Paid Advertising on Web Sites – Reputable or Not?

December 8th, 2011

Any professional or other business who has paid advertising on their web site isn’t reputable, in my opinion. They’re making money off anyone who visits their site and then clicks on other companies’ ads.
Not sure what I mean?
Here’s an example: I advertise a low price deal on my services and tell you to come to [...]

Tips for Creating Great Print and Billboard Advertisements

December 13th, 2010

There are many things that you can put into a newspaper ad, magazine ad, internet ad, or billboard ad.  If you’re not careful, however, your ad might not work well because of the way it is designed.  The following tips are just some basic examples from my own marketing experience that have been shown to work well when creating [...]

Selecting a Marketing Consultant – Tip #11

November 2nd, 2010

The 2 statistics that mean the most when evaluating the effectiveness of internet ads are the Click-Through-Rate (CTR) and the Conversion Rate (CR).  Before hiring a search engine marketing firm or consultant, be sure to ask what the average CTR or CR is for their clients (one of those statistics may be more important than [...]

Beware of Scam Facebook Survey Invites

October 5th, 2010

Friends, please beware of Scam Facebook Survey Invites.  I got an email over the weekend that said it was a “Facebook Survey Invite” in the subject line, but when I opened the email, I could tell it was a hoax. 
How? If it were really from facebook, the return address would show personsname@ facebook.com as the sender’s email [...]

Selecting a Marketing Consultant – Tip #10

October 1st, 2010

Before hiring a marketing consultant or firm, be sure to check their background and references.  Just because someone says they have 20 years’ experience in marketing doesn’t mean that they actually have the “type” or broad knowledge of marketing experience to precisely and thoroughly evaluate your business needs to develop a marketing plan or campaign [...]

Why Do You Have To Provide A Credit Card Number To Take Advantage Of A Free Trial?

September 15th, 2010

Many search engine marketing firms advertise a “free trial” of their services to lure you into calling them.  Once they have you on the phone, they can rope you into sitting through a long demo while they toss their sales pitches at you.  Are their sales pitches misleading?  Do the percentages and statistics they talk about really matter or are [...]

Selecting a Marketing Consultant – Tip #9

September 8th, 2010

If you select a search engine marketing consultant or firm to set-up and manage your online advertising campaigns, be sure that you understand whether or not you “own” the work they are doing for you.  If you decide to switch to another marketing professional or firm at a later time, will you have to pay [...]

Selecting a Marketing Consultant – Tip #8

August 30th, 2010

If you have a small business with a limited monthly advertising budget, you should seek a search engine marketing consultant who will personally review your Google AdWords or other pay-per-click internet advertising account statistics daily.  A marketer who is in charge of only a handful of accounts and doesn’t rely solely on automated alerts from [...]

10 Web Marketing Trends for 2010

August 16th, 2010

by John Arnold, Entrepreneur Magazine
Synopsis: Where to invest, what to test, and which deserve a rest.
1. Search Engine Optimization – Test
2. Paid Search – Invest
3. E-mail Marketing – Invest
4. Social Network Marketing – Test
5. Blogging – Let It Rest
6. Web Presence – Invest
7. Mobile Marketing – Test
8. Podcasting and Online Radio – Let It Rest
9. [...]

Selecting a Marketing Consultant – Tip #7

August 6th, 2010

When evaluating whether or not to hire a marketing consultant, ask them for a few referrals.  Then be sure to call and speak to those individuals to verify their existence and to obtain further insight into how that marketing consultant helped them reach their marketing goals. Beware: Just because someone lists a customer quote or [...]