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Top 5 Internships to Prepare YOU to be an Internet Marketer

August 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I know that summer internships are coming to an end.  But, hey, there’s still Fall and Spring.  Internships are an incredible opportunity to actually practice skills in the real world.  Let’s face it… you don’t learn that much in college or even grad school.  By trade, I am a lawyer.  But, I can tell you that I learned nothing about the law until I went to work for a very good firm.

But, if you want a career in marketing on the Internet, what kinds of internships do you do?  I mean… if you want to build huge lists … or do lead generation… what should you be doing to build your skill set?  Here’s a short list:

  • Work with a CPA Network. Five years ago, the number of CPA networks was pretty small.  Really small.  Commission Junction, ShareaSale and a few others of any value.  But, along came the rampant, ridiculous and vast number of CPA networks.  Now, they are everywhere.  Why not offer to work with one of them?  If you live near a major city, odds are you have a good one near you.
  • Work with your Congressman or Politician. Networking is a key trait as an internet marketing.  Where else are you going to see first-class schmoozing more so than working with a politician?
  • Work with a Conference Group. How about applying to work with the folks that do SES, SMX, and even the minor, less well-known conferences.
  • Google. Yeah, right, not a bad internship to get.  It makes you interesting – even if you don’t do anything worthwhile.  And, it will give you plenty of fodder to talk about on your internet marketing blog.
  • Ad Networks or a Large search firm. For most people, banner and ad networks in general are a black box.  They don’t understand who is good and who is bad.  They don’t understand who to talk to or how to even approach these companies.  So, working with them will remove the mystique.  It will also get you plugged into the industry.  There are many opportunities from the big dogs like Media Whiz to even small shops in your town.

Frankly, the best internships will be the ones that just get you plugged in, however possible.   Look, face it… internships are not about money.  They are about experience and connections.  You have to get that somewhere.  So, you might have to work for free.  We have all done it.  So, take the job in the day and wait tables at night.  Don’t worry… that won’t last forever.

Filed Under Internet Marketing Guidance Tagged With cpa networks, e-commerce, internet marketing, Media

3 Simple Ways to Optimize (SEO) Your Site … When You Don’t have the Time.

August 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I talk with business owners all the time about seo and e-commerce.   Everyone knows that seo can help – and it’s FREE!  But, for many, seo is such a wild card and they don’t know how to even get started.  Sure, SEO can be very time consuming.  But, it doesn’t have to be.  SEO is an area of marketing that you can spend as much or as little time on as you want.  But, most site owners don’t have endless time to commit to seo.   If you are one of those who does not have the time to spend 3 hours of your day on seo, there are a few things you can do that will give you the biggest bang for your buck:

  • Mind Your Title Tags. Based on my current testing, Google is valuing good Title Tags more than ever before.  I repeatedly look at sites (And, this amazes me.), and I frequently find that a phenomenal number of sites have identical title tags throughout the site.  Or, they duplicate title tags on multiple pages.  What does that say to Google?  it says that this page is so unimportant that you didn’t even feel the need to give it a unique title tag.
  • Build a few Links Each Day. When it comes to link building, there are about 1,001 (maybe more) ways to waste your time.  I tell people all the time that link building and site marketing is not a fast sprint.  It’s a marathon.  That’s why I recommend doing just a little each day.  Pencil in 20-30 minutes per day for link building.  Make it a part of your regular schedule.   Finding quality links is not hard.  But, it just might take some creativity and ingenuity.  The first thing you can do is see what your competitors are doing.  Head to Yahoo and do a search for linkdomain:www.[competitor site] … find out who is linking to that site.  Then, approach those sites about linking to you.
  • Watch Your Analytics and Build Content. I find that small business owners, especially, don’t watch their analytics enough.   Good analytics does not have to be pricey.   Google Analytics does an amazing job – and, especially, for the money… FREE!  Also, if you are not comfortable with Google peaking over your shoulder, a new site just recently hit beta, Woopra.   Woopra is an amazing and exciting platform.  It actually allows you to watch on your desktop as visitors hit your site.  But, you need to monitor your analytics in order to see what is bringing traffic – and more importantly – sales to your site.  Then, develop content around those themes.  Build on what makes you successful and you will be successful.

Search engine optimization can be all consuming.  And, there are so many items that can take you off-task.  But, if you don’ t have a lot of time to devote toward SEO’ing your site, just focus on these things and you will be one “leg up” on your competition, in all likelhood.

P.S…. the most important thing that you can possibly do is to watch what the best performing sites in your niche do… and mimic them.  Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.  It is also the quickest way to successful rankings.

Filed Under SEO Tagged With e-commerce, search engine optimization, SEO