Join us in The City - 12th April for our next Business Books Club

On Wednesday 12th January 2011 The Hothive and Weboptimiser were delighted to host and launch the Business Books Club at the very prestigious halls of The Worshipful Co of Stationers & Newspaper Makers. I write with news of our next event.

Business book authors Neil Ghandi and Jane Gunn providing an entertaining summary of their views on business. Neil Ghandi is the author of Born Global, a book that features Weboptimiser and our work very heavily. Whilst Jane Gunn discussed her work: How to Beat Bedlam in the Boardroom and Boredom in the Bedroom: A Life-Changing Guide to Happiness at Work and Home. View recorded highlights here: http://www.businessbooksclub.com/events-3/

The main principal behind the Business Books Club is to bring together all types of book readers, from obsessive bookworms to occasional ones, in person or on our social networking website.

We promised a series of events for authors and readers to meet and exchange views and ideas. The next event, following the success of the launch event will be at a City Zone event in the City of London, at Corney & Barrow, Lime Street, 25 Fenchurch Avenue, London EC3M 7DQ on Tuesday 12th April 2011 6.30pm to 9.00pm. http://www.corney-barrow.co.uk/BARS/limestreet.html

We have invited Lawson Muncaster who is the founder of the City AM newspaper to be the main speaker.

There will also be an opportunity to create a short video interview with City Success Brand personal branding and for those who have not yet written a book, a fast way of having a chapter in one. Karen Swinden of TheHothiveBooks will be there to introduce authors, business leaders and future authors.

Act fast, there are only 20 free places available. http://directorbar12april2011.eventbrite.com/?discount=Businessbookclub

Is your business positioned for success in this downturn?

Yesterday I sent an email out to introduce a new video I produced on Positioning, and I was very pleased with the response.

We all seem to know what Positioning is, yet it seems that there is precious little information about it.

When I came to think about it I realised what was out there did not really explain what it meant or its importance to online business.

An Ad in Marketing Week came out yesterday and that brought more people. It seems like I have struck a chord.

Go view the video here to discover: How to avoid online marketing mistakes

Facebook drops FBML

SEO Checklist

Our SEO Checklist has been well received by our clients and has developed over the years. We are pleased to say that we have kept it simple - it lists all of the steps necessary for good SEO. The checklist is for everyone, whether you are just starting out or if you are seasoned marketer. You will be able to use it to make sure that the processes you employ are being employed.

The sadest and possibly most destructive thing in SEO is when clients are not sold enough, whilst believing that they have all they need, resulting in an inevitable conclusion that SEO does not work.

Now you can cut through and see at a glance exactly what is necessary. Once and for all our SEO Checklist blows away the smoke and mirrors that is inherent within the search engine marketing industry and you can download it for free, from the video.

A rant. Grrr... and some irony!

BEGIN RANT:
 
I don't know about you, but I'am pretty burned out with all the product launches going on.
 
...Which is funny coming from ME since I'm one of the guys who puts stuff out from time to time!
 
I know, I know ...irony.
 
But like I said in the State Of The Internet Address, product launches are a BONUS to your business... they are NOT an ongoing business model.
 
(I actually stole that quote from Rich Schefren & Frank Kern. Don't tell them I have modified it for my own use.) By the way this whole piece was modified from an email I got from Frank Kern. Since I met him and he didnt talk to me I reckon he is nice guy and wouldn't mind. He did draw a picture of a very large phallic symbol when I was with him though. Don't think it was aimed at me personally.

But I also found something similar in a book by Dan Kennedy called Make em laugh and take their money (not the phallic symbol - different kind of book, one with words).
 
Anyway - here's the deal.
 
Launches are awesome, but if you do them every week ...you'll burn out your market. You won't be cool any more.
 
You'll be like the car dealer that has a "Super Sale" every weekend. You are not a car dealer are you?

Anyway - I'm ranting right now because it's important to YOU that YOU build a funnel of fresh leads and prospects that come into your sales process every day ...predictably.
 
And then YOU build a conversion process that turns them into customers ...predictably.
 
THEN do a launch or two a year and you'll clean up.
 
But if you do the ol' "Launch Of The Month" routine, you'll see diminishing returns.
 
So ...what shall we do now?

Well, I'm actually not selling anything, no really I am not selling anything at all. Nothing is for sale. I have sold out anyway, couldnt possibly sell any more. So much that I am giving stuff away, lots of stuff.

You can see me giving away in a video that I appear in, where I was interviewed by someone famous, someone who you could say I have admired since I was a child. - He is that old and I have been doing what I do for that long! His name is Brian Tracy, my name, is well, David White. You knew that already.

Arguably he's the BEST guy in the world at helping you achieve your business goals faster than ever before. He is a best selling Author too, like me. He has being doing what he does for years and years, like me too.

You can see him online, now, its free, no registration required and you will see me giving away 101 traffic ideas. It's over at David White TV.

BEGIN SUPER IRONY:
 
Here's something that's really ironic about this post.
 
I'm not going to tell you about...
 
Another ...
 
Damned ...
 
Launch.
 
I know! WTF??
 
But hear me out. There really isn't a launch, there is no launch content and nothing about any product being sold.

All I know is that I found out that you can't buy freelaunches.com but freelunches.com at the time of writing it is still available.

It's there, there for the taking - first come first served - about $10 to buy or less and you can own it. How about that, freelunches.com.

Look, I didn't even want to post this because you're probably just as burned out as I am, on all these launches and well, you might well go and buy freelunches.com. Why should I grab all the gory? This way I just get to put it out there as a brain child. Yeah sure I would like to nurture it, help things along, but more like foster, it as I am letting you go and buy it. There, someone will get a free lunch. There could be such as a thing as a free lunch afterall.

Come to think about it I got some great ideas on how you could use freelunches.com. In fact I have some ideas that I think are really impressive... So if you are the one who buys freelunches.com let me know and err, we'll do a joint venture - even though you own the url...

Hope you like the interview with Brian Tracy. Check it out we're over at David White TV 

David 

P.S. Fair warning: NOTHING IS KNOWINGLY BEING SOLD.
 
If you actually find something to buy (whatever it may be) ...Brian will not send me any money. I will not send him any money either. We will keep our money.

Anyway, he probably owes me 90 trillion bucks, from all the recommendations I have made of him over the years. But I am glad that he has that money and he is welcome to keep it.

If he does send me money, I promise to send you a life sized statue of Pamela Anderson made out of solid
gold - you will have to register for that.
 
But I doubt that will happen. I'm just telling you about this video because I am proud to be in it.

Crappy Hotels and the native American

Yesterday I changed hotels. Why because the internet connection
was too slow. How slow, well, according to the label: 256k,
I thought that was like dial up speeds.

I could not believe it. When I complained someone said yeah I
live in Silicon Valley, we invented this stuff, you have it faster in
the UK. I could not contradict.

Earlier I shot a video. It was 2.3 minutes long. It took literally 2.3
hours to upload and every site I visited whilst it was uploading
failed to load. In ways that I had not seen for a few years.

I could not skype, check my bank account or watch... anything.

We got it good in Britain! I am amazed that I have to travel so
far away just to prove that the grass is not greener and the
grass I have I should water more...

So I thought, lets change hotels. I did, I moved from a beautiful
resort tennis courts, pools, fountains, palm trees, outdoor
restaurants, beautiful views - from a resort to a hotel.

The hotel I moved to advertised high speed internet access. That
was all I wanted - and it did. When I got there suddenly I was free
again. Guess what, this is where I should have been all all along.

This week I am in the land of the free - Phoenix Arizona.

When I arrived I asked the concierge to recommend a restaurant.
He told me they would take me there if I chose somewhere within
three miles. I chose somewhere within 350ft.

I walked. It was fab.

When I returned there was the concierge and a native american
near the door.

The native American asked me where had I been? He looked like
he was spoiling for a fight, but I told him anyway. He said that was
an expensive choice. I said it was very nice. He said I must be rich,
I said to him it was like a third off, I am from the UK, that's the way
it is. He said I was rich, I said we are all rich - rich in personality.

As I entered the hotel he shouted he would be sleeping right there
on ground that was rightfuly his tonight. Yeah I thought, he is
rich in personality. He went quiet after he said his piece and I
had complimented him.

So what has this got to do with internet marketing? we deal with
real people all the time. We don't know who we are going to meet
where, when or really, under what circumstances. We don't always
know thier names, their background, their circumstance... or even
where they are going to sleep tonight.

We meet them though. We get the traffic, we buy the traffic, we
set up link bait, we optimise. Social media attracts.

But when that traffic comes and we talk to them, it is vital that
we engage. I know the native American actually walked away
happy, probably because he had said his peice and that I had
confirmed that he was indeed rich, in personality.

The concierge said Mr White, that was very enlightened.
I know he meant it.

Maybe you should have been there. I enjoyed the whole
exchange, it was cool.

Is the golden age of display advertising beckonning?

Neil Mohan VP for product management responsible for Display Advertising Products at Google and Barry Salzman MD of their Media Platforms Business, Google took centre stage and delivered the Keynote address this week at this years Mixx Conference & Expo in New York.

Neil explained that 99% of all advertisers run Display Advertising - non text. Which for a text based medium is a big change. He went on to suggest that the whole advertising ECO system is moving from the bronze age to the Golden age.

Barry Salzman went on to explain that these changes could be summed up in two words: Sexy and Smart.

In all Google make 7 predictions for display advertising in 2015. I will cover each of the seven announcements from Google during the course of next week. You can see them as they unfold, just subscribe to our YouTube account to put you in the picture.

Big Changes as Internet usage moves into even more living rooms

A Few of the Worlds biggest Internet players such as Yahoo and Apple are set to increase the online connectivity of TVs in the living room. Handheld TV controllers means that websites are going to have to become even simpler to use and communicate even more effectively than they do already.

Here is our latest Yahoo update:



Connecting more readily through creating Chemistry with other people whether it's personal, online, managerial or sales is one of James Knights iMA principles.

We all accept that you can communicate and create chemisty when you are on the same wavelength.

To help you learn about the universal language of iMA and how you can create Chemistry with everyone you meet he has recorded a Limited Edition online video series that is available to you on a complimentary basis iMA High

Outrageous SEO Suggestion

Outrageous, actionable SEO Top Tip that you can take action on immediately.



I have to some perhaps, outrageous but actionable SEO Top Tip that you can implement right away.

Let me give you my number one SEO top tip. What I say might not surprise you, but the story behind will probably save a lot of money.

So lets cut to the chase, here is my straight to the point SEO top tip: Buy SEO from dedicated, professional service providers.

Let me explain with a quick example, as there are many who do not take this advice and many therefore waste a lot of time and money.

If I asked you to add up all the numbers between 1 and 100 would you add them up one at a time? Or would you realise that if you added 1 + 100 that would equal 101, 2+99 also equals 101 3+98 and so on. Take that approach and all you need to do is simply multiply 50 by 101 and you have the answer, 5050.

That is an example of using an algorythm, a process, a system to get from A to B fast. You can imagine that since 1996 I have witnessed a lot of algorythms. That's how long I have been involved in SEO - that makes me one fo the founders of the industry.

To do SEO takes time, sometimes a lot of it, you have to learn what to do and you need to know how to do it. I know exactly how long it can take and I take pride in having personally trained people at Barclays, IBM, Reed Publishing in fact, leading brands to one man bands. But that does not take away from the fact that it takes time and energy.

I heard it said just a day or so ago that there are more SEO people in journalism than Journalists. Now, there is nothing wrong with having lots of people in your business work on SEO, if you have a lot of content to process than that is necessary.

But consider this, how will you cope with all the new media? Emerging media? Social Media? Do the same rules apply?

Well, no they dont.

And one more thing, most SEO people who change the content to make it more search engine friendly are only working on internal content. To me that is 15% of the job. Especially in competitive markets.

We work hard in areas such as Pay Per Click too, we offer 24/7 human coverage and we update client accounts every 10 minutes.

We used advanced strategies, systems and software tools from companies such as Double Click. So there is a full professional service availability here, most people get a 40% uplift when they sign up with us. That is difficult to ignore.

Here is another formula for you. I am often asked this question, how many visitors do I need to make money? Here's the answer: if you can get 2000 qualified visitors to your site per month, you can expect 1-2% to convert to sales.

It follows that if you increase the visitors, you increase sales. For most clients we are able to deliver greater than 300% return on investment.

That is what you should expect as a minimum, so do you need to waste time, when you could be making money?

But now the traffic pendulum has clearly swung and whilst Search Engine traffic is certainly out there, and its traffic is good traffic, it represents only about 20% of the total traffic.

So, yes SEO and Pay Per Click are essential elements in the mix, but for full competitive advantage you have got to consider the other media.

I know it surprises many to hear that the second largest search engine after Google is YouTube. We know how to optimise for that, with many a customer case study in our portfolio.

Then there is facebook, we do things like keyword research on Facebook because it is much more telling. How many people do you know that actually do that or even know how to do that?

You know, it feels like the clock has turned back to 1996 when I first started Weboptimiser. Just the other day, I spent just 35 pounds, for that I got 25 clicks but I also got 500,000 page views.

You too could receive more enquiries and achieve massive brand awareness for surprisingly low budgets. It is so measurable, and that is a big WOW, big value for money.

There is a whole new world happening right now and opening up right in front of us, there are opportunities not to be missed.

There's email, blog, linkedin, YouTube, Twitter, Mobile and Facebook strategies that spring to my mind that I am happy to discuss with you, but to do that you need to call me.

In the current economy it is hard to spend money on SEO and search engine marketing if it is not working for you or you don't know how it works.

It is easy to pick up the phone and ask for me, David White here at Weboptimiser, I have given you my number one top tip, so now I am going to give you my number.

Go ahead, pick up the phone and dial 0800 614421 if you are in the UK, even if it is out of hours, you can still leave a message.

I spend a lof time abroad, Scandinavia, Europe and in the US and if you want to call me from where you are, dial the International dialling code from your country plus 44, that is the code for the uk followed by 207 953 8304.

If I am away when you call, someone will call you back. Or you can visit our website, weboptimiser.com and look for the contact us page to send us an email.

Thanks for watching, give me a call, lets have a chat.

Are Google and Verizon lining us up for Premium Internet Services ?

With all the talk about the need for Net Neutrality, some companies seem to be speaking with forked tongue.



Both Google and Verizon say they support an Open Internet. Yet they seem to favour a system that charges premium rates.

In a recent PCWorld report, both of these companies are described as "wolves in sheep's clothing - they very narrowly define net neutrality, and yet leave enough built-in intricacy and double speak to leave the door wide open for industry players to interpret net neutrality to fit their needs."

Two problems with Social Media unveiled - and solved!

First up, Axl Rose of Guns N Roses suffered at the hands of a Twitter Hacker - the only real complaint was that the hacker could have been a tad more original...



Second this week was the Dislike button, more of a scam, but easy to spot and avoid. We tell you more on this video:

Conrad and I had the great pleasure of meeting up with 700+ networking professionals last week, including Dr Ivan Misner, the founder of Business Networking International.

Dr Ivan Misner was the keynote speaker at the UK BNI Members Day. Some visitors had travelled from around the world to spend a day with him, he did not disappoint.

There was a lot that he said, some of which I wrote up on my BNI chapter blog. As you will see, I cannot possibly do him justice in a few lines for what he said in a day. The blog was based on my notes and I wrote them out as I think that what he said was full of great ideas and stunningly useful.

Although camera shy Conrad and I still managed to get a photo with Dr Misner...

Dr Misner even got a mention in the Telegraph about
the latest problems in social media: Premature solicitation






Dr Misner maintains there are four types of networking and professional networkers practice all four:

• Social networking (online, Twitter, facebook etc),
  
• Professional networking (offline, like BNI),
  
• Knowledge networks (trade associations) and
  
• Casual networks (customers, friends etc).
  

Recent research proves that people who network less than 6.5 hours a week are not very successful. Yet those that do at least 6.5 hours per week achieve much more. Mystery solved!

If you are interested in generating more business, drop me a line I would be glad to invite you to my BNI chapter in Paddington - BNI Great Western.

Otherwise checkout the BNI site Good luck with your networking, see you soon.

Crisis Charity run for the Homeless.

Weboptimiser, Lenta and many other city firms taking part in the Annual Crisis Charity run for the Homeless.

Weboptimiser - 1st in Search and Social Media

If you are looking to improve the performance of your website, we offer a free web assessment. To get yours, just drop us an email and we will have a good look at how you might take more advantage of and optimise for search engines, social media, video and mobile.

We find friends around the World and our services are available round the clock 24/7 through our central London, City office and our international offices and partners dotted aroud the World

We always love your feedback, please leave your comments below - and don't forget to register for next Tuesdays webinar. We have a brand new telephone system, so the sound quality will be as clear as a Whistle!

Register here for next Tuesday's Twitter Webinar.
See you next Tuesday...

Conrad Swailes talks about Video Optimisation with Neal Gandhi of Born Global

Conrad Swailes CEO of Weboptimiser talks with Neal Gandhi about Video Optimisation and some of the key benefits of integrating Video with search campaigns.

Love Marketing and days like Valentines Day

As you will know, it was Valentines Day on the 14th. Just last week at the Foundlings Museum near Kings Cross, London, the home of philanthropy, I was talking about Love in business and how so many brands use it in their marketing.

For some people it is obvious that they should. For instance one of our clients is Thorntons, the chocolote people and they sell chocolates every Valentines day... Mothers Day and all other Days throughout the year. They taste really good too.

For others in business focussing on Calendar events such as Valentines Day is a less obvious approach. However it is no less relevant and I hope to show you how and why that might be in the short video below. In the current climate I have always maintained that the Calendar is about the one thing that you really can rely on!

During the presentation I refer to a book written by Kevin Roberts CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi entitled Lovemarks - The Future Beyond Brands. As it was all around the loveliest day of the year it seemed most appropriate that I should refer to this, especially as the book gives some practical advice on what you should consider and use in your business. Buy the book - it is a small investment that will pay dividends.

The video basically records the highlights of the event, it puts the story across in around 18 minutes. I hope you Love it as much as I did making it.

I talk about how to make Love bankable and how to put love in your business. We all love our businesses. Our business pays the bills and keeps us warm at night. So it shocks to the core when things don't work out.

In the current climate there has been a lot of failure and difficulty. So I have looked at what we can learn from failures too and how it can help grow your business. How through loving our businesses, we can uncover rich rewards that we can use to fuel recovery.

I hope you find it enlightening enough to take action, there are no costs involved (except you should buy the book - which is a steal). This concept of Love in business encourages you to useand nurture the assets that you already have to generate more business. Buy your copy of Kevins book here: Lovemarks - The Future Beyond Brands

Share the love. Let me know what you think.

xxx

David

Getting Results with Frederique Murphy

Let us introduce you to Frederique Murphy - she is renowned for her ability to help others tune thier attitudes to produce great results. She has a ton of science, great ideas and knowledge on the subject of the influence of attitude on getting results.

She has a unique understanding on how your attitude can make the difference in getting results.

Martin Skinner - Tweetmaxi Testimonial

Martin Skinner already, he gave us a great testimonial on us to video - he has got some great results with Tweetmaxi.

On Wednesday Martin Skinner let me know I could pass on a 50% discount to followers of this blog.

Martins event provides the inside track on a number of exciting investment opportunities for IFAs, financial planners, entrepreneurs and private bankers who are interested in investment opportunities.

Paul Evans launches Simple Six

Conrad wanted to know why I was telling you about Paul Evans and his simple six program...

Well, today the Simple6 program is open, and feedback has been awesome, as you can see for yourself.

From the start-up to the seasoned veteran, people in every stage of business can knock it out with Pauls Simple6 program.

SavingDinner Launches online TV channel

In Dallas we recorded a short video with best selling author Leanne Ely of SavingDinner.com. Leanne beautifully answers the question - what is for dinner today... I feature in the launch video of her new TV website (great fun)...