Archive for Uncategorized

12 Apr 2012
Uncategorized

Practical Technology


Some of you may know that many years ago I worked as an Occupational Therapist and I worked mostly with all types of head injuries which included Alzheimer patients.  I’m no different than anyone else who gets to work with this population, you just end up falling in love with them.

So, this video just caught my heart and made me smile.  Not only because music brings ME joy, but to see what it does for Henry in this video, well, I can’t stop smiling.

Isn’t technology just a wonderful thing?  Sometimes!


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , , ,
19 Oct 2011
Uncategorized

What It Takes To Succeed In Internet Marketing


Succeeding in Internet Marketing or SEO involves a variety of activities – there’s no ONE magic task or program that works.  Like any other marketing, it involves a team effort.  The “team” being the following…

1) Content

If you’ve done any Internet marketing in the past you may have heard the term that “Content is King”.  Basically, when it comes to the Internet, “content” (also known as words) rule the roost.  The reason for that is because that’s how communication takes place on the Internet (for the most part).

What I mean is that the Internet is basically a collection of machines.  Machines that follow rules set up by programmers.  Machines that “read words”.  Those words being the words that are typed in to the search engines and the words on website pages.

If you’re searching for “davie fl dentist” you will get websites that have the words “davie fl dentist” as well as phrases that the search engines think are related (like “ft lauderdale dentist”, etc.).

So, the game then is to find the keywords that people are typing in and then putting those phrases on the website pages where they need to be (according to the rules made by those programmers).  When that happens, then the search engines can match the search with the website.

Of course, there are 200 rules and just putting words on a page is not enough but it’s the basics and it’s where every single website owner who is marketing their website must begin.  Otherwise, all the other rules won’t make a difference.

2) Conversion

There are many websites out there that bring in visitors, lots and lots of visitors.  But, what’s the point of all those visitors if there are no sales or if the conversion of visitors to customers is very low?  If your website was a storefront and all you got were lots of visitors but very little or no sales then all you would end up with is a very dirty floor in your store.

So, once the visitors start coming to your website, you want to know…

a) where are they going?

b) what are they doing on each page?

c) what are they searching for?

d) are they doing what you want them to do on each page?

Internet marketing involves analyzing these factors on each website page every month to find out how can those pages be tweaked, how can the conversions be better?

Ignoring this part of Internet marketing means that all the hard work you put into optimizing your website will just stay shelved.  In other words, all that hard work won’t work.  Why?  Because optimizing the website, adding content, researching the keywords, all of that is to please the search engines’ rules.  All of that is to help the search engines to find your website.  But to convert customers, now you have to please them.  So, navigation through the site, helping the customers find what they’re looking for easily, all that is a vital part of converting those visitors into customers and increasing your sales.

3) Collaboration

Oh, if I had a dollar for every client I’ve managed who just wants to hire me to market their website and they don’t want to be bothered – I could get myself a very nice expensive bottle of wine.  (And believe me, I need that wine after arguing with these clients!).

I know, I know – you look at shows like Mad Men and you see how clients just walk in and the “team” of advertisers presents them with ideas and does all the work for them.  Creating billboards, television commercials and newspaper advertisements, etc.   Yeah, that works great with traditional marketing but Internet marketing is way too liquid for that.  Internet marketing changes every single day (at least it should).

Here’s what I mean…

I have a client who is a local dentist.  I have been begging her to send me information about her practice for almost a year now.  She has a website but it only has the most basic information on it.

Recently, I did a little search for her on some local programs like Yelp and Foursquare, Facebook, etc.  Anyway, I found several coupons and other “service specials” on those sites.  Now, why didn’t she send me that information?  When I asked her – she said she didn’t think of it.  Even though I’ve asked many times.  Somehow, the connection is just not getting through.

Whatever is happening in your business, it has to show on the website as well.  Otherwise, it seems as if the website is abandoned (and to the search engines, if the website is abandoned, then the business must be also).

In Conclusion

So, to have a successful Internet marketing campaign and get your moneys worth from the marketing you’re paying someone to do (if that’s what you’re doing) – add content to your site on a regular basis, study the conversion research and collaborate with your webmarketer.  Believe me, it’s worth your while!!


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , ,
10 Jul 2011
internet marketing • seo • small business • Uncategorized

Did You Know…


My mother in law has a plaque in her kitchen that reads “Babe Ruth Struck Out 1330 Times”. You probably know what I’m getting at. The idea is that even though he failed 1330 times, he kept on playing and became famous for it.

So, even though you may fail, doesn’t mean you’re a failure.

Did You Know…

That Yelp.com started out as an “automated system for emailing recommendations”. That idea flopped but what they did notice is that their visitors posted reviews online. They stuck it out with that idea and here they are.

That YouTube.com started out as a dating site? It failed in that venue but the founders decided to keep everything in place and just make it a “video sharing” site. We all know how that ended up!

That PayPal.com opened it’s company with the intention of exchanging money between Palm Pilots. They saw the potential for more and have never looked back.

That Woot.com was created to get rid of unsold inventory. But oh, it grew to become so much more!

Flickr actually began as an online role-playing game. Yep – it started out as a game. But the owners saw that their program simplified photo sharing so they dumped the first idea and went with what ended up being a highly successful program.

Groupon was a subset of a larger “idea” called The Point. The idea of The Point was to mobilize “…groups of people towards action for various causes.” The concept struck a nerve and became so popular that Groupon felt confident enough to turn down Google when they offered to buy out Groupon for 6 Billion!

So, I think you get the idea here. These companies began their journey down one road but were smart enough to realize that they needed to listen to the audience and respond. Which they did and the rest, as they say, is history.

There’s even more of this story at Mashable.


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments
04 May 2011
article writing • internet marketing • seo • Uncategorized

Website Placement – Attracting Traffic


A web designer I work quite often with sent me a link to a video she found about keyword strategy to increase website traffic. The source of this interview has increased his website traffic from 3500 a day three years ago to 80,000 a day today.

So, I took a moment to look it over – here’s the video and here are my thoughts…

How Fraser Cain Attracts 80,000 Search Visitors Per Day with Zero Link Building from Corbett Barr on Vimeo.

My Summary

1) The concept that Fraser Cain is talking about is nothing new. If you’ve done any Internet marketing you’ve heard a thousand times that it’s all about the content. What Fraser basically did was “answer the questions being asked”.

2) He actually says “…alot of people on the Internet are looking for something…” If you – the website owner – can be the source for those answers – you will then get the traffic.

3) He admits that he has added several thousand website pages to his site. (So, the next time I ask you for more information for your site – this is why!!!) Basically, he would answer ONE questions with ONE article. So, each new page of his website addresses an issue that his audience is looking for.

4) The interviewer asked a good question, “What prevents alot of people from doing this?” The answer that Fraser gave was very basic. Give out GOOD information – real answers to these questions (vs the crap that can be generated by content farms and ghost writers). The quality of the content is important as well as how it’s optimized for the search engines. So, for many people, it seems, it’s just too difficult to write

5) Basically, knowing what your audience is looking for and then giving it to them – feeding the fetish – will bring in the traffic. Now, does your product / service have a large Internet traffic? Well, that’s another story, for another post. But I’ve said it many times before, give your audience what they want and they will find you.

6) I loved how the interviewer and the interviewee were talking as if this was a brand new concept never thought of before. There’s nothing new about silo marketing and long tail marketing which is what they are talking about. It’s really all about the words. Listen to your Internet marketer when he/she gives you phrases to target.

Believe me, it really can be that simple.


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments
10 Mar 2011
business tips • internet marketing • seo • social media • Uncategorized

What and Where Is Your Audience?


Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own little worlds that we forget about what’s happening all around us. It happens to everyone. It also happens to businesses.

I think one of the most important factors to remember, when it comes to marketing, (especially on the Internet) is to understand what your audience needs. And because the Internet can be analyzed so intensely we can get the answers to these questions so, lets see how to do that.

What Does Your Audience Need or Want?

What do these people want? There are a few ways to do this.

1) Go to samepoint.com and type in a keyword phrase. Make it as relevant as possible (meaning don’t be afraid to type in 4-5 keywords). Something like “help for depression in atlanta”.
2) You’ll get a list of “conversations” from several social media programs and a list of related terms.
3) You can scan through these posts to read what folks are looking for.

For this phrase that I typed in I found…

a) Several mentions about postpartum depression. This then gives me an niche to target. If the numbers of people looking for help for postpartum depression in Atlanta is high enough, that’s certainly something that I would want to target.

b) I looked at the “social tone” for each post and that gave me some other areas that I should look at:
anxiety
help with
traumatic
humor for
These phrases give me ideas for additional information that I can add to my Internet marketing campaign.

Where Is Your Audience

Using the tool, socialmention.com, you can type in your keyword phrases and you’ll get an idea of where your audience is hanging out. For this particular phrase I found that folks looking for “help with depression in atlanta” are in…

digg.com
youtube.co
yahoo.com
google_video.com
bing.com
Yahoo News
and others.

This tells me that I want to submit articles and participate at digg.com and youtube.com.

So, I better get cracking on some articles and some videos!

Hope this was helpful for you!


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , , , , ,
19 Jan 2010
Uncategorized

Marketing To The Market


I’m reading a nice little post by Chris Brogan where he talks about the concept of a “pop up store”. The idea being, what “niche” can you create from your product / service?  What can you market to your market?

He is referring to the concept that The Gap (well, at least The Gap in NYC) put together.  Basically, they created a “niche” store within their store.  The “niche” is Weight Loss and their “niche store” has clothes that can be used for exercising.  They went a step further than just creating a new department within their store, they partnered with a fitness company which sends a personal trainer to give demonstrations, they offer discounts to the fitness gym, contests to win free stuff, etc.

The concept isn’t really new, marketers have been doing this for a very long time, but what about doing it on the web?  So, that got me thinking and here are my thoughts.

1) You could create partnership programs and offer them on your website.  For example…

a) A personal injury attorney could partner with a pain management clinic, a chiropractor, acupuncturist, massage therapist, etc.  Offer discounts via the web.  Offer demonstrations, clinics at the office.

b) A cosmetic dentist could partner up with a bridal store, glamour shots store, etc.

c) A divorce attorney could partner up with realtors, moving companies, financial planners, etc.

Well, you get the idea.  What could you market to your market?


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments
15 Jan 2010
Uncategorized

Get ready cause here comes the future!


There is no doubt that it’s not just Google that’s changing, it’s the entire shift of the communication system of the planet. Google is simply responding to the shift.

In our lifetime (well, at least in mine) I’ve gone from black and white television to 3D televisions (coming soon I hear!) I’ve seen the introduction of cell phones evolve to iphones. There has been so much change in my short lifetime, I can’t even imagine what the future holds.

There’s no doubt that social media, mobile phone and international relations will all play a part in our future lifestyles. So, what are you waiting for?


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments
05 Mar 2009
internet marketing • Uncategorized

My Very Own Wealthy Affiliate Review


Note: I wrote this article at EZine Articles, and borrowed the material for this post. You can go to that site to see the original article…it has the same title as this post but is in the original context, but it is in full here (and I am the one who originally wrote it).

Hello everyone! Looking for a way to make money online? I was in your place too once. I was a senior in college who needed help paying for school. I had tuition to pay for, gas money to pay for, textbooks, bills, food, a girlfriend….and many other things that deplete your money. I needed money buy I didn’t have time to work a real job along with taking a full load of classes.

Over the summer I decided to try to find an online job that wouldn’t take much time that I could continue once school started up again. I tried online surveys since the sites were so convincing…”work a few hours a week and make THOUSANDS of dollars!” LOL, I wish that was true! I tried surveys, but they took up a lot of my time, and they didn’t pay well at all.

I decided to move on to something else. I was doing research and happened to stumble across a site called Wealthy Affiliate. This seemed nothing like the other scammy type sites I had seen before. It looked legitimate and the sales page seemed a little more honest than those survey sites.

I decided to give it a try, and I’m glad I did! It is actually an online training program that shows you how to make money online with affiliate marketing. It is geared toward beginners and shows you exactly how to make money. The methods it shows you are free and you can earn some serious money, but it does take some time. I learned that you can’t make money easily…but after learning what to do, I don’t have to spend as much time doing it now.

If you have time to learn something new, and you are serious about making money online, then you should definitely check out the website. You can go to my Wealthy Affiliate Review website for more details about it. I share my own experiences and describe all the tools available on the site.

It is great and I really recommend it. For more information, you can go to Wealthy Affiliate

Wealthy Affiliate has helped me a lot and I am sure it will help you too. It takes some time and effort to learn everything, but it is worth it if you actually try. Good luck and I’ll see you there! Also, there is a great forum and I would love to talk with you there. Feel free to chat or ask any questions in the forum, either in the general posts section or via a PM just to me.

Get valuable ideas to web traffic – your own tips store.


eckweb | No comments
23 Feb 2009
Uncategorized

Did You Know Your Web Name Can Be Snatched Up?


Believe it or not, even thieves are already high-tech these days. Browsing the web and reading through online forums, I came across a startling story about how thieves have found their way to infiltrate the world wide web. I read about a lady who was planning to put up a web page of her own. As the normal process dictates, she first thought of a domain name for her website. She chose her own name and had it checked in CNet Domain Search page for domain registrations and found out that it is very much available. A couple of days later, she checked it again and was shocked to discover that her name is already taken. She found out that her name is already a domain name registered to a firm with the name Chesterton Holdings.

The helpless lady brought the matter to the attention of Larry Seltzer, a columnist of eweek.com and a staunch critic of cyber crimes. Larry Seltzer investigated the matter himself. He checked the website whose domain name is that of the lady’s. He immediately came to a conclusion that firm who “owns” the website and its domain name is a domain squatter, one among many domain squatters scattered all over the internet. Seltzer saw that the website is full of advertisements all domain squatters are associated with. He even claimed that the advertisements were syndicated through information.com. In Seltzer’s column in eweek.com, he followed the next events regarding the theft of the lady’s domain name. He reported that after a number of days, Chesterton, the bogus owner, has already let go of the stolen domain. He said this could have been prompted by the low hits or very few visits the site had. Apparently, silly domain squatters do not stay long in a domain, which is not lucrative for them. Squatters are somehow wise, at least in that sense.

The question that was immediately formed in my mind that Mr. Seltzer also posted, is how in the world was Chesterton able to register someone else’s name to be its domain name? Moreover, why was the squatter allowed or given the permission to have ownership of a domain that is obviously not theirs? Anyway, I think my questions are unanswerable as of the moment. Even big companies and other established domain owners cannot exactly explain how domain theft is being successfully done. I bet you have also heard of the stealing of panex.com’s domain. Well, if you have not, the bottom line is that even the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), whose mandate is to police the world wide web, failed to fully account the culprit behind the theft.

Curious about how rampant domain theft is, I made a little cyber investigation and probed on my own. I logged on to search.com, a property of CNet domain, and searched for the availability of my own name. I guess you’ve already guessed the result. Yes, my own name is already a registered domain name. With whom is it registered? Bingo! It is with Chesterton Holdings. My possible domain is already stolen. But I am confident the squatter will leave sooner than I think. My name is unpopular nor does it sound good to generate thousands of hits and visits. There is no way that notorious domain thief can make profit out of my unpopular name.

Though my stolen (domain) name is not much of a big fuss for me or for others, domain theft is a serious problem for other web owners. It is alarming that theft incidence can happen so easily and victims cannot do anything to account for the theft done.
Who is behind this syndicated theft? I do not think we can answer right now. Who is to be blamed for the proliferation of cyber thieves? We can go on pointing fingers but still not quell domain theft. I guess the only question we can answer as of now is who is already registered in a particular domain and who is not — thanks to whois, a *querying database*. Whois is a transmission control protocol(TCP)-based query or a response protocol. It is utilized to identify the owner of a domain name, an IP address, or an autonomous system number on the internet. But then, it is also very probable that domain squatters are using whois to know which domain, in the form of people’s real names, can they squat in.

Domain theft is really a complex and alarming matter. This issue is a concern for current domain owners but more so to those planning to put up a website. This issue is most especially pertinent to those who are planning to put up an online business and use a website for marketing. I guess the best that people can do is to seek only the services of trusted web servers and hosts like STICKY WEB DOMAINS for domain registrations to ensure the security of their domain.

Visit STICKY WEB DOMAINS TO cheap domains OR register domain name

Access important tips in the sphere of website traffic – this is your personal guide.


eckweb | No comments
23 Feb 2008
article writing • internet marketing • seo • Uncategorized

Name Tags – How Creative


One of the most difficult aspects of Internet marketing is the constant flow of new articles that really should be written on a regular basis. It’s not so easy to come up with the kind of creative writing that is needed in Internet marketing. But if you find the right person to help you, it can make all the difference in the world. Well, at least in your pocket book!
So, a few weeks ago a new client signed up with me for Internet marketing services. This new client sells name tags and name badges. Not very exciting, true but still a popular product.Anyway, he wanted to have some articles created for the purpose of marketing on the Internet. A friend of mine had been working with a new copywriter, Taylor DiMeglio from TheWordTaylor.com. My friend loved her work so I thought I would give her a try.
I gave Taylor the phone number for my name tag client and she took care of the rest. And boy did she ever!Below is her work.Nano Name Tag Saves Law-Mart (Again)
Our hero, Nano Name Tag, that underdog of underdogs, was spotted once again going into Law-Mart. What his mission was, we couldn’t be sure, but you can bet Niddlybot News was determined to find out.
First spotted in the candy aisle, Nano Name Tag for once looked idle, maybe even depressed. He was staring at a Snickers® bar twice his size. Poor Nano. He can’t eat without a mouth. After all, he is just a name tag.
But, not just any name tag. Nano reminded us of that moments later when he straightened up in high alert. A situation was brewing, and he was on the case.
A red-haired lady looked around anxiously, two sets of bedsheets in her hand. Obviously, she needed help, twisting her head about as she was, looking for a Law-Mart employee. And, there was Ed, right in front of her-—without his employee name tag.
An indignant Nano Name Tag launched himself into the air, sweeping upward in a full arc, his pin landing squarely on the top of a passing shopping cart. For a moment, he looked proud. They were headed right for Ed and the red-haired lady. Nano struggled to pull his pin out of the cart in preparation for his jump.
It wouldn’t be easy. Nano Name Tag would have to jump backwards across a space of three feet to land on the right spot of Ed’s shirt. Now we were anxious, wondering if he’d make it.
Ready, set…there he went! Propelling himself off the cart with furious, gasping effort, Nano flew through the air. Oh, no! Ed was starting to move away, at just that critical second. Would Nano impale the shower curtains?!
But, no, he made it, and just in time, too. The red haired lady looked perturbed. Was there no one in this store to help her? And, then she spotted Nano Name Tag on Ed’s shirt. “Hi, My name is Ed” it proclaimed.
Was that there this whole time? she seemed to wonder. Never mind. She was relieved, and Nano Name Tag stayed still, acting the perfectly ordinary employee name tag. That Nano.
For his part, Ed jerked at the sharp but momentary poke of Nano Name Tag’s pin. But clearly, it reminded him—-customers were more important than the shower curtain rings he held in his hand. He put them down.
“May I help you?” he asked.
It all went smoothly from there. Amid the smiles and conversation, Nano Name Tag held quiet. He didn’t want to intrude. When the red haired lady walked away with the right bedsheets, Ed looked down at Nano.
“Where did you come from, Nano?! I can’t believe I forgot my employee name tag again. Thank goodness you spotted me before Mr. Dinkins did.”
“It’s no trouble,” a blushing Nano Name Tag spelled out.
“Thank you, Nano Name Tag. Thank you!”
A little reluctantly, Ed pulled Nano Name Tag off his shirt, set him on the floor, and replaced him with his own employee name tag. (He’d had it in his back pocket this whole time.)
Nano jostled himself forward as best he could without any arms or legs. A few feet away, he howled suddenly, rubbing his backside against a stack of towels.
Ed ran over, “What is it Nano? Are you okay?!”
“It’s nothing,” said Nano. “Just poked myself with my pin is all. All in a day’s—”
But, Ed had already moved on. He’d spotted another customer needing help a few aisles over.
“All in a day’s work,” said Nano.
Nano Name Tag, you’ve done it again.
If you’re searching for quality, custom name tags that perform Super Hero work, visit Name-Tags.net

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , ,