A Traveling Vineyard consultant step-by-step approach for search engine marketing.

A Traveling Vineyard consultant step-by-step approach for search engine marketing.

Can you believe that 192 days have passed since the beginning of this year?

Just as 2003 and 2004 marched forward in the blink of an eye, 2005 is rapidly marching on, yet for may web entrepreneurs few visitors are marching over to see what's up. Are they marching to a different drummer or is it that your ideas about how to get visitors to your blog or site are just not keeping the beat?

Are you marketing to women? It's important to note that the e-commerce gender gap appears to be widening, as more women opened their purse strings than men last quarter: the percentage of online purchases made by women reached 62 percent in the fourth quarter with men accounting for just 38 percent of transactions. (BizRate 2004)

With 173 days remaining in 2005, imagine how much different your business would be if you could get just ONE serious customer, prospect or visitor to take action each day.

If you're asking "Tell me the secret? (because everything else I've tried has flopped)." Maybe a little internet advertising is in order? Seems that's what a lot of successful online marketers are doing. And of all the methods out there, nothing seems to beat running a really well planned PPC search engine campaign.

Search engine marketing will grow by 33% this year, with growth slowing to 10% annually by 2010, when spending will hit $11.6 billion. (Source: Forrester Research 02/2005)

In the U.S., Canada, UK or most any internet savvy country you'll discover stories and statistics that prove "it can be done". Yes, online sales are happening. Reports are continuing, sales are up, and the drum beats on.

During the end of 2004, more consumers than ever used the Web, and according to Forrester Research, 69% of online north America households made a purchase online. Did any of these folks visit your site?

But I'm A Traveling Vineyard consultant, I'm told it is another story for me?

Maybe you are thinking that "some things" sell online but not your food-beverage, party supplies & tableware. Nothing could be further from the truth. In most cases, it is not the product or service that hinders a sale, it boils down to traffic, strategy and page presentation. Whether you advertise using Google's AdWords, or do pay-per-click at Overture, Yahoo or MSN search, it's the campaign strategy that's important.

In my previous blog entries (last week and the week prior) we started our series of PPC search engine tips. These tips will unquestionanly help your marketing campaign and hopefully put some of the statistics on your side. Without any further delay, I'll continue with my tips this week.

Pay per click tips for this week:

• When thinking up keywords, use examples of specific things your product is used for: 'clean floors', clean countertops', 'wash floors', 'mop floors', 'polish stove top', 'remove grime', 'shine appliances', 'disinfect bacteria', 'hide furniture flaws' etc.
• Explore variations: 'soy milk', 'soymilk', 'soy-milk'
• Add plurals: 'protein bar' and 'protein bars'
• Use abbreviations and acronyms
• Use US and UK spellings
• Keyword phrases may be questions: 'how to repair bad credit', 'when should I diet', 'how do I lose weight', 'where are discount cosmetics', etc.

Last week I posted the another round of search engine marketing tips and yet more the week before that. Check there for more ideas.

In addition, I've written a many 'how-to' articles specifically to help get your internet marketing strategy on-track. You might find these internet marketing articles for The Traveling Vineyard interesting or helpful.

Check back next week for the next in this series of PPC tips... Until next week, happy PPC campaigning...


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The Traveling Vineyard | PPC | pay per click | AdWords | marketing | search | retail statistics | marketing statistics | sales statistics