Everything in life changes, especially marketing.
You have only two choices when you are presented with that change; either embrace it and move forward or stubbornly cling to the old way of doing things.

Marketing is like life, it is constantly evolving, changing, and throwing us curves.
We can not stand with our arms folded and our bottom lip stick out crying about how things used to be. To be effective in life we have to take all the lemons that life is giving you and add our own twist and make strawberry lemonade.

2012 marketing shifts:
The use of mobile web devices has grown 400% in 2011.
Not only are these mobile web users using them more for leisure and entertainment, they are on them longer and use them to influence their offline buying decisions.
It's more important than ever before to be online and in the places that consumers look to get products or services.

70% of all people who use social networks are also online shoppers.
This statistic is not surprising since the amount of time spent on social media now exceeding 23% with 90% of that time being spent on Facebook. People are now living, working, and shopping with their computers and handheld devices. 50% of all online purchases occur when those consumers are logged in to Facebook.
To engage your customers you must be where they are. Do you have a social media strategy?

Conversion rates are 105% higher for consumers that interact with ratings and reviews.
Do you have a plan to influence and gather those reviews and leverage them in your favor?

Don't get left behind.

Market your business like search engines don't exist.
They may not seek out to deliberately harm you but they truly hate to be beaten. Most SEO (search engine optimization) is a attempt to beat Google at the game that they control, and just like any spoiled child if you start to win they will change the rules. Accept this truth and you will never be worried about traffic again.
Its not just Google, all search engines probably hate you, but since Goggle controls 80% of internet search traffic they probably hate you the most.

It's great to be first.
The website or item that shows up first in search gets 80% of the traffic coming to that search query.
That is truly an astounding figure when you find out that the last position even on the same page gets less than 5% of the total traffic from that page. It truly is good to be number one, but the fact is there is only one top spot. People and corporations that want that to get or stay at that top spot either pay a lot or do some shady things to get and stay there.

The things that people do to game Google or any other search engine just ain’t gonna work.
Even if it works for a little while the search engines will not be beaten at the game they created.
SEO as we know it is changing, search engines are now using behavioral targeting, location targeting, and countless other ways to determine what it thinks you will see as relevant.

Case in point is a well known article site, Ezine, had high search engine rankings. People found out that by writing articles for Ezine and others,  otherwise known as article marketing, they could beat Google and make there site rise to the top of pages for keywords they were targeting.
Google caught wind of it and over night devalued Ezine links. All the people that were playing by Google's rules lost page rank overnight.

“Panda” was the code name given to the Google update that was supposed to address “content farms” and other low quality websites that where ranking for high volume searches. The update was named after the Google Engineer who’s name was Panda. The update had two roll out dates February 4th 2011 and April 12th 2011.

In 2012 Google plans to roll out all sorts of new "features" that will once again change everything.

SEO has it's place, and it is an essential part of any online marketing.
SEO is supposed to make it easy for search engines to look at your site and know exactly what its about so it can return relevant search results.
Less than 10 % of all sites optimize their site to make it easy for search engines to look at their content, those who do get great results without the constant SEO obsession.

SEO isn't  free traffic.
To do it effectively it takes  time, effort, and money. Which one do you have more of?
There are firms that do SEO the right way, most charge $1000 per month and up for the service.
Some firms charge less and try to game the system, only to crash and burn their company and all of their customers when they get blacklisted.

You can do SEO the right way for yourself for $9-50 it's just as effective as the big firms that charge thousands, ou just have to put the effort in yourself.

Search engines are not the internet.
Search engines are a convenient way to make searching the internet easier, they are not the internet.
Once you discover the truth in that statement you will be set free form the SEO bondage that many people obsess over, and finally get to online marketing that will get you to where you want to be.

Google doesn't care if you make money they just want to be in control.
You should want to be in control too.
So stop pinning all of your hopes and desires on being number one, develop a plan that includes SEO but doesn't depend on it.  A solid marketing strategy will work now and into the future no matter no matter what change Google or anyone else throws you.

Some are the big expensive mansions, some are nice family homes.
Often people think they need a big fancy mansion of a website, but just like with a real life mansion, you think you want one... until you have to maintain it and pay for it.
Most businesses simply don’t need big fancy custom sites.
Just having a web store or a Facebook page isn't enough. That's like renting a room in someone else's house, it may be cheap, but you have to live by their house rules. You must have control over your own web portal.
So how much will a website cost?
The most correct answer is it depends on you and your business.
Generally real websites that you control can be range from a few dollars a month into the thousands.

There are several way you can build a website
Just like there are several option to buying a house you have several options with websites.
You can hire a custom builder, you can self-build, or you can buy one already constructed. The option that you choose is clearly up to you. Domain names are like patches of web property. Once you have your website name in place, you need to develop that web property to become a place where your business can live and your customers will want to visit.
Custom-built websites
Custom builds take longer to implement, cost more to construct, but in the end you get everything exactly the way that you want it.
Cost usually $1000 and up depending on your contractor developer.

Building one your self especially if you have no previous background is a steep learning curve
Your time will be filled with frustration and a lot of watching kids on Youtube show you how to do things you aren’t sure of. You will have to learn html, css, become familiar with graphics programs like Photoshop, and Dreamweaver. Not the most efficient use of time but, if you take on that challenge in the end you get almost what you wanted for an out of pocket cost that is a lot less than most other options.
$100 for hosting and domain fees but not counting the and countless hours of frustration.

Pre-built website templates
Finally you can buy a website that is pre built. While it may not have the exact structure that you want it will cost less than a custom build and will require less time than a self built site, and you can modify it to suit your needs better.
$29 per month.

Content is what truly separate your site from all others like it
If a website is like a house then the content of a website is like the decoration.
Content can include your logos, images, and information about you and your company.

This is the area that most people fail.

Even if you go for a custom developed fancy mansion of a website if you don’t have good content it is like filling that mansion with furniture you got on the side of the road and then dropping off 100 cats to live inside. It may look good at first glance but no one will want to stay there or visit again.

Your best option is to buy a pre-built site modify it to your liking and fill it with the best content available.
The advantage; you will be able to concentrate on the most important thing you can do in your company, getting more paying customers.

A per built site with the best content available will make you proud to own it, your up keep will be minimal, and your visitors will enjoy their visits and want to come back again and again.

Now that you have your own web portal now you need to get targeted traffic to you site.

When search engines are trying to deliver relevant results it helps to have a name that contains the key words or phrases that people are searching for.

So when you are trying to decide on a domain name it makes the most sense to secure a domain name that people are searching for; it's just going to make it that much easier for people to find you and your business. An added bonus; when you start optimizing your site you won't regret your choice.

Think about how you search for things online.
If you were looking to refinance your home what name would you search for?
You probably wouldn’t search for a name you would search for what you wanted to do.
What would you search for? You'd probably type in something like: low cost home refinance or Florida mortgage broker. That is what people will do when they search for your product or service. You have a better chance of showing up first if you have a name that reflects what they are searching for.
People search to solve a problem. Make your domain name indicate you have the solution to that problem. There are other benefits, domain names also indicate to search engines how relevant you are to the search query, so a good name will get you search engine love.
Even though your first thought might be to choose your company name as a domain name; while that is a route you can take; it may not be the best idea.

The name should be a .com or .net.
You want people to be able to find your site.
Most people feel that a reputable business will have a domain name that is followed by .com or .net.
.info .bz .ly may seem like a good idea at the time when no other names that you "want" are available, but you will be happier in the long run with that not so cool keyword rich domain name.

Stay away from funky names and quirky spelling.
Make sure you have a domain name that is understandable.
While you may have a cool and catchy name in mind if you get crazy with your choice, you and your mom may be the only ones who ever see your site.
One way to make sure that you can stay on track is to imagine yourself telling someone what your domain name is over the phone. How would that conversation go? Would it be a long conversation that ended with you spelling the domain name letter by letter? If so, skip that name.
Funny spelling and plays on words may make sense to you but most people won’t get it.
Skip the funky names too.
Fazebk and twaderr.com may sound hip,  and they may even be available but you won't be smiling  when you type in your funky name into a search engine and Google thinks that you misspelled it and shows a different result.
Leave out hyphens.
 Get the  shortest name possible.
You should be able to find a name that has the keywords you are looking for in three words or less.
Search engines like Google take points off if your name is too long.

The best advice is; don't spend too much time obsessing over the name that you choose.
The marketing not the name of your site is what is the most important.
Don't stress too much about your name choice , think about some of the names of famous sites that have made it work;  like Godaddy, Mailchimp, or even Facebook.
Now that You have an outline of what you need to look for go to  Godaddy to search for and buy a domain name.

The cost of a domain name: $9-12 dollars
depending on the options that you choose.

 Godaddy will offer to up sell you on other features some are useful like privacy protection and some features that are not so useful like the email service. Don’t feel any pressure to buy extra features, once you purchase the domain name you will be able to add them at anytime in your account settings.

The most important thing you can do for your marketing success is to own the  name to your own web portal.
It's like staking your claim on a piece of property, and if you make smart choices that property will only increase in value.
More than 58% of all businesses in America don't have a web presence, don't be a statistic.
Get a domain name today, follow these rules and you won't regret it.


Now that you have a name now you need to build a website around it.