What Are You Willing to Pay For: The Fundamentals

You've all heard about the 4P's of marketing (product, place, price, and promotion). Today, some marketing gurus talk about the 5 Ps of marketing... the additional "P" is for people of some derivation thereof.

Regardless of what textbooks pronounce as marketing basics, I'm here to say that it all comes down to Value. The value of your product, the value of the user experience, the value that consumers derive from consuming your product or service.

Another way to think about value is, "What are you willing to pay for?". I was recently reminded of this on a recent trip to the airport. I have a number of options available to me. Each of these options had certain costs associated with them both tangible and intangible. For example, long term parking costs less per day but has a number of intangible costs to be considered such as taking multiple forms of transportation to reach the terminal, the extra time it would take to catch my flight, and the concern of getting to my car very late at night after my return flight.

When comparing options to say short-term parking or valet parking, the same analysis applies at either a subconscious or conscious level. You pay more cash for these options, but with that additional value comes other benefits that you may weigh more importantly in your mind. Even if the cost is slightly more but you place a higher value on time, safety, or some other factor, you might be willing to pay the higher price.

Have you thought about your products and service and what your customers might be willing to pay for? More personalized service, faster delivery, or some type of insurance? You need to consider what would be relevant for your product or service. You may also consider asking your customer and prospects... what would you be willing to pay for? The answers may surprise you.

The WORST Hosting Service on the Internet

Did you ever have a really BAD experience online... one that you wanted to tell TENS OF THOUSANDS OF BLOG READERS! Unfortunately, I just had one of those experiences. And thanks to the power of the Internet, I'd like to share it. If you don't want to be bored with all the details, just know that you should NEVER use DreamHost.com for any hosing services - EVER!

I recently launched a new website that teaches individuals how to improve search engine rankings for their website(s). To do so, I bought a domain, found a host (DreamHost), and built a website to promote the product. Within a couple of weeks I received an email - I thought it was SPAM - from DreamHost. Out of curiosity, I emailed them back to get clarification on the issue. Turns out that someone made a SPAM complaint regarding my new website. Personally, I find this hard to believe because:

• I never send out any emails regarding the new site.
• I use a third party to manage my emails, providing an opportunity for individuals to opt-out with each message.
• My personal email lists have been built using a "double opt-in policy"

The takeaway here is that if someone wants to make a SPAM complaint, they are barking up the wrong tree. As a marketing expert for more than 12 years, I know more about CAN-SPAM legislation than just about anyone. In fact, I'm one of the few people I've come across in the last ten years who has even read the actual legislation... and follows it to the letter.

Anyway, after providing all of my information to DreamHost, I received nothing but RUDE responses, terse replies, and empty accusations. After the third email exchange, I even gave them access to my personal email marketing account (I use and recommend MailChimp.com). I know I didn't have to do this, but wanted to prove the point that I have nothing to hide.

The customer service representative (who gives all CSRs a bad name) got back to me and said that he couldn't find the email that this individual who filed the complaint was referring to. YEAH idiot, the reason is because I never sent it! As a result of HIS inability to find a smoking gun, he was shutting off my website...without warning. Great way to treat a customer!

So, he shut off my hosting account and my website was down. What did I do? Only what any reasonable person who's been treated unfairly would do. I complained... I sent a letter to his boss - we'll see if that does anything, asked for an apology, and refund. Of course DreamHost isn't going to provide any reconcillation. And quite honestly, they can't ever make me whole for the disrespect and unpleasantness I experienced.

As a result, I'm doing the next best thing. I'm telling my more than 10,000 daily readers NEVER to use Dream Host and I've placed a formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau. So I guess you could say that today's marketing lesson is this. You can have the best marketing in the world, but if you don't respect your customers, you'll never succeed! Thanks for listening.

The Link Exchange Decoded

Link Exchanging is the process of exchanging text links between websites. Webmasters exchange links to improve traffic through numerous inbound links or link popularity. Exchanging links is normally a free process (unless you choose to a fee-based link exchange program), making link exchanges cost effective. Another benefit of using a link exchange program is that it helps improve search engine result placements.

There are various ways to initiate a link exchange with other websites. The most popular method of initiating a link exchange is to email the webmaster of a targeted site and ask to exchange links. You can also find websites looking to exchange links by visiting discussion boards hosted by webmasters. These websites might have link exchange forums or link exchange directories where you can request link exchanges from a specific category or select potential link partners based on other factors such as Google PR or content relevance.

Recently some webmasters have stated that search engines like Google are no longer placing significance importance on reciprocal links. The consensus is that popularity of a website is now measured by the number and value of incoming one way links. Relevance is also a key factor. Webmasters do not have to link directly with competitors, but should link with websites that have industry relevance. Having a link from a website with no relevance could potentially negatively affect Search Engine Result Pages.

Websites that have completed many link exchanges will usually experience increased traffic through direct clicks and improved search engine rankings. There are various ways for webmasters to find linking websites through direct contact with Webmasters or link exchange directories. The use of link exchanges by webmasters will continue to be an important and useful means of marketing websites and improving search engine placement for many years to come.