James Burchill » Internet Marketing

Research Brief: Six in Ten American Adults Online Wirelessly

James Burchill — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:07:33 +0000

Six in Ten American Adults Online Wirelessly

According to the findings of a daily tracking survey on Americans’ use of the Internet by Princeton Survey Research Associates International for the Pew American Internet and American Life Project, six-in-ten American adults are now wireless internet users, and mobile data applications have grown more popular over the last year.

The definition of a wireless internet user includes the following activities:

Going online with a laptop using a wi-fi connection or mobile broadband card. Roughly half of all adults (47%) go online in this way, up from the 39% who did so at a similar point in 2009.

Use of the internet, email or instant messaging on a cell phone. Two-in-five adults (40%) do at least one of these using a mobile device, an increase from the 32% of adults who did so in 2009.

Taken together, 59% of American adults now go online wirelessly using either a laptop or cell phone, an increase over the 51% of Americans who did so at a similar point in 2009.

Fascinating huh?

Social Media Public Speakers: How to Choose the Right One

James Burchill — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:09:24 +0000

Social media public speakers, and Internet marketing public speakers are in high demand today.

You can’t have a conversation with a friend, open a magazine, or turn on the TV or radio without hearing about the next best thing online. Sadly, it does not take much to announce yourself as a social media public speaker.

This is where it becomes challenging for event planners to select and choose an appropriate professional. An experienced public speaker is one thing — but I would argue in today’s changing landscape you also need a professional who has street smarts and actual ‘real world’ experience in the world of social media and Internet marketing.

But how does an event planner actually choose?

Well it is not as hard as you might think. The irony here is a social media public speaker (if they walk the walk and talk the talk) can very easily be evaluated. You simply need to Google them. If this business speaker is worth their salt, then you should easily find them actively engaged on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and their own website and blog.

There should be educational and informational articles about the subject matter, there should be video and audio of them, pictures even. And best of all… there should be proof they’ve spoken successfully on this subject before.

What you don’t want is a polished professional speaker who is all flash and no substance.

The hot topics of social media and Internet marketing (along with your audience) demand your seminar speaker has ‘got the goods’ and really can provide feedback, information, and direction on this exciting and evolving topic.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been to a presentation or business seminar — and while I’ve been impressed with “look” of the speaker — I’ve lamented the lack of substance delivered. That’s just not acceptable in today’s demanding markets.

Remember, diamonds are expensive because they’re rare and finding a social media or Internet marketing public speaker who has a mixture of quality current material to deliver, combined with a natural talent and easy nature at the front of a room is not easy… but it is possible.

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JAMES BURCHILL is a professional internet marketing and social media public speaker for hire. He currently divides his time between consulting with select clients, training and public speaking. His keynote presentations and seminars are both engaging and educational and audiences rave about James’ materials and presentation style. Read about James for more information on this unique seminar speaker.

Affordable Local SEO – Fact or Fiction?

James Burchill — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:38:18 +0000

Affordable Local SEO Experts

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Internet Marketing are evolving. Every day more and more websites appear on the Internet touting their wares. Each month, advertisers commit more and more resources to the new frontier of online or Internet Marketing. Certain directories and other ‘classic’ information sources are losing ground – and losing it rapidly as this new medium picks up speed.

– What can be done? Plenty actually…if you know what to do. But first…

It would be a gross misrepresentation if I told you that anyone can guarantee you success in the online world – no body can. In fact, if you don’t believe me then check out what Google has to say about it:

– “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.”

Beware of SEO experts claiming they can guarantee rankings, or allege a “special relationship” with Google, or advertise a “priority submit” to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or through the Google Sitemaps (Beta) program, and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.

Now, having said that no-one can guarantee you the #1 position online – what can be done for you? Well, a lot of your success on the Internet is based on contextual popularity (that’s a fancy phrase for ‘appropriate relationships or links’) Contrary to what you might think about these so called link exchange farms, simply being in some huge list will not positively affect you. Conversely, it might get you ‘booted’ from the index…

– It’s About the Quality Not the Quantity.

Of course there are ‘onsite’ search engine techniques that you might have heard of – content optimization, keyword phrase distribution, titles, tags and such – these are all relevant, but just as in life where (to some degree) your friends and associates tell the world about your character – the same is true online.

Here’s a quick analogy – which carries more credibility? 10 Trusted, highly respected friends or associates referring you to a site… Or 1,000 total strangers?

– If Content Is King, Then Context Is Queen

People use the Internet to get answers. They research products and services *before* they contact possible suppliers. They search online to find reviews and reports and they especially want to try and find out if their ultimate decision will be a good one. They use the Internet to build trust, and as you probably realize trust is an important ingredient in any sales situation.

– What has this got to do with you?

When your potential customers start searching you must be found – you can achieve this with the strategic application of content. The words on your site are key, the way the words are presented is also important (there are formulas) however it goes beyond just your website.

If you want to really start moving up in the search engines for your chosen key word phrases, you need to create a web of highly relevant and targeted content (this is where the context comes in to play). These advanced Internet Marketing strategies are not some overnight job and NO you can’t cheat – search engines are incredibly smart (and getting smarter all the time.)

And just in case you think you might know of a loophole, you should know this. The search engines take a very dim view of cheating and encourage people to ‘rat you out’ so even if you found a loophole – you run the very real risk of a competitor undermining your efforts with about 60 seconds work and one quick email…

– The Secret to Internet Success

All real value on the Internet is built through appropriate, quality content – and when you stop and think about this, you realize it’s what you want anyway.

If you sell purple widgets you want people to find your purple widget information when they search…not some other irrelevant pages that simply confuses them. This is what it means to implement quality affordable search engine optimization strategies.

Download Your Free SEO Whitepaper:

“Why Businesses Fear SEO” <– Click here

Think Backwards

James Burchill — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 21:15:25 +0000

At the tail end of last week I had a client call me and it went something like this:”Those @#%&^! have registered a new domain … using our name backwards!”

More bleeping ensued. The client (who shall remain nameless) was very upset – and rightly so. This unethical 3rd party so-and-so had used my client’s company name and simple switched the words around and nabbed a dot-com domain.

eg. ACMEWidgets.com became WidgetsACME.com

Google is already ranking this “new” site well because it’s similar to the client’s REAL NAME. And to make matters worse, the website hosted at this BOGUS DOMAIN is using the clients REAL NAME on the page copy!

The client is looking into legal action, but in the interim this will undoubtedly cause existing clients some confusion. And I know from previous conversations where others have attempted to hi-jack this client’s brand: customers get very ticked off when the quality is not what they expect… and they call my client and blame them!

The moral of this tale? Register variants of your domain name … and don’t forget the really odd ones: like your company name backwards.

Hmmm… maybe I should register BurchillJames.com ???

PS. Just did

4 Free Tools That Can Help You Get a Head Start in 2010

Twitter – 4 Years to 80 Million Users

James Burchill — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:29:48 +0000

Twitter turned four years old on March 23, 2010. In that short time the site has accumulated over 80 million active accounts. These accounts, as of this writing, have resulted in the sending and receiving of almost 10 million tweets between users. I’ve covered the benefits of micro-blogging in general and Twitter specifically in the past.

I can’t stress enough that if you are doing business online and not using Twitter, you are missing out on an instantaneous point of contact with your customers. It’s also important to note that Twitter is the world’s twelfth most popular Web site and #3 behind Facebook and YouTube in terms of social media-oriented interactions.

Logon to Using Twitter For Business and discover the power of less

Small Businesses Search For Leads With Website Video

James Burchill — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:32:50 +0000

According to the latest quarterly report from WebVisible, the average small business advertiser spent $2,149 on search advertising in Q4 2009, an increase of 30% over Q3 2009 and 111% over Q4 2008.

Video capability was the fastest-growing website feature for small business advertisers over the past year, with 19% of advertisers showing video on their websites in Q4 2009, versus just 5% in Q4 2008. The data represents nearly $22 million in U.S. small business advertisers spending in Q4 2009 from more than 12,000 individual advertisers.

Conversion rates also improved for small business advertisers, with 35.3% of clicks resulting in website conversion action, compared with 32% in Q3 2009 and 26.6% in Q4 2008. Actions are predominantly calls, and also include sending emails or SMS texts, form fills, printed driving directions or video views. The average keyword count per small business advertiser increased by 21% in Q4 2009 over Q3 2009, to an average 67 keywords.

WebVisible CEO, Kirsten Mangers, says “… these numbers show increased confidence by small businesses in using search to gain leads, and increased ability to turn those leads into sales… “

Internet Viewing Exceeds TV Time

James Burchill — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:48:52 +0000

Watch this short video about how Internet usage is now consuming more of our free time than TV!

Marketing Automation Software – The Key to Your Success

James Burchill — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:42:13 +0000

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “People buy when THEY’RE ready to buy … and NOT BEFORE!” Nearly 7 out of 10 people who say “No thanks” today will say “Yes!” inside 12 months. Let that sink in for a moment… that means you need to keep asking, or put in a more palatable way – keep following up.

But who has time? I mean it’s tedious, boring work isn’t it? Remembering to send that email, to mail that card, to call that client. Ick… and the rejection. The voicemail tag. It’s enough to make you want to run away and join the circus. But what if there was a better way? What if there was a way whereby a hundred digital hands lifted you up and did all the ‘dirty work’ so you didn’t have to?

Good news, this ‘nirvana’ exists and has done so for quite some time. Welcome to the wonderful world of marketing automation – and in this particular fairy tale: marketing automation software. Of course, in this story the tale is true. No monsters, damsels in distress and no toads to kiss. Nope, simply a case of clarity, describing the process you undertake when courting a client (marketing or selling to them) and then automating it.

Today the idea of automating marketing is not new, in fact it’s quite ‘old hat’ as solutions go. What does make it exciting are the technological advances made over the past 20 years. Today’s systems are capable of adapting and changing the flow of your messaging based on the prospects interaction with the system – that’s amazing, it’s bordering on adaptive logic!

Bottom line, if you want to increase your sales then you need to visit http://CheckoutInfusionsoft.com and if you want something a little simpler – such as sequential email follow up (no adaptive logic) then visit http://www.aweber.com

Remember, 70% of people who said no to you today will say yes within a year. Will you still be following up with them?

Social Media’s Dark Secret

James Burchill — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:21:11 +0000

I’m often asked what makes SM a success. People ask if technology makes the solution: it does, and it doesn’t. If technical skill were responsible for social success, why do geeks often have the worst social-life in school? It’s true they built the web, but the rest of the world made it social.

Successful SM sites engage visitors as active participants in the web experience. Remember, “The best tool is often not the most advanced or cleverest but the tool that’s understood and used daily.” Successful SM sites are like engines: they need a spark to get them started — and continuous content to keep running. But is that all a successful social media site needs: people, content and some cool technology?

NO. The most important factor is much older and simpler, buried deep within the shadowy past of our primitive nature. Social Media’s success is contained within something called a meme, or if you prefer a more dramatic image, a “mind virus.”

Richard Dawkins introduced the concept of the “meme” and “memetics” in his book ‘The Selfish Gene’ referring to the imitative process whereby humans transmit ideas, values, beliefs, and practices to each other. The memes that catch on are conditioned by repetition and continued by subsequent generations.

Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by a process similar to how an infection spreads – ergo a mind virus.

The most successful social sites leverage our oldest, most ancient memes as well as our newest, and this allows us to embrace these darker, base natures in a socially acceptable, and even productive fashion. Consider how many social sites pander to aspects of our nature — that as children we were discouraged from participating in: gossiping, time-wasting, forming cliques and more.

I’m not saying all social sites succeed because we want to express our darker nature, but the sites that gained the most traction and momentum have done so by allowing us free rein over our basic human nature…

Something to consider isn’t it?

Google Threatens To Kill You

James Burchill — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:42:45 +0000

This shocking video has been released showing Google’s real intentions towards us!