Net neutrality is about allowing the telcos to dictate prices on a case-by-case basis instead of equal pricing for all consumers. What this means is that Google - a company I dislike - has a high stock price and without net neutrality AT&T (or whoever their local carrier is) can hike up the price of bandwidth just for Google. As much as I disagree with Google, they should not be hamstrung by their internet carrier and neither should any other online business.

While the Republicans are in favor of creating a business-safe environment their fear of government controls is clearly clouding their judgment on this issue.

“When you control the pipe you should be able to get profit from your investment.” -Sen John McCain

Mr. McCain, I agree 100%. You should absolutely get a profit for your work. You should not be able to screw companies over on a case-by-case basis when you are a utility.

While the telcos merge to become the all-new-all-different… AT&T… uh… wait… it’s not new, it’s not different and this company was already broken apart once for anticompetitive practices. Why would anyone expect them to behave differently?

Ok, people can change and businesses are made of people so maybe AT&T can change. Though my experience with them just a couple years ago says different. AT&T bought out Comcast, the local cable TV supplier and the customer service was horrible. Rates were increased. And soon AT&T sold the Sacramento area back to Comcast. There were investigations launched to determine what the hell went on there because the whole thing stunk and a lot of consumers got screwed.

So, maybe they’ve changed in the last couple of years and really have our best interests at heart.

Why would they be lobbying for anything other than net neutrality then?

Net neutrality means everyone who competes online gets the same pricing based on fair market conditions. These conditions and price ranges are set by the government which is unfortunate though I don’t see a better alternative.

Removing net neutrality creates a hostile business environment and severely damages smaller businesses ability to compete. Removing net neutrality also creates an opportunity to reduce the freedom of speech that is enjoyed online.

This is why the Republicans are Wrong and why Net Neutrality is the Most Important Issue in this Presidential Election

If a competitor to the local telco starts building traction all the telco has to do is increase their rates to limit the competitor or completely wipe them out. Telcos are into many different services including the familiar long-standing telephone service.

Telcos offer Internet Service Provider (ISP) services. The ISP market is competitive and eliminating net neutrality would destroy that increasing internet access costs for general consumers and businesses.

Consider other services (I found all of these on AT&T’s website): Email, DNS, Digital TV (think: SureWest), VoIP Phone (think: Vonage), Managed IT Services/Networking, Website Hosting, Hosting and Application Services, VPN Services, IP Blocks, Specialized Software Engineering, and Integrated Solutions.

As more jobs are being outsourced away from the United States, giving telcos dictator-like power over what companies survive online seems pretty stupid to me.

Now consider a website that speaks against telcos (like this one is doing right now). To eliminate this “threat” a telco can just increase costs of bandwidth for that one site.

Consider education and how it is flourishing online. Now consider politics. If a politician wants to eliminate websites dedicated to an issue he opposes, he can make a deal with the telcos to surge-price those websites.

This is giving away too much power to people that have a demonstrated lack of character or regard for anyone beyond themselves. Even in the current environment telcos charge outrageous prices for simple services - just ask anyone that works in a data center. Connecting one carrier to another comes with a price tag of $800 per month for 3 feet of cable. Local loop charges are even more extreme.

Like I said at the start, I agree telcos should be able to make a profit. That’s good business and good for the economy. Being able to control the flow of communication within the US with price-gouging should be beyond the power of telcos.

Republicans should remember why they hate taxes

Taxes increase costs and damage a business’ ability to compete effectively. Giving telcos the power to price-gouge is effectively letting an independent business with no controls the ability to “tax” at will.

Why the War is Not as Important as Net Neutrality

There are two reasons the war in Iraq is not as important as net neutrality:

1. The war is temporary. It may drag on longer than you like but eventually it will be complete, or as complete as we decide to make it and we’ll move on. Net neutrality is an issue that will directly affect every American and every generation of American from here on out.

2. None of the politicians really know what to do about Iraq but they can all do something about net neutrality.

I am a long-standing Republican and I will absolutely vote for the candidate that stands for net neutrality - even if they are a Democrat. I hope, pray and suggest that anyone who reads this does so also.

Posted in Business Owners, Website Designers, SEOs, Promotion, Industry News, Marketing, SEO, Web Design

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This story broke in August but it’s heating up again because MSN is still up to something.

MSN has been referral spamming websites. This means they “ping” a site with a bot acting like a human and leaving a link in the referral logs back to MSN’s website.

Spammers do this hoping you will check your logs and follow the links back to their site where you will make a purchase, click an ad, etc. MSN claims this is a “quality check” but what kind of QC wreaks havoc on your primary competitor’s ad program?

Microsoft’s bots are triggering some javascript including the one used for Google Adsense. You may recall that the click through rate determines the quality (value per click) of ads placed on your sites. With MSN’s referral spamming they are racking up impressions but not clicks damaging your CTR and ultimately, income. Continue Microsoft still referral spamming, jacking Adsense »

Posted in SEOs, Business Owners, PPC, Industry News, SEO

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I have made the switch from Google to Yahoo! as my default search engine. You may notice I have changed the site search function on this blog over as well.

While I think Google offers great products their ethics are wanting and I just don’t want to support them any more than I have to. There’s a good list of Google alternatives at Gevil.org if you are interested in reducing your reliance on Google.

You will notice that I have left Google Adsense up. While I take issue with some of Google’s policies I am still a businessman first. Until I find a service that comes close to pulling the same revenue I get with Adsense I won’t change that over. There’s a difference between making a protest and being stupid. Unfortunately YPN does not stack up in this arena.

However, I am happy to report that Yahoo! Search is proving to be much more reliable than Google’s. I’ve been hearing reports that Yahoo! has a higher satisfaction rate and can now see why - it just works!

While this was a personal choice for me I’d like to encourage you to try some other search engines as well. Here’s the big ones to look at:

• Yahoo!
• Live (Formerly MSN)
• Ask

There are some smaller and niche search engines you may want to try out as well:

• Clusty
• Icerocket
• Technorati
• Bloglines

The real issue at heart here for me is building the free internet I want instead of capitulating to the demands of a monopolistic empire. With more than 50% of the market share for search alone, Google is using its size to bully websites into falling in line with ‘policy’ - no matter how hypocritical the new policies are when stacked against Google’s mission statement, webmaster guidelines and public image.

My protest is a small one. I’m hopeful that this message will reach you and inspire you to try something different. If Google’s market share gets affected they will have to address their policies. I’m hopeful Google will go back to being a great service provider and their attempt to architect, engineer or police what the masses want online will stop.

Thank you for your support!

Update: Thanks to this great post by Ben, I have checked out a couple Adsense alternatives and settled on BidVertiser for now. That makes this site one big step closer to being Google-free!

Posted in Website Designers, SEOs, Business Owners, Reviews, Industry News, SEO

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Business owners: hire the right people to do the job, trust them to do it, and then give them what they need to get it done.

One of the most frustrating, money wasting activities consultants engage in is enrolling their clients to make the changes to their sites that are needed. Why did you hire the consultant if you weren’t going to give them the authority to do what’s needed?

Goals without action are wishful thinking, nothing more.

So once you decide you want something magical to happen with your website be prepared to change your website to make it happen.

I know this seems obvious but it needed to be said.

Posted in Business Owners

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Conversions are any change in a viewers behavior based on your message. Usually online this means clicking something but not always. Consider the following common conversions:

• Increased awareness of a business brand, product, service or person.
• Conversations or references for a business, person, product, service or article.
• Enhanced understanding of an issue that leads to more or less use of…
• Make a purchase
• Click a link

Increased Awareness

This is usually branding or making someone or something more recognizable to a viewer. This comes in handy for people looking to raise their stature in their industry or community. A great example of this are the politician’s websites that are gearing up for the November elections. Common examples are just about every business website out there - they all affect the brand of that business (for better or worse).

Conversations or References

If two people I’ve never met have a conversation about something I wrote that article is successful. If I can get people to link to something I wrote even better. Conversations and references are word of mouth or viral marketing. It’s a tough thing to make happen but always worth the effort.

Enhanced Understanding

Enhanced understanding naturally leads to people doing more or less of something. For most businesses they want the viewer to do more: buy more of our stuff!
But a non-profit may want people to do less: stop smoking, consume less energy, etc. The viewer has to make a choice to either ignore the message or accept it.

Make a Purchase

Making a purchase may come from enhanced understanding but it’s really about the value proposition and how your goods stand up against the competition. Competition that’s just a few clicks away online. Is your pitch good enough to get the viewer to stop what they are doing and navigate through your checkout process?

Click a Link

Learn more, order now, and subscribe are the most common calls to action I see. Then there are the ads including affiliate programs and contextual (Adsense). Sometimes getting the viewer to click the right link is the trick. Usability is the key to get viewers to click the links you want.

When I think of conversions for websites these are the categories I place them in. Once I know what types of conversions I’m looking for I start to define my market: not just people interested in “product x” but also people that will request more information or tell a friend about it or… whatever I want them to do. It’s a special type of person that will convert at all and a rare person that will do it the way I want.

I think that is overlooked on most websites. Traffic for the sake of traffic does not help your brand and can hurt it a great deal. Building traffic to increase conversions is as old as the internet. If you have 1,000 visits per day and 2% convert then if you get 2,000 visits per day your sales numbers double. Simple enough but what about the other 98% of viewers that didn’t get what they wanted? You also doubled the number of frustrated viewers which hurt the brand.

By knowing what you want your viewers to do and building the site around that your viewers will be much happier and your conversions will increase by percentages. How different would your bottom line be with a 5% increase in conversions?

Posted in Sales and Marketing, Business Owners, Customer Service, Marketing, Web Design

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