How to use hyperlinks like a kung-fu master

If you want to learn whether your SEO company actually knows a thing or two about marketing, see if they forgot to use embedded hyperlinks. If so, it is a dead give away that your SEO company sucks at what they do. These dinosaurs use to rule Internet marketing, but they started going extinct when a Google algorithm hit them several years ago.

So, if you want to increase your sales, it is up to you to learn how. I can teach you how to raise your conversion rate by crafting hyperlinks like a kung fu master. So read carefully.

Like kung fu, you will learn hyper link usage by watching my examples. Study hard grasshopper!

The wrong way of using hyperlinks (in a random article I wrote)

If you play Texas hold em for large stakes of money, it is imperative you be aware of the various methods a card cheat could employ against you.

• Peeking the top card of the deck or using marked cards
• The second deal
• Engaging in collusion with other players

Wrong! Just because this is what you are used to seeing does not mean anything. Don’t write copy this way. The only way you could possibly make this even more backwards is, god forbid, displaying html URLs’s.

Here is the correct way of using hyperlinks. When you employ this method, you increase the chance someone clicks onto a scent trail which funnels sales and reduces page abandonment rate. Also, if you wish to one day aspire to a black belt in hyperlink usage, you must learn this first. So follow your Sensei.


The responsible way to use hyperlinks

If you play hold em for large stakes of money, it is imperative you be aware of the artifices that can be employed against you. Unless the crooked gambler possesses sleight of hand skill; the hustle is usually simple collusion between a couple players.

Professional card cheats prefer an information advantage obtained through peeking the top card or marking the cards in play. These cheats are difficult to detect as they are often good enough to beat you on the square if they wished to. And they never cheat during the first game.

Some card cheats combine their knowledge of the top card with false dealing to obtain an even greater edge. With knowledge of what the burn card is and with the ability to keep it via second dealing, you are 5 times more likely to make your hand.

You found this second paragraph with the embedded hyperlinks more interesting, didn't you? Good! You are now ready to use hyperlinks as a blue belt.

Tunnel vision and crappy marketing

Marketing impotence really sucks – it leaves the client unsatisfied and humiliates you as a person. For a marketer, there is only one thing to do when you are locked seeing things in one perspective – resign.

Microsoft’s marketing department has not been able to see the big picture since they got those bean bag chairs back in the 80’s. My guess is that this video is a personal attack by some marketing firm.

E-commerce coming to a Myspace profile near you

You are probably either laughing or shaking your head. My first impression was that Newscorp was scrounging around for that extra nickel. But this is not a joking matter. This is online necromancy between e-commerce ans social networking. Who knows what it could mean for the future of e-commerce?

Though your internet marketing firm will tell you different – these are uncharted waters for marketing experts. Understand that while Myspace and Ebay are nothing special by themselves, joining them is going to give birth to a new life form. Experts say that this synergy will ‘leverage the social network’. But I don’t think anyone has even begun to map out all the possibilities that lie in waiting.

So how could leveraging a social network help your e-commerce site? Too illustrate, pretend for a moment that a popular e-commerce platform, such as OScommerce, had a social network of its own to leverage. Certain weaknesses would be turned into strengths. For example, currently many OScommerce stores find difficulty obtaining customer reviews. Not an issue with a social network, as customer reviews would be as inevitable as comments are on Myspace. Plus, you would be getting better reviews that leverage your conversion rate even higher.

When I say that these are ‘uncharted waters’ for internet marketers, I am referring to the hidden opportunities that await to be discovered or exploited. For example, take the under used practice of writing copy tailored for a visitors personality type. Data from a social network could allow an edge in profiling personalities, whether by keywords and click paths or other means entirely. The other side of this coin is the ability for social networks to provide more relevant advertising.

What do you think social networks mean for e-commerce? Something limited to giants like Ebay, or the future of e-commerce?