Jim Connolly Marketing

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

3 great Internet marketing tips

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In this blog post, I am going to give you 3 great tips to improve the amount of leads, enquiries or sales you make from your website!

But first, have you ever wondered why some of your competitors appear on the first page of Google, when you do an industry related search?

They have really average looking websites and the content is no better than yours – so how come they rank so highly and get all that lovely search engine traffic?

You ‘might’ be surprised to learn that it has LESS to do with the quality of their site and MORE to do with things like the number of inbound links their site has and how many times a day or week it has new information added to it!

Search Engine Optimisation = Google optimisation

I know people speak about Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO) – but it’s really Google optimisation. Here in the UK, for example, more than 80% of all Internet searches are done via Google. So, it’s all about Google and doing what THEY say you need to do, in order to rank highly.

This means, if you seriously want to get onto the first page of Google for a common search term associated with your industry or profession – I’m afraid it’s going to cost you serious money! I know medium-sized companies today, which spend over £8,000 every month on SEO; to get as close to the top of page one of Google as possible!

Yes, those people who appear above you in the search rankings at Google, are often paying tens of thousands of pounds a year for their FREE place at the top of those search results!

A big marketing problem for small businesses!

Google created a major marketing problem for every small business on the planet, as soon as it became the dominant search provider. It’s all down to how Google decides which sites to place at the top of its search rankings. Two of the most important things Google looks for are:

1. Inbound links, preferably thousands, linking to you from relevant sites!
2. Regularly updated pages, preferably updated on a daily or weekly basis!

Obviously, most small businesses simply do not have the time to add new pages to their website every day and they lack the time and expertise, to add the thousands of links from other people’s websites too!

Google’s SEO model loves BIG companies!

Bigger companies find it extremely easy to make their way to page one of Google.com – without breaking any rules! That’s because Google is rewarding things that small companies cannot afford to provide; like a dedicated person or group of people pumping links and content into their website!

Big companies, however, simply hire a great SEO company to do it all for them (along with the dozens of other nifty techniques that SEO companies use.)

Small companies & website traffic

How can a small company possibly compete; when it doesn’t have the time / expertise to do its own SEO or the money to outspend it’s bigger rivals?

Simple: It uses a different approach to generating targeted traffic to its website! That’s what I am going to share with you, with the following 3 essential internet marketing tips!

Internet marketing tip 1: Get an SEO company to optimise your site!

If you have a business website YOU NEED A GOOD SEO PROVIDER! A website that is not optimised might as well not be there – because it’s pretty-much invisible. An optimised website, on the other hand, can be a money-making-machine for you and your business. An SEO company will make sure that your website is configured correctly, so that it is visible to search engines. They can also make sure you have enough relevant inbound links and give you some great SEO tips (like putting keywords into the headings of your pages etc.)

Get an SEO company to look after your website on as regular a basis as you can afford. This alone is not going to get you to the top of Google, but it will make sure that your site can be seen by Google and that you get a better position than you have today. Every little helps and even basic SEO is often a very worthwhile investment!

Internet marketing tip 2: Get a business blog!

Google values sites with regularly updated content. This is useless for most commercial websites, because once they are written they are pretty-much static. There’s no need to add new pages or new sections each day, even if you had the time to.

Google likes to see new content added at least once a week, preferably more often! This is why so many businesses now write a blog, which is actually woven into their main website. Each new post counts as a newly added page and also generates new links – all working toward helping your website climb the Google search rankings!

Blogs are also a great way to reach new people and to have ‘conversations’ with them; through the comments section of each blog post. This is what I love most about this blog; it gives me the opportunity to have a two way dialogue with you. Right now, you can read what I am saying and then let me and all the other readers know what you think – something just not possible on a regular website!

As I write this, Jim’s Marketing Blog is just a month old and already has over 700 inbound links. It is also starting to generate a regular flow of search engine traffic and generating traffic to my main website at jimconnolly.com

Internet marketing tip 3: Use social bookmarking

You can generate high quality, targeted traffic to your website, without a search engine!

By joining a social bookmarking or social networking website, you can attract targeted traffic and make some great contacts too – all for free! I use StumbleUpon and my personal favourite Twitter – both of which have really helped me to reach more people with my work. I have had one page of my blog visited more than 5000 times in an hour or two – after a friend from StumbleUpon recommended it to his other friends. If you want to know more about StumbleUpon click the link.

Twitter allows you to communicate directly with people, each of whom have their own network of contacts. By selectively generating a network of contacts on Twitter, you can get highly-valuable feedback and also lots of new traffic to your website. I have made some amazing contacts on Twitter and can not recommend it highly enough! You can contact me now via Twitter – my user name is @jimconnolly (say hello)

There is also Digg, Reddit, Delicious and MANY more.

In fact, if you look at the bottom of all my posts, you will see a list of buttons. These buttons allow people who read my stuff and like it, to share it with their contacts at the press of a button.

You can and should be able to generate daily or even hourly enquiries, leads or sales from your website. This brief post / article has just scratched the surface and I will be adding more information in coming posts.

I suggest you start now, by looking for an SEO company who will give you an assessment of your website and a quote, to make sure your site is fully optimised. Many SEO companies offer different levels of service, from a one-off basic review of your website – to an ongoing service, where they handle everything.

I will be covering Internet Marketing and SEO a lot more in future posts and also in the articles in my newsletter.

Marketing Blog Update

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It’s now just under a month since I launched jimsmarketingblog.com and I thought I would give you a bit of an update; regarding how things are coming along.

The emails and comments I have received have been helpful and universally positive!  It seems the information I have been sharing has really struck a chord with you.

It has also been great to be able to get conversations going in the comments sections of some of the posts.  Although I produce a very successful website and newsletter, these are one-way forms of communication.  This blog has allowed me to have a two-way dialogue and ‘get to know’ those of you who have commented here.

I already have just over 700 inbound links and amazingly, this brand new blog is already in the top 10% of all websites and blogs based on traffic! By the way, you can find ou how YOUR website or blog is doing with a useful little website called dnscoop.com. Simply enter the address (URL) of the site you want to check into the search box on their homepage, then hit the ‘check it’ button.  After a few moments you will be able to see how many inbound links your site has, it’s page rank, alexa.com rank and a few other interesting pointers.

Thank you for stopping by the blog and rest assured, I shall be working hard to ensure that this blog becomes a really free marketing resource for you and your business.

Avoid toilet paper web design

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Marketing is all about developing trust.  This is why I am always totally amazed, when I see an apparently legitimate company, using the exact same ‘toilet paper web design’ as used by online criminals, scammers and con artists!

What is a ‘toilet paper web design’?

I coined the phrase ‘toilet paper web design’ a year ago.  It refers to that ugly, hard-sell design style, where web pages are fairly narrow BUT REALLY, REALLY, REALLY LONG!  They just roll on and on like a long narrow roll of toilet paper (hence the name!)

Usually, these over-long pages use lots of different font colours and font sizes, plus pictures of expensive cars, piles of money or sometimes both!  There’s way too much use of underlined words and highlighted text – they look like a total mess!  Some even show fake copies of financial records and fake testimonials about whatever scam they are trying to fool you into signing up for.

They then end with a super, limited offer; for you to get a ‘bundle’ worth 299.99, for just 24.99!  The bundle is either membership of something or a photoshop image of a box, which looks like a 1970’s soap powder box!

Legitimate businesses should use legitimate marketing!

When someone visits a website, they immediately form their all-important first impression of that website and the person or business behind it! If they see you using the same online marketing style as a scammer, you are really in trouble!  Your image will be warning them NOT to go within a mile of you – that’s not good for your marketing!

Unbelievably, some of the most common users of toilet paper web design are legitimate business coaches, trainers and consultants! This con artist template is fine for con artists.  However, if you have a legitimate business with a legitimate product or service, it’s crazy to try and emulate what criminals do.

Whenever I have spoken to legitimate businesses, who use the toilet paper web design approach, they always say they did it after either reading some ebook or after seeing a site that claimed to be successful, using the same approach.

An ebook can be written and posted to the Internet in minutes and a scammer will never admit their site is not working!  They usually have dozens of sites and rely on each one finding enough vulnerable people to make a small profit!

If you know a legitimate business that’s using this approach – point them to this article and help them avoid being wrongly associated with Internet scumbags!

Jim’s Marketing Blog Update

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My week old marketing blog!

I just wanted to say a BIG ‘Thank You!’ to those of you who are recommending jimsmarketingblog.com to your friends and contacts. Although I only launched the blog less than a week ago, it has already passed the visitor target I set for it’s first month.

A lot of the traffic we are getting has come from your recommendations and those of you who have linked to the blog from your website or blog.

Thank you!

First impressions count – even online!

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How many times have you heard that; “first impressions count”?  Well, it’s true – first impressions count for a great deal – especially in marketing.  This is because, the first impression a business or a person creates with a potential client, is what forms the foundation of their relationship with them.

If that relationship is built on a bad foundation, it will fail.  After all, no one buys from a person or business that they have a ‘bad feeling’ about.

For example

I was contacted online last week by a total stranger via my Twitter account.  This person’s initial message to me wasn’t an introduction or even a simple hello – it was a full on sales pitch!  What was this person trying to sell?  I have no idea!  I just deleted his message as soon as it was clear what he was doing.

Approaching a total stranger with a sales pitch, instead of a friendly introduction, demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of how sales and marketing works!

Affiliates beware

Sadly, this kind of shoddy marketing is used by the huge majority of small, online businesses.  I get emails on a daily basis from strangers who want me to become ‘an affiliate’ of their latest ‘wonder product.’  Even though these people have not bothered to call me or build a relationship with me, they expect me to attach my good name to their business and product – neither of which I know anything about!

If you want to make a stack of sales online or offline, make sure YOU focus on creating a great initial impression in the mind of your target market!  Then, ensure that everything you do builds positively upon that strong foundation.

By the way, you can contact me on Twitter any time.  My username is @jimconnolly