The next date for our highly popular Internet Marketing Seminar - Internet Marketing for Business - has just been announced. This time we will be running it from our own new offices on the Westgate road.
The seminar covers the simple yet effective methods you can implement (without the need of some technical wizard).
Please come and join us on the 25th September at 2pm for a 3 hour seminar that will change how you promote your business on the internet. We even offer a money back guarantee!!
Visit our website for more information - Marketing on the Internet
If you are unsure what the seminar is about, listen to our podcast. You can find this by going to www.mancala.co.uk/podcast
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Monday, 28 July 2008
Good News if you Trade Online - The Internet is completely bucking the Credit Crunch
It's a great time to be an online trader. The Internet is fast becoming the first port of call for shoppers with sales up 38% on the same period last year.... that's incredible when you consider that high street sales were down 3.9% in June. (Read the Sundays Times Article )
Many organisations are now investing heavily in Internet marketing to ensure that they beat the credit crunch - and who can blame them, year on year Internet sales have massively grown by almost double each year - it is expected that 50% of all sales will be carried out online by 2011.
Of course this isn't just happening in the retail sector, the service sector needs to make sure it is keeping up. In my experience most people do not use telephone directories to find a business, be it a plumber, electrician, accountant or lawyer - their first port of call is to do a search on the Internet. If your website is not figuring near the top of those searches then you are not going to generate any business from the web - and with all that extra money being spent you are missing out.
That is where a great internet marketing strategy comes in - imagine how much more successful your business would be if you coud -
Many organisations are now investing heavily in Internet marketing to ensure that they beat the credit crunch - and who can blame them, year on year Internet sales have massively grown by almost double each year - it is expected that 50% of all sales will be carried out online by 2011.
Of course this isn't just happening in the retail sector, the service sector needs to make sure it is keeping up. In my experience most people do not use telephone directories to find a business, be it a plumber, electrician, accountant or lawyer - their first port of call is to do a search on the Internet. If your website is not figuring near the top of those searches then you are not going to generate any business from the web - and with all that extra money being spent you are missing out.
That is where a great internet marketing strategy comes in - imagine how much more successful your business would be if you coud -
- Drive more traffic to your website
- Convert that traffic into leads for your sales staff to follow up
- Be able to continually marketing to those leads until they turn into a sale
Are you doing that at the moment with your website?
Consider your website as an additional sales person, and invest in some Internet marketing .
I have created a podcast on the basics of Internet marketing . Download it and listen to see what you could be doing.
If you are interested in my next Internet marketing seminar then visit www.marketingontheinternet.co.uk to find out about the next session.
Don't be satisfied with just beating the Credit crunch, you could actually improve your business!!
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
Some Useful Google Search Tips
We all take Google for granted these days, the reliable search engine that almost always finds us what we are looking for. But did you know that there are many tools built into Google.
I've created a list of my favourite tools to show you how you can get much more out of the most popular search engine. Please try these out, it may change how you use Google.
1. If you would like to find out who is linking to your website type link:www.yourwebsite.co.uk - this will list all of the sites that have a link back to yours. Useful when you are doing search engine optimisation
2. How about you want a definition of a word and don't have a dictionary handy. Try define: followed by the word you want a definition of e.g. define:internet. Google will return a list of definitions and the websites where you can find out more detail.
3. Need a calculator? simply type in your sum into Google - e.g. 6+6 (hit search button) and the result will come back 12.
4. What about if you want to know the weather. Type in weather and your nearest city and hey presto, you have a 4 day weather forecast.
5. To find out how your stocks and shares are doing just type in the four digit stock exchange code. This will give you charts on how that stock is doing that day.
6. There is a currency converter. So if you wanted to convert £'s to $'s you might try something like - 150 GBP in USD. You can do this with measurements as well - try 10 inches into centimetres.
7. Google will also have a crack at finding the correct spelling of a word for you - just enter it into the search box and see what Google suggests.
So there you have it, Google is a bit more than just a search engine. I use it for the above and much more, it means I don't have to trawl the internet quite as much.
Friday, 11 July 2008
Another Successful Internet Market Seminar
Once again we ran the Internet Marketing for Business seminar and I have to say that this one was even better than the last.
The seminar was held at La Riviera Restaurant on the Quayside which for those who are not familiar with it is a great quality Italian Restuarant Newcastle & Gateshead.
During the Internet Marketing Seminar we covered the three principles of great internet marketing.
The seminar was held at La Riviera Restaurant on the Quayside which for those who are not familiar with it is a great quality Italian Restuarant Newcastle & Gateshead.
During the Internet Marketing Seminar we covered the three principles of great internet marketing.
- Driving visitors to your website - this could be using SEO, PPC and email marketing - plus a whole host of other tools and options - including blogging ;)
- How to convert the traffic ito leads and sales.
- Using continuous marketing techniques to convert the leads into sales
The comments we got back from the seminar were great -
"Very good presenter and easy to follow presentation. Good hand out material and all very relevant" - Sue Pender, Business Link North East
"Excellent - all made sense. My concentration do not slip at all which says a lot about the quality of the presentation" - Maggie Cottier, MSC Training, Newcastle
"Really well covered, informative, relevent and practical with REAL tips. Very Good" - Penny Jones, Business Link North East
"Very understandable, pitched at a 'Laypersons' level. Excellent" - Judith Falla, Business Link North East
"Enjoyed the whole session" - Peter Moran, Newcastle City Council
"Well presented and very easy to follow. Informative" - Bruce Allison, Design Aid
We are running the next seminar in September - please visit www.marketingontheinternet.co.uk for more details - or if you want a taster of what it is all about why not download our internet marketing podcast
Friday, 13 June 2008
What are the implications of using Brand names in your Google Adwords?
Published with the kind Permission of Matthew Rippon, Property Lawyer with BHP Law Newcastle.
As Published in the NEBusiness Blog - 12th June2008
"EIGHT years or so ago a refreshingly clean search interface developed by Larry Page and Sergey Bryn overtook the likes of Yahoo! and MSN to become the web’s most popular search engine.
At the time, many asked how the site was ever going to make any money. As Google powers forward, it makes you wonder whether those commentators were living in a parallel universe.
Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing. It’s doubtful that even Page and Bryn perceived then that Google would, within a decade, become one of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful companies. But if information is what powers the world economy, then Google must be the 21st Century’s Standard Oil.
In 2006, Google’s advertising revenues in the UK overtook Channel 4. Late last year, it reached a par with ITV.
Although Google has a diverse product range these days, it is still the AdWords service on the search engine that provides its most significant revenue stream.
For the uninitiated, AdWords are the little text adverts that pop up to the right of your search results. Containing a short title (25 characters), two lines of description (each 35 characters) and link to another website, they are triggered by your search query.
Such a powerful tool can be used in very damaging ways of course, which is why Google operates a procedure through which trade- mark owners can complain to Google about the unauthorised use of trade marks in AdWord advertisements. Google investigates and usually suspends the advertisement in question. The trade- mark term in dispute is also then blocked from further use in AdWords for the future.
If you’re looking to start using AdWords, you might want to use a competitor’s trademark term in the text of your advertisement. For example, if you enter the term ‘Waterstone’s’, an AdWord advert for WHSmith pops up.
Google still processes complaints relating to the use of trademarks in third party AdWord text, but since April, it no longer accepts complaints about keywords. And keywords that were previously the subject of a successful complaint will be unblocked.This has caused fury amongst some big retailers.
Teletext has threatened other travel agents with litigation if it finds its name used as a keyword. And a consortium of brandowners including Arcadia are thought to have discussed whether any action may be taken against Google.
It’s a murky area. To be an infringement, the trademark in question must be used “as a sign”.
Those brand owners would have to establish first that an infringement had occurred and this would mean convincing the courts that the keywords in question were a sign even though they didn’t appear in the adverts themselves.
The problem is that there hasn’t been much litigation on this subject. Of course, the mere existence of Google’s previous policy didn’t prevent the brandowners from litigating this issue before. They just chose not to, preferring the quicker and cheaper results generated by going direct to Google. So they have been hoisted by their own petard.
At times like this, I like to come back to the core function of a trade- mark – that it should act as a guarantee to the consumer of the trade origin of the goods or services to which it is applied. If you lived in London and wanted to buy electronics, you might head to Tottenham Court Road where you’d see all the biggest names side by side. I wonder whether WHSmith’s advert next to the search results for Waterstone’s is really so different?"
As Published in the NEBusiness Blog - 12th June2008
"EIGHT years or so ago a refreshingly clean search interface developed by Larry Page and Sergey Bryn overtook the likes of Yahoo! and MSN to become the web’s most popular search engine.
At the time, many asked how the site was ever going to make any money. As Google powers forward, it makes you wonder whether those commentators were living in a parallel universe.
Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing. It’s doubtful that even Page and Bryn perceived then that Google would, within a decade, become one of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful companies. But if information is what powers the world economy, then Google must be the 21st Century’s Standard Oil.
In 2006, Google’s advertising revenues in the UK overtook Channel 4. Late last year, it reached a par with ITV.
Although Google has a diverse product range these days, it is still the AdWords service on the search engine that provides its most significant revenue stream.
For the uninitiated, AdWords are the little text adverts that pop up to the right of your search results. Containing a short title (25 characters), two lines of description (each 35 characters) and link to another website, they are triggered by your search query.
Such a powerful tool can be used in very damaging ways of course, which is why Google operates a procedure through which trade- mark owners can complain to Google about the unauthorised use of trade marks in AdWord advertisements. Google investigates and usually suspends the advertisement in question. The trade- mark term in dispute is also then blocked from further use in AdWords for the future.
If you’re looking to start using AdWords, you might want to use a competitor’s trademark term in the text of your advertisement. For example, if you enter the term ‘Waterstone’s’, an AdWord advert for WHSmith pops up.
Google still processes complaints relating to the use of trademarks in third party AdWord text, but since April, it no longer accepts complaints about keywords. And keywords that were previously the subject of a successful complaint will be unblocked.This has caused fury amongst some big retailers.
Teletext has threatened other travel agents with litigation if it finds its name used as a keyword. And a consortium of brandowners including Arcadia are thought to have discussed whether any action may be taken against Google.
It’s a murky area. To be an infringement, the trademark in question must be used “as a sign”.
Those brand owners would have to establish first that an infringement had occurred and this would mean convincing the courts that the keywords in question were a sign even though they didn’t appear in the adverts themselves.
The problem is that there hasn’t been much litigation on this subject. Of course, the mere existence of Google’s previous policy didn’t prevent the brandowners from litigating this issue before. They just chose not to, preferring the quicker and cheaper results generated by going direct to Google. So they have been hoisted by their own petard.
At times like this, I like to come back to the core function of a trade- mark – that it should act as a guarantee to the consumer of the trade origin of the goods or services to which it is applied. If you lived in London and wanted to buy electronics, you might head to Tottenham Court Road where you’d see all the biggest names side by side. I wonder whether WHSmith’s advert next to the search results for Waterstone’s is really so different?"
Wednesday, 4 June 2008
Internet Marketing Seminar Newcastle
Our next Internet Marketing Newcastle seminar has been announced.
Internet Marketing for Business
Thursday 10th July 2008
La Riviera Restaurant - Gateshead Quayside
Internet Marketing for Business
Thursday 10th July 2008
La Riviera Restaurant - Gateshead Quayside
To find our more visit www.marketingontheinternet.co.uk
The seminar is delivered by Internet Marketing experts Mancala Technology.
The last seminar was sold out so book your place early.
Visit www.marketingontheinternet.co.uk to reserve your place today.
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Search Engine Optimisation Goes Glamorous
Why celebrities are getting into search engine optimisation and why you should be too.
The word in the Internet Marketing Business is that even celebrities are getting their noses into it. It was reported that stars are paying to have their online images cleaned up. It has been discovered that celebrities with not so squeaky clean pasts have paid specialist web placement companies lots of money to get positive results at the top when you type in their name.
Most often it is Google who get targeted more as it accounts for 80 per cent of all internet sources. This works in the same way as most search engine optimisation and web placement companies work to get your key phrases at the top, so by performing search engine optimisation on names there is more good references at the top and bad references move down the page, and because most people never go past the first page of Google it is becoming more popular to get the squeaky clean image right on the front page.
The word in the Internet Marketing Business is that even celebrities are getting their noses into it. It was reported that stars are paying to have their online images cleaned up. It has been discovered that celebrities with not so squeaky clean pasts have paid specialist web placement companies lots of money to get positive results at the top when you type in their name.
Most often it is Google who get targeted more as it accounts for 80 per cent of all internet sources. This works in the same way as most search engine optimisation and web placement companies work to get your key phrases at the top, so by performing search engine optimisation on names there is more good references at the top and bad references move down the page, and because most people never go past the first page of Google it is becoming more popular to get the squeaky clean image right on the front page.
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