Did you hear about the newest search engine, the one threatening to "take on" Google as a fierce new competitor? What's this all about? Check out what it is and who's behind it...
Microsoft's Bing search engine has just become publicly available, allowing you to decide whether Microsoft's latest effort has the goods to take on Google. Bing is available at http://www.bing.com/ and replaces Live Search.
Microsoft is expected to spend $80 million to $100 million on Bing marketing which would be a nice hedge against Yahoo! because Bing will most likely take market share from Yahoo!.
Whether Bing ultimately succeeds or not, it will push Google to keep innovating search, and the new pay per click competition will ensure that Google doesn't get too greedy.
How is Bing different from Google?
Bing is not dramatically different from Google, but some people have found its results stronger. There are some visible changes:
Bing shows a preview of the web pages in the search results when you hover your mouse pointer at the right side of the search results.
Bing displays fewer results if it is certain that it has understood your intent. The search for "Facebook", for example, brings up just one result linking to the site itself.
Some search results are divided into categories. For example, if you search for the popular musician "Justin Timberlake", you'll get results in the categories news, songs, movies, biography, wallpaper and downloads. In addition, the search results show images, videos and the popularity of the musician.
Wikipedia searches can be displayed inline in the search results without leaving the Bing site by clicking the "Enhanced view" link.
Bing features a different background image every day. The image contains special hidden hotspots that lead you to more information (soon advertising?) about the image.
Despite the background image, Bing's homepage loads very quickly in your web browser because the search box and logo load first. You can turn off the background image.
Bing's video search lets you watch videos without leaving the search engine.
Bing offers specific health, shopping and travel search engines, as well as instant answers to travel searches. For instance, the search "Vegas hotels" displays a selection of hotels in Las Vegas, including hotel stars and prices.
Bing's search history lets you return to your most recent searches of the last two days. This feature can be turned off to protect your privacy.
Some of Google's features are missing, for example, Bing doesn't seem to recognize misspellings and returns no results in these cases.
Well you now have it. This is the quick and dirty low down on the new "fierce" competitor for Google. Do you think they have what it takes to replace, compete or take the 52% market share that Google currently holds with its users?
I guess only time will tell! Stay tuned to future updates.
May 2009
Did you know that online shopping over this past holiday season grew approx. 67% over previous years? What does this mean to traditional retailers? Well its simple. you are losing sales to people who are enjoying and experiencing the ease of shopping and purchasing products online. So how do you compete with someone who doesn't have to pay for fancy overhead costs, the everyday expenses of managing a retail outlet, staff salaries, WSIB and the other killer - Inventory!!! Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, if you haven't already guessed the answer; it is simply - You Can't! The internet is the #1 growing source for new business growth and is generating massive levels of replacement or passive income. So what should you do? Close the doors to your store? Layoff all your staff? Get out of your lease agreement? WHAT? Well don't do anything too dramatic, it is never advisable to react on impulse. My suggestion to you is to see who or how your products or services are being found and sold online. Then do some creative research on your own. Check out their margins, keeping in mind that most times they have no overhead to factor in. See if they are shipping products directly from the manufacturer etc. These questions and answers will help you determine if you need to consider a new focus on how you promote and/or sell your products or services. Then you next step is to start testing the waters. See if by bringing your products and services online if it will allow you to consider downsizing your current retail location(s). If so, then you are looking at a great opportunity of reducing your liability and increasing your bottom line. WOW! This seems to be a simple formula: Decrease your overhead and risk - Increase your profits. As a business owner and entrepreneur, this formula has ALWAYS been attractive to me!
If you would like to know more about getting your products online or the possibility of how the internet could help you to increase your profits you may want to consider attending one of our Free Seminars that will provide you with great introductory data on what your online options are for both promoting your business, your products or if you are even considering starting a new "online" business. If you are interested in one of our Free Seminars register for one of our upcoming seminar dates here.
March 2009
Do you know how long a "hot lead" stays hot when on the internet? 60 seconds. That's right!... only 60 seconds. So how do you keep the lead hot when you have such a short window of opportunity? Simple. You need to setup an online campaign that does it automatically for you. Yes I said "automatically". There are systems called Autoresponders out there that will make this absolutely possible for you to keep your online leads long enough so that you stand a MUCH greater opportunity to keep the lead and convert them into a sale. However, be cautious, setting up a Good and Effective autoresponder campaign must be done properly or you will find that you are doing yourself more harm than benefit. If you are seriously interested in doing this easy and affordable leads and sales technique you should join me at our upcoming FREE Internet Marketing Seminar on March 18, 2009.It is only 3 hours of your day and there are no strings attached. We are simply giving you free information to make your business more successful in these rough economic times, just because you are either a customer of ours or you have joined our mailing list. Check out our other upcoming and FREE seminar dates at: http://www.trainedbypros.com/
February 2009
IS GOOGLE FINDING MY WEBSITE?
It is a very specific formula that Googles complex algorithm looks for when deciding which webpage to index for current and future web searches. Google represents approx. 49% of all internet searches, so ensuring that you are following their guidelines will ensure your success of attracting more search results to your website and in return, increased sales of your products or services. Throughout the year our new "The Scoop" newsletter will be providing you with valuable and critical information that we have spent thousands of dollars learning from some of the top internet marketers. This information will help you to figure out why your website may not be attracting the amount of traffic and customers that it should be. If you are attracting anything less than 150 unique visitors per day to your website, than I highly recommend that you follow these tips and take the time to ensure your website will perform the way it should. Afterall, you didn't spend all that money for it not to bring you new customers and new sales. Or did you? I doubt it.
Tip #1: MAKE GOOGLE LOVE YOUR WEB PAGES!
Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and Live, look for content that supports the words or phrases that customers use when searching the internet for products, services or information. The search engine then goes out and searches the content from webpages (notice I didn't say websites - I said webpages). Why aren't they searching your entire website? Because search engines do not recognize a website as we do, it recognizes each page as a source of independent information only. Therefore, it is your job to ensure that each page of your website appeals to Google's individual search needs. Provide data that will satisfy Google's search. Then, if you want Google to find your other pages you should provide an access for Google to find your other pages. How? Simple, place a link within that page that will direct Google to go to another relevant page on your website. If you provide the search engine a link or reference source it is obligated to follow that reference link in order to determine if it is providing any additional relevant information.
So what do you do with this information? Review your website and see if your page title supports the content that resides on each page. If it does not, then your task is to determine what content should reside on that page and what content needs a page of its own. If you have a website that was developed on our intranet software this will be no problem for you to create and adjust your own pages. If your website was developed by another person or company, unless they have provided you with the FTP access information and you know how to properly adjust the page text or create new pages for your site on your own, you may have to contact your supplier and discuss with them how much this will cost you to have them do this for you; or to train you on how to do this for yourself. Believe me, if you follow the monthly internet marketing techniques that we are going to be providing you with, it will be in your best financial interest to find out how you can do this for yourself, as depending on the web company to do this for you will become a very costly venture.
Stay tuned for upcoming tips on how to make your website the Powerful Tool that it was meant to be!
Matt Dunlop Certified Internet Marketer Mainstream Marketing www.mainstreammarketing.ca
