Photo Credit: thejourney1972 (away until april)

That article, is a complete load of manure. Let me tell you why.

The study period is from 1960 to sometime in the past, but we’re not told the exact end of the study period. Apparently, it’s not important for us know.

Also:

1. It makes reference to a “typical” Latin American nation, when there is no such thing. How did they determine what makes a country “typical?” Is Brazil typical? How about Costa Rica, Chile or Mexico, are they typical?
2. The IDB studied 76 nations, including 17 from Latin America and the Caribbean. So, when they say “typical” in the article, do they also mean Caribbean countries as well? What region of the world were the remaining countries in?
3. The IDB says that since 1960, only Chile has had productivity growth rates that are higher than the U.S. Apparently, Chile’s gains are still lower than India, Thailand and China but the article saves us from telling us what other nations Chile beat out. We’re also not told whether India, Thailand and China were a part of the 76 nation study group.
4. The article seems to reinforce the stereotype that Latin people are lazy, since the “productivity is so low.”
5. They never address why Latin American countries would want to “catch up quickly” with other regions of the world? What are the benefits to Latin American countries for doing so? What “other regions” should they catch up to?

I wish Newsweek had taken the time to actually write something that was informative, rather than something that was just filler. Had they actually taken the time to at least tell us the study period, I think it would’ve been a much better article.

They could’ve also bothered to tell us how they measured productivity, what the actual numbers are, what does “low” mean exactly. Actually, they could’ve just given us the numbers, period.

I disagree with Santiago Levy’s, the vice president of sectors and knowledge at the IDB, assertion that there’s an “opportunity for policymakers in the region to invest in reforms and sensible policies.” For one, how does he define “sensible?” and who are these “policymakers?” I guess the governments in the region just haven’t noticed that they need to create policies that encourage economic development, is that it?

Yes, I realize that the theory goes that higher productivity means higher per capita income, more leisure time, etc. I posit that the governments of the region have historically had little interest or need to increase productivity thanks to an abundance of cheap labor, the availability of valuable natural resources and a desire to keep the populace occupied at the state teet.

What do you think? Am I completely off my rocker?

One of the markets that I wanted to focus on with Marketing Latinos was helping companies and individuals reach Spanish speaking markets in a manner that is both respectful and profitable. Seems like no one else is really interested, if you go by the current commercials being aired on network tv.

Nothing irks me more than seeing those car commercials with the Hispanic lady speaking in mangled Spanish trying to sell people a car or truck. As if all it takes to sell a car to someone is an attractive woman in skin tight pants with a low cut shirt… Maybe that’s where I went wrong, and that is all it takes to sell a car, or anything else for that matter, to the Hispanic/ Spanish speaking consumer.

I refuse to believe that.

Then along comes a product called “Spanish Gold Rush.”

The product claims to help you, a non Spanish speaking marketer, sell your wares to a Spanish speaking market. It’s a pure internet marketing product and all it does is show you how to do keyword research, using Spanish keywords, etc. They also offer private label rights products, written in Spanish, that you can turn around and sell and “make a fortune” with.

The best part about the “Spanish Gold Rush” product? You don’t have to speak a word of Spanish to use it and/or be successful with it. In case it’s not coming across, I’m being very sarcastic. I think this product is a bad idea, and is in bad taste, whence no links to it.

I firmly believe that there are many companies out there that want to reach the increasing Hispanic population of the world and they want to do it in a respectful, intelligent and profitable fashion.

This coming year, we’re going to focus more on the Latin American market place. We’re also going to focus more on analytics, more specifically on how to use them to be more profitable.

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Before I go into my definition, I want to make sure that I mention what the search engine’s job is. The search engine’s job is to find the content that most closely matches and is most relevant to what the person sitting at the computer is searching is looking for.

How search engines work, is a topic for another day, but suffice it to say that people are more likely to use a search engine that delivers relevant results over a search engine that just delivers results. Make sense?

To me, in a nutshell, SEO is making sure that your website or web pages, match as closely as possible what the prospects in your industry/market/niche are searching for whenever your prospect goes to a search engine. The goal, is to have your website show up as high as possible in the search engine results pages, aka serps for your given term.

Who does this kind of work?

An online marketing agency will do this kind of work for you. Some agencies prefer to call themselves Search Engine Optimization firms, but it’s all essentially the same thing.

How is it done?

Step 1 is to perform something called “keyword research.” What keyword research is, is finding out what words people are typing in to search engines whenever they perform a given search.

Google, Bing, Yahoo! search engines among others all gather and release this keyword data in aggregate. We can’t tell what you typed in, but we call tell that the majority of people looking for X typed in Y keyword when performing their search.

The next step then, is to optimize your site for the keywords that people are typing in when they are looking for something related to what you do. This is called “on site optimization” because it’s performed on your site.

What else do you do with the keywords you find?

The next step your online marketing agency will do, is to go “off site” and optimize the links pointing back to your website. If there are no links pointing back to your site, the search engines are not likely to find you anytime soon.  Additionally, the links pointing back to your site should also contain your keywords to help the search engines find you.

The currency of the web are things called “inbound links” or IBL. No, not irritable bowel syndrome, although getting proper inbound links has given indigestion to many an SEO specialist, but I digress.

The best links, come from “reputable” referring pages, with a lot of authority, from websites in “good neighborhoods” and contain your keyword in the link text. The worst kind of link, comes from a spammy website, hosted with a bunch of other spammy websites, with spammy links pointing back to your site.

How fast does it work?

Not very fast. Sometimes, you can significantly increase your rankings with some very minor tweaks in a short period of time. However, most sustainable results take time, specially if you’re in a crowded niche or if your site is new or if your site had been spamming before.

If you need traffic now, “pay per click” (PPC) advertising may be an option for you, but SEO principles will still govern over your PPC strategies.

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This concludes the first part of this multi-part series about search engine optimization. Contact us if you’d like more information about SEO or if you’d like us to take a look at your website and help you with your rankings.

What does “Real Time” mean?

Google is defining “Real Time” as “a few seconds ago.” So, as soon as something is published on twitter or anywhere else, it’ll show up in the search results. Google plans to add updates to the real time search results from Facebook and MySpace early in 2010.

What does this mean for you?

It could mean everything is now different, or it could mean that nothing is different. From what I’ve seen, Google will separate the real time results from the more “aged” results in the regular index. I also saw that Google will make the real time updates available on iPhones and other web enabled mobile phones/ devices.

So, if you’re not looking for the score of the Texas Longhorns football team while the game is still being played, real time search may not have any impact on you.  Of course, if you’re looking for real time traffic conditions in Austin, TX and Google real time search tells you that there’s yet another jack knifed 18 wheeler on I-35 before the upper and lower deck split in time for you to avoid the area, then the real time updates could have a huge impact on you.

What about advertising?

Personally, I’d like to know what impact, if any, real time search will have on adsense and adwords. Can you imagine, having a twitter RSS feed piped to a website showing adsense ads that are influenced by that fast moving twitter feed? Every visitor could potentially see a different set of ads and have a completely different experience.

I’d also like to know how they’re going to keep out all those annoying teeth whitening and flat ab spam tweets that always latch on to trending topics.

It’s nice to be right every so often.

Awhile back, I wrote that by redesigning it’s home page, Twitter was making the assertion that it’s all about the search results.

During the big announcement on December 7th, Biz Stone (Twitter’s CEO) himself admitted that it’s about search, but more importantly it’s about relevant, relevant, relevant search. Relevant search is something that Google does very well, and Twitter does very poorly.

Here’s an official Google video showing off the new real time search results feature

Do you think that real time search will have an impact on how you use Google or the internet in general?

I recently received my copy of the “Yellow Pages.” All I could think was “what a waste.”

I think a Yellow Pages ad is a waste of money and here’s why:

1. Most searches now begin online

When was the last time you scrambled around to find the yellow pages so you could find the phone number of a local business to call? I can’t remember the last time I did that.

Nowadays, people’s first reaction when they need information is to look online. If I need someone to work on my yard, I look online. If I need someone to work on my roof, I look online. If I need a mechanic for my car, I look online.

I’m fully aware that lots of businesses do not have a web page, but instead have yellow page ads, and that’s fine. I just won’t buy from them. Neither will a lot of other people.

Hanging on to a Yellow Page ad in the age of the internet is akin to continuing to make horse pulled buggies back when automobiles were getting really popular. Sure, people will still want buggies, but more people want cars.

2. Yellow Page ads are static

Unlike a web page, you can’t update your ad after a few weeks to highlight a new special or a new offer. Once that ad goes to print, you’re stuck with it for a year, or until the next ad cycle.

3. Even the publishers of the Yellow Pages admit defeat

One of the biggest selling points for their ads, is that they’ll include a listing for you in their online version for free or for a nominal charge. That alone should tell you what they think of the effectiveness and continued viability of their print version.

All is not lost for the Yellowbook

Yellow Page books are great for lifting your computer monitor to a more comfortable height. That, is one thing that a web page simply cannot do.

What’s the solution?

Instead of spending all that money on a static ad that may or may not yield any results, why not implement an online advertising campaign? Talk to us about setting up and managing an online advertising campaign for your business or service.

Web analytics, or site statistics is a field that is shrouded in mystery to some people. There are lots of experts that make it seem like you need to have a PhD in computer science in order to get data from your website. Thankfully, you don’t need a PhD, nor a MS, all you need is some time and the right analytics package.

What’s the right package?

There is no cut and dry answer to this question. The right package is the one that gives you the information that you need and want when you need it and in a format that you can use. All web analytics software measures traffic in slightly different ways, but all things being equal they will all tell you how people are using your site.

OK, how about some names?

Let’s look at what in my opinion are the 3 best and easiest options to implement. We will start off with the 800lb gorilla of analytics and move on down the list:

Google Analytics: This is probably the most comprehensive free tool available. All you need is a Google account and you’re good to go. Basically, you add your site, then you copy and paste a small javascript snippet to the page footer on your website and Google Analytics does the rest. It tracks your visitors and splits them into first time visitors, repeat visitors and unique visitors, it also gives you a complete breakdown of your bounce rate by keywords which lets you target some keywords better. You can create custom reports with alerts and other measurements to keep you appraised on your site’s performance. Another neat feature is that you can integrate your adsense and adwords account and get a full blown picture of your performance all in one spot.

AWstats: Usually, your hosting provider will give you this analytics package for free and by default. It runs at the server level and produces some really pretty graphs. The downside of this package is that you cannot create any custom reports, but it does show you in a clear format how many visitors came to your site. Unfortunately, it doesn’t tell you how many of these visitors were first timers or repeat visitors, so there’s no real way to tell if you’re being effective at creating regular readers/ visitors.

WP-Stats: This is a plugin that is exclusive to WordPress sites. It can run on your wordpress.com hosted site or on your wordpress.org powered site. This plugin gives you information as it pertains to your wordpress site such as your most popular post, where people are clicking to leave your site and also tells you where people are coming to your site from. Like awstats, it doesn’t tell you how many repeat visitors you’re getting and it also doesn’t allow you to create custom reports.

One of these 3 analytics packages should give you enough information to start optimizing your website. Since all 3 of them are free and they work without stepping on each other’s toes you can use all 3 of them at the same time to get a full and well rounded picture of your site’s performance.

Would you like some help with getting analytics software up and running on your site? Contact us for more information.

Seriously, wow.

We now have the option to create custom reports for pretty much anything that we may want to. We also have the ability to break out the data in a much more granular fashion and see some really cool graphs outlining the new data. I like graphs, what can I say?

One of my new favorite graphs is the one where I can overlay new visitors, return visitors and unique visitors all in one graph. I always thought that return visitors counted as uniques, but apparently they don’t always. The other thing that I discovered, is that you can set custom reports to tell you things like your bounce rate is “outta whack” and your paid traffic is not converting at the same rate as it had been etc.

There is a lot of really good information hidden inside the reports, and these new enhancements make seeing the data and analyzing it a lot easier. I only wish we could get the data in real time instead of on a 24 hour delay.  Someday, maybe we will.

More posts, and maybe even a report to follow on this subject.