April, 2007

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Just Starting Out? Finding Your First SEO Client

Tuesday, April 17th, 2007

So you’ve been bustin’ your ass for a while now with a few of your sites, and you’ve got them ranking pretty well. You’ve studied all the ebooks on SEO, you’ve read John Battelle’s Search book, and you’re ready to take on your first paying SEO client.

Since you’re just starting out, you’re obviously at a bit of a disadvantage as far as marketing is concerned. Chances are, you’ve been spending all your time (and money?) marketing your SEM sites, and not your SEO abilities. That’s ok, finding a client won’t be too bad.

If you’re a web designer, you’ve probably already got a list of clients that you could contact. Tell them about your “newest service”, search optimization. Or search marketing. Or search engine marketing. Whatever you want to call it. Click to continue »

Posted in Marketing, SEO, beginner sem, local marketing | 1 Response »

Business Cards for All Those Sites?

Monday, April 16th, 2007

Whenever I launch a new locally-targeted website, I head over to VistaPrint and order up some business cards. For only about $16 bucks, I can have nice color cards, complete with my name, website, and other important info. I’ve probably got ten different business cards at any one time.

Some people advocate handing out business cards blindly, but I’ve found it smarter to get to know the person, even if its just their name and the business they’re in. Now I’ve got an arsenal of ten differently-targeted business cards to pull from. If he’s in the concrete business, I’ll give him a card about my deck website. If she is a dental assistant, out comes a teeth-whitening card. Small business owner? Hand them a local forum card with an advertising discount.
Many of you are missing out on the huge local market. Quit trying to rank for mesothelioma. Everyone’s doing that. But I’d be willing to bet no one is trying to rank for roofing in your town. Build a site that refers only quality roofers to customers, then charge local roofers per lead to be listed on your site. You’ll be the only one trying, and I can almost guarantee you can rank for not only great roofing terms, but you could even rank for the roofers’ business names as well!

So next time you meet a nail salesman, hand him that roofer card. Chances are he knows some people that you need to know.

Oh, and while I’m mentioning VistaPrint, when you’re filling out those fields about your business, don’t follow the captions. For example, if it says FAX: but you think your website address would look better, put it there. There are no rules saying you have to follow their form. Make your card look nice and flowing, not just like everyone else’s.

Posted in Marketing, beginner sem, local marketing | 1 Response »

Don’t Stay Poor

Friday, April 13th, 2007

Whether you’ve been doing SEM for a week or a year, you should always see an increase. While I chose the name Poor SEM for this blog, it is my hope that everyone grows out of reading this simplistic site and reaches a point where they have to dig deeper.

Teach yourself about LSI. Study (and attempt!) Linkbaiting.

Read How to Win Friends & Influence People and Think and Grow Rich and the The Little Red Book of Selling. In fact, don’t stop reading. Visit Borders all the time and check out the newest Marketing and Sales and Business and Finance books. Get them all. Or get them from the library. Just get them and devour them.

My fourteen year old is interested in making money online. He’s smart, and will be making fifty bucks a month within a few weeks. Sure, he’s got the Dad advantage, but so what. You’ve got it too, you just don’t know where to look.

Poor SEM is a great place to start out. But don’t hang around. Start here, take the tips, expand on them, make some money and then make more.
And don’t build a site that tells its readers to go away :)

Posted in Marketing, beginner sem | 3 Responses »

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