Mar
13
2008
This is not meant towards those clients who understand that we are the professionals and we know what we are doing and allow us to run with the ball. This post goes to those who hire a web or Internet marketing firm for help but won’t listen to their advice. What’s the point in hiring a firm in the first place if you feel you already know everything there is to know about Internet marketing? You’re just wasting your budget if you don’t allow the Internet marketing firm to do their jobs.
Here is how a successful Internet marketing firm and client relationship is created.
- The Internet marketing firm is in charge of analyzing the current Internet marketing situation of the client.
- The Internet marketing firm is in charge of creating an Internet marketing solution that works for the client and is sustainable.
- The Internet marketing firm is in charge of executing the plan and strategy and possibly maintaining it if the client hires the firm on a contract to do so.
- The client provides all information necessary and essential to the Internet marketing firm so they can assess the client’s Internet marketing situation and create a web marketing plan that is suitable for their particular line of business.
- The client focuses on their core business strengths throughout the process and sticks to their business objectives.
- The client leaves the Internet marketing strategy and planning to the Internet marketing firm.
This is the ideal Internet marketing firm/client relationship. Leave the web stuff to the pros and you focus on your day to day business objectives. When the client starts budding in and giving suggestions is when the entire process gets very complex and often leads to everything getting off track. You hired the Internet marketing firm in the first place because your business lacks particular web characteristics. So trust them to do the job. This is why you hired them in the first place, right?
If you outline both the Internet marketing firm’s role and the client’s role in the project initially, this should help keep problems to a minimum. Now, please don’t take this the wrong way. It’s perfectly fine for a client to ask questions about the project or ask for explanation regarding something. The problems arise when the client feels they know the Internet marketing information better than the experts just because they read “Internet Marketing For Dummies”.
Internet and web marketing changes every single day so to keep up on it you must live and breath Internet marketing. Reading an article is not going to make you an expert in the field. You have to dig in much deeper to fully understand the process of Internet marketing.
So, if decide to hire an Internet marketing firm, please trust their expertise and let them help you out. Offer your input but don’t throw their advice out and don’t step over the boundaries trying to be a know-it-all Internet marketing guru. Their advice and help might be more valuable than you can imagine and it might dramatically impact your bottom line.
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Mar
12
2008
This is somewhat of a rant, but hopefully I won’t offend too many people.
If you want to get rich quick by blogging…. you are several years too late. Sorry, but somebody has probably already thought of your “genius” idea. I am getting a little tired of reading blogs written by people who think they have the next “get rich quick” idea on the web.
You want to get rich quick do ya? Well how about you work hard and climb your way to the top like most people have had to do. If getting rich quick was so easy, more people would be at the casino today, and not behind a desk pushing papers. If you are so focused on getting those fat advertising and affiliate checks, you are probably not taking the time to do the grunt work needed to make money on the Internet. People need to stop seeing the Internet as a vehicle to make money, and need to start to realize that the Internet is just a great way to voice your opinions and speak your mind. If people really enjoy what you have to say, and they think you are interesting, you will start to make money over time.
Every day I read something about someone who thinks they can make their fortune on the Internet, just because they know someone who did it 5 years ago. Times have changed, this bandwagon is standing room only at this point… and its already 300 miles down the road. You can’t catch up to it, so why bother trying? You only look silly at this point.
If you want to make money on the web, you need to find something you specialize in. Something people actually care about and enjoy writing/marketing. Trust me, this post may be seen by 1 person or it may be seen by 10,000 people. Both would be fine with me… why don’t I care how many people read this? I don’t care because I didn’t write this to make money. I wrote this rant to express my opinion on this topic. Do I care if you click on our advertising? Do I care if you subscribe to our blog? Not really, because we didn’t start this blog to get rich. We started this blog because we thought we might know something about web marketing that others would want to read.
Ok, Now that I vented I feel better.
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Mar
11
2008
There are several ways to approach the question of “Is Internet Marketing a “Real” Profession?”…First , you must be able to define what the concept of a “real profession” is. We can probably all agree that good examples of “real professions” would be doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc. These are considered “real professions” because they involve a high level of expertise, training, and experience. What if I told you that a good web marketer needs to possess those same traits? Would you then consider it a real profession? However you define this term, I think it is fair to say that a crossroads is right around the corner for this industry, that will either further increase our credibility or further reduce it. From what I am hearing at seminars, and reading on blogs the future is taking shape very quickly for web marketers. It seems like everyday something happens to somehow change the dymanics of the Internet, and how we are able to use it.
I don’t think we are very far from knowing how the field of Internet marketing will transform for the long term. Major search engines such as Google can easily make or break this entire industry by deciding how they want their services to work for small/medium size clients. For instance, Google can easily create different portals and services available to business owners, so that Google can do everything themselves. If this is how Google sees the future of Internet marketing, this will dictate web marketing careers, and if they expand of or shrink. If Google feels that they can make more advertising money by having your adwords campaigns run by their employees, you better believe that decision will be made soon. The same thing goes with website creation and SEO. Google might say they can do this all themselves, with the help of more account representatives, therefore sticking a huge thorn in the side of the web marketing industry all together.
Another way to judge if Internet Marketing is a “real” Profession, and to see where the field is going in the future, is by waiting to see how many colleges create a web based marketing program. At this point there are very few programs that cater to the online marketplace, but we might see this start to change over the next few years. The statistics show that graduates who enter this field can make a very nice entry level living. An entry level salary in the web marketing area can be substantially higher than an entry level Public Relations or Sales job. Yet, colleges cater to those types of career training, and not web related marketing. Well respected studies have been compiled showing entry level income for web marketers. This might help to pop up new programs across the country. If this happens, expect for the general public to better respect the industry, and parents to push their kids into this field. When major universities recognize the efforts of web marketers, you can expect more credibility across the board, and lots of new people applying for SEO/SEM jobs in the next 4-5 years.
Where the industry is going, and how much respect the industry is given down the road, we will have to wait and see. Thoughts?
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Mar
07
2008
I have been doing a lot of thinking about this question over the past few weeks. Can you trust the people you employ to do your web work for you? On the flip side, as web marketers we ask ourselves the same questions about our clients/potential clients before we take a project. It is important for us to trust our clients ideas, trust their dedication to the project, and trust they can afford to pay for the work we do. Most importantly we need to trust that our clients will be appreciative if we go the extra mile to help them succeed.
When you decide to embark on a project with a web development team, trust is the main component to the business relationship. Most of our clients started out with very little knowledge of the web marketing industry, and they need to believe we are giving them the proper information to help move forward. They also need to trust that aren’t charging them an arm and a leg for something very miniscule, and with little overall value to their site.
Unfortunately, there are always a few bad eggs in every basket that can spoil the whole batch. Not every marketing firm out there holds the concept of “trust” in such high regard. Some firms want to get their clients in and out as quickly as possible, and for as much money as possible. Ask yourself this when picking a web marketing firm… “Can I trust these people, and are they really interested in my company’s wellbeing?” also you may need to ask yourself “Is this firm willing to educate me so that I can make the right decisions for my company?” It is very important to not let your marketing firm make decisions for you.
It is also very important that your web marketing firm not charge you for advice and information. They should arm you, the client, with as much information as possible to help you make your decisions yourself. Good firms are confident that their income will increase over time if their clients trust their opinions. In an industry that seems so confusing to most of our clients, we try to remember that building trust is even more important of a step than building a web layout, building an advertising campaign, and most importantly building that final invoice.
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Mar
07
2008
We see so many people try to jump in markets that are so over-saturated. They think that the money will be there when they create their website and visitors will magically use them instead of the other millions of competitors in the same industry. While this can happen and is not unheard of (much hard work is needed), it’s so much easier to break into an industry with less competition.
We do understand that some people have passion for certain things and these certain passions might already be overdone in the marketplace and that’s fine. If you truly have a passion in a highly competitive market, then make sure you do it better than your competitors or you will be one little fish in that big sea of competition. Do something different that provides value. Think out of the box. Be the leader in that industry. Build an authoritative website that people will come back to over and over again to learn the latest and greatest from you.
Now, if you are just starting out and trying to figure out which business or website to start, then you need to be very careful. You ideally want to do something that you greatly enjoy. If you don’t, you will find yourself fade at a certain point due to the lack of interest. Find something you love. Find a hobby that you’ve enjoyed your entire life and create a business out of it.
This is not the most factual article but we just want to warm people before they jump into a business or new website and let them know that half the battle (or the full battle) with new businesses is competition and making a name for yourself. Create something new and you will already be ahead of most and you WILL get noticed much quicker than if you start a highly competitive website.
Best of luck!
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