Jeff Herschy Schwerdt – A Pilot Turned WebGuru

Quite new to the Internet marketing world, Jeff Herschy Schwerdt, an Ex-F-16 instructor pilot, has made a lot of profits with couple of his product launches. With his partner, Scott Twait, Jeff commenced his marketing venture with social media and online videos to drive quality traffic to generate profits. Jeff went on to reach a

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Jeff Herschy Schwerdt – A Pilot Turned WebGuru

5 Ways to End 2009 with a Bang

Life is a funny thing! As humans we all want to be successful and happy. Each year goes by (faster than we would like) full of goals, failures and accomplishments. Ultimately it is up to us as individuals to reach for the stars and fulfill our desires. Below you will find a list of five things that you can do to end this year in a way that will make you happy, successful and ready for the New Year! But remember, it is up to you and no one else to make it happen. If you are reading this, more than likely you are a Business, SEO, or Social Media minded person; and for that very reason I have focused the items below on you. 1. Life – The number one item that you need to do today to end this year with a bang is to evaluate your life. The reason why this is number one on my list is because if you can’t take care of yourself, then how are you going to take care of your family, job, or business? Focus some time today on going back through notes, files, and papers, really anything that you can find that has your 2009 resolutions or goals that you set earlier this year. If you can’t find anything or you didn’t put anything together then that is just fine, stay with me though. Next thing you need to do is review your resolutions or goals.

Chris Fox – A Real Google Terminator?

Chris, an online marketer by profession now, commenced his in Internet marketing as a consultant for SEO and other marketing strategies for many web-based businesses such as PortalFeeder.com. Few of experience brought him belief that he could make his living as an Internet marketer, and he began to create his creative, helpful products that helped

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Chris Fox – A Real Google Terminator?

Weekly Search & Social Coverage: 12/08/09

Welcome ot another edition of ‘ 7 Days of Search and Social ‘ – I hope you are well and getting well into another week in the trenches. It was a somewhat quiet week out there as far as kick ass blog posts, (although ‘Dave baiting’ is in season) but we did make up for it with a bunch of tools and even some patents of interest. Of course the big news was from the fine folks at the Googleplex with the announcement that personalized search is now default for everyone; logged in or not. Anyway, let’s get on with it shall we? Lead

The Perfect SEO Pitch

Agency side, it’s not unusual to find yourself going up against a fellow SEO agency for new business. What factors will ensure you capture this new business opportunity and leave your competing agency in the metaphorical dust? I recently read The Perfect Pitch by Jon Steel of WPP, and it’s got me thinking about how I sell my agency when presenting to potential clients. Namely, that it’s of the utmost importance to go in understanding (to whatever degree possible) what a client is looking for and customize your pitch to fit their needs. Below are some of Steele’s main points: Practice . Have at least 2 practice pitches before presenting to a new business opportunity. Steel even advocates writing scripts so Bobby knows he’s talking about the agency’s blue chip PPC experience while Amanda is confident in detailing Social Media opportunities. By practicing, everyone knows what to expect when the actual pitch occurs and no one will be re-hashing points others have already made. Many Slides Does Not a Presentation Make. In the past, I’ve worked at agencies with a long standard “This is How SEO works” presentation chalk-a-block full of text and ripped SEOmoz images. While it’s great to prove to the client “we know lots of stuff “ to follow that with “And now, we will have an SEO brain dump on you to prove we know lots of stuff” isn’t going to leave new business opportunity gasping for more (probably just overwhelmed). Steel wants to make sure the presenter is the focus of the presentation, not the slides. He argues that in PowerPoint presentations the “bullet point dilutes thought,” and suggests the majority of text be deleted in favor of images. This way, the presenter is the focus of attention and not the words behind them, which appear by tacky transitions and are often accompanied by cheesy Clip Art. Owning the Room . Don’t be afraid to move furniture and reconstruct rooms to fit your needs. If the projection screen points to an awkward wall, ask to have it repositioned, if the chairs are uncomfortable ask for different ones. Organising the chairs “in the round” encourages audience participation while the typical speaker standing in front of the audience is less engaging. Best Sellers May Not be the Most Senior People Office politics often dictate who should meet and present to a client, but you may be loosing out on some of the best talent in your agency/department! Have the presentation given by those who present best, who appear naturally confident in front of an audience, who deal well under pressure and can think on their feet when the questions start rolling in. This may be a mid level PPC expert, and not the assumed Senior Search Marketing Consultant. Encouraging and handling questions . Make a list of popular questions clients ask with correct answers (“Our competitors have a blog, do we need one?” “If we had to pick PPC or SEO…”). Whether you prefer to handle questions at the end of a presentation or encourage them to be asked as they pop into clients heads – be careful not to go off on too far a tangent. This can kill the sense of direction of an otherwise strong pitch. Thank You. The next day, be sure to send a card or make a phone call which reiterates your agency’s core message from the day before. This is also an opportunity to address any concerns the client raised which perhaps couldn’t be answered during the pitch. Ultimately, there are a million ways to customize a pitch for a client which this post barely skims the surface of. A pitch, like any good content, is about holding a conversation with the receiving end, not talking them to death with how well qualified your agency is. Please let SEJ know what your tips are on how to improve an SEO pitch? If you’re an SEO client, what was it about your SEO agency that really grabbed your attention? Looking forward to your comments! Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . The Perfect SEO

Using the Power of Attraction Marketing to Get Your Prospects to Buy

So you’ve build a list of highly targeted subscribers, now what? A lot of people face problems when it comes to turning their subscribers to customers. This is where comes in the power of “Attraction Marketing” to help you shoot up your sales. Let’s admit it, getting your opt-in subscribers to actually buy from you is

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Using the Power of Attraction Marketing to Get Your Prospects to Buy

SEO Epic Fail: Why Sutter Health Needs Proper SEO

I got a call today from a close friend that one of our other friends had a stroke earlier today and was in the hospital. As soon as I heard, I jumped online to get the phone number for the ICU unit of the hospital where he’s at so I could coordinate visiting him. I did this because I’ve had a lot of experience visiting friends and family members in ICU units. They have strict visiting hours and visitation rules. It’s at this point I discovered a MASSIVE FAIL on the part of Sutter Health when it comes to both SEO and Telephone Support… ______________________________________ The first person in our close-knit group of friends to find out about the stroke happens to have lived in San Francisco for many years. When she started the phone notifcation process, she said to let everyone know he’s in the ICU unit at Davies Medical Center in the city. Not being a native of or truly knowledgeable about that particular hospital, I naturally went to the web for contact information. ______________________________________ My initial search for Davies Medical Center San Francisco got me the following results: Because I hadn’t been aware that “Davies” is not a medical center, but instead, a CAMPUS that’s part of the Sutter Health California Pacific Medical Center complex of campuses, the only match that made sense was the last entry above, part of the Standford University site. But that LINK is just for an Environmental Impact report on a parking structure! Worthless. So I clicked on the YELP entry. And got This: So I called. And got the main Sutter Health call center. When I asked for the ICU unit, the operator said “Which one”? Uh, there’s more than one? okay – the Davies Medical Center ICU, please. That operator put me through, and when I explained why I was calling, the nurse said – there’s nobody here by that name… ______________________________________ OMG – is he like DEAD? I thought? The nurse said – let me look him up… Okay – So she looked him up and of course said, Oh – he’s in the Davies Campus ICU… WAIT – THIS isn’t the Davies Campus? No – this is the California Campus… Okay – could you transfer me please? Hold on.. Yeah Sure. Let’s play THIS game… ______________________________________ At this point I jumped back to Google, because I knew I couldn’t rely on another phone transfer. Why should I? I mean, this is only 2009 right? And after DECADES of being shuffled by underpaid, unhappy, under-trained, unsympathetic phone reps, I knew better than to expect that the SECOND transfer would go any better than the FIRST one…. So I clicked this time on the main CPMC link shown for the local listings. Which brought me to the main Sutter Health CPMC web site. Note how the top navigation on that site has NOTHING even close to a “CONTACT US” link. Or a “LOCATIONS” link. Or a “CAMPUSES” link. But just below that, on the right side, they DO have this: Now, even though it says “View Map”, and not “Visit Campus Page” or something, I took a wild guess and when I went to that page, it was, in fact, a more complete page than just a map. It included the actual address of the campus, a campus schematic showing where buildings are, and written directions from various points. As well as a Google Map. The problem with that page though, is there’s NO phone number anywhere on the page. NONE. Except in the Google Map Bubble, it shows the MAIN NUMBER for CPMC again. You know – the one I called first, which only got me transferred to the WRONG campus… By now, I had been transferred a second time. But guess where to? ANOTHER WRONG CAMPUS. ______________________________________ Fortunately, the woman who answered THAT phone, was kind enough to dig. At first she said “I’m sorry – there’s no number for…” “Excuse me? My friend just had a STROKE and he’s in the ICU, and you’re telling…” “Wait – let me check… Okay – here’s the number to the Davies Campus – but it’s the main number, we can’t give out the ICU number. 415-600-5274″… (side note – the reason hospitals don’t give out the number to an Intensive Care Unit, is they don’t want just anyone calling, intentionally or not, directly into the unit. The need for quiet, and to allow ICU staff to provide the most important care to critically ill patients is far greater than allowing a direct number out. But of course, that’s no excuse for not publishing the main number to the correct campus!) Well it turns out that was in fact, the right number. And when I called, I learned that my friend is doing okay for now, and resting. The nurse explained their strict visiting hours policies, and said at this point today, it would be best to allow him to just rest, but to check in tomorrow and come after calling… ______________________________________ So – Back to SEO, Epic Fails and the Human