The Hickory Locator 3D Logo News Letter   Vol 39  Feedback

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I got out my old school year book the other
day and I could not believe how old
THEY have gotten.
Kim Novak 73 
Pause mouse over     More >		   Julie Newmar 73 julie christy 65 Julie Andrews 71Joan Collins 73 Jean Simmons Jane Russel 85 Jane Powell 77 Esther Williams 83 Elke Sommer 66 Doris Day 82 Deborah Keer Debbie Reynolds 74
Carroll Baker 75Barbara Eden 72Annette Funicello 64
 

 In those days of yesteryear TIME was so simple and we had complete control over it, You probably didn’t believe that quote, so I’ll restate it: "Time is within your control." In the information age in which we live, where business life and home life are a blur of activity, deadlines, pressure, and projects, it’s hard to believe that time is within your control. But it is. You can control what you think. You can control your attitude. And for the most part, you can control your time. However, if you’re not careful, procrastination can gobble up significant amounts of your time. When procrastination rears its ugly head, you lose all control of time. In my youth I learned to plan my work ~ then work my plan. It still works...................

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What is pay per click and key word bidding. Simply put it is an auction.
I will use Yahoo and the hickory locator as an example;
My account cost 400 to open.
I wrote a campaign ad
The ad consist of a title less than 70 characters. "The Hickory Locator - A local search engine.
The Ad limited to 70 words - Designed for local shoppers and dedicated to small business.
Link http://www.hickorylocator.com
easy set up
then comes the cost part Key word bidding. My key words are almost limitless, I provide everything. There fore I am a search engine. That is my keyword. But you can keyword your business much easier. Antiques, party supplies, tires, truck liners, batteries and so on what ever your service is.
So you build a long list of your keywords as it relates to your business.
THEN: You bid on those keywords. The Keyword "Hickory" will cost about $38 every time it is clicked on Google. About $14 for Yahoo. I was running an experiment on the word [Hickory - Search Engine] once and drove that word bid up to $58 dollars. Didn't cost me a penny because I learned how to use the [ " ].and , very important in sponsored ads. That is computer words.
Next comes your competitor, he can set there and click you money away and the truth of the matter is Google and Yahoo really doesn't care in fact they like the profit.
2nd There are people who can make money by clicking on sponsored adds.
Both are known as click fraud.
Be careful if you start such a campaign,  I spent $1,400 the first day of my first campaign. I wont forget that lesson. Ever...

Of course, one way is to improve your search ranking on engines like Google and Yahoo. To do this, identify the keywords and key phrases that are popular in your field. You can brainstorm your own list and survey people for what they would type in if they were looking for a business like yours. Or you can hire a search engine marketing/optimization company to do this. Once these are identified, you need to incorporate them in your site's content, particularly the home page, and this may require a total re-write of your content. The keywords however need to be naturally integrated and the copy needs to maintain flow and integrity. You might need to hire a copywriter for this, or again, an SEM company may do this in-house. SEM services can also offer other marketing strategies to help you such as pay-per-click ads. Good luck.

  

Any project with visual impact starts with website graphic design, and at JimsGem studios, things are no different. We use the latest technologies to create crisp 2-D images and animations as well as eye-popping 3-D graphics giving every website graphic piece a solid visual foundation.
JimsGem can provide all kinds of website graphics from simple static logos, java effects, Flash designs, 3D graphics to streaming audio and video. Contact me for more information on our different website graphic-based services can be obtained by contacting me, or viewing examples in The Hickory Locator.

The Website Revelation – What Owning a Website Actually Means
As a Web Developer and SEO consultant I deal with many existing website owners who are looking to modify or improve their website. I also deal with many people who are looking to start their web presence with a new website. Through both of these interactions there is often a common theme; a misunderstanding or an attitude. I call this a misconception of reality, as often the reality of what the Internet can actually do for the person's business and what they think it can do differ massively.

Often it is presumed that by simply owning a domain and having a website built and published on the Internet, thousands of people will magically find the website, visit it and buy their products. "If you build it, they will come" should be removed from the vocabulary as soon as possible if you are to adjust attitudes to the underlying search technology. As a businessman in the real World, it is obvious that it would not happen outside of the Internet either, so what is so different online? Maybe it was the Technology boom 10 years ago that caused a rift in understanding or maybe the buzz that caused the meteoric rise in the stock prices of Tech Companies, I can hear the thoughts of the small businessman, "surely this can be replicated for my business" – in answer I would say, "well, it is unlikely, but you should be able to achieve some results over time".

In many cases, online video is its own worst enemy. The ease and virtual scale of internet technologies level the virtual playing field. The financial efficiencies of creating original online video programming widen the talent pool. Its rapid growth creates irrational -- or impractical -- behavior. Like trying to cloth a puberty-busting teen, the digital medium can only dare try to keep up with the sheer size of video. It's big, and the big guys make it bigger.
But video is still so new and barely charted that the industry hasn't yet had the chance to create any material standards.
There's also the question of conflict. Despite their enormous size, Google and Microsoft are online video publishers, with one more advanced than the other. How does their standing as an agency-facing vendor distort or conflict with this? Even if publishers remain reluctant to allow a third party to serve video ads into their streams and this remains largely a reporting-specific initiative, at the bare minimum the Goggle's and Microsoft's of the world will be asking their competitors to accept their pixels for tracking purposes, and -- here's the rub -- their numbers for billing purposes.
There are a throng of agencies whose detest for Google and its direct-to-advertiser model is no secret. Those same agencies are tasked with making recommendations on the ad-serving side. Do Atlas and Microsoft win by default or is there an inherent need for parity across the board?
Microsoft may not be long for the agency world, but as long as it owns an agency (Avenue A) whose principal objective is to win buying, planning and creative business from major advertisers, it will be faced with questions of antitrust. This says nothing about the trove of sensitive information from all parties within the industry to which both Google and Microsoft have access.
Every site has a different video player, requires varying tandem banner sizes (some require more than one), accommodates a different file format, does/doesn't accept third-party video ad serving (most do not), does/doesn't have clickable video (most do not), has minimum investment levels, has questionable methodology, uses a third party to traffic, schedule and manage its campaigns, and will not accept branding studies.
The key players in the marketing and publishing communities were beginning to mobilize, understanding the need to sit in a room -- for however long it might take -- and hash things out. The ad-serving vendors, now larger than before and with interests far and wide, need to participate, and do so with the interests of the medium in mind. Once they agree to do this, the current -- and likely ongoing -- consolidation taking place within the medium will certainly bring some long-term stability, practically speaking, of course.

1. What is better: SEO or PPC?
Many webmasters are unsure whether they should advertise their website with SEO (search engine optimization) or PPC (pay per click advertising).

Actually, most commercial websites work best if you use both SEO and PPC. The exact mix depends on your goals.

Pay per click advertising (PPC)

Advantages:

You get instant results. If you advertise your website on pay per click search engines, then you will get traffic now and not several months later.
PPC ads are perfect for time limited offers such as holiday sales.
You can stop PPC ads at any time.
PPC ads make it easy to test different keywords and landing pages.
PPC ads also work with websites that are not very well designed and wouldn't get good search engine rankings.
PPC ads allow you to bid on a large amount of keywords, including misspellings and other keyword variations that you cannot put on your web pages.
Disadvantages:

PPC advertising can become very expensive if you bid on the wrong keywords or if you don't calculate the maximum bid price correctly.
Click fraud can be a problem. Not all clickers are potential customers.
If you advertise your website with PPC ads then you should use a ROI tracking tool to make sure that you don't waste your money.

Search engine optimization (SEO):

Advantages:

Traffic through organic search engine results is almost free if the up-front work has been done.
After optimizing your website you can use your money for different things and the optimized site will still run.
A larger number of visitors and search result clickers is not a problem.
Search engine optimization delivers long term results that don't require permanent financial input.
Disadvantages:

SEO can be relatively time-consuming up-front.
SEO can require a redesign of your web pages to make your website search engine friendly. However, this usually also results in a better user experience.
Search engine optimization delivers lasting results and it costs considerably less in the long term. However, you must make sure that you optimize your website correctly, if your want to get high search engine rankings.

Pay per click advertising and search engine optimization both contribute to the success of your website. If you use both wisely, you can get many new visitors and customers without spending a fortune. See the recommended resources below for PPC and SEO software tips.

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Your voice is one of your most powerful tools. And how you use it defines who you are today as well as how far you will go in life. Whether you are casually chatting with friends or giving a formal business presentation, what you say and how you say it is exactly how you are defined as a person. Communicate effectively and doors will open, opportunities will surface, and friends and colleagues will gravitate toward you.