Well 2009 is upon us and everyone is doing their 2008 roll ups and 2009 predictions. I thought I would chime in with what I saw in 2008 and what I am expecting in 2009 and beyond. The idano Blog Network consists of around 15 blogs that spans various topics and subjects so I have a pretty good window into the overall state of the blogosphere for the small time blogger.
The first thing that I noticed through the holiday season was that sales were really down. I made about 33% of what I did last year in Amazon sales and Adsense compared to 2007. Here are a couple of contributing factors for this decline:
- The economy and the fact that people were just not spending as much. The items that I was selling were kind of pricey for Christmas presents and I think people went for more practical and safe presents.
- Stores were overstocked for the holiday season. In 2007 the items that I was selling were sold out in brick and mortar stores so that pushed people online. This year there was plenty of stock through the entire season.
- The market was saturated. Last year there were 2 major products in the market I was selling to. This year there were at least 10 from the main manufacture that I sold for. Also, everyone and their brother was selling the same thing, you could get them anywhere and everywhere now.
Going into 2009 I have already seen a pretty big drop in advertising revenue from December. I am trying to be realistic in the fact that this is probably going to be dropping more as the year goes on. I don’t expect it to go away completely but I am already adjusting my budgeting to not count on this money anymore. Read more…
I have been having a phenomenal month with Amazon.com
due to a couple of RC Helicopter Reviews that I did for Air Hogs Havoc Heli
and Air Hogs Laser Battle
. I have search engine results for both and current have over a 20% conversion rate for people who click through to Amazon.
There was another helicopter that I reviewed called the Air Hogs Reflex . My review of this helicopter was not as positive as the other two reviews. On top of that I did not place a link to the Reflex on Amazon but instead to the Havoc. I did this because at the time I thought the Havoc was better then the Reflex.
Since the review I got my hands on some other heli’s and also another Reflex. I was pleasantly surprised with the Reflex and it was much better then I remembered it was. The problem was that I never updated my review with my newly acquired experience.
Today I logged into my Google Analytics account and noticed that my Reflex review was number 3 after the other 2 heli reviews. The Reflex review was pulling in over 10% of the traffic that my site was getting but I was getting zero sales from it 
. I had been sitting on my more positive view of the product for a couple of months and now realized that I was paying the price for it.
Needless to say I quickly updated my review and provided the appropriate links for BOTH helicopters mentioned in the review. I may have missed a chunk or change for this month but hopefully December is just as good for me.
There’s the Reflex on Amazon to the right if you want to check it out.
Technorati tags: Amazon, RC Helicopter Reviews, Air Hogs Reflex, Air Hogs Havoc Heli Laser Battle, Air Hogs Havoc Heli, Cyber Monday, Black Friday, Christmas
I am always doing research on how to get better search engine results for this site and the rest I have. In my search I came across this SEO Blog by Shimon Sandler.
He seems to have a pretty good grasp of what SEO is about and how to run a successful website market campaign.
In his article – SEO Consultant and Pricing – he lays out what a good SEO Consult should know concerning your Business Objectives and Marketing Strategies. Also he talks about how a good SEO Consultant should leveraging the client’s strategic marketing and messaging information. I think that both of these items are key when trying to promote a companies products or services. You would surprised how many “marketing” companies are out there that never take the time to understand what product or service they are trying to sell. Shimon seems to have a good handle on that.
The other thing that I like about Shimon’s site is that it is really easy to navigate and find the information that you are looking for. This is another area that SEO consultants sometime miss it. The get so caught up in looking good for search engines that they fail to look good for their real market - humans.
If you are in the market for a professional and successful SEO Consultant I would recommend checking out Shimon Sandler.
I have mentioned this company before and their SEO services but that is only a small piece of the pie that they offer. They also manage Pay Per click Campaigns too.
The company name is Apogee and they are located right here in Austin, TX (along with me 
).
As you know I only reference sites that I would do business with and Apogee is one of those companies. I read their white paper about PPP campaigns and actually learned a thing or two. The main thing that I learned is that the approach marketing campaigns a little different then most companies.
Read more…
I have a post in my drafts that I have never completed called “Companies that do not Understand the Internet”. In that post I was to outline my experience with companies that do not understand what the internet is really used for.
What these companies do not understand is that advertising it starting to turn more towards the internet as opposed to TV and Radio. These companies will hire a “Web Designer” to create a cool looking web site for them and expect that people will just show up. What they do not realize is that a web site is a marketing tool and thus is a small part of a marketing campaign.
Read more…
Wow.
You know the SEO arena is getting competitive when people start optimizing their CSS for SEO purposes.
I was just really starting to understand the benefits of CSS over a table design.
Anyway this is a really good article that compares some different CSS optimizers and publishes the results.
The article is – CSS Optimization: Make Your Sites Load Faster for Free
Technorati : CSS, SEO, Search Engine Marketing, Web Design
Recently I was given the opportunity to manage someones Google Adwords Account.
As I was getting more into looking at the different Campaigns and Adgroups I released that I did not know some of the terms that they were referencing.
I started searching and I found this SEO Glossary that was able to help me out.
Not only did I find the terms that I was looking for but saw some others that I did not know existed.
It is a good reference to stay up on your Search Marketing terms.
Technorati : Blogging, SEO, SEO Glossary, Search Engine Marketing
Apogee Search is a locally based (local to me anyway 
) Search Engine Marketing Company that has an SEO Blog with a lot of good information about Search Engine Optimization. Specifically they have a lot of Google Adsense info which I am just beginning to learn about.
Be sure to check them out to up your monthly Adsense revenue. I know I am going to.
Technorati : Blogging, SEO, Search Engine Marketing
I have never entered and SEO contest before but the one over at http://www.isulongseoph.com.ph/ seems kind of interesting specifically because it is focused on the SEO in the Philippines.
Check it out.
Technorati : SEO Contest, SEO Philippines
You love me, you really love me!
No really, you do. Well actually you love WordPress and Godaddy, at least that is what my AWStats is telling me.
In the month of may “WordPress Godaddy” was the most popular search phrase that lead you to either the How to setup WordPress MySQL and Permalinks info on Godaddy Hosting or the WordPress, Godaddy, and Permalinks posts here on the idano.net web site.
Read more…
