* Summer 1994 and the beginnings of internet marketing
Slowly the internet has evolved, and almost daily, people are waking up to the enthusiasm I discovered back in the fall of 1994, when I first used a browser called Mosaic (in pre Explorer or Navigator days) and realized that Gutenberg (his invention of the printing press) was about to happen all over again.
The internet would be as important as the invention of print, radio, television, fax or the telegraph. And like the telegraph (that ended the Pony Express and threw thousands of people out of work overnight), we had better be prepared to adapt, change and embrace the new medium. That's if we want to guarantee ourselves employment and make a lot of money in the future.
In the beginning, internet marketing used to be a simple matter. A few newsgroup announcements, a few classified ads on AOL, a few tricks like hidden text on your web page, and you would jump to the top of the search engines and the order lines would ring off the hooks. Ahh, those were the days.
The internet was not a crowded place and the big companies treated the world wide web more like a passing fad. They handed off their web site design to people who knew nothing about marketing, selling, partnering or lead generation, and their web sites just sat there like big static brochures. Some literally just scanned in pictures of their brochures.
Then people like me came along and put up interactive sites that boosted the visitor's confidence, had a clear sales message, a call to action, asked for the order and actually answered the email. I positioned my clients high in the search engines and their order lines began to ring.
My sites immediately made money for my customers, as well as saved money in customer service and support costs. Slowly people started to realize that good marketing is good marketing, all the old rules of advertising still apply, the internet is just another tool. And those search engines, they were great, the advertising was FREE, if you knew how to play the game.
* Why your internet marketing can never be "finished"
When is the internet marketing going to be finished? This question gets asked far too often, even by marketing professionals, and it is clear that a lot of them just don't get it. Is Toyota or Ford ever finished? Is McDonalds or Burger King ever finished?
We all know who they are and what you can get from them, but they continue to advertise. Sorry if my question comes across as an obvious rant, but I only point it out because the marketing manager of a major corporation actually asked me, "When is our internet marketing going to be finished?"
Well according to the American Retail Council, "Companies that advertise less than the national average have sales less than the national average. Companies that advertise more than the national average have proportionately higher sales".
What's important to understand is that your internet marketing is never finished. Search engines change how they operate almost monthly and you will need to adapt and change your pages, fine tune them or create new ones to keep up.
Just like any other form of advertising, your online promotions and internet marketing must be an on-going process to keep your site in the top of the search engines and fresh in the minds of your customers and prospects. Be sure to align yourself with people that understand that they must commit ongoing resources (that's time and money) to their marketing efforts.
All successful companies advertise. You would be wise not to waste your time with companies or managers, that do not understand this fundamental law of doing business, and are not willing to commit full time resources to the internet.
* Spring 1997, when top placement in any search engine was easy
I first wrote the following direct marketing piece in the spring of 1997. I sent it by fax, by email and autoresponder. Not only did it bring in a slew of new business but it shows the importance of search engine positioning.
Even today, your position in the search engines is critical to the success of your business online. I feel that it is more important than affiliate programs, paid banner ads, newsgroup postings, and links from other web sites.
Your position in the top of the search engines will have a direct effect on how successful your online business will be and how many calls and orders you get. All you need to do is invest the time to practice the techniques you are about to learn in this book.
(Please note, some of these search engines have ceased to exist. This letter is intended to show a snapshot in time.)
March 05 1997
Dear Marketing Manager,
Does your web site get enough visitors?
Internet World Magazine estimates that 95% of people find what they're looking for on the internet by going to one of the top eight search engines, typing in a couple of "keywords" and clicking away on the results. I can get your web site in the top ten - the front page - of a search engine when someone types in "keywords" related to your product or service. How? I've spent years marketing web sites, years doing research and monitoring the results. I constantly test and review each major search engine to understand how they work.
Here is the positioning of some of my clients in major search engines as of Dec. 07 1997 (ahead of millions of other web sites) with their most important keywords.
* Dolden Walker Folick has #1 position on Infoseek for "insurance lawyers".
* Abalene Sports Collectibles has #3 position on Infoseek for "world cup hockey".
* Intermedia Press has #1 position on Excite for "Canadian printers".
* Cell-West has #3 position on Excite for "cell phones".
* Lighten Up has #1 position on Webcrawler for "Vancouver entertainers".
* Budget Hotels has #1 position on Lycos for "inexpensive hotels".
* Angus Miles Recruitment has #3 position on Lycos for "jobs Vancouver".
Web page owners have found my search engine positioning techniques very effective in generating interest (read hits and sales) from all over the world. Just imagine how valuable it is have a motivated prospect type in "keywords" related to a product or service like yours, then finding your product or service listed in the top 10. Did you know that people rarely look past the top 30?
If you want to be "found" on the internet, increase your hits and sales, your position in the search engines is everything! One of my customers has NASA (yes the space agency) buying their product simply because, first in the search engines... first to get called. This can happen to you!
I have special techniques to enhance your web presence so you get in the top 10 - the front pages of any search engine - guaranteed, or you don't pay! Call and order your customized search engine positioning today. You'll be glad you did! There's nothing to lose and so much to gain! All you have to do is to pick up the phone and call now.
Sincerely
Michael W. Campbell
Providing successful online marketing strategies since 1988, I am a member of the University of British Columbia's advisory committee for certificate courses in internet marketing.
http://www.dynamicmedia.com
* The summer of 1998, the internet lost its innocence
I wrote this email article back in June of 1998. Over a year had passed since the previous direct marketing piece. I was on the defensive, trying to explain to several of my clients, why I had to "drop them". Why my focus was changing from doing the work for them, to training them, and getting them doing their own work, their own internet marketing.
Reading this email is a glimpse into that snapshot in time, where the internet began to change into a paid commercial model. I could no longer take on new clients. I had to focus on the ones that were serious about committing full time resources and money to their internet advertising budgets. Through this email article, you'll understand the history of the internet and its gradual evolution into a commercial medium. You'll be better equipped to understand where it's going or why its evolved the way it has.
June 14 1998
Dear Dynamic Media Clients,
So what happened to the internet? Did anyone notice search engines are now calling themselves "portals" or "portal sites" or "directories". Did you notice how every search engine is starting to look like an overstuffed "yellow pages" directory. What's the deal with all the ads and nothing but the big public companies coming up in search results. Where are all the small stores?
Hang on, it's not like the old days (ie: two months ago) when I could whip up a simple web page and get a top ten position on any search engine I pleased. The process is still do-able, but it takes more of a "trickle effect" now to get the same results. Crawlers and spiders now prefer to "find" sites on their own, we have to trick them by placing a link to the intended page (the one we really want them to index) in their path.
Speaking of links, link popularity is the currently best way to score well in search results. The more pages and quality domains that link to your site, the higher it will score. Some people are going so far as to set up fictional domains with home pages that have nothing but links to their real site, just to enhance the scoring of their main domains, can you imagine?
A few weeks ago it became even tougher as new and "improved" spam filters were placed on all major search engines to help commercialize the search results, and attract more advertising dollars from large public companies. Just look at some of the stock swaps, mergers, buy outs and partnering going on.
Compaq bought DEC and therefore own AltaVista, NBC bought into Snap, Microsoft and Netscape are partnering with Inktomi, Disney bought a major chunk of Infoseek, Excite is fighting off take over attempts. At Goto (now Overture) you have to bid on search words, or in other words, pay for your keywords to come up.
At Alta Vista you can purchase trademark words (ie: explorer) so what comes up in the search results is not Microsoft Explorer but the Ford Motor Company's Explorer since they own the trademark. Does anyone else smell big business bucks. Expect the "pay for your keywords in search results" model to continue to grow in favor. Eventually the search engines will become so commercialized that they'll only be good for finding big public companies, the little shops will end up in position 200+ in search results.
The good news is that you can write a letter, asking to be reviewed by a search engine's editorial team. If they "like" your site, they will add it to their appropriate "yellow pages directory", "portal" or "channel" (as they call them), that now sit on top of their searchable indexes.
That's right, certain keywords are being intercepted and visitors to search engines are being directed into "channels", where a human has "decided" which web sites they consider "best". If they really like you, you might even get a bullet or two beside your company name. One thing is for sure, being in a search engine's channel is like a personal endorsement for your product or service over the millions of others out there. The link will increase traffic dramatically to your web site, in the form of motivated prospects and most of all SALES!
So where is it all going, how can you find a store to buy a gizmo for your widget? What happens when everyone gets frustrated with meaningless search results? Enter the secondary search engines like Northern Light, and local search engines like Search BC. The smaller search engines will probably yield more accurate search results when trying to find smaller businesses, local stores or local interests, that is of course, until they become big enough to attract serious dollars themselves, and in turn become more commercial. Case in point, Northern Light now accepts banner ads where they never did before.
(Northern Light has since been bought by Yahoo!. Remember this article is a glimpse back in time to what once was.)
We all have to face it, the web as we've known it has changed forever. Big business has sat up, taken notice and wants a big piece of the action. The internet as an advertising medium is no longer an infant or child. With advertising revenues outperforming radio, consider the internet as a teenager that's grown up, got a job, and moved out.
OK, back to marketing on the net, so now it's twice as hard and takes twice as long, now what? We all need to focus on bringing an "internet marketing" specialist in-house, or training existing marketing/techie personnel, and spending a great deal more time than we used to marketing a site.
The focus has grown from just creating "hook / doorway / entry pages" (these are still critical to a web site's success), to letter writing campaigns asking for reciprocal linking and trying to be placed in search engine "channels". There's daily announcing into the "for sale" and "discussion" newsgroups, plus daily announcing of the web site and "all" the internal pages to primary and secondary search engines and directories. There's the writing of press releases and constantly updating the web site's content. Whew! Sounds like work, doesn't it?
I work four days a week for one client, focused exclusively on their internet marketing needs. The extra day per week is spent teaching a one day, hands on, crash course called "Internet Marketing Tactics". I welcome webmasters, site designers, marketing professionals and everyone else to come and learn to do what I do.
Avoid the line up of very frustrated customers waiting for my services! Get trained in just a few short hours. It's easy, it's not hard to learn, you'll be able to roll up your sleeves, sit down and get to work right away! All you need is to be equipped with the right set of tools and learn the core internet marketing secrets I've acquired over the years. It's so easy that anyone can be successful and start making profits on the internet right away. Call and book your internet marketing training today, just pick up the phone and call now.
Contact: Michael Campbell at 1 (604) 874-6655 Booking Cost: $800.00 per person, payable in advance, maximum class size is four people.
Includes GST, newsletter subscription, a book on achieving top positioning in search engines, plus every trick, tip and secret I've learned from years of successful internet marketing.
* Note: The book you are reading now has evolved from the above four hour $800.00 hands on seminar.
* Where is the internet market going in 2003 and beyond?
The face of the web is changing as it moves to a more commercial model. The big corporate giants are awake and it won't be long before the internet is a commercial medium just like television, radio, print and everything that came before. It will go - for the most part - commercial, it has to!
Sure we'll still have some free search engine listings, our home pages, our little corners of the net, but expect the big money to continue rolling in and control the advertising you will see, and believe me you will see a lot more advertising. As bandwidth increases we will continue to see a growth in audio commercials over the web, more full page ads, more pop up browser windows, more email in our inboxes every day.
The difference now, is companies that own big chunks of the telecommunication networks and bandwidth, will get together with the companies that have the lists. What lists? The lists are the email addresses and demographic profiles that everyone has been collecting since the moment you went online.
Ever shopped online? They've got your name and address. They can tell by your zip code how much money you make because of the neighborhood you live in. They can tell by the books or CDs that you've purchased what your tastes are. List owners can build highly targeted email campaigns and deliver their seductive sales message right into your email box where you're most likely to see it. And because they know what your interests are, you'll probably buy the product if they say the right things in their advertising.
The search engines will continue their evolution into paid directories and portals. There will be a continuing trend of less free advertising and more human interaction for reviewing sites. Each search engine company has an editorial team to review web sites and add them their directory (similar to your phone company's yellow pages).
The directory sits "on top" of the underlying search engine. The directory is all those clickable links you see on the home page of every search engine. They've tried to "sort out" the internet, providing people with what they consider to be "the best" web sites. The paid directory listings are often the search results that are displayed first, ahead of the "organic" search engine results. It's time to write the editor of the search engine and ask them to add your site to their directory. I'll show you some successful examples of letters I've written to editors later on.
The search engines will get "smarter". They will attempt to "assist you" in what you are looking for. For example if you search on the word "fruit", the search engine of the future will not search, it will ask, by "fruit", do you mean; apple, banana, orange, fruit growing, importing, stores, transportation? Click all that apply and click the search button again.
There will also be growth in "trigger" words. Trigger words are words like city names, the engine
will return results for your geographical area only. Slowly over time, more and more common words will become trigger words, and the more control the search engine will have over the results you will see.
The concept of purchasing or bidding on keywords, key word phrases and common names will continue to grow in favor. There are some search engines where you pay for or bid on the top listings. Debates will rage as search engines slowly start charging money to get listed at the top. Why shouldn't they? It's not like they need "content" or anything. They already have millions of pages in their indexes.
A word of advice, dont expect paid advertising in search engines to be any "smarter" or "better" than what you are constantly getting bombarded with from radio, print and TV.
Affiliate or associate programs are turning up everywhere and are proving to be an extremely effective sales tool. Simply put, you give your associate a tracking code and pay commission on all sales they bring in.
Associates drive the traffic to your site, usually with banners, ads, endorsements and sales letters. The visitors become paying customers, and you pay your affiliate a sales commission. Affiliate networks are quickly replacing classifieds, banners, and many other forms of traditional advertising, as the second most popular way for people to find you, and get new customers (search engines - whether paid or free - are still the first).
Increased direct email marketing to opt in lists and customer databases. Mailing to an opt in list (people that have requested to receive email from you) provides one of the greatest returns for your advertising dollar. Here you have a list saying "Yes, I want to receive email from you. I'm interested in your news, your product, your service, please keep me posted."
The most important thing you can do in business today is, get your customer's and prospect's email addresses. Once you have their email address, send them a piece of personalized email immediately. Let them know they will be receiving email from you in the future.
Use one web site, to sell one product, or one product category. The only logical choice is to buy that one product or move on to the next web site. All product sites link to each other. This effectively splits one large web site into smaller sales sites that cross link to each other.
Creating smaller sites boosts positioning in many search engines because of link popularity. Findability is also increased, as more sites give more keyword rich pages working for you in the search engines.
(The best example of creating single product sites and interlinking them together, is Revenge of the Mininet, which I wrote in 2003. It continues to be an excellent search engine strategy, especially for earning money from affiliate programs.) Get Revenge of the Mininet here:
http://www.cdzn.com/rev
So there you have my version of the internet marketing future. By now you might be asking, "Is there still plenty of opportunity to make money?" YES! Read the rest of this book, buy the tools and apply the tricks and techniques. Your web site will get noticed and you will make money.
You can use this information to become a consultant or work for someone else. It can change your life! Just don't be afraid to team up with another person or several people. Assemble your "brain trust" of specialized experts, people you can work with and trust. And speaking of work, sure there's plenty of reading to do and work to be done, but I know you can do it. So now that we've seen internet past, present and future, lets get started on the actual work.
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