Dark Horse Communications

I found this infographic on Stumbleupon.com and wanted to share it along.  Click on it to see it in full size.

Some great facts about internet usage projected in 2020.

Second up in our book review series is YouTube and Video Marketing from Greg Jarboe. This book focuses more on the video aspects of sites but as video becomes much more prevalent on the web its important to be at least familiar with the practices behind video usage and marketing on a site.

There are two major reasons why a website or small business owner would want to use YouTube. The first one is that Google actually owns YouTube and now includes video results as part of its searches. If two websites have the same editorial theme but one has YouTube videos on them, Google will place the one with videos on it ahead of the comparable site. It’s part of the marketing ploy for Google.

The second reason is that users or customers are actually very comfortable with watching video online these days, and a video is a better way to make a presentation than just text on a page. Free tip from the book: The actual principle from the business should be the one in the video instead of an actor because a genuine message is received much better by the user than a “fake” one.

The book is laid out starting with the history of YouTube and then goes into better defined sections as the book progresses. Users can start using some of the tools within the first hour of reading and get more advanced with each new chapter. The best part of the book is that it shows you how to break video marketing, no small task, into easy chunks and how to go forward with a basic plan.

So what’s the real reason to read this book? The future of the internet will not be as text based as it was or is, and video plays a big role in the change. Business owners need to know what a competent video marketing effort for a small business looks like, and how they get there without spending thousands of dollars.

The first book I am going to review is Perry Marshall and Bryan Todd’s book Ultimate Guide to Google Ad Words, 2nd Edition.  The book was written in 2007 but it is a great starting point for business owners who are looking to get started using PPC or PPV campaigns for their business.  At 300 pages, it’s an easy enough read, and organized well enough to let owners get started and learn more as they go along.

The book shows users how to start writing effective copy for their web sites, and how to save money using Google AdWords by using some search engine optimization tools.  I won’t give away all of their secrets, but I will show one example.  Say I wanted to run an advertising campaign for Lawrence Kansas Web Design.  Google allows users to save money by having domain names and page names that are keyword matched (lawrence-kansas-web-design.com/lawrence-ks-web-design) to be less costly than if I advertise this site (darkhorsecomms.com) or some other one.  You will also save money by including search terms in your ad’s landing page as well as the text of the ad itself.

Perry also goes in to scheduling ads, ways to test ads, and ways to save money on key words (misspellings are a great way to save money yet cash in on search intent).  The book is great for understanding the basics of using PPC campaign services and also translates well to others like Bing, etc.

You can learn more about the book by clicking on the link below.

I’ve been so busy these days with the campaigns that I have neglected posting for a while on here.  I did want to add a reference section for business owners interested in online marketing but want to try and take it on themselves.

The Dark Horse store will have links to resources I use and recommend to business owners here in Lawrence, Kansas but they are universally useful to anyone looking to expand their business online.

You can visit the store by clicking on the store page above.  I have personally read all of the materials except for the WordPress book.  There is a fair amount of documentation online for the content management software, but a beginner’s book could do no harm in my mind.

I will also be giving brief book reports for each book that I add to help visitors to the site learn more about the book if they are interested.

I just got done working on a project and am admittedly amped on caffeine.  I thought I would post real quick about what I have been seeing in the field lately.

As an online marketer, I subscribe to a number of blogs and email lists of the true professionals in the field.  It seems as if during the past month they have all decided to jump from creating projects to help one another and move towards directly helping small business owners directly.

These are guys who are not hurting for money either.  Rather they know what the word on the street is, and it’s that there is blood in the water.

You see, these guys understand that most small business owners still do not have a credible online marketing strategy right now, and that the market is huge.  The place most of these industry leaders plan on making their next fortunes?  Main street.

Small business owners understand the importance of being online, but two things had to happen before there could really be a “Gold Rush” in the online marketing field.

First, there had to be a paradigm shift big enough in media to bring the attention of the market to it.  This paradigm shift is now the advent of both social and “as-you-please” media.  Second, there had to be a need in the market.  Online marketing is now mature enough to have universally recognized best practices, and the simple fact of the matter is that only a few small business owners are using them.

So what does this mean?  Your business is most likely out of the loop, along with a majority of your competition.  But for how long?

Generation Y (my generation) now utilizes media in a completely different manner than previous ones.  I no longer watch TV during the time its scheduled; I usually watch them a couple of days after when its most convenient.  My most important news site?  Facebook.  And the most common media player for our generation?  An iPod, Zune, or other media player.

To give you an idea of how radical this change is, consider my own personal Zune habits.  Since I first purchased it over two and a half years ago, I have used it an average of 127 minutes per day.  All of my friends have one, and my own usage is quite normal within my circle of friends.  Even more, most people use these tools while doing something else.

What’s great about this is now there is untold opportunity not only within online marketing, but with media that’s portable and accessible at any time to customers.

Now I am probably rambling a bit at this point (it is 1 am right now!), but my main point is still important enough to make any small business owner take stock of their online operations.  How many of the DHC Top 10 Online Marketing Tools does your business currently use?  How many does your competitor?  And since all of these tools are free, growing existing sales, and creating lifelong loyal customers, what’s your plan?  DO YOU HAVE ONE?

Finally!  After starting several months ago, I am finally ready to come out with the last post to the top 10 online marketing tools project.  It’s a beautiful day here in Lawrence, KS, I’ve got the Black Keys playing through the speakers, and life is good.  Let’s finish this puppy up!

Ok, so the most important thing to any website besides traffic are other sites linking to that site.  When a search engines visits your site, it looks at the number of other sites that link to your site and takes that number into consideration.  The thinking is that, if site A has more links to it than site B and they are the same content wise, then site A must be more important; while would people have linked to it otherwise?

Now it would be easy to go out and buy a couple of hundred links from a link farm to help bolster your site’s backlinks number right?  Maybe.  This is a lazy way to get ranked within a Google page, and the easiest way to get “Google slapped” back to the back pages of your search term results.

The best way to get links is to have additional, peripheral sites that link to your main site.  My favorite idea is to use Kiva and other sites.  Kiva.org is a website that allows individuals to become micro lenders across the world.  It’s basically a charity, but it’s also great for the fact that it gives users 1) a text box and 2) a web site address field.

You can visit my lender page here: http://www.kiva.org/lender/thomas8470.

Notic e how on my profile it shows my company site?  See how it also allows me to enter some text, and keyword rich at that, to help describe my profile?  So does Google, and its a nice way to get some additional traffic to your site with a back link.

Back link strategy is some thing that must be used wisely because if you get too crazy with it, it becomes a monster unto itself and takes up too much time.

Lastly, I do believe that in the coming years businesses will do well to pick charities to team up with and promote on their sites.  Many people of Generation Y, myself included, don’t believe in businesses that operate solely for money’s sake and we look for companies that have strong community work as a central part of their message when researching businesses.

Friday again, and it’s been a while since I’ve dropped some fresh news.

What are the top 10 traffic sites right now?  http://mashable.com/2010/04/16/facebook-at-work/.  Funny enough, at work it’s Facebook and at home its YouTube.

Here’s a quick post to how to connect with your online followers and how to engage them on your behalf: http://mashable.com/2010/04/15/social-media-influencers/.

And finally, with Facebook fan pages, what are your fans really worth?  According to this, each fan is worth $3.60: http://mashable.com/2010/04/14/facebook-fan-valuation

I wanted to close out my series on the top 10 online marketing tools before I head off to full time for campaign work.  I’ve been a bad case of how not to keep your rankings at the top, and I have also been pretty bad at stringing out the top 10 series.

YouTube is a free video hosting service that now sees one BILLION visits per day.  One out of every six people – in the world – views a video a day on average on the site.  It is an incredible amount of traffic that could yield very positive results for the savvy business owner.

Another key fact of YouTube is that it is now the world’s second largest search engine, second only to its parent company Google.  A key thing to remember though is that while YouTube may, for now, provide additional search results to text searching, people will grow to prefer video search.

There is a distinction on how to use YouTube appropriately.  Case in point is the new Toyota campaign for the 2010 Siena minivan.  The commercials on TV show a bit about the product, and then tell viewers to see more on it’s YouTube channel.  The videos online show multiple aspects of the product along with trade show reports and other information.

YouTube is a beast all unto itself, and takes some time getting used to working with, especially if some one doesn’t have a lot of video experience.  But as in most cases, a little is better than nothing.  I plan on showing video’s down the road to show more of this.

So it has been entirely too long since I have posted some fresh material on the blog, and I am well aware that I have been breaking one of my cardinal rules of not being active with your site.  On the other hand, I have been very busy with outside projects that have kept me away from writing lately.  So what is so important I feel I need to neglect an important online marketing commandment?

2 weeks ago, my father announced he would be running for the governors office of the state of Kansas!  I have spent a lot of time working on his races before and this announcement was by far the most exciting to date.  He has started off as quite the underdog, but he knew this coming in and we feel very good about our prospects.

So that aside, I found myself with some time today at the Java Break in Lawrence working on the new laptop and wanted write something up.  Something I read about last week in regards to operations caught my eye and I wanted to pass it along.

David Lee Roth is a genius.  There you go.

I don’t say it for his musical abilities.  I am young enough to say that any Van Halen memories for me actually come from the Chicago Cubs in the mid 80′s which used “Jump” as the game time song.

No, David Lee Roth’s genius actually comes from a Fast Company article from this past month and he was able to come up with a sweet way of instantly knowing whether or not his expectations were being met whenever he came to a new city.

Known now as Section 126, the genius was a small disclaimer in Van Halen’s contract for performances and dictated that a bowl of M&M’s completely free of any brown ones would be in the dressing room upon arrival.  All hell would break loose from David if the bowl was not there or contained brown M&M’s.  So what makes this so interesting?

Van Halen’s performances at the time were very demanding technically and the group had very specific demands that needed to be met at every venue.  It was too much for the band to show up and inspect every element themselves in a timely fashion, so they needed a quick way to know immediately whether or not the specs they needed were met.  Enter Section 126.

Buried 2/3rds down in the contract, the bowl of M&M’s stipulation was just a shortcut to see if the stagehands had read the entire contract.  That way, once the band got to a show, they knew right off if there were any reasons to be concerned.  Personally I love this example because of its simple genius.  I am still thinking of ways to build a bowl of brown-free M&M’s in a website,  but I think it is a great lesson in operations efficiency.

Part of the Top 10 online marketing tools for small businesses includes an account with Google.  The search giant includes access to many free and useful applications,  and this week it was announced that Google has added another application to its lineup.

Google Buzz is the company’s latest entry into the social media sphere, and actually looks promising if nothing else.   The sites saw 9 million posts in two days, and its features include mobile functions that help users add “geo-tagging’ to their actions.

What does this mean for business owners?  It’s another site to meet with prospective customers, and I think in the long run this application might be the one to give Twitter a run for their money.

Google has already established its main revenue streams, and at this point as a company is simply adding new ones to become more profitable and users friendly.  Twitter on the other hand has yet to pull a profit, and given Google’s history of letting other companies find solutions and then coming back with a bigger and better one,  this might just be the killer.

The other thing to take from this is just how “wild west” the social media arena really is.  The key ways of doing things are nowhere set in stone, and now is the time for risk takers and small business owners to experiment withe multiple online marketing strategies.