You probably know that North Americans and Europeans are increasingly turning to the Internet to get all of their news and information. And you can even find online versions of your favorite newspapers and magazines. But did you know that this move towards a paperless medium is occurring all over the world?

A recent article on ChinaView.cn reported that more readers are visiting U.S.-based newspapers via the Internet. In 2007, there was an increase of six percent of online users, causing a sharp decline in the print medium’s advertising revenue.

The article went on to say that 60 million unique visitors logged on to U.S. newspaper websites last year, an increase of more than 3.5 million from the figures in 2006. The article also cited the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), stating that 39 percent of Internet users logged on to newspaper websites and the average visit lasted nearly 45 minutes each month.

One of the reasons for the large increase in visits is that many newspapers are adding user-friendly tools to their websites, according to Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Newspaper websites now have links to blogs, videos and other sources that enrich the online newspaper-reading experience. That’s just something you can’t get from reading the actual print media.

Newspapers are also seeing increased revenue from online advertising. But they still haven’t been able to replace the revenue gathered from the original printed product.

If your company depends on online marketing, these figures are exciting. It gives you more of an idea as to where to concentrate your advertising dollars and the return you can expect on your investment. Hop on the wagon while it’s hot and competition is less fierce!

If you’ve done any work at all with SEO, you might’ve wondered about the history of the concept and some of the changes it’s made since it began. I know I’ve wondered about that several times. Here is an article that explains some of the big changes in the last decade, but I’ve pulled out some of the highlights for quick reference.

• Minor changes in the SEO market have taken place over the years, and they often escape the notice of those in the industry. Taken as a whole, howver, they constitute major changes between today’s techniques and those from ten years ago.

• In the year 2000, Google had just over one billion pages indexed. Today, there are about 10 billion pages indexed. Of course, that figure is ever-growing. The only way the article writer could find the number of pages was to type “the” into the search box and see how many results came back.

• There is now about ten times more competition in the search engine optimization industry than there was in the year 2000.

• Search engines still look for things like keywords, key phrases, body text, title tags and frequency when indexing pages. The article writer suggests not wasting time on meta keyword tags, though, as they are of less importance today than they were years ago.

• Submitting your URL to a search engine is no longer necessary, as the spiders take care of that for you.

• Yahoo and Google are generally the two accepted search engines today, whereas there were several more popular and widely-used ones ten years ago, including Infoseek, WebCrawler, Excite and Lycos, among others.

Luckily, the fundamentals of SEO are still a major part of online marketing and other Internet-based industries. We’ll continue to see changes in the near future, but the basic concept will likely remain the same.

If you’re like me, those floating ads that appear on some of the websites you visit get on your nerves. You may not have seen them because there are only a few websites on which they occur. If that’s the case, consider yourself lucky. More than once I’ve tried to click on the “Close” option and accidentally opened the ad completely.

I’m mentioning this because Google was reportedly about to introduce these annoyances on some of its pages. A representative from Google Adsense, however, squashed this rumor a few days ago. He also added that this would “never happen” because it violates the search engine’s advertising policies.

In addition to that, though, some users who have implemented floating ads into their adsense codes have had their accounts deleted lately. Google has also reduced the clickable area around the advertisements it places on pages in an effort to more accurately monitor what consumers are purchasing. Up until now, there have been a large number of erroneous clicks that only throw the statistics off.

These actions are indicative of Google’s ambition to become the single engine that Internet users go to whenever they search online. Because Google is creating more user-friendly websites and unintrusive advertisements on its pages, searchers feel less bombarded by companies trying to push their wares and more comfortable searching for anything they need.

What does this mean for the online marketing industry? It means that more people will see your pages with fewer frustrating advertisements. In the long run, it could mean more visitors and more profits. Who doesn’t like that?

The search marketing industry is a fairly new concept. Although it’s been around for several years, it’s difficult to monitor how it will change or operate in various circumstances. And with the impending troubled economy, many are speculating about the future of the online marketing industry and its chances for profitability. A recent interview with a New York economist, Lauren Capp, discusses some of these concerns. Following are some interesting points she made:

• Search marketing trends follow advertising trends to an extent. But search marketing has a better chance of turning a profit in the case of a recession because it is more internationally-based than advertising.

• The advertising industry doesn’t suffer the effects of a recession immediately. This is because advertising companies typically get paid for their services well in advance.

• Search marketers will feel the effects of a troubled economy, but it will be only after consumers buy fewer products online and companies decide to stop spending as much money on online campaigns.

• Customers are less likely to cut their budgets for search marketing campaigns because they are an essential part of having a successful business.

• If you specialize in search marketing, you can generate an income by focusing on recession-proof industries like health care, food, pharmaceuticals, tobacco and alcohol.

• Some analysts say online marketing is immune to the effects of a recession.

• The upcoming elections will likely prove to be a profitable opportunity for online marketers. Candidates will probably spend more money on Internet ads this year than ever before.

You can read the entire interview here.

There are several ways you can increase the number of customers that visit your dealership. But any marketing professional will tell you that word-of-mouth is one of the most effective means of advertising. The Internet and online marketing have taken that concept to an entirely new level, though. Here are some ways that you can create an effective blog for your dealership and attract more customers by virtual word-of-mouth.

Show Testimonials on Your Blog
This is the 21st century’s version of telling your friends and family about your great experience as a customer. Ask your satisfied customers to write positive reflections of their experiences and grant you permission to post them online. Some companies even have pre-printed testimonials and ask customers to sign them if they agree with what they say.

Add Content Frequently
In terms of search engine recognition and the greatest chance for exposure, content with specific keywords relevant to your dealership is ideal for advertising your company. Google and Yahoo are more likely to pick up on original and fresh content that is updated frequently. And by frequently, I mean at least five times a week, but ideally every day or even more often than that.

Allow Subscriptions and Feeds
These two simple additions to your dealership’s blog ensure that your customers have easy access to the website without needing to remember the URL. With subscriptions, the customers who have subscribed to your blog receive an e-mail each time you update the blog. Feeds are slightly different, but they essentially work along the same concept.

Come back next week for more tips on how to make your dealership blog work for you.

There are so many steps and possibilities for achieving social media success that it’s hard to narrow them down to just one or two blog posts. Following is the second installment of three more tips to help you be successful in the ever-important world of social media networking and online marketing.

Digg in
Digg is one of the best ways to get your website and online company noticed. That’s why it’s so important to build relationships with the people using the Digg network. Usually, the users have their information listed on their pages, even their instant messaging screen names. Try to create relationships by contacting a few of these people each week to add to your network. By investing just a few minutes each day, you will spread your networking efforts over many social media websites .

Use Google’s many services
Have you ever thought about making a video relating to your company or services? With the popularity of YouTube, this could be a huge advantage in helping you reach your goals. Post your video and then build links to it through the other networking that you’re doing. It might be time-consuming at first, but the benefits will definitely be worth it.

Go global
It’s great to have your company’s message all over the World Wide Web in English. But you’d be surprised how much better you can network by posting the same message in different languages. With simple online translators like this one, you can make your content available in several different languages and then submit it to a broader range of networking sites. It only takes a few extra minutes, but it pays off very well for your networking goals.

Today, an effective online marketing strategy depends, at least in part, on the success of its social media plan.

Promoting your website’s content is only part of an overall plan to succeed. Effective marketing means becoming part of the network and trying to reach the forefront to gain recognition. Following are three important steps to help you and your business succeed in the world of social media marketing.

Add contacts regularly
Finding social networks that allow you to add contacts is a great way to build up your media strategy. Social sites like Myspace, Facebook and LinkedIn are large avenues to tap for new contacts. If you add just two contacts each week, you gain more than 100 contacts each year. The best part is that you can do this in just a few minutes each week. With a very small time investment, you reap benefits that can be priceless.

Consolidate your blog reader
Many people have dozens of RSS feeds and blog readers that they don’t need. Instead of spending your time reading all of these blogs, concentrate on a few that relate directly to your industry. Stay updated on the latest information and comment on the blogs you read regularly. Contact the blog’s author after a few weeks of commenting. This way, the author will be more likely to do some link-building with you because you will have formed at least some contact already. This might seem time-consuming, but it’s probably less time than you used to spend reading those dozens of blogs each day.

Participate in forums
Find a forum that relates to your industry and become an active member. Create a profile and add comments in the main part of the forum. You can also take it a step further and use the private message capabilities to introduce yourself to the more influential members of the forum in a polite yet personal manner. After building a relationship, you can slowly integrate your services or products with other forum members.

Look for more tips that lead to social media success in the next posting.

Brand loyalty is essential to any business, and this is especially true for car dealerships. Repeat customers are often the backbone of any auto brand, and when they start to fall away, the company feels the pinch.

That’s why the dealer-customer relationship is such a vital part of any brand’s success.

Two marketing groups, Carlson Marketing and the Peppers & Rogers Group, conducted a study based on this realization. It focused on the brand loyalty among customers and the relationship that automakers had with those people. To measure brand loyalty, researchers asked customers if they returned to the brand more than once for a purchase or if they recommended the brand to their friends.

Among the studied automakers, the strongest dealer-consumer relationships existed for Cadillac, BMW and Lexus.

Do you want to increase the brand loyalty throughout your customer base? How would you like to have customers that not only return for future purchases but also tell their friends and families to buy your particular brand? The study suggested three ways to increase your relationships with your customers.

1. Build relationships with individual customers instead of relying on a “market segment.”
2. Both parties–the dealer and the customer–must make behavioral changes.
3. Dealers and customers must exchange information.

But how does a dealer put these theories into practice? Here are some suggestions from the study:

1. Programs and initiatives that draw the consumer to your brand: Loyalty initiatives give customers more reasons to come back, but lower pricing and other programs attract new customers. Dealers can accomplish this through online brand marketing or through other mediums to get the word out to potential customers.
2. Communicate with buyers: People want to speak with a person, not a salesman. Direct communication makes buyers feel more comfortable and likely to come back.
3. Buyers want a pleasant experience and clean surroundings when making a purchase. Convenient locations, extended hours and fair prices are all part of a pleasant dealer experience.
4. The vehicles themselves play a role in brand loyalty. Better features increases return customers.

Optimizing your site for one search engine doesn’t necessarily mean it’s also optimized for others. But in the world of online marketing, optimizing is vital for getting your auto dealership recognized. Unfortunately, your site could be ranked high with Google but much lower with Yahoo. That’s because each search engine is different, typically looking for different things when ranking sites. Following are some differences and similarities to consider to ensure that both major search engines rank your website as high as possible.

Inbound Linking
With Google, inbound links are the bread and butter of your website. The more websites that link to your website, the higher your website ranks. But there’s more to it than that. The Google spiders look at each website’s Page Rank, too. If you have many inbound links from high-ranking pages, your rank also increases.

Keyword URL
Yahoo places greater emphasis on your website’s URL than Google does. To achieve a higher Yahoo ranking, make sure your keyword phrase appears in your URL. If it doesn’t, make a new page or add a keyword-relevant URL as a new page from your website’s front page. Google also looks for this, but only when other websites link to your page by using strictly the website’s address.

Keyword Density
In addition to using your keyword in the website’s URL, it’s also important to have keywords scattered strategically through a site. The ideal amount of keywords is between 6 and 8 percent. Anything over 8 percent could adversely affect your website’s rank.

Link Building
This is similar to the idea of inbound links that Google focuses on, but it goes a step further by encouraging website owners to build linking relationships with other sites. Ask others to link to your site if you link to theirs. Or you can even offer something free to those who link to your site, such as a complimentary web tool or download. Google spiders like to see this, and it radically improves your chances of getting ranked higher.

Site Maps
Site maps used on your site make the spiders’ jobs much easier, allowing them to quickly search your page. Be sure to keep the maps updated so they continue to offer the latest information to searchers.

It’s extremely difficult to know exactly how the Google and Yahoo ranking systems work, as the algorithms and other procedures are confusing and ever-changing. Following the tips above, however, has increased many website rankings, and these are still the most basic ways to get your website noticed.

“When it comes to pushing a brand, dealers can make all the difference on the front lines. Good dealers can increase brand loyalty, while those who struggle generally don’t drive return customers.”

Dealer-customer rapport, according to research from Carlson Marketing and the Peppers & Rogers Group, plays a vital role.

OEM’s do an extraordinary job with creating brand loyalty on the commodity, the automobile. They do this by creating an image that appeals to their targeted markets. They can even extend the brand commodity to a variety of market segments. But still the automobile must be acquired at the dealer level which means some sort of exchange must occur between dealer and customer.

What roles and responsibilities do dealers have in this process to live up to the name and reputation of the brand they represent? How can dealers extend the brand commodity they represent to create a unique brand experience for auto shoppers?

For dealers, emphasis is placed on two primary things:

1. Price
2. Service

If every dealer is offering the same 2 things to every customer, how then can the dealer treat “different customers differently” as the article suggests.

One way to reach out to customers in a personal undivided fashion is with your blog, or in a discussion forum or on a social site. In these places you can introduce topics, programs, incentives, and personnel. You can be part of conversations at the group level, micro group levels, and one-on-one.

The problem with automation is that you can’t treat different customers differently and so someone at the dealer level, if the dealer is going to differentiate itself from the competition, must come out and meet the customer one-on-one at some point. This can be accomplished physically, electronically, or through some sort of telecommunication. Direct mail campaigns do not accomplish this. Nor do electronic emails and automated email responses. Social media does.

But to accomplish this you need a presence in those social mediums. If you want to engage with Vox, Facebook, or Digg users then you need to have a presence on each of those sites. If you want to engage in a blog format you need a good blog with readership. These things takes vision, time, attention, technical skill, and more. So when you venture into this form of online brand marketing, do your research and consult those you trust. Most importantly, get to know the communities a bit and plan on applying this methodology for the indefinite future. The medium of exchange might be new, but the need to engage has and always will exist.