The Click Depot Blog

Google has a way of penalizing certain web pages, if it thinks you are trying to manipulate page rankings. This can be especially true when you have pages that you change daily to keep them up to date. The dangerous thing about linking to penalized pages is that you will see your website or certain pages drop off the search engine results quickly or move down in rankings.

These penalized pages can be internal links or external links. Google assumes that you can control what pages are linked to your website, so they penalize you if you are linked to a penalized page. Be careful who you link to because you don’t want to be found guilty by association. If you have a page on your own website, you want to be sure it is not linked to multiple pages to keep several pages from becoming penalized. This can take some strategy to control, especially if it is a pertinent part of your website.

There are a few things to look for if you suspect a penalized page linking. If your webpage or website drops in the rankings and stays there, you might have a penalized page. Sometimes, penalties can be as small as 10 spots, but that can make a lot of difference in the web traffic you get. If you move down a notch, you will want to check and make sure you don’t drop any further in the page rankings, or you might have a penalized page linking.

Another thing you can look for is your pagerank bar. If a page on your website has a green page ranking bar that turns to gray, you will want to figure out why. If your page rank is 0 to 10 and you notice this color change, chances are you have a penalized page link, so you may have to alter your website and the links to attempt to regain higher page ranking.

Pay attention to the external and internal links on your website because a single page with linking that doesn’t fit the “no follow link attribute” that Google is looking for can cause your entire website to suffer. This can require diligence in deciding the external linking you want, but can get more complicated when it comes to internal linking, if it is one of your own pages.

Because page ranking in the search engines is important to driving traffic to your site, you don’t want to have penalized pages dragging you down the search engine results. You will want to stay on top of your page rankings and notice any drops or page rank bar color changes and then try to fix the penalized pages as quickly as possible.

You have to realize that the search engine spiders don’t actually read content in the conventional sense. They look for certain signs that page rankings are being manipulated and then try to isolate them. Unfortunately, it can take as much as a year for Google to “forgive” the penalized page links, so you may have to remove them for the quickest results. When it comes to your website’s page rankings, this might be a worthwhile fix, once you have isolated the links that are causing problems.

Image Courtesy: http://www.brickmarketingconsulting.com/

Does anyone remember the days when all you had to worry about on the internet were those pesky viruses? Anyone at all? Well believe it or not there was such a time and while it wasn’t that long ago it seems like another life now. Today you have to worry about all sorts of things online, ranging from spyware, to adware, and of course, the newly popular internet scam.

Why has the internet scam become so popular? It is more than likely because of the economy. Making money has gotten harder and harder, and many people have taken desperate measures, and sadly one of those measures is cheating others out of their money. Well, as sad as it is for them, you have to get the most out of your money too, and that means staying away from those nasty internet scams and being able to spot them early on.

The first step in spotting s cam is asking yourself the following simple question: Is this too good to be true? If you even have to ask yourself then odds are you are dealing with a scam. You might have received an e-mail about some miracle product that the person wants you to invest in so that he or she can get the funding they need to develop the product. Now why would that even tempt you? Well when they tell you this it is more than likely they have promised you a share of the profits that are generated by the product in question. If it is a product that is a huge success, then you would be receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is definitely an attractive offer. While there is a slim chance this could be true, you need to do some research into any sort of offer you get and make sure it is legitimate before you invest ANY money into it.

Of course this isn’t the only internet scam out there that you need to keep a weather eye out for. You also need to look out for the many pyramid schemes that offer you a piece of something for just a little bit of your hard earned money, and often a monthly payment of some sort. You might also run into people that claim they need passage to your country and if you pay them some money for a plane ticket they will give you some sort of service in return. This is generally scam, and sometimes the replies are even scripted so that there is no actual human behind the keyboard that sent you the message. Do yourself a favor and don’t fall for these obvious scams.

The key thing to remember is perhaps the most obvious: If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. You need to watch yourself and make sure that you are not falling for the scams that countless other people have fallen for. You work hard to earn your money, and there is no reason for you to just throw it away at someone else’s whim. Always pay attention and keep your wallet safe when you’re surfing the web!

Image Courtesy : http://www.youngmoney.com/credit_debt/credit_reports/Five_Internet_scams

When it comes to Twitter applications, there are so many of them that many new users can become confused as to where to start.  There are a few that stand out and should be considered the top five to utilize if you are new to Twitter.  Based on findings by Compete, monthly traffic chose the top five applications by unique visitors, versus tweets and they are:

• Twitpic lets users share their pictures and it is the number one application on Twitter, with over a million unique visitors per month. 
• Next came Tweetdeck, with about a fourth of the volume of Twitpic, but impressive nonetheless.  Tweetdeck streamlines notifications and tweets. 
• Digsby got third place, which wasn’t far behind Tweetdeck, and it centralizes email, IM and social networks into one desktop program. 
• Twittercounter had over 200,000 visitors,
• Twitterfeed was next with over 149,000 visits and it automatically tweet posts on a user’s blog using RSS.

Of course, everybody that has used Twitter clients and applications has come to find their own personal favorites depending on why they use it.  There is a wide selection of Twitter application databases like Twitdom, Twitter Fan Wiki, Twapps, TwitTown and Twitstat. 

Twitterholic and TWhirl are popular and they come in at number six and seven, for those that are feeling slighted by this consensus.  Many frequent Twitter fans use these two, it’s just that the unique visitor count is lower, and they are frequented repeatedly by the ones that like them in a month.

The other thing to consider is that some think it should be based on the number of tweets and not the number of unique visitors, which makes it a different list, with Twitter.com, Tweetdeck and Twhirl coming in the top three by number of tweets.

Twitter.com was founded in March of 2006 with $55M by three entrepreneurs looking to capitalize on the Facebook and MySpace phenomenon.  Since that time, it has spurned a whole number of different applications to use on Twitter and it seems that everybody has their favorites, even if it is not any of the ones we mentioned.

Some like Twitter Atlas, Squawk, Twitticious, Remember the Milk Twitter, Social Comic Book, Twapper, TwitBin, TwittyTunes, Flotzam and Twitterment.  All of these are popular and offer some neat features. 

When it comes down to listing the top five Twitter apps, it’s hard to know what criteria to use and no matter what, you risk leaving out somebody’s favorite.  It just goes to show that Twitter offers something for everybody, and the best thing to do is to find the ones you like the best to fit your own purposes.

Since Twitter has become a popular way of networking personally and for business and promotional purposes, it only stands to reason that it serves different purposes for different people, so everybody is entitled to their own opinion when it comes to the top five applications.

The only statistical thing you can do is to go by Compete’s list of unique visitors which indicates different visitors in a month versus repeat ones over and over.

Image Courtesy Of: http://www.rickysays.com/

There are a number of ways to market a product or service on the internet. Without a doubt, one of the most popular is the concept of article marketing. Then again, maybe an asterisk needs to be placed next to the word “popular”. The asterisk should lead to a footnote that says “opinions will vary on this”. In other words, some folks just don’t believe article marketing works anymore. So, which sphere is correct? Does article marketing work or does it not work. Honestly, it can work quite well or it could prove to be disastrous. Ultimately, it is the method you employ that will make article marketing successful or not.

There are a number of pros and cons to article marketing. The pros include:

• The article is exposed to scores of regular readers of the article directory.

• The search engines will log the article and rank it. This will lead to a great deal of organic traffic.

• Many article directories will funnel the article through RSS feeds for greater exposure.
Of course, there are a number of cons to article directories as well. Here are a few:

•Older articles have a tendency to be forgotten and buried within the directories.

•People that are not regular readers of the directory may not come across it.

•Some individuals do not react positively to article marketing.
 

Far too often, people will assume that writing a few articles and submitting them to a directory will yield a positive result. In other words, they assume the act of merely submitting a generic article will deliver on their marketing needs. That simply is not the case. Successful article marketing relies on a more deliberate approach.

Probably the most common mistakes that undermine article marketing is poor writing. If you are using an article as a marketing vehicle, juvenile, poorly written material will not move products or services. On the contrary, such shoddy work could undermine your entire marketing plan.

Also, writing one or two articles here and there is not the basis for a successful article marketing strategy. It is critical to be consistent in your article writing so that you always have new material promoting your product or services. Once you become inconsistent, the positive results of article marketing will begin to fade away.

It is also important that the articles have something to offer. Writing an article that is filled with common information does little to stir emotions in readers. Honestly, would anyone think highly about an article promoting weight loss that simply stated that eating less was the secret to success? No, such an article would be considered banal. Such pedestrian material needs to be avoided at all cost!Remember, quality material will always deliver much better results than less than desirable material.

So, yes, article marketing can still be a very successful strategy. However, the articles cannot look run of the mill or too similar to other online published works. But, if you can make you articles look unique, special, and temper them with prolific writing they will deliver significant results.

Image Courtesy Of : http://wikimanager.info/bummarketing/2008/09/getting-your-articles-read/

There are millions and millions of people that utilize mobile phones. For those who are looking to advertise a service or product, this creates a tremendous opportunity. No, this does not mean that there is a new avenue for telemarketing. Honestly, telemarketing has a tendency to work a little better when calling a landline phone since it is less invasive or disrupting. But, if you are not going to call a mobile phone, how do you expect to earn revenues from mobile marketing. There are a number of ways and they are worth exploring.

Keep in mind that mobile phones are “really” phones. They are complete multimedia systems that come with various audio and video capabilities. That means the doors are wide open for many different customer contact strategies. For example, you can text message or email mobile phones with the intention of promoting a product or service. This allows the recipient to review the message at his or her convenience which is much less jarring than answering a telemarketing call.

Of course, sending a weak email or text message to a mobile device is not going to work out all that well. Yes, there are a number of marketing services that will send out bulk messages. They may get a response here or there, but the vast majority of the messages they send will be ignored. Clearly, that is not the marketing strategy that one should employ. Instead, much more creativity and purpose must be employed in the crafting of the messages. Remember, you want to send messages that engage the recipient so that the recipient contacts you. This way, you can make a sale. This is the most important point because simply heralding a product or service serves very little purpose if the end result is not a successful sale.

One of the ways success is achieved is through combining mobile marketing with other existing marketing strategies. For example, if your marketing strategy centers on closing a sale with a representative, then your mobile messages need to embody wording that makes people want to talk to a representative. For example, if you send messages saying it is possible to dramatically reduce debt with debt counseling, those that have need of such a service will probably make such a call. Of course, the representative of the debt settlement agency will still need to close the deal, but that is fine. Perhaps the rep may simply qualify the person prior to moving the customer through the sales ladder. Regardless of the exact process, the key here is that the mobile marketing strategy is a helpful cog in the overall wheel of mobile marketing.

Mobile marketing is still a relatively new phenomenon. This means that there are many options available to those looking to get started. Currently, it is not overused to the point where it is no longer effective. As such, those looking for a novel new approach to marketing would be well served exploring the options available through this strategy.

Image Courtesy Of: http://www.handcellphone.com/

The rise of twitter.com as a marketing technique has become increasingly popular.  The reason seems to be the networking opportunities it lends with the multiple circles of friends, and then outer contacts into far outer contacts.  Many bloggers are using Twitter to market affiliate network marketing ideas, resumes or products they have tried and companies are using it to get the word out, as well.

Brands like Starbucks, Dell and Nike are rushing into Twitter marketing even though it has a smaller user base than My Space and Facebook.  The reasons seem to involve a platform for multiple conversations and interactions across multiple platforms.

There are some tips to make marketing more effective with Twitter, such as free giveaways to extend your influence in the social network.  Being transparent is what Dell uses by letting employees engage on Twitter with customers and industry people.  It gives a face to the corporate name.  Providing value can be achieved by helping people as best you can with a mini customer service platform, to generate a positive buzz.

Listen before talking, in other words since following conversations on Twitter can be lively, you can observe what others might be saying about your product or brand and find the people who have a passion for more than just your brand.  You can interact with those that have interests that fit what you are marketing, or maybe have tried it.  Word of mouth is still some of the best advertising and that is the basis that marketing on Twitter is built on.

Of course, your context is everything, so talking about your products in context is the best promotional opportunity.  You will get tuned out if you come out with context that is inappropriate for the conversation by inputting a sell job on your product or brand when it doesn’t fit the conversation.  Sharing links, talking to people, and in general, being yourself often works best when it comes to marketing on Twitter.

Twitter is all about building relationships and networking, which may have the side effect of network marketing.  The marketing techniques that work the best on the social networks are still based on original salesmanship principles; it’s just a new way of building a relationship and trust to use it to make sales.

You can use Search.Twitter.com to see what people are saying about your brand.  This helps in marketing efforts, and can be an easy way to get customer feedback without going to look for it.  Many corporate brand sales departments are monitoring this to see how to improve their sales and address comments made about their products.

Building relationships and networks on Twitter.com is becoming an additional marketing tool that many companies are encouraging their sales staffs to engage in.  Customer service improvement and product innovations for improvements can be gained or promoted using Twitter.

When it comes to sales and marketing, “do you Twitter yet?” takes on a whole new meaning, but one you should pay attention to if you are looking for ways to market your products.

Image Courtesy Of: http://www.myspace.com/nesk

Link building is a reality today. All websites need links to rank higher on search engines. There are over a 100 ways to gather links online ranging from the “cleanest” which is “just post your content or services online and let people link to you” to buying links and everything in between. As you may imagine, where you draw the line is what separates SEO’s. We tend to stay very close to the clean techniques but at the same time, do get involved in what we believe are fine link building techniques - when done right.

Buying blog reviews is one such hotly debated topic. You will see on this post about buying blog reviews that the author talks about several ways to get them and also talks about the pros and cons of these methods. Also check out the comments, especially the first one. That’s an angry man out there! And really, he just doesn’t get it. There is a right way and a wrong way to do blog reviews.

The wrong way -

ay for reviews from Reviews-only sites that just post reviews without any regard to the product.

Get reviews from irrelevant blogs

Get reviews that are fake or crafted.

The right way -

DON’T GET REVIEWS. Just get informational posts written. If your blogger has not used your product, in our opinion it is not right to pay them to write a review. However, we feel that its OK to pay them to write about our site or our product on their site. They don’t have to endorse it. Just talk about it and share their genuine thoughts about it based on just reviewing your site and comparing with competitors.

Make sure they posts are genuine. Only go with bloggers that take the time to research and write good honest useful content.

Get reviews only from relevant blogs that are established in your area. Make sure the blogger knows your market well and that the blog post.

Make the blogger include in CAPS and bold, clearly, in the blog post that “THIS IS A PAID POST. MY OPINIONS ARE BASED SOLELY ON ONLINE RESEARCH AND NOT ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH THIS PRODUCT OR COMPANY”.

It’s not always easy but the cleaner your link building, the more you’ll benefit in the long run. That’s our strong belief.

Image Courtesy Of http://www.buyblogreviews.com/

If you have an online or offline business that has never used the Internet for marketing on a large scale, there are a lof of things you can do to start on that journey TODAY, NOW, not later, not next week. By the time you end reading this short post, you will have the knowldge to start promoting yourself online.

STEP 1: Google Local/Maps: Go to http://www.maps.google.com and search for your business in your location. If you find that your business is already listed, great; if not, create one. You simply need to log in using your google/gmail account (create one in 2 minutes if you don’t have one) and complete the entire profile. This helps in a big way. A lot of people search Google or Google Local to look for businesses and the information that you enter is what gets searched. Make sure that you enter all your information in detail and upload pictures if possible.

STEP 2: Reviews: Send email to 10-25 friends/customers and ask them to write a review on Google against your business. This will help your business rise to the top of the listings. Here you go, you have a secret from us now!

STEP 3: Local Directories: Think about what your potential customers would search on the net to find your business. For instance, for a florist in Raliegh, it would be “Raleigh Florist directory” or “Raleigh Red Roses directory” or something similar. Search for those terms and observe the results. Usually, there should be at least a few listings of sites that you can submit your business too. These are called diretory sites and are like free Yellow Pages. You can list your business there and increase your brand’s prensence on the ‘Net.

After you are done with these steps, now that your business is online, the next step is to consult with a web designer or a Raleigh Internet Marketing firm to get a simple website. You should be able to get a basic one for about $500-$700. Make sure that the website is developed to be friendly to the Search Engines. You can find more information about this at http://www.theclickdepot.com

The Internet is an interesting place. We all know that it is expaning constantly (how many new websites do you browse to in a week?). But did you know that it is also constantly changing? It started off as more of a communication and information source sort of place in the late 90’s. Email was the eighth wonder of the world. Y2K brought with it the dotcom boom and everything from buying books to shoes to PC’s went online. The early twenty first century further made the Internet easier to use but there were still way too many technologies, few standards anda growth so fast that most people were’nt sure where to get started.

All that has changed today. This blog that I am writing on was installed on very affordable ($10/month) shared hosting, on free blog software (Wordpress) without a single line of code, without any IT person’s help, in less than 10 minutes. No kidding. This means a lot. The last 2-3 years have seen businesses, and I am not talking about the Walmarts and the Amazons. I am talking about the salons, the little soccer-apparel store, the neighborhood chinese market AND yes, your neighbor himself, create websites. So what does that mean for us and wait a minute, I thought this was going to be about local marketing!

You are right. More and more business have their websites. More websites means more competition and that’s what is changing the landscape. I run an SEO firm. A small one at present, and still, I see at least 10 businesses moving their advertising and marketing spending from direct mail and traditional methods to online marketing. Your customers are not looking at the thick Yellow Pages book anymore. I throw mine into the trash the day it arrives. I look only one place, that’s the Internet for all my business needs.

If you are not capitalizing on this market, WAKE UP! On the Internet, getting in early is too important. From getting a good domain name, to gradually building traffic from a variety of sources, it takes time to grab a piece of your market that’s searching for you online. All that competition (which is multiplying on a daily basis) means that it is getting harder and harder to do that.

No BS and sugar coating this message. Get in before it is too late.