My internet passion started back in 2003. A little eBook set me on the road, it was Google Cash by Chris Carpenter. I set up a few campaigns in a relatively competition free Australia and started making money directly promoting affiliate programs.
I watched as more and more people entered the market though, forcing click bids up. I watched while Google changed their rules, time and time again making it harder for affiliates to make money with pay per click. I watched and worked up to the point where the time involved in managing pay per click campaigns as an affiliate, was no longer worth the commissions the campaigns earned.
So I changed tack. I'd pretty much learned all I could with pay per click advertising anyway. At this juncture I started building and optimizing websites. I spent thousands working out the most successful and enduring methods of search engine optimization (SEO) and applied all the techniques to my own businesses. I still own about half a dozen successful websites. Only one promotes my own product, a tourism service I set up a couple of years ago. All the others sell products in affiliate programs or advertising space.
During this time, I have frequently been asked by small and medium sized businesses to help them with their internet marketing. I've never promoted myself in this way, they all came to me from word of mouth, referred to me from others I've done a good job for. The business owners who have come to me all had two things in common. First, they could see potential for their business on the internet. Second, their efforts had been frustrated by an unscrupulous and poorly skilled internet operator.
That's the problem with internet marketing. Its not a university degree, its not a regulated industry. Anyone can and does call them self an internet marketer. That's why internet professionals as an industry have such a bad reputation. Our industry is packed with graphic designers who know nothing about marketing and professional marketers who know nothing about the internet.
Every week I see these operators at work. They operate on the assumption that they know more about the internet than their clients and therefore can create sales through misdirection. They promise the world, deliver very little and once paid move onto the next unsuspecting victim.
Gold Coast Surfboards is a great example to prove the point. This is my travel business. Its the only website I run to date which sells its own product, a long-term surfboard hire service. Do a Google search on Gold Coast Surfboard Hire. You can find me easily. Or even use the less specific search phrase Surfboard Hire. You'll see how well this website is optimized in the search engines.
So I have a website which is supporting a business perfectly. Its optimized in the search engine for the search phrases which are popular and relevant to the service. Despite this, so called internet "professionals" contact me every week trying to sell me their SEO services.
I've worked out exactly what they do. They find my website and recognize it as a small business. They'll do a few Google searches and see that I really am well optimized, so then they set about finding some search phrases that I am not optimized for. In their belief they know more than me, they then try to scare me into buying their optimization services for the less relevant search phrases. Phrases such as "surf accessories" and "holiday rentals".
Using my two examples above, if I had have used these "gurus", my website would be optimized for 1 specific search phrase which is unrelated to my core business "Surf Board Accessories" and 1 broad phrase that will attract lots of people, most of which are looking to rent a car or a hotel room. These people probably aren't even going to the Gold Coast. I'm sure the gurus would have taken my money regardless.
If you are a small business owner and get approached by an internet marketer who is going to "turbo boost" your business by getting it up to the top of Google, look carefully at the words they are suggesting they will do this for. There are lots of phrases which anyone can get to #1 as there is no competition for them. This is because no-one uses them to search. So before you sign up an internet marketer, try and get a good understanding of what your clients search for on Google when they are looking for your product.
If you are thinking about using the internet as a way to promote your business, ask around. See if you can get a referral for an internet professional who has built and marketed a website for someone else in a way that brings them business. The good professionals run their businesses on referrals with little self promotion. When asking around though, be very clear with people. Tell them you are looking for someone who markets websites, not someone who builds websites. There are just too many people out there who will charge you a small fortune to build a masterpiece, one though which no-one will ever find.
Finally, if you are one of those internet marketers who abuses our great industry by running around, trying to extract a pound of flesh from every business you come by regardless of the value you add, change your ways. This industry is big enough for everyone so there is a place for you. But skill yourself up and don't sell your services to businesses that don't need them. Only sell your services where the person paying for them will benefit from them. Your reputation, your business and our industry will flourish if you follow this code. (By the way, its called being ethical)
I watched as more and more people entered the market though, forcing click bids up. I watched while Google changed their rules, time and time again making it harder for affiliates to make money with pay per click. I watched and worked up to the point where the time involved in managing pay per click campaigns as an affiliate, was no longer worth the commissions the campaigns earned.
So I changed tack. I'd pretty much learned all I could with pay per click advertising anyway. At this juncture I started building and optimizing websites. I spent thousands working out the most successful and enduring methods of search engine optimization (SEO) and applied all the techniques to my own businesses. I still own about half a dozen successful websites. Only one promotes my own product, a tourism service I set up a couple of years ago. All the others sell products in affiliate programs or advertising space.
During this time, I have frequently been asked by small and medium sized businesses to help them with their internet marketing. I've never promoted myself in this way, they all came to me from word of mouth, referred to me from others I've done a good job for. The business owners who have come to me all had two things in common. First, they could see potential for their business on the internet. Second, their efforts had been frustrated by an unscrupulous and poorly skilled internet operator.
That's the problem with internet marketing. Its not a university degree, its not a regulated industry. Anyone can and does call them self an internet marketer. That's why internet professionals as an industry have such a bad reputation. Our industry is packed with graphic designers who know nothing about marketing and professional marketers who know nothing about the internet.
Every week I see these operators at work. They operate on the assumption that they know more about the internet than their clients and therefore can create sales through misdirection. They promise the world, deliver very little and once paid move onto the next unsuspecting victim.
Gold Coast Surfboards is a great example to prove the point. This is my travel business. Its the only website I run to date which sells its own product, a long-term surfboard hire service. Do a Google search on Gold Coast Surfboard Hire. You can find me easily. Or even use the less specific search phrase Surfboard Hire. You'll see how well this website is optimized in the search engines.
So I have a website which is supporting a business perfectly. Its optimized in the search engine for the search phrases which are popular and relevant to the service. Despite this, so called internet "professionals" contact me every week trying to sell me their SEO services.
I've worked out exactly what they do. They find my website and recognize it as a small business. They'll do a few Google searches and see that I really am well optimized, so then they set about finding some search phrases that I am not optimized for. In their belief they know more than me, they then try to scare me into buying their optimization services for the less relevant search phrases. Phrases such as "surf accessories" and "holiday rentals".
Using my two examples above, if I had have used these "gurus", my website would be optimized for 1 specific search phrase which is unrelated to my core business "Surf Board Accessories" and 1 broad phrase that will attract lots of people, most of which are looking to rent a car or a hotel room. These people probably aren't even going to the Gold Coast. I'm sure the gurus would have taken my money regardless.
If you are a small business owner and get approached by an internet marketer who is going to "turbo boost" your business by getting it up to the top of Google, look carefully at the words they are suggesting they will do this for. There are lots of phrases which anyone can get to #1 as there is no competition for them. This is because no-one uses them to search. So before you sign up an internet marketer, try and get a good understanding of what your clients search for on Google when they are looking for your product.
If you are thinking about using the internet as a way to promote your business, ask around. See if you can get a referral for an internet professional who has built and marketed a website for someone else in a way that brings them business. The good professionals run their businesses on referrals with little self promotion. When asking around though, be very clear with people. Tell them you are looking for someone who markets websites, not someone who builds websites. There are just too many people out there who will charge you a small fortune to build a masterpiece, one though which no-one will ever find.
Finally, if you are one of those internet marketers who abuses our great industry by running around, trying to extract a pound of flesh from every business you come by regardless of the value you add, change your ways. This industry is big enough for everyone so there is a place for you. But skill yourself up and don't sell your services to businesses that don't need them. Only sell your services where the person paying for them will benefit from them. Your reputation, your business and our industry will flourish if you follow this code. (By the way, its called being ethical)
About the Author:
Damian Papworth, appalled by the lack of ethics in internet marketing, promotes ethics before profits.
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