Several years ago I was marketing an online business that seemed to be fairly legitimate. I won’t give the name here because it has since been completely dissolved. Although search engine optimization (SEO) is something that people hear now on a regular basis, at the time it was an intriguing novelty. A company called me up and said that they would guarantee me first page listings for several search terms for only $3200 through SEO.

If I would’ve taken that $3200 and thrown it in the trash, at least I would’ve known where it went!

But I knew that the Internet was the future and although it really upset me, it did not deter me. In fact the more I learned about the Internet, the more I became infatuated with it. I bought almost everything I could find and spent my life (and my life savings) on learning what this all meant. There was something so intriguing and interesting about this new medium. I had been involved in digital printing and was a pioneer in the industry since 1992, but was too involved in that at the time to take advantage of the new things on the Internet happening in the late 90s. I wasn’t a pioneer this time.

But this was something different. All the traditional mediums of newspaper, television, radio, billboards, posters, bus wraps, banners, postcards, etc. were means of advertising that were “in your face”. Every one of them tried to jolt you out of your trance to get you to buy their product or see their show. I know, because I printed thousands of them for hundreds of customers.

The Internet is a place for people to go to find things you sell to solve their problem. And, as I soon found out, it had the ability to track just about every single aspect of an online consumers experience. It could track where they came from, what webpage they were on before they visited this one, which search engine they used, what search terms they used, and even the resolution of their monitor (if you wanted to know that).

This ability to track consumer behavior was absolutely fascinating to me because you could find out in an instant what was going on: if a certain search word work better than another; if one color work better than another; if one video worked better than another; if one banner ad pulled in more customers; if one browser worked better than another, etc.

No other medium had this power!

All of them had some “human” way to track what was going on, mostly just by measuring the number of sales created. Television and Radio had its Nielsen ratings and newspapers promised to broadcast your ad to everyone in the Valley if you will just put it in there long enough to get the results you’re looking for. But the Internet had instant feedback like nothing else and accuracy that defied the best traditional prognosticators of marketing available.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I decided that if I was going to spend all this money on all kinds of programs, coaching, seminars, webinars, telephone calls, books, CDs, DVDs, and the like related to this industry, then why not do it the right way, in an organized fashion from experts in the field who could be verified as legitimate in their knowledge? Why not do it in such a way that would make sense? Why not follow a specific and organized plan that could bring about the results I was looking for?

I decided to go get a Masters Degree in Internet marketing and I achieved my goal as of October 1, 2010. Even though it was an extremely difficult 13 month program that required between 20 and 35 hours per week (rarely seeing my family and never having a free Saturday!), it was worth it. I also am proud to announce that I won “Best In Class” from a vote of my peers and the professors. I didn’t even know that was an option until 3 weeks before we graduated!

So what does all this mean to you? It means that you can know that I’m not a fly by night organization or company. You can know that I put forth the time and effort to become an expert in the field. You can know that I’m here for the long haul and want to make things right to produce the results you’re looking for.

What I didn’t really know, was that I was jumping into an industry that is becoming laden with shysters and profiteers alike. I have been talking to a woman who owned a hairdressing salon about doing some marketing with her. She wanted me to come back in a month when he thought she would have some more money. Two weeks later an individual came along promising her all kinds of results if she would just pay $100 per month. Apparently he was quite persuasive because after he got his $10 haircut, she paid him $100 and was looking for some results.

He never called back. She paid him $90 for the privilege of cutting his hair!

I wish this was a singular story but apparently it is happening over and over again. There is great mystery surrounding the Internet and people are being taken advantage of because they don’t really have time to understand all of the details and ins and outs of such a complicated medium. To say that the Internet has changed over the last 10 years would be the understatement of the decade. To try to keep up with that change is about as difficult as building any business could be.

My goal is to do everything I can to get your business found online. Most people know that the yellow pages don’t work anymore (except for just a few industries). Most people have seen diminished results from traditional advertising mediums and they know they need to market online, but they just don’t know where to start or know what to do. They get phone calls every single day from Internet marketing call centers all over the country promising them great results for only a few hundred dollars per month, but the results never seemed to materialize.

I’m here to change that, but I need you to know that there are some ground rules that we have to follow. Here are just a few of them:

• Marketing on the Internet is a “learn as you go” program. We need to find what works best for you. No two businesses or markets react the same way online.
• While every business needs a website (contrary to what some people will tell you) a website is never enough. Without marketing that website, your results will be nowhere near your desired goals.
• Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Never buy a packaged program that “works for everyone.” They never last.
• The advertising battleground has now been reduced to the size of your monitor for the attention of customers and prospects.
• The competition is going to get worse and worse down the road. Be prepared to keep up with those changes.
• There are more and more laws relating to the Internet that are being written on a daily basis. It is important to keep up to date with what is considered legal online.
• Blackhat techniques (methods that are unethical) are never a viable option for your marketing efforts. They will always produce a negative result over time.
• Your website needs to be a living and breathing thing that requires daily (or at a minimum weekly) attention. Long gone are the days when you could hang out a “shingle” called a website and leave it there for people to find you. They will not.
• We have only seen the teeniest, tiniest tip of the iceberg regarding this industry! I’m here to tell you that you have no idea how much the Internet will affect your business in the coming decade! If you are aware of its potential, invest in its future and keep up with the changes, you will reap rich rewards.
• If you are not online now, that teeny little iceberg will sink your business unless you make drastic changes.
• Internet marketing is more than just a SEO or PPC! It’s far bigger than most people realize and encompasses things such as: video marketing, article marketing, PPC, RSS, game based marketing, branding, social media (Facebook, twitter, etc.), banner advertising, e-mail marketing, mobile marketing, etc.

If you’re ready to get more customers for your business through all the methods under the umbrella of “Internet Marketing” please call me at 775-722-4949 or e-mail me at KellySmithMarketing@Gmail.com. I promise you that I will do my best to help you reach your marketing goals. And you will get a weekly report showing exactly what is happening with your website.

Call me today and you can get a free video analysis of your site to show how well its doing and some things to change to make it rank better. Call me at 775-722-4949 but you must hurry because I can’t do everyone. There is a limit on this offer and first come, first served.

Just look at how much things have changed since the mid-1400s when Gutenberg came out with the first Bible. The church at the time martyred some individuals because they had the nerve to copy the Bible and distribute it. This took power away from the church and the leaders. The people could read for themselves God’s word and not have to depend on somebody’s interpretation of it and their demands that you follow them.

In the past, major corporations tightly controlled their advertising message and squashed any dissent. Frankly it was very expensive to offer an opposing point of view anyway. If you wanted to complain about something you could write a letter to the editor and if you are lucky, get it printed. You tell a few of their friends about your disappointment. There are some fairly high-level examples of people who went to much greater lengths to let people know that they were disappointed with the product. Everything from buying a billboard to complaining to Congress has been tried.

But now all that has changed and the playing field has been leveled. The following video explains this in a profound way:

One of the messages of social media is that companies have to let go and forget trying to control the message. That’s a very nerve-racking thing for most businesses to think about. But I’m here to tell you that unless businesses lose that control, in the near future they will be out of business. Because if they remove people’s ability to add to the message, there will be no message. Social media is just what it says is-social. People want to take part in things, they want to add and contribute, they want to voice their opinion and tell people about their experiences. Businesses today must recognize this fundamental change that has come about because of social media.

And if they do, and if they take care of their customers, and if they listen to the consumer they will have more consumers. The message will continue to be enlarged and expanded upon. New products and services will be invented in the social media platform. Consumers will feel part of the creation of products and companies.

Recently there was a large study done regarding games and using game based marketing for companies. In this manner a game is used to teach a principle and the whole time the company’s logo or product is used as part of the game. When these things go viral it’s astounding how much advertising value they get out of it. But the most amazing part of this is the physical interaction with a product. It isn’t a passive message like television or radio where we listen to or see what they’re telling you. In the game you are playing with it. You are making it a part of your psyche. You are involving your life with that brand. This is a powerful tool and again something part of the social media platform that is changing the world.

There are so many deeply powerful aspects of social media that are only beginning to be explored, understood and implemented. Please contact me to see how we can involve your business in this amazing new technology that can explode your customer base.

Now it must be recognized that the people that are more highly motivated to put a remark about an experience with a company are those that have had negative experiences. Somebody who feels they’ve been taken, ripped off, or exploited in any fashion are determined to tell the world about what happened.

But companies had better wake up to this reality. Unless they have someone that is looking over these different types of sites at least weekly, preferably daily, they’re going to be in trouble. Please see the video below showing the experience of one of my customers.

It’s a lesson for just about every single business out there.

This first video discusses the fact that many of these rules have been in place since 1980 but now they’re applying them to the latest social media programs. Endorsers must always reveal their relationship with advertisers because in the world of social media you cannot always tell what is an advertisement and what isn’t.

The second video discusses the fact that the FTC is interested in protecting consumers. Consumers want information about a product or service and often go online to do research. The FTC feels that we should want to know whether the person who’s getting the endorsement was paid for the endorsement or not, whether in actual money or a steady stream of free products.

The third video asks “What does the new FTC guide mean for bloggers?” For most, not very much. Most are just out there talking about their daily lives in such and it won’t mean much to them. But if you’re one of those bloggers involved in the marketing program with an advertiser and are being paid to blog about a product they need to disclose that relationship with the company.

The fourth video asks “How do bloggers follow the Endorsement Guides?” It’s quite simple. If the blogger does have a relationship with the company that needs to be revealed. For example they could say “ABC Company gave me samples of this product a try. Or, XYZ Company gave me free passes to their theme park to try it out for a day.” It’s not too complicated and it should be just straight forward and up front.

The fifth video asks the question “Is the FTC planning to sue Bloggers?”. They state that that is not why this guidance was created. Everybody needs to be playing by the same rules with other professional reviewer or an amateur reviewer. Just be upfront about the connections you have with the company and what conflict of interest you might have with them.

It seems that we need to be careful of using “sales phrases” in your endorsements. This is the thing they are most concerned about. Make things factual and real. You can’t put across that you are Betty Boop when you are really Steve Jones saying how much you love this eye-liner.

I personally feel that there is too much concern over this issue even though there are several big-time bloggers and marketers that are going to have to change their websites. This is all probably a good thing even I actually don’t want them involved in everything we as marketers do. I know that the FTC is just trying to protect people but 2 things need to happen: Marketers need to be honest in their dealings (I know that is asking a lot from some!) and secondly, people need to take responsibility for their actions.