See what you are doing wrong
on the internet
By Randall Tomaras
This is Page 1 - Page 2

Where do I start? Most people don't change when the rest of the world does. They hang on to information (values) that no longer exist. Let's go back 10 years to understand the changes. The beginning of the internet was pretty boring so let’s just say that internet usage and owning web sites has dramatically increased in the last ten years. The reason is that there was either money to be made or time to be saved. Google ten years ago consisted of three people working out of a garage. 2008 was their 10th year in business and they made 21 billion. There have been other internet companies spring up in the last ten years (and even five years) that have made millions. YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Craig’s List, are just a few of the thousands. The point here is that the internet has changed drastically. It is no longer soley search engine traffic. Did you know the more you rely on the search engines for traffic the less you'll make? So how much did you make off the internet last year?

Most people do not make money off the internet and this article is going to explain why. In the 90’s the nascent internet sported under 50 million daily users, today over 800 million people use the internet daily. Very few businesses had a web site in 1990, now it is as common as a business card. In fact, it is a business card to over 800 million people who are specifically looking for something. What better target audience could you have? As business, web sites and pages increased, some savvy surfers realized that if they developed a popular search engine they could control advertising on the internet. Around 2001 there were over 6,000 search engine companies and they all had a little piece except for the 2 leaders, Yahoo and Overture. Today we know that Google controls nearly 70% of the searches and 80% of the advertising. This brings us to the first reason you do not make money on the internet.

Google keeps their algorithms secret for a good reason. If the formula to reach the number one spot was not secret everyone would be adjusting their web pages to be number one and NOBODY WOULD PAY GOOGLE to be the number one, two or three ads at the top of that key word’s page. For this reason Google changes their algorithms in a big way every seven months. Of course there are people who claim to be partners with Google or have the secret formula that they will share for a price. Trust me, if Google thought someone knew their algorithms they would change them. Otherwise no one would buy their advertising. Actually that is what happens, because I spend around $20,000 a year buying information from various internet gurus. I have found some are good and but most are a big rip off because it is OLD information no longer used. The one thing that I can count on is that Google will change the rules when it affects their pocketbook, so it is a never ending battle and you better be making a bundle off of your web placement. I found that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was NOT cost effective nor did I have the time to make it profitable by myself in the photography business. This brings us to the second reason. (Before we move on, there are many products where SEO is profitable, but most web surfers go to photography sites because they want to view the work before coming in or buying it.)

What do you love to do? Are you an internet marketer or are you a photographer? In many respects you can compare Internet Marketing (IM) to the car repair business. If you had a 1950 Ford or Chevy you probably learned to fix the car yourself, everything from an oil change to replacing the motor. As cars advanced and the systems within got more complicated, most people dropped out of the do-it-yourself car repair. No longer could you just have a tool box, it required an expensive computerized system analysis just to find the problem. And even if you found the problem you did not have any room under the hood to move your hands. This is exactly what is happening in the IM arena.

When I first came up with the idea of Best USA Photographers it was pretty simple, work on the meta tags and add a little key word stuffing and you had a number one rating. Now that the economic future of the world is held by the computer industry, very wealthy people have invested. Along with investing comes a guarantee of return. Part of the guarantee is developing a way that your competitor can not build a better mousetrap before you can dominate the marketplace. Return on Investment (ROI) takes time. Google patens their algorithms and they are public record. The secret formula is how they mix and match their thousands of patens. This is something Google does not have to share. PLUS the more ingredients, parts or patens that you have, the more complicated it becomes. It is like having all the ingredients for baking a pie, but how much you use of each and in what order can make all the difference in the world.  The truth is most people would rather eat the pie than bake it. If that is your case, you will have to depend on the cook or chef. Trust me, getting high up on the search engines is much more difficult than baking a pie.

Taking back control of the marketplace. Do you every get tired of being manipulated? Do you trust a friend (or even another consumer) more than a salesperson or ad? Are advertisements considerably different than the products? Has all this corporate greed made you skeptical? You are not alone. In fact the most significant change in our time is happening and most do not even know it. For the last 100 years, corporations have been in control. Marketing departments decided what was good and what wasn’t. You were sold things and there was a sales process with closing techniques. Not so any more. Consumers have decided to buy from people they trust. The new Web 2.0 and Web Squared has made this change possible. The web sites that are receiving the most traffic today, are ones that have interaction. The social networking allows people to express their opinions and reach the same millions that advertising does. One bad comment about a product or service goes 10 times further than a good one. So it does not take long for poor quality or service to be recognized. The buyer is taking control of the marketplace.

Relevance is what people are looking for. Google could be on the ropes if another company finds a way to be more relevant. People are tired of typing in a key word, and then going through 12 pages before they find a web site that is relevant to their search. It is not what people are expecting. But when Google first started there were less than 200,000 “photographer” pages online. Type in “photographer” now and you get 90,000,000 pages, all of whom want to be number one. It is not an easy job.  This is also one of the reasons Best USA Photographers will do well. Nobody wants to go through 90 million pages to find the better photographers or even sites that accept anyone and everyone as a photographer. Best USA Photographers saves the photo-buyers time by being relevant. We also save the photographer time because we are directing people to their web site that are concerned about quality. So it is vital to make your site RELEVANT. That is the first thing you need to do. Are you giving the customer what they want?

Traditional methods are falling by the way side. Who would have thought that a phone book would become obsolete? According to one article I read, “less than 2% of the people under age 35 pick up a phone book once a month.” Newspapers have less readership and advertising. TV and Radio ads are down. Telemarketing is slowing down with governmental restrictions. Postal rates are up which has decreased the cost effectiveness of direct mail. Gas is up so not as many individuals are going to conventions and trade shows. Guess what is doing well and claimed to be responsible for all this change? The Internet. Consumers can now easily research a product or service. It may not always be accurate but they can get information and most of the time it is free. The internet is providing alternatives to traditional marketing making old style marketing less cost effective.                CONTINUED

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