Darren's marketing maze

I'll be launching a service for local businesses soon. Local businesses will be able to take advantage of the power that videos have in search engine marketing results.

This is a promo I just finished for a traffic generation & video distribution client in USA...

This is the latest and greatest way to keep your customers in tune with your products & services. 

"Very thought provoking.
Love the visual transitions.
Very clever bit of software editing.
Seriously, should be entered for a digital graphics award."

I'm not posting the comment to improve my ego - I'm trying to convey the power of this media for getting in touch with your lead generation database or renewing contact with your clients.

OK, so it's not all down to the following picture video. But a few simple strategies helped us get www.kianda.co.uk to first page listing for the keywords: handmade gemstone jewellery 

This is out of over 13 million too. Just a little time and persistence helps!  And now we aim to grab some other keywords too with the help of videos like this one we created for KIANDA:

At last I’ve stumbled my way into setting up Posterous with a custom domain, namely blog.darren-clarke.com.

Ok, I know it’s not rocket science, but what I’m trying to do is go through the process myself and then I can create a tutorial series for others to follow.

My intention is to use posterous as a respository for longer tweet like postings and also as a picture/video/sound file archiver.

If you can’t wait for my tutorials just send me a message and I’ll see if I can help you out.

If you're a local business and you've had someone knocking at your door trying to tell you that SEO is the best thing ever, then allow me to make sense of their intended techno babble...

Now some may call me contrarian when it comes to internet marketing...but if that kind of approach can make Warren Buffett happy, then why not me too...

There are schools of thought which shout out "follow what other successful marketers are doing". This may at first appear to make sense; if someone has discovered a way to make something work then get on the boat, so to speak. And that current boat leaving any port is Search Engine Optimisation. Now, for those who don't understand this self descriptive phrase, it's a way to optimise the SEO seller's revenues.

SEO is good for your business, but only if you have a web site that is being used for the purpose of what I refer to as the number one aim of any business site - namely getting people to buy from you. This may sound like logical sense, but why would you want to be ensnared by the SEO consultant predator who says I can get you higher rankings in Google? There are many feasible ways to get higher search engine rankings but can they all work all of the time - in short I don't think so! 

The problem is, however,  what I refer to, as the double glazing scenario:

If you were to walk down a high street and there was one shop selling double glazing or replacement windows, then there is a good possibility you may or may not notice it amongst the myriad of other retailers, depending on wether you were searching for their services. Now imagine the trend caught on in this particular high street...6 months down the line there are 5 replacement window merchants all selling their wares, offering incentives like 3 years interest free credit and all the other marketing ploys to get people like you to buy.

Now most of these stores offer the same type of services and products, with the same feedback for reputation. Along comes Mr SEO the "I can get you further up the search engines" guy. Imagine if all the stores went for his platinum £500 promotion package...

...what the SEO pushers might be hiding from you...

Do you think this SEO specialist has any chance of getting all the businesses a number 1 listing? You see the problem with SEO is it is not the be all and end all. It has a place, for sure. But it has to be part of your bigger promotion package. And there are plenty more marketing startegies that can help get you a number one placement in Google. Personally, I'd rather have a contiuous lead generation mechanism that works on autopilot...what about you?

If you'd rather have a continuous lead generation system, there's a FREE 22 page report by a top business cash flow generation expert revealing...

How To Increase Your Net Profits By 75% (Or More) In As Little As 6 Months - Without Increasing Your Advertising Expenditure...

You can get your copy instantly here: http://www.silkmarketingsystem.com/

Twitter Advice: Useful. Relevant. Interesting.

Hammer those words into your head and recite them like a mantra every time you sit down to write anything that's meant to instruct or entertain.

If you know your audience, you'll know what they'll find useful and relevant.

You'll never get it right for everyone, of course, but you don't have to. If you're close enough often enough, you'll earn a reputation with your followers that will carry you through the misfires.

Some definitions might be in order, especially for the folks who wonder how this applies to Twitter.

Useful: It accomplishes a purpose for the reader.

Relevant: It matters to them. (Yes, it's that simple.)

Interesting: It engages them, involves them and makes them want to know more.

Simple, yes? Yet the word "relevant" has become a buzzword. That says something very bad about the state of the Net…

This post is inspired by Paul Myers work in his book “Need To Know”

Having sent an email to posterous.com a blog post was automatically created for me.

 And now this test shows how easy it is to post from the iPhone email client.

 You can also attach pics, vids and mp3 etc. Just a simple easy tool