One of the many things i’ve learned from Blueglass conference, was that the local search is gonna be huge during the next months. While the online businesses while be (relatively) untouched by this new innovation, most of the local businesses will have to fight to retain their visibilities.

I'm all for minimal design, so there's a lot of space available to add a link to my review page!

I’m thinking about local retailers and local service providers (plumbers, hvac contractors, etc) but it will be also very important for us seo consultants: people will choose the local service providers, because google is gonna show the local listings first. And it makes sense: if you live in Miami and need a SEO consultant for your local business, you have better chances to work better and with a lower spend, if you choose a local company/individual.

Get listed now! I really mean it!

Since having a listing in google places is free, there’s really no reason to miss some business! And while you are there, expecially if you are in the USA, get the info from getlisted.org in order to improve your local visibility!

And when you have listed your company on various websites, create a “review” page with the links to your listing on those sites (google places, yelp, and so on)

The missing link: make the business card works for you

I had this idea in hotel, after the conference. You have a personal relation with the customer: since the first meeting you’re gonna give him your business card. Many business cards i’m seeing have lot of white space or an entirely white side.

Use that space to link your review page on your site! (using a friendly redirection possibly)

This usage of the business cards holds different meanings:

• “if you are satisfied or unsatisfied, please give use your feedback”
• “this is our first meeting, please read the reviews people are writing online about us”

This will probably lead to more “spontaneous” reviews, which is always good. Even if it’s not a guaranteed success, because it’s easy to “game” the system, it will be good P.R. for you for your new client.

Probably in the future we will have QR codes on business cards too, but i think it’s too early and geeky to rely only on those kinds of methods to give links.

I prefer (at the moment) to have a direct link which i can redirect and trace, something like

www.mydomain.com/reviews ->(redirect to) www.mydomain.com/reviews.php

That way i can keep track of the visits with some simple php code and i could also “split” my visitors using different urls (www.mydomain.com/feedback , www.mydomain.com/reviews, and so on).

That’s it, happy local business!

Related articles

• What Will the Future of Business Cards Look Like? (readwriteweb.com)
• Top 10 Local Search Insights for the Moment (searchenginewatch.com)

I love to be here again! ScarySeo in 2008 was my first Seo and Social conference in the USA, it was an eye-opener. Things may have changed, companies have merged, but the friendly faces are still here. As usual the agenda is packed with action and knowledge… i can’t wait to hear Rhea Drysdale on Online Reputation Management…and then i’ll squeeze some more knowdledge after the speech

The Blue Glass Stage, yeah iphone 3gs pictures sucks without light

One of the best feature of Blue Glass conference, is the food. For a good start, you need a good breakfast (we all agree on that, right? ) and i’d say the food is really GREAT!

good breakfast means greater attention . Probably.

During last year i matured the decision to move to the USA in order to improve my web marketing skills on the most advanced and competitive market of the world. Since i’m a big fan of the “Show, don’t tell” theory and i’m also a big comic geek, i’ve tried to apply all those weird ideas into a single presentation that stand apart from other resumè the HR people usually receive.

I showed the comic during a conference in Tampa during may and i’ve received some really nice feedbacks. Now i think it’s time to show this comic to the interwebs! Go ahead, read it! If you need to find me, i’m usually hanging with the mighty warrios in the Seo DOJO!

update: you may have to click on the pages to zoom and read the text.

…if you read till the end, you will see that my business card looks exactly like the comic one

My Zen internet marketing business cards

Credits:

Illustrations by my good friend Valentina. Reach her at her email,if you need some commissions to give her! Unfortunately she doesn’t have a website yet, but i’m trying to get her online.

Proof reading: The awesome duo, Tricia and Elanor Smith. Much love to you! http://www.flaminglacer.com

it’s official! Now what will happen to the yahoo site explorer used by many tools to evaluate the incoming links of a website ?

Yahoo and Bing are now engaged... (LIKE?)

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• Exciting News From Bing and Yahoo! (bing.com)

Affiliate marketing FAIL means inexperience in SEO

The Short (Diggable) Version

1. You know the value of money. Yours in particular!
2. You appreciate every lead you generate.
3. You Eat, drink and have sex with Google Analytics. Day and Night. You know that the only way to have success is to analyze all the data google analytics provide and improve them.
4. You understand what “conversion” means: it means you are generating business. Initially for you, but if you can do the same for your customer, you will generate satisfaction, motivation and more work for you too.
5. You watch a converting landing page with admiration and awe, like it was a Caravaggio. A Landing page is a work of design and communication: you may need to do a lot of tests but in the end you will sort out the best page that create more conversions.
6. You (usually) remain humble*. (*some people just prefer to keep their mouth shut and they only “seems” humble. Until the moment they are drunk during a Conference but that’s another story).
7. You are a team player, because you know there’s strength in numbers! The Seo and social media pratictioner is a powerful community. You may benefit from insigh and help if you approach them with respect, in a straightforward way.
8. Sometimes you become the godfather of youngsters, if they respect you. And if they show skills, you work WITH them. (it may sound like a criminal syndicate, but don’t worry, we are more like a secret society of specialist shinobis ).
9. “Office Hours” means nothing to you, it’s just a metaphysical concept like “what is the origin of the universe?” or “why are there only 24 hous in a day?”.
10. You feel the search engines are like divinities and you do everything you can to appease them. Follow the guidelines, be a good fellow. Remember, you are trying to build a durable impression for customers: it doesn’t pay to put in action a shady work. (unless you are doing research, but that’s another different story)
11. You don’t consider PPC an utter and endless waste of money. PPC is a testing ground. A real-time laboratory, where you can test the response of people to some headlines inside some landing pages: when you have a “solid winner” in PPC, you can apply the same model for SEO pages and obtain even more satisfaction for your customer.
12. You watch closely the social media evolution. You drool over the money done with farmville, but you don’t covet. But you know that the social media are gonna be important in the future, because people rarely link anymore: they “like“, “retweet“, “check-in“. The ranking algorythms will change and social media is gonna be part of it.
13. You Keep learning, because this business is ALWAYS changing the rules.

There should be a longer, more narrative version…

But i’m already tired. The concept should be quite easy to understand: if you are able to create an income for you,thanks to your “seo” skills, you may be able to do the same for your clients. That does not make you automatically a super-guru, because you still lack the mindset and the experience, but you understand very well what your client is feeling every time the website you optimized, get him a conversion.

So where to should you start ? Rae is starting an how to build a niche affiliate site. I also think that Ed Dale and his Challenge are perfect examples of baseline affiliate marketing tips.

Bespoke usb flash drives

How do people feel about your brand ? How many people are you able to directly influence ? Tens maybe hundreds. Even if you have a lot of pals in various online networks, the chances you may have to influence all of them is extremely low. So, sometimes it’s better to get in touch with some “leaders” and let them spread the word about you. 
I’ve received 50 of these usb flash drives by BESPOKE. All of them have my brand (which is the URL of this site) on them.Should i give them away as simple business cards ? No, they are more than that! I need to pick the most “viral” people! (the ones that Seth Godin call “sneezers“).  When people use my usb flash drives, they will spread my brand between collegues and friends. I don’t  need to upload some contents on the drive, they will come here and read updated info about my activities and projects. 

And people will associate my brand name with the item: a neat and useful usb flash drive. What’s better than a fresh and positive starting point to make business ? 

(Thanks again to Pamela Lund for these beatiful usb flash drives, i need to do a better picture).

Here we go!

This first article is the result of a fantastic event which took place during 23rd and 24th of October 2008, a conference called “Scary SEO“. The event name was a funny pun inspired by the halloween time frame, and i wasn’t scared at all by the panelists: i was amazed.

I was so entusiast that during those days i finally focused on the concept of “Zen internet marketing”.

What Zen and Internet marketing have in common ?

Quite a lot! Zen is a sort of inner quest for Enlightenment, obtained throught meditation, thinking about unsolvable problems (koan) and experimental wisdom. It may sound strange, but most of the people involved in search marketing, like Search Engine Optimization, usually have to resort to experimental wisdom!

You must learn and then you must unlearn

That’s the nature of the net: it’s shapeshifting, so everything you know today, may not be valid or legal tomorrow. So, your mind must be open to every kind of input : nothing is sacred. Even the Google Gospel change from time to time. And there are people who try to “dispel” the illusion of order: they are the so-called “Black hat SEO”. 

Stick to the “black monolyth fallen from the sky” (do you remember “2001:a Space Odissey”?) and you are out of the business in a blink of an eye. Improve, research and INTERACT! There are a lot of people that can help you: either you are a businessman or an internet marketer, any connection could means a lot for your work and business. 

Find companions

Practicing with others is extremely important in zen buddhism. Fortunately if we talk about business, you don’t need a life of humility, prayer and meditation, but you need to rely on other people and exchange knowledge. Even the most skilled Seo Engineer of the world could be lacking in Brand Awareness or Copywriting: the knowledge is shared, there’s no central depository. Even if your companion is your customer, you are forming a bond : he tells you his problems and you do your best in order to increase his business. That’s an exchange too.