E-Power Marketing turns 11 years old!

Yes! E-Power Marketing is officially a Tween!

Back in July 1998 Google did not exist. Today it is head and shoulders above the others, and is by far the most important search engine.

Staying current with search marketing to maintain client satisfaction has never been easy. Today it continues to become more challenging.

Search marketing has grown incredibly complex. Though on-site search optimization has stabilized due to the no-nonsense algorithms of Google, off-page factors that influence search visibility are changing rapidly. Web directories had long been the cornerstone of in-bound linking. Today most free directories are ignored, viewed as not important by Google.

Instead links established by Web users have become important. This has made Social Media Marketing highly effective for improving natural search visibility, especially on Google.

Social Media Marketing is growing ever more complex with new social sites and applications. Twitter has become a powerful marketing tool. Facebook is great for interacting with friends - and to interact with your customers. LinkedIn provides terrific networking opportunities. MySpace, Digg, Delicious, Stumbleupon, Mixx and thousands of other Social sites provide platforms for effective promotion and marketing. Each has its own application in online marketing. Each requires its own strategy for successful implementation. Each creates pitfalls for businesses that do not use them properly.

The Web is more important than ever for both consumer and business-to-business marketing. Companies that have ignored search marketing, implemented ineffective or inconsistent search marketing are now in the position of serious catch-up if they are to remain competitive.

With search marketing growing ever more important to business competitiveness, demand is growing rapidly. This is attracting more companies claiming to offer search marketing. As search marketing is so complex and requires well-honed skills built through experience, few of these new "search marketers" are effective.

Search marketing scams have been common throughout the history of search marketing. As demand grows and few really understand the intricacies of search marketing, more scams backed with sophisticated marketing schemes but without substance are emerging. Watch out for Search Marketing scams to avoid.

I look forward to the growth of E-Power Marketing and online marketing for many years to come. The challenges offer limitless satisfaction.

And you can't beat a job where you sit all day surfing the Web.

LocalAdLink Scam is Collapsing

If any of you wonder why I have put so much energy into exposing the LocalAdLink scam and warning those considering LocalAdLink, refer to this comment from Blogger Kira_la on LocalAdLink - Is this unknown search directory worth advertising on

> "The $700 I invested may not seem like much to some people, but as a single mom, it makes me sick thinking about how many groceries I could have purchased with that and new school shoes. When I signed up for LAL I made sacrifices to do so because I wanted to improve my kids' lives and better our family financial future. Instead, I made things worse.

> "There have been times over the last few months that I have not wanted to go on. The stress from having my hopes dashed and the disappointment I feel from letting my children down is more than I can take. I see the big corporate people at LAL talking about how successful it is without actually backing it up. It makes me sick."


The LocalAdLink scam makes me sick.

Kira_la, I wish you the best of luck finding new ways to support your family. Your energy and enthusiasm will pay off with a company that provides a legitimate product or service. Unfortunately, LocalAdLink does neither.

Fortunately, LocalAdLink's false advertising is catching up with it. The LocalAdLink scam is in the process of collapsing.


See:
Another One Bites The Dust
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_(A_to_Z)/Stocks_B/threadview?m=tm&bn=93151&tid=645&mid=645&tof=1&frt=2

> "This will be the last email from this member site and the site will be shut down effective immediately.

> The reason for this decision is based on the following observations that are ProAdLink's opinion.

> 1. Checks are nearly a month behind AGAIN with some top producers reporting being owed as much as $10,000 or more in commissions.

> 2. No real live customer or rep support via telephone. Reports from the field are not good with regards to the new CRM. They still produce canned replies and nothing gets handled in a timely manner as promised.

> 3. Most important, the ads themselves are not giving a real, tangible return on investment to the endline user. The "geo targeting" is not accurate (ads pulled via an IP address 90 miles away is not local).

> The above three bullets are ProAdLink's opinion and you are free to decide whether or not you agree. But ProAdLink will no longer endorse LocalAdLink until these matters are resolved.

> Checks must go out on time and not bounce.

> Customers and Brand Builders must be able to pick up the phone and resolve issues with a support rep.

> You must be able to sell an ad to any small business in any town in the country and be able to show the business owner how he has benefited from that ad. The benefit would be real local people coming into his establishment from finding the ad online.


Apparently ProAdLink was one of the largest sellers of LocalAdLink. That they no longer endorse or will work with LocalAdLink is quite revealing about how LocalAdLink takes the money and returns nothing.

ProAdLink's Web sites have been taken offline:
www.proadlinkteam.com
www.training.proadlink.info

Also see:
LocalAdLink reps optimize for "LocalAdLink scam"

LocalAdLink is for the Greedy to Take from the Gullible

Search Marketing Scams to Avoid

Bye-bye, LocalAdLink. Do your executives have enough money left for attorneys?

Use Target Key Phrases Within Navigation - SEM Back to Basics Tip #6

More often than you'd expect, keywords are not used within the main navigation of a Web site. You see "Who We Are", "What We Do", etc. Using generic words within your navigation hinders your organic search visibility. Instead of "What We Do", say what you actually do or what products you sell. "Books", "Investment Consulting", etc. Take advantage of free keyword research tools such as Google AdWords Keyword Tool, to find the most searched and relevant key phrases for your products / services and then use those phrases within your Web site's navigation.

Search engines follow links. That's how they crawl through your Web site and the Web as a whole. Search engines take the text for each link into great consideration. The links' text assists search engines in categorizing what your Web site is about and its overall focus. The link text is also used by search engines in determining how your Web site will rank within the search results.

All other factors null, a Web site with key phrases within links on the main navigation will have higher organic search visibility than a Web site that does not.