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01.28.08
Nearly Everything Is Getting Cheaper Except Marketing
By Aaron Wall
Open source content management solutions like Drupal get more powerful each day. But everyone has access to it.
Firefox has extensions like Firebug that allow you to test modifying page layout or CSS in real time.
Custom feeds, leading blogs, personalization, recommendations, aggregators, filters, and alerts allow us to consume a firehose of information.
Search engines are giving away a lot of valuable data to try to win marketshare. But everyone has access to it.
You can buy full feature affiliate software for under $300.
Companies like 1ShoppingCart offer an affiliate program and
hook into on demand publishing and fulfillment companies like Vervante. Selling an information product means no shipping is required.
Amazon reduces hosting costs to virtually nothing, offers an order fulfillment service, and now they are pushing their WebStores aggressively, which really automates a big piece of the workload of most businesses. Amazon also owns BookSurge, a print on demand publishing company.
Lots of people are solving common problems and giving publishers a wide array of choices that keep driving costs down. Just about everything is getting cheaper and easier - except marketing. Audiences fragment, people ignore advertising, and everyone is so busy that they have no time for you.
Public relations and search marketing are the new advertising because unlike most ads they are not ignored. They are seen as editorial content even if it is bought and sold on a per article basis or per ranking basis. And so you have smart business deals where you slap Lance Armstrong's name on a bunch of user generated content. Generate the PR buzz and watch the ad dollars roll in:
The Lance Armstrong Foundation, which spends about $40 million a year on health programs and cancer research, is teaming up with Web-site operator Demand Media Inc. to launch a health-and-wellness Web site funded by advertising. The site, called "livestrong.com," is expected to go live this year.
How does the Google view of spam and editing out non-editorial link buys stand up in a world where companies like Demand Media recycle the web and cross link it all, while companies like Pay Per Clip offer:
WEB MEDIA placements can range from $450 for a brief appearance in an online article, to $2,750 for a full feature, including a link to your web site, in a top tier web publication.
Google needs to realize that public relations, promotions, and advertising are a normal part of the business process. After all, ads only account for 99% of their revenue. But Google engineers can dictate arbitrary mandates based on a broken understanding of the business world because Google's founders thought big.
Value your time properly and think big. You can not invest too much in learning, clean organic looking marketing (like domain names, site design, and public relations), or brand building.
The mind can adapt itself to do whatever you want it to. But if you wait too long to act, nobody cares what you do.
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About the Author:
Aaron Wall is the author of SEO Book, a dynamic website offering marketing tips and coverage of the search space, free SEO videos, and free SEO tools. He is a regular conference speaker, partner in Clientside SEM, and publishes dozens of independent websites.
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