Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Sunday, 30 of September , 2007 at 2:18 pm
Every webmaster wants free SEO tools. As far as SEO tools go, there are three tools that I recommend should be in every webmaster’s arsenal and all three are free:
Secret Page Spy’s Keyword Density Tool - There are plenty of keyword density tools online and it really doesn’t matter which one you use. Some of the best ones are free, but not all of them. You might as well use a free one. Secret Page Spy’s free SEO tool for keyword density is one of the best.
Marketleap - I really don’t know how you can make it online without knowing your link popularity and search engine saturation. Marketleap’s free SEO tool for link popularity and search engine saturation make this possible. All you do is type in your URL and you get instant results.
SEO Chat’s Site Link Analyzer - Another free SEO tool I recommend is SEO Chat’s Site Link Analyzer. This free tool will analyze all the links on your website - external as well as internal - and check for broken links. If you have any broken links, SEO Chat will find them. It will also notify you of any NoFollow links. This is a good tool to analyze potential link partners as well. I highly recommend it.
There are plenty more SEO tools you can use, but these are three essential SEO tools every webmaster should have and they’re all free.
Category: SEO
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Sunday, 30 of September , 2007 at 7:52 am
Do you own a local small business? Then you need to read the Local Advertising Journal, the latest blog in the Brick Marketing family. Every day, the Local Advertising Journal will bring you the latest news and insights from the local advertising part of the Web. We will share our insights on how to rank better for your local search terms, how to make the most of local advertising opportunities such as the online Yellow Pages, CitySearch, Superpages, Google and Yahoo! Local, and how to maximize you pay-per-click campaigns with local optimization techniques.
The Local Advertising Journal received its first daily post on September 21, 2007. So far, titles of posts at the LAJ include:
Stop by Local Advertising Journal today and see what we have to say about advertising your local small business online.
Category: Local Search Marketing
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Saturday, 29 of September , 2007 at 8:25 pm
Should you write your own content? That’s a difficult question to answer. For some, it’s a no-brainer. Obviously, the best person to write your content is you, but some people are not writers. Some people have a fear of writing while others just feel that they are not adequate enough for the job. Other people are lousy spellers. Still, who knows your business better than you do?
There are some important considerations in deciding whether you should be the one to write your content. Content development is not so much about getting the write words on your page as it is about touching your market with the right words. What I mean is, you can write dynamic content, but the best content is content that sells. If your content is great content but it fails to spark a reaction then it isn’t doing its job. Your content must get readers to make the click, buy the product. You’ve got to close the sale.
If you can do that then you should write the content. If you struggle with calls to action, trigger words, and with other copywriting techniques then you might want to hire a content production team or copywriter. At any rate, focus your content on the call to action.
Category: Content Development
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Saturday, 29 of September , 2007 at 7:46 am
(Source) The frustration came when I found out that what I thought was an incredible idea for a post, and an amazing article written by some blogger, did not get much traffic or attention, while weeks later some ‘well known blogger writes a post about the same topic but much less interesting, and gets a huge amount of traffic, comments, and credit for it.
OK, I kind of like this idea. Zuggu.com is a social bookmarking site for Internet marketers. A lot like Digg, only without the prejudice. Let’s face it, Diggers are elitists and if it rains ….
Well, you understand.
I like this idea because you can actually vote up, or down, those interesting stories on Internet marketing that you find all over the place - from guys that aren’t Aaron Wall or Darren Rowse. The only thing I think that would make this idea even better is to be able to search for all the blog entries on a particular topic. For instance, this mornging, Michael Martine submitted his blog post titled, “10 Things To Do After You Create A Blog.” If I had an interest in seeing who else blogged about that same topic then I’d be relegated to looking for similar blog entries by clicking on one of the category listings on Zuggu’s sidebar. So I’d click on “Blogging.” But then I’d only get results that were actually submitted to Zuggu.
Here’s what I’d like to see: A search box that allows me to type in a key phrase. Let’s say, “after you create a blog.” If I can find any blog entry on the Internet that uses that phrase and be able to vote it up or down using Zuggu’s concept then that would be quite cool. This way, if I’m working on a similar concept then I can see how many other bloggers have done it before me and find blogs that I can trackback to and comment on about my blog post on a related subject.
Still, I like Zuggu concept even without the fantasy feature.
Category: Blogging, Social & Viral Marketing
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Friday, 28 of September , 2007 at 2:14 pm
(Source) Compete has just compiled a study that shows Yahoo’s superiority over Google when it comes to search results.
I hate to the bearer of bad news (actually, I quite like it), but Compete’s study may not be so objective. The company admits on its website that it uses Yahoo’s technology to provide search services for its users:
Revolutionizing search results by combining Compete Site Analytics with Yahoo’s award-winning search technology, alerting searchers to site profiles, promotional codes and trust scores for each search result displayed. Compete Search helps users find the best result faster.
That indicates a little bit of a bias to me. Even if we accept Compete.com’s conclusion that Yahoo is more useful 75% of the time compared to Google’s 65%, and I have no reason to dispute it as a fact, then Google would still be right more times on the whole than Yahoo. Take note, 65% of 67% of the whole is a larger number than 75% of the 20% of the whole. So these statistics are very misleading.
Another consideration is that the higher the quantity then the more room there is for error or negative results. That may be why Google has a lower percentage of fulfillment than Yahoo. It gets three times the search queries. We should be celebrating that there is only a 10% difference between the results returned for the two search engines rather than lamenting that Google’s results show a lesser return on fulfillment.
IMO, this study doesn’t really offer anything useful.
Category: Search Engines
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Friday, 28 of September , 2007 at 8:24 am
Small Business Branding posted an excellent blog post two days ago on marketing plans. While I agree that marketing plans are essential for traditional businesses, they are less so for Internet businesses - at least, as they exist for traditional businesses. Internet marketing plans are a good way to keep you focused on goals so I wouldn’t say they aren’t necessary at all. But you have different considerations for your Internet marketing campaign.
A traditional business plan usually follows this outline:
- Business Summary and Overview
- Market Analysis
- Competitive Analysis
- Product or Service Outline
- Marketing Strategy
- Production Processes
- SWOT Analysis
- Business Structure
- Management Team
- Financial Information
Your Internet Marketing Plan
First, there is a distinction between a business plan and a marketing plan. Your business plan, in its completion, could include an Internet marketing plan, which would fall into the Marketing portion of the overall business plan. When you put together your Internet marketing plan, here are some things you need to think about:
- Summary and Overview - Is your Internet business an extension of your brick and mortar business or is it a stand alone entity?
- Market Analysis - Yes, you need to study the market online for your particular industry.
- Competitive Analysis - Your off line competitors may or may not be competition online. It is likely that you’ll have a whole new set of competitors online.
- Product or Service - Will you provide the same services online as you do off line?
- Marketing Strategy - You need to think about what Internet marketing strategies you will use in your online business. Will you use pay-per-click, affiliate marketing, blogging, article marketing, banner advertising, all of the above?
- Management Team - Are you a sole proprietor or will you have partners?
Financial Information - This is just as essential for your online plan at is for your off line plan.
This may not be all you need to think about for your Internet marketing plan, but these are the bare essentials. No Internet marketing plan should be without these elements.
Category: Internet Marketing
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Thursday, 27 of September , 2007 at 12:35 pm
If you do business online then you need Internet marketing. Whether you run a small business or a large mega-corporation, you need an effective Internet marketing expert who know how to get results. When you hire Nick Stamoulis (that’s me!) to run your Internet marketing campaign, that’s exactly what you get.
I highly recommend the blogging service no matter what kind of business you run. There are several ways you can use a blog.
- You can use a blog to drive targeted traffic to your website
- You can use your blog as an SEO tool
- You can use your blog primarily as a marketing tool and to start the sales process
- Some people use their business blog as a sales tool
- A blog can also be used to gain permission to contact prospects with future offers
Whatever you use your blog for, you can rest assured that I will manage your blog just like it was my own. I’ll make sure it is crawlable and you get the SEO benefit you deserve - even if you use your blog for other purposes! I will also make sure the content on your blog is written well and closes the deal. Whatever the purpose of your blog may be, I will meet or exceed your expectations. There is no need to delay your decision to start your blog today. So what are you waiting for? Come see me.
Category: Blogging, Internet Marketing
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Thursday, 27 of September , 2007 at 9:28 am
MSN is expecting to make changes to its search engine Live Search. I think this is long overdue. I’m all for anything that will benefit end users in the search industry. MSN being the third largest search engine has a long way to go to be truly competitive with Google. And they are absolutely right about one thing: Live Search is not a very brandable item. A name change would certainly be in order.
Personally, I think MSN Live Search should get rid of the fluff and go the way of Ask.com. Simplify, simplify, simplify.
Google rose to prominence partly because of its emphasis on search and nothing but search. The single search box in the middle of the screen, unfettered by advertising that takes one’s attention away from the real purpose, has drawn many of us to use Google and prefer it over all its competitors. Yahoo! may have a lot of cool stuff on its home page, but it’s just stuff. I surmise that most people aren’t interested in all of it. But all of us are interested, to some degree, in the search feature it offers. That’s where MSN needs to focus if it is going to compete.
Then again, you could argue that MSN and Yahoo! make their living off of those display ads, which serve a useful purpose to businesses seeking attention. At any rate, I’m anxious to see the changes to occur as a result of MSNs new epiphany.
Category: Search Engines
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Wednesday, 26 of September , 2007 at 3:07 pm
The new version of WordPress is out now. Since I haven’t used it yet I can’t vouch for it. But I sure like the new features, specifically:
- Drop down menu for header tags
- Underline feature
- Paste from Word
- Undo
- Redo
- Tagging
I bolded “paste from Word” because previously this was not possible. If you pasted from Word then your posts were full of extra code that probably caused your posts not to get crawled well. Sometimes it even messed up the template you were working in. No longer.
Again, I haven’t used the new WordPress - WordPress 2.3 - but I can hardly wait. These features will not only make blogging easier, but will make blog posts cleaner and better as well. Yay WordPress!
Category: Blogging
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Wednesday, 26 of September , 2007 at 7:52 am
(Source) Maybe it is just the return of takeover chatter, but it would be good for the Internet at large if Yahoo’s fortunes continue to rise. Competition between the major Internet players makes for much better products and services from those companies for their users.
I’ll have to agree. I’ve been keeping a close eye on Yahoo! in the last few months, especially since Yang is back at the driver’s wheel. I think the search engine wars is going to get better. Yahoo! getting more powerful can only improve search marketing and it might force Google to get back to doing what made it powerful and popular in the first place. Of course, that will only happen if Yahoo! focuses on improving its search technology. Otherwise, we might just see the game turn into a war over advertising dollars instead of over search market share. That wouldn’t help anyone but the search engines, and the few advertisers who have learned how to make search engine marketing pay.
Category: Search Engines
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Tuesday, 25 of September , 2007 at 4:17 pm
This is frivolous beyond belief:
A man currently being detained by immigration in Houston, TX has filed a lawsuit claiming Yahoo and Google stole their names from Tanzanian tribes. As luck would have it, the man is a descendant of both tribes - what are the odds?
The lawsuit states that Google was taken from the Gogo tribe, and Yahoo from the Yao tribe. The claim is asking for $10,000 be paid to each tribe member for the past three generations.
Unbelievable.
I’ve seen ridiculous, but this is ridiculous. The guy is detained by immigration so he claims that the two largest Internet companies in the world stole his tribal names?
I’ve never heard of the Gogo tribe or the Yao tribe, but I’ll assume that they are real. What are the chances that Google and Yahoo execs ever heard of them? I mean, it’s more likely that Yahoo took its name from Chinese basketball player Yao Ming. But since the origins of both of these names is well documented, umm, should we even bother with court proceedings? Send the guy back to Tanzania along with his silly lawsuit.
Category: Search Engines
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Tuesday, 25 of September , 2007 at 7:33 am
(Source) Oh, DMOZ. We thought things might be looking up for you when you started accepting sites for review again, but alas. Even Google doesn’t respect you now. How long before the all search engines have followed suit?
I’ve been saying for some time that DMOZ was on it’s way out. It’s not official yet, but I can feel. Most SEOs these days don’t pay DMOZ any attention. New websites don’t list there any more unless the owners have read some e-book that tells them they need to. Otherwise, new website owners haven’t even heard of DMOZ. I just don’t think you have to be listed in DMOZ to succeed. Not like you used to.
In 2000, if you didn’t list in DMOZ then you can bet the search engines, if they listed you at all, wouldn’t get around to you for a long time. Today, you can be ranked within weeks for your keywords without the assistance of DMOZ. I can see only one real significance to being listed in DMOZ: If you are struggling with link popularity then that one link might give you a slight boost. But if you’re struggling that bad then there isn’t that much hope for you. You’re better off seeking links elsewhere.
Category: SEO
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Monday, 24 of September , 2007 at 3:31 pm
Aaron Wall wrote in WebProNews that 35% of all search queries are brand related:
Approximately 35% of the top searches in the UK, USA and France are brand related, which gives you an idea just how brand focused our Live Search users are. If your brand is strong (and strong brands come in all shapes and sizes) include it in at least in one of your ad titles and try to get it in the descriptions too! We have often seen click through rates (CTRs) increase when brand names have been included effectively.
If you don’t believe that branding yourself online is important, you’d better start believing. I believe this figure will get higher the more people start searching online for products and services. Already, more than 90% of searchers go online to research products and services to purchase, but most of them drive to make the purchase. What do you think they are searching for? A significant number of them, it appears, are looking for specific brands.
Here’s what I think that means: If you are a retailer that sells brand items then you should create web pages for those brands on your website. By using recognized brands to brand your own website and company you can assist searchers in finding the products and services that they are looking for through the search engines.
Category: Branding
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Monday, 24 of September , 2007 at 7:39 am
It’s no secret that Yahoo! is the second largest search engine. With more than 20% of the market in search, you shouldn’t ignore the traffic that you can get from this one resource alone - and remember, Yahoo! is the most trafficked website on the web. So while more search queries might take place at Google, more people are reading Yahoo! That means that search engine optimization is still valid, but you could also get some decent results from search marketing at Yahoo!
I found the following SEO tips for optimizing web pages for Yahoo! very helpful. I think you will too:
- Title Tag
- Meta Description
- Keyword Tag
- Keywords in URL
- Headings
- Alt Text
- Inline Links
- Site Structure
While the author of this list and I might disagree with the which of these elements are most important at Yahoo!, we are in fundamental agreement that these are important criteria for ranking well at Yahoo! Keep this in mind the next time you want to reach Yahoo! searchers.
Category: SEO
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Sunday, 23 of September , 2007 at 6:20 pm
Which Internet marketing method is for you? Some people swear by the free marketing tools available to Internet businesses, tools such as SEO, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, etc. Others swear by the pay-per methods like pay-per-click advertising. Personally, I think a combination of methods is best. You don’t just want to use one method of advertising because you’ll be missing out on some great opportunities. The following Internet marketing methods have been very successful for businesses who try them. I suggest you pick two or three to try for yourself and see what results you get:
- Search engine optimization
- Search engine marketing
- Pay-per-click advertising
- E-mail marketing
- E-zine/newsletter marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Video marketing
- Social networking
- Local search marketing
- Blog marketing
- Article marketing
- Press releases
This is not the exhaustive list. It is a good start, though, for businesses that are new to Internet marketing. Learn a little more and grow your business the Internet marketing way.
Affordable Internet Marketing Services, including SEO, Pay Per Click, Blog Marketing & More! For More Info Call Expert Nick Stamoulis at: 877-295-0620.
Category: Internet Marketing
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