27th July 2006, 04:05 PM
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#1
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Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ohio
Posts: 1,839
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Real Small Business, Real Big Ideas - The Carrie D. Mader Project Part 2
Full Text: http://www.searchengineguide.com/laycock/008084.html
A Snippet:
In part one of this series, I introduced readers to custom jewelry designer Carrie D Mader and our crack team of online marketing consultants. In today's article I'll be talking about some of the challenges facing Carrie and our team and some of the software solutions that we're going to be putting in place to take care of them. |
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27th July 2006, 04:24 PM
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#2
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Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: UK
Posts: 35
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good to have you back.
would it be possible for you to give a running total of what sort of money isn't being spent? Where ppl are giving free products, a small business without the connections you are using isn't going to get those freebies, and needs to know what sort of budget would be involved. Either that or a list of possible (but obviously not *quite* as good) alternatives?
Jax
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28th July 2006, 11:15 AM
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#3
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Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Gladstone, MI
Posts: 15
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Carrie D. Mader Project
I'm excited to read the progress of this experiment!
Great idea and good luck Jennifer!
Michael
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28th July 2006, 12:29 PM
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#4
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 10
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re: good to have you back
Quote:
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Originally Posted by codeplacidly
would it be possible for you to give a running total of what sort of money isn't being spent? Where ppl are giving free products, a small business without the connections you are using isn't going to get those freebies, and needs to know what sort of budget would be involved. Either that or a list of possible (but obviously not *quite* as good) alternatives?
Jax
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Over the last few months I built a website selling specialty lingerie. Altho my store was under construction, I published it in advance of opening to try to get recognized by the search engines. It wasn't working.
I hired a SEO teacher for $300. SHe gave me a total of four hours of training(with two more in the bank for future use), and after I implemented her suggestions, I'm now at the top of all search engines within my specialty field!
The store opened about six weeks ago, and I'd already had over 75 inquires before it opened. Since then I'been making regular sales, not a ton of money, but its the middle of summer, after all, and mail order doesn't do well in the summer, so I'm satisfied with the results. And it has paid for her services several times over.
Look around for a good consultant, spend a few hundred...if you've found a good one, you're in! |
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28th July 2006, 12:42 PM
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#5
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Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ohio
Posts: 1,839
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Jax,
Good point! I think I'll do that here in the forums though...as people ask about programs and services...
ClickTracks Optimizer runs about $1200...that said, they do run sales now and then that take it down to $800 and that's for buying an actual copy that sits on your computer and that you can use forever. It's a lot of money for some people, but I think as you'll see from Carrie's reaction in a future article...it's pretty darn amazing info. Most people can "earn" that money back pretty quickly based on what they learn from the data.
The Keyword Discovery Tool is about $40 a month, though it may be going up a little bit this year. I'd have to double check. It's the most popular tool out there right now among SEOs, though WordTracker runs pretty much neck and neck with it. Both give very similar types of information, though WordTracker breaks it down by engine. (So just Google data, or just Yahoo data...) Wordtracker is about $250US a year...but you can also buy a single day's access for about $8 which can work well for the small business on a budget.
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28th July 2006, 01:29 PM
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#6
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Administrator
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 5,898
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Quote:
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Both give very similar types of information, though WordTracker breaks it down by engine. (So just Google data, or just Yahoo data...)
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Just to be nit picky, that isn't actually the case. WordTracker provides you data based on searches from meta search engines such as DogPile. The popularity for google, yahoo, msn is only a simple math equation multiplying estimated market percentage share by the total count from another engine. With competitive query the actual count is based on the engine. My point, these numbers are not from the actual engines. If you want those, setup a ppc campaign and monitor impressions. |
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28th July 2006, 01:33 PM
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#7
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Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ohio
Posts: 1,839
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*sigh*
Just to make Mr nitpicky happy...
Yes, he's right...Wordtracker gives you ESTIMATES for each engine, not the actual numbers.
:-P
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28th July 2006, 05:31 PM
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#8
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: in the basement
Posts: 17
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Jen,
Do you also want to talk about the time involved on the consulting side as well? That was one thing that I found myself jumping into without regard for any amount of limitations on a "pretend" budget.
Working through the initial analytics to get a handle on what was happening was a real headache, which only started both of us digging deeper into a host of new issues.
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28th July 2006, 05:37 PM
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#9
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Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ohio
Posts: 1,839
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Hmm...that's a good point Matt, because that obviously factors in to the whole 'what it would cost' area...
I shudder to think what time I've already spent on the project...you know me, I'm a sucker for a small business with a good story.  Moving forward, that may be part of what we have to do, get at least a quote from each consultant on what they would have charged "in real life" for the same work... |
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30th July 2006, 10:16 PM
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#10
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VIP Contributor
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 113
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Jennifer, I understand that you were granted the one of the best visitor tracking system, but would you be able to do the same (or the most necessary stuff) with a less expensive ClickTracks solution? The reason I ask is that those of us, who don't take part in the SEG article series, don't get freebies that often.
Speaking of e-commerce systems. Did you consider switching to a more usable shopping cart instead of tweaking the MIVA one? I guess Zen Cart is a fairly good alternative to any shopping cart.
Thanks.
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