Internet Marketing Strategies

Thinking of going to Nashville with your pet someday?

2013-11-11T13:39:00.001-05:00

Check out www.petfriendlynashville.com . Nashville is surrounded by huge national parks that are very drivable - and some houses for vacation rental are surrounded by acres and acres. What a fun place to go!

YouTube- 2nd Largest Search Engine on the Web (#2 of 2)

2012-08-02T11:32:00.000-04:00

YouTube, by Google, is now the 2nd largest search engine on the web. And the 1st is Google, by Google. So get your company up on YouTube, if you want to be searched and found on the web!

Hopefully you are all ready to start making movies on your own. This is a quick and dirty on using youtube.com to create a nice movie. First, look at this one.

This was done by taking short clips as I walked around the rental house. First you upload the clips from your harddrive or iphone to your youtube account. For each of your videos, go to "Video Manager" press "edit" then "Enhancements". There you can clip out bad parts and do the most important thing "Stabilizer". Unless you used a tripod, you will need this. Save.

Then go to "Video Editor". All your videos will be preloaded. It's drag and drop! line 'em up with a space in between to include a transition. The text editor allows you to put in a title at the front, or at the back, or overlay over the movie. Add some mood music if you want. I did to this one. Save.

Uploading and Deleting

Go back to "Video Manager". Your movie will be there - you will need to rekeyword it. Choose a thumbnail for it. And delete the small movies you uploaded to create it.

Congratulations! You can embed it in your site or just link to it from anywhere you can think of. All the best!

YouTube- 2nd Largest Search Engine on the Web (#1 of 2)

2012-07-09T14:06:00.000-04:00

YouTube, by Google, is now the 2nd largest search engine on the web. And the 1st is Google, by Google. So get your company up on YouTube, if you want to be searched and found on the web!

I am trying to motivate you to do this! Another reason to jump the hurdle to YouTube is that short movies are much more friendly to an i-phone viewer. It's much more fun to learn what you need to know in a 2-minute movie than squint a long article on a mobile phone. and trust me, mobile is gaining viewership share from desktops by leaps and bounds:

Mobile Users vs Desktop Internet Users by 2014

Have I convinced you? If you are starting, create 5 or 6 short movies, upload to your new YouTube channel, keyword the heck out of each movie, and... watch the stats.

Next Month

Next month I'll show you how all Odin-wise Google makes it easy to do this.

Adsense Ads and The Local Business #4 (last in this series).... Is There Anyone Out There It's Getting Harder and Harder to Breathe! Aaaaaarrrggggh

2012-06-02T18:40:00.002-04:00

Back on the search to monetize my website www.floridasouthbeachrentals.com without advertising my competition!

In #1 I complained that there was no way to block competitors' ads when displaying Google Adsense's ads on my website - no way that actually worked. In #2 I tried out Google's Affilliate network which lets me advertise nationwide brands on my site. In #3 I described how excited I was that maybe, just maybe, Groupon was the answer.

Take a look at one of the Groupon ads onthis webpage. It is a generic pretty, that you have to click thru to get at the ad. When I clicked thru, I saw an ad for a Fort Lauderdale company. I ask you, would you be interested in a Fort Lauderdale deal when you were hanging out on the beach in Miami Beach?

Bad Programming

This is just bad programming. Groupon knows where my business is. And why do I have to click thru a generic pretty? Why can't the ad itself be a Miami Beach Company?

In 2 months, I've made $6 with Groupon.

I GIVE UP! I am more like Sally, frustrated with her brother Charlie Brown still waiting for the Great Pumpkin! I am going to start an "Advertise On This Site" Program and contact local companies myself. Harumph!

Adsense Ads and The Local Business #3...

2012-05-01T14:00:00.000-04:00

Back on the search to monetize my website www.floridasouthbeachrentals.com without advertising my competition!

Problem is, I am a local company, and people want to buy locally around my hotel, not book their flights from my site. So I made zero money from these ads.

Back At It

So then I tried the local ad powerhouses - Groupon, Living Social, Amazon Local, and Dealmap.

Living Social turned me down. I filled in their application and they said no thankyou - no phone to call, no redress. Amazon Local only texts and emails you, no code to insert into your site. Dealmap had no program. Groupon! Now Groupon said yes and off I went!!!!

Last Newsletter on this subject comes next month.

Follow me again on the hunt for the buried treasure: some business out there who is providing the service I (we) need to monetize our local websites! Keep breathing!

Adsense Ads and The Local Business #2

2012-03-31T17:02:00.000-04:00

Back on the search to monetize my website www.floridasouthbeachrentals.com without advertising my competition!

Remember last month I complained that there was no way to block competitors' ads when displaying Google Adsense's ads on my website - no way that actually worked.

So I looked around for a solution on Google. They have something called the "Affiliate Network" that you can sign up for national advertisers work with Google on their Affiliate Network product- putting code on your Google account that you can pick up and put into your site. This is NOT pay per click. A user has to click thru the ad and actually use the product for you to get paid.

Still Didn't Work For Me

I happily took out Adsense code and input Affiliate code for Jet Blue, travel insurance and some other national brands I thought would appeal to my future renters. They clicked thru... but did not buy.

Then I thought about it. I wouldn't book a Jet Blue flight from my rental website either.If I were a renter, I would want to see local ads - for spas I could go to In Miami Beach, or restaurants. I would call my travel agent for my flight, or book it online myself strait from the Jet Blue site. Local businesses in general need local advertisers.

Oh Well, the search to monetize continues.

Follow me again on the hunt for the buried treasure: some business out there who is providing the service I (we) need to monetize our local websites! Keep breathing!

Adsense Ads and The Local Business

2012-02-29T18:12:00.000-05:00

I have a wonderful small business in Miami Beach Florida with a popular website, on which I run Adsense ads for a little more income.

Adsense does a great job and sends me a nice check every month. However, Adsense works by picking up the keywords on the page and serving up ads that jive with the keywords on that page. So, it shows competitive ads to the condos I am renting!

That works for me to some degree because my condos are often booked, so at least I get a little money for having attracted that eyeball.

How do you fix this?

You block all your competitor's sites in your Adsense account. Yeah right. All the other people that rent condos in Miami. uh huh.

Or, you block keywords- but there are so many that relate to the rental market and they are the ones paying for advertising so ... I tried, but failed.

You can't fix this.

If you are a dentist, or a carpet cleaner or any kind of local business and you want to monetize your site with Adsense, be prepared to set aside valuable real estate on your website to advertise for your competition.

Or......

Follow me on the hunt for the buried treasure: some business out there who is providing the service I (we) need to monetize our local websites! Keep breathing!

Adsense Ads in Your Blog

2012-01-30T12:59:00.000-05:00

Michelle Molinet
mamolinet@gmail.com

What is the next step after your blog blows up and starts snagging major views? Add Ads to the blog! We decided to use Google AdSense ads since we have a Blogger.com blog sponsored by Google.

How do you insert Adsense ads to the blog?

After logging on to your blog, in the Dashboard view click Monetize. After agreeing that you want to run ads on your blog you choose where you want the ads to show up. The recommended setting is for sidebar and under post ads, and you can also choose after how many posts to show ads under the post.

Over the past month ourFlorida South Beach Rentals blog has skyrocketed from around 200 views per month to over 700. Whether it's because it's the time of year for South Florida vacationing, or if the blog is being picked up by more search engines, there is money to be made from ads!

The ads are designed to be tailored to the websites the viewer looks at and his or her location. This is what the Ad Choices button in the corner of the ad does- allows Adsense to personalize your advertising experience. Unfortunately, there is no way to control the Adsense Ads that appear on your site, although sometimes they link ads to the content on the blog.

QR Codes for RSS Feeds

2011-11-29T17:29:00.000-05:00

Michelle Molinet mamolinet@gmail.com

I am the Social Media Specialist for WebmarketID and a few other companies that Robin owns. I am constantly trying to keep the technology we use up-to-date, and a pretty new and interesting use of programming and media marketing that is becoming more common is QR Codes.

What is a QR Code?

QR is short for Quick Response and a QR code is a two dimensional picture with a code programmed into it that can be read by a barcode reader on a camera phone. As soon as a code is scanned by your cell phone, you are taken directly to the information encoded: the site URL, the phone number, the text, or the SMS that the code holds.

Recently, I added this QR Code to the Feedburner Blog for our Florida South Beach Rentals website, and saw a very dramatic increase in the number of subscriptions to the RSS feed. I had been getting a few hundred views of the blog itself per month, but the feed only had 1 or 2 steady "subscribers". Now, the number of "reaches" and "subscribers" has risen dramatically.

Seemingly, all because of the ease of information transfer and use that these codes provide.

Facebook Demographics and You!

2011-10-31T13:59:00.000-04:00

Facebook Insights, Part II

Take a look at the demographics for this facebook page for a physical therapy business:(taken from Facebook Insights)

demographics physical therapy business

Now take a look at the demographics for the facebook page of a south beach hotel:

demographics south beach business

Obviously very different!!!! Which is bucking the demographics of facebook itself?

U.S. Facebook Users by Age 2011

If you said the physical therapy business you are reading the graphs correctly! All I can say as a web marketer is kudos to the physical therapy business. They are finding older users and driving them to their page!

On the other hand, did you know that the 45 + users are the fastest growing segment? And that in every age group, the largest component is female? (that's a switch from Facebook's early years.)

So, if you think your business doesn't fit the profile of the average Facebook user, think again. Over half of Facebook users are between 26 and 64.

Users by Gender

On the bottom right of the "Users" tab in your Facebook Insights is a very important "Referrers" section. Please check it out. It shows how people are finding your Facebook page. They come in from other locations on Facebook, they come in from Google, from emails, you name it. Don't just look at your "likes".

Who are "likers?" Typically college kids and teens. Older types don't bother. But they are there!

Unfortunately you need 30 "likes" to use Facebook Insights. If you have an older clientele and you have alot of likes you have bucked the demographic base of Facebook and created a real following. Kudos.

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Facebook Insights

2011-09-29T13:35:00.001-04:00

Under the Covers of Your Business Page

Facebook Insights

This analytic of your facebook business page tells you alot about who is coming to your page, and how they got there. Take some time regularly to look at it! You can find Insights on the right side of your business page, as long as you have 30 "likes" or more.

Structure

There are 3 categories: Overview, Users, and Interactions.

Overview does just that, giving you an overview of active users, and interactions with your page. It is too general!

Users is more interesting - take a look at your demographics! Do you have more women or men coming to your page? how old are they? Check the referrals area - when people come to see your page, where are they coming from?

Interactions tells you more about how

people are interacting with your page - are they posting, "liking", just looking....

Under referrals, I was really interested to see that the tab I installed on my clients' pages from Constant Contact, our email service, was being used! People are signing up for newsletters from the Facebook page. On Constant Contact, the instructions are under "contacts".

I also saw that people are coming in from Twitter feeds from to one of my personal facebook business pages! Guess I'd better get hopping and add Twitter to my clients. Twitter supplies an app to add itself to your business Facebook page.

I'll save demographics for another blog ! This is pretty much the only time I smiled on this mountain bike ride in Crested Butte. The rest was painful.

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Social Location Marketing

2011-08-24T15:58:00.000-04:00

Social Location Marketing (SLM) connects your site and business with consumers based on their LOCATION.

The History

SLM was born in the year 2000. That was the year that the US government abandoned "Selective Availability" - basically the scrambling of GPS signals - on the grounds of national security.

The Game

The game is to use smartphones to reach out to your clients when they are at or near your place of business.

The world is all "checking in" using smartphones, to Google Maps, Groupon, Living Social, Foursquare, Yelp, Gowalla, and lots of others, to gain rewards of many kinds - discounts, on-line "pins", or just kudos from other consumers.

Google bought Dealmap last week (definitely overshadowed by its purchase of Motorola Mobile, I know) to connect its ubiquitous Places pages with local deal offerings. Google will instantly become a powerful competitor to Groupon (hope you didn't buy the stock), Living Social, and all the rest.

The field is too crowded! "Check-in" exhaustion has even been mentioned by Jim Cramer on CNBC! Shakeouts are coming!

What's next? (I always like this part). Your smartphone will "check-in" for you! After all, it KNOWS WHERE YOU ARE! And you can earn rewards and freebies just by going about your normal day.

Here's your favorite web marketer on vacation! 13,500 ft. in the air with no smarphones or computers!

Dot Anything is On Its Way

2011-07-21T10:56:00.000-04:00

ICANN, the InternetCorporation for Assigned names and Numbers, has approved generic Top level Domains, or gTLDs! (Visit the page at www.icann.org .)

What does that mean?
Think beyond boring .com, .net, org, to .apple or .travel, or .vacationrentals, or .loans, or .wine!

These domains will not be cheap. Applicants for gTLDs need to pay a $185,000 application fee, and $25,000/yr to keep their gTLD's. Applications are being accepted from Jan. 12 - April 12, 2012.

That's alot more cash than the $12/yr I pay for a domain. Why would a company buy these? Let's guess.

1) To keep their competitors from buying them. Ford Motors will have to buy .FORD and .FORDMOTORS - or someone else will, happily... and then sell the name back to FORD when FORD wakes up.

2) To sell better on the web. What if you succeed in buying .loans? You could create a site called housing.loans, and car.loans. Not only would you have great success on search engines, but your competitiors would not have a chance.

Looking beyond these 2 changes in the search engine landscape caused by gTLD's, let's think about Google. Will people who want to rent a condo in Aspen go to Google when they can type in condo.aspenrentals and go directly to a new portal all about vacationing in Aspen?

And what about all us poor joes who design our own websites, and buy cheap domains on Godaddy. I doubt this will help us. gTLDs will create big web cyberbullies.

Who Texts? Why use it for Marketing?

2011-06-27T11:20:00.000-04:00

Mobile Marketing - Pioneer Land on all fronts!

Let's take a look at age groups...

Teens and 20's-- They're absolutely smart phone centric, preferring their cell phones to access content on-the-go. Email is for work, accessed once a day, maybe.

30's ,40's,50's -- They are beginning to rely on texting to reach anyone in their teens and 20's without waiting. And they're starting to appreciate the immediacy of text.

60's and 70's -- They think texting and smartphones are an invasion of privacy! Facebook is the devil!

Given that texting didn't exist in 2000, where will we be 5 years from now? All those age groups will move up a notch.

So let's go thru some uses for text marketing, and how it works.

1) You go to an event and hand someone your card. It has your regular info, and ALSO:

text RDreyfuss to 22878. When a prospective client does that, his phone returns a smartphone only miniwebsite with info just about YOU, not your company site.

2) Promotions, discounts and alerts. The shoppers out there are always motivated. Text DISCOUNT to 22878 to receive instant alerts on price discounts!

3) Event Registration or Email Collection - Your company hosts an event and you'd like to enroll new attendees for your group! Tell them to text SIGNUP to 22878 and they will be asked for their email address to receive future invitations.

4) You have an office where people actually walk in, or you have products in a store. There is a card on the desk or product that says: Text Product to 22878 for more information about this product or service... then when they text, a miniwebsite comes up with bullet points about the particular product or service.

A hotel, for example could tell customers about the evening menu at breakfast - text HOTELMENU to 22878, and a miniwebsite pops up with tonite's menu - it's immediate, and more easily accessed from a phone than a full website.

They're all great uses for Text Marketing, but #4, with the ability to create targeted smartphone websites for all kinds of specific uses, is the most exciting to me!

I'm off and running on text marketing... I'll report back after 3 months, I promise! Robin

New On Google: '+1'...or how Google Will Stomp on Facebook's Toes

2011-05-27T13:08:00.000-04:00

New from Google: the +1 button!

In the next few weeks Google will be rolling out a +1 button next to ads and webpages that come up as a result of a search query. If you like the website or business or whatever, you can click on the +1 next to the link, and Google will record that YOU have "plussed" that page or business.

Sounds like Facebook?

It goes further! With the help of cookies, Google knows YOU are the one who did the "plussing". And thru other secret Google connections, they know you and Mary are friends. So when Mary calls up the same weblink, it shows that YOU have plussed it. How do they do the linking? We'll find out later, or maybe the government will ask.

Have you seen Facebook "like" buttons on webpages?

They are supposed to make it easier to "like" a Facebook page - you don't actually have to click over to the page to friend it. You can friend it right from the website you are on by clicking the like button. Google will offer the same thing to webmasters. So pretty soon, sitting right next to the Facebook "like", will be the Google "+1". The battle of the "likes" !

And probably this is the tip of the iceberg as Google has realized that social is what it's all about.The battle of the titans has begun in the social realm - Thor vs the Frost Giants! (okay, did you see the movie?) Life is too weird..

Google Instant- Let's All Be Aware!

2011-04-27T17:10:00.000-04:00

Have you noticed Google Instant when you are searching on Google? It's default for a search query, so unless you've turned it off or have a real slow connection (it self-deactivates for slow connections) you've seen Google Instant.

When you type in a search query, Google Instant "auto-completes" suggestions so you don't need to even finish typing what you're searching for!

Says Google,"...people type slowly, but read quickly... Google Instant means that you can scan a results page, while you type." To do this, Google has to make predictions about what you are about to type - it tries to figure out what's in your head. Yet another secret google algorithm.

I'm guessing it "auto-completes" based on what you are most likely to type, in other words, popularity of request.

You could be thinking one thing, but Google offers a completely different direction. You are presented with the boredom of continuing to type, or just taking the easy route - something on the drop down list.

I don't normally think of myself as lazy, but even I typically pick something from instant's drop-down!

What are the implications for Search Engine Optimization? To me the biggest change will be the death of "long-tail" keywords. If you really wanted "pizza with white cheese and organic crust" - lots of words for a nice "long-tail" keyword, which normally I would love to put in as a keyword on a page, and drive lots of targeted eyeballs to that page - YOU'D NEVER FINISH TYPING IT! Google Instant would suggest something and you'd just stop typing.

"Long-tail" keywords would enable a website to have lots of keywords that the site was built around.

Call them "umbrella" websites, if you will; If you had a restaurant site, you could drive people to your site who were looking for chocolate soufflé with raspberries, or pizza with white cheese and organic crust. Now it won't happen. You need separate complete websites for each keyword type or you'll never get placement. At the very least you need separate pages within your site for a specific keyword.

Or..well, pay for Google Adwords, or the latest, Google Boost (see my previous blog).

(They killed Tags, by the way, $25/month for a yellow tag isn't going to drive Google's top line hard enough.)

WITH GOOGLE INSTANT, SEARCH GOT EASIER FOR CONSUMERS, AND HARDER FOR MARKETERS.

Google Boost Arrives in Florida!

2011-04-18T21:05:00.001-04:00

Remember that phrase, "Just Do It"? That's how I feel about Google Boost, which has just been rolled out by the company, Google, to Florida.

If you have a website that has a location, ie. an address of your business offices, you should have Google Places, and within Google Places, now you should have Google Boost. (And...Google Tags, but we'll talk about that later.) Please look at this pic closely:

The circled listing has both Tags AND Boost. The little yellow arrow is the "Tag", and costs $25/month, flat. The "Boost" is the blue balloon vs. all the red ballons. That is paid for on a "pay per click" basis.

The "pack" is the entire group of "balloons" and the only way you can get there is by having a Places page.

Notice that these listings are above organic listings and even above all the paid listings but the two at the top. Remember the whole huge exhausting fight to be at the top of organic listings? You can circumvent that in alot of cases with your Places page.

If you want to stand out in the "Pack" you need Google Boost and Google Tags. That is the place to be! As search goes mobile, which we all know is happening, more people will access the "Maps" part of Google, and your Places page is also shown on "Maps". It's a no-brainer.

So... if you are my client, and you have a Places page, please call me so I can get you up on Tags and Boost. If you are my client and you have a website and no Places page, please call me! Besides, that way I'll know you are reading my all-important blog! :) Robin Dreyfuss 954-610-20000

PS. I can imagine a time when Tags and Boost will become less helpful, as everyone piles on the bandwagon. So let's do it before everyone else figures it out. Then when they do...we'll stop!

Live or Die a Media Mogul!, February 2011

2011-02-17T21:39:00.000-05:00

If you have a website, and you want it to communicate with humanity, then you are a publisher of original content. When you look at yourself in the mirror, you should see "RUPERT" emblazoned across your forehead.

So ask yourself. If Rupert Murdoch put out a magazine every month and then just stopped in December and January, should he expect his magazines to rip of the stands when he finally decided to publish again in February?

What if Rupert filled the magazine with only advertisements? Would he expect anyone at all to buy his magazine come March?

I'll let you answer that.

You have to communicate on a regular basis with your clients, you have to give them seriously good information for free, you have to use different media - e-newsletters, facebook, youtube movies, blogs, rss feeds, heaven help us- tweets, .... and then, finally, you can maybe sell them something.

That's the game. I didn't make the rules, but that's the way you play successfully!

January 2011

2011-02-17T21:31:00.000-05:00

Some more thoughts on Google Places. It's expanding like wildfire. Everytime you do a search, note mentally how many times you see a "7-pack" or "10-pack" (see example) offered at the TOP of search queries where people are trying to locate a business, with red "bubbles" that are repeated in an accompanying map.

Notice that all the organic listings - the ones we kill ourselves to get into, are UNDER the local search results!!! So, the name of the game is LOCAL.

As more and more businesses in the U.S. and abroad conform to the new normal, an international business directory will be created - a huge, vast database of businesses with detailed local information.

Have you heard of QR codes? With a simple app on your iphone you wave your phone over the QR image and pop! your local search result for that business comes up. Sounds like another marketing opportunity!

Google Places to Market Your Website and Local Business

2010-12-27T10:59:00.000-05:00

Google Places is my new favorite place to increase eyeballs to your site. It used to be called Google Local Business. It's been rethought, revamped, and totally focussed on going mobile.

Now there are more searches done on mobile platforms than on desktop pc's! And the trend can only continue with all the ipads and smartphones out there.

Google Places forces a business owner to "claim" their listings and then build a whole mini-page about the business. With this done, it is much easier to be included in the "7-pack" or "10-pack" (see example) offered at the TOP of search queries where people are trying to locate a business, with red "bubbles" that are repeated in an accompanying map.

The company can then be highlighted on Google Maps - the most used mobile app. I should probably repeat that. Google of course is monetizing this whole movement by offering "Google Tags" and soon, "Google Boost" to highlight businesses willing to pay for it. My suggestion? Surf with the tide!