Being a professional in the digital marketing space, I have so often been asked this magic question "How can I be first on Google?". Wow... How can you? And so many have paid from $50 to thousands of dollars to unlock this Google mystery. Well this question is complex and simple all at the same time. Here I've included pointers on how you can improve your search ranking without the technicalities of meta tags and using search friendly URLs etc..

1. Create content that is perpetually relevant. While hype and gossip content (then again some gossip content especially exposed secret vids, are always popular) can bring about good traffic in the short run due to current interests in them, but if your content is something that people are forever relevant, it is more likely that other content writers will link back to your article and it's less likely that people will "bounce" (leave without reading) from your site.
2. Link your site EVERYWHERE! Wherever you migh have an online profile, remember to include your website. On Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Forums, even in review sites where you provide feedback. Your link your website to ALL your online profiles.
3. Apply common language (/sense). Use words in your content that your audience would be searching for.
   If you were your target audience, how would you search for your own site? Don't go too narrow (like requiring to name the street that you are at or your direct company name). If someone were looking for me and for some reason forgotten my URL though it's just (my name)spot. He may have met me at the TedxSingapore event and go searching TedxSingapore Ming or searched using my name on my name card Ng Ming Liang or just Ming Liang Web Marketing. In both instances, I come up right on top. Then again mine is a very personal name and unique event, so it's a little easier to come up on top. If you were doing something more generic like selling guitars online, you might consider winning on phrases which your target audience might use instead of trying for guitars Singapore, you could pick something like guitar effects Singapore, if your particular niche was in guitar effects. It's uphill trying to win just the generic term but if you picked a right niche, you might just beat the bigger boys to traffic. Usually the customers do know what exactly they want when they search. Even something like "(your competitor) sucks" can work. I remember finding tons of payment solutions when I put "paypal sucks" in Google.
4. Repeat these words often enough in as many pages and subpages as possible. Yes that's the only way the bot knows if your content is a match or not. It can't read your mind or pictures, it can only read what you write and the closer the match the better it thinks you fit the search requirement.
5. Write for others. Be a guest writer in other blogs and free article sites. These sites need fresh content all the time and you need the links.
6. Update frequently. This is straight forward, if a site has new content all the time, it's more likely that it's updated and relevant and hence it gets ranked better.
7. From above create a pool of content, content is king on search.
8. Don't just write... make videos... Yes! Google (the audience) love videos. Make them distribute them and link them back to your site. It's boring to read after a while, it's fun and cool to forward good videos.
9. Get credible sites to link you. One tip, look at schools and news sites. Find a way. Sponsor a school event? Internship?:) You know what to do...
10. Don't use Flash. If your site is on Flash, Google is blind to it. It doesn't know what you are doing or saying and so it ignores you. If your agency did your site in Flash they obviously don't know what they are doing and are just blinding you with nice visual effects.
11. If your business has a location, claim the listing/add the listing to Google Places. Straight forward enough.

Just remember... right words in your content, plenty of fresh content and lots of link back.

This posting is so wordy man... I'll find nice pictures another time. It's late now. Another point about writing articles, don't make it so wordy like me, it's likely that the reader will "bounce".

Like most things in life, if all else fails, hire a professional.

Noticed these fuzzy things on walls, posters, namecards and even flyers? In recent months, I've noticed QR fever in Singapore. So I'm going to write her some fun facts about this technology in marketing and advertising. Contrary to popular belief, QR is actually more than a decade old.

1. Created in 1994 by Toyota Subsidary Denso Wave
2. It was first designed to track vehicles during the manufacturing process
3. The technology has seen frequent use in Japan (no surprise there...)
4. QR codes are now used over a much wider range of applications, including commercial tracking, entertainment and transport ticketing, product marketing and in-store product labeling
5. Many of these applications target mobile-phone users (via mobile tagging). Users may receive text, add a vCard contact to their device, open a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), or compose an e-mail or text message after scanning QR codes. They can generate and print their own QR codes for others to scan and use by visiting one of several pay or free QR code-generating sites or apps.
6. Google has a popular API to generate QR codes
   
   More importantly...
   
   
7. FREE TO USE! The use of QR codes is free of any license. The QR code is clearly defined and published as an ISO standard. Denso Wave owns the patent rights on QR codes, but has chosen not to exercise them.
8. POPULAR CROSS PLATFORM! Apps for scanning QR codes can be found on nearly all smartphone devices.

Why then is it not on TuxSeeDo?

Well... mostly because at the moment we want to encourage experience and photo sharing on TuxSeeDo. QR is not a sharing technology and for something as Fun and experience oriented as TuxSeeDo. We'll do better with image/photo recognition and augmented reality technologies than having a barcode on steroids. Find out how TuxSeeDo is better able to help engage your customers and audience.

Moving TuxSeeDo from this to =============>THIS

After it's much awaited IPO, Groupon's stocks has been trading below it's opening value of $20. In 2010 January, when I was first asked my opinion about Groupon and it's business model. I gave it a two thumbs down in value to merchants and sustainability as a whole. All while world was expecting the startup to be the fastest startup ever to break the $500million revenue. When every other .com company wanted to jump in the business of daily deals. When the world seemed headed in the trend of deals... I gave it two thumbs down. For reasons just simple professional opinion of how Groupon creates a win (deal finders) - lose (merchants) situation. And that it was no more than discount aggregator on steroids that was overcharging.

However, amdist all the negative views about the company and it's sustainability, value to merchants etc, and the recent 75,000 cupcakes fiasco. I'm going be be a little contrarian and give Groupon a two thumbs up. Not for the sake of it, but with good reason. Having launched TuxSeeDo into the market, here's where I see Groupon deliver value to the same retailers that we are trying to help.

1. First, no cash upfront marketing. Where in the world can you find an advertising platform that reaches hundreds of thousands (in you locality) for nothing upfront? A simple 1 page advertisement on any newspaper would easily cost you thousands of dollars a day if not more.
2. Cash upfront for sale. Yes what's better than cash upfront. Even before the customer has arrived at your shop, he/she has paid for the deal. So as a business you know for sure an X number of people are going to come, you have all the time to plan how you intend to make money out of them. If they don't come, then well... the money paid up front is your compensation for their "no-show".
3. It's not Groupon's job to make the deal profitable. It's your own marketing/sales department's responisbility. Yes it is true that, you almost certainly make a loss on the sale on Groupon, but the deal/gimmick is your tactic to draw customers to your shop. So it's really up to the retailer to make the most out the effort.

On this note... Here are some reasons why retailers SHOULD work with Groupon and HOW they can make it work.

1. Retailers offer discounts all the time and in all forms. Whether it's a discount because someone is buying in bulk, or for stock clearance. What better way to offer these discounts than to a platform that will do it for no upfront cost and takes cash upfront on your behalf. I vaguely remember in 2007/8, Dell had a group buying discount deal that was going for Dell computers. With every additional buyer, the price of the computer would be reduced. This goes up to a maximum of 30% for 20 or 30 buyers. But... the response wasn't very good and I think there were less than 10 buyers on each of the deals that I attempted to buy from. I'm pretty sure with the number of people at computer fairs (like the recent Sitex). A 30% off computers on Groupon would be snapped up in no time.
2. Groupon is not an end in itself. As much as it looks like a e commerce site, it's not a distribution channel. It's a media/promotion channel. Comments on how Groupon deals are a loss to retailers are as rhetorical as saying that putting an ad on the newspaper or TV is cost to the company. In fact if properly planned as part of a sales strategy, Groupon could be a very low cost way of acquiring clients.Groupon is failing for those who have poorly planned their own sales strategy.
3. Groupon while it may not have the right attributes to be promote customer loyalty, it has all the attributes to help re-activate dormant customers. Giving that little edge and attention to activate previous customer. The rest... is up to the retailer.

As a ending note. Groupon didn't pay me to write this. Neither am I invested in their IPO. And I'm not invested in any deals/group buying companies. In fact, TuxSeeDo competes with Groupon on some levels. But in all fairness, I'll like to balance some of my earlier less positive outlook of the company with similarly professional opinions of the benefits of such a service.

I was reading this article on The Perks of Working at Google, Facebook, Twitter and More and it came complete with an infographic so I thought what the hell... I'm going to make one for TuxSeeDo as well. Though technically TuxSeeDo is the product and not the company. But here it is...

Yeah... We actually get staff discount by using our namecards at Popeye's Chicken at the Singapore Flyer. This is the latest in the perk list though some of the stuff that I would really want are like subsidised/regular massage (which I'm totally getting for my staff), full ice-cream freezer cafe (I should work out a long term arrangement with an  ice cream partner for this), paintball (non of the companies listed have this but I'm getting this for "team building"), we have a partner who also happens to be my financial planner so I think we don't have to worry about retirement planning and medical benefits, and finally we will have a green program so that we can not only save the environment but also save time and money on transport.

Alright... here's the infographic by ResumeBear as found on mashable

Had a good look? Still wanna work for TuxSeeDo?