Wedsneday 1:14

Today, at 1:14 PM Eastern Standard Time the Agents of Revenue show, featuring myself, Scott Pooler and John “ColderICE” Lawson will air on Talkshoe

Todays topic is timely and in the spirit of the Holidays…

We will review the year that has passed and highlight the best and worst TURKEYS in ecommerce.  Now, if you are like me, you look forward to a nice Turkey every November.  I love a warm and juicy bird on the table at Thanksgiving… But John Lawson may have a different view of what the Turkeys of eCommerce have been up to in 2008…

So tune in, or listen on i-tunes our talkshoe talk show broadcast is automatically converted to a podcast for listening at your leisure.  If you like the show, please leave a review on either Talkshoe or i-Tunes – Or Both.

And… HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

How do small business websites benefit by using WordPress as a CMS?

We can site many examples of success but one case of a new business with a brand new website is particularly interesting. The story is unusual but not uncommon and as in many small business stories, it can only be covered with multiple chapters of information.

The client is Keith Bloemendaal and his company is Raleigh Fence Contractors LLC.
We have written about this client before primarily over on our sister blog: All Business Auctions, we followed up on a small business website project we started last May but due to some client delays did not go live until late July 2008.

If you want to refresh your memory of the process involved with this project, please check these posts.

• Blog Profile – New Business Website/Blog Gets it’s Start With iBusinessLogic

• Blog Success Follow Up: Carolina Custom is now Raleigh Fence Contractors

  This is the result:
  

Since our last article(s) about Raleigh Fence Contractors, much has happened. The site has only been up for about 3 months but it is drawing traffic organically and has a Google page rank of 3. During the first month online Keith experimented with Google Adwords, spending approximately 1 dollar for each hit Adwords sent the site. Keith figures in the same time period (first month) he collection 2800 additional hits organically due to his blog article writing. That’s a $2800 payback on the investment of building this website in the first month.

Additionally, and more importantly, while competing in a very tight marketplace for Google page placement, Raleigh Fence Contractors started life as a website on about the 15th page of search results. In less than 3 months with regular blog posting and relevant content, Raleigh Fence Contractors, LLC has rocketed its website up in the search placement on Google to number 4 of 817,000 results for the term “Raleigh Fence”.

Raleigh Fence on Google

Keith Bloemendaal has added to the success of this small business website by actively learning the techniques and tricks of social marketing. Through his consistent efforts at adding to the conversation and with some luck, Keith has had the following outside articles written about him and his Website/blog.

• http://conniebensen.com/blog/2008/08/11/successfully-taking-a-business-online/
• http://constructionmarketingideas.blogspot.com/2008/08/blogging-for-business-case-study.html
• http://northcarolinaconstructionnews.blogspot.com/2008/08/nc-blogger-for-business.html

We are proud of the Raleigh Fence Contractors development at iBusinessLogic.com, maybe not as proud as Keith Bloemendaal but satisfied none the less. It is always great to see a client follow your advice and follow through to find success with a Small Business on the Internet.

Product Sellers Seminar
Location: http://www.productsellersseminar.com/

Description: Product Sellers Seminar
Start Time:

16:00
Date: 2008-09-17
End Time: 17:00

See our calendar in the sidebar for other dates of events coming soon…

Link Bait

Link Baiting – Oh, it sounds somewhat sinister…

The term just reeks of something less than ethical yet it is one of the best tactics new and seasoned bloggers alike can use to build up the page rank and visibility of a blog.

What is link baiting?

Our friend and client, Keith Bloemendaal, has just given the world a perfect example on his newly finished blog website Raleigh Fence Contractors LLC.

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Keith’s latest post is titled Friday Blog Link.

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In this post Keith mentions he plans on using this tactic every Friday, what tactic you say? Link Baiting is the artful and somewhat creative method of bringing attention to yourself and your blog by linking to respected blogs and bloggers. When writing a link bait article the intention is to be complimentary to peers in your niche and o slightly out of your niche in an effort to get these same bloggers to either write about or link to you and your blog in return.

In his article Keith has linked to no less than 6 blogs and bloggers he respects and he continues the link parade with no less than 7 additional links to other pages and articles within sites owned by these bloggers.

See the example paragraph below

Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger, Chris Brogan, Connie Benson

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, and numerous SEO and marketing blogs, I always keep a close eye on my mentor, and close friend Scott Pooler and his writings on iBusinessLogic and Trading Assistant Journal core the divx online

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. I want to focus every week on Fridays to the blogs I read and discover. We will cover many topics over the coming weeks, this week we will focus on a home improvement blog I subscribe to called Helpful Advice for Home Construction Improvement:

For a guy who is relatively new to the blogging world, I must say that Keith never ceases to amaze me with the grasp he has on social networking. This link bait article of his was done with style and with real respect for the people he is hoping will return the link love he has extended.

Obviously in my case it has worked – this article is my way to return the favor to Keith and the Raleigh Fence Contractors Blog. I am sure I will not be the only one returning the favor.

This is really the point… exchanging links is a primary goal for most bloggers, this endeavor is something traditional website owners do not have as much of a grasp upon. Without inbound links to your site, from relevant sites, you will not climb in page rank. Search engines love to find new links and they love you more if those links end up on your site somewhere.

The best part of link baiting within blogs is it is almost completely automatic. This is because when you place a link to a blog on your blog, the blog platform (WordPress, Movable Type, Blogger etc) automatically sends a message to the other blog called a trackback. This informs the other blog you are mentioning them in your blog. That’s how I found out Keith had mentioned me in his blog, from a trackback. In essence, it is really bait… You send out the link bait into the blogosphere and just sit back and wait for the fish to come back and read what you said about them.

So go ahead, Link Bait Away… Its really not sinister or rude… Just a way to say hello… look at me, I like your blog, do you like mine?

Learning Social Media Techniques

iBusinessLogic.com offers training in social media optimization and basic blog management to all of our clients. One of our clients, Keith Bloemendaal of Raleigh, North Carolina has taken his training seriously.

Keith is the sales manager at Carolina Custom Fences LLC and has been put in charge of the company’s website redevelopment.  Keith in turn hired Scott Pooler of iBusinessLogic.com to create a new website/blog for the company.  Keith understood the power of blogging and social media content creation almost from the first moment of class.  We set Keith up with a WordPress.com blog so he could get familiar with how the company website would work when it was completed.  Keith has taken this temporary site and made it his own.

Training Blog Took Off

The Fence Post is an informational blog centering on educational articles and DIY information regarding proper fence construction and how to choose the right fence contractor based in Raleigh, North Carolina.  The site has gained national attention from homeowners and industry insiders alike.

Now it has gained International attention… because Keith Bloemendaal has taken the time to learn many facets of the social media marketing revolution in just a few short months and because he asked a good question, in the right place at the right time.

Darren Rowse Notices

Keith’s fence post blog has been featured on the home page of http://ProBlogger.net. This is an accomplishment simply because he caught the eye of one of the most influential bloggers in the world today,  Darren Rowse.
Keith joined Darren’s Problogger Friendfeed room underworld online on Friendfeed.com and asked what he thought would be a simple question…

If you have a blog post that clearly outperforms all other posts (more than double the traffic in my case), do you capitalize on it by writing more posts on the same topic?”

Read Mr. Rowse’s reply here: Problogger

Congratulations to our student!

I want to personally congratulate Keith Bloemendaal and his Fence Post Blog for finding his way through the social networking blogosphere and onto one of the most highly trafficked websites in the world.

Great Job Keith!  Maybe someday you will mention iBusinessLogic as your inspiration from the great height of success.