Sitewire

Get in the Ring with Your Competition
- Scott Kaufmann

Ten years ago before the internet was booming, commerce was simple. If you operated a business, large or small, you knew who your competitors were and you sold your product out of your retail location, over the phone or through mail order. Then widespread adoption of the internet as a powerful and very efficient medium of commerce pulled the rug out from under traditional brick-and-mortar commerce. I'll admit that even today the Internet still only accounts for a relatively small percentage of total global commerce, yet in many industries online, commerce decides the success or failure of an organization.

Estimates from Visa indicated that worldwide e-commerce sales in 2004 would be over 150 billion. And with similar year over year growth, 2005 e-commerce projections would be well over 200 billion. The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce estimated that the second quarter 2005 e-commerce sales in the United States were over 21 billion. Even more interesting is the steady growth rate of e-commerce to total commerce. Below is a chart taken from The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce Web site,

Estimated Quarterly U.S. Retail E-commerce Sales as a Percent of Total Quarterly Retail Sales: 4th Quarter 1999- 2nd Quarter 2005

Percent of Total

If you look around, it's often hard to find a company that sells a product that isn't on the internet or at least contemplated the idea of going online. Unfortunately many entrants to this new commerce medium just think of it as an expansion of their business and try to utilize the same marketing and advertising tactics. This is a large, and often costly, mistake. Let me illustrate my point.

Let's take a look at retail giant Borders book stores. Their major competitor has long been Barnes & Noble Bookstores. However, things are a bit different online. When going online, Borders quickly realized that not only was Barnes & Noble a competitor, but that another company unknown in the traditional retailing world was actually their largest competitor. Amazon.com had a jump on the online marketplace for books by launching their site and selling products at the lowest prices, (even at a loss initially) to build a customer database and create a buzz around their name. Borders realized quickly that they were no longer the giant with a huge market share. Between Barnes & Noble online and Amazon.com, they would capture only a small portion of the market share. In 2001, Borders decided they couldn't effectively compete online, capture market share and handle the fulfillment. They determined it would make more financial sense to partner with the dominant Amazon.com and create a co-branded site to sell their books online, while leaving the fulfillment to Amazon.com. Today Amazon.com and Borders.com dominate the marketplace by a wide margin, followed by Barnes & Noble.

So what's the moral of this story? You may know who your competitors are next door, but do you know who they are online? If not, make sure to do your homework or hire someone to do it for you. It's difficult and nearly impossible to formulate an effective marketing plan and compete online if you don't know who your competitors are and what they are doing online. Remember, your online competitors may be completely different from your brick-and-mortar competitors.

Here's a parting thought. Take the higher road in all of your marketing campaigns, as the low road might get you there quicker but your feet will be cold and wet. And no one likes to have cold feet.

Until next time...

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Sploggers, Blookers and Ballyhoo
- Josh Yeager

Practically anywhere you go these days folks are discussing, dissecting, reviewing, debating and blogging about… blogs. What's a blog, you ask? Technically speaking, it is a fairly recent entry into the online lexicon - a contraction of the words web + log. Literally, a blog is a 21st century blend of online journaling + homepage building + social & political commentary. Blogs are so complex and reach into so many aspects of our society that it's difficult to predict the ultimate outcome, but blogs are definitely HOT!

Partly due to difficulties with communications systems during this summer's Katrina catastrophe, CNN.com relied on blogs as a source of "ground zero", real-time news sourcing. The blogs offered first-hand accounts of the situation on the ground and provided unparalleled insight to the devastation.

Google's AdSense product can be incorporated to serve ads to blog readers. Yahoo! launched a beta blog searching tool. In October, AOL agreed to pay $25 million for Weblogs, Inc -- a self-proclaimed "network of over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across over 75 industry-leading blogs." Blogtastic, I say!

Which brings me to my second and most recent obsession (see last month's newsletter for scoop on optimized press releases), blinguistics … or blog slang. Perhaps I just made up the word blinguistics, but seemingly everyone's jumping on the blog neologism bandwagon as of late. Why? The word blog is just plain fun. But when contracted with another word, the new creation is downright bloglicious!

Splogger is not a word I created, and frankly it's not a word you necessarily want to hear. A splogger is a spam-blogger a.k.a. a person, (or typically a program/script/robot) who posts blogs with malicious or rapacious intent. The problem has become so pesky that Google announced in late October, the launch of new CAPTCHA word-verification programming to prevent the creation of automated blogs. Will it work? We'll "hafta" wait and see. In the interim, why not read a blook?

On October 10th Lulu (not the 1960's Scottish pop singer -- rather an online publication service) announced the world's first literary prize for Blooks. Contrary to what you might think, blooks are not kooks who blog. Blooks are the fastest growing and hottest new trend in book publishing - books based on blogs! You see, Lulu (www.lulu.com) is a revolutionary resource for authors of all kinds. Since their 2002 launch, Lulu allows the common writer to publish, print and sell their own content for FREE. From the marketing standpoint, this is clearly a great opportunity for anyone looking to share their work with the masses and effectively build awareness and/or drive new business.

In what will surely become a world-renown accolade, "The Blooker Prize" recognizes the best blooks in three categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction and Comic-Blooks. With a somewhat ironic twist, the prize celebrates the 450th anniversary of Gutenberg's invention of moveable type. Lulu CEO Bob Young proclaims, "Blooks are the latest landmark in the history of books. They represent a new stage of books, if not a whole new category of literature, with its own emerging literary style." Now, that's blooktastic!

Blogs are certainly changing the nature of the web and our culture in numerous ways, so stay tuned for more news from the blogisphere. If there's a cool blog you'd like to share or better yet, additions to my blogcabulary list - please email your comments to me at jyeager@sitewire.net. I blook forward to blearing from blou.

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Completing the SEM Circle
- Leslie Jackson

When we talk about organic search engine optimization in reference to garnering strong search engine rankings, we talk about relevant search terms and the importance of link popularity. But let's take this one step further to examining ROI.

Ultimately, high search engine rankings mean nothing if they aren't driving traffic to your site - traffic that will turn from consumer to customer - traffic that will CONVERT! That is the value of organic search engine marketing that we often fail to discuss. The discussion is always centered on number and quality of rankings.

Here's a bit o' insight. When Sitewire reviews a Web site for optimization and performs research to find the keyword phrases that will be used for said optimization, we are looking for highly relevant, very popular phrases. We look to relevance for several reasons. First and foremost - organic rankings are based heavily on relevance. Each search engine competes for its audience based on its ability to provide the most relevant search results to an organic search query. Therefore, it is important that we are targeted in the keywords chosen for optimization.

Secondly, those relevant phrases will also often help you reach your target market. You have to jump into the mind of the consumer and think: if I were searching for my type of product online, what words would I use to find it? In most cases, a lot of the phrases for which you wish to rank are those less relevant to your product and will most likely fail to deliver the target consumer needed to sell your product.

Third, if you use highly relevant search terms that target the market you are seeking to purchase your product, you will likely drive relevant traffic to your Web site that will lead to conversions. However, you must have phrases that are used as search terms - they must be popular. Regardless of relevance and rank, targeted keyword phrases without popularity means you are ranking for a phrase no one is looking for.

And finally, how do you track or prove ROI for organic search listings? Because free organic rankings do not come with the ability to track conversions, click through, etc. (like pay-per-click services allow), having your Web site linked into a quality Web analytics tool will allow you to track the organic search process. Tools such as Web Trends provide the information necessary to see what your ROI is from organic efforts.

If you would like more information on organic search engine optimization, keyword research or Web analytics, please contact your Sitewire representative.

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Sitewire's Pink Ladies Taking to the Streets
- Lacey French

Sitewire has always prided itself on its ongoing commitment and support shown to the community. What's even more impressive is how many Sitewirians individually devote their personal time to lend a helping hand to a charitable cause. This was just the case when Sitewire employees Leslie Jackson and Kimberly LaVasseur contributed their time, energy and feet to participate in the 2005 Breast Cancer 3-Day benefiting the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the National Philanthropic Trust.

Team "Walk this Way" completed their 60 (yes, that's right - 60!) mile walk throughout the Valley over the span of three days in late October. Preparation for this huge undertaking began back in July after Kimberly and Leslie attended an informational meeting on the cause and both were floored by the statistics that were shared. "What really inspired me to get involved was the fact that one in every seven women will be affected by this disease. Even if you don't have personal connections to those currently facing such a battle, these statistics wake you up to the fact that at some point, you probably will. And what a wonderful thing it would be to have a world without Breast Cancer," said Kimberly.

Not only did the ladies immediately begin to prepare their feet for the long haul by walking several times a week, but they began to work on raising the $2,100 needed to participate in the walk. The event held in Arizona alone raised over $4.7 million.

After months of walking and raising funds, the big day finally arrived. Setting out on their first day's walk consisting of roughly 22 miles, there were certainly a few bumps in the road where the ladies' endurance ran low. When asked how they kept going, Leslie reflected, "Between the cheering stations, the big orange signs along the road sharing statistics on the prevalence of breast cancer and the women we met along the way battling with the disease, you got over the fact that your feet were killing you, realizing what a small sacrifice that was in the grand scheme of things."

Other than the 1700 walkers, it was the 300+ volunteers who made the event possible. Each had to raise the same funds to participate as the walkers, only without receiving any of the glory. Doctors and nurses from a local hospital were on site to care for the walkers' medical needs, volunteers gathered at the camp site and at each pit stop to pass out water and food and others dedicated endless energy to standing along the sidelines of the route cheering everyone on, every step of the way.

Countless reminders surrounded the walkers, filling them with inspiration as well as some humor to keep their spirits up. "Sweep" vans with volunteers dressing in themes such as "Viva Las Vegas" or in 70's and 50's gear drove throughout the route. Beyond serving the purpose of caring for the walkers, these vans gave a little dose of laughter just when it was needed the most. Pink survivor hats were abundant, shirts telling everyone why this was meaningful to them were worn by walkers and volunteers alike, and signs with messages such as "Mastectomy: $24,000. Chemotherapy: $44,000. Living to Watch my Girls Grow Up: Priceless." were scattered throughout the crowds.

With less than a mile to go, Leslie and Kimberly were really in need of some major inspiration. "We were approaching the finish line with throbbing feet and thought, 'We could really use a cheering station right about now.' And of all things, a woman battling breast cancer that we had seen in the crowd all along the route was standing towards the end alone, clapping and cheering us on," said Leslie.

And the support did not end with the completion of the walk. Even after the ladies accomplished their 60 mile feat, they have still continued to receive donations to their team to benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and breast cancer research. If you'd like more information on how you can donate to this tremendous cause, please click here to visit the "Walk This Way" Team page.

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