Just to be clear, an Internet marketing coach will show you what to do and how to do it, while an Internet marketing consultant typically gives you ideas to consider doing. There’s a huge difference between the two.

I am an Internet marketing coach for  2 reasons:

1. Small business owners gain a huge competitive advantage when they understand and control their own Internet marketing.
2. Being an Internet marketing COACH best suits who I am, my personality as a teacher and “way-shower.”

Here’s why I think many Internet marketing coaching programs have it “bass ackwards”. They start you in a low cost “entry level program” and continually up-sell you into more and more expensive programs. I get it, I  understand the sales psychology, it’s easier to sell a lower cost program and then up-sell existing customers over time. But that is the exact opposite of what most small businesses need, especially in these increasingly competitive, rapidly changing, times.

If you are a small business owner looking for an Internet marketing coach chances are you don’t want to start slow, you need to start fast. The challenge is you don’t want to waste time and money on something that won’t work. Right?

You want an expert to look at where you are, see what’s going on with you and your competitors and give you specific advice and direction that will allow you to increase profits NOW! You need a prioritized “to-do list” that is developed specifically for you and your unique needs.

My Internet marketing coaching program starts with an Internet marketing SWOT analyses. We evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats relating to your Internet marketing. This SWOT analysis helps identify where we should focus and where we should focus first to get the most “bang for the buck”. It costs a bit more up-front but you get what you need and you get it NOW!

I help to prioritize your Internet marketing efforts so you accomplish the most profitable results in the shortest time. We will capitalize on your greatest strengths and take advantage your competitors weaknesses.

As it relates to Internet marketing I have found that success dramatically improves when business owners know what to do, how to do it and what to do when and that’s exactly what I provide as an Internet marketing coach.

You will learn what Internet marketing tactics you can, and should, do yourself; and what, if anything, you should outsource to service providers.

With today’s incredibly simple marketing tools and Content Management Systems most small businesses, with a little bit of coaching help, can do much more in-house than they think they can I saving themselves both time and money and almost always improves results at the same time.

When you know what to do, how to do it, have someone you can ask questions to and who will check what you are doing, the whole Internet marketing process becomes much less intimidating and much more fun. And once you see the increase in traffic, leads and/or sales this whole Internet marketing thing becomes MUCH more fun.

I’m not claiming to know everything there is to know about Internet marketing, but I do know a lot and I know what works for small business. I know what is profitable and what is a waste of time and money.

I’m up to date with the latest changes in SEO, in fact, I have helped my clients obtain, and maintain, well over 50,000 top search engine rankings.

I understand engagement marketing on the social networks. I personally have thousands of “likes” on Facebook, and connections of LinkedIn, and followers on Twitter, and readers of my blog posts and e-mails. My coaching clients have many thousands more. I see and work with Internet marketing every day… and I love it.

I deliver dozens of seminars and webinars each year.

The bottom-line is simply this, I AM QUALIFIED to be your Internet marketing coach.

How Much Does it Cost to Hire You as an Internet Marketing Coach?

My goal is to get you into my Marketing Maintenance program which is only $67 per month.

But before we get you into a maintenance mode we have to get your marketing up to date and make sure you understand what to do, how to do it and have systems in place to build on your momentum. So we start with a 4-week “Quick Start”. During the QS we will conduct a SWOT Analysis in order to find the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and any potential Threats to your Internet marketing.

For the first 4 weeks we will spend 1 hour a week with me showing you, very specifically, what to do and how to do it. You have unlimited access to me via e-mail so if you have any questions you can simply send them to me and I’ll get you an answer, usually within an hour. Again, this is for 4 weeks. We will get a lot done and you will begin seeing improvement in your marketing results.

After the first 4 weeks we go to 1 hour per month of live calls. This is usually one 1 hour call but sometimes it’s two 30 minute calls. I’m flexible. This allows us to continue to improve your search engine rankings, social marketing, conversion ratio, etc. at the very affordable monthly rate of $197.

In time, usually after 6-12 months of private Internet marketing coaching, you move into the $67 per month Marketing Maintenance program.

My goal is to get you to the Marketing Maintenance program is soon as possible but not before your marketing is totally up to speed and you are confident and competent at continuing on with very little 1 on 1 communication with me.

As you can sees my coaching program is VERY DIFFERENT from the other Internet marketing coaches. My goal is not to sell you more but to sell you less.

Click the following link for details about hiring me as your Internet marketing coach, or simply call me now at 541-482-4840, if I’m available I’ll talk with you right now. I’ll look at your site and your marketing and let you know what I think and how I can be of service to you. Give me a call 541-482-4840.

One of these 2 buttons got 87.5% more click throughs than the other. 87.5%! This incredibly simple A/B split test shows just how important testing can be to your results.

In this test the only change is the button text. Watch the video below…

Which won: short and sweet or a more descriptive call-to-action?

Be sure to read the details. See http://whichtestwon.com/members/go.php?r=395&i=l0

Please click the +1 button and the 10 stars below if you like this post. Share this post with your friends on Facebook, LinkedIn and more. Hire Santa Ed Taylor as YOUR Internet Marketing Coach.

Are you wondering what to make of all the new Facebook changes?

Andrea Vahl just posted an excellent article about the new Facebook changes and posted it on Social Media Examiner.

In this article she takes a detailed look at how the News Ticker, Smart Lists, News Feed, Subscribe feature and Timeline will impact marketers and business owners. Like I said in the headline this IS a must read.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/five-facebook-changes-and-what-you-need-to-know/

By the way, if you would like some help with social marketing for your business let me know. I understand that these Facebook changes, and the new changes that will be appearing soon, can be a bit overwhelming but in my opinion they are very exciting and can have an incredibly positive impact on your businesses, and you can definitely gain a competitive advantage by taking advantage of these new changes early.

Would you like to automatically receive reports from your Google Analytics account directly in your e-mail? It’s an incredibly convenient way to stay on top of your website traffic, SEO results, page views, etc.  In less than 3 minutes this video will show you how to get it set-up.

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Google has been very clear about its intentions to quote:

“Our goal is simple: to give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible. This requires constant tuning of our algorithms, as new content—both good and bad—comes online all the time.”

Obviously they are trying to find “good content” and based on my research that means, in part, more content. Start thinking in terms on 800 words and up, 1,300 to 1,500 words may well, when well written, be better yet.

By the way, this is an example of how NOT to write a Search Engine Optimized post. It’s too short and not keyword focused, BUT… This site does have have 246 top 10 Google rankings as a result of other blog posts.

Here are what I consider to be the 10 Most Costly Internet Marketing Problems for small businesses this year. My purpose here is to make you aware of what these problems are and how you can get them corrected.

MARKETING PROBLEM # 1- Priority Confusion- All the Internet marketing buzz this year (and last year) is about Social Media Marketing. FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter are getting so much attention that many small businesses are beginning to spend time and money building their Social Media marketing programs, and that is good, unless your website is underperforming. Most people who connect with you on Social Media will find their way to your website, at that point it’s up to your website to convert them to customers, leads or opt-ins. If your website has a poor conversion ratio much of your Social Media marketing will be wasted. Job one is to make sure your website is converting well.

MARKETING PROBLEM # 2- Conversion Ratio Neglect- The primary job of small business websites is to persuade visitors to do something (convert to a customer, lead or opt-in) before they leave your site. The “something” may be a to buy something, request a free “white paper”, opt-in to an e-mail list, call the office, etc. But the bottom-line is visitors who come to your website, look around a bit, and leave without “doing” anything, i.e., filling out a form or calling or whatever typically do not become customers and by improving the “conversion ratio” of your website you improve the effectiveness of ALL of your marketing.

MARKETING PROBLEM # 3- Poor SEO- Your website MUST be found where your potential customers are looking and that means Google. Most successful small business websites get most of their visitors from Google, Bing and Yahoo!. Obtaining and maintaining top organic (FREE) rankings on Google (and the other search engines) can be the single best source of new, high quality, visitors to your website. This cannot be left to chance; you must KNOW what terms your targeted visitors are searching on and your site must be well “optimized” for those terms.

MARKETING PROBLEM # 4- Lack of Landing Pages- Conversions start with visitors finding what they are looking for. Optimized landing pages give the search engines what they need to rank the pages well and at the same time they allow you to tailor your message for that particular visitor. This tactic should be used for SEO, Pay Per Click and even you e-mail campaigns.

MARKETING PROBLEM # 5- Under Use of Analytics- I cannot believe how much money is WASTED by small businesses who get sold ads, links, and Pay Per Click listings that produce little or no qualified traffic. This is misallocation of marketing dollars can result in many marketing problems. Google Analytics is FREE and it only takes a few minutes to be added to your website. Once GA is installed you can easily track which of your ads are working and which are not. GA will also provide you a wealth of other essential information about how your visitors are finding and interacting with your website. Here’s a video that will help you get GA installed on your site. http://imgmembers.com/miscellaneous/analytics/

MARKETING PROBLEM # 6- No Search Engine Ranking Reports- Your search engine rankings are just too important to treat casually. You must pay attention to your rankings, and your competitors rankings, on all of the search terms (keywords) you are optimizing for on at least Google, Bing and Yahoo! I have been providing this service to my clients for many years and I don’t see how you can live without it in 2011. It’s important to understand that due to Google’s personalization and localization not all people see the same rankings results therefore Ranking Reports are not 100% accurate but they do provide an excellent gage as to how your SEO efforts are working.

MARKETING PROBLEM # 7- No Pull Components or Link Bait- Pull Components refer to something in your site that will compel or “pull” your target visitors to your site. This might be a FREE Report like this one, small business owners might hear that this Marketing Mistakes – The 10 Most Costly for Small Business in 2011 report is available at my website and that might cause them to visit the site to get their copy. In social networking this is called “link bait” because you are providing something that others might link to. Once you have a compelling reason to get visitors to your website you must let them know about it in ALL of your advertising. By aggressively getting the word out you can gain a pre-emptive advantage over your competition.

MARKETING PROBLEM # 8- Little or No Testing- . Failure to test ‘on page’ elements and their affect on conversions is  huge mistake. Headlines, content, page layout, image placement, button size and color, video, color choices all play a major role in your conversions. In 2011 looking good will not be good enough- conversions are the name of the game. If your site does not convert you can bet that one of your competitors websites will. Loose the conversion and you lose the initial lead or sale AND you lose the lifetime value of that customer and all of their referrals. Loose too many and you definitely have a major marketing problem.

MARKETING PROBLEM # 9- No Video Content- . It’s long been said that content is king. It’s still true but in 2011 your content should include video. Video is playing a huge role in demonstrating value, building trust, establishing credibility, etc. You must create compelling, benefit oriented video content.

MARKETING PROBLEM # 10- Poor Marketing Strategies and Tactics- Website success is not a technical accomplishment, website success is the result of MARKETING. Internet marketing in 2011 requires commitment and expertise. You must identify appropriate traffic building strategies (SEO, SEM, Social Media, etc.), you must make sure your Internet marketing strategies are properly executed and that the results are monitored. Conversion Elements must be tested to maximize the number of leads or sales generated from your website visitors. Most small business don’t have in-house staff with the knowledge and the time to manage these important activities that’s why we created The-Internet-Marketing-Coach.com.

You know I’m an Internet marketing coach / consultant, but what does that mean to you? If you need help with your SEO, or Social Marketing or website conversions etc. is what I’m offering a good fit? You be the judge. In this video I give a look “behind the curtain” of our clients only website. Check it out…

If you’ve ever wanted to test a single big benefit vs multiple bulleted benefits, this test is for you!

Bear in mind that this was a template page test for a variety of experience gift products across the site, such as stock car driving and surfing.

Be sure to visit- http://whichtestwon.com/members/go.php?r=395&i=l0

Redesigning your website can be a great idea that has costly consequences.

Website redesign and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) go hand in hand. I have recently been called in after two website redesigns where the business owners were frantic because shortly after the launch of their redesigned websites they saw huge drops in traffic.

During a website redesign everyone has an opinion about how the site should look and function but it is not at all uncommon for developers implementing these changes to lack the online marketing experience necessary to understand the complete ramifications of these changes. Including how the changes will affect the sites organic Google rankings.

On many occasions I have been “called to the rescue” because well intended site changes resulted dramatically reducing site visits.

So what do you do when you’re considering a site redesign?

In 2 words- Call me. Seriously, every word on every page matters. Every link on the site matters. Every heading tag on every page matters. The placement of every image on every page matters.

Let’s talk, the call is FREE and I could save you time, money and untold distress and frustration. The reason is for this post is to save you money and that gut wrenching feeling that happens when you look up and see your website redesign and impact on your SEO produced the exact opposite effect you were anticipating.

This is a graph that shows how the rankings plummeted for someone who quickly became a client.

10 SEO Essentials EVERY Small Business Person Must Understand and a FREE SEO Evaluation of your website…

Automated programs called robots, or bots, or spiders are sent out by Google. The spiders navigate the web going from one link to the next as they find them on web pages. A copy of each page the bots come across is stored in the main index that Google uses to retrieve search data. The Google spider scans all the text elements on the web page and uses this information to determine what the page is about.

When a person “Google’s” a word, or phrase, Google then scans through its index and finds all the pages that contain that word or phrase. Google often finds hundreds of thousands or even millions of results. Next Google determines the order in which it will display the web page based on its relevance to the specific search query.

Determining which web pages are most relevant to the word or phrase in the search query is a very complex task, but here is the essence of the process…

1. Where, and how often the word or phrase is mentioned in the body of the text (keyword density) play a role in determining relevance.
2. Page titles, heading tags, linked text, bolded, italicized, or underlined text, etc. play a role.
3. In addition to the text on the web pages, the navigation structure, programming and page layout also affect how the spiders crawl through a site. Some programming and navigation can stop the spiders dead in their tacks rendering them unable to find certain (oftentimes very important) content. Spiders are also unable to read text that is contained in graphics or flash animation.
4. Each of the elements mentioned above can be manipulated, or “optimized”, to gain better Google rankings. But this optimization must be done properly.
5. Google penalizes website for “over optimization”. For example if a word or phrase is “stuffed” into the text too many times, creating an un-naturally high density, the page could get penalized, or worse, banned from the index altogether.

That covers the on-page elements Google evaluates to determine the ranking of any particular web page on any given search query.

Google also uses off-page elements. This refers to linking.

1. A link from one website to another counts as a vote. A site that attracts more links from other sites is deemed by Google to be more important and will often rank higher than similar sites with fewer sites linking to them.
2. But, here again this is more complex than it might first appear. Not all links are created equal. Links from some sites carry much more weight, or authority, than links from other sites and when these authority sites link to a site they pass more “link weight” to the site they are linking to. To make things even a bit more confusing certain poor linking strategies (like link farms) can even harm your rankings. You’ll need the right kind of links from the right places to get the best results.
3. Google also reads the linked text within a link, this is called the anchor text of a link (the usually blue underlined text you would click on). When this anchor text is descriptive of the page it is linking to Google takes that into consideration.
4. Google also uses Latent Semantic Indexing, LSI. Latent Semantic Indexing takes into account the semantics of language and multiple terms that mean the same thing, as well as words and terms that have a tendency to occur together in content for particular topics. Using a mix of different variations on your main keywords, such as plurals, …ing’s, etc., as well as other related terms.
5. Other factors that Google considers include the age of the domain name, the country the web-server that is hosting the domain is located in, and others.

We are dedicated to helping small businesses obtain and maintain top search engine rankings. We have SEO programs to fit any need and budget. Ranging from complete “turnkey” SEO implementation on your website to SEO training programs that you can buy by the hour.

For a FREE SEO assessment of your site simply add the URL of your website, 5 of the terms you would like to have top Google rankings on, your e-mail address and phone number in the form below.

We will analyze your site on each of the 9 elements mentioned above and report our findings to you.

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