If you want real visibility but don’t want the hassle of paying top dollar for PPC listen up – there is a quick solution. Its easy to forget that there is literally unlimited real estate when it comes to marketing yourself on the Internet. That means endless pages of sales copy, video testimonials and many more ways to get the customers attention.

If you were to compare prices then it is a no brainier – online marketing wins every time. You couldn’t afford to run multiple full page ads in a niche periodical without feeling the burn of high costs. Even though you can run all of your teaser sales copy online I am surprised at how stingy business owners are when it comes to self promotion. Instead of embracing the idea of wide open spaces I see a lot of business people rewriting over the same five pages. This defeats the purpose of creating real brand awareness on the web.

Give The People What They Want

I am often surprised at the great contrast of aggressiveness on the PPC side as opposed to your standard web pages. Many people forget to put their selling messages into the title of their pages. A consistent mistake I see a lot of business owners make is to brand every web page with the same information, (EX: Welcome To Fisher’s Air Conditioning Systems). Not only is this a dumb thing to do but it also offers nothing to the surfing consumers who could be visiting your site.

Your customer wants to see something for free. Information is the number one thing people are looking for. Remember to sell the sizzle but not the steak. PPC ads sell a lot of sizzle because they don’t have enough online real estate to do much else. There is a very tight formula that they must stick with. You must remember to do something similar on your own pages.

I was going through a weekend issue of USA Today and smiled as I hit the classified section. Every Friday I can count on many businesses opting for my attention. Some of the ads are very believable and all of them are incredibly blunt. They get right to the point about what they want to say and they manage to put in a call to action in under 5 lines of copy. I must add too that these are very short ads.

Create Grabbers

Encourage people to steal from you. Put white papers and downloadable content that people can outright pick up and steal. Post articles on your site and encourage people to come and take a look at them. Allow people to steal the whole article and place them on their sites. Create in roads to your order page by creating an elaborate web of online traffic. This is something that you can actually control. It is very time consuming so make sure you know what you want.

Joe Vitale has said to look up under keyword searches and find out what is popular. Then based on that you can create ebooks and white papers to draw traffic to your site. Now there is an art to doing this and you will need to learn a few key things about search engine optimization, (SEO) before you actually do it. But this is a pretty interesting strategy. Think of the many ways you can create a steady flow of the right kinds of people to your site.

Online ebooks are fairly simple to make and you can create a considerable flow of visitors with the right bait. This is going to take a little finesse on your part. Remember that people hate to read and they like a lot of visuals. You can use embedded audio and video in your ebooks and private web pages. Take advantage of the fact that people have 1/3 of their brain dedicated to audio and visual learning. You can take this to a new height with niche focused content and material.

You can still get the attention that a typical PPC ad can bring by changing your approach. This is a powerful strategy that you can employ in your online campaign. Creating prospect funnels to your site is art form. You have to know what they might want to grab. You can make your content enticing by giving it away for free. I like to use a lead capturing device on these types of sites. In addition to getting information you will want to make sure there is an automated responder tied into this function. This alerts the customer and lets them know you are paying attention to them.

One of the quickest ways to drive traffic to your site is to key in on a hot topic. If you have a site dedicated to why butter melts on summer days and then you place a series of supporting articles on your site you may not wind up with as much traffic as you’d like. This may be due to the fact that this is an issue most people don’t really think about much – or perhaps they’ve already learned the secret.

However key in on a controversial topic like the death penalty or hate crimes you will likely find improved traffic. You can also look for emotionally connected issues such as weight loss or an improved health.

Once you’ve optimized your site with appropriate keywords or phrases your site will likely find its way into a better place in search engine rankings and it may show up in Google’s email program.

When visitors make it to your site you should attempt to ensure that you can welcome them back again at an appropriate time. Many sites do this with the offer of a free report when the individual decides to leave the site. The offer will usually say something like, “Don’t leave yet. As a way of saying thank you…” and then will explain the report, tip or ecourse that is being offered with a simple and absolutely free sign up.

If the visitor is interested and the information you have on your site has been valued then that guest may find it in their interest to sign up for your free newsletter. This is especially true when they know they can opt out at any time.

Most sites manage this with time-released autoresponders, but the intent remains improved traffic.

I have been to some health related sites that were infused with health information, testimonials, quotes from doctors and article archives that provided a comprehensive look at the health issue being discussed. The exit strategy left me with a choice about receiving reports on additional ways to combat this potential health issue as well as recipes that will help aid in a healthy lifestyle.

At that point, if a site visitor has any interest at all, it becomes a fairly easy decision – perhaps as easy as bookmarking the site. All they need to do is provide an email address and a first name. The reports are sent and the visitor has regular links back to the primary site if they need more information or want to make a purchase of an ancillary product or service.

Traffic that is built from individuals who have a motivation for visiting the site is much more beneficial than using email marketing that can be little more than a shot in the dark if the list is leased. You might hit something, but they may not be happy about it.

Work to optimize your site at the beginning of your online journey and then develop a desirable means of encouraging first time guests to come back. If you’ve done your job right many of them will take you up on your offer.

OK, I'm hot. I'm not complaining because back in the winter when it was the very opposite of hot, I swore I wouldn't complain when it got hot. The fan on my computer seems to have a brain of its own and it is humming away at an unusually fast pace. I think the computer is hot.

So why oh why would want to be reading an article about eMarketing in the aftermarket? It gives you an excuse to put your feet up on the desk, sip that iced tea and learn something that can move your company forward in the branding and marketing arena at a very low cost. When your boss sees the increases in requests coming off the 'Net and he knows he didn't have to add bodies to the budget, he will think you have been working very, very hard. That's a good thing.

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to lead the eMarketing Panel at the Aftermarket eForum in Chicago. Some of the information herein was to be presented there, but due to scheduling and time conflicts, I had to move through it pretty quickly. So, if you attended the eForum and missed out, here's your chance to catch up.

Let's skip right to the goodies, now. Our project for today is foundational. If you haven't already done so, (and you probably haven't) you need to create a spreadsheet. Don't fret, there isn't any math involved. This spreadsheet is the basic tool you are going to use to track two things for the rest of your eMarketing career, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC).

Do this.

First, write a list of all the key phrases that you can think of for your product mix. Let's use my favorite as an example; Sparkplugs. Your key phrase list would consist of thing like spark plugs, sparkplugs, spark plug, sparkplug, Honda sparkplug, igniter, iridium spark plug, iridium sparkplug, etc. In the first column of the spreadsheet, enter all of these key phrases. Note that I have included sparkplug as one word and as two words.

Next, Set up an account at Overture.com. This is a part of Yahoo! and is actually now called Yahoo! Search Marketing. You can use your own credit card for this if the boss is out of town, because we aren't going to spend any money with it. We are going to use it to track down some additional key phrases and get the numbers of actual searches per month for each of these key phrases. Once you are in and have established an account, go to keyword tools and start entering your brainstormed key phrases one at a time. The Overture key word tool will tell you how often searches are performed for your key phrases and suggest additional key phrases. Add the additional ones to your spreadsheet. In the second column of your spreadsheet enter the number of times per month that each key phrase is searched for.

Finally, Create columns to track your rankings on some of the search engines. There are a number of tools available that you can use or you can actually go to each site and type in the key phrase. I like www.googlerankings.com, where you can enter up to ten key phrases at a time and check them against, Google, Yahoo and MSN. This does take some time. Each search is about 20 seconds or so. You will need to get your Google API number to do this. Go here to get that puppy, https://www.google.com/accounts

You are going to check your rankings on each of the search engines you choose. Heres an example of words I have tracked, from 1/5 to 6/5

-NGK Spark Plug with 3862 searches

-Performance Plug with 4190 searches

-Honda Sparkplug with 5583 searches

-Champion Spark Plug with 5600 searches

-Oxygen sensor with 6325 searches

-spark plug with 10456 searches

These are clearly important key phrases for this business as evidenced by the number of searches/month being performed for each. In the example above, through a combination of great SEO, appropriate Pay Per Click and a bit of luck we moved up 1 point for "NGK Spark Plugs" over five month period at Google. We went from non existent to first at Yahoo for "Champion Spark Plug", climbed two points for "spark plug" at Google and also did very well for the same key phrase at Yahoo.

Again, these charts you will create are the foundation for everything you do. If you want to build traffic to a number of different websites that you own, then you need to build a sheet for each website.

Some 75% of users will find your websites through directories and search engines. That means they are going to type in XM Radio or Running boards, as in our previous example or motor oil or whatever and then click on one of the results that are presented. If you have done your Pay Per Click effectively (look for the PPC article in a future installment or go to www.digstrat.com and view the PPC Webinar I did for SEMA in June), at least you can be guaranteed of a presence in the paid results. But what about the natural search results?

In May of '04, a Search Engine User Attitudes Survey by iProspect indicated:

*60.5 percent of Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL users selected a natural search result over paid search advertisements as the most relevant on a sample query. We can't ignore 60+ percent of users, so how can we work to make sure that we show up as high as possible on the page in the natural search results for our chosen key words? It all starts with measuring, as in the spreadsheet example above. The folks at Lund International says, "If it's worth doing, its worth measuring" (I have that from a very good inside source, who shall remain anonymous).

Basic Search Engine Optimization

Search engines vary in the way they use the information on your website to rank your pages in natural search results. Google, for instance, no longer uses Meta Tags (see below) to determine relevance. Most other search engines still do. Let's keep this simple by talking about the 3 most important SEO issues.

Page titles. What does it say in the blue bar at the top of your webpage? The title tag is an important way that search engines determine the relevance of your website to a particular search. The earlier the key words appear in your title bar, the higher your ranking (generally) for that key word. If your title bar says, Welcome to the fantastic website of Wingding Industries, maker of all kinds of tail lights for your car and truck. Then your title tags are optimized for the words "Welcome, to, the, fantastic" and not much else. Use your keyword master spreadsheet to position your important keywords toward the beginning of your title tag. If tail lights is your important keyword, then try "Tail lights for your car and truck made by Wingding Industries".

Meta Tags. Despite the fact that Google no longer uses Meta Tags to determine relevancy to a particular search, almost all of the other search engines do. In your web page code there is an HTML tag called, "Meta Tags". This is an area of the code where you can list all of your important key words or phrases, thereby increasing the possibility of a higher position when someone searches on those words and phrases. It is recommended that you don't use a particular key word more than 3 or 4 times as you will be penalized by the search engines for trying to spam them.

Content. Content has become increasingly important for a number of reasons. First, it is our belief from monitoring all of the various search engine commentators that key words that appear high on the webpage in text format are utilized by the search engines to determine relevancy of the site for those key words. In other words, if you are a site whose important key words include sparkplugs and oxygen sensors, that those words should be used in the text that appears near the top of your web page.

Secondly, the more content you have about a particular subject, again let's use sparkplugs as the example, the more relevant the page actually is to the person searching for information about sparkplugs. Your site will gain in popularity among those looking for sparkplug information and will therefore be ranked higher by the search engines when they display results for sparkplug-related searches. This is true for content that in the form of chats, forums and blogs as well.

This brings up the point that the popularity of your website also plays an important part in your search standings. The more popular your website is for a given topic, the higher your listing will appear on the search results page.

One further point about search relevancy. It is a process. If you do a really great job on your page titles and meta tags and provide valuable content for a particular topic, over time, your website will continue to rise in the search results. Success begets success for search results ranking.

Let me mention one further idea. You can't rank highly for a huge amount of diverse keywords, but you can build web pages targeting a specific topic. If you sell Sparkplugs and Oxygen sensors, you might want to build a set of pages devoted to sparkplugs and a second set of pages devoted to oxygen sensors. You can build these within a single URL or develop separate URL's for each topic.

Of course the colossal media attention that Facebook has received - and it’s absurd valuations - coupled with the increasing number of member has certainly been a pull for all sorts of businesses to harness the platform, but the question is? How are they? And how are you - and your business - harnessing Facebook pages?

Have you just reactively just thrown up a Facebook profile without really thinking strategically about what you really want to gain from it? And are you aimlessly collecting friends with no real clue as to how to get these members to your website?

The Facebook business pages go in some way to organise the range of business that currently have traditional profiles by offering an easy to manage template where business owners can include their address, logo and contact details – and best of all they’re free and easy to set up.

These pages are, in my opinion, far sleeker than the “teenage” bedroom walls of traditional pages – with the added difference that “Friends” are in fact “Fans” who are available to post reviews, comments, photos and comments about the company.

But benefiting from Facebook pages is not about just throwing a profile up, so before glancing over the 'how to' guide, ask yourself, "why do I need a Facebook page?" Is it for increased visibility? And if so, how do you propose to attract and keep these customers? Or is the objective to be more customer-centric by listening to their recommendations and criticisms in order to add value to your business? And if so, do you have the resource to manage this strategy effectively?

Whilst any tentative approach into arenas like Facebook are of course likely to allow one to learn from their mistakes, something has to be said for missing an opportunity to be great, to capture the attention of your customers once and have them be ‘fans’ for eternity.

The following five steps explain how to get started:

1. Visit http://www.facebook.com/business/?pages and click on the “Create a page” button

2. You’ll then be presented with a range of categories including “Local”, “Business / Product” or “Artist, Band, or Public Figure”. Pick the category applicable for your business.

3. On this same page, either the name of your business, product or artist name and click the “Create Page” button.

4. At this stage, you’ll be presented with a template which you’ll need to populate with your business information. A short description, web address, contact details and a company logo is a good place to start, which you can include by clicking on the “Add Information” link at the top of the page.

5. Once you are happy with how your page is looking, click back to the ‘Add Information’ page and click on the “Publish this page” link. (You page will not be accessible by the Facebook community until you do this).

Now, you’ve got your basic Facebook page you’re a third of the way there… and whilst in this article I won’t discuss promoting your profile or recruiting friends I will instead brainstorm a few ideas as to how you can add value to your page by encouraging users or ‘prospective’ fans to interact with you and your business – this is, after all, “Social” media.

Let’s say, for instance, that my client is a local produce company that sells via its central Brighton retail premises in addition to having concessions in a number of farm shops and cafes. Their online sales are increasing steadily, particularly its hampers at Christmas time, however with competition from the major supermarkets they really want to step up they ‘local’ exposure online. They known their produce is far superior than that of their competitors, but they just need an avenue to communicate this to both their existing and prospective customers.

They’ve already ventured into Facebook (as just one tool in their arsenal) but this has had limited success, they now want to know how they can ‘use’ their Facebook page to increase awareness and ultimately drive traffic into the shop and the website. My advice would include:

Add value to your page:

Adding ‘value’ or ‘usefulness’ to your page is essential in order to increase the time spent on your page and ensure your ‘Facebook fans’ return to it. A worst case scenario would be that prospective users, on their first visit to your Facebook profile merely decide to become a fan without ever actually engaging.

Think about consumption.

The Produce Shop could include extensive details of where their retail shop is located, including a map and a link to a section of their website where they’ve highlighted the nearest train and bus station and the best place to park.

They could go further to include their opening times, their telephone number and web address, details of new products that have come into the shop this week, special offers, local events they recommend, short interviews with local producers and farmers, an up to date news feed of what’s happening in Sussex and the regular posting of photos both in the shop, at local farms, at food fayres and school fates.

This added value needn’t all be ‘one way’ either.

Allow and Encourage Participation:

Whilst we are aware of the large collection of users and vast number of groups within Facebook it more difficult to predict how users will interact with these groups, but it’s safe to say that with any communicative means, interaction and participation is likely to merit the more valuable response.

The Produce Shop could ask users to submit their own images of what “Local” means to them, or perhaps photographs of particular meals they have cooked with local produce including the recipe. This idea could be expanded by staging a “Facebook” competition, to win, say a hamper, whereby users are encouraged to submit photographs and ‘get involved’.

Posting ‘thought’ provoking points for discussion such as “Is Tesco right to compete on price with battery Chickens?” will encourage users to post their feelings within your profile as well as check back for follow up comments.

In this way, the ‘fans’ (of your brand, product or service) become an active community.

Post a ‘Facebook’ event:

There is nothing like a good wine and cheese evening, but how about extending this and having a late night opening of the shop and offering customers a tasting session of a range of local cheeses and wines. The Produce Shop could post a ‘Facebook’ event about this evening, which would then be shared to all of the group’s members, who might in turn ‘accept’ or ‘decline’ their invitation. The beauty of this feature is that their decision will be posted within their ‘mini feed’ (a sort of list of what they have been doing on Facebook – viewable by their friends) which feature promotes the event.

Photographs of the evening (which could be doctored with a ‘Produce Shop’ logo could then be posted on the Product Shops Facebook page allowing users to tag themselves. Again, this is excellent for branding, and using free tool to your advantage.

Start a Facebook group:

Facebook allows members to start and join groups, ranging from all sorts of subjects and the produce shop could start a group, such as “I vow to Keep it Local” or “I love Sussex Produce” which might feature a lengthy description and photos on the excellent range of produce available within the region, where to buy it from and why it’s important to think locally. The Produce Shop might wish to team up with other retailers, cafes and shops who can all promote this Facebook group, which might also venture offline as well as they all campaign for local product, whilst also championing their businesses.

But with any foray into social media you have to be prepared to listen to your customers, who might have both good and bad things to say about your business, your staff and/ or your products.

Don’t just burry you head in the sand or delete any negative comments; instead use this to your advantage.

If a user was complaining –at length- that their Christmas hamper didn’t turn up until the New Year as a result of an administration error then this is an idea opportunity to post a response asking for them to contact you, or perhaps offer your apologies and promise to send them a gift voucher or a complimentary bottle of Sussex wine.

Demonstrate that you care about your customers; you are prepared to listen and make the necessary amendments to ensure complaints are minimised by tackling the root of the problem. If you have failings within your business, then you can guarantee your customers will point them out, but by being seen to listen to your customers, the perception of your brand will be heightened, over competitors who are busy burying their heads in the sand.

In conclusion Facebook pages can:

- Heighten Brand Awareness
- Create Brand Evangelists
- Provide Valuable Customer Feedback
- Widen the potential pool of prospective customers
- Increase Sales (offline and online)

It is just about taking that first step, that first foray into social media and engaging with users…… your efforts WILL be reciprocated.

Getting good SEO these days is like getting a good hair stylist. Every online marketer thinks they got the magic touch. Price is always the bottom line factor. The customer tries to save “a few bucks”. But when they walk back out into the street they realize they bought a discount service in more ways than one. Just like the time I tried to get a haircut at a discount place and I walked out into the open street with a Moe Howard haircut!

Stylish? NOT!

But seriously, walking into a search engine optimization company can be very intimidating lately. It is so pretentious. I am not speaking for all of them but there are some real pompous firms out there. I am talking about the clinical look. They got the AC cranked up to the point where there is crystallized frost on the window panes. Everything is painted bright white. Uncomfortable chairs with ergonomically correct fixtures and a glaring white bluish light intensifying the whiteness around you. You are too terrified to touch anything. You feel like you’re in a doctor’s office.

Naturally, as a prospect you feel threatened and intimidated. As a fellow certified SEO guy I do not pretend to understand the pretentious nature. I never even heard of Leonard Cohen until I went to college. My parents never jammed out to him while I was growing up. I mean honestly, what is he doing on the sound system. The whole thing is set up to make you feel awkward.

The nerd squad has a welcoming committee. The 40 year old woman in pigtails and nerd glasses makes me want to run for the door. The grubby tech guy in the mustard yellow long sleeve shirt gives me the sudden urge to jump head first out the window. These are the people who are going to be taking my credit card before I walk out the door. Of course, as a customer I am scared, wouldn’t you be? What is the natural response supposed to be?

When In Doubt – Take The Money And Run

When a SEO firm is wrong they still take your money. They run for the hills. Literally. They run for the Hollywood Hills in most cases – they will leave the state, blow town, and disappear. Web site designers pull the same type of stunts causing much dismay to the public. Overall this has tainted the entire scene for customer and web marketer.

So what do you do?

Rebel Marketing

Cut a video. Grab a camera and shoot and save it and download it to your desktop. Throw it up on http://YouTube.com and 700+ other web video sites. Take no prisoners. SEO can only take you so far. You have to learn how to bend the rules and have the 8 families of search engines bow down to you. You have to know how to grab the handle of the knife and twist it.

I scrapped out the academic approach of what was expected from SEO firms. I stopped listening to the sponsors of the academic circles of the SEO elite. I shut them out and the best thing of all I stopped asking for permission. Short end of the story, I stopped listening to the “In” crowd. That in itself paid off handsomely. I was glad to get out of that ridiculous stuck up know nothing circus.

There are some great places to take your cue from. The book, “Punk Marketing” is worth picking up from a manifesto standpoint. There are some great introductory film books that you should get a hold of too. “The $30 Dollar Film School” is a great book for learning about how to put shots together and how to communicate with video online.

Taking action in areas that haven’t been fleshed out yet by the experts paid off for me. I was able to get my material indexed quickly in the search engines. Who could argue with that kind of success. Getting pages indexed in as little as 4 hours instead of 3 months. High Google rankings in as little as a few hours and getting my blogs read by the right people has really changed my business. The networking opportunities that came forth from posting my material blew me away.

The new partnerships I was able to create was a direct result of hard work and positioning my web sites. I was a firm believer of doing business this way after I got $15,000 in the same day from my prospects. The kicker was I didn’t have to meet with these people in person. I conducted my sales over the phone and directed my prospects to my pre-recorded media online.

The whole Rebel approach was all about never asking permission. I simply stopped listening to advice after I picked up an a new online marketing book. The book asked me to visit message boards and subscribe to newsgroups. My God what year is this?

I thought this was 2008.

There are too many books written by “experts” who never stepped a foot in an ad agency, work in the field, spend time with real clients or achieved online visibility. I take offense to this type of advice because it lies on speculation and theory. Those two nasty words are just the ticket to take you to the poor house.

Web 2.0 is a great place to start. But that should only serve as your springboard. There are so many great services out there that can help propel your rankings, visibility and build traffic. Your job as a business owner is to be open to them and to work with these tool sets. The results can literally transform your business into an online powerhouse.

I encourage all business owners to step up to the plate and get their own material made. Distribute your own video clips, record your own podcasts, populate your blogs and web pages. Stop handing your money over to PPC, SEO bumpkins and techno shamans. You have to take charge of your own marketing and deliver your marketing messages to the right people.

There is too much bad SEO companies out there. You need to ditch these guys no matter how good their coffee tastes.

Scrap the ROI charts and statistics and other poofy fluffery, smoke and mirrors. Take an active roll in your marketing. Leave the cold air conditioned clinics to people in the medical field. Come down off the cloud and get real with yourself and your business.

There is nothing like charting your own success. So get responsible and take charge of your marketing so you can call the shots.

Finally there is an alternative answer to expensive pay per click campaigns and getting your web site promoted. The good news is that you do not have to pay a fortune to get good visibility. You also do not have to pay exorbitant amounts of money every month to Google AdSense and sponsored link programs to pop up in the top ten of the search engines.

You can actually achieve great rankings in Google and Yahoo organically. This means that the search engines actually come looking for you. The great news here is that you don’t have to spend a mint on getting to the very top. Not only can you get there in the top ten but you can actually get 8 out of the top 10. Sound impossible? For Ted Cantu it’s quite easy.

“This is something I started doing for my fellow Dan Kennedy IBA members in Brighton, Michigan. I started to test out new theories in practice on my coaching group members and we started getting some phenomenal results” explains Detroit area based Cantu. “The key for us was to use all of the tools that Google has to offer”.

Google has really led the way when it comes to buying Internet technology. In the recent months it has acquired Feedburner and its RSS technology which allows web surfers to subscribe to its favorite content on the web. It has also acquired Blogger which enables Internet web geeks to post to an easy to use blog format. You can combine these tools together and have them work together promoting your web pages. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Google has purchased more tools for its users and therefore has really led the way on the web. Yahoo hasn’t followed through with these types of acquisitions and in some sense has lost its popularity. Just recently Yahoo has given up its Podcast platform which allowed its members to post audio shows and messages on the web.

You can begin to create some really great things when you combine these things together. When they work hand in hand incredible things can occur including high search engine rankings.

Blending In All The Right Ingredients

You want to make sure you use all of the tools that the web has to offer. There are an abundant of tools out there now that you can use including blogs, RSS feeds, podcasting, audio messages, and web video just to name a few. The magic ingredient that holds all of this together is good solid sales copywriting to lure in your prospects.

Keep in mind that the web was originally created to share information. Your potential clients do not sign on initially to buy stuff off of the web. They will first research their material on the web first before making any kind of commitment to buy something. But once you get them to commit to you the real money making magic can begin.

So what kind of results are possible by using all facets of the web?

Try putting your web pages at the very top ten on the web. Results have varied but some of the top records placed some clients at the very tip top of 17 million pages. This was all done without the aid of pay per click and sponsored link programs. The reason for working in this way and pushing things to the limit falls upon the failing Michigan economy. There are a lot of companies who are working in this market that absolutely refused to pay anything extra when it came to web site marketing. A lot of these individuals balked about having to pay $50 dollars a month to host their professional ecommerce sites let alone pay for something expensive such as web site marketing. This made firms like i-Mobile Media, (http://www.1seomichigan.com) search for creative solutions and how to promote its clients.

“When we started these campaigns our main goal was to keep our clients visible. We never set out to dominate niche categories on the web. But then we started to understand what the search engines were looking for and we began to pop up in the top ten more than once… We started to pop up 5, 6,7 and 8 times out of the top ten. That’s when things started to get really exciting.” explains Cantu. The web firm started to do more with its company and adding different features including web video.

More Than A Fluke

i-Mobile-Media has tested 23 separate markets and have come out victorious in each category. Not only did they get into the top ten but have come out visible for every one of these industries. They are in everything including mortgages, reverse mortgages, real estate, industrial, manufacturing, legal, medical, health care, weight loss, marketing for seniors, beauty products, retail, pedicure, international companies, coaching groups, business development and many more. Each niche market they have approached ended with incredible results.

There are some disadvantages when a company decides to do a pay per click campaign. Ecommerce sites have a problem with the way the customer relates to the site. The end user experience is a bleak one. They are faced with thumbnail pictures and prices. From this limited menu they are required to make some sort of purchasing decision. There isn’t enough time to create any type of relationship and make up enough of a reason to warrant a purchase. This anxiety is further heightened when they pick this choice from a Google adsense or a sponsored link.

You will notice that web sites that partake in a sponsored link that their ads get put into rotation. So sometimes your ad will pop up and sometimes it may not. As a consumer you are not allowed to click on your own ad to create a sense of popularity because you can get your site banned from the program. So you will have to rely on your wits and a great bit of luck that someone will want what you are selling.

There is another pitfall here as well. You see there is a problem when it comes to public trust. In a recent poll it was discovered that the public seems to place less faith in a company that has bought their way to the top. The buying trend leans towards checking out an organic search because they have climbed to the top of the heap honestly and in most cases – the hard way.

How much longer will ecommerce companies continue to dump horrendous amounts of venture capital into pay per click campaigns? The trend is shifting in the Midwest. The bottom line is that a lot of companies do not want to spend money for online campaigns if it can get away with it. With all the recent innovations happening on the Internet its obvious now that they do not have to.

One of the most important things that any website owner needs is a continuous stream of traffic to their site. As more and more websites compete for the same targeted traffic, webmasters have to constantly deal with the predicament of getting the traffic that they need to keep their online business going. This problem has also been the subject of countless solutions and ideas from varied sources. As can be expected, some of these solutions have been useful, some have proven to be a waste of time, and a few others have been rubbish, to say the least.

One of the good ideas, though, that has resulted in getting loads of traffic into websites is the concept of viral marketing. The idea of viral marketing makes use of a person’s natural instinct to tell others about something that he or she has found to be useful, entertaining, or remarkable. As a matter of fact, companies both online and in the real world have relied on “word of mouth” to promote their services or products.

There are several ways to attract people and encourage them to spread the word about a certain product or service. It can be a funny anecdote, an addictive game, or a flashy production number. Viral marketing is a truly inventive and inexpensive method of advertising and promotion, which any businessman would do well to use. Even if you do have to spend some money, the benefits of a successful viral marketing campaign would greatly overshadow the costs.

Tell-A-Friend Scripts

If you’re going to use viral marketing, using a Tell-a-Friend script would probably be the easiest way to start. This is a simple programming script that webmasters can include in their website’s programming. Tell-a-friend scripts are usually installed in web pages where any form of media, such as a video, a flash game, etc. is also installed. This makes it easy enough for users to inform their friends or family members about the interesting media they saw on that particular site. Sometimes they can even send the media itself, depending on the programming of the script.

The script allows a person to enter his contact details such as name, his email address, and the email address of the person he’s sending the media to. He can then send the media file to anyone he wants to, like an attachment to an email. Because the recipient recognizes the name of the sender as a friend or family member, the thought of spam mail would never enter his mind. The chances of the media being blocked by the recipient would be gone, since tell-a-friend scripts always send out the media based on the information that the sender inputs. Granted, this is quite a devious method, but the results can be surprisingly effective as well.

When the email is received, the attached media will either be viewed, heard, or read. The email would also include a blurb or two about the company or website sponsoring the media. This is how you can initially promote your products, services, or even just your website for starters. Of course, another tell-a-friend script will be included as well. As the entire process begins anew, more and more people will know about your website or company that sponsors the media files. There is the additional benefit of people clicking on the links in the emails they receive, which means additional traffic for your site. Additional traffic could also mean additional prospects.

Using Tell-A-Friend Scripts

It doesn’t need any complex programming skills to use tell-a-friend scripts on your website. Actually, you can install it on your web page simply by copying and pasting the script’s code. It’s also very easy to find one on the Internet. Just type in “tell a friend script” in any search engine and press enter. You will see a number of sites where you can go and download the scripts you want. It’s all a matter of looking for it, then copy-pasting it onto your site.

Tell-a-friend scripts can become one of your most potent weapons in your viral marketing campaign. This harmless script, although quite simple, can do wonders for driving much-needed traffic to your site. You do have to use some patience, though, especially if the media files you use to spread the word doesn’t attract as many people as initially expected. Sometimes it takes time for people to notice the value of your media. Never fear, since your ads will be seen by lots of people who can potentially become your customers.