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'A' is for...

by MJ Sterling
3 replies
This is old school offline marketing and I haven't seen anyone mention it in the IM circle before (maybe they have and I missed it, maybe it's just not too important anymore).

Before this interweb thingy came along we used business books and directories to find the services we need.

The clever businesses would name themselves something with the letter 'A', so they appeared at the start of the directory.

Today there's shed loads of online directories around, and some still list businesses alphabetically (dmoz.com for one).

While thinking if this could still be applied to the way we market on the Internet, I thought about some of the biggest sites around.. amazon.com, alexa.com, about.com..

I'm not saying you need to start your site with the letter 'A', far from it (look at WF), but it would be interesting to see if you good folks think a method like this could be still relevant, today.
  • Profile picture of the author bigdaddy99
    I think the real change is the ability to search.

    If I understand you correctly, you're referring to something like a phone book, where in the Yellow pages, I can go to P for plumber and Adams Awesome Plumbing comes before Zekes Zippy Plumbing because the listing is alphabetical.

    People would then call Adams awesome plumbing first, because they are first on the alphabetical list of businesses.

    Now though, the issue seems to be more like adams awesome plumbing had better have a name, address, and some keywords that reflect what they do. Otherwise Zekes Zippy Plumbing that has an article or two about replacing leaky toilets or sweating pipes could certainly come up first in a search for something like "leaky toilet oakland" assuming you live in oakland

    Also, if there are directory sites, and even other sites such as blogs or product selling sites where their search or search results pages suck, then people won't be able to use them and will go to another site.

    So, in a nutshell, I think that the ability to search and search well, as largely made the name of the business or product less of an issue than it has been in the past because searching has become fundamental to the way people do business these days.

    bd99
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  • Profile picture of the author 1960Texan
    The Internet equivalent of the "A" heading in the yellow pages is the first page in Google (or Bing, or Yahoo). The closer you get to the top in the SERPs, the more opportunity you'll have.

    Another method that I've also had great success with is forum posting. It's easy enough to find forums relevant to your niche, just Google "Forum: skateboards" and you'll pull up a slew of forums on that subject. It works for almost any niche, as long as it's not an extremely small micro niche. With forum posting the secret is to be a contributing member of the community, just like many (if not most) of the members here on the Warrior Forum.

    Will
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  • Profile picture of the author ToniMaltano
    I really don't think so. In the internet it's all about ranking high in search engines
    and placing ads. This is where your traffic will come from. That's just my take on
    it, maybe someone is getting millions of visitors with this method If so raise your
    hand buddie.

    By the way, your location is so damn great.
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