Internet Marketing; There Is A Right Way
I got into internet marketing back in 2003. Like most of my ilk I was tempted not by the riches, but by the perceived better way of living. Setting my own hours and full automation is what appealed to me. I started with the old “Google Cash” business model. Promoting other peoples products on a commission basis using pay per click (PPC) advertising.
I was quite successful at this in the beginning and then had the pleasure of watching the market flood with new entrants, all doing the same thing, forcing keyword bids up. I also had the pleasure of watching Google continue to refine their rules to make their search engine perform better, often at the expense of affiliate marketers. I watched and modified my approach until the time required to exist in the market, was no longer compensated by a justifiable remuneration.
So I left the “Google Cash” method of internet marketing and started putting websites together, focusing on content and search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. I basically learned everything there is to know. That which I learned, I applied to my websites and watched them succeed. Today I still run half a dozen of my own websites. One promotes my own product in the tourism industry, the others either sell affiliate based products or advertising space. All are successful in their own right.
Over the 6 years I have been active in internet marketing, I have picked up quite a few clients who wanted help with their web presence. I never promoted this service, they all came to me on referral or by word of mouth. They all had two things in common. Firstly they wanted a website that sold their product. Secondly they had been ripped off by an unethical internet marketer who took their money and left them with a website that didn’t work.
These clients of mine all had a pretty negative view of the internet industry when they came to me. Unfortunately they’d all been ripped off by one operator or another. That’s the problem with our industry though, its unregulated and we are all, by and large, self taught. There is no standard of quality, this lets the poorly skilled earn while their clients suffer.
These charlatans contact me every week trying to sell their services. I can see clearly their modus operendi. They base all their actions on the fact that most business owners are pretty ignorant when it comes to the internet. Therefore, a few nice graphs and some confusing industry jargon is all they offer and expect it to be enough to make a sale. This is despite their general lack of substance when it comes to delivery.
My tourism service is a great example. Its a tiny little operation on Australia’s Gold Coast, we hire surfboards to tourists. Do a search on “Gold Coast Surfboard Hire” or the less specific “Surfboard Hire”, I’m pretty easy to find. My business is Gold Coast Surfboards. As you can see in the search results, its a well optimized website for the relevant terms to the business.
Despite this I get the so called “professionals” writing to me every week trying to sell me their SEO services. “We can put your business on steroids” they tell me, getting you on the first page of Google on such terms as “Surf Board Accessories” and “Holiday Rentals”.
You can see exactly what they do. They find a small business website with the assumption they will know more about the internet than the websites owner. (He after all will be busy running his business) They will look at the main products and then trawl through Google to find a search phrase that the website doesn’t compete well with. Then they try and scare the business owner into signing up for their services.
This sort of thing really scares me. It makes me realize that there are people in my industry who manipulate our clients to make a quick buck. They are quite happy to modify a website to attract irrelevant traffic in order to make some money, with little care of the damage this does to the customer’s business. To embellish, if I had have listened to these hard selling con men, my website would either be attracting lots of people who needed surfboard wax or fins, or in the Holiday Rentals case, people who are looking for hire cars or accommodation at goodness knows which destination. One thing is for certain, people visiting the Gold Coast would not be hiring my surfboards.
Here’s some advice if you are in a business which has internet professionals hard selling their services to you. Think about the phrases your clients use when they search for your services. Ask them what they’d type into Google. Have an understanding of this and then reject outright the approaches from operators who tell you they will optimize your website on Google for different search phrases. These people are selling you services that will not add value to your business, services which may damage the good work you have already done on your website.
If you are thinking about doing some work to your website but do not know where to start, ask around. The really good operators work on reputation and do little self promotion. When you do this though, be clear that you are looking for an internet marketer, not a designer or developer. Its one thing to make a masterpiece for the internet like many graphic designers do, but a whole new kettle of fish putting it where all your clients can find it.
And to all the shonky operators in our wonderful industry, please make an effort to bring some standard of ethics into your operation. You need to stop selling for the sake of sales and start selling to add real value. If you can add real value to a potential client’s business, great, please do so. Its so nice when businesses speak highly of the internet marketing industry. If you can’t add value to them though, leave them alone. They are better off without you.
Damian Papworth, appalled by the lack of ethics in internet marketing, promotes ethics before profits. Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.
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