August 2010 Archives

Presented by

 

Jennifer Dunphy with Vayu Media

and Dorothy Pritchett with The Legal Goddess Network

 

In this program you will learn:

 

􀁨 How to differentiate yourself from everyone else

􀁨 How to create the perfect elevator speech

􀁨 How to be comfortable with self promotion

􀁨 Where to start if you're new to growing your business

􀁨 How to personalize your message to resonate with different audiences

􀁨 How to connect with your most valuable clients

􀁨 How to create strategic relationships for business growth

􀁨 How to enhance your credibility in a personal and memorable way

 

Date, time & location:

• September 14th , 2010, 7:30 am - 9:30 am

• 1010 Midtown (Across from the new Loews Hotel), 1080 Peachtree St., Atlanta 30309

4th Floor Clubroom

• Continental breakfast provided

 

Investment:

$30 per person

 

To register:

Send an email with attendee(s) names, company name and contact details to

JDunphy@VayuMedia.com . An invoice will then be emailed for online payment.

Space is limited to the first 30 people, so register early to guarantee a seat.

 

 

About the presenters:

 

Jennifer Dunphy has provided marketing and public relations expertise to the business community since 2005. She currently manages marketing, public relations and oversees the South American operations of Vayu Media, an interactive marketing agency. Jennifer has extensive experience in public speaking and is often engaged to speak at seminars related to public relations, marketing, social media, SEO, and sales. Prior to joining Vayu Media www.VayuMedia.com  as the VP of Sales & Marketing, she was a corporate sales trainer, and ad account executive for an international publishing company. Jennifer was nominated as one of the Metro Atlanta's Chamber of Commerce Small Business Person of the year in 2009 & again in 2010. She is a Google AdWords authorized professional, as well as a SEMPO-certified Professional.

 

Dorothy (Dotty) M. Pritchett has 15 years of sales experience and more than 7 years of coaching experience. Dotty founded Andrew Grace Associates in 2002, a consulting company that focuses on career development (http://www.andrewgraceassociates.com). Clients appreciate her creative guidance and value her coaching as a positive catalyst for change in their lives.  Her Legal Goddess Network (http://www.legalgoddessnetwork) is a unique community for women lawyers to collaborate in business development. She was the Managing Partner of a division within one of the nation's largest executive search firms.

Dotty graduated with honors from the University of Maryland.  In addition to her membership in the International Coach Federation, Dotty is a member of the Georgia Coaches Association, International Storytelling Network, the Storytelling in Organizations and a coach with ProWin, a professional organization of business women.

 

How Do You Find High-quality SEO Services?


If you were tasked with finding a high-quality search engine optimization (SEO) partner, either consultant, agency, contractor, or some mix thereof, where would you start?

Finding SEO services that


1) don't suck, and 2) don't put your job (because of a poor decision) or your site (because of risky tactics) in jeopardy isn't a trivial exercise.

Beyond these essentials, what about retaining SEO services that are truly a cut above the norm, that are performed by a savvy and high-quality partner that is someone you can trust?

Scammers Abound


It must be stated that SEO is riddled with fakers, low-quality service providers, and outright scammers. As an open industry (on the open Web, no less) SEO is literally part of the Wild West. There are no sanctioning bodies, no third-party entities that can truly vet all SEO services. Because anyone can sell SEO without a license (or sadly, without any knowledge), the industry is rife with, frankly, crap.

Coupled with this reality is the fact that SEO is a combination of art and science. This lends its practitioners to a sort of hard-to-define artful and intuitive understanding of search engines, combined with the hard data of metrics and analytics, log file parsers, and semantic markup.

SEO is based on data, on delving through technical issues and problem solving. But its greatest opportunities come from combining the analytical side with an artful understanding of users and search engines, and using experienced hunches to gain a competitive edge.

SEO is in High Demand


High-quality SEO is in high demand indeed. There's a lot of money at stake, too. Traffic and ranking improvements can mean millions of dollars for a company's bottom-line revenues.

This has created a market with service providers who are adept at selling SEO services, but less skilled at carrying them out. Sadly, many SEO services do little to move a company's bottom line.

How to Find a Quality SEO Partner?


But it's not as bad as it may seem. There are some bright spots out there. Here's how to find a quality SEO partner:

Define what you need. In everything, there are specialists and particular talents, and SEO is really no different. If your site is a publisher needing traffic increases for CPMs, you'll have much different requirements than an e-commerce site looking for product-level conversions. Are you looking for link building emphasis, technical expertise, a strategic partner for growth in SEO? Defining what it is your site(s) need is the first step toward finding a quality SEO partner.

Ask around. Chances are someone you know already has an opinion or two about a SEO consultant or agency. Ask them. Use your social connections on LinkedIn and elsewhere (such as Twitter) to leverage your trusted network, too. Some of the best leads will be word-of-mouth referrals from people you trust.

Read trade pubs. Sites such as this one, ClickZ, Search Engine Land, SEOmoz, SEOBook, and others are a great place to get familiar with the faces and personalities of SEO. By reading industry sites you'll get to know what each of the contributors are like, what their particular style and strengths are, and what their personality is like. It's important when choosing a SEO partner that you not only look at particular competencies and experiences, but also what the personality fit is with your own company. Remember, you're looking for a partner, and it helps to be someone you'll enjoy working with.

Attend conferences. Conferences such as SES are probably the single best way to vet potential SEO partners. There are many advantages to being in person with these people, and it will give you the greatest ability to really "get" the particular skills and areas of focus a SEO can provide. It doesn't hurt that there are often many networking opportunities with ample alcoholic beverages, which always help to loosen lips and ease inhibitions; a great time to ask some pointed (and friendly) questions.

Dip a toe in the water. Don't be afraid to ask for a test or pilot, a three- to four-month trial, or specific SEO project. This gives you time to see what level of SEO the partner can bring to the table, and frees you up from committing to anything long term while you're still unsure.

What Warning Signs Should You Look For?


Now that you know how to go about looking for SEO services, here are a few things you should beware of -- things that should throw up red flags.

Watch out for SEOs that can't answer questions confidently. No one knows everything. In SEO, you can't expect someone to answer every question you pose with a perfect answer, but you can expect them to answer honestly and confidently. You're really just looking for confidence, generally: how competent and composed is the SEO you're dealing with? Do they know how to answer questions logically and reasonably, or do they get flustered and defensive by pointed questions?

Beware of odd pricing packages (agencies that optimize "by the page"). The days of optimizing 10, 20, or 100 URLs and calling that "SEO" are over. SEO isn't about a page or two, it's about a strategic approach that leverages a site's unique offerings, whatever they are. You can't do that by picking out a selection of pages and calling that "good." Companies that price by the page are using a short-sighted approach that more than likely doesn't have your best interests in line with their own.

Beware of packages, period. SEO is organic. Selling SEO by the package is just plain wrong, too. Why? Because SEO cannot be packaged. It is by nature an organic discipline that requires innovation, creativity, analysis and the willingness to try "out of the box" things. "SEO Package #1, 2, and 3" will stifle your SEO opportunity by limiting the universe of potential work that might need to happen to a set list of pre-defined criteria that a SEO company has placed within scope. This can impose restrictions on your SEO campaign, which you absolutely don't want.

Beware of SEOs using techniques that put you at risk. This includes buying links, cloaking with an intent to deceive users and/or search engines, stealing content, etc. Find out and be assured that the partner you choose doesn't mess around with any tricks that could harm your company.

Beware of restrictive contracts. Watch out for contracts that require a 90-day out, or that lock you into long-term commitments. No SEO contract should ask for more than a 60-day out, and a 30-day out is probably all that's required.

Strategic, quality SEO is something nearly every site must be aware of (even Google needs SEO). But it's not easy to find. Best of luck in your search!

Vayu Media is a top ranked Atlanta SEO Company and believes in full transparency.  Call us to discuss your internet marketing strategy.

 

Google's $4 Million Revenge on a Merchant

Google's  Million Revenge on a MerchantWhat happens when a small business owner gets on Google's bad side? In Ryan Abood's case, the answer is, "your business gets crushed and you spend a year and a half in internet Siberia." Do not trifle with The Google.

Abood kind of had it coming. The proprietor of GourmetGiftBaskets.com had been indirectly buying links to boost his position in Google search results, a big no no in the Google rulebook, he writes in Inc. magazine. But the rulebreaking was inadvertent; Abood said he had paid for ethical search engine optimization only, and one of the two companies (!) he hired to boost his search ranking broke with that policy. The entrepreneur was hardly a Google-gaming pro, in fact he had only thought to dabble in what's known as "SEO" after noticing that his parents' flower shop had done a tidy gift basket business thanks to its organic Google rank.

Crossing Google's guidelines got Abood effectively ejected from search results right before the 2008 holiday season, when he lost close to $2 million in business. He lost another $2 million or so in 2009 and didn't get back atop the search results until June, after Google revamped its search results. Google's Matt Cutts has confirmed the businessman's story via Twitter and added the warning, "our guidelines are clear on this topic." Translation: Let Ryan Abood be a lesson to the rest of you about how Google can bring the pain. Chilling.

There are two different outcomes that many websites or businesses strive for when they market themselves online but which is more important: achieving higher search engine rankings or really building out your business brand in the online space? Both are important and crucial for success online but which do you prefer?

Since the spawn of the search engines many people's mindset has always been to be on page 1. Everything they did online revolved around being on page 1 and we grew with the search engines thinking that the only way a website can succeed is to have high search rankings for their targeted keywords. As a website owner it is important to understand that things have changed, they are changing and they will change even more so it is important to be diverse. For some reason most people are in the mindset of approaching the search engine ranking ranking game with a short term marketing mindset (example: need high rankings by next week). Why is that? Do you plan on keeping your business around for just a short while? Building a brand around your business online will not only help your rankings but it helps you sustain your business well into the future. What is going to happen to your business if you spend all your time simply focused on rankings and all of a sudden Google makes a change where your rankings dip? If you have been simultaneously building your brand online you can weather that storm and keep bringing in new business but if you have been centered on just rankings than you could find yourself knee deep in mud with nowhere to go.

Search engine rankings and brand building should go hand in hand when venturing into the online marketing space. It doesn't matter what your business is building a brand has become even more important than ever before. Things like social media and the recent economic decline have caused businesses to really strengthen their online image. Purchasing behavior has changed and if you have a hard time acknowledging that you might find your business drying up quickly. Don't spend all your time on short term efforts because the long term marketing and branding efforts are just as important.

Improving Your Smile Made Easier With Advancements
DunsonDental.com Uses Latest Technology For Dental Implants in Centre Georgia

A
tlanta, Georgia -- Experienced cosmetic dentist Dr. Bernee Dunson, is finding new and innovative ways to improve his client's smiles through the latest and most advanced technology available in the dental industry.

Dr. Dunson takes pride in honing his skills as a cosmetic dentist, and his full-service practice and committed team of dental specialists offer quality cosmetic and family dental care in a convenient, state-of-the-art facility in Atlanta, Georgia. As a
Georgia cosmetic dentist, Dr. Dunson works to correct both minor and major dental imperfections. Due to the fact that Dunson Dental Design takes advantage of the latest technological advances, dramatic improvements can be made in just a few visits.

"My team and I try to see everything from the patients' perspective," said Dr. Dunson, and everything in their modern and spacious office is a nod to that statement. From the first free consultation, it would be hard to not notice the attention to detail in the 2,500 square foot office space. Those seeking
dental implants in Atlanta will be treated to the best dental equipment available including the best quality chairs and dental imagine equipment.

Not simply a
dental implant center in Georgia, Dunson Dental Design is also one of the most highly respected sedation dentists in the Atlanta area. Providing this additional service further demonstrates the care and consideration provided to their clients - affording a comfortable and relaxing dental experience to those who may be anxious about the procedures.

"It is extremely wonderful to feel valued and informed," are just some of many words of high praise from Dr. Dunsons' clients. Providing Atlanta,
Georgia dental implants services in such a relaxing environment while using the most sophisticated equipment, is no doubt what gives keeps people coming back. Dr. Dunson continues to blend the most advanced technology, a continuing education, and years of hands-on experience, and this allows him to deliver the most comfortable and professional dental experience for each and every patient.

 

For more information about cosmetic dentistry in Atlanta, services offered, or to schedule a free consultation with Dr. Dunson, visit: www.dunsondental.com or contact Dr. Dunson by email at: hdunson@dunsondental.com , or by phone at: (404) 418-8626.

 

About Dunson Dental Design:

 

Dunson Dental Design makes it easy to achieve that perfect smile. Dr. Bernee Dunson and our dental design team offer a wide range of popular services. Dunson Dental is conveniently situated in Midtown Atlanta to serve our patients in the metropolitan area as throughout all Georgia.

Dental Implant Specialist Declares Procedure Safe and Effective

Atlanta, GA - A local
Atlanta cosmetic dentist has spoken out regarding the use of dental implants for patients who suffer from missing, broken or cracked teeth.

Amid questions regarding the safety of titanium dental implants used to anchor replacement teeth to the jaw, Dunson Dental Designs has asserted that these implants "replicate the entire structure of a tooth from root to crown," enabling them to function as if they were the patient's original root.

Dr. Bernee Dunson, a noted
cosmetic dentist in Georgia, has been re-creating patient's teeth for over a decade, and has seen a great deal of change in the area of dental implant technology.

One concern that has been raised by many individuals seeking a tooth repair or implant solution is that the implants may become cracked or deformed over time. By "tailoring the design of crowns, bridges, and dentures to the unique shape of each patient's mouth," Dunson Dental Design is able to ensure that the crafted replacement teeth match the originals in strength and longevity.

Safety concerns have also been noted about the use of dental implants, even those done by skilled specialists. Due to the nature of the implant, which gradually adheres itself to the jawbone over time, it is the healing ability of each patient that most significantly impacts the safety of the procedure.

For that reason, Atlanta cosmetic dentist firms such as Dunson Dental Design conduct a thorough examination of each patient, their medical history, and the current condition of their teeth and gums, in order to determine if they are an ideal candidate. If so, a personalized treatment plan can be created.

With some of the best cosmetic specialists in the state of Georgia, Dunson Dental Design is committed to monitoring the entire procedure - from the sedated titanium root surgery to the implant affixing itself - in order to ensure the highest standards of safety are maintained.

In recent years, the demand for functional and attractive dental implants has risen dramatically, and according to Dunson Dental Design, these implants are absolutely safe when installed properly.

 

For more information about cosmetic dentistry in Atlanta, services offered, or to schedule a free consultation with Dr. Dunson, visit: www.dunsondental.com or contact Dr. Dunson by email at: hdunson@dunsondental.com , or by phone at: (404) 418-8626.

 

About Dunson Dental Design:

 

Dunson Dental Design makes it easy to achieve that perfect smile. Dr. Bernee Dunson and our dental design team offer a wide range of popular services. Dunson Dental is conveniently situated in Midtown Atlanta to serve our patients in the metropolitan area as throughout all Georgia.

Atlanta - August 2th, 2010  TAG Education Collaborative (TAG-ED) has announced the launch of their new website at http://www.tagedonline.org.  The user-friendly site offers information about the organization's operation, programs, events, as well as resource information and news.

 

"This site is an effort to provide TAG-ED with a platform to create more community awareness about the importance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and its role in the development of the next generation of innovation.", said John Hurlbut, Executive Director of TAG-ED. "We wanted a clean and navigable website that our stakeholders will find appealing and informative."

 

Visitors to this site can read about the organization's history and services, as well as the profile of each member of the TAG-ED Board of Directors.

 

The new tagedonline.org site was built by Glick Interactive to be a destination for visitors to learn about TAG-ED news as well as education news around the country while giving TAG-ED sponsors a way to advertise and promote messaging towards the TAG-ED constituency. "We built the TAG-ED site on the Drupal platform to give the TAG ED administrators the power of a content management system (CMS) to manage the site content, events, and sponsorships", stated Abhi Goel, President of Glick.   The website is hosted at Colocube (www.colocube.com), a TAG-ED sponsor.

Formerly the TAG Foundation, the TAG Education Collaborative is a 501c3 non-profit organization which was formed by the Technology Association of Georgia in 1999. In 2009, the organization's name was changed to the TAG Education Collaborative (TAG-ED) to facilitate a re-branding that would enable it to be a catalyst for Georgia's K-12 education system to become a leader and innovator for STEM related education. TAG-ED's efforts in this area are vital to the development of the talent that will be required to fill the growing demand for qualified staff for careers in information technology, science and engineering.

 

Glick Interactive as an Atlanta based, full-service web development and design firm with international offices in Moscow and New Delhi. Glick leverages the latest Internet and interactive technologies to make its clients successful. Glick takes pride in its work and constantly strives for excellence.

 

About The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG)

TAG is a leading technology industry association dedicated to the promotion and economic advancement of the state's technology industry. TAG provides leadership in driving initiatives in the areas of policy, capital, education and giving, and also brings the technology community together through events, initiative programs and networking opportunities. TAG serves as an umbrella organization for 27 special interest groups, or Societies, including Women in Technology (WIT). Additionally, TAG's charitable arm, the TAG Education Collaborative, is focused on helping science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education initiatives thrive. For more information visit the TAG website at http://www.tagonline.org or TAG's community website at http://www.TAGthink.com.

 

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About this Archive

This page is an archive of entries from August 2010 listed from newest to oldest.

July 2010 is the previous archive.

September 2010 is the next archive.

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