Good day! Today I have decided to write an article about popular issue – is SEO so profitable and reliable to perceive it as permanent recourse of money and as a carrier in general. You may ask me why not? And you’ll be right. Today it’s difficult to image that there was the time when SEO was not a separate profession – web masters just performed some basic SEO for the sites they managed and that was all. Then the technological revolution blew up. The sites changed their destination, they spread and expanded growing and making money. Thus it became more reasonable to hire a dedicated SEO specialist than to have the web master do it. Needless to say that today the demand for skilled and experienced SEO experts is high and is constantly on the rise.

There are many living proofs that SEO is a viable business. What’s more there are many people who just make their living due to SEO and someone made a fortune.
Search engine optimization is a job that has a huge advantage – it can be combined with your current job in company and also can be practiced while working for a company or as a solo practitioner. You know that there are many job boards like Dice and Craigslist that publish SEO job advertisements. In comparison with marketers, developers and disigners many SEO expert earn much more money. Salaries over $80K per annum are not an exception for SEO jobs.
Devoting time and efforts to SEO practice you can make even more money. Almost all freelance sites have sections for SEO services and offers for $50 an hour it’s normal. If you are strong in SEO and afraid of working on your own, you can start a SEO job, learn a bit and then start your own company. There are great forums as digitalpoint and sitepoint that can be a good tutor in learning SEO.
If you already feel confident that you know a lot about SEO, you can take this quiz and see how you score. Well, don’t get disillusioned if you didn’t pass – here is a great checklist that will teach you a lot, even if you are already familiar with SEO.
Plenty of companies offer vital solutions that include Web design, Web development and SEO. In fact, many clients expect that when they hire somebody to promote their blog or site, they think that site will be SEO friendly, so if you are good both as a designer and a SEO expert, you will be a truly valuable professional.
On the other hand, many other companies are dealing with SEO only because they feel that this way they can concentrate their efforts on their major strength – SEO, so you can factor into consider this possibility as well.

The Web has changed the way companies do business. SEO has become a real mediator between marketers and advertisers, publishers and web masters, so to some extent today’s marketers and advertisers need to have at least some SEO knowledge if they want to be successful.
People who come from design, development or web administration may perceive SEO not technical enough and they even might feel that they will downgrade if they move to SEO. Don’t be so nervous about this – you can learn a LOT from SEO, so if you are a talented technician, you are not downgrading but you are actually upgrading your skills storage.

Finally, I should say some encouraging words for SEO newbies. If you need some more proof that SEO is a great career, have a look at the available courses and exams for SEO practice. Well, they might not have an international certification but still they help to institutionalize the SEO profession.
P.S. The next my post will be about ugly aspects of SEO. See you!

]]> http://businesswithoutstress.wordpress.com/2008/04/26/seo-as-a-carrier/feed/ 0 author http://businesswithoutstress.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/online-ad-against-promotional-products/ http://businesswithoutstress.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/online-ad-against-promotional-products/#comments Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:51:24 +0000 author http://businesswithoutstress.wordpress.com/?p=22 ]]>

There was the great time for offline commerce when promotional products had a great power, influence and multitude; besides they had no competition the online market that has spread dramatically so far. Currently the role of competitor is acted by the Internet (online ads, viral advertising, banners and links etc.). As a rule promotional products are frequently imprinted with a company’s name, logo, motto or message. Both online advertising and promotional products have the goal to attract people who buy the products you want to sale. Which one of these two advertising ways is dominant?

1. Banner advertising (pay per impression)

Promotional products can be compared with banner advertising. Your brand, internet address or product will be placed on an area with a fixed size of space. The pros of promotional products are the better CTR.

The user will see the trade mark of your company every time they use these products. It’s a traditional marketing manipulation but it works. This is like a banner impression at websites. Normally a user will see your banner one time when they visit a website. At promotional products they will see it always while they use it.

2. PPC – Search engine (AdWords, Bidvertiser etc.)

At the search engines you pay for each click a user makes on your ad. A small example will show you the advantage or drawback of PPC and promotional products.

It’s just simple math. A click can cost you up to a hundred dollars in the worst case. It happens rarely but happens. The average cost per click is mainly 1 to 2 dollars. When you have a monthly budget of $1000 according to statistics you will get up to 1000 unique visitors. Invest $1000 in promotional products and you will get for example 2000 pens with your logo or internet address scratched on it. Send these pens to your possible customers or give it away at trade shows. After you have done this people use the pen they will see the name of your company. From the one hand it sounds as a drivel but why not to try?

When these people one day need products you have in your online-shop they will remind of your company. If they visit your site now this can be seen as a “virtual click”. This can be up to 2000 “virtual clicks” and visitors for your site.

Pros of using promotional products:
1. The user will see your logo as long as they use it
2. High CTR and ROI (return on investment) when you give it to the right user groups (Trade shows)
3. People like to receive them

Cons:
1. The conversion rate can be low if you fail to send the products to the suitable user group 2. High investments for several expensive promotional products and campaigns

3. Risk