Internet Marketing is Like Marketing Sex

There is often a bit of confusion about the blurry line of distinction between sales and marketing.

For example, we recently received an email from a new client. We were sending him about 50+ mortgage leads a day. After a few days he wrote us saying, "I have received 250+ leads... but where are the sales?" To which we replied, "As we discussed, we do the Internet marketing and deliver the leads to your company. That is our job. We control the traffic flow to your web business. Once they arrive at your company, you do the sales. You control the sales with your staff."

Little Sizzle, a Dash Of Appeal, a Bit Of Allure

Internet marketing is a lot like marketing sex. You need a little sizzle, a dash of appeal, a bit of allure and something that meets and satisfies the user's desire.

There is a great illustration of the distinctions between marketing, branding, public relations, sales etc., it goes like this.

You see an attractive person at a party. You march across the room, go up to the person and say, in a matter of fact tone, "I'm fantastic in bed. How 'bout it?"" -- That's "Direct Marketing."

You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see an attractive person.
You give your friend ten dollars to approach the attractive person and they say, "Hi, my friend over there (pointing to you) is great in bed, how 'bout it?". -- That's "Advertising."

You see an attractive person at a party. You go up to them and get their telephone number. The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm fantastic in bed." -- That's "Telemarketing."

You're at a party and see an attractive person. You give two of your friends ten bucks each to stand within earshot of the attractive person and point over to you and say, "I hear that person is fantastic in bed." Then they talk about what a great person you are. -- That's "Public Relations."

You're at a party and see an attractive person. That person immediately walks over to you and says, "Hi, I hear you're great in bed, how 'bout it?". -- That's "Brand Recognition."

You're at a party and see an attractive person. You talk them into
going home with your friend. -- That's a "Sales Rep."

Your friend can't satisfy them so the attractive person calls you. -- That's "Tech Support."

You're at a party when you realize that there are many attractive people in attendance. So you start at one corner of the room and go to each person you find attractive and shout at the top of your lungs, "I'm fantastic in bed!" Soon you are asked to leave the party.
That's "Spam” marketing.

Your Online Marketing Efforts

Now, how does all relate to your online marketing efforts? Are your visitors looking for something sexy, or are they seeking something more substantial?

Direct Marketing: Contact real estate offices and escrow companies and ask for a link from their web site to yours.

Advertising: Use pay-per-click efforts, buy keywords at various search portals, advertise in newsletters and opt-in ezines.

Telemarketing: Call online mortgage companies in other cities and states and offer to exchange leads for customers you cannot service.

Public Relations: Do postings in various newsgroups and moderated newsgroups providing helpful information. Also add a mortgage calculator to your web site that anyone can use without logging in our having to complete a sign-in process.

Brand Recognition: This is something that is earned.

Spam: Unsolicited emails can produce short term results, but the negative connotations and possible loss of your ISP or web site host can destroy your business.

Other Ways Sex Sells

A few other ways "sex sells" (or "sex doesn't sell") for your mortgage web site:

A Pretty Face: Make sure your web site is attractive and pleasant in appearance. No one likes to see a mortgage site constructed with a FrontPage 97 template and with 13 different color fonts.

A Tight Fitting Outfit: If you are selling mortgages, don't offer anything else. Links to Amazon, your favorite sites, the IRS, are detrimental to you. Customers are hard to get…keep them on your web site.

Scantily Clothed: Don't skimp on information on your web site. If a visitor has to search, or heaven-forbid, call for ANY reason other to complete an application, then you haven't done your job. ALL information on rates, procedures, about your company, should be on your site.

Movies Are For The Theaters: Do NOT make your customers watch a Flash introduction of spinning houses, swirling interest rate symbols, flying dollar bills and end up at some monolithic edifice that is your office building. Visitors want info, not entertainment.

Talking Dirty: Never bad-mouth the competition from your web site.

The Promise of More Than You Intend to Deliver: Don't blink and blast an interest rate of 3.95% on your site if it only applies to loans of less than $50,000 and incomes in excess of $400,000. Show ALL your rates, not just the eye-stoppers.

Tricks are for Dogs: Any traffic generating trick, such as creating a Pamela Lee Anderson worship page on your site, that works will stop working next week when everyone wise to what you are doing and no one will fall for it.

Romance: People like to treated nice, they like to be cared for -- so, do this for your visitors at your site. Make it easy to navigate your site, answer their questions before they have to ask them and be responsive when they email you.

Stepping Stones To Acquiring And Maintaining Customers

What mortgage site owners are really seeking, is the same outcome that often occurs via sex... a marriage. Mortgage web site owners want a relationship that is good for both parties to occur. The sex and romance, while an integral part in the courtship maze, are simply the stepping stones to acquiring and maintaining customers.

The Hole In The Fire

It was August 1949, a bone dry day in Montana with near 100 degree heat. The lightning-caused blaze burned more than 3,000 acres and controlling it required the efforts of more than 400 firefighters.

Fifteen brave firefighters parachuted into remote Mann Gulch to fight an out of control forest fire. Shortly after the smokejumpers were on the ground the fire jumped across a ravine, flared up and trapped them between the flames and a steep slope.

The fifteen firefighters panicked and ran, trying to make it up a 76% grade in hopes of reaching a crest for safety. It was hopeless, but they all dropped their heavy gear and ran, except their commander. He knew the climb was too great and the fire too swift and knew that it wasn’t going to work. So he stopped, took out matches, and lit a fire in front of him in the tall dry grass that was between him and the slope.

His fire rapidly spread up the slope creating an area that was hot, but couldn't burn anymore as all the fuel had burned. He followed his burned trail and yelled for his crew to come to him for safety. The others were so panic stricken that they just continued running and climbing up the slope.

The commander went into the middle of the burned-out area and laid down. The turbulent Mann Gulch fire raged everywhere around him, except for where he was.

A Hole In The Fire

Just 90 minutes after the 15 smokejumpers had parachuted, 10 were dead, unable to out race the fire as they were consumed by a wall of 200 foot flames. Two others died the next day due to burns they received. The commander of the unit lived as he had created a safety spot, "a hole in the fire."

This concept became known as an “escape fire,” and it became part of forest fire training. This tragedy later spawned the 1952 Hollywood movie, "Red Skies of Montana."

What was interesting about this was that the commander had found a way to benefit everyone; he had yelled and offered sanctuary to his crew. Ultimately the Forest Service taught this technique to all forest fire fighters. This was something that would benefit the many.

This now brings us to the internet and how this can apply to your web site. I will discuss two applications from the "hole in the fire" story: one, the value of a story, and two, how the "hole in the fire" works in reverse on the Internet.

The Value Of Stories

Does your company have a good story to tell? Can you share something with your potential customers that converts you from a cold heartless stop on a journey of a thousand clicks; into a reason to pause on your site and cause the viewer to pause and say, "I think I will stay on this site and explore a little bit more?"

Across The Frozen Tundra...

I was watching an interview with the owners of NFL films. This is the company that films the NFL with lots of slow-motion action footage, crisp editing, a musical background best described as a Star Wars / 70's action movie / Classical marching mind-meld.They were also famous for using rich commentary behind the powerful narration by John Facenda: "The autumn wind is a pirate, blustering in relentlessly from the sea. These cold winds whisper of high hopes as helmet against helmet breaks the silence of the crisp day."

They could make even a 17-0 sleeper look like the most dramatic game in the history of organized sports. For example, in a Dallas Cowboys highlight film in 1967, it first described Green Bay's football field famously as "a frozen tundra" (across the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field), as they were showing the muddied and bloodied hands of lineman in their stance and cold frost forming as they breathed in and out.

Remember, Remember, Remember My Name...

When they interviewed Steve Sabol, one of the principals of NFL films, he was asked why have they been so successful given that Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC and ESPN all do essentially the same thing. He replied that they were different and then stated, "Tell me a fact and I'll remember. Tell me the truth and I'll believe. But tell me a story and I'll remember forever."

Fire In The Hole

If you have ever found your site ranked first for a "money" keyword or phrase (mortgage, San Diego home loans, refi), you find that you are absolutely besieged with visitors, questions, orders and sales, almost to the point where you are unable to handle the volume. It literally is a "fire in the hole." Often you are not quite sure what you have done to achieve the top ranking, and even if you knew, you would not tell anyone.

Unlike the "hole in the fire story" where what you have learned benefits everyone, when you have a "fire in the hole," situation, you just have no reason to share that information each person you benefit possibly has a negative impact on your site and rankings.

Confusion Can Lead to Positive Outcomes; or More Confusion

The confusion and lack of communication at the Mann Gulch fire prompted major changes in smokejumper training. It has resulted in greater safety and lives saved. What was learned during this tragedy has created a method that still works today - the back burn fire.

On the internet, there is a lot of confusion about what works, and what doesn't. Even when you find something that does work, it most likely has a short life span, due to frequently changing search engine algorithms.

An early example of a technique that once helped sites achieve top rankings was called keyword stuffing. If you had a site about, say, "Seattle home loans," you might have repeated the phrase "Seattle home loans" a hundred times on your site. This way the search engine would have surmised that, surprise, your site was more about "Seattle home loans" than any other site, so it would have ranked you first.

If you use keyword stuffing techniques today, you get banned from the search engines. And that would be a fatal fire you can't extinguish.

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MortgagePromote.com is a leading Internet marketing web site that provides hundreds of articles & information tips on web site promotion, search engine marketing and search engine optimization; to help loan officers & mortgage companies increase their online sales. Aries and Farris has been providing nationwide mortgage leads & Internet marketing services since 1998.
Web site: MortgagePromote.com

For online mortgage leads please visit our mortgage leads page.

Originally published April 2007.

Hey, That's Smart Internet Marketing

It is hard to stand out among the tens, hundreds, thousands of internet companies available to potential mortgage customers. In this month's article, I am going to mention a few smart things that separate successful mortgage firms from their competitors.

I Should Be in Pictures

My business partner, Robert, is a Wall Street Journal junkie. He is always reading about how companies do business online, then we discuss his findings and see what we can do for ourselves and our clients, if anything. Robert recently read about a company that converts those thousands of snapshots you have around the house into digital images. One of the companies mentioned, ScanMyPhotos.com, had an all-you-can-put into a box for $99 special. I purchased their box, filled it with the about 2,000 snapshots, dropped it in the prepaid box they sent me. Then, just four days (that is smart doing such fast turnaround) later I got the box back with all my pictures plus a DVD with the digitized images. Apparently they have some high tech machine that takes a stack of regular photos and converts them to jpg images. Here is where it got real smart...

Hey, That's Me...

Out of all those images I included, they actually selected one that they guessed was my family, and took my family picture and put it onto a postcard coupon for 30% off. In fact, four postcard coupons, all with my family's picture, so I could send it to friends so they would receive a discount on their order. I even gave Robert a coupon since he actually found the company.

Flowers For Mom

This past Valentine's Day I ordered flowers online for my mother, as I always do. I typically buy from a company called GrowerFlowers.com because I first tried them quite a few years ago, and they always had performed.

There is a little lesson in this as well, as if your current customers had a good experience during their loan, they are far more likely to come back to you next time they need another loan.

Back to the GrowerFlowers.com story. As I was checking out, I remembered they always had a place where I could select what kind of card was to be included in the order and what I wanted the card to say. This year I noticed a few things different; and better. First, they had more cards to choose from and they had images of both the outside of the card and the inside text showing where what I typed would go. Second, they added a feature where I could select a digital picture from my hard drive, and upload it to be imprinted into the card. For a moment, as I was thinking that is a cool feature, I pondered sending that picture of my wife in that cute little negligee that I liked so much... but then I thought mom would prefer to see her granddaughter instead. After looking closer at the picture of my wife, it was probably a good call.

And GrowerFlowers.com does other smart things as well. They have "suggestions" as what to say in your card if you are creatively challenged. They offer a handy reminder feature. I could enter names, birthdays, anniversaries etc of people and then GrowerFlowers.com would send me an email a couple of weeks before so I could remember what to do... Try missing your anniversary -- that is not so smart.

I am sure a few other flower companies are doing this, but I am so pleased that I just keep going back... And, telling my friends.

Car Buying

I recently was buying a used car for my daughter and I wanted to try and find out about a car history so I ended up at VehicleIdentificationNumber.com. Normally pop-ups are a turn off, but this pop-up said, "VIN Number Available? If not, please leave us your email address and we will send you a reminder to you."

What was smart about this, is that many people don't have a car VIN number immediately available and this site sent an email reminder to me so I could easily return to the site when I had the VIN number from my car.

Best Enjoyed By

The book, "In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies" By Robert H. Waterman, Jr., Thomas J. Peters; contains one of my favorite examples of how to be smarter about the presentation of your business.

Words are a very powerful tool, especially online, where words are the way a potential customer judges you. The "In Search of Excellence" book has an example of two companies and how they state the expiration date on fruit drinks. One company prints, "Expires on 6-25-07" on their product while the others states, "Best enjoyed by 6-25-07". Now the difference is subtle, but the "best enjoyed" has better wording.

Searching Your Back Yard

Search engines are getting smarter too. Now when you do a search for something than is best served by a local provider (i.e. dry cleaning, donuts, real estate, home loans) the search engines are reading the origin of the request by using your internet protocol (IP) address. The search engine can tell your location with your IP and deliver results that best meet your needs.

This is especially evident with Google and if you actually create an account with them, which I do. I just searched for the single, generic term "plumber" and I got back all my results that specifically said "San Diego" in the Adwords ad (that is the little column on the left of your screen that are paid advertisements). Google knows that if I get better results with them that I will keep using them. And if my results are better then I end up using the companies that advertise with Google, so these companies benefit as well. That's smart.

How's Your Child?

For a number of years, some doctors' offices will call after a visit just to say they are following up on our visit and to see if we have any questions. Hmm, I always used to think that someone had a Porsche payment due... But, it makes good sense for marketing and patient relations and also helps with limiting malpractice exposure. Even our veterinary doctor (at least his staff) calls after visits to his clinic. (He should be providing us with kitty limousine service given how much we spend there.)

How's Your Car?

I did buy a car for my daughter and then I had several calls from the dealer. The first was from a person who specialized in answering questions such as how does cruise control work or where is the spare tire found. The second call was from the person that sold the car thanking me for purchasing the car and just making sure I was happy. These guys should call because if you think cats are expensive, you should try daughters...

Get Smart With Your Site

So, take a few minutes and look at your site. Go back to your site and re-read how you have your wording. Try to click through your site as a first time visitor would. Is it friendly, concise, compelling, helpful and informative? Does your wording get you customers, or does your wording cost you customers? As you go through your site ask yourself what would you want to see? How can the navigation be better?

If you do this, you will find that your web site results in more closed mortgage loans. Ahh, so smart.


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MortgagePromote.com is a leading Internet marketing web site that provides hundreds of articles & information tips on web site promotion, search engine marketing and search engine optimization; to help loan officers & mortgage companies increase their online sales. Aries and Farris has been providing nationwide mortgage leads & Internet marketing services since 1998.

Web site: MortgagePromote.com

For online mortgage leads please visit our mortgage leads page.

Originally published March 2007.

Time For You To Update Your 1999 Web Site?

A few things have changed since you created your web site. There are probably many things that changed you wished hadn't: 9-11, dial-up, YouTube.com, the Google stock price, maybe your weight or even your spouse... Has your web site changed?

Maybe in 1999 you had a web site that you had created by your next door neighbor's kid. Hey, it's 2007 now, and even if you still have your site created by the kid next door, the site is bound to be better as kids are even smarter and the software is superior.

Party Like It's 1999

I remember as we were leaving 2006 (and every new year before) and getting close to 2007 that many radio stations were playing the Prince song, "1999." It was funny that Prince actually released that song 17 years before 1999. Now that we are on the other side of 1999, that song will probably get less and less play, as we move further away.

Is Your Web Site Getting Less Play?

Your mortgage web site is also well into 2007 and you should have had a chance to update your pages. The most common error we are still seeing is web pages that have copyright 2006 (or 2005 or 1999 or ...) at the bottom of the pages. When your visitor views your site and notices an out-of-date copyright year or time sensitive content in the body (Happy New Year) that is several months past its pull date, the visitor begins to suspect the quality of your site.

There have been many changes to the internet since 1999, and what used to work, may no longer be viable, or may now even get your web site penalized. Let's discuss a few of the changes.

Multiple Directory Listings

It is in your mortgage company's best interest to have high quality links directed to your site. Links vary in value, but generally a link from CNN.com is better than a link from AuntieSarahsBurgerJoint.com. And a link from MortgageLinkFarm.com may be detrimental.

DMOZ Directory

DMOZ (DMOZ.org) is great to be included in as it feeds the Google directory results. DMOZ is also very unorganized as most of the categories use volunteer editors who often are too busy to stay current, or they have their own listing in a directory and they reason they volunteer is to keep out competitors like you. Regardless, DMOZ has its value in the Google feed and it is free.

YAHOO Directory

To be included in the Yahoo directory, start with finding the RIGHT DIRECTORY category http://search.yahoo.com/dir you belong in and then look for the link at the top right of the page that states "Suggest a site." It will cost you $299 to recommend your own site, but it is $299 well spent.

WIKIPEDIA

Some companies will even use novel ways to gain additional links. Most people are not aware that you can easily create a Wikipedia page for your own business. In example, DiTech uses Wikipedia.org, the online encyclopedia, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ditech.com) to promote its DiTech site.

"Ditech.com is a lender, offering mortgages and lines of credit as a member of the General Motors family of companies, specifically General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC). Ditech.com is a business unit of GMAC Mortgage."

ABOUTUS.ORG

AboutUs.org is similar to Wikipedia, except that its purpose is for businesses to insert their listings. Creating a page for your business on this site will also tend to rank very well for your business name.

In-Bound Linking Strategies

The Official Google Webmaster Central Blog http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com offers tips from Google staff members and can be useful in finding out what to do and, as importantly, what not to do.

Google Ranking Algorithm Devaluing Exchanged Links

One of the ways sites would obtain high rankings in Google was to have many sites link to their site. The thinking was that if other sites were linking to a specific site, then that specific site must be valuable to the Google searchers. Over time this theory became abused with link farms (sites set up to do nothing but link), paid links (you pay for a link to your site) and bogus site links (companies create fictitious web sites with the sole purpose of linking to a specific site).

The Google staff has announced that they have "tremendously refined its link-weighting algorithms. We have more people working on Google's link-weighting for quality control and to correct issues we find. So nowadays, undermining the PageRank algorithm is likely to result in the loss of the ability of link-selling sites to pass on reputation via links to other sites." In short, don't use sneaky techniques for inbound links.

Link Baiting

Link baiting is a technique which typically takes advantage of Web 2.0 social content websites and visitor rewarded content sites like Digg.com. The way the bait works is that you create high content or useful information as the hook. Hooks can take on a variety of forms such as: news hooks (what is the latest interest rates), contrary hooks (why to use a variable interest rates when fixed rates are 2%), attack hooks (how the Fed Reserve is ruining the economy), resource hooks (historical average VA and FHA interest rates) and even humor hooks (10 ways to tell if your blind date is really a mortgage broker).

Some people link bait their reputation by building an authority through services such as http://answers.yahoo.com. In this example a person might answer all the questions posed at Yahoo Answers (Should I get a fixed or variable mortgage? I have bad credit, how do I get a loan?) and others viewing the answers might find that person useful and be inclined to utilize their mortgage services.

Site Verification

See if you site is in Google using their Site status wizard https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/sitestatus and it will also tell you the last time the Googlebot last visited your site. If you are not listed you will find a link on how to add your site map to Google. Both Google (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/) and Yahoo (http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/) offer site verification and site mapping.A couple of advantages happen when you add your site, via your account, to Google and Yahoo. First, you are more likely to get indexed. Second, you have access to statistics and error information about your site.

Party Like It Is 2007

By the time you finish updating your site and submitting it to the various directories you will be ready to party... until it is time for the next round of updates.
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MortgagePromote.com is a leading Internet marketing web site that provides hundreds of articles & information tips on web site promotion, search engine marketing and search engine optimization; to help loan officers & mortgage companies increase their online sales. Aries and Farris has been providing nationwide mortgage leads & Internet marketing services since 1998.
Web site: MortgagePromote.com

For online mortgage leads please visit our mortgage leads page.

Originally published February 2007.

The Donald Rumsfeld Manifesto and Search Engine Optimization

When clients ask my partner Robert about search engine optimization (SEO), he likes to quote former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who Robert claims is highly relevant to search engine marketing. Mr. Rumsfeld was quoted as saying, "There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns, that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know."

Then he tells the client that is how SEO works, whether Google, Yahoo!, MSN or any other engine. Search engines seem to more closely to the world of TV Star Trek than the real world. The engines have nonlinear boundaries, appear to operate in multiple dimensions, somehow contain all the information known to man and have unwritten rules that frequently change, without warning.

"There Are Known Knowns; There are Things We Know We Know."

Here is what we know... If you want to be found on the internet you need to be found in the databases of Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Other engines are nice to be found in as well, but these three will account for 98% of traffic.

"We Also Know There Are Known Unknowns, That Is To Say We Know There Are Some Things We Do Not Know."

Matt Cutts is a Google employee who states on his web site "Hi, I joined Google as a software engineer in January 2000. I'm currently the head of the Google's Webspam team. I sometimes blog about things, but please bear in mind my disclaimer that the views expressed on these pages are mine alone and not those of my employer."

Here are some comments from MattCutts.com on some "known unknowns" about Google and ranking.

URL NAMING: Using dashes over underscores to delimit words in URLs is better. In example, MortgagePromote.com/mortgage-leads.html is better than MortgagePromote.com/mortgage_leads.html

SPAM STRATEGY: Overall Google's strategy is to not spend time on correcting individual spam cases, but to concentrate on creating a better algorithm which takes into account spamming. Having said that, Google will take action on specific cases of spam.

SITE MAPS: A site map won't necessarily get your site crawled. It is more important to have good quality links to your site to achieve a higher degree of full site indexing.

SELLING LINKS: In order to artificially create a sense of high quality links, many sites buy links to their own sites. If you sell links, you should mark them with the nofollow tag. Not doing so can affect your reputation in Google. Earned-links are earned and given by choice. Google does consider buying text links for PageRank purposes to be outside our quality guidelines. Google's is against selling/buying links, and Matt indicates they are good at spotting them - both algorithmically and manually. Sites that sell links can lose their trust in search engines.

EGO AND SPLASH PAGES: It's not only Googlebot who doesn't watch a 20 second video load before the home page comes into view. A lot of users don't either. Splash pages can negatively impact your Google indexing.

FLASH VS. HTML: If you use Flash, you create a HTML version as well. HTML is easier to index and improves your chances of getting indexed.

META TITLES: Each pages should have its own unique and descriptive tag and headings for every page. In example, if your company is called Mortgage Promote, then Mortgage Promote should not be the meta title on every page. Titles should reflect the page substance. If you page is about San Diego Home Loans, then that should be the meta title.

SAY WHAT YOU MEAN: If your site is about "San Diego home loans" but the visible content of your site says "Get your mortgage loan with us," you won't be found for San Diego home loans" because those words aren't visible to the visitor.

"But There Are Also Unknown Unknowns - The Ones We Don't Know We Don't Know."

RANKING PARAMETERS: Factors such as "Page Rank (Google tool bar)" and "inbound links (more is better)" and "trusted sites (colleges and major corporations)" and "age of domain (older is better)" and "keywords embedded in URL (ie HomeLoans.com vs JohnsonAssociatesAgency.com)" and "ownership (do you own too many similar type domains?)" and a plethora of other unknown unknowns all impact where your site appears in the Google rankings.

GOOGLE UPDATES: Google updates everything all at the same time, typically every three or six months. This is what causes massive changes in rankings.

CLICK FRAUD: Many people want to know how Google prevents click fraud, but Google isn't telling. Google's priority is to protect advertisers, so that means not disclosing any proprietary methods which would allow click fraud perpetrators to reverse-engineer our systems.

The Right Stuff

Achieving success is not about doing a few things 100% right, it is about doing hundreds of things, many of which you don't even know, 100% right. As you can see, Rumsfeld was in a can't win situation. He had do everything right, he even had to be right in things he didn't know about. He couldn't and that is how he lost his top ranking.Maybe we should update Rumsfeld's quote to reflect the uncertainty of the search engines. "There are right rights; there are things we know we do right. We also know there are wrong rights, that is to say we know there are some things we should not do if they are not right. But there are also unknown right and wrongs - the ones we don't know we don't know if they are right, or wrong."

Now if that makes sense... you can do the right thing and get your site highly ranked in the search engines.

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MortgagePromote.com is a leading Internet marketing web site that provides hundreds of articles & information tips on web site promotion, search engine marketing and search engine optimization; to help loan officers & mortgage companies increase their online sales. Aries and Farris has been providing nationwide mortgage leads & Internet marketing services since 1998.
Web site: MortgagePromote.com

For online mortgage leads please visit our mortgage leads page.

Originally published January 2007.

The Long Tail of Mortgage Leads

Author Chris Anderson has a new book, "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More." The Long Tail has implications for your online mortgage site and your source for online mortgage leads. And it can also impact the amount of revenue you generate.

As you are aware, the abnormally variable interest rates of a few years ago are creating another boom in securing new loans. Many people may be seeking a new variable or new fixed loan for their property. This trend presents a real opportunity for mortgage companies, especially those with web sites.

Gosh, You Mean The Internet Is Different From The Real World?

In the real world a dog is man's best friend, wagging their tail, every time they see you. On the web, a visitor is man's best friend, using a mouse instead of a tail to greet you.

Not surprisingly, there are many distinctions between generating customers in the real world versus online client generation. In Anderson's book he explains that in traditional retail, you have the 80/20 rule, with 20 percent of the products accounting for 80 percent of your revenue. He goes on to say that online it is different; completely different.

In example, the average Barnes & Noble store carries 130,000 titles, which is quite impressive for a real world store. But when you look at the online book retailer Amazon, over half of their book sales come from outside its top 130,000 titles.

More Is, Well... More

At Barnes & Noble all it can earn is on the books in the store, but at Amazon, since they carry more titles, they can earn more, and they do.

We also see that more is better occasionally in the real world; that is why my daughter's favorite ice cream store is not called "Baskin & Robbins 2 Flavors"

Less is More Too

Essentially The Long Tail describes the ability of the Internet to service micromarkets. This is possible due to the delivery system of the Web provides. Take for example Ecast, a digital jukebox company providing service to bars. They find that 99% of their top 10,000 will play at least once per month.

This why the subtitle of his book is, "Why The Future of Business Is Selling Less of More."

Long Tail, Plus Lots of Music, Equals Lots of Money

Kevin Laws, a venture capitalist, states this about the music industry, "The biggest money is in the smallest sales." I am sure there are just enough sales of such classics as Tiny Tim's "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" and "William Shatner's "Spaced Out" CD to add a few extra dollars to the bottom line of online retailers. When you add those dollars to the thousands of other songs that have just a few sales each month, the overall effect can be staggering.

My Mother's Long Tail

My mother is English, but has lived in America since she was 20 years old. She still loves English humor. I bought her a NetFlix annual subscription for Christmas. She rents the most obscure English DVDs imaginable. She also contributes to the bottom line of NetFlix.

When The (Real World) Music's Over

Even Wal-Mart, the largest music seller in the world, is physically challenged. They place their music section in highly visible locations at low prices but they are limited to about 3,000 titles in 500 square feet. They concede the niche music or older titles to the online sellers.

If you have ever been to Tower Records, an 89-store music retailer, you might recall walking down the aisles seeing thousands of music titles, or searching through the bargain bin for that one favorite song you have forgotten about. While that may be fun, online searchable databases and price comparison web sites can help you find the hard-to-find version of "Respect" by Otis Redding, (although Aretha's version is far more popular), in less time than it takes you to get in your car and turn the ignition.

As I write this article, I have just read that Tower Records can be almost $100M in debt and is on the verge of closing. The company went through a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing. Sources site the advent of the internet, from Napster to iTunes, as the downfall of Tower Records.

So How Does This Information On Books And Music Impact Your Mortgage Leads?

You can generate more business for your online mortgage web site by casting a wider net for mortgage leads. Take for example a relatively niched search like "San Diego Mortgage," and you will find the number of searches last month at Yahoo are as follows:

Search Number Keyword
2386 San Diego mortgage
1393 San Diego mortgage broker
986 San Diego mortgage company
857 San Diego mortgage lender
391 San Diego reverse mortgage
254 San Diego mortgage refinance
217 San Diego mortgage rate
146 San Diego mortgage loan
143 San Diego home equity mortgage
115 San Diego real estate mortgage
111 mortgage company in San Diego
109 2nd mortgage San Diego
90 second mortgage San Diego
45 mortgage broker in San Diego
45 mortgage in San Diego
42 adjustable rate mortgage San Diego
31 mortgage lead San Diego

Could You Use Even An Extra 500 Highly Targeted Mortgage Leads To Your Site Each Year?

There are few interesting facts about the above list. First is that I left off over half the related searches to save on space. Second, note that even something like "mortgage in San Diego" is searched 45 times per month, or over 500 times per year. Now assume there are about 60 keyword searches with similar annual search counts. That works out to over 30,000 extra visitors.

And, that is just for "San Diego Mortgage." A search for "San Diego Home Loan" found another 28,000 searches per year for related terms.

How To Apply The Long Tail To Your Site

You already might know what the top keyword searches are for your mortgage leads. Use those as a basis to create a list of keywords you might purchase at the various pay-per-click engines. Don't forget to add local communities in your keywords. For example, the town of Del Mar, with less than 5,000 in population, produces almost 1,000 searches a year for "Del Mar Mortgage."

Even the cheapest condos in Del Mar are in excess of $500,000 so you can imagine the revenue this could generate for your mortgage company. In San Diego, there are approximately 60 communities (Encinitas, La Jolla, El Cajon, Oceanside, etc.) Each of these communities can produce mortgage leads for you. If you assume just 500 searches per community times 60 communities, that is another 30,000 potential customers per year.

Wag The Tail

You can see in the physical world; sales are limited by physical space; so retail acts in the realm of scarcity. In the online world, it is full of abundance and only limited by your ability to service the type of loan inquiries you receive. You can use the internet to minimize your costs of acquisition.

If you create and then purchase a broad base of pay-per-click keywords, which, in turn, will result in additional traffic and mortgage leads to your site. At this point, you will be the one wagging your tail...

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MortgagePromote.com is a leading Internet marketing web site that provides hundreds of articles & information tips on web site promotion, search engine marketing and search engine optimization; to help loan officers & mortgage companies increase their online sales. Aries and Farris has been providing nationwide mortgage leads & Internet marketing services since 1998.

Web site: MortgagePromote.com

For online mortgage leads please visit our mortgage leads page.

Originally published December 2006.

How To Fight Spam, Both Personal and From Your Web Site - Part 2

We will continue last month's discussion of how to control email Spam.

The Cost of Spam

In 2003, The Washington Post reported that Robert Mahowald, research manager for IDC, said his firm estimates that for a company with 14,000 employees, the annual cost to fight spam is $245,000. And, he said, "there's no end in sight."

By 2004 the cost of Spam was estimated to cost an average of $1,934 per employee a year based on lost productivity, according to a survey released Monday by Nucleus Research Inc.

In 2005, messaging market-research firm projected the cost of Spam to be $17 billion in the United States and $50 billion worldwide. These figures reflect the productivity loss to the diminishing number of business users without spam filters, the cost to purchase and administer anti-spam systems, and time wasted dealing with spam that gets through and with legitimate messages that have been misidentified as spam.

The above figures ignore viruses and spyware that often is attached to the Spam email. Consumer Reports estimates that American consumers spent almost $8 billion for computer repairs, parts and replacement over the past two years as a result of viruses and spyware alone. If you add the cost of phishing e-mail scams and the figure is probably double.

Obviously lost employee productivity dealing with Spam takes a toll of the profitability of mortgage web site owners as well.

Spam Control Via PC-Based Software Integrated With Your Email Program

Smaller companies can buy specific software like Cloudmark SpamNet or Qurb for Outlook, or Spamnix for Eudora, all of which integrates with your email program. You can then approve/deny email as it arrives. Once you block or allow (whitelist) someone, the rule will always apply.

For me, the result is 99% of all spam never gets into my in-box, and if it does, I add a filter, and if something gets kicked out for spam that shouldn't be, I add a filter to allow it to pass through all the above.

If you still use AOL for your email, there is a control panel to allow you to set the degree of email you receive and also to only allow emails you approve in advance to be received. I use this feature with my teenage daughter's account. If she receives an email from someone outside the whitelist, then that email never reaches her in-box. The only downside to this is that desired email from a friend will be blocked unless that email is pre-approved and added to her whitelist.

Gosh, That Sounds Like A Lot of Work

Some people initially have said that it seems like a lot of work to install software programs; then to manage the email you receive. Of course there is some work involved, I spent maybe 1-2 hours setting up the software then doing my initial whitelist, but now all I spend is about 10-20 minutes a week, adjusting filters when a client is added or a Spam email gets through.

And I now save at least 3-5 hours a week in no longer having to review so much Spam in my in-box, it has been a great return on investment, let alone a return on sanity and annoyance level.

Free Email Accounts Are Tacky

One more comment on the free email services such as AOL, Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail; NEVER use them for your business reply email. The use of a free email account is tacky and appears unprofessional. Generally people who use the free email services have to because they don't have their own business web site. If you have a business URL, use it. Why would you want to be LoanDude1986@hotmail.com when you can be Robert.Jones@MyMortgageCompanyName.com?

Also, many ISP email servers assign "Spam" points to the free email services as they are more likely to be from Spammers. This may impact how much of your mail gets through to your clients.

I want to repeat a comment from last month's article which probably can have the greatest impact on controlling Spam to your employees.

Spam Control Via Server

Ask your mail server provider if they have any Spam fighting software on your hosting account. In my case, Pair.com has highly effective filters (light to heavy duty), screening 99% of the email at the server so I don't end up having to download to my computer. Another feature they offer is to automatically insert the phrase **JUNK** in the subject line, before the subject line. You can set up an Outlook or Eudora filter that looks for **JUNK** and puts that in a Junk folder for easy review. If an email get labeled **JUNK** and it really isn't, I easily can go to the server control panel and "whitelist" the email address it came from and tell it not to insert **JUNK** in the subject.A tip: When reviewing a Junk folder sort the subject by alphabetical order, you can review just the subject lines, as many times the same subject line is used by several senders, and it speeds the review. Also if you sort by subject you never have to open the email - just look at the topic and delete.

Using a Family Domain Name

You can purchase a domain for the use of your family for about $8 per year and then, depending on where you purchase the domain, you can get multiple email accounts included with your purchase. This way you can have email addresses specific for each family member, i.e., Daughter@MyFamilyName.com, Son@MyFamilyName.com, Dad@MyFamilyName.com, Mom@MyFamilyName.com, etc.

Slow Conversion

If you do opt to acquire a new email name, be sure to keep your old email account active for at least six months to make sure everyone who emails you gets to you. Don't reply from your old account and when you do your announcement, send emails from both your old and new account saying that you have a new account.

Spam Forever?

Spam is not going away for awhile. As technology improves, so will the Spammers ability to evade technology. In the interim use common sense and implement anti-Spam safeguards as necessary, which should lower the cost to you and your mortgage business.


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MortgagePromote.com is a leading Internet marketing web site that provides hundreds of articles & information tips on web site promotion, search engine marketing and search engine optimization; to help loan officers & mortgage companies increase their online sales. Aries and Farris has been providing nationwide mortgage leads & Internet marketing services since 1998.
Web site: MortgagePromote.com

For online mortgage leads please visit our mortgage leads page.

Originally published November 2006.

How to Fight Spam, Both Personal and From Your Web Site

I RECEIVE 50,000 - 60,000 EMAILS - EVERY DAY... AND SO CAN YOU.

Gosh, in one day I am asked to enhance my manhood, lose weight, gain muscle, get a college diploma, get out of debt now, log into my PayPal and eBay accounts, which have been compromised. OR one of my favorites, I have already been pre-qualified for a new loan on my home... all they need is my name, address and a few financial details to verify my prequalification.

Despite how it looks, I am not an email junkie. Of those 50,000 - 60,000 daily emails, 99% of it is unsolicited; the trick is receiving the 500 or so desired emails each day, while keeping the rest out of my in-box. Having had my primary domain since 1997, and still using my original email address (foolishly), spiders, spammers and whois harvester software bots have had lots of opportunities to get my email addresses, which they have. Additionally, our company owns hundreds of domains, so I offer a lot of avenues for spammers to send me their information.I went from a sprinkling of spam in 1999, to a drizzle in 2001, to a torrent of Spam in 2004 and 2005. I have become somewhat of an expert on handling unwanted email. Here are some ways you can control your email. If you don't take steps to control who has access to your in-box, you too can receive 50,000+ emails a day.

Practice Safe Email

A couple of simple precautions can dramatically reduce the amount of spam you get. Don't give your email address without protection, you never know where that other email has been.

Just Say No

Many emails come with an opt-out link at the bottom or ask you to reply to have your email removed. NEVER, EVER, NEVER reply to this unless it is from a major corporation you know and trust. If you reply you are confirming to the Spammer that you are a valid email address. Your email address will be sold immediately, because when you reply, your email address is worth even more because you actually read your email.

Disposable Email Addresses For You

When you sign up for a newsletter or a newsgroup, many people use their primary email address, and as a result, over time, that email starts to receive more and more Spam. A way to minimize this is to create a free email address. Yahoo, Hotmail and Google all offer accounts. Your newsletter account could be RodNewsletter@gmail.com while your purchasing email account for Amazon.com or Nordstrom.com could be RodPurchasing@gmail.com.If ever you start to receive to much Spam to an email account, you simply delete RodNewsletter@gmail.com and replace it with RodNewsletter2006@gmail.com, all the while protecting your primary email address.

Disposable Email Addresses For Your Web Site

You can even use disposable email addresses at your web site. In example your "email us" address can be InfoNovember@domain.com or InfoDecember@domain.com or you just make up names and rotate them, like, Annie@, Roger@, Sahil@, Thomas@ or Tiffany@. Just remember to make the temporary name viable and when your staff replies they reply with an address that you will be keeping, like sales@domain.com.

Make Spamming Difficult

If you have to show an email address in a forum or chat room, make it hard for your email to be harvested. You can write your email as RodNewsletter "@" gmail.com or RodNewsletter (at) gmail.com so it involves more work to find the email and then to reassemble it.

Don't Play With Matches

When you sign up for newsletters or purchase something online, frequently there is a box, already checked for you, that asks if you want to receive promotional mailings. Uncheck the box, because if you don't, that becomes the spark to ignite a barrage of emails.

Don't Be A Typhoid Mary

Mary Mallon was cook in the early 1900's. She was a very healthy woman, but she was a carrier of typhoid and caused typhoid outbreaks, unknown to her. She had no idea that she was infected with the disease which caused her work as a cook to infected many people.There can be an online version of "Typhoid Mary" - you. While many people can be "inadvertent carriers", AOL users are the worst... They forward a joke or chain letter and it has hundreds and hundreds of email addresses in the email from each time it was previously forwarded. A Spammer gets a copy of this and everyone on the list is now on a Spammer's list. Don't spread the disease.

When forwarding emails to groups of people, send them via the BCC field; this shields their address from others. Ask others to send emails to you this way, too.If you have to absolutely forward to everyone that picture of a dog with sunglasses wearing a shirt that says, "Dog spelled backwards is God," at least use the blind carbon copy (BCC) feature of your email to share your emails.

Buy Spam-Free

If you do receive something via Spam and you absolutely want it, don't buy it from the Spammer, just go to Amazon or the equivalent and buy it from a legitimate retailer.

Spam Control Via Server

Ask your mail server provider if they have any Spam fighting software on your server. In my case, Pair.com has highly effective filters (light to heavy duty), screening 99% of the email at the server so I don't end up having to download to my computer. Another feature they offer is to automatically insert the phrase **JUNK** in the subject line, before the subject line. You can set up an Outlook or Eudora filter that looks for **JUNK** and puts that in a Junk folder for easy review. If an email get labeled **JUNK** and it really isn't, I easily can go to the server control panel and "whitelist" the email address it came from and tell it not to insert **JUNK** in the subject.

A tip: When reviewing a Junk folder, sort the subject by alphabetical order, you can review just the subject lines, as many times the same subject line is used by several senders, and it speeds the review. Also if you sort by subject you never have to open the email - just look at the topic and delete.

In next month's column we will discuss additional techniques and discuss software solutions to help you control your unsolicited email. Gotta go, my in-box is telling me I just won the Canadian lottery, five times... Wow.

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MortgagePromote.com is a leading Internet marketing web site that provides hundreds of articles & information tips on web site promotion; to help loan officers & mortgage companies increase their online sales. Aries and Farris has been providing nationwide mortgage leads & Internet marketing services since 1998.

For online mortgage leads please visit our mortgage leads page.

Originally published October 2006.

Internet Marketing Questions From Mortgage Web Site Owners

Over the past month we received numerous emails with regards to internet marketing for mortgage web sites. Here are a few of the questions from our readers:

How Can I Search My Competitors?

We are often asked how to conduct competitive intelligence on competitors. We use a free service from Google to monitor certain phrases and competitors. It is their "alert" system <>. Simply add your keywords and Google will send you an email update with new listings on that phrase.

More Important Than Searching Your Competitors Is Searching...

We suggest that you use the Google alert program to research your own company.

Be sure to use multiple versions of your company name to match the various ways a customer may write your name. In example, if your company is the Greater San Diego Loan Corporation. Be sure to enter alerts for other likely permutations of your name; San Diego Loan Corporation, Greater SD Loan or GSDLC. We also recommend that you use this service for your own personal name to see if there are any positive or negative postings about you or your organization.

I Use AdWords But I Am Not Receiving Clicks. Do Pay Per Click Ads Really Work?

Most often the answer to this question is one of two things: not buying enough keywords or not bidding high enough on a keyword to get found. May companies only buy 20-30 keywords - this is not enough. Buy also the communities around your city. In example, San Diego is surrounded by Del Mar, La Jolla, Chula Vista, La Costa, Encinitas etc. Each of these cities should have, at a minimum, "home loan", "mortgage loan" and "mortgage" associated with the keywords. In example, "Encinitas home loan", "Encinitas mortgage loan" and "Encinitas mortgage" should all be keywords that you buy.

Other mortgage owners simply bid a small amount in a competitive category. If you are listed at the bottom of a series of keywords all saying "Miami home loans" you will not receive many clicks.

And sometimes we asked the corollary to the above question...

I Use AdWords And I Am Receiving Too Many Clicks... Do Pay Per Click (PPC) Ads Really Work?

Many companies make the mistake of buying words that are only tangentially related to a mortgage. In example, the search term Seattle houses may be bought to try and attract home buyers to your site for a home loan. In reality it is probably an OK idea, but it is probably not an OK PPC idea. The information you provide can be helpful, but in a PPC strategy it is not the best choice of words to buy.

Another problem is sometimes buying too broad of a keyword phrase. You might supply northern Illinois with loan especially in the Chicago are so you buy the terms Illinois home loans and Illinois home montages. Then you find you have a number of people in southern Illinois clicking on your ads; but you can not service them. That can increase your costs dramatically.

Google's AdWords allows you target regional and local areas, so you can reach the prospects who are most appropriate for your mortgage business. Additionally, you can write ads that highlight special promotions or pricing based on geography.

Gosh, Didn't This Used To Be Called Red-Lining?

Google's site states, "You can select customized targeting if you want to define your own target area. Indicate your area by choosing a point and a surrounding radius or by picking points to define a border. The AdWords system may analyze a searcher's query (for example "London florist") to establish what location that person is searching for. The system may also take note of the person's Internet Protocol (IP) address to see where he or she is searching from."

It seems at one time this practice was referred to as red-lining.

Right Click, Wrong Page.

Another problem that can cause receiving click, but not many sales, is by delivering your PPC visitor to your home page not to the page specifically on what the customer wants. In example, if you offer farm land loans yet send the visitor to the main page so that visitor has to search your page to find the link to farm land; that can frustrate the user and cause them to click away instead of clicking further into your site. Make the PPC click advertisement link directly to the page about that PPC word. It takes a little longer; but the results are worth it.

Still other issues that can lead to a high number of visitors and few customers are your content ad appearance. If someone clicks on your PPC ad and they arrive at a "crummy" designed web site, they will leave. If the content you offer is uninformative they will leave.

How Can I Make My Pay Per Click Ad Better?

Create straightforward ads targeting your desired customer. In example, your add subject line might read: "Dallas home loan."

Here are the first five ads from Google's results of a search on "Dallas home loan".


Dallas Home Loan Company
Leading Mortgage Broker in Texas,
Pre-Apply Online & Get Free Info!


Dallas Home Loan
Get a Low Home Loan Rate from
Texas Lending and Save Today!


100% Home Loan Financing
for Good to Excellent Credit.
No PMI. No Lender Fees


Dallas Home Loans
Refinance today to consolidate
debt, lower payments & get cash out


Mortgages - Current Rates
Low mortgage loan rates from
lenders nationwide. Updated daily.


You can see the third and fifth ads don't mention Dallas, while the first, second and fourth specifically say "Dallas". As a customer, which ad are you most likely to select?

Test Multiple PPC Ads

One of the excellent features of the Yahoo and Google PPC programs is that you can change/add/delete PPC ads on the fly. You can experiment with different offers and utilize different keyword phrases to see what's most effective in attracting your potential customers. Once you find the right sequence of keywords; continue to monitor the number of customers generated.

Be sure to send us an email with any additional questions.

For online mortgage leads please visit our mortgage leads page.

Originally published September 2006.

How is your Google IQ? If You Don't Pass, Your Income Suffers...

Google-Opoly

Sure there is Yahoo! and MSN and some other upstarts on the net, but Google is really the place to be found. It may not always be so, but for now, you need to have your site not only indexed by Google, but ranked high by Google. Let's test your Google IQ and see how you do.

Got PageRank?

PageRank is Google's formula that determines what other sites think of your site. PageRank tabulates the number of links coming to that site and the importance of those pages linking to it. Next PageRank assigns a one to ten ranking, to determine the site's position in specific results.

A site with a PageRank of ten is favored in results over a site with PageRank of seven. Most web pages are lucky to have a PageRank of even two or three. You can even have a negative PageRank which means Google knows who you are and they don't like you.

It Is Great to be Trusted

It used to be that Google looked for "great sites" to help anchor the PageRank index. Google now seems to have added the term "trusted sites" to the "great sites" factor. Here is why - "great sites" were abusing their privilege by selling links on their main page for $1,000 - 5,000 per month regardless of relevance.

You would find very busy and well-known software sites with links to mortgage companies and credit card offers at the bottom of their page. Thus, Google now not only looks for a "great site," but a "trusted site" in which the site provides only the "highest and best use" for their visitors.

You can download Google's tool bar so you can see your PageRank at http://www.google.com/downloads/ .

How Do The Terms Jagger, Florida and Big Daddy Affect Your Rankings?

Jagger, Florida and Big Daddy are the names given to the major Google index updates over the last two years. These updates can cause massive swings whereby smaller, less known sites show up, or drop, in the results. Each major index is an attempt by Google to create more accurate search results.

The latest update, Big Daddy, seems to be an entire rebuild of all results; as many companies have lost previously held top rankings.

Have You Been Googlized?

These periodic updates have caused multiple lawsuits against Google by companies that previously held high rankings, and subsequently lost them.

Google keeps its search ranking algorithms secret so that they can not be manipulated. Each update refines their proprietary algorithm. A drop from the top search result can mean the loss of thousands and thousands of dollars. Earlier this year, KinderStart.com sued Google because it lost it top ranking "without warning."

KinderStart said its traffic plunged; and Google accounted for up to 70 percent of its visitors. After Google dropped KinderStart, the number of visitors from Google was at 0.01%. At its peak, KinderStart's visitors viewed more than 10 million Web pages per month, according to the suit.

Of course, for every company like KinderStart that loses a substantial amount of business, there is a new top-ranked company that takes its places and receives that traffic, and revenue.

So How Do You Get A Top Ranked Site?

Google isn't divulging anything, but top search engine marketing companies theorize that Google is now assigning different weights for selected factors, including high quality links, the age of your domain (i.e,. when it was registered), the keywords embedded in your domain name, the quality of your content and the size of your site.

Also you need to avoid keyword stuffing on your site. A phrase like, "Our New York mortgage loan finance company has the lowest New York home loan interest rates for residents of New York and the New York area," would constitute keyword stuffing.

Garbage In, Garbage Out

Google appears to selecting "trusted sites" and rewarding outbound links from those sites with an increased value. In example, a link from Stanford.edu is worth more than a link from StanfordsFamilyRestaurant.com

Your site can increase its ranking by having "trusted sites" link to your pages. Conversely if you have submitted your site to "link farms" (domains established solely to provide links), your site can be penalized for participating in that endeavor.

Once Blogged, now Bogged?

Also, some mortgage companies used special software to post to blog sites. The method was simple: Your software would locate a blog site and say something like, "Nice site. Thanks for having it," and then your signature (HeyThisIsMyMortgageCompany.com) would be added in the hopes that a blog would become a valuable site and a link from that blog to you would improve your Page Rank.

Google wised up, and now are penalizing these type of links. Links from high quality blogs or blogs that exhibit editorial control are still of value if they can demonstrate they police their postings for relevance.

Do You Provide Links To "Great and Trusted Sites?" Or Are You Reciprocating Links To Link Farms?

Google appears to review the quality of your outbound links.

There does appear to some additional value by having good (not trusted) sites link to you as well. In example, local banks, the chamber of commerce, escrow companies and other related, but neutral sites.

Are You In The Google "Sand Box"? Does It Even Exist?

Some search engine specialists theorize that any new site is placed in a "sand box" to sit (and play) while Google decides whether or not to include them in their index. This gives Google a chance to determine whether it is a valuable site or a "Spam" site that goes straight to purgatory. Other people suggest that the sand box doesn't exist, there just is a period of time between when a site is reviewed and added to the Google index.

Trust Me

Regardless, this much appears to be true: if you have a high value, good content site that contributes to the well-being of the Internet... (a site that your visitors can trust), you will get into the Google index. If not, you will never receive a single visitor from Google.



(Rod Aries and Robert Farris are co-founders of MortgagePromote.com, a leading Internet marketing provider to corporate mortgage clients.)

For online mortgage leads please visit our mortgage leads page.

Originally published August 2006.

How Google Earns 99% Of It's Revenue: From You!

Can You Earn 99% Of Your Revenue From Google?

The 80-20 Rule

In the real world we are all familiar with the Pareto Principle (also referred to as the 80-20 rule). Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, noticed that 80% of income in Italy was received by 20% of the Italian population. Soon this 80-20 rule was being applied to almost every business application, allowing business to focus on the 20% of items that result in 80% of the revenue.

The New 99% Rule

On the Internet, as things often are, the Pareto Principle gets amplified, as in the case of Google (and Yahoo!). Google earns 99% of its income from one source - pay per click revenue. That's it. Pay per click is the driving engine behind all of Google's frenzy, glory and revenues.

If you stick with me for just a bit, I can share with you how this impacts your mortgage web site...

Google's Pay Per Click Ads

When you use Google for a search, there are two main sections that appear in your results. First, and foremost, are the web results, which appear at the left of the page, and occupy about 80% of the page. The pay per click ads (called Google AdWords) show on the right hand side of the screen after you do a search query. These results are in a narrow column, with the words "Sponsored Links" above the column. Every ad in the "Sponsored Links" is paid to be there.

What is Google AdWords?

Google AdWords is how mortgage companies, and others, purchase highly targeted pay per click advertising. Such targeted keywords can include: San Diego Home Loans, Long Island Mortgages, Redmond Home Refinancing, Palm Springs Second Trust Deeds, etc. This type of targeting allows a mortgage company to receive exactly what they want... home loans but no subprime loans, refinances but no VA loans, commercial loans but no farm land.

So, just how do these targeted visitors (who want to be your customer) get to your company. Let's go back to Google.

58% plus 41% equals 99%

Investors.com reported that, "As of the end of the March quarter, Google derived 58% of its sales from paid search advertisements on its own Web sites. It generated another 41% from its distribution partners, which include content sites and other search engines." A quick math check shows the sum of 58% plus 41% equals 99%. In short, virtually every penny that Google earns comes from pay per click ads.

Google Distribution Partners