Maintained Website Services - New Year, New Internet

The past year has seen much positioning by various companies to ensure their products will be the ones you choose for your Internet experiences. The battles over the platform for the new DVD format was very similar to what we saw when Beta was battling VHS to become the standard for VCRs. Even though Beta was considered to be the better technical product it lost the battle for market share. This year’s battle is interesting because we have Microsoft on one side and many of the major studios on the other.

One common trend from all the products that came out of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas was convergence. The really hot items are those that allow you to do more with fewer gadgets. These small units combine cell phones with PDA’s, include Internet browsers for searches, play games, send text messages, provide GPS location services, take pictures, send pictures, all while playing your favorite music that you can get for 99 cents or less downloaded.

The big three (Yahoo, Google, and MSN) are all heavily involved with acquiring rights to deliver information to you. While some company’s executives were saying the days of the TV networks were over, Google struck a deal with CBS. Even Rupert Murdoch (Fox) said the future of news was in digital delivery including audio and video with the plain text versions. With the amount of original material his companies own and produce there could easily be a fourth player in the game. And let’s not forget existing services such as Direct TV who offer movie downloads to your handheld devices. The advertising revenues will be going to the services that can attract the most visitors and Bill Gates projected some $30 Billion for the Internet for 2006.

Anyone who is in business needs to be aware that your future success may well depend on how well and how soon you adopt the principles of digital advertising. Last year I talked about the large chain stores positioning themselves for inclusion in Local Search with the Search Engines. The reason they’ve done this is to be sure their stores are mentioned when someone sits in a car and does a Local Search for what they need right now. No phone books, no asking someone for directions because with the store information will come maps that show them exactly how to get there from here plus what you offer. The price and location decisions will be made before you ever see the customer.

Even for something as simple as fuel for their vehicles, clean restrooms, and a bite to eat the traveler’s pit stop is likely to be influenced by the Internet. Which portal they use to find your store will be up to the user – it’s your decision whether you want them to find you or your competitor. Real estate agents will tell you that location is everything and the new location is the Internet.

Mile Myklin is an author, lecturer, and e-business owner who specializes in Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization. This article with more information can be read on-line at http://www.myklin.com/.

Search Engine Optimization Book

With a New Year comes a new chance to make a difference in your life by using the Internet. In the end of the year wrap-up we're all prone to doing we like to see what we've done well and what needs improvements. Just about all the publications I read regularly had some sense of evaluation this last month.

One of the people whose e-bulletins I read every month said that last year he developed too many products and spread himself too thin. That was no surprise to us here at Myklin. We read a lot of things from people we don't buy from. This particular author carries some weight in the "Information Sales" area of the Internet. Sometimes we like the ideas he has or it leads us along a road we're already traveling ourselves. But, he hasn't made customers of us yet.

The reason is what he just said of himself; he tries to develop too many products and doesn't give any of them the depth they need to become quality acquisitions.

On the other side you have a company like us, Myklin. We only release one information product of our own in the year. The book is about Search Engine Optimization and usually has only 2-3 updates in 12 months. It's our in-house manual that everyone here uses to develop websites for our clients.

I know, it's a little strange to see a company that offers to sell you a copy of what most consider to be their "secret" approach but we've found that most people still think there's some magical way to get results without working for them. Wrong. Real results take work and most people want the instant success products instead.

This is why we very happily make our book available to the public. Since we don't try to mislead you with huge headlines about ridiculous results while you're sleeping only the most discriminating visitors will buy this.

A small warning here; we give existing customers discounts for each update and 9 out of 10 customers take advantage of this. That by itself says something about the quality of the only publication we write in a year. (It also means that part of the increased sales you get should be ear-marked for updates!)

We'll be publishing an update to Search Engine Optimization Tactics v2.6 sometime this Spring but the last version is still very relevant and available. If we publish a new version within 60 days of your purchase you'll get a copy at no charge.

Take a look at the book: http://www.myklin.com/search-engine-optimization-book.htm