Internet Explorer 6 doesn’t even explore anymore. It just kind of stumbles around!  It’s time for IE6 to just die already!If you’re reading this and you’re not sure what IE6 is, are fully aware of what it is, or why I’m calling for the death of something, read on…

What is IE6?

Here’s a summary of the basics:

• IE6 is Internet Explorer version 6
• It’s a web browser that allows you to surf the Internet (just in case there are noobs reading this who don’t realize IE6 is bad for us all)
• It was launched on August 27, 2001
• The next version of Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) was released in October 2006 (5 YEARS after IE6)
• The current version is IE8 which was released in March 2009

In technology terms, IE6 is a dinosaur and it’s time for it to go extinct. It was released before the iPhone, the first season of American Idol, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and 9-11. Let’s face it, this browser is old!

The Problem

There are several key issues surrounding the IE6 browser. First, a small percentage of people surfing the Internet still use it, most not realizing that it’s completely out of date. These same people visit websites wondering why so many web designs suck but in reality, it’s just their experience using the browser that makes it appear that way. As technology has evolved, so have web design methods and styles, making the user experience more interesting and stimulating, if you’re using an updated browser.

Next, its creator, Microsoft, refuses to end support for it. By continuing to support security updates and adding to it from time to time, and not forcing people to upgrade, the problems will continue indefinitely.

Internet Exporer’s arch enemy is the Mozilla Firefox browser. When Firefox has an update, they operate in the oposite direction, with annoying “update now” messages that appear when you use it. At least, these keep most people up to date. I say most because according to some of the websites I manage, I still see a tiny percentage of people visiting from older versions of Firefox. 

Worse for the Web Design Industry

My team and I work very hard to satisfy clients. In doing so, we spend an enormous amount of time getting our “fancy shmancy” websites to look great on many browsers. The problem here is that testing for cross-browser compatibility costs me and you a lot of money. Professional testing for how a website looks in IE6 is extremely time consuming and someone has to pay for that time. Given the browser’s low market share, it’s really not worth it anymore.

Another factor that is an issue for us is that it doesn’t support the many CSS features, making web programming more complex than it needs to be.

Perhaps the worst part is that IE6 does not have the ability to properly display transparet PNG images. As such, IE6 users will see big blocks of blank squares on their pages, rather than attractive images. Without knowing better, they’d sooner blame the designer for their poor experience on a website. This certainly cuts into the persuasive part of my Internet success model.

The Solution

Kill IE6! Microsoft should stop supporting it and force upgrades to the latest version of windows Internet Explorer.

The Kill IE6 Movement

Governments and the corporate world are starting to take a stand against the continued use of Internet Explorer 6. Here are some of the highlights:

• In January 2010, Google announced that they would no longer support it.
• YouTube which is owned by Google has announced that their support will end soon as well.
• The governments of France and Germany take the issue seriously and have called for the demise of IE6.

How did Microsoft respnond to all of this? They’ve extended IE6 Support to 2014! Arg!

What it Means to You

Not much aside from the fact that you’ll have a better browsing experience by not using IE6. If you run a very busy website, you need to look at your stats and consider who’s visiting the site. If you still see a large (”large” is a relative term, I know) amount of visitors still using it, you may want to have a pop-up window telling them to update to IE7 or IE8 (or the “latest version”). Otherwise, you could try to account for IE6 but it’s a losing battle in my opinion.

Most importantly, a better browser experience.

As Internet marketers continue to look for novel ways to find new customer for their clients, most are overlooking the obvious: Each of their clients has an established customer base to work with. One of the best ways to keep in contact with these clients is through email marketing. Why not send an email today and see what happens? Here’s guide to why email marketing can work for your business.

Email Marketing, Not Spam Marketing

I have a number of clients who use our email marketing services and oddly enough, while everyone complains about receiving spam, many think that it’s ok to send it. I then make several points including the fact that that makes them no better than the spammers, it is illegal according to the Can Spam Act, and that the method is not targeted, making it a waste of money.

Opt-in is Key

The reason why you can legally send bulk emails (often called “email blasts,” ”mass emails,” or “newsletter emails”) is that companies like MailPrince.com only allow opt-in emails. That means that people have to agree to receive an email from you. This is done in many ways but the most obvious is by placing a “join my mailing list” button with a form field for their email address on your website. By voluntarily sending you their email address, they are agreeing to be sent newsletters and other company updates.

The 2-Step Process

I will explain this more in a future post but in a nutshell, there are 2 parts to email campaigns: Gathering emails and sending emails. This 2-step process can prove to be very powerful to generate new sales fairly quickly.

Target Market is Key

Your clients are your target market. That’s the obvious point. But you can also make use of other target market streams that flow into your website. If you’ve done a great job at SEO or PPC (or both), most of the people who come to your sitey are your target market. Not only is that better for you since you want to sell to them more than anyone else, they are more likely to sign up for your email where you can update them with important news such as new services, discount coupons, and so on.

You can also take advantage of social media and other online sources to gather emails legitimately but if you’re just getting started, search engine optimization and pay per click are the most direct, best ways to get people to your website who would be interested in signing up.

Why This Works

Combining SEO, PPC, and email marketing can become a powerful sales tool for your business. This form of marketing is very strong because you are able to reach target market website visitors who may have been to your website but not contacted you. As such, you gain a competitive advantage.

Example

Suppose your optimized website brings in 1,000 visitors per month. Of those visitors, let’s say that 10% sign up for your newsletter. That’s 100 people. You then decided to use Pay Per Click (PPC) services like Google AdWords. Let’s say that your PPC campaign brings in another 1,000 visitors per month. Of those, another 100 people sign up.

That’s 200 people per month who have signed up for your newsletter. Now, multiply that number by one year (12 months), and you have 2,400 people on your list. That’s 2400 people who might not have contacted you otherwise but were happy just to receive emails with your specials on them.

So now, January comes around and you are looking for leads. What do you do? Send an email blast to the 2,400 opt-in people and give them an offer they can’t refuse! You are bound to generate sales that way.

Keep growing your list and you have tapped into a new way to generate business using customers that you have but also many that may have gone somewhere else, or not engaged your business to begin with.

How to Get Started

You need to find an email marketing provider that suits your needs. If you’re just beginning, stay away from email marketing companies that force you into long-term contracts. You should try a pay-per-send service rather than a forced monthly fixed rate. Since the Mail Prince Email Marketing Service is about to launch its new website, you can contact me to get you started. If you want to send a mass email blast to clients today, I can help you.

(In the interest of transparency, I will point out that I am involved with MailPrince.com and would like very much for it to be successful.)

I’ve been a photographer for most of my life and often get asked to photograph executives, engineers, marketing personnel, and many other individuals for their websites. I’ve witnessed a trend in that not only do companies want photos of their staff, they go so far as to ask for staged shots for their websites. The staged photos are then placed throughout their website to enhance the look and fell. I think that many people just assume that the photos were purchased at stock photography websites although anyone doing business with these companies on a face to face level, either in person or via video conferencing technology would know that they aren’t.

I’d like to focus on the idea of putting individual photos next to an employee’s name (or your own name if you’re the business owner). Business of all sizes are deciding to place staff photos on their profiles (such as on LinkedIn.com) as well as the corporate website. Here are some perspectives to consider:

Pros

• Pursuasion is a big one in my book.  When people visit your website they’ll often check out the company profile page(s). The Internet is a cold place and adding a photo often adds a personal touch. It can help your credibility and transparency which are both parts of the overall pursuasion section of the Internet Success Model™.
• People tend to trust and buy more from attractive people so you’re among that crowd, it could help you.
• People love looking at people. Having your photo displayed may leave a lasting impression.
• If you work in an industry where trust is especially important such as banking, investing, and high end sales, adding a photo can set a client’s mind at ease.
• Photos in social media profiles tend to attract a lot more attention. This can help with branding you as a professional.

Cons

• Privacy is rapidly growing into a major issue. Putting your photo online can be seen as an invasion of privacy.
• Knowing about how attractive people generate more sales and the Halo Effect, I’ve seen some companies use stock photos to represent actual employees or as made-up people in their testimonials.
• Staff come and go frequently and so adding and removing photos on a regular basis can be time consuming and a general pain.
• Small businesses often consider the hiring of a professional photographer to get a real headshopt as a waste of money.
• Some people simply aren’t photogenic and placing their photo may turn people off.
• It could be dangerous (especially for women) to show what you look like.
• You may want to appear younger than you are (that’s what Photoshop is for!!).

Where Should it Go?

In most cases, I don’t advise placing a large photo of you on the homepage of your business website. If you rely on the Internet for the bulk of your business, you may simply want to place a photo on the about us page and leave it off of the homepage.

What Should It Look Like?

In most cases I suggest leaving your wife, kids, dog, and material goods such as a high end car out of the photo. One reason for this suggestion is that people like to work with others who they feel are similar to them. By adding those items, it sets you apart and fills in the gaps of differences in their minds where they would otherwise have filled them in on their own, possibly in a more connected light. Secondly, you want to come across as professional, not overly casual.

I recommend keeping your Internet presence as primarily business-focussed,  avoiding posting all of the personal details of your life. (I’ll blog about that another time.)

Placing your photo on your website (and social media profile) may or may not work for you. It could be that your business niche isn’t one to do that kind of thing. Or, you could be a pioneer when it comes to taking the next step toward pursuading people to buy from you.

Consider your own situation. What do you do and why?

I attended WordCamp Montreal, where WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg was the keynote speaker. His talk was interesting and speaking with him afterwards was equally so. He mentioned that a WordPress installation on its own is good but what makes it so special is that there’s such a large dedicated community behind it that helps each other out, particularly with plug-ins. He then encouraged everyone to thank people who create the plug-ins which make our lives as WordPress customizers easier.

My own team has developed several complex plug-ins which we use in-house and I can certainly appreciate the time, ingenuity, and effort that goes into making them.

On the Internet, far too much time is spent complaining and not enough time is devoted to giving credit where it’s due. The individuals and companies who have developed plug-ins for WordPress have made it much easier for the rest of us to get our work done. I consider some of these to be among the best WordPress plug-ins while others are just generally helpful. Either way, here’s a thank you to some of the people whose plug-ins we’ve used.

Thank You!

Akismet by Matt Mullenweg
More Fields by Henrik Melin & Kal Ström
Custom Permalinks by Michael Tyson
Enhanced Recent Posts by Vincent Prat
NextGEN Gallery by Alex Rabe
Post-Plugin Library by Rob Marsh, SJ
Recent Posts by Rob Marsh, SJ
Redirection by John Godley
Report Comments by Dagon Design
WP-PageNavi by Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan
WP Super Cache by Donncha O Caoimh
AdSense Manager by  Martin Fitzpatrick

 If you’re thankful for plug-ins, feel free to say it in a comment below!

We’re in the midst of a recession and many people are looking to join business groups to try and drum up sales. But with all of the Internet’s business networking opportunities, are offline business networking organizations still needed?

The world’s largest business networking organization is the famous Business Network International (BNI). BNI groups are everywhere. Pick up a newspaper in any major city and you will find invitations to join these groups in your local community. Use a search engine with “your location” and “bni” as search terms and you will probably find one nearby.

A second offline, real world business networking type of group is your local or regional Chamber of Commerce. These groups are similar to BNI groups in that they are meant to promote local businesses. They are also commonly referred to as a local Board of Trade.

A third type of business group is the private business networking group. These are run by companies and they often search for business people with specific criteria (such as executives with higher salaries, companies that reach minimal financial brackets, sales representatives who bring in over a million dollars in sales per year, and so on). In the next part of this article, I will focus on this type of offline business networking group.

Let’s Get Going! (or Not)

I was called by Marcie Balaban, a “qualified motivational sales expert” (as stated on her website) . She runs a company in Montreal called Let’s Get Going. This was a cold call and while I usually get rid of telemarketers within seconds of answering the phone, I was struck by her enthusiasm. She told me that there were many people in her business group who were either looking to buy into my services or had many connections to people who would be interested. I have to re-iterate that her enthusiasm got the best of me and so within a few days I met with her and paid the fee (about $1,000, although now it’s much higher), and I was ready to roll.

The Gamble

It’s important to note that this was the first time that I ever paid anything to anyone to generate leads. Read that last sentence again. I didn’t need this service. I’m an accomplished, effective SEO and Internet marketing expert, and I’ve been able to keep my companies very busy for years. Based on what was promised, I figured that it would be easy to make back the fee as well as the time it would take out of my schedule to network through this organization. However, I do recognize that it was a gamble.

Networking Group Review

Here’s my experience from the Marcie Balaban Let’s Get Going business networking group. Please note that this was heavily edited as I do not intend for this to be a “trash the organization” type of blog post. Take this part as a case study based on my experience.

PROS

• Sales: There were clearly some people who made sales and hence the ever-important return on investment (ROI).
• Meeting New People: It felt good to meet new people outside of the office. Many of the people were generally friendly.
• Longevity: Some people had been with the group (or at least a business associate of Marcie’s) for a long time which indicated some stability.
• Quality of People: I found that some of the people I met were very good at what they did. A small handful were the equivalent of me in the sense that they really knew their stuff within their industry or specialty. I liked that a lot.
• Clicking: I clicked very well with one person who was in my industry but not a direct competitor.
• Location: The meetings took place in offices that were fairly close to my own office which meant I could save travel time.

CONS

• Quality of Businesses: Most of the people I met were “one-man shows” and small mom-and-pop type shops with little money to spend on Internet marketing and few connections to people that did have money.
• Lack of People: Aside from a few new people coming in from time to time and aside from the first couple of weeks of membership, the entire Let’s Get Going process was to get me to meetings every 2 months or so, where I would meet the same people over and over. Approximately 80% of people at a given meeting were the same ones I had met at previous meetings, and most were very small businesses with little money and fewer connections.
• No ROI: I did not close one deal with a member of the group but spent a significant amount of time giving a lot of free advice to people who would never pay my consulting rate, or who asked me to spend time writing a detailed proposal and then never returned my calls or emails after I sent it (or worse, would tell me at meetings that they were going to approve it soon and then never did).
• That Suckered Feeling: In the end, when I had a more clear view of what had happened to me, I saw it as essentially being the equivalent of a telemarketing company that gets people to join, with not much to offer me. At the last meeting I attended, a handful of new members were attending their first meeting and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. It was like I was stuck in this dead-end business group and I had a feeling of “oh look at these new suckers… too bad they are probably going to learn the hard way like I did.”
• Lack of Internet Use: Aside from poorly written emails (often full of errors such as my name and companies being misspelled, dates/location/time errors, etc), there was no clear attempt to use the Internet that I could see.
• No Infrastructure: I got the overall impression that this business group primarily focused on Let’s Get Going making money, with no visible investment in infrastructure. The lack of Internet use is part of that, as are the fulfilment issues noted below.
• Complaint Sessions: I didn’t enjoy the complaint sessions. After a while, there were many people who expressed their disillusionment with the lack of success in the group and they would whine about how they weren’t meeting the people they were told they would, making the sales they were lead to believe would happen, and how they felt they were ripped off. While I may have felt the same, I didn’t enjoy coming from my positive thinking and upbeat office to an atmosphere of negativity.
• Lack of Fulfilment: This is posssibly the worst part of my business networking experience. I can’t say for sure but this probably wouldn’t happen in a Chamber of Commerce or a BNI meeting. So here it is, in addition to the fee, I was asked to sign a contract. The contract stated that I would receive a number of features. Unfortunately, almost none of the features that were listed in the contract were fulfilled.

The following is a brief summary based on the Let’s Get Going contract:

1. Weekly call or email with a lead: I received 2-3 right in the beginning (out of a possible 52 total for the year).
2. Weekly follow-up: This happened once or twice (out of a possible 52).
3. Weekly calls logged: None (out of a possible 52).
4. 52 minimum planned introductions: Based on business cards gathered, I met about 35-40 people over the year.
5. Company goals sent out: No.
6. “Monthly meetings to build longterm relationships”: I had 7 meetings (out of a possible 12 for the year). That comes to about $160/meeting. (Basically, I paid about $100/hour to sit and listen to small business owners give their pitch over and over.)
7. Group meetings with presidents: This happened once in a while if you really stretch it and mostly include the very small business owners who attended the “monthly meetings.”
8. “Extensive follow-up” for these meetings: Not even one follow-up.
9. Sales coaching: I specifically requested this right from the start and it never happened. To me this was a great aspect of the contract and it was something I really wanted. I asked about setting it up on 3 occassions but there was never any sales coaching. That alone could have been worth the price but I didn’t get any whatsoever.
10. Company profile emailed to at least 100 companies: No.
11. Telephone tips (”How to speak better on the telephone”): No.
12. A Copy of “Marketing Your Greatest Asset… You” written by Marcie herself: Despite repeated requests for a copy, I was never given one. When I pointed that out one final time at the end of my year, Marcie refused to give me a copy since it was the end of my membership and I wasn’t renewing.
13. The list goes on…

As can be seen from the above, almost every item in the contractual obligations list was not fulfilled. This left me with a feeling of being ripped off (among other negative feelings…).

Questions to Ask Before Joining a BNI Type of Group

Does your business website or Internet presence reflect what you do?
Ultimately you join business networking groups (online and offline) for a source of referrals. If your website isn’t up to the standard it should be, then you should take action to get it there before joining a group. It is naive to think that the first thing people will do after they meet you is call. Before they do, they will look you up online to see how legitimate your company and its reputation appear. If you’re going to join a networking group, make sure you are well represented online. A lot of people will go back to the office and talk about you with their boss. Their boss will then want to see your website. Make sure yours reflects your company.

What do you sell?
If you sell support products like printing and promotional products, I don’t see how you can make much money in these groups. There are so many of those types of businesses in these groups. I came across far too many printers in the group I joined and from speaking with various printers who compete with each other in other offline business networking groups, I can’t see the ROI potential.

Is the investment justified?
Think about what return on investment you can reasonably anticipate based on the fees for joining. If you sell products that cost very little, you will have to sell a lot. For example, if you sell pencils, it will take you a lot longer to make your money back than say, if you sell photography equipment.

Do you have the time?
Consider how much your time is worth. A time commitment plays a large role in these groups. If you’re already very busy and you can’t send a sales rep, it may not be ideal for you. Some groups make attendance mandatory. Others make it compulsory to have a new lead each week, meaning that you need to spend time speaking to contacts and seeing if they are interested in being pitched.

Who do you need to meet?
Think about your target market. From my own experience and after speaking to a number of people who are BNI and Chamber of Commerce members, there seems to be a consensus that you are going to meet mostly the same people all the time with new faces showing up from time to time. That means you will hear the same information pitched over and over again. Will these people be offering services that you and your business associates need?

Can you speak to current members?
Ask to speak to several members before joining. Perhaps a mix of someone who has been in it for 3-6 months and another individual who’s been involved for a year or more. Additionally, consider what industry they are in and ask whether or not they believe your industry could benefit in that particular group.

Will someone help me with my pitch?
In my business networking meetings, I found that most of the people in the group give poor quality pitches. I found it rare that anyone’s pitch clearly explained what they did, much less compel people to hire them or tell their friends and business associates about them. If you’re going to join a business group, make sure someone is there to coach you on how to give better pitches. In my experience, many group members didn’t even understand what other people are pitching. I know that for a fact since they would often lean over and ask me “what is that guy selling…?” It’s just like what I always say about having a persuasive website, that is, clearly explain what you do and how you can add value to others.

Can you attend a complimentary meeting?
Attend a meeting before you join. See what it’s like. What kinds of industries are represented at the meeting. Consider how it feels to be in attendance. Friend and fellow marketer Jeff Shore recently commented that he stays away from any business group that feels cult-like. I would tend to agree.

Networking & The Internet

From my perspective, joining a privately run business networking group was beyond a complete waste of time. I began thinking about what could have been done to bring people together using the Internet and digital methods to get more out of such an organizations.

One of the main drawbacks in the group that I joined was based on a lack of communication tools. I don’t know a lot about how these groups are typically run but what I don’t understand is why there wasn’t more use of the Internet and website? I think that there should be a username and password assigned to each member where people could see who else is in the group and what services they offer.

Aside from this type of directory, there should be a members-only message board and forum on the website that contains a list of all 5 à 7 parties, upcoming meetings, and so on. Social networking and business networking has moved online and the failure to take advantage of that as the organization grows is simultaneously short-sighted and almost a disservice to members.

Many small business owners feel out of touch with technology and online social networking opportunities such as using LinkedIn. I could have given a talk to educate members on how they could use social media to their advantage.

Will Business Networking Groups Fail?

If networking groups are going to continue to be useful, they need to adapt. Businesses no longer operate in a vacuum. If you want to see who the competition is in just about any industry, it doesn’t take long to find out who’s out there thanks to the Internet. One can no longer assume that if they attend a meeting that they will be viewed as the best game in town and people will automatically buy from them just because they’re in the same group.

What People Want
Just like sales everywhere else, supply, demand, and pricepoint will remain major determining factors as to  whether or not people will buy from you in these groups. If you’re selling an inexpensive service, it will probably be easier to make the sale. On the other hand, there may be multiple people selling the same service in the group. Remove the risk, make it cheap and people will be interested.

Adapting to Technology
Internet technology makes it significantly easier to network in a controlled situation. By controlled I mean that you can look for whatever is useful to you whenever you want and reach out to people as needed. Contrast this with the more contrived, forced meeting of people at networking group meetings.

Awkward Feelings
At least initially, the Internet also cuts done on obvious uncomfortable feelings you may experience when being in the group. For example, one person in my group did a particular type of work that someone else did and essentially asked for a job. When the person looked into the work, he found that it was far below the standard that he was accustomed to. This lead to “all kinds” of awkward feelings when they would meet. Someone else pointed out that they felt awkward knowing that they generated far more income and that their business was much more successful and stable than some of the other members. The Internet removes that degree of awkwardness to some extent. As more people realize that, they may be more likely to stick to Internet networking.

How to Network Online

This is far more complex than what I will write here but simple ideas can go a long way in some cases. Get your website optimized for search engines and make sure it’s useful to visitors, then join LinkedIn, start a blog, comment on other people’s blogs, join Twitter, and become active at these activities on a continual basis. I know that most people won’t have time do get heavily involved but if you do have some time to spare, I suggest at least reading what’s out there and make connections as needed. By targetting your connections, you may get more out of the Internet than you could from offline networking.

Concluding Remarks

In sum, business networking groups are moving online and failure to take advantage of that fact may prove harmful in the long run. I joined a business group with the best of intentions and to my surprise, it became a very disappointing experience. Based on my experience, the group I joined was experiencing rapid growth but the lack of investment in appropriate support, clearly defined goals, use of the Internet, and unfulfilled features were all cause for leaving the group. I’ll have to chalk this one up to experience.

Flash is great for enhancing the look and feel of many websites. While it has nifty features, I think that it’s more often than not poorly implement, making for an annoying user experience. I would go so far as to say that it’s essentially useless for the vast majority of websites and in many cases over-used. There are other web scripting languages that are more flexible and easier for programmers to modify once the final product is created, as well as more search engine friendly (if needed…).

Case in Point: I Lost My U2 Tickets

U2 recently announced that they were going to build a concert venue in Montreal to perform a show, and then tear it down shortly thereafter. The temporary stadium is expected to hold 60,000-80,000 people at their July 16 2010 show.

I’m lucky enough to be on a VIP list that provides me with an early invite to purchase tickets online before the general public has access to them. I received the priviledged email, followed the login instructions, entered my contact info and payment details, actually got the seats I wanted (!) and when I tried clicking on the submit button, my transaction didn’t go through. It kept telling me that I had not chosen a method of ticket delivery (i.e., would they mail the tickets to me, would I pick them up, etc).

I tried and tried and tried to choose the method but the drop down box didn’t work. I tried different browsers but that didn’t work. That Flash drop down box just didn’t work. Eventually the timer gave way and I lost the opportunity to buy the tickets.

The system was built in Flash so as a programmer, I wanted to satisfy my curiosity to see what was causing the error by looking at the code, but it wouldn’t let me. I tried looking for a phone number to contact someone before the tickets were sold out, but again no luck. (That’s terrible service as far as I’m concerned). After about 20 minutes of trying, the tickets in my section were sold out. It was a frustrating experience and I fault 2 organizations for the issue.

The Two Companies at Fault

The first is Gillett Entertainment Group (geg.ca) whose website offered the tickets, and second, the web company that built the ticket buying system on their behalf. There is a footer reference indicating that a company called Plank Design in Montreal designed the site but I don’t know if they developed the ticket-buying system. Either way, Flash proves once again that it’s over-used and useless toward enhancing my customer experience.

I didn’t get my U2 tickets and worse, I know my web team could have built a better system without Flash (argh!).

It’s no secret that the Internet continues to influence our lives in ways that people haven’t even recognized. The Internet as we know it has come a long way since its fairly humble beginnings in the early 1990s. It has become the single most important and influential factor for everything from politics to sales. Our leisure time is spent surfing the net more than ever before and marketers are continually looking for new ways to sell to you during your downtime. Why should you be concerned with search engine marketing (SEM)? Find out here!

What is Search Engine Marketing?

The full answer to that question can be an article on its own. For purposes of brevity and relevance, I define search engine marketing as an approach to Internet marketing where the goal is to attract attention to and promote a website in the search engine results pages (the “first page of Google” is an example of a search engine results page).

The methods used to increase a website’s visibility using SEM typically comprises of two main approaches: Search engine optimization (SEO) and paid advertising (usually by pay per click, or PPC, advertising).

Active Versus Passive

One of the most important aspects of search engine marketing is its intrinsic nature as targeting active searchers. Image the scenario where you are watching your favorite program on TV and see a commercial for baby diapers. If you don’t have a baby, you’ll probably ignore the ad. Nonetheless, the advertisers are doing their best to target their commercials for the intended audience. In fact, studies show that even if you have a baby, you’ll probably ignore the ad the first few times you see it since it is commonly believed that consumers have to see your ad at least seven times before doing business with you.

Now compare that to being found in the search engines. As my clients have heard me repeatedly emphasize over the years, when someone is searching for something online, they want something that’s beneficial to them. That benefit can take the form of information (written content), a photo, an e-commerce store where they can buy the products you sell immediately, your company’s phone number, your store’s opening hours, free blog software, and so on. All of these and more are beneficial in one way or another to the end user.

The beauty of the search marketing industry is that someone actively sought that beneficial item and got it almost immediately. Search engine marketing is represents a direct way to go after a “mini-captive” audience. With SEM, you can forget passive advertising and focus on active buyers

A Controlled Environment

The entire life experience during the few minutes (or even just seconds) that someone is on your website is limited to what you present to them. Consumers are all eyes, ears, and mindful of what you are offering them. You have their undivided attention and you get it the first time they find you. No purposeful repetition is required. You create the unique shopping experience for the consumer, whether you run an e-commerce store or you’re a realtor looking to get more people to buy their homes through your services.

Ready to Convert

Aditionally, it’s not just that you have an active Internet surfer on your website, in many cases, you have someone is ready to sign up for your newsletter, buy your products, call for your service, and so on. Each day, millions of consumers seek what you have to offer and are screaming “I want to buy from you.”  Are you ready to take them on?

Local Versus Global

In addition to the inherent benefit of search engine marketing to companies looking to market their products online, such as being open to the entire world, businesses can take advantage of local markets. Your company can go from local to global (and vice versa).

You can target large audiences in  local region or small audiences on an international basis. Either way, people who find you want to get answers to their questions quickly and they primarily use search engines and to a lesser extent social media to do so. For example, if you’re considering the purchase of a digital camera, you’ll likely read reviews of the ones hat best suit you based on what you find on a search engine results page. If you can control what appears, you’re SEM plan can generate a tremendous increase in sales.

Measurable

Consider that using a pay per click and/or search engine optimization strategy is more measureable than almost any other form of marketing. Especially the former. You can start with a relatively small budget and assess the results of a PPC campaign fairly quickly. Further, knowing how to analyze and use website statistics can help you go a long way toward increasing sales while getting a return on your investment.

Mobile Access

While search engines continue to dominate as a starting point on your computer, they are also growing rapidly in the mobile world. This just adds to their importance as places to focus on when you spend your Internet marketing dollars.

Small Businesses Look Big

Businesses with visibility based on high rankings in any capacity (website, social media profiles, product reviews such as on Amazon.com, etc) often look larger than they may be. That can prove to be beneficial for sales. 

The Next Step?

The Internet is a continually evolving creature. Search engine marketing should be a serious consideration for any company looking to stay in business in the coming years. Moreover, keeping up with the times, using current methods and approaches to marketing products and services online is primary importance. Your competitors are doing it. Don’t get left behind.

Let me start with the bottom line (making it the top line!): Your IT guy is not an SEO guy or a web guy. He’s an IT guy. So get him away from your website projects.

Having consulted with a number of companies that rely on their IT guy to lead the way with their Internet presence, I’ve come to realize that in the vast majority of cases, they should be kept far away from a small businesses’ website and Internet marketing.

The Problem

The problem is that the vast majority of IT guys are not web guys or SEO guys. So this is my warning to all of the businesses out there that rely on their IT person to make their web marketing decisions for them (having a website IS web marketing by default) – are you sure you should be putting your company’s reputation on the line for someone who sets up servers, fixes your computer, helps you with your email, and handles related matters?

My Doctor Analogy

An IT guy is not an SEO or a web guy, he’s an IT guy. These are completely different specialties the same way that asking an eye doctor to check your teeth doesn’t really make sense. They are similar professions in that they both work on the human body but they have different focal areas. Your eye doctor can recommend a good dentist and vice versa but that’s about it. You’re IT could recommend and help you choose an SEO company or a web guy but it ends there. IT people are not trained to be web designers or Internet marketers. The ones that try to do it all typically lack the integrity to tell you that they are not qualified to do the job, or they recognize that you’re small company and don’t have the website investment funds to hire someone else (a huge mistake in my opinion).

What is IT?

In the broadest sense of the term, IT refers to information technology which encompasses anything related to computers and websites. In a practical sense, IT guys are the people that companies rely on for server installation, network administration, computer software and hardware issues, backup and storage solutions, and related matters. When companies are looking to hire IT guys they may expect them to be well versed in web promotion but that’s a mistake.

What is a Web Guy?

Generally speaking, a web design company designs, builds, and programs a website.

What is an SEO Guy?

Someone who promotes your website, especially through the search engines, and looks at the short and long-term options to generate target market leads through the site and overall Internet presence.

How to Mix IT, SEO and Web Design

The best case scenario is to have a great web designer who is also an experienced SEO with a track record of success. This is a rare combination. If your company already has an IT guy, you may want to let him find an SEO company for you. Chances are your website needs a re-design so don’t hire an SEO company that doesn’t produce persuasive web design work.

Do not hire a web design company and then try to sprinkle on SEO when you are about to launch the site. SEO does not work that way.  The best case scenario is to hire an SEO web designer and let them help you strategize your way to online profit.

The nature of the Internet makes it easier than ever to steal. Couple that level of ease with this generation’s notion and understanding of new media (digital, software, computer, Internet), and sense of morality, and you can see the trouble brewing. Increasingly more companies as well as bloggers trying to make a name for themselves are being ripped off. The costs in time, finances and other resources to fix the problem may pay-off in the long run.

Viral Videos

Note that I’m talking about very particular types of theft. My focus is on the theft of text, graphics, and images/photos. I’m not referring to items that have gone viral such as videos. For example, many companies completely miss the point when they try to control videos of their popular commercials that have gone viral. In today’s world, you want that kind of publicity. What I would have a problem with is if I took a photo that was uncredited or worse, credited to another photographer, that went viral.

Keep This in Mind

Content producers want to be rewarded for their hard, creative, original work while content thieves tend to disregard the effort and rationalize away the theft. For instance, they’ll argue that it’s okay to copy the text from an industry-leading competitor’s website because “it’s just business” or “they make enough money so it’s okay.”

Inspiration

It’s one thing to be inspired by a work and produce a creation (text, graphically, photographically) that resembles or pays homage to the original work. It’s another to steal it outright. It’s my understanding that legally you can’t call someone a “criminal” if they haven’t been to court and been proven guilty of a particular crime.  That’s irrelevant in practical reality. If you steal, you’ve comitted a crime and you’re a thief, making you a criminal.

Internet Intellectual Property Laws

Internet laws are far behind practical reality and have many inherent problems, not the least of which is international adoption, implementation, and enforcement of the laws. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act which makes it easier to force thieves to stop using stolen material has gone a long way toward alleviating many of the problems with respect to Internet theft but enforcement on a small scale is still barely feasible and hardly practical.

For example, if you’re a photographer and someone steals a small photo from your photography portfolio, do you know how much work it could be to get them to remove it. I say “could” because it may be relatively easy if you know what you’re doing (although it will still take time).

Ultimate Compliment or Painful Loss?

It’s the ultimate complement that someone’s work gets copied. It’s also a major slap in the face. If you’re a victim of Internet theft, you know what I’m talking about.

Here’s why I don’t want you to steal my website text, photos, or graphics.

(1) My Great, Influential ”Salesy” Text was Years in the Making

I have very high standards. If I wrote the text that’s been published on a website, it means that I spent a lot of time learning to write on a university level, getting papers back from  professors with red ink all over them, sucking up my pride on my way to becoming a great writer, practicing, and practicing some more.

(2) I Created It

The shear creation of the product brings me pleasure. I love to write and I certainly love to take photos. I may put it up on display for my own purposes but I don’t have to let the world take it from me. If I wrote it or photographed that person, place, or thing, I may not want to share it. Period.

(3) Inherent Value

The act of creating something has value. The act of producing something that is in demand has that much more value.

(4) Direct Financial Loss

I run several websites for which I’ve been writing content since the 1990s. As a pioneer in the web and SEO world, I was able to write great articles that have stood the test of time. After all, writing timeless articles is one of the keys to Internet riches. Over the years those websites have achieved traffic in the tens of millions and I’ve placed advertising on some of them. If I were to syndicate some of that content and allow other websites to offer the same content, I would lose the advertising dollars that are generated.

(5) In-direct Financial Loss

One source of in-direct financial loss is with search engine rankings. Even though Matt Cutts  implies that Google can differentiate original works from copied ones, this is a serious issue that still hasn’t been fixed. I still see prominent text that I wrote over 5 years ago that was recently stolen and outranks some of my own sites. If my business sites can’t be found for certain terms, I get fewer inquiries and leads. That’s in-direct financial loss.

A second case of in-direct financial loss occurs when someone copies my website’s text onto their website, blog, MySpace page, or other site, and takes credit for the work. In the case of blogs and similar sites, I’ve noticed commenters praising the work. When a prospective client sees that article or photo and all of the positive feedback, they may be interested in hiring me… except I won’t be hired, the individual who stole from me will!

What’s worse is that the people who steal from my company website won’t even be able to deliver the goods because they stole mine!

(6) Professional Photography Has Value

Even though everyone and their grandmother thinks they’re a photographer these days, the reality is that most people with a $199 point and click camera doesn’t know the first thing about taking photos. I’m a professional photographer and I enjoy taking my own photos for my websites (even though I’m too busy to do so these days). A few years ago, before the age of low cost stock photography websites, I did some of my own stock photography and placed the photos on my sites. You can imagine my surprise when I found my photos all over the Internet.

So why don’t I want you to use my photos on your website? My equipment is expensive, I search for people with the right look and pay these models for their time and likeness, I did all of the legal work to get permissions and documents written (such as model release forms), it took time, ingenuity, a creative eye, hours of Photoshop work and more to get the precise image that I wanted to use. Why should you profit from it? Seriously. Why should you profit from it if I don’t want you to?

(7) Mental Anguish

I do not enjoy the feeling of frustration that comes from my work on unauthorized websites, especially when my work is passed off as someone’s else’s. I generally avoid going out of my way to look for stolen copies of my work but sometimes I stumble onto it while searching for other things.

(8) Reputation

People have actually stolen my content but kept my name within the text. I find it kind of funny to see that I’m the SEO training expert for a company I’ve never heard of that’s based in India. It turns out they were quick to steal my text but too impatient to actually read enough of it to see that my name was still listed when they published it on their website. For reputation management purposes, that has to go. Even worse, I’ve found people who’ve done a find and replace of my name or my company’s name but who left the rest of the text intact. They often claim that the theft was an accident. Riiight.

Not Publishing

For now, I’m not publishing the list of SEO consultants, companies in India, businesses in Europe, Middle Eastern thieves, UK thieves and others who’ve stolen from me. Perhaps, I should but I won’t for now.

It’s incredible how so many companies seem to have had the exact same history as mine! From looking around I can see many LinkedIn profiles (yes, even other people’s LinkedIn profiles have MY carefully creafted bio on there!), blogs and other sites that have my bio and company history. If you know your website rocks, try looking for sites with detailed descriptions of services and products that you offer. I bet you’ll have a similar experience.

The Future of Copyright Law & Theft

In a future article, I’ll write about how to find these websites and what you can do about it. I’ll give you one bit of advice as food for thought. I read somewhere online (I can’t recall the reference) where someone pointed out that people are more afraid of Google than they are of you. In other words, the threat of getting kicked out of Google means more than a Cease and Desist notice to so many people. Until Internet laws change, the future of copyright law as it pertains to small business owners is left to each one to defend themselves.

When is Free Acceptable?

There are some circumstances where getting something for “free” is acceptable like birthday parties and similar events. Other than that, when I hear the word free, I shy away, assuming it’s something sketchy. Maybe I’m just an educated consumer or perhaps a realist.

Online Promotion Takes Experience

To be successful at Internet marketing, one must spend a large amount of time and gain appropriate experience in the field. Online advertising and promotion is certainly not for everyone. It has become an increasingly complex process and people new to the industry often have a difficult time wrapping their heads around it (which is why I’m writing a book… to simplify it).

Everyone who works hard at something should expect to be rewarded for their efforts. So, the most experienced and in many cases, the best Internet marketers are those who’ve been around for some time. These same people will want to earn a good living as they help you, the business person, earn a good living. 

Free Internet Marketing

Still, far too many people in this business and marketing consumed world equate free with something worthwhile. While it’s true that people could live their entire lives off of craigslist, it stands to reason that the free section is the ultimate expression of the Internet offering freebies. But, it ends there.

Conventional Wisdom

Conventional wisdom says that you need to spend a lot to get something good. If you want to have a great Internet marketing campaign, you need to hire a great Internet marketer and pay them what they’re worth. Now think of the logical opposite. That is, if you get free Internet marketing services, how good could they possibly be?

Closing Comment

Stay away from free and cheap Internet marketing companies. They have the potential to do far more damage than you might understand at face value.