Why You Should be Blogging

Blogs have been becoming a major part in online marketing for companies both small and large. They were originally created as journals for personal use. But more and more companies are latching on to blogs to communicate with the outside world and, of course, their customers. Companies are finding out that blogs can help build solid relationships with their customers.

Blogs are very popular among consumers; they are a place where consumers can go to read reviews, read latest industry information and news, and also read what other products/services are available to them. According to eMarketer, the largest online research and analysis organization, there has been a 300% growth in monthly blog readership over the last four years! In a survey conducted by eMarketer they found that almost one-half of the online population reads blogs. Now when you think about the size of “one-half of the online population,” you can imagine how many blogs are read on a daily basis. One blog post can even help make the difference in swaying strangers to use your products and/or services, but actually getting visitors to your blog takes effort.

As you can see, just simply having a blog is just as important as having a blog that’s optimized. If your blog isn’t optimized how will you market yourself to strangers? Blogs can be an effective tool in driving traffic to your main website. Blogger is Google’s own free blogging service and is highly recommended if you are new to blogging. It’s simple, user-friendly, and best of all, belongs to Google! If Google owns it don’t you think there’s a higher chance of it getting indexed?

Having a blog is great, but optimizing it will get you traffic and build rankings. If you would like our free 15-page report on how you can optimize your blog, email us at info@securenetsystems.net to request yours or leave a comment with your email address and we will send it over.

Update to Google AdWords Policy

Google has recently updated their AdWords policy and is now allowing trademarked names to appear in paid listings. For example, stores selling Nike shoes can now use Nike in their listings.

Previously, Google didn’t allow trademarked names and restricted stores from using them. Stores that sold Nike shoes were only allowed to advertise by using words like “athletic shoes” or “running shoes.”

This new policy change weeds out generic listings and gives users a bigger incentive to click on an ad if they see the brand or trademarked name they are searching for. Instead of seeing “Brand Name Athletic Shoes,” which doesn’t explain much, stores can make their listings more relevant to the user by including brands into the listings: “Nike Running Shoes”

Here is an excerpt from Google:

“That is why, in an effort to improve ad quality and user experience, we are adjusting our trademark policy in the U.S. to allow some ads to use trademarks in the ad text. This change will bring Google's policy on trademark use in ad text more in line with the industry standard. Under certain criteria, you can use trademark terms in your ad text in the U.S. even if you don't own that trademark or have explicit approval from the trademark owner to use it. This change will help you to create more narrowly targeted ad text that highlights your specific inventory.

For example, under our old policy, a site that sells several brands of athletic shoes may not have been able to highlight the actual brands that they sell in their ad text. However, under our new policy, that advertiser can create specific ads for each of the brands that they sell. We believe that this change will help both our users and advertisers by reducing the number of overly generic ads that appear across our networks in the U.S.”

So if you have an e-commerce website and use Google AdWords to promote your items, make sure to take advantage of this change ASAP... a lot of companies have already changed their ads so don't fall behind.

Ten Laws of Online Marketing

Here are some steps each website owner should take to ensure that your website is running at its full potential. Make sure you are not losing out on leads due to poor planning and implementation.

1. Define your target market: international, national, country specific, state specific, local or a combination thereof.
   a. Percentages of the market in each category
   
   
2. Decide on the purpose of your website.
   a. Provide information
   b. Sell products and/or services
   c. Company or product branding
   d. Generate leads
   e. Other
   
   
3. Establish a monthly or yearly budget for online marketing.
   
   
4. Develop a twelve month online marketing plan.
   a. Adjust your marketing plan approximately every month based on web traffic and your conversion rate.
   
   
5. Designate a point person in house to be responsible for plan follow-up and monitoring progress.
   
   
6. Establish a relationship with a reliable, experienced outside resource (web design, SEO or marketing firm) to partner with to help and assist in implementing your online marketing plan.
   
   
7. Properly optimize a new website or restructure an existing website for optimization and integrate or add all the appropriate online marketing features and functions necessary to go along with your online marketing plan.
   a. It’s important to create an online sales and marketing tool versus just a website.
   - Consider the sales and marketing elements first, then design the website around them.
   b. On your Home Page you must describe exactly what you do and what separates you from your competition.
   - “Why should anyone do business with you?”
   
   
8. Make sure you have a comprehensive web statistics program in place to track your web traffic.
   a. Create a Ground Zero Report to use as a base reference for your online marketing efforts.
   b. Check your web rankings regularly.
   - Alexa ranking
   - Google page rank
   - Link popularity
   - Search engine rankings
   
   
9. Make sure you have a plan to track your conversion rate (sales, leads, requests, etc.) based on the amount of web traffic you are getting.
   
   
10. Check your statistics and track your conversions on a regular basis to analyze how your website is doing.
    

NOTES:
1. The online marketing process is an ongoing and dynamic effort. There is no “magic bullet!” It’s like “paddling a canoe upstream, if you stop you go downstream real fast!”
2. Make sure your online marketing efforts are properly coordinated with your offline marketing efforts.

May 11, 2009 - Biz to Biz Expo: Using the Internet for Your Business

Monday, May 11, 2009, will be the next Biz to Biz expo in South Florida. Come join us, and George Dubec, our marketing expert, and learn how to use the power of the Internet for your online business. If you are struggling with getting traffic to your website, then you should attend this free expo and presentation by George.

The expo itself is from 5:00pm to 8:00pm and is a great opportunity to network and meet other business professionals in the South Florida area.

George's presentation on "How to Use the Power of the Internet for Your Business" is from 6:30pm to 7:30pm. Come find out:

• How to get more targeted, qualified leads
• How to generate more revenue from the Internet
• How to get to the top of the search engines
• How to promote and brand your company
• How to promote yourself as an industry expert
• How to get higher conversion rates and a higher ROI

The expo will be held at:
The Embassy Suites Hotel
661 NW 53rd Court
Boca Raton, FL 33487
Hotel: (561) 994-8200
(click here for map)