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Google Plus Business Pages

August 1, 2011 Leave a Comment

I have a feeling that Google Plus Business pages are going to be rather sweet.  I also think that Google may charge for some elements of it, but maybe not.  Keep reading if you are wondering why I say that.

Right now you cannot set up a business page on Google Plus.  If you do, they will take it down.  Google is also being very strict about the quality of profiles.  If you are not a real person and list a real name they are deactivating your access.

Money! © by yomanimus

When you consider the commitment to a high quality network and the delay in Business pages, I see an opportunity I would consider if I was Google.

1.  I would continue to put big resources into building a legitimate and high quality network, even though the raw numbers would be lower.

2.  I would come out with the coolest set of Google plus business tools that blow away other networks, like FaceBook and LinkedIn.  I would let businesses build email opt other things that make sense for a business but are restricted in those networks.

3.  To limit sloppy “businesses” and scams, I would charge a monthly fee to have a Google plus business profile page – or at least I would charge for extended services.  This would greatly decrease the low quality businesses even if it is only a few dollars per month.  And Google could justify the cost because of the quality networks, which costs a lot to maintain.

Of course, clubs and other types of organizations would want to have a Google Plus business page but those could be limited and could include ads.

I do not know if this is what is going to happen, but I would consider it if I was them.  As much as we all love free, charging the small amount for Google plus business pages will increase quality and cut the clutter of all those worthless sites.

Please, Google, make us pay for it and keep getting rid of fake people.

Filed Under: Business, Opt-Ed, Social Media Tagged With: , ,

Google+, G+ and Google Plus

July 23, 2011 Leave a Comment

Picking a name is very difficult.  It can actually kill a product at times.  The reason a bad name can kill a product is that it is hard to spell, hard to find, confusing or so common that you cannot stand out.

Google Plus has a huge advantage because it is Google.  I love a made up name that is simple and when I named my lead generation product Buzzoodle, it was with the similar idea in mind.

Of course, I also had to buy domains for all the ways people would misspell it, such as buzzdoodle and buzznoodle.

Google Plus is suffering a bit from some confusion.  Google seems to prefer Google+, but the search engine itself sees the + as “and” and not as part of the name.  That means for search, calling Google+ Google+ is less effective than calling it Google Plus.

I wonder if they had a meeting where this was discussed – seems a big deal, since they are Google and it is not well named for Google search.  Did someone finally yell, “Damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead”?  Probably.

I am not suggesting it is a bad name.  The fall out of how it will be referred to is interesting.  Many people shorten it to G+ when chatting.  If you are writing for search, you will write Google Plus and if you are formally writing about it in an article for a serious publication, you will have to refer to it as Google+.

Will this ambiguity hurt it?

Well, it took forever for me to find the Google+ app in iTunes because it did not appear in their search.  If you searched on Google Huddle supposedly it showed up.  Now that is intuitive.  And this is only one example of what will probably be a lot of problems.

The good news for Google is that the combination of Brand and Buzz will probably overcome these obstacles, but if you are a less well known company, do not try a + for yourself.

Filed Under: Business, Social Media Tagged With: , ,

Google Plus – Unique Things I Have Done

July 15, 2011 Leave a Comment

I have done some things on Google Plus that I have definitely not done on any of the other platforms, and I thought I would share them with you in this quick post.

One thing I did that was probably the coolest Google plus thing is that I was on a podcast radio show via the video chat.  I did not expect to get great PR in the first week of using the tool.

Next, because it is a lot of interesting techies on there and not many people spamming, I am actually trusting the content.  I bought an iPhone App, membership to a monthly service and will probably buy some premium WordPress themes soon that someone recommended.

I have browsed someone’s Spotify music list and added some of their music to my list.

I have written blog posts specifically so I could post them in Google plus – usually I write for the blog and then promote via social media.

I have NOT opened as many traditional emails.  My open rate has been cut in half.  Sorry Internet Marketers.

Google plus is a new traffic source that is second only to using Buzzoodle to generate search traffic for me.

Overall, I expect that they will keep adding cool things like business pages to Google Plus that will give me more and more things I can try.

Filed Under: Business, Social Media Tagged With: ,

WordPress SEO Basics

July 13, 2011 Leave a Comment

This WordPress SEO Basics article is a beginners build to getting WordPress set up for better SEO results.

First, this is a basic guilde, so I better let you know what WordPress and SEO are.

WordPress is Opensource [Free] Blogging software that will allow you to publish articles on a domain and manage them well.  It is simple to set up, and most hosts, such as Bluehost, have a quick install button in the hosting account.  Hosting the WordPress site is not free, nor is the domain, but the software itself is.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  This is the ability to get information to rank well in search engines so that you get more free, high quality website traffic.  Boiled down to the basics, it is producing good content, optimizing the content, doing keyword research and getting links from other sites back to yours.

WordPress is a very powerful SEO tool for several reasons.

  1. It is easy to set up so that it optimizes pages automatically.
  2. It has tools that make links easier.  Namely, the RSS feed can be used to integrate your articles into other sites to generate backlinks.
  3. Powerful WordPress SEO Plugins exist.  These are usually free things you add to the WordPress install that will improve SEO.
  4. Easy Article Creation – Because it is so easy to log in and create articles, you can do a better job of steadily creating articles and constantly improving your SEO results.

On top of all of that, WordPress integration features make it possible to buy products that make things even more easy.  I built a powerful WordPress Lead Generation system that many people and businesses use to attract leads to their WordPress lead generation site.  There are many 3rd party WordPress tools and programs you can use.

WordPress dominates the Internet and is the tool of choice for almost everyone that wants to get results from SEO.

Here are a few quick and easy WordPress SEO tips to get you started.

  • In settings on the lower left of the admin panel, choose the permalink structure and use custom and add /%postname%.html to the custom box.  This will optimize the URL of the article titles to get better ranking for words in the title of the article or page.
  • Install All In One SEO plugin and activate it.  This will automate most of the SEO for the on page site.  Look through the settings of the plugin and make adjustments as needed.  I usually take out the site name from the way it does the title of posts.
  • Install Google XML Sitemap plugin.  This will automatically build a sitemap for the site that will help search engines index the site better.
  • Use keywords in Titles – this can be very effective.  Use your keywords in the title and in the first sentence and you will rank better.
  • Tag with Keywords – To get better WordPress SEO, be sure to tag using keywords as the tag, for your articles.
  • Keep writing – people often give up too quickly.  SEO takes months to start kicking in and you need to write very regularly to build the site up and start seeing results.

These are some of the Wordpess SEO basics that I share with many people.  Be sure to check out our WordPress SEO videos in Buzzoodle.

Filed Under: Business, How To

Spying on Your Competition

July 8, 2011 Leave a Comment

Adam Short posted an article about spy tools that is excellent and in depth.  In it he talks about the different tools to spy on your competition and how to see the keywords and what they are doing.

Also, there are some very good Firefox plugins that help you spy on competition.

There are some things to keep in mind.

#1 Just because your competition has a nice looking website does not mean it is making money for them.  It would be a shame to put a lot of effort into targeting their traffic only to find there is very little traffic or they are tire kickers and not buyers.

#2 Just because your competition is doing it does not mean it is the best available.  Use Market Samurai and see if you can find some good niche keywords that your competition does not know about yet.

#3 Don’t spend so much time researching that you postpone writing blog posts or articles too long.  Content is key, and the longer you wait to get some good quality content out there, the faster you start competing with your competition.

I have still not heard of any tools that are all encompassing, such as looking at Twitter, FaceBook, SEO and more.  That would be really cook to get all of that in one snap shot.  If you find a tool like that please leave it in the comments.

Filed Under: Business, Social Media Tagged With: ,

Do Not Delete Your Blog

July 6, 2011 Leave a Comment

This video is an explanation of why you should not delete your blog, even if you feel like your business blog is stealing traffic from your main site.

Filed Under: Business, Videos Tagged With:

Buzzoodle Review

July 5, 2011 Leave a Comment

This is a review of the Buzzoodle Lead Generation system.

Now you first have to be warned that I am the owner of the lead generation software, so my review is hardly unbiased.  However, I thought I would do one anyway because I can give you some details here that are not available on the main Buzzoodle sales page.

History of Lead Generation

To begin with, I did not plan to build lead generation software.  I was actually building business blogging software that would help me manage a group of business blogs built in WordPress.  Then, as I refined my system over several years, I realized that the combination of business blogging with WordPress, combined with great SEO and a firm call to action was the best way to build a low cost lead generation system online.

Does the Software Work?

The lead generation software is great.  But the real question is whether your product or service works well with SEO and online lead generation.  Some products and industries work much better than others.  While you should always get some results, the question each person has to ask themself is, is the effort worth the outcome?  In other words, will I get a positive ROI on my lead generation effort?  Since the software is only $9.95 per month, it is not a big risk.  However, you will need to buy domains, set up WordPress sites and write articles, so there is some other time and expense involved.

I have seen people make six figures in a month and I have seen people not get any leads after six months of effort.  Assume it will take at least three months of effort to get an idea of whether it will work for your product or service or not.

What Does Buzzoodle Include?

Buzzoodle has some significant benefits.  This Buzzoodle review is only a summary.  Basically, you get training on setting up and working your lead generation system.  You get some automatic back linking services.  You get many different ways to create blog content that is targeted to your search terms.  You get SERP reporting (Search Engine Ranking Report) which alone is worth more than the monthly cost of the membership.  And you get keyword targeting, where the system automatically targets and tracks keywords.

Gushing About My Own Product

Lets just keep this short and sweet since if I start gushing about the product you would not and should not believe me.  I discounted it from $67 per month in 2010 to $9.95 per month in 2011 because I wanted more people to give it an honest try and not give up after just one or two months.  Many people are now using it to grow their business.  It is about as risk free as I can make it.  I hope you will give it a try if you think people are out searching for your product or service.

Filed Under: Business, Product Reviews Tagged With: ,

Risks with Internet Tools

April 24, 2010 Leave a Comment

As an Internet Marketing Speaker, I have told thousands of people about free and low cost Internet tools for generating leads.  It is wonderful what you can do in Internet Marketing for free if you just know which tools to use.

A little while back, Google did some weird thing where they upgraded my account, built me a new gmail account and linked everything to it – all with the accidental click of one button.

I used to get emails when Google docs were updated, and this let me follow up on speaking leads right away.  Unfortunately, this thing that happened made the emails go to the new gmail account I was not using.

It took me several weeks to realize that I was not getting notified of leads that came in from those websites.  Unfortunately, one of the leads was big, close to my home and a great opportunity.  Since I was several weeks late following up I lost the opportunity.

Now I do not want to blame Google here – because I have had similar problems with other services both free and paid.

The moral of the story is that you need to test your lead generation tools every week.  If it seems like it has been a while, maybe something is not working and you are losing leads.

I also had an Internet Marketing client that I started working with recently.  They were paying nearly $1,000 a month for a service to capture and generate leads for them.  He complained that they had not gotten one lead in over 9 months.  I asked a few questions and within 24 hours we found that the leads were being sent to an old email that no one checked anymore.

Problems can occur with any system.  It is the sales manager’s job to keep an eye on these things.  One lost lead can cost you many thousands of dollars.  That is indeed the situation for me with that Internet Marketing Speaker opportunity I got.  Now I am testing thing much more frequently.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: ,

Internet Marketing Speaker – Ron McDaniel

January 26, 2010 Leave a Comment

Two weeks ago I finished teaching my first 3 credit hour Internet Marketing class at a large university.

As an Internet Marketing Speaker, I am used to speaking about Internet Marketing for an hour or two.  Sometimes I even do a half day Internet Marketing Workshop.  But I was a bit worried about teaching 40 hours of Internet Marketing lecture.

I should not have been worried.  Never before in my life have I ever been so keenly aware of what 17 years of Internet marketing experience has done for me.  40 hours only scratched the surface – those poor kids.  I had to take important things out to avoid burying them under far too much information.

If you are looking for an Internet Marketing Speaker, give me a call.  I can craft the kind of Internet marketing focus that will be custom and best for your audience.  What you will NOT get from me is a general summary of social media marketing strategies, as I think this is too common and many people are tired of hearing it.  I prefer to focus on using Internet Marketing for lead generation.  This is what people really value and enjoy learning, because it can change your life in a big sort of way.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: ,

Professor or University Speaker?

January 7, 2010 1 Comment

Next week I am thrilled to be teaching a 3 credit hour course on Internet Marketing at Kent State University.

It is more work and more time for lower pay when you compare it to a normal 1-2 hour Internet Marketing Speaker gig, but it is really interesting to have the chance to spend 40 hours with a small group on students that are hungry for this kind of information.

If you are a speaker and have never done a big workshop that is longer than the normal speech you might do, here is what I learned.  Break it down into 30-60 minute speeches.  So 40 hours is basically 30 smaller speeches and some time for activities, project work, Q&A, live demos and more.

The Internet Marketing class I have designed and am going to teach is not “how to do Internet Marketing.”  It is actually how to work with different kinds of clients, assess their needs and propose the best Internet Marketing strategies and solutions to meet their goals within their budget.

Of course, I will be working with students to teach them the basics of Internet Marketing as well, but more in line with improving their ability to talk about it and plan for it.  A very valuable skill, if you don’t mind me saying.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , ,
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