Ever hire an SEO Agency and when you start asking questions about their work, they respond by saying “Leave all that to us, we are the experts”, or “It’s a mix of science and art, very hard to explain, but we know exactly what we are doing!”

Yeah, well you aren’t the only one.  Many of our clients have experienced that and many paid a LOT of money and never really knew what they were paying for.  Sure, it’s a science.  After learning a decent amount of  SEO, I can tell you – very few clients will want to try this on their own – it is definitely a FULL TIME  job that most of then would not care to deal with.  Thus, why is it such a secret?!

Many of my clients simply tell me, “it appears to be working”, but when I ask them for specifics, I get a “deer in headlights” look and nothing further comes from their mouth.  I guess they are treating it like “insurance” against being invisble”,  which is crazy because if they have decent content they will be in pretty good shape – certainly not invisible.

Apparently, this must be very common, because Google just announced they will REQUIRE partner Agencies to be transparent to their customers when using Google services such as AdWords.  When this goes into effect in February 2011, the Agency MUST disclose specific elements to their clients (and the client will receive a report directly), which include:

Clicks

Impressions

Spend

This will give Google the credit for the results, whereas now the Agency does not have to disclose the information and can take full credit for their “wizardry” when things go well, and disclaim everything, or get paid for more “needed” changes when things go bad.  This WILL affect those agencies who are not transparent – probably in a negative way.  However, it will affect Google in a positive way – with hundreds of thousands of accounts under third party management, it will now shine a bright light on, and weed out, bad SEO Agencies so that the negativity does not attach to Google itself.

This has been coming – it was initiated in the API terms of service years ago, then was admended, then conversation began again and a common phrase was being echoed by Google:   “Mythbusting”, I heard it many times in various conversations about transparency.

In conclusion, despite the Agencies who are going to rail against this,  I say:   TRANSPARENCY =  GOOD.  Just as in any other buying scenario, the more educated your buyer is, the better the sale.  This is simply good business and, I still believe, that most of the buyers will not go out and try to do it themselves – but at the same time, they will finally have some input into the process and will feel like they are buying a quality service instead of snake oil!

KUDOS to Google!!

How much did you want to make this year?

Affiliate marketing can be very lucrative.  You absolutely CAN make money while you sleep!  However, some people take that to mean that you don’t have to work for it.  Au Contraire!  Affiliate Marketing is very competitive these days.

The 7 basic tasks to ensure you are making money with affiiliate marketing include:

1. Creating buzz-worthy Content on a regular basis – it keeps you ranked in the search engines and shows you are knowledgeable about what you are selling!
2. SEO – optimizing [ONpage and OFFpage]  for search engines keeps you at the “top of the heap” in to order garner attention for what you are selling – top 10 is gold, top 20 silver and top 30 bronze – if you are not in the top 2 to 3 pages, you have lost to the competition – start again!
3. PPC – Pay Per Click gets you even more attention since your  ”ad” will be featured in the “hot zone” where eyeballs track!  This is the “top of the heap” at it’s finest.  Can’t afford it?  Return to 1 and 2 above. At the end of the day, Content is ALWAYS King!
4. eMail Marketing – sharing your content and affiliate link with your contact list on a regular basis will result in sales.  First, you are becoming the expert on the subject in their eyes by creating content they want to read; second you are providing it directly to people who know you, and third you are giving them a conversion opportunity with the content.  Remember, it generally takes 7 contacts to garner their interest for a buying proposition!  Write to inform, to solve a problem, to fill a need, and write to sell!
5. Display Ads:  by sharing a display ad  (that has a unique identifying link for its source)  with other websites and blogs, or even in social media, you can convey features and benefits of the product/service you are recommending and create conversion.  Best practices:  link to “more information” AND the selling page, whenever  possible.
6. Review your analytics regularly to see which pages are getting “action” and which aren’t –  which are selling and which do not. Test and modify regularly!
7. Don’t forget your WOM! Word of Mouth Marketing is someting you can do ONline and OFFline.  Spread the Word in Social Media and when you are out Networking.  If you believe in the product enough to sell it,  and you tell them how it helped you, and you now sell it – you will make more sales!  People buy from PEOPLE (even online).

Don’t forget the Mobile Market place either!  Make sure you are developing your mobile marketing strategy in the near term so you can include your affiliate opportunities with that distinct audience.

Need help?  Let us know!!