the ultimate guide 4

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Approximately 8,500 words

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO INTERNET MARKETING

Setting a Solid Foundation, Website Readiness, Being Found, Social Media,Generating Leads, and Closing Business – Everything you need to

generate Serious ROI on the Internet

ByJohn D. Leavy

John D. Leavy96 Candle Lake Drive

Divide, CO 80814(719) 687-1819

[email protected]



The Ultimate Guide to Internet Marketing /John D. Leavy 2

@johnleavy

Contents

Contents ....................................................................................................................................................... 2Part IV – Have You Tied Up These Internet Marketing Loose Ends? ........................................................ 3

Projects Always Run Smoother When Everyone Knows Who’s Doing What 7Three Key Components to Making Any Project Triumphant: Trust, Commitment & Patience 10Don’t Make the Mistake Most Companies Do When Outsourcing Parts of a Project 13What Differentiates Your Company’s Message from All the Rest of the Internet Noise? 17Before You Decide Where You Want to Go You Must Know Where You Are Today 23On the Internet You Don’t Have to Wonder What the Competition Is Up To 29Are the Website Goals Being Sidelined as the Project Nears the Launch Stage? 34Why are People Reluctant to Give a Status Report of Where They are on a Particular Project? 442 Minute Drill 49

Index .......................................................................................................................................................... 52What bonuses will you offer online?

53




Part IV – Have You Tied Up These Internet Marketing Loose Ends?

There are many working parts to a Internet Marketing engine; some major some less of a factor to

success. Let’s talk abut the business-side of the business to make sure a catastrophic failure cannot take

place. Part IV of The Ultimate Guide to Internet Marketing – Have You Ties Up These Internet

Marketing Loose ends discusses some boiler plate issues such as having a value proposition, having

website goals established and developing compelling messaging. If you haven’t drawn distinct differences

between your products or services on the website and the competitors; then neither will anyone visiting

the website.

Take a few minutes now to scan the topics covered in Part IV – Have You Tied Up These Internet

Marketing Loose Ends?

Projects Always Run Smoother When Everyone Knows Who’s Doing What – Projects always run

smoother when everyone knows who has the responsibility for what portion of the project. Projects not

only run efficiently but seem to finish on time and on budget as well.




Three Key Components to Making Any Project Triumphant: Trust, Commitment & Patience –

there is a good probability that trust, commitment and patience would not be taught in a web design,

marketing or search engine optimization class. Without these three characteristics however, any project

being completed by more than one person will likely fail or stumble at best. Let’s look at why these three

qualities are necessary for generating The Ultimate Guide to Internet Marketing.

Don’t Make the Mistake Most Companies Do When Outsourcing Parts of a Project – this section

was added to The Ultimate Guide to Internet Marketing just to jog one’s mind not to forget the

fundamentals. Before laying out your hard earned cash; make sure you are dealing with a reputable firm.

What Differentiates Your Company’s Message from All the Rest of the Internet Noise? – many

companies, small and large, think being unique is not necessary. Their mantra is “work hard, spend a lot

of money, invest as many hours as possible and you will succeed”. As billions of pages are added to the

Internet your website needs to be found by the right buyers more each day. That will not happen by luck

or coincidence. Individuals must separate themselves from their competition in ways the visitor

understands. If you haven’t developed value propositions for your products or services, this section will

help you get started.

It’s Time to Find Out that Your Mother was Wrong – companies spend too much time telling the

potential prospect about themselves. People typically shop for a service or product first, followed by

items such as price, guarantee, service and so forth. Once they decide on purchasing a product or service

they then look into how long you have been in business, your credentials and check out your experience

level. Messaging is of paramount importance when converting visitors into customer, clients or

consumers.




Before You Decide Where You Want to Go You Must Know Where You Are Today – it is important

to gauge where your website is today; whether new or well established. Just because a company makes

some changes to the website and the phone starts to ring does not mean much to sustainability of the

surge in business. Was it website additions? Was it the tightening of the messaging on the web pages?

Was it the pay-per-click campaign? Was it the search engine optimization? Without a benchmark of

where the site is before the changes take place it will be nearly impossible to tell what changes made the

difference.

On the Internet You Don’t Have to Wonder What the Competition Is Up To – do not believe for a

minute that the competition is not watching your Internet presence. You must know what your

competitors are up to. What products or services do they offer? How does their website compare with

yours? How does their website rank for the key phrases you believe are vital in your Internet success?

Learn how to keep track of the competition.

Are the Website Goals Being Sidelined as the Project Nears the Launch Stage? – without website

objectives it will be impossible to define your website messaging and visitor conversion process.

Individuals, like companies, do not have the money to try “shotgun” approaches to draw visitors to their

website and hope some convert into customers, clients or consumers. The competition on the Internet is

too strong. Learn how to develop goals and objectives for your nternet presence in this section.

Busy Schedules, Less Coworkers and Too Many Hats to Wear Seem to Justify the Lack of Planning

– there is always time to plan whether the project is underway or just starting. The Ultimate Guide to

Internet Marketing takes you through a simple planning process. You will learn how to set objectives,




identify those things that may help or hinder the process, list the action steps and evaluate whether the

desired goals were achieved.

Why are People Reluctant to Give a Status Report of Where They are on a Particular Project? –

weekly status reports and conference calls keep you connected with the customer. These activities also

keep everyone on track and within budget. This section will teach you some simple ways to track

progress on your next Internet project.




Projects Always Run Smoother When Everyone Knows Who’s Doing What

Projects always run smoother when everyone knows who’s doing what and where the responsibility lies

for getting things accomplished on time and on budget.

When the project starts out it may be easy to keep track of deadlines and who is responsible for

completing which task. As the project schedule accelerates or other project assignments are added things

may get confusing. Why risk missing a deadline or delivering a project that is incomplete.

Eliminate missed deadlines, drop responsibilities and duplicate efforts with a project management

software package. We’ve had great success with Basecamp. Payment plans run from the Basic Plan at

$24/mo to the top-of-the-line Max Plan at $149/mo.

Basecamp seems to be designed for the non-technical project person; which is perfect for most

organizations wanting to do simple project management. Let’s go over some of the Basecamp features

and how we implemented them.




On the Admin Dashboard you’ll find…

On the Dashboard

you’ll notice a main

section that lists late

milestones, then

project breakdowns of

who left messages,

added a task to the

To-Do list, set

milestones, used the

whiteboard or

uploaded files. When

you click on a project you’ll get an overview of all the activity. That’s the next slide we’ll look at:




On the Project screen there are options to; leave Messages, enter To-Dos, set Milestones, Start a

Whiteboard conversation, Chat, Track project hours and upload Files.

There is also a search function as your Basecamp commitment increases.

We started out simple and only managed the tasks that needed to be done. From there we added uploading

files that required sharing among the group and started putting documents on the whiteboard that needed

collaboration. Begin using a package such as this where need be. Don’t get bogged down in the features

to the point where the project starts running you.

Be Strategic:

Work your way into a project management package; don’t try and swallow the elephant all in one bite.

Web-based is best. Get one that has locked file sharing, a Message board and a collaborationfeature.

Three Key Components to Making Any Project Triumphant: Trust, Commitment and Patience is the next

section to tackle.




Three Key Components to Making Any Project Triumphant: Trust, Commitment & Patience

Let us talk about two boiler-plate issues before we get into designing a strong web presence or looking at

the tactics that attract visitors to the site. The following items are required no matter whose program or

logic you subscribe to:

• Trust

• Commitment

• Patience

Whether you have been in business for some time or are just starting out, whether your organization is

large or small; there needs to be “Trust” on both sides of a project. If the company determines to

outsource 1 the marketing, website design or search engine optimization there needs to trust by the

subcontractors and the company agents.

1 Outsource - obtain goods or services from an outside supplier; to contract work out




The SEO firm needs to do what they claim they are able to do and the company needs to supply them

with what resources they need to be successful.

If the marketing efforts are outsourced then the marketing company needs to understand what the firm is

trying to accomplish and the company needs to trust the skills and experience of the marketing people.

We are not talking about blind faith here. There needs to be a concrete plan including metrics that easily

show progress early on that the SEO strategy is headed in the right direction or that the company hired to

do the website design are staying on schedule and within budget.

“Commitment” is needed on the client-end to buy into the SEO program in its entirety and to commit the

necessary resources to ensure the SEO plan succeeds. There also needs to be commitment on the SEO

firm’s side that they will do everything in their power to make sure the SEO program is successful and

delivers the desired results.

There needs to be a “team spirit” for any project to succeed where a number of people are involved. The

marketing person must supply compelling content 2, the web design guy must put it on the pages in a

professional manner without typos and the SEO person must tune the pages for the key terms chosen so

that the each page gains as much ground against the competition in the search results.

All sides have to exercise “Patience”. Few tasks are overnight processes. Patience is undoubtedly one of

the hardest character traits to practice well. The client may have been thinking about updating or

optimizing the website for the past year or so. Quick results are of paramount importance in his or her

2 Content – text on a web page




mind. They will unquestionably want to see progress in the coming weeks, or worse, days. Try to design

your plan whether web design, SEO or marketing, for some quick results, no matter how small. Some

progress shown early on in a project helps extend the life of the project and cools the client’s nerves.

Be Strategic:

Trust between parties will succeed if the expectations and reasonable and measureable

Commitment has to be a two-way street; both parties have to pledge to work hand-in-hand

Patience usually weakens first; make sure schedules are kept and milestones are met unless

unforeseen circumstances block progress.

You will learn about Don’t Make the Mistake Most Companies Do When Outsourcing Parts of a Project

in the next segment.




Don’t Make the Mistake Most Companies Do When Outsourcing Parts of a Project

Asking for references is usually what a company or individual thinks about as the Internet project is

coming apart at the seams. The problem is it may be too late to separate themselves from the contractor

doing the harm.

“Word-of-mouth” is probably the best method of compiling sound references. Seek testimonials from

your business contacts and colleagues.

The traditional marketing firm works with print; magazines, newspapers, direct mail and such. Marketing

firms that work over the Internet are very different. What should an Internet marketing firm be adept at?

• Email marketing 3

• Viral marketing 4

• Internet public relation firms

3 Email Marketing - a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercialor fundraising messages.4 Viral Marketing - refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brandawareness.




• Multi-level, multi-touch marketing

• Writing compelling web page content

• Developing taglines for the site

• Developing decision-making paths that lead a website visitor down the sales funnel

• Visitor conversions

• Pay-per-click marketing

• Internet press release outlets

• Blogosphere 5

• Content syndication

It would be best to align yourself with a marketing firm that has these services in-house; the fewer cooks

in the kitchen the better.

Web design has made leaps and bounds in the last few years. Make sure the web development firm you

work with is not behind the curve.

1. Do they build sites in Web 2.0?

2. Do they build search engine friendly websites?

3. Do they use very little scripting?

4. Are they conscience of typos and broken links on the site?

5. Is their hosting service impeccable?

5 Blogosphere - a collective term encompassing all blogs and their interconnections.




Looking for a reliable search engine optimization company takes some investigation as well. Have they

done for themselves, their own website, and their clients what they purport to be able to do for you? Do

not sign a contract. Do not accept any deal where they take you money now and show you results in 4-6

months.

1. Can they show results from past engagements?

2. Do they understand your industry?

3. Do they understand your competitors?

In a general sense any subcontracting you do whether web design, marketing or SEO make sure they:

1. Can show results

2. Deliver projects on time and on budget

3. Have a good reputation in the industry

4. Are flexible with changes

5. Employ “best practices”

Of course, these lists of characteristics for securing a marketing firm, web design company or SEO expert

are not exhaustive.

Oh yes, get EVERYTHING in writing.

Be Strategic:




Don’t assume anything when interviewing potential subcontractors

Ask for bids between at least two candidates; don’t hire the first company that looks like they can

do the project.

Why having a Value Proposition is so important to the success of your web platform.




What Differentiates Your Company’s Message from All the Rest of the Internet Noise?

This is one marketing concept which has not changed for more than one hundred years. If you cannot

separate your product or service from your competition your website visitor will not be able to as well.

Your company’s value proposition is what distinguishes your product or service from the yelling crowd.

There is a lot of marketing noise out on the Internet; you will need to be creative.

If you do not have a value proposition or you do not believe it is working; let us run through a short

exercise to make sure the value proposition has not been a stumbling block.

To start identifying your value proposition, list all the benefits you believe the consumer receives from

your product or service. The value proposition might reflect your business or the quality of your product.

The value proposition can include location, surroundings, price, value, product knowledge, actual buying

experience from your company, etc.

Here are ten things to consider in deciding on your value proposition:




1. Your product or service costs less

2. Guarantee the lowest price

3. Produce higher quality product or service

4. Provide more customer service or education

5. Better protection or warranty

6. Offer premiums or gift certificates

7. Offer more choices and options

8. Have a bigger, better service department

9. Have a trade in program

10. Have a specific audience in mind

Do not get hung up on #1 or #2 above. People will not buy a product or service just because your price is

lower than another company’s. Not all people shop price for every item.

If you were shopping for a web hosting company would not “reliability” be the first concern with “price”

somewhere farther down the shopping list?

You might have different value propositions for various product lines. Different value propositions might

appeal to diverse buyers.

The value propositions must be as specific, or unique, as you can make them. Along with a unique selling

advantage every business must customer benefit messaging that draws the website visitor in.

Be Strategic:




Talk with trusted customers if you’re having trouble with the value prop

The value proposition is the tangible results a customer receives when using a product or service.




It’s Time to Find Out that Your Mother Was Wrong

Companies spend too much time telling the potential prospect about themselves, their executive board,

how long they have been in business, what a great job they have done for past clients or customers, and

their vast experience in some arena ad nauseum .

Remember, it is all about “the visitor” and his or her needs or wants. Here is a definition from Wikipedia;

it contains three factors:

1. Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Not just words, not just

product puffery, not just show-window advertising. Each advertisement must say to each reader:

"Buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit."

2. The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot, or does not, offer. It must

be unique—either a uniqueness of the brand or a claim not otherwise made in that particular field

of advertising.




3. The proposition must be so strong that it can move the mass millions, i.e., pull over new

customers to your product.

Everyone can think of some prime examples: FedEx 6 says, “When your package absolutely, positively

has to get there overnight” and M&M’s has used this line for years, “The milk chocolate melts in your

mouth, not in your hand.”

Now take the preceding three points and break them down further to see how we might deliver our own

customer-centric messaging.

1. Does your messaging deal with real customer needs or wants and does your product or service

deliver those aspects?

2. Is the message easy to communicate, understand and pass on?

3. Your message may sound clever; but is it believable and are you committed to its delivery over

the long term?

4. Is what you offer different from the howling pack?

5. Does the message grab the attention of the reader?

This last question may or may not be important. Is the message in your own words?

If you have to read it to someone or stumble with its delivery, the message will lose its impact.

Be creative; play the role of the website visitor; not the person pushing commerce.

6 Federal Express – overnight mail delivery service




Gauging where your website is today is vital in planning for the future.

Be Strategic:

Put yourself in the consumers’ position when writing the message

The messaging must be the same across all communication platforms; Twitter, the website, email

blasts, facebook et al.




Before You Decide Where You Want to Go You Must Know Where You Are Today

Before work begins on an existing web front 7 benchmarks need to be taken. Future website goals will be

based on where the website is today and where one wants to go.

If the website is a first-time launch benchmarking the site after 30 days is just as important. How the site

statistics evolve will say a lot about the success of the website project.

A typical website benchmark might include the following:

• Visitor statistics

• The website’s Google Page Rank of the main page

• Back link summary

• Search term review

7 Web Front – website




There are other meaningful numbers that can be captured with sophisticated tools; but we will leave that

discussion for another time.

Visitors can be tracked at no cost by employing Google Analytics 8. Monitor the site for 30 days. Of

course, this snapshot will not tell us everything we need to know but it will give us a good starting point

on how people are viewing and using the website.

The following

screenshot is the

standard Google

Analytic Dashboard.

At the top of the

Dashboard screen

capture we can see the

traffic activity day-

by-day for the month.

Site Usage is followed

by Visitors Overview and a Map Overlay that shows where visitors came from. There are good Traffic

Source stats and a Content Overview section where a person can see what pages on the site are the most

viewed.

Using Google Analytics requires that you own the website and that you paste a few lines of code at the

bottom of the pages you want Google to track.

8 Google Analytics - (abbreviated GA) is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about thevisitors to a website.




You’ll want to know the Page Rank of your site compared to the competition. One way to accomplish this

is by downloading the Google toolbar 9. It shows the Page Rank of any site you browse to; great for

keeping an eye on competitors.

By floating the mouse pointer over the Page Rank section on the toolbar, we can see the Paypal.com has a

Page Rank of 8. Page Rank runs from 0 to 10; 0 being the lowest and 10 the highest. A Page Rank

between 5 and 7 is most desired.

Another number to benchmark is the amount of back links to a website; in other words, the number of

websites that have a link pointing back to your website. You can use a free tool offered by

SearchBliss.com called Link Popularity Check. It tells you how many back links the site’s first level

pages have.

SearchBliss.com is a

good place to check

your site’s back links

as well as the number

of back links of your

competitors.

By clicking on the

numbers under

9 Google Tool bar - is an Internet browser toolbar available for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.




incoming Links you can see what websites are linking back to your website.

Choosing the right search terms is normally the job of an SEO expert. For discussion purposes let us

assume we have a financial planning company and our SEO expert chose the following 22 financial

planner terms to use when optimizing the website:

financial planner colorado springs cfp denver

financial planners colorado springs cfp denver co

financial planner colorado financial advisor colorado springs

financial planners colorado financial advisors colorado springs

financial planner denver financial advisor colorado

certified financial planner denver financial advisors colorado

financial planners denver financial advisors denver

financial planner in denver financial advisors in denver

financial planner denver co financial advisor in denver

cfp colorado springs financial advisor denver

cfp colorado financial advisor denver co




Once the search

terms are decided

upon page-position

statistics can be

gathered on where

those terms are today.

Then each week new

stats can be compiled

and placed in a

spreadsheet to

measure the progress

being made as the

terms move up to

Page 1 on Google. The search listing above shows that Robert D. Thompson ranks first, after the local

business listings, in Google’s search results for the term “cfp colorado springs”.

To wrap up this discussion, we have looked at how many visitors come to a site, where they come from,

how they navigate the site pages and which ones are most visited. The site’s Page Rank and the number

of

back links were also collected. These statistics, along with Page Rank and search term placement, will

give us a good benchmark going forward.




Another piece of information you will want to gather is how your website stacks up against the

competition on the Internet.

Keep in mind, the companies you compete against at trade shows and on the street may not be the same

companies that have the edge on the Internet. Gathering “intel” on the competition’s websites tells who

you have to go up against for the key phrases you believe are vital to the success of your Internet

presence. That is what is talked about in the next section.

Be Strategic:

Check out Find Out How Your Web Front Stacks Up Against Everyone Else’s on the Internet in

Part I.

There are some statistics you can run on your competition; number of inbound links, Page Rank,

search phrase positioning and Compete.com gives you an estimate of the visitor traffic. See the

next section.




On the Internet You Don’t Have to Wonder What the Competition Is Up To

You need to know what the competition is up to on the Internet. Are their websites offering services or

products below your pricing structure? Are they launching a new product line that could steal part of your

market share?

On the Internet you do not have to wonder what the competition is up. You can go to their websites and

keep an eye on their activities. You can also see where their sites show up in the search results in

reference to your website’s placement for certain key phrases.

The following is a spreadsheet with 22 key phrases at the left; phrases such as “financial planner colorado

springs” and “cfp colorado”. Let us say we operate ACME Financial Planning and are interested in

knowing what websites appear in positions 1, 2 and 3 of the Google search results. This will tell us

exactly what websites have the key positions in the Google search listings.

This spreadsheet shows what websites occupy positions 1, 2 and 3. They are listed in the three darker

columns to the right.




The second spreadsheet is a little more complex but shows quite useful information about the

competition.

Again on the left we have the 22 key phrases. The second column shows the number of searches for each

term. For instance, 220 people keyed the term “cfp colorado” in one month. The remaining columns in

the spreadsheet show how the financial planning firm ACME stacks up against its eight competitors. The

“G”, “M” and “Y” stand for Google, Bing and Yahoo! As you can see ACME does not occupy any




position for the listed terms while the competition is well represented. The numbers in the smaller

columns show the term’s page position. For example, Certified Financial Planners is listed second when

keying in the phrase “financial planner denver”.

What else can we learn about the competition short of making a phone call to their offices? The next step

would be to look over their web fronts. Building a spreadsheet of the website features helps us decide

where our website measures up and where it falls short.

The websites above are attorney website samples. They all look different and include distinctive features.

When you look over your competitor’s sites ask yourself these questions:




1. Does their site offer Live Chat 10?

2. Does their site have a map to their offices?

3. Does their site offer a toll free telephone number?

4. Is their website content compelling?

5. Does their site have strong calls-to-action?

6. Does the site list their executive board?

7. Does their site do a better job of spelling out and illustrating their products or services?

8. Does their site offer a newsletter?

9. Does their site have a blog 11?

10. Does their site publish press releases?

11. Does their site have a Resources area?

12. Does their site have a News & Events section?

13. Does their site offer an RSS Feed 12?

Here’s what a spreadsheet sample of what the analysis looks like.

10 Line Chat - Online chat can refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, but is primarily meant to refer todirect one-on-one chat or text-based.11 Blog - A personal or corporate website in the form of an online journal, with new entries appearing in sequence asthey are written.12 RSS Feed - An XML document that follows the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) specification, used for syndication.




I am sure you are probably coming up with your own list of questions by now. Make sure your site offers

the necessary functionality that the competitors do along with a few features the competition has not

employed.

Be unique; don’t just copy their offerings.

Be Strategic:

The companies you compete against on the street or at a trade show are most likely not the same

companies you’ll but heads with on the Internet. Type in your search terms and see who comes

up in the results. Then check out those companies.

If no competition shows up in a particular venue; like a community site for instance does not

necessarily mean you should not have a presence there. You may be the first one in the door.

Don’t do the competitive analysis once and set it aside. You need to keep a regular eye on what

they’re up to.

Don’t fall into the trap of watching the competition and becoming a follower; be a leader.

The next section, Are the Website Goals Being Sidelined as the Project Nears the Launch Stage?, helps

you through setting these objectives if you have not done that for your Internet presence.




Are the Website Goals Being Sidelined as the Project Nears the Launch Stage?

Often times, defining goals and expectations and writing down a plan of action tend to lose their

importance as a project nears the launch stage. But, let us look at why it is important to have goals and

expectations whether we plan on launching a redesign of the current website, an Internet marketing blitz

or a funding a search engine optimization strategy.

After we look at defining website goals we’ll learn the steps necessary to develop a successful action

plan.

If goals and expectations are not well defined and understood by all parties; disappointment is not far

behind. Goals can be simply stated or complex in nature. Perhaps the website was launched for

informational reasons – to limit the number of incoming support calls from customers. That goal will be

easy to measure; if the number of support calls go down each month. The goal of an ecommerce site is

obvious – sell merchandise. Per chance, the website was instigated to sell the company’s software

solutions.




Some sample website objectives might be:

• increase the visitor traffic by 200% over the next 6 months

• place 20 key terms and phrases in positions 1 through 5 on page 1 of Google

• increase the number of back links by 300%

The goals must be measureable and not just talked about. For discussion purposes let us say one goal is to

increase organic visitor traffic by 15% each month in the coming year. As the graph below shows, theActual Organic Visitor totals are out pacing the Projected Organic Visitor numbers.

Every company will

likely have similar yet

different goals for

their Internet

marketing campaigns.

Variables such as

product, pricing,

business space,

timing, message and

company reputation will all figure into the results derived by the diverse marketing promotions. One

company may garner a 5% conversion rate on visitors to the website while a competitor might win only

1.5%.




A business must start somewhere. Perhaps one goal will be to increase visitor traffic by 5,000 visitors

over a six month period. Let us say the site is seeing an increase of 400 visitors per month. That means if

nothing is done the site traffic is likely to go up by 2,400 visitors at the end of the six months; looks like

we will miss our traffic goal by a little over 50%.

Let us put a plan of action into play. Suppose we hire an SEO expert and set a goal of increasing the

visitor traffic by an additional 15-20% per month. The site receives 5,000 visitors per month. We should

see the traffic start to increase 30 days after the optimization kicks in. That means we have 5 months left

to reach our new traffic goal. In the second month, we see an increase of 20%. In the third month we see

19%, then 17% followed by 14% and 21%. In all, 4,123 new visitors plus the 5,000 we started with and

the monthly increase of 400 per week. At the end of six months our visitor traffic has gone up by 8,923.

That is a 156% increase. It is easy to see this traffic generation campaign did what it should.

Some numbers will be

harder to achieve and

monitor. Suppose the

Page Rank of your site

is 4 while most of your

competitors have Page

Ranks of 5 or 6. That

means your site will

likely be listed behind

your competition in the search results of the major search engines.




Increasing the Page Rank of a site from 4 to 6 could easily take months not weeks. There will need to be a

concerted effort to increase the content on the site, coupled with a good optimization approach and an

aggressive back link campaign. More could be said about this topic had this been an actual SEO

Symposium.

In closing, make the objectives measureable and realistic.

Be Strategic:

The website goals must be attainable and measureable against investment and ROI. In other

words, the goal should not be to have a 50 page website by the end of third quarter; but to

increase unique visitor traffic by 25%.

Take large, complex goals and break them into smaller tasks that can be achieved in less time

Make sure the goals have everyone’s “buy-in”

Now on to planning a project.





Busy schedules, less coworkers and too many hats to wear seem to justify the lack of planning in some

minds. We all know the next vacation would be pretty short-lived if we didn't at least pack the car, grab a

map and fill up at the gas station on our way out of town. (Kids! I thought you told the kids to get in the

car.)

Let's examine what it takes to develop a winning plan. Your plan may be more complicated but it will

undoubtedly include these four basic parts:

1. defined objectives

2. identifying those things that may help or hinder the process

3. listing the action steps

4. evaluating whether the desired goal was achieved




Proper planning takes preparation and preparation takes time. In other words, "Don't just do something -

sit there." Clearly defining the action steps helps you and everyone else involved in the project to envision

the end result before work begins.

Poorly defined targets leave too much room for detours. Here is a sample objective:

Goal: Attract more customers or clients to improve the bottom line.

That objective sounds great but it is pretty loose. Let us try and tighten it up some.

Goal: Develop and put into play a marketing campaign that targets a certain customer/client audience and

creates ways to stimulate them to come into the eStore and purchase.

The second objective is more wordy, but much easier to accomplish and easier to measure whether the

benefits are realized at the end as well.

These six strategies need to be applied in order to keep objectives tight and measurable:

1. calculate the needed time, money, staff and skills, etc.

2. too many opinions tend to dilute the original objective

3. narrow the scope of the project plan so you can see the end result

4. understand where the money goes and work on the biggest expenditures first

5. set short-term, realistic, attainable goals to see progress

6. don't assume the new ad campaign is bringing customers into the store unless it's true




The second step in the planning process is to identify those elements that may help or hinder the project’s

success. They may not all appear at once, but stay on your guard. Here they are:

• few plans succeed when everyone is not working together

• make sure the money is there before starting the process

• make sure you have the experience and know-how

• define the resources (people, time, things or money)

•

make sure the plan's goals and objectives are realistic as well as achievable

• don't rush the planning phase

• be flexible. Look to the future. Don't implement technology today that will drive the company out

of business tomorrow.

• did the plan produce the desired results - I can't tell you how many times I've seen folks spend

time and money never to realize their goal.

As you can see there are plenty of situations that can spoil even the best laid plans, so stay alert.

Some plans never make it to paper. That may be why those plans rarely come to a successful conclusion.

Sometimes it's hard to figure out where to start. At other times writing things down may seem rather

limiting. Writing the steps down on paper is paramount to your success. Let's look at the possible steps

you might take in overhauling your website.

Let's say you have a website up and running, but you're not sure how effective it is. First assess its

effectiveness. Are you, or your Internet Service Provider (ISP), monitoring the number of visitors that




come to the site? What pages are the visitors viewing most? Are you expecting them to purchase your

goods or services and they are not?

Here is a set of action items to help solve this problem:

1. you don't have to devote your time to being an Internet or web design expert. But you should at

least be familiar with how your business or company can take advantage of the Internet.

2. seek out advice - find out how well your business colleague's websites are doing. Are they

proactive about improving their ranking within the popular search engines? Contact a web

development company that knows how to increase your number of visitors. There are bound to be

people in your business community who are having success with their websites. Seek them out

and find out how they achieved their goals.

3. assess your site today - what is working well and what needs attention. Developing this list will

help you plan what needs to be done and what the time and costs will be.

4. don't change everything at once - you won't know what made the difference when it happens.

Let's say you want to add online ordering, a shopping cart. Don't spend the money to put your

entire inventory up on your website. (And don't have some web company design a shopping cart

just for you. There are plenty of sites already up that offer secure ordering with in-place merchant

accounts.) Start with your most popular items or perhaps run a sale on your website to see how

much interest it generates.

5. gets professional help - even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. Don't be afraid to have a professional

come in and lend you a hand. Search Engine Positioning is a task that needs someone with the

right savvy.




6. continuously monitor the new website. If the time and money spent are bringing in good results

it's time for Phase II. Never stop looking for ways to increase your number of visitors. Never stop

advertising no matter how much business you have.

At times, we may get so busy finishing one project and then starting the next that we forget about

evaluating whether or not the desired results were achieved. Finishing the plan is not the goal. Gaining the

desired results is the aim. Why put money into an ad campaign if you never see results? If what you're

doing is not paying off, stop doing it and try something new.

Having a plan with sound goals on the front end is no more important than measuring for the desired

results on the back end.

So to recap, here are the basic components of a plan:

1. define your goal

2. identify those things that may help or hinder the process

3. list the action steps

4. evaluate whether the desired goal was achieved

Good planning. Oh, and remember, if the plan is worth doing, it’s worth writing down on paper.

In conclusion, here is a second sample plan. This one relates to optimizing a website:

1. Website benchmark statistics are taken before work begins




2. Make sure the SEO plan is in line with website goals and expectations

3. Client transmits the username and password in a “Notice to Proceed” email

4. A copy of the website is moved to a backup web server. The client is notified, by email, of any

preexisting anomalies before SEO work begins.

5. The SEO changes are applied to the web pages

6. The site is exercised to ensure it functions normally

7. Off-hour arrangements are made to move the web pages to the live site

8. The web pages are uploaded

9. The site is exercised a second time to ensure everything functions as it did before the SEO work

began.

Keeping track of project details ensures the project will succeed and come in on time and within budget.

Be Strategic:

Use a planning software package with calendars and email reminders

Write down milestones and goals; this may sound simple, but most plans on not put down on

paper.

Include a postmortem after the plan has been executed to make sure the goals were achieved




Why are People Reluctant to Give a Status Report of Where They are on a Particular Project?

Why is it that some people are reluctant to give a status report of where they are on a particular phase of a

project? It cannot be that they finished their part of the project ahead of time and are too humble and do

not want to receive accolades? Is it they have not even started their piece of the assignment and are hiding

the truth? Perhaps they have so much to do they cannot be bothered with one more meeting.

Granted, many of us have enough meetings to go to or to try and avoid each week. But some gatherings

can actually serve a beneficial purpose. A 30-minute conference call gives everyone involved in a project

the opportunity to check in, to make sure their piece of the project is still in sync with everyone else’s

efforts. It is also a time to signal if difficulties lie ahead.

Do not invite people to the status meetings if they have no status to report. If the project is lengthily in

nature opt to have bi-weekly status meetings. The interest level of everyone must be kept high or the

meetings will fall victim to boredom and apathy.




Here is a status report which I use on many of my engagements whether simple or complex. It does a

good job of keeping everyone on task and on time.

Because the status

report is not easy to

follow in such a

reduced format in this

book, you can

download an actual

copy at: Status

Report.

Have your copy in hand? Okay, read on.

In the upper left corner, we see the person assigned to a specific project area. In this case me, John Leavy.

The next line states the project objects: Grow revenue from proactive website & Internet community

engagements and activities. The next line outlines the project priorities; work on getting the document

management key phrases to Page 1 first, followed by the accounts payable terms and the Tier 2 product

terms. These are two secondary priorities; lower the Google AdWord budget and increase Internet

community visibility.

The goals are listed prominently; always in plain view, never clouded, never forgotten.




Next are three sections; the “Top Metrics” – what accomplishments we are shooting for in regards to the

website.

As you can see this

project has six

specific goals;

increase the main

page’s Page Rank,

increase the number of back links to the website, increase the number of visitors coming to the site each

month by 5,000 and increase the page position of three groups of search terms.

The “Top Activities this Week” lists what will be done, what activities are involved and the results

expected.

The “Top Goals for Next Week” signal what the upcoming priorities will be.




All team members can see what the activities are and what results everyone should accomplish by the

next meeting. No surprises. No scope creep.

Set the weekly conference call up as a recurring event. That way it will not get shoved to the side or

forgotten when something happens to throw-off the schedule.

Be Strategic:

Force everyone on the project to talk or meet on some regular basis. It doesn’t have to be weekly

if there is not enough to discuss. If someone has nothing to report; give them a pass.

Make sure all of the hurdles are well documented not just the successes.

Make certain someone feels responsible to report back to the group for each item at the next

meeting.




This brings Setting a Solid Foundation Ensures the Internet Marketing Succeeds to a close. Take the 2

Minute Drill that follows to reinforce the materials just covered.




2 Minute Drill

Projects Always Run Smoother When Everyone Knows Who’s Doing What – projects always run

smoother when everyone knows who has the responsibility for what portion of the project. Projects not

only run efficiently but seem to finish on time and on budget as well.

Three Key Components to Making Any Project Triumphant: Trust, Commitment & Patience –

whether you have been in business for some time or are just starting out, whether your organization is

large or small; there needs to be “Trust” on both sides of a project. “Commitment” is also an important

factor is seeing a project to successful completion. All sides have to exercise “Patience”. Patience is

undoubtedly one of the hardest character traits to practice well.

Don’t Make the Mistake Most Companies Do When Outsourcing parts of a Project – maybe this

goes without saying. “Word-of-mouth” seems to be the best method of compiling sound references. Seek

advice from your business contacts and colleagues. Ask for recent, satisfied clients or customers you can

chat with before making any commitment. Get EVERYTHING in writing.




What Differentiates Your Company’s Message from All the Rest of the Internet Noise? – this is one

marketing concept which has not changed for more than one hundred years. If you cannot separate your

product or service from your competition your website visitor will not be able to as well. You might have

different USA’s for various product lines. Different USA’s might appeal to diverse buyers. The USA’s

have to be as specific, or unique, as you can make them.

It’s Time to Find Out that Your Mother was Wrong – companies spend too much time telling the

potential prospect about themselves, their executive board, how long they have been in business, what a

great job they have done for past clients or customers, and their vast experience in some arena ad

nauseum . Remember, it is all about “the visitor” and his or her needs or wants.

Before You Decide Where You Want to Go You Must Know Where You Are Today – you need to

know how many visitors come to a site, where they come from, how they navigate the site pages and

which ones are most visited. The site’s Page Rank and the number of back links are also worth noting.

On the Internet You Don’t Have to Wonder What the Competition Is Up To – you need to know

what the competition is up to. Are they offering services or products below your pricing structure? Are

they launching a new product line that could steal part of your market share? On the Internet you do not

have to wonder what the competition is up. You can go to their websites and keep an eye on their

activities.




Are the Website Goals Being Sidelined as the Project Nears the Launch Stage? – if goals for the

website are not well defined and understood by all parties; disappointment is not far behind. Goals can be

simply stated or complex in nature. The goals must be measureable and not just talked about.


– here are the basic components of a plan: (1) define your objectives, (2) identify those things that may

help or hinder the process, (3) list the action steps and (4) evaluate whether the desired goal was achieved.

Oh, and remember, if the plan is worth doing, it’s worth writing down on paper.

Why are People Reluctant to Give a Status Report of Where They are on a Particular Project? –

weekly Status Reports keep people updated and project tasks on time and on budget. There is less

confusion and miscommunication when people talk on a regular basis. Having things in writing helps

clear the air.




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the ultimate guide 4

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