Hey guys! As you probably have noticed, we recently debuted our all new design, which I think looks so much better than the previous design we had. This design should make things much easier to find on the website, and also allowed us to improve our client login as well.

Our old design looked good, but we wanted to go with something that was a little more accessible for your average person and a little bit lighter on average. We think our new design was the right way to go.

If you have any complaints, comments, or questions about our new system, don’t be afraid to ask in the contact us section!

Alright – it has only been 10 days since we launched GorillaMarketers to the public, and I think it’s fair to say that we have already learned a lot, and it has made me even more excited about where we will be able to take things in the future.

So far we have serviced more than 25 individual service orders, ranging in size and price. Minus a few hiccups in our system, things seem to be working splendidly on that end.

We have used these initial orders to continue testing the system, and are now ready to ramp things up and really throw some dollars toward advertising.

Along with that, we will also be debuting our reseller system here soon, which will allow other marketing companies to sell our services at a markup of their own choosing, which I believe will really help us to grow. Before that though, we wanted to make sure that the system could handle the volume that we plan on throwing at it in the near future. Until that time, we are still allowing marketing service providers to manage their own orders through our system as a support tech. If you are interested in doing so, please don’t hesitate to contact us about the opportunity.

We recently had an article featured on SocialBarrel.com which allowed us to gain some much needed exposure, and have several more lined up in the very near future.

Things are looking bright here! I just wanted to update our readers on our progress, and give you a taste of what we have in store for the future.

Ryan is a search marketing specialist with more than 5 years of experience within the industry, and co-owner of GorillaMarketers. He loves the NFL, strategy gaming, and economics.

Alright guys! It’s Here! After weeks of bug testing, software tweaks, product testing, and a lot of hard work from our developer (Thank You Diego!) we are finally ready for our launch.

It was about one year ago today that we started our business. At the time, the goal was to provide a one-stop-shop for backlinks and SEO services. The vision was to create something that was completely customizable on multiple tiers, with almost any type of link that you could imagine available at your fingertips.

The problem? This goal required extensive web development skills, something that, as marketing specialists, neither of us had. So we were left with three options. Either settle for something more basic, bring a developer on board, or trust our grand plan to another company. Having not done much searching for freelance web development teams in the past, and worried about the quality that they would produce, we opted to settle for a lesser option for the time being, while working toward the goal that we had set.

Since that time we have continued to provide SEO services to hundreds of customers, gaining more knowledge about the best business practices for our plan over that period of time. Then, three months ago we connected with a talented web developer who shared our vision and had a good grasp of what we were looking for in terms of functionality. Fast forward three months, and here we are. Our vision has changed from our original plans. It has been expanded upon in some ways, and simplified in others.

So now, we feel we have reached our goal. GorillaMarketers.com allows you to order nearly any type of link, and then track your orders for multiple websites using our slick frontend client login. We allow for many aspects of customization, including the use of unique accounts, as well as anchor text diversity. On the client side, our system is pretty basic. You can place orders, and then track the orders that you place. Some tasks, such as the writing of articles or press releases, can be set to require your approval. Reports are stored in your account for the lifetime of your account with us.  There are also support tickets that allow you to check on orders, and a slick reporting screen with graphs and stats for your orders throughout the year.

While the client frontend is functional, the system really shines in the employee backend. There, each individual task that makes up an order (writing, posting, submission, tickets) are automatically delegated into our employee accounts. This means that from the moment your order is placed, it is automatically assigned to the queue of one of our pre-screened employees. This allows us to greatly speed up the turnaround time for large products, allowing multiple tasks to be completely by different employees simultaneously.

We know that a high team morale leads to higher quality work, and better service for our customers. That’s why we have placed so much focus on creating a team environment, and giving our employees and service providers the ability to move up in a number of ways including into management positions, and pay raises based on the amount of work completed. Our system also tracks the revisions that are required, allowing us to focus on quality assurance and the checking of each and every report.

To say that we are excited about this would be a massive understatement. We are absolutely pleased with how the system currently functions, and as of today, are ready to take on orders!

In Order To Celebrate Our Launch, We Are Offering Our ‘Grand Opening’ Package At 50% Off!

Ryan is a search marketing specialist with more than 5 years of experience within the industry, and co-owner of GorillaMarketers. He loves the NFL, strategy gaming, and economics.

As an SEO, you probably have a huge range of experience with the technical side of the industry, but many of us lack the basic understanding of salesmanship and startup marketing. Taking on clients is a huge step for any business, but most SEO professionals simply are not aware of all of the avenues that exist that can help them to expand their client base, keep clients that they currently have, and network with others in the industry.

Word of warning: you will have to get your hands dirty. That means leaving your cozy cubicle or home office and getting out there and talking to people face to face. Sure, finding clients online seems to be the most desirable and efficient path for growing your business, but if you want long term sustainable success, you should look to network with individuals locally.

Tip 1 – Build a Resume That’s Marketable

If you are to the point of taking on clients, you likely already have some experience within the SEO industry and a number of different accomplishments that you can present to clients. But, no matter how much data you are able to give them, you have to be able to show them that you know what you are doing outside of your pre-defined list of accomplishments. The easiest way to build trust with would-be clients is to show that you have done work with a well known brand. Even if the job was as simple as some outsourced linkbuilding or graphic design, showing that you have done work for a well known company can instantly build trust and is probably the most important aspect of any resume.

Before you even considering taking on clients, having a resume that backs up your claims and builds trust is the most important first step. This should include large companies that you have done work for, your successes with your own sites, any testimonials that you can provide, and a list of general accomplishments that you use to market yourself and your services.

Tip 2 – Establish a Presence on Freelancer Websites

Although many SEOs write off freelancer websites as something for individual service providers or outsource workers, there is actually a lot of full scale SEO work that is contracted out through the variety of freelance websites including oDesk, Freelancer, ELance and the variety of other freelancer websites that are out there. In the beginning, it will almost be impossible for you to land high dollar work without having some sort of presence on these sites.

In the beginning, you should be willing to start by;

-Taking Work For Less Pay Than You Normally Would

-Working Small, Service Provider Style Jobs (think linkbuilding, one-off on page optimization, etc.)

-Connecting With As Many People As Possible

Tip 4 – Dispel Scam Rumors That Surround The SEO Industry

Any business owner that has a physical location and is listed in the phonebook has likely had 100 different Indian SEO companies cold call them about their services and – let’s face it, American businesses that have constantly had a service pitched to them by sketchy foreign companies

typically write the service off as some sort of scam. Of course, further investigation into SEO will tell them otherwise, but many business owners are just simply not going to take that step.

As you begin to pitch your services in person, you will start to hear more about the previous experiences that business owners have had with
Then, explain to them the basics of SEO, the price you are going to charge, and why it is a fair price to them. Sometimes, especially with business owners that have been harassed by SEO companies, the first half of your pitch will be spent convincing them that the service is a legitimate one.drive-by pitchers, cold callers, and generally shady people trying to sell Internet dreams to small businesses. Explain to them exactly why this happens. Let them know that there is generally little startup costs for SEO businesses, and that because business owners aren’t aware of what SEO requires, they are able to sell these services for extremely high prices, making it worth their time to cold call all day long for one misinformed client.

Tip 5 – Be The Expert

Do you ever read the blogs of well known, successful SEOs, and wonder how much business their blog or social media accounts drive their way? A lot. Establishing yourself as an expert in your industry creates trust with the companies that are potentially looking to hire you. Social media and blogging provide excellent ways for you to establish yourself as just that, and really put your knowledge on display. Now, just being the expert isn’t enough, you have to put it on display. 

-Blog – Write well-thought out, informative posts aimed at both other SEO experts as well as potential clients. They aren’t going to pick up how to do it successfully on their own, and blog posts detailing some of your strategies can be an excellent way to create trust with potential customers.

-Social Media - Establish yourself as an expert through social media by providing high quality information and interacting with the other big names in your industry. Answer questions posed by well known bloggers. Pose your own questions to encourage discussion. Share your blog posts. Give small tips that can help you to gain notoriety and establish yourself as a true expert in the SEO field.

Tip 6 – Seminars and Webinars

Perhaps the best way to establish yourself as an expert in your industry is by transferring your knowledge to others. Seminars and webinars provide you with the ability to put your knowledge on display, and also help people to learn your trade. Although SEO tends to have this “secrets of the trade” outlook that keeps them from sharing information with one another, it will always benefit your business in the long term to give back and help others learn. At the very least, it makes people feel indebted to you for the knowledge that you’ve provided them and can make them more likely to recommend your services.

There are two different ways to go about creating your seminar or webinar. You either target potential clients (people that know little to nothing about SEO) or you target other SEOs. Targeting other SEOs allows you to build acceptance within your industry and establish yourself as an expert. Targeting potential clients allows you to inform them about the basics of SEO, while slyly pitching your services to them. It also serves as an excellent way to dispel myths, rumors, and misconceptions that many business owners have about the SEO industry in the process.

Tip 7 – Offer Reseller Services For Complimentary Services

If you have any experience in the affiliate marketing sector, then you know how beneficial it can be for a company to outsource the marketing of their products. Let other companies resell your services when they offer a product that compliments yours. Excellent candidates to resell your SEO services would include;

-Web and Graphic Design Companies

-Offline Marketing Companies

-Web Development Companies

By partnering with other businesses, they can improve their services by offering something new at a markup, and you can have clients thrown your way. Of course, you will have to do the same for them to make the partnership work, but being able to offer web design on top of your SEO services also provides value to you as well.

Ryan is a search marketing specialist with more than 5 years of experience within the industry, and co-owner of GorillaMarketers. He loves the NFL, strategy gaming, and economics.

 

The recent Panda and Penguin updates have got a lot of webmasters down in the dumps over rankings drops, scrambling to find ways to regain lost rankings quickly. ProTip: SEO is the long game. If you are looking for quick, measurable results, you really should be looking to go down the paid advertising path.

The first and most important thing that you need to do when you see your website(s) take a nose dive  - calm down. Regardless of whatever new phrases and strategies Google is targeting, the recipe for SEO success remains constant, which seems to be a fact that goes over the heads of most SEO experts.

Disavow Link Tool

After seeing the recent announcement of Google’s Link Disavow Tool, and reading the responses from SEO’s on various forums I have seen a range of responses; anger, joy, confusion, etc. A mixed response if i have ever seen one.

On one hand, with Google’s increased focused on reducing linkspam around the web, many SEO’s are happy to have a tool that allows them to deal with negative SEO efforts from competitors. Others fear that Google will use this linkspam reporting tool as a way to create a “masterlist” of potential targets for linkspam. Personally, I think that attempting to use a tool like this to create the list would probably provide more false positives than anything, but that is beside the point.

The point is, is that having a knee jerk reaction to each and every change and update that Google makes is pointless. Sure, familiarize yourself with the changes. Understand why Google would want to make those changes (without losing sight of the fact that shareholders are the number one concern for any public company), but don’t let it affect your overall strategy too greatly. The basics for SEO success haven’t changed in years, and as long as you do them better then your competition, you have a higher chance of success.

The Recipe

Without delving too deep into advanced concepts, the “big 3″ continue to provide us at GorillaMarketers with our best results, and have for years. There is no reason to believe that they will change any time soon.

The Big 3:

• Content
• Navigation
• Backlinks

Instead of going into panic mode, attempting to remove links because of some unsubstantiated rumors you have heard about the most recent update, your time will almost always be better spending further expanding and improving upon The Big 3.

Content

Did you have a drop in rankings? Write more great content. Approach a subject within your industry from an angle that you haven’t seen done yet. Add value. Create infographics to go along with your posts. Use statistics. Cite studies that lazy writers are too lazy to evaluate. Too often SEO’s look at content as a basic article that displays facts that are provided by  hundreds of other websites. If your goal is to “provide value,” how are you providing value by  rehashing the same tired subjects as a million other websites? Differentiate your content, and therefore your brand.

Navigation

Realize it or not, navigation is a huge part of SEO. From Google using it to effectively crawl your website, to ensuring that your users are not counted as positive bounces toward your bounce rate, navigation encompasses the automated aspects of search engine crawling that you are trying to appeal to as well as the user experience.

Backlinks

Stop looking at backlinks as automated spam links, and instead look at them as an opportunity for promotion. As a general rule of thumb, links that actually deliver traffic to your website are gong to be high quality, desirable links.

Without fail, these three constants in the SEO industry, have always, and will continue to provide excellent results, regardless of the newest updates. Whenever I feel like I can’t wrap my head around a drop in rank, or a recent update, I go back to the basics. It’s like basketball. If you are underperforming, chances are that you are just simply doing too much and shooting yourself in the foot in the process.

Ryan is a search marketing specialist with more than 5 years of experience within the industry, and co-owner of GorillaMarketers. He loves the NFL, strategy gaming, and economics.