Informational Marketing – Askmrrooter.com Plumbing Questions And Answers Blog
How to make plumbing sexy and interesting online? I have been writing for over ten years about how sales and marketing are changing due to the 
empowerment of the internet shopper. The information age, in my humble opinion, has completely outdated many sales techniques and practices that involved feeding a customer through a funnel forced on them by the fact that the vendors, once upon a time not long ago, could control the distribution and availability of information and products and services, thereby controlling and even dominating the market.
Here I am telling you again that those days are gone: just as you cannot force somebody to come onto a car lot to buy a car, as many auto dealers are finding out ‘the hard way’, you can not control the market by controlling the free flow if information.
Now, instead, you must become the provider of the information, and the market will find YOU: case in point: askmrrooter.com, the local MrRooter Plumbing Services Contractor franchisee for three counties in Southern California: San Diego, Ventura, and Santa Barbara counties.
As owners of three franchises and growing, the Southern California Mr. Rooter franchisee (my client), like most franchisees has tried all conventional forms of advertising, including PPC (pay-per-click) on Google.
Contrary to popular belief, P.P.C. actually almost always works, for a little while: more and more, people use Google and the other search engines as a replacement for the yellow pages, actually calling the first number that comes up without visiting the website. Heck: I sell websites, and lately I am getting calls from organic search where they have not even visited my website! So paid search works, until the inevitable happens:
- Your competitors eventually see what you are doing, so they do it.
- The words are on a bid basis, so the cost per click goes up from the competition
- As the cost increases, ROI decreases until the profit stays with Google.
Now ask yourself this question: how often do I click a sponsored link or pop-up banner? Chances are you answer is either rarely or never!
By using what I call ‘permission based marketing’, or the informational dissemination technique, our client has found a way to garner user generated, user filtered content, and dominate the organic search results (that is correct, I am calling it ahead of time again) for plumbing Ventura California, plumbing contractor San Diego, California, drain service Santa Barbara California and many other related searches.
They bought our bundle that includes video and social media marketing for $999, and added article marketing so that we will generate the 56 weekly plumbing how-to questions and answers, and they will rank on those searches too: and the video we are making as part of the project will increase lead conversion and show on video search results with a thumbnail on Google, Youtube and others.
Eventually, they may be able to sell the lead generation machine back to the franchiser!
As part of the bundle, we will also submit them also to local search on Google, Bing and the others – making them come up for free (for now) on search results with the map and telephone number.
If you are a franchisee, consider this approach to your own lead generation website: and everybody knows already that http://askmrrooter.com is the place to ask your plumbing how-to questions!
With Google Offering Seo Consulting, Seo As We Know It Is Dead!
No, Google is offering “Site Clinics”, as pointed out by this article in Search Engine Journal:
“Site Clinics are NOT SEO Consulting services. And just because a clinic MAY either validate that previous SEO work was done properly, to one extent or another, that does NOT translate into the notion that Google is going to be certifying anyone in our industry for SEO.”
April fools! Let’s face it, buying SEO from Google would be like buying eggs from the wolf!
But make no mistake, SEO is dying and is almost dead in terms of on-site architecture: content on the scale necessary to compete these days can only be managed by a mainstream CMS (content management system): more on content management systems here:
Which Content Management System (CMS) should I use?
As we predicted here:
http://socialmediasystems.com/blog/the-slow-death-of-seo-as-we-know-it/
With modern CMS’s in widespread use (some estimate that there are over 200,000,000 websites in WordPress, for instance),
And Google knowing EVERYTHING, because so many have Google Analytic and Google Toolbar, with Google tracking who visits what pages when for how long…
Now more than ever it is “about the content, stupid“
In his best selling book,
The World Is Flat, 3.0
Thomas L. Friedman points out the playing field has been leveled, and the far reaching effects of that revelation.
Now, more than ever, you must be a content producer of some sort to have any internet presence at all:
In recognition of these revelations, we have gone the next step in offering this new “E-Zine” bundle to Realtors who want to dominate a niche or local area marketplace:
Bundle III Your Own Online Magazine – Opt-in E-zine Business Model
- Traceable, automated, customizable two-tier affiliate program design, installation, training
- Rotating ads for your advertisers, earn money instantly selling inexpensive, effective advertising at any price you like
- Our tested, proven selling system is easy: low pressure with business networking at local Meet-ups, Chamber of Commerce…
- Double-opt-in PHP List subscription automated distribution of your content, build a valuable list that feed you and your advertisers the safe, spam free way
- First year hosting is included at no cost – with a little luck you will need a dedicated server after that!
- Robust control panel allows automated backups and restoration, easily moves entire site in minutes when more bandwidth is needed, unlimited email addresses, forwarders for authors
- Shopping cart installation and training how to use it makes you able to sell your advertisers products right on your site and make a percentage of the money (fulfillment platform and automated shopping cart all through PayPal, accept any major credit card, any bank account in minutes)!
- Cash-flow your business from day one!
This bundle can be used as a local area blog, and integrated with advanced IDX features, as we have done here:
Seemless Integration Of Ihomefinder Idx Into A WordPress Blog
How To Decline Working For Free, And Make Money Doing It – Rothman Affiliate Program
Stop giving away free tutoring when you need to be working on your own stuff!
Are you the tech-savvy one in your office? Are you looking for a polite way to let your associates know that it is not your responsibility to tutor them forever, for free?!
We have all had this experience in my business: it starts out with the innocent question:
“Israel, your pretty tech savvy…” or “Israel, you know about computers, don’t you…”
What follows is some simple problem to solve that has nothing to do with your primary business: it is about that person’s learning curve learning how to use their own computer. You need a polite way to inform that person that your time has value, and that you do not work for free, and that their struggle with technology is not your responsibility.
Now you have it: and a way to make money while you are doing it: we have created the living e-book: the TOTALLY FREE Rothman Guide to Building Successful Websites:
Now, when that agent or associate of any kind in your office starts asking your those questions, you can refer them to our guide to study up on what we do and how we do it. We know that when people realize what we do and how and why it works, they will want to buy it from us, and if you are an affiliate:
Affiliate Program – Make Money With our Services
You can make money doing so, while gently declining to tutor them for free! You can send an email to them suggesting that the may want to be an affiliate to save money, and make 10% on whatever they spend, or you refer them with an email link and/or banner on your website, even walk them through the order, and make 15% of gross for whatever they spend with us; and make 10% on any of them who become affiliates for one year thereafter!
Would you like to make 15% of gross sales for referring people here, and 10% of gross in overrides for their referrals for the first year? This is not Multilevel, only two levels and we actually have a wonderful list of products and services that everyone needs! Sign up here:
If you’re still looking for a good team to take your project to the next level, the authors of the 2010 Rothman Guide to Building Successful Websites are available for free, no obligation, creative consultations that you will not forget! Call 1-866-945-1113 or e-mail your contact info to info@socialmediasystems.
You too could use such a system in your industry, you could publish an e-book. It costs less than you think! Click here:
Seemless Integration Of Ihomefinder Idx Into A WordPress Blog
Ihomefinder.com IDX is available almost everywhere, and very easy to integrate into a WordPress Blog site seamlessly using the theme style sheet links and header:
The branded links then look like this:
Notice that I was able to also insert the site navigation on every page of the branded pages! (more…)
When I Called Israel My Webmaster Had Dissapeared, Leaving My Expanding Massage Business In Hollywood Without
When I called Israel My Webmaster had disappeared, leaving my expanding Massage business in Hollywood, California without a website.
Israel Immediately put up a new URL at http://relaxitsjustmassage.info/
Not having a website was critical to me because much of my business books appointments online, and I sell coupons for a group of discounted massages that are a critical part of my income. To compound matters, I am in the process of expansion with locations in Hawaii and Arizona. We intent to become a franchise eventually, so out website efforts are very important.
I am a very qualified massage therapist and an excellent business woman, but had always relied on someone else to do my website and have had a series of bad experiences.
Israel not only got me up and running with WordPress: he made the website rank for many searches:
relaxing massage Hollywood California Google Search
He actually, somehow, by writing about me, made me come up on many searches in multiple places on the page with the brand new site, something the other guy could not do on many times the budget (what I bought from Israel: “SEO Blog” was only $479)
