Are SEO specialists just trying to pry our hard earned money out of us by beating the mantra that it is important to get top search engine ranking? Is there any evidence that search engine rank optimization makes a difference? What could be the impact of effective search engine optimization?

Website Usability Testing

In recent years, specialized research methods have been employed to assess how search engine page results are viewed. The general approach is called usability testing because it’s testing how people use the search pages. There are many approaches to usability testing, ranging from simplistic to sophisticated.

Some recent technological advances make it possible to measure and map eye movements as people observe search engine pages. This research provides valuable insight into the impact of search engine page position.

Viewing Organic Listings

A study was conducted by Eyetools, an eye tracking firm, which was commissioned by search marketing firms Enquiro and Did-it. It evaluated visual response to Google search pages.

The study demonstrated that, during a search, attention focuses on a triangular area at the top of the search results page. The triangle extends from the top of the results over the top of the first result, then down to a point on the left side at the bottom of the “above the fold” visible results. This key area was looked at by 100 percent of the participants.

On Google, this area includes top sponsored, top organic results and Google’s alternative results, including shopping, news or local suggestions.
Viewing of search results started at a high of 100% for the top organic listing and dropped to 85% at the bottom of the “above the fold” listings. It then dropped dramatically for results below the fold. It went from 50% at just below the fold to 20% at the bottom of the page.
Organic vs. Paid Listings
The research also points out that organic listings and paid ads at the top of a search page are similarly viewed by 80%-100% of users. But sponsored ads on the right side of the page in the top 4 positions are viewed by only 20%-50%. Sponsored ads in positions 5 through 8 have only 10% viewing.
Conclusions
It appears that SEO wisdom is upheld by this research. It is well worth it to apply best SEO practices to have a website ranked in the top positions because such an approach will result in more people looking at the site.
The research results also suggest that it may be more worthwhile to spend on SEO, to achieve top search engine results, rather than on pay-per-click. This would especially be the case if there is a very high price to pay for the top of page paid ad position.

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Most people who are starting out in MLM, Internet Marketing or any small business have tight budgets, but need to advertise and connect with prospects to their businesses. It would be helpful if ads could be created and tested for their effectiveness with a free online service. This would reduce the expense and risk of placing ads through various advertising media such as pay per click ads or paid classified advertising.

Fortunately, there are free online services through which test ads can be evaluated. This article points out how to advertise your business based on one such free way of testing ads. The approach combines free advertising and click tracking through a free online tool.

First, multiple versions of an advertisement should be created. Different formulations of the ad title as well as variations of the ad copy are needed.

These ads should then be placed in some media through which reactions to each ad version can be tracked.

Multiple versions of an advertisement can be placed on online classified ad sites that do not charge for the placement. There are many such sites available. But not all the free classified ad sites are the same. Some sites are more restrictive than others. Some sites may restrict the number of ads that can be placed during a specified time. Or, some sites require a lot of contact information to be filled in before placing an ad, making the task of placing ads very cumbersome and frustrating. Both of these restrictions may limit the ability to adequately test multiple versions of an ad.

There are four free classified ad sites that are user friendly and produce fairly good traffic. They are: homeworkads.com, web-free-ads.com, hotfreelist.com and inetgiant.com

The ads are almost ready to be placed on the free classified ad sites. What’s next? A method is needed for tracking how many times each version of the ad is clicked. This is usually done by creating a unique link for each ad. Each of the link versions connects to the squeeze page, website or blog that you want people to access. The main difference between the links in each ad is code built into each of them.

In addition to creating unique links for each ad version, statistics are needed that summarize the number of times the link for each of the ad versions is clicked.

There are many fee based tools that create these links and provide statistics on the number of clicks. There is one free online tool that does both of these functions very well. It is clixtrac.com

Put each unique link created by clixtrac.com into each ad. Then place the ads on the free classified advertising site(s).

The clixtrac site records each time someone clicks on the link for one of the ads. The statistics can be viewed at the clixtrac site.

Here are eight titles for ads that were tested using this approach. Which four do you think received the most clicks?

- Brand new home base business opportunity
- Looking for easy ways to make money
- Let the best home business work for you
- Automatic wealth building
- Automated system makes money for you
- Make money while doing nothing
- Afraid of starting a home business
- Brand new money making opportunity

Here are the results. The four least appealing ads were:

- Automated system makes money for you
- Looking for easy ways to make money
- Afraid of starting a home business
- Let the best home business work for you

The most effective ads were:

- Automatic wealth building
- Make money while doing nothing
- Brand new money making opportunity
- Brand new home base business opportunity

Notice how titles with similar themes produced very different results. For example, the title “automated system makes money for you” was the least appealing. But, the title “automatic wealth building” was one of the most appealing.

It would probably be difficult to predict this kind of outcome. Having real data helps make clear, less risky advertising decisions.

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Through the Web 2.0 explosion, a lot of emphasis has been placed on utilizing Facebook for making contacts and possibly generating business. However, this social networking site actively discourages the use of personal pages for business social networking practices. Facebook writes that: “Facebook profiles are intended to represent an individual person and should not be used for business purposes”.

There are other social networking sites that are more supportive of networking for the purpose of business building, but they have much fewer participants.

To support its non-business promotion policy for personal pages, Facebook actively polices member activities and will disable pages of members that act in ways that appear to be counter to this policy. Despite that fact, some well-meaning people are providing advice on the use of Facebook that could actually result in pages being suspended. Having personally experienced the suspension of a Facebook page, it seemed worthwhile to set the record straight.

Following is advice gleaned from other sources and comments based on my actual experience.
1. “Obviously you’re on Facebook to network, and in order to do that you must create a friend list. You don’t want to do this too aggressively – maybe 40-50 friend request per day.”

It is not just the number of friend requests you make, but how many are made in a short period of time. Facebook wrote: “Your account was disabled because Facebook determined that you were going too fast when sending friend requests, despite being warned to slow down, or because your friend requests were being rejected at a high rate.”

Facebook will give warnings if they determine too many requests are made in too short a period of time. Making three or four friend requests in immediate succession may result in a warning. Therefore, spread out friend requests throughout the day. Several warnings may result in disabling of a personal page.

2. “Add a personal message in your friend requests. This slows the process down some so you’re not as noticeable. I like to copy and paste messages, and add the person’s name. Oh, and ask them to respond on your profile page.”

Adding such a message does not slow down the process sufficiently to avoid warnings and then page disabling.

3. “Where to find friends. I primarily work on MLM networking, so you would think the first place to visit is any group with an interest in network marketing. Wrong! Find other entrepreneurial sites and fan pages. Less saturation there, and many of them are fellow networkers.”

Facebook looks at how many friend requests are ignored/rejected. So, you need to establish a connection with those you contact in a way that resonates with them. If you’re involved with MLM, other networkers might be more receptive to your invitation.

Alternatively, you might want to take the time to visit the Facebook page of someone you want to invite to be a friend and find common points of interest that can be written about in your invite.

4. “Video tagging. Not many people know how to use videos on Facebook, but they are the most powerful means of creating a bond. If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s a video worth? 30 seconds to introduce yourself and your personality makes you stand out in the crowd of people just typing messages. You want to be noticed, videos will do that.”

Video tagging may not be the best way to send a video. Tagging is meant to indicate who is featured in the video. Some Facebook members become upset in receiving a video where you welcome them and tag them. Members may file a complaint with Facebook about being tagged, even though this is not a policy violation, and there are ways that recipients can control whether tagging of their name appears on their page.

It may be better to send the video by the Facebook message function.

By being aware of these potential pitfalls and taking the proper precautions, you can take full advantage of the networking opportunities available through Facebook, whether for fun or profit.

There are many factors that can cause a motivated network marketer to fall short of their goals and maybe even become so frustrated with the business that they drop out and go back to a regular “job”. A good turnkey Internet business can be a great asset for them.

There are three key factors that could lead to failure. They are: 1) Lack of Prospects 2) Failure to follow through with prospects and 3) Inadequate sales ability. Each of these can be overcome by quality turnkey solutions.

A networker’s perceived lack of prospects has many sources. Some networkers worry about selling to their friends, neighbors, relatives or associates. Others find it difficult to approach total strangers when trying to apply the industry suggestion to “make contact with anyone within three feet of you”.

Then there’s the Internet marketing approach. Purchasing ads on search engines is often recommended. But most network marketers lack the finances or the ability to learn the system.

Clearly, most network marketers would appreciate turnkey solutions that generate prospects for them.

Once a network marketer has some prospects they need to keep in touch with them in order to build interest in the offering. Research shows that there is very little follow up with prospects. In fact, research indicates only about 7% of prospects are actually telephoned after providing contact information on a website. .

One follow-up approach often advocated is to use autoresponders and send email messages automatically. Research indicates that when primarily relying on autoresponders only 2% to 5% of prospects convert to sales. That is far lower than the 10% level that can be achieved with personal follow-ups.

Clearly, what would be helpful would be turnkey solutions that provide personal follow-up of prospects.

Finally, there is the issue of sales ability or training. Most people who become network marketers have not worked in sales. And, they are almost never properly trained in sales methods.

What is needed is a turnkey business that has professionally trained sales people close the sales for the struggling network marketer.

Given the foregoing, there shouldn’t be any surprise in the fact that 95% of network marketers fail. But that statistic can be changed by a quality turnkey Internet business.

What is really needed and has finally been developed are turnkey solutions that allow network marketers to make good money and be successful without being involved in marketing or selling to prospects. Such a turnkey business does the advertising to attract prospects to turnkey websites that provide information about the opportunity and gather contact information from prospects. A quality turnkey Internet business also has professionally trained salespeople follow up and close sales with prospects.

Therefore, turnkey solutions, which have only recently become available, are allowing network marketers to make money even though they may be lacking certain skills. In fact, with some systems, the network marketer can remain completely passive and uninvolved while generating income and building their primary MLM business.

An autoresponder system is an automated email marketing system that was developed to meet a pressing need of internet marketers to follow-up with prospects. They get an automatic instant reply 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Plus, automatic pre-written follow up messages can be sent as often as desired by the marketer.

Those running an online business will tell you that the “Dollars” are in the follow-ups. However, just purchasing a bunch of leads and sending them an email or two will most likely get you very little response. What is needed is continual follow-up with prospective clients over time. Statistics show that 80% of sales are made after 5 to 7 contacts with a prospective customer. The autoresponder is designed to allow that follow-up without tying up the time or activities of the marketer.

However, certain factors can reduce the impact of autoresponder messages. For example, spam is out of control, and email from autoresponders looks like spam. So, how many autoreply messages are actually seen by prospects? How many are blocked by a spam filter or lost in a sea of other automated email offers or simply deleted by recipients? When prospects first sign into a website they are especially hot to buy. Web-generated leads decrease effectiveness by over 6 times in the first hour according to InsideSales.com. So, if the email is found and read sometime later, the prospect is much less likely to buy at that point in time?

Autoresponders are actually a limited technology for generating sales. What is needed is an immediate human response to actively involve the prospect in the sales process while they are still at the website.

Autoresponder letters are for warming up a prospect, getting them to take an easy action you suggest, or to keep exposing your company information to them over time. Don’t rely on your autoresponder to replace a human voice over the phone. Calling your new prospects will ALWAYS improve your numbers. If contact is made with the lead immediately, the statistics improve when it comes to a potential sale.

Companies with an optional and free registration process commonly get 2% – 3% of visitors to register. Conversion rates (purchases made by website registrants) of 2% to 5% are fairly typical today; 10% or higher is considered remarkable.

A survey was conducted by Omniture and InsideSales.com in which they set up aliases, such as John@xyzcompany.com, and completed the lead or request information form of 700 different companies, several different times. The results indicated that:
• Average phone response time is 36 hours and 57 minutes. However, optimum phone response time should be within the first five minutes
• How many companies even responded? 7 and ½ percent responded via phone!
Even waiting one hour to respond to web-generated leads could decrease sales effectiveness by over 6 times according to InsideSales.com.

Obviously, there is a huge disaster in the making by relying on autoresponders and failing to speak to a prospect immediately when interest is at its peak.

The solution should be clear at this point. Speak to a prospect while they are viewing your website, then personally follow-up with the prospect as many as 8 times.

What if you don’t have the time to sit around and be available at that critical moment? Nor the time and fortitude to personally follow-up that often with your prospects?

There are systems available that can handle that for you. We utilize just such a system on our website and it is having a tremendous impact on our sales. A trained salesperson contacts prospects while they are still viewing the website. The salesperson follows-up with the prospect. Just as the statistics cited earlier indicate, it takes up to 8 contacts, on average, for the salesperson to close the sale on our site. The conversion rate far outperforms the typical 2 to 5 percent. The conversion rate obtained through the system we use is actually 10 percent. That’s 200% to 500% better than is typically achieved.

Feel free to experience the system on our website and learn all the benefits that can accrue to your bottom line.

Wouldn’t you want to know how all this could be possible?

For more than 6 years, my wife and I have been involved in MLM. We participated in many training programs about traditional approaches as well as attraction marketing. It was hard work. We did well, but not as well as we should have given all that we put into our efforts.

Not too long ago, we were introduced to a program that overcame many of the shortcomings that we recognized in both traditional and attraction marketing approaches as espoused by many including Mike Dillard’s Magnetic Sponsoring program.

The system is called the Automatic Business Builder (ABB). It was developed by Bob Cefail, President of InTouch Marketing. For the first time ever, we have a system that does what it says. It builds our home based business for us automatically. We can be completely passive and generate income.

Every aspect of the program is handled by the Automatic Business Builder team. The team does the following:
- Utilizes a state of the art business generation web site.
- Generates prospects that are directed to the web site through sophisticated application of pay-per-click programs
- Handles all sales activities, including all follow-up to prospects
- Up sells additional business opportunities to the paid subscribers gained through the system.
And that’s not all. ABB includes the Joint Venture Exchange. It allows ABB members to participate in revenues generated from 12 different home based businesses. There is no additional charge for participating in this program. Finally, the dream of multiple income sources and real revenue diversity is now possible for us without all the time and expense normally involved in diversifying.

The Auto Business Builder system utilizes a state of the art business generation web site. It generates prospects that are directed to the web site. The service includes a professional closing team that handles all sales activities. Lastly, it possesses a service designed to up sell additional business opportunities, as well as my primary MLM, to the paid subscribers gained through the system.

As a bonus, there is also the Joint Venture Exchange that allows me to participate in revenues generated from 12 different home businesses. The Auto Business Builder Joint Venture Exchange will be officially unveiled during the last week of November. All existing Auto Business Builder members will receive special benefits when this unique program is launched.

To learn more about Auto Business Builder go to mlmwithoutselling.com

These days, Taynor jokes about belonging to the NFL – “No Friends Left.” He can afford to laugh now. The eleventh program he bought into solved his decade-long quest to be successful and develop an Internet home based business. “I finally struck gold,” Taynor exclaimed while sitting in his Bethalto, Illinois, home. “I made one last bet and it began paying off in the first week!”

Taynor, along with thousands of other people, was attracted to a simple proposal. It is a totally passive solution that encompasses a lead generation program with list building, selling, and multiple income streams.

Most people new to a home business quickly learn that they have to be skilled in both marketing and sales in order to develop an Internet home based business. The majority isn’t, and frustration and failure follow one after the next. For years, network marketers have been searching for real solutions to these age-old problems through various lead generation programs.

The challenge in providing that service, including selling, was that there needed to be a team of extremely qualified sales professionals that could represent a wide variety of home businesses. No call center can do that. “There really wasn’t a technological solution that could effectively sell multiple programs for distributors,” Goodman explained.
Finally, after months of searching a technology that made the system possible was found. A high-tech internet-based calling system that anyone could access worldwide made it possible for top pros from around the world to handle the sales.

“These are salespeople who are not only good at selling, but who were also involved in the home business world,” said Ira Goodman.
The sales force now employed in this system is considered by many to be the best of the best. “In 30 years of sales and marketing, I’ve never experienced a team of pros who approach the quality of the folks involved with this system,” Goodman declared. “With the virtual internet calling system, sales people simply log on to any computer and the system places 100 calls an hour for each salesperson.”

When I first got involved with doing a home video post, I turned to submitter services. I heard a great deal about Tube Mogul and Traffic Geyser. But, before getting involved with either I decided to get an in-depth understanding of the services they provide.

The first step was to obtain a list of the free video hosting sites to which they submit. Below is the list of free video hosting sites used by Tube Mogul:

Blip.tv
break.com
brightcove.com
dailymotion.com
ebaumsworld.com
graspr.com
grindtv.com
howcast.com
tellytopia.com
metacafe.com
video.msn.com
MySpace.com
revver.com
sclipo.com
sevenload.com
streetfire.net
stupidvideos.com
veoh.com
videojug.com
video.Yahoo.com
YouTube.com
viddler.com
vimeo.com
5min.com
zoopy.com

Following is the list of web video hosting sites for Traffic Geyser.

adamfilms.com
motionbox.com
veoh.com
Yahoovideo.com
eyespot.com
putfile.com
viddler.com
vsocial.com
flurl.com
spike.com
Googlevideo.com
YouTube.com
blip.tv
photobucket.com
selfcast.tv
twango.com
bofunk.com
livevideo.com
pixparty.com
sharkle.com
vidilife.com
guba.com
revver.com
stickham.com
megavida.com

It is obvious that there is very little overlap in the free video hosting sites used by each company. In fact, there are only 5 sites that they both submit to: video.Yahoo.com, viddler.com, YouTube.com, blip.com and revver.com. I next wanted to experience uploading a video to each of the sites used by both companies. I am really glad I did that because it turned out that many of the sites were inappropriate for my purposes, or they weren’t functional. My conclusion after doing this research was that most of the sites being utilized by both Tube Mogul and Traffic Geyser were inappropriate for my use.

I decided that the best approach would be for me to upload my home video by myself to a limited number of sites. The list I developed contains a fraction of those sites used by Traffic Geyser and Tube Mogul, along with some additional sites that I came across. They are as follows:

5min.com
dailymotion.com
MySpace.com
livevideo.com
metacafe.com
viddler.com
video.Yahoo.com
YouTube.com
archive.org
motionbox.com
mefeedia.com

Over time, with more experience, I will probably trim this list. My conclusion from this exploration is that utilizing video submitter services might be the quick and easy route. However, it might not be as effective as doing it manually to a select group of free video file hosting sites.