Archive for May, 2008

The term Viral Marketing was coined by a Harvard Business School professor, Jeffrey F. Rayport, in a December 1996 article for Fast Company The Virus of Marketing.

More than 90% of consumers said they told at least one other person about a Web site when the original recommendation came from a friend, according to Jupiter Research

Advantages of Viral Marketing

1. Viral Marketing detours the cluttered mantra of traditional advertising. This allows marketers an advantage in more effectively reaching their audience.

2. Viral Marketing doesn’t require a product with a wow factor in order to raise awareness,
generate buzz, and kick-start peer-to-peer spread. Instead, the viral campaign’s communication agent is the element that needs a wow factor or element of interest .

3. Unlike traditional advertising viral is not an interruptive technique. Instead, viral campaigns work the Internet to deliver exposure via peer-to-peer endorsement. Viral campaigns, whether ultimately liked or disliked, are often welcomed by the receiver.The focus is on campaigns with material that consumers want to spend time interacting
with and spreading pro actively (MindComet Corporation, 2006).

Viral marketing is a term used often in the online community because news and information can spread so fast! This marketing phenomenon is similar to the spread of organic and/or computer viruses. Venues through which Viral Marketing information can spread: Social Networks like MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Squidoo. Viral marketing takes on many forms like video clips, Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages.

The basic form of viral marketing isn’t very sustainable for the long-haul but is very effective in creating a “buzz” around a specific product, service or promotion.

How can Viral Marketing help your business?

You can leverage so many tools on the web to help generate a “Viral Marketing Buzz” around your business. Do you have a new product or service you want to promote but know were to start? Creating an explosive Viral Marketing campaign may provide the results you are looking for.
-Searching Solutions

Related Blogs

• Related Blogs on marketing
• Web 2.0 Analytics: Ask Questions & DO Somthing!

• Related Blogs on SEO
• E-marketing to Long Term Business Strategy
• Comment on Google Tops Website Customer Satisfaction Index by …
• SEO - A Janitor, A Bank And An Artesian Well
• Define Two Basic Types Seo
• #1 for Busby SEO Cup

It seems like there has been alot of talk about link building lately… maybe it’s just me, but most SEO’s know that quality link building is a pretty important part of offsite optimization.

So, I thought I’d share something that has helped me quite a bit. There is a great seo link building tool put out by SoloSEO (of which I’m a happy customer). It was built a while back based on a post by my hero: Rand Fishkin.

I highly suggest you try it out if you are looking for some link building help. I’ll also post some of the queries that it uses here for your reference. Just take any of these examples to Google, and it should really help you to find some good quality links.

Thanks again SoloSEO for a great tool!!!

Add/Submit

your keyword “add url”
your keyword “add site”
your keyword “add website”
your keyword “add your site”
your keyword “add a url”
your keyword “add * url”
your keyword “add * site”
your keyword “add * website”
your keyword “submit url”
your keyword “submit site”
your keyword “submit website”
your keyword “submit your site”
your keyword “submit a url”
your keyword “submit * url”
your keyword “submit * site”
your keyword “submit * website”
your keyword “suggest url”
your keyword “suggest site”
your keyword “suggest website”
your keyword “suggest your site”
your keyword “suggest a url”
your keyword “suggest * url”
your keyword “suggest * site”
your keyword “suggest * website”

Advanced

allintitle:your keyword
allinanchor:your keyword
allinurl:your keyword
allintext:your keyword

Directories

your keyword directory
your keyword * directory
directory * your keyword
intitle:directory “your keyword”
inurl:directory “your keyword”
“list of your keyword sites”
“list * your keyword sites”
“list * your keyword * sites”
“recommended links” your keyword”
“recommended sites” your keyword”
“favorite links” your keyword”
“favorite sites” your keyword”

Blogs & Forums

your keyword forum
“your keyword forum”
intitle:your keyword forum
inurl:your keyword forum
your keyword blog
“your keyword blog”
intitle:your keyword blog
inurl:your keyword blog
“add comment” your keyword
“post comment” your keyword
your keyword members
your keyword join
your keyword tag
intitle:tag your keyword
intitle:post your keyword

I’ll also add a couple of my own to this list:

• site:.edu inurl:your keyword

• site:.edu inurl:blog “your keyword”

• site:.edu inurl:forum “your keyword”

• site:.edu intitle:blog “post a comment”

You can also replace “.edu” with “.gov” to find those types of links, or replace “inurl:”, with “intitle:”

Have fun. Let me know if there are any other special operators that you use to find links!

Here are some fun search engine and blogging statistics I pulled up.  I like doing this about once a year to see what is going on in the search space to see if there are any trends I’m missing.  Plus, it’s just really interesting data to look at.  Most comes from comscore, hitwise, and technorati.

enjoy…

Blogging Statistics

• 28% of all visits to blogs in 2007 resulted in some kind of action (email signup, contact form, etc.)
• There are currently about 15.5 million active blogs (blogs updated within 90 days)
• Total blogs tracked by technorati: 74 million
• There are 120,000 new blogs being created every day
• 3,000-7,000 new spam blogs (splogs) created per day
  
• Total blog posts created per day: 1.5 million
• 36% of those blog posts were written in English
  
• The Japanese language now boasts more blogs than another language (37%)

Search Engine Statistics

• 75% of Americans use search engines on a regular basis
• 56% of Americans use Search Engines every day
• 40% of all search engine searches are for local businesses and services
• 54% of Americans regularly use the internet instead of the phone book to find local services
• 92% of all local searches will eventually convert into a sale
• Roughly 10 billion search queries made per day
• Google’s share of search queries: 59.2%
• Yahoo’s share of search queries: 22.2%

Being that Searching Solutions is still less than 6 months old, we are still learning alot about what companies look for in an internet marketing company. Everyone’s needs are a little bit different.

But one thing that we have universally found is that each company we talk to is really excited about the fact that we are local. There are so many faceless marketing and seo company’s out there, it can be overwhelming when trying to decide who to use. But one thing that can make that decision easier is knowing that there is someone that can work with you in person.

So, if you are in Colorado and are looking for an internet marketing company that can help with search engine optimization, pay per click management, and local brand awareness, let us know. We’re here to help and promise to give you the personal touch you’re looking for.