Michigan Blog - Featuring Michigan Shopping, Travel, Business & People

The Billion Dollar Question for 2010:

How does our company get ahead of the competition without losing sight of the bottom line?

"Go Local" - because people like buying from people they know, like, or can relate to in some way (think neighborhood).

Isn’t it true that everyone’s price point is very close to one another in the market place (for both products and similar services)? Of course, from time to time someone may try to “buy” business but all things being equal pricing is rather close?

Wouldn't you agree that the slim margin of sales victory will be determined by those who most successfully “connect” with the individual who’s doing the buying?

With the advent of mobile and online-local search engines, it has become a little bit easier to connect with your customers at the exact time that person is ready to buy.

If this is true, then why are only a fraction of Michigan Businesses exploiting the power of local business listings on Google, The Michigan Business Directory, Bing, Yelp and other local directories and communities?

We think that it's because of "lack of time" and "lack of expertise" - THAT is why the Michigan Business Directory has partnered with Smart Finds Internet to offer you an economical way to exponentially increase your local online presence.

Make 2010 a "local" year and jump start your local business with this economical listing package. It's as Easy as 1-2-3-Win!

CLICK HERE to find out more on the Professional listing package

Labels: Freebies at the Michigan Business Directory, Local News, Online Marketing and PPC, Web 2.0

If it's not a "Pay per click" and it's not an "Affiliate" website than what is it?? .. or more importantly, how does it make money?

Sortprice is probably the first "Flat-rate" listing product comparison engine around and is doing well in a number of verticals including Pet Supplies and Lawn and Garden.

According to Sortprice:
All merchants listed on Sortprice.com can receive unlimited clicks for product listings. There is no Cost Per Click, all campaigns are flat rate fees per month. Click fraud has been a large factor in the decrease of revenue from online advertising. At Sortprice.com with the unlimited click-through business model, click fraud cannot occur.

A few other state of the art features are available - one of them being the dive into social shopping with it's Facebook application.

Here is an example to try http://apps.facebook.com/grpetsupplies (give it a whirl and add a few items to a wishlist). All you need is a facebook account and a willingness to share a few products you like. Here is a Lawn and Garden Facebook Application to try.

To summarize the Facebook Social Shopping application:

• Lets users create a wish list of items they want, meaning their friends can use it as a guide for suitable gifts.
• People can also get gift recommendations based on information on their friends' Facebook profiles.
• Once people decide to buy something from their friend's wish list (or thier own) they are directed to the page on the corresponding merchant's website to make the purchase.

To give people motivation to try the application - use coupon code: googlerocks to save $5.00 on any purchase (greater than >$75) from any wishlist from either store: www.BackyardStyle.com or www.GRpet.com

Happy Shopping!

Labels: Christmas Shopping, Online Marketing and PPC, Online Shopping, social Shopping reviews

A Big Leap in the Right Direction for Online Marketers - Just in time for the Holidays

Whenever something big happens online, it most likely has to do with Google and this article covers news that is no different. Google has changed the clickable area of thier Adsense ads both on the Google search engine, all of thier properties (like Google Base and Froogle) and all of thier publisher's websites.

As both a publisher (that is now earning less money with the same amount of traffic) and an advertiser (that is now converting better), I applaud this step that Google has taken. It will pay off in great dividends for them. Accidental clicks will be lessened and it will increase advertisers trust 100 fold. Google and Trust must walk hand-in-hand.

Accidental clicks from DIV layer overlaps will all but be diminished to nothing.

As a publisher, it has been my experience that the online pendulum of online advertising has swung too far back into the direction it was when the dot-com bust happened. Another words, ad spending is not monitored enough, companies are spending more in advertising than they should - and more importantly more than what it is bringing them in business.

This of course, is a hotly debated topic - but I will stand strong on my opinion. Kudos to Google for taking a big leap in making sure that accidental clicks are lessened for advertisers. This change will also open the door to the pay per lead/sale program that Google is launching.

Google sent a letter to AdSense publishers, explaining why they’ve made the change:

"We’re rolling out a change to our text ad formats to help reduce accidental clicks and increase value for advertisers. Previously, users could click on the background and full text of an ad, but now users can click only on the title and URL of a text ad. This new format will match the changes we’ve implemented on Google.com to help decrease the number of accidental clicks and increase the number of ad conversions. A reduction in accidental clicks will keep users on your pages, interacting with your content until they choose to click on an ad. This change will enhance the users’ overall experience with your websites and improve advertiser campaign value, but it’s likely that your click-through rate will decrease."

Google's Adsense change is the first step in making that pendulum start moving back in the other direction. I can't wait until it stabilizes in the middle (or can I?)

Labels: Google Adsense, Online Marketing and PPC