Saying goodbye to 2008, lets say goodby to some bad habits

If you build it, they will come. The famous quote from the film, Field of Dreams, became a rally call in the 90's and early noughties in the newly discovered "Web of Dreams". This is easily one of the biggest myths about owning a web business and selling on the web - and it's rampant.

Everyday I meet and talk to people who believe in this so fervantly that they refuse to listen to advice, no matter who gives it or why. They'd rather believe that as I work in SEO, clearly my advice must be biased and aimed at making a sale.This myth is strongly tied to the misbelief that a website is a marketing tool. Fact is, both statements are very wrong, even though 90% of people with little web experience probably believe it.

The worst thing about this myth is watching the slow realisation that dawns on the would-be Internet Business Owner as they watch the visitor stats that never seem to grow. It's painful because you've seen it 100 times and you really want to help.

Compounding this, we refuse to accept that if we're going to enter the web world, that we have to try to understand it. "I'm not technical" has become a standard gym-class excuse note for all manner of people throwing money at websites. Clearly building a web-business is just like having your car serviced - you go to a mechanic, get a price and job done. You don't need to know how your variable valve timing system works, he does. It's his problem.

People believe all too commonly that a website is a cheaper way to open a shop in O'Connell Street. It is a shop. And everyone knows that when you open your shop people come in the door. Can you build an e-Commerce site for €3,000? Certainly. And a very nice one at that. Can you kit out a new store in town for that? No, you certainly can't. Can you set up a serious retail store for less than €25k? Possibly, now that tradesmen aren't as expensive, but I wouldn't say you could do it for much less.

So why do people think they can setup a web-based business and take on Ryanair or Amazon for €2,000? Because they believe that their website is their business, shop and marketing tool rolled into 1. Add to that the next common myth suffered by many businesses and agencies - the Automatic right to Google #1!

That's right - so many companies, agencies, organisations and NGO's believe they have an automatic right to be number 1! That Goolge will just call them up and ask them where they'd like to appear.

New Golden Rule for 2009: If you want to get into business on the web, you've got to be prepared to understand how the web works for business AND how it doesn't. It's not about being "technical" (God I hate that) - its about being responsible to you, your business and your investment.

If you want to try your hand at an internet business, apart from whether or not there is space for your business or it's a good idea, know at least these things:

1. Chances are if you build it, nobody will come
2. You don't have an automatic right to be #1 or to be found at all!
3. You need to go out and promote your website on the internet and off it
4. You have to compete on the web, maybe even harder than if you had a store
   
5. You may have to spend more on marketing it than you spent building it - this is because the startup costs web-store can be cheaper than a real store
6. At least web marketing can be cheaper than traditional marketing (TV, Print, etc)
7. You are going to have to write your own, unique, readable, interesting content
8. You are going to have to connect
9. You cannot hide behind the excuse of "I'm not technical" - because nobody cares. Understanding the web and social media, networking and marketing are not technical. Programming computers and assembling space rockets - that's technical. This is business.
10. Forget branding. If People used SE's only to look up brands, we wouldn't need them. SEO is the opposite of brand-based marketing. It's used by people to launch products against the big brands as much as it's used to sell big brand products.

Best of luck to everyone setting up an online business in 2009 - Don't be afraid to ask !!!!

SEO is a modern hero for the average Joe - a new theme for 2009

I read recently on an Irish Web blog that "SEO is bull****". I read this a while back and I've been thinking about just how wrong that statement is. SEO and Search Engines together are a modern hero we've never had before. Marketing Agencies are very brand orientated. Brand is everything. Branding is used to build a company. SEO, Social Marketing and Search Engines are about people recommendations - people can vote and promote a product they like not because a marketing agency has told them but because they have discovered it and shared it.

Brands have been a powerful force that shaped our lives from the 1800's. Many people grew up calling their vacuum machine a "Hoover" or their oven a "Stove" irregardless of the manufacturer. These were uber-brands. Companies have used the power of brands to tell us that "Guinness is good for us", Knorr tells us that their products are natural, wholesome and good for you. Cow and Gate currently feature an ad with babies in a happy form and a captions below them making ludicrous statements like "I don't look like I need more nutrition do I?" etc.

Well we don't know, you just look happy. It's a baby. Did the babies in the ad really take Cow And Gate? Are they happy All the time? People really buy into this. Instead of checking to see what really is best, they see the happy baby on TV and want their baby to be happy and healthy.

Why is SEO/SE/SM a hero for modern times? Let's say take Knorr. For years in Ireland they've dominated Soup Stocks. Until a few years ago, you could make your own stock (if you knew how, many people don't) or you had to use the soup stock cubes available in all Irish shops and supermarkets. Because of their huge advertising and marketing budgets, its been very difficult for anyone to get into this market place with a proper product. Like organic stock or superior quality stocks. OK, maybe our market is small and not attractive. But a raft of stock producers have come in. Superquinn in Limerick have been great to offer these rangs and I note Dunnes and Tesco are following suit. This is great for us consumers. The Knorr offering has been sub-par and even Knorr have changed their products suitably, offering improved recipes and now a jellified stock-pot. This would never have happened without competition.

Thanks to Chef's like Niall Harbison (read his video recipes blog), people are learning to become better cooks and to use better products. More people buying fresh organic stock helps fight bad brands who use money to tell us their product is better!

2009 is here.....Happy New Year Web-people

What will 2009 bring? No doubt the Irish media will continue it's recession news-fest. Is it just me or do RTE seem to present news of the widening financial crisis with glee? They are very sensitive when it comes to job losses up to a point - who wants to be interviewed on national TV just seconds after your job has been taken away?

What will 2009 mean for retail? I suspect quite a few ambitious retail projects will be forced to close down - even in a strong economic climate I think that too many retail outlets opened up, particularly in the home/DIY segment, where Limerick has been very well served - but are there enough shoppers to sustain all of them?

The main challenges facing us in 2009, I think are, in order of most obvious:

• Reduced house purchases
• Reduced investment into new business
• Reduced construction in all sectors
• More and more businesses folding

Main Drivers for these factors are:

• Reduced confidence
• Mass Emigration (Irish people and Migrant labourers) - reducing demand for housing, retail and entertainment

Worst Case scenario for year-end 2009:

• 20% unemployment
• 20% drop in population
• 1980's style dole-que's, etc

Unless we start spending again, en masse and businesses have to pay their bills on time - this is causing massive cash-flow strains for a lot of businesses in Ireland. And it's a knock-on effect that is becoming harder and harder to tolerate for many. I think January and February will set the tone for the year, so hopefully we won't have to wait too long. There is still a lot of money out there - just how will it be invested?

Happy Christmas Internet and a merry New Year

So we seemed to have survived another Christmas, despite a raging flu-pandemic that has hit most of Ireland. So next up is New Years and the start of 2009 - a year many are predicting to be an economic free-fall, which it will possibly be. A lot of people who have spent the last few years in senior, management and professional careers are now seeing an opportunity to setup their own company. Also, the government has this new businss incentive for start-ups which should prove interesting.

The next step most people seem to take after coming up with the idea is to setup a new website. Having hindsight and experience, I would always advise setting up a website and SEO ahead of starting to trade. Once you're sure the business venture is a runner - set up the website without hesitation.

Websites need time and maturity to help them with SEO - setting up a website after you start trading gives you a slight disadvantage. There is nothing wrong with setting up a site before you're ready to trade - chances are nobody will find it for the first few months - but the longer the Search Engines Index your site, the easier it gets to optimise it!

Saving money with O2

We recently moved to O2. We had several good reasons.

1. Vodafone were costing us a fortune - up to €200 per user
2. O2 have the iPhone
3. Vodafone were costing us a fortune no matter what plan/add-on combo and they don't have the iPhone.

Ok so it's 2. And there is probably a million people to tell me that you could buy an iPhone and stay with Vodafone and another million to tell me that Vodafone is the same. We've tried every package and add-on and idea from Vodafone only to see the calls go up.

Well, it's not. And a lot of our business friends have higher costs. We moved to O2, got iphones for everyone for €50 and our bill is coming in at €90 per head. Ok, that's only after 2 months, to be fair, but it is a substantial drop.

My advice - whoever you're with - you could save money by moving simply because your existing network won't actually get you a better deal. They could look at your spend over the last 6 months and tell you which package would have cost you less but they won't....so we moved and we're delighted.

BTW - if you didn't know already- the iPhone rocks. It's more than a gadget. Its a necessity. The App store, accelerometer, browsing capabilities. Even people with the LG "iPhone killer" version readily admit the iPhone is a lot more intuitive, capable and feature packed.

What do you get:

• Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) with Google Maps
• an iPod
  
• YouTube
• Touch Screen
• Accelerometer (detects motion in the handset, like a Wii. Has Wii like games too)
• Millions of apps to download
  

Hmmmm.....the 'R' word

The 'R' word is back and with a vengeance. R is an important letter in ROI - Return on Investment. If a website is the most important tool of the modern age, then surely search engine optimisation is the most important tool in increasing the return on that investment.

I still find it hard to accept that so many business still don't see that having a site and not having a plan for building traffic means that no matter how much was invested in the original site, the site has, almost no value. It's not until SEO or SEM comes along that the site begins to add value - to both the domain and the business itself. For many companies, particularly those with a smart multiple domain strategy, the domain and website have an asset value of their own, aside from that of the owning company.

I've heard this too many times: "But we're the best supplier of cakes in Dublin. We're supposed to come up number one. Everyone knows that!" Yip, try telling that to Google though! No, really, you should tell Google and that's what SEO and SEM are for!

I also can't believe that so many companies believe that they can compete with strong websites, particularly national or even international players by paying someone €1,000.00 or so as an "investment" in their website! That's not an investment, it's a moderately priced flyer.

Your website doesn't inherit or mirror you're business' real life presence on the internet. When you adopt a full, proper internet development programme, you are essentially opening an Internet based business of sorts.

You need to therefore be aware of things like Blogs, Social Media (for connecting you and your associates, partners and clients in a business and social network) as well as SEO and SEM.

Why do I think SEO delivers better as a value-add over any other form of advertising ? A well optimised site that continues to grow with unique, original and infomrative content will continue to grow traffic, generate leads and grow your business. Far better than any paid advertising.

Paid Advertising requires a constant budget - stop paying and you kill your traffic, leads, sales and business. A well optimised site will continue to grow. You'll get free traffic. You'll get people "clicking" into you and you'll sell. Your site can be sold as a going business asset of it's own right!

New PrimaryPosition.com launched

We're delighted to announce the official website for SEO Ireland, www.primaryposition.com. We've been working on it a while and even though I'd like to get more done with it, there's a lot to be said for getting it up and running!

Tomorrow/this week I plan to post about why people should be investing more in their web infrastructure - websites, booking forms, new content and SEO - during the upcoming recession we've all heard so much about.

We've also been doing a lot of work doing some SEO for hotels site, GlobalHotels-24-7.com. Like booking a hotel in Amsterdam, a hotel in Barcelona or for hotels Dusseldorf