Casual Articles - Internet and Businesses Online

In the Kill Zone
Imagine arriving at work and two-thirds of your employees are out sick. Now imagine that you are the manager of a large supermarket or a Wal-mart a Super Target. This is exactly the situation that America's retailers and manufacturers face with the coming avian flu pandemic.The avian flu will be a novel virus, one never seen before by the human immune system. The current disease of concern is the H5:N1 strain of avian flu. However, any novel avian flu will have the same effect as was seen in 1918. In 1918, one-third of the United States population fell ill. Half of these sick individuals required some form of institutional care (hospital, infirmary, or quarantined home care). Of those in institutional care, half developed severe pneumonia and half of those with pneumonia died. In short, 33% got of the total population sick and 8% of the total population died.When these ominous numb

n’t change that. There is always a “good” reason, but when your hands are tied there is only so much that you can do.

So What’s the Problem?

I recently had a client leave dissatisfied because his rankings dropped for a couple of weeks and he felt we just were “not working for him” anymore. The worst part about it is that he just canceled the contract without talking to me or anyone on our team to find out what’s going on. I took me several emails and phone messages to find out why he left.

We often get calls and emails from clients asking why rankings dropped which affords us the opportunity to explain things and usually ask for patience as these type of fluctuations occur every now and then. One client did just that and once his ra

AdSense Tracker Programs Can Maximize Profits
There are all sorts of AdSense tracker programs out there to help web site publishers make the most of their advertising. These programs all offer their own individual perks, but most focus in a few narrow things to help publishers capitalize on their sites. AdSense tracker programs can be very beneficial tools that should be considered by anyone looking to up their online income. The best things is that decent AdSense tracker programs can be found for free or at very reasonable rates.Good AdSense tracker programs, whether they come free or cost an upfront fee, will enable web site publishers to see a few things to help them guide their site’s future evolution. These include:·Any AdSense tracker program worth anything will record incoming traffic based on keywords. This helps web site publishers see which keywords are pulling the most and the least visitors in. This can help tailor future

I admit it, our SEO services are pretty bad.

Speaking of bad, the Beatles couldn’t sing a tune, John Grisham has never written a decent novel, Dell makes crappy computer’s, TiVo’s and iPods suck, the Lord of the Rings movies lacked imagination and video killed the radio star. (OK, that last one might actually be true!)

Do you see where this is going? To somebody, one or more of the above statements are true. Not to the vast majority, but some people do feel that way. No matter what the product or service there will always be those that are dissatisfied. Have you ever heard of a company with a 100% customer satisfaction rate (outside of their own marketing gibberish)? I haven’t.

There have been a number of blog and forum posts and articles recently about what to do if you’re with a bad SEO company. All good advice, but sometimes it’s not the SEO that’s bad, its the client. Yeah, that’s right, sometimes the client’s are just plain clueless, have unreasonable expectations, or fall prey to the “grass is greener” scenario presented by competition. Yes, sometimes clients are bad.

It’s Not You, It’s Me!

Like every other company, product and service on the planet, search engine optimization firms will always have dissatisfied clients.

Our firm has a significant number of very satisfied clients since 1998. We have also had a handful of clients that walked away dissatisfied with our services. I’m sure the same is true with every other SEO company out there. Does that make them bad SEOs? No, not necessarily.

Can good SEOs sometimes produce bad results for their clients? Absolutely. Happens all the time. Let me give you a few examples.

We worked with one client for several years. In the early phases of their campaign they selected some really poor keywords. We let them know this but they were insistent that we move forward. We were able to get most of their keywords ranked very well on the search engines, but as we suspected, sales did not increase. Every few weeks the client would call us asking if there was anything else that can be done to increase sales. We often made suggestions on how to improve their site along with recommending they change their optimized keywords. The site improvements they considered and often made. They keyword changes were considered but never approved. Eventually they left us.

We often find clients changing their website causing our optimization efforts to be overwritten with un-optimized versions of their pages. Those clients will then call us wondering why their rankings dropped. Duh! When this happens repeatedly with the same client you start to realize that you’re just not going to get any good sustainable results. [Shameless plug: our new CodeMonitor tool notifies SEOs and/or clients when page changes are made.]

Still other clients have limited our ability to optimize their websites with all kinds of restrictions. Don’t change this, can’t change that. There is always a “good” reason, but when your hands are tied there is only so much that you can do.

So What’s the Problem?

Public Relations
Though the press release is the most common Public Relations tool, it is just one of the many means to gain free publicity. Here are some other avenues to explore:By-line articles can be written about your area of interest and can be published either online or in niche publications that serve your industry. Besides getting your name in print, writing articles instantly establishes you as an expert in your field. This has a dual benefit. One, customers start trusting you and want to buy from you rather than your competition. Two, reporters look to you for comments when writing their own stories on your industry giving you even more free publicity.Write an interactive expert-advice column and answer common queries from customers and other interested audiences. This gives you a platform to interact directly with your customers and gain their trust. It establishes you as a preferred expert wh

ticles recently about what to do if you’re with a bad SEO company. All good advice, but sometimes it’s not the SEO that’s bad, its the client. Yeah, that’s right, sometimes the client’s are just plain clueless, have unreasonable expectations, or fall prey to the “grass is greener” scenario presented by competition. Yes, sometimes clients are bad.

It’s Not You, It’s Me!

Like every other company, product and service on the planet, search engine optimization firms will always have dissatisfied clients.

Can good SEOs sometimes produce bad results for their clients? Absolutely. Happens all the time. Let me give you a few examples.

So What’s the Problem?

Offshore Outsourcing - The Magic Mantra Of Success
In today’s business scenario the two magical words are ‘Offshore Outsourcing’. Promising growth and value addition to your process at a much lower cost. To begin with, the big question. What is offshore outsourcing? Offshore outsourcing is a process where an external organization is hired, in some other country, to perform one or all the functions of the organization. If we talk in a broader prospective, then following are the criteria for a company to opt for offshore outsourcing.An organization will go for outsourcing if the job doesn’t require direct customer interaction.Offshore outsourcing is a big hit amongst Telemarketing Services. Many companies outsource work which involves high content. If the work can be transmitted over net, then companies prefer outsourcing to save cost.One major reason of offshore outsourcing to be such a big hit is the difference in wages among the o

ke them bad SEOs? No, not necessarily.

Can good SEOs sometimes produce bad results for their clients? Absolutely. Happens all the time. Let me give you a few examples.

So What’s the Problem?

Be A Good Email Sender - 7 Habits To Cultivate
Do you ever get an email from someone, roll your eyes and think "Oh it's him again". You know the type who never stops forwarding you crass jokes or life's teachings you never read. Email is by itself great. It's fast and easy but those very same qualities also make it easy for us to pass along stuff that simply intrude on other's routine. Add to it the spam issue that's going to be here for a while, email is no longer as enjoyable as it used to be. So when you're sending email, it's a good idea not to add to people's email distress. Here are 7 habits of a good email sender.1. Do not forward emails without asking first. Just because someone gave you their email or are friends and family doesn't mean they give you permission to spam them. That's right. It doesn't matter whether you're getting email from someone you know or that it's not commercial in nature. Fact is, people consider any unsolicit

nd often made. They keyword changes were considered but never approved. Eventually they left us.

So What’s the Problem?

Give It Away Now
Two spanking new freesheets have hit London streets over the last month. One of them, The London Paper, is everywhere. Or its salesforce is anyway, thrusting copy after copy into the hands of passers by…even targeting drivers stuck in the evening pile-up.The London Paper is Rupert Murdoch’s first venture into free news. We've heard on the grapevine that this fella knows a little about the information market, so what’s going on? Is a trend developing around giving away news, thoughts and ideas for free? Has the print media’s hand been forced by the internet, where you can get everything from events listings to knitting patterns without spending a penny?Newspapers get advertising revenue, so their editorial efforts are not strictly given away for free, of course. Though, perhaps businesses like yours and ours could still gain something by following the trend even without advertising income.

n’t change that. There is always a “good” reason, but when your hands are tied there is only so much that you can do.

So What’s the Problem?

We get a lot of calls (and clients) that come to us from other SEO firms that just didn’t pan out for them. Before I go off telling them that their SEO company is bad I try to find out a few things. How long have they been optimizing your site? What changes have they made? Is their name Traffic Power? Etc., etc. A few such questions will usually give me what I need to know to determine if they have cause to jump ship or not. If they have been with the company only for a few months I usually tell them to hang tough and give them a chance to produce results. Unfortunately SEO does take time, especially when a site gets sandboxed, and you wont’ always know that you’re with a bad firm for quite some time.

Talk to Me, Baby!

Communication is the key. If you have difficulty getting calls and emails returned, or are not quite sure what your SEO company is doing for you, then there is a good chance you’re not with a great firm.

One company came to us from one of the largest SEO firms after their one-year contract expired. We checked their rankings only to find sub-standard results. There were no penalization or sandbox issues, just lack of good performance. I was able to determine that their current firm simply wasn’t doing a good enough job. Once this client signed with us we were able to get most of their keywords on the first page within the first two months.

nother firm came to us after their previous SEO got them banned from Google. Coming to us we couldn’t guarantee any more than we would fix their site to make it compliant with search engine guidelines and work aggressively to get them back into the index. After fixing the spam issues, and several months wait… and several phone calls asking “when”, Google finally re-included them, and with great rankings on top of it.

Denial is Often the First Sign of a Problem

Nobody wants to think they are a bad client, but here are some signs:

Does not communicate concerns to their SEO firm

Does not listen to advice given

Refuses to change their site based on SEO recommendations

Demands optimization for poorly targeted keywords

Constantly overwrites optimization efforts with page changes

Expects rankings to appear overnight

Calls all the time to complain about lack of progress due to the above

The signs of a bad firm are pretty obvious, bad communication, spammy optimization, getting your site banned, etc. If you work with one of them then run away as soon and as fast as you can. It’s usually pretty easy to tell a good from a bad. Communicate with (don’t harass) your SEO firm. A trustworthy and respectable firm will keep open lines of communication. Just be ready to listen to what they have to say and implement recommendations that they provide, even if those recommendations are to be patient.

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We searched internationally and finally found the secret in a government patent. It is worth millions.

A list of the Top Five Reasons why sales teams are unproductive and ineffective. By looking at the following reasons you can improve the sales performance of your company.

Do you want to know how to make money selling on eBay? One of the ways that helps is to purchase products from closeout and liquidation suppliers. These companies offer a great opportunity to lower the cost of goods on the items that you purchase. The adage regarding buyer beware does apply however.

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