Times are tough. Tough times call for budget considerations and marketing methods that were once hailed as the most effective, are now not nearly as effective as newer methods.

Take for example direct mail. Ten years ago, direct mailer’s were ecstatic with a 3 - 5% return on investment (ROI). However, both printing and postage costs have increased significantly since those numbers were accurate.

Historically speaking, yellow page ads were probably the most effective. Leads were already qualified before they made the initial contact. They were ready to buy, the question was from who. Hence the reason limo companies chose the name “AAA Limo Service” so they could be first in the phone book listings. Despite being effective, phone books have geographical limitations and can be quite expensive to reach new markets.

Where can you get qualified leads with unlimited potential?

I have both bought and sold direct mail, email marketing and display ads in my 13 years as a marketer and the ROI for a well organized internet marketing campaign is the best I have ever seen.

It’s now undeniably a revolution, the internet that is. I still believe other marketing methods serve a purpose, but the internet is where the biggest ROI for your marketing dollar. Get in now, while it’s still relatively inexpensive. My projection is that it will get harder (more expensive) and extremely more competitive in the months and years to come.

This post is the first post in a series of articles on internet marketing. Please stay tuned and subscribe to our Feedburner account to receive future updates.

Wordpress wins the Overall Best Open Source CMS Award in the 2009 Open Source CMS Awards. WordPress has won this Award for the first time in the past four years, earning itself a place in the Hall of Fame category for the Award next year.

Wordpress also came in runner-up for the Best Open Source PHP CMS Category in the 2009 Open Source CMS Award. This category featured a very close contest between the top three, Drupal, WordPress, and Joomla! in which Drupal ended up as the overall choice for the judges and the public.

Click here to view the full results if the 2009 Open Source CMS Awards.

One of my colleagues and dear friends, Clare Ultimo, and I have hearts and we wear them on our sleeves sometimes. In so much as we go out of our way for nonprofits and extend our professional services (services that are normally well over $100/hour) for free. We donate of our time and our resources only to find that our efforts go unnoticed, our time under-appreciated and our professional services questioned. It hurts.

We are as honest as anyone gets with ourselves, our clients and each other, we are in the top of our class of what we do, so why don’t these nonprofits appreciate us?

What I am specifically referring to is I have been volunteering my services to a nonprofit. I have been helping a lifelong friend who is their webmaster  redesign their site into a WordPress site. The President of the nonprofit must have asked a “friend” his opinion on the WordPress site.

WordPress is an open source application designed to make updating websites easier. There are rivals in web applications. It’s like the classic U of M versus Ohio State rivalry. People are either Open Source or they are not. This guy happened to not be, but he blathered on about how unsecure Wordpress is and how it should only be used for hobby sites.

I took this personally. My services are not just for hobbies, they are for professional companies, organizations, authors, etc. Let’s take a look at some companies/organizations who use WordPress:

Ebay
Yahoo
Digg
Ford
Wall Street Journal
Sony
People Magazine

You can view more commercial companies with the original article here: 21 Popular Brands That Are Using WordPress

Are any of the companies listed above hobbies? No. They are full-fledged commercial entities who chose WordPress because it is the best solution.

Another 2 hours wasted defending my expertise on a nonprofit. Let this be a wake-up call to non-profit boards across the country. Know who to trust and appreciate what you have before it’s gone. It’s easier for us to wish you luck and send you on your way than it is to get the life sucked out of us defending our professional services after we have poured our heart into the project.

SEO is a great selling point for website design companies. It helps us distinguish ourselves from other’s when selling a website or even web related services. Is it overused? Absolutely! Consistently, I see the term listed to sell websites and web related products but then I look and see that the most primative SEO techniques haven’t been executed on their site.

A prime example of this overuse is yesterday I had a meeting with a real estate agent. I mentioned that I had found a cheaper alternative to VisualTour. He stated that part of the value of the product is their submission to the search engines and to the listing on Realtor.com. I knew right away it was a bunch of baloney:

1. I SEOed his site.
2. There hasn’t been one single click from Realtor.com

What can I do about this? I can educate and inform of key factors to look for when trying to choose an SEO company. Below please find a few triggers to help you make the best decision

1. Anytime a company refers to “search engine submissions” - run away! This does nothing if the site isn’t optimized correctly. In fact, this is a key that either they don’t know what they are talking about or they are trying to sell you something that has no value whatsoever.
2. If a web design company claims the site will be search engine optimized (SEO). Ask them if they have ever been paid for only SEO on past projects? If they haven’t, then the decision is clear: don’t hire them for SEO or you may want to reconsider the company for trying to sell you something they have no experience doing.
3. This may be a nicer way to approach #2: ask for past rankings and even current rankings of websites they are optimizing.
4. Google their company name, if they aren’t first, this is another sign that something is wrong.
5. Never consider hiring an SEO company that contacts you, chances are they have no clue.

Google has written more about this topic here: SEO.

Unfortunately, there is no governing authority on SEO so for now, all I can do is educate you and help you make the right decision. If I see more triggers, then I will certainly update this post. Until then, if you need SEO turn to Ponder Consulting, we guarantee you won’t be let down.

I am often approached by companies wanting  “search engine optimization (seo)” services for their website. Some might wonder what seo services are and at times, even I do. Once you get a deeper understanding of what seo entails, it will forever change the way you think about a website. In addition you might even change your website. SEO WILL change your sales forever.

The biggest mistake I see companies make is trying to get the cheapest website available, even to the extent of using Godaddy’s Website Tonight.  I’ve heard people claim “Hey, my son can build websites.” And that very well may be true, but can he build a website that will generate customers? That’s a brutal question, I know, but it can also cost you your image. You’ve heard the saying “It takes a lifetime to get a customer’s respect and a second to lose it.” A website should be more than just a billboard of services.

In fact, a bad website can hurt your future sales deals. Out of proportion graphics, cross browser incompatibilities, an archaic site architecture, poor sales copy, grammatical errors, no contact form, etc. It makes me want to ask “Does a 17 year old understand all of that?” Probably not. I know at 17, I didn’t know the first thing about sales, about marketing, or anything about branding. I guess my point here is “a website is more than just some html pages thrown up onto a server.”

It’s your brand.

And if you care anything about your image (which most of us do even on a personal level), then you will at least consider what I am saying. Instead of having a website created for $0-$1000 and then figuring out - it really matters what it looks like to a professional and that now you need SEO, get a SEO website designer to begin with.

Understand the process of SEO now: Site design DOES matter.

1.) The First Step to SEOing Your Website: Keyword Research

Keyword Research - Probably the most important of the beginning steps. It’s the foundation of your SEO campaign. I use Google’s Keyword Tool, but I also use common sense, logic and focus groups to define the appropriate keywords.

Setting up Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics is a must!

2.) The Second Step to SEOing Your Website: On Page Optimization

On page optimization - Make the page meta titles descriptive and clear, optimize the meta keywords and the meta description (for a later post), tidy up each page to 450 words respectively, make sure there is a good internal linking structure, etc.

3.) The Third Step to SEOing Your Website: Backlinking Campaign

Backlinking Campaign - Absolutely essential to any successful SEO project is a backlinking campaign. Here’s my only plug, we offer an initial campaign for $249.00. It will get your website off it’s feet.

Here’s some tips for the DIYer: generate links at a moderate pace, use varying keyword anchor text, get links from a variety of places, etc. This is the hard part.

Here’s where most people fizzle out but keep reading!

4.) The Fourth Step to SEOing Your Website: Analyze Traffic

Once you get 1,000 visitors (not a magic number just a good amount of traffic), look to Google Analytics. Not only will you find how many visitors your site had, what keywords they found your site with, what site referred them to your site, what pages they viewed but it will also tell you how long they spent on your site.

It can be brutal at times…no doubt. You look at your stats only to find out no one spends more than 10 seconds on your site. That hurts.

5.) The Fifth Step to SEOing Your Website: Increase Traffic Levels and Add Content and Fresh Content

A high traffic ranking is a must for a truly successful website. This leads website owners farther into the usability aspect of a website and into creating more of a resource instead of “just a billboard of services.”

For a usability example, it’s hard to believe that in 2009 that there are websites with no contact form. This is an SEO must! NEVER have I ever had a customer call me (or any of my clients) when finding our services on the internet, they ALWAYS use our contact forms. And many requests my clients and myself have received because we are:

• easy to find
• our website’s are organized
• we have an easy way for people to contact us

In fact, I wouldn’t even bother with a website unless I had a contact form. Once you have a contact form, you are welcoming the potential client and making it easiest for them to reach you.

Other Tools to Increase Your Traffic Level

Oh there are so many to choose from, let’s see:

• Social Networks (a la ning.com where you can create your own)
• Forums installed on your domain
• Any Interactive Game/Quiz
• Videos
• Anything else useful to your target audience

Be creative. Set yourself apart and up for good times ahead for you and your company.

The Easiest Way to Increase Your Traffic Level, Add Fresh Content and SEO all at the same time is:

A blog! Did you get it right? A blog implemented by an SEO professional  of course (it’s only $100-$500 one time fee - every article you write gets generated for the search engines - sorry, plug I know).

A blog is the only way to compete with the larger sites. It creates an equal playing field for all. For each article, it’s another page in the search engines. Every category…another page and every tag is yet another page. The pages end up multiplying and within a year, you have a library of information you can package into an ebook, etc. You also have hundreds of pages in the search engines. You have made your website the authority in your niche (see lower right image).

This is the main reason why Ponder Consulting™ (that’s exciting my first time “tm”ing Ponder Consulting since being trademarked…more to come on that when the papers arrive) designs/creates all non ecommerce sites in Wordpress, because we know it’s best for the customer, their future and our success. There are many more advantages (for another post), but to sum it all up: Wordpress is a search engine magnet, a website and blog all in one, oh and it’s updatable by a novice computer user. Have I convinced you yet?

Become the Authority of Your Niche with a Blog

This article is by no means an all inclusive list of SEO steps, but it does create an outline that may help you make the right decision if you are considering a new website, a website redesign or SEO work.

In over 10 years as a marketer, from direct mail to internet marketing, I have never seen a better return on investment (ROI) than a wordpress website (set up by a seo professional), a backlinking campaign, and a faithful blogger.

I am going to leave you with one last thought: if my business was in trouble (thankfully it’s not), I would be blogging my happy tail off. I do it anyway, because I know it’s good PR and good for SEO. Besides that, if I KNEW it would attract potential clients for my business then I would do it! It’s a no brainer and I am telling you it will produce a positive ROI if executed correctly.

All of the information up there, it’s true. If you have any questions, comments or arguments about my theory I would love to hear them. Please, please share in the comments below.

In case I don’t get back by the weekend, have a Happy 4th of July, full of barbecue’s, fireworks, friends, families and memories, I know I am. We are hosting the first ever “Ponder Consulting™ Summer Bash” at the cabin on the lake in Cheboygan if anyone’s going to be around, contact me for directions.

Arrive in Style with Air Charters from Panorama Flight Service Located at Westchester County Airport (HPN), New York!

Treat yourself to luxury in a new Cessna Citation Mustang Air Charter. This people pleaser is a new addition to our growing fleet of jets for private travel. The Mustang, a 4-passenger jet, is an ideal balance of good looks, performance and efficiency. And with its more-than-ample storage area, advanced engine controls and sleek aerodynamic design, the Mustang is the bold, smart choice for an entire new generation of air charters.

If you need a to carry more than 4-passengers, consider the 7-passenger Learjet 60. This rocket with class is a testament to the Learjet heritage of excellence, from its legendary high-speed climbing performance and high operating ceiling, to its great runway looks.

The Bombardier Learjet 60 comes elegantly appointed with more of what corporate travelers appreciate on long flights. The spacious, stand-up cabin is completed with precious wood veneers, rich, supple leathers and the finest fabrics to create a feeling of functional luxury, while the galley’s gourmet capabilities can assist in elevating the aircraft charter experience to the exquisite.

For the ultimate experience in corporate air charters, consider the 10-passenger Challenger 600 Executive Corporate Jet. With its 8-foot wide cabin, full stand-up height and ample space for ten passengers and their luggage, the Challenger 600 is a large-cabin aircraft with a passenger-friendly interior. This classic aircraft offers an economical way to move up to the large cabin category for your next chartered aircraft.

If these aircrafts don’t meet your private jet travel needs, we have access to many others but first we have to hear from you. We invite you to contact Ken Healy at 914-328-9800 or email him at: khealy@flypfs.com to arrive in style at your next destination.

Panorama Flight Service has been providing air charters from the New York (HPN) area since 1961. We understand the importance private jet travel is for the busy executive as well as the discriminating traveler who places a premium on privacy, flexibility and efficiency.

Conveniently located at Westchester County Airport (HPN), just outside New York City, Panorama’s air charter operation provides an easily accessible and low-cost base of operations for your private and executive jet travel requirements.

Get a Quote from Panorama Flight Service:
914-328-9800 (New York)
888-359-7266 (Toll Free)
212-967-9800 (New York City)

For the Love of the Game

Yesterday on Facebook, I wished a friend from high school, Tina Manzano, a happy birthday. She replied with:

“the best troy PG there ever was!”

PG refers to point guard. This meant a lot to me. Probably more than she or anyone will ever know. I am confident if the WNBA was around when I was in high school I would have pursued a career in it. I love to play basketball.

Starting at the age of 8,  I played from the time I walked out the door in the morning until sundown and sometimes later.

By the time I entered sixth grade and started Parks and Recreation, I was the best player on the court and I had never played organized ball. Some of those girls had been playing organized ball for 3 years.

I’ll never forget my first game. No one ever mentioned the rules. In the first half I was called for the 10 second in the back court penalty. I was upset, it was embarrassing but I scored twice in the first half.

At the start of the second half, I scored for the other team because no one told me we switched directions! I was really embarrassed! A great basketball player but no one prepared me with the rules. If my memory serves me correctly, the final score was 10-4 (we won).

I went on to play in 7th grade at Baker Middle School. I was playing for the best coach I ever had Mr. (Mike) Vagnetti. He had five undefeated seasons prior to this season. I was the point guard. We pretty much flew through the season with no problems until Boulan Park Middle School. They had 2 girls who were already 5′10, Karen Merritt and Kara Kesler, and I was barely five feet. Tina (mentioned above) was also on this team. This was the last game we had to win to succeed as the sixth team in a row to be undefeated at Baker.

If you don’t read anything in this article, you must read this:

At the end of practice, the day before the big game, Coach Vagnetti had us all lie down on the court. With our backs to the floor, he told us to close our eyes. He told us to envision 3 seconds left, we’re down by 1 and we make the game winning shot. I got the image in my mind. I was nowhere else but in the game winning moment. I believed it could happen. He gave us a vision.

It’s now game day, I don’t remember the score with 14 seconds left, but I do remember we were down by 3 points. Lena passed me the ball at the foul line and I threw up a shot that bounced around the rim and went in. Down by 1 with 9 seconds left.

I was defending Boulan’s Karen Merritt who was bringing the ball up the court when she was called out of bounce. She disagreed with the ref’s call and forcefully threw the ball in his direction. She was called with a technical foul. Mr. Vagnetti made the decision to have me shoot the two technical foul shots.

The pressure was on.

These moments define superstar’s from athlete’s. Anyone can play a sport but you “gotta have heart” to come through in the clutch moments to be the superstar.

With less than 5 seconds left, I made the two foul shots to put us in the lead by 1. They didn’t have enough time to bring the ball up the court and WE WON.

My point here is Coach Vagnetti gave us a vision. His vision coupled with my positive thinking and “heart” was a formula for our team’s success.

I went on to have many more defining moments as a basketball player but only under the leadership of great coaches.

The same is true for leaders of successful organizations. You must have a vision and positive thinking to prepare your organization to be “the superstar” and not just your average company.

I encourage you to continue following our blog to find out more about our vision.

On Sunday, while compiling search engine rankings, I noticed that when I went to Live.com (formerly MSN’s search engine), the URL forward me to Bing. Bing (formerly Microsoft Kumo) was announced last week at the Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital Conference.

How timely this article is since the last post ended with another Microsoft let down.

Don’t Leave Yet - Microsoft Might Be Onto Something

Right off the bat, I liked the speed, the relevancy and the ease of use. I also like some following features:

1.) Best Match - Provides useful links and information for definitive sites. Try typing in UPS (or click the link). It provides all of the information I could be looking for without having to enter the site! The customer service phone number and a tracking form.

2.) Deep Links - Deep Links enable users to see inside the site without having to click into it and learn a new site structure.

3.) Quick Preview - Summarizes a Web site at a glance, before the searcher clicks through to the site. Bing takes the captions you see beneath a search result a step further. Hovering over a search result gives you a better sense of whether a site contains the information you’re looking for without taking up valuable real estate on the search page.

4.) Instant Answers - A quick search for “weather” returns the local weather which is Traverse City, Michigan. I have been unimpressed with Google lately returning Madison, WI local information as I am in Northern Michigan.

4.) Virtual Earth - Virtual Earth is strikingly similar to Google Earth. Microsoft’s Virtual Earth seemed very smooth though with options to drop a pin on any location on Earth.

Competition is Good, but is Bing Good Enough?

Bing will definitely challenge Google to be thinking about their long term strategy here, that is what we all want. We want Google to get better and the only way that can happen is if they have to.

What about you? Have you tried Bing?

Feel free to post your feedback about the new search (decision) engine.

We have been working with Tommy Dalton over at Root Level Design for close to six months. We are extremely impressed with their knowledge and high quality multimedia services, so we asked Tommy to write an article for our readers.

Let’s hear what Tommy had to say about  “Flash vs. Silverlight“:

When Silverlight (formerly Microsoft Sparkle) began to surface in April of 2007, it was hailed as Microsoft’s “Flash Killer”. As a 9 to 5 Flash designer and developer, this got my attention. I ran out to grab my copy of Expression Studio and got ready to experience the awesome power of the application that was going to change the way I create! Well, I wasn’t exactly blown away. But unlike most heavy Flash/Flex users, I actually like Silverlight. I see great potential with Microsoft Silverlight Streaming in RIA’s (rich Internet applications) and think it’s a fantastic platform for designing stand alone Windows applications. The interface and tools are similar, which isn’t surprising as both applications are used to create similar content. I found I could basically use my same workflow and spent some time building simple applications similar to ones I had developed in Flash to compare performance. For the simple tools I created, I didn’t really find one application more suitable than another. I do think the coding language flexibility offered by Silverlight is great for developers who are fluent in C#. Assuming other people were asking the same questions and testing the plugin, I set out to find other examples and stumbled on Terence Tsang’s Shine Draw project. This is the best repository of side by side comparisons I have come across and a must see for RIA developers. Terence also posts his source files for each application which are great tutorials if you are new to Flash or Expression Studio.

So, Silverlight is pretty impressive. There are a few specific projects I would prefer to develop as stand alone Silverlight powered applications over Flash executables. That being said, I don’t recommend using this technology for web delivery due the simple and overwhelming accessibility drawbacks. It comes down to ubiquity, and until Silverlight penetration reaches a respectable figure, Flash is the obvious RIA route. At the time I’m writing this article, Adobe reports Flash Player Version Penetration for Flash Player 9 at 98.9% in mature markets. After MLBtv dropped Silverlight for Flash, several articles were floating around with Microsoft representatives claiming that Silverlight was installed on 50% of internet enabled machines. Although I think the Adobe figures are probably closer than Microsoft, I think it’s best to look for accurate ubiquity statistics anywhere BUT Microsoft and Adobe.

Where do you look for these numbers? Stat Owl, ZD Net, or CNET. How about on your site? Visit RIA Stats and install a simple script that will collect Flash, Silverlight, and Sun statistics from every unique browser that visits your domain.

For now, my company will recommend Flash and Flex RIA development to our clients. Whoever is developing content for ABC, A&E, Cartoon Network, CBS, CNN, ESPN, Discovery, Disney, FX Networks, MGM, MLBtv, MTV, Starz Encore, TBS, Time Warner, TNT, TruTV, Turner Broadcasting and Viacom, seems to agree. Although Silverlight seems to have an advantage over Flash delivering streaming media, all of these media companies are using Flash to stream video. What about MSNBC (the MS is for Microsoft)?. Surely we’ll get to see Silverlight in action by clicking on a video link from the MSNBC home page…wait…really?

Good Stuff Tommy and thank you! We appreciate the “real world” review from a seasoned professional. If you are looking for multimedia services, please do not hesitate to contact Tommy Dalton of Root Level Design.

Flash vs. Silverlight Article Courtesy of:

Root Level Design provides custom multimedia components and professional media services for projects incorporating Flash design, web and application development, PHP/MySQL development, video editing and post-production services (high definition | standard definition | broadcast | streaming web delivery), motion graphics and polished video effects, DVD and Blu-Ray authoring, 3d modeling, 3d animation, 3d rendering for HD,SD, and web, 3d vector rendering, interface design, kiosk design, search engine optimization, and projects that require comprehensive audio services. Root Level Design is based in Chicago, Illinois.

IMPACT: The Power of One

During the last week, I have been considering a new “joint” business venture. And while I won’t disclose the specifics, I will say that I am still on the fence about it. It’s constantly filled my mind since it was presented.

Each week I take a trip to Gaylord to visit my friends at the Detroit Coney Island and eat coney dogs. I am originally from the Detroit suburbs and there is nothing better to me than authentic Detroit Style Coneys (there is no substitute). It’s my reward to myself and I get a chance to socialize with friends.

On the way to Gaylord, I phoned a friend and he said something very simple, yet so profound. He said, “What will you get out of it and what will the other person get out of it?” Brilliant.  Almost instantly, I made up my mind but continued on my journey for coney’s.

After I ate my coney’s I went to OfficeMax to purchase some office supplies. While making my way around the store, trying everything out, I came to the mouse pads. One instantly caught my eye (see top right). Perhaps it was the water, it is so “Ponder” and so much like my business card and website header. But then my eyes dropped to the bottom to read:

“IMPACT The Power of One”

I thought, YES the “Power of One.” I bought the mouse pad but what I got that is far more valuable is a gentle affirmation and now perhaps I will make a better decision. And to think, I almost grabbed my pens at the front of the store and headed out, but I stuck around. It was well worth my time.