Līve Ambitions

According to statistics, more and more small businesses are beginning to use social media as a way to promote their business.  While I agree that social media has become the 800 pound gorilla in the room, I’m not quite sure whether it’s effective enough to justify the amount of time invested.  Before I go further, let me lay out the pros and cons of social media for small businesses.

Pros:

• Good way to leverage high-traffic social media sites.
• Good way to spread the word about your product or service.
• Good for branding your company.

Cons:

• Heavy investment of time and effort.
• Only effective for certain types of niches or industries.
• Little return.

This is my opinion, but I don’t think there are enough benefits to justify spending all day on Twitter or Facebook trying to sell your service.  I mean who has time for it?!  If you’re running a small business, I’m sure your time is better spent on more important things other than updating Twitter.

Social media works for big companies.

Bigger companies would benefit more out of social media – I mean the companies with enough money to hire a dedicated social media specialist.  With a dedicated social media specialist, companies can effectively leverage the power of social media.

Social media also works for SEOs, marketing and media companies.

This is what marketers do.  They devote their time and energy trying to sell their services and products to other marketers.

Why social media isn’t the best marketing tool for small businesses.

Social media requires a lot of time to do it right.  More often than not, small businesses don’t have the resources to do it cost-effectively.  You have to understand your audience.  If you’re running an ecommerce store, there is a thin line between being perceived as spammy and being newsworthy.

Most social media sites are used by marketers and people in the media business.  Real end-users and shoppers use search engines to shop or find information.

What not to do. Buy a list and email blast everyone and their mom.

Email blasts have become all the rage when it comes to marketing. They’re cheap, they’re quick, but you’ll also be surprised to find out that they’re not as effective as you would’ve hoped.  For starters, email blasts are easily blocked out, very impersonal and at times a nuisance – especially since spamming has become a huge thing.

Furthermore, email blasts are often deleted or ignored.  I think we’re all guilty of this and rightfully so.

Years after the introduction of email marketing, many companies have started realizing (from market and research studies) that email blasts, especially when sent too frequently, actually hurt their reputation and even lead to being labeled as a spammer.

To top it off, many lists out there are outdated or inaccurate because the list isn’t properly maintained.

Like most things in life, there are pros and cons, and email marketing is no exception.  If done right, email marketing can be a business’ best friend.

Do it right. Build your own opt-in list.

Got a website?  Good.  Place a form somewhere on your website where you can harvest opt-in emails.

More than ever, trust has become the primary goal of email marketing.  Readers pay attention to individuals or companies they trust.  Afterall, it’s why people initially opt-in to receive emails.  Once you have created a list of opted-in emails, the odds of your email ending in the spam box or being deleted is slim to none.

Email marketing is ideal for ecommerce sites and retail stores because it allows them to pitch their products and services to targeted consumers who have agreed to receive promotional emails.

It also works well for blogs and forums that want to share information or keep their members updated.

In today’s economy, it’s not easy for small businesses to find a good SEO or Internet Marketer.  There are many hurdles to overcome when choosing to outsource some of your work.  Here are some of them:

• finding a provider within your budget
• finding a provider who is skilled enough
• finding a provider who is meticulous
• finding a provider who cares about quality
• avoiding SEO scams and rip-offs

The SEO market is so saturated, it’s gotten to be quite difficult to find the right one for the job.  You see the resumes and service offerings at nearly every job employment site, freelance job site, classified ads site, forums and even blogs.  So, from all these options, what is a small business owner to do with the little to no hiring experience they have?

Well, unfortunately there is no easy answer.  It comes down to how much time/effort you’re willing to put into the search, and also how much you’re willing to fork out.  I’m not saying you always get what you pay for, but pricing does play a role in the level of service you receive.

Here are some effective ways to find a good provider:

• Employment/Job sites are good for finding highly-qualified job seekers.  However for contract-type positions, you may be better off using a freelance job site.  Employment sites like Monster and Careerbuilder are better suited for businesses seeking a permanent, in-house employee.  And, you’ll mostlikely pay a premium if you hire someone from one of these sites.
• Freelance job sites like oDesk and eLance are ideal places for finding freelance or contract workers.  For some business owners, they like the ability to scan through provider reviews and ratings, portfolios, and being able to see the provider rates up-front.  Because so many service providers are from less developed countries, you can often find bargains.  However, for many others, the process of using a freelance site (middle man) can be quite daunting.  There is usually a learning curve before you can effectively use their system.
• Classified ads sites like Craigslist and Backpage are also good for finding local SEOs and Internet Marketers.  You’ll get a ton of responses, however you may spend a lot of time weeding through emails before you come across potential candidates.  With classified ad sites, you really need to watch out for scams and rip-offs.
• Forums like DP and Sitepoint are great places to find affordable labor.  Start by checking out their marketplace sections, since this is where most freelancers hang out.  Then, try to find a SEO or Internet Marketer who is a regular and trusted by other members.  Many forums have a ratings feature for its members, so you can see how they conduct business and if they’re trustworthy.
• Some popular blogs actually provide a section in their blog where they offer job listings.  The quality of providers is pretty good, but their rates may be on the higher end.

So, the bottom line is you can find legitimate help at most of the job/freelancing sources out there.  The hard part is avoiding scams and screening for the right person.

I just read about a class action lawsuit from Rust Consulting in which they propose a settlement against Yahoo search marketing.  The lawsuit alleges that “Yahoo breached its contract with its customers by allowing Yahoo ads to be displayed in spyware, domain name parking sites (bulk registration sites), pop-ups, pop-unders and typosquatting sites.”  Here’s the settlement page: https://secureweb.rustconsulting.com/inreyahoosettlement/

Ok, that’s all fine and dandy, but if you read a bit deeper, you’ll see some startling details.  To be eligible for the measly $20 settlement, the advertiser must be out of business.  But that’s not the worst part.  The lawyers representing the case will be paid a whopping $4,170,000 – plus a reimbursement expense fee of $100,000.  What kind of nonsense is this?  The people that were directly hurt by Yahoo’s wrong-doing only get $20, while the lawyers get the bulk of the deal.  This is not just a slap in the face, but also represents loopholes in the legal system which allows lawyers to feed their greed and file bogus lawsuits.

I know about these bogus lawsuits 1st hand because I was involved in a couple of them before.  One was against LendingTree and the other was against CommissionJunction.  I didn’t receive a penny in either case because the bulk of the settlement went to the lawyers.  And, the story seems to be the same in nearly every class action lawsuit – the members don’t receive squat!

I believe companies like PayPerPost and Text-Link-Ads are killing the SEO industry.  Why do I think this?  Because they openly advertise their services to the world. 

Google has always been opposed to paid links.  But now, with these paid linking services out in the mainstream, it would only be natural for search engines to react with stricter guidelines on passing link juice.

I’m sure these companies could care less about what they are doing to the SEO industry.  Why would they?  They’re making money by exploiting the system.

SEO is still important and effective, but companies like PayPerPost and Text-Link-Ads only add fuel to the fire.  Can you imagine what would happen if one day Google decided to remove backlinks as an algorithmic criteria for ranking websites?  It would pretty much kill the SEO industry as we know it, and all the link building that has been done in the past would be worthless.  Yes, there other factors of SEO besides link building, but it’s undeniable that link building is the biggest service market in SEO.

One should keep in mind that Google can easily cut off the link juice from any website or blog.  This means that you’re taking a greater risk when you buy links from a ”known” link seller.  PayPerPost and Text-Link-Ads exposes these “known” link sellers.

From what I can see, Google has penalized Text-Link-Ads.  When you run a search for “text link ads,” they are no where to be found.  But why isn’t PayPerPost.com penalized yet?  Their business model is based on the same concept as Text-Link-Ads.  I guess PayPerPost has a bigger problem to worry about.  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has made it mandatory for bloggers to disclose when they are getting paid for posts.  This means that everyone will know exactly who is selling blog posts.  Those who do not disclose payment information risk getting fined by the FTC.

Here’s a list of 22 open source ecommerce solutions.  Most of them use PHP coding and MySQL database.

CartStore.com
ChromiumCart.com
CubeCart.com
DantoCart.com
DashCommerce.org
DigiStore.co.nz
eClime.com
FishCart.org
Joomla.org (need plugin)
MagentoCommerce.com
NopCommerce.com
OpenCart.com
OpenFreeway.org
OsCommerce.com
OsCss.org
PrestaShop.com
TomatoCart.com
UberCart.org
VirtueMart.net
WordPress.org (need plugin)
X-Cart.com
Zen-Cart.com

Good luck, and may your business prosper!

I’ll be honest…I’m not too crazy about either of them (as characters).  But if I had to choose one, I think the Verizon guy wins hands down.  Not that he is so incredibly entertaining, but mainly because the Progressive girl is so creepy.

What was Verizon thinking when they decided to introduce this “Flo” character as their company mascot?  “Flo” is played by Stephanie Courtney, an actress and stand up comedian.  She kind of reminds me of someone from the 60′s with her hair-do.  And, I can’t even describe her using a single word.  Pale.  Creepy.  Weird.  Who was Progressive trying to target with these ads?  I’m not sure what their motive is, but its obvious that “Flo” is supposed to invoke some weird psychological effect as people watch the commercials.  Progressive, do us a favor and can it.

The Verizon guy isn’t really annoying, but we all hate him because he has the best job in the world.  In the beginning, he played bigger roles where he actually used to say stuff like “Can you hear me now.”  Now, all he does is stand in front of a huge crowd of Verizon “employees” and gets paid big bucks for it.  The “Test Man” character seems to give off a ”nerdy”, “techy” feel.  I think the character appeals to the masses, and I assume it’s worked for Verizon or they would’ve pulled the plug a long time ago.  The Verizon “Test Man” is played by Paul Marcarelli, an actor with tons of other gigs under his belt.  My feelings are neutral on this one – keep him or dump him.

What are your thoughts on these characters?

This is the weirdest, yet interesting offer I’ve ever seen by an authority website.  Techdirt.com is willing to shut up for 1 year for $100,000,000.  I wonder if this means that they’ll shut down their website for an entire year, or if they’ll simply stop publishing new articles for a year.  I’m assuming an offer like this is probably targeted towards it’s competitors.  However, that is not chump change by any standards.  For an amount like that, you could buy a few good established websites.  I’m surprised by how much they are asking for, and I doubt that they’ll get any serious offers.

Founded in 1997, Techdirt.com is one of the most popular sites for technology news and commentary.  Techdirt has some impressive stats: 850,000 RSS subscribers, 35,000+ posts, 250,000+ comments and rated Technorati 100. 

Do you think anyone is crazy enough to take this offer?

You can think of advertorials as a cross between an informative article and a sales copy. Advertorials usually start off by presenting a problem, and ends with a solution of some kind.  The solution they offer is typically a sales pitch to subtly persuade the reader into buying something.

To give you a better picture of what I’m talking about, here are 2 ads that are frequently seen on Yahoo.  The ads themselves are not advertorials, but once clicked, you are directed to the corresponding advertorial page.

The 1st is an ad from HowLifeWorks.com, and the other is by ARALifeStyle.com.  ARALifeStyle was the 1st to use these types of ads, but HowLifeWorks was quick to jump on the business model.  It was kind of innovative because the design of the ads sort of made you feel like those articles were just a part of Yahoo.

Once you click on one of those links, you are directed to a simple looking website. The landing page offers an article, a few related articles, and some sponsored PPC ads.

So you may be asking “what is the big deal?”  Well, there really isn’t.  Simply put, these websites are nothing more than beefed up arbitrage sites.  Except, instead of flipping PPC traffic, these websites are buying CPM traffic and flipping them to PPC and affiliate revenue.  We can easily spot the PPC ads, but the affiliate links are embedded within the article itself.  So, someone who has no clue about affiliate marketing would have no idea that the article’s true intention is to promote an advertiser’s service or product.

The advertorial business model is not entirely new though.  We see it almost everyday.  Websites like eHow, About.com and HowStuffWorks.com all have the similar business models.  When you break it down, they are all websites that provide informative articles about certain topics, and they all make money from PPC ads.  The only difference is that these sites do not include sales verbiage in their articles.  For this reason, we do not look down on eHow or About.com like we do the advertorial sites.

What are your thoughts on advertorial sites?

Here’s a great offer from my favorite print shop.  By the way, I do not get paid to endorse this company.  I offer them free publicity for a few reasons:

1. Low prices.
2. Quality products.
3. Friendly service.
4. Eco-friendly company.
5. Last but not least, my readers also benefit.

Starting 08/05/09 and for 3 days only, all orders of 250 will be upgraded to 1,000 at no additional cost. All you have to do is type “UPGRADE ME” under the special instruction box when placing your order. This offer is not valid with existing orders, does not apply to “7 Day Economy Turnaround” items and the order must be placed online to receive the special.