GMAC Rewards Card – Thanks For Nothing

August 16, 2009 at 6:08 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , ,

For Mr. Rich Black, Vice President of FIA Card Services,

I am writing to you concerning the recent letter received regarding a change in the GMAC Mortgage Equity Rewards Mastercard:

GMAC Mortgage Equity Rewards Notice

I am unpleased you have cut the GMAC Mortgage Equity Rewards Mastercard program which helps people pay down their home mortgages by offering $25 payouts to total house principal for every 2500 points earned on the card. As per the reward letter, your new rewards program will offer $12.50 for every 2500 points earned on the next card and will not even be applied to equity.

While you are excited about cutting the amount of rewards you pay to your loyal credit card members by a full 50%, I am quite discouraged. I am disgusted that while people are having a hard time paying off their mortgages and filing for bankruptcy, you would decide to take away a program that actually makes sense and helps people build equity in their homes. As a vice president of the company though, it seems as though you are only concerned about cutting cost even at the expense of people who are really diligently trying hard to pay off their houses naturally. Thanks, but no thanks!

The new program can be seen at http://www.fiacardservices.com/worldpoints. The program shows that you can only redeem 2500 points for $12.50 cash – New Card Terms. For all you people who hold these cards, I would strongly suggest switching to a credit card that actually helps you get more for your money.

Moving forward, I advise people to take a close look at Chase.com which offers a gas rewards card giving you 3% off on gas purchases and the Chase Freedom Card where you always earn a full 1% back on all your credit card purchases. In an economy such as this, it is imperative to look out for greedy companies and Vice Presidents of companies looking to make more money by cutting benefits to you.

If I were to tell you I want to take $25 of $50 that you worked hard for, wouldn’t that seriously irritate you? We need to take a stand against companies doing this and if you are a person that is a wise spender and pay off your credit cards every month, then make sure you are getting the most for your reward points. Let’s tell Fia Card Services that their rewards program will not be rewarded and their Vice President doesn’t deserve a big bonus for taking money away from loyal credit card customers just trying to pay a little equity into their home!

Typically, our blog is about website market services but when we see something that is highly disturbing when our economy is in a deep recession, you can bet we are going to voice our opinion about it. Put more money in your pocket and dump Mr. Rich Black’s Fia Card Services GMAC Rewards Card and go get yourself a real credit card by Chase.

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Yahoo Directory Consideration – Worth the $299?

August 15, 2009 at 3:08 pm · Filed under Link Building Strategies ·Tagged , , , , , , , ,

The question as to whether or not it is worth paying $299 for a chance (not a gurantee) for inclusion into the Yahoo Directory has been a question asked by many business owners on various website forums. Owners of websites have also analyzed this in their mind as to whether it would make sense and whether they would get their return on investment from the inclusion into the directory. I would like to share my perspective on this subject and whether or not it is the right decision to submit your website to the Yahoo directory or not. I would say:

Do not submit your website to the Yahoo directory if:

1. Your website does not confirm to Yahoo directory’s listing terms.

2. Your website does not support multiple browsers including Microsoft internet explorer, Mozilla firefox, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome. In other words, if your website does not show up correctly in any of these browsers, then you need to fix the problem prior to directory submission and wasting your money!

3. Your website is not in the English language. At this time, Yahoo directory will not allow websites that are not written in the English language.

4. Your website does not contain unique content that is relevant to other web users. In other words, if you have a turnkey website that hundreds of others also have or something like an adwords website with articles that thousands of other people are posting to their website, then do not even bother wasting your time or money.

5. If any part of your website is under construction.

Benefits to Submitting to the Yahoo Directory

1. Your website is in a recognized website directory that is one of the most well known. You will get increased traffic directly from the website directory.

2. The potential for an increase in natural search engine results from both Google and Yahoo search. I have personally our website move up in organic search engine results since our inclusion in the Yahoo website directory.

We have tracked this by using both Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. Google Analytics is showing an increase in search engine traffic after getting included in the Yahoo directory and Google Webmaster Tools is showing that our search engine rank for specific keywords has increased.

Suggestions for Measurement

I advise to take measuring your return on investment from traffic from the Yahoo Directory and organic search results very seriously. If you are not getting your return on investment, it may be a flaw with what you are offering or the price you are offering it at. I strongly suggest using Google Analytics and setting up goals and funnels to help you determine if you are meeting your website endpoints and if Yahoo Directory is helping you to establish these goals.

Remember though, you cannot measure by Yahoo directory traffic alone, but you must also take into consideration, increased organic traffic as a result of directory inclusion which you cannot really tie down to a specific statistic. However, you can bet your website appears more reputable in the sight of search engines, if they believe first that your website is worth $299 to just get listed in Yahoo directory and secondly your content is good enough to get approved for inclusion.

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Developing Quality Website Content

August 14, 2009 at 4:44 pm · Filed under Website Content Development ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

The importance of creating an aqequate amount of quality website content for your website cannot be emphasized enough in the emphasis and role it plays on making your business successful. A website with quality content will accomplish better rankings in search engines as well as appeal more to customers who are potentially looking to buy your products or services.

Quality content means content that is both relevant and unique to the audience you are targeting. You have to be careful to be sure you are writing to your customers and not writing for search engines or writing content on a collegiate level for amateurs who know nothing about what you are selling!

Content is the core of selling your products and services to potential clients coupled with quality graphics. Both onsite and offsite content is imperative to really getting to the heart of your core customer base. Both article writing and submission services and content development can have a significant contribution to outreach to your target customers and clients.

In attempting to create content that is suitable for your website, one strategy they we have is to use keyword tools to naturally utilize in the development of your website or article content. Two free keyword tools that we really like are WordTracker’s free keyword suggestion tool and Google AdWords keyword tool. Both keyword tools offer information on advertiser competition and monthly search volume.

More than anything, it is important to work in a business and write about information that you have a passion and niche about. When you are writing about something you are very knowledgeable and skilled in, you will be a good seller and enjoy what you are doing at the same time.

Good luck and get to writing content for your website!

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Google ranking in relation to site load time

August 14, 2009 at 1:15 pm · Filed under Website Content Optimization ·Tagged , , ,

Matt Cutts from Google has recently let the world know that the time it takes for your website to load does not directly impact Google’s PageRank technology except in those instances where the site is timing out on Google’s end and they are not able to retrieve information from your website for indexing your website as a result. Basically, if your site takes more than about 30 seconds to load for a 56K browser, this should be considered as too slow in my opinion.

However, Matt did mention two key factors that should be taken into consideration for the future.

First, Larry Page has mentioned that the company could potentially be going in that direction in the future. This makes sense typically because less graphically instensive websites are more user friendly and easy to navigate.

Secondly, potential customers just do not have the time to wait 20 to 30 seconds for your website to load. Your site can still have graphics and load quickly. The last thing you want to do is drive people away from your website because they are frustrating at how slow it is loading and keep in mind some people still live in the 56K modem days and connect to wifi with 1 or 2 bars!

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