$60,000 Mugging

I was referred to a prospective client recently that had their website redesigned.  They paid $60,000 for a site that really does nothing for them.  It is a simple brochure site that provides visitors nothing and it certainly does nothing to convert traffic into sales.  Since all their budget went to design, they  have no money left over to properly market the site.  Mistake #1, don't pay $60,000 for a branding exercise.

A corporate website is about supporting the business.  The beauty of the Internet is there is no guessing.  You can measure pretty much anything. What are you trying to accomplish?  Increase traffic? Generate leads? Increase sales?  If it is yes to one of these questions, then a $60,000 investment should get you  another $600,00 to your bottom-line? Can a brochure site deliver a 80-95% ROI?

Web design is a commodity today.  The cost of design should represent about 25% of your total spend.  Design costs are competitive today, so spending more than you have to should be the last thing you do.  There are excellent open source Content Management Systems (CMS) that give you the power to manage your own content.  The cost of the software is $0 to you. We recommend using either Plone or Joomla.  Both of these platforms provide you with Web 2.0 compliant back-end at low cost for setup and maintenance.

The value in web design is working with companies that can properly market what you do.  To properly market the site, you should be spending 10-12x what you should spend in design.  So, it is possible to get a Web 2.0 website at an affordable cost.  If you are a small company that is spending $4,000-$8,000 on a basic website, you should plan over 12 months to spend an additional $30,000-$80,000 on marketing.  The dollars spent on marketing brings the traffic to the site.  Simple rule, more traffic through the front door means more business. 

Unlike other advertising, you can control your spend and measure your ROI pretty quickly.  You can turn your marketing dollars on and off depending on the performance, it is all measurable.

If you need help in evaluating a prospective vendor, here are some question that may help you understand their knowledge:

1. How do capture visitor traffic off the Internet?  Can you track their movement through my site?  If so, how?

2. How do manage pay per click advertising dollars to ensure I am maximizing my spend and not wasting money?

3. How do you measure whether my site is friendly to my users?

4. How many page views would you estimate my site would get to determine 
the right level of hosting?

5. What things will you need to change on my website?  What things can I change on my own?

6. If I want to change the look, does it require changes to the backend scripting on the site?

7. What will it take to add a new page to match an ad we are running to the new site?  For instance, I want to advertise a special and build a page specific for it, what will it take for us to do this?

8. What do you anticipate the average cost per lead for the website to be?

9. Who owns the source code to the site?

So, think about your objectives.  Think about what you want to accomplish and spend your money according to the results you want to achieve.  A pretty website just does not generate the type of results you should and can get using the Internet.  Don't get mugged for $60,000.  It's bad for your business.

$1 Million in Google AdSense Earnings

They are calling him the million dollar man. Jason Calacanis recently revealed in his blog that he is on track to earn a million dollars from AdSense over the year ahead. 

And if that number doesn’t wake you up and have you sitting on the edge of your seat, consider for a moment that he reached this level in less than a year. His company only started using AdSense in September 2004. 

Calacanis runs Weblogs Inc., a network dedicated to creating trade weblogs across niche industries. And he’s quickly proven that AdSense is a credible advertising partner. 

As their network has grown, so has their AdSense revenue. In January 2005 they earned an average of $580 per day. In March it was $737. In May it was $1,585. One day in July, just before he made the blog entry referred to above, they earned $2,335. Remember that is just for one day.  If they can take that daily average to $2,740 they’ll be earning a rate of $1 million for a year. And Calacanis predicts that reaching daily earnings of $3,000 or even $5,000 is quite achievable. 

That’s quite an achievement. Keep in mind that Calacanis has 103 bloggers on the payroll and nine staffers. Even so, many webmasters would give an arm or a leg to have even a third of that. 

Google’s AdSense has been revolutionary. It has become firmly established as the darling of the online advertising industry. Although rumors are heard of major competitors launching a similar service, AdSense’s premier position seems secure for now. 

In essence, AdSense has made it possible for almost anyone with a web site or blog to earn some revenue from advertising, without having to employ sales people or spend precious time searching for advertisers.  

AdSense works like this. Webmasters sign up for an account in just a few minutes. They receive a small snippet of code to include on their web pages. Google will then automatically serve advertisements that are relevant to the content on the webmaster's pages. When someone visits the webmaster's site and clicks on one of Google's AdSense advertisements, the webmaster earns a fee. Advertisers can pay anywhere from five cents to a hundred dollars per click, and the webmaster receives a percentage of that fee.

Many webmasters are content with earning five to ten dollars from AdSense to cover the cost of web hosting. But many, unsurprising, have higher ambitions. At a popular WebmasterWorld forum, participants share tips and encouragement on reaching a goal of $300 per day from AdSense. So it is no wonder that Calacanis created quite a buzz when he made his million dollar blog entry. 

Google have proven once again that they excel at designing innovative Internet services. If you are in the web industry and have not yet used AdSense, then perhaps you should try it out. Or if you are already using it, perhaps Calacanis’ impressive results will encourage you to track the performance of your AdSense units more closely, fine tune their positions and formats, and take your earnings to a new level.

SEM

Search engine marketing, , or SEM, is similar to search engine optimization but focuses less on natural rankings and more on the actual promotion of a website. SEM techniques generally include natural SEO but almost always branches out to include contextual or paid search advertising.
Paid search advertising models became more prominent in the late 1990's, after the search engines themselves became more popular. SEM focuses more on business-oriented websites and their overall online marketing strategies. Because many of the paid advertisements appear at the top of the search engines, the FTC in 2002 responded to complaints by clarifying that paid advertisements and website listings must be clearly denoted so that consumers do not confuse them with websites that have obtained high rankings naturally.
It really doesn't matter what type of website you have, whether it's personal or geared towards your business. Incorporating search engine optimization techniques into the creation and ongoing upkeep of your site will ensure you receive higher levels of traffic and, ultimately, greater success.

Search Engines Want Your Page Title

It is important to give your page a meaningful title,especially if you want people to be able to find your page by using the major search engines. Although search engines use many factors to find and rate web pages, the page title is often an important factor.

SITE SEO-Selecting your Domain Name

SITE SEO-Selecting your Domain Name:

Before selecting your domain name, I will suggest do a little research in your niche.

1. A great tool:Keyword Tool from Google AdWords.
2. For example if your niche is site seo (search engine optimization) type the keyword: site seo (search engine optimization) in the box for:Word or phrase.
3. And you will get all the results related to site seo (search engine optimization).
4. Then sorted by Local Monthly Searches and choose the keyword with the most searches and the less competition.

Then go to GoDaddy.com and see if that domain name is available for the keyword you selected.

Internet Marketing

Internet marketing:

Means the use of the Internet to advertise and sell goods and services. It includes Banner and Text Advertising, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Interactive Advertising, Affiliate Marketing and Search Engine Marketing (including Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click Advertising).

Web Search Engine Marketing-Internet Marketing

Based in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale area, Web Search Engine Marketing is dedicated to helping businesses achieve higher rankings in the major search engines and directories on the Internet. We are highly experienced in web search engine marketing and internet marketing (including Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click Advertising), e-commerce solutions, website development, website design.