Daddy Dewberry » Industry Thoughts

Dear Google Instant: I Love You!

Marc — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 21:38:31 +0000

Google has just rolled out its new search feature called Google Instant, and I love it. Hence, the title of my post. At any rate, I feel as though Instant will help revolutionize the way users interact with search engines. It doesn’t change much of anything for SEO, daddy bloggers, or social media, but the implications are high for encouraging people to continue using search engines.

Google Instant is not obtrusive, runs quite fast (software), and allows me (the user) to preform my searches and get to where I want to go. This is like a digital speed rail or the Chuck Norris version of a search engine. Not really, but whatever.

Google has plans to continue rolling out Google Instant on other domains and languages. Instant should be available on mobile very soon.

Here are a few screen shots of me searching for WordPress Themes…

As I continued to type out my search query, Google’s search results change instantly. Is anyone confused why they called it Google Instant? Cool, cool new feature. Job well done, Google. I leave with a promo video from Google.

Affiliate Marketing: What You Were Never Told!

Marc — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 23:27:29 +0000

Affiliate marketing and other income producing ideas are running rampant through the interweb (Urban Dictionary). I know I sound somewhat sarcastic, but I think there are a few things that need to be said (we probably should have said a few things about the housing market, but alas…it doesn’t matter now).

For some reason, I feel somewhat slighted about the way I was introduced to affiliate marketing and ad revenue (that is another story for another day that I will mostly likely never discuss–mainly because it is boring). You know the spill, right? Anyone can make money online. Are you tired of working? Do you want more money? You hear all the right things that tickle your ear enough that you decide to dive into this thing called the internet. Is it bad? No. Are you saying I should just quit and stick with a traditional desk job? No. I just think we need to talk about the hard things that most people decide NOT to mention. The truth is hard to hear, but will create freedom. Cliche? Yes. I don’t care.

It’s All About Truth, Trust, and Reputation

First and foremost, your visitors have to take precedent over everything you do. Yes, that means making money is a side quest. Following this idea about trust and reputation doesn’t mean you can’t generate a lot of money. On the contrary, you can make money–maybe a lot of it. I am just recommending you care more about your visitors (customers in that they want what you are offering….information) than generating a few hundred (or maybe thousands) bucks a month from ads and affiliate marketing.

Referring back to the previous paragraph, lets discuss what you sell and why you sell it (can be other products, your own ebook, or ads). Obviously, you are selling products because you want to be paid, and I am totally okay with that. In fact, and you can tell by looking at my site, I think offering ads related to your content is great and beneficial for your visitors. I do, however, think you should steer clear of offering any and everyone’s products on your site, even if they relate. What you must understand, especially in freelance web development, not all products are equal. Nothing can hurt your site more than promoting a product that is worthless (so yeah, you should test your products before you sell them). While you might convince someone to purchase something once, you may never gain that users trust back. Do you think that is worth 5o bucks?

Affiliate Marketing Is NOT Easy

I am sure you have been preached something different than “difficult” from day one. I think the confusion arises when people start discussing WHAT is actually easy or difficult. The CONCEPT of affiliate marketing is easy to understand. Actually being a successful affiliate marketer is not.

I am reminded of several gentleman who dreamt of amazing dreams. There is a lot of success among the bookshelves speaking of rags-to-riches stories. Sadly, there are more untold stories of everyday people who failed. Just because Joe Blow with ABC.com succeeds doesn’t mean you will, not even close. Even more than that, the every day affiliate has made it more and more difficult to succeed. People are ad conditioned and tired of being played. If you don’t want to treat affiliate marketing like a business then maybe you should just consider blogging for fun. Long hours, tired mornings, and ZERO sales are possible. Sorry for the doom and glum, but this reality.

You Don’t Know Everything…So READ and LEARN

In a book called Think and Grow Rich, Napolean Hill tells a story about a man who should have talked to someone who knew more than he did. I will be paraphrasing but it goes something like this…

Shady Salesperson

A particular man jumped on board with the gold rush. He spent some money and bought supplies and land. He had some early success. After the early success, he went and bought some more stuff and got some friends to help. After this he did not have much success. After some time he decided to sell his land and machinery. The gentleman who bought the first mans “leftovers” hired a surveyor to, you guessed right, survey the first mans mine and land. The professional surveyor came to the conclusion that the gold was actually 3 feet deeper from where the first man stop mining. As the story goes the “leftovers” guy made millions because he hired a guy who knew more than he.

I only waste your time with the story to help you understand that sometimes you need to buy a book, hire some help, or read another affiliates blog. Oh yeah, I think there is another moral to this story. Never give up–or stop three feet short!

In case you are wondering, I have read Think and Grow Rich twice. I also believe, whether you are an entrepreneur or not, all should read this book.

The Naked Truth About Affiliate Marketing and Blogging In 15 Descriptive Words or Phrases

Here I go: Failures, Hard, Long Hours, Excitement, Disappointment, Struggling, Trial and Error, Frustrating, Diligence, Perseverance, Confusion, Anger, Intermittent Success, Luck Of The Draw, and Fulfillment

Should I You Quit

I am not asking an open ended question on whether anyone thinks I should quit affiliate marketing (haha). You need to ask yourself the hard questions. Do you believe in your website design? Do you think your site looks nice? Are you appealing to anyone? Would YOU buy from you? Would you buy any products you offer or are you only selling them because you want money? Do you even care about your readers, visitors, or customers? Are they a person or do they equal a dollar sign? Do you even care about what you are writing about?

Answering these questions and having a soul searching meeting with yourself will help determine the next few posts you write or blogs you start. Trust me, I have written several obituaries for blogs that I have started. The soul searching meetings are hard, but, at times, very necessary. Your next decision could be your hardest. But the next, next decision you make could be someones junk and your million dollars.

Tips For A Better Facebook Page

Marc — Tue, 11 May 2010 04:22:38 +0000

Having a business fan page on Facebook is as important as a blog was about 3 – 4 years ago. Here are a few tips to help grow your fan page on Facebook. Please keep in mind Facebook recently change “Fans” to “Likes.”

Activity – I know this seems obvious but you would not be surprised at the number of business that believe fans pages who practice this behavior. Creating a fan page takes time and effort but can drive a lot of traffic. You should never have the “one and done” attitude when working in Facebook (or the social media world). One of the best ways to help promote activity is to have a conversation and not a monologue. Here recently a fairly small Facebook fan page received over 2000 comments and likes in a week (I believe that is great activity for a small business). Nothing makes me more frustrated than seeing a profile page or fan page (basically the same feeling in twitter) that has not been updated in several days, weeks, or months.
Multimedia (photos, videos, etc) - Nothing is more boring than a fan page without videos or photos. This can be easily changed by using an application or uploading photos. I was just hoping around on a artists fan page and they had some personal songs listed. I thought this was a great way to get fan input.
Run A Campaign – How do you like the idea of placing ads to female users between the age of 25 – 55 who live in southern states? Facebook can! I use the ad network in Facebook and I love it. The ad network offers great targeting. You can run very specific ads. Excellent way to generate traffic to your fan page (even your business website).
Use A Unique Landing Page – Facebook allows fan page owners to customize your landing page. I think this is a great way to give users a call to action, publish a phone number, and customize a users experience. I have personally grown fan page likes into the thousands with users landing on the fan page wall, but ideally having them land on a custom page is best. I believe you would see conversions improve if you implied this technique.
Contest Or Give Something Away – Do I even need to mention this tip? People love competitions and free things. This is an easy way for your fan page to grow very rapidly.
Co-workers Yo – Asking your employees or co-workers to ask their fans to like your business or fan page is a great way to built a loyal base. I would be careful as to not flood your close friends with recommends and such, but doing it once or twice should be fine. Plus, isn’t that what social networking is about.
Reply To Posts – For a while, the company I work for had some limitations (I control the network…haha) on personal computer use during office hours. Boy, did that rule hurt our early Facebook growth. As your likes grow it will become increasingly difficult for one or two people to monitor your activity. Especially if the person in charge has several things to take care. While I wouldn’t totally encourage freedom on one the most sleep depriving website known to man, I would suggest adding some leniency.
Unique and Attractive Fan Profile Picture – Again, this should be a no-brainer, but some companies and individuals overlook the importance of this step. For a few hundred buck, some designers can create a beautiful picture to use. When you start planning for this step consider your brand and colors.

Can Social Media Take Over The Web?

Marc — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:03:13 +0000

An interesting article over at Mashable got my thinking the other day. In short, the article writes about how CNN sees Facebook as a direct competitor. I can see where this can become an issue. While no other social media platform was mentioned, I can see where these mega site can viewed as a competitor.

Facebook hass some 400 million users who post updates about life, gossip, and news. Several times over the past year I have gather more current happenings from Facebook than from TV or other news outlets. As smart phones and netbooks become more popular individuals are able to post updates real time updates about stories. After logging on to Facebook I was able to learn who won The Bachelor and where to donate when the massive earthquake hit Haiti. Plus, I was able to totally verify the information because my close friends were posting the updates.

Here is my question. Can Facebook, or any other unknown medium, take over the internet? While I am not convinced it will happen, I think it is possible. What would happen if Facebook, through some popular company or from themselves, introduced a robust search feature? Not a search client that only search Facebook, but an engine that search the entire we. Could this happen? Through the Open Graph API it is quite obvious that Facebook has plans to extend the reach of Facebook.

I am quite interested to hear everyone’s thoughts on this issue. Does anyone still see value in blogs, small networking sites, or news sites? Can Facebook take over?

Parenting: The Social Media Guide

Google Buzz: A Twitter Killer?

Marc — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:42:07 +0000

Not a chance…at least not yet.

www.espreson.com

I am a huge fan of Google. I appreciate almost every new product that Google develops (even Wave for a short time). From what I see I like Google Buzz but there is not enough reasons for me to pull away from Facebook or Twitter. Interestingly enough, it doesn’t appear Google had market share in mind when they developed Buzz (it just appears they weren’t aggressive enough). So, while I will participate in Google Buzz, it is almost more of a chore than a networking opportunity. Plus, I think I have less than five friends who have a Gmail address (I swear I have lots of friends…sniff, sniff).

I feel like the biggest hang up for Google Buzz is the fact that it is integrated with Gmail. Almost everyone had an email address before Gmail was released, and quite frankly, people are stuck in their ways. While Gmail has more features than platforms like Hotmail or Yahoo, the general public seems okay with just sending emails. Also, weirdly enough, a lot people still use AOL as an email platform. I tried to convince me wife to sign up for Gmail account so she could participate in Google Buzz (plus, it’s just sad I only have three followers). Her response was “I already have an email and a Facebook.” Fair enough, right?

Even though I feel Google cares about users privacy (as they should), I think there will be some stigma involved with using Google Buzz. I know there are several privacy features in place, but I feel the general public will not understand. Explaining privacy to the everyday users of Gmail is another bridge Google will have to cross. With Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms uses expect a certain amount of exposure. However, users feel email is something very private and personal. Plus, what about users who have integrated Gmail into Outlook? I don’t think Google Buzz is strong enough to bring users back to the web based version of Gmail.

Like I mentioned earlier, people are stuck in their ways. And if status updates are your thing, what has Google done to draw you away from Twitter to Google Buzz? At this point, who is willing to start over? Is there any way to integrate Twitter followers to Buzz? All developers have to keep time in mind when developing new social media platforms. I work as an SEO and I enjoy blogging, but I am not sure I have time to tweet, update my status, blog, and Buzz. And seriously, what benefit is it to me in showing your Twitter and Facebook updates in Buzz?

With all the said, I will continue to participate in Google Buzz and I do think it will see modest growth. I am sure I will write and rewrite several Buzz post over the next few months. Plus, it’s Google. They seem to always have the final word. Just ask the other major search engines.

I would like to know everyone’s thoughts about Google Buzz. Please, share your thoughts…

What Is Google Buzz?

Marc — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:15:18 +0000

After much talk, I have decided to do a more research about Google Buzz. While I am a huge fan of Google, I am not a huge fan of change or trying our new thinks. For reference, I was very aware of Twitter for about two years before I created my first account. Lame, I know. I am working to be more open to change. I better move in this direction if I plan on continuing to work in the shifty business of SEO, social media, and SEM. On to my thoughts…

While this personal definition will change over time, I have simplified Google Buzz into one sentence that we should all understand. Google Buzz is a mix between Facebook and Twitter.

After a short browse through Google Buzz anyone will see the depth of Google Buzz goes much deeper. I just thought this was an easy way to get the point across. More seriously, Google Buzz has several social features that we have come to love including the sharing of pictures, links, RSS feeds, and status updates. Also, within Google Buzz all users have the ability to create a profile, which is search able in Google.

I do have a few thoughts about this new social media platform.

Things I Like

It’s Google and who doesn’t like Google. Obviously a lot people as they easily have the biggest single share of the searching market.
It’s easy and who doesn’t like easy. Growth of Google Buzz should come reasonably easy as it is integrated with Gmail.
Originally, before much experience, I was nervous about combining work with fun. Then I realized you can set up groups and make posts public or private.
Google Buzz is developer friendly.
Automatically integrates people you currently email. Again, I am all about simplifying the process.
The photo sharing process is superior to Twitter.
Receiving comments about your posts in your Gmail inbox.