Maximizing the Triangle of Relevancy With Google

Maximizing the Triangle of Relevancy With Google
By Sydney Nelson (c) 2007

The "Triangle of Relevancy" is used to describe the relationship between the text in a landing page, a sponsored advertisement and the keyword or phrase that's entered into a search engine. Google places a premium on relevancy as it endeavors to ensure visitors have a positive experience by getting search results relevant to their search terms. I will outline specific steps an advertiser can take to maximize their landing pages and sponsored advertisement's effectiveness in their search engine marketing endeavors.

Relevancy with Landing Pages

The product, if you will, of any search engine is the resulting landing pages. The page's relevance to the search terms determines whether the page will show up in a search and at what position. Google's algorithm scores each page and/or sponsored ad's relationship to the keywords or phrase and uses this information to assist in determining the order in which the landing pages and AdWords ads are placed. The algorithm also monitors the amount of time a visitor spends on a page and includes this in the score.

Search engine optimization (SEO) techniques such as placing keywords in the page's title and throughout the body of the page can sometimes affect the position of a page in the search results. But of greater importance to Google's algorithm is whether or not the keywords are located on the landing page and whether they are randomly included simply to íncrease the density of the keyword on the page.

A common scenario is for Web developers to design a number of landing pages for the same product specific to certain keywords. Using this method you can end up with 10 or more landing pages for each of your products. This can be expensive, time consuming and difficult to maintain as regular updates are required on each page.

This can be much more efficiently accomplished by using a product entitled Search Chameleon. This product uses scripting on a landing page and a related sponsored ad to adjust the text in the landing page in REAL TIME according to the keywords entered in the search bar. The scripting can be used in the page's title or anywhere in the body. This not only saves development time but makes page updates much simpler since you're only working with one page.

It also assures your page will be relevant to the search regardless of the search term entered. This can be a compelling factor in a visitor's decision to spend more time on a landing page. An advertiser is then able to maximize on the relevancy of their landing pages by automating previously manual processes.

Relevancy with AdWords and Sponsored Advertisement

The "Triangle of Relevancy" would not be complete without the search terms being included in the title and/or body of your sponsored ad. Google and most search engines will highlight the search terms in the sponsored ad anywhere it shows up. This allows your ad to stand out and draws attention to the visitor that your ad is relevant to their search.

So, instead of loading your Adwords campaigns with numerous non-relevant keywords, your best bet is to use a single keyword or phrase that's relevant to your ad allowing it show up in both the title and the body of the ad. This means you should write several ads specific to a keyword or phrase for your Adwords campaigns. This not only makes your ad more relevant but it pre-qualifies your prospect as the ad contains the specific key terms they're searching for.

Another way to really boost your sponsored ad's visibility is to have the keyword or phrase in the destination URL at the bottom of the ad. If you're using an affilíate link, you may not get as good a clíck through rate as with a non-affilíate domain, because people will respond more favorably to your ad if they think you're the product owner.

The best way to show you're a professional is to use your own domain name as a redirect to your affilíate site. You can use the keyword or phrase in a successful ad as the domain name and your keyword will be highlighted in the title, the body of the ad AND in the destination URL!

The second best way to show you're a professional is to use a keyword as a sub-domain for a domain you already own, i.e., http://keyword.MyDomain.com. Notice the keyword is in front catching the eye of the prospect first. An alternative would be to add the keyword as a landing page name, i.e., http://MyDomain.com/keyword.htm . Using these two methods works best when you have a generic domain name like http://123.com which will work with any product and does not conflict with the keywords.

In Summary

The "Triangle of Relevancy" is the most important aspect of a successful search engine marketing strategy. Google is very careful to ensure their visitors have a positive experience with their search engine so they reward the more relevant advertisers with a higher position in the search results and their AdWords ad placing. Both the landing pages and the AdWords ads should focus on specific keywords or phrases for maximum relevancy.

As previously highlighted, Search Chameleon will allow you to customize a single landing page, which will update the page title and body text with the specific keywords or phrase a visitor enters into the search engine. Search Chameleon is a proprietary application included in a suite of B2B productivity software called PromoBlackBox. Also included are Google AdWords training CDs developed by a top Internet marketing company. There are a number of additional proprietary applications and software included that will assist advertisers in maximizing on the triangle of relevancy.

The search engine marketing landscape is continually evolving as new technology is introduced. Search engines are continually updating their processes as developers learn how to counteract them. One thing that probably won't change is the triangle of relevancy with the search term, the sponsored ad and the landing page. People will always want specific answers to specific questions.

About The Author
Sydney Nelson is a Microsoft Certified Professional and has a Bachelor in Information Technology. Please go to PromoBlackBoxZone.com for more information on how to dramatically íncrease your Website's conversions and presence on the Internet. More articles on Internet marketing can be found at http://blog.PromoBlackBoxZone.com.

10 Steps To Top 10 Rankings In Google

10 Steps To Top 10 Rankings In Google
By Titus Hoskins (c) 2007

Most webmasters go totally "gaga" for top 10 rankings in Google. And for good reason, Google is the most dominant search engine on the net and will deliver the largest amount of traffíc.

More importantly, those same webmasters will also inform you, getting top 10 rankings in Google often means your site will prove profitable. Mainly because obtaining targeted traffíc is usually your first obstacle in creating a viable online business. In other words, if you get top ten listings in Google for good searchable keywords, it is almost impossible not to earn money.

How To Proceed?

First, you must know the rudimentary basics of how keywords work. Keywords and keyword phrases are the exact words someone types into a search engine to find what they're looking for online. If you have a site on "dog training" then your goal is to get a top 10 ranking for the keywords "dog training".

Now if no one searches for "dog training" it would be a useless keyword, you would get no traffíc no matter how perfectly your site is optimized for that keyword.

How Do You Know If A Keyword Is Good?

To find out, you have to do some keyword research on your particular keywords. Many professional online marketers use keyword research software like Brad Callen's Keyword Elite. However, you can also use the keyword suggestion tools supplied by Google Adwords or Overture. Try here: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Now if you chëck "dog training", you will find it receives around 4,469 searches each day. That's a lot of traffíc but you must realize that it may be too good, or rather too competitive for your purposes, especially if you have a new site.

Biggest Mistake When Choosing Keywords

The most common mistake most novice webmasters make is targeting keywords which are too competitive. You simply will not be able to compete or place for extremely competitive keywords. Well established sites and businesses with very deep pockets have the resources to completely dominate those keywords.

While it is not entirely futile nor a waste of time to concentrate your efforts on highly competitive keywords, you will have better success if you target low to medium competitive keywords.

Long Tail Keyword Marketing

Besides online marketers have discovered that longer keyword phrases are usually the most lucrative. These phrases deliver traffíc which is better targeted and more likely to convert into a sale. "Dog hunting training" which gets around 100 searches a day will be more targeted than the general term "dog training" and if you have a site devoted to training hunting dogs then this keyword phrase may convert better for you.

Always keep this "Long Tail" keyword strategy in the back of your mind as you implement the following steps to achieve your own Top 10 Rankings in Google.

1. Make A Master Keyword Líst

Your first step is to make a master líst of the keywords you wish to target. Obviously these should be closely related to the theme of your site. Chëck the keyword competition by seeing how many sites are listed in Google for that keyword. Webmasters should also chëck the Google PageRank of the sites that hold the top 10 positions. If all those sites are PR6 and above it may be hard to get ranked high for your keywords.

2. Choose Related Keywords

Once you have your master líst of keywords, find long tail related keywords to target. Again, chëck out the competition and daily searches made for each chosen keyword.

3. Use Quality Content For Your Keywords

Creating quality content should always be your main goal. Write for actual visitors who will see and read your content. First and foremost you must have good useful content that your visitors will use themselves and recommend to their friends or colleagues. Tie this quality content in with your chosen keywords. Use one keyword phrase per page.

4. Keyword In Domain Name, Title and URLs

Having your keyword in your domain name will score big points from search engines. Plus, each page of content should contain your keywords in the title & meta tags for that page. Most experts also suggest you have your keyword in the URL and use hyphens to separate your keywords. Although the author has gotten good results by using an underscore and htm in URLs.

Example: www.yoursite.com/your_keyword.htm

5. Do On Page Optimization

Keyword ratio is a much discussed topic by SEO experts and many suggest you should have your keyword in the H1 or headline title of your page. Sprinkle your keyword and variations of it throughout your page. Don't over do it but make sure the robot/spiders will clearly discover what your page is about. Many webmasters make sure they include their main keyword in the first and last 25 words on their pages.

6. Use Traffíc Modules

One technique that works extremely well in Google is clustering a closely related topic or subject into a distinct separate section on your site. For example, if you have a marketing site, you could create a whole section on article marketing where you would have 50 to 100 keyworded pages all relating to your subject. Writing articles, formatting articles, submitting articles, article software... place a keyword linked menu on each page to connect all your pages together.

Keep in mind, your main objective is to supply quality information to your visitors. One reason Google may favor this type of structure is because they want quality content returned in their SERPs.

7. Try Article Marketing

Article marketing is writing short informative articles on keyword topics related to your sites. You then submit these helpful keyworded articles to ezine directories on the web. When your articles are picked up by related sites, you receive quality One-Way links. The higher the quality of your article, the more links you will receive.

Another ranking tactic to use: If you're just starting out your site will probably have a low PR rank and you will find it hard to rank for even modest keywords. That's why it's useful to take advantage of the higher PageRank of the major ezine directories. Your keyworded articles on these high PR sites will get picked up by Google and displayed in the top 10 rankings. Now the displayed URL will be the article directory site but the links in the resource box will be pointing back to your site. Over time this article marketing technique will raise your own site's rankings for those keywords. Simple but effective.

8. Anchor Text And One Way Links

Off page optimization is important in obtaining high rankings in Google. Getting quality One-Way links is very important. Anchor Text simply refers to "the underlined clicked on words" in your links. Most webmasters include their keywords in their anchor text as this tells the search engines exactly what the links are about.

9. Tags, Blogging And Web 2.0

Take advantage of Web 2.0 by using blogs, RSS feeds and the social bookmarking sites like Reddit and Digg. Try AddThis.com for a simple social bookmarking system. At the very least your site should have a blog and RSS feed attached to it as this is an effective way of boosting your keyword rankings.

Tags have become very important for getting higher rankings. Keep in mind, in free blogging software such as WordPress, categories will automatically be seen as tags. Blogger, which is owned by Google, now has a form where you put your keywords (tags) for each post you make.

10. PPC vs Organic Search

Of course, one of the fastest ways to get your links displayed on Google is to pay for them by using Google Adwords. Your ad and links will sit side by side with the organic link results. In Pay Per Clíck advertising you bid or pay so much per clíck for your keywords and you only pay when someone clicks your links. But smart marketers also know since you're getting millíons of impressions advertising your products, acquiring name recognition and branding through PPC advertising can be a major side-benefit.

However, most webmasters would say that organic links (SERPS) will return better traffíc than paid links or advertising. In most cases, this may be true because Google's organic rankings are becoming more respected and more trusted by users. They simply carry more weíght with surfers.

This makes it even more beneficial to obtain top 10 rankings for your keywords in Google. Depending on the competitiveness of your chosen keywords reaching the first page listing or even the favored number one spot is well within any webmaster's reach. Just go for it. The rewards are well worth your efforts.

About The Author
The author is a full-time online marketer who contributes his high rankings in Google as the major source of his online income. For the latest web marketing tools try: MarketingToolGuide.com . For the latest Internet Marketing Strategies go to: BizwareMagic.com . Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

3 Top Tools and Services for an Effective Internet Marketing Solutíon

3 Top Tools and Services for an Effective Internet Marketing Solutíon
By Sydney Nelson (c) 2007

Everyone knows the Internet is growing exponentially and continually evolving. The major players in the continual evolution of the Internet are the major search engines and consumer generated media such as blogs. Because of the continual changes, a well rounded Internet marketing strategy must include a variety of proven marketing options to ensure success. I will outline 3 of the most effective Internet marketing solutíons available and how they relate to your marketing strategy.

SEO Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the first because the frëe advertising afforded by the search engines is partly determined by on-page optimization techniques. With thousands of new Websites being created daily, the competition for a listíng on the first search result page is increasingly saturated for the popular keywords. Statistics show better than 90% of people only look at the first search result page, and a similar percentage only clíck on the top search listing.

In order to compete effectively, a Web page must be designed around a keyword or more effectively, a keyword phrase. The keywords must be included in the page's title, keyword META tag, page's description, the first heading (using the H1 HTML tag), throughout the body of the page and within the last 25 words on the page. These are just a few of the basic SEO on-page options that, although will not guarantëe a first page listing, are definitely required as a starting point in an effective Internet marketing strategy.

In most cases, there is too much competition for certain keywords such as "golf clubs". A better strategy would be to use "golf clubs Chicago" or handcrafted golf clubs". The more specific you make your keyword phrase the better. A number of frëe tools are available that will show the popularity of keywords and how often they are used in the search engines on a monthly basis. These will allow you to customize your Web page knowing the keyword phrase's popularity. If you get the first page listing for a keyword with less than 100 searches per month for instance, then it doesn't matter because your traffíc will be very limited.

Link Exchanges

Once the on-page optimizations are complete, the off-page optimization options need to be addressed. Link exchanges are perhaps the best off-page SEO technique available. If you download and install the Google toolbar on your browser, you will see the Google PageRank of each site you visit. Your PageRank is determined by the number of other sites linking to your site, and the QUALITY of the link is a major consideration. Pages are ranked from 1 to 10. The higher the PageRank of the site linking to yours, the better. Sites with a PR7 and above are considered as authority sites and a back link will send Google's spider to your page on a regular basis.

There are a number of ways to get a back link to your site. You can email a request to the Webmaster for a link exchange and if they agree you would return the favor by placing a link to their site on your page. You can also purchase the link. A number of sites offër this service for a monthly fee. So if you want to quickly get your site listed by Google and the major search engines, then paying for a PR8 back link for a month or two might be well worth the ínvestment in the long run, as new sites are placed in a "sand box" by Google for several months until they prove their longevity.

One back link from a PR8 site is worth 1,000 back links from PR2 or less sites. As a matter of fact, numerous links from low ranking sites will actually be detrimental to your site, because each back link is like a vote for your site. If you have too many low ranking sites voting for yours, Google will be reluctant to reward your site with a higher PR. You have to do your research on the site that offers to link to yours because if they were blacklisted by Google, your site will receive the same fate and you probably will nevër recover from this.

A PR 4 or 5 is relatively easy to attain. So your best bet is to limit your back links to PR5 and above for the best results. And by all means avoid link farms. Before Google upgraded its algorithm, just the number of back links was considered. But now the actual PageRank of your back link is considered AND the PageRank of the sites listing to THAT link. Links from link farms are now looked upon as basically sp@m links. You would be better off purchasing a listíng in a major link directory like Yahoo or DMZ. It's definitely worth the ínvestment as these are authority sites and are a major vote for your site!

Blogs

As previously indicated, consumer generated media is a major factor in the evolution of the Internet. Case in point is the enormous effect blogs had on the last Presidential campaign. A very large percentage of most searches will include blogs on the first page listing. Over 50% of purchases, online and offline, are preceded by an online search for more information. And a large percentage of the information is offered by blogs. People are very interested in the opinions of others on their topic of interest.

The major blogs are updated on a daily basis which is very important to Google's algorithm which uses the frequency of updates (daily, hourly and by minute) as a determining factor in the search result ranking. A powerful marketing method used by the major blogs is to submit articles on a particular topic to the major article hubs such as EzineArticles.com. The article hub benefits by having continually updated information (which Google likes) where they can place their monëy makíng AdSense ads. The blogger benefits by having a back link to their blog at the bottom of the article.

As numerous other bloggers and Webmasters access the article hubs for fresh information, the article can be syndicated virally to a number sites on the Internet. This creates a number of back links to your blog or your site generating an enormous amount of pre-qualified frëe traffíc.

In Summary

These are just a few of the most effective online Internet marketing options available. Other options such as auto-responder email, Ezine advertising and pay per clíck advertising should be included in a well rounded Internet marketing strategy. No matter what options you use, you definitely need to start with your on-page SEO techniques. Your listing in the search results will be enhanced by a properly optimized page.

Further optimization must include the off-page SEO techniques such as generating back links with the major site directories, link exchanges and articles submitted to the major article hubs. Using a blog for a reference in your article can be a good thing as people will be more inclined to visit a blog since it's not a salës page. Once they have received enough information and you have generated their confidence in your opinions, you can end up with a life time customer.

About The Author
Sydney Nelson is a Microsoft Certified Professional and has a Bachelor in Information Technology. Please go to PromoBlackBoxZone.com for more information on how to dramatically íncrease your Website's conversions and presence on the Internet. More articles on Internet marketing can be found at http://blog.PromoBlackBoxZone.com.

5 Tips to Effective SEO Keyword Research Analysis

5 Tips to Effective SEO Keyword Research Analysis
By Valerie Di Carlo (c) 2007

Keyword research and analysis can be a daunting task, when done correctly, and expert keyword research is the foundation to a successful SEO campaign. Many new website owners think the keyword research analysis process is easy. They think free tools, such as the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool is the profít pill that will bring them ínstant results.

Unfortunately, the frëe tools will only give you a rough guide and a quick indication whether a hunch is worth further research. These frëe keyword research tools are limited to basic information. When performed correctly, expert keyword research exposes so much more - all the gems that are tucked away deep.

Real keyword research requires research AND analysis. There are so many aspects to the process that cannot be left to chance. Attempting to do the keyword research on your own is like going to a veterinarian to fix your car. My advise to all clients I do SEO consulting services for is to simply leave this task to the experts who have the correct keyword research tools and expertise.

Following are 5 tips for effective keyword research analysis:

1. Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) - Use multi-word phrases

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is a vital element in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for better keyword rankings in search results. LSI is based on the relationship, the "clustering" or positioning, the variations of terms and the iterations of your keyword phrases.

Expertly knowing LSI and how it can be most useful and beneficial for your SEO and the importance it has with the algorithm updates to search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo which will benefit your keyword research for best practice SEO.

LSI is NOT new. Those doing keyword research over the years have always known to use synonyms and "long tail" keyword terms which is a simpler "explanation" to LSI. More often than not, these long tail, less generic terms bring more traffíc to your site than the main keyword phrases. The real bottom line is that Latent Semantic Indexing is currently a MUST in keyword research and SEO.

2. Page Specific Keyword Research - Target your niche keyword phrases for each site page

Probably the most common mistake in keyword research is using a plethora of keywords and pasting the same meta keyword tag on every web site page. This is SO not effective! Your keyword research needs to be page specific and only focusing on 2 to 5 keywords per page. It's more work, but combined with best practice SEO, gives each site page a chance for higher ranking on its own.

3. Country Specific Keyword Research and Search Engine Reference

Keep in mind that keyword search terms can be country specific. Even though a country is English speaking, there are different keyword terms you must research - and then reference that country's search engine when doing your initial keyword research. For instance, UK and Australia may have different expressions, terminology and spellings (i.e. colour, personalised). Referencing the terms in the corresponding search engine is an important element to keyword research that is often forgotten. So for example, be sure to chëck the search terms on google.co.uk or au.yahoo.com. And, of course, if you have 3 to 4 really comprehensive research tools in your arsenal, you will be able to search for historical, global and country specific search terms easily and effectively.

4. Keyword Analysis - Cross referencing in the search engines

Once the majority of the keyword research has been done for a site page, it's time to plug those terms into the search engines to determine:

• If it is really the desired niche keyword for that page
• To assess the competitiveness of your keywords. Along with checking the competitiveness of your keywords you should look at the strength of the competition.
• Are the other sites listed for your keywords truly your competitors?
• Are the sites listed for your keyword even related to your industry, products or services?

These critical analyses of keyword phrases are often forgotten. Since the keyword research and analysis is the foundation of a successful SEO campaign, you certainly don't want to build your on-page optimization on the wrong niche keywords!

5. Ongoing Keyword Research - Repeat your keyword research on a consistent basis

While you may think that you have completed your keyword research analysis and laid a solid foundation for your SEO, you need to keep monitoring your keywords and tweak as necessary. Keywords can change from month to month as keyword search terms change, genres change and/or if your niche is within social portal networking sites - to name just a few. Maintaining ongoing keyword research is essential for best practice SEO.

Most Successful Strategy to Streamline Your Keyword Research Efforts:

Yes, many website owners will opt to do the keyword research and analysis themselves with only a marginal effect on an SEO campaign. It's not the most successful strategy to use for the most effective results.

To be certain of your keyword data, accurate keyword analysis should be performed - and cross referenced - across multiple expert keyword tools.

Effective keyword research lays the ground work for effective SEO results and can help you kick-start the ranking process - perhaps even giving you a step up on your competitors.

The most successful strategy to streamline your keyword research efforts is to hire an expert. Focus your business efforts on your strengths and expertise and allow the SEO experts to effectively perform the keyword research analysis correctly.

About The Author
Keyword Research Analysis expert Valerie DiCarlo helps companies large and small - worldwide - enjoy a long term improvement in website visibility, increased brand awareness, a continuous flow of new sales leads and higher revenues. To discover how you can improve rankings across multiple keyword phrases and search engines, go to: http://www.seo-web-consulting.com

The Law of Dissatisfaction: How To Motivate Prospects

The Law of Dissatisfaction: How To Motivate Prospects
By Jerry Bader (c) 2007

The 7%-38%-55% Communication Rule

Dr. Albert Mehrabian, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, UCLA is best known for his 7%-38%-55% Rule that states 55% of communication is attributable to non-verbal behaviors like body language and facial expressions; that 38% of communication is attributable to voice including volume, tone, pitch, cadence, and quality; and only 7% of communication is attributable to the words used.

Despite this persuasive evidence, companies continue to pile on the Web-text in the vain hope that search engines will index it and that someone might actually read it, even though the reality is 70% of website visitors merely scan for headlines, bulleted points and captions.

The evidence is clear, the most effective way to deliver a marketing message is a Web-video using a professional performer who knows how to use his or her voice, expression, and body language to drive the point home.

"But Wait, There's More ..."

I have noticed a proliferation on the Web of the sad old dírect marketing formula that you see in salës pitches for magazine subscriptions. Can you really expect people to take you seriously when you adopt this 'Barnum and Bailey' approach to marketing? It is a formula that flies in the face of Dr. Mehrabian's research and every other usability study that warns against over-burdening website visitors with too much text. Your search engine optimizer may think it's great for driving traffíc to your landing page, but I'll bet if you chëck your logs, 50% of that traffíc disappears in under 5 seconds.

This format is an outdated salës technique that doesn't work in a Web environment where people find it difficult to read large amounts of text. It is also a tactic that insults your customer's intelligence.

A Red Flag Marketing Formula

If ever there was a red flag telling people to stay away from your company it's a website presentation that includes:

• Huge bold headlines,
• Copious amounts of text,
• Bright yellow highlighted key phrases,
• Photos of smiling semi-ugly customers,
• Photos of smiling semi-pretty nonexistent staff,
• Lots of useless free crap,
• Loads of bulleted points with big red chëck marks,
• Numerous testimonials on pale yellow backgrounds and quotations in Courier with more bad photographs,
• More extra bold, underlined, red text,
• The phrase 'But Wait, There's More' offering more useless free e-books you'll nevër read and special bonus gifts you don't want or need,
• Lots of 'Clíck Here To Order" buttons,
• And finally make sure you bury the price at the bottom of over 4689 words.

The entire presentation could be made in two minutes using a cost effective video presentation delivered by a professional, but that wouldn't be search engine friendly would it, nevër mind it's the best way to sell your product or service.

Reducing Video Load Times

Which brings me to the issue of load times. We all know that video and audio files take longer to load than text, however there are many ways that load times can be reduced and kept to a minimum.

1. The size of the video can be adjusted.
2. Choose an alternative codex to compress the file.
3. Design your presentation with simple, minimalist backgrounds so the number of pixels that change from frame to frame are reduced.
4. Decrease the frame rate.
5. Alter the audio settings.
6. Adjust the amount of video that is preloaded.

We also know that there is a class of Web-surfer who will not wait for videos to load. This is a fact of life, I admit it, but from a marketing and salës perspective it really doesn't matter and I'll tell you why: websites visitors who will not wait a reasonable amount of time for a presentation to load will also not read your copious amounts of text and the reason is simple: they are not motivated enough by what you sell and if they aren't motivated they're not potential customers.

If They Aren't Motivated, They're Not Customers

Two things motivate all potential customers: a feeling of dissatisfaction and a desire for change. All good advertising creates a focused storyline with a singular message that stirs the emotional dissatisfaction in the audience and offers a solution that will initiate change.

Thank goodness people are insatiable for what's new and improved. We are a species motivated to constantly strive for more: more monëy, more power, more success, more stuff; and when we have more stuff, we want better stuff. We are in a constant state of desire. The advertisers job is to access that desire and push that motivational button so that the audience takes action.

The Law of Dissatisfaction

The job of advertisers is to create dissatisfaction in its audience. If people are happy with how they look, they are not going to buy cosmetics or diet books; if people are happy with their old twenty-inch tube television they are not going to buy a sixty-inch LCD flat screen TV. If people are happy with who they are, where they are in life, and what they got, they just aren't customer-potential, that is, unless you make them unhappy.

Most cosmetic advertisements feature a beautiful woman, igniting the promise that you too can look like a drop-dead glorious model if only you use their product. This approach is based on showing an ideal that the audience will undoubtedly be unable to stack-up against. The audience after seeing what they could look like, is no longer happy with what they do look like, and are now motivated to buy into the promise of change.

The Psychology of Contrary Thinking

Anyone who is interested in marketing and the Web is most likely aware of the brilliant Dove Self-Esteem campaign. For those who want to excise all video from the Web in favor of search engine optimization tactics in order to drive traffíc, it should be noted that the original Dove Web-video has been viewed by over 3.3 million viewers and has driven huge numbers of traffíc to the Dove website, not to mention an incredible amount of free publicity.

On the surface it may seem like the Dove campaign is an example of the opposite of the law of dissatisfaction. The series of campaign videos show real people with all their flaws and the message that people should be happy with who they are, and how they look. But what's the real underlying message of advertising videos that show slightly over-weight, wrinkled, aging women?

If ever there was a case of reverse psychology, this is it. Women may initially be attracted by the sentiment expressed and it certainly generated a lot of media coverage, but when all is said and done, women will look at these ads and say, 'hell no, I don't want to be fat, wrinkled and old, and I'm going to do whatever I can to avoid it." Dove has masterfully managed to create a positive campaign that still remains true to the law of dissatisfaction. Whether or not that was Dove's intent doesn't matter, the psychology of contrary thinking works.

Creating Successful Dissatisfaction

In order to implement a Web-video marketing campaign that motivates action, you must present a storyline that accesses the emotional and psychological subtext of desire. Your campaign is based on this defining underlying message.

In order to create this underlying communication we must first decide to whom the campaign is aimed. We each have a self image, in fact we each have four self-images. We must figure out which self our product or service serves.

1. The Public Self is the self we present to the world. If we sell high priced luxury goods or services that appeal to status, we are probably aiming our presentation at the public-self, the one we display to others.

2. The Private Self is the self we hide from the world. If we sell a hidden pleasure product or service we should probably direct our presentation to the private-self, the one we keep locked away and hidden.

3. The Ideal Self defines who we wish we were. If we sell a self-improvement or motivational product or service, we want to access the ideal-self, the self we desperately wish to become.

4. And the Actual Self defines who we really are. If we sell a product or service that justifies our real behavior, then it's the actual-self we want to target.

The dissatisfaction we are accessing may be active or inactive. Active dissatisfaction like having acne, being overweight, or worrying about a dysfunctional website is a concern that the audience is aware. Inactive dissatisfaction like halitosis, body odor, or ineffective marketing is a problem that the audience is unaware.

To what degrees is our audience able to acknowledge a problem exists even after we make it active? Does our audience acknowledge they are overweight, have halitosis, or need a new marketing strategy or do they deny or fail to recognize the existence of the problem?

Next we need to decide whether the essence of dissatisfaction is general or specific. Will our audience suffice with any solution that comes along or does satisfaction depend on fulfilling a specific requirement.

Lastly we must determine if the dissatisfaction is based on a desire for something or on the avoidance of something. We may desire an exotic sports car to show-off our wealth and status to friends and colleagues, or we may avoid driving a flashy car no matter how rich we are to avoid showing-up our friends and colleagues.

Once we have analyzed the nature of our audience's dissatisfaction and the ability of our product or service to effect change, we can create an effective Web-video marketing campaign. If your website content doesn't connect with your audience's desire for change, if you're website traffíc is not motivated by dissatisfaction, then that traffíc is just congestion, not prospects.

About The Author
Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, www.136words.com and www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

How To Create A Video Campaign Concept

How To Create A Video Campaign Concept
By Jerry Bader (c) 2007

Have you ever had a good idea, maybe a great idea, only to find that someone else already ready did it? Frustrating. You want to be a success and who doesn't? It's why you do what you do, why you put-up with what you put-up with? But it all gets so frustrating.

As much as you'd like to believe otherwise, there just aren't any secrét methods, special potions, or motivational DVDs that are going to make you a success in thirty days, but there are things you can do that will help. Sure working hard helps but working smart is even better. So how do you work smart? Well you can start with presenting your core, marketing message to your targeted audience in a way that engages the spirit, informs the intellect, and embeds in the mind. And if you want to be cutting edge, the way to do it is with audio and video.

What A Difference A Difference Makes

Anybody who has ever tried to raise monëy for a project from a bank, or contacted an ad agency for help has heard the question, "What makes your company different?" If you don't have a different product, different process, or different way of doing or presenting what you do, you are nevër going to raise a cent or make an impact on the market. Yet most companies blindly continue to follow the market leader, and wonder why they nevër attain the level of success they hope to achieve.

If you want to be a success, you have to reinvent your company as something unique, so when the time comes to present your redefined vision to the world, you will actually have something to say, and something worth listening to.

Lateral Thinking, The Creative Laxative

Once you've decided to develop a video marketing message that focuses on what makes you different, you will want to know where begin.

This is a creative process that can be scary to business executives trained in left-brain linear thinking. Learning to think creatively is hard and for most people it goes against everything they have learned.

Creative thinking has been called 'thinking outside the box,' right-brain thinking, or simply thinking differently. Author Edward De Bono calls it 'Lateral Thinking.' De Bono argues linear thinking stifles imagination because it suffices at the first seemingly acceptable solution rather than looking for innovative alternatives:

"In ordinary traditional thinking we have developed no methods for going beyond the adequate. As soon as something is satisfactory our thinking must stop."
- Edward De Bono

Where You Begin Is Where You End

One method of jump-starting the creative process is to think backward: you begin at the end, because where you're going will inform how you get there.

Create Your Memory Tag or Slogan

A well thought-out slogan or tag line focuses attention on the critical point-of-differentiation, the thing that establishes your brand identity. A good slogan serves as a memory device, a positioning tool that implants itself in your audience's mind and stays there.

No matter how many times the advertising agencies convince the 'pooh-bahs' at Coca-Cola to change their slogan, Coke will forever be "The Real Thing," and Pepsi will be "The Choice of a New Generation," at least to my generation. These were excellent examples of how to focus on a single element and establish a differentiating identity between competing products that for the most part are just about the same. Then of course you have 7-Up with "The Uncola" slogan that was the best of the bunch, but was unfortunately dumped for some lame reason. Each of these soft drink slogans established market-turf for their company, and each helped differentiate the product while establishing identity in the audience's mind; and no place is anything said about cost, quality, or any of the other conventional selling points that small companies are so fond of touting.

Develop Your Story

A well-designed video commercial takes your audience through the three stages of storytelling: The Setup with inciting incident, The Crisis with problem escalation, and The Resolution with viewer satisfaction.

Your slogan or tag is the punch line that highlights your resolution; it's what you want your audience to remember; it's your marketing message destination; and it's where you want to end. Now all you have to do is work backwards to the beginning.

This method of development helps you avoid saying too much: yes, there are many things you want to say, most of which are valid, some of which are relevant, but few of which are applicable to the delivery of an effective Web video presentation. The more you say to an audience, the less they hear. Stick to a simple story that leads to a resolution based on your memorable punch line or what TV screenwriters call 'the button.'

Invent Your Hook

Once you have your basic commercial storyline with a beginning, middle, and end, you need to make sure you have a hook: the thing that's going to pique audience curiosity and make them stick around long enough to view the entire presentation. The hook should center on the 'inciting incident:' the motivating situation that propels your onscreen representative to find a solution to the problem at hand that ultimately leads to the resolution represented in your 'button' or punch line.

The Geico Caveman is a great example of a hook that demands attention, and draws the audience into the series of mini dramas that constitute this award winning ad campaign; all based on an incredibly simple, yet brilliant, tag: "So Easy A Caveman Could Do It." You don't need expensive special effects or exotic locations; all you need is an imagination and a message that can be delivered with a memorable one line "button."

About The Author
Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, www.136words.com and www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

The Roller Coaster of Link Popularity

The Roller Coaster of Link Popularity
By Bill Platt (c) 2007

Most webmasters are in a constant state of confusion about how to create link popularity and how to rank well in the search engine results. Three of the top four search engines, Google, Yahoo and MSN calculate link popularity as one part of their search algorithms. So, for all intents and purposes, building link popularity is an important part of getting recognition and strong placement in the search engine result pages (SERPs).

Link popularity, in essence, is a count of how many web pages point to one of your web pages.

The Google PageRank Version of Link Popularity

PageRank (PR) is a Google tool that expands on the simplest link popularity calculation. PageRank is a value given to every web page on the Internet, with 12 possible rankings.

* The Gray Bar in the PageRank tool indicates that a web page has not been added to the Google PageRank database, or Google has banned the website. (If any page on a particular domain has its own PageRank, or if any pages are shown in the Google search results when someone searches "site:www.yourdomainurl.com", then the website in question has not been banned by Google.)

* PR0 to PR10. PR0 indicates that the web page has been added to the Google database, but it does not yet have any PageRank assigned to it, generally because there are not any PR value pages that link to it at this time.

If one is tracking PageRank from the Google toolbar, then it needs to be understood that the database that stores PageRank values is only updated about once every 3-4 months.

While Google does use links to a web page to determine the web page's PR value, it is impossible these days to utilize Google to find what links are directed to your pages. Even the Google webmaster tools interface will not show you all of the links Google is counting towards your own Link Popularity or PR value.

Playing Follow-The-Leader

In earlier years, Yahoo and MSN did not employ a link popularity calculation in their search algorithms. But, when one competitor is thoroughly kicking their competition, then the underdog competitor must respond, if they have any desire to remain relevant.

So, after years of lagging behind the Google powerhouse, Yahoo and MSN decided it was time to work a link popularity calculation into their search algorithms.

Both Yahoo and MSN are still struggling to find a way to retake some market share from Google. Even with Yahoo's Project Panama rollout and MSN's Live Search rollout, both are still finding Google to be a difficult 800-pound gorilla to conquer.

Building Link Popularity

In essence, even if search engines did not include link popularity as a portion of their ranking procedures, one would still want to develop links to his or her websites.

Links are the roadways that keep Internet users moving from one website to another. Before the search engines became the all-powerful providers of Internet traffíc, the role of Internet promotion was to establish links on pages where a website's target audience is already going.

The goal of course is to get the person reading the page to clíck the link to the target website. With every visitor to a website being a potential customer, it makes good sense to get as many visitors to the website as possible, and that requires getting as many links as possible pointing to a website.

Google PageRank 101

Since Google drives the largest portion of search traffíc on the Internet, I am only going to focus on their link popularity system.

All web pages on the Internet have been assigned a PageRank value by Google, according to the value of the web pages that link to them. This number is always in flux as links are made, lost or change value.

In short, the pages linking to your pages have their own Google PageRank value, according to who links to them, and the value of the pages that are linking to their web page. As the web pages linking to your web pages gain value, then your pages will also gain value in the Google PageRank algorithms.

As a Webmaster, it should be your goal to create as many links to your website, as you can muster. Eventually, most of the web pages with real value will gain their own PageRank, and they will pass some of their PR value to your web pages.

But, I Tried That Once...

Whatever link building strategy one might recommend, there will be someone else saying, "But, I tried that once and it did not work." Some may go a bit further and say that they tried it once and received initial good results in Google's SERP's, but then those results shortly dissipated and the previous high placement in Google evaporated.

A common story I hear is that "we tried" a specific link building process. Shortly after doing so, our website went from result 300 in Google's results to page two or three of the search results. Then a month later, our website dropped to around 100 in the search results as the link page slipped into Google's Supplemental results. These people often conclude that the link building process used was not effective.

They make this statement because they do not understand the inner-workings of what is happening to their link popularity and search engine placements.

Several Factors Drive the Roller Coaster

With press releases, it is easy to comprehend the how and why of the climb and fall. Press Releases are treated as news stories, and as such, they are more important in real time than they will be in a month or so. That is why press releases can generate big results quickly, and it also explains why those results quickly fade away.

With article marketing, it is common for a new article placement to help any website mentioned within the article and its accompanying resource box (about the author information) to rise in the search rankings early, then to drop away for a time, and perhaps rise in value again later.

Let me explain how this process works, and it will make more sense to you.

Google's Main Index and Supplemental Listings

In order for the referenced website to get the PageRank it needs to climb in the search results, the web pages linking to it must have their own PageRank. As a single web page gains in link popularity and PageRank, the web page will also improve in the search results.

When a new article is placed for the first time, it is always placed on a "brand new" page on the Internet. New pages on the Internet, by their very nature, do not have any external links pointing to them and therefore, they do not have any established PageRank.

In recognition of this "brand new" status, Google is giving a pass to those new web pages. As far as the Google algorithm is concerned, these "brand new" pages might have value, but that value cannot yet be determined based on the number of links pointing to the page.

At the end of Google's "pass window", Google checks to see if this new page has developed any of its own inbound links and PageRank value. If the new web page has not developed any value of its own after a window of 30-45 days, then the new page will be moved from Google's main index to Google's Supplemental listings. If the new page has developed PageRank, then the page will remain in Google's main index.

According to Matt Cutts, the Google Guy, "Having urls in the supplemental results doesn't mean that you have some sort of penalty at all; the main determinant of whether a url is in our main web index or in the supplemental index is PageRank." http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/infrastructure-status-january-2007

Many web pages that have slipped into the Supplement listings will gain their own PageRank over the long term, and as such, those pages may return to Google's main index in the future. If articles are valuable resources to their readers, then many placements of those articles will be given their own inbound links and therefore PageRank, but it takes time.

As a general rule, it appears that the average web page will gain a measure of PageRank somewhere in the range of 90 to 180 days from the day the web page was created. While not all pages will receive inbound links and PageRank, enough of them do to make the whole process worthwhile.

You Cannot Win If You Do Not Play

As a Webmaster, your website will nevër gain link popularity if you do not take actions to íncrease the number of links pointing to your website. If the web page nevër accrues any link popularity, it will not gain PageRank, and it will not rise in the search engine rankings.

You are in the driver's seat, so if you fail to accomplish link popularity and search placement, then it will have been the fault of your inaction.

Do you remember my sample scenario above, "Shortly after (completing a link building campaign), our website went from result 300 in Google's results to page two or three of the search results. Then a month later, our website dropped to around 100 in the search results as the link page slipped into Google's Supplemental results."

These people frequently conclude that a specific link building activity produced no results, because they did not stay on page two or three of the results. Surprisingly, these people tell us that they started out at #300 and ended up at #100, and yet they claim that the process did not work in their case. How so? They climbed 200 places in the search results. How is that an ineffective link building campaign?

So, the next time you hear someone crying about the link popularity roller coaster, think back on this article, and you might be able to help him or her to clear the fog of confusion.

About The Author
Bill Platt has offered article marketing services at The Phantom Writers, since 2001. If you are interested in guaranteed link building services, utilizing articles as the foundation for the links, then Bill's team can help you with that as well. If you have questíons that only Bill can answer, give him a call at (405) 780-7745, between 9am-6pm CST, Monday through Friday.