I'm checking my MediaPost "Search Insider" subscription email this morning and I come across this article about SEO-ers whose main goals are to become famous, as opposed to more sensible albeit boring goals such as providing a good quality product or service. I felt my stomach grumble as memories surfaced of an experience in the last year where I believe I was burned by just such an organization, although it was with a pay-per-click adversiting service firm. But I believe the same type of bravado-seeking exists in both areas, since it's all somewhat new and uncharted territory.

So, at the time I did extensive research to find a pay-per-click advertising organization for my current employer, an ecommerce company, whose current pay-per-click advertising, although clearly not running at top efficiency, was the main source of traffic for their website, so certainly of core importance. We did not have the resources or expertise internally to handle the needed improvements, although I had personally handled a few PPC campaigns in the past and knew the basic ropes, so I could speak intelligently enough on the subject. I contacted references, I read the trade opinions, I scoured company websites, compared pricing, and spent hours on the phone with their sales people. In the end I picked a big glossy Inc500 company, the CEO a reknowned 'expert' in the field, that was whopping the charts getting big clients and doing great things. They gave us a great deal and I really liked my contact, who seemed to know how important it all was to us, got to the point and knew her stuff.

Our campaign started fantastically; something like 4-500% return on investment the first month. WOW! Things were looking good. Then my contact informed me she was leaving the company to spend more time with her kids, which of course I can understand. Unfortunately I took an instant distrust to the guy that took over in her place; one of those types that likes to hear themselves talk. (I am the type of person who wants to get the business done and get busy working; time is money, or time is with my family. And I have very little patience for anyone who does not appreciate this.) Well, they subsequently tanked our click ads and our internet ranking went down the drain, and it was a very painful thing to endure. This was just over the span of a couple of months, but it was devastating to the little company, and didn't make me look good. Of course there were other things at play such as a decrease in consumer spending, general economic downturn, competitor moves, my own distractions, but I can't discount the role this service provider played. But, as the old saying goes, if it doesn't kill you it only makes you stronger. That's what my guru tells me to chant whenenver I start to think of this experience, haha.

Part of the problem was that this company charged us based on a percentage of our spend. That clearly means that they're not going to be spending as much time on your account than the higher spenders, but of course they're not telling you that; supposedly they've got someone on your account every day. At the time all of the firms I talked to charged this way. When I got around to trying to switch, they had already figured out the problem and unfairness about that pricing scheme, and wanted a minimum monthly budget for said services. Made sense to me. We did have a sizable monthly spend, but probably just on the high end of the little guys.

So I learned sevaral other things from this experience, regarding the outsourcing of your core marketing activities such as PPC that I can share. First, just because the CEO is a gargantuan expert doesn't mean everyone in the company is! It's probably hard for these companies to find people with solid experience, since it's a relatively new field. Ask your sales person and everyone who will be working on your project what their actual experience and results have been. Second, make sure you trust who you're talking to at the company. Trust your intuition and get that person off your team immediately if you don't like them. If you don't feel right about it there's probably a good reason for that. Third, determine ahead of time what is your maximum drop allowance. E.g. if numbers are dropping after a week, or month, you give the service provider another week, or month, to boost up the numbers or they're out. Make sure everyone who needs to know at your company and theirs knows this ahead of time, and don't let your provider determine this for you. Fourth, have a plan in place whenever you make a big change like this that will support any drop in traffic from your normal levels of clicks. Perhaps ramp up some of your other tried and true marketing/advertising activities concurrently. Finally, at least for the first few months, make sure someone is checking on your account every day (or other time period acceptable to you) and not just blowing pleasantries in your ears. If your team members are all working on several projects, some that may be more high-profile than yours, you have to make sure they're not going to let yours fall through the cracks.

These things are probably obvious to the big marketers at the big firms but when you're running a small business with a hundred things to manage, you might miss it.

This blog is quickly becoming an extention of my own personal attempts to maintain a balance between my work and the rest of my life. This is something essential that a lot of people may miss because life goes so fast. I have had the luck to always appreciate how fast especially the good times go, after having the privilege to experience, honestly, so many weddings of my close family and friends early on. Those wedding weekends always fly. So by the time I was half way through those I was always reminding everyone not to forget that it was going to be over before they know it. I'm sure I was very annoying.

Also, I got to live in Europe for seven years, and experience a completely different culture. People would always ask me what was different to live there, and I would always have to say there is not any one big thing, but every single thing is a little bit different. Those difference, combined, are large and most people don't realize or appreciate that, again probably because life moves so fast and who has seven years to sit and think about it? But one thing that was different was just how people take time to sit and be with friends and family even if just for a cup of coffee, and to have those nice vacations and the freedom to stay home if you were sick. Honestly, things like not having to worry about health care does in fact give you more space in your brain to think about other things.

So today I got on this site and started watching some of these videos. There is a series with Harvard lecturer Tal Ben-Shaher, and in one he is talking about 5 steps to happiness, although he was put on the spot and he only gave four. The first was to simplify, don't try to do everything, learn how to say no. The second was the mind-body connection, keep your body happy with exercise and it will feed your mind. Third was don't fear painful emotions, because if you don't feel or express those you are either a psychopath or dead. Fourth, appreciate what you have. Appreciation is good because it means giving thanks, but also leads to growth because it gives us direction. Good stuff!

I have recently had two different people, artists, tell me that they could not update their website without paying their web developer, so they weren't doing it or they were having to cough up the dough. There are solutions for this nowadays. You can get a content management system installed on your website from the very start. If you already have a site and need to switch to something that you can manage and easily update without having to know anything about html, consider something like LightCMS or have your developer consider it. Set up something simple that you can easily go in and edit. Up to date, relevant and useful information is more important to people with limited time and attention span who become more and more familiar with the way the web works than flashiness.

More useful information for today: How not to be annoying.

What is that old saying, something about how inactivity breeds wickedness or something like that? Anyway we have been stuck inside, unable to even get out of our driveway due to a debilitating ice storm, most of last week. It's amazing how you take something like being able to get out of your house for granted. At the same time I was fighting a bout with the flu during which I couldn't breathe through my nose for almost two weeks. Another thing we almost always take for granted.

Luckily I have learned a thing or two in life, enough to know never to take time with people you love for granted. And do everything to love your work or at least do a good job at it so you can feel good about it. I've been thinking about all this but now I've gotten the kick to write it down after a friend forwarded me this link, a video presentation about how to live your life, among other things. Well worth watching.

In the meantime I have decided on an additional course of action for my business. I'll not only be beautifying southern Illinois with presentable online presences, but also by supplying art to walls. I've been getting more and more involved with art ever since I moved to southern Illinois, and things are just kind of falling into place. More later.