Best content of 2010 for website owners

The blog format favours recent content and older posts almost disappear. Tag clouds only compensate partially. I decided to revive my 2010 posts that are most useful to website owners. Here they are:

• Fixed-price Contracts for Website Development
• Website Strategy - What do you Find in There?
• Recipe for Killing your e-Business
• Photoshop Compositions in Web Site Proposals

May your reading be profitable ;-D

What is Web Marketing ?

When people ask me what I do, I say web marketing. To most people, this does not mean much. So friends, family and customers, here is my attempt to explain what I do in life, assuming that spending so much time in front of a computer can be considered a life ;-D

I use the expression “Web Marketing” to describe the use of the web for the promotion of products and services. The mission of Web marketing is to increase revenue by acquiring additional customers and by increasing sales to existing ones. It is done by the careful selection of investments in the components of the web marketing mix.

Should you Buy Facebook Shares?

Websites are investments. With a good web strategy and proper execution, you will have a decent return on investment. The stock market is another way to invest your savings.

When Google (Goog) entered the stock market in 2004 at $85/share, I thought the earnings growth predicted was ridiculous and stayed on the sideline. I was wrong. Google had a solid business model and was creating value for its customers. Now the price for Google shares is around $600 and the price / earnings (P/E) ratio is around 19.  I think the outlook is great and I recently bought a few shares.

Now that Facebook stock (FB) is available, what should I do? The stock was issued at $38 and is now trading at $31, after a few days, with a P/E around 70.

Google AdWords Certified Partner

In 2011, I came to realize that ads on the Google search and display networks were quite cost effective in bringing qualified leads to a website. So I started to study Google AdWords and to read books about it.  I was encouraged by my friend Jonathan Villiard, an SEO and AdWords specialist,  to obtain my certification. I followed his advice and early this year, I passed both the Google AdWords Fundamentals Exam and the Search Advertising Advanced Exam. Passing the two Google exams made me an AdWords Qualified Individual but that was not enough for partner status. I had to manage over $10,000 of advertising in 60 days. I did and received this morning an email confirming my status as a Google AdWords Certified Partner.

Google Adwords Advertising – A Primer

In the last quarter of 2011, Google generated more than 10 billion dollars of income. Think of it as $20,000.00 every minute. Most of it is for web advertising from companies small and large.

This post is a primer on the Google AdWords advertising platform. The goal is not to convince you to buy Google shares, something I am considering, but rather to explain how Google advertising works. This way, you will be in a better position to determine if it is an appropriate tactic to bring good leads to your website.