Time and time again, I keep hearing and seeing the terms SEO, Internet Marketing and Internet Sales being used in place of each other as if they were the same thing. Let’s get one thing straight right now, Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing are NOT the same as sales!

This is an assumption usually made by people who either do not understand the Search Engine Optimization / Internet Marketing industry or by salesmen who are just trying to capitalize on the internet marketing phrase to pull one over on an unsuspecting client and to boost their own marketability.

Whats the Difference between Sales and Internet Marketers?

So maybe you aren’t sure what the difference is between Search Engine Optimization / Internet Marketing and Internet Sales.

Let’s put it in simple terms. Say you go to a car dealership to have some repairs or regular maintenance done on your car. Would you rely on a car salesman to do the work or would you require that a trained mechanic do the work for you? Just because a salesman works there and can sell you a fancy car doesn’t mean that he is qualified, has the specific technical training and experience to actually work on your car like a mechanic would.

Shady salesmen have given SEO’s and internet marketers a bad name for too long. Anyone can go to Barnes and Noble, pick up a $10 book or read a couple websites and then claim to be a search engine professional. A salesman is just that, a salesman. His job is to find new clients, make a sale, bring in the money and sometimes act as the liaison between the client and the internet marketing department.

The search engine optimization and internet marketer’s job is to find out what the client is trying to accomplish and make sure the goals are met. This is done through extensive keyword research, on site website optimization, content creation, market research, studying analytical data, cross linking, inbound link creation, local optimization, social networking, extensive testing and reporting to the client along with many other things.

The internet marketer has to know what type of on site changes will hurt the client or will benefit them. They have to keep up to date with search engine trends and algorithm changes that will affect their rankings. They have to know what their competition is up to to stay competitive with them. They have to know the difference between white hat and black hat techniques. They have to be able to learn their clients industry, know what terms people are actually searching on and what is the best way to get those people to the clients website and convert them from curious shoppers to loyal customers.

As you can see there are many different factors involved when it comes to internet marketing that the average internet salesman has no knowledge of or experience with. Be sure to ask who your internet marketer is and if there is a way to contact them if you have any questions. A reputable salesman, when confronted with specific questions that they do not know, should have no problem saying they do not know the answer but will pass it along to their search engine optimization and internet marketing team to be sure to get you the correct answer.

When it comes to internet marketing; just the same as it is with your car repairs, always leave it to the professionals.

Randy SEO Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO

When it comes to search engine optimization or search engine marketing, more traffic and more inbound links are the two factors that make the difference between success and failure.

Depending on your niche or the subject matter of your website or blog, finding more and more reliable sources of generating trusted links can be a very difficult task. I came across this website recently that will help you do just that and for free.

Visit this site and just submit your website to them and that’s it. They will then automatically generate a sample directory of your most recent blog posts or web pages which helps to generate more exposure for your site and provides more links to them directly.

As a bonus you will be submitted to the links on the left that self generate links back to your site. So again more traffic and more inbound links to your site.

The only catch is that after your listing is up, you have to be sure to promote it somewhere so Google will find it quicker and start indexing the links. So a quick status update on Twitter or any social networking site should help with that.

Search engine optimization is hard enough as it is with all the spammers out there, and algorithm changes that seem to be taking place. And with the social networking being a huge factor in Google Caffeine which is coming out after the first of the year, hopefully this is something that can help. All we can do is wait and see.

Randy Home Inbound Links, More Traffic, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

Hey everyone! So I just got back from the 2007 BlogWorld Expo, which was held in Las Vegas and let me tell yo, it was pretty fun. Not only did I learn a few little tidbits of information, mostly I had confirmation on things I already knew which tells me I am on the right path to running a successful and if Im lucky, a profitable blog.

All things considered this was a basic blog convention where I went and sat around listening to some people speak and hope I pick up some good ideas. But what I think was the best part of the trip was the opening night party that was held at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel and Casino’s own night club “The Joint!”

Picture a few hundred bloggers, geeks, Search Engine Optimization specialists and others who I still couldn’t really classify in any category, drunk off their ass thanks to the open bar and free food provided by the Hard Rock Casino. The drinks were strong and flowing. The DJ was very good and kept the music flowing.

My stay at the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino wasn’t really worth mentioning apart from the fact that this was one of the worst Casino Hotels, or any hotel I have stayed in. The parking structure was confusing, no signs saying what level you were on or direction to where the exits were. Also after you park you have to either take the stairs or the elevator down to the ground floor, walk past all the dumpsters, and the maintenance workers break room, through another outside hallway then into a side door to get into the lobby. Let’s not forget avoiding all the taxi and visitor traffic because you have to cross right through the valet area.

Once inside the lobby of the Imperial Palace you have to take another elevator just to get up into the casino, and the check in is at the front which is in accessible without having to go through all this if you park in the parking garage. Ohhh and there are a whole seperate set of elevators you have to find to jsut get to your rooms. Speaking of the rooms, those were pretty nice actually. But the Imperial Palace is in a horrible location because directly below us was a small little outside cabana club right off the Las Vegas Strip who decided to play music till 3am every night. I was on the 10th floor and it sounded like they were in my room with me. I really wouldnt recomment the Imperial Palace Casino to any one.

I gambled a little bit, won some then lost it again but hey thats the fun of Las Vegas right? As for the speakers all of them were pretty informative and gave some good ideas but the one I enjoyed the most was with Thomas Frey – Google’s Top Rated Futurist Speaker from The DaVinci Institute. His outlook on what the future of 50 years from now holds for the internet and the world in general were pretty interesting and thought provoking. Ideas of Universal commerce, and no more country boarders paint an very exciting future, at least to me.

Well hopefully everyone will enjoy what the future has in store and Ill be sharing some new things with you as the weeks pass by.

-Randy-

Randy SEO Blogs, Google, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking

Tea Partay Video

So how do you get the word out about your company or product in an ever changing, quickly evolving world of give me more, newer faster now now NOW!!!??
You create a viral marketing campaign such as Smirnoff Ice did with this video Tea Partay.

What is Viral Marketing?

Viral marketing is just a catch term for any marketing campaign that is used to spread the word of a certain event or product from one person to another, hence the word virus.

Perfect example is this Smirnoff Ice music video that was released August 6, 2006 on YouTube.com and has received 3,325,244 views at the time of this writing.
So how do you get your company noticed in a world as fast moving and “show me something I haven’t seen before” as this…well looks like Smirnoff Ice has found the way and it’s viral baby.

Randy Home, SEO Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking

1. Its free publicity to the 162,404,809 and growing members that are on MySpace
2. MySpace profiles are indexed by search engines and show up in almost every result of Google and Yahoo searches.
3. There are bulletins and event features that you can use to notify your friends of specials. (Example: if a Anchor Blue and and you’re having a back to school special, you can notify everyone on your friends list with just one notice.)
4. Offer incentives to your friends if they post a Banner with a Link to your Website on their MySpace profile. (Once a month pick a winner and give them a prize)
5. You are able to target your demographic very easily using the Advanced Browse feature. With options from age range, sex, height and weight specific, has children or not and more. Even the location can be set to span out from a giving zip code in 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 250 mile increments.
6. MySpace sells advertising mainly through banner impressions, not clicks. The costs vary, but it’s in the area of $5 per 1,000 impressions. the minimum buy for an advertising campaign is $5,000 to $10,000,” according to Luke J. Bodley from www.MarketingProfs.com
7. When you buy banner ad space on MySpace, you can target your banners so they show up only to the exact demographic you want. This includes all those specific demographics like religion, body type, sexual orientation and so on.
8. If you are advertising your local business on MySpace, make sure you include your city name on the banner. Your returns will be a lot higher, because people don’t expect to see their own city name on an international Web site, and they will click just out of curiosity.

Randy SEO Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking

Properly marketing your business online is one of the most important things you can do.
Most people spend thousands of dollars on banner ads or text links but there’s a cheaper way and it’s gaining more popularity every day.

Myspace.com is a free social networking website that will expose your companies profile to millions of potential customers everyday, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year world wide. There are a lot of ways you can market your site on myspace and I’ll let you decide that on your own, but here are some basic guidelines that everyone can benefit from.

1. Make the Profile useful and entertaining to ensure people come back to the profile.

2. Profile is completely editable using HTML and CSS. This will let the design of the myspace profile mimic that of the client’s proprietary website; or be designed in a completely different style, be creative.

3. Treat Myspace as what it is, a social networking site. So make your profile more personal and friendly not purely a commercial for your company.

4. Constantly post bulletins and blog’s. (example: new articles or specials you are having)

5. Have a lot of friends. Friends are the backbone of myspace. It links everyone together and keeps everything growing. Easy way to get friends is to browse MySpace and visit profiles and click the “request as a friend” button. This will send an invitation to that profile where they have the option of denying or accepting your friend request. This is not considered spam.

6. Make use of the many topic specific forums that are on MySpace. Find those that fit into what your business is and start posting in them

7. DO NOT send out unsolicited email messages to strangers on MySpace. That is considered spam and MySpace users are quick to report it as well as MySpace support is quick to remove it.

8. DO NOT post any photo containing nudity, pornography, sexually explicit images or any copyrighted image (unless you own the copyright). Again MySpace support is fast to find this and will suspend or delete your account.

Randy SEO Myspace, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking