SEO Company | Search Engine Optimization Firm

Horizon Realty Group – Online Reputation and Social Media Chaos

I recently gave a presentation to the Charlotte Entrepreneurs Meetup Group a week or two ago and I discussed the importance of monitoring your name. Your company name, personal name, products, and more. Well part of managing your name also falls into the category of another service, known as Online Reputation Management.

Horizon Realty Group is suing a tenant over a Tweet. Yes, Twitter of course is in the lime light again. After all, once you go viral its all over…all over the internet anyway. You can catch more of the debacle over at CopyBlogger.

Its quite funny, their press released mentioned something about protecting their name, after all the suit was against the tenant for libel from what we have gathered. Anyway, everyones talking about the ’sue now ask questions later’ mentality of Horizon Realty Group and sure enough, a search on Google for their name doesn’t paint the group in a pretty light. Anyway care to wager the company changes name in 6 months?

Real Estate Marketing Seminar Scheduled

e2Digital and On Top Results has just announced our real estate marketing seminar for late August. An email just went out to a few agents in the area and we’re hoping for quite the turnout. In today’s economy its hard enough to sell houses and spend extra cash on a full online marketing initiative.

This is exactly why we decided to do a seminar for agents. The seminar is geared toward agents that already have a foot in the development of their site or at least want to start working on their own site. Theres simply no better time to start ranking your site than right now. As the market turns you can focus on selling more homes and hiring staff rather than trying to figure out why your not getting your fair share of real estate leads.

The seminar is scheduled for August 27th at the Ballantyne Hotel. We’ll have two sessions. The first will focus on Search 101, while the second session focuses on more advanced topics. To get the full scoop and register, visit our sign up page online.

iJango – The Next LocalAdLink

Everyone knows how I love LAL, well it appears that iJango is on the verge of trying to repeat history. David Kyle first mentioned this on Twitter and apparently they’ve got a meeting planned for Charlotte. I’ll have more updates on iJango as they take place.

Update July 21, 2009:
Do you think people are interested in reading about the latest hype…just a snapshot of my traffic over the past hour.

SEMCLT Video

Here’s the video from last nights SEMCLT.com event.

We had a fantastic turnout once again and the reviews so far have been great. Over at meetup.com where members can vote and voice their opinions, everyone seemed to have loved the networking part the most. The first part of the presentation featured a few local professionals including myself, David Kyle, Jon Payne, and Robert Enriquez. The audience members through out several questions which were debated and discussed.

The second portion of the night featured a networking event where local business owners got to mingle and pick the brains of the professionals. We also held a ‘link swap’ per se, for folks looking for a little link love. I met a business owner that sells Charlotte granite countertops thats new to the business and he seemed to enjoy the presentation and networking. Thats one of the benefits of the meetup every month, networking with other business owners.

We hope you can join us next time either online or live in person at our next meetup. Enjoy the vid!

Are You Marketing Your Future?

Most agents are ecstatic to get into the industry and start making a living as quickly as possible. However, most of the times an agent tends to pull the trigger a little too quickly in terms of branding their new business.

Creating your own brand as a real estate agent is very important. Having it focus solely on YOU is even more important. Agents leave their brokers in charge all of the time. Chances are you’ll move from Re/Max to Keller Williams to the latest and greatest thats offering you the best opportunity at that time. What you may not realize is you are branding the company you work for before you brand yourself. Its especially true when you’re starting out in the business. Those that have been practicing real estate for some time probably understand this already.

Email

What does your email address read? Is it branded for you or for your agency? Are you branding Bellsouth the phone company instead? (Very popular in the south, yourname@bellsouth.net) – Every time you move or even relocate, do you have to change email addresses? Branding your email address as your business helps retain clients. They know how to find you and they won’t receive bounced emails if you change it. Having your own domain means having your own email address.

Website

You know where I’m going with this by now. Does your website URL look like this?
http://barbaraalexander.yourkwagent.com/

Can you imagine spending thousands of dollars on marketing materials, search engine optimization services, pay per click advertising to send traffic to that web address? What happens if Barbara leaves Keller Williams? All of those years of hard work and search engine optimization down the drain. All because of the little perk of a ‘free website’ provided by the agency. That agency isn’t dumb. They’ll simply redirect all of that traffic to their main site if she leaves.
At the very least, you should be branding your name as your domain name. And even thats a little suspect in today’s day and age.

“It’s not supposed to be about you. Its supposed to be about what you are doing for me.”
http://realestatetomato.typepad.com/the_real_estate_tomato/2008/02/is-your-website.html
(ps. no affiliation, just a great article)

So if you’ve been on the fence about branding your business, theres no time like the present. Start working on your branding now and once this market turns you may just be surprised how many people will remember your expertise because of how you branded yourself.

Did Google Just Buy Wikipedia?

I can’t believe every time I search on Google, the vast majority of the time Google has Wikipedia in the top ten. Its pathetic and downright sleazy if you ask me. Theres been numerous documented blog post on the love that Google has with Wikipedia but today just takes the cake.

Google is now embedding Wikipedia links inside the Google News section. Are you kidding me? If were up to Google, they’d probably just use Wikipedia for all of its search results, whether its news or search. Quite frankly, I’m sick of it. How many times does Google miss the boat in ranking a Wikipedia site that has little to no value higher than one with a ton of updated information thats an authority in the space?

Google has become dominant in the ’search space’ for far too long. We won’t see any changes in favor of a more ethical search results page until a new ’search beast’ can make its appearance. Its too bad bing.com has phased out all to quickly. It indeed has great search results….but unfortunately the marketing and branding seems to have again missed the boat. Thanks Microsoft…can you just buy Yahoo now?

iPhone 3Gs to Offer Discounts for Current 3G Customers

The big hoopla surrounding the latest Apple iPhone is the pricing structure for existing customers. According to The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Yahoo News, and others, the iPhone 3Gs is going to be a bit more costly than expected.
Apple is supposedly asking for an upgrade price of $599 for the new iPhone 16GB model. OUCH! That seems about right for most cell phone, cable, and any other utility provider. They always offer discounts to new customers rather than taking care of their existing base.

Apple is also in current negotiations with AT&T to continue its exclusive iPhone agreement as the sole provider of the device. It almost sounds as if Apple may not renew that agreement and sell the iPhone through whomever else, Verizon, Sprint, etc.

Seems to be a nice marketing ploy to sell even more phones. Switch providers, keep your number, get a discounted new iPhone 3Gs phone. It sure would make Apple look good selling even more devices and saturating the market.

Update: According to some insider information, Apple is currently working on a new pricing structure that will benefit current iPhone customers. The prices that were thrown my way were $149 and $249 for the upgrades.

Free Link Building Strategies for July

We held the June 2009 meetup last night and it was pretty insightful. I managed to put on my best “Jerry Springer” hat to walk around the room to grab some questions from the audience. It was the perfect time to ask any SEO questions about your own site and many did. The Twitter stream was flowing pretty good for only having 30+ in attendance. The ratings were very good as well as most voted 5 out of 5, our highest yet. A few comments were posted in the positive as well.

July should be the best meetup yet. Its going to focus around link building which is by far, in my opinion, the biggest factor in obtaining great rankings. Most people will differ in opinions regarding that last sentence but all agree SEO is like a piece of pizza. There are many slices that go into obtaining good rankings.

July is also going to be free for our Charlotte SEO Meetup Members, and of course free for SEMCLT.com members. So please check out the site and RSVP now as it will be standing room only in July.

LocalAdLink Exposed?

I received a tidbit of information today on who’s behind LocaladLink. We all know Bob McNulty’s rise and fall as a business man. But who else is behind LocaladLink?

Ever hear of BurnLounge?

Wikipedia – “The company claims that it provides record labels and artists with a fan-driven promotional channel. The advertisement videos on each BurnLounge store, however, promote recruitment rather than music.”

“On June 10, 2007, it was reported that the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit on June 5, 2007 against specific BurnLounge participants and their involvement with BurnLounge’s alleged pyramid scheme. One person named in the lawsuit is former University of South Carolina football star Rob DeBoer, who says that he recruited about 45 other people to open their own BurnLounge sites. Those recruited would then pay a commission on their sales to DeBoer. DeBoer stated that he made almost US$300,000 from BurnLounge. The lawsuit is the result of a year-long investigation into BurnLounge by the state of South Carolina.[15] Others named in the lawsuit include BurnLounge CEO Alex Arnold, and two Texas men who promoted BurnLounge similarly to DeBoer. The FTC’s claim is that BurnLounge is a pyramid scheme because the company pays more money for recruiting new store owners than for selling music. According to the lawsuit, BurnLounge operators earned bonuses of up to US$50 for recruiting two new members and selling two albums per month, but only pays US$0.50 per album sold.[citation needed]”

In August 2007, Burnlounge laid off the vast majority of its New York employees. As of November 2007, the company is no longer operating pending the FTC litigation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnlounge

Notice the last name – Rob DeBoer?

Guess who is the “National Sales Director” for LocaladLink? – Yup, you guess it. Rob Deboer.

http://www.google.com/search?q=rob+deboer+localadlink&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=lnv&start=0&sa=N

So, Rob made over 300K from pushing Burnlounge and was shut down due to FTC Investigations.
http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/07/02/ftc-settles-burnlounge-operator-over-pyramid-scheme

Who else is behind LocaladLink?

Scott Elliot

http://www.google.com/search?q=Scott+Elliott+localadlink&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Who just happened to be a part of BurnLounge

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/07/elliott.shtm

http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/07/02/ftc-settles-burnlounge-operator-over-pyramid-scheme

Are we finished yet? No, not really.
How about Jason Borne’?

a VP Founding Partner it looks like.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=2Ib&q=jason+borne+localadlink&btnG=Search

And where did Jason come from?
http://www.google.com/search?q=jason+borne+burnlounge&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Yup, you guessed it, BurnLounge.

So it looks like a few ‘higher up’ in the company are/were former MLM scammers. Well, don’t take my word for it, thats what the FTC says anyway…

Any LocalAdLink Reps still out there wanna comment?

Maybe they should rename LocaladLink to “Burn Local Biz Owners” instead.

LocalAdLink in Charlotte, NC

One the of the most annoying problems a reputable firm has to deal with is listening to the non sense that floats around in the world of ‘online marketing’.  Its always hard enough to deal with the snake oil SEO scammers that are out there.  They pollute potential clients with lies, unrealistic expectations, and tons more.

Well apparently theres a new breed of feeders out there as well.  Its in the form of a MLM scheme.  Multi Level Marketing is nothing new.  The premise is to recruit someone who knows nothing and you get a cut of the profits from the person that started it.

LocalAdLink appears to be exactly that.  The difference with them is their utilizing pay per click and small business owners.

I founded the Charlotte SEO Meetup Group which turned into the Search Engine Marketing Association of Charlotte over the past several months.  During one of our meetups, I was approached by an individual that I never met.  He shook my hand and proceeded to pitch me ‘localadlink’ in 45 seconds.  He mentioned that I was “sitting on a gold mine” because what I said to my group everyone would follow me and take my advice. They would sign up under me and I’d be a millionaire.

That’s the difference where our beliefs reside.  Simply because I can make hundreds or thousands of dollars off of a large group of people doesn’t make it right.  Preying on the un-educated doesn’t make me sleep well at night.  I told this individual that I would look into ‘localadlink’ and get back to him.  I did.  I researched the company and within 15 minutes I determined that you’d be wasting your time and money with them.

Here’s a recent email I received after turning him down:

Hi Keith,

I wish I could make it tonight, but I’m doing an LocalAdLink presentation.  I don’t claim to know the ins and outs of the internet world even close to wat you all do, so I respect the fact of you guys not approving of the company. I thought it would have been a great addition to the services you already provide and especially in the future when it officially launches.

We’ve helped a lot of people market themselves online where they normally wouldn’t have ( including myself ) and that is the aim of the company. Please remember I gave your company the opportunity to be “on top” before other seo companies even heard of it. The CEO sold his Home Depot business plan and also sold shopping.com to Compaq for over 200 million, so I have to believe this is going to be something even greater!

This is my open response on this blog to him and any other localadlink MLM salesman in Charlotte, NC:

Hi xxxxxx,

I understand you are compensated for each individual you sign up underneath you.  Thats why you’re very excited to ‘push’ this opportunity.

You state in your email: “I don’t claim to know the ins and outs of the internet world even close to what you all do”

This is precisely my point in a MLM scheme.  We do this for a living.  We do know the ins and outs of pay per click advertising and exactly how localadlink works.  We are online marketing professionals.  Why would Localadlink recruit people in the real estate industry (or any industry besides online marketing) to push a product on someone they know NOTHING about?  You said it yourself in your email.  The answer is simple….LocalAdLink makes a higher profit on un-educated individuals.

So while you’re presenting tonight in front of an audience a service that you are not an expert in (you said it yourself) to tens or hundreds of small business owners that are trying to keep their business from going under in todays economy, ask yourself (better yet, I hope they ask you!):

What is the avg cost per click for your keyphrase?

What is the total number of impressions?

What is the total number of clicks you recieved?

Are the keyphrases you selected exact match, broad match, or phrase match?

Are your ads set to run from 9am to 5pm everyday? Or do you not know?

How many times will my ad been seen in my preferred zip code?

Nameofindividual, your estimated number of searches presented by the Google Search Tool displays as “not enough searches“.  In a nutshell that means no one is searching for your phrase.  At least not enough to generate a lead off of it.

Without knowing your information above how can you budget each month for your spend?  Last time we spoke you said its $50.00.  Is your cost each month .25 cents from 3 clicks?  My guess is yes.  Because after all, LocalAdLink has to pay you a referral fee for your recruit and they still have to make a profit, which is big.

Should we talk about ad text and landing pages?

Sure, why not.

How often can you change your ads?  Does your statics provide ad text click through rate? Can you setup multiple ads to test?  Does Localadlink do this for you?  For $50.00 a month, I’m betting no.

Landing pages…wow, I don’t even know where to begin. Lets take a look at an image I captured for “Italian restaurants” in Miami, Florida.

First off, where the hell is the business on this page?  As a user clicks on an ad this is exactly what they are presented with above the fold.  You have to scroll down just to see a business listing.

Why do you want to spend $50.00 per month to have your business listed with 20 others….that people have to scroll down to find?

Next, how many ads do you see for LocalAdlink promoting their own business?  I count 5 above the fold.  Five times!!  You’re paying $50 per month for a directory to display your listing (not your actual website) where they heavily advertise THEIR services not yours.

Or, as a small business owner you can send them directly to a site that will give them information a user was looking for to begin with.  Its called a “Positive” user experience. Do you think the conversion from a localadlink with no less than 5 of their own ’sign up ads’ and multiple business listings convert more than a site such as the one below?  Its a huge difference.  Online marketing is about converting visitors to customers.

Its time to stop drinking the Kool-Aid.  Stop providing a disservice to small business owners in Charlotte.  Our group is free to join.  We hold 4 free meetings each year. They can pick our brains as much as they like and it doesn’t cost them a dime.

Of course you don’t have to take this Certified Google Advertising Professionals advice, you can simply present a service you know nothing about to an audience that knows nothing about online marketing so it can pad your wallett.

Sincerely,

Keith Schilling

So I ask my audience, what do you think this guy will do?  Will he continue to market to profit on those that don’t understand how online marketing really works or will he stop?  The $50 dollar sign up is just one number I used. I’ve already seen reports as high as $250.00 to sign up for service.  Ouch!

I just googled their comp plan.  I figured they’d (the localadlink salesrep) would make about half. Check out their comp plan here.  http://www.adlinkmanager.com/?p=199

Update Number 1: An article from rip off report: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/427/ripoff0427685.htm

Update 2: For the record, I submitted a list of these questions and never recieved a response from localadlink, go figure.

Update 3: 4/7/09 – per my comments post, heres my stats from this blog posting: