I’m an avid commercial watcher. I believe we can learn so much by watching commercials, looking at ads in magazines, and paying attention to other offline advertising. What works offline and why? You can’t apply those same principles online, but by adjusting them to the online environment, the lessons you can learn are amazing. I also believe that just about anything in life can refer back to SEO and your online business if you really think about it.

For example, I was watching a show the other day, and the commercials were all centered on women achievers. One woman was a rock climber. This fascinated me, because I recently had a student who’s a rock climber. Rock climbing is a hobby for this woman on TV, who has a high-powered job in corporate America.

But what stuck out in the commercial was one statement she said. She said that rock climbing made her a better communicator. When you rock climb, you have to communicate absolutely everything you’re doing with your partner(s). If you don’t, you could die. Can’t put it any more bluntly than that.

The communication skills she’s learned have spilled over to her personal and business life. She’s a better communicator at work now and in her personal life.

Who would have thought that rock climbing helps build better communication skills? You rock climbers know this, but the average person doesn’t.

So let’s think about this for a minute. Who needs better communication skills?

Couples with marital problems or relationship building in general;

Companies to boost communication skills;

Family counseling;

Introverted people who need to learn how to come out of their shell;

People who need to face their fears head on;

People with addictions who need something else in their lives to fill the gap left by the absence left by drugs or alcohol.

Rock climbing Web sites could create content on each of these different areas and pull in targeted traffic.

Now, let’s think about other sites. What needs do your products and services fulfill that you may not have thought to discuss on your site? What benefits do your products or services provide that users or potential users really don’t know? Create pages of content around those benefits.

I would have never thought that rock climbing provides the extra advantage of building communication skills. Would you? Rock climbing Web sites need to capitalize on this valuable information by writing content centered around the topic.

Other site owners need to keep their eyes and ears open to needs that your services or products are fulfilling that you haven’t considered. What “surprises” can you promote on your site?

Robin

Digg It | Post to del.icio.us | Post to Reddit

Photo courtesy of Google, Inc.

I went out to eat last night at Outback Steakhouse, and one side of my coaster read:

“I searched for myself on Google and found nothing.”

Think about that for a minute.

Google has become so powerful in our lives that a coaster at Outback talks about the search engine. Plus, the ultimate slam would be to search for ourselves on the Big G and find nothing. Wow.

“Google” is now used as a noun, a verb, and an adjective. You’ll often hear TV and news shows refer to “Googling” for something when they’re searching on the Web.  (verb)

We often refer to Google-friendly Web sites (adjective). Google itself is a proper noun.

Yet, I can remember when Google was a minor engine and Yahoo! was the big game in town. Yahoo! was a directory only, and AltaVista was the Big Boy search engine. We didn’t particularly care about Google. We wanted to hear what Yahoo! and AV had to say. And believe it or not, this wasn’t very many years ago–maybe six or so.

Things change at lightning speed in the SEO industry (which used to be called the Web positioning industry).

When you watch TV, listen to how many times you hear newscasters or actors talk about Googling something. This is particularly true if you watch crime shows.

Also, watch commercials. You’ll see a lot of Google mentions there too.

By the way, I told you what one side of the coaster said. Want to know what the other side said?

“No Worries.”

:)

No worries, because if you take the advice from this blog and begin creating quality content that your visitors want to see on your Web site, your name or your Web site’s name will appear in Google. AND, your link popularity will be built naturally.

That, my friends, is the moral of this story. Google may be loaded with power, but use that power by giving Google what it wants to see: quality content and naturally built links. It will, in turn, give you what you want: a highly visible site.

Robin

Digg It | Post to del.icio.us | Post to Reddit

Almost everything I do brings me back to Web sites. Through this blog, I’m going to encourage you to do the same, because it’s amazing what you can learn by simply listening and watching as the world goes by.

Here’s a perfect example.

I picked up a magazine today and was flipping through it. Here’s your first tip:

The ads are as important as the articles. Don’t ignore the ads just because you aren’t interested in the products. Look at how the ads are written and study the ads themselves. Can anything be learned that will help you with your online marketing efforts?

Here’s today’s ad:

Sandwiched (in much larger print)

between a cement mixer and a semi.

Never saw it coming.

47-car pileup in Nevada.

After they separated everything,

he drove himself home.

(end of ad)

The picture on the page is a closeup of a guy in his mid- to late 20’s, slightly messed up hair, one-day old beard, intense look in his eyes, dimple in his chin, blue jean jacket, and blue t-shirt. Rugged. Average build. The picture is from right below his shoulders up.  

We have no idea what the ad is selling because the rest of the ad–the second page–has been torn out of the magazine. All we have is this one page.

Are they selling vehicles?

We can deduce that they’re not selling a luxury car, because this isn’t a luxury car kind-of guy. They’re not selling a “cutesy” kind-of car either. We can picture a rugged car like a Hummer or a Jeep. A tough vehicle.

But we don’t know.

Someone tore out the most important part of the ad–the part that included what the company is selling. Maybe on the back of this two-page ad had something he/she wanted to save, so he/she tore out the page. Maybe he/she wanted to save the second page of the ad, which is great for the seller, but not great for the rest of us who wants to know what they’re selling.

Even more, we’re assuming that the company is selling a vehicle. I once had a boss whose motto was Never Assume. We could apply that principle here. They could be selling blue jean jackets, because his jacket certainly wasn’t torn. They could be selling the importance of getting your life together, because today might be your last. We just don’t know.

How can we apply what we’ve learned to our own Web site?

Picture the first page of this print advertisement as what appears “above the fold” on your Web page. Above the fold means before you begin scrolling.

The content that appears above the fold is the most important part of your Web page. It’s what your readers see when they first see your Web page. Some readers won’t scroll down any further. We can break it down further than that, but for now, let’s concentrate on above the fold.

Look at your own Web site. Is the message of your Web page stated very clearly above the fold? Are you using valuable real estate for information that doesn’t need to be there? Is there important information that appears below the fold that should be moved up higher on the page.

You need to get it to where your Web site visitors can clearly understand what your Web site is about above the fold. Do you really need a picture of your office above the fold? Or a picture of you receiving an award? Put your 1-800 number above the fold if you want your potential customers to call you. Make it EASY for your visitors to contact you, and they will.

But if you aren’t clear, like the print ad we’ve been discussing, and if your visitors don’t understand what you’re selling, you’ll lose them. Put too much below the fold and make your visitors dig for the content, and you stand the chance of losing them.

Make it easy for potential customers, and your chance at conversions will increase. Once you get those valuable visitors to your site, you want to do everything you can to convert them to customers.

Have you seen any good ads lately? Let me know!

Robin

Digg It | Post to del.icio.us | Post to Reddit

I believe we can learn so many things in life through ordinary experiences, things we can apply to our Web sites if we are open to the experience. With me, it seems that almost everything I do can be translated back to Web sites.

I recently picked up a copy of a game and fish magazine and flipped through it. I saw a picture of the bottom half of a hunter dressed in camouflage holding a wooden pop gun. He was walking toward a huge deer. The caption read, “Don’t go out UNDER protected.”

This was a full-page ad for Progressive auto insurance–”the essential vehicle insurance for outdoorsmen.”

I found this fascinating. They created a very targeted ad just for hunters and fishermen and placed it in Mississippi Game & Fish.

Isn’t this what we do when we create targeted pages for specific target audiences on our Web sites? If we sell industrial brushes and one of our target audiences is the janitorial industry, the wording and graphics on the page may be considerably different from the page we’d create for the same brushes being sold for the construction industry. How you’d approach one audience would be entirely different from how you’d approach another audience.

The content wouldn’t be duplicate in any way, and generally neither would the graphics. You would be appealing to a totally different audience. Try it and see if it works for you.

Keep your eyes open to life’s experiences, and see how you can apply those experiences to your online business.

Listen to people talk. What do they tell you about their businesses? Visit Web sites. What Web sites do you like? Why? Read magazine ads. Watch TV commercials carefully. Listen to them with your eyes shut. Look at billboards. How do local businesses advertise?

Be curious. Ask questions . . . about EVERYTHING. We’ll share more of life’s experiences as time goes on.

Robin

Digg It | Post to del.icio.us | Post to Reddit