I entered the internet marketing industry around 2003. It all started for me with an affiliate program and a pay per click campaign. Back in 2003 there were not many savvy Australian internet marketers so I had very little competition for my campaign for quite some time.
Having had some great initial success, I got a little disappointed as I watched new entrant after new entrant come into the market, copying my campaigns and forcing the cost of pay per click (PPC) advertising up. This combined with Google’s enhancements (which did make their search engine work better, just not for affiliates) made the time involved in managing a Google Cash style business, to be way in excess what the diminishing returns would compensate.
So I changed my approach. I started to build websites and learn about search engine optimization. I still used PPC marketing, but to drive traffic to my own websites while they optimized in the organic search terms. The result for me was half a dozen highly optimized and profitable website businesses. Of these, only one has its own product. The others either promote affiliate programs or sell advertising space.
Over the 6 years I have been active in internet marketing, I have picked up quite a few clients who wanted help with their web presence. I never promoted this service, they all came to me on referral or by word of mouth. They all had two things in common. Firstly they wanted a website that sold their product. Secondly they had been ripped off by an unethical internet marketer who took their money and left them with a website that didn’t work.
That’s the problem with internet marketing. Its not a university degree, its not a regulated industry. Anyone can and does call them self an internet marketer. That’s why internet professionals as an industry have such a bad reputation. Our industry is packed with graphic designers who know nothing about marketing and professional marketers who know nothing about the internet.
These charlatans contact me every week trying to sell their services. I can see clearly their modus operendi. They base all their actions on the fact that most business owners are pretty ignorant when it comes to the internet. Therefore, a few nice graphs and some confusing industry jargon is all they offer and expect it to be enough to make a sale. This is despite their general lack of substance when it comes to delivery.
For example, my tourism business hires out surfboards on Australia’s Gold Coast. Do a Google search on “Gold Coast Surfboard Hire” or even just “surfboard hire” for that matter. I’m sure you’ll find me, mine is Gold Coast Surfboards. Clearly for the product I am selling, I am very well optimised in the search engines.
Despite the fact that this business is optimized in the search engines for the phrases that are relative to the product, I still get SEO “professionals” contacting me trying to sell their wares. I get contacted every week. Its crazy.
I’ve worked out exactly what they do. They find my website and recognize it as a small business. They’ll do a few Google searches and see that I really am well optimized, so then they set about finding some search phrases that I am not optimized for. In their belief they know more than me, they then try to scare me into buying their optimization services for the less relevant search phrases. Phrases such as “surf accessories” and “holiday rentals”.
If I didn’t understand internet marketing, I may have used these charlatans. I’m sure many small businesses have been convinced by their slick presentations. And at the end of their work though, I would have a website which attracts completely irrelevant visitors. People looking for surf accessories or people looking to rent a hotel room, or car for their holiday. This probably would have undermined the optimization work I did on “Surfboard Hire” and related terms as well, meaning my real clients would have gone to my competitors.
If you are a small business owner and get approached by an internet marketer who is going to “turbo boost” your business by getting it up to the top of Google, look carefully at the words they are suggesting they will do this for. There are lots of phrases which anyone can get to #1 as there is no competition for them. This is because no-one uses them to search. So before you sign up an internet marketer, try and get a good understanding of what your clients search for on Google when they are looking for your product.
If you are thinking about doing some work to your website but do not know where to start, ask around. The really good operators work on reputation and do little self promotion. When you do this though, be clear that you are looking for an internet marketer, not a designer or developer. Its one thing to make a masterpiece for the internet like many graphic designers do, but a whole new kettle of fish putting it where all your clients can find it.
If you are an internet professional reading this article, its time for all of us to smarten up. We need to look after the industry and we can only do this by being ethical in the manner in which we operate. So please, stop going out trying to extract a pound of flesh, go out to add value to your clients. Once you are adding value, the new clients will come, following your reputation. Continue operating as you are though and soon no-one will talk to internet professionals anywhere.
Damian Papworth, concerned with the lack of honesty displayed by todays internet professionals, promotes honesty over greed. Unique version for reprint here: Ethics and Internet Marketing.
