Stoney DeGeyter - EzineArticles.com Expert Author

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Stoney founded Pole Position Marketing in 1998 working from a home office and has since turned it into a leading search engine marketing business with a small team of seasoned Reno SEO and marketing experts. Stoney pioneered the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing which is the driving philosophy on how Pole Position marketing helps their clients expand their online presence and improve online conversion rates. Stoney is a moderator at the Small Business Ideas ... [More]

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11 Ways Fill Your Shopper's Cart
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Ecommerce] Since the "purchase" is the ultimate conversion, it is imperative that you remove as many obstacles from the customer's research-to-buy cycle as possible. Providing your visitors the key ingredients in their shopping experience creates a smooth and worry-free transaction process. The easier it is to shop and buy the more customers will overcome the natural hesitations that many feel before they commit by hitting the final "complete order" button.

Social Media Marketing is Branding
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Social-Media] Think of all the ways that companies use branding to build awareness of themselves or to promote their social awareness and customer service values. A few things come to mind such as greeters at the entrance of my favorite store, go-green awareness issues, charity drives that "give back" to the community for every purchase made, TV screens playing music videos or news as you wait in line, and the list goes on.

4 Easy Ways to Dissatisfy Your Visitors
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Internet-Marketing] Since creating a website that is "user friendly" is often difficult and time consuming, I thought it would be fun to explore a few ways to create a dissatisfying user experience on your website. Unlike the dozens upon dozens of things that go into creating a website that provides a positive visitor experience, one that creates an atmosphere of trust and is likely to improve conversion rates, creating a dissatisfying experience can be done fairly easily in just a few steps.

12 Privacy and Security Issues Your Customers Care About
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Security] Your website's privacy information and security settings can be significant hurdles when it comes to gaining trust with your visitors. Establishing trust is paramount to enticing visitors to make that final commitment, whether that be making a purchase, choosing to provide their info, or simply making initial contact with you.

5 Engaging Ways to Engage Your Audience
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] How engaged a customer is with your website will determine whether they can be persuaded to buy, comment, download or submit their information for you to follow up on. Customer engagement goes beyond just getting the customer's attention, you must keep their attention. This can be done by providing your visitors near immediate gratification.

14 Usability Tips for Login and My Account Pages
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Web-Development] Sites that require users to log in to access certain information and/or purchase products add an additional layer of potential complication to the usability process. To avoid potential visitor confusion and the possibility for errors, it is important that any login process requires little or no thought on the part of the site visitor.

9 Tips for Creating a Site Map for Visitors and Spiders
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Web-Development] Not every site needs a site map, they can certainly be a good idea. Site maps provide a dual purpose: They provide search engine spiders easy access to all of your site pages and they provide site visitors easy access to all of your site pages. The difference is that search engines and visitors access your site map differently and therefore there are different methods that need to be applied to creating site map(s) that are friendly for both engines and search spiders.

How to Succeed at Everything That Matters
[Self-Improvement:Success] Everybody wants to succeed. Success, though, rarely comes easy. Nor does it happen overnight. We often hear about overnight success stories, certain companies or individuals thrown into the limelight, having made millions from something or another.

Managing Projects Through People
[Business:Management] Management can be a tricky thing. Many companies promote people to management - supervisory positions based on their knowledge of the job and ability to get things done. But management goes so far beyond that, which is why many managers are not as effective as they should be. So what does it take to be an effective manager-supervisor?

The SEO Fool's Errand for the SEO Fool
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] The other day I received an email from a client noting that some of his Yahoo rankings have slipped as of late. They are still ranking strong on Google as well as MSN and heck, many of their Yahoo rankings are still very strong. But there was, in fact, some slippage and the client was concerned. Well, first we know that there is more to web marketing than top rankings. In fact rankings are just a small piece of the bigger web marketing pie. I know that and you know that, but for whatever reason, we all still have to deal with clients that refuse to accept that. But that's a story for another post.

12 Product Page Conversion Strategies That Shant Be Ignored
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Web-Design] Product pages maintain considerable strategic importance for ecommerce websites. Your visitors enter your product pages not only with an intention to buy something (the most desired end action) but to also learn, research and compare what you have against a competitor. In addition to this, product pages also serve to help buyers find relevant pricing information, delivery costs, warranty and/or return policies and a whole lot more.

Four Quick Ways to Improve Your HELP and FAQ Pages
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Web-Design] Depending on the nature of your site, Help and FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) can span a few or many pages. Building up these sections of your site can greatly enhance your visitor's experience with your website. These pages are often sought out by shoppers who are looking for just a bit more information to help them feel confident about their purchase.

Converting Visitors Through Errors and Form Fields
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] Forms are one of your primary points of contacts with your visitors. While many visitors still use email or even the telephone to contact you or to place an order, the vast majority will contact you first via your web forms. Forms that are broken or improperly implemented cause frustration and can greatly reduce your conversion rate for leads and sales.

Searching for Better On-Site Search Usability
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] Not every site needs, nor should have, an on-site search feature. But those that do must be sure that the search isn't just an after-thought. It needs to be more than something to add because you think visitors want it. Adding a search function is not necessarily good for on-site usability. Implementing a search function improperly is often a greater source of frustration than not having one altogether.

Full RSS or Summary Feed?
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:RSS] I'm not the first one to chime in on this topic, mostly because I've gone both ways and I can make pretty valid arguments from either side. But I've finally settled it in my mind which is "best". Full RSS feeds are better than summary feeds. Why?

8 Items Every Shopper Needs In Their Shopping Cart
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Web-Design] In your main navigation you should always have an easy to find link to the 'cart' page where visitors can go and view all the products they have added. Typically it's a good idea to use both an icon along with a text link allowing the link to stand out a bit.

6 Ways to Get Your Visitors To Contact You From Your Contact Us Page
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] Along with the About Us page, your Contact Us page is one of the most important and crucial pages on your site to get right. In fact, the Contact Us page could be considered the absolutely most important page. Even if the rest of your site succeeds in the goals, if visitors fail to find the information they need to contact you then you will bring their shopping experience to a screeching halt. Shoppers are often hampered if they don't feel they can get a hold of a real person or are limited in their contact options. With all other areas of the site working, a bad contact us page may cause someone to think twice about purchasing with you altogether.

7 Ways to Make Your Home Page a Home Run for Usability
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] Your home page is the single most crucial page of your site. This is the page that will be the primary entry point for a majority of your visitors. It is also the page that sets the stage for the rest of the site giving visitors a birds-eye view of who you are, what you're about, what you can do for them, what you offer, and how they get the information needed. The importance of making sure your home page is user-friendly cannot be understated. This page, more than any other, has to pull together so many elements without being overbearing or overloading the visitor with information overkill. Despite the over-reaching purpose of the home page, simplicity is the key. Provide the necessary information and usability elements and you'll lower your bounce rate and improve site conversions along the way.

25 Ways to DESIGN Your Way to Higher Conversions
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] During the design phase of building a website all too often we find that the end result is really nothing more than what somebody decided "looked good". In some cases it's a combination (or compromise) of what a handful of individuals have determined to be "good enough". What many fail to realize is that web design and visitor usability go hand in hand. How the site is developed, along with the underlying coding structure, plays a significant role on whether your site meets the usability requirements of your audience. Below are a number of individual elements that must be considered in every website design. While each plays a minor role over the total usability of a website, together they add up to be much more than the sum of their parts.

5 Easy Ways to Make Your About Us Page More About Your Customers
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online] For many sites, visitors that find their way to your About Us page tend to have a somewhat higher conversion rate than those that don't. Potential customers that do visit this page are showing a bit more than a casual interest in what your site has to offer and are looking for additional signals of trust.

9 (+1) Tips For Writing User-Friendly Content
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] Content weighs heavily both in terms of how users interact with your website as well as how visitors (both human and search spiders) are able to determine what you offer and what each page of your website is about. While solidly optimized content is important for search engine rankings, considering the usability of your content is of paramount importance for attaining good conversion rates.

20 Ways to NAVIGATE to Higher Conversions
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Internet-Marketing] When a site's navigation is intelligent, focused and intuitive, visitors have to think less and are able to more immediately find what they are looking for with minimal guesswork or backtracking. This, in turn, will most often translate into better overall conversion rates.

Reciprocal Links Are (Still) Not Dead
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Link-Popularity] Reciprocal links are not dead. Weren't dead before. Aren't dead now. I know it and you know it. But for just a second let's pretend otherwise.

Sometimes Motivation Has to be Felt
[Business:Marketing] Motivation is a funny thing. You can try to encourage people by telling them the benefits of this, that or the other, but sometimes it's just not enough. You've got to make them "feel" it. If you craft your message right, you can do just that using words only.

Lessons From Blockbuster - Don't Hide All Your Good Sales Material
[Business:Marketing] Blockbuster is trying to gain customers with their two-free weeks sales hook and have streamlined that process. Two weeks free is cool, but that's not the only selling point they should be providing.

Lessons From Blockbuster - Total Access Takes Another Minor Misstep
[Business:Marketing] Last week I received an email from Blockbuster notifying me that my ecoupon was ready. It's only missing one thing; a link to the actual coupon.

Lessons From Blockbuster - Money For Nothin', and the Survey's For Free
[Business:Marketing] The other day I received an email from Blockbuster asking me to take a survey. The survey was way too long and gave me no compelling reason to contribute. Where did they go wrong?

Lessons From Blockbuster - A UVP Worth Writing Home About
[Business:Marketing] By finding their UVP, now called as "Total Access," Blockbuster was able to completely revamp site and create a user interface that is actually superior to Netflix's. It also forced them to step up their game in getting movies updated on time as well as provide better customer service.

A Day in the Life of a Search Engine Friendly Web Page
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Search-Engine-Marketing] In a previous article I wrote that a search engine friendly website is not the same as a search engine optimized website. I'm using that as a jump off point for this article on the topic of building a search engine friendly website. The purpose is to simply highlight a few of the aspects that comprise a SE friendly (not necessarily optimized) website.

Giving Personality to Your Personas
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Search-Engine-Marketing] Ever since reading Call to Action I've been in love with the whole idea of personas. We've been doing a lot of reading on the topic lately and learning how to create strong personas for each website we work with. One of the things we've been trying to wrap our head around is the concept of writing content for both personas and the personality of site visitors. We battled with this for several days, trying to distinguish properly between a persona and a personality. I was finally able to boil each down into a few words that made it easy for us to see the difference.

Winning Is For Wimps And Losers
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Search-Engine-Marketing] People often find themselves looking for the winning scenario for themselves or their businesses. Finding the winning scenario is important for any long-term success. But even better than the winning scenario is the win-win scenario.

Managing Your Inbox Tasks
[Business:Management] For me, my email inbox is also another to-do or task box. In fact, the first tasks I accomplish each day are those assigned to me via my email. This is important because while our task system is comprised of tasks assigned internally, my email box is largely made up of tasks assigned to me by people outside of the office such as clients and prospective clients. Even the most important internal tasks run secondary to the inbox!

All Roads Lead to Congestion - Weighing in on Universal Search, Part II
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] With Google's new universal search being rolled out the concept of "top search engine rankings" changes dramatically. On one hand a first page ranking is much more difficult to achieve, and on the other, there are now more ways in which to achieve a first page ranking. Here is a quick rundown of possible results that could appear on the first page of a Google search.

Mmmm! Tasty Search Goulash - Weighing in on Universal Search
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] I've had some time to consider Google's new universal search that they are implementing in their search results. What I see makes me think of this in terms of search goulash. Mmmm! a (not-so) tasty combination of everything I didn't want in my search with some stuff I did thrown in.

Search Engine Friendly is NOT Search Engine Optimized
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] When we are quoting development work for prospective clients we are often asked to develop a website that is search engine optimized. This usually brings me into a long-winded explanation on how developing a website to be search engine friendly is not the same thing as optimizing that website for search performance. Kind of like how building a car is not the same as making it ready to compete in the Indy 500. Those are two different tasks altogether.

A Lesson of Real Customer Service
[Business:Management] In customer service, it's the little things that matter most. A little eye contact here or a head nod there may seem insignificant, and largely are, but to a customer needing acknowledgment, these things are everything. There is nothing worse than needing help in a store and getting ignored by the very people who are supposed to be there to help.

Link Bait is the New Reciprocal Link
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Link-Popularity] Link bait and reciprocal linking programs have quite a bit in common. I believe that many forms of link baiting are just a dressed up version of reciprocal links without the reciprocation. I would guess a bigger slice of the link baiting pie holds no more value than the old fashioned reciprocal link schemes.

Books - The Sweet Nectar of Life
[Business] You've all heard the motto "ABC: Always Be Closing." More importantly I think we should Always Be Reading so we can Always Be Learning. I've never heard anybody regret having more knowledge that helped them build a better business, family, or make themselves a better person.

Are You Saying What You Think You're Saying?
[Business:Marketing] Even when you think you're communicating properly, you may not be. If you're anything like me (and honestly, let's hope you're not!) you find yourself getting frustrated from time to time because some people are not following your directions. You couldn't be any more clearer, right? Well, maybe you could!

8 Ways I Wish Being Offline Was Like Being Online
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humor] Ever wonder what it would be like if we had all the conveniences of the Internet in the "real" world? I do. A lot, actually. Whether I'm sitting at a stop light, looking where I left my keys or just waiting in line at the grocery store, if we had the power of the Internet available to us I think our lives would be so much simpler.

How Little Information Can Provide Accurate Expectations
[Business:Marketing] Providing a little (or a lot) of information can go a long, long way to building a good relationship with your visitors. That, in turn, can lead to more sales and significant business growth. Unfortunately, many online businesses go with the less is more philosophy. As such, this leads to less user satisfaction and in turn, fewer sales.

Four Simple Steps to Developing Leaders In Your Organization
[Business:Team-Building] Many business owners and managers don't fully understand the value in finding, training and developing leaders in their organizations. This is especially true of small businesses. For the most part, I think business leaders are afraid that if their employees turn into successful leaders then they'll lose them. That's a valid fear, but should not be a fear at all.

Small Businesses Should Know Their Place Online
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Search-Engine-Marketing] The online environment has dropped a number of barriers for the creation of new businesses. Before, the dream of "sticking it to the man" and starting a business of your own was a lot more difficult and burdensome, requiring planning for location, financing and a host of other issues. Online - however, the roadblocks to starting a business of your own, even if just happy to produce additional income, are far less severe. While that has been wonderful for commerce, it also has its downsides. Namely, the lack of planning in order to build a successful business.

The Best Keywords Ever
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Internet-Marketing] How to determine which keywords will be the best for you.

How To Sell That Thing You Sell
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Search-Engine-Marketing] Any good website uses some kind pre-selling technique regularly. Think about it, rarely does a home page actually sell the products or service offered. That page is just an overview, an introduction, a flowery summary of what the products or services are all about.

Does your SEO Only Know SEO?
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] The SEO industry has changed significantly in the last few years. Gone are they days when SEO focused exclusively on top search engine rankings. Today's SEOs, or at least any worth paying more than one dollar to, are focusing on many other aspects that were once traditionally left to more marketing minded people.

10 Not-So-Quick-But-Still-Important Ways to Increase Conversions
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Internet-Marketing] There are literally thousands of signals that can be changed to improve one's conversion. Today I give 10, but they are not quite as easy to implement as those on the first list. They are none-the-less still important! These are in no particular order.

10 Quick Ways to Increase Conversions
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Internet-Marketing] While there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of things that can be changed to help improve conversion rates, we've created a short list of things that are both quick and easy to change or add to your site. These are in no particular order.

Multiple Path Link Building
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] While there is no replacing the concept of building a good site worthy of links and letting people know about it, there are actually numerous strategies available for attracting good links through solid marketing efforts. In any kind of marketing it’s good to have multiple strategies, or multiple paths, which one can travel to get to the goal.

How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Everybody wants to succeed in life but many of us are unwilling to really do what it takes to succeed. In fact, most people love to find ways to "succeed" with the most minimal effort required - hence the millions of dollars poured into the lottery each year. If you are reading this because you thought I'd give you some secrets to succeeding in life and business with little or no effort, well, I apologize for the deception, but that just doesn't happen.

Serving the Client's Best Interest is Not Always in the Client's Best Interest
[Business:Customer-Service] One thing I want out mission statement to convey is that we are in business to serve our clients, not ourselves. But the more I thought about this the more I realized that this sentiment is not entirely true. While we want our purpose to be client-centric we realized that in order for us to properly server our clients we have to serve ourselves as well.

How to Make Fridays Productive Again
[Business:Management] Fridays are typically the most unproductive day of the week, with the exception of the occasional Monday doldrums. By Friday everybody is ready for the weekend and it's often just difficult to get into the work rhythm of the first four days of the week. But there is a way to get more done Monday through Thursday by doing something a little different on Friday, and making Fridays a bit more productive than usual.

What's a Top Search Engine Ranking Worth?
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] The real answer to the question, "What's a Top Ranking Worth" is, "this much," which, of course, doesn't provide much help at all. But that's because the value of a top position for a keyword is determined by a number of fluid factors. In fact, if you really want to know what a top ranking is worth, you need to first answer these questions:

Time Tracking for Greater Productivity
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] Time spent on billable activities is important information to know, and not just to have a better picture of the bottom line. How your time is spent affects both you and your clients. The more time spent on unbillable activities the more you have to compensate by adjusting package pricing, but the less time spent on billable activities, the less you are actually doing for our clients.

Don't Cheat Your Business by Going Cheap On SEO
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] If you're like me, that frugality carries over into just about all areas of your life, including searching for an SEO company. But one thing that bargain shoppers tend to find out the hard way is that sometimes the best deal isn't always the best deal. In fact, the bargain often turns out to cost you more in the long run.

Billable Rights of SEOs and Their Clients
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] List of several "rights" SEOs and their clients should be able to expect within an optimization campaign.

Being Successful by Committing to Constant Growth
[Business:Small-Business] No matter how successful you are be content, but no so much that you don't continue the struggle to be more successful tomorrow than you are today.

7 Things Clients Look For In An SEO
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] Instead of creating another list telling the business owner what they should or should not be looking for in an SEO, I wanted to analyze what it is that the client actually looks for when they are narrowing down their choices between SEO providers. Here is a list of seven things the client considers:

Guide for Writing Search Engine Optimized Text
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Search-Engine-Marketing] Optimized text (OT) is first and foremost marketing copy for the website. Each optimized page must be written with the client's products or services in mind. They are not general information pages, but pages designed to provide the visitor with the information they seek which compels them to take the desired action.

Long- vs. Short-Term SEO
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] I've always thought of SEO as a long-term process. More of a perpetual process, really. SEO firms (not to be confused with SEO consultants) tend to provide one of two different types of service: short term and a long-term strategies. Here are the differences between the two.

3 Important Elements of SEO, 4 That are Absolutely Essential
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] Not everybody is able to implement a full-scale SEO strategy. The reasons for this may vary; time, budget, technological barriers, etc. For those that find yourself limited by what you can do now, here are the essentials of SEO:

How Best to Spend Your Marketing Budget
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Search-Engine-Marketing] When considering avenues for marketing, the list is endless. You can invest money in a number of off-line places: radio ads, TV spots, billboards, etc. The addition of online marketing has opened up a number of new doors: website development, email advertising, banner ads, pay-per-click ads, strategic link partnerships, search engine optimization, social networking, directory submissions, and the list goes on.

13 Ways to Lose ROI on Your SEO Campaign
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] Whether you have outsourced your SEO campaign or are performing it in-house, here is a quick list on how to lose ROI and create diminishing returns for your business. Why 13? Well, because that's your lucky number!

Investing in SEO: Clients vs SEOs
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] Being in the business of search engine marketing I sometimes get overwhelmed with the sheer number of hours necessary to fully market a site online. Actually, I can't even say there is such a thing as "fully" marketing a site online as there are truly an endless number of marketing options. There are so many things that can be done while also maintaining a budget both for the client and for the time involved.

Creating a Positive SEO Experience
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] You hear a lot about the negative perception that many in the business world have of SEO. I think a lot of this is inevitable for any new industry just emerging. For years SEO has been relatively easy to jump into and "expert" SEO firms were known to appear overnight, only to disappear months later.

The Arrogance of SEO
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] I'm tired of the arrogance within the SEO community, specifically with those that claim themselves to be the keepers of all true and correct SEO knowledge. It's pitiful, undignified, disheartening, and annoying, and I've had enough!

Measured SEM Success
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Search-Engine-Marketing] Search engine marketing is simultaneously an intense game of taking action to increase sales while also a patient intermission of waiting to see the results. There is almost always something that can be done to improve your site and your search rankings, but after making specific changes you must be patient enough to wait for the results of those changes to come back and be compared against the previous changes.

Three Final Checks for Your Optimized Pages
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] If you are always optimizing pages then you probably know how easy it is to overlook small, but important things. The big stuff like keyword research, good copy and links, are all the easy stuff to remember because that's what SEO is all about. But it's the small things that, when overlooked, can often throw the biggest wrenches in the works for an otherwise well-optimized site. Here are the three most commonly overlooked tasks when uploaded new or changed content to your website:

SEO Holy Trinity, Holy Grail, and Wholly Textbook
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] If there was a Holy Trinity of SEO I would say it would have to be copywriting, usability and links. These three things make up the bulk of any SEO campaign and also hold the most influence as to how a site will rank. But there is one important part of SEO that is actually more important than this Trinity, and that is Keyword Research. Without this, any SEO campaign, even "Textbook SEO," is basically a game of pin the tail on the online donkey!

Undersell Your SEO Service, Overachieve Your SEO Results
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] It's easy to tell people what they want to hear but something entirely different to actually be able to fulfill such promises. Sometimes the best sales approach for SEO is to undersell and over-deliver.

Mining for Keyword Gold!
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Site-Promotion] The first and most important step in our research process is to identify the site's major core terms. We've found that by knowing all the main and/or relevant core terms, you're better able to find all the most important keyword phrases.

Real Search Engine Optimization Link Baiting
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Site-Promotion] The more I what link baiting is the more I realize its really already part of a sound search engine optimization/marketing campaign, or at least it should be. Real link baiting is really nothing more than having a site that is worth of attention.

How to Lead with your Online Marketing Campaign
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Internet-Marketing] There is nothing wrong with a desire to be everywhere your competitors are, but don't let this form the only basis for how you run your business. If you truly wish to be successful, you need to lead with your online marketing campaign.

Drive Business Success Through Delegation
[Arts-and-Entertainment] To me, running a business isn't just about making money, it's about being the very best in the business. Very few people are an island amongst themselves, and even fewer have succeeded solely on their own. Operating a business successfully requires delegate authority and finding people who can do things better than yourself.

Preaching to the Converted: Keeping the Conversion Process Going
[Business:Marketing] Does the conversion process end at the point of sale? Those of us in service industries realize that the conversion process is ongoing as we have to ensure customer satisfaction in order to continue to get repeat business. But even for those in retail or selling products of some sort, the conversation may be the end of one sales process, but it should also be the beginning of another.

Secrets of Successful Business Relationships Online
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online] Operating a successful business is largely about building and maintaining relationships. The most successful businesses are those that work to develop a relationship with their customers.

How to Spam with Blogs: A Tutorial for Every Wanna-be SEO
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Blogging] Search engines love blogs and therefore so do spammers. Spammers love blogs only because blog spamming techniques work, thanks to the search engines and bloggers themselves.

How to Persuade Others to Give You Their Money
[Business:Marketing] There are a number of persuasive sales tactics available for both the aggressive and passive individual, everything from fear to manipulation to coaxing to demonstration. Some of these methods are positive, some are extremely negative. This article discusses the overall process that positive persuasion entails, and what you can and should do in order to be more persuasive to potential clients and customers.

When and Why Should you Secure Multiple Domains
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Domain-Names] There are many different reasons for purchasing multiple domain names, and each reason has its own set of benefits and uses.

Managing Your SEO Time Effectively
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] In SEO and SEM, time management is critical. You can spend countless hours "tweaking" a website but limits have to be placed on the amount of time you'll spend doing this for any one client.

Undesirable SEO and What to Do With a Small Marketing Budget
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] If you have a good business model, the exposure you gain from Google and Yahoo through paid ads will not only start producing income (if not a profit) but will also start getting people to your site.

Prevent Home Page Link Value Leakage
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] As technologically advanced as search engines are, there are a few areas where they still don't quite measure up. It's well known that search engines don't like duplicate content on web sites, but did you know you could unknowingly be serving them duplicate content? It's quite common, really.

SEO Your Website First, Design Later
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] I often get calls from people exploring search engine optimization but want to wait until their website is fully developed and operational before they sign on with any particular SEO company. It makes sense on the surface because they want to make sure the site looks and performs properly before dropping money into a long term commitment to an online marketing firm. But that's like making sure your brick and mortar store is up and running before you develop your business plan. It should be the other way around.

Establishing Web Credibility
[Home-Based-Business] When doing business online your credibility will play a significant role in how much business you can get and how successful you can be. Just like any brick and mortar store, losing credibility with your online business can be disastrous for business.

SEO is Location, Location, Location
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] Many who run a web-based business have already recognized that they have many significant advantages over those who operating a brick and mortar shop. But even online businesses require clearly established plans, capital and effective management in order to be successful.

SEO Accounts for Only 11% of SEM Spending
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] SEMPO recently published a study which shows that a only 11% of all search engine marketing advertising is spent on search engine optimization, with the vast majority, a full 83%, is spent on pay-per-click advertising.

Meeting Your Targeted Audience's Wants and Needs
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Web-Development] Every industry has a different niche audience (those seeking your services specifically) as well as a much larger one (those who are not seeking, but can use, your services). While you don’t have to provide a perfect user experience for every individual who stumbles across your site (an impossible task anyway,) you always want to be sure to incorporate the elements that your audience wants and needs.

Online Marketing Hierarchy and Definitions
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] Here is a short list of common terms with my version of their definitions and in their hierarchical structure.

Are Search Engine Rankings That Important?
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] What's more important, conversion or rankings? On one side you'll get the argument that if you achieve top rankings (which drives traffic) but you cannot convert your visitors substantially, your rankings are then wasted. On the other side you’ll hear that if you build your site and are able to generate a substantial conversion rate, but don't attain top positions in the rankings (and therefore obtain less traffic), then you won't have anybody to convert.

Building a Professional Website that Achieves Your Goals
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Web-Development] Your website is an electronic extension of your business. Poorly designed web pages often fail to provide users with a satisfactory online browsing or shopping experience. By nature of being an electronic medium, web surfers have constantly growing expectations from the sites they visit while online.

Bridging the Gap Between the Page, Keywords and Copywriting
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Internet-Marketing] How many different ways are there to say the same thing? In some industries, quite a lot. Let's look at the SEM industry. When researching industry related keywords we found quite a few keyword themes that mean relatively the same thing to the common searcher: internet marketing, website marketing, online marketing, website promotion, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, SEO... these just to name a few.

Top Rankings Guarantees Debunked (Again)
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] Each week I get calls from prospective clients looking for some kind of guarantee for our services. Sure, we can provide a guarantee that gives us enough wiggle room to be useless, such as the one mentioned above, but personally, I would rather work with a company that is a bit more forthright in their business practices.

New Algorithm Measures Require New Means For Optimization
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] With every new algorithm change we find that search engine technology is getting smarter and wiser about how they analyze pages for the search results. In the past, much time and effort has been spent trying to deconstruct search engine algorithms while neglecting the user. Today’s SEO is vastly different than that of yesterday.

Securing a Marketing Rich Domain
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Site-Promotion] Choosing your domain name is a no-brainer, right? Not so fast. Your domain name, or URL, can have vast consequences in both the online and offline marketing arena. Long or difficult to spell domain names can be the death toll for any website, long before its even been given a chance at success.

SEO is Dead
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] The death of SEO has been proclaimed (and forecast) for years. I have never bought into this and time has proven that belief correct. I do, however, believe the SEO landscaped has changed significantly causing the elimination of SEO-only providers within the next few years… if not sooner.

Creating a Marketing Focused Website that Sells
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Web-Development] Online business owners often look at a website as development expense rather than a marketing expense. This is unfortunate and is often the reason why many online businesses under-perform. The Internet is still new and very much in its infancy and our view of how the web should operate, especially in the business realm, is still developing. It's been a slow process, but many business owners' attitudes towards website development and marketing has slowly begun to evolve.

Analyzing One-Way Vs. Reciprocal Links
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Internet-Marketing] Link building has become a cornerstone of SEO/SEM services so many are interested in knowing what makes a good link, what they should strive for, etc. that will provide the biggest impact on their site optimization.

Should SEOs Recommend or Implement Optimization Changes?
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] Most of the reasons cited for not implementing SEO changes can easily be remedied and eliminated by making one simple change: Hire an SEO that will make the changes themselves, rather than submitting a list of recommendations.

All Marketers are Thieves
[Business:Marketing] A famous marketing has been quoted as saying all marketers are liars. I certainly won't argue with that principle. Marketing is often about who can BS the best. But I also think it’s true that all marketers are thieves.

Common Sense Algorithm Chasing
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] While I still believe strongly in common-sense SEO my views on algorithm chasing have evolved a certain degree. Many SEOs believe that the two are mutually exclusive, meaning you can't optimize in a common sense manner if you are going to optimize specifically for a search engine algorithm. There is some truth to this; I think that those that are proponents of either one method or the other are missing the big picture.

Selecting a Web Host Provider that Meets Your Needs
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Web-Hosting] How or where you host your website may not seem like it's all that important to the overall marketing plan of your site, but I guarantee that you'll only think that until your website or email goes down when it matters most. Over the years I've used almost a dozen different web hosts providers. In that time, I've found only one or two which were virtually hassle-free, and for that I had to pay some pretty sizeable hosting fees.

Why Online Marketing Matters
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Internet-Marketing] Search engine marketing has boomed in recent years and statistics show that spending for online marketing is only going to continue to increase year after year. Several years ago the concept of running a website in conjunction with your "brick and mortar" store was seen as just another avenue to generate a handful more sales each year. Today, running a website is not only a great way to generate a considerable amount of new revenue, it is almost essential to the total marketing plan of your business.

Pay for Performance Pricing Models for Search Engine Optimization
[Business:Marketing] Pay for Performance Pricing Models for Search Engine Optimization

Do You Have a Bad SEO Company, or Are You Just a Bad Client?
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] There have been a number of blog and forum posts and articles recently about what to do if you’re with a bad SEO company. All good advice, but sometimes it’s not the SEO that’s bad, its the client. Yeah, that’s right, sometimes the client’s are just plain clueless, have unreasonable expectations, or fall prey to the “grass is greener” scenario presented by competition. Yes, sometimes clients are bad.

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait (and Other Analogies and Cliche's for SEO)
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] We've all heard that familiar expression, "Good things come to those who wait". Whether you're waiting for your Heinz ketchup to pour out onto your burger (remember those commercials?), waiting for Christmas day to open your gifts, waiting for summer vacation to be let out of school, or waiting in line at the DMV... well, maybe not the DMV, good things will come if you simply allow them to come in their own time.

Determining the Value of Your SEO Service
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] A year ago, the bulk of our optimization occurred in the set-up phase, with the monthly optimization consisting of a few hours of link building, rankings monitoring and on-page tweaking. Now, the set-up is just a mere fraction of the hours that go into each optimization campaign.

Allocating Your Web Site's Budget Properly
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Web-Development] Many people still do not consider what they do with their website as part of their marketing plan but as, well, just something else.

Marketing Your Web Site the Right Way is a Worthwhile Investment
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Site-Promotion] I run across many people who still like to take care of these things in-house. I certainly understand the motivation for doing so, saving money and all that, but what about the time factor? What about ensuring it's done correctly. What about keeping up with trends and industry changes?

What Makes The Perfect SEO Firm?
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] SEO companies come in all shapes and sizes. The perfect SEM firm needs at least one (or more) of the following: