Think eBiz; thoughts on eBusiness

Is Google Evil? Too Powerful?

BusinessWeek posed the question, Is Google too Powerful (April 9, 2007)? It is a very interesting and indepth read about a giant in the advertising industry. Are they huge - you bet - with a market cap that dwarfs many of the long standing media/ad organizations... combined. Are they powerful - well of course they are. Are they "too" powerful? Think-ebiz does not think so.

As we read the BusinessWeek article, our thoughts turned to IBM and Microsoft… and probably Standard Oil and AT&T in its day. Even the Romans! And we came upon this paragraph, which addressed this thought:

If this talk of corporate dominance sounds vaguely familiar, it should. As firmly as IBM ruled mainframe computing and Microsoft the personal computer age, so Google has the potential to rule the Internet. To some people, Google's position today, while clearly far from identical to Microsoft's in its heyday, nonetheless shares some striking parallels. "Google feels a lot like Microsoft in the mid-Nineties," says Silicon Valley startup adviser Dave McClure. "Right at the height of its power, getting a little arrogant, and challenged for the first time by some powerful people."

Perhaps In 10 years there will be some other dominant entity, pushing Google’ together with this list of past champions. In a capitalist economy, there will always be a dominant company in the marketplace. Dominance doesn’t last forever.

Does that make Google evil? Too powerful?  Instead of the naysayers tossing stones at them, those that have the brainpower should try to think ahead at what is next. I am sure if you looked back at Standard Oil and then AT&T, their dominance lasted much longer then IBM… which lasted longer than Microsoft.  One misstep, and the Google’s empire could collapse… or be greatly minimized. And perhaps it is already.

Be honest, who uses anything other than Google search? We don’t see corporations racing towards adopting the Google spreadsheet. PayPal is still the biggest online transaction partner. eBay still rules supreme in the auction space. Google Earth is fun… but not yet strategic. Maybe Google TiSP will catch on - or maybe not. Even Gmail hasn’t forced Hotmail nor Yahoo out of the game.

We believe it is all about search when it comes to Google. If search consumers decided they hated or feared Google, there still exists Yahoo, MSN and Ask.Com.  Choice still remains.

Think-ebiz does not think Google is too powerful, however we think they are terribly unfocused and may simply collapse under all their beta products while others figure out a better way to promote content and informational search.

Where choice remains, power in the marketplace can be blunted. Google is the most adopted search engine in the world, not necessarily the best. What will come next? We wish we knew...  but there will be something else that we fear and hold in awe.

Google TiSP, networking while you sit and think.

Leave to the boys at Google to come up with a new means of networking (you don't think the women would come up with this do you?), and it was right there under our seat all along. TiSP, the new going-with-the-flow networking innovation is designed to leverage your existing pipes and toilets.

Clearly Google has spent a lot of sitting and thinking about this new means of connecting people at a time when many are viewing more traditional offline vehicles like magazines and newspapers. Now you can easily and quickly surf with others in a similar position.

And we at Think-eBiz are now providing a new service, Septic Engagement Optimization (SEO), which will increase your PR (Potty Ranking). More on this new service when we return from the john.

Hello,
We have just opening a new service agency, Septic Engagement Optimization (SEO), to help people get the most of their TiSP experience. For instance, although we do not know the inard workings at Google, we have found that there is a higher level of thru-put when the toilet has a Thousand-Flush tablet in place, rather than using Tilex cleaners, which can dampen signal and reduce relevane.

And using a 2-Ply Toilet Paper can impede signal strength but there may be issues with to much 1-Ply usage as well, a spamming situation perhaps.

Our services also can help improve TiSP Linking to garner higher PR  (potty ranking).

Thank You

Stephen Harris
www.think-ebiz.com    where you do your business, we do ours!

One warning however from the Google TiSP FAQ

Why is TiSP in beta?
When things go wrong with TiSP, they go very, very wrong. Let's leave it at that.

See other press and product released that Google made on April 1st ( this one did. And this one. And this one, and this one, and this one)  Hey wait a minute! This is an April Fools joke??? Oh, we thought this was a new technology breakthrough. Damn they tricked us again!!

SEO Specialists - be wary, be careful.

Why is it so difficult to find real highly qualified search engine optimizations (SEO) specialists for small and mid-sized businesses. Why are their needs any different than a Fortune 1000 level company?

Recently I have encountered a multitude of search engine optimization vendors that were more snake-oil, less substance to the detriment of their clients. Each had their unique angle for "gaming" the rankings, although they didn't use that word precisely. None of these vendors would last two minutes in presenting their services to a corporation, so why allow them to service your small business needs?

Successful - and ethical - SEO is about providing visitors with a highly relevant experience. This is the foundation for Google. Good strong content, a nicely designed web site, relevant links all contribute to the success of the web site. Success - meaning not only high ranking but conversion ROI. SEO is about ranking and providing more and better conversions - both!

In other words, a highly ranked web site does not necessarily equate to the delivery of real conversion results. Tip: When discussing SEO with a specialist, ask about how their work will affect conversions - not just ranking.

One of these specialist followed an old and actually erroneous technique of adding lots of keywords under the footer - in a color that was nearly invisible on the page. This is not even black hat (evil SEO techniques), it's just an automatic ticket for getting your site blacklisted. But consider this; all this blank or light text below the footer does not render a pleasing experience for your visitors.

Another offered various "submission" packages, whereas they would submit your web site at key-times during the month so that it would be spidered and ranked. Here it is verbatim, after they updated the meta tags on your website (no mention of enhancing your site content):

The next step is submissions. We submit your site to all 14 major search engines twice per month. By timing our submissions to coincide with the search engines re-indexing routines, we are able to achieve a strong placement initially. This timing is extremely important and not something available through software based submission programs. Basically what we are doing in this part is letting the search engines know who you are and what categories to place you in.

Can you actually name '14' major search engines - and we are aware that we can submit sites to Google, Yahoo and MSN all day long - they will visit when they are ready to do so. Have lots of new content, refreshed and the spiders will come often - usually on their own.

And from this same specialist:

We need to increase your sites submission routines, but it must be done in a legitimate way. The use of doorways, gateways and mirrors are commonly used for this purpose, but can have negative results when found by a search engine. WE DO NOT USE ANY OF THESE TECHNIQUES! What we do is unique to our company. We use what is called "Directory Information Pages" , also known as D.I.P's. These pages are non-publicly viewed pages hosted on our own servers that are seen by the engines as completely unrelated websites.

I am glad they do not use any of those black-hat techniques - they have their very own! BUT the question to ask, how does all this enhance the user experience and help deliver more and better results? Perhaps their technique will temporarily cause an increase in ranking - but it could also be a quick ticket to the blacklist ball.

Finally, with this vendor, for nearly $3,000 set-up and $100/month - they...

Warrants top-10 ranking on at least 6 of the 14 major search engines.

My guess is that you will not see top ranking on Google, Yahoo and MSN, which represents nearly 94% of all searches. TIP: Ask for their success and warranty on these three major search engines.

Their proposal was totally devoid of any enhancement to the user experience - content and even relevant linking. Relevant linking is a means of getting related web sites to link to yours. If your web site sells car parts, having links from auto related blogs and non-competing mechanic/auto web sites will enhance your ranking.The key, these are related sites to yours.. and will actually deliver visitors as well from those sites to yours. The DIPS (good name eh) mentioned above is on non-public sites, so how will this help deliver qualified visitors?

We at Think-ebiz could go on and on about this subject - and may in additional articles as we uncover more snake oil. One last tip.

To rank high for a specific keyword is important - but do people actually search on that keyword? Ranking high on seldom used keywords is equivalent to having a fantastic billboard - in the middle of the woods.

Ask the specialist for samples of keywords they have ranked high or ones they project for your web site. Then do some simple homework. Visit the Overture Keyword selection tool and enter in the keyword. This easy to use tool will provides an estimate of the number of searches for the given keyword during the prior month (on Yahoo). If the result is at nor near zero, then you may be dealing with snake-oil. And also consider the level of competition for the keyword, expressed on Google as the number of possible results (top right of the search results page). Total results under 1 million are not very competitive, 1-10 million are moderate, 11-25 million are highly competitive and over 25 million is very competitive. It is relative easy to gain high ranking in the moderate category, and possible but may be expensive to reach high ranking in the highly or very competitive categories.

The following is a fun example of this last point, using the keyword Stephen Harris (click on image to view).

In this example, this keyword meets the requirements of an SEO specialist. The keyword is ranked #1 in a moderately competitive keyword and there are indeed 640 searches per month (on Yahoo) for Stephen Harris. Wow, am I that popular?

In conclusion - ask questions and always relate the service offering to how this will enhance my visitors experience - on the 'three major search engines' and deliver real results for your web property.

Influencer's: Enabling Brand Building and Sales

What makes online marketing so vibrant and exciting is all the new "buzz words" that come into play. The latest that I have latched onto is called - "Influencer's".

"Influencer's" is one that we at Think-ebiz believe represents a major aspect of Web 2.0. Simply put, Web 2.0 is about fostering a conversation and relationship with your customers and prospects online. Influencer's is how one person can affect the branding and buying power of another person through web site enablers.

Recently, I began working with an innovative start-up called StickySurf, where we defined the value proposition as being an "influencer" for B2C (and even B2B) web sites. StickySurf is a tool that can be added to an existing web site that enables easy and efficient conversations with your friends and co-workers.

The premise is simple: You are visiting a web site and notice a product or service that could benefit a friend or co-worker. A digital camera, a unique European Travel Tour, or a new software product that could benefit your Mfg group. StickySurf or a viral enabled web site can help enhance the purchase power of the web site by bringing new visitors onboard - with a friendly recommendation.

Influencer's can exist in other more traditional mechanisms, such as forums and eCommunity advice and image sharing. A web site that enables the visitors to share experiences could increase awareness and sales. A travel web site that allows people to share pictures and advice, and experiences could influence others to sign up for the next tour.

We all know the power of a personal recommendation. Web 2.0 is enabling this capability online, and this is exciting and powerful. Hopefully I am influencing others to consider enabling this capability on their own web property.

What is Web 2.0, to you?

If you ask 10 people what Web 2.0 means to them,  you might just get 10 different answers. Some, like noted technologist Tim Berners-Lee "...have questioned whether the term has meaning". Yet there are now Web 2.0 Conferences, reams of white papers, technologies declaring they are web 2.0, vendors touting their approach to Web 2.0, and so many different definitions.

In 2004, Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly Media and Books) coined the term Web 2.0 in a meeting with MediaLive. And since this first utterance, there are over 9.2 million responses in Google to the Web 2.0 term.

What is Web 2.0 to you?

Reading the Wikipedia on Web 2.0 and the O'Reilly Website page on this subject does not help clear up this definition confusion. In fact, to think-ebiz  these articles add to the confusion. Even Tim O'Reilly's "compact" definition of Web 2.0 does not seem to help much.

"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them."

This think-ebiz writer tries to make the complex simple, especially when working with clients and organizations that can ultimately benefit from eBusiness and online marketing. To get to our  definition of Web 2.0, we need to step back and look at the history of the web.

Web 0.0: The internet for the general consumer was born around 1991 with Berners-Lee's first web site, made universally available by CERN in 1993. The objective was to give consumers an online brochure of your business, with the goals of attracting as many "eye-balls" as possible. Courtesy of the Wayback Machine, this is the first web site I worked on at ADP (1998). We used to say, "wow we had 1,000 eyeballs last month!"

Web 1.0: Web sites begin to conduct online business, usability begins to matter. You can talk to the web site, tell it what you want to buy or provide information and have it display a customized result. Shopping carts, credit card acceptance, eBusiness and eCommerce engines, along with security and the emergence of hackers were the words of the day.

In 2000, I help create the strategy and implement the first ADP eBusiness environment, Solution Profiler. Small business owners could then enter basic information about their payroll needs and a customized solution and price would be delivered. Conversions, (leads and sales) became the metric of success. We would report to management that we had delivered over 100 leads to the sales force, worth $320K last month.

So what is Web 2.0 to you?

Web 2.0:  Think-ebiz believe that it is the social aspects of a web site. It is more than a brochure or a means of making an online sale, it is a true two-way communication between the merchant and the customers. It is about giving the consumer a reason to visit your web site time and again, giving something back while exposing them to your brand. It's enabling sharing of experiences with other consumers, sharing advice on product usage or helping to solve a problem. And yes, making sales... more and better sales! Web sites that support viral marketing, or have influencer capabilities are Web 2.0.

Personally, I do not think of Digg.com as Web 2.0..  or even Wikipedia. I guess it is because this blog is called Think-eBiz, it is about brand building, community sharing and a more meaningful ebusiness user experience.

Disney.com and Barbie.com are Web 2.0. LinkedIn's Answer's are somewhat web 2.0. There are many eCommunities that support forums, polls/surveys, image sharing and the like; Web 2.0.

My daughters love Barbie.com, where they can play dress up games online, share results with friends and are (to my wallet's despair) exposed continually to all the new Barbie stuff.

The metric of success is sustainable traffic AND brand building, which leads to sales (both on and offline sales!).

What is Web 2.0 to you? Let me know what you think and lets build upon the discussion. And please share web sites that you believe are the embodiment of Web 2.0.

eMail Addiction - How did we ever survive in 1985?

Her two kids in high school They tell her that she's uncool 'Cause she's still preoccupied With 19, 19, 1985

Today, the kids in this Bowling for Soup song (1985) have cell phones, email, iPods, Digital Camera (all in one device too!) and MySpace accounts. How in the world did we survive without all of this technology? In the February 14th edition of the Wall Street Journal, an article "Deleting the Habit, How eMail Junkies do in withdrawal" ponders the question how can we disconnect ourselves from the email addiction?

The electronic musician Moby tried to drop off the network from late September to the "turn of the year", telling friends and associates they can contact him by letter, visits or phone calls. He did not succeed. Even search engineer and blogger, Matt Cutts was quoted as trying to wean off emails while on vacation.

Years ago, your blog author went on a week long beach vacation and spent hours each day answering emails. Hours wasted from the sandy beach and family. In subsequent years I set up a hotmail account and instructed those that need to reach me that they can use this special email account for emergencies. No CC's (or BCC's!) emails please, just email you need me to read and respond to. Instead of reading through 75-100 emails a day, I received 5-6 during the week! You might consider this as a way of disconnecting when family and self-restoration are are important.

How did we survive in 1985? Wait, wasn't there PROFS (does anyone remember PROFS?).

SEO Specialists - Snake Oil Sales People?

Recently industry guru Danny Sullivan was challenged by Jason Calacanis, who pronounced that 90% of SEO specialists are snake oil salesmen. Personally, I respect Danny and his views, and yet there is "some" credence to Jason's comments. We at Think-ebiz have held to the fact that a highly relevant website, based on clear content and appealing design will always do well in organic search - and conversions!

"Now, if you make great content, keep your page design clean, and stick with it you're gonna do just fine in the rankings."

We often get calls about "SEO" and turn the discussion back to effective web design. What good is a large scale SEO and/or paid click program that drives interested shopped to a web site that is un-usable, disorganized and generally unappealing. In other words, build a great site that well represents your brand and message, and the rankings will follow.

However, on Danny's side of the fence - we work within the confines of the Google and Yahoo algorithms and thus we know there are white-hat adjustments that can enhance the sites relevance and usability - even if it sounds like gaming the system. Adjustments to title tags, image alt-tags and site infrastructure are important (the latter for the spider, the former for the both). A qualified SEO specialist knows the balance between what the search engine spiders are seeking and the relevancy that the buying public requires. To not work with the search engine algorithms is foolish.

Do snake oil SEO sales people exist?  We believe that the answer is yes. We advise our readers and clients to focus on the quality of your site, and not get caught up in claims that are (in many cases) unrealistic. I had an email debate with an SEO person (who thought i was a possible client) and he made his case by showing me keywords where he had received a top ranking. However, a quick check and you find that virtually no one has searched using these words. I can do this too - try searching on Stephen Harris in Google, and see who is #1, just ahead of the Wikipedia entry for the Iron Maiden founder by the same name. Conversely if an SEO specialists guarantee's you will have a page one placement in a hot keyword like diamonds is also unrealistic and a disservice. Why?

There are over 50.7 Millions responses for Diamonds, yet only 3.5 million for Diamond Earrings. Where do you think the buyer will be more likely found - and any search term with 3.5 Million responses is one that you could achieve a solid ranking... in time.

A quick word on linking, where I think Jason is making is case. We prescribe to the relevancy, so if you have inbound links form related web sites and affiliations, you are playing by the rules, enhancing credibility and potentially driving sales. We think that over time as Google adjusts their algorithm and closes loopholes, sites with thousands of unrelated inbound links will sink, and those with prudent amounts of related links will rule the day.

For now, yes there are snake oil generated in inbound links...   but consider this. If you are the marketing officer for a retailer web site and focus your time and money on inbound links and not tackling relevancy and web site usability, you can brag about your page one ranking from the unemployment lines! Conversions are what matters to management and investors.

SitePal Avatar and Innovative Self Marketing

Searching for my next online marketing opportunity, I read about candidates using YouTube as a platform for presenting their credentials via video. However, being more if an Internet guy, I thought leveraging my personalized Avatar, created by my friends at SitePal and Larkin Volpatt, would be equally innovative. SitePal offers a unique and dynamic means - a conversational character - for presenting your web site's message. A clever and eye-catching way to welcome visitors to your blog or on-line storefront. It's easy to implement and admittedly a bit fun too.

In this Avatar message, I direct the viewer to click and view my online marketing professional web site. However you can expand your voice-over to include key accomplishments and your career search objectives. Keep it short, interesting and to the point. And unlike the YouTube video version, with SitePal your viewer can easily click over to your web site or resume.

One final note; just like writing a blog, the world is watching. Keep your message professional and results will follow. Your humble blogger will keep you posted on the results of this Avatar experiment.  Stephen

Landing Page Simplicity equals Online Success

Recently reading Jonathan Mendez' blog discussion (Optimize and Prophesize) on "simplicity in landing pages" resonated very well with the Think-eBiz view on web site effectiveness. Web site owners are catching on, that their site is not their online ego, but a place for business - real sales & leads - conversions!

And with a simple approach to landing page design, the ability to perform real and valuable testing is magnified. Often it is subtle changes to a web site that cause the greatest impact on increased conversions. A complex image and text heavy site that displays all '20' of your leading products will often rank high on the one-and-out scale (the % of people who come to your home page and leave).

So scale your site back, provide short powerfully written content that tells the visitor who you are, what you do and why they should be here...  draw your visitor in and gain their permission to learn more. And always give them an easy way to contact you, to provide their name as a lead or get to the specific product they were actually seeking.

Optimization can help - allowing you the analytics of what caused conversion, learn more and defection behavior. And with a simple design, it will be easy to make the subtle yet powerful adaptations that lead to a better overall visitor experience - delivery more and better sales!

PS: A great book on web site usability is Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (2nd Edition)

Recently reading Jonathan Mendez' blog discussion (Optimize and Prophesize) on "simplicity in landing pages" resonated very well with the Think-eBiz view on web site effectiveness. Web site owners are catching on, that their site is not their online ego, but a place for business - real sales & leads - conversions!

And with a simple approach to landing page design, the ability to perform real and valuable testing is magnified. Often it is subtle changes to a web site that cause the greatest impact on increased conversions. A complex image and text heavy site that displays all '20' of your leading products will often rank high on the one-and-out scale (the % of people who come to your home page and leave).

So scale your site back, provide short powerfully written content that tells the visitor who you are, what you do and why they should be here...  draw your visitor in and gain their permission to learn more. And always give them an easy way to contact you, to provide their name as a lead or get to the specific product they were actually seeking.

Optimization can help - allowing you the analytics of what caused conversion, learn more and defection behavior. And with a simple design, it will be easy to make the subtle yet powerful adaptations that lead to a better overall visitor experience - delivery more and better sales!

PS: A great book on web site usability is Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (2nd Edition)

The Cure for Banner Blindness. MVT Testing

Are your online media ads suffering from Banner Blindness? According to an eye-tracking study conducted by the Nielsen/Norman Group, most people are ignoring your banner advertisements. No matter how splashy, bright or exciting they may appear, people are not looking - and therefor not clicking. In fact, click rates on banner media have be steadily decreasing.

"Banner blindness means Internet users focus on the content on a page and ignore the advertisements."

Don't despair, banner ads still remain an effective channel, just more challenging. Keeping things simple is one cure, as text ad's tend to outperform graphical ones.

Kara Pernice Coyne (Nielsen Norman Group Director of Research) said graphical ads with text and contrasting colors, like white text on red, is less likely to be disregarded. "They're looking at them if they're text," she said. "I hate to sound boring, but [it is best] if you can make sure your ad is something simple, text or a recognized logo, and it needs to be relevant to the page."

We at Think-ebiz believe that this is a clear case for MVT testing; a strategy for uncovering what triggers  what motivates a coveted click - rather than ignore - your online advertisement. What can overcome banner blindness, in terms of motivating the click through behavior? Is it the color, the image or lack of an image, is it a Flash based motion or simplistic text? Is it an strong message or a compelling call to action? Is it a great offer? MVT, multi-variable testing is the key to unlocking this knowledge, the insights that lead to a higher click through rate...  and thus a possible cure for the banner blindness affliction.

Are your online media ads suffering from Banner Blindness? According to an eye-tracking study conducted by the Nielsen/Norman Group, most people are ignoring your banner advertisements. No matter how splashy, bright or exciting they may appear, people are not looking - and therefor not clicking. In fact, click rates on banner media have be steadily decreasing.

"Banner blindness means Internet users focus on the content on a page and ignore the advertisements."

Don't despair, banner ads still remain an effective channel, just more challenging. Keeping things simple is one cure, as text ad's tend to outperform graphical ones.

Kara Pernice Coyne (Nielsen Norman Group Director of Research) said graphical ads with text and contrasting colors, like white text on red, is less likely to be disregarded. "They're looking at them if they're text," she said. "I hate to sound boring, but [it is best] if you can make sure your ad is something simple, text or a recognized logo, and it needs to be relevant to the page."

We at Think-ebiz believe that this is a clear case for MVT testing; a strategy for uncovering what triggers  what motivates a coveted click - rather than ignore - your online advertisement. What can overcome banner blindness, in terms of motivating the click through behavior? Is it the color, the image or lack of an image, is it a Flash based motion or simplistic text? Is it an strong message or a compelling call to action? Is it a great offer? MVT, multi-variable testing is the key to unlocking this knowledge, the insights that lead to a higher click through rate...  and thus a possible cure for the banner blindness affliction.