Online Flimflam Factories

By Hector Cisneros

Image courtesy Pixabay

Having worked the web since 1993, I’ve seen a lot of scary trends come and go.  Early on there were SEO tactics like “keyword stuffing” and “link farms” that were used to generate page one results on search engines. This allowed unscrupulous online marketing firms to reap more than their fair share of Internet traffic.  Then there were the bait and switch artists who’d routinely get web surfers to click onto a seemingly innocuous site, only to be redirected to one that was blatantly pornographic.  After the turn of the century web trolling and cyberbullying became a way for disgruntled people to harass others in their sphere of influence.  These tactics caused some people who were targeted by this tactic to have nervous breakdowns or in some cases they were bullied to the point where they took their own lives.  While these nefarious online attacks were onerous examples of the web gone wild, the tactics weren’t done to turn a profit.

How to Use the Web to Enhance your Business or Professional Reputation

By Hector Cisneros

Courtesy of Flickr

A businesses reputation is more important today than ever before. the same is true for products or an individual. If your reputation is weak or little is known about you, your business or product, people assume you are not as good as a business with a well-known name  or as someone who who has garnered a couple of dozen 4 or 5-star Google reviews or Facebook ratings. So, what do you do if you are doing a great job but you few if any five star ratings? Just how can you go about building your good reputation without trying to use black hat internet trickery (which can hurt your reputation). In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will discuss more than a dozen ways to improve your reputation so you can compete with anyone on the web.

Top 12 Marketing Secrets for Filling the Credibility Gap

Courtesy of Flickr

By Hector Cisneros

In today’s competitive business world, you need an edge to stay ahead of the competition. More importantly, you need to be able to give prospects a reason to choose you versus others in your industry.  The reason people choose a company or professional is due to their reputation. Trust becomes the determining factor. Think about it. Most people do their shopping with companies they trust. They buy products because those products have proven themselves to meet the consumers' standards of quality and performance. Sure, people will buy something just on price, but if that product doesn’t meet or exceed their expectations, they will never buy that product again. The same is true of professionals and the service provider industry as well. Trust trumps all other factors short of budgetary means. In this week’s episode of Working the Web to Win, we will explore how addressing a business’ credibility or professional reputation can make a significant difference when it comes doing business. We will look at ten often overlooked elements of reputation that can sway a prospect towards or away from your products or services, without you even realizing it.

Your Online Reputation Can Either Make You or Break You

By Carl Weiss

Courtesy of Flickr

Shakespeare once wrote; "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet."

Bill didn’t have the Internet to contend with back in 1594, things were simpler.  Heck, it had only been a little over a hundred years since the printing press was actually invented.  The age of the scandal sheet had not yet been born.

Fast forward five hundred and twenty years and the world is a very different place.  What electronic media, and news organizations haven’t done, the internet with blogging, social media, YouTube videos and rating site has. They are all spewing out intimate details concerning the lives, loves and eccentricities of not only celebrities, athletes and politicians, but ordinary citizen and businesses as well. It would make the Shakespeare blush.

Hector The Connector has Predicted Internet Marketing Evolution 98% of the Time & These Changes are Still Valid Today

By Hector Cisneros

A correct reading will be given (Photo credit: ian.crowther)

Every year I make internet marketing predictions based on my research and intuition for the coming year. I have been right 98% of the time so far. 2013 proved to be a wild ride for businesses engaged in internet marketing. Social Media was a roller coaster of updates, upgrades and growth. Reputation management jumps to the forefront as businesses realize they are vulnerable to negative social press. Blogging and YouTube became mature services with widespread adoption taking place. A little birdie named Hummingbird shook up the search market significantly and many venerable household icons like TV news, and retail brick and mortar sales gave way to their digital counterparts. So if you think these events were out of this world wait till you see what's coming next year in 2014.

What's in a name? Reputation Management in the Digital Age

By Hector Cisneros

Courtesy of Flickr

Have you ever wondered what people are saying about you? Wish you could be a fly on the wall so that you would know exactly where you stand? If you’re a business, how do you know if your competitors or worse, your customers are posting negative rumors about your company, brand or product? How do you know what consumers are saying about you, your employees and your company in general?

In this article, I will cover many of the digital reputation issues that executives and business have to contend with today. I will provide a list of the types of problems out there, how to monitor your reputation and provide more than a dozen ways you can help improve your reputation.