Friday 20 December 2013

Pros and Cons of Developing an Online Business

  Being able to start an online business does not necessarily mean you have to become and inventor. There are trends out there within Digital Marketing and all that is needed is the key skills to identify those opportunities and take advantage of 'em.

Evolving in business and achieving success does not happen over night. It takes time, resources and patience. I am not saying that, it's impossible to succeed in business within a shorter period of time but the fact is that only few businesses have witnessed such dramatic success.

A good example of a business with immediate success in less than 24hours as I can recall is a guy from Cricklade, Wiltshire, England called Alex Tew who created the Million Dollar Homepage pixel advertising platform. He made more than half a million dollars within 24hrs of lunching the business. He spotted his trend and made better use of it within that time. Online marketing has become more competitive and fierce than at the time of his success.

Did he invent pixels? No! He merely benefited off pixels by developing a unique and marketable business model.

Let's take a look at LinkedIn. This is a company that was created in 2002 and lunched in 2003. It took a few years them to gain their edge in the industry as social platform for professionals. In 2006, it had 20million viewers and as of now, it's acquired approximately 260million users in 200 countries.

This is say, that it takes time, technical know-how and resources to build up a successful and viable online business.

As a Digital Marketing student of Google Squared, we covered a topic classified as Disruption and Change where we looked at Tesco, created around the 1950s, more or less as a modern grocer at the time and how gradually it's come a long way to becoming a Top Premium Supermarket. But it's evolution has not stop yet due to the fact they are continuously learning from their successes and failures. They are growing and diversifying as time goes utilizing Digital marketing evolution and trends to their advantage. It's success is purely based on strategic business innovation and modeling.



Let's come down business. Digital marketing has come to stay in the present millennium and if you have a good business model and very serious with a good sense of direction, then, there are only a few reasons that could led you to failure provided you are not involved in a saturated business genre and a business activity without a forecast and a plan.

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than that spent doing nothing" You will make mistakes along the way but you will learn from those mistake. "The greatest mistake a man can ever make is to be afraid to make one"

Therefore to become successful online, you will need to identify a need in a specific market and have a viable product for the specific market. In other words, a good online business marketer is about finding a "niche market" and having the acumen to market it online. Reinventing and modeling is what one needs to think of. Once money starts to pour in, you can then start to look at inventing and diversifying.

A good example will be Google Ltd. In the past it was not inventing but now Google is "coming has come out from the cold". With the money it is making, it is able to invent software, build computation tools, robots and much more.

In this digital age, it's become possible for almost anyone to become successful online where as they possess the right digital marketing mix. You need not have a product to make a living from online. Gone are the days of monopoly when only people with substantial amounts of dough could start up a static business.

With as little as $100.00, one could could setup an online business from their bedroom without the need for huge inventories. You could get involve in "affiliate marketing" or "drop-shipping" and the sky will be the limit as to how much money you can make. Digital disruption has made this become very possible. But then, you will need to involve in a business that you know what the customers rather than try to sell to the customers what you want or think the customers want. Knowing your customers, their needs is key and parcel of the digital marketing mix.


There is technology evolution that could possibly change the Digital Marketing game. We can see that; more people are linked to much on their mobile devices than 10yrs ago. Social media is on its toll with the likes of Facebook competing with Google in terms of users experiences and acquisition. I personally think that; there is a lot of junk within social media because of lack of laser targeting and precision and also owing to the reasons that, millions are daily participants are from Countries where Credit cards, Bank cards and Paypal still remains a dream.

Even in the developed countries, kids and youngsters spend much of their time on social media websites without any buying power with about 75% on their mobile devices. You also have users coming from Africa, South America and Southern Asia which i will still classify 75% of the traffic as junk. I am not saying that; one cannot generate good sales and business through social media. The fact is that, you will need to think on your feet and take much into consideration if you were to run a successful ad.

With the surge in social and digital media, many businesses are preparing to bury print media. I laugh when I hear people say, there is no more money to be made from print media. It's nonsense. If you know your customers and market, then you will have to embrace print media. Why? A good number of working class, use the train and public transport to get to work due to traffic congestion in certain parts of the world and a good example will be London. Good, these commuters are always reading the Free Metro Newspaper, Times and Telegraph on their way to and from work. I personally think that this is a good avenue to market your products and services when starting up in business with minimal start up capital. Advertising on these newspapers with a link to your website cannot be ignored. You will be marketing and branding directly to a class with a good spending fire power.

A good start-up business will need to think about; what is the competitive advantage of the business being created? Are you going to sell cheaper than your competitors, is your product/services a niche, are you about improving customer satisfaction on product and services already in existence, what makes your product and or services that will permit you to beat the competition, are you about removing the middle man, etc. What is it that makes your products and services different.

Taking demography, customer persona, time differences and buying power is key to success, not only with social media platforms but also with SEM.A third of online users will prefer to buy locally as compared to 7yrs ago when no cared the location of the product or services.

However, Google remains the God of Digital Marketing. They have developed and introduced almost all the methods, resources and techniques for every business irrespective of being a start-up or not become virtually successful. If you can read and write, start from Google Webmasters and there will be no reason to regret or sigh.


Friday 8 November 2013

Link Building Rambling

Building In Bound Links To Optimize Your Website's Ranking

Building links for your website can become a nuisance and daunting activity and even create a disaster when done wrongly.

We all know and agree that; link building is one of the significant Search engine optimization factors but how should one go about building ethical links that will eventually pass on the expected juice?

Link building has an enormous challenge that requires a set of skills arising from different fields and backgrounds. One will probably require copy writing talent comparable to that of a journalist, produce videos like a pro, build relationships like dating guru and most of all, create content that is unique and worth linking to by others.

Right, there are enormous and important factors to take into account when building links to effect a websites search rankings. Let me put it this way to some of us that are "Google squared" digital marketers to-be. During the induction day, one of the most important part of the course was made mentioned as team work. Team work is link building. With team work and collaboration we are far more better at what we can execute and achieve than when we operate individually.

Let's look at how successfully we can strategically build back links that can significantly impact the growth of websites and online businesses while achieving good rankings in today's search engine. However, it is worthwhile to note that; there is no specific formula for building inbound links as the process depends on the type and nature of the website's activity(ies), service(s) and or product(s).

Let's get started. When building links to your website there are a couple of things that need attention which includes but not limited to; Link Velocity, Link Authority, Link Volume, Link anchor-text and whether the site in particular offers "no link follow restrictions" or " Allow to follow"
  1. Register and submit your website to major and second-tier directories. Majority of these directories offer paid inclusions. It is a good idea to register with at least seven and more of these directories depending on your financial portfolio and make sure your website is submitted to the correct taxonomy or category that is relevant to to your website. Some directories that i recommend are DMOZ, Business.com, Yahoo, Directory Journal, JoeAntGimpsy, Best of the web, Avivadirectory.com, UKDirectory.co.uk, Stumbleupon.com, Websitespromotiondirectory.com, Octopedia.com, Allbuziness.com, Aboutus.org, Starting Point Directory and much more.
  2. Make sure your website has something that internet users and as well as webmasters within your niche will be interested in liking to.
  3. Using your network contacts, try and get links from .ac.uk and .edu as much as your strength and networks extend.
  4. Write and publish press releases with links to your website
  5. Sponsor charities, websites and blogs with common grounds
  6. If you can afford, spend your money and offer something for free. 
  7. Comment on blogs, forums and other websites with relevancy and valuable topics on subjects you are very conversant with.
  8.  Offer article syndication
  9. Bookmarking and site submission
  10. Create content on Squidoo and Hubpages etc
  11. Use social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Digg, Reddit, Metacafe,Technorati, Propeller, Scribd, Linkedin, Youtube, Del.cio.us etc
  12. Advertise job offers
  13. Write a free beginners guide
  14. Offer contest and competitions
  15. Etc etc
This is not an exhaustive list as link building is all about creativity. Next time, we shall look at various tools for link building and SEO analysis.
I hope this post does make sense. If so why not link back and or ask me a question. I will endeavor to respond to every question within one week due to the fact that, I need to get my Google Squared assignment on time.

Squared Online Digital Marketing Revolution

We are Squared Empowering Tomorrow's Digital Revolution

Wearesquared is a platform for present and future digital revolution offering Digital Marketing empowerment. A course designed by Google, implemented by Home Learning college and endorsed by the (IPA) - Institute of Practioners In Advertising. It  is another big storm blowing in the Western hemisphere. Participants that are successful will graduate with a level 6-7 qualification that is a Post graduate certificate in Digital Marketing.
I owe myself a bottle of Remy Martins. Why? I am part of this storm and the experience is immediately becoming practically overwhelming with a bag of knowledge and hard work. Knowledge is strength and strength is wealth.

Digital Marketing Induction Day

With 197 graduate participants from all parts of the world with different backgrounds and experiences from all works of life, it is as interesting as intimidating though with a lot fun and a wonderful experience worth its weight.

Chris Perks, the lead tutor handled the induction with skill and style while being assisted by Aiden Caroll (Senior Tutor). We got introduce to what the course is about, what to expect and the way forward. Basically this journey is geared towards empowering today's and tomorrow's leaders to drive the industry revolution based on the facts that; digital has become a way of life if and when one considers their day to day lifestyles and digitally connected activities.

It is quite true. Almost everyone in UK and the developed world uses a mobile phone, Ipad, Laptop, Computer, etc. As the world is gradually embracing digital technology, businesses and industries are simultaneous changing their marketing strategies from traditional and concentrating most of their resources into digital marketing. It is quite clear and very feasible.

Millions if not billions of people around the world  have dived in to social media communication as much as portable digital technology. People are using their mobiles, ipads and tablets to check emails, watch videos or movies, play music, texting, search the internet, play games, watch TV and much more but on the move.

Some of the great points from the induction were teamwork and collaboration as it is a tool that enables the flow of information and knowledge. It felt some how absurd to learn that; the course is not about training SEO gurus, social media moguls or Adwords specialist but that its primordial objective is the training participants to gain a broader knowledge, deeper understanding of how various digital disciplines work together to form an integrated strategy. The reason being that; if one is a specialist in a particular sector, it then becomes practically difficult to add enough value when working in a team. Therefore having a broader and diversified picture of digital before specializing in one or more areas makes collaborating in a team very effective and goals achieved.

What Is Digital Marketing?
Based on my personal understanding; Digital marketing is the art of marketing your products and services to where there are its customers with the aim of strategically and methodically selling in way that makes the buyer happy irrespective of cost.

Chris Perks made it very clear, there is no recommended meaning of Digital Marketing. Scholars and business experts look it digital marketing from different angles and perspectives. This is because what might work in Mr. Google's favour will not necessarily work in Mr. Yahoo's favour. In other words, this implies that, to succeed in digital marketing, A/B and A.B,C testing is the only way forward to success.
Therefore my definition is also right.

What Do I Expect From The Course?
A broader understanding of digital marketing and its practical execution.