Son of a…  I mean… Good Lord!  I think I just found my Internet Marketing’s Evil Twin and I’m baffled.  Maki (the mad genius behind doshdosh.com) just found a way to gather killer blogging, a deep view of marketing and cute pictures of Anime girls (the scoundrel!).  This makes me want to either step up on my game or hunt Maki so I can eat his brain and get his superpowers.

I know this is a rather… unusual start for my blog, but I think credit must be given where it’s due and, after months of reading lame techie stuff (that leads to automatic writing of lame techie stuff), this is one of the few blogs that made me say “this is evil… I like it!”.

Now, back to our regular schedule:  Want to know how to stomp on your competition?  Here’s how.

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Search Engine Optimization is clouded underneath a shroud of mystery.  Sometimes SEO works as a Deus Ex Machina (”God Coming from a Machine”, as in those theater plots solved by the appearance of a deity hanging from a crane) that solves every single marketing problem.  Traffic to your website?  You got it, boss!  More conversions?  We have some of that!

Sales, tons of sales, millions of sales? Um… excuse me one second.  That might take a while.  Let me talk to the SEO Senior about that…

There are some things that SEO can do for your business but there are no miracles here.  Just research and good practices.  Here are some urban legends you better ignore if you don’t want to lose your money or your time.

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Intelligent web design is rendering salesmen as obsolete.

Let’s face it:  they speak in a bizarre jargon, they’re kind of slick and evolution has adapted their metabolisms to live without other food than coffee and little sugar bags when the times are rough and there are no sales.  They will survive, yes, but I ask of you:  Do they have a place in these convoluted times?

Okay, so maybe (just maybe) I’m exaggerating a little bit.  But, let’s face it: the intelligent design of a web site can help you increase sales and build a reliable and (almost) self-sustainable marketing strategy

… with the added value of not having to run into them as they reminisce that time they did a huge business.

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If you think that this web design article is about the looks of a website, stop reading.  Aspect and accessibility are important aspects when it comes to navigation and the overall visitor’s experience.  We agree on that.

However, if the design of your website is messy and done in haste, trust me:  you will not only have an avalanche of bugs coming right at you, you will not only have to start the whole thing from scratch and you will not only lose time, money, patience and close relationships in the process.

Oh, no: that’s the least of your curses.

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So SEO experts are charging tons for what it can be considered nothing but good practices.  That’s like having a restaurant that charges more because their employees wash their hands.

Sometimes it’s better not to know what’s going on.  I hope you’re not eating as you read this but:  probably the person who made that sandwich didn’t wash hands at all.

Maybe that person is you.  See what’s going on here?  Not everyone takes care of those details.

I hope (and in some way I believe) that there is a lot more to SEO than keywords and link building.

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Marketing on the Internet is leveling up with customers in terms of language and expectations.  The economical climate and a new generation of aware consumers are tweaking the way advertisement works.

If you turn on the TV, you’ll notice that ads are a bit more low-profile than they used to be.  They feel a bit more like testimonials, almost as if they were talking with us (as opposed to “talking TO us”)

It’s time to return the white tigers to nature and get rid of the flashy clothing, guys.

Austere is the new black.

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One of the first things I wrote about SEO was about how optimization practices were changing the logic of journalism and writing. I was kind of optimistic about it and, being a writer with a rather traditional formation, I smiled a wide smile on heavy weather.

“Well, maybe THIS is the future of literature. Web 3.0 will create extensive nets of information and everything will be linked inside of the Internet, so strategically positioned keywords will only make this process a bit more organized, providing categories of meaning”, I told myself every time I had to embellish a relatively traditional article with keywords.

And then, I wept.

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2010 is just starting. Are you still rubbing the sleep away from your eyes or are you ready to start your Internet Marketing campaign?

We rush like little kids towards that precious budget with gleeful expectation, since… well… it’s brand new!  We want to spend it in the flashiest of marketing tools we can think of.  Every year starts with a dash of optimism.

But it’s time to slow down a little.  Let’s face it:  We cannot spend as much as we used to.  Then again, the charm of Internet Marketing is, precisely, how little you need to invest in order to get results.

So, how to use that money wisely?

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According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a tool is “something (as an instrument or apparatus) used in performing an operation or necessary in the practice of a vocation or profession” OR “an element of a computer program (as a graphics application) that activates and controls a particular function”.  What we are going to share with you falls on the second category.  I wouldn’t say it’s hard to find tools out there, but what really consumes time, money and energy is finding the RIGHT ones.

Let’s face it:  Word’s clip is NOT a tool.  Or it is, in a more colloquial sense… if you catch my drift…

And, the best thing: it’s free.  You can always donate cash to the developers of these tools and take a nice look at their sites.  If you want to thank me for compiling these, hey… cookies are always a nice treat.  And don’t forget to check our products and services.

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It’s the end.  Pack your things and turn off the lights: 2009 is soon to be over.  We will wake up in a new decade as we mock the silly hairdos and trends of this one.  Game over.  Thanks for playing.  So long, suckers.

We still don’t have flying cars nor vacations on the Moon.  Technology went back and forth in this decade.  There were sad moments that made us recoil and wonder about the worth of other people’s lives; there were moments of joy on which we felt closer to others.

It was quite a decade.  How’s it going to be for us marketers as soon as the countdown finishes?

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