Backlinks: The Good, The Bad, and the Only Sometimes Useful

This is a question I get asked a lot these days, and so I want to clear up some misconceptions regarding backlinks, and using them to get more customers to your website. First, let's get clear on what backlinks are.

If you want to get more customers to visit your website, you need great content, but you also need some powerful backlinks. Content is pretty obvious - material that's worth reading, material that shows off your expertise or your relevance, and that keeps people wanting to come back for more. If you have content, then you are worth "sharing", and sites or businesses that are shared more often are viewed as being particularly relevant to a given search term or key word phrase.

Theoretically, backlinks show the webpages to which they link back to as being relevant and credible by the very fact that they're worth linking to. They're generally how you shared a website (and still do to some extent). Google's original search algorithm relied very heavily on the presence of backlinks to "organically" determine the value of a webpage (the "PageRank", named not for the term "web page" but for Larry Page, one of Google's two founders). The thinking being that the more back links you have, the more you're being shared and the more relevant you are. As we'll see in a moment, this thinking left open a few very exploitable loopholes. And exploited they were. That said...

Backlinks alone will not make your website great.

In just the last year or so they've gone from being the most important thing to getting your page seen (as the source of how search engines determined if you were "relevant" or not), to only one of a few dozen.

Backlinks will appear in one of two ways: either as clickable hyperlinks linking back to your website either as a stand-alone link (e.g. http://www.wikipedia.com ), or as a link "anchored" to a word or phrase, which is intended to associate a particular page with those keywords, bumping up the pages relevancy for such terms (e.g., Aristotle ).

Part of what drove down the importance of backlinks was the cottage industry which sprung up around creating "fake" backlinks. Using automated programs (or a large group of dedicated folks), people figured out that they could artificially "bump up" the rankings of a web page and it's association with certain terms. This gave rise to the "Google bombing" that ultimately lead to the Google-ing of the phrase "miserable failure" leading to the White Houses biography of George W. Bush!), as thousands of people joined in creating anchored hyperlinks to associate politicians and other famous individuals and organizations with terms that were at least ironic if not outright disgusting.

Then, a certain department store chain got called out by no less than the New York Times for picking up on this, and using it to their advantage. Google panicked, and began to look for ways to rely less heavily on backlinks.

Social Media and Page Rank

Facebook is the largest thing on the internet - with about 1 in 7 people in the world having an account at this point (roughly, though some are fakes or duplicates, to be sure).

Shares, likes, Twitter tweets and more are all becoming important ranking factors, in part because they all represent genuine backlinking. It's much, much harder to get fake, pointless content to go viral with real people, so when something get's thousands of likes on Facebook (or +'s on Google's social network, Google+). Social media represents, overall, what real people are thinking or how they're feeling about whatever the relevant noun would be (the person, place, thing, or idea in question). Social sharing is the new backlinking.

Relevant Backlink Rules

That said, the traditional form of backlinks can still be valuable, but Google has continually revised how it appreciates them, looking at not only how many there are but who put them there, where they are, how quickly they occurred, etc.

Backlinks need to be from sites which themselves have a high page rank. Subsequently, the

page rank of those sites needs to be "organic", driven by their content.

Sites that are respected for being business sites, or business listing sites, like Yellowpages.com, Yelp.com, and of course Google's own Google+ Local, are going to be the best bets for "organic" and worth-while backlinks.

Thus, rather than focus on artificially creating backlinks, focus on creating good content and a good community, and the backlinks will take care of themselves!

Justin has been working as a consultant, helping small and medium sized companies dominate their local market by getting on the first page of Google + Local's business search listings, and through reputation marketing. He has a unique, 5 minute video at http://www.HundredsOfCustomers.com which outlines the drastic changes that have occurred in the world of internet marketing! He's helping dozens of companies get hundreds of new customers every month.

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How Small Businesses Can Market Their Products and Services

This is a valid question. All businessmen want to know how to market their product and services effectively and efficiently. No entrepreneur would start a business without profit in mind and all revenue comes in when people are able to know about what you have to offer. Unfortunately, people will never know what you have to offer unless you market your product or services. So the question is valid: How can I market my product and services even if I am a small business player?

Here are some important points for you to remember:

1. Know what sells

Admit it, many people who start a small business focus on creating a product or selling a service that they like. They envision themselves making a trend and changing the world with their product and services. This is not so in the real world. For instance, they would think of a product or services that they believe other people need without enough market research and survey.

In my Sales and Marketing trainings and seminars, I have always taught my participants that business is all about "calculated risk". When you don't calculate then you are speculating, and we all know that speculation is the twin brother of failure.

Know what people are buying and why they are buying it. Always remember that people always ask the WIIFM question: What's in it for me? People don't really care about your idealistic approach, people go for practical nowadays. In my trainings and seminars I always talk about the Pendulum effect in our society that affects sales and marketing. This is a 40 year effect where society swings from idealism to realism. Take my advice; we are still in the realist swing.

Check out products that have been successful in spite of it being new in the market. Among these are Apple's products like iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc. Samsung has also been successful in selling their product. You see the price of these products has nothing to do with its saleability but it is the practicality of it. People, nowadays, buy because it is practical. They are realist and you don't need to tell them what they need - they already know what they need.

Once you know that then it will be easy to market your product and services.

2. Know your customers

John Maxwell, in one of his books, said "No one will really care what you know, unless they know that you care". Many times, entrepreneurs never realize that they have not paid enough attention to their customers.

I remember when I was new in sales. I was so aggressive presenting every feature my product can offer and overwhelming the customer with information they don't even need. At the end of my sales pitch the customer was so confused that they needed more time to think.

In the end, I never made that sale. I realize that I need to stop talking and start listening to my customers. Can you imagine going on a date only to hear the other person talk about himself? The way I did it was asking questions on the first meeting. I won't even talk about my product and myself. I would spend time listening to my client. I realized that the more I do this, the more I understand my customers; and the more I understand them the better I can sell my product - it was a precision sale. All I need to do was listen and know what they need and how my product can satisfy that need.

Imagine marketing as building relationships. You need to develop your relationship with your customers from stranger to friend. It's easy to convince a friend than a stranger.

3. Know your competitors

Do you really know your competition? Many of us are so engulfed with our own product that we forget that there are also other businesses who offer the same product and reaching out to the same prospects.

ince you are "still" a small entrepreneur, you need to know 2 things: 1] Your competition's weaknesses and 2] your competition's strength.

Do some research about your competitor and learn about them. Know what's keeping them in the business and how they are doing it. Know where they are getting their customers and why customers flock to them.

Understanding these things will help you strategize better and market your product well in spite of competition. This is what I call riding with the waves. You see, when you are in the ocean you can't control or stop the waves from coming but you can always surf and ride with it. The secret to riding the waves, as any other surfer would tell you, is knowing and understanding the waves.

There it is folks. Now you know how to effectively market your product and services. Let me know how this article has helped you and share this with a friend.

- Al Echegoyen
For more info on Sales and Marketing Trainings.

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Marketing Can Be Daunting

Marketing can be daunting, time consuming and in many cases a very confusing task. "What is going to work for my business and what is just a waste of time?" These questions have been plaguing business owners and entrepreneurs for centuries if not a millennium. So how do we as business owners and marketers swift through all the options and theories to know what is right?

Also we now have social media and the seemingly free promotion through this new media. But don't kid yourself this is NOT free. You need to devote time and energy to social media and then there the unseen and dangerous cost if you post the wrong image or get too political with your customers. How will this affect your brand and your business? The old adage "bad publicity is still good publicity" can still work but be careful that you do not alienate your core target market!

So what am I trying to say in this article, how am I going to help you? I brought up some interesting ideas but I haven't actually given you something tangible to work with! And that is what is lies with marketing. Marketing is more art than science and you can only really use your own gut to be your guide. What marketing strategies and tactics have worked in the past? What are your goals? Do you know your target market? These are first areas to look at. You need to set a goal; then you need to pick strategies and tactics that will appeal to your target market. If your target market are teenagers then you will have great success in using a video that will appeal to them so that they can spread it virally through social media. But if your target is baby boomers over the age 65 then this might not be a great tactic.

Your next step is how you are going to measure your success and what amount of success do you want? If you want to increase sales by 10% then you can then you just need to measure sales in a particular time period. But if you want something more like 1000 new customers in 2 months, then you need to work out the best way to identify new customers. Whatever your goal; write this down, measure it. There is no point in starting any marketing if you do not have a goal and way to measure that goal. But make sure your goal is realistic and achievable.

Whatever you choose as your goal and how you are going measure it, you need to give yourself and your business time to achieve the goal. Most marketing activities will take up to 90 days to reach their peak. So if your business isn't doing well, think about what you were doing in your business 90 days ago. If you weren't doing any marketing then you know why your business needs help.

To some you will recognize what I am taking about especially if you have done a marketing plan for your business before. So think of this a mini marketing plan. This should be something you do regularly and not just once a year or just when you started your business to get that start up capital. It doesn't have to be super formal, just write it down. Make a plan, follow through and measure your success.

Marketing is an essential part of any business and if someone tells you that they do not have to do it is fooling themselves and they don't have a growing business.

Take a step forward with your business with the right marketing advice.

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Why It May Be Wise to Purchase Charged Off Debt

When it comes to business, generating sizeable revenues is the name of the game. With such a diverse economy, there are now many different ways to earn money. Other than the more traditional means of generating income, many are unaware that buying debts can result in profit. The concept sounds confusing and ridiculous for many, but it is a reality. This article discusses the basic of debt purchasing to help you understand how you can make money by engaging in the same.

Understanding the Process

Debt purchasing is a term used in financial circles to describe one of many activities meant to generate revenue. The liabilities involved are normally credit lines accumulated by an individual or company that they are unable to pay off. In most cases, lenders and companies that manage debt for profit are those that Purchase Charged Off Debt. Although this is typically the case, you, too, can do the same to generate some income. Here is how it works.

Most debt purchasing activities involve private individuals who cannot pay off their credit card bills. Larger scale cases involve companies with outstanding balances that lenders charge off. What this means is the lender deems the amount as uncollectable. Although the creditor regards it as such, the charge-off appears on the credit report of the debtor and stays there for an extended period. This lowers credit scores and makes it difficult for the debtor to secure loans and other forms of financing. In almost all cases, the only way to strike it off a credit report is to pay it off. This is where you come in.

When a charge-off happens, most creditors report the debt and make it available for purchase. They sell the account at a lower amount, knowing they will make a profit because of the unlikelihood that they will succeed chasing after the debt. It then becomes responsibility of whoever purchases the debt to go after the debtor to recover full amounts. This is why most cases involve lenders who specialize in and have the tools for successful collection.

Engaging in Debt Collection

Getting involved in this kind of business for the first time can be tricky if you are unfamiliar with the tricks of the trade. It is important to learn as much as you can about it or consult with a professional. Once the original creditor turns over the responsibility, you can go after the nonpayer until you reach a settlement. Remember, though, that state and federal laws apply. It is best to familiarize yourself with the legalities involved by going over the Fair Debt Collection Practices. You may also want to invest in the services or advice of a legal counsel to ensure you comply with all requirements.

A successful settlement may be difficult to achieve, but it is worth the wait and effort in most cases. If you and the debtor come to terms about payment, it is important that you get every detail in writing. It is always best to negotiate deals where they pay in full so you recover losses and they get the negatives stricken off their credit report. Consult with experts in the industry like http://www.bayviewrmc.com and similar websites for the best results.

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Mobile Opt-In Strategies

Mobile SMS and text marketing is a very effective means of creating client engagement. With response rates of up to 30%, mobile text marketing is proving to be a vital piece within many company's overall marketing mix. One of the reasons why such high response rates can be achieved by using mobile channels, is the fact that in order to legally send a message via mass SMS distribution, one must first opt-in to a subscriber list. Essentially, the opt-in gives the marketer the right to leverage the end user's mobile device a medium of communication, while still giving the user the option at any time to elect to not to receive further communications. This being said, building a mobile Opt-in list is an essential part to any successful mobile strategy. Convincing consumers to provide the right to market to them has long been a challenge to marketers. By using a few effective strategies, a marketer can better rely on his or her message being considered, thus helping to bring the consumer one step closer to the defining moment of an actual purchase.

When dealing with SMS and text marketing, one must note that the effectiveness of leveraging your database comes at the price of building the database to begin with. Since consumers must opt-in to your mobile distribution, an effort must be made through other forms of promotion, to make them aware of your product, and lure them into signing up for your mobile list. Customers must be instructed to sign up for your list, and explicitly be told what they will be receiving when they do so. This directional marketing is referred to a call to action, and is essential to any Opt-in strategy.

When creating call to action material, a few basic questions should be answered, in order to ensure a high client response. Your call to action should always answer the what, why, when and how, around your product or service. Clients need to have these basic items answered, and feel there is a strong benefit before they allow you the right to market to them via text message. In addition, call to action materials should always include clear opt-in directions and should include somewhat of a sense of urgency. For example, a call to action that covers each of these parts could be as follows: "Text milkshake to 96362 (how), before 5:00pm today (when) for your chance to receive a life time supply (why) of your favorite ice cream flavors (what)". This call to action is clear and straight to the point, and the customer would leave this interaction knowing exactly what he or she signed up for.

Creating a concise yet detailed call to action will encourage customers to become active participants in your promotions, as well as help to build your mobile opt-in database. As mentioned, your opt-in materials should be distributed within the existing channels of your marketing campaign. There are many ways one can leverage their current marketing materials in order to capture mobile specific information. The most common of these methods is the mobile keyword, which is a short phrase, which links a text user to a mobile database. For example, if your company distributes a weekly newsletter, include a blurb about promotions that are only available for customers that send a message to your keyword. This message could also be spread via print ads, or even radio or television.

QR codes are another increasingly popular means of creating engagement, and are effective when combined with a call to action strategy. For example, a QR code can be attached to a lunch menu at a local diner, with instructions for patrons to "Scan here for our VIP lunch specials". The QR code can be programmed to send a message to your distribution list (mobile keyword), and clients would receive promotions at whatever time intervals you choose. Also, in the case of online and email marketing, a widget or simple sign-up box, can be created which directs customers to sign up for your specific promotions. This widget can be designed to capture many forms of information, in addition to the mobile phone number, and is a great tool for creating a more detailed customer profile.

When building your mobile Opt-in list, always remember to measure the value of your efforts. The biggest value metric would be the growth rate of the list itself. Next would be the churn rate, or the rate that customers opt-out of your list. In regards to opt-out, there is always going to be a natural loss of subscribers, due to various reason, many of which will be out of your control. As long as the growth rate exceeds the churn rate, then you opt-in efforts can be deemed valuable. Also, always measure the response rate of each mobile campaign sent to your list. If a decline in response rates is seen, in may be time to freshen up the promotions that are being sent to your clients.

The beauty of building a mobile opt-in list, in addition to the high response rates, is the ability

immediate return can also be seen. Building and growing your mobile opt-in list is a critical step to supplementing any additional marketing initiatives you currently employ. As customer become more demanding, more savvy, and require more "right now" interaction from businesses, utilizing a mobile opt-in list is the perfect way to engage clients and build more long term and interactive business relationships.

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What Soap Can Teach You to Do in Your Business

A couple of weeks ago I trav­eled to Washington, DC, to do some consulting for a group I'm working with to help them focus their marketing efforts. Lorie and I decided to go up a few days early and spend the weekend visiting museums and seeing the sights, which are amazing in our capital.

Sunday morning we decided to go to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. On the way from the Bed and Breakfast ac­commodations we were staying at we walked through Dupont Circle, which was holding its weekend Farmer's Market. We weren't going there to buy fruits and vegetables as we wouldn't be making dinner, but we thought we might be able to get some food there for lunch and we weren't disappointed.

There were vendors selling the usual vegetables, but there were also people there selling crisp fall apples and the most amazing Asian Pears. There were vendors selling all sorts of cheeses, breads and pastries.

In addition, there was a vendor selling soap, not your ordinary deodorant soap, but about 50 dif­ferent scents of soaps. There was French Lavender, Cherry Choco­late Truffle, Honeysuckle, Lem­ongrass and a multitude of other samples lined up in a row that you could sniff and decide which one was your favorite. Once you made your choice of which one you liked, they would cut off a 1-inch wide bar of your selection from a large chunk of soap.

There were a few things that this vendor did exceptionally well that you may want to consider in your own business, even if you don't sell soap.

Help your prospect to inter­act with your product. All of the vendor's soap samples were promi­nently displayed so you could pick them up and hold them in your hand while you breathed in their scent. There were quite a few people in front of the booth, all smelling the soaps and deciding which ones they liked the best.

When I asked the vendor the price, she said the soaps were $6.25 each, but you could get 3 for $17. For some reason 3 for $17 sounded like a really good deal, but when I figured it out later, I only saved 58 cents per bar. Why do you think that is? The answer is that when you add.25 to the $6, it seems more than when you leave it off. You notice they left it off of the $17 so it seemed cheaper.

Now I bet you that even though I didn't ask, I'm sure they had tested various price points. Remember the only way to make more money is to charge more, get your customers to buy more, or get more custom­ers. Take a look at your own pricing structure and see what one works best in your business.

In addition you could join their frequent buying club and get a free bar after you bought 10 bars. Can you do this in your business?

Another nice touch was that they added a few small samples of other scented soap in your bag with your purchase so you could try out some different soaps later.

So what can you learn from them that you can incorporate in our own business? First, people like to interact with a product. They like to look at it, feel it, taste it, or even smell it, as with the soap.

People have five senses: hearing, sight, touch, smell, and taste. And different people are more prone to respond with one sense over an­other. That's why it's vitally impor­tant when selling your product or service that you incorporate the five senses into the sales process.

Does your prospect need to see what your product does? Does your prospect need to touch the product to get a feeling of how it works? Does your prospect need to have the benefits and features of the product explained to her? Does the prospect need to smell or taste the product before he buys it?

While at the Farmer's Market, other vendors were doing just that... providing samples of the food that people could try before they bought it. A cheese vendor was giv­ing out samples of different types of cheeses. There was a fruit vendor offering a taste of different types of apples and Asian pears.

Now you may not have a product that can be eaten, but you can offer your prospect a free trial of your product so they can start consum­ing it to see if it's right for them. We sometimes call that a Try Before You Buy offer.

You can offer a money back guarantee so consumers know that they can try it out and if it's not what they thought, then they can return it.

There's a lot you can learn from a soap vendor. How can you trans­late that into your business?

Ron Rosenberg is a nationally recognized expert on marketing and customer service, business coach, and public speaker. Maximize your marketing efforts and generate more revenue in less time with his Business Self-Defense 90-Day Success Program and Business Owner Survival Kit. Get free marketing tools, tips, and tactics at http://www.RonsBusinessCoaching.com or for details on our speaking and coaching programs contact us at 800-260-0662 or info@qualitytalk.com.

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4 Ways Product Managers Can Let Their Customers Make Their Product A Success

The one thing that every product manager wants more than anything else in this world is for our product to be a success - this should almost be a part of the product development definition. We are willing to work very hard to make this happen. However, maybe we've got it all wrong - it's not what we do that will make our product a success, but rather what our customers do. Let's take a look and see how we can let them show us what we need to be doing...

Welcome To The World Of Social Web Sites

One of the biggest advantages of living in the 21st Century is that we've got this great thing called the Internet. All of a sudden, product managers now have an easy way to both get and stay in contact with the customers of their product. Having a communications channel like this is great; however, it doesn't come with any operating instructions...

All too often, product managers try to control how our customers use the Internet to talk about our product. What a lot of us have done is to set up web sites where our customers can come and talk about our product. However, that's it - all we want them to do is talk about our product. Oh, and don't you even think about saying something bad about the product - we're going to tightly police what is said and delete any negative comments.

The end result of these kinds of actions are rarely visited web sites that are of no value to your customers or to you. This is not something that you're going to want to put on your product manager resume. It turns out that there are other types of social web sites out there that discuss products (such as those that talk about just about any Apple product) that are wildly popular. What's the difference between these two types of web sites?

4 Ways To Create A Brand Community For Your Product

The big difference is that those other web sites have been successful in building a so-called "brand community". This is a site where customers can learn more about a product, discuss problems and how to solve them, and talk with other people who use the product.

I'm going to guess that you'd like to be able to create a successful online brand community for your product. If so, then you're going to need to follow the following four steps to create a successful social web site for your product:

1. Hand's Off!: When you set up a social web site for your product, you get to set the rules. However, if you limit the discussion to only product-related items or if you prohibit negative comments about your product, you'll be shooting yourself in your foot. A social web site is just that - social. Let your customers talk about what they want to talk about - they'll always eventually come back to talking about your product. Also, let them make negative comments about the product. Both of these types of discussions will provide you with great insights into both your customers and how they are using your product.


2. Keep It Diverse: Who do you really want to come and visit your product's social web site? Do you really think that your market segmentation is 100% correct? Don't limit use of your web site to one particular type of customer or even to people who have already bought your product. Instead, throw the doors open and let anyone who has an interest in your product participate. This is when the real learning for you will occur.


3. It's Not A Support Site: If your social web site was just an extension of your customer support department, then visitors could open trouble tickets and get them answered. Instead, you need to provide your customers with ways to interact and communicate with other visitors. Don't make it a customer-to-company discussion, make it an anyone-to-anyone discussion - that's what "social" is all about.


4. Unofficial Is OK Too: There is no way that there will only be one web site that deals with your product. In fact, there may be many others. As a product manager you're going to need to come up with a plan to at least monitor what is being said about your product on these other sites. An even better plan is to participate in them. Become a contributor and you'll be able to harness their customer feedback in addition to your own site.

What All Of This Means For You

As a product manager, we can accomplish a lot. However, we may not be able to make our product a success simply by our own actions. Instead, it turns out that we need the help of our customers.

We can get the feedback that we need from our customers by creating social web sites that they can use to talk about, among other things, our products. However, in order for these types of sites to be effective, we need to follow the four things that we've discussed. The ability to set up this kind of effective customer communications channel will probable soon become a part of every product manager job description.

We live in fantastic times - never before have product managers had so many tools that can allow us to connect with our customers available to us. However, we need to learn how to use these tools correctly so that we can ensure that our products will be the success that we know that they can be.

Dr. Jim Anderson
"America's #1 Unforgettable Business Communication Skills Coach"

http://www.blueelephantconsulting.com/

Dr. Jim Anderson has been a product manger at small start-ups as well as at some of the world's largest IT shops. Dr. Anderson realizes that for a product to be successful, it takes an entire company working together. He'll share his insights and guidance on how to make your products a fantastic success.

Subscribe to the FREE Accidental Product Manager newsletter to get the information that you need to have a successful product and a successful career. Go here to to get your free subscription: http://tinyurl.com/p4ru9d

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