Ideas for Business

Brick Marketing recently wrote on the Search Engine Optimization Journal blog about a company called Goldline Research. There are several things that strike me as odd about this company and its way of doing business.

First, the “out of the gate” contact with this company, according to the writer of the blog post, was that they were working on a “research study” that will subsequently be published in the popular business magazine Inc. So far so good. Except that later, after spending at least an hour of Brick Marketing’s time on the phone conducting their “research” the company then drops a big bomb - they want $5,500 from Brick Marketing before they can proceed. What a chin dropper!

I’ve got to say, this is not how research companies work and it certainly isn’t the way a journalist who is publishing an article in a leading magazine would work. Big red flag there!

My regular readers know that I spent years working in the marketing department of a Fortune 500 company and so I have a unique perspective on these types of encounters. If any company ever asks you for money in order to be included in a market research study or a magazine article, run - don’t walk - the other way. And, better yet, call the Better Business Bureau and report them. That’s not only bad business practices, but it’s unethical.

Now, I don’t know Goldline Research and all I have to go on is Brick Marketing’s blog post. I am getting the facts second-hand, but I definitely never recommend doing business with any company that engages in such practices. If you are ever contacted by a company claiming to be conducting research in your industry or wanting to write a magazine article then I suggest you do the following before you agree to be included:

• Verify the company’s credentials - Check with the BBB and other professional organizations to see if they have a history or background of complaints and ethical business practices. Are they a new business? If so, chances are they are not what they seem. While it isn’t entirely impossible, new businesses generally don’t get publishing contracts with leading national publications unless they have other things going for them.
• Ask lots of questions - The No. 1 question you should ask is “Will this cost me any money?” If they ask for a fee, say “No” and move quickly to the nearest phone to report the company to the BBB and your state’s scam hotline. Every state has a chain letter division and an attorney general’s office who can lead you in the right direction. Also, if the company is claiming that an article will be published in a certain magazine then ask whose name will be on the article as the byline. Companies don’t write articles. People do. If they don’t know who will be the author of the article then ask them to call you back when they do.
• Call the magazine - If, as in this case, you are given the name of a particular magazine in which an article is scheduled to be published, call the magazine to verify it. If they’ve never heard of the company conducting the research or say that they have no such scheduled article then let them know that someone is out there misrepresenting them and their legal department can handle it.
• Don’t get too excited - While good opportunities do present themselves from time to time, be wary of anything that sounds too good to be true. Brick Marketing’s enthusiasm at the outset may have contributed to their big letdown in the end. While I am not saying they are totally to blame for their own misinterpretation of the original call, if a legitimate opportunity does arise for you and your company then it is a cause for celebration, but don’t get too excited about it and lose your head.

Leading magazines do from time to time conduct studies like this one, but they generally have a staff write do it. Third party research firms do not ask for money when conducting research of this nature. Don’t let the wolves at your door and if by any chance you open the door to see one smiling and licking his fingers, slam the door in his face - otherwise, you may find yourself eaten out of house and business. Or just eaten.

Here we SEO again with a bi-weekly update of TopRank’s BIGLIST of SEO blogs. The list must be hot because we’ve been receiving requests just about every day over the past few weeks. Of course, that’s not the best way to get on the list if you’ve read the guidelines. Links are always a good way for us to find you or being listed on other SEO blogs’ blogrolls is a good way too. This of course, your blog is about search engine optimization, search and internet marketing in general.

• Clicky Media Blog - This UK Agency blog uses cool images with each post, something that does a great job of attracting your attention. Topics range from agency and industry news to internet marketing tactics.

• Post-Click Marketing Blog -This is the official agency blog for ion interactive (doesn’t anyone capitalize anymore?) and covers very detailed information about landing pages, optimizing and converting.

• Daily Blog Tips - As it’s name implies, this blog with a huge number of subscribers is about blogging but also has a robust category for SEO and internet marketing related topics.

• Brent Csutoras - Brent uses a blog as his web site where he writes about social media, search and viral marketing.

Honorable mention goes out to Garrett French with his Content Promotion Builds Links blog. It gets mentioned here because topically, it’s right on with TopRank’s philosophy towards content promotion. Unfortunately, posts are not that frequent. Worth checking out though.

Now get with it people and get the BADGE!

Sponsored By: Reputation Management in a Google World PRSA Teleseminar

Darren Rowse of Problogger fame had a great post the other day on the 12 traits of successful bloggers. I won’t steal all of his thunder, but I’d just like to mention the 12 traits and offer a few comments on them.

• Creative and Playful - You’ve got to have fun with what you’re doing. If it isn’t fun then you probably shouldn’t be doing it.
• Innovative - Darren makes a good point in that this isn’t necessarily about technology. It’s about leadership. Innovators are people who lead the pack in thinking in directions no one has thought before.
• Connectors - As in social butterflies.
• Community Enablers - This one is difficult to master, but there are some new tools coming out now that will make this much more accessible to the average blogger and people just eat the community stuff right up!
• Information Mavens - Soak in as much as you can.
• Communicators - It is a communication medium after all! But I love his last point:
  

  Successful bloggers have the ability to trigger some sort of response in their reader.

• Interest - If you are interested in the topic that you are writing about, you’ll be a much better blogger. It starts with passion.
• Entrepreneurs - Successful bloggers are self starters. If you can’t motivate yourself you can’t motivate anyone else.
• Originality - Dare to be different.
• Perseverance - Success doesn’t happen overnight. You’ve got to keep plugging away at it. Follow your dreams and they’ll reward you.
• Focus - Don’t get distracted. It’s so easy to do.
• Curiosity - If you aren’t curious about new ideas within your niche then blogging isn’t for you. It is very important to stay up with the latest advances and to ask the “what if” questions. If they’re not going where you want to go, take them there.

This is a great list of character traits that anyone who wants to succeed in blogging should develop. Without them, you’re just another voice in the wilderness.

My article, Remote Control: It’s O.K., Mom Said We Can Watch TV, is now up on Smart News, the enewsletter and blog for the Smart Television Alliance.

Also, I've been invited to participate in the May 2008 issue of Bloghology at Mert Erkal's Search for Blogging.

Bloghology is a collection of bloggers, their profiles, photos, and links to their best posts. It is a PDF e-book which can be easily circulated throughout the blogosphere for personal branding and marketing of selected good quality bloggers.

I met Mert through Blog Mastermind and a couple of social bookmarking "buzz" groups. In today's crowded blogosphere where it seems that everyone is writing about the business of blogging or how to blog, Mert does an excellent job. He's consistently writing great posts and promoting his content and site well.

I find his efforts inspirational, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to participate in Bloghology. And as Mert says, he believe it will help bloggers on marketing and personal branding by highlighting them and their blogs for free. It's also a great way to network with other bloggers. (You can read more about the benefits here.)

Companies large and small spend significant proportions of their revenue on branding efforts as well as those things that influence customer perception of brand like product development, support and customer service.

While there is debate about who “owns” a brand, the company or it’s customers, partners and employees, it can be agreed that there is tremendous value and equity in a company’s brand. Something of value is worth protecting especially when it contributes to the livelihood of all the employees of the company and their families.

In the past week I’ve presented on online reputation management both for Public Relations and and Direct Marketing audiences and it’s reminded me of how important it is to protect a brand whether it’s new or established.

Not long ago I came accross a few web sites using the same and similar names to our own trademarked name. Upon contacting one company, it turned out they were no longer a company and ended up selling the domain name to us - a mutually beneficial outcome.

Another situation proved to be a bit more concerning. The same individual had multiple versions of the same site on different urls, some redirecting with 302. Some were on domain names and others were domain names pointing to a frame with the actual site was hosted on a third party domain. With the cheap price of hosting these days, who does that anymore?

Many of the pages used keyword stuffing and it was obviously a network of sites to promote a SEO consulting practice as well as promotion of their clients.

Maybe it was not exactly against search engines terms of use and webmaster guidelines, but it was/is certainly very sloppy and unprofessional. These pages/sites use multiple identities including a name very similar or exactly like our own.

What impression would a prospective client get when Googling your company and finding sloppy, near spammy web pages from some other company/individual that include references to your trademarked brand name?

It’s concerning enough that a name very similar to our trademark was being used but the use was inconsistent and in a way that hardly contributed to the brand of those promoting it, let alone our own. A company’s brand and trademark(s) are worth protecting for the sake of employees, clients, prospective clients and the future of the company.

To enforce trademark use at large like some big companies do is one thing, but to protect the brand experience of your potential customers in a situation so sloppy like the one above is reasonable by all definitions.

In our case, we contacted the subject individually for a reasonable outcome without success. The follow up was done via attorney which has made some progress towards removing trademark references. We continue to monitor and will address each situation individually.

It’s important that any company that is investing in it’s brand make the effort to monitor their company, brand, product and executive names online. Free services like Google Alerts and RSS feeds of search results are a good start for collecting raw data. For advanced analysis and measures of influence and sentiment, premium tools like Radian6, BuzzLogic, Collective Intellect, Cymfony and Converseon are the next step.

As for the situation described above, I am not listing this company/consultant or linking to the numerous live and archived examples we’ve taken screen shots of because I have no interest in further promoting them or having them benefit from all the work TopRank puts into promoting the search marketing industry via speaking, blogging and publishing articles.

What I am interested in is hearing from our valued Online Marketing Blog readers about copyright, brand protection and trademark enforcement situations experienced online. What situations can you share that describe others’ use of your branded names and what did you do about it?

Sponsored By: TopRank Online Marketing Holistic Marketing: SEO, PPC, PR, Social, Email