Gray Rollins is a featured writer for DirectMailLeader.com. To learn more about direct marketing and hiring a copywriter, visit us.
What You Need To Know Before Hiring A Copywriter
November 22, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
The right copywriter can help you take your business to the next level. If you are putting together text based marketing material including a web site, a brochure, an advertisement, or a direct marketing appeal letter, a copywriter who knows the business of selling can really give you a leg up on the competition. However, working with a copywriter can do your business venture more harm than good if you make a hiring mistake and end up with the wrong writer for your purposes, or if you don’t know how to best take advantage of the skill set your writer provides. To make sure you hire a copywriter who will help you rather than hinder you, make sure your writer is a good fit in two key ways. The best copywriter you can hire is one who knows a lot, but wants to know more.
To do a great job on your project, the copywriter you hire should know a lot about the specific format you’ll be working in; about the audience you’ll be appealing to; and about the industry the product or service you’re pitching is a part of. Look for a copywriter who has a strong background doing work similar to your project. From brochures to web sites to persuasive slide shows, every marketing format has its own unique demands, so make sure the writer you hire knows the format you’ll be working with inside and out. The best brochure writer may be a bust when it comes to creating a dynamic text for the Internet, and vice versa, so be sure you pick someone who is equipped to do the job you have.
However, experience and a strong portfolio aren’t enough on their own. You need a copywriter who wants to know more about your product or service; about your company’s vision; and about the entrepreneurial mission that drives your company. These are compelling ideas that a good copywriter can translate into language that will help the customer understand why your business is unique and valuable. The more curious the copywriter is about your company, the better that writer will be able to absorb the tenets of your business and then communicate those facts to the readers. Marketing is all about standing out from the pack, so look for a copywriter who wants to know what is special about your work. A copywriter who wants to know this kind of information is a copywriter who will want to tell that kind of information when he or she sits down to write.
Tips to Increase Your Adsense Revenue
November 19, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
When adding content to bring the AdSense tips into play, make sure the content is informational, but not essentially sales-type material. So, here’s some quick tips on what you can do to grow your Adsense profits (I’m currently making over $300 per month with Adsense by following this very strategy) BUILD QUALITY CONTENT SITES Content is King. But, to really get the most of out this advertising program, web site owners need to follow a few AdSense tips. If you follow the above tips, you will know how to build Adsense sites that make you a lot of money. So for that reason this article will not go into the basics of Adsense but rather will give you tips on how to become an Adsense Expert and join the growing number of Adsense Gurus who are making mind-boggling amounts from Adsense. The webmasters that have been there and done it and are now earning income daily from their websites have a ton of great tips and helpful advice for those just getting started in the field of adsense and background advertising. There are numerous tips to increase your Adsense revenue – too numerous to mention in this little article but I’ll tell you the most important ones. With that in mind, how you go about making money with Adsense is very important and here are a few simple tips that should get you started quickly and easily – you will be amazed at the results.
Tips for Maximizing Your Google AdSense Revenue. Whether it’s a blog or an actual web site, the idea behind both AdSense tips is to create a site that becomes an authority on a topic. Lately I’ve been writing about different tips on how to get more visitors to your site because that is a vital part of the monetizing equation with Google AdSense. There are some useful tips for being top in Google Adsense frame.
Following are some essential guidelines and tips to help you make your Adsense monetized site succeed. This means picking a focus and sticking with it, as much as possible, to make the AdSense tips pay off. When adding content to bring the AdSense tips into play, make sure the content is informational, but not necessarily sales-type material. Everyone is looking for the best ways to develop this massive advertising program, and there are literally hundreds of Adsense “experts” willing to sell you tips and hints on how to earn a healthy income with the program.When adding content to bring the AdSense tips into play, make sure the content is informational, but not essentially sales-type material. So, here’s some quick tips on what you can do to grow your Adsense profits (I’m currently making over $300 per month with Adsense by following this very strategy) BUILD QUALITY CONTENT SITES Content is King. But, to really get the most of out this advertising program, web site owners need to follow a few AdSense tips. If you follow the above tips, you will know how to build Adsense sites that make you a lot of money. So for that reason this article will not go into the basics of Adsense but rather will give you tips on how to become an Adsense Expert and join the growing number of Adsense Gurus who are making mind-boggling amounts from Adsense. The webmasters that have been there and done it and are now earning income daily from their websites have a ton of great tips and helpful advice for those just getting started in the field of adsense and background advertising. There are numerous tips to increase your Adsense revenue – too numerous to mention in this little article but I’ll tell you the most important ones. With that in mind, how you go about making money with Adsense is very important and here are a few simple tips that should get you started quickly and easily – you will be amazed at the results.
Tips for Maximizing Your Google AdSense Revenue. Whether it’s a blog or an actual web site, the idea behind both AdSense tips is to create a site that becomes an authority on a topic. Lately I’ve been writing about different tips on how to get more visitors to your site because that is a vital part of the monetizing equation with Google AdSense. There are some useful tips for being top in Google Adsense frame.
Following are some essential guidelines and tips to help you make your Adsense monetized site succeed. This means picking a focus and sticking with it, as much as possible, to make the AdSense tips pay off. When adding content to bring the AdSense tips into play, make sure the content is informational, but not necessarily sales-type material. Everyone is looking for the best ways to develop this massive advertising program, and there are literally hundreds of Adsense “experts” willing to sell you tips and hints on how to earn a healthy income with the program.
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What Twitter Followers have to do With Advertising??
November 4, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
<p>Twitter is mainly a social networking service provider which majorly focuses on building online communities according to your flavour where you can share your interests and tricks. Through this you can chat about your interests on general theme. With this perspective in mind, you can make use of all the <strong>twitter applications</strong> to the best. <br>
Twitter has lots of twitter applications for entertaining and money-spinning work. In twitter, messages or updates are generally known as <a onClick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(’/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://thetwittersecret.com/”>tweets</a>. It supports Micro-blogging service which means it’s constrained to 140 characters at the maximum only. You can throw messages to your associates but it should be restricted up to 140 characters. <br>
While using twitter, you will get many <a onClick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(’/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://thetwittersecret.com/”><strong>Twitter followers </strong></a> following your account. If you are a friend finder, customer’s finder for business or a marking professional, then you can use <strong>twitter applications</strong> according to your needs.<br>
I follow people who I believe I will be fascinated and who I think might be interested in what I have to say as well. You should amend you profile in best possible way and write something creative in your bio-data. You can modify the blueprint of your account’s background according to your flavor. This is another cute and simple way to make a huge fan following. Just follow other people in a fine and appealing style. <br>
It is significant for you to make money online and it is concerned with the fact that you provide good quality information to your <strong>twitter followers</strong>. <em>Twitter</em> is typically used for building connections because this is the speedy and most excellent way to reach people. Twitter followers are in huge demand for many purposes. Some need them to find good friends who can reside in regular touch with them. You will likely find yourself spending a lot of time in trying to find out your old buddies who were once your great friends. If you are in Associate marketing or just at another position, there is lots of information available for you on twitter. <br>
Most of the credit for Twitter successes should be given to thetwitter applications. Clients build up genuine interest and concentration when they recognize that the people who are exactly maintaining the Twitter profile really wants to assist them.<br>
Twitter usage for small business is grand when you desire to directly contact your targeted market. Just make certain that you make use of it correctly. At least an hour should be spent in maintaining your Twitter account, so that your profile would feel dynamic, and remain live to people.<br>
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First Steps On The Internet – Hints And Tips
November 4, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
I have spent the last weekend researching and reading around internet marketing.Call me sad!What is it exactly? Is it something you or I can do to boost our incomes on a part time basis and perhaps even get a full time career from it?
Internet marketing seems to me to be a good way to make extra money while working in another field or it also can become a full-time business. If you want to work from home, to set your own hours, and earn a decent income, then Internet marketing may be the right for you. It will certainly be challenging but it will be a new adventure if you are up for it.You will be able to be creative and you will have to solve a lot of problems along the way but ultimately you will have more control over your career. By starting part time you can test and refine and keep the costs down.
So what does it mean? Simply selling goods and services online but not necessarily your own.
I started this process last October and have spent a considerable amount of money so far trying out various programmes. There are certainly a lot out there and some of them I wouldn’t touch with a bargepole now, others are great for parts of what you need to know once you have the basics out of the way.
It certainly pays to sit down and work out an internet marketing strategy. There is no need to go full on and have an all singing all dancing website these days, but you can have a blog.However don’t be fooled into thinking that you can get one up and running in a couple of minutes as some would have you believe. I have spent most of this morning sorting out bits and pieces in the background to one of my blogs for example,but there is no doubt that as an entry into marketing online they are quick and easy once you know how. It will pay to look at the tutorials and spend a bit of time on the basics. Obviously if you have more money than time, then you can pay someone else to sort it out for you but it is quite straightforward as long as you are prepared to spend a bit of time on it. Try http://www.wordpress.com, its free and simple to use.
Why blog?
Blogs help you feel part of a community.You connect with like minded people and once you have some expertise and share it in a blog, you connect with a lot more people and increase your chances of successfully marketing on the internet.
They can help boost your search engine optimization (SEO). Google loves blogs as they are content rich and regularly updated (or they should be)
They can allow you to sell products and services. Blogging has been around for many years now and has only been used comparatively recently as a way of making money online. They can certainly play a huge part in an internet marketing business.Blogs have become something of an art form and there are even competitions now to come up with the best of the year.With Wordpress and Blogger they are easy to set up but you do need to do a little work to get them running properly and even more work to get visitors to them.
By posting informative articles together with your more personal posts you can allow others to reprint it with your links to your blog and you can bring in organic traffic for free. If you are handy with a video camera and have a bit of experience around social networking sites then you can even have a video blog.
By posting a few times a week, you aim to keep a steady flow of people to your site and increase your rankings in the search engines.
Depending on the amount of time you have available to put into your online marketing strategy,you could build a blog, get affiliate links,get AdSense(more on this in later articles)and join forums. Really there is an endless list and when you take advantage of the many resources you have online, you will be able to control the amount you earn. It’s a steep learning process but will be worth it long-term.
Jane Robinson has put together a FREE 3 page report outlining the strategies used by leading internet marketers to make millions Read the Free Internet Marketing Report at http://www.easyinternetsteps.com You can follow her as she starts an internet business, warts and all. Learn from her mistakes, take advantage of her successes and get her free course at http://www.moneyschoolblogs.com
How to Use Twitter….Basic Techniques and Tips For the Beginner Twitter
November 3, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Make sure you include you picture in your profile. This picture can be of you which some say it should be. Other people use a picture of their kids, animals and pictures that pertain to their business. Some people update their pictures on a regular bases. You will have background to pick out for your profile page. Twitter supplies you with some basic backgrounds to use. You can make your own or download some from different sites out there that offer twitter backgrounds.
When you twitt you have a picture that shows up with your twitt. This picture can be the same picture as in your profile, or it can be an avatar. It is best to use the same picture throughout your social networking sites. The picture again can be anything that you want. An avatar should be related to your business.
You have a 140 characters to “WOW” your followers. Which really isn’t a lot but it’s enough to say what you need to say. Make sure you inspire, entertain,
educate, and join in on conversations with your followers..Yes, you can promote you business, website and blog..I have never promoted my business through twitter
but I have promoted my blog..Be careful not to just push your business. You need to be yourself. Build relationships with your followers. They will come
to you and want to do business with you..that is what has been happening to me..
You can use abbreviations to help save your characters. Make sure that everyone will be able to understand your twitt if you do. There are many abbreviations
used on twitter. Here are a few of the commonly used ones….
RT= retweet
RTL= retweet love
BRB= Be Right Back
LOL= laugh out loud
ROFL+ Roll on the floor laughing (there are many versions of this one but sticking to the basic one)
TY= Thank you
YW= Your Welcome
:+)= Smile
OMG= oh my God
Grrr= frustration
ugh= frustration
DM= Direct Message
Many more I can list but you will learn more as you begin to twitt. Don’t hesitate to jump into conversations which will help you build relationships
and friendships which is the foundation for a good business relationship. Your twitters have to know that they can trust you and count on you if you
want them to do business with them.
When you RT someone you need to put a RT(space) @workingmoms (space) (example) that way the person you are RT’ing will get it in there @replies…Retweet in a common
curtsy in the the twitting world. When you get RT’d it is proper etiquette to tell the person thank you for the RT. I do that and then ask them how their
day is going..but that is just me. Some people don’t thank peeps for RT’ing…I’m happy that somebody takes the time to RT so I always thank them. If someone
RT’s me then I try to RT them back. To spread the twitter love…example of an RT….RT @workingmoms
Always reply to some with an @then their name…example(space)@workingmoms(space) again this way they will get a copy in their mentions..
Direct Messages or DM’s (as they are known as) are messages that everyone cannot see. You can only DM people who are following you…So lets say if I’m
following you I can not DM you but you can DM me. So if someone Dm’s you and you can not DM them back then they are not following you..If you DM someone and they
can not DM you back then you are not following them. A little confusing huh…There is a drop down box at the top of the DM box..If you can not find
the follower you wish to DM the type a -D hit the space bar then type the name of the person you are DM’ing then hit the space bar again. The
name of the person you are DM’ing should appear in the box above. (example) D workingmoms ..you can take off the D workingmoms once the name appears and you
are ready to start typing your DM.
Favorites is for any twitt that you want saved. Some people save their twitts or twitts that they want to go back too..I usually put my favorite twitters in my
favorite’s or twitts I want to go back to. Everyone can check to see what you have in your favorite.
Updates is all the twitts that you have sent out…not a good place to save your favorite twitts that you would like to use later.
Followers are people that are following you…to me it goes up and down like a roller coaster…don’t get to concerned unless it takes a huge nose dive..this
could be a twitter hiccup…
Following are people you are following..you can unfollow people from here who you no longer want to follow. I usually unfollow people who unfollow me..
This covers the basic twitting for the newbie twitter…Remember one important thing when twitting….Twitt how you would like to be twitted…be nice
Follow us http://twitter.com/workingmoms
More on AAWorkingmoms: http://www.anessa.me
Hello….I’m part of a wonderful business called AAWorkingmoms. Ann Marie and I run it. We have changed our lives and help people to change their lives.
4 Ways to Use Twitter To Drive Traffic
November 1, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Pinpointing exactly how and why Twitter drives viral traffic to your website or blog is quite impossible. I think it comes down to Twitter being a form of word of mouth viral advertising that generates the traffic. Rather than use the bulk of time discussing this I wanted to offer various suggestions when using Twitter to advertise your business.
1. Don’t give people the impression you’re spamming them.
What I mean by this is don’t just repeatedly add people and spam them with the same cut and paste tweets telling them about whatever you’re selling. I personally can’t stand when someone does this and immediately unfollow them or just completely ignore their tweets. I know I’m not alone doing this either. The better thing to do is to actually come across as a human being and not a spambot. Mix up your business tweets with some personal tweets. Talk about yourself a little bit and send @ messages to other people on your follower list. Remember, fewer followers equals less traffic to your site.
2. Present your tweets in a creative way
This goes hand in hand with number one and could provide a boost in traffic from Twitter or increase followers. I know it can seem difficult with only 140 characters or less but it shouldn’t be too hard for a person who has created their own content for a blog, an article, an e-book etc. Also, spruce up your profile a bit. The default Twitter background is ugly and the sidebar color is even uglier. Do you really want people to think you’re too lazy to take 20 minutes to change up your profile? It can have a negative effect on the way people view you and your level of service and dedication. Also, always follow the people who add you as a follower. Develop a connection with your Twitter followers and that will generate more traffic and more sales.
3. Always use hashtags and follow trending topics
A hashtag is a way to make your tweets clickable and easily searchable. A hashtag is nothing more than adding the hash symbol (#) before a keyword or a keyphrase. So, let’s say I tweet about the new episode of American Idol. At the end of my tweet I would add #americanidol. Doing this tagged that tweet associated with American Idol and added it to a live feed of up-to-the-minute tweets related to American Idol. This leads me to trending topics. Twitter keeps a list of the common tweets at the time on the right sidebar and this is very helpful at attracting new followers. I mentioned earlier about mixing up your business tweets with personal tweets so if you keep an eye on that list and something catches your eye you can tweet about it throughout the day and be exposed to more Twitter users who could turn into followers and who might generate traffic for your site.
4. Add the Twitter widget to your site(s)/blog(s)
If you’re using other methods to promote this is essential to building your Twitter following and increasing Traffic to your site. Why is this? Well, I’m assuming you’re using an autoresponder so assuming that there will at least be certain people that visit your site have a Twitter account this is a way for you to send daily messages to them via your tweets. It’s a fact that very few people obtain a program or a product immediately after being exposed to it. It ordinarily takes seeing it a few times and thinking it over.
Used effectively Twitter can be a goldmine. All those users can’t be wrong. For more information on Twitter check out my blog entry.
I am an internet marketer and expert re-seller with 10 years experience with everything from EBAY to MLM to Affiliate Marketing. The most profitable program he markets is the IPC Instant Cash Program. Currently he lives in NJ where he is a full time Internet Marketer and Product Review Specialist. You can check out what he’s up to at his official site.
Four Powerful Twitter Tips For Beginners
October 31, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
When I first heard about twitter I was a bit sceptical. I guess I just didn’t see how extraordinarily powerful this site really was until recently. My friend RJ Pepino had built a twitter following of 21,000 in just a few months and was having people join him in his business opportunity everyday! All of these leads where free. If you’re looking to create some passive income online, build a home base business that runs on automation and build your own list of followers, you have to be on Twitter.
So I put together a Beginners guide for you to generating Leads on Twitter:
1. Twitter- Create a free Twitter account if you haven’t already done so. Don’t be shy when creating your bio, be yourself, remember you are creating relationships and connecting with people.
2. Twitbacks-Customize your Twitter background with Twitbacks. You want to stand out from the crowd.
3. Social Oomph- Make sure you use Social Oomph and create a free account. This will allow you to send automated welcome messages, aka DM’s to new followers and create settings that will automatically follow those who follow you or un follow those who do not follow you.
4. livelybrowser- Purchase the Twitter Friend Adder for $50. This is optional, but highly recommended. You can automatically add Twitter friends with this tool running in the background. It is recommended you do not add more than 100-200 friends per day or twitter will suspend your account. You can also un follow those who don’t follow you, which is recommended every 24-48hrs after adding. This is extremely handy when doing followings of 100 or more people per day, which you will need to do to build a list fast and automation, is the way to go! If you’re on a budget, just add friends manually by finding others in your same niche but that is very time consuming.
If you follow my four powerful Twitter tips you will see a great improvement in your Twitter experience.
Samantha Milner is a well-known Internet Marketing expert and the owner of my easy online pay that gives free internet marketing tips to all:
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Head over to http://www.myeasyonlinepay.com to get your FREE advice now!
How To Change Your Twitter Background
October 27, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Twitter.com has surpassed all expectations of growth. It is growing at an unbelievable rate and may come in top 10 of Alexa.com ranking if continues its march like this. Do you have a twitter page? If you have a twitter page, then I am suggesting something that will add color and zing to your page. I am speaking of backgrounds that you can add on your page. Good backgrounds can not only change the look of your Twitter profile page but also get you more followers. Twitter is being increasingly used for business promotion and backgrounds come handy to liven up the page in such cases. Even otherwise backgrounds give a personalized look to your page. Here is how you add backgrounds to your twitter page.
Some websites are offering backgrounds in many designs. You get designs such as flowers, stars, stripes, hearts, girly, celebs, sports, nature, music, tv shows, emo, butterflies, birds and animals, diamonds, polka dots, patterns, etc.
To change the background image of your Twitter page, first of all find a good background image from any website offering twitter backgrounds. Once you choose your image, right click on your chosen background image and save it to your computer hard drive where you can easily find it again. For example: the d drive. Then open your Twitter page and click ’settings’ at the top of the page. Go to the ‘design’ tab and click on ‘Change background image’. Go and find the image, which you saved earlier. Put a check mark in the ’tile background’ check box if you think the background image must be repeated or tiled. Click ’save changes’ and you will find your page has got new life with the Twitter background. Try different backgrounds everyday and ask your friends about their opinion. You will find that some designs reflect your personality better than others. Some colors may look professional and some may look fun. You have to choose everything depending upon the purpose of the page. Whichever gets highest votes may be kept on the page for a longer period otherwise keep changing the page and have fun.
The author writes text messages and advises and consults for social networking content like twitter backgrounds and myspace graphics. He also writes quizzes on subjects like personality, etc.
What to Know Before Hiring an SEO
October 27, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Thinking about hiring an SEO?
As more and more small businesses look for opportunities to grow, the term SEO (Search Engine Optimization) always seems to come up. Someone has a story about some business who made millions off tweaking a meta tag, and people get very excited. But before you go running out and hiring someone, there are a few things you need to know.
Don’t fall for the get rich quick story.
For one thing, let me be the first to tell you that a lot of stories about SEO are either exaggerated, or simply untrue. Yes, you can make a lot of money from SEO, there is no doubt about that. But in talks with people at parties, or other social gatherings I hear more and more “SEO stories” that sell a too good to be true situation and you should be aware of it. If they are unaware of my SEO background, they even tell me this stuff. They talk about some kid who tweaked a few tags and made millions of dollars off his blog, or a company who boosted their profits 300% in a month from a little SEO. I’m not sure where these stories originate, but you must keep in mind that SEO is new, but the same old rules apply. There is no get rich quick method, and you won’t get something for nothing. SEO will certainly be a positive addition to your business, but it requires hard work and sacrifice just like anything else. Which brings me to my next point.
Manage your own expectations
SEO is good, it’s obviously what I base my SEO website on. It’s what I do for a living, and I don’t want to try and downplay it’s importance. However, it is by no means a silver bullet that will make any business successful. It’s not the “secret trick” to make you rich. It’s something you do to grow your business and it works, but don’t expect millions to pour in every night.
SEO takes time
SEO is a long, continuous process that requires work and maintenance. Gone are the days where you could hire someone to tweak some code, and sit back to collect the riches. It takes a long time to get going, and requires maintenance. It could be months, or longer before you see any improvement in traffic and sales. Many times I’ve seen people talk in forums about hiring an SEO, seeing no immediate results and feeling “ripped off”. While it’s certainly true in some cases, in other cases the person or company actually did positive things for your site, and it took a while to kick in. It can take days, months or even years for the effects to be seen, so be patient. Content has to be spidered, links have to be built and indexed, and the major search engines do this at their own pace. While there are anomalies here and there, for the most part top rankings come with time.
There may not be a crowd of people waiting to find you.
This has been the hardest point for me to sell to a customer, and something I’ve personally been involved in before. Let’s say your business sells webkinz. If I work hard, and get you ranked up high, you’ll get thousands of new customers a day, because webkinz are hot. There are 7 million people a day searching for webkinz of some type. This is a hot term, and will get a lot of traffic (and will also have a lot of competition). But what if your business sells heating elements for clothes dryers? If I manage to get you a top spot, should you expect 7 million people a day? Of course not, in fact around 1,900 people a day search for this, and at best you can expect 10-20% of those people if you have a number one spot for it. Then, you have to convert those 190-300 visitors into sales. It may not yield the results you were expecting. That’s why you need to analyze your business, and your market. Are a lot of people searching for your product?
SEO is not always the answer.
I may get rotten tomatoes thrown at me, but there are times where you shouldn’t hire an SEO. If you are a small business that runs on a shoestring, and you have a small market, and an extremely limited niche market, it may not make sense to pay thousands for some top SEO company to get you a ranking. You may be better off grabbing a copy of SEO for dummies (which is actually a decent book for beginners) and seeing what you can learn on your own. Another option is, finding an SEO that’s “creative” enough to find other search terms and streams for your business. The final word on this is, don’t expect too much but make the best of what you can get. I have worked with several companies who were fully aware that only 300 people a day were searching for their product, but wanted to dominate the listings anyway for branding purposes. As a business owner this is your choice to make.
Ask up front
If you’re hiring an SEO, ask up front what they are planning to do, and what it’s going to cost. Make them go into detail. If they are concerned with trade secrets you may have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. But ask them specifically “what are you going to be doing to get these ranks”. And do a little research. If they say they are going to buy 1000 links from various sites, look up some things on google, or SEO forums to see what ramifications this method has. Ask the SEO for this information, and if they aren’t totally up front and honest with you, don’t hire them. I tell my customers exactly what I’m going to do, and why I do it, if they are concerned. Transparency is key, if they are trying to hide it from you it might be something sinister. Note: Don’t ever let a company tell you they can guarantee rankings. Nobody but Google can guarantee you a spot. Keep that in mind when talking to your sales person.
Ask about their rankings.
Ask them what rankings their company has. Check on them, and see how well they do for SEO. Because after all, what kind of SEO company wouldn’t employ their own tactics for themselves? Presently my website sits at the number one spot for “Portland SEO” on the big three, and has for quite a while. But am I the busiest SEO in Portland, Oregon? Not by a long shot. There are companies who are doing 10 times the amount of business I am, and they are nowhere to be found in the search engines. They employ traveling salesmen and cold calling to sell their product to hundreds of customers. Think about that for a second. If they are so great at SEO, how come they aren’t able to squash the rankings of a “little guy” like me? Why do they spend so much money on print ads and telemarketing? I’ll leave that up to you to decide. Would you hire a painting business who had a building that looks like it was painted by a group of preschoolers? If the answer is no, then don’t hire an SEO person or company who isn’t able to get their own site in the rankings (without paying for google ads).
Understand the Process
I can definitely sympathize with the business owner who doesn’t have time to learn SEO. You’re a business owner, a lawyer, insurance agent or painter. You’re not a marketer or computer programmer, and that’s why you hire an SEO. If you had the time, you’d do it yourself but that would take away from your own role. I have heard this from customers before, and I understand completely. However, knowledge is power. The more you understand what’s going on, the more you can control and contribute to your own site’s success. Browse through some SEO forums or websites in your spare time, or pick up a book on it. You can still hire an SEO but at least you’ll have a better understanding of what they’re doing, and maybe even be able to pitch in some valuable ideas. Who knows your own business better than you?
Be prepared to contribute
In a perfect world, you would be able to hire and SEO, throw them a small amount of pay and sit back and watch the numbers go up. But it’s not that easy. Be prepared to contribute and help out. Make sure your SEO knows everything you know about your customers, your business, and your market. The standard marketing rules apply here. Know your product, why it’s great and how it helps people. Know what makes you stand out from the competion, and know who you’re selling to. Then turn that information into power for the person doing SEO for you. Bounce ideas off them, answer their questions and help them out. You’ll get a lot more bang for your buck.
Treat SEO like any other service based investment.
To conclude, treat this like any other business investment. Take care to make sure that you are being treated well, and getting the most for your money. Get as much information as you can, and use common sense rules when searching for an SEO. If you can do this, and you get the right company or person you will go far and grow your business. Good luck to you all.
Jeremy Morgan is an Internet Marketer and runs an SEO Blog in his spare time. Want some SEO tips? Sign up for the SEO insider today!
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