We are being reminded multiple times a day of how tough times are and how much tougher they will get. Unemployment is expected to rise even into the double digits during 2009. The Auto Industry is in an unimaginable mess. Our banking and financial systems are dysfunctional, not even trusting each other to lend between themselves. The federal government seems to lack planning, direction or even the understanding of how to deal with and address these issues effectively. Talk of recession, the worst one since the Great Depression, and even talk of another Great Depression are all part of the daily discussion. For business owners, large and small, marketing executives and managers , sales executives and representatives, these are formidable forces to be reckoned with and are the everyday challenges being faced in conducting business, particularly in the areas of planning and execution with precious sales and marketing budgets.

Search Engine Advertising is a term that is inherently confusing. Some use this term interchangeably with Sponsored Search or Pay Per Click Advertising as in Google Adwords. Of course, these are actual advertisements that are tied to specific keyword phrases. As such they are targeted advertisements because they are only viewed based on the keyword itself. Others use this term to mean Organic Search Engine Optimization or SEO which in fact are not advertisements. Rather, these are listings based strictly on relevance as rated by the search engines themselves. These listings are not purchased or bid upon like PPC; they are earned through highly sophisticated optimization techniques. Successful Organic Optimization results in highly visible listings with no cost to the website owner no matter how many times the listing is displayed or clicked.

A lot of Pay per Click Gurus tell clients not use the Google’s Content Network because it is filled with Made for Adsense sites and click fraud, which is a huge issue. However, the same Gurus do not say anything about the content network not being able to generate targeted traffic, but it does.

Microsoft has become what they feared most; the next IBM. With the latest release of their operating system, Vista, you have to wonder how they have lost their focus.

They have a lot of competition and any attempt to expand their brand into other industries seems to fail. Here are some quick examples.

It is now estimated that there are over 1.5 million searches conducted worldwide EVERY MINUTE! With the exception of China, Google dominates around the world just the same way it has in the US since its inception about a decade ago.

One inescapable fact: No matter how great your website looks, it doesn’t mean a thing unless those that you want to find you on Google can’t find you on the top 3 pages for those keywords you would like to be found for.

Sixty-Eight percent of online searchers DON’T go past the first page … 98% don’t go past the 3rd page.  Are you hoping that the remaining 2% will find you?  Is that what you are banking on or hoping for?  Don’t hold your breath.

Recently I read an interview on Larry Page; co-founder of Google, and most of his answers were simply brilliant. Larry Page - http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/29/magazines/fortune/larry_page_change_the_world.fortune/index2.htm .
 
He speaks a lot about Innovation and the why there needs to be more risk taking behavior in technology. Risk taking was what leaded to all the great inventions of the last century and it is needed to drive us into the future. Here are two examples of innovation which were brought on by non-traditional means that have changed the way we view the world;

C-Level Executives have an important stake in the online business performance of their company websites. However, CEOs, COOs, CFO’s and other top execs are no different than any other top executives and business owners when it comes to their website and “the purpose of it all.” Often they are frustrated that a good deal of company money has been spent on website design and promotion yet the early optimism has faded with time as the hoped-for results in terms of sales, profitability and corporate efficiency just didn’t materialize.

Internet Marketing Companies and, more specifically, Search Engine Marketing Companies focus their attention on Google when it comes to achieving high organic rankings. This should make obvious sense since the overwhelming and growing majority of internet searches are performed using Google. However what are the factors that Google uses to generate its rankings? As such, what therefore should be the chief strategies for Search Engine Marketing Companies?

A great deal has been written about “best practices” by SEO (Search Engine Optimization) companies when promoting their services. This is in apparent response to some bad apples in this industry that attempt to “play games or tricks” to achieve high Google rankings … more on this later. Aside from mere ethics, the factors that really matter to the Google Spiders are as follows:

Since Google announced its acquisition of DoubleClick, there has been a great deal of angst from SEO Firms and SEO professionals alike. The reason: An SEO Company named Performics was included in the purchase as a part of DoubleClick’s business. SEO companies were concerned that the giant of the industry, Google, would now have a vehicle to unfairly compete with all Internet Marketing Companies by providing “access” to information that is not currently made available to SEO Firms in delivering their Internet Marketing Services to their clients. In addition, there have been many concerns expressed about the cost and price in fear that Google might package, discount or even give away high organic search rankings in special arrangements also not available to competing Search Engine Marketing Companies.

A new era of the internet has been brewing for some time now. A more visitor focused view has emerged which I credit to web 2.0 . Long is gone the build it and they will come framework, if it even existed. But as the internet evolves, there are still thousands upon thousands of websites still thinking in a backwards theory. The main reason for this is because most people think they can put up a website, sit back, relax and start counting their millions. Unfortunately this is not the case.For every 1 success story, there are at least 100 unsuccessful ventures which have not seen the promised millions. And on the internet, it is not different. In fact the ease of setting up a website has only multiplied the failure rate.

So, why is it that most websites do not succeed? We could ask the same question for any new business offline as well. The law of supply and demand is one factor but there is another underlining problem with most people’s thinking process when venturing into a new project.

This quick tutorial is an overview of the most common way Internet marketers have been able to control a niche category online. When entering a new niche/industry online, the path most website owners take is create only 1 site and build upon that site over time. Most “gurus” know this creates some common problems. The biggest problem is competition: 1 versus thousands/millions of other sites in the industry.

Note: This is not for the faint of heart; this will not be quick, and this will not be painless. But if you follow these guidelines, you will join the few who say, they own a niche. Here is the method that pros use to overcome this dilemma: