BUSINESS, EMAIL MARKETING AND THE EBG

I want to talk to you a little about email marketing and to kick that off, I really have to

Theresa Demario

introduce my personal hero in business, the EBG (Evil Bald Genius) Jon McCulloch.

Jon McCulloch

Jon Just published a book  "Grow Your Business Fast: The Quick, Dirty, and Uncensored Secrets to Extraordinary Small Business Success Despite Recession, Crap Governments and Tight-Arsed Banks" and doll baby that he is, he sent me a copy.  I have been happily pouring over it for days now but I won't give any spoilers.  Go buy your own copy! 

I have heard professionals speculate that the thing about Jon that has makes him so wildly successful are his "In your face" marketing techniques. Although those are an important part of what Jon does,  I am not so sure all of his success can be attributed to that. 

You see,

Jon is one of the cool kids.  He eats at the cool kids table and he makes you WANT to click his links and buy his products by making sure you know he only wants you to if you are a cool kid too and EVERYONE wants to eat at the cool kid table with Jon.

It always amazes me when reading his daily emails, how effective they are. I can't get enough. I WANT to join the inner-circle and read all of his books.

He doesn't use fancy graphics or high end templates. his emails are simple and that is part of their power.

What he does do that is so impressive, is he tells a story-  always funny and often decidedly non PC. Then he connects his story with his business and kind of offhandedly invites you to find out more.  It feels personal and privileged. 

It is so subtle and so brilliant, I totally get why he is called the EBG!

MISCONCEPTIONS IN THE SEO INDUSTRY

Theresa Demario

In this video, Matt Cutts from Google answers these two questions:

• "Which aspect of Google updates do you think the SEO industry simply won't get?" 

• Where do you see many SEOs spending too much energy on when they could be taking care of other things?"

Google Updates the SEO Industry Won’t Get:

The problem with the industry is that after the Panda and Penguin updates, everyone just assumed that Google made them simply to make more money on the advertising. The conspiracy theory is that they simply wanted to make some extra cash, short term. The reality is very different.

Google actually lost money after the Panda and Penguin updates but they significantly improved the user’s experience. They don’t really care if they are making or losing money short term.  In the end, more people will be happy with their Google experience and will come back over and over again and that will make them more money long term.

WHAT SEO TECHNIQUE IS OVER USED? WHAT SHOULD BE FOCUSED ON INSTEAD?

The second misconception Cutts addresses is: what are many SEOs spending too much energy on and what they should work on instead. Cutts  tells the SEO world that people are simply putting too much focus into link building and many times, they are missing the big picture, which is the user experience of the site, including the social media aspect of it. What makes a site compelling, interesting and fun? Successful online businesses are focused on the design of the website, making the experience very enjoyable. In the internet world everything is changing very rapidly and if you are not constantly trying to find new ways to improve your sites user’s experience there is a good chance that in near future someone else from your competition will do it and might capture some of your visitors. 

Theresa Demario

When it comes to keyword density, many people think that there is some golden rule or a secret trick that works every time but unfortunately, that is not the case.

Matt Cutts from Google explains that the reality is that the first few times you mention a keyword in an article it definitely helps. Google goes “Ahah!  That’s what this article is about.” But it works on a curve and the more you use it, the more neutral it becomes and if you overdo it you might actually loose points and rank worse than before- even before mentioning the work for a second/third time.

Natural Keyword Density:

The trick is to include the keyword in the text in the most natural way possible. The text should be long enough so the feeling of it is not artificial. Cutts recommends you read it out loud or have someone else read it to you. Don’t try to get the keywords in as many times as possible because it will not work and it will make you sound like a complete moron.

THE SAME RULES WITH DIFFERENT RESULTS:

When it comes to Search engine Ranking, each case is different and it depends on the area and how well other sites rank. The main principles are unchanged for all of sites. Cutts warns that If anyone tells you otherwise, please don’t fall for it because probably they will try to sell you keyword density software or a related service  or something similar.

So again, try not to worry too much about the density of the keywords, just have them there in a natural way and Google will pick it up without a problem. You will also give a better and more trust worthy experience to your readers who will certainly appreciate that you did not stuff your content full of  unnecessary extra keywords just for the ranking purposes.