PPC the darling of the search industry has had a hard time keeping up with its promise of equal access putting both small and big business on the same playing field.

Over time, through advertiser saturation, advertisers trial and error and the aging of the pay-per-click market it has become harder and harder for the small and medium sized businesses in well developed markets to compete with the big players.

Who else but big business could compete with the likes of Home Depot paying upwards of $50 per ad click during key promotions. Yes, there are hundreds of second and third tier search engines to use but you have to admit, Google’s market share simply can’t be ignored.

So how do you compete in such a tight market? Using an outside SEO service like Blue Bayou is your best bet when it comes to allocating your companies search engine budget. At around 5%-8% of your ad spend it’s an affordable way to maximize your ad budget especially when spread across so many verticals and networks.

PPC can be expensive but with a properly executed campaign those $0.01 – $0.05 clicks are still possible across many verticals and industries.

One of my first online ventures involved information services. I was already engaged in the information services market, we just did most of our advertising in the nationals section of the Thrifty Nickel and phone number tear-offs on payphones.

We entered the online market selling our services for a slightly increased price, advertised online using Overture an early search engine PPC that eventually became Yahoo Search. Things were moving along great, we saw an immediate increase in responses until, someone copied our program and was offering the same service (and even our exact service list mind you). It was before the DMCA act was around and it was too expensive to go the lawyer route.

After a fruitless game of cat-mouse in bidding wars, we decided the only way to combat this guy was to give away our services absolutely free, rely on affiliate commissions from e-mail subscriptions and drive him out of the market.

Did we fail, or was free a key part of our eventual turn-around strategy?

What is the Purpose of Free?

Being free doesn’t guarantee you online success; however it has some very attractive aspects seriously worth looking at. Offering free content attracts a larger audience. If you can garner the trust of your visitors, you gain access to them in a more direct method example through an e-mail newsletter or direct mail.

A Free Model

For free to work you have to have a constant stream of new readers, ample ad inventory space and advertisers willing to fill it. Many publishers rely on services like AdSense, Bidvertiser and thousands of others but the real money is in a direct relationship with the advertiser. A free model also works if you are able to “sell” something later on.

So is Free the Perfect Business Model?

I would say “maybe”. Despite apparent current profitability of select free models, the rush to find a micro-payment model for some if not all content of some publishers is just too enticing to ignore. That along with increased operating and development costs pushes many publishers and website operators to at least explore the options as they are developed.

Oh, and that guy who copied our program eventually gave up competing directly with us, so for us it was the beginning of what is today the Blue Bayou Network of web properties.

Blue Bayou dedicated and virtual dedicated server accounts may be going up in 2010. We have a few dedicated servers, and a select few virtual dedicated server packages still available at 2009 rates. The prices are guaranteed through December 31st, 2009.

For personalized dedicated or virtual dedicated server configuration call 480-624-2500 and mention call-in code: ENIRAM or click here to use our self-serve options.

Google released its search figures for the past weekend that show queries for “Black Friday” rose this year over last by more than 20%. Longer-tail searches for “black friday sales” and “black friday ads” also showed impressive growth, up 50% compared to 2008. Black Friday the annual event typically marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season for consumers in the U.S.

The figures clearly show that more consumers are taking advantage of the Black Friday deals offered by various brick and mortar and online stores and more than ever you have to have an organic and paid search plan in effect well ahead of the fourth quarter.

Investing in your website, whether by money, time or both while we’re in a downturn is probably one of the single best and most affordable ways to invest in your business.

The best way to invest in your website is in content creation. Devoting 80% of your time and resources into content creation will pay off in multiples. See our earlier posting on the value of content creation for more.

Investing in your website now will keep you in the top of your field or propel you there sooner and prevent your competition from usurping your rightful search position.

Other ways to invest in your website:

- Show Google you mean business and register your domain or extend your current domain registration to 10 years or more. This demonstrates that you are committed to the success of your venture. Of course this is one of only hundreds of factors that Google utilizes to rank your website, but it is one that you can lean in your favor.

- By default dedicated servers are limited to 10mbit speed. Request that your provider increase this to 100mbit. This will allow more visitors to squeeze in your doors and can usually be accomplished for no additional cost.

- Increase or add meta tags to your website. Again only one factor but search engines, other than Google use meta tags and even Google has been known too incorporate their wording into their search results earning you a better customer viewing experience.

As we talk to a number of prospective clients, we invariably will get the “I can get unlimited server space and RAM for $insert some low price here$, why would we pay twice to four times that amount?” question.

First let’s discuss the unlimited space and RAM question. The companies who extend these offers do not intend to provide you with unlimited speed and space on a virtual server. What they are offering is space, limited to no more than the average user on that server. RAM speed, if it denies the other users on the server access you can bet they will be placing limits on your website or denying your access entirely.

Who does the company want to hear from?, one user who needs more server resources or 100 that can’t access their websites because your website is placing too much demand on the server?

Server space, like a retail storefront has to have enough parking spaces to get the customers in, you have to have enough registers open to handle a rush and the doors have to be big enough to get the merchandise in and out of the establishment. Placing your website on a shared server environment may work if you don’t anticipate more than 1-2 visitors an hour but if you expect more you will encounter more growth pains than you will with a private or dedicated server.

Finally let’s discuss price. Our prices are based on fair-market value for what is provided. We offer 24 hour server support and one of the best up times in the industry. You may find cheaper web hosting services but we will be there for you 24-hrs a day, seven days a week and that kind of peace of mind is worth the money.

Who do you want working for your company? A lackadaisical teen thinking more about what he’s doing next weekend?, or an experienced company interested in your own success as much as their own? If you answered the latter, Blue Bayou would like to speak with you. Contact us today at 404-567-6095 for a no hassle quote on any of our services.

This second article in this series discusses more about what we mean when we say adding content to your website on a consistent basis is as important as the content, and, what we mean by content.

Regardless of what your selling, product, service or information, adding content to your website on a consistent basis is an absolute must. Google, and other search engines look at a website, like any business model, believing that it should grow slowly over time, search engines are keenly aware of and particularly not kind to websites that try to become an instant one-all destination, and websites that grow too quickly. Their suspicious of, and rightly so, of automated content building systems, spitting out gibberish websites that usually are nothing more than garbage.

So, rule number one is build your website consistently over a longer period of time and make your content appropriate to promote your business or brand identity.

Second, how often do you add content? Depending on what you’re business model is will partially determine how often you add new content. As a retailer, you may add new products as they become available, some on a daily or weekly basis. An accountant or service provider may only need a minimum once a month addition, like a press release or calendar of events.

Lastly, what do we mean by content? Content is usually text based, product additions which usually have pictures, accompanied by a product description or an article about how to use the product, tips a consumer may use in selecting a service provider. A local fence company provides a checklist the consumer can print out, asking questions like, “is your next contractor insured”, “do they have over 35 years experience”, “are they a member of the BBB” they also write short tips on maintaining a fence, re-staining a fence, and fence industry news.

Content can also be an industry view or outlook written by the company president, the CEO, almost anything can be content. Who’s been hired, industry or company events. One big and tall clothing store makes its own short YouTube videos showing ‘how to tie-a-tie’, ‘how to fold slacks’, ‘how to keep slacks clean’, ’style and color selections’.

One business owner failed to see how providing tips on landscape maintenance, maintaining potted plants, making plant selections etc would translate to improved visibility of his website until we showed him his competitors doing the exact thing. Content lends authority to a subject, consistent addition of original content is invaluable to building a strong web presence for your company, website or organization.

As the year-end nears, alot of website owners become nervous. It’s at this time of year that Google has been known to update its algorithm shuffling many search results and making website owners pull out their hair either in anticipation or relief from what does or does not materialize.

Google is supposedly postponing the release of the next update until after the holiday season. Though already live in one data center it won’t be moved into more data centers until the end of the 4th quarter. This is good news for most but I am eager to see the effects of caffeine (code update name) and the inclusion of more social networking results.

Stay tuned for more on the Google caffeine update after its rolled out further.

If one thing is for sure, the U.S. economy will rebound only after the seeds of innovation have been planted and had a chance to prosper. It won’t be corporations that propel us out of this economic downturn, it will be hard-working individuals who have as they always do, arrive to rescue our economy and provide the real opportunities for job growth.

I highly suspect that we will see another technology and Internet boom as more web-based applications become reality. And as is the case with the last two recessions, even more service oriented businesses and product choices.

Having a well executed marketing plan for your business or industry should always include press releases. Why? Believe it or not, there are hungry media sources out there looking for information about your industry right now. Feeding these media sources is as simple as providing regular and relevant press releases.

Put your company on the top of their contact list for when they need information about your service or industry. This will likely increase your businesses exposure and potentially expose yourself to even more media coverage with one-on-one interviews about your business or industry.

If you don’t already, add a media or press link to your website today. I even suggest that you add a reminder to your monthly calendar, then add at least one press release per month or more often as needed.