“Internet Activity Is Up
A significant 76 percent of respondents reported that they’re relying more on web-related activities, especially with regards to marketing and sales. Of this group, 42 percent revamped their website or increased SEO activity. Others are using more email marketing and utilizing social networking.

Bottom line: the low cost of internet activity is moving many companies to market more aggressively online.”

What this means is that the SEO industry is a whole lot luckier than many industries that have been severely affected by the flagging economy. However, this doesn’t mean that those in the SEO industry should take it easy but see this as an opportunity to be more aggressive in selling their SEO services with savings and value as the main pitch. Note though that while businesses are upping their SEO efforts the fact that they are looking for good value SEO will mean that SEOs will also have to up their game since competition will even be more stiff. Clients will be looking more into tangible results. Value isn’t just about lower costs but how much results can be squeezed per dollar. So show that you can deliver the results clients need and you can be sure that this economy won’t see you fold.

Microsoft has unveiled its new “decision engine” Bing. The question now is if it’s any good, and the answer from all over is yes. Compared to LiveSearch, Bing definitely got my attention, and will probably be getting the search industry’s attention for weeks to come. So what does Bing have to offer?

Like any search engine you can look for information you need using Bing but unlike normal search engines it is a specialized engine that automatically collates the data you need and compares them for you to make it easier to come up with a decision. Areas where it really does well includes product reviews, movie listings, weather, travel, stock prices, restaurants, etc. If you look at it Bing is pretty much set to be an online shopper’s heaven. However, since Bing is still pretty much untried for the most part we’ll see in the next months just how good Bing really is at suggesting results that will make online shoppers happy. In the meantime, for SEOs all over, it’s time to start brainstorming on how to rank well with Bing and coming up with strategies to help your clients. This is very important for business websites since Bing’s target users pretty are the ones that might be really interested in buying.

Can’t wait for Bing to actually go live. So irritating to see the coming soon page.

4. Lots of Savings – For many businesses this is the factor that really comes to play when deciding between hiring a professional SEO or doing their campaign in-house. Though some might think that this should not be a factor to consider, while it might be true for bigger companies (don’t be such cheapskates!), those with really low budgets can’t really be blamed for trying to cut costs.

There are some “professional SEO firms” out there that might offer their services at very reasonable prices (read: dirt cheap) but you should be wary of such firms. If they claim to have plenty of experience and do top-notch work how come they don’t charge according to their abilities? In the end you might be better of spending money on an internal team (or yourself) who will do the job just as well as those “professional SEOs”.

One of the things that’s often adviced in SEO is to keep your content fresh and updated. This works pretty well for some websites where the content can really be dynamic. However a lot of websites, specifically those of businesses that sell certain products that don’t change, have a problem with getting new content. This is because their products really don’t change and so do the products specifications. It seems realy stupid and weird to rewrite them every few weeks just to get updated content on their website.

What you can do in cases like this is to add a more dynamic part of the site like blogs or a press release site where you can periodically post new information regarding the products or the use of them or even the trend in the use of the products. You can also add a forums portion where visitors can ask anything about the product and yuo get to answer them. A forums section will not only give you updated content but will draw visitors since they will get really useful information.

There are three major points ? organic optimization, pay per click advertising (PPC), and online advertising and public relations. At first glance, they are no different from non-industrial search engine optimization. However, as they are applied to specific industries, some parameters change.

Organic optimization for industrial search engines is not much different from optimization for Google and Yahoo. The bottom line is for you site to be rich with content regarding the business and its services. In addition, links from other respectable websites would help greatly.

PPC advertising is one of the ways you can have a high ROI. The important thing when buying keywords for PPC though, is to be very specific and to cover as many related keywords as possible. For example, if you sell office equipment, make sure you buy other keywords which are more specific. Some examples would be photocopying machines, paper cutters, fax machines, and the like.

Online advertising and public relations cover what the first two points do not. The premise behind organic optimization and PPC advertising is that the people are actually searching for your services or something related to your industry. What online advertising does is to reach out to the people who are not yet aware of your industry, thus widening your potential market.

For the average person, Internet searching is limited to the most popular search engines. Google, Yahoo, MSN – these are the search engines that count the most. As the Internet is continually evolving and changing to meet the needs of different sectors, however, there are other aspects which are more important to specific sectors. For those in the different industries, for example, the “generic” search engines are still important, but there are other types of search engines which bear more weight when it comes to their marketing plan. This is where the Industrial Search Engines come into the picture.

What are Industrial Search Engines? In the era before the widespread use of the Internet, industries advertised through print directories. These directories contained comprehensive information about the different industries. As the Internet evolved to be a key tool in marketing and the industries, print directories were rapidly translated into electronic form ? thus the birth of Industrial Search Engines.

What are the implications of Industrial Search Engines to the industrial marketing professional? Just as most business optimise their websites so as to gain a foothold in the search engine rankings, so should you apply techniques and measures to optimise your website to get good rankings in Industrial Search Engines. Naturally, there are some differences as this area is quite specific and there are a variety of ways to achieve this goal. However, as time and space limits us for this post, let?s leave the discussion of some ways you can optimise your website for Industrial Search Engines for the next post.

With the Internet functioning as another venue for all sorts of businesses, the competition on how to get noticed and how to attract as many customers are possible is getting tougher and tougher. Anyone remotely associated with online businesses is aware of how SEO is at the forefront of online business issues.

Recently, SEO has been getting some bad rap. It may deserved or undeserved, but that really shouldn?t concern you if you stick within what is called ethical SEO. Experts would say that this is the best way to get search engines to notice you and give you lasting results.

So what is ethical SEO? The main point in ethical SEO is not to use any illegal means to advertise on your website. Neither does it cover the use of ?shady? methods to increase traffic. The major drawback to ethical SEO is that it does not give immediate results. It is a strategy that requires A LOT of patience and hard work. You have to develop and form your own strategy to suit specific needs and target your specific market. There is simply no shortcut to ethical SEO. On the other hand, with ethical SEO, you get lasting and real results. With impeccable content and excellent service, your hard work will pay off and you will gain the trust of your customers as you continue to rise in the page rankings. With ethical SEO, you get reliable results and permanent benefits. At the end of the day, that?s what really matters. You may get to your goal slowly but you?ll get there eventually, and when you do, you will be ready for the windfall.

Mr. Softy and the Beeb signed a memorandum of understanding suggesting technical and content cooperation in the future. The agreement could pave the way for Microsoft aiding in the state-owned British broadcaster’s delivery of Internet-based digital content in the future.

The MOU between the two companies does not commit the BBC to buying any Microsoft technology for future digital services, but a representative from the broadcaster told CNET this was “definitely on the cards.”

The agreement also opens the potential for the BBC to provide content to Microsoft’s services such as MSN, Windows Media Center platform, Windows Live Messenger application and the Xbox console.

Federated Media recently added a new automotive category and some 20 assorted blogs, including Guy Kawasaki’s, boosts the blog network’s monthly impressions to “hundreds of millions,” Federated’s chairman, John Battelle, said. However, the recent batch of acquisitions could be the last for a while as Federated seeks to build the infrastructure needed to support further growth.

Competitor AdBrite is also growing quickly, having recently added the 20,000th site to its network; the company plans to shortly introduce new demographic planning and campaign management tools. Though the network’s roots are in blogs, it has expanded to other publisher sites, and blogs are now only a small part of the network.

Meanwhile, Henry Copeland’s BlogAds network is moving to a more robust platform to accommodate even more sites. Copeland wants to expand the stable of blogs available to advertisers, and also increase the number of “mini-networks,” blog segmented by topic, such as football or politics. He also wants to arrange ad buys on political blogs by state, in time for the 2008 election.

Want to sell subscriptions for online content with your own membership
site? Selling online content via a password protected website has become
big business. Not only is it fast to set up (with the right tools), but
the start-up and running costs are minimal. Work from home entrepreneurs
and big businesses alike are lapping up this new found revenue source.

People are willing to pay for online content. In fact, the “Online
Publishers Association” revealed that pay-for content is emerging as a
hot revenue model. Business content, personals, match making, and
entertainment are the hottest niches. But even smaller niches, like DVD
authoring, sports coaching, marketing services, and dieting are
producing profits.

Internet users spend $300 Million in 4 Months for Online Content

U.S. consumer spending for online content in the first 4 months of 2005
was $300 million, a growth of 155% over the first quarter of 2004 (and
that?s post-September 11th). It?s apparent that online users will pay
for content on their passion or profession.

Subscribers are paying anywhere from $9.95 a month to $19.95, and in
some cases up to $200 a month ? depending on the nature of the content.
Annual subscription renewals hold a solid 72%, giving site owners an
impressive recurring residual income. Renewals accounted for nearly half
of paid content sales in 2004.