| LED Digest 2475: The Art of Pricing |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom www.GetWebContent.com/LED : the LED's Key Sponsor The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ : the LED's Premier Sponsor Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. August 21, 2007 Issue no. 2475 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= <Moderator Comment> ~ The Art of Pricing --== Search Engines and Sub-Directories ==-- ~ Jeremy Weiss "...name the directories something meaningful, making use of your keywords..." ~ John Smart "...I look at the address bar to see where I am..." ~ Michael Martinez "Do whatever makes the most sense for you and your visitors." --== Competitors Bidding on a URL ==-- ~ Hein van der Honing "Nobody will be allowed to use your URL in their ads." --== The Hell of CSS ==-- ~ Shaun Johnston "...is it sometimes hard to understand someone else's CSS procedures?" --== Urgency Marketing ==-- ~ Martyn Gay "My grandfather gave me one of the best bits of selling advice I ever had..." --== LED Tagline Suggestions ==-- ~ Beth Earle "Learn - Exchange - Discuss" hits the nail on the head." ~ Frank Zipperer "...let's stay with LED Digest name and logo." ======== CONTINUING =============================== <Moderator Comment> So far, very positive feedback about the idea to feature "sponsor news" a couple times per month. Thanks for taking the time to share your comments on that, it looks like a go. Check out Martyn Gay's post under "Urgency Marketing" for the title of today's issue. I think it's a great post and brings up another discussion, and that's the art of pricing. How do you price your services? Depending on what you're selling, that's sometimes the million dollar question :) -Adam ------------------------ From: Jeremy Weiss Subject: Subdirectories > Is it true that search engines favor WebPages in > the root directory over WebPages in subdirectories? - Brian Butki, LED Digest 2474 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1885/190/ I've heard this as well, but have not seen any empirical evidence of this. My suggestion would be to name the directories something meaningful, making use of your keywords, starting broad and working your way inward. For example, if your store is selling bicycles then I'd try to set up the directory structure like: Mydomain.com/bicycles/bmx/product-page.html Mydomain.com/bicycles/seats/product-page.html etc. Granted, building such a structure could require more planning up front, but IMHO it would be well worth the effort. Sincerely, Jeremy Weiss Internet Consultant | Blue Phoenix Consulting, LLC Small Business Consulting and Internet Services http://www.BluePhoenixConsulting.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: John Smart Subject: Subdirectories This is a good question. With numerous pages, having them all in one folder becomes an admin nightmare, and can easily become a navigational nightmare. I always try to use structured directories, and so far have done pretty well in the search engines. However, you can change your mind. Suppose you have page: Mydomain.com/store/products/product-page.html And you want to restructure to: Mydomain.com/product-page.html (Assuming you are using apache - you can do this on other platforms - but I only know Apache) you can tell Apache to treat certain pages as .php even if they are .html, then (deep breath, this isn't as complex as it looks) You can tell page /product-page.html: <.php header ('Location: store/products/product-page.html'); ?> What this does (useful trick for anyone shuffling pages) is take the page you type in, and show you the page in the 'header' tag. A nice redirect, but it isn't a 300 (is that the right number?) redirect, so Google et al will not know you are bouncing them around. From a non SEO perspective, I like files to be neatly sorted, I look at the address bar to see where I am, and enjoy knowing what is going on. I do not enjoy navigating sites that are all piled into the root. And from an admin sanity point -argh!!!!! John Smart InternetDesign.com A Human Touch in a Digital world. -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Michael Martinez Subject: Subdirectories No. Search engines don't care where your content is placed on your Web site. Your on-page content, internal linking structure (navigational text), and inbound links from other sites will show the search engines which of your pages are the most important. Do whatever makes the most sense for you and your visitors. Michael Martinez http://www.michael-martinez.com/ ============ Sponsor Message =========== Why pay more for less? Some content providers charge extra to search-engine optimize copy. And some are so clueless, they don't offer SEO at all. A lot of good that'll do your site. At GetWebContent.com, we SEO everything we write without any additional charge whatsoever. Get it all, http://www.GetWebContent.com/LED ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Hein van der Honing Subject: Bidding on URLs > Why would Google allow another company > to use our URL as a keyword in their sponsored > links and AdWords listing, and what can we > do about it? - Ralph Hudson, LED Digest 2473 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1884/190/ Hi Ralph, Just raise this with google (or any other search engine). If you have a trademark, you can raise this and they will delete. Nobody will be allowed to use your url in their ads. They are allowed (unless there's a trademark) to advertise on the keyword "americanbuilders" though. Be sure your trademark involves both ameircan builders as americanbuilders in order not to have this problem anymore. Problems can also arise form a trademark. I recently tried to advertise with the extension .co.uk instead of .com (we own both destinations) but wasn't allowed by adwords because of the trademark, which was set on the .com. Hope this helps! Hein van der Honing, Search Analyst Have fun. www.zylom.com -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Shaun Johnston Subject: CSS Hell > I have started to use CSS in site layout. Wow - steep > learning curve, but well worth it. The control I have over > the layout is awesome - ready for Ajax integration, and > cool for redesigns. - John Smart, LED Digest 2474 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1885/190/ With John Smart converting to CSS, my last hope of finding another throw back to a previous age has vanished. OK. But about another of my points -- is it sometimes hard to understand someone else's CSS procedures? Shaun Johnston -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Martyn Gay Subject: Urgency marketing > I guess, to tie this together: If you want me as a customer, > place a fair price on your product, assure me that it won't > make my computer explode or something, and don't play > games with me. - Tom Anson, LED Digest 2474 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1885/190/ Tom is right - a fair price is critical, but even more critical is that the customer knows its a fair price. I'm not a fan of pressuring customers with an escalating price - customers like to think they are paying a fair price, and that shouldn't increase just because they spend a few days mulling over what might be a major purchase. My grandfather gave me one of the best bits of selling advice I ever had. He told me that if the customer wants a discount and you are happy to give it, never just cut the price without anything in return. He gave 2 reasons 1) Why give way on price with nothing in return when you could ask for something that might have value to you? 2) If you are able to cut the price without getting anything in return, then the customer knows that you were charging too much to begin with. This reduces their trust in you. If we have a job that we really want to get, and the price is the sticking point, such that a small discount will get us the job, we look for things we can get in return for the discount - things that won't cost the customer anything but that have real value to us. This might be full payment (or higher percentage) in advance, an agreement for a link back to us in the footer of the site, or perhaps some agreement on publicity (for example including our name and URL in press releases). But we wouldn't offer a discount just because a customer is prepared to make a quick decision rather than taking time to consider it. To me as a customer, any form of urgency marketing is a turn off - it makes me feel that the seller knows that I won't buy if I have time to think about it. As a business person I prefer dealing with customers who have made a free decision to purchase our services, not a customer who feel they've been pressured into it. Martyn Gay www.cactushop.com ASP Ecommerce Software -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Beth Ann Earle Subject: LED > I like Lorelle's first suggestion: Learn - Exchange - Discuss > Perfect description. - Peggy Deras, LED Digest 2473 Hi, guys. Every single contributor to the discussion on renaming / re-branding / re-imaging the LED has provided incredibly useful advice, particularly about the care with which such an endeavor should be undertaken. But, in the end, I really do agree with Peggy: "Learn - Exchange - Discuss" hits the nail on the head. With the very best LEDly regards for one and all, Beth Earle www.pilotfishseo.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Frank Zipperer Subject: LED I'm one of the old-timers here having joined up when LED had something to do with Microsoft Business. Although I don't often contribute to the discussions, I read every issue of the Digest and have learned so much through the ideas and techniques that are covered. The name and the logo have become even more established now that Adam has taken us to social networking. So my vote is don't change the name, make it mean anything you like and even add slogans, but let's stay with LED Digest name and logo. Best regards, Frank Frank Zipperer Photography Website: www.FZippererPhoto.com Blog: http://fzippererphoto.blogspot.com My Facebook Profile: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=520499407 ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by: GetWebContent.com The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. Free no-obligation proposal: http://GetWebContent.com/LED SEOToolSet.com Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification Join the certified SEO directory: www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ The Archives: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/126/189/ Subscribe: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/52/187/ Unsubscribe, Change Email, or Hold / Resume Delivery: http://www.led-digest.com/content/category/4/17/201/ (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Just living is not enough. 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