Websites, Search Engine Optimization SEO, Training Internet Consulting New Homes Marketing

It's Hard to Go Back on Poor Online Marketing Decisions

2009-07-06T17:09:00.014-05:00

In traditional marketing a bad decision about an ad layout lasts only as long as the current issue. When it comes to the Internet a poor decision or uneducated choice can have lasting implications on success of a business. Something placed on the Internet is easily found years later, even if it was deleted or only online for a short time. Conversely something found online today may not be easily found tomorrow if the wrong decisions are made or a disreputable online marketing company is used.

Any true online marketing expert understands the value and importance of 'link weight' pertaining to website visits from potential buyers and how a search engine ranks a website The higher the ranking by a search engine the more times a website will be seen and visited by potential customers and conversely if a website is not ranked well it will never be viewed or visited by potential buyers. Google has published the fact that a primary website ranking algorithm for ranking websites is how many other websites link to a website and what the value of those websites is. This was best illustrated in the 2004 Presidential Election where Democrats placed links to the George Bush profile on thousands of websites with the term 'miserable failure' resulting in George Bush being the 1st item shown on Google when users searched for 'miserable failure'. If a website has dozens of other highly valued websites linking TO it then Google considers that website of higher value and ranks the website higher in search results.

The same works in reverse meaning that a website with several highly ranked websites linking TO it will be perceived as lower value if those other websites no longer link to the website. Search Engines often consider this in terms of companies going out of business or offering less valued or less important services. When a Search Engine tracks links moving from one website to others the link weight is lowered for the negative links being moved away thus lowering the ranking and reach of the website. The result of this is much lower traffic often resulting in less leads and lower sales instantly without a simple solution to repair. An unfortunate example of this was a website Builder Consulting built for a Tulsa home builder that went from less than 400 users per month to over 4,000 monthly user visits (potential buyers visiting the website).

When the company hired a new marketing manager she decided to cancel all online marketing and move the website to a new website company she liked with disastrous results. Builder Consulting had steadily increased the website traffic to an average of 2,200 unique users (buyrs) visiting per month. After the new marketing director changed the website to a new website company the website had a 92.08% decrease in unque buyer visits in less than one month to a low of 161 visitors to the website; less than it had ever been in more than a decade. The significant changes made to the online marketing led to a catastrophic result for the customer in less than one month that will not easily be resolved with several months effort.

There may be another change in marketing ahead when the owner of the company finds out his website is down 92.08% simply because of a poor choice made that caused the company to lose 92% of potential client visits to the website in less than 30 days. Little things have a large affect online, watch out for anyone promising unrealistic results or unquantifiable actions since there are far more bad online marketers than there are good ones.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
BuilderConsulting.com
913-814-8844 Corporate Offices

Going Green Takes Common Sense & Effort

2009-06-25T04:23:00.004-05:00

Going Green is huge these days, though many people fail to realize that living green is quite easy when common sense is used. The Federal Government has been advertising 'unplug to save electricity' for months touting the fact that anything plugged into an electrical outlet draws power constantly even when turned off. The fact that the electricity used amounts to an average of 3 cents per month per item plugged in is not shared because most consumers would simply feel that a few cents makes no difference yet combine 3 cents by millions of people worldwide and it adds up much faster.

Devices such as the Voltbolt (www.TheVoltBolt.com) solved this years ago with a simple power strip that locks to disable all power instantly while also providing security and anti-theft deterrence with a locking key to secure devices to the power strip and disable power instantly at the turn of the key for about the price of a normal power strip. Using reclaimed building products from companies such as Seldom Found Arhitecturals provides unique items to accent home or business while recycling wood, stone, brick and other materials that often end up in land fills.

Electricity costs more during the day so laundry and dishwashers should be run at night or after 6PM when most electric rates go down. Water and other utilities often work in the same method charging more for peak production times (8-6) thus a bit of common sense used can reduce monthly bills tremendously. Builder Consulting utilizes Green Production through working in multiple shifts with staff at the office late into the evening and early morning when power consumption is less costly and more efficient...and it serves customers worldwide from 7AM to Midnight most days improving customer service while working Green.

Use LCD monitors rather than old tube monitors which consume 50% less power and have a brighter, crisper display that is easier on the eyes. Be sure to recycle the tons of wasted paper at offices using it for note taking, internal printing and recycle programs. Rather than throwing away old computers simply upgrade them and donate to charity as Builder Consulting has done for years providing needy or low income families with computers instead of landfills.

Going Green continues at home making sure not to let water run when brushing teeth or turning off the lights when not in use and replacing all light bulbs with those nifty new high efficiency light bulbs that use 70% less power. Little things such as turning off the lights in a bedroom or bathroom when taking a shower during the day make a big difference when millions of people make the effort. During the hot and cold times of the year set the thermostat to an average temperature and do not adjust the settings to wide ranges (no more than 1-2 degrees change) since significant adjustments increases heating or cooling costs by up to 20%. If your home has a garage only open it when required since the heat or cold coming into the garage will creep into your home raising the heating or cooling costs significantly. There are countless common sense ideas for Going Green we may all use on a daily basis to save money and the environment.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
BuilderConsulting.com
913-814-8844 Offices

Netextinct - Business, Services & Items the Internet is making extinct

2009-06-23T03:21:00.007-05:00

Netextinct –adjective
1. no longer in existence; that has ended or died out: travel agencies are quickly becoming netextinct.
2. no longer in use; obsolete: a netextinct business
3. having ceased operations; no longer active: an extinct business due to the Internet

The Internet provides millions of people instant access to information, products, services, friends and constantly evolves as a child coming of age. With the apparent benefits there have been those affected by netextinction replacing their business model or service with the click of a mouse. Consider when was the last time you called a travel agency to book an airline ticket? Online classified ads are up 500% while newspapers fail or close their doors daily. Car dealerships now accept that most buyers have researched prices, makes, models and know more about the vehicle they want to purchase (due to the Internet) than the salespeople making the classic 'used car salesperson' obsolete.

These businesses have become netextinct; victims of the ecommerce (another word that never existed before the Internet). What other businesses or services would you consider to be netextinct or in process of netextinction?

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
BuilderConsulting.com - Building Better Websites Since 1995
913-814-8844 Corporate Offices

Building Better Social Media Networking, Marketing, Blogs & Websites

2009-06-16T22:35:00.001-05:00

Nearly 33% of active Internet users utilizing social networking sites every day,* social media sites are your greatest strategic asset to attract new customers and build brand awareness and instantly communicate a message to clients worldwide.
The time required for small- and mid-sized businesses to create and maintain just one social network profile (experts say about 32 hours per month), launching and nurturing a complete campaign that brings success across multiple channels is a challenge.
Builder Social Media builds strategic, comprehensive social media solutions so you can focus on your core competencies while we focus on ours - building effective, affordable, and on target social media campaigns to maximize your marketing ROI while saving you time and money.
The average in-house social media expert costs $84,000/year, including salary, benefits and taxes, our solutions save you 90% and more than 13,000 hours per year while delivering the same results.
Want better results? Go beyond the profile.
Anyone with an Internet connection can set up a profile on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo, Blogger, Activerain or Fast Pitch but there are specific methods that are more effective and Builder Social Media knows how.
If you want it done right, partner with Builder Social Media
Builder Social Media will build your Social Media Marketing working with your team to deliver the right conversations and captivate your audiences while saving you time and money, protecting your brand, and maximizing your marketing investment. With time-saving, affordable social networking solutions from Builder Social Media, there’s no reason to miss out on these tremendous new business opportunities that can:
• Establish, build, and maintain quality customer relationships
• Position you as an industry leader and a Subject Matter Expert in your field
• Create high-quality back links to your website to boost your Search Engine ranking efforts
• Protect your online reputation and brand. We can reserve your name on the top social networks before your competitors do it for you.

visit us online at www.BuilderSocialMedia.com today to find out how you can reach more people online by building social media marketing that works!

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
BuilderConsulting.com
913-814-8844 Offices

Some of the many benefits of Insomnia...

2009-06-10T01:21:00.004-05:00

As far back as I can remember I have been unable to sleep much, it first felt like a curse yet looking past the sleepless times there have been tremendous benefits. Throughout schooling I would use the time to read books, magazines and when I had read everything in the house I started to log onto my father's workstation and learned how to work with Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). Social Media is not a new invention, we were doing the same things using BBS in the early 1980's with man bulletin board systems surviving today.

It was a place to share information, comments, play games, read about others and the information they posted (sound familiar...maybe kind of like Facebook or Myspace). Everything back then was simple text, we created images with dots and dashes after the wonderful sound of a 1200 baud modem dialing, the handshake and then connection. I would guess the majority of Internet Users today have never heard a dial-up modem connect or have gone through the transition from 1200 baud to 2400 to 56K to high speed and now higher speeds. I was caught using the EXPENSIVE IBM Workstation provided by EDS for my father but I never learned because I never slept and it was always something new or interesting to learn.

Forward over 20 years later and I still spend nearly every night from whenever I arrive home until 3,4 or 5 AM on the computer. I have several computers in the house, two laptops in the bedroom (so I always have one in reach) enabling me to spend 100+ hours each week learning on the Internet. Add to this the PDA cell phones with Internet Connection, the wireless cellular EVDO high speed modem and dozens of computers, servers and workstations at the office and I now appreciate Insomnia. There is always a benefit to every experience, sometimes it may take years to truely see but if we have the patience and determination things become clear.

It has been a busy day, maybe I can get to bed by 4 AM tonight after some more time online...

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
www.BuilderConsulting.com - Building Better Websites Since 1995
913-814-8844 Office

Understanding Pay Per Click PPC Search Engine Marketing

2009-06-08T18:27:00.009-05:00

Search Engine Marketing through use of Pay Per Click (PPC) ads is an effective method of placing any website in front of prospective clients without having to optimize or market the website. Companies with new websites, extremely old websites or websites which offer multiple services in multiple locations are best serviced through use of pay per click marketing. Search Engine pay per click marketing (Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft bCentral) is typically setup with a daily and/or monthly budget for the marketing campaign.

In traditional advertising marketers charge for a specific location in a magazine or newspaper in hopes that someone saw the advertisment based on a distribution number created by the company selling the advertising. This left much to be desired since the company selling the advertising was the same company providing the customers with the 'distribution numbers' estimating how many people might see the magazine or newspaper and hopefully view the advertisment inside of it. There was no true way to judge how many people saw the advertisment or what the return on investment was for the ad campaign. Online advertising, specifically pay per click (PPC) changed things with the pay for performance method of costs.

With PPC advertising a company only pays when the advertisment they show on the search engine is clicked on and a prospective customer is taken to the website to view the customer. When a customer simply views the ad on a search engine, without clicking, then there is no cost to anyone. Advertisers may setup a daily and monthly budget to spend for ads in addition to individual bids (yes bidding similar to ebay) for each search term or keyword phrase. A company or individual may bid for a particular phrase or set of keywords to have their advertisment show up when a search was done for those words on a search engine. The benefit is that advertisers pay for exactly what they receive while the detraction of bidding on keywords is that competitors can instantly outbid each other driving the costs up dramatically.

This means that ten companies may bid for the keyword phrase 'Kansas City Website Companies' all spending $1 per click to show up in the first ten advertising locations on a search engine. When ten more companies decided to bid on the same set of keywords they outbid the first companies for $1.50 per click or 50% higher cost per click. When the first set of companies see they have been outbid and their ads are no longer showing then they bid $2 a click or 100% more for the same traffic. Bidding sometimes becomes extremely competative when people or companies target a specific keyword phrase with no limit on how high the bidding goes for each click.

The benefit of Pay Per Click is that companies never pay for the branding/marketing aspects of having online users view the ad unless the online user actually clicks on the ad (thus pay per click). Online marketers sometimes neglect taking the time to search for the best 'bang for the buck' when setting up PPC accounts for clients. Builder Consulting spends several hours consulting with the customer to determine the top keywords and phrases then sets a specific budget for each term based upon the overall monthly goals and cost per click likelyhood of a return on investment. Keep in mind that any account setup with a daily and monthly budget will not show all ads all of the time.

The rate at which ads are shown is based upon budgets, likelyhood of the ad delivering a click (more effective ads are shown more often), the number of advertisers paying for each search term and the remaining balance of a budget for each advertiser. Any individual or company can setup pay per click advertising in a matter of minutes, setting it up properly to requires experiance and an understanding of the overall concepts, goals and technical aspects of the systems to provide a true return on investment.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
BuilderConsulting.com
913-814-8844 Offices

Microsoft Bing.com 'Decision Search Engine' & Reaches # 2 Position

2009-06-08T16:11:00.004-05:00

June 1st 2009 Microsoft launched the new 'Decision Search Engine' intent on improving the way search results are displayed. Commercials on national prime time TV show people speaking random words associated with what others asked them as a way to illustrate the frustration of search results on many search engines. Microsoft launched a YouTube channel with the new search engine to share advertisments www.YouTube.com/Bing An example of this includes a commercial where a wife asks about 'Hawaii' and the husband begins saying all types of words that have to do with Hawaii such as 'Hawaii 5-0', surf lingo and other items that would commonly come up on a search engine related to Hawaii.

The Bing.com search engine looks at the context of what users are searching for and then makes a decision on which search results make the most sense to display. With the launch of the new Bing.com search engine Microsoft overtook the # 2 position behind Google temporarily jumping ahead of Yahoo.com with 16.28% of the market share. Yahoo moved down to 10.22% of the market share with Google remaining at 71.47% of the search engine market share according to StatCounter reports June 4th.

Microsoft has launched several new cutting edge technologies in the past few months including Photosynth.net enabling users worldwide to combine images creating extremely detailed 'video like' 3D images online. What remains to be seen is if the Bing.com search engine will be a long term competitor with Yahoo.com or Google.com using intelligent search results and new technologies.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
Internet & Technology Expert
BuilderConsulting.com - Building Better Websites & Online Solutions Since 1995
913-814-8844 Office

Online Classifieds Usage Double Since 2005

2009-05-29T18:18:00.004-05:00

According to the latest Pew Internet Research study nearly 50% of all Internet users are using online classifieds. Forty-nine percent of online adults surveyed said they have visited sites like Craigslist, Kijiji and Oodle, up from only 22% in 2005. The study says that 9% of Internet users visit these sites on any given day, compared with 4% four years ago.

Online classifieds are particularly popular with 25 to 44 year old Internet users, more than half of whom use Internet classifieds, while just under half of 18 to 24 year olds and 45 to 54 year olds 49% and 48%, respectively use online classifieds.

Those figures fall for users over 55 with 35% of 55 to 64 year olds using classified websites, while 26% of Internet users over 65 do.

Use of classified sites also increases with income and education, with online adults earning $50,000 or more, as well as college graduates, considerably more likely to have visited them. The Pew Research study highlights the growing importance of online classifieds to Internet users and reflects the changes in the audience for classified ads in terms of those who place them and those who make purchases using online classified websites which devastated a key revenue source for traditional newspapers.
Craigslist is by far the most used website in the United States. In March 2009 all classified websites averaged 53.8 million unique visitors, up 7% from February. Craigslist alone had 42.2 million unique visitors in the month of March (out of the total 53.8 million total users). Newspaper classified revenue fell from 17.4 Billion to $10 billion over the same period with real estate classifieds down 52% since their peak in 2006. Total Internet ads revanue for newspapers in 2008 was $3.1 billion according to the Newspaper Association of America.

Just as past studies of online users have shown, adults living in households with incomes of $50,000 or more a year are significantly more likely to visit and use classified ads sites than lower earners. More than half (56%) of higher income Internet users use sites like Craigslist, compared with 47% of those making $30,000-$49,999 and 42% of those making less than $30,000 a year. In addition, online adults making $50,000 or more are more than twice as likely as those earning less than $30,000 a year to use online classified ads on a typical day.

The Internet continues to be the strong point in business and live with the numbers clearly showing adaptation by the average user.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
www.BuilderConsulting.com
913-814-8844 Office

It's a GREAT Time to Buy...Almost everything from cars to homes to websites

2009-05-29T11:47:00.006-05:00

After everything the economy, people and companies have been through it seems that everyone deserves a reward for making it through the challenges. Today, homes are being sold for pennies on the dollar, mortgage rates are low, a classic muscle car can be found for a few thousand dollars (watch Barrett Jackson Auctions sometime), Walmart has 'lower price' signs everywhere and you can buy a new car for almost nothing. Anyone who made it through the past two years without losing everything is in an incredible position to buy anything.

There are foreclosed homes for sale in the Kansas City market for as little as $10,000-50,000 without structural or major work required; other real estate professionals share it is the same in most places. Older areas of town have homes with mortgages where unfortunate people paid for 20 years then lost the home. This means the balance on the loan is only what remains from the purchase price 20 years ago after payments have been made for 20 years and the home appreciated. Hence a home valued at $50,000 in 1979 may have appreciated to a value of $75,000 with a remaining loan balance of $15,000 when the home was foreclosed so the bank can only sell it for the balance of the loan (foreclosing on homes is not to be for profit above the loan balance).

It is a great time to buy investment property, rental homes or even an extra home downtown for those nights the drive back from cocktail hour seems too far! Homes are not the only excellent deal, search on Ebay Motors or Craigslist anytime to find $80,000 supercharged Jaguar Luxury Sedans selling for $10,000 in perfect running condition. Less common vehicles such as Austin Martin Ultra-performance sports cars that sold for $144,000 a few years ago are selling for $25,000 when the people who blew their money on such luxury items now need the cash to pay bills. There is something very wrong and something very right about this transfer of assets though it did create opportunity.

Invest in yourself and your business, have a new website built to reach new customers, take advantage of social media and networking. Everything done today returns your investment in the future so get ahead of the competition now while business is slow, but increasing and consumer confidence is improving.

If you have the money stashed away or happen to be one of the well performing companies it is a great time to look for a new office building, a car, LCD TV or investment properties. The economy was hurt when consumers became scared to spend money, buy a home or invest but the time has come to correct this and get a great deal at the same time. Invest in real estate, buy a nice car, take someone out to dinner and help make things better while enjoying life in the process!

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
www.BuilderConsulting.com
913-814-8844 Office

Being Posative Leads to Success...in Business & Life

2009-05-29T02:51:00.006-05:00

I have considered writing about this for several weeks though until today I felt it was more of a personal mission than a Blog worthy message. When I arrived at work today there was an email from a builder in Texas inquiring about website services and online marketing. The email had the company name, website address, phone number, name and details of when the builder wanted a new website launched (60 days) so I picked up the phone and called him to find out more about his business and how we may assist.

The first questions I ask anyone is "how did you find our company?" to which his reply was "another website company trying to sell me a website gave me your name". He further elaborated that the sales person from the other website company had been so persistent and gone on for weeks about Builder Consulting that he simply had to go look us up on the Internet and find out what would cause someone to be so insecure they had to name another company, by name, as someone they "better not work with..." although he had never heard of our company or mentioned our name previously.

After spending a few minutes online researching website development firms and specifically our firm since he had been told by a sales person NOT to contact us he was comfortable enough to send an email request through one of the 12 websites he found pertaining to our company to speak with someone himself. When we spoke he was clear about his business needs and goals, inquired if we knew the other company (at which point I shared I knew who they were but would rather speak about how Builder Consulting can provide solutions than gossip about another firm) and we proceeded with a 30 minute conversation about his business.

By the end of the conversation the company on the other end of the phone became a customer requesting an agreement to begin working with Builder Consulting. He stated openly that the other company he had been speaking with was so negative and focused on why he should not work with other companies, while our conversation was simply about his business needs and what Builder Consulting would do to assist him.

The culture of a business or individual shows clear to others, short term gains may be made through negative marketing or slanderous claims about companies that may be considered competitors but those gains will never last. When a company we have never spoken with contacts us and becomes a customer simply because someone was so scared of trying to sell their work based on quality, service, results and innovation then it becomes quite clear that happiness in business and life ultimately determines success.

If an individual or business needs to say bad things about another to sell their products or services then they simply must not have a good enough product or service to be sold on its own standing - most companies are smart enough to realize this.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
http://www.BuilderConsulting.com
913-814-8844 Office

Building Better Websites and Technology Solutions Since 1995

Back to the Basics...Sales & Marketing First

2009-04-28T01:44:00.015-05:00

The past week has been spent speaking with marketing directors, sales managers and consultants about their Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, ActiveRain and other online social networking accounts. One sales manager shared and email from marketing firm outlining a several month long marketing campaign done by creating a fake person on Facebook intended on tricking buyers into coming to see homes for sale. The email shared that several people had agreed to be be Facebook friends with the fake person and even attended a party at a new urban condo unit. There was no information on how people reacted when they found out they had been tricked into visiting the community by a salesperson though the email did share say the marketing had lots of buzz until it was shut down by Facebook for violating terms of use and creating fake accounts. Are legitimate marketing professionals now Twittering for customers or spending months on fake online profiles creating fake people to trick buyers into viewing their products or location?

Would someone who was tricked into visiting a home by a fake person on a fake online account be the best prospective buyer? What ever happened to generating leads and sales through marketing? What happened to connecting with buyers through legitimate methods such as a well developed and search engine optimized website or effective targeted email marketing followed by personal calls to prospects to help generate interest. There are home buyers out there and the majority of buyers are using the Internet to search for homes, legitimate buyers are looking for a home for the best price not trying to be entertained or invited to a party. Multiple opportunities to reach buyers and share a message is good though quite a few marketing firms seem to be focusing efforts on random items online tools or Tweets while forgetting the basics of Sales and Marketing!

Build a better website, buy online advertising to put yourself in front of prospective buyers where they are looking then focus efforts on Twittering and creating online areas to chat with someone in hopes they may buy something. Back to the basics, the basics changed moving away from newspaper and print ads to the Internet Super Highway where you can reach more buyers and sell more...if the basics are done properly.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
http://www.BuilderConsulting.com
913-814-8844 Offices

Hallbrook Pays Lawyers $25,000 to Ensure Hallbrook Real Estate is Not Ranked #1 on Google

2009-04-28T01:32:00.004-05:00

An excellent example of what not to do involves a group of lawyers representing a development group who charged their customer $25,000 to make sure they were not on the first page of Google. Yes, you read correctly that the lawyers helped their real estate customers make sure they were not listed on the first page of a search engine in the middle of a terrible real estate market and only made $25,000 for doing it. The Hallbrook subdivision is an upscale neighborhood in Leawood Kansas minutes South of Kansas City. Homes for sale and real estate in Hallbrook are listed by several real estate companies with ads listing the spectacular Hallbrook Real Estate or Hallbrook Estate Homes for sale.

A local real estate company wanted to promote the homes and real estate they had for sale in the Hallbrook subdivision through a website to reach prospective buyers searching online. A small Search Engine Optimized marketing website was built incorporating the words Hallbrook Real Estate in the domain name (website address) listing homes for sale in Hallbrook and local area attractions. The website also featured on the home page links to the Hallbrook Country Club, Hallbrook Realty Team and other real estate companies with listings for sale in the Hallbrook subdivision. Within weeks the website was ranked # 1 on Google attracting the attention of someone at the Hallbrook Office Center or Hallbrook Country Club.

Someone somewhere was upset that the word Hallbrook was being used to sell real estate for sale in the Hallbrook subdivision. The first contact was a letter from a lawyer demanding that the # 1 ranked website be taken down because Hallbrook was a word used in the company trademark. The website was taken down for a short time to be sure nothing wrong was being perpetuated through use of the word Hallbrook to list real estate for sale in the Hallbrook subdivision. A quick search on Google showed 41,115 notations of the term Hallbrook Real Estate including dozens of similar websites that were not ranked on the 1st page of Google. A call was made to the lawyers representing Hallbrook Office Center sharing that the # 1 ranked website also linked to their client's website sending prospective buyers while clearly noting the website was not affiliated with any of the Hallbrook entities.

Months went by without further communications until a huge packet of legal paperwork was delivered to the website hosting company (Builder Consulting) from Lathrop & Gage lawyers. A lawsuit had been filed claiming use of the word Hallbrook was a violation of the trademark held by Hallbrook Country Club and Hallbrook Office Center. Lawyers from Lathrop and Gage shared that nearly $25,000 had been spent for the lawsuit demanding the # 1 ranked website listing real estate for sale in Hallbrook be taken down requesting that NO FURTHER marketing for the Hallbrook subdivsion, homes or real estate ever be done.

To be clear, lawyers from Lathrop and Gage wanted written agreement for their real estate clients that the # 1 ranked website on Google sending buyers to the Hallbrook subdivision be taken off the Internet in addition to confirmation that no future marketing would be done pertaining to Hallbrook. This seems completely contrary to everything a real estate company would need and want but for small $25,000 legal fee it was so agreed.

The lawsuit was dismissed, the website is no longer live and Hallbrook real estate sales are down 288% which is no surprise with the aggressive anti-marketing campaign in full force. Interesting to note when the case first came up the website was offered for sale for $1,000 at which point Lathrop and Gage shared the customer had already spent almost $25,000 on the case so they were not interested in buying the website...it would have been MUCH cheaper to just buy the website and keep the # 1 ranking on Google!

There are long term ramifications of immediate actions, begin with the end in mind!

Coldwell Banker Kansas City Loses the Online Buyer

2009-04-06T16:40:00.013-05:00

Everywhere today there are signs of failure, countless articles on various ideas for motivation, reaching more customers or just staying in business. Along the same lines it is important to note where companies, marketers and salespeople have gone wrong even with the best intentions. Starting this online illustration off is a group of Coldwell Banker offices within a particular region who were sold the idea to 'turn off' all of their websites and individual online marketing to use only one website they could all share.

In terms of search engine marketing a website should be considered an online billboard where a single billboard is only capable of reaching a small target audience on a specific location of the road. If buyers drive home on the road your billboard happens to be located then you have the opportunity to present your message to those buyers. Anyone who drives home another way or lives in another part of town will never see the billboard nor will they ever have a chance to see your advertising. A website works much the same way in that a single website will never rank very well or be listed very high in a wide range of buyer search results.

Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.) rank websites higher or lower based upon the content, traffic, number of links and related websites and even website locations. Thus a single website will never be 'everything to every search engine' and will never rank highly for more than a few specific search terms or keywords. With Coldwell Banker offices abandoning ten (10) individual websites for the local offices that previously contained specific information for each region or area to all share a single template website the local offices lost the ability to prospective reach home buyers, sellers and relocation customers on search engines. The intention may have been to share resources or lower marketing costs but the result was a loss of 90% of their potential online reach within all search engines.

One of the specific Coldwell Banker offices hosted the website at our website hosting facility with an average monthly Unique Users (unique visitors or prospective clients) of 4,400 and 882 active home buyers who had created accounts within the website to search for or save homes for sale in the local market. The monthly investment to maintain the website was $150 which equates to 3 cents per unique user (potential customer) per month before considering the 882 active buyers who created an account on the website.

The website was ranked # 1 on Google and Yahoo for specific search terms pertinent to the locations of offices such as 'Coldwell Banker Overland Park' or 'Coldwell Banker Kansas City' branding the company to thousands of home buyers and sellers every month (important to note there are several Coldwell Banker offices in the area but this website showed up #1). The website was turned off, all 882 active customers with home search accounts on the website were kicked off without notice and the website is no longer ranked on any search engine within the first two pages.

Somewhere along the way a salesperson from a website design company sold a local Coldwell Banker Relocation office on the idea that they should design a single website for all of the local offices to share. Maybe the idea was to save money, maybe they wanted to try and compete with Reece and Nichols who typically has 50% of the local market listings and uses one website or maybe it was just so the relocation company could get a fee for every single home sold by any local Coldwell Banker office. Whatever the reason was the local Coldwell Banker offices lost a tremendous opportunity to reach more customers through their individual websites (online billboards) and proved there is more than one way to lose business in a tough market.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
Internet * Technology Expert
http://www.builderconsulting.com/
913-814-8844 Office

Social Media Tools for Easy Online Marketing

2009-03-24T09:20:00.003-05:00

Some of the best places to market today are FREE, more classified ads are placed daily on Craigslist.com than any other website except Ebay (who happened to buy Craigslist) while there are dozens of other similar websites used for online ads. Most users simply post an ad online using the basic ad creation tools built into each classified ad website causing the ads to blend in with others easily. A way to augment your online ads is to create a 'webpage' using HTML and external image hosting yet this requires some level of website design skill, the software and time to develop the ad; most people will not take the time to do this.

Another solution is to use the excellent online tools, What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) HTML Editors that create the webpage for you through a few basic steps. One such website is vFlyer www.vflyer.com enabling customized online ad creation for Real Estate, Rental/Leasing, Automotive/Cars and Marketing Companies. Setup of an account and basic flyers is FREE with a small paid subscription service available for those who post multiple ads each month.

Another online website with FREE social media marketing tools is Easy Auto Sales www.EasyAutoSales.com specifically setup for for automotive ad creation, classifieds and posting. The Easy Auto Sales website incorporates unique tools such as Facebook integration, history of buyer/seller ads, creation of custom HTML for posting the ad on other websites and direct feeds to many search engines showcasing any auto posted within the website to buyers on Yahoo and Google FREE of charge. Functionality includes online community forums of automotive questions, car clubs and vehicle research.

Last but not least is the Postlets Classified Ad Creation and Marketing website www.Postlets.com primarily focused on real estate ad creation while incorporating tools for cars and trucks as well. The unique feature of Postlets is that the ads created are marketed directly to all of the following top social media websites for FREE once the ad is completed:

	craigslist
	Facebook
	FrontDoor
	Google Base
	HotPads
	MySpace
	Oodle
	Trulia
	Twitter
	Vast
	Zillow

The basic Postlets account is FREE enabling full access to the website, ad creation and basic marketing tools. Enhanced options create a complete website for online ads with enhanced marketing for each of the individual posts at a nominal charge of $5 for one, $40 for 10 or $75 for 25 ads including the website and marketing. That equates to $3 per ad at the bulk rate which is much less expensive than newspapers or other online paid advertising websites.

To request additional information on other online marketing, social media or website development contact Builder Consulting www.BuilderConsulting.com

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
Internet & Technology Expert
Builder Consulting - Building Better Websites with Results Since 1995
913-814-8844

Does Social Networking Bring Business?

2009-01-29T15:52:00.006-06:00

Several educational offerings about Social Networking were offered at the 2009 NAHB IBS in Las Vegas this month sharing a wide range of ideas. Many different options were shared with direct examples of builders, real estate professionals and companies marketing via social networking groups. Myspace.com, Ning.com, Facebook.com, Activerain.com, LinkedIn.com and dozens of others portrayed an endless list of options to share a message.

The difficult aspect of social networking in marketing is correlating any resulting leads or sales. Any additional opportunity to reach prospective customers or place an 'online billboard' is beneficial yet there seems to lack a single direct method of converting social browsers to buyers. Most social networking websites are provided free of charge so a return on investment only includes the time required to collect, publish and update the information on each of the portals.

Marketing is either targeted or not; social networking is the new hot marketing idea (even though it has been around for years) though it has not yet been refined to a targeted marketing tool. Anyone considering the launch of a social networking marketing campaign should first start with a Blog followed by one or two of the thousands of other social marketing portals to practice upon. Blogs have always been well liked by the search engines so they are an excellent proven opportunity.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
BuilderConsulting.com
913-814-8844

Is it Blogging or Bragging - there is a difference

2009-01-26T03:23:00.004-06:00

Do you ever feel like some Bloggers suffer from a since of direction or creativity? After reviewing dozens of blogs around the country from self proclaimed professionals you find several who have a post with useful information followed by a blog bragging that they sold something to someone. Anyone who mistakenly subscribed to that type of blog would be greatly disappointed to see Blog posting about some trade show or who got hired since that information belongs on the company news area or on a Blog dedicated to company news.

Consider if the Wall Street Journal went from publishing useful news one day to only publishing information about some new printing machine and the great people they have on staff the next day - No News and a clear lack of focus. Most often this type of random blogging is done by bloggers with a lack of content or ideas to simply 'show' they have posted something...anything...desperate to keep new content. Keep online content consistent, consider how a prospective client may perceive the content of a blog and never post junk in place of valuable information just to show your doing something!

Online users looking for information on a Blog will be disappointed to find a blog full of bragging.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
http://www.BuilderConsulting.com
913-814-8844 Office

Good Rules and Ideas to Live or Work By...

2008-12-16T19:24:00.009-06:00

Day to day it seems there are far too many people who take themselves much too seriously while neglecting to realize there is more to life than making more money or worrying about what others are doing. Realistically we are all capable of doing anything we desire (within reason, I will never be an NBA star or run a 4 minute mile) as long as we are willing to put forth the effort. In that spirit I wanted to share a few quotes or ideas that have helped create our company and my personal focus in life...

The quality of a persons life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence regardless of their chosen field of endeavor - Vince Lombardi
Make it Better Because You are There - Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
You can be anything you want to be when you grow up
Start with the End in Mind - Stephen Covey
There are no Problems, Only Solutions waiting to be discovered
Your either part of the problem or working on the solution
What Can We Do Today to make it better than yesterday
Learn Something New Every Day
The only thing life that is consistent is change - Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
Whatever position you have earned in life always strive to be your very best
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, the thrill of the creative effort. - Franklin D. Roosevelt
It is neither wealth nor splendor but the tranquility and occupation which give happiness. - Thomas Jefferson

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
http://www.BuilderConsulting.com Building Better Websites with Results since 1995

Researching Google PageRank and Link Weight (geeking out tonight)

2008-10-10T00:30:00.000-05:00

PageRank is basically a website popularity rating, and a websites PageRank is determined by the inbound links from other websiteson the internet. A PageRank can be as low zero (0) to as high as ten (10). Google’s algorithms determine a website’s PageRank by dividing the PageRank for each of the inbound linking webpage by the number of outbound links on each of those webpages, factoring in each page’s PageRank, and then summing the results for all inbound links.

PageRank is Similar to Voting

PageRank considers each link a ‘vote’ for the webpage linked to. But unlike the normal voting process of “one person equals one vote”, the Google algorithm considers the votes of webpages with “more” (PageRank or shares) to have a greater influence or value. a link from a webpage with a PageRank of 7 is more valuable than a link from a page of PageRank 3; exponentially more valuable as I will outline below

The 80/20 Rule Online

Because of the nature of the Internet, a small number of webpages have a tremendous number of inbound links, and a large number of webpages have few links. Those with more links get higher PageRank

The value of PageRank is on a logarithmic scale increasing exponentially. Assuming that the base PageRank of 1 has a value of five (5), the value of a webpage link would be this:

Example:

Hypothetically a website obtains a continuous link from Builder Consulting’s home page (http://www.builderconsulting.com/) while the Builder Consulting home page contains about 70 outbound links and has a PageRank of seven (7).

There are a total of 50 other inbound links with the average PageRank for the webpages linking in is three (3) and those webpages have an average outbound link count of 10. From this, let’s calculate PageRank:

Builder Consulting’s Available PageRank per outbound link:
78,125 / 70 => 1,116

PageRank value contributed by 50 other sites:
125 * 50 / 10 => 625

Total PageRank value:
1,116 + 625 => 1,741

Looking it up in the table, the resulting PageRank for the home page is four (4)

The Three ‘P’s of Inbound Links for higher PageRank

As with the three ‘L’s of real estate, the three ‘P’s of inbound links are: PageRank, PageRank, PageRank! Note how in the above example the 50 inbound links of PageRank 3 offered less PageRank than the one (1) inbound link from BuilderConsulting.com with PageRank of 7.

Below is an example of what it would look like with base two (2) through ten (10)

Depending on the logarithmic base, PageRank fluctuates between four (4) and five (5) for this hypothetical example. However, starting with a logarithmic base of five (5) the one Builder Consulting link overpowers the 50 others! And because pages with a PageRank closer to 10 are listed higher in Google’s search engine results.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
http://www.BuilderConsulting.com
913-814-8844 Offices

Building Business through Social Networking

2008-09-30T15:22:00.000-05:00

Nearly everyone has heard of Myspace, Youtube and the other social networking giants even if they may not yet have an account. Mentioning Myspace to older relatives instantly brings the thought of Dateline 'To Catch a Preditor' yet that is far from the actual truth as to what social networking websites are about. The Web 2.0 ideology brings to light the true social medium of the Internet connecting millions of people worldwide sharing ideas, information and products 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year.

The Internet now contains more than 500,000,000 domain names (website addresses) with hundreds of thousands more registered each week. Somehow companies continue to believe that 1 (one) single lonely website is going to be ranked high enough to reach all prospective buyers in all potential areas. Simply put one website cannot be everything to every search engine and the odds are a single website without any outside help will not be ranked well online. One option to improve the odds is using social networking websites to place the website address, company information and products or services on thousands of places worldwide.

One of the most popular business focused websites is http://www.linkedin.com/ enabling users to join for free, setup a professional profile, experience, website links, contact information and even testimonials. The Linked In website provides an online directory of business contacts, feeds content (your information and website) to search engines and functions as an online resume. Myspace http://www.myspace.com/ is typically known for teen and young adult visitors though more than 1/2 million visitors are over the age of twenty five (25). Builder Consulting setup a Myspace account years ago http://www.Myspace.com/BuilderConsulting and posts new websites launched, updated information, contacts and connects with other industry professionals worldwide.

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ or Ning http://www.ning.com/ and YouTube http://www.youtube.com/ are other viable online sources for social networking. Whenever video is used on your website use YouTube to host the video, add your keywords and embed the video within your website. This provides double duty by freeing up resources on your website and reaching millions of potential customers using YouTube. This video from Mike Brown of Brown Midwest has been viewed dozens of times on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lauDSiZ_hN0 while also being featured on the home page of the company website http://www.brownmidwest.com/.

KEEP IN MIND that unlike traditional media or marketing what is posted online tends to stay online. Search engines cache information and webpages meaning they download and store the content on their servers to provide the fastest results for search queries online. Consider how many millions upon millions of websites are online then consider how fast the Search Results are shown when using Google or Yahoo. The search is being completed within the directory of pre-searched and ranked websites stored by the search engine. A search engine does not truly search the Internet; it searches the pre-determined list of websites and rankings already stored.

Social Networking Websites tend to be free but the content is still a reflection of your company, services and products. Ensure anything posted online accurately and professionally markets a business; online users will include or exclude your company based upon the ease of use, access to information and overall feel from your website or any third party source.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
http://www.builderconsulting.com/
Building Better Websites & Online Success Since 1995
913-814-8844 Corporate Offices

How Do You Run a Business in Tough Times?

2008-09-29T12:54:00.000-05:00

Turn on any television or visit any news website and there are a dozen instances of how bad the economy or real estate industry is doing. Every political campaign promises change while the next minute every campaign is running the same old negative campaign ads bashing the opponent. When things get tough every business owner has to address tough decisions on how to create new opportunities, motivate employees AND customers, where is the best return on investment for marketing and what kind of attitude to have.

Attitude is not everything yet it is a personal decision made each day that will make or break a company. If business is slow it is easy to blame others for making the economy bad or competitors for taking your business or even employees for not performing as well. Any or all of these items may have merit and should be addressed professionally as needed.

In a round table meeting after the Midwest Builders Show last year a retired builder angerly shared that the main reason he felt his company had failed was competitors copying his floorplans and then selling them cheaper than his former company. After the meeting two other local builders vocalized their opinions that poor customer service, constant delays and excessive spending resulting in higher sales prices for homes were more likely the reasons behind the business failure. The failed business owner had spent more time focused on what his competitors were doing than adjusting budgets, addressing ongoing quality problems and correcting the fundamental issues within his business that led to the eventual closure.

Companies cannot continue to do business the same old way expecting different results when everything has changed. Tough decisions need to be made on where the best Return on Investment comes from in marketing, materials, supplies, employees, training and future plans. One of the first things Builder Consulting did when the markets slowed was to sell the enormous Hummer H2 SUV's that guzzled gas and felt like overly lavish expenses when most of our customers were facing difficult times. Many other aspects of the business were adjusted, staff were cross trained and Builder Consulting invested a significant amount of money to support customers having the most difficult times.

Builder Consulting paid for the website hosting, updates, marketing and hired additional customer support professionals to communicate with customers on the best way to reach buyers. Training classes are offered each week to teach customers how to most effectively utilize the website, understand the traffic, follow-up with buyers and make updates using the 24/7 online updating systems. Not all customers facing challenges have made it though it was not due to lack of effort or attempts to help as a partner rather than a vendor. Accountants and other business owners say that when someone cannot pay then it is best to cut losses, disconnect services and move on. Our philosophy is if someone is having a difficult time than the worst thing anyone could do is kick them while they are down and stop the only changes they may have at improving business through reaching buyers online.

It may not be the best way to run a business when considering cash flow or income but it is the right thing to do. Somewhere along the line people and businesses stopped considering what is right and wrong and began thinking only of income; what other companies are doing instead of how they may improve their business and chose what kind of attitude they wanted to have.

Challenges and issues will always be part of business, how we act, react and work through them is up to us. Make the decision to take the high road, help others in need, focus on the positive instead of negative and make things better because you are there.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
http://www.builderconsulting.com/
913-814-8844 Office

Website Beauty is Only Screen Deep

2008-09-01T01:52:00.000-05:00

As the Internet and technology continues to expand there are literally thousands of 'website designers' with a wide range of knowledge, design and development skills. Most of the website designers have graphics design backgrounds, they make things pretty without much understanding of how a website should work, flow or ranks on a Search Engine. Beauty is only screen deep means that a beautiful website, maybe your beautiful website is only truly beautiful if the world is able to locate and view it outside of where you see the website on your screen.

The misinformed website companies or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts who believe that a website needs SEO after it was completed or that old websites can have SEO work 'added' are selling snake oil not results. SEO is not something a true Search Engine Optimization expert does, it is an ongoing limitless method of backend website coding, formatting website content properly, link weight, directory insertions, manual ongoing submissions of webpages and so much more. Everyone claims to 'do SEO' or Search Engine Marketing (SEM) yet very few truly understand what that really means or how to accomplish anything past adding META Tags to the website. The results speak for themselves when customers have had pretty websites built by other website companies who 'do SEO' only to find none of the websites are being found on Yahoo or Google as expected. One such Kansas City Builder/Developer had been using a local website company who even outlined in the website agreement that SEO was included yet after the website went live it never showed up anywhere even when searching by the company name.

After two websites were produced Johnnie Adams Homes http://www.johnnieadamshomes.com/ hired Builder Consulting to redevelop the community websites and a new development/building company website. The investment spent with the other design company was lost yet the results from having all four of the new websites built properly were clear within weeks. All of the new websites are listed on the 1st page of Google, Yahoo and MSN when searching by name, location, product or community reaching thousands of buyers every month. The old website designed by the former website design company actually won Best Community Website Award yet it never once reached a buyer or helped sell a home because it could not be found online! Beauty is only screen deep, a website should be cosmetically pleasing yet balanced with the tools, code and true Search Engine Optimization to ensure the pretty website is a pretty selling tool.

Anyone can create or copy a pretty website, the cosmetic portion is the easiest to produce but the backend toold, content management systems, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and code structure makes the website successful. Do the research to find companies with real estate experiance (not just selling websites to real estate, someone involved who understands the industry, customers, MLS, etc) and better yet locate a website design company who knows how the Internet workd AND how to build websites because that is the only way to be successful online.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
http://www.builderconsulting.com
http://www.WebsitesForBuilders.com
http://www.builderwebsitedesigns.com
913-814-8844 Office

SEO, SEM, PPC What the Heck?

2008-07-29T00:51:00.000-05:00

In the past few months it seems that anyone and everyone has become experts at Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). One such website designer shares that they are the SEO Experts because anyone looking for homebuilder websites will find their website design company listed #1. A strange idea since the people searching for homebuilder websites are more likely looking for someone to build a home than a website company. This example illustrates an extremely valid yet often overlooked point that not all traffic is good traffic online.

Website companies offer Search Engine Marketing (SEM) services such as Pay Per Click (PPC) using Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and other paid advertising with the same lack of understanding costing customers thousands of dollars in worthless marketing. Search online for Atlanta New Homes and a builder from Oklahoma (does not build in Atlanta) was listed in the top 3 paid listings for a cost of nearly $4 a click because their SEM company did not setup the marketing properly. When the monthly reports come in the Search Engine Marketing company shares with the customer that they spent the budget and gained whatever number of visitors to the website. What was missed by the SEM company and the customer is the fact that the budget was spent bringing unqualified traffic to the website. The website company managing the Search Engine Marketing may never realize the mistake and the customer is likely satisfied at the increase in traffic to the website.

The inherent problem with companies claiming they 'do SEO' is that Search Engine Optimization is not something you can just 'do'. To properly Optimize websites for Search Engines there are literally dozens of key aspects that must be properly completed, many outside of the website development process. Just because everyone is familiar with the term and every website design company claims 'they do SEO' does not mean they even understand what the terms mean much less how to provide the results. If you are considering hiring someone for SEO or SEM ask the prospective companies what their target audience is and go search for them online, ask for and check referrals, verify the provider has multiple websites using the very same SEO and SEM services they offer and understand that not everyone is able to provide what they claim.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
http://www.BuilderConsulting.com
913-814-8844 Corporate Offices

Listen and Understand to Succeed

2008-06-25T20:37:00.000-05:00

No matter what type of business you are in or what your role within the business the most important thing you can do to succeed is to listen better. There is little in life more frustrating than being forced to explain something multiple times because someone was not listening or did not take the time to understand what was being communicated.

I had a recent appointment to have new tires put on a company vehicle and spent the first 20minutes trying to explain to the shop that I needed 17 inch tires put on the car instead of the 15 inch tires they were trying to sell me. The clerk was quick to explain that the computer shows 15 inch tires are right for the model and year of the car. The car did come with 15 inch rims and tires that were taken off and replaced with 17 inch after market rims over two years ago.

The tire shop clerk was trained to go by what the computer said, but not to listen to the customer of what to do when the computer was wrong. After the shop finally seemed to understand that the car needed 17" tires they took the keys, filled out a form and asked that I wait an estimated 45 minutes for the work to be completed. After close to an hour the poor shop clerk came back explaining that they were unable to install 17 inch tires because the computer says 15 inch tires are what should be installed so if they put on any other size tire the company could be liable for lawsuits.

That seems like a stupid policy but I can accept whatever rules the shop comes up with but I will not accept wasting over an hour because nobody took the time to listen and understand. I will never go to that shop again, they have lost our business forever. Listening will increase sales, solidify customer loyalty, bring referrals, improves office communications and helps business succeed. Beyond listening is making sure you understand what is being requested or at the very least what the person is trying to accomplish. People do not always communicate well, sometimes what we hear is not what what the other person says.

The most important part of communication is truly understanding what the other person is really telling you. SLOW DOWN, repeat back what you believe the customer, co-worker or prospect is asking and be sure to over communicate whenever something is unclear. No matter what the problem there is a solution and that solution may simply be to understand what the other party is trying to share so you are able to provide the right solution.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
http://www.BuilderConsulting.com
913-814-8844 Corporate Office

Understanding Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

2008-04-23T09:13:00.001-05:00

The expansion of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) companies who charge an ongoing fee to manage Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing designed to bring traffic to a website has led to more confusion for customers. Recently a prospective customer in Florida was told by a Search Engine Marketing salesperson from another company that their 5 year old website should not be upgraded because they would be able to get more traffic to the website through a 6 month contract for pay per click advertising. The current website is not listed on any of the search engines with a HUGE FLASH SPASH page, out of date information, difficult navigation and little opportunity for buyers to make a buying decision online.

The salesperson went further in telling the customer that they were 'putting the cart before the horse' by fixing the website before obtaing more traffic to the website. The salesperson is either uninformed or dishonest in his proposal and claims to the customer since driving more traffic without an effective website will not generate any more sales nor provide the website with any chance of being listed on a search engine without having to pay for the listing. Since the Search Engine Marketing company is paid by managing the ongoing paid advertising it makes sense for them to advise the customer not to invest on an effective website that would begin showing up online without having to pay for clicks. Pay Per Click (PPC) is an effective short term solution for new websites to bring traffic, visits and inform the search engines of the website content.

PPC works similar to an online auction (think ebay) where each company or marketing firm out bids the competitors for the top spots. This means that the cost will ALWAYS increase while the results will continue to decrease. The focus of marketing companies sell paid listings and search engine marketing is to ensure the customer always has to pay them to obtain traffic on the website rather than having an effective website that reaches customers through Search Engine Optimization. What most website and online marketing companies are missing is that they will not lose money by helping the customers reach more buyers on a search engine without PPC. If the website is developed properly with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) it will reduce the monthly costs for customers delivering a more effective long term reach. The initial loss of advertising income will be offset by the long term relationship and business from the customer who will need another website or related services in the future.

The other EXTREMELY BAD affect of search engine marketing and PPC management companies is the lack of understanding or accountability to the customer. The marketing companies usually have little to no understanding of the customers business or target audience. A builder in Kansas has been paying the website company that built the current website for search engine marketing each month. The builder only builds homes in Kansas City Metro (KS/MO) yet the website company setup paid marketing nationwide so that anyone looking for new homes or a builder for any city in the country will see the paid listing for the Kansas City builder. Specifically the builder who ONLY builds in Kansas and Missouri is paying for advertising in Georgia, Oklahoma, California and all 50 states because the search engine marketing was setup wrong by the website company!

The website company also has a link on the HOME PAGE of the customer's website to the website traffic reports for all of his competitors to see. When reviewing the reports they only show the number of visits and overall traffic to the website not where the traffic is coming from. This means the customer will never know that they are being charged to market homes in California or Georgia because the report does not include this information and the marketing company either does not know or does not care. To see this specific example visit www.AtlantaNewHomesandBuilders.com then view the GOOGLE ads rotating at the bottom of the page often showing a builder in Oklahoma and a builder in Kansas City along with the local Atlanta ads.

When marketing online consider the long term goals, what opportunity is being presented to buyers when they reach the website and what common sense tells you.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
http://www.BuilderConsulting.com
Building Better Websites Since 1995
913-814-8844

Return on Investment (ROI) from Online Marketing

2008-02-01T12:24:00.000-06:00

In 1999 Yahoo went public and quickly became the top Search Engine used by millions of Internet Buyers worldwide. Microsoft Network (MSN) and America Online (AOL) were the top competitors with little heard about Google. Move forward to 2008 and Google has become an adjective "Do You Google?" or "Google it" commanding 60% of the online searches. Naturally businesses and Internet Marketing companies spend the majority of online budgets on Google AdWords pay per click advertising. Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft bCentral are often overlooked or ignored missing millions of potential buyers.

The largest is not always the best and marketing dollars should be invested where the best Return on Investment will be accomplished. Advertisments for 'Kansas City New Homes' on Google AdWords can cost up to $3.85 per click reaching 60% of the online users. The same advertisment on Yahoo averages $1.31 per click with 18% of online users. with a mere 14% of online users Microsoft bCentral advertising will cost $1.12 per click. A monthly budget of $500 would give:

129 clicks (potential buyers) from Google
381 clicks (potential buyers) from Yahoo
446 clicks (potential buyers) from Microsoft bCentral

Others considerations for online marketing are demographics and usage - consider that Yahoo became the top Search Engine 8 years ago and remains the top destination for finance and business users. Google has the largest porportion of teenage users making it perfect for marketers wanting to sell IPOD's, concert tickets or Teen Magazine. Researching the demographics to ensure your marketing dollars are reaching the proper audience is more important than the total number of users on a specific search engine. Pay Per Click alone is not an effective long term marketing solution. Pay Per Click is effective for targeted traffic with a set budget yet will constantly cost more for less results or traffic as others bid against you for the top spots.

Developing a professional website incorporating the key aspects of design, Search Engine Optimization, navigation, usability, content, purpose and one-click call to action opportunities is the best overall solution. Investing more in expert website services will reduce the costs required for constant paid listings when your website shows up naturally online. Websites listed through pay per click that are poorly designed or ineffective are PAYING to exclude themselves from buyers!

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
http://www.BuilderConsulting.com