Staying on top

Just about every ISP and web hosting company in the world has turned into Search Engine Optimizers (SEO) overnight and they are promoting the Holly Grail of business – top listings on search engines.

Is this even possible?

Since generally there are only 10-15 listings on the first page of a search engine list, while it is possible, it is not probable. There are millions of websites, thousands of competing pages, and now an SEO on every corner exposing your website based on - wait this is the one I like best - unpublished search engine rules that are constantly changing to keep your page from getting top billing unless it is the most relevant for the search based on those unpublished rules.

Search engine companies like Google are constantly changing the rules to keep companies from getting that top bill which equates to free advertising. Think about it, if you are the top spot, just after their paid advertisements what are the chances you will get a hit? Probably close to 99%. If that is the case then why would someone pay to advertise with them just to get listed a couple a head of you?

One of my clients just grabbed the bate and went with an SEO that guaranteed a first page listing on Google. Why not, it was a guarantee. He ended up on page 3. Not bad, but not what was pitched. When he complained that they did not deliver on their guarantee, he was told it would be up to 3 years before he moved up on the list. 3 years? By then the site will have to be redesigned and he will be starting all over.

First of all is a search engine the real answer or just part of the plan?

It is great to get hits based on a search engine but if you are selling a product or service that can be purchased locally then chances are pretty good those hits will only translate into enhancing the viewers knowledge of the industry and pricing. Why would the viewer buy from you? They don’t know you or your company. You have no credibility with them.

Yes - you can get noticed and create sales regardless of your product or industry.

The real answer is to Promote, Promote, Promote. Get recognized as someone who knows the industry, which will provide the drive for people to visit your website and purchase regardless what your product is.

Products do not sell because they are the best, the cheapest, or even the first to market. They sell because they filled a need and the person who purchased them believes they received value from someone they trusted.

I am not discounting that there are ways to get your website noticed and SEO’s can help you accomplish that. Just avoid the hype and do not get duped into believing that unpaid advertising on a search engine is guaranteed to create a drastic shift in revenue. Unless you are in a pay-per-click environment, which most of us are not.

Words of Wisdom

Words of wisdom I wanted to share:

"There comes a time in everyone's career when you need a new challenge, a new opportunity. You realize that your professional development and your future depend on your willingness to step out of your comfort zone and follow a different path. When the time has come for you to leave... make sure it is for the right reasons. Leave with class, leave with gratitude, leave a legacy!" - Doyle Slayton

Your connected to a million people in social networks - now what?

I woke up this morning to over 100 new connections in LinkedIn, one of the most difficult websites to build new members. Wow what a great feeling to wake up and be connected to over 100 new people overnight, better yet these new connections opened me up to over 10,000 others that I can more easily connect with since the beginning of August.

A seemingly endless supply of new people, just about all entrepreneurs but without a plan they are just names, pictures, and email addresses. Half the time when someone accepts my invitation I receive nothing back. I always respond I always expose myself to them a second time.

I have just added a group on linked in called The Power of Five. I will be inviting my now over 200 connections to join my group. This will be another exposure.

The group is linked to a social network I just set-up so I can add them to a private social network just for this group. Another exposure to me and my work.

You get the picture. They keep seeing Mike and what I do over and over and over. Marketing by exposures, not spamming.

This is how every company in the world advertises their product. They don't slam their product on the screen and say check this out you will like it. They tell you what it does over and over.

In the world of social networking, YOU are the first product your contact must accept before they will ever listen to your product or company pitch.

Apple's iPhone - Tool or Toy?

I have been tracking the iPhone for some time because it promised to be the next generation of technology which would allow business people to be more mobile (the true road warrior). It has been interesting watching how the phones were being used and why these phones were being purchased. While the phones were loaded with great features that was touted as the beginning of a true hand held office most of the purchasers used them for little more than their iPod and phone functions. With a minimum data contract of $30 per month that was a hefty price to pay for an add on that was never used. It appeared from industry reports that at least half were purchasing simply to have the latest gadget.

While the first iPhone only resulted in a minor impact financially on the entire industry, it did raise the feature bar and competitors clamored for similar or better functionality as the large carriers worried that the next generation of these gadgets could or would result in a huge impact in their business. There is no question that we are not far away from having all of the features and functionality we need to stay connected, give presentations, take orders and generally do business right from the palm of our hand.

Why was the first iPhone not the hit Apple predicted?

While the first iPhones release did ok selling 22 million¹ units worldwide between September 30, 2007 and December 29, 2007 according to their website, it did not create the industry buzz that Apple had hoped for and at the time there were no out of inventory issues. It was a large disappointment for those who waited hours in line worried that they would not be able to get their hands on the highly publicized gadget, only to find a few others waiting in line with them and the initial boom over and done within one hour in most retail locations and plenty of iPhones left to go around. No one really pointed their finger at why. It could have been the single carrier AT&T who was already battling for market share held by Sprint and Verizon, the cost of the service, or the high initial release price of the actual device. The fact that Apple dropped the price within the first six months was a clear indication that price was an issue with consumers, but even at this new price point iPhone's were not flying off the shelf.

Apple iPhone 3G is creating the buzz, but maybe not the buzz Apple hoped for...

The recent release of the iPhone 3G was a different story. With Apple reporting over 1 million units² sold the first day and an almost instant out of stock situation which is creating industry buzz. This time however there is a different buzz and that is the buzz associated with release problems. This next generation iPhone allows users to purchase and download compatible applications expanding the capabilities of the original iPhone offering. But is this a good thing? As we discussed earlier this could bring the device closer to being the holly grail of business tools everyone dreams of but this new flexibility seems to come with a high price tag - dead iPhones. Yes, you guessed it, not all of this software works as planned on the new iPhones and worse some of these releases seem to overwrite the basic phone functions and users are complaining that a software install is leaving the phone inoperable.

The buzz I am finding on message boards, follow me sites like Twitter.com, and personal blogs is more about dissatisfaction with customer support for both companies, AT&T and Apple. People reporting extended wait times for service, complaining about the speed and functionality vs. expense of the data service, and reporting less than positive comments about downloaded applications that either do not work, are not as functional as advertised, or damaged the phone.

It will be interesting over the next couple of months how this will turn out.

So now you decide, is the iPhone a tool or toy? With over 50% of these devices being used for music and gaming I say high tech Toy. Please take my readers poll on this page and let me know how you feel.

¹ Source http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/01/22results.html
² Source http://www.apple.com/pr/pr/library/2008/07/14iphone.html

Five ways to double your exposure online starting today (The Power of Five System)

Already online with millions of other people on a social network but you feel like no one knows you are there? Chances are they don't. The problem is you are on a site with millions of other people so you have to put yourself out there over and over to get attention.

Here are five easy tips to help you double your exposure starting today:

• Respond to every new friend connection, even if you initiated it. A simple thank you and check out my site is a second contact and possibly another hit on your page or website.
• Post and respond to online Q & A's, forums and group posts. Positive, Negative or controversial make sure the people reading those links can see a your page. Social Networks already provide this link for you.
• Post a blog several times a week, even if it is about your day. Keep in mind the boss could see your page so you should be careful what you say about your significant other... But seriously this is great exposure as a blog gets picked up by search engines over time. As with friend requests, respond to new comments on your blog.
  
• Add your social network link or website link to your email signature. Instead of just closing an email with your name and phone number add a social contact site or website. If that email is forwarded so is your link.
• Use sharing sites like DIGG , del.icio.us and Twitter to gain additional exposure. These sites help you gain exposure by putting you in front of more people.

Five ways to improve your profile to promote yourself online (The Power of Five System)

Five ways to improve your profile to promote yourself online (The Power of Five System):

• Place a picture of yourself on your profile. Add pictures of trips, events, activities, family. People connect better with people than products. The most successful sales and business people got there by connecting and networking with people.
• Your About should be about you not about what you want people to do. Add your background, history, experience, resume.
• Include your interests, books, movies, TV, etc. These are generally links and are used as part of the search function. Keep this up to date. It will help people connect with you.
• Set up your top friends with top friends. It is great if authors and famous people accepted your friend invitation but they accept everyone's friend invitation. They should not be in your top friends list since you probably do not know them personally.
• Create a BLOG which is real. The word blog stands for online log (personal journal). You can write about anything, but this is not a place to further define your business or products.

In conclusion, setting up your profile as a billboard for your business and then expecting real people, who do not know you, to connect with who you are and what you do will rarely happen. If you want to sell this way then you need to create a big budget and purchase advertising, not invite people to meet you and then switch up and try to hook them into a sales advertisement.

Ran one to many lights?

How do you know when being that last car through the red light happened one too many times?

Answer at the end of this post...

It simply amazes me the risks that people take in their lives with their valuables. How little regard they have for the items of most value and what high regard they have for their items of least value.

What is truly mind boggling is these same folks will risk their entire existence to save a couple of minutes at a stop light, but won't risk a couple of hundred dollars and a few hours a week to never have to rush any place ever again.

Background on this article: It has always amazed me how much risk people take with themselves and their vehicle. They race around to save five minutes, cutting off traffic and running red lights with the most important and expensive tool they own. Without there car they probably can't easily get to work to pay their bills and worse the automobile has been shown to be the leading cause of death in this country. I was heading back home this afternoon and as my light turned green I watched as that one last car ran the red light crossing traffic so not to have to wait a couple of minutes for the next light change.

The irony is his vehicle already had front end damage where he had appeared to have performed this time saving stunt one too many times before.

This picture says it all...

Hmmm No time savings here

Great Expectation

Wednesday evening my family and I sat down for a nice family dinner and the conversation transitioned to a recent movie release which everyone at the table had already viewed except for me. The conversation started with each declaring the movie one of the best they had ever seen and informing me that I should take the time to view it in the movies.

Without going into a lot of detail, not to spoil it for me, they started to compare different scenes of the movie which had the most impact on them. The longer they discussed the movie the conversation strangely transitioned what what they loved about the movie to what they did not like. At the same time the movie went from great to good. One commented to another that a scene was rather odd to them and another said they kept thinking the movie was going to end but then would continue on.

By the end of the conversation they found that they shared opinions and then one came up with the conclusion that there was so much hype surrounding the movie before it was released they already had the pre-conceived opinion that this was going to be the best movie of the year, maybe of all time. After seeing the movie and comparing opinions with each other they felt differently which brought the actual movie down a couple of notches on their best ever scale.

While each had things about the movie they did not like they fell back on the hype which was this was one of the greatest movies of all time. Even though they shared opinions like the movie could have been shorter, they kept them quiet not to go against what they felt was popular opinion.

We see this in business all the time. We wonder why a vehicle, with a lower safety rating and fewer features sells better. Why people eat at a restaurant which serves lower quality food but advertises everywhere, or spends twice as much for a caffeinated confection at the "in" coffee place.

It is all about the buzz. It is all about the perception that what they are offering is better, in style, popular.

How can you make your company and product fit this bill?