The,Worst,Marketing,Strategy,Y marketing The Worst Marketing Strategy You Can Use

Automation technologies represent a fundamental aspect of any modern industry. The major types of industrial automation solutions, such as DCS, PLC, SCADA, and MES, are used on a large-scale in process and discrete industries.DCS technologie Awhile ago, I got an email from one of the "gurus" I follow and it shocked me. The gist of it was this person wanted to trade services for a household item.To say it floored me would be an understatement.What was worse was a few days later t

PUBLISHERS: You may use this article in your online ezine oron your web site provided you do not change the article. You must also include the resource box at the end of the article.Any links that appear in the body of the article or in theresource box must be hyperlinks and should be made active ifthey are to appear on a web site or in any archive available fromthe Internet.Rights are not granted to use this article in any e-book or any compilation of articles without the express written permission ofthe author. Please contact the author if you would like to usethis article in any other manner: mailto:[email protected]*****************************************************************THE VICTORY LAPby Charles DavidsonToday's Track: The Worst Marketing Strategy You Can Use*****************************************************************Hi there! Welcome to another issue of The Victory Lap. Here atthe Victory Lap, you'll learn how to kick your business intooverdrive.There's no hype or fluff here. Just down and dirty, whiteknuckle advice to steer you toward the fast track. Noadvertising. No gimmicks. No shameless promotions. Just thestuff you really need. Plus a kick in the seat to get you toshift into high gear.Sit down . . . buckle up . . . here we go . . .HEY, SMALL BUSINESS OWNER, TAKE A LOOK AT THIS!"Submit your website to 104,287 search engines and websites. Before you know it, your website will be seen by everyone onPlanet Earth and you'll have more money in your pockets than youknow what to do with. Isn't that worth the small one-time feeof $34.95?"OK. Maybe I made that quote up.Sounds tempting, though, doesn't it?It's so easy and effortless. You know how hard it is to listyour website with search engines. It takes time and lots oftyping.If you could only type all of that information once and thensend it to all of those websites with the click of a button. Isn't that what your computer is supposed to do, anyway? Makethings easier for you?The scenario is probably familiar to you. You've stumbled on aweb page that promises thousands of search engines submissionswith relatively little effort. All you have to do is buy theirsoftware or subscribe to their service.All your marketing problems will be solved before you can say,"Your credit card has been charged."There is only one minor drawback. It doesn't work.I know. They make it sound so convincing. They make it soundso easy. They make it sound so effective.Welcome to the world of marketing hype.Let's take a look at what happens behind the scenes . . . FEELING A LITTLE OVERWHELMED?First of all, these marketing systems want you to believe thatthere are thousands or hundreds of thousands of search engineson the web that you can submit your website to.Let's assume you're brand-new to the world of Internetmarketing. If you heard about a service that offered to submityour website to 104,287 search engines, you would probably bethinking . . . "Wow, that's a lot of search engines I have to visit and entermy website information into!"and probably also . . . "I've gotta get me some help."These marketers want you to think that the job of posting yourinformation to search engines is overwhelming. Otherwise therewould be no market for their useless products.But come back to the real world for a moment and think about irfor a second.HOW DO YOU SEARCH FOR INFORMATION?When you want to find something on the Internet, where is thefirst place you go?Do you automatically surf over to "Bob's Quaint Little SeachEngine" at http://www.bobsplace.com/~search/ffasubmit.htmlIs "Andy's Free For All Page" your first choice to find anythingand everything you need online.I bet not. If my hunch is correct, you probably use something like Dogpileor Google or AltaVista. If you are like me, you might even haveYahoo! set as your browser home page.The point here is that there are only a few dozen search enginesthat are worth your marketing time, effort, or money.You'll either want to stick with the big names that everyoneuses, or search out those specialty search engines that cater toyour business specialty or niche. If you are focusing your marketing efforts on the top 86,037search engines out there, your marketing efforts are way tooscattered. You need to narrow down your possibilities by 80,000or so.So, what is really being advertised in these marketing products?These search engine submission programs are really focusingtheir efforts on something called free-for-all pages.FFA PROGRAMS REVEALEDA free-for-all page is a page set up by someone to list links ontheir website. Most of them accept between 100 and 1000 linksat a time. As new links are added, the oldest links on the pageare dropped.The problem with this is that there are thousands of servicesand software programs that submit to each of these FFA pages ona daily basis.You link, once posted, has an average shelf life of about 4minutes. After that, it's moved off the page into Internetoblivion.And remember that no one ever visits these pages, anyway, soeven if your link lasted a very long time - say 8 minutes - thechances are very good that no one will ever see it.SO, HOW COME THERE ARE SO MANY FFA PAGES?FFA pages are still a popular marketing method. But not for anyreason you would think.Website owners put up FFA pages because it's a way for them tocollect the names and email addresses of people for their ownmarketing.When you use a software program or a submission service tosubmit your links, you will immediately be blasted with hundredsor thousands of emails containing offers to sell other productsor services. Most come disguised with a subject that reads likethis: "Please confirm your FFA submission."Don't be fooled. You're link has probably already beendisplayed and removed by the time you get to that message.For the host of an FFA page, anyone who submits their web pageis a prospect. You can expect to receive email from that personfrom the rest of your life or until you email provider shutsdown your account because you haven't cleared out our inbox inthree weeks.BOTTOM LINEFFA pages are a waste of time. So are services that promise tosubmit your website to thousands of search engines. Next timeyou're tempted by this kind of an offer, think about how manysearch engines you actually use yourself.You'd be much more effetive if you focused on those dozen or sothat are the most popular. You may kill an hour or two of timewriting search engine descriptions, but you'll still have your$34.95 and a nearly empty inbox.SHIFT TO HIGH GEARYou'll get nothing if you do nothing! Here's are your Victory Lap action steps to help you shift yourbusiness into high gear . . . DECIDE that you are never going to waste your time and money on FFA and search engine submission sites.FOCUS your marketing efforts on the dozen or so most popular search engines and any search engines that primarily focus on your niche or business specialty.EMAIL ME to let me know you've done it! Let me know you'retaking the steps to kick your business into high gear. Maybe we can even talk about some joint ventures. mailto:[email protected]?subject=FFA-sucks Article Tags: Worst Marketing Strategy, Worst Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Into High, Search Engines, Marketing Efforts, Search Engine