Disqus - Friends of FutureSelf

Re: Hire a call center? Are you crazy?

jacobmorgan — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:05:07 -0000

I believe more and more retailers are hiring call centers because many of them are seeing a decline in profits and are looking for ways to cut corners to save money.

Declining profits in my opinion, are due to misconceptions in marketing. Most marketers still think that you can target the masses and then just sick back and watch the money flow, you can't.

I'm curious to see how various company forums are going to react when they find out that they were trying to call an office in L.A. and got transfered to Bangladesh.

Re: Google PageRank: It Means Nothing!

jacobmorgan — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:24:52 -0000

Recently I did consulting work for the leading web analytics company, one of their clients was a large computer company (I won't say their name but it rhymes with hell). Their biggest concern for an SEO strategy was how to increase their little green bar. Some people just don't get it.

Jacob
www.jmorganmarketing.com

Re: Google PageRank: It Means Nothing!

jacobmorgan — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:24:52 -0000

Jacob
www.jmorganmarketing.com

Re: Google PageRank: It Means Nothing!

jacobmorgan — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:24:52 -0000

Jacob
www.jmorganmarketing.com

Re: Reader Poll: 35 Online Marketing Tactics for 2008

jacobmorgan — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:25:35 -0000

Hi Lee,

I think the important question for 2008 is not so much what tactics you are going to use but who you are going to go after. Then once you identify your audience you can decide on the tactics.

[sigs are not welcome but your comment is!]

Re: ShoeMoney 2008 Spring Conference Schedule

jacobmorgan — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:11:23 -0000

That's a good line up. I helped create a group recently called the Search Marketing Salon on linked in and we are looking to have our first event around the end of Feb, maybe you can swing by that one as well :)

Jacob
itriedtospamalink

Re: Is appreciation referral motivation enough?

jacobmorgan — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:47:29 -0000

Hi John,

I believe that the most effective referrals come from customers (or clients) that are wow'ed. If you can really go above and beyond the customers expectations and provide extra value, then you can be that your customers are going to talk about you.

I think Mike MeDerment's strategy is just perfect.

Jacob
www.jmorganmarketing.com

Re: Top Ten Online Marketing Tactics

jacobmorgan — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:20:54 -0000

Hi Lee,

I do agree that blogging is definitely one of the more important factors. Consumers are already out there having conversations about specific brands, those conversations might as well be with the brands themselves.

People love to talk, especially when they know that someone is actually listening.

Jacob
www.jmorganmarketing.com

Re: Yahoo Really Does Live! Er, Yahoo! Live Lives

jacobmorgan — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:12:27 -0000

I just took at peek and Yahoo Live and to be honest I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at. It's an interesting platform but I don't know what direction it is supposed to take. Is this a supposed to eventually become a youtube competitor?

Jacob
[link removed]

Re: WordPress.com and SEO Blogs – Love or Hate?

jacobmorgan — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:06:53 -0000

I think this just goes to show that some people really don't understand what SEO is. Optimizing a page isn't the same as "fooling" google.

I agree it is just semantics but for someone just getting into blogging or SEO this sends a negative message.

Jacob

Re: Targeted Advertising Works

jacobmorgan — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:47:56 -0000

@Scot
I agree that certainly would become a problem (on 2 counts). I'm curious to find out if ProFlowers has received any negative feedback for this type of advertising.

Re: Yahoo’s Letter to Shareholders; Don’t Sell or Hold-out for More?

jacobmorgan — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:30:51 -0000

A great letter from Jerry, it definitely spells out a few key reasons for why Yahoo! didn't sell.

Re: 5 Lesser Known Google Analytics Features

jacobmorgan — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:28:51 -0000

I have been using all of the tools mentioned above and I am really getting some added value from GA. Great post for people who aren't maximizing their GA value.

Jacob

Re: SEO Tips for Public Relations

jacobmorgan — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:37:06 -0000

Hi Lee,

I think another big problem with title tags is that companies oftentimes just list keywords in them. The keywords may be relevant but trying to target everything under the sun is just not an effective strategy in my opinion. Sure you can get traffic but that is useless without conversions.

I think people misconstrue SEO as a rankings tool, when in fact it is a marketing tool. Title tags should have a call to action, marketing message, and relevant keywords. So what if you can't squeeze every keyword in there.

The title tag of a page is like the title of book chapter. The only thing you accomplish by stuffing keywords in your title tag is SEO spam, and we all know what happens with spam.

Jacob

Re: How I got Indexed in Search Engines in Under 24 Hours

jacobmorgan — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:08:48 -0000

Thank you for the kind words, I'm glad you found the post informative, and am glad to know that you will be linking it for your readers.

Re: What does your drink say about you part 2

jacobmorgan — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 01:41:32 -0000

Hi John,

Interesting post, especially since you mentioned that you drink Tullamore Dew and water. Well, I just wrote a post about a bar in London and a bar in N.Y. that charges over $40 a bottle for water, more expensive than your Tullamore.

I suppose you could just use tap water, but then again, what would that say about you?

Jacob

Re: What makes a Successful Marketing Campaign on Social Networks?

jacobmorgan — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:15:18 -0000

Hi Jeremiah,

I think the most important thing for companies to realize is that sticking a video on youtube won't get results automatically.

Fist off, instead of making something and trying to convince people to buy it, marketers should listen to what consumers want, and then make it.

Social media marketing works when it is built around a community that already exists. The goal is not to market to an individual but to market through a community (I think Seth Godin said this).

Social media needs to excite people, if the product/service isn't amazing than the marketing won't help/ Consumers are not stupid.

Scarcity is the new ubiquity. By standing out and targeting the small group of people that matter, you will eventually spread.

Check out Blendtec on youtube (type in "will it blend") and see what I mean, or how about "you suck at photoshop." These are remarkable videos, they are one of a kind, scarce; and because of that, they are getting millions of views.

Re: Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: Feb 20, 2008

jacobmorgan — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:00:43 -0000

I used to work for Passenger :)

Re: The 3 “Impossible” Conversations for Corporations

jacobmorgan — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:12:29 -0000

Hi Jeremiah,

Great post, and unfortunately very true. I would also ad that many corporation are scared to ask for help as well, but I suppose that can go under the feedback section.

I'm always amazed at how many wonderful ideas/solutions I hear from people that don't work directly for the company.

Re: Keeping your employess in the light

jacobmorgan — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:16:53 -0000

Hi John,

Thanks for the book recommendations. I will be sure to check it out. I am also ordering your book as well and looking forward to reading it.

Re: Sophistication May Vary (Am I boring you?)

jacobmorgan — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:02:48 -0000

Jeremiah please read my response to David on his blog.

You do great work here Jeremiah, if you didn't then I don't think you would have so many readers, and I definitely don't think someone like David would have ever responded to you.

Keep it up.

Re: How I got Indexed in Search Engines in Under 24 Hours

jacobmorgan — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:33:28 -0000

Hi Ryan,

It's one thing to do "most" of these things, it's another to actually "do" them. Are you using a stand-alone site or a wordpress hosted site? Wordpress offers a host of plugins that may make it easier for you to get indexed.

Remember, search engines find your site based on links.

I would say the best and most honest way that I have been able to build traffic is by creating quality content and by joining conversations on similar topics. I also submit my posts to sites such as digg and reddit.

I spend probably 1-2 hours a day just reading marketing blogs and making comments. Not just any comments, insightful comments. I find thought leaders in the industry and then go after them. I recently posted a comment on an execs blog from Levorno, I'm one of the top posters on the Duct Tape Marketing blog, etc.

I also attached my blog url to all of my e-mail signatures.

Remember though, the key is to have great content, you want repeat visitors. If they come to your site once and then never return, then your traffic is meaningless.

Re: How I got Indexed in Search Engines in Under 24 Hours

jacobmorgan — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:01:31 -0000

That is a myth and I have not seen any evidence to support that. I actually just checked your site, you are already indexed in google, so you have nothing to worry about.

Re: A Definition of Marketing in Nine Words

jacobmorgan — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:22:18 -0000

I would actually challenge all of these posts by defining marketing as the process of creating a demand. "connecting" doesn't really mean anything in my opinion.

Marketing used to be about convincing people that your product or service is best suited to solve their needs.

Now marketing is about creating a demand, thanks to social media marketing, this is not longer that big of a challenge.

Everyone markets someone, whether it's apple, or the guy down the street trying to sell you fake sun glasses.

Re: The 7 Stages of a Referral Generation

jacobmorgan — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 01:07:23 -0000

Hi John,

I think another key factor in increasing referrals or company growth is how a company leverages its existing marketing collateral. For example, let's say you are submitting a large report to a client that summarizes the months statistics. At the end of the report do you just say thank you? Or do you let the client know about some of your other services and product offerings?

Maybe at the end of your report you can say, by the way, in addition to the web design services that we are currently doing for you, we can also create custom print advertisements. That to me, sounds much better than, "thank you."