Internet marketing Archives - Page 38 of 47 by Mark Murnahan

Bloggers Love Comments, But Sometimes No Comment Means You’re Right!

Website Grader Report for aWebGuy.com — aWebGuy.com Grade 99.7

Blog authors love comments so much that they may lose focus of other important measures of the value of their work. If you are a blogger stuck in the destructive thought pattern that your blog is less important or less heard without comments, read on my friend. I have some good news for you.

I want to address the concern that a lot of bloggers have and carry with them like a big monkey on their back. The monkey I refer to is blog comments or a lack thereof, and it is time to look at some additional metrics. Of course, blog comments can have huge benefits such as bringing together other points of view and growing a sense of community, so don’t get me wrong. What I have to tell you, though, may ease some of that pressure and give you some encouragement.

I kind of like the way Seth Godin stated it in his massively read, respected, and circulated blog. In a blog post titled “Why I Don’t Have Comments“, Seth Godin said “… it permanently changes the way I write. Instead of writing for everyone, I find myself writing in anticipation of the commenters.”

Blogging is Concentrated Social Media

Blogging is social media at perhaps the most focused and personal level. A blog post provides the opportunity for discussion of a narrowly focused topic, and it is personalized by the originating author who often wants to hear from readers. The great news is that sometimes fewer but more meaningful comments can be a really good thing. This blog is focused on social media and SEO, so I do not expect a lot of input from bean farmers and rock and roll bands. They may come here to read and gather new ideas, but they are far less likely to add commentary than a know it all SEO or social media practitioner. This can be a good thing, because I have a lot of readers who do not know it all, but want to.

In any case, many blog owners are frantic about the curse of non-commenting readers. It gets them all stirred up and concerned that nobody is paying attention, that they have lost their readers’ interest, or that their blog has a lower perceived value. Buck up my friends, and consider another point of view.

Is There Something Wrong With My Blog?

One of the first things you may imagine when comments are sparse is that something is wrong with your comment system. So you check it by responding to a post. No, that is not it … commenting is working fine. So it must be that the quality is suffering, right? No, that is not it … you have written some of your best work. Has something else changed? Here are a couple questions I asked myself recently when considering the topic. I have included my conclusions as well. Perhaps these are also useful considerations for your blogging efforts.

Is it your reader-base? No. I still have thousands of the same regular readers as before. The server logs and statistics reporting from FeedBurner, Google Analytics, and Clicky do not lie. These are the same people who left hundreds of comments on previous posts.

Are your articles actually being read? Yes. The average time on page is way up, and the bounce rate is way down, meaning that readers spend more time on each article and also visit more pages of my blog.

Is your writing quality or public interest of chosen topics suffering? No. My statistics logs show that they receive more attention than ever. Although some recent posts are longer than usual, readers’ time on page is up … way up.

Have you asked for readers to add their opinions, and are you really asking questions in your material? Yes. I always ask a question for readers to address with their opinion and to start a dialogue. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know this to be true. I practically reach out and smack you silly to hear your comments.

Are your readers disengaged? No, but this was actually my biggest concern. I receive many comments on my work at Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email, and by telephone … actually more than ever. So people are engaged and reading, but just not commenting where everybody else can benefit. This brings up an important consideration of how people are using the Internet.

Have people changed and their usage patterns changed? Yes! Ding ding ding … we have a winner! This is true here at aWebGuy.com and I have found it to be true in many other blogs as well.

Blog Comments Are Down While Readership is Up

It can seem strange that although blog readership is up that commenting could be down. How could it be that more people are spending more time on a blog, yet fewer of them are taking the interest or care to add their comments? It is a sign of the times? Yes, Internet users are behaving differently, and that is fine. The results are different for everybody, and it requires a closer look at some other important measurements.

Important Measurements of Blog Quality

Instead of beating yourself up (the way I sometimes do), consider these other metrics of the success in your blog’s reach and impact.

1.) Are people still linking to your blog in social bookmarking sites, from other blogs, and other social media venues? For this, you may want to see my recent article titled “SEO Backlinks: Why Most SEO Fail at Link Building” to clarify the matter of linking. I pretty well kick some butt in link-building, so you may want to settle in and read this one.

2.) Are your readers still spending the same or more time on each article? A look at your statistics will tell you the answer to this question.

3.) Are people still responding in other social media or other desired calls to action including offline methods of response?

4.) Are you still producing content that has a clear and obvious public appeal by meeting a need of your readers?

If you answered yes to these questions, the answer is likely that you are simply so damn correct in your materials that others feel no means to criticize your work, no perceived means to accentuate your work, and the conclusion may just be that no comment sometimes means you’re right!

I am sure you are just dying to comment on this, but if you got this far and have nothing whatsoever to say, it just means I am right and I have given you something of value. You’re welcome to it, and I thank you for reading!

You have given me the means to accumulate a whole lot of nice little badges like the one below showing what is what on this Internet. I thank each of my bean farmer, rock and roll band, and SEO/social media know-it-all friends for being a part of this blog. Even if you are a bit coy from time to time.

6 Essential Blogging Tools for Bloggers and Non-Bloggers

Blog Tools for Non-bloggers and Bloggers

Whether you have a blog of your own or just read blogs, these are tools to help you to become more efficient and have a better look at the information that is important to you.

The tools I will outline here are for both non-bloggers as well as bloggers. I say non-bloggers, but only to suit the people who have this mysterious idea that because they only read and comment on blogs that they are not still a blogger. If you participate in blogs, I hate to break it to you, but you are a blogger! Blogs are made up of an originating author, and all of those other authors who come to share their view and create the dialogue of a blog.

Whichever you are, or even if you are just a casual reader, I want to give you some really useful pieces of information to help you receive more benefit from blogs and to make the information more manageable. These will not take a lot of time to implement, and it will be worth the time you spend. Do not just drop this information off in your bookmarks and wait until you forget it. If you use these tools as described, my guess is that you will start being more efficient right away.

Some of these are very basic and you may know them, and some may be unfamiliar to you. I will start with a couple essentials that most bloggers know, but yet their readers may not. If you are a blog author, you also will want your readers to know this information in order to receive greater value and usability from your blog. In any case, whether you have your own blog or you are a reader and commenter, these are very useful and provide benefit to any blogging efforts.

Blogging Tool One: Gravitar

Gravitar.com – This is very basic, but many people still ask how to have their picture show up when they comment on a blog. The answer is a Gravitar. Gravitar is free, and very simple to set up. All you need is a picture and an email address. Gravitar is a globally recognized avatar that is recognized by the email address you use when you submit a comment.

Blogging Tool Two: BackType

NOTE: This information about BackType is now outdated. They changed things since I published this article. BackType can still be a useful tool, so check it out anyway.

BackType.com – What are people talking about? Are they talking about you, your industry, or other interests? BackType will help to keep you informed about things people are saying in blog comments and social media venues. For example, here is a BackType search for “Murnahan” … my last name. I like to know if something shows up there!

BackType provides other beneficial functions too! BackType aggregates a user’s comments across many blogs and social networks and puts them in one place. It is a great tool for finding discussions about topics or people you want to keep up with. You can track specific people, and also track your own comments. BackType uses the Web address you enter when you comment on a blog to aggregate the data. If you sign up, you simply enter the Web addresses you use when you make comments on blogs in order to claim your comments. Then it allows you to determine whether it is a legitimate comment or somebody claiming to be you. An example is if you take a look at my BackType profile, you can see comments I have made on many blogs, and also follow a link to join in the discussion.

BackType is free and it can be very useful without signing up. However, if you want to claim your comments across the Internet, you can sign up for BackType here. Since BackType is not all-inclusive, I will share a couple more comment aggregation services.

Blogging Tool Three: Disqus

Disqus.com – Pronounced “discuss”, it is as it sounds … it is about discussions. Disqus does more than many users will realize, and I want to clarify a couple things to help you understand it. You do not need to have a Disqus account to comment on blogs that use Disqus and you do not need to have a blog to use Disqus, either! Note that Disqus just works just like any common blog comment system if you do not log in.

Disqus has a couple of very different purposes. One function of Disqus is that it works as a commenting platform and is used by some really popular blogs such as Mashable.com, and of course aWebGuy.com.

It seems that Disqus gives some users the impression that they must log in using an account to comment. This is not the case at all, but it does allow users to log in and comment using other social media profiles if they choose. It can also optionally share your comments on social networks so your friends can see what you have to say. There is no need to log in! That is just an option, and even if you are logged in, you decide whether to share the comment on your chosen networks.

Another great function of Disqus is that it works as a comment aggregation and threading platform. As an example, here is my Disqus public profile. Notice that you can reply to blog comments, view the context of blog comments, and follow a link to the blog where the comments were made. That is just downright cool, don’t you think? Imagine how much easier it is to keep up with the conversations you participate in with tools like Disqus on your side. Of course, Disqus is not used on every blog, so I have more cool tools for you!

NOTE: You may find more detailed and up-to-date information about Disqus in my more recent article titled “Why Disqus May Be The Best Social Network of 2011”

Blogging Tool Four: Intense Debate

IntenseDebate.com – This is a service similar in some ways to Disqus, but also different in many ways. I use it to keep up with a handful of other writers’ comments, and I also use it for sharing comments. You can see what my Intense Debate profile looks like to get an understanding of the service. An example of the use of Intense Debate as a commenting system in a blog is found at this tech blog where I also write. Intense Debate can help you keep up with more conversations … this is a good thing!

Blogging Tool Five: Google Reader

It may shock many bloggers to realize how few people are using feed readers efficiently, or using them at all. Sure, some bloggers and active users of blogs are totally prepared and see every piece of information they wish to consume. The truth is that a lot of people are still clueless about what that little RSS icon means. REF:

If you are not clear on this, I will simply explain that RSS is used in about everything from cat food to stock quotes. An example I put together to make this point is in an aggregation of feeds from some of my various blogs and other social networks. I call it the Murnahan Online Activity RSS Aggregator. Beware that it may load a bit slowly due to the many feeds it pulls from, but it makes a good point for how RSS (really simple syndication) works.

If you want to put all of the data that is important to your work or other interests in an easy to manage place that you can absorb, you need a good feed reader. Google Reader is the reader of choice for the masses, and with good reasons. There are many RSS feed readers available, and many that work just great. I use a few of them, and for different purposes, but most of my RSS feeds reach me using Google Reader. If you are not using Google Reader or another good feed reader to keep up with what your industry is doing, you are missing a lot!

Spend some time and get familiar with Google Reader. Use it and click every button until you feel comfortable with how it works. I could write a book on this, but in the interest of helping you today, I suggest starting by opening your eyes and taking some time to improve your efforts with this little jewel.

Blogging Tool Six: FeedBurner

How many people do you think a blog turns away each day because when somebody unfamiliar with RSS clicks on the RSS feed and finds either a bunch of XML code or a styled-down version of the blog and does not know what to do with it? The answer is “a lot of them!” For example, if you use Google Chrome, which is quickly growing in popularity, a standard feed just comes across as XML code.

FeedBurner by Google clears that all up and offers users a simple link to subscribe in whatever reader they like, or to subscribe by email. FeedBurner is simple for a blog owner to implement, and simple for the reader to use.

More Blogging Tools

There is a big world out there, and I cannot list everything in one blog post. I hope that these few tools will help you or somebody you know to be more efficient and prepared to deal with the massive information of the Internet.

I would like it very much if you will provide your comments about these blogging tools or add additional suggestions that others may find useful.

Blogging Improves Intelligence and Here is Proof!

It may sound obvious to you that blogging improves intelligence. After all, if you are using your brain more, it will get stronger. What is not so obvious are the many ways it can make you smarter. Blogging can increase your business intelligence, expand your creativity, provide you with a better perspective on the intelligence around you, and more. Much relies on how you use it, and I am here to help you get smarter, so stop scanning and start reading!

Blog Reading and Commenting is Blogging Too!

When I say blogging, I do not just mean sitting down at your computer to face the arduous task of writing something enlightening for a bunch of imaginary readers each day. I do not mean chugging coffee from early morning until the sun revolves around the earth another time. I do not mean the kind of brain exercise that burns you out after a week, or the huge expenditure of time that full-time writers invest. Get that out of your brain right now, because I want to put some more useful thoughts in there.

When you use blogging the way I will describe it here to boost your intelligence, you will have more creativity to share. Creativity and knowledge are not finite resources. When you use them more, you have more to use.

Community Intelligence Benefits of Blogging

Maybe you have heard the term “blogging community”, but do you really see it as a community? If you do not see blogging as a community, you may not be approaching it right. There are a lot of little blogging communities, and they make up the “blogging world”. There are many great connections to make in that blogging world, and it is best to recognize this fact.

Where are these blogging communities? There are established blogging communities, and then there are less formal blogging communities of people who just seem to read the same blogs and get to know each other with blog commenting and expanding on topics in conversations. Examples of established formal blogging communities include Blog Catalog and Technorati. These communities also stretch into the deepest reaches of that long list of social networks that I have placed on the left side of my blog.

Less Formal Blogging Communities

I am far more engaged in the less formal blogging communities which I have come to know by responding to authors and other blog commenters. Even if I do not communicate with them each day, week, or even month, these are people that have become familiar to me and people with whom I have become familiar. It is a loose community of bloggers that I have come to know and enjoy. Some, but not all of them have their own blogs. When I get to know them by reading and responding to their comments on a blog, I often come to read their blog and find out more of their opinions. The same thing works in reverse, too. If people are interested in what you have to say, they will often want to know a bit more about you.

Notice that most blogs have a place to include your website address when you add a comment, thus creating a link to you show who you are. If you are making useful contributions and provide good input on a topic in the blog’s comments, people use those links! It is a fantastic way to meet others and build relationships, whether for personal or business purposes. It is also an extremely useful way for people to come to know you!

I have found that when I blindly venture out to find new blogs, I discover a lot more horrible writing than I find intelligence. Conversely, when I look to my communities, I find people with viewpoints and writing that interests me and stimulates my thoughts.

As you discover and step into a community of blogging, you can grow your confidence with a greater sense of security that what you are reading will benefit you. These are the blogs where you will learn at the best pace, because they make you think about something of interest to you. When you are stimulated by the content, the rest starts to come much easier.

Are you feeling smarter yet? Keep reading and get those brain cells pumping some iron. I will get to the proof that it makes you more intelligent, be patient.

Blogging Doesn’t Just Mean Writing Blog Posts

It should be obvious by now that a person does not have to master a language to be a blog writer. It offers a very low barrier of entry for writing, so there are a lot of novice writers. They are still learning, and with a lot of dedication they may get really good at it. Jumping into writing frequent blog posts can be intimidating, time consuming, and it can hold some hard lessons. There must be an easier way for non-writers to improve their skills and get their brains in shape for producing better content.

Most people are not born as great writers. In fact, many people with advanced college degrees are still terrible writers. It seems that many people dread writing, so it should be no surprise that they never became good at it. It horrifies some people to imagine coming up with something to write about and then putting it into a proper structure for public consumption. Do not worry about it … blogging does not mean you have to do a lot of writing! However, it is best to do some writing in order to receive the best benefits and expand your talents.

Reading and commenting on blogs is often a great way to find out just how right or wrong your thinking is before you apply it to your own brilliant literary works. I should note that I spend a lot more time reading and commenting on other blogs than I spend writing my own blogs. It makes me stronger as a writer and it gets the hamsters in my brain jumping.

Very Few Bloggers Are Brilliant 100 Percent of the Time!

Don’t worry; you do not always have to be brilliant. I think it is a huge fear for a lot of people that if they don’t have something brilliant to say that they don’t say anything. Fortunately for you, there is a burning desire to become more intelligent. This brings me to the point about proving that blogging makes a person more intelligent.

Maybe I stimulated your thoughts on how to engage in blogging as a community, or how discovering thought provoking friends can be a benefit. In any event, you read this and you are now aware of another viewpoint … my viewpoint. With that viewpoint and the others expressed in the comments to this article, you will have just a little more understanding of the world around you and how people think.

Most importantly, you can surely see the enormous benefits to using blogging as a communications tool, and how two-way communications can be far more beneficial to learning than only one. Now if you want the best proof of how blogging improves intelligence, add your comments and learn about other reader’s viewpoints. That is where the real proof comes in. Just watch what happens when all of my brilliant readers get to communicating!

People dream up a lot of excuses to postpone positive action in their business. In decades of serving clients with marketing services, I must have heard them all. I want to distill a bit of that for you here, and hopefully boost your courage a bit.

I often feel like a police officer listening to peoples’ excuses for speeding. I mean, I should write another book just filled with the awful excuses I have heard from businesses over the years for how and why they messed everything up. By the time it gets to the “judge”, all of those excuses only embarrass the “speeder”. Now put all excuses aside and tell me if you can relate to this. I’ll bet it will sound kind of familiar. You may get a laugh, or you may get a fright.

Let’s first get one thing straight: If your business was simple, everybody would be doing it, and you would be out of a job. Business has its challenges, but there are huge rewards for doing the things others are unwilling or afraid to do.

Money Can Stop Business in Its Tracks!

One thing that seems to stop most businesses in their tracks is money. Actually, the lack of money, or fears surrounding money is what kills them. I have found that money is one of the greatest concerns to most business people. Imagine that! This one basic requisite of business is the same thing stopping them from having more of this one basic thing. It is like a loop … without more money, they don’t have more money. With more money, they get more money. It is crazy how that works, don’t you think?

I have found that with enough money, even a pretty bad business person can at least begin to solve most business issues. Money cannot fix it all, but more money can certainly help to solve the most common business problems. Money can buy better attorneys, it can buy better accountants, and it can buy better talent in most every area of a business. Let’s not lie … at least not to yourself. Sure, lie to me if you must, but really, just think about how much more you can do with a business if you have more money. I know this and you know this, so let’s not beat around that bush.

REMEMBER THIS: In business, the bottom line starts with a dollar sign.

When it comes down to it, money is the biggest reason people make bad decisions in their business, or worse yet, make no decisions at all. It paralyzes people and it clouds their judgment. So the big concern is how to bring a business beyond that hurdle of money.

How do you get your hands on more money? Do you beg a bank for more money? Do you rob a bank, a train, or a liquor store? How about this for an idea? Do more of the things that your business does to generate revenue. In many businesses, this means finding more people to buy a product or service, but in nearly every case it means finding more people … or them finding you!

A Look at Your Marketing Funnel

Let us look at your marketing funnel. I will use the basic idea of a marketing funnel to explain my point. At the top, where the funnel is the widest, you have the people who are aware of your offering. As the funnel narrows, you have people who are thinking about you and may become a customer someday. Closer to the bottom where the money gushes out, you have those hot prospects urgently grabbing their credit cards or check books to do business with you. This is just a basic introduction to the marketing funnel, but you get the point, right? Now let’s look at a couple ways people hurt their business waiting on the marketing funnel.

Waiting for Slower Times

Something I see very troubling in many businesses is that they hold off on their marketing until that biggest bulk of their current sales funnel comes through before they think it is time to get busy marketing. Instead of keeping the funnel full and adding more to it, they wait and see how things come through the funnel before they take action and push the “go” button.

This happens for a couple reasons. One excuse I sometimes hear is that the business is so busy they don’t have time to look forward to the next big rush of customers coming through the funnel. When they are not too busy, they cannot afford to market the business properly. So they go through these violent changes in business … up one day, down the next. The business is like a roller coaster ride.

Being “too busy” is as bad as the lie a teenage boy tells his girlfriend in the back seat of the car … at night … at a scenic overlook. Yeah, lie to a girlfriend, but don’t lie to me. I already heard this one.

Everybody has the same 24 hours in a day, and successful business people make time to be sure their business will still survive after the funnel slows down again. When I hear people say they are too busy to care for their future, I often find that they are simply not marketing in a way that is sustainable. They are the same kind who run a big special when they need more business, and they will have to do it again in a few months or weeks. They often waste a ton of money by marketing in this way, and die early from all of the stress it causes.

A better answer is to create a steady flow of business and make the peaks and valleys smoother. Scheduling is easier, accounting is easier, and production is easier. Everything becomes much more profitable and enjoyable with a sustained marketing plan instead of acting from urgency.

NOTE: This kind of business person commonly lies about their business health. They say they are busy, but it is often because they are busy trying to pay back all of the debt they created the last time the funnel went dry. This is sadly a very common approach taken by small business owners.

Waiting for Better Times

I am often reminded of something my mother told me many years ago. She said “Mark, if you wait until you are ready to have kids, you will never be a father.” I am glad I heard her advice, because today I have three children that bring huge amounts of joy to my life, and the lives of many others.

I think of this as the person who is just waiting for a big windfall to come. They have it all mixed up by believing they will be ready to market their business after they gain enough business to afford a marketing plan. They have placed the money cart in front of the marketing horse. It is a very hopeful person who really believes in their business, but just not quite enough to take the necessary risks to make it successful.

I usually find these people to be very energetic and hopeful. They are refreshing, because they come with the positivity of a child. They also often come with the budget of a child, but if you talk to them in six months or a year, all of that will be miraculously sorted out and they will be ready to push the go button then.

The harshest reality for this person is how much time and money they wasted by doing what they thought would minimize their risk. The worst risk for them of all was inaction. Not doing what they should have done has cost them dearly, both in actual loss and in opportunity loss.

I will hear from this person again, in their next venture. They will be ready to get their marketing plan started in another six months or a year.

Assumptions and Fears About Marketing

I watch a lot of people make assumptions about marketing, and they bolster those assumptions with fear. Call it fear, apprehension, diligence, or whatever you like. Waiting around and thinking about it until it paralyzes your business is not the answer. Taking action and being brave in your decisions is in order.

I have heard a lot of stories, and one I have heard a lot is “Oh, but you must be so expensive.” Here is something to think about: The expensive thing about marketing is trying to make more money without it. Thomas Jefferson said it well with this statement: “The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.” The reality is that marketing is what keeps your funnel full and makes businesses more money … not less.

I guess I could consider it kind of flattering when somebody looks at my experience and my marketing talent and makes the assumption that I must be extremely expensive. Wow, if I can make myself seem that valuable, don’t you wonder what happens to the value of your products or services when you push the go button?

I Gave You a Go Button!

I could go on a long time about the mistakes businesses make in their marketing considerations. The worst and most costly of all is to do nothing and wait on that marketing funnel to start pouring out the results without action on your part.

You have my permission to be successful in your business. In fact, you have my encouragement. There really is no better time, and things will not just better on their own. Go ahead and push the go button … Do it NOW!

How To Market SEO and Vertical Internet Marketing

Here are some delicious tater chips for your enjoyment. Many SEO / Internet marketing and non-SEO people alike took notice of my recent article on how to sell SEO (and compare SEO). It is a pretty important topic for anybody hoping to do more business using the Internet. So, I thought I would write a piece on how to market SEO, but as before, this is not just for the SEO and Internet marketing folks. Whether you sell SEO services, fishing lures, or potato chips, this article can help you, too.

Don’t get confused just yet if you are not in the fields of sales or marketing. This should help to get your thoughts in the right place, too.

Sales and Marketing Are Not The Same!

I want to get this point clear first. Sales and marketing are so often intertwined that some people just look at them as the same thing. Please pay close attention. Sales and Marketing are not the same thing!

People in the fields of sales and marketing often realize this, but even they will get this mixed up a lot of times. Sure, the two disciplines of selling and marketing both have the similar focus of driving more dollars into your pocket with super-fantastic return on investment (you know, ROI). If you seek the definitions in many places, you may even find these two terms to be very similar. The truth is that they are different … they are vertical, but not the same. I can tell you that many salespeople know a similar amount about marketing analytics as their marketing counterpart knows about being bitten by that dog that answered the door on the last sales call.

Some people have called me a great salesman. They clearly missed something, because I actually kind of stink as a salesman in some ways. I give them the proof they want, but I am not about to grovel to the lowest bidder … that is just not my style. If I have to ask somebody to buy what I do, I consider it a failure in my marketing. This is because if the marketing is done right, the sale should be nothing but the fun part. Really, if somebody wants a big sales pitch, I just tell them to get a pen handy so I can have them call some of my customers … or even better, read more of my blog.

So argue if you must (that is why I allow your comments), but let us look at this as Internet sales being when somebody clicks your “buy” button or rings your phone, while marketing involves the sequence of events that led up to that wonderful (huge beam of light coming from the sky and angels singing) click that made your cash register ding.

Vertical Market? Guard your Wallet!

I do not like those industry terms people toss around just to sound smart or to throw the customer off long enough to grab their wallet. I have made fun of this in the past, because it is often designed to obscure the message just enough to distract a smart and hard working person who just doesn’t have a reason to know everything about cytology, acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, or how to bring more customers to their business.

If you are not a marketing person, you may not understand a vertical market compared to a horizontal market, or a skazmodic market. OK, I made that last one (skazmodic) up just for fun. You are not expected to know everything about marketing. Seriously, nobody knows everything about marketing, and the majority of the world’s population has another discipline to focus on. Should a dentist know as much about marketing as a marketer knows about dentistry? Not at all, but I can tell you that either of them is just as important in whether you eat or not. Without good marketing, most of what you know in this world would look a whole lot different.

So you may ask, what is a vertical market? Let me break the term “vertical market” down for you. If you are selling fishing lures, it is a vertical of fishing supplies, which is a vertical of outdoor sports. Other vertical markets are camping supplies, and hunting, but fishing lures will probably never be a part of aircraft repair (and if so, please choose a different airline).

Wikipedia includes the description of a vertical market as follows:

“The activities of participants within any given vertical market are typically similar in that they aim at solving the same or similar problems. These markets are typically competitive, due to the overlapping focuses of the products and services that are provided to the customers.”

Love Your Vertical Market … I Do!

In the SEO profession or in any market, I suggest falling in love with your vertical market. Get to know this market and it will not take very long to realize that your vertical market is chock full of mutually-beneficial assets. With this considered I use SEO as my example. Surely you can see how SEO is a vertical of website design, web development, web hosting, technology, marketing, advertising, and more. These are markets for the SEO professional to consider as their friends. Yes, vertical markets are your friends! Do not mistake this, because if you do it will hurt your bottom line whether you sell SEO / Internet marketing, fishing lures, or potato chips.

Any marketer worth the water they are made of should be highly aware of the vertical markets of their clients. Sadly for marketers, as so many marketers seem to be fighting for the same dollars, they forget about their own vertical market. For example, I am a search engine optimizer (SEO), but if you think that means I do not work very closely with other SEO, you must think I am totally stupid. These folks are my closest allies, and often my best clients. That is because as with any industry, we each have specific skills and when we put those skills together, we get a whole lot more accomplished. Digg.com is really not a huge piece of my own personal work, but you can bet that I know a whole bunch of people to who leverage it massively. On the other hand, I have somewhat of a whacky way of producing content with massive appeal. I mean, I produce really great results with things I come up with after a gallon of coffee and a pack of cigarettes. I do all of the things an SEO does. I create content, I am a programmer of about every known language, I have wicked skills with incoming link production, I am highly active in a squillion social media venues, I write for a good handful of blogs, and so many other things. So am I out to grab up the whole market by myself? Heck no! Not at all, because the more meat on the bone for those friendly competitors, the more food is on my table, too.

This, my friends, is vertical marketing at its best. Never think you are so amazing that you should try to do it all by yourself. The best SEO people know where their marketing talent lies, just the way the heart surgeon knows that he doesn’t want to perform vasectomies.

Horizontal Market … Oh, Beautiful Sunrise!

If the sun rises with your horizontal market, there are still some pretty huge things to consider. If you are trying to sell your product or service to anybody and everybody, you do so at your own demise. Trust me … no wait … I hate that term, because it implies that I have been lying to you all along. Don’t trust me … just go find out for yourself how miserably you will fail at trying to reach the hundreds of millions of people who desperately need what you offer if you can just tell them all about it. Let me know how that went after you spend hundreds of squillions of dollars on that campaign. Just be sure you set a couple squillion aside for when you are ready to do it the right way.

Consider the massive potential customer base of a potato chip company. They must have a really easy marketing plan. All they have to do is tell everybody who eats potato chips how good their product is, right? Wrong! If this was the case, you would probably never see a potato chip company advertising that their product is fat-free, in earth-friendly packaging, cheesier than the rest, low salt, in a nice can so the chips don’t get broken, or any of the other things that segment their market based on targeted desires.

To the SEO / Internet marketing people reading this:
Let’s think about that vertical market and start working together.

To the rest of you:
Call me right now so I can get my vertical market to talking about targeted reasons that your potato chips taste so amazing.

Wow, did you see that coming? I have something that anybody with something to market needs, but I am calling my vertical market to action. It is fancy how that works, isn’t it?