http://social-media-marketing-machine.com/2010/12/win-a-free-trip-to-affiliate-west-summit-heres-how/

Please visit us there at http://social-media-marketing-machine.com

It's just not so simple as put up a web site anymore.

We invest hours if not days explaining why we are doing something when we really should just be doing it with that time.

No complaints mind you - it's just the way it is.

This article from Seth Godin this morning really hit home for me. I don't agree with all of it - but I do wholeheartedly agree with the theme.

Miami

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What if your organization or your client has done nothing?

What if they've just watched the last fourteen years go by? No real website, no social media, no permission assets. What if now they're ready and they ask your advice? And, by the way, they have no real cash to spend…

Here's a list of my top ten things to consider doing:

* Use gmail to give every person in the organization that can read English an email address.
* Use a free website creating tool or even Squidoo to build a page about your company. Nothing fancy, but list your locations, your people (with addresses) and make it clear you want to hear from people.
* Start an email newsletter using Mad Mimi or Mail Chimp. Give the responsibility for the newsletter's creation and performance to one person and offer them a bonus if they exceed metrics in sign ups and in reducing churn.
* Start a book group for your top executives and every person who answers the phone, designs a product or interacts with customers. Read a great online media book a week and discuss. It'll take you about a year to catch up.
* Offer a small bonus to anyone in the company who starts and runs a blog on any topic. Have them link to your company site, with an explanation that while they work there, they don't speak for you.
* Have the president post her (real) email address in every invoice and other communication the company sends out, asking people to write to her with comments or questions.
* Start a newsletter for your vendors. Email them regular updates about what you're doing, what's selling and what problems are going on internally that they might be able to help you with.
* Do not approve any project that isn't run on Basecamp.
* Get a white board and put it in the break room. On it, have someone update: how many people subscribe to the newsletter, how many people visit the website, how many inbound requests come in by phone, how long it takes customer service to answer an email and how often your brand names are showing up on Twitter every day.
* Don't have any meetings about your web strategy. Just do stuff. First you have to fail, then you can improve.
* Refuse to cede the work to consultants. You don't outsource your drill press or your bookkeeping or your product design. If you're going to catch up, you must (all of you) get good at this, and you only accomplish that by doing it.

The problem is no longer budget. The problem is no longer access to tools.

The problem is the will to get good at it.
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Things to ask before you redo your website

I don't do any consulting, but that doesn't stop people from asking me questions. The most common question people ask me when they want a new website is, "If you were in charge of this, who are the 2 or 3 people you’d want to be sure to talk to – to help think through the issues, help us figure out who should do the work, etc.?"

The second most common question people ask me, "In addition to Apple’s site, are there 2 or 3 that you think are really appealing and work well for their business?"

I think these are perhaps the tenth and eleventh questions you should ask, not the first two. Here's my list of difficult and important questions you have to answer before you spend a nickel:

* What is the goal of the site?
* In other words, when it's working great, what specific outcomes will occur?
* Who are we trying to please? If it's the boss, what does she want? Is impressing a certain kind of person important? Which kind?
* How many people on your team have to be involved? At what level?
* Who are we trying to reach? Is it everyone? Our customers? A certain kind of prospect?
* What are the sites that this group has demonstrated they enjoy interacting with?
* Are we trying to close sales?
* Are we telling a story?
* Are we earning permission to follow up?
* Are we hoping that people will watch or learn?
* Do we need people to spread the word using various social media tools?
* Are we building a tribe of people who will use the site to connect with each other?
* Do people find the site via word of mouth? Are they looking to answer a specific question?
* Is there ongoing news and updates that need to be presented to people?
* Is the site part of a larger suite of places online where people can find out about us, or is this our one sign post?
* Is that information high in bandwidth or just little bits of data?
* Do we want people to call us?
* How many times a month would we like people to come by? For how long?
* Who needs to update this site? How often?
* How often can we afford to overhaul this site?
* Does showing up in the search engines matter? If so, for what terms? At what cost? Will we be willing to compromise any of the things above in order to achieve this goal?
* Will the site need to be universally accessible? Do issues of disability or language or browser come into it?
* How much money do we have to spend? How much time?

And finally,

* Does the organization understand that 'everything' is not an option?

Sure, much depends on exactly what you want your site to do for you, but in the end, most sites are there for one major reason and that is to sell.

A site is selling your product, or your service, or selling your prospect on doing something - the next step in the sales process.

And it is a process. The question then becomes - what exactly IS your sales process? If you were speaking directly to me what would you want me to do? What action step would you want me to take?

Most of the time the action step is collecting an email. If you have an email address and permission to email to it ,then you can carry on the sales conversation at your leisure.

So more and more - we are making a website focus on the action step and less on the traditional website.

Who really reads all that stuff anyway?

Till next time…

Web Wide Wizards Announces International Partnership

Business Internet Marketing Is Not That Hard!

Atlanta — July 23, 2009 — Web Wide Wizards announced the completion of partnership agreements to extend the range of services offered to their clients.

“As an Internet marketing, design and search engine optimization company, we specialize in partnering with small businesses to develop and maintain a strong internet presence as part of their overall marketing efforts”, said Miami Phillips, Director of Marketing. “We help our clients understand the power of the internet for their business and set realistic, measurable goals for their Internet marketing efforts”.

One Stop Internet Marketing Shop - From setting up a website (or renovating an existing site) to providing a structured plan for ensuring targeted visitors who will take the desired action steps, Web Wide Wizards new alliance provide a wide range of experience in crucial areas of marketing on the internet and work very well together.

Steve Karr (of SLW Consulting in Albuquerque NM) is primarily responsible for keyword research, Google Adwords, and goal metrics. Steve is the blog and site creator as well as a video master - creating many of the videos we use in marketing.

Tony Hartmann (Stuttgart, Germany) is the programming whiz behind the scenes, responsible for making code work, and figuring out quickly why it might not. He is also very talented at graphics.

Miami Phillips (Web Wide Wizards Atlanta GA) is responsible for overall marketing all clients and Web Wide Wizards’ websites including social media, social bookmarking, video marketing, blogging and more.

Web Wide Wizards also calls on multiple other sources to complete required workloads on time and on budget.

When asked Steve Karr said “We are very excited about the success of our current endeavors, the possibilities we see ahead, and the team we have assembled to achieve our mission.”

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For more information:
Miami Phillips, 404.939.2736, info@webwidewizard.com

I didn't have a clue.

None of my 1600 Twitter followers knew (or bothered to respond). None of the 900 facebook friends knew.

So maybe this will help you if you don't know either! I put this together for my partners.

Website Verification Summary
Third party website verification services have proven to be the easiest and most effective way of increasing your greatest asset  which is TRUST. Some of these services will even guarantee to boost your conversion rate by 15% or more or your money back!

Displaying trust seals on your website provides instant, visual assurance that your site is credible, safe, and trustworthy.

Trust seals quickly assure your visitors three basic things:

1.Your website is secure - this means your customers personal information is safe and secure. (Of  internet users surveyed, 88% viewed this as "Very Important")

2.You have a legitimate Business meaning your potential customers  can trust the site and the information on it. (81% of internet users surveyed viewed this as "Very Important")

3.You respect their privacy meaning  you have a good privacy policy. 76% of Internet users surveyed, viewed this as "Very Important"

Almost all verification companies produce similar results, but prices can range from $300 a year, to more than $4000 a year. Each trust seal service specialize in different aspects of your site, covering your visitors 3 major concerns above.

1. Security seals
2. business seals
3. privacy seals

The trust seal that will suit your site best depends on what you're selling.

HackerSafe specializes in Security seals, TRUSTe specialize in privacy seals, and BBB in business identity seals.

However having assurances in all areas has proven to give maximum conversion. But instead of buying all 3 seals separately, companies like ControlScan and TrustGuard have created Multi-Seal-packages for the highest level of trust possible at a fraction of the price.

Any reliable trust seal is better than none. Trust seal services have proved to increase your website conversion by an average of 14%. A website not providing it's visitors with the necessary assurance (3rd party website verification seals specifically) is missing out on a huge amount of potential customers and sales.

These are taken directly from the sites and current as of July 2009.

Package Includes	Mini Seal Package	Standard Package	Quarterly Scan Package	Daily Scan Package
Privacy Policy Generator ($97 value)
4 Colors Options (Red, Green, Blue, Gold)
60 Day Money Back Guarantee
Security Verified seal ($197 value)
Business Verified seal ($197 value)
Privacy Verified seal ($197 value)
Certified Seal ($297 value)
Split Testing (test your seals, $197 value)
New Mini Seals (100 x 40 px )
Small Seals (100 x 60 px)
Large Seals (120 x 70 px)
Header Seals (150 x 40 px)
New Video Seal ($247 value)
Double Your Money Back Guarantee
PCI Scanning (up to 4 related IP's)
Reverts to Verified Seal (if Scan fails)
Executive PCI Report and Certificate
Scans for over 30,000 Vulnerabilities
Protection from Hackers			Good	Best
Quarterly PCI Security Scanning ($297 value)
Quarterly PCI Security Seal
Daily PCI Security Scanning ($497 value)
Daily PCI Security Scanned Seal
BEST VALUE
Package Price	Only $37/mo or $397/yr.	Only $47/mo or $497/yr.	Only $57/mo or $597/yr.	Only $67/mo or $697/yr.
	More Info…	More Info…	More Info…	More Info…

Trust Guard Multiseal Package
$497 Yearly or $47 Monthly

ControlScan

Verified Secure Security Seal
PCI 1-2-3 Compliance PCI 1-2-3 Self Assessment Questionnaire PCI 1-2-3 Scanning PCI 1-2-3 Policy Builder PCI 1-2-3 Security Awareness Training
GeoTrust Quick Premium SSL
Search Engine Submissions			350 directories
Press Release Program
LIVECHAT
RatePointSM
	$149.00/year	$790.00/year	$1290.00/year
	Buy Now>	Buy Now>	Buy Now>

To get a BBB seal, submit the forms to local Better Business Bureau.
Now you know as much as I do!

Of all the successful bloggers that are {making money from blogs-make money blogging} on the Internet, hundreds more have failed. Running a blog is similar to running a business website. Unless you put the time in and work hard at first you won’t be a successful blogger for very long.

That is not to say that the failed bloggers weren’t serious bloggers. Mostly, new bloggers aren’t prepared for the work that goes into creating a successful blog. Just building the blog doesn’t mean that people will necessary come to you. Persue your audience and make a posting to give them a reason to follow and see what you're about.

1. Fresh Content – no one wants to visit a blog day after day and see the same posts. Update your blog content at least twice a week. It will be MUCH easier if you write several posts ahead of time and upload them in a time sequence.

2.Article Marketing – the niche you’ve chosen for your blog is one that interests you. If you like it and it's interesting, you will find you have more time for it. Create content not only for your blog but also to be submitted to article directories. Use the resource box to ad your link to your blog and so people can find you.

3.Social Networking Web 2.0 - these sites are all over the net. Join Myspace Facebook, Squidoo, Twitter along with numerous others to make connections. You can join groups of other likeminded people who may also bloggers or entrepreneurs.

4.Viral Marketing – this is word getting spread about your blog by others. Talk to friends, family and strangers. Give out business cards that have your blog address on them.

5.Use RSS Feeds – “Really Simple Syndication.” Readers subscribe to your feed and get updated when post new content. this way they can keep up with your blog and not have to spend all day online.

6.Submit Blog to Search Engines – this will allow your blog to be picked up and ranked. Google and Yahoo! are two of the most popular search engines you want to crawl your blog pages. It's not a gauranteed top ranking, though. You will have to do more work for that.

7.Joining Forums – as a blogger you're a budding entrepreneur. Right now you're trying to get traffic and after that to make profit. Become a member of business forums, work at home forums and others to meet new people and share ideas. You can add a link to your blog in the signature line so others can find you.

8.Visit other blogs – show your appreciation to those who visit you by also posting comments on their blogs. It is a kindness that shows fellow bloggers that you are not just out to advertise your blog alone. Post your links in your comments.

9.SEO Marketing – whatever you write, use relevant keywords. Keyword density between three percent and ten percent is best for getting high page rankings in search engines. Base your keywords on a research you do to find the most popular words used in search engines for your niche.

10.Social Bookmarking – submitting posts to social bookmarking sites allows others from those sites to track you back to your blog.

Putting to use the ideas will kickstart your blog into the right direction. It will take time but eventually if you continue to work at it you will build your empire and the readership you want.

Whatever they are, don't overlook one of the most important elements - where the link goes. There are two reasons it is important.

First, you are optimizing the specific page the link points to, meaning you make it more important and more likely to be found in the search engine results pages.

Second, you want your visitors to "land" on the right page.

Linking Strategies For Optimization

Link to pages other than the homepage to optimize them and get traffic for specific keyword searches. On some web sites,  we link only to the homepage, while on others we submit  articles with links to several different pages.

When starting a website, or when it is relatively undeveloped, you'll usually want to link to the homepage. It's important to get your homepage listed in the results-pages of search engines, so you want as many incoming links as you can get.

In addition, the other pages on your site get increased exposure and higher search engine rankings as a result of your homepage doing better (assuming you link to them from the home page).

However, f you add a new section to a web site, it makes sense to optimize the introductory page for this with incoming links.

Note: When it is a really good keyword, you may be better off starting a new website that targets it, and then linking to that new site from your existing one.

Linking Strategies For Monetization

The other reason it is important where the link goes  is that you want visitors who come in on that link to be in the right place. Ask yourself where the readers should "land" for you to get the most value out of them. These might include:

- Your website that makes you the most revenue per visitor.

- A page that makes you the most revenue per visitor.

- The page most relevant to the topic of the article the link is in.

- A page with the subscription form for your newsletter.

- A page where you sell something.

- A page that lists all of your other articles they may want to read.

Many of our incoming links are  from articles we submit.

Think carefully about where your links go. Many of them, such as those in your articles and forum posts, can't be changed once they are out there.

The key thing is to simplymake a linking strategy part of your weekly routine and do it!