McIntosh Marketing Blog

Now this is a question that I hear over and over from client’s and co-workers alike.  Everyone wants to know if Affiliate Marketing is not only worth it but if it is really beneficial?  Or what the risks are of marketing for a company and then finding out their unethical?  Just like everything else, it really depends on what products your sign up for and how you market them.

One of the most important things you must do before deciding to market for a company is to inspect the website.  Take your time to check and make sure they have accurate contact information by calling them or looking them up in an online phone directory.  You can also take this time to verify their address.  If you notice the address varies with other listings online then this may be a flag that the business is not legitimate.  This is not always the case as others may be marketing this product as an affiliate as well but the corporate information, address and phone number should all match up regardless.

PAY ATTENTION!!!   You should always make sure their site offers details, images and a full description of the product or service that they are offering.  You are responsible for what you are promoting so it is very important that you educate yourself on the product or service prior to any affiliate marketing promotions.

Always check the sites disclosure on what the charges will be to the users/client’s.  This will show you that there is nothing the company is trying to hide and that it is not a scam.  If there is no disclosure on the site it may be a real good sign to take your business somewhere else.

Next you should search for their company name on Google.  This will show you how well they are ranking currently which can give you some insight on how easy or difficult it may be to market the product.  Like I said, this is just for insight and it may not be accurate for a product that is brand new.  Also at this time you can see what kind of feedback people are giving on the product prior to committing to selling it.  You can see if there are lot’s of customer complaints or satisfaction which can help you make your decision before investing any time or money into it.  You have to be realistic when using this tip to make a decision because many companies will have complaints, regardless of their legitimacy, so you may need to feel them out to see if the complaints are valid.

Allot goes into finding an legitimate affiliate with a good offer besides just how much they pay out.  Always make sure you feel 100% informed about your product so you are totally comfortable prior to selling it.  Confidence and believing in your product truly is the key to increasing your online sales and making your affiliate marketing really worth it!

Over the last few years I have been asked for my marketing glossary several times.  Truth is, I don’t really have one.  I do have notes with definitions here and there but have never actually put them all in one place.  In fact, when I try to explain these marketing terms to someone, it seems to me that most of the time they think these terms don’t really exist!  It could be due to many of them sounding very similar to each other but trust me they have very different meanings.  I really felt the following keywords should be listed as they tend to be used most often and more commonly but for the full list with detailed definitions go to http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/

deep linking – linking to a web page other than a site’s home page.

description tag – an HTML tag used by Web page authors to provide a description for search engine listings.

impression – a single instance of an online advertisement being displayed.*

interactive agency – an agency offering a mix of Web design/development, Internet advertising/marketing, or E-Business/E-Commerce consulting.

keyword research – the search for keywords related to your Web site, and the analysis of which ones yield the highest return on investment (ROI).

search engine optimization – the process of choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site places well when those keyword phrases are part of a Web search.

By taking the time to learn these terms you will not only become more knowledgeable of Internet marketing but just by reading them you will start to understand more and more of what actually goes into your marketing.  I feel this list is pretty thorough list and can help even the beginning marketer to understand the terms of the online marketing world better.  Not only will you be able to learn more about the terms but once you start to understand them you will learn more about how marketing is actually done!

Out of the blue my wife purchases a book on how to use a map and a compass in rough terrain. The book is authored by a well-known mountaineer and sherpa who has helped to lead expeditions in the Alaskan wilderness who has also been called to find lost hikers. As I was reading this manual, too many similarities came to mind for those involved with internet marketing strategy.

This navigation book concerns itself with one major problem: Being lost.  The book clearly demonstrates on how to easily and effectively learn to use three important elements to getting back home or getting found by someone else:

• Observation of the environment around one; establishing the lay of the land.
• A compass or some form of determining direction, such as the sun or stars.
• A map.

If one posses all these three things, then one is in control, can take effective action and thus survive. In business, as well as with internet marketing, we need these components at our disposal at all times.  But what are these in reality in the business world?

1. We first have to have a lay of the land. This is accomplished with marketing surveys, metrics, reading top industry blogs, listening to people and a myriad of other tools that help us gain a thorough reality of where we are. To get to point B, you must have a firm and honest grip on where you are as a point A. In business and with internet marketing strategy the correlation is knowing one’s positioning.

2. In business and in utilizing internet marketing tools, we too often get so involved in the tactics and technology of social media that we forget to establish a direction to get where we want to go: The goal.  The key is to have a clear goal to arrive at, in which our actions can be directed towards so that we do survive.

3. A map. In internet marketing, this can be likened to any tool that gives one perspective, understanding and objectivity. With an accurate map there is no guessing. In business, this is accurate know-how and acquired skill.

With a firm grip of your positioning, a known goal and the know-how and skill to get where you want to go, you are never really lost. You have the survival skills in which to make it through any economic situation and how to overcome barriers and competition.

I look forward to your views and comments.

We have been preaching to our clients for years to stop using flash on their websites.  A website makes less money to the degree of flash and animation it uses.

Users don’t need to see ‘spinning globes’ and ‘dancing flowers’.  They need to be told what problem you solve and given the to solve it by buying your services.

It is one thing when a car dealership puts up a huge blow-up Santa Claus to get you to come into their dealership (an online equivalent to an advertisement on a website).

You would NEVER see a dealership stick a blow-up Santa Claus in the middle of their rows of cars (the equivalent of using flash animation throughout your site).  That would just distract their customers from the real reason they are there.

And now with the wide adoption of the iPad and iPhone, which both don’t support flash, your site will be even worse.  You will have huge holes in your website where flash once was.  And if you were using flash for you site navigation, your site because unusable.

The reason we needed flash ten years ago, isn’t an issue anymore.  We as web developers have powerful tools to do the same animations as flash, without using flash, so that you can view them in every browser and device.  You still have to use caution to not distract from the main goal of your site, but this is being done every day using tools like jQuery, prototype and mootools.

The Big Three has meant for decades, “GM, Ford and Chrysler”. But with their problems comes the next evolution of that term, particularly when talking about web marketing, SEO and SEM.

The Big Three in the internet marketing world is Facebook, Google and YouTube. Make it big with these three media giants and you will make it big in business. Let’s be real. Facebook is social media, Google is how you find almost anything and YouTube is the new TV. Hopefully you are gearing your mind-set, your marketing budget and how you interface with the world’s newest Big Three.

So many terms, so many things to learn. Just when we started to understand social media (a work in progress), then someone throws out a new term like “social bookmarking.”

Yesterday I was with two friends. One was eating a burger and I talked about delicious. The other person was confused, thinking I was talking about the burger. She did not understand that delicious is a social bookmarking site. http://delicious.com/ This confirmed to my burger eating friend that this is a subject that is not only misunderstood, but has not been evaluated to its importance from a SEO and SEM standpoint.

In short, social bookmarking allows internet users o share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves are not shared, but merely bookmarks that refer them. These are saved as tag and allow people to share bookmarks, just as they would share an email address or a link to a video. It not only makes your bookmarks more manageable, but more sharable. I think sharable is a word.

Social bookmarking also has another benefit. You can specifically target what you want to find when surfing the web. Instead of going into a search engine and attempting to find that needle in a haystack, you can rapidly zero in on the items to what you are searching for.

From an SEO and SEM strategy, social bookmarking is another tool in your arsenal, hardly known about to the newbie or the common business person starting out into the web marketing world. The more often a web page is submitted and tagged, the better chance that web site has of being found.

To understand social bookmarking further, watch this video:

Can anyone say, “Terminator?”

Or in this case, “Googlenator.”  According to the a recent post of the Drudge Report, Google is in the choice business. http://www.drudgereport.com/flashes.htm

When businesses choose what we watch, it is just as dangerous as the government doing so. But the one difference is that we think that businesses are offering what we want. Once again, it is important that internet users and news lovers understand the issues and behind-the-scene motivations and machinations that determines what we see, and ultimate forms our ideas.

While it may be far fetched, governments have covertly manipulated the news to forward their agenda. While this may be a small move on Google to improve hits and thus revenue, one needs to be aware at all times.

Never depend on one source for one’s information. Always stay informed. As Thomas Jefferson once said, “Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.”