Scepter Launches Online Billboard Model

On our official blog we have just unveiled the beginning of what we are calling The Lansing Network. The Lansing Network is a group of websites that Scepter is launching for the area. The goal of the websites is to help people in the city connect with businesses, organizations, and each other in new and meaningful ways.

GymsInLansing.com is one of the first sites that we are beta testing. While it's nothing revolutionary, it represents a model of marketing that is well known in the offline world but not as well known in the online world. The concept is that of billboards.

Gyms in Lansing is essentially a billboard online and functions in much the same way as offline billboards. When ranked at or near the top of the SERPs for keywords related to gyms or work out facilities in lansing, it will likely attract a very good amount of traffic which would warrant the leasing of it.

The whole operation is just getting underway and we are expecting to see significant results by year end 2011. Stay tuned for more!

Letter to a Client about Comparing SEO Services

If you’ve had a website with a contact form for any length of time, you have probably gotten an email from one of them claiming that they can get you great results in the search engines by doing XYZ marketing tactics. I recently had a prospective client who was trying to sell his book, ask me to compare and contrast a competing company’s SEO services with my services. I figured that this information would be helpful to others of you as well who are considering purchasing SEO services to get you more exposure and more traffic...

 

Read More at ScepterMarketing.com: Letter to a Client about Comparing SEO Services

WP Pages All Get 404 Errors Except Home Page (Index.php)

Today I ran into a pretty darn frustrating problem. I had moved a wordpress-based client website offline to work on it and somehow lost ALL of my interior pages. My home page, the index.php page, came up fine, but every link I clicked on led me to a 404 Not Found Page. After double-checking that the wordpress database had been moved properly, I started poking around online. As you probably know, trying to figure out the solution to your problem online can be just as frustrating as the problem itself. I figured I would post this solution...

Read the solution at Sceptermarketing.com:WP Pages All Get 404 Errors Except Home Page (Index.php)

SEO: Why Search Engine Marketing and Optimization Rule The Day | From Scepter Blog

Nearly everyone uses the internet to search for information that interests them. People search for information about companies, schools, local businesses, products, services, certifications, and just about everything else. Because of this, the internet has become the place to be for those companies who want to bring in new customers and new business. In order to be effective online a business needs two things. Firstly, it needs a website. Having a professional website allows your company to make a great first impression with the prospective customers who visit your site. But having a great website is not enough...

 

Read more on ScepterMarketing.com: SEO: Why Search Engine Marketing and Optimization Rule The Day

Scepter Marketing Announces it's WordPress Center

Scepter Marketing is just announcing it's Wordpress Center. This new portion of their website is offering a variety of Wordpress services including Wordpress setup, installation, customization, hosting, video tutorials and help.

As Wordpress continues to grow an ever wider user base, it is Scepter's sincere hope that they will be able to assist those users in everything wordpress. Over the next couple of weeks we will be announcing each feature here on our Posterous in greater detail so stay tuned! For now, you can view our WordPress Center links on our website below.

  

WordPress Setup, Installation, and Hosting

Everything You Need to Get Started with WP!  

Affordable Web Page Design

Need Help Setting Up or Configuring Your WP Website? We can Help!  

Custom Wordpress Design and Development

Get Help with Changing Your Layout, Adding New Features, or Redesigning Your WP site  

Christian School Website

Here is an example of one of the latest websites that we've created over here at Scepter. The website was built on Wordpress utilizing a premium theme that had many features which we heartedly utilized to create this brilliantly clean looking website.

The website was for a Christian school in Lansing MI. You can read more about this project on our website and see the rest of our work in our portfolio

Scepter Dives into WordPress

Over the last two years I've grown to love WordPress. The open source community is fantastic and have pretty much created enough themes and plugins to solve almost any need that I have had so far in my internet career. The ones that I couldn't find for free have been solved for under $100 which is the most I've ever seen for a niche theme. Generally, a well done ThemeForest theme can get the job done for $35!

However, there have been a few times when clients have needed some custom work done to fit there unique needs, and up until now I have mostly had to direct them to developers. But I have decided to make the leap into finally learning PHP and the WP CMS so that I can solve my clients' issues (and my own) more readily without outside help.

I have already solved a few issues with clients' sites myself and I'm enjoying the learning process. In fact, I'm enjoying it so much that I'm going to start offering these services through my company. We are already well adept at setting up and configuring WP and we have set up entire sites for clients using the WP community's themes and plugins. Now it's time for us to start venturing into our own custom wordpress stuff - design, development, themes, and plugins.

I've already talked to the Scepter team and we've begun work on a few different WP themes. Some we hope to sell, and others we hope to give away through WP.org's directory and others. Who knows, if we get good enough at this stuff and like it enough, we'll probably even set up our own affiliate-type system like the other large WP developers out there.

Anyway, I'm excited about our new ventures.

- Marketer Matt - King of the Internet

Changing Things Up

There are points in life where we have to make the decision to stick with what we're doing or change it up. Of course changing things usually means a new learning curve and can definitely be risky. It is in just such a postion that I've found myself recently. Having acquired much knowledge in internet marketing, I have built a company that is profitable month in and month out servicing small businesses in my local area. Business is growing, and for that I am thankful!

But I've always wanted to do something big. Bigger than what I'm doing now. And recently, I've been presented with the opportunity to work with a few different groups of people on some potentially major projects... And I'm taking them up on it.

So what will become of Scepter Marketing? I'm not sure exactly. All I can say is that I will continue to service my current clients and probably even take on some new ones. But even now things are changing. If these big projects go well, it may very well open up the door to having the type of business that I've always wanted. In fact, these opportunities, if they turn out well, may end up rocketing Scepter Marketing forward because of the capital to hire a staff and because of the "link juice" I could command while working on these projects.

Anyway, as an entrepreneur, I'm always down for doing something new and exciting if it'll be worth my time. I have three projects that I'll be working on. You can read about them here: Scepter Internet Marketing Blog

Wish me luck,

- Matt

Announcing the new Get Rooted website!

Over the past several weeks I have had the privilege of working on the site GetRooted.org which is an online discipleship curriculum and social network for Christians. Get Rooted is best described as a movement - a movement that focuses on making sure that Christians are truly being discipled through both teaching and mentorship.

So far, the project has been pretty intense. I've logged over 50 hours in just the last week alone on the project but it has been satisfying seeing it come together! It's been a challenge to implement all of the interesting functionality that this unique platform requires but it's been fun. Perhaps it takes an odd person to actually like problem solving and systematizing but that's me, all day every day!

As of right now, users are able to login to the site, read through 7 lessons of curriculum, take quizzes, receive free downloads for successfully completing quizzes, message each other, create groups, and a few other things. Leaders in the program also have special access to a "leader" section of the website that gives them tools to help them disciple those people under their care. The thought behind this, if I understand it correctly, is to get great materials into the hands of those who are discipling others where they may have not had any real resources which I think is a great idea.

Jerome, the head of the movement, is a great guy to work with and it about as intense as they come. He has plans to take this movement nation wide and I'm excited about the possibilities, not just monetarily, but even more so in being able to teach worldview to Christians who have no idea that such a thing even exists. It's a sad state that most of the American Church is in, and I see Get Rooted as a platform to help Christians actually start to think with "the mind of Christ."

Of course, no site that is put together in a week has all the kinks worked out, nor does it have all the features that were dreamed of. In the near future, we will hopefully be extending the functionality of the site to be more like the famous Facebook with picture albums and friend tagging, welcome messages for new users, allowing users to login with social media, and many new design elements.

So all in all, I'm still excited about the possibility. It's a great feeling to have so many irons in the fire that you know it's just a matter of time before one of them gets hot! Get Rooted is already heating up rapidly and we at Scepter Marketing can't wait to see it extend its reach into all of the un-discipled spots in America!

Best Places to Learn Real SEO

I thought I'd take a few minutes to share some of the best articles that I've found on link building in case anyone else there wants a short cut. ( I love short cuts! ) So here are a few good places to get started learning how to build links to your website to raise higher in the SERPs (search engine results pages).

• WordTracker Academy
• SEOMoz Blog
• V7Z Forum
• Digital Point Forum
• SEOBook

These are probably the top sites that I have used to learn about SEO, both on page and off page. While there are literally hundreds of other sites out there teaching SEO, these are the ones that I've found to be the "horse's mouth" from which most of the best information comes from that winds up on the hundreds of other blogs out there. There are tons of other experts and "gurus" out there but I've found these ones to offer the most sound practices without all the hype-ness that is common to internet marketing gurus.

So yeah, hopefully these help you like they've helped me!

 - Marketer Matt

So I Had an Idea...

As a sign of marketing prowess some internet marketers optimize their personal websites or blows for silly but awesome keywords. Brad Fallon is probably the best know example having optimized his site for the phrase “coolest guy in the world”.

I was thinking about doing a similar keyword phrase for my site and I’ve decided on the phrase “king of the internet”… modest right?

Now I’m hardly the king of anything right now, but this post is my brainstorm of what someone (ie. myself) would have to do to somewhat legitimately hold that title.

Here are some things that I think would get me enough street credibility to hold the self-proclaimed title:

Have at least one of my business websites in the top 10,000 Alexa rankings
Have done the marketing for all different website types including local businesses, e-commerce stores, affiliate marketing sites, business websites, and blogs
Have my personal blog in the top 10,000 Alexa rankings
Have made it on to some of the lists of the biggest movers and shakers online like the one put out by Bloomberg
Have launched dozens of people into market leadership in various niches both big and small
Have helped thousands of small businesses with their internet marketing
Have reached the status of "Internet Guru"

Obviously these are lofty goals and they will take quite some time. Fortunately, just like Brad Fallon probably isn’t the coolest guy in the world (sorry Brad!), I don’t actually have to have all of these credentials to get ranked for my term either.

I’m looking forward to the day where I can say to a client, “yeah just Google ‘king of the internet‘ if you want proof of my abilities.”

You know it'd be sweet! This should be fun :-)

And for all you other internet marketers out there, find your own unique phrase capiche?

 

Untitled

These are some of the notes I took from a WordTracker webinar that I thought were helpful to the link building and brainstroming process.

Here's the video if you'd like to check it out: WordTracker Link Building Video

 

Why would other sites link to yours?

• Friends in your industry
• Directories
• Resource Lists
• Trade associations
• Local groups
• Suppliers
• Customers
• Specialist groups

How many people would link to you because of who you are? Or what you do? Or people you have working for you? Or people you help?

• Ask them for a link
• Show them how to link
• Comment on blogs and forums
• Give tips and tricks to using your services / products
• Publish helpful articles and videos on your site
• Publish on other sites
• Comment on breaking news stories

Because of what other people say about you...

• Make comments on what you've said
• Review your products or services
• Passing on tips
• Published news articles and features
• Recommending you because your products is complementary

Types of Links to Analyze

• Competitors Backlinks
• "Big Personality" websites 
• Search link results and apply filters such as "green" to see which links have "green" in the URL / check also ".edu", ".org", "blog", etc. news and article sites
• Look at sites linking to magazines / news sites in your industry

Hopefully this helps you in your Link Building efforts as much as it's helped me!

 - Matt from Scepter Marketing

Local Email Marketing

Local email marketing is absolutely necessary for every small business! From restaurants to salons to contractors to attorneys to grocery stores - every one of these businesses should be using this tool.

"Why?" do you ask? Well, the Direct Marketing Association reported that email marketing had THE HIGHEST ROI of all internet marketing related services. It performed better than SEO, SEM, PPC, CPA ads, or even social media marketing!!

So what is local email marketing? Local email marketing is the simple process of collecting email addresses and marketing to them over and over again. You then have the ability to send out coupons, surveys, and news about exciting changes or events that your business is involved with!

Doing this keeps your business fresh in the minds of your customers and therefore has the potential to boost customer retention significantly. The more you interact with customers, the stronger relationship you can build with customers and the better off your business will be.

Why spend tons of time and marketing dollars getting new customers if you aren't keeping the ones you have? Learn how our local email marketing services can help your business boost your business by keeping your customers coming back again and again! You won't be dissapointed!