I knew it was going to happen soon because our daily scores are usually in the 50,000 range. Not that Alexa gives out door prizes or anything, but for some reason it feels like a small acomplishement.
Watch your back Shoemoney, I only have 94,350 points to go!
I’m going to point you to a web page made for business owners who know enough about SEO / SEM to know they need it, but not enough to make informed decisions about who to hire.
But first, I want to add my own tip. It is 2007 and for the last couple of years this industry has been growing like crazy, both in terms of new SEO / SEM firms, and businesses who are in the market for their services. I have met a lot of terrible, ok, great, and fantastic SEOs in the last two years, and there seems to be a common theme: Anyone who is “ok” doesn’t have to cold call or email for work. They have enough to make a good living and grow their business as long as they keep clients happy. Anyone in the “great” and “fantastic” category doesn’t have to look for work either. In-fact, these are the people who are likely to turn you away and refer you to someone else because they are so busy it would be physically (or temporally) impossible to take on another client unless they gave up some of their terrible habits - like eating and sleeping.
So if someone sends you an email or calls you out of the blue telling you how much you need their SEO/SEM services, they must be a “terrible” SEO.
I am not trying to say it’s “cool” to turn down work. If you have time to do it, by all means chase after the client, sell yourself, get the work. But never just randomly cold call people - especially other SEOs!
Now on to that webpage I was talking about: How to Spot a Phony Search Marketing Company in Three Minutes or Less
Cristian Mezei has a great post on Web Directories with an Affiliate Program over at SEOPedia. As anyone with a directory knows, trying to make money from affiliate marketing and contextual advertising is extremely difficult. This is because most of your traffic is probably coming from search engine marketers and webmasters, both of which tend to be Ad-Blind.
Christian suggests marketing toward these people, as opposed to the end-user - someone who is using your directory to find a website. The best way to monetize a directory, according to this article, is to send the webmasters and search marketers to other directories that have affiliate programs.
For a list of directories with affiliate programs, click here.
I was faced with a choice this week: Continue running First Page Fitness as a niche SEO company, or commit myself to Gaiam as a long-term full-time employee.
Maybe the industry overall is doing well, or maybe people recognize good work when they see it. Either way business is good and I did not have enough time to commit to Gaiam and continue taking on new clients at the same rate.
Since announcing that I am dissolving First Page Fitness as an SEO company, I have received a few emails from friends, family and clients who all say the same thing:
“Why not just quit Gaiam and do First Page Fitness. You could make more money!“
They are correct. I probably could make a lot more money. But let me tell you something about Gaiam. It is the kind of company that has the potential to change the way the American economy works. It is the kind of company that is run by DOers, rather than SAYers. It is the kind of company that pays its employees to watch An Inconvenient Truth, and take hour-long yoga classes. It is the kind of company that goes against what traditional “corporate America” says is wise, such as selling $8,000 bio-diesel fuel processors to 35-year old men on the same website that sells $17 yoga mats to 40-year old women. And if I can help this company succeed by getting it in front of more eyes online, I will.
The problem with corporate America is that companies are no longer working in the interest of consumers because - by law and definition - they are required to do their best to make profits for stock holders.
Where once a single owner or group of owners could make the choice to take a loss in profits for their ideals and morals, “managers” and “executives” are required to ignore their ideals and morals in the name of the almighty dollar. To do otherwise is fiscally irresponsible and, in some cases, illegal.
But here is what happens when you build a business around the concepts of health and sustainability:
Consumers expect your products and services to be healthy and environmentally conscious. That’s what attracted them to your brand in the first place. If customers see that your products and services are no longer healthy and eco-conscious, they leave. So, from a purely “corporatist” point of view, it looks like this:
Unhealthy, Environmentally Irresponsible Products = Unhappy Customers
Unhappy Customers = Lower Profits and Lower Profits = Unhappy Stock Holders
Whereas, the opposite and desired effect is this:
Healthy, Eco-Friendly Products = Happy Customers
Happy Customers = Higher Profits and Higher Profits = Happy Stock Holders
By basing its brand on being healthy and environmentally conscious, the founders of Gaiam were able to transform the traditional dynamics of a corporate economy. They are not the only company doing this, of course. Gaiam is a large piece of a much larger global trend. They just happen to be the one I work for.
On the VERY rare occasion that I read a criticism of Gaiam, it usually says that the company doesn’t go far enough, that it caters too much to the upper middle-class suburbanite, that it is more “eco chic” than “eco friendly”.
Do you want to know why we are in so much trouble, yet nobody seems to care? These same critics have put it into the American psyche that in order to be environmentally friendly you have to live in a commune, not wear deodorant, eat rabbit food, and work behind the counter for minimum wage at a coffee shop or record store. Do they actually think a 40-year-old mother of two in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio is going to adopt that lifestyle? No! Yet, she represents the majority of Americans who really do care about their health and the environment, but are unable to exercise their ideals in the face of fast food chains, strip malls, corporate mega centers and sprawling suburbia that surrounds them.
Companies like Gaiam recognize this, and are able to provide healthier, eco-conscious products and services to the American people without scaring them away. Maybe the suit-and-tie wearing corporate executive who buys a few chemical-free household cleaners today will decide to get a backyard composter next year. And perhaps the year after he’ll actually buy a solar kit for his house or - much to the surprise of his corporate buddies - a peddle-powered boat for their weekend fishing trips.
It takes small steps toward a sustainable future for corporate America. Gaiam took the first steps almost ten years ago, and I am proud to be walking with them today.
This has been a late-night rant by Everett Sizemore. This is only a rant. If this had been an actual blog entry, you would have been instructed to contact us for further information. We now return to your regularly scheduled First Page Fitness.
Today I have accepted our last client. As many of you may know, I have been working closely with Gaiam over the last eight months. Now that I have come on board with them long-term, I have agreed to stop taking new clients in the fitness vertical. Although I may be interested in consulting with non-fitness clients, I have made the decision to turn the First Page Fitness domain into a resource for consumers who are interested in health and fitness products.
The transition into an affiliate marketing website will be gradual, and plans have not been fully drawn out. Here is what you should expect to see over the coming months:
- The addition of a paid inclusion directory with very high standards, but also SEO-friendly in that we will allow deep linking and reasonable anchor text titles.
- We will be replacing our Services, Case Studies and Testimonial tabs with Directory, Products, and Special Deals tabs.
- We may or may not include contextual advertising units in the right column of this blog.
- I will continue posting about SEO (because it is what I love) until I find the time to create a new non-niche domain and move my SEO blogging over to a new blog. So please continue reading the First Page Fitness Search Marketing blog, and I will post the URL to the new one as soon as it goes up.
- This blog will, in time, be geared more toward an audience of health and fitness consumers who are researching products and services.
I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported this blog, especially those in the SEO community who were able to look past the fitness vertical aspect and extract informatation about search engine marketing in general - especially Hawaii SEO, Gray Wolf, Mike the Internet Guy, the folks over at Page 1 Solutions (who,for some reason, are always in the Alexa bar on this site), Byron White from Life Tips (I’ll update you on my new SEO blog so you can change your blogroll at that time) Chris from AMWSO Affiliate Marketing, and those of you who drop by to pay a visit once in a blue moon, including StuntDubl, Shoemoney, and - of course - SEO Fangirl.
There is no need to update your links. My archived SEO posts will remain where they are. Speaking of that, I suppose I should leave off with a few of my favorite posts:
Some of the exciting sites I will be working on with Gaiam:
Gaiam Yoga, Gaiam Community, Natural Habitat Eco Tours, Billy Blanks Tae Bo, Real Goods Green Products, LOHAS Magazine and Conference, Good Times Media, The Firm, Spiritual Cinema Circle, and a number of other exciting projects!
Keep in touch, feel free to comment, and stay tuned for the annoucement of my new non-vertical SEO blog - or perhaps an SEO blog that provides tips on Search Marketing for Verticals ??? Hmmmm…
