I get it.

Nurturing and maintaining a social media presence continues to become more and more important for web masters, Net marketers, and anyone who wants to do any sort of business effectively online.

And Twitter, of course, is a huge part of that.

That doesn’t mean I understand the appeal of receiving 140 character messages. Nor do I appreciate the added pressure of coming up with something witty to “tweet” on a regular basis, or even – let’s face it – having to “tweet” at all.

And yet, regular, consistent “tweeting” may be key to achieving some sort of success with Twitter.

At least, that’s what the gurus say.

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A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about Google’s newest algorithym update (now called Panda or Farmer) and my reaction to all the hullabaloo surrounding it.

Which was, of course, a resounding yawn.

Without sounding like a gray-bearded Internet marketing Gandalf, I’ve weathered zillions of algorithym updates over the years (as has any marketer who’s been online for over a decade). And I can’t think of one major upgrade – from any of the major Search Engines (SEs) – that has not provoked a reaction from webmasters. This reaction, of course, is always the same…

Outrage. Anger. Hand wringing.

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Argh.

I got a promotional e-mail this morning from a marketer advertising a “Secret FaceBook Loophole” that “accidentally” made its discoverer $35,000 in one month.

Yeah, I get it. Marketers have to push the envelope in order to make their offers stand out. After all, their messages are battling it out with every other message in your inbox for your attention.

But this… well, it’s plain dumb.

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If you’re a webmaster who’s looked to contextual advertising solutions (like Google’s Adsense, Chitika, Netseer, etc) to monetize your site’s traffic, you’re in the minority if you haven’t seen ad revenues continuously dropping like a rock since late 2008′s sub-prime mortgage crisis.

I certainly have.

And while I have certainly witnessed some webmasters bitching about Google and how they seem to be paying out less than they used to be, that hasn’t been the case for me. As far as I’m concerned, we’ve hit the “perfect storm” of advertising issues. Here’s how I see it…

1. Visitors have become increasingly desensitized to ads, and click through rates (CTRs) have plummeted accordingly.
2. Things are still really tough in large parts of North America and the rest of the world. People have less disposable income, and are therefore less likely to click on an ad that will lead to a purchase.
3. With less disposable income available, advertisers are seeing lower conversion rates; people that do click through to their sites from an ad are less likely to make a purchase. Ultimately, this reduces the amount the advertiser can afford to pay for advertising, resulting in a lower payout for you.
4. Tough times and increased competition for fewer customers has forced some businesses into bankruptcy/or drastically reduced their advertising budgets. With fewer merchants competing for the same top keywords, advertising becomes cheaper, yielding lower payouts to you.
5. Fewer advertisers means a smaller bank of ads to draw upon, resulting in less targeted ads displayed on your site. This contributes to a constantly dropping CTR.

Like I said, the “perfect storm.”

So what to do about it?

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I’ve been watching several threads on SBI! for a while – including this one over at Lisa Irby’s 2CreateAWebSite.com. One thing I’ve noticed is that many of the questions folks have about SBI! are being asked over and over again.

And while the answers to these questions may seem obvious to seasoned net-marketers, they aren’t necessarily so to the people who have just recently considered turning to the Internet to supplement their incomes.

To that end, I’ve compiled a list of some of the most frequently asked questions about Site Build It! that I have encountered…

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Every time the engineers over at Google pull a couple of the levers here and push a few buttons there to make changes to their ranking algorithms, the inevitable outcry ensues…

Google has become too big for its britches.  Google thinks its “owns” the Internet. Google is striking out against SEO professionals and all the hard-working folks who rely on a certain volume of traffic to sustain their businesses. And so on, and so on, and so on.

It happens every single freakin’ time. You can pretty much set your watch by it; the outrage, the outcry, the contempt.

And for the life of me, I can’t understand why.

First of all…

Every single “enraged” webmaster needs to give his (or her) head a good, swift shake. Google is not in business to make you money. They are not in business to make me money. They do not owe you or I a living. They do what they do to increase the value of the company for its shareholders.

That’s it, that’s all. Get over it.

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The Internet “Traffic Myth” is probably the one most capitalized on by less-than-scrupulous “gurus” looking to pad their bank accounts.

Think about it for a minute.

How many times have you been pitched  a product, technique, or software tool that will – according to the guru in question – drive huge volumes of traffic to your web site and send sales through the roof?

I can’t even begin to count them.

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You’ve got to be freaking kidding me.

This morning, as I perused my e-mail over the first java of the day, I reviewed the notifications of visitor posts to my various WordPress-powered sites and sub-domains. As usual, there was a blend of both genuine comments and crap – spam comments that may have been posted manually, but were likely generated by some spammy software.

Normally, I just delete these outright, but occasionally, perhaps because of some bizarre mental defect, I actually check out the linked sites. I figure it may provide some insight into the type of marketer who considers posting spam on a moderated blog to be both an effective marketing strategy, and a good use of their time.

Anyhow, back to the case in point. Some genius going as “Jan”, posted this comment in response to my “Lis Sowerbutts’ BOGUS SBI! Scam Review” post…

“Remarkable post on the blog man, I absolutely like the look and also the feel of this excellent blog page. You write realistically well, you have got to be a aware guy. Will surely come back. Btw if you’re serious about your weight, here are good tips to follow.”

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It’s been a while since my last post here at No-BS-Marketing – a little disappointing, as I really wanted to be a little more on the ball delivering great content on a consistent basis. Oh well… the best laid plans of mice and men.

Or something like that.

So… the reason for my lapse?

A dramatic redesign of UltimateFatBurner.com (both the index page and content templates needed to be redone).

Frankly, I’ve known this has had to be done for a long time. It was just that it is such a HUGE and tedious (and currently ongoing) task, I decided procrastination was the best course of action.

However, things came to a “head” late this past summer. A friend of mine referred his daughter – a bright, university bound 19-year old – to the site when she had some questions about “trimming down.” She found herself so overwhelmed with the amount of information, she was unable to use the site at all.

When my friend reported this back to me, I knew procrastination was no longer an option. A redesign, painful as it may be, was the only course of action.

Since this is an Internet marketing web site, and since “usability” (a term coined by Jakob Nielsen) is the key to having your visitors interact effectively with your site – ultimately increasing revenue regardless of your monetization model – let’s talk about some of the reasons for the redesign, and why it absolutely needed to be done…

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It’s finally here! Kevin Riley’s Video Production Lab workshop has arrived…

This 13-week private workshop was originally offered only to Warrior Forum members. Since I wasn’t a member, I made a point to sign up in order to get on board; I’ve been a fan of all of Kevin Riley’s video creation products since I purchased my first one and used it as a guideline to create my first (and now rather dated looking) video.

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