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As business owners, bloggers and/or search marketers, we all go through pain staking efforts to get qualified traffic to our websites from the SERPS, Paid search and our various social media outlets. However all this effort and hard work may be in vain if our users are not able to easily fill out our contact form(s). Sure the CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) or as I like to call it CPA (Complete Pain in the A**) is intended to solve a valid business problem, but at what cost? Should we really make customers/prospects work this hard to contact us? Not to mention by using a CAPTCHA you will be alienating multiple groups with disabilities i.e. blind people and people with dyslexia.

I have asked five of my friends who I consider to be authority figures in the area of search marketing, SEO, design and usability the following question:

What is your opinion regarding CAPTCHAs on contact forms as they relate to web conversions and accessibility/usability?

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I want to thank everyone for your patience. I am currently on vacation dancing with Santa’s elves in the north pole. We will be back to business as usual shortly. Thanks again.

Technorati Tags: Gerald Weber, dancing with elves

This is my good friend Sheena Melwani’s version of All I want for Christmas originally by Mariah Carey. I refer to her first as my friend however Search Engine Marketing Group did have the honor of putting together her blog. If you like this song I hope you will check out the rest of her music at SheenaMelwani.com 7 Million viewers on youtube can’t be wrong! Happy Holidays!

Technorati Tags: sheena melwani, all I want for Christmas, Mariah Carey

When you think of Twitter, you probably think of a microblogging tool that helps you connect with friends across the world. But not every Tweeter uses their account just to chat back and forth with their online friends. Some have come up with truly creative ways to use their account.

What follows is a list of the 10 most creative uses of Twitter I’ve seen.
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Many people became successful from the “first wave” of internet businesses. But a whole new wave of opportunity has just begun to flow, and early-adopters of the newest technology and Web 2.0 have got an incredible opportunity to reach the heights of professional and financial success.

People around the country – and in many developed countries – are rebounding from the lack of ‘community’ that has occurred over the last generation. This has resulted in an explosion of online networking communities. Originally begun in the form of message boards or forums, they now abound, and while the big players (social sites such as MySpace, Facebook, etc., and business sites such as Linked In, Ecademy, Fast Pitch, etc.) are very established, there is still ample opportunity – and easily accessed technology – for new communities to be built for profit.

What many people do not realize is the complete ease at which they can start their own “niche” online networking community as a revenue-generating enterprise, thanks to the proliferation of user-friendly platforms for business owners now available at a fraction of the price of the need to hire a software developer or team (which for a long time was the only option).

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(photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid)

As regular readers will probably remember, Gerald made a post at the end of October that was titled 5 Social Media Sites That You Must Explore. In this post, Gerald provided an overview of five popular social media sites (Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Technorati and Plaxo). In addition to discussing all five of these websites, Gerald also promised that a detailed look at each one would eventually be published on this blog.

Since my personal favorite out of these five websites is StumbleUpon, I thought that I would kick off the series of five detailed posts with a look at why you should start stumbling today (if you haven’t already).

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Of all the topics that are discussed within the SEO blogosphere, one of the topics that creates the most controversy and disagreement is that of duplicate content. I think one of the reasons that there are so many different viewpoints surrounding this issue is because there are multiple ways that people define the phrase “duplicate content.”

Since I always believe in going straight to the source, let’s find out what Google has to say about duplicate content. According to Google, “Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar.” Now that we have Google’s definition of duplicate content, let’s look at what they have to say on the issue of how it can impact a website’s ranking:

“Mostly, this is not deceptive in origin.”

“However, in some cases, content is deliberately duplicated across domains in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings or win more traffic. Deceptive practices like this can result in a poor user experience, when a visitor sees substantially the same content repeated within a set of search results.”

“Duplicate content on a site is not grounds for action on that site unless it appears that the intent of the duplicate content is to be deceptive and manipulate search engine results.”

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The success of your Internet marketing efforts boils down to one thing—how good is your copywriting? It doesn’t matter how much you promote your site. If the copy doesn’t connect with readers, you’ll never get the sales you desire.

So, what makes great copywriting? Here are 10 rules the best online copywriters follow.

1. Keywords aren’t Everything- Obviously, it’s important to optimize your copy for relevant keywords to ensure you get high search engine placement. However, keywords aren’t the most important part of your copy. They might be the gateway that brings visitors to your site, but if your copy is stuffed with keywords, your conversion rate will suffer. Always remember your human readers, and never place the search engine’s needs above theirs.

2. Scanner-Friendly is a Must- Numerous eye-tracking studies show that website visitors tend to scan content rather than fully reading it. What does this mean for your website? It means your copy needs to accommodate their scanning habits. This means you should use plenty of whitespace, keep your paragraphs brief, and use bold headings throughout. This will help the scanners grasp the main points from your content quickly and easily.

3. Compelling Headlines are Essential- The best copywriters know that a great headline is one of the most important facets of any online copy. Your headline needs to sell a benefit or connect with the reader in some other way. A simple keyword phrase won’t do the trick. This is your chance to grab the attention of your website visitors. Make it count.

4. Content Must Reinforce Headline- Once you come up with a great headline, you need to make sure your content reinforces it. If your headline mentions a specific benefit, follow up on that by discussing it in your copy. In other words, don’t trick your readers by using a catchy headline and then talk about something completely different in your copy.

5. Converse with the Reader- To me, conversational copy is perfectly suited for the web. The internet is a social medium, so it only makes sense that your copy should feel personal to your readers. Remember, consumers are more wary when purchasing from companies online. Conversational copy that’s free of gimmicks helps them gain trust in your company. How?  By making it seem like they’re interacting with a real person who understands their needs.

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Although the economy is obviously not in the best condition right now, the holiday season is upon us, and while people might not be spending as much money this year as they have in previous years, people are still going to spend money on presents for their loved ones.
Since you are smart enough to spend your valuable time reading this blog, if you are a small business owner, I’m going to assume that you have a website for your small business.  If this assumption is correct, I want to say congratulations, because you have a huge advantage over many of your competitors.  While it seems obvious to me and everyone else who is involved in the Internet marketing industry, a large percentage of small businesses still don’t have websites (and even fewer have properly optimized online presences).

So, because we know people are using the Internet to shop for Christmas presents, and you have a website that you want to use to attract more customers for your small business, what’s the single most effective way to accomplish this goal?  Not only is there a single method that is truly the most effective, but it is a simple, seven letter word: coupons.

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Leads, leads, leads! Closing sales is all about the quality of the leads you acquire and how many of them you have.

In all my years of hiring, training, coaching and firing sales people, I’ve seen entry level sales people set company records and perennial quota busters crash and burn based on the leads they’re chasing.

In most businesses, sales leads come from at least two or three sources. Unfortunately, most sales people treat all leads the same.

That simple fact can be killing your sales reps and holding your company back from even greater heights.

All leads are not the same. Obviously, referrals from existing clients are more valuable in general than a name from the list of folks that signed up to win the free drawing in your trade show booth.

But what about a lead from your website? In many businesses where people visiting your site and filling out a form requesting info is not the most common source of leads, these “web leads” are treated as less valuable by the sales team. That’s in part due to the fact that a sales person will have more invested in obtaining a referral from their current client.

A web lead is actually one of the most valuable leads you could ever have in several ways!

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In my 17 years as a newspaper reporter, I can not even count how many times an editor had me go through stacks of press releases that were faxed to us, to see if there was anything worth printing. Usually the answer was no.

Obviously every single person who sends a press release hopes their press release is worth running in the newspaper.

Most of them get it dead wrong. And 99 percent of them end up in what we call “The Round File” - otherwise known as the garbage can. Which means the press release writer wasted their time and money faxing their press release to us.

Here are some ways to make your press release newsworthy and figure out if a particular media outlet would be interested in your story:

1. If it’s a small local paper, radio station, or TV station, they are looking for local news. If you self-published a book or just created a new product that you want to market…you need to find a local angle or the media will not be interested. If you live in town, that can be a local angle. If there is no local angle you are likely wasting your time and paper sending the press release to them. Blasting your press release to every media outlet in the country isn’t going to increase the chances that it will get published.
2. Come up with a charitable angle - donate 20 percent of your sales to a particular charity in your town, or some variation of this. Let all of the local media in your town know.

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So, you’re starting a company blog, and you want to know how to get the most out of it. If you’re new to the blogosphere, the first thing you need to understand are the mistakes many others often make. By learning from others’ mistakes, you can avoid them and have a more successful blog.
Here are 7 deadly blogging mistakes to learn from.

1. Ignoring SEO- While you don’t want to turn your blog into a bunch of keyword-stuffed filler content, you also don’t want to completely ignore SEO. Remember, the search engines crave fresh content because they want their search results to be as relevant as possible. By optimizing your posts for relevant keywords, you increase your chances of grabbing high search engine placement.

2. No Personality- The internet is brimming with blogs. There are over 100 million of them. How can you separate yourself from the pack? The best way is to use your personality. Blog posts aren’t like typical articles. What makes blogging so popular is the interactivity of it. That’s why you need to showcase your personality—to connect with readers. If you can connect with your audience, they’ll be likelier to continue coming back and to comment regularly on your posts.

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If you read Internet marketing and SEO blogs on a regular basis, you undoubtedly come across posts about free SEO tools quite often.  While there are a lot of great free tools on the Internet for SEOs, I have recently noticed that almost all of these posts profile the same core set of free tools (such as SEO for Firefox).  Since you most likely already use the most popular free SEO tools, I want to look at five SEO tools today that are very useful, but simply don’t get as much attention as they deserve:

Google Insights Bookmarklet: While Google Insights can provide very valuable keyword information, you can waste a lot of time switching from one window to another window in order to use Google Insights.  To eliminate the need toswitch browser windows , add the Google Insights Bookmarklet to your browser, and anytime you are browsing one of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo or Live), you can instantly access the Insights data for the keyword you were searching with a single click of the bookmarklet.

Social Media Metrics Greasemonkey Plugin for Google Analytics: I know I’m not alone when I say that Google Analytics is one of my favorite analytics packages.  Although it’s not perfect, this package can provide you with a significant amount of very useful information.  In addition to the information that is already provided, you can increase the data you have at your fingertips by installing the Social Media Metrics Greasemonkey Plugin.  As you can see from the screenshot above, this plugin not only adds data for content from all of the major social media websites, but it also adds Yahoo’s backlink data directly for you to see.

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Getting Google’s view of your website and diagnosing potential problem areas

I have personally been using Google webmaster tools for only a couple of years now, however I could not imagine my life/career as an SEO professional without it now. For those of you who don’t currently use Google webmaster tools you should start right away. You can go here www.google.com/webmasters/tools and simply sign in with your Google account.

What is Google webmaster tools?

Google Webmaster tools is a very powerful tool that was created by Google a few years ago in response to popular demand of many webmasters wanting a better way to become more “Google Friendly”. Google webmaster tools can help you get a great deal of feedback from Google regarding how Google robots view and index your site as well as assisting you in diagnosing potential problem areas in your site.
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What’s web 2.0? According to an old joke, for a site to be a web 2.0 startup, it needs to be in beta and have a strange hard-to-pronounce name. With hundreds of so-called web 2.0 startups popping up daily, this joke actually describes the reality. But not everything is that bad. There are still new projects that do have so