Even if you already know what your USP is, I encourage you to read this post on unique selling propositions to get what makes your business special very clearly defined in your mind. You might even want to write yourself some notes. Before you finish read Create Your USP By Looking At What Your Competitors Aren’t Claiming.

Focusing on the broad path of competition instead of the narrow path of collaborating will not get you through the challenging economic times we are now facing. Every business should already be differentiating themselves
through a USP – a unique selling proposition.

I want to point out for my regular readers that I always put links to additional information in my posts, but I do not always tell you specifically why you should go read them. I hope you realize that means those two links (above) are really important to your success. If you want to survive or even prosper you simply must stop thinking in terms of competing.

I know that will be a hard idea to swallow for those who have been raised competing from birth or at least since they started school and sports. We have been conditioned to believe that competition is a worthy goal in every way from sports to grades.

Competition creates winners and losers. On a more basic level, it created a world where some have far more than they need and others are starving. Do we really want to perpetuate this model?

I ask especially those who consider themselves Christians to compare this to what Jesus taught. At some point – and now would be a good time – we have to decide who we really are and who (or $$ what $$) we choose to worship.

Many businesses have “competitors” who aren’t really competing.  Maybe your business sells wholesale specialty woods and makes some cabinet parts but doesn’t make entire cabinets. A company that makes replacement cabinet doors is just as likely to be a customer as a competitor.  While there IS definitely product overlap, the more competitors we can collaborate with the more business each of you will have.

When too many businesses compete for exactly the same audience they are fighting over a limited pie and creating winners and losers.  Selling products that are commodities – which I will define as the same products widely available for roughly the same price – is a recipe for failure.

“2010 will see collaboration become the new competition. Markets around the world are crying out for collaboration as innovation and differentiation become scarce in a sea of commoditised products and processes.” ~ Barrett ~

If you only sell the same thing everyone else sells and others are willing to sell those products at less than their cost of sales, you will be in a price war that is going to put all of you out of business. The further the dollar slides the more desperate people will get. More of them will sell at below profitable levels and your sales and profits will keep declining.

If that is your current business model you need to make a change. Start adding different products that are NOT commodities. Consider offering products that your clients are likely to have to buy online so that they have an additional reason to buy from you (to save on shipping).

Since these are necessities, if someone is running low that will prompt them to go ahead and order – and if they could use both what you sell and that you’ll get the order. This time of year people are likely to need more baking supplies or even give organic gifts to friends and family. If you have an online gift store we could buy gifts, what we need to bake holiday cookies and organic staples too.

Yes, this means you will either have to stock that inventory too (if you ship products yourself) or find a partner who can ship them together. Or work out a way of splitting the cost of shipping from both locations that saves the buyer money and increases your sales.

The number one way to increase sales is to offer free shipping.

If you are interested in being healthy – even if you are a tiny ecommerce store – you could order extras when you order them for yourself and offer these items that people like me buy regularly online:

• Fluoride free toothpaste – I use Herbodent but any toothpaste that doesn’t have added fluoride would sell because many stores – even superstores – do not carry a single fluoride-free offering.
• Dr. Bronner’s Almond Oil Soap (yes, they have many others but this is the number one most popular)
• Organic shampoo – I use Aubrey’s Organics but there are many other quality brands. All “organic” products are NOT healthy so check them out at Environmental Working Group (ewg.org) healthy product database first.
• Rumford aluminum free baking powder
• Coconut oil

If you have a small local store, are an independent grocer, belong to an organic coop, or are involved in Community Supported Agriculture these same staples would be perfect to offer your groups. You could also carry Ezekiel sprouted bread and other hard-to-locate but highly popular products.

Encourage your local independent markets and stores to buy locally and sell these specific items.  Every day someone like me (or maybe many someones) drives by your small grocery to drive 30-60 miles to Whole Foods – probably to buy only a handful of items they really want and can not buy locally.

U.S. Food Inflation Graph 2009 2010

If you stock what they want they won’t need to make that drive and they’ll buy their commoditized groceries from you too!  Having sought out these products for decades now, I have some additional tips for you. Make a section just for these items instead of spreading them all over the store.  That makes it easier for those who are interested to know what you have and see any new items of interest you decide to stock.

Be sure to make your new products obvious:

1. Add them to your weekly advertising
2. Put up or offer fliers on the checkstands – even those who aren’t interested are likely to immediately think of someone they know who would be interested
3. Add these products in the description or special sections of your Local Search Directory Listings
4. Add coupons wherever you have that capability such as Merchant Circle or Yelp listings

You can take this even further by offering locally raised products and grass-fed meat.  As the dollar buys less and less there is one thing that will always be a valuable form of exchange – and it isn’t gold. It is FOOD! Small communities could actually do business in grocery store gift certificates instead of cash because everyone buys something at a grocery store and even if they didn’t they could trade them to someone who did!

This video is from a protester at Occupy Wall Street New York. While I don’t believe that politicians are the solution, this young man knows more about what is going on in the world than most people my age.

Follow what is happening on Twitter (unless they are censoring tweets). They are preventing the hashtags from trending and deleted the Twitter account @occupyadam (Amsterdam, Holland). For more information:

• OccupyTogether (@OccupyTogether #OccupyTogether) – pointers to at least 115 cities so far plus a number of state hubs; meetups in 840 1480 cities and growing
• Where to find Facebook Occupy pages
• Occupy Twitter Usernames and associated links

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it
~ A Hooverville from the 1930′s

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
— George Santayana, 1863-1952

It is clear to me that the masses are not paying attention or they are being lulled by the media into believing what they want to believe.

The United States economy is NOT in a “recovery”. Nothing could be further from the truth as business owners can tell you. We are clearly in a DEPRESSION. The best way to understand why is to read the best REAL History of the United States I have seen.

See also this Timeline that clearly shows who has controlled the economies
of the world since 1776: The History of the House of Rothschild which is the
History of Banking and the Federal Reserve

Click the image for Cheapskate / Survival Skills

The owners who are able to look up from their despair and see clearly in spite of their fear will realize it is NOT just them – it is the entire country! I know because I have friends across many niches and geographies.

During the Great Depression Unemployment Caused People to be Lose Their Homes ~ Do You Know Anyone Who Has Lost Their Home? Click Image to Read More

How bad is it?  BAD! The input I get from businesses is supplemented by what Ron Cripps, a successful Affiliate Marketer who has made his living for years from marketing products for other businesses across many niches. What he knows benefits us all:

Sales are down over the past two years by roughly 60% across all niches and especially sales from the United States.

The economy is NOT affecting just SOME businesses; it is affecting almost ALL businesses. (There ARE ways to make YOUR business one of the exceptions. Ron and I are part of a team with specialized skills creating best practices to save as many businesses as possible. Contact us and we will offer guidance to all those we can. )

It is not affecting JUST business; it affects JOBS. In my previous post on How Word of Mouth Can Save Our Favorite Businesses I shared statistics that showed that 20% of Americans were already underemployed – many working 2 or even 3 jobs and making less than half what they once made: less money when food, utilities, gasoline and shelter cost more each day!

NEW: Watch this Newsmax Economic Survival video
if it is still available!

Unemployment statistics are lies intended to make things appear better than they are. They do not count those who have been out of work more than a certain amount of time nor do they count those who have given up looking. Do YOU know anyone who is unemployed and wants to work?

I do. 80% of my neighbors have already been laid off. My next door neighbor and his wife are BOTH laid off. None of these people has found full time work at any wage much less what they used to make. They get by with whatever side work they can find.

How many are already on the street? How many more will be? There but for the grace of God go I - and even YOU!

We all need a crash course in what is really going on starting with the fact that we are in what Paul Krugman calls The Third Depression. I share these resources to help those who are interested in taking action to survive what is coming:

• NEW: The Crisis of Credit Visualized: What Caused the Mortgage Crisis – visual, simple to understand
• NEW: Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve Video – every American needs to understand how money affects our economy.
• Time article clearly showing that banks are preventing economic recovery by refusing to loan money to small businesses.
• Excellent New Graphs in Mother Jones Income Inequality in America
• Hyperinflation is inevitable. Read what happened during Argentina hyperinflation here.
• Recession Over or Just Beginning? 21 “Oh Crap!” U.S. Economy Statistics (Feb 23, 2011)
• 23 Top Economists and Government Authorities Who Say We’re Headed To GLOBAL Depression in 2011
• The Alaska Standard: After America, there is No Place to Go ~ ALL AMERICANS MUST READ THIS!
• The Verdict is in: Obama is NOT FDR – How About Hoover? Or LBJ?
• Why the Greater Depression Still Lies Ahead ~ The cause of the Great Depression and the current issues is THE SAME!
• All Financial Matters on What Caused the Great Depression? How Goverment intervention always makes it WORSE – NOT BETTER
• Down and Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the Forgotten Man ~ Robert S. McElvaine
• NEW: The State of Working America – Between 1978 and 2008, all income growth went to the richest 10% and incomes for the other 90% all declined!
• NEW: How Wal-Mart is Destroying Our Economy, Why it is Bad for Business and everyone else – this is the best one-page overview of all the reasons we must stop shopping at WalMart – and what will happen if we don’t!
• NEW: CBS Video of Enron’s energy traders bragging about manipulating energy prices and supply
• NEW: Law Enforcement Growth Industy – “If a victim loses their property, the criminals lose their freedom, but never make restitution to the damaged party. And the taxpayers are fleeced out of their money to fund these human warehouses. The beneficiaries of this system are not the victims — they are the public defenders, lawyers, judges, jailers, prison guards, policemen and political administrations, and they quite literally thrive off the system.”

There is nowhere to go that is not also affected. Click this image to LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT YOU MUST KNOW TO SURVIVE

There will be many tough decisions to make. Those who act most quickly will be in far better shape. Consider all of these:

How to Make Ends Meet:

• Learn to cook real food instead of eating fast or convenience foods. You can buy a twenty pound bag of potatoes for about what ONE bag of potato chips costs! Do you know how many meals you can make with twenty pounds of potatoes?
• Stock up on staples like tea, salt, sugar, cinnamon and other spices, flour, corn meal, beans, rice and pasta.  Quick bread is EASY to make – ANYONE can do it. (Yeast bread is what takes so long and requires far more knowledge.) You can mix up cornbread or biscuit bread in five minutes and bake it in a toaster oven (cheaper and turns the heat off when the time is up so you don’t forget it!) Our new blog at PSPLiving will cover how to live simply but well. Buy a few staples whenever you have money and store them properly and you will not go hungry!
• Get that toaster oven out of the cupboard or buy one.  You can probably find one at a garage sale or second hand shop. It is less expensive to use a toaster oven and they shut themselves off so you don’t burn things or waste electricity – and they generate much less heat than your regular oven so your Air Conditioner won’t be running more and costing you.
• Use ceiling fans and natural breezes through screened windows to reduce your utilities. It can often be less expensive to heat or cool one room than your entire house (but if you have a forced air system DO NOT close the vents in one room – seems logical but that doesn’t work well). Consider installing awnings or exterior shutters – they can greatly change the temperature in your home or business.
• Find less expensive and healthier food sources by buying through your local Organic Food Co-op or CSA (Consumer Supported Agriculture).

If you are laid off or lose your home consider moving somewhere less expensive where you can grow your own food and raise chickens. The ideal location:

• Has soil that is healthy (to grow food)
• Not located near anything that leaches toxins (that will kill your garden, animals and eventually you!)
• Not in areas where foolish growers spray chemicals (what kills weeds will also kill your garden!) – You do NOT want to move where food is grown commercially – you want to move to rural areas where YOU can grow YOUR OWN food or buy it from others who do.
• Where there is an adequate water supply (water shortages are the next coming crisis in many states)
• Located ABOVE sources of pollution (i.e., at a higher altitude or in the mountains)
• Several hours away from any sizeable town or city (because hungry, desperate people will be taking what they need by force)
• Has high speed Internet access if you work online. See my post about HughesNet complaints for tips on how to find High speed point-to-point access from a Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISP). If none exists contact the closest WISPs to find out how many people they would need to expand to your area.

Losing your home or job may be a blessing in disguise if you take that opportunity to relocate to a safer area where you can grow food.

Many people do not realize that the cost of living can be as much as 70-80% less in areas that are too far to commute to a city. If you make your living online or have a skill you can offer to a community you DO NOT need to live in high cost areas – especially where hungry people will be roaming.

We want to hear YOUR story:

• Are you unemployed or underemployed? Are you still looking or have given up and just trying to get by with whatever money you can get?
• How long has it been since you lost your well-paying job that had benefits?
• What about your friends, family and neighbors?
• Are you having trouble making ends meet?
• Does food cost far more now but “stuff” costs ridiculously low prices?
• Have you started growing some of your own food or shopping locally?

Please leave your story in the comments of this post. Read and comment on others stories too. If you are a business use your comment to bring you more traffic and potential buyers by reading about how to use KeywordLuv and CommentLuv.

Related articles

• “Home price drops exceed Great Depression: Zillow” and related posts (nalert.blogspot.com)
• Tell Us Your New Great Depression Stories [Request For Information] (gawker.com)
• Unemployment Worst since the Great Depression, NOT Getting Better (chicagonow.com)
• The Great Depression (librarianbrain.wordpress.com)

Business Ethics & Social Responsibility - Image Credit BusinessMantra.net

One of the most deceptive forms of blog spam is copying previous comments in a thread or text from the blog post or another site and using them to create or automatically generate a new comment.

This type of spammer loves to target dofollow blogs that use plugins like CommentLuv and especially KeywordLuv.

Since many businesses are not aware that they are paying for links using tactics like this one, I am writing this post to point out how this reflects on their businesses as well as the company that is creating spam comments using this method.

I am writing this post for bloggers too – so they know what to watch for and can delete these comments. I hope businesses will see more clearly how someone with very strong ethics perceives what for many seem to be gray areas.  I want to go on the record:

Copying a comment written by someone else and using it as your own is clearly unethical.

Here is an example of one I deleted today:

Copied Comment SPAM

Here is the original comment from that post:

Original Comment excerpted by spammer

This comment was submitted by a company called ConversionHub based in Singapore. They have an attractive, well-written Web site; however, their actions are a clear indication that their ethics are not in alignment with mine.

I would never knowingly recommend a company that acts in a manner that could damage your businesses reputation.

Comment Author

Here is the information from WordPress with the email address obscured because that information is not made public when we comment in a blog.

They are far from the only SEO company selling businesses on the idea of spamming dofollow blogs.

Business Ethics has become as rare as “common” sense. Some of us must be willing to make it far more clear what is ethical and what is not as few have been exposed to ethics training and have no role models with strong moral ethics.

It is unfortunate that society rewards unethical behavior far more consistently than doing the right thing; however, that does not change what is right or wrong.

Being unethical is now the accepted norm in America and across the globe. Mical Johnson recently warned his Internet Marketing Tips blog readers about Online Scams by Fortune 500 companies – another misleading scam in a long history of hidden charges and fees.

As the effects of greed have impacted more and more people, there has been “an explosion of interest in ethics courses” according to The New York Times article A Promise to Be Ethical in an Era of Immorality. Here are some excerpts:

“Nearly 20 percent of the graduating class have signed “The M.B.A. Oath,” a voluntary student-led pledge that the goal of a business manager is to “serve the greater good.” It promises that Harvard M.B.A.’s will act responsibly, ethically and refrain from advancing their “own narrow ambitions” at the expense of others.”

“At Columbia Business School, all students must pledge to an honor code: “As a lifelong member of the Columbia Business School community, I adhere to the principles of truth, integrity, and respect. I will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.””

While this may be a good start, the bottom line is we have generations of people who do not have the critical thinking skills to make ethical decisions. Those who do must lead by example, write about it often, and not condone or even tolerate bad behavior.

“The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do.  The hard part is doing it.” — General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

I am not certain that most people really DO know what is right. How could they when it is so obvious that selfish behavior is consistently rewarded and greed – especially Corporate Greed – is much admired.

Among those who do, I wonder how many – including Schwarzkopf – have the courage to do what they know is right. Those of us who work together can make our own ethics crystal clear and raise the bar for the many.

As we build collaborations of bloggers and collaborate with each other on Social Networks it will become important to ensure that those we recommend and work with share our values and ethics. Developing critical thinking skills is essential for accurately discerning the truth. I have included some of the best resources I’ve collected over the years below for those who value being a thought leader instead of a follower.

ETHICAL EMARKETING:

• How NOT to Be A Thought Leader
• It’s Only Stealing From Yourself - on “borrowing” the blog posts of others
• Five Ethical Deficits That Need to Be Addressed
• The Role of Business Ethics, Learning Business Ethics and Look at Your Character When No One is Watching
• Why Not Just Ethical Businesses Must Be Truly Ethical
• Xing -  Just Say No to Sleazy: Ethical Behavior Online is Rewarded
• Always Do Ethical Search Engine Optimization
• Ethical and Unethical Sides of Mass Email Marketing
• e-business guide: Spam and Ethical e-marketing

CRITICAL THINKING:

• Ten Fatal Business Mistakes – Great video that points out many business related failures of critical thinking – Check out his excellent business related articles especially those on Thriving in a Tough Economy and 25 Ways to Get More Business Right Away
• Genius Types – GeniusTypes – Become a Critical Thinker
• Critical Thinking on the Web
• A List of Fallacious Arguments
• Recognizing Propaganda Techniques and Errors of Faulty Logic
• The Art of Complex Problem Solving

KNOWN COMMENT COPY SPAMMERS:

1. SEO Marketing / conversion-hub.com / IP 117.193.169.194
2. handbag / yeshandbag.com / IP 222.95.61.98
3. april0414 / www.no1replica.net / IP 123.119.94.201
4. jayesh / thinkaheadit.co.nz / 116.72.133.125

NOTE: Not all ISPs (Internet Service Providers) use static (permanent) IP addresses. Many still assign them dynamically as Internet users log in. What this means is that banning IPs may block innocent users and may not block spammers. I include them here so they will be indexed but have not verified whether they are static or dynamic so use good judgement when using this list.

Look for Our GrowMap Avatar Across the Web

Please Spread the Word ~ SHARE these GrowMap Resources to Grow Businesses, Blogs and Causes!

Every blogger has posts they feel have really hit the mark; what many call pillar articles or foundation content. When Liz Strauss (Liz Strauss) decided to celebrate the 4th Birthday of her Successful Blog with a Bring ONE Link offer she motivated me to compile these links for my readers.

There are now so many posts I wish every regular and new visitor knew about here that I decided to write this compilation so YOU don’t miss some of the most important information I’ve researched and shared.

This would be a great post to save in your Delicious or StumbleUpon account so you can return to it for reference. We will continually update and add to these important resources to keep them current just for you. Is there anything else you would like to see here? Just let us know.

MOST IMPORTANT CONTENT:

We have added so much top information, but these posts are among the most often shared:

• Small Business Internet Marketing Priorities
• Twitter Best Practices
• Why Blogs Going Localis Where the Money In Blogging Is
• Blogging Collaboration Processes
• What Blog Outreach Is

• How to Choose and Use Keywords for Your Target Audience
• How to Use Your Keywords In Content

HOW TO GROW or SUPPORT SMALL BUSINESSES:

• Small Business Internet Marketing – What to do first – what to make your priority and how to do it
• MEME: BizLuv in Support of Small Businesses – Why the economic crisis makes this essential
• BizLuv MEME: Specifically What Bloggers Can Do to Support Businesses, Causes and other Bloggers
• Marketing is NOT Evil – It is how we find what we desire. Read about how Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) can benefit buyers and sellers alike
• KEYWORDLUV: How Using KeywordLuv Benefits Us All

LOCAL SEARCH DIRECTORIES:

• How Businesses can get FREE Business Listings in Local Search Directories * Best Local Search Post *
  
• Why Local Search is so important. Use our shortcut to getting any business or Web site with a physical address listed in Major Local Search Directories including Google Maps, Yahoo! Local, Bing, SuperPages and many more.
• Scan the Local Search Categories in the right sidebar for comprehensive information on and how-to obtain listings in specific Local Search Directories

HOW TO MAKE MONEY BLOGGING:

• Top How to Make Money Blogging Resources; Who REALLY Makes Money and Teaches Their Methods Best
• How to Create a Successful Blog Based Business – All blogs are not created equal; what you need and how to get an optimized blog even if you don’t have technical skills.
• Super Thesis Resources and why we wish we had installed Threaded Comments from the beginning.

KEYWORD RESEARCH / SEO:

• ANCHOR TEXT: Are You Playing Hide and Seek with Your Market? Identify your most important goals and the keywords and pages related to them.
• SELECTING KEYWORDS: The Importance of Researching and Selecting Your Keywords First to make your content easy to find and keep your posts on topic
• TRACKING SEARCH POSITIONS: Tracking Search Engine Positions: Free, easy way to track

BLOGGING BUDDIES, BLOG OUTREACH, GUEST BLOGGING:

• How Guest Blogging Can Change Your Life – Guest post by Greg Rollett of Rock Star Lifestyle Design and Internet Marketing
• Blog Outreach: 8 Compelling Reasons You Should Be Doing It NOW – Guest post by Affiliate Marketing Expert Murray Newlands

GrowMap 125x125 Ad Block

DOFOLLOW and BLOG COMMENTING:

• KEYWORDLUV: How Using KeywordLuv Benefits Us All
• Use our DoFollow Lists and Tools to increase your incoming links
• How We Increased Our Blog Traffic Over 76.63% in one month by first commenting and then sharing other bloggers’ content across Social Networks
• How We Encourage Community and Comments

AFFILIATE MARKETING:

• Merchant Affiliate Marketing Management – What businesses who offer affiliate programs need to know.
• Massive Affiliate Reference Resources with links to Power Affiliates, Affiliate Forums, Affiliate Training – includes How to Evaluate Merchant Ecommerce Stores so you know which will convert BEFORE you promote them. This post uses an excellent gift affiliate program as the example store.

PAY PER CLICK ADVERTISING:

• How Not to Lose Your Shirt on PPC Advertising
• My Step-by-step Method for Evaluating Your AdWords Account – what settings to use and why
• Why PPC Summit is the Very Best PPC Seminar EVER – ?(no longer live events – now AdWords Advantage Webinars instead)

ORGANIC SEARCH SEO SEM:

• Why You Can NOT Rely Solely on Organic Listings for Traffic and Revenue

BLOG DIRECTORIES:

• Coming eventually: Which Blog Directories are most important and why. Start with PostRank, Technorati, MyBlogLog, Blog Catalog and the blog directories reviewed by Keller Hawthorne  at FresheVenture.

WEB ANALYTICS:

• REVIEW: Mastering Google Analytics: Easy to Understand Free e-Course

LOGO and WEB DESIGN:

• What Makes a Great Logo – How to create or buy one; the differences in deliverables between $50 and $1000+ logos.
• What NOT To Do With Your Existing Web Site When You Upgrade or Remodel

SOCIAL NETWORKING:

• Social Networking is NOT Chat – How to get your content shared by others, where you can find us and what to do if you would like us to comment in your blog and send you traffic in our daily travels across the Internet.
• How Monetizing Social Networking Sites THIS Way Benefits Everyone
• Twitter FriendFeed Quick Start – How to get up to speed right away at Twitter and on FriendFeed
• Coming soon: Our process for maximizing our reach across Social Networks

Happy Birthday GrowMap

Today is the one year anniversary of the first post ever published at GrowMap. In case anyone is interested here are some stats on what has happened in that year:

• 130 published posts
• 2,402 active comments
• 1,300 subscribers

Most important to us is whether what we have shared here has been of value to our readers. We know some have applied what we have shared. We hope many have seen an increase in their traffic and sales.

Many thanks to our regular readers and commentators and welcome to new readers. You are personally invited to jump right in:

• Ask any questions you have while we still have time to give personal answers
• Comment regularly to generate incoming links to your own site
• Interact with us here and on Social Networking sites because we regularly send traffic to those who do
• Tell your friends and share what we write so others can benefit.

What do I mean by Success IS a Numbers Game? Simply this: you can’t be successful until you reach a much larger number of individuals than most people reading this realize. Those who read this entire post will be many miles further down their own road to success. Bear with me as I explain the basics and share what you must know.

Remember the first time you ever placed a classified ad for a used car? You got a call or two and were just sure you had found your buyer. What happened? In case you never have advertised anything or don’t recall, here is what probably occurred:

• What percentage of the circulation of that paper actually read your ad?
• Of those that read it, what percentage bothered to call?
• Some did call. Did they do what they said they would do?
• How many who said they were coming to see it actually did?
• Did some say they were definitely going to buy. Did they?

The reason I took you through those questions is in hopes that you will understand that you must reach far more individuals than most ever imagine in order to generate the number of completed goals you are seeking – whether they be leads, sales or subscribers. Let’s call these goals conversions for the rest of this post.

While percentages DO vary greatly, 1-2% is a good target to aim for at the start. What this means is for every one to two conversions you expect to make you need 100 TARGETED visitors. To get those 100 visitors you need 500-1000 impressions. How many sites send you 500-1000 visitors in a day, week or month?

Did you realize that you needed 500-1000 impressions and 50-100 visitors for every conversion you hope to generate?

If you didn’t you are in good company. I suspect most business owners do not – at least not until they start truly understanding Web analytics. Now you know why there is so much emphasis on Search Engine Optimization, incoming links, Pay-Per-Click advertising and more recently on Social Networking sites. For many businesses and blogs, only search engines ever send them sufficient traffic to generate repeat conversions.

This is also Why Conversion Rates are VASTLY More Important Than Traffic:

Double your conversion rate and you generate twice the revenue at a lower cost from the same traffic.

If you want to see this more clearly I hope you’ll click through to The Two Levers of ECommerce to see an example in real dollars that show the difference in revenue from increasing traffic versus increasing conversions.

You can also take advantage of the Usability ROI Calculator created by Dr. Peter. J. Meyers aka Dr. Pete. He designed it to explain why investing in improved usability pays off financially; however, it also clearly shows you how improvements in your your conversion rate increases your monthly and annual profit. (Improving the usability of your site is not the only way but IS one of the most important ways to increase your conversion rate.)

We highly recommend reading and subscribing to UserEffect. Either apply what they share or get assistance improving your site’s usability. It can really make a huge difference.

If you are buying pay-per-click (ppc) traffic this is even more important. While we still encourage you to clearly understand the risks of ppc advertising there is no faster way to generate revenue so we’re going to be posting some exceptional resources to assist you. Watch for another post shortly on how to get the most from your Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft AdCenter ad spend.

In the meantime, you may want to scan the categories in the right sidebar (sidebar is WordPress-speak for column) for many ways to generate free traffic. We’re working on some awesome Best Practices processes for tracking what you’re doing so if you aren’t already a regular reader we hope you decide to join us.

P.S. If you don’t believe that only 1-2% is the “normal” range for taking action here is a simple way to prove it if you have access to any Google Analytics account. Log in, click on Content, then Site Overlay and wait for the page to load. This view allows you to see what percentage of your visitors clicked on each available link on any page. You can click through to other pages to see what links are most popular there too. [Be patient - it can take a few minutes for each page's stats to load.]

Note that if there is more than one link to the same destination the percentages shown are the combined percentage for them collectively. If you don’t see many percentages increase the time you’re viewing. (Google Analytics defaults to the past thirty days if it has not been changed.)

This is also a good way to see what types of comments and commentators your readers find most interesting based on which they click through to visit. You may wish to share that information with your regular commentors – and consider emulating the most successful.

POST UPDATE: These percentages apply to TARGETED traffic such as what you buy using ppc ads triggered by very specific keyword phrases running SEARCH ONLY. Expect content ads and traffic from Social Networking sites to have much higher bounce rates and convert far less frequently because those are curiosity clicks rather than someone seeking to buy what you’re offering. We NEVER recommend spam traffic and suspect it would convert at less than 1/10 to 1/100th of 1 percent.  Content ads and Social Networking should not be expected to convert nearly as well as search.

Favicons are those tiny images (16×16) shown in your browser tabs:

Favicons visible in FireFox Browser

In the screen capture above you can see our new Favicon followed by one for Adam Singer‘s blog The Future Buzz and Andy Beard‘s blog AndyBeard.eu. Favicons can be created from almost any image file type (.jpg .gif .png .bmp) and are saved as the .ico file type.

Every Web site should seriously consider having a distinctive Favicon created that matches their Avatar and Distinctive Business Logo. You can use one of the Favicon generation tools below to create one from an existing image and the Favicon WordPress plugins to install it on your site. The process is similar for installing Favicons in Non-WordPress sites.

FREE FAVICON GENERATORS:

1. HTMLkit Favicon Generator – recommended by Mikael from Retire Rich – creates still and animated favicons from regular images
2. Dynamic Drive Favicon Generator – create a Favicon from an existing image [input images: gif, jpg, png, and bmp]
3. FaviconGenerator – create a Favicon from an existing image [simple - no options - square images only]
4. Favicon-Generator - create a Favicon from an existing image [input images: gif, jpg, png - few options]
5. ProDraw Favicon Generator – create a Favicon from an existing image [Supports JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP and TIF file formats for uploading. Output size from 16x16 pixels (favicon.ico icon size), 32x32 (desktop icon), 48x48 (large XP icon) up to 128x128 pixels (Windows Vista icon size) in the *.ICO icon format.]
6. Favicon CC - create Favicons in a paint type program

WORDPRESS FAVICON PLUGINS:

• Shockingly Simple Favicon – plugin to add a Favicon to a WP site without editing Theme files
• Plugin to Add Favicons to Blogrolls in WordPress

Before you start writing your next blog post or creating any other type of content, take a minute to think about how someone would search for the specific information you plan to add.  What words or phrases would YOU use in your favorite search engine search box to research your subject? What words would your friends and family who don’t know as much about that subject use?

Make each post or page about ONE subject best described by a specific two to three word phrase

These words and phrases are called keywords or keyword phrases. While some appear to advocate targeting one KEYWORD which I would not agree with, it appears he actually means one PHRASE and that is exactly what I do recommend. Targeting one word, especially if it is a common or very competitive word, is not going to be nearly as effective as targeting a two or three word phrase.

Here are some examples:

• If you sell gifts online create individual pages to target specific phrases like groomsmen gifts, Father’s Day gifts, corporate gifts and engraved gifts instead of just “gifts”
• Wedding vendors should target wedding planning, wedding planner, wedding planners and planning a wedding or OKC Wedding Planner or Tennessee Wedding flowers or Sacramento Wedding DJ – Use your niche or location instead of the single, too general word “wedding”
• If you offer services in a specific geographic area, instead of “mechanic” target Dallas mechanic, mobile mechanic Dallas and Dallas car repair
• If you sell Gazebos only in Texas, while you might target “gazebo” you’ll have more success using Texas Gazebos, Gazebos Waco, Gazebos TX and TX Gazebos – This business had a Web site with pages that targeted locations and specific types of gazebos and even misspelled versions of the word gazebo until their friend talked them into letting him build them this far less effective site and lost all those pages and search listings. They aren’t the first nor will they be the last business owner I know who could have used our post What Not to Do With Your Existing Site When You Upgrade or Remodel.

The more individual pages you create that each target a specific phrase the more likely your site will be found in organic search. This is not something that you can do overnight. While there are automated ways to create these pages if you have advanced skills, anyone can create quality content over time.

Decide on the appropriate keyword phrase before you start writing and only use one keyword phrase for each page. You may have to use your imagination to create unique content especially where you wish to be found in many locations. It usually is not necessary to use the names of every town; in places where most people shop in a major city they will often automatically search in the closest larger city.

USE YOUR KEYWORD PHRASE:

• As the name of the page – [Example: the name of this page is select-keywords]
• As the title on the page – be sure to use a Title tag – some believe the first three words are the most important so in this post “Select Keywords” appears first. [Avoid using these special characters in titles: & % * @ "(quote marks)]
• Name images using Alt Image Tags
• Throughout the content include each variation and inflected form of the words and phrases: plural and singular, past and present tense when applicable.
• In the Keyword meta tag field
• In the Description meta tag field
• In header tags. You may notice that the additional resources titles in this blog use H4 and are specific to the links found in them
• Keywords closer to the top of the page and in bold or italics are considered slightly more important

WordPress, WordPress plugins like All-in-one-SEO, and advanced themes like Thesis either provide fields for the above information or automatically handle many of the above tags for you. If you have specific questions ask in the comments and I can provide additional details specific to your circumstances. Be sure to be as specific as you can and include what CMS, blogging platform or type of program you are using so if I don’t have the answer someone else can provide it.

While you want to target your specific phrase, consider also using variations of those key words within your page content. You may choose to target these other forms in specific pages later, but it won’t hurt to mention them in your current content.

USE THESE KEYWORD VARIATIONS:

• Singular and plural: gift, gifts /car, cars
• Inflected form of the words and phrases: engrave, engraved, engraving, engravable
• Past and present when applicable
• Synonyms are usually best targeted with separate pages (car, vehicle, automobile, auto)

TARGETING PHRASES:

It is imperative that you clearly understand what keywords to use and which are too broad or too specific. In Evaluating AdWords accounts I regularly saw businesses targeting words that would NEVER work. You can not expect to rank for words that are too generic and not included in a phrase with your target product or service. You don’t want to buy that traffic and you are highly unlikely to rank for it in organic search.

It is very countries, states, major cities, or any word that applies to hundreds or even thousands of products. For example, Good Millwork would not be able to rank for the word “wood” but certainly should target wood shutters, wood baseboards, wood moldings, wood cabinet moldings, etc.  They are unlikely to rank for mahogany but should certainly target mahogany moldings.

They should never target the word “crown” but the phrase crown moldings is so important to them that they definitely want to target all the variations: crown molding (singular), crown moulding (alternate spelling), crown mouldings (plural of alternate spelling).

They should (and do) also couple crown molding with other words like red oak crown molding or maple crown molding while not targeting “red” or “oak” or “maple” for the same reason they can’t rank for the words “wood” or “crown”. I hope you’re getting the idea.

They can also target more specific wood phrases like Fire Resistant Wood or reclaimed Cypress wood. Apply these examples to your own products and services. If this is not crystal clear do ask questions in the comments. For every person courageous enough to ask there are dozens more who have the same question.

Incorporate your selected keywords and phrases into what you write and your posts and pages will be much more concise and targeted and receive more search engine traffic

Proper selection and use of keyword phrases is one of the most basic and important concepts to understand when using the Internet to grow your business. Apply these basics to your content to grow your business.

KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS

• WordStream – Free online tool that allows you to easily copy your lists
• Free version of WordTracker
• Google Keyword Tool

I recommend using the WordStream tool linked above to generate lists and then saving them in a keyword searchable program like Tomboy Notes. As you write posts be sure to cover each of your most important phrases. I paste the URLs of the posts targeting each phrase next to the keywords. This is especially important if you have many similar keyword phrases or write about many similar products.

RESOURCES ON USING KEYWORD PHRASES:

• NEW: MarketingTechBlog: Ten Rules of Keyword Usage for Search Engine Optimization
• SEO Tips for Niche Marketers
• Keywords Maximize Your Title’s Effectiveness
• How to Create and Use Powerful Blog Titles
• SEO Keywords Tips and Tricks; What, Where and Why
• Stalking Lee Odden’s Title Tags
• Using Alt Tags to Drive More Traffic

If there were ever a post for today that really needed to be published, UnStuckDigital‘s new post Minimizing Risk in Small Business is it.

When the economy is sliding that is NOT the time to pull back - it IS the time to be VERY pro-active. While other businesses are cutting back those who take calculated risks will benefit.

Now IS the time to collaborate with those who know what works and what doesn’t. If you don’t know where to invest wisely you must rely on someone who does. They will know because they have done it AND MEASURED THE RESULTS. Don’t listen to projections; ask how they know. Don’t agree to anything until you completely understand it!

If you don’t know who to ask contact us or Mike. Ask us for referrals to other top consultants. Only others in the same trench know who is truly sharp and who just writes or promotes themselves well.

As Mike points out you must “Risk or Die” and “Fail Fast and Fail Cheap“ and “Trying to avoid all risk ends up being the biggest risk of all. There’s no better way to ensure your own failure than to sterilize yourself with fear.”

We include his quotes because they are all absolutely true. Safety is only an illusion and doing nothing will guarantee you achieve nothing. Pulling back now will make a bad situation worse!

His post prompts me to share some good calculated risks for your consideration:

1. Start new long tail pay per click (ppc) campaigns aimed at immediate conversions using exact match only. Target a mix of inexpensive ($60-$120) products, mid-range ($120-$400) and high cost ($400/up). Do this because less expensive products have a shorter latency period (time between first ad and consistent sales) but expensive products are the most profitable to advertise. Do NOT advertise anything that has an average sale amount lower than your cost of advertising. Even if these campaigns “fail” you raise visibility for those products and in your niche. (Read our PPC warning post first though.)
2. Launching or improving a blog – make it fully optimized for both SEO and interactivity. Keeping in mind that conversions increase when all your potential buyers’ questions are answered, use your blog to answer those questions before they’re asked. Use it to find out what your visitors think and want. Use it to make suggestions and to target specific keyword phrases and products.
3. Start growing Social Networking sites coordinated with your main site and blog at Twitter and perhaps one or two other Social Networking sites. Claim your brand on every Social Networking site and direct visitors to those over to where you are the most active. It is better to be consistent somewhere than spread so thin you do a poor job everywhere.

Now is NOT the time to spend in desperation. Do not part with a penny buying traffic from any source that will not reveal in a crystal clear manner where the traffic comes from and how it is generated.  Losing money to black-hat SEO or spammers is not the greatest risk; ruining your business reputation is.

Visiting the many golf-related Web sites while doing research for NoBogies is a continual reminder of a major Web design issue commonly seen on business Web sites: using Flash everywhere and especially ONLY using Flash. The only thing I have never figured out is WHY Web designers are doing this in the first place! Perhaps they teach them to do so in college?

I wonder how many companies realize the serious drawbacks and what an extremely poor Web experience Flash sites provide for a very large segment of the Internet-using population? Even among golfers there are bound to be many who simply can not benefit from these types of sites.

Here’s how one exceptional Web Designer and SEO I know replied to my question about whether Flash is still a bad idea:

MikeTek: @GrowMap:  Beyond the usability (which is generally awful) the SEO implications of a full-Flash site can be horrendous.

[NOTE: Mike is the author of an exceptional Web Design SEO blog called UnstuckDigital and offers Web Design and SEO Services. We highly recommend him.]

Instead of reinventing the wheel I will share here what many others have to say about what Flash is good for and why many uses are seriously impacting the effectiveness, usability and find-ability of sites using it incorrectly:

• Why Flash Is Generally A BAD Idea For Your Company’s Web Site
• Why Flash Websites are are Really, Really Bad Idea – Huge debate there from designers who love Flash and Internet Strategists and SEOs who share the limitations [Warning: some bad language.]
• Why Flash Websites are a Bad Idea
• Flash: 99% Bad – Excellent detail on major usability issues
• 25% of All Web Users Are Disabled

Are you starting to see a pattern here? Here is a short list of the issues covered more extensively in the excellent posts I shared above:

• Flash requires a proprietary plug-in that DOES NOT work at all on all systems and must be manually loaded on others.
• No User Accessibility on phones, many PCs, 64 bit operating systems, slower Internet connections, and those with limited bandwidth or who block Flash because they must pay for extra bandwidth.
• Administrative accessibility: can YOU edit your flash files yourself? What will you do if the person who created the Flash is not available to make changes?
• Flash is bad for SEO: Most Search Engines do NOT index flash so your site will have poor search engine placement.

If your site is primarily Flash you simply can not reach much of your intended audience. The solution for those who have already invested in a Flash site is to offer an html version of your site and ALWAYS offer a way to bypass the Flash and get to an html page.

Want to see what visitors to your site see? Turn off Flash or use FlashBlockPro. This is what I see when I visit a Web page featuring Flash:

Imagine someone seeing your site as one large image like that or a page with several smaller identical images. How long do you suppose most visitors who only see these images will stay on your site? The only thing worse than a site full of Flash is one that automatically plays music!

NEW: If you already have a Flash site, are a Flash developer or really want to use it you owe it to yourself to read The Truth about Flash Websites and SEO. Mike specifically explains:

“if your website is driven by Flash a non-Flash version should be displayed for browsers without Flash support”

I would add that you should also provide a way to exit any Flash intro and select the html version manually even if your browser DOES support Flash!

NEW: Many Web site owners THINK they really, really want a Flash site. The solution to this issue and some others is to buy them a copy of the book Don’t Make Me Think. Giving one to the decision makers is a good way to get your points across without being confrontational. I’ve heard of consultants giving copies to CEOs, CIOs, or whomever is pushing for a Flash site. Here is more information on it:

*** Don’t Make Me Think by Steven Krug *** Every person involved in the design, creation, ownership or any other aspect of any Web site should own this book. It is simple, concise, to the point, and easy enough for anyone to understand – even people with no Internet or technical background.

You can read a Sample Chapter from the book. Buying a copy of this book for every member of your Team will be the best thing any Web site owner ever did. You’ll never make obvious mistakes again if you keep this book handy! Have a CEO or Owner asking you to make one? Give them this book! [NOTE: Look for the second edition.]

What do YOU think? Let us know in the comments. We use CommentLuv and all comments are dofollow.

More Resources on Web Design and Flash:

• When Should You Have a Flash Website or Use Flash on a Web site (Jun 19, 2009)
• WheFlash and Search Engine Optimization: The Latest on How Well Google Indexes Flash (Mar 17, 2009)
• When Will Flash Become a Trend? (Mar 11, 2009)
• Seven Opinions to Avoid Flash Like the Plague While Designing Web Sites (Feb 27, 2009)
• Create Effective Search Engine Optimization Using Flash–Yes Flash (Feb 3, 2009)
• Nielsen Norman Group Report: Usability of Rich Internet Applications and Web-Based Tools: Design Guidelines Based on User Testing of 46 Flash Tools

WEB DESIGN MISTAKES:

• Jakob Nielsen‘s Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design
• Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 1999 (still relevant)
• Mystery Meat Navigation (MMN) Any non-obvious navigation or text than only appears when you move your mouse over it.

INCREASING CONVERSION RATES:

• Are You Driving Away Your Potential Buyers With These Two Common Mistakes
• Close More Sales TODAY By Implementing This One Free Strategy
• Why Conversions Trump More Traffic Every Time
• How to Grow Your Business In Spite of Gloomy Economic Predictions