The First Rule of Internet Marketing
When I was at Blog World I had the privilege to attend a class given by Jay Berkowitz from TenGoldenRules.com. In that class he talked specifically about some rules for blogging, but in this post I want to talk about one of Jay’s original Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing. In fact, it’s his first rule:
There Are No Rules!
Here’s the deal: when it comes to internet marketing, proper ways to set up a page, etc. etc. you won’t be able to find absolute unbreakable rules out there. That’s because they don’t really exist. Are there guidelines? Yes, plenty of them, and a lot of them I would recommend that you follow. But when it comes to rules, they don’t really exist in the online world. Things change too quickly.
The “Rules” Change
Let me give you a few examples of ‘Rules’ that have changed online:
For those of you that have been around for a little while, you may have heard of the whole idea behind reciprocal exchanges or link trading. This was a technique that we used to use to build links to your site. And for a while it was all the rage, it’s what everyone was doing. But now you don’t hear SEO’s and experts really recommending this as a great way to build links.
Meta keywords used to be really important for search engine rankings. But now a days if you try to do some of the techniques that used to work for getting a good search engine ranking (i.e. manipulating your meta tags), you won’t see very good results.
There are plenty more that I could list, but hopefully that gives you an idea. The point here is that you need to stay up to date on what’s happening online so that your strategies don’t become obsolete. Learn the new guidelines that come out, but don’t treat them as absolute rules.
As a hint to this, you will hear about Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, not Rules.
It’s All in the Testing
A while back I wrote about a post that I based on an email from Perry Marshall, the AdWords expert (You Can’t Learn to Ride a Bicycle at a Seminar). The point of this post is that if you want to succeed with website marketing or any other type of marketing, you have to do testing.
Try different versions of an ad, see what works best. Change your home page from time to time. Stick with what works.
Now of course, as you’re doing this don’t just change random things. Learn some of the guidelines that you’ll hear out there. But in the end you have to see what works for you and your website.
I wish that there was some sort of guarantee in business that said, “If you do this, you will never ever ever ever fail!” Well, I don’t know of anything like that when doing online marketing. Learn the ropes, try different things, but most importantly TAKE ACTION! If you’re willing to do that, your chances of success will continue to increase.
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Wow marketing is a very important subject for the business. An any person want to grow up his business then he must do the perfect marketing, Otherwise he will be throw out from market.
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Dan Reply:
October 28th, 2008 at 6:22 am
Very true! It’s really an essential thing for your business.
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Wordpress Reply:
October 17th, 2009 at 10:51 am
To learn the basics of internet marketing, you can just simply go through various articles or blogs related to the advices on internet marketing. You can also ask for suggestion from anyone whom you know is good in this kind of business.
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Exactly. Testing and testing again is vital, especially if you want to get an edge on the competition. IM is an ever changing field and you need to adapt quickly to the changes.
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Dan Reply:
October 20th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Well said. If you’re not keeping up on what’s going on out there, you’ll get left behind. It’s why I cringe every time I hear someone say that all you need is meta tags to get a good search engine ranking!
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That’s very true - as a generalization there are no rules, no set way to go about internet marketing. You just have to track everything that you do, work out what works best and then focus more of your efforts on that. The only rule I would say that there is that every web page should have a unique Title Tag. I come across ecommerce sites all the time which have the same title tag for all their product pages when simply entering unique title tags would lead to a huge increase in traffic.
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Dan Reply:
October 28th, 2008 at 6:23 am
I agree! Title tags really should be customized for each page. Thanks!
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I think that there are rules in any case. it’s be like in real life
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Dan Reply:
October 20th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
My main point here is that the supposed rules change all the time. That’s why you have to keep up to date on what’s going on.
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Too true. Just when you think you know the rules, someone comes along, breaks them, and is wildly successful as a result. Perry’s stuff is great. I learned a lot about, not just adwords, but marketing in general from him. His sections on testing are invaluable.
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Dan Reply:
October 20th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
He does have a lot of good info, even in just his emails. So any of you that haven’t subscribed, you should!
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mikki
you are absolutely right. there are rules to follow in everything you encounter even if they “don’t exist”. it’s part of the “testing”.
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Dan Reply:
October 20th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
The big trick online though is that the rules change all the time. That’s one reason why I prefer to call them guidelines. Guidelines change all the time, but people try to keep the ‘rules’ the same.
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I think the rule of “there are not rules” is good from the changing point of views. This challenges me to stay up to date with Internet marketing changes. But there are some rules that have not changed - title is still most important factor onsite in SEO; links (general speaking) still matters, even if the way of getting links is changed.
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Dan Reply:
October 20th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Yes, those things all still matter, but they could also change at any time. So they might be the current rules, but that’s about it.
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Good advice - imagination is king! (and time too
)
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Dan Reply:
October 20th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
you really do have to have an imagination for this kind of stuff!
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Everyday I find new ways to market or better the marketing schemes which I use.
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Dan Reply:
October 20th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Do you have any that you’d like to share?
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Jordans Reply:
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:53 am
Myspace adder, I get it for free from a Warez site, add about 500 people on my friends list and boom I atleast get half coming to my site
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Building a business is fun, it’s exciting, and there are NO RULES on how it has to be done. Just because your friend, family member, or whoever says it can’t be done doesn’t mean they’re right.
I agree, testing, testing, testing is what you have to do in the Online world. What works for one in their industry may not work for you at all!
Good post!
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Dan Reply:
October 21st, 2008 at 6:17 am
Friends and family can honestly be the worst advisers, and yet they are the ones that are always trying to tell you what to do! Be careful who you listen to and who you take advice from!
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Nate Moller Reply:
October 21st, 2008 at 9:18 am
That’s why you should read good blogs from the experts
I really like the look and feel of your blog and what you are sharing. Thanks for the reply to my comment too. Great plugin!
What do you think about these blogging goals?
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Dan Reply:
October 21st, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I’m glad you like the new look! I think your goals are good, they’re ones that I’ve been doing as well. Carry on!
The big trick online though is that the rules change all the time. That’s one reason why I prefer to call them guidelines. Guidelines change all the time, but people try to keep the ‘rules’ the same.
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Dan Reply:
October 21st, 2008 at 6:18 am
I think that’s the main point of this post!
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Ur right man.. we can excel in this fiel only by trial and error.. thos who suvive the same wins and those who cannot, will loose …
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Dan Reply:
October 21st, 2008 at 6:18 am
Well said. If you don’t fall sometimes, you’re probably not moving forward like you should or say you want to.
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Trial and error is a great idea providing you do know the basics of the rules, so that you don’t end up doing more damage than good. On page experimentation is a good way to test and measure how your audience interact with the changes you make.
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Dan Reply:
October 21st, 2008 at 6:19 am
Very true. The design of your page is one of the most important areas to do some testing. Thanks for the comment!
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I couldn’t agree more with you on the aspect of testing, testing and more testing. When trying to market our website it took us about 6 months to figure out a good platform and basic layout that the customers would enjoy. Also the idea that the rules are always changing and you either adapt or die is so true and unless your careful you will become obsolete.
Todd Anderson
All Student Rentals
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Dan Reply:
October 23rd, 2008 at 3:22 pm
thanks for sharing the 6 months story. Some people feel that testing is only for a week or two. But sometimes it might last a lot longer than that. I guess in the end it depends on how dedicated you are to what you’re doing.
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Online marketing is a still young. There is a significant amount of trial and error involved. One solution may work well for a blog, and be a complete disaster for a corporate website or ecommerce.
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Dan Reply:
October 23rd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
So true. You have to do different things for different types of sites.
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It was suggested to me some time back to build links from Squidoo Lenses. Like you say, I did a trial run and measured the results over time. Well, two weeks after creating a Lenses with Anchor Text Links back to my site pages, I found I had 4 quality PR4 back links with keyword phrases from both the Title and Anchor Text Links. These results have just come to light and as you can imagine, I shall be building a whole lot more Lenses.
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Dan Reply:
October 24th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I have also heard a lot of really good things about Squidoo lenses and need to spend more time with them. Thanks for the tip!
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Well the how about optimization? Using the correct markups? Those are valid rules that you have to adhere to.
I used to work for a company that engages in the same old form of marketing even thou there is zero ROI, no potential leads after running the ads month after month under the pretense that its called branding.
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Dan Reply:
November 3rd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
The thing about optimization and markups is that they change all the time. That’s why I’m referring to them as guidelines rather than full ‘rules’.
I suppose if they’re doing legitimate branding ok, but based on what you’ve said it doesn’t sound like it!
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I know a rather upscale chain restaurants that insists on using branded phonecards as their only form of advertisement (They’ve been doing the same old thing for year) Seriously, who uses phonecards anymore? =.=
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Dan Reply:
November 3rd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
by phone cards do you mean business cards, or actual phone cards?
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That’s very true, as a generalization there are no rules, no set way to go about internet marketing. You just have to track everything that you do, work out what works best and then focus more of your efforts on that. The only rule I would say that there is that every web page should have a unique Title Tag.
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Dan Reply:
November 14th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Yeah, that’s one that I think will stay around for a while. There are small little rules like that here and there, but the overall guidelines are always changing.
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That’s right. You really need to stay up to date in an ever changing world we live in here on the internet. Good read.
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Dan Reply:
November 14th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
That’s so true! And the good thing that there are so many resources that you can go to to keep up to date!
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I have been blogging and building websites long enough to know that there seems to be a trend were a new idea that works is used and then is no good anymore because it is abused.
Moderation is the key.
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Dan Reply:
November 14th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
very true. at time goes on and the new ‘techniques’ get exploited they tend to be less effective. I guess we can thank the spammers for that!
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Yes, there are no rules, although it is wise to keep in touch with the latest marketing strategies including those from “offline marketing gurus”.
Be creative and apply these strategies in internet marketing
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The rules are continuously changing in fact a lot of web masters have taken a hit to their page rank as a result of selling links. I think this makes it harder for people to do business online they have to really draw the distinction between selling a link or advertising space on their site. I am not sure that it keeps people from being able to buy their way into the search engines obviously if an individual has more funds at their disposal then they have things turned in their favor provided they can provide something useful.
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who would make the rules anyways? internet marketing is all about test test test.
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I like your first rule, lol! It is true though, you keep the limits up in the sky, and you can take your site far!
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Wow this is a great post! Thanks for sharing the useful information. Hope to see your new posts.
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haha. i remember when the meta keyword tag actually served a purpose. those were the good old days.
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Your comment about there are a lot of guidelines, but not really rules….hits home with me. I kept thinging that the guidelines are the rules, so when I hear something contrary to what I was just told, I really have to back track. I will keep you “saying” in mind!
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The “Rules” Change - this is really true with internet marketing. With many social media networking popping up out of nowhere, people will also find new ways to do marketing.
Nice post!
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I think the testing is the most effective rule.Result comes only after the internet is tested.
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I do not think there are rules online.They did not exist at all.
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Great post and so very true! It’s really important for your business. Thanks for sharing.
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Wow this is a great post! I think marketing is a very important factor for the business,To grow up a business You must to do a perfect marketing.Thanks for sharing the useful information.
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these tools are great however google doesn’t always like these link trading sites!
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