Real Estate, to learn about how a Realtor can definately achieve rankings for city, state, real estate and other competitive key word searches by way of a properly optimized, well sydicated blog: Scott ranks for many searches with his http://homesofnj.com/, here just a few examples: Read more
Link Bait: Blogging For Two Audiences
July 2, 2008
Here is the paradox: you must reach your market with a message that will generate leads to feed your business.
You must also reach the geeks and journalists who may republish and link to your articles, creating traffic and search engine rankings.
For Social Media Marketing purposes, you are really writing for two completely different audiences:
Example:
We are published here at http://WebProNews.com, amongst other ientry publications (http://ientry.com) who reach over 4,000,000 opt-in subscribers.
These are mostly techies and website developers, who are not our target market: some of them are even direct competitors: yet we intentionally write informative articles for this market, not so much to sell our services, but instead to be branded as an authority for our topics, which in turn ranks us for searches like ’social media marketing services’, on Google, Yahoo and MSN in the first page organic results.
This is because the most powerful link to your site for this purpose is for someone inside your industry to link to and consume your content: Google and the other search engines follow the trail back to the source of the information, making you the ‘authority source’ for your topic, and /or Geographic location.
However, this will not necessarily sell product for you. Once someone actually finds your website by way of a key word search as a result of your status as an authority and your relevant rankings, you also need to write content, like this article, which, while it will never be republished by my competitors, nor in any technical authority publication, it does help to explain to you (my target audience) exactly what I do, and how it may benefit you.
Likewise, you must reach consumers, and, one way to do that is to be an authority who is quoted about your profession, and/or location so that you can achieve organic rankings for those words.
Manage Your Google Reputation Free!
June 19, 2008
Have you typed your name into Google lately? What do people find when they do?
photo credit: Nils Geylen
Your reputation can be intentionally managed: Read more
Plugin Free Wordpress Profile Gravatars - Enable Them In Your Blog Comments Now!
June 18, 2008
As a web designer, I’ve long held the stance that it was better to have the visitors of your website upload the photo / picture of themselves to use for profiles and comments directly on your site ( local avatars). I knew of many third party websites that with plugins allowed you to use a universal avatar, but making each of your visitors leave your site and sign up it’s own set of problems. Plus there were lots of competing ones to choose, which third party service should you use?
With the new release of Wordpress (the most popular online publihsing platform in the world) support for an globally recognized avatar (gravatar) is built right in. Read more
Should You Use Wordpress To Build Your Next Website? Beginning Wordpress Basics
June 12, 2008
photo credit: Sicos
Wordpress is web software for online publishing. Notice that I didn’t use the word blog, even though wordpress is blogging software. It has been expanded to be A LOT more then that and shouldn’t considered in the same class as most blogging software. It’s a robust CMS (content management system) that empowers every type of website with users that include CNN, Playstation and the New York Times.
With website technology changing daily, choosing the right content management system or simply the actual software that organizes and runs a website is absolutely crucial to your success online. For most websites I’d highly recommend building with Wordpress and here is why: Read more
Multi-user Wordpress With Bbpress Forums: Social Media Marketing
May 2, 2008
Our new version of MUWordpress combined with BBPress and a few tweaks turns wordpress into a social media community. Imagine the value for a Real Estate brokerage with hundreds of agents launching a community site: see :
We will be rolling out many such community sites.
The templates continue to improve.
Everything On The Internet Is New, Dying, Dead Or Golden
March 21, 2008
The frist time Google sees it, it is new, new is good…
Wrist Pain Relief Medicine Big Seller Online: Over 5,000 Contacts:
February 28, 2008
Hi John,
Sorry for the delay–I’ve been swamped. Thank you for this opportunity. Below is my testimonial. Please let me know if I can make any improvements:
Why Does Internet Advertising Not Work For Everyone?
February 11, 2008
We hear this often: these guys had results immediately, while I have been doing everything and got no results. It is true: the same people continue to succeed, while others continue to fail: our beta testers in Denver who got immediate results, continue to succeed: they got 42 leads last month we just learned.
There are many reasons for this: I will list a few: Read more
Video Blogging In Real Time From A Phone!
January 27, 2008
photo credit: Leonard LowThis is really great: I learned how to operate this Nokia n93i (which i had to buy overseas, it is not here yet) in only a couple of hours, and this is the first video I recorded: it is already on Youtube and Google video automatically! Read more
Washington Ceo Business Networking
January 10, 2008
There is a growing trend in social media to relate real life interactions to the web, and web interactions to real life. This is nowhere more apparent than in the CEO and executive space- where sites like Linkedin and Zoodango are trying to harness the power from both sides of the offline vs online equation.
This is not an entirely new trend- in fact I have spent most of the last five years visiting and networking with groups to understand how they function in the real world and how that synergy can be merged online. From dozens of nationwide chamber of commerce events, local groups like BNI or Letip, and premium level social clubs such as ClubCorp- my team and I have probably been to thousands of different networking events (I know I’ve personally been to over 500.) Read more
15 New Years Resolutions For Your 2008 Website:
December 26, 2007
- I will get connected so I know it when I get a lead
- I will syndicate an RSS feed that originates at my Domain
- I will become an authority for my area and/or niche topic
- I will rank on the first page organic search results
- I will convert my dead site to be interactive
- I will become a do-it-yourself video blogger
- I will reduce my bounce rate to below 50%
- I will treat my website like an asset, instead of an obligation
- I will build value in my web-property real estate
- I will use my presence in my listing presentation
- I will blog testimonials
- I will add sticky social media features like forums
- I will stop letting my geek write my ad-copy
- I will seek reliable professional help this time
- I will get serious about online media in 2008!
How many times have you heard “Wow! Thanks for getting back to me so fast!”?
I thought so: me too!
Wordpress Plugins - Turn Blog Into A Social Media Community With Forums Features
December 17, 2007
I was able to create this robust setup using an off-the-shelf theme, the latest Wordpress, and a new forums plug-in in two hours flat: http://dobusinessinoregon.com/, and another where my rep has already started adding content: http://businessinthebayarea.com/:
Now the real work begins, customizing the templates, calls to action, the distribution of the feeds, the manual submission work, the regular posting and monitoring, the moderation of the forums, and the hardest part: getting people to participate.
The new WordPress has many of the coolest features we used to have to create with separate plug-ins already in widgets out-of-the-box: but installation and troubleshooting would still be difficult for non-developers if they did not have excellent aptitude and some knowledge of code and troubleshooting scripting installations. Read more
Creating Your Own Social Networking Local Community
December 12, 2007
We recently got tired of paying for Letip, BNI, multiple chambers of commerce and other groups: we added up all that we were spending, and decided we could do better: and we did at a profit!
Enter SeattleNetwork.net: we wrote up our own manifesto copy:
“BY INVITATION ONLY! Participation in the Forums and the Blog are open to all who can keep it informational and/or inspirational, join the Forums and the Blog for free anytime, but:
10 Timely Tips For Social Media Marketing In 2008
December 10, 2007
It is time to get up-to-date with some changes in the way a website is marketed online using Social Media:
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Do Bookmark everything you write: digg.com it, stumbleupon it, onlywire it: get the word out about your content this way!
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Ping the world when you post: it is possible to setup a pinger that lets several strategic places know about your new content.
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Allow comments and interaction: it takes time and traffic to get it going, but user-generated, user-filtered content is great for placement and traffic building.
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Solicit participation: ask your visitors to join the discussion, to log-in for free, to bookmark and share your content.
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Include video: video will soon replace much printed material online: the video search engines are becoming more and more of a traffic source.
