There was a fine gentleman who entered into a contract to purchase a beautiful car from the local car salesman. He made a quick trip to the bank and signed up for a lone that would eventually make the beautiful car "all his". Driving home that day the chap thought himself to be the happiest fellow in all the land.

The car was shiny and bright, and oh did it smell so new. He paid constant attention to it. Washing and buffing the paint. Cleaning the wheels and tires. He happily drove that beautiful car, even waving to all those that he passed. That was the greatness of his joy.

After some time the new car smell faded and a bit of trash began to accumulate in the corners. Other things soon stole the attention of the fine gentleman from the service and value that this now slightly faded car had provided him. Onlookers were started to one day see him kick the door of the car.

The owner of this car one day said to himself, "I no longer think this car has value. I will go to the banker and tell him I no longer want the car." Off trudged the bloke to the bank. Upon hearing the tale of the gentleman who expounded on why the car no longer was giving him value and that he would no longer pay for it, the banker saw the gentleman take out his keys and head for the door.

"Where do you think you are going", said the banker? "Why, out to my car to go home", said the gentleman. The look on the banker's face puzzled him.

"I don't think so, If you are not going to pay for the car, I will be required to take it back from you", exclaimed the banker. "But I have paid for that car for over two years", stammered the gentleman. "That makes no difference", said the banker, as he continued, "If you do not satisfy your contract with me, you do not own the car."

The gentleman used every excuse that he could to dissuade the banker from taking back the car, but to no avail. It was hard for him to understand the he couldn't keep the car, even though he had not fully satisfied his obligation to the banker.

Guess who started walking?

We are privileged to have Marvin Himel in our office today. Marvin is a phenomenal sales trainer whom we met about 3 1/2 years ago, at the very outset of our starting our WSI business.

You can find out more about Marvin at The Tiger Quest, or his own website at Marvin Himel.

Marvin is conducting one of his "Virtual Training Webinars" as I am writing this. It is awesome to have a front seat to this type of event.

Marvin Himel has over 30 years experience in sales and sales training. I highly recommend Marvin to work with the sales team for your company.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is a very powerful marketing tool that has the ability to bring a significant amount of increased revenue to a business. PPC done well should follow a 5-step plan for maximum effectiveness.

Step 1: Create an informative webpage
- Ensure there is a call-to-action on the pages that traffic is directed towards

Step 2: Generate a list of keywords
- Keywords that potential buyers would search
- Identify your negative keyword list
- Identify broad and exact match phrases

Step 3: Build your campaign
- Research bid prices on Google
- Write your Google AdWords advertisements

Step 4: Monitor your results
- Split test ads against each other to achieve higher click through rates

Step 5: Improve your performance
- Rewrite ads to improve click through rates
- Optimize landing pages to improve conversion rates
- Improve your ROI by adjusting bid prices

In order for your company to effectively compete in today's business world, you need to have a stellar Internet presence. Even so, just having a website isn't enough. Your website has to rank nicely inside the search engines so potential consumers can discover you. In order for that to happen, you need to become an expert in world-wide-web promoting, or hire a professional services Search Engine Optimization firm.


There are numerous advantages to hiring an SEO Company instead of trying to market your web business yourself. For one thing, learning net marketing and advertising is a big expense in time. You have to do it properly in order to beat out your competition. There are several techniques to learn and several of them are learned through trial and error, which keeps you from achieving your goals as quickly as possible.

The time you invest in understanding about online promoting could be better spent in building your company and taking care of your customers. You can leave the management of the site to an experienced company that will get improved effects much quicker than you could do personally.

Knowledge can mean the difference between success and failure for your Internet site. That's the main reason why you should hire professional help instead of trying to understand online promoting well enough to produce it yourself. Things change fast on the Internet. What works today may possibly be outdated by the time you learn it. It takes a huge commitment of time and interest to stay abreast with the latest on net advertising and marketing trends.

Marketing a website on the Internet is not as easy as it might seem. That's due primarily to the fact that there is so much competition. You'll find hundreds if not thousands of other websites, which are trying to get ranked for many of the same keywords that you need to use. The corporations that utilize the most skilled net marketing experts are the ones that will secure those coveted, best search engine results listings.

If you leave net advertising and marketing up to chance your competition might trounce you.

ATT, recently named as the exclusive carrier for the new iPad, is spending a bundle upgrading its network to handle the expected increase in data traffic. The company is already the exclusive carrier for the iPhone...  click here to learn more...

While the rest of the economy struggled in the fourth quarter last year, Google's profit approached $2B, most of it from Pay-Per-Click campaigns. Ask yourself a simple question: Why are so many businesses spending so much money on Google advertising?

If you can't answer that question, give me a call.  If you CAN answer that question, you should definitely give me a call! (Hint: It WORKS!)

Keith Klamer - Senior Account Representative
636-244-3684

p.s. - By way of comparison, the fourth quarter profit for Ford was $866M.

An interesting trend in search has been slowly appearing that seems to minimize organic search listings in Google. It is happening most often, from my observations, with local geographical searches.

The Sponsored Links along the right hand side have not changed, but the Sponsored Links at the top have expanded.

This drops the Google Local ads lower on the left hand side to the point where only the first two organic listings appear above the fold.

It is only a guess at this point as to whether this will be a pervasive trend. As any other publicaly traded company, Google will continue to figure out ways to capitalize on increasing revenue.

As Search Engine Optimizers, it will become even more critical to place our clients very high in organic search in order to be found above the fold. As a business owner, having a balanced approach that utilizes Paid Search, Google Local, AND Search

I discovered a great video on YouTube that shows clearly how new technologies and social media innovations is altering the media landscape. It is very informative and enjoyable to watch.

In what ways do you think this will impact your business or industry over the next couple of years. Begin to envision how these technologies can be put to use for business growth.

Has the current economic climate caused you to hesitate in “pulling the trigger” on a new or expanded Internet marketing campaign? What do you think is the biggest factor that holds you back?

There are basically two schools of thought for marketing during a downturn. They are:

1. Cut expenses and hold on till the storm subsides

1. Position yourself to preserve market share and be ready to sprint forward when the storm subsides

Where do you currently find yourself? I have been talking with both camps for about 18 months now, and these schools of thought are pretty deeply ingrained. If someone has decided to cut marketing budgets and weather the storm, I find that it is almost impossible to show them that they might be committing business suicide.

Often enough, I run into someone who correctly diagnoses the problem, and prescribes the solution for the down economy. They are interested in securing market share from those that are hunkered down, plus they want to be positioned to sprint ahead of everyone else when the economy recovers.

If you are in a bunker mentality, I want you to reconsider. I am not sharing this sentiment for you to work with our firm, but rather to do something with someone. Focusing on building your business, even NOW, will not only help your company, but will also assist the economic turnaround.

Happy Internet marketing!

Interesting tidbit with media consumption and marketing spend in Latin America.

35% of media consumption in Latin America is on the Internet. Marketing spend on the Internet is just 2%. This has caught the attention of business in Latin America and we expect the marketing spend to make the transition.