Search Engines & Internet Marketing

The world wide web grows larger and larger everyday creating search engines to suffer from information overload. Therefore, technology as well as search behavior has changed in order to adapt to this situation. In 2004, the search engine “Clusty” was introduced to give out “clusters” or groups of results when you searched for something. The main idea behind this concept was to allow information seekers to view results by topic making it more user friendly. Another change that occurred to help out with the system overload problem was to develop multiple databases within the general search. Take for example, if you go to Google.com, you will see categories for things such as video, sports, web, etc. These are different databases put in place to help target what you are specifically looking for. The newest development now is the social search engine which has made life easier for many people.

The key driving force behind the search economy is the consumer. The Internet is becoming more and more used for finding information at a rapid pace, which means consumers are conducting more searches. In 2006, search actually surpassed email as the number use of the web. This is great news for people who are in the business of Internet marketing. The whole point of marketing is to try and attract people to see your add and then hopefully buy your product or service.

For businesses who use Internet marketing as a consumer tool, they will be happy to note that the U.S. Government estimates the number of small businesses who have a local website will greatly prosper from more people using the web to search. By the year 2010, it is believed that local search spending will reach four billion and will account for forty seven percent of local online advertising. It was only one billion in 2006 and one point seven billion in 2007. The number is vastly growing as more and more people search for stuff.

When it comes to relating search engines and Internet marketing, you must think about the types of search engines you are visiting. As I briefly just touched on, local search engines are widely used among many businesses and the number of companies advertising will continue to grow for many years. Another type of search is called the Vertical search. This is great for a niche business, because it focuses more specifically on a targeted search. Your search answers won´t be as general and broad like a local search would give you when using a vertical search. Lastly, the social search which includes the human factor with computer data. You can find out more information about social search if you look it up on the web. It is fairly new and more major search engines are considering using it.

Many businesses are using Internet marketing as a bigger tool to lure consumers because more people are using various search engines to search for things. It is a good idea to use the Internet to search for things because technology is advancing and different forms of search have been implemented to help people specifically find what they are looking for.

Online Payment Alternatives

There are millions of individuals and entrepreneurs who use an online form of payment to either receive or give out money. Several of these people think that you have to have a pricey merchant account in order to take payments by credit card from their customers. This very popular belief is completely false however. Merchant accounts are hard to get in the first place and the monthly fees can really stack up if you process a number of transactions. So the real question comes, what online payment alternatives can one consider if you don´t want to get a merchant account and you don´t want to pay crazy fees to do business? The solution is simple because there are several online payment alternatives to choose from.

The most popular method of online payment is PayPal. PayPal is trusted by almost everybody because it is a very reliable payment center. An account is easy to set up and the fees are really low. Basically for most people, a transaction costs about .30 cents to do. It is recommended that you have more then one form of online payment however, because you never know when the unexpected could happen. In a case where your account gets frozen, or you simply lose your PayPal account, it is a good idea to have other payment options so you are not stuck with not taking in any income. Here are some other online payment alternatives.

The first online payment alternative to consider for some people is BidPay. This only works for those individuals that buy and sell at online auctions though. People use their credit or debit cards and money is automatically deposited into your account via a Western Union Money Order. The next online payment alternative is CCNow. This is known as a shopping cart solution, which enables one to take all major credit cards without the use of a merchant account. You receive your payments twice a month from this payment place and it actually earns a 1.5 %APR while it sits in your account. It´s somewhat like a real bank. Another options is DigiBuy, which is good for those who sell software. You get paid your money twice a month into your account and you are charged a 13.9 % transaction fee or a three dollar minimum. You can use credit cards though. A really good alternative is Ikobo, which charges a 2.99 merchant fee on top of a .29 cent transaction fee. This place is cool though because you can do business with about 170 countries. There is a brief description of a few online payment alternatives for you to consider.

Other online payment alternatives include 2Checkout, ShareIt, ProPay, Ibill, and Money Bookers. Regardless of what payment option you choose, it is well recommended that you have more than one account. You do not have to have a merchant account to take credit cards or anything like that. It is always better to have a constant flow of money when something unforeseen happens to one of you accounts.

Do It Yourself PR Saves Money!

There are literally thousands of small business owners out in the world today struggling to find a way to somehow get there company known and recognized above the rest of the field. If you are one of these people, there are low cost ways to stand out above the crowd. For all business owners, whether it be a small business, new business, struggling business, or whatever; a smart way to attract business is by launching a do it yourself public relation campaign.

Any real business owner will tell you that you need to have good publicity in order to have a good flow of business. This way people will start referring friends and family members to go to your store or use your business. The main idea is to attract customers through do it yourself PR, then get referrals, and then become a successful business. For those individuals who need a bit of assistance on getting started with the do it yourself public relations part of this idea, here are some helpful steps to get you on your way.

Before you start to do anything as far as public relations goes, it is well advised that you do a bit of research to see what techniques are most successful. See what low cost marketing strategies have worked the best to influence customers. The best thing is to learn from others mistakes and recognize who has been successful and how they did it. After you have all your information gathered and you have a good idea of what to do, start setting up your public relation idea. The next thing you want to do is to go to your local Chamber of Commerce, trade associations, and clubs to speak for free about your business. This way you can verbally tell people about yourself as well as pass out fliers and business cards. A nice thing to do is to collect business cards and have a drawing at the end of your speech. The winner can get a free something from you. It´s a good idea to attract people as well.

The Internet is a great low cost tool which can help with your do it yourself PR as well. By starting up a website and creating a blog is a terrific way to get attention for your company. For people who read your blog or visit your site, you should post frequent newsletters and information about your business in order to keep everyone informed about your company. Keep in mind however, that you do not want to over promote. The best thing you want to do is build trust and a good relationship with your customers. You don´t want to come across as a corporate jerk who just wants everyone´s money.

By utilizing the do it yourself PR campaign, not only will you get more business, you don´t have to spend a whole bunch of money to advertise. If you are a business owner consider do it yourself PR because it is a great way to become a successful business.

How To Start Your Own Blog

It is really funny to think that over the past decade that some of the best revolutionary ideas have come in the form of writing. Take for instance email or text messaging. This proves that we are becoming much more formal in how we communicate. Now the newest and most significant revelation has come in the form of a blog. There are several people who don´t know what a blog is so I will explain it before I go any further in this article. A blog, or a web log is defined as a website in which entries are written in chronological order. Most blogs provide commentary or news on a certain matter or situation. For the most part, blogs are apart of a larger network such as a social media. So if you are interested in creating a blog, the rest of this article will explain what to do.

The best thing about a blog is that it takes extremely little knowledge to create one yourself. If you want to create a blog, here are ten quick steps in order to help you out in your process. The first thing you want to do is find a blog platform. The easiest way to get a blog going is by logging onto a free service like Blogger.com or Wordpress.com. Keep in mind however, that using a free service limits what you can do to your blog. If you want to spend a little bit of money to make your blog super cool and attractive, you can subscribe to Typepad.com. Regardless of what you choose, that site should host your blog for others to read. The second step is naming your blog. If you are setting up a blog for a business reason, think about using keywords. It is important to also acquire a URL with the word “blog” attached to the blogs name. The third thing you wan to do is choose a look and a layout. This is entirely up to you and your specific tastes. There are a number of thing you can do with this section, so take this section importantly. The fourth step is called Widgets. This is where yo can figure out how you wan to keep your reader´s updated about new blogs and information. The fifth step is the comment portion of the blog. Make sure to set up a moderating tool in which spam messages will not be displayed. After you set this up, you will have all the basics of a blog done. The next five steps are the fun part.

The sixth step is where you add the content you want to post. You can write about whatever you want, but if you are looking to attract a certain audience or or trying to market something, try and take that angle with your writing. The next step is updating. You will want to constantly update your blogs in order to keep your readers interested and informed. The eighth thing you wan to do is submit your URL to different blog directories. This is a good way to add traffic to your blog. The ninth step is to measure your results. This is where you can view how many people look at your blog. If you aren´t doing so well, adjustments can be made to add traffic. The last step is to not give up. Don´t stop blogging if you are not successful the first time. Keep learning from your mistakes and then you will eventually have a blog that everyone will want to subscribe to. Blogging is a great new thing that every business and individual can benefit from.

Adwords Click Fraud Problem

Every December there is a conference held in the city of Chicago to discuss different search engine strategies. One focus of discussion that always seems to pop up is the problem surrounding click fraud. Many companies that attend this meeting experience fraudulent click rates ranging anywhere from twenty to forty percent. This is a huge problem because this occurrence has the potential to wipe out the entire search engine industry. In 2005, a Outsell survey relayed information stating that click fraud was a 1.3 billion dollar problem negating the theory that click fraud was just a gross overestimation.

This problem has lead to a number of advertiser´s complaining that search engines are not doing enough to eliminate click fraud. Regardless of these complaints, major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft still hardly feel the effects of this issue because of their paid search revenues. However, even with the paid search revenue, click fraud is a huge problem that needs to be solved for the sake all publishers.

Click fraud is estimated to be around fourteen percent says the click fraud detection agency. Other agencies place the rate at about twenty percent. Every agency you look at will have different numbers but normally these numbers are still staggering. Search engines are now implementing click fraud filters in order to reduce this issue. Take for example the Google click fraud filters. There are three different filters involved in this system. The first one is called a proactive filter which allows automated algorithms to look over and filter out fraudulent clicks in real time without billing advertisers. This form of detection eliminates most of the click fraud. The second filter is called the proactive offline analysis. Also known as post billing, this filter uses automated and manual analysis to detect false clicks which made it through the first filter. A special focus is put on to clicks occurring on the AdSense network. This form of identification of bad clicks is done pro-actively, without any involvement from the advertisers. Advertisers are immediately credited back on their accounts using Click Quality Adjustments. Finally, the third form of click fraud filtration that Google uses is called Reactive Investigations. This accounts for only .02 percent of false clicks. This is where advertisers approach Google claiming that suspicious activity has been occurring with their account. An investigation is then set in place. However, rarely do advertisers get refunded back because of the minimal amount of times this happens. So by placing click fraud filters onto a search engine, this helps stop a number of click fraud cases.

A number of experts believe that there is only one way to figure out the click fraud problem. They think that independent auditors need to evaluate the click fraud system using accurate data provided by search engines and the advertisers. By doing this, a neutral calculation will then be processed instead of a bias calculation given by another agency who may have an incentive for fudged results. Until all parties provide accurate information and data, the click fraud problem is going to occur forever.

One More Thing...

Just to add something to yesterday's post.... don't pre-purchase links for extended periods of time. Some websites selling links will give you a big discount if you pay for the whole year. If you pay for a PR6 link for a year, and then within a month the website's PR drops significantly, you're just out of luck. Stick with a monthly plan, check your links before your subscription renews to ensure that your link is still placed and the PR hasn't dropped.

Selling Website Links is a Losing Business

As I'm sure everyone knows, a large number of incoming links to your website will increase your credibility with Google. The best type of links to get are links from pages with high PageRank. Purchasing links on high PageRank sites has been a popular method of increasing your Google Rankings, and this has proved to be quite a profitable business for the owners of high PageRank websites. Well, it seems that during the last PageRank update, many of these sites that have been selling links, and therefore posses many irrelevant outbound links have experienced significant losses in PageRank - some of them even dropping to zero.

It looks as though it may get increasingly difficult to buy Page Rank - grab it now while you can get it cheap. Buying PageRank still seems to be a legitimate method of increasing your Google rankings, but there are now many non-believers who think that Page Rank really doesn't matter. I have to agree and disagree - I'm still a big believer in it, but I know enough to keep my ear to the ground and switch strategies when it fails to deliver results. Google's algorithm will always get smarter but we will always learn to adapt and pursue new strategies.