| LED Digest 2040: The Anti-Marketing Angle |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest post, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. October 20, 2005 Issue #2040 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Selling Pixels ==-- ~ Chris Nielsen "You may have seen some 'hits', but did you see any conversions?" <Moderator Comment> "It's obviously not about integrity for the Rich Jerk..." --== SEO for Unoptimizable Sites? ==-- ~ Greg Watson "We create micro websites for each website that are focused on the individual community..." ~ Richard Dudley "This sounds like an excellent opportunity...to start a blog on a third party site..." --== SEO is Dead ==-- ~ Michael Martinez "...the SEO fundamentalists have been preaching visitor centric content for years..." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Views on PayPal ==-- ~ Bryan Liew ~ R. Neilson ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Chris Nielsen Subject: Selling pixels > http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com > Thought up by a student at Nottingham University > in the UK, this is a really wacky method of promotion. > I've used it for my wife's thoroughbred stud and had > several click-throughs on the first day. - James Miller, LED 2039 Yes, and it has spawned a batch of copy-cat sites all looking to cash in. I would consider it if you could just buy a pixel at a time, but they expect you to buy 100 minimum, and that's a lot to pay for a link on a Link Farm. That's really all they are but just another version. I seem to remember that Google's Webmaster guidelines recommend that a page have less than 1,000 links. Most good directories are free or between $29US and $49US. With the text anchor to your site and the more realistic possibility that you will get traffic looking for what you offer and not someone just looking to see who has placed ads, I think it will be a better long-term use of your time and money. You may have seen some "hits" from the site, but did you see any conversions? I would guess they are just the site owner testing the links, someone that is curious, or search engine spiders following the links. The chance of a targeted visitor seeing your "F", clicking to your site and becoming a customer is pretty small. I admit it's a clever idea and has gained quite a bit of attention, but one should look at the reality of this as a promotion method and understand the limitations on it's being effective. The only millionaires this scheme has a chance of creating is the owner of the site, in my opinion. Thank you, Chris Nielsen www.best-free-search-engine-list.com <Moderator Comment> Then there's this guy: http://www.therichjerk.com. He has a couple of links on the "Million Dollar Homepage", and I have to say, this is some pretty clever "anti-marketing". It's obviously not about integrity for the Rich Jerk, it's about money. Still, I'm curious if his e-book contains anything work a salt. Anybody read it? ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Greg Watson Subject: Unoptimizable sites > Any thoughts on how to optimize for a client who won't > let you touch their web site would be greatly appreciated. - Beth Earle, LED Digest 2036 Beth: We actually do this for the hospitality industry all the time. It is very common for hotels to have access to a brand reservation system; however, that reservation system is virtually non-existent in the search engines even though it may have 5-6 excellent "content" pages on each hotel property. We create micro websites for each website that are focused on the individual community hotel ... that sell the features and benefits of the hotel and provide a link to a reservation page when the potential customer is ready to book ... Similarly, you can create specialty websites for your client ... Greg Watson ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Richard Dudley Subject: Unoptimizable sites This sounds like an excellent opportunity for the marketing people to start a blog on a third party site (blogger.com, weblogs.com, etc). The IT people won't have to do a thing, and the marketing people can add content to ther heart's desire. You can make the copy informative and point links exactly where you want them to go, even deep link inside the CMS. I recently gave a presentation at a convention on using a blog as a marketing tool, and you can find the slides at www.rjdudley.com (navigate Articles >> Presentations). There's some background information you might find helpful to sell the idea to your clients. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Rich Dudley www.rjdudley.com/blog rich, rjdudley.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Michael Martinez Subject: SEO isdead > I find it extremely hard to believe that Michael doesn't understand > the difference between MLM and 2-tier affiliate programs. After > all, he is a member of the Allposters affiliate program, which is > 2-tier: - Steve Pronger, LED 2039 Yes, AllPosters' program is MLM. I never said or implied otherwise. Now that you're reduced to altering my sentences and putting words in my mouth, Steve, you should just hang up your spurs and wait for another opportunity. I prefer a program like AllPosters because it offers a real product that people want to buy for itself, not a program that relies on signing up more people to sell the program. It costs me nothing to participate in AllPosters' program. I just cash the checks. That is the kind of affiliate program I want to be in. In every gold rush, the people who make the most money are the ones who sell the picks, shovels, and pans to the miners. I'm not buying picks, shovels, and pans. Your mileage may vary. As for Rohit Sinha's artificial distinction between search engine optimization and visitor-centric content, about all one can say is that the two apples come from the same tree. If you want to paint one gold and one blue, that's your business. Really, anyone associating SEO with "keyword density" and link-building just don't know much about search engine optimization. Today, even the most conservative (and therefore misinformative) SEO forums -- and I am talking about the largest, most well-known forums -- have pretty good track records for speaking about the fundamentals (which do NOT include "keyword density" and link-building). "Keyword density" is now almost universally panned as outdated. Link-building is still preferred by many people who don't know how to do SEO right. You'll find a lot of them complaining about their lost rankings in the forums (in fact, a very minor Google update this past weekend initiated a new round of whining from link-builders this week). Rohit, the SEO fundamentalists have been preaching visitor centric content for years, but we don't mingle in straw man arguments and outdated methodologies. Michael Martinez http://www.michael-martinez.com/ ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Bryan Liew Subject: Paypal - I changed my merchant account to only PayPal > Does anybody have any views on using PayPal > on a commercial site. Is it a turn off? - James Miller, LED 2036 Hi James, In answer to your question about using PayPal to process credit card statements - I went through the same experience and thought process myself earlier this year, and have now closed my merchant account and converted all my ecommerce transactions to PayPal. (note: I do not own any shares of eBay or have any other affiliation with them other than as a merchant ;-) I had a merchant account with Bank of America for almost 3 years, and didn't really have any problems with their system or their support. However, once I offered PayPal as a payment option in addition to credit cards, I noticed that an increasing number of customers (and especially International customers) chose PayPal. So that got me thinking and comparing, then testing. First of all, transaction fees with Bank of America were less than PayPal since I had enough volume to avoid minimum monthly fees (2.2% + $0.10 compared to 2.9% + $0.30). However, the settlement process (authorizing and transferring funds) was an additional complex step and included a 48-72 hour hold period on the funds. More importantly, there was a Catch-22 with security settings: I could ensure a high level of security to limit fraud with US credit cards - but then I placed huge restrictions on International orders. Conversely, if I lowered security for International orders, I increased the chance of fraud. And I need to accept International orders, which account for 40-50% of my customers. So I ended up having to spend time manually verifying credit card orders; with fraudulent transactions, I would manually cancel (or in some cases refund) the amounts. One mistake or slip, and I was hit with a $20.00 chargeback fee - there goes any benefit of lower transactions. In several cases, I had to make long distance calls to verify orders. All of this was a pain. But when I had a PayPal order, there was zero concern or risk - none. I then decided to do a 1-month test, and offer PayPal as the only payment option (either from a PayPal account or credit card payment via PayPal). I found no measurable drop in orders, and experienced not a single fraudulent order; PayPal has country specific authentication, and fraudsters are less likely to scam PayPal. After a second month of verifying that I felt safe with PayPal, I made the leap and cancelled my merchant account. This was not an easy decision at the time, but 8 months on it's proven a good decision. Really the best thing is knowing that every single order is valid, and that I won't have any chargeback costs. Overall, based on my personal experience, I would recommend using PayPal as your primary payment mechanism, with the following considerations: - make sure you don't have a large number of customers in countries not supported by PayPal (i.e. Russian Federation); - be clear with customers that they don't have to open or create a PayPal account to pay with their credit card; - if you're only selling to customers in your country, you can try your bank's merchant account (but not an Internet payment gateway) with high security thresholds, as you might get better rates; - transferring funds from PayPal to your account also can take 48-72 hours to fully clear; - marketing-wise, make sure you add the credit card logos offered by PayPal - unscientifically, it lends credibility and confidence. Hope this helps! Bryan Liew Dance51.com http://www.dance51.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: R. Neilson Subject: Paypal I started using paypal about 4 years ago at the request of several of my customers. My website uses Miva merchant which allows customers to pay with credit card or PayPal. Still like to run credit cards directly thru my company if possible. I also sell a lot on e-bay and find about 90% of my customers on e-bay use PayPal and the advantage is they almost always pay instantly (buy it now) or with an hour of auction closing. It seems to make my customers feel more secure. When compared with credit card rates, PayPal is about the same. If you are doing high volume PayPal also offer discounts based on your volume and you don't need any expensive credit card machines. Plus you can even get a PayPal debit card that allows you access your funds as soon as they are posted to your account, or you can do the tradtional transfer to your bank account but that can take 2-4 days to post. R. Neilson H. L. Supply www.hansons.net ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "As experience widens, one begins to see how much upon a level all human things are." - Joseph Farrell |
