Online Marketing Is Creepy

Most of us have heard of Mission Creep or Project Creep. Have you noticed how many Creeps there are in online marketing?

Email Creep. I’m trying to consolidate all my emails down to one, and not having much success. For one reason or another, there always seems to be a group or a project or a client that requires its own unique email.

Calendar Creep. Very much related to Email Creep. In the old days I had a big fat paper Franklin Planner where I could do all my calendaring. Now I have about five virtual calendars, some of which integrate and some…

How Important Is Google PageRank?

An exclusive interview with SEO expert George Ajazi, on an important but frequently misunderstood topic in the word of search engine optimization.

What is Google PageRank™?

PageRank™ is Google’s way of measuring the relevant weight or importance of a web page against the scale of the web. It is based on a 0 to 10 scale with each number exponentially more difficult to attain than the previous. So moving from a PageRank (PR) of 2 to a PR3 is much easier than moving from a PR5 to a PR6.

A lot has been written lately about PageRank becoming less important. Is…

An Online Marketing Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there were three little entrepreneurs named Moe, Larry, and Curly. They worked in the Virtual Forest, a shadowy land where danger lurked everywhere, especially in this vicious economic downturn. In all the world, the three little entrepreneurs were most afraid of the Big Bad Banker, who was set to put a lien on their assets. In order to pay down principal on their outstanding loans, Moe, Larry, and Curly decided the time had come to make changes.

Moe, who sold straw hats, decided on a traditional, interruption marketing campaign, complete with direct mail, banner advertising, and telemarketing…

Take the Online Marketing One Question Quiz!

If you have a business and are -

• Launching a blog
• Revamping your website content
• Creating a new website

- What is the very first question you should ask yourself?

More and more, I’m coming around to the conclusion that there is one and only one correct answer to this question.

What is the correct answer? I’d love to hear your thoughts, and later in the week, I’ll share mine.

Client Blog Makes the Search Engine Marketing BIGLIST

The BIGLIST of Search Marketing Blogs is a list of top blogs in that niche compiled by TopRank Online Marketing. I’ve followed this list for a while because of the quality of its SEM and SEO blogs.

Last week I was pleasantly surprised to learn that The Whoa Factor, the blog I write for my client Whoast, Inc., made the BIGLIST. Thanks, TopRank! To me and the staff at Whoast, this is a real honor.

Whoast, Inc. is a multifaceted search engine marketing firm based in Chicago. Their specialties include professional SEO services and ppc management. They are a hard working and fun-to-be-around crew.…

George Ajazi’s New SEO Services Fit Any Budget

Fed up with the incomprehensible price structures common to the industry and the inevitable price resistance they cause among potential clients, SEO expert George Ajazi developed a New Business Model™ which is likely to turn the search optimization industry on its head. Instead of charging for his SEO services, George is now giving them away. For free.

“Sure, revenues have taken a hit since I implemented my New Business Model™,” George observes. “But I’m saving a ton of time by not sending out invoices, my tax exposure is nil, and I’ve let go my accountant. It all evens out.”

Apparently, the…

Meet the Director of Keyword Engineering or Something like That

How’s your title?

A few days ago I was having lunch at an all-you-can eat sports bar buffet with my friend George Ajazi, the man who is now offering free SEO services. He observed that SEO is so misunderstood by the mainstream business community, you can pretty much pick any title you want. Nobody will know what you do anyway.

What does a Web Analyst do? How about an Internet Strategist? Titles like that confuse and intimidate owners of small and medium size companies. If you don’t understand what somebody does, you’re not likely to entrust them with a pile of your…

For SEO, Select Your Nouns Carefully

If words are the currency of the Internet, nouns are the highest denomination bills. When it comes to content optimization, they prove their value, because people tend to search for nouns. Keyword research I’m doing for a client right now illustrates the point. These search phrases came up among the most popular for a certain geographic region –

• basement refinishing
• basement remodeling
• basement finishing
• basement additions
• basement finishing
• refinish basement
• remodel basement
• finish basement
• finished basement

Battle of the Titans - Google Gmail vs. Outlook

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeAbout a month ago I switched email clients from Microsoft Outlook to Google Gmail. Having used Outlook since the beginning of time, this was a major switch, and I wanted to give myself time to adjust before comparing the two products. If you’re thinking of switching one way or the other, perhaps this post will help you reach a decision.

1. Biggest difference for me is folders (Outlook) versus labels (Gmail). With Outlook, every email can be put into a folder for archiving purposes. The pitfall of this is “folder creep”. I had so many folders and subfolders and…

How Useful Are Google Alerts?

The usefulness of Google Alerts has been on my mind, since I’ve set up a number of them for clients and myself. But the results always seem random and incomplete. You ever notice that? I wondered, where does Google go to fetch these links? Are there any ways to make “Comprehensive” Google Alerts more comprehensive?

For answers, try LinkedIn Answers
I decided to ask these questions on LinkedIn Answers, which is a tremendous resource. If you’ve never used it, check it out. You’ll get authoritative, detailed responses — very quickly — for just about any business question under the sun.

Google Alert Answers…

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