MarketingBeyond

Harald Neidhardt of Smaato - Why is He So Passionate About Mobile?

If you’re passionate about mobile and mobile advertising, talk with Harald Neidhardt, CMO of Smaato, a mobile advertising company. Before the iPhone was released, Harald and other entrepreneurs at Smaato were talking about smartphones, mobile applications and the growth of worldwide mobile computing.

Smaato is a pioneering mobile advertising company that operates the mobile ad optimization platform called SOMA (Smaato Open Mobile Advertising). The company partners with mobile advertisers, publishers, developers, ad networks and carriers to increase advertiser average revenue per user within mobile applications or on mobile websites.

Hear the podcast on IM-Mobile.

Music Genome Project Improves Pandora Internet Radio

The "Music Genome Project," Internet radio broadcasting on your mobile and PC, personalized music selections using 400 categories? What's happening to the way we select and enjoy music?

Whether you're into rock, gospel, classical, hip-hop or jazz, Pandora Internet Radio wants to help you "play all music you like." The Oakland, CA based company streams music to your iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and around 40-50 mobile handsets running on AT&T Wireless and Sprint's "Now" network.

As of December, 2008, two million iPhone users had downloaded the Pandora application. More recently, over one million BlackBerry users did the same through the BlackBerry App Store. Pandora claims a base of 27 million subscribers with 3-4 million people listening on their mobile phones and the vast majority tuning in using their personal computers.

Listen to a fascinating podcast with Tom Conrad, Pandora's CTO on MobileBeyond.

Boost Search Engine Rankings: Keyword Strategy for Newbies

Did you realize you can increase your blog's readership and website traffic using  a proven keyword strategy?

You'll need two FREE tools to raise your search engine rankings: Traffic Travis and Google's Keyword Tool.

Traffic Travis, unfortunately, only offers a PC version, making us Mac folks low on the totem poll again. You could do my proposed exercise without TT, but you'll find the task a lot easier with TT at your side.

Here goes:

1. Choose a number of one or two keywords that relate to your blog, website or landing page. Keep thinking "why" someone would enter keywords. Some are obvious, such as "make money blogging." Some are less obvious, such as "using cyanide" or "make things better" or "how to think." (A lot of Internet searchers don't know which words to enter; so they try strange combinations.)
2. Using Traffic Travis, generate hundreds of keyword phrases with at least three words. (Examples: "kill gopher with cyanide," "cyanide for gardens," etc.)
3. Separate your keywords into related groups, such as "gophers," "gardens," etc.
4. Copy each set of keyword phrases into Google's keyword tool. You'll end up with the average number of searches for each keyword phrase, plus Google will suggest others.
5. Choose at least 20-30 keyword phrases with at least 1,500 monthly searches that match your blog, website or landing page's theme or topic.
6. Remember that the number of "hits" shown by Google is based on average monthly search volume by everyone who enters each keyword phrase--not the total number of search engine hits with that phrase. The smaller the number of organic listings found using your keyword phrase, the less competition and greater chance of ranking high with the search engines.
7. Using a spreadsheet or on paper, enter your 25-30 niche keyword phrases in one column. To the right, enter the average number of searches on those keywords from the Google keyword tool.
8. Then Google each keyword phrase on your own twice--first without quotation marks, then with quotation marks, and enter the number of hits you get on each.
9. If you get hundreds of thousands of hits without quotes and only tens of thousands of hits with quotes, then you can conclude there's less competition for that keyword phrase. Ditto...you're more likely to rank higher with Google, Yahoo, MSN and others.
10. Examples:
    
     learn to play flute = 464,000
    "learn to play flute" = 22,900
    
    how to stop puppy biting = 225,000
    "how to stop puppy biting" = 8,210
    
    Now try this one:
    
    making money online = 194,000,000
    "making money online" = 3,280,000
    
    Would you rather compete with "learn to play flute" or "how to stop puppy biting" or "making money online"?

It's a judgment call, of course. But the lower the number of keyword phrase hits in quotes, compared to the total number of hits for the same keyword phrase without quotes, the less competition you'll have.

With less competition, people are more likely to find your article on puppy biting because they're fewer organic listings using the same keyword phrase.

Voila! You're on your way to riches or, at least, higher ratings for your blog or website.

P.S.

Just Googled "make more money" (3,280,000 hits). You can Google the keyword phrase without quotes.

The Secret of Choosing Keywords and Finding Niche Markets

It seems that a lot of people who want to launch a profitable website or blog on the Internet get stumped choosing keywords and finding niche markets.

Like you, I've been the victim of "paralysis by analysis" choosing a niche market, then doing keyword research. Using WordPress for your blog or a website tool such as xSitePro is fairly straightforward once you've spent a few hours learning these tools.

But how do you first choose a profitable market niche and find competitive keywords that result in your site receiving a lot of organic search engine hits? How can you reduce your search engine CPC charges for your keywords to drive buyers to your site?

The example shown below came to me after reviewing Affilorama's site and its Traffic Travis software tool. One of the great things about Affilorama, located in New Zealand, and Traffic Travis is their cost--$0. Although Affilorama offers Internet training courses and a professional version of Traffic Travis, there's plenty of free, solid information on Internet marketing to get you started on the road to profitability.

To get you "thinking outside the box," I'm going to use lawn mowers for my example. However, if you apply the strategies and steps explained below, you can use them in most niche's. I've numbered the sequence to make it easier to understand.

1. First realize that most people use the Internet to FIND INFORMATION, not necessarily to buy things on the Web.  Let's assume, however,  someone wanted to buy a lawn mower. Put yourself in the shoes of lawn mower buyers and make a few assumptions.
   
2. What information are people seeking about lawn mowers? ("I need to know more about lawnmowers and where to buy them")
3. Why are they seeking that information? ("My 12-year old lawnmower just blew up, weeds are growing fast and the last lawn mower I bought at Sears didn't cut well".)
4. How can I help buyers find information and solutions? ("I need to get information about reliable lawnmowers that cut weeds and where to buy them")
5. What keywords provide solutions to problems and needs related to the first three questions?
6. Using Traffic Travis, generate at least 3-5 groups of keyword phrases with a minimum of 50 hits per day. (Since Traffic Travis provides daily search volume from Google, Yahoo and MSN, multiple the results by 30 to obtain at least 1,500 hits per month; ex. 50 p/day X 30 days = 1,500.)
7. Choose keyword phrases you think searchers might enter in their searches (use at least two keyword phrases).
   
   "need to know about lawn mowers"
   "cut weeds"
   "lawn mower store"
8. Enter each keyword phrase in Traffic Travis and separate them into groups. (Once you use Traffic Travis, you'll see how simple this is to do.)
9. Here are my results:
   
   "need to know about lawn mowers"
   
   "lawn mower review" - 476 hits
   "best riding lawn mower" - 88 (information seeker never thought of buying a mower you ride rather than push)
   "used riding lawn mowers" - 267 (may be information seekers have never thought about buying a used mower)
   "commercial lawn mowers - 755 (want to launch a site about commercial landscaping?)
   "consumer buyers guide" - 97 (Could find guides with information you could quote for authority)
   lawn mower ratings" - 259
   "push lawn mowers" - 762
   "zero turn lawn mowers" - 932
   "lawn mower comparison" - 92 hits (Didn't like last one from Sears; maybe others?)
   "discount lawn mowers" - 97 (Is saving money important to the buyer?)
   
   "cut weeds"
   
   "lawn weed control" - 320 (Maybe the pain or need is resolved with something other than a lawn mower?)
   "crabgrass killer" - 697
   "lawn weeds" - 1317
   
   "lawn mower store" (when I used "lawn mower stores," TT showed 0 keywords)
   
   "snapper riding lawn mowers" - 65 (product related keyword phrase)
   "lawn boy lawn mowers" - 207 (product-related keyword phrase)
   "home depot 10 off coupon" - 120
   "toro lawn mowers" - 1657
   "snapper lawn mower parts" - 211
   "toro lawn mower parts" - 209
   "scotts lawn mower parts" - 211
   
10. Use the Google keyword tool and enter each Traffic Travis group of keywords separately. (Choose "long-tailed" keyword phrases with at least three words and a minimum of 1,500 searches per month; remember, the higher the number of monthly keyword search phrases, the harder it is to rank high on organic searches; you'll have less competition for keywords by choosing phrases with fewer hits.)
    
    Here are the Google results I chose by group:
    
    "need to know about lawn mowers"
    
    "riding lawn mower reviews" - 1600
    "lawn mowers review" - 1600
    "used riding lawn mower" - 1600
    "lawn mower ratings" -4400
    "zero turn lawn mower" - 9900
    "lawn mower review" - 9900
    "commercial lawn mower" -9900
    "push lawn mowers" - 14800
    "lawn mower prices" -3600
    
    "cut weeds"
    
    "lawn feed and weed" - 1600
    "crabgrass kill" - 2400
    "crabgrass preventer" - (jumped from average 4400 to 49500 in recent month; seasonal & another niche?)
    "lawn weed control" - 2900
    "lawn weeds" - 14800
    "lawn fertilization" -1900 (Maybe problem is solved, in part, by fertilizing?)
    "organic weed control" - 2900 (perhaps buyer is concerned about using pesticides?)
    "garden weed control"- 2900 - (Do homeowners have gardens AND lawns?)
    
    "lawn mower store"
    
    "american lawn mower" - 3600 (jumped to 22200 for past month)
    "kubota lawn mowers" - 3600
    "scotts mowers" - 5400
    "reel lawn mowers" -8100
    "husqvama lawn mowers" - 8100

You should generate at least 30 keywords per website or blog and sprinkle relevant keywords throughout the page's content (see Affilorama for more details.).

For example, if you're writing an article or blog post on comparing lawn mowers, choose 1-3 keyword phrases that specifically relate to that subject. You should also include related keyword phrases in the title and header tags:

"How to buy push lawn mowers"
"Getting rid of lawn weeds"

By using tools like Traffic Travis, plus the Google keyword tool to generate a list of keywords that are relevant to your niche, you can more easily write better website articles and blog posts. You may even discover other profitable sub-niches.

If you need more help, check out Affilorama's Internet training courses.

The MobiMarketing Club Launches on Twitter

Join the exclusive MobiMarketing Club now forming on Twitter and elsewhere.

The MC is an interactive online and email club sharing unique content about mobile technology and mobile marketing and advertising. Want to discover how mobile affects human communications? Launch your own mobile site or market globally?

Then The MC is for you. Sign up by entering your first name and email address when the box appears on your screen.