Small businesses seem to be slow on the uptake in using blogging as part of their overall online marketing strategy.

Why might this be the case?

Blogging:

• provides fresh, updated content on your website
• is a low cost (free) web publishing tool
• delivers higher search engine rankings
• builds community with your existing customers and new prospects
• gets round the email marketing “spam trap”
• can be used in the same way as other promotional and communications channels

If you’re thinking about starting a blog, then you might find these new business blogging resources in the Library section of the website helpful.

My family hosted a French exchange student last week, and she asked what I do.

Are you a web designer? (Le dessinateur de toile?) Non…
Do you host websites? (la toile accueille?) Non…
Do you actually sell anything? (Qu’est ce que tu fais, exactement?)

We help businesses to design their online marketing strategy and tactics. We provide impartial, unbiased advice to help figure out what they should be doing on the Internet. And we write up the action plan to get them moving towards their goals.

Our discussions with our clients cover a lot of ground, because there are so many options out there. And every company’s needs are different.

We assess whether it’s worth improving the user experience on their website to convert more sales, or working on improving their rankings in the search engines, or communicating better via blogs or email marketing. Where should pay-per-click fit in the mix? Do they have processes in place to handle their email enquiries? What are their competitors up to? Is there an international element? Where do you want to take your business, and how can the Internet help with that goal?

And the end result is a set of requirements and a business plan that managers can use as a basis to go off and look for suitable web designers, or software salespeople, or buy online advertising. Confident in knowing their objectives, and knowing they won’t be “sold a pup.”

Online marketing strategy consultants. That’s what we do.

AOL keeps track of every search that its users make. Earlier this month it released a portion of its database of personal search histories as a research tool for academics. What it failed to anticipate was the fact it leaked huge amount of personal, private information.

The AOL searchers’ identities are anonymised, but given many of us succumb to searching for our own names, or towns where we live it wasn’t hard to figure out “who is who.” The New York Times has written a very interesting article where they managed to track down and interview one 62 year old searcher.

Her take on the situation? “My goodness, it’’s my whole personal life. I had no idea somebody was looking over my shoulder.”

So much for our personal privacy, eh? This data, of course, is compiled to help the search engines provided focused (and highly profitable) advertising. But there is a growing backlash against this privacy timebomb.

AOL quickly removed the data, but not before other sites were able to publish the results. You can now use AOL Stalker to search through the data. Warning: there’s a heck a lot unsavoury searches in there.

I did a quick search, and found one person who looks like a British ex-patriate pining for the Wombles, searching for towns like Ilkeston and Heanor, interested in the BNP, looking for a job as a labourer in San Francisco, and wanting to become a US citizen. Take a look at this individual’s search results and tell me how you would interpret them.

“Was this link useful to you?”

I was quite surprised to see this question appear in Google after I had clicked on an Adwords advertisement and then immediately clicked the back button.

The question appeared beneath the Adwords advert with “Yes” and “No ” radio buttons.

I would assume Google are collecting data which could be used as part of the pricing mix for advertisers – with penalties being given to advertisers who are given negative feedback by searchers.

Unfortunately, I did not get a screenshot of my feedback, but take a look at Google Blogoscoped’s Google Adwords Feedback screenshot.

I’m working on some inbound linking campaigns, so here are some ideas for you to consider:

Take a look at the Internet Search Engine and Submission Directory for a reviewed listing of directories accepting submission of your site.

Go to Google and use search for portals or directories covering your specialist topic. Here are the results for a Google search for “construction portal” or for a search for “arts directory”.
As you browse through the portal or directory keep an eye out for the Submit Your Site link.

Other directories you should take a look at:

• Vile Silencer