Busy does not equal important, Measured doesn’t mean mattered.

-Seth Godin

Similar to a post that my brother Michael wrote yesterday. Simply being busy does not mean that the work that you are doing is important.  Instead of being ‘busy’ try to do something that challenges you. Something that poses a risk, something that might break some rules but will have a much larger reward for you, your employer, or your client.

Half of life is what you know, half of life is who you know

-Grandpa Kettner

This is something that my dad has always taught me, and his dad taught to him. You could be the smartest person in the world, but if you have limited connections then your success will be limited. On the other side of the coin, you may know some of the smartest people who offer you opportunities left, right, and center – but if you don’t have the technical knowledge to complete the task then you will still struggle with success.

As I look back on my life, I can several instances of this proverb. For example, I was taking an Internet marketing course at CATO when I met Andrew Spoeth, who introduced me to Enquiro several months later and got me a job.

This type of thing has happened over and over in my life and it serves as a constant reminder to treasure relationships and knowledge.

If you can’t answer these questions then please take down your website.

In the last month, I have had too many conversations with companies that own a series of all Flash mini sites that attract zero visitors. Not only do they have no visitors, but they have no goal. They were created by marketing teams with ‘great ideas’ but no follow through.

Please stop and think about your website. What is the purpose? What is the purpose of your blog? Who is your target market? What are your goals?

For example, in the last couple of weeks the Red Cross has had a campaign that allows people to text Haiti to 90999 if they want to donate $10 to the Red Cross. They do all of the heavy lifting for you.  If I want to donate $10, I no longer have to drive to a Red Cross branch or log into their website and enter all of my critical information. I just have to text them, so easy.

On websites, each page should have a single call to action. When users finish reading an article, what are they supposed to do next? Subscribe? Read more articles? Go to a product page? Make sure that their call to action simple to understand, and easy to follow. This usually means that they should be a SINGLE click away from their next destination.

Does CSS have any effect on SEO?

-Paul, CA

Good question Paul,

The short answer is yes, but it is quite minimal. About a month ago Google added a page speed analyzer into Google Webmaster Tools which is a signal that page load time is about to become a part of the Google algorithm.

It is also important from a browser compatibility point of view. It is always a good idea to make sure that your website is up to par with current XHTML standards.

“Richard Binhammer (from Dell’s Social Media team) gave a private presentation yesterday and when one of the audience members asked about how Dell measures the ROI of their Social Media strategy, Binhammer responded that ROI was nothing more than an accounting term and probably has little to no place when it comes to measuring the success of any Social Media marketing initiative.”

Read the full post here, http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/killing-roi/

Some of the most popular videos on the Internet have been filmed with camcorders, flip cameras, or webcams. Take Matt Cutts for example. Matt is an employee of Google who posts a series of short videos targeted towards webmasters. These videos give useful information on how to optimize your website for Google without breaking any of the rules. Here is an example of one of the videos:

As you can see, there isn’t a lot of production value:

• Lighting: None
• Teleprompter: None
• Microphone: Crappy lapel mic
• Camera: Probably a consumer level camcorder
• Editing Required: None – No titles, no music, no powerpoint
• Views: 86,000+

Sure promotional videos that have bigger budgets can be catchier on your website, but content should come first. You need to provide valuable content to your visitor.

What are the benefits of adding video?

• Trust – People love people. Websites without pictures or video can make visitors hesitant to become customers.
• Message - I am a terrible writer. I know this, and if you have read my website then you will also know this. With video you get to explain things in the style that you are used to communicating. You can use tone in your voice to communicate messages that do not translate onto paper.
• Get Attention – La de dah, normal looking website, scroll, click, scroll, click. LOOK IT’S A VIDEO – I think I’ll watch it. Get the point? Videos gain attention, they will increase the time on site and make the visitor more satisfied.
• Additional Touchpoints – YouTube is the second largest search engine. If people are looking for videos on a certain subject they will just go to YouTube and search for it. If you don’t have any videos, you will be missing out on this huge opportunity for exposure.

This applies to everything, but in my world, it applies to Internet marketing – and today I am talking about keyword research.

When you are doing a keyword analysis for a website there is no need to build a list that is hundreds of words long. Most websites only warrant a keyword list that is 10-15 keywords long. When you add too many keywords it dilutes the focus of your website and makes it harder to achieve any of your goals.

I have several clients who are consistently 3/4th place in their markets for their Internet marketing campaigns. At their 2010 strategy meetings they are planning single digit market share growth to only maintain their position and revenue.

Why do these companies plan on being third? Why are they content with where they are at? They aren’t far enough behind the competition be totally out of the game, it is just a matter of priorities. They could easily have the budget to compete for SERP real estate but they don’t really seem to care.

When it comes to SEO 101, they “can’t” implement title tags, h1 tags, or add unique content to their pages. “Maybe next year, how about spring 2011?”. Why is this so hard for companies with multi-million dollar marketing budgets to make simple changes to their websites?

They hire a marketing agencies the same way that sports fans hire a trainer at the gym. It sounds really good to have a trainer and shows people that you are trying to get better, but this doesn’t fix the problem. If you don’t actually go to the gym it doesn’t make much sense having a trainer now does it?

Internet Marketing Articles

• Single vs Double Opt-In – Have you ever wondered if you should have single or double opt-ins for your email campaign? This article helps to clear the air.
• Is Your Brand Built On Mirrors or Core Values? – Very inspiring article from Outspoken Media about creating remarkable core values for your business and living them.
• How Do You Get Your Arms Around the ‘Brave New World’ of B2B Marketing? Where Do You Start? – Great post by Adam Needles about where to start with B2B marketing.

SEO Articles

• 7 Overlooked Sources of Keyword Data – Here is a great article with several unique ways of conducting keyword research

Social Media Articles

• The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration – Great article for companies who are asking “where do I start with social media”.
• Social Media’s Halo Effect on Organic Search – Pretty interesting article on how tweeting about a haircut increased organic traffic.
• Social Media Predictions for 2010 – Good post by Scott Monty (Ford Social Media) about upcoming trends.