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July 31, 2010 by

Dallas Online Internet Marketing For Networking Marketing Distributors

In recent days, I have been approached by various people in Dallas who have second businesses in the MLM, direct sales, and network marketing industries.  They have asked for all forms of help with their start using online internet marketing.   If you are in a similar position with a MLM/direct sales/network marketing business then here are some tips to help you get started.

First, be sure that you are allowed to market online in any manner.  Some of these businesses, like deregulated electricity, may have tight restrictions on letting their distributors use the internet to grow one’s business.  Make sure that you are all clear on what you can and cannot do.
Second, understand that most likely you will have to build some other web property(ies) in addition to the site which the corporate office assigns you.  This does not mean that you have to go out right away and buy a domain and web hosting, although you may wish to do so at some point.  Instead, you may control pages on Web 2.0 sites, pages and channels on video-sharing sites, social bookmarking accounts, and you may be syndicating articles on various topics.  No matter what path you choose, just realize that you probably will be controlling accounts and pages on websites other than what corporate gives you.

Third, and probably most important (!), make sure that you are VERY clear on the type of person you want to attract to your content using the internet.  In addition, you must be very clear on what it is that you want that person to do AFTER they become aware of you and your corporation.  The people with whom I have spoken never really had a defined person and a defined message in mind when it came to the topic of internet marketing.  Here is a better example:

  • I asked one of these people who approached me about what he wanted in his network marketing business.  He said that he wanted to dominate the Dallas market for his business.  When I asked him why he wanted to use online and internet marketing to attract just a Dallas audience he told me that he wanted to meet everyone face to face in order to convince them to take action and join his down line
  • I asked him if a video explaining his story would be just as good in order to use internet marketing to expand his awareness outside of the Dallas area.  He said that he simply wanted to meet people in the area face to face
  • We decided then to use an internet marketing strategy which involved online event directories/calendars, press releases announcing his events which were being held in public places, social media (including MySpace, which everyone seems to forget!), local forums, and Dallas-specific SEO
  • We also decided to help him “lead” with the business opportunity rather than the product.  This meant that he would target keywords (for SEO purposes) which dealt with Dallas-specific terms people are entering.  Such terms could be “Dallas residual income”, “Dallas work from home”, or “Dallas business seminars”
  • An online marketing keyword and competition analysis would then be done on those Dallas-specific keywords which had the underlying psychology of someone who may be inclined to take action right away or, at least, attend a free business seminar

Hopefully you begin to understand that by narrowing down the list, and being specific on what you want to accomplish, you THEN can begin to use more-interactive social media (e.g. Facebook and Twitter), sound SEO techniques, and intelligent website targeting to reach your audience.

Should you need any internet marketing help for your MLM/direct sales/network marketing business then feel free to contact me through the Contact link at the top of the page.  If you found this article helpful, or believe that it can help someone you know, then you are welcome to share it on your social networks, social bookmark accounts, or e-mail lists.  Thanks!

Filed Under: Network Marketing, Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
July 15, 2010 by

Dallas PPC – When Is Pay Per Click Better Than SEO

A common question many Dallas area business owners have asked me is if it is better to follow a SEO strategy or a pay-per-click (PPC) strategy.  The answer depends on the actual keyword being chosen. Ideally, if your budget allows for both strategies then you should consider doing both.  If your budget, however, is constrained then here is an example to help you determine which is best for your specific situation.

At the time of this example, the Google Keyword Tool says that the following keywords have this data:

  • The keyword phrase “Nail salon Dallas” has 2900 searches per month, has some degree of seasonality (but nothing skewed or out of the ordinary), and has an average cost-per-click (CPC) $0.83 per click.  Note that the CPC is not a “fixed price”; but it is the best available data you will have to work with that is not from a paid keyword research data mining software program
  • The keyword phrase “Nail salons in Dallas” has 590 searches per month, and has a posted CPC of $0.05 per click.  This extremely-cheap pay-per-click cost may not be realistic, and an inexpensive CPC would require ideal optimization of the ad and landing page for the keyword.  Nonetheless, you can be conservative and assume that the keyword would cost, in reality, somewhere around $0.30 per click

One other assumption:  let’s assume that if you rank # 1 in the “organic” (left-hand side) keyword results (not including the Maps listings) for a one-month period, then you will receive  roughly 40% of the searches.

Here is the math for our example:

  • If you were to rank # 1 for “Nail salon Dallas” then you would receive 40% of the  2900 searches for the month.  This would translate to roughly 1160 visitors for the 30-day period.  To buy 1160 visitors (clicks), you would have to pay roughly $962.80 per month at an average of $0.83/click
  • If you were to buy all 590 clicks for “nail salons in Dallas” (which would take longer than thes one-month period) at $0.30 per click (our conservative adjusted CPC) it would cost you roughly $177
  • 590 clicks for “nail salon Dallas” would cost you on PPC, at $0.83 per click, roughly $489.70

Let’s assume that your SEO efforts will get you roughly 2 months (60 days) of ranking # 1 in the search engines for the keyword.  If the cost, in terms of time and cash outlay, are cheaper for SEO then it is advantageous to pursue a SEO strategy instead of a PPC strategy.  This assumes that you are willing to follow the rules for intelligent and optimization.

{AUTHOR NOTE}

Please note that the pay-per-click costs we are discussing is not the Google Content Network.  This post is about the traditional Google Search Network, Yahoo’s PPC network, and the Bing/MSN AdCenter network.

If you need any help designing a pay-per-click (PPC) strategy then please feel free to contact me at your convenience.

Filed Under: pay per click Tagged With: , , ,
June 21, 2010 by

Dallas Social Media – It Is More Than Facebook And Twitter

When many small business owners in the Dallas-Fort Worth area think about social media, they automatically think about Facebook and Twitter.  I usually ask them why, apart from the popularity, they want to “stampede” into Twitter and Facebook if they are not using social media right now for their businesses.  Usually the responses are something like:

  • “Well everyone I know is telling me to get on this site.”
  • “The entire world is on those.  I should be able to get a piece of the pie, right?”
  • “My kids are all over these sites.”

Not that these are bad reasons, but social media requires so much more than just jumping on these sites!
There are many things to consider, especially the “BIG PICTURE” of actually using social media intelligently instead of it being simply a business fad.  Here are some questions to ask yourself:

  • Do I have the time to contribute value on a consistent basis to these sites?
  • Am I willing to interact with prospective customers/clients and “deal with people” (instead of looking at everything like a numbers game)?
  • Am I willing to hold back on “hard selling” on these types of sites?
  • What are my strengths when it comes to an online presence?
  • Am I willing to go the extra mile to earn trust in order to build my authority?
  • Am I willing to be 100% transparent in my actions?

Many business owners, when actually faced with these questions, cannot say “Yes” to these questions or define their strengths.  If that is your situation, especially the “time” question, then you may not be able to derive value from Facebook and Twitter.  There are “social media”, however, which are more set-and-forget and do not require as much consistent interaction.  These include:

  • adding helpful, “non-spammy” videos to video-sharing sites like YouTube
  • creating a podcast series or a weekly/monthly radio show on a site like BlogTalkRadio.com
  • writing helpful “how-to” articles and submitting them to sites like Ezinearticles.com
  • many others

Determine which of these options plays to your personal strengths.

There are a few more things to consider, especially if you prefer to pay for advertising.  You can use social media to reach your designated audience on a site like Facebook; but you have to know your numbers.  This means:

  • knowing the expected pre-tax profit you will receive over the average lifetime value of one new customer.  For example, a pizza place in Dallas may make $3 profit (average) per new customer.  If the average new customer makes 10 orders over his/her lifetime, then the pizza place expects a lifetime value pre-tax profit of roughly $30.  An attorney in Dallas, whose average new client uses his/her services 3 times at an average profit of $1000, will have a lifetime pre-tax profit of $3000 per new customer.  Make sure that you have a good estimate of your numbers, backed by real numbers
  • having a very good idea of the demographics of your ideal prospect.  For example, you may determine that your ideal prospect has a college degree earned in Texas, earns between $80,000 and $100,000 per year, has a certain political leaning, and has more than one child still in grade school.  You can then extrapolate that information to the fields which Facebook ads allow you choose.  Nonetheless, you also can advertise your videos on YouTube and you also can simply pay for advertising on regular (non-social media) websites if you know that your ideal customers spend time on those sites

Finally, you do not have to jump into Facebook and Twitter right away for two reasons:

  1. There may be too much “clutter” on Twitter and Facebook in your niche for you to establish yourself as a trusted authority.  Perhaps a second-tier social network (instead of Facebook) or a second-tier microblog (instead of Twitter) may have the audience you want to reach without having as much competition
  2. If you offer services in a specific geographic area then you may want to find social media sites which cater to your niche and/or the specific area.  For example, if I offered dog training services in Dallas then I could spend time finding an active Dallas-specific forum and/or a Texas-specific dog lovers social network.  This is hyper-targeted social media, and you should be able to do well if you play by the rules of the specific site where your audience is spending time

Again, there are several considerations to make regarding one’s social media presence.  Just remember that you do not have to rush right away into Facebook and Twitter.  If you do, then chances are that you will not see a ROI worth your time unless you simply are lucky.  By being artful and having a basic game plan you should begin to do well in social media.

If you need help determining your social media strategy, especially if you need help with Dallas social media, then please contact us for more information.

You are encouraged to share this post with those you think would enjoy it, and you are welcome to ask questions on this post or by e-mail at info@morethanseo.com

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: , , ,
May 20, 2010 by

Dallas Online Marketing Tips

If you are looking for to improve your internet marketing exposure in the Dallas area, then here are some specific Dallas online marketing tips which you may find useful:

  • Get listed on the Maps listings.  This includes more than just Google Maps.  Consider getting listed on Yahoo Maps, Bing/Live Maps (MSN), Best Of The Web, and other maps listings on websites which your Dallas market trusts.  This tip is for all businesses with a street address, not just retail stores
  • Get listed on the various online local directory sites which have a Dallas category.  There are several types of these sites such as generic (e.g. Superpages.com), the “yellow” sites (e.g. Yellowpages.com), review sites (e.g. Yelp.com or Angieslist.com), GPS directories, 411 directories, and other national sites emphasize local area listings
  • Get listed on the various Dallas-Fort Worth-specific sites (e.g. Dallas.com)
  • Get listed on city-specific Chamber of Commerce sites should you be a member of the local Chamber
  • Get listed on the Better Business Bureau sites in your area
  • Get listed on niche-specific sites which allow for adding local listings (e.g. TripAdvisor.com if you are a hotel or restaurant in the DFW area)
  • Get listed on press release sites if you have local-specific news
  • Get listed on local event calendars if your business offers entertainment to the public (e.g. Guidelive.com)
  • Same for the event calendars on city-specific sites such as the local Convention & Visitors Bureau sites
  • Get mentions from Dallas-specific Facebook pages, MySpace pages, Twitter profiles, etc.

There are many other strategies to get exposure in the Dallas-Fort Worth market.  Nonetheless, the above list will help you get started in the right direction and improve your business’ online exposure.

Should you need assistance with any of these then you are welcome to contact us and ask your questions.

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: , , , , , ,