While I know that this is not a very widely accepted opinion of the current PageRank over position debate, I wanted to give my 2 cents!

Page Rank, or the little green bar on the Google toolbar which gives your site a ranking from N/A – 10 has been around for a good long time now.

Originally it was clear and apparent that Google PageRank was a direct correlation to how Google viewed your site, your positioning, and overall just how well your site was performing.

Then, after (roughly) a year long period of algo changes, google decided it was time to lay the final blow on spam sites, porn, pharmacy, and link farming.

Here is what I believe was the outcome of those changes, and where I expect to see PageRank end up in the future.

    Google has stopped allowing us as SEO’s to use page rank as a determining factor on sites position, and while having a 7PR is still a notable accomplishment, it is not the end-all be-all for SEO any longer.

It is clear that there is a wedge driven between your sites PageRank and the position that you achieve in the SERPs for instance, Post Florida update, after all the pharmacy and junk got purged from google, you can see that even sites with a overall low (2,3,4)PageRank were crawling to the top. Essentially, the linking structures which were causing the bloating of PageRank began to fall away, leaving sites that were more about the content richness and quality of information… exactly what google wanted. Now , Years later , there are still debates as to how important PageRank is to your website. I am going completely against the grain , and stating that PageRank has become a way of determining link popularity… but not in any way directly correlating to your SERP placements. I know I KNOW all the Search Marketing pros out there are most likely going to behead me for this… but you can get great rankings by just coding cleanly, and creating regular, unique and compelling content before you ever place a single reciprocal link. That being said, there is nothing wrong with same “niche” reciprocal linking … SEOs can link anywhere within the “house” of web development and gain PR, however it wont always determine your Authority or relevance in your industry. For those of you who want to argue this point out… and show me how many large PR sites they have WITH position … ask yourself, if you just stuck to subject, knew your Sh** and never got a single reciprocal or 3way link to your site … would it really change your positions?

GmC – Seo Guy

Hello again everyone, I wanted to take the time out to post a little something about my personal passions, and how I am beginning to represent them on the web:

PoweredGreen.Org - Powered Green is a Fringe Technology Green Energy Forum, The idea being that if everyone pitches in , comes up with easily implementable ideas for Green power, and helps to fund it for their Country, State, City or even “Zone” we can all make a serious impact on the environment. While this site is under construction, feel free to drop by and register for an account. I am looking for Cooperative individuals to help me develop this idea!

Mysaltwaterreef.com – This site is going to be devoted to my love for saltwater reef keeping, and how I feel it is the duty of all reef keepers to give back to the ocean. Frags will one day be the only way we will be able to replenish our oceans after all! Just purchased the domain , so give me some time to get her rolling!

Also Don’t forget my Sales Sites!

Codesource SEO and Endurance Hosting!

Both of these sites have been live almost as long as my career!

Over the past week, we have been preparing our first set of email marketing campaigns. Charlie, our lifecycle expert and I have been hashing out the do’s and don’ts of email campaigning, and I feel that everyone should be involved in the conversation.

1. The Difference Between a newsletter , an e-Zine and a Specifically geared email marketing campaign:
   1. Newsletters – Newsletter campaigning is a crucial part of your communications with your customers, but what is the best way to give them the vital information you need to display, without making them feel like they are getting bombarded with advertising. I personally feel strongly that education of your customer and marketing of your products and services should be kept relatively separate, and here is why. When someone signs up for your newsletter, they are not asking to be spammed, or marketed, they are asking for news and information. They expect to see some advertising, however for the most part they are only casually interested in what you have to say. If you bomb their email with spam letters, after they have filled out a newsletter signup, they will leave. Now this does not mean that you can’t add a banner to your newsletter, just that it should never look like your trying too hard to make money off your newsletter!
   2. E-Zine – E-Zine or online magazines are web pages on some sub domain of your website, they are simply not email marketing. However you can add the high points of your e-Zine to your newsletter and even point the bulk of your email traffic to that location.
   3. Email Marketing – Simply put, this is the bulk of emails you receive from everyone, Simple, to the point emails with a single, or perhaps even dual call to action layout. DO THIS then DO THAT to GET THIS = Direct funneling of your email traffic to the proper location on your site to complete a particular action that makes you money or gives your company something. In the past week our company has gotten the tracking and implementation sections of our new marketing campaign nailed down we have decided to partner with Blue Hornet as our email provider. They have great software, and are well geared for tracking and referral purposes. It is a very verbose admin that you should definitely try out before choosing where to shoot your campaigns from. Adam Ireton is our rep there, so ask for him if you ever want a demo, and tell ‘em iCan Sent you!

Our current members will be receiving the first email, a newsletter and coming soon teaser for the 2009 upgrades to HCCUA.ORG Then we are sending out a Referral Campaign and Trying to get more people to see that the Health Care Credit Union Association “Creates Extraordinary Lives” every Day.

So , Today is the day I officially paid and reserved my spot in the Internet Marketing course at Full Sail. I have been in the SEO/SEM ring for a long time now, and punching thru to become one of the locally “known” search marketing consultants in my area has been a great milestone in my career. Starting January 09 I will be attending classes to learn some of the most bleeding edge SEM skills in my industry, taking what I already know and applying Full Sail University’s rich history of giving their students only the best tools and knowledge. As I grow into this class , I will of course be bringing a few of the juicy SEO hints , SEM Tricks and of course more of my personal nonsense J

Stay Tuned — 09 is bound to be the best year yet!

Greg Chernoff

Well, this is one thanksgiving for the books…. No turkey, no Cheer, but lots of parades and football! I was out sick, and basically stuck for turkey day!

After spending the first half of this week desperately fighting to stay at work, I finally succumbed to whatever this sickness is Tuesday afternoon, and I am just now starting to come around. Although I am sure Dee is right, I can’t help but feel like all the bugs in the building are out to get me! First a nasty sore throat 2 weeks ago, now this sinus/head cold nonsense J Regardless, here I am back in iCan, and although this is a slow day (most of the ladies are out shopping… Black Friday) I feel we have accomplished a lot. We are Very Close to setting up our first set of serious email campaigns, and are well on our way to great Organic Rankings. 7 Months ago , this company had no websites at all , and we are rolling strong at 34 separate sites , each devoted to one niche or another of our company. Business Management, Direct Response Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Accounting, and so much more each with their own place to discuss what makes their position at iCan so important and Fun! Starting Next year we will be bringing in some of the top guns from each of these departments to speak, and have videos of everyone available on our blogs and websites! Stay tuned to iCan as we are just getting started, and have a great time eating your leftovers this weekend!

 

Greg – iCan Web Guy

 

Well, nearly a year has passed since we began the iCan Projects, and now things are about to change.

Although I am disheartened to lose my team, I am confident that with this gigantic change in our structure here at iCan-Media, it will only help to expand and grow our wonderful group.

Ian and Levi will now both be in different departments, splitting up the web group into their proper divisions( Levi Joins Oliver , Amaury and Dominique in the Technical team , While Ian is now moving over to the newly formed art department!) I will still be handling many aspects of the search marketing here, and will continue to post updates and ideas. Our search marketing campaigns are organically sound, and starting next year we will be attacking the web with marketing like no insurance company before! Thanks for reading my blog everyone, and don’t forget to sign up and comment sometime!!!

 

GmC

I wanted to give a quick shout out to our Quality Assurance technician, Skip LaCroix, Happy Spooky birthday buddy. Also, I wanted to welcome back my boss Ghen , the VP of media. He has been travelling Europe in a Stolen M3 … Just kidding!!! Jason, our Benefits manager, got an awesome new car IN Germany, and got a chance to drive it for a bit before they ship it out to the US.

Now that they are back, it’s back to work … crunching and deadlines for a bunch of new products! Our lead artist here in the web department, Ian Hench – Graphic Artist, is working on some sick new designs for the iCan Media website. We can’t wait to show off what he is thinking up for iCan Media!!!

Also, I have been slowly training the office to use their new blogs. Ray Brookstein can now post his thoughts whenever he feels the need. Dr Morgan is rolling along with her blog, and its turning into a great Health Information center! All in all we have made some great progress this week, launching the HCCUA Back Office – Our members love it, and getting ready for the agent template systems and the Agent back office next! On an SEO front I have watched as week by week iCanBenefit.com gain positions in all my major med initiative terms, as well as our group and affordable health insurance campaigns… Still maintaining that Low CPL on our paid campaigns , and getting ready for the pet sites launch and our first piece of Ecommerce Business!

I absolutely love it here at iCan, there is not a single dull moment, and Mondays go by like Fridays … Fast and furious!

As for my “Manic Monday” We are developing a new State Map for HCCUA, a new VOC System for all our members, and I am taking some time out this week to handle all of the CodeSource SEO clients time, and update CSEO with some fresh content and new pricing! We have come so far in the last 7 months time , developing not only the sites we promised at the beginning of the year, but all the corporate blogs , and the marketing campaigns for the Health Care Discount Plan, and our Major Medical Health insurance Division.

With the year winding down, the economy in a tight corner, our company is using this time to organize structure and complete all the outstanding projects each and every department has on their plates. This is a great time to be working for the iCan Group, as this place runs not only as an insurance company, but a huge Think Tank and business incubator! We all have put forth some great business ideas, and will be hashing them out over the next 2 months, until we decide which major direction we will be heading in the future! So stay tuned everyone, as the brilliant people that brought the controversial Billy Mays Health insurance campaign, will strike again soon!

The software is out there, and has been for years. The ability to look at every one of your customers as more than just a view or conversion , but to see what pathways they take , what causes some to disappear, while others become another proud member of HCCUA or an iCan Major Medical Health Insurance customer. Deep granulation is important for all websites, and Google has made it so simple to track your sites like a pro! The Google Suite of Webmaster tools , and services like adwords and adsense round off a great library of information about how to make Ad Revenue and properly spend marketing dollars, and analytics ties it all together , showing you how each campaign ,across e every engine , is performing.

Currently we are running Analytics for every site we have live, as well as in the planning stages to run banner and email campaigns using analytics tracking tags. Now if anyone ever tells you “it takes a professional” to setup analytics systems, they are completely wrong! You can get completely setup for a website in less than 20 minutes, complete with all marketing channels tagged and bagged and ready to present in your dashboard reports.

For a company our size, I still utilize Google for my tracking, as I can implement everything on multiple campaigns easily, and make changes on the fly. Initially, you are given a pretty verbose “report” on your dashboard page, but you can add information from any marketing channel to your dashboard, and produce professional reports in PDF right from the site. Now there are other incredible platforms for analytics, such as Omniture, which incorporates a number of much more advanced functionalities, and are definitely a huge step up from the free Google Tools, but if you don’t have a lot of money to spend… Google can’t be beat!

My suggestion, if you haven’t already, is to go ahead and sign up and get your site traffic really broken down Right away. You will be able to see “holes” in your marketing that is causing drops, and be able to turn a customer frown upside down

Till next time

Greg Chernoff

WebGeek

If you’re a “green under the gills” webmaster or even a seasoned “worked on seo before the phrase was coined” online marketing expert, seeing your rankings climb each and every month is always a thrill!

This month I have watched not only my major corporate product (The Affordable Health Insurance Co.) jump but also I have gotten first page rankings for Florida SEO, Florida Search engine Optimization, Boca Raton Florida SEO, and many others for Codesource-seo.com! (This site is like my son, and I’m so proud!)

Currently we are starting work on some exciting products here at iCan

• Our pet care line of products, which includes a pet discount card, and some awesome added bonuses.
• Our Retail line of health and wellness discounts!
• And a number of niche benefit products that I’m sure everyone will enjoy.

And we have a number of great new initiatives in the works.

• Blogs for Everyone!   �
  • Not only did we setup the marketing team with blogs, but now we have blogs in the works for
    • Dr. Lynn Morgan – HCCUA Presidents Blog
    • Ed Shatz – Member Services Blog
    • Ray Brookstein – Major Medical Health insurance Blog
• New Social Sites!
  • iCan Health Insurance on MySpace!
  • iCan Pet Club – Better then Pet Insurance – On MySpace!

And more on the way so stay tuned!

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