Archive for April, 2010
The Divide Between Growing and Shrinking Becoming Clearer.
Posted by: | CommentsThis applies to the freight business, but the message is the same for every business.
In speaking with 100’s of freight website owners a month I am finding a clear pattern.
Those with old sites or sites that have not been optimized and have not been getting more than a few hundred visits a month no longer have a marketing budget.
Those that have over 3,000 visits a month are enjoying the traffic and are spending more to grow.
In that millions now go to the internet to solve freight problems, the top 20 sites probably get a million visits a month and the next 10 maybe 100,000 and on down. With easily over 10,000 sites and only 7 slots on page one Google for each niche, the odds are narrowed.
Those getting 25,000 visits or more a month realize they are in an online and bricks and mortar battle and closely monitor their website activity. They are the leaders of tomorrow.
The internet has changed the playing field and those firms that stick to the format that found them prosperous ten years ago are suffering from the economy and the evolution to more efficient communications to run businesses and personal lives.
The fact that Face Book just passed Goolge in daily visits and that there is faster growth in mobile phone units than personal land lines is an indication of where we are headed. If you cannot be found you will be invisible.
As we leave newspapers, TV, and out reach sales teams behind and embrace the right to privacy and elimination of spam contacting, the path is how to be reached rather than how to reach.
A website starts with establishing a set up that is friendly to search engines. Secondly, it has to declare the business it is in and put those words (keywords) in a format used by the people searching. Thirdly, the site has to be better than its competitors. Fourthly, the search engines want popular sites, so a site has to have traffic. That’s it.
How Many Niches Have Website Traffic?
Posted by: | CommentsA niche matches the words Prospects use to find Services.
If a Prospect needs a Freight Pick Up at a Harbor to be delivered to Canada, what words do they use to find a carrier?
The truth is they use a wide variety of words, but day in and day out, certain combinations are used more than others. For every single need, certain word combinations are used more than others. Pretty soon there is a strong pattern for where most of the business is. There is also a clear record of which word combinations get no traffic.
What do you have on your website? Firms that spend time finding the right words have lots of traffic. It is not difficult to get 7,000 to 50,000 visits a month using different strategies. Firms that don’t investigate generally have under a 1,000 visits a month.
The search engines require the keywords to be located in certain positions on the websites so that they can compare websites. The Search Engines’ goals are to find the best sites for the Prospects. They also want to find the best sites with the elements they deem important.
Most Web designers do not pay attention to either requirement. If sites were built five to ten years ago, neither requirement was crucial, but in that period of time, traditional advertising has proven to be costly and ineffective because it is not targeted. Or, in order to reach a small audience of specific users, you had to shot gun a large audience.
The internet has proven useful for targeting just the audience that needs your services. The firms that are aware get lots of traffic and a very high ROI.
The first way to tell if your keywords have an audience is to Google them and see which competitors appear on the internet. If your major competition is on the first page, the words are valuable. If it’s all directories, the words need to be narrowed or tails (more specific words) need to be added. If there are only a few firms, then the Prospects are not using those words to find services.
The second way that you can determine the value of words is look them up in Google ad words. On Google high traffic words are more expensive so they have to know how many people use them.
I would estimate 75% of websites in most industries have no relevant keywords and have not been structured to present them to search engines. In the freight industry, I would estimate that 90% of sites fall in this category.
New firms can put old firms out of business by getting the new traffic. Small firms can catch up to big firms because online, everyone can look competent. In a recession, not everyone is at the affect because some are growing while other firms are shrinking.
In an age when rebounds no longer happen in a year, maybe because governments interfere, firms need to not only get new customers, but they need to get in touch with the customers that survived. If a firm’s customer base dissolves in economically troubled times, they need to be in a position to get business from those that emerge.
Why Is It Always Good News Bad News?
Posted by: | CommentsWhen you call to get help they say there is good news and bad news.
The good news is that we have your perfect solution.
The bad news is that it
- Isn’t on your plan
- You just missed the cut off
- We only do it on Wednesdays
- The person who sold you this didn’t include the option
- It’s only for Asians who came from Brazil before 1980
Wish I could be more helpful
Is there anything else I could do for you while we’re on the line?
Are You Full? Worst Concept Ever Imagined
Posted by: | CommentsAnd they wonder why the Americans are obese.
There is no need to be full.
There should be a punishment for being full. It should be socially disgraceful to say
“I’m full or so stuffed I couldn’t eat another bite, what’s for dessert?”
Being full says we ate so fast our brain couldn’t keep up with how much food we were actually stuffing into our faces.
The fact is, the digestion, blood circulation, and energy level would all benefit by being not full. Being full is what leads the body to start storing the surplus. Look at your body. Most of us know where our bodies like to store the extra. Besides, the extra usually gets turned to sugar which turns to belly fat and later to diabetes.
So, when I hear a fast food commercial where the actor complains about the fact that a meal doesn’t make him feel full like someone else’s meal, I realize that fast food is more dangerous to us than just poor quality food.
Who Killed the Mammoths?
Posted by: | CommentsWho Killed the Mammoths?
Once there was a rich and prosperous kingdom where the dwellers lived in simple abodes and flourished off the abundant mammoth herds. The abundant meat supply gave them all the nourishment they needed to thrive and pursue other interests. The inhabitants felt secure in that they would never need for sustenance and their progeny would also be secure.
Much like the global economy from the1970’s through 2005. Forty to fifty years of profits and equity build up had fattened security accounts and real estate holdings. With so much surplus, large segments of the population could live in abundance and use their capital and equity to further expand. Retirement looked enticing and there was enough surplus capital to fund the next few generations.
But back in the kingdom of the Mammoths, a disease hit the woolly beasts and they all died. Now the dwellers were forced to feed on deer and rabbits and forage for vegetation. There were definitely less calories to go around and they noticeably lost weight. Calories became scarce and dwellers worried about surviving, their old age, and the fate of their next generations.
The king of the kingdom had his own private reserve of mammoths that had not become infected. He was able to give sustenance to the largest and most powerful tribesman to keep them fat until they were able to find new means of sustenance.
In the modern global economy, the financial institutions gambled to increase their wealth. They made egregious errors and bankrupted most of the capital that had been garnered over the last 40 or 50 years. The governments were able to loan capital to the pillars of society, but could do little for the masses.
Capital to run businesses evaporated. Capital and equity owned by individuals also evaporated. Expansion came to a halt. The masses worried about survival, retirement and the welfare of future generations.
In the land of the Mammoths, the dwellers decided that they needed to start harvesting more animals to replace the calories provided by the previously abundant mammoths. They began to raise deer, rabbits, and a new breed of buffalo for domestic consumption. It appeared that the lost sustenance would take years and maybe a generation to replace.
In the modern global economy, it was clear capital was in shortage. The only real method of creating liquidity was through profits. Profits were largely driven by consumption and because businesses no longer had capital to expand, they could not hire idle labor. Business had to live off a smaller consumer base which made acquiring excess capital more difficult.
The process of rebuilding profits did not look like a short term proposition. It could take years; maybe another generation.
Skills Vs Reinvention, What is More Important?
Posted by: | CommentsIn this economy, it definitely pays to have skills and experience.
But what kind of skills and what kind of experience?
There are basic skills that are always in demand inorder to earn big salaries. It is hard to beat graduate school skills in business, science, engineering, computers, human resources, finance, law, accounting, and medicine.
There are basic skills which every economy and country need like mechanics, truck drivers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, nurses, entertainment industry behind the camera skills and of course many more. Then there is the irreplaceable need for leaders in business, sports, government, and non-profits.
Most of these skills are not gained by reinventing unless the reinventing includes educations, apprenticeships, or lots of years.
What kind of skills and experience do college graduates have or someone who was perfect for their company until it closed or someone laid off in their 50’s after 30 years with one company?
I had 35 years of skills working in real estate. I had been a very good sales person, a very good manager, and even a good high rise condominium sales manager. When the mortgage market melted, none of these skills seemed to be valuable.
What kind of skills did I have that could be applied to another industry while in my 50’s? First of all, age can be a negative when applying for a job. Secondly, any business I entered, I had to learn a new industry. Thirdly, most industries that are willing to hire non-experienced sales people, these days are placing them on 100% commission.
I had a choice to make. Do I want to work for $12 and hour, work on 100% commission until I find a sales position that I like, or what? I did not want to work for $12 an hour because that seemed like a ticket to no where. I tried three 100% commission routes giving each one my full effort.
But, determined that finding my own place rather than filling out 1,000 resumes would be more efficient and rewarding, I pursued finding a self employed industry to which I could contribute.. Finally I found a niche. I felt like the internet had no ceiling and was in fact becoming more important daily. Online marketing is very competitive. I looked at everything I could to learn online marketing skills and found that E-Commerce is open to everyone and yet extremely competitive.
I then discovered that I had learned a lot about what makes a company successful online and how companies could compete against other online companies. At that point I started investing 10 to 12 hours a day seven days a week for a few months until I burned a path to several realizations. My realizations were important to the reality of companies competing online.
I then found I could impart these realizations to others and started honing my message and the message so that it had impact. Each day brought about new realizations for me as to what people thought was valuable and how the information might help them. My reinvention was born.
Did I use my previously learned skills to reinvent myself? Yes, all of them. Did I learn what I know now in school or in my previous job? No, hardly any of it. So what happened?
I just read an article this morning by David Carr on how Sarah Palin has reinvented herself as a national brand. She took her popularity as a personality and dropped her failed career as a politician. She leaned her strengths and maybe her weaknesses. She found someone that wanted her. She certainly has an “aw shucks” about her that a lot of people cannot abide, but she follows her strengths and her goal of making a difference. It is a testament to her drive.
One good message that blogger Seth Godin has mentioned. Don’t try to sell something the world doesn’t want. Find what the world wants and offer it.
A second crucial ingredient is something Donald Trump said when asked when addressing an audience that if he had one thing to say what would it be? “Never Give Up” he said. You have to have a will to triumph that defies defeat even if you have to fail 20 times to find your place.
A third crucial ingredient that is close to the maximum of Donald Trump is the drive to succeed. This is a need to be important and be recognized for making a contribution regardless of who it is that gives you the recognition. Even if it is yourself.
Drive is not learned in school. There could be a long discussion on the source of drive that I will address later, but drive is what drives you to continue even after failures. To a person with drive, failures are someone else’s loss in not recognizing your value.
Losing Weight & Gaining Energy for Free
Posted by: | CommentsNothing to buy. You only need the will and a little discipline.
The lose 1/2 pound a day diet really works. I have lost the proverbial 10 pounds now and I’ll lose more because it has become a habit.
The first week is work. The second is easier and by the third and fourth its habit.
I have picked up energy by sticking to the diet plan. I like to eat less during the day because then I have more work and creative energy. After my morning work out I will eat a tablespoon of peanut butter and a banana with a cup of coffee. I like to start the digestion working with protein. I also take the supplements Aceytl L Carnitine (1500 mg a day) and 200 mg B-12 and ginseng. At 10:30 or so I have a hardboiled egg and some cheese. (more protein) at 1 or 2 I have a salad with chicken.
I work out again before dinner. Then I have a vegetable stir fry with chicken. After dinner I try to control my cravings with fruit and peanuts. I confess and 2 cookies. I drink lots of water during the day and evening with hot tea. I will eat as much fruit as I want. Apples and oranges are very satisfying, non filling and energizing.
Because I work out of my home I have a lot of flexibility.
The idea is to burn about 3,000 calories and eat no more than 1,500. You have to adjust your routine by what the morning weigh in tells you. I have no problem with the diet at this point because it is what I prefer.
Writing Articles or Blogs for Websites
Posted by: | CommentsYour website expresses your business. The keywords are the essence of that business expressed in a few terms that hopefully people use in Google to find those services.
Articles you write are used to drive visitors to the website. They should be about something on the site. They don’t have to be about the keywords. If the articles have keywords in them, then the keywords should be words that people would use to find subject matter contained in the articles.That way the search engines would put up your article when someone Googling the topic used those keywords. If the keywords the visitor used are in your article, then the article might come up for the visitor.
The keywords in the article could be about anything on the site and would not have to be the same keywords used for the site.
For example, if the keywords for your site were modeling, glamour, fashion, commercial, and London
And one of the pages on your site was about diet, You could write articles about diet that would drive people to that page without worrying about the keywords for the main site.
