Marketing Tips: Unethical SEO Tactics

An old adage says that any publicity is good publicity -- and that certainly seems to be the case for one online merchant who's taken extreme SEO tactics to rise to the top of Google's search rankings. Our small business marketing expert will fill you in on the shocking story.

On a brighter note, he also looks at ways to improve the results of your offline marketing campaigns; offers up an online WordPress resource (think video tips) and shows how you can incorporate a marketing strategy used by Dotster.com for your own business.

Just click on the video logo below and enjoy the latest episode of Help! My Business Sucks.

I open up this week’s episode with a startling story that was first released in the New York Times. There’s an eyeglasses company in Brooklyn, New York that conducts its business in the most astonishing way. Apparently, it relies on BAD publicity. That’s right. The owner hopes for bad reviews, because the more the site gets, the more prominent it become in the search engines, via natural SEO. Can you believe that? I think you’ll find the story jaw dropping.

Next up, our viewer question in this episode is all about postcard marketing. Is offline marketing dead? What about postcard marketing? Well, it’s not dead, but many marketers get frustrated when they try a postcard marketing campaign that doesn't work for them. Why not? Well, as you’ll see in the show, there are all kinds of reasons why a postcard campaign may be ineffective. You need all the pieces of the puzzle, and usually one or two are missing. That’s what I consistently find with my coaching clients and mastermind group members.

Our nifty click resource this week is a helpful way to learn some nuances of the WordPress platform, via tutorial videos. It’s the official site for WordPress training, so you can rely on the accuracy of the information.

The big marketing lesson is from a domain registration and hosting company called Dotster.com. It does a great job at event-based marketing. In other words, it ties its marketing into themed days or weeks that happen around the world. It’s an incredibly powerful concept to understand, and you can learn the details in the last segment of this show.

This will be the last episode of 2010 since I’m traveling and teaching extensively across the U.S. during the month of December. Additionally, I’m revamping the show for 2011, so look out for that.

Thank you for your support, love, comments and sharing this year, and I look forward to serving you in 2011.

As usual, let me know your opinion about the topics covered in the show to help your small business this week -- leave your comment below, it’s really easy to do.