The impact on my business alone could—at best case—reach 4 figures a month in lost revenue; and if it ends up really ugly, it could even realistically reach 5 figures a month.  This type of legislation could put me and many other publishers out of business and on welfare overnight!  Unfortunately, since I am self-employed, and even though I pay unemployment taxes on my income, I am not eligible for unemployment benefits.  This is your government, again, at work helping small business owners…

Along with many other respected internet publishers, I have been invited to meet with members of Congress on June 15^th, 2010 concerning the impact that this type of legislation could have on the millions of Americans—both advertisers & publishers alike—who make full and part-time income online via the internet using these types of advertising platforms. 

While I am sure Congressman Rick Boucher believes he is “helping consumers,” a reduction in consumer choice through regulation only leads to greater abuse of consumers.  The reality remains that he, and many like him now serving in Congress and the Senate, have never created or run a business (much less an internet-based business); they have never had to advertise or promote their business, never had to make a profit with their business, and have never had to meet payroll that is dependent upon making that profit.  They seriously lack the experience necessary to actually regulate the industry, effectively or otherwise.  Reading a law, or writing a law, does not make you an authority in an industry.  If it did, all of the CEOs and corporate presidents out there would be attorneys.

Will this type of regulation hurt operations like Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Clickbank, Valueclick, and other big name web advertising firms?  The answer is yes; it could seriously reduce their overall profitability from the advertising-based platforms that each significantly depends on to generate profit.

Will this lead to job losses?  If the income losses are significant enough, it certainly could.  However, the big losers in this type of government over-regulation will always be the consumers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs who are actively in business or dreaming of going into business.  The big box firms have the resources behind them to modify how they will do business and survive.  The little guy will most likely drown under the oppressive weight of regulation and the extensive costs associated with compliance.

In ten plus years of being an entrepreneur, I have personally felt the adverse effects of government over-regulation already, as they have completely eliminated (i.e. made it illegal) an entire private sector industry that I was involved in.  You didn’t hear about this, because when the economy is booming and unemployment is under 5%, it’s simply not newsworthy.

With nearly one million annual visitors seeking help, and with the government eliminating the very private sector assistance they were looking for, tens of thousands of Americans across this country are now out of work—literally overnight.  Choice has been eliminated for consumers.  Regardless, it is how I eventually ended up as an advertising publisher; I needed to monetize that traffic, and fortunately for me, advertising platforms like Google AdSense allowed me the luxury of making serious money without dealing with the government red tape.

In another industry, I have nearly 360,000 visitors a year seeking services.  However, through new and expansive government regulation, that business plan became far too expensive and financially risky to pursue.  With the brand new “Financial Regulation” legislation, I am sure it’s only going to get worse.  Once again, in this industry, the new and punitive laws introduced have helped put tens of thousands of people out of work, resulted in many small businesses choosing to shut down, and significantly reduced consumer choice and opportunity.

Does all of this hurt the big box chains?  Absolutely not!  This type of regulation reduces competition, improves revenue for “bigger chains,” dramatically reduces consumer choice, hurts only the small business owner, and makes it that much harder for the individual entrepreneur to actually enter the industry.  And to make matters even more detrimental, this has happened at the worst possible time excess regulation can happen—in a serious economic recession.  Fortunately, advertising again has helped me to monetize that traffic.

In yet another industry, we see a very attractive website selling a wide range of related products that will serve nearly half a million visitors annually who are seeking to purchase these products.  Just this year—without the legislative authority to support it—a division of the federal government created by Congress to regulate consumable products, has declared a group of non-consumable products illegal to import into the U.S., therefore shutting down another entire U.S.-based industry.

You didn’t hear about this; and thanks to our corrupt media, you never will.  Now, any U.S. business or entrepreneur who elects to continue selling these products is committing a federal crime.  Ironically, it did not stop businesses in other countries from selling the product into the United States—after all, what do they care about U.S. laws?  And guess where these jobs are moving…overseas, or just across the border.  Fortunately for me one again, there have been advertising platforms to monetize what the government ruins.

Like many small business owners, with SEO King, Inc., I am faced with many uncertainties and have had to let good employees go as a result.  Not just 18 months ago, I was in the process of looking for a larger office space with plans for hiring 3 more employees.  The election of President Obama gave me pause; and fortunately, I waited to see what this Congress and this President were going to do.

Now, the impending annual expenses of $6,000 to $8,000 per employee with employer paid healthcare, the impact of future government regulation that is sure to come, the increased taxes that I will be paying, the costs of complying with current and future legislation, the unnecessary stress it creates, and the increased probability of IRS audits that would result from the healthcare bill make it all seem like I must be living in a nightmare.

Speaking of audits, these cost me dearly to deal with, with the $275 per hour that I must pay my tax attorney for authoritative representation.  The last corporate audit I dealt with just last year cost me nearly $2,000, in addition to the cost of lost billable hours, in order to put together the documents they wanted to review and meet with the IRS Agent.

All of this so the United States Treasury could charge me an extra $500 on my tax return by restating dividend income as wages on advertising websites in which no labor had been done for over 2 years.  Even though they were wrong, it was cheaper to pay it than fight it.  They could have said you owe $10K in restated income and it would have been cheaper to pay it than fight it.  Again…your government at work, creating work!

The fact remains; dealing in business-to-business, I am not alone in the decision to let people go, retire, or simply not hire people at all.  As a small business, with a primary focus on helping other small business owners succeed, we have never operated on huge profit margins.  On a typical $1,500 web project, after payroll and expenses, I might be lucky to see a $150 to $400 net profit—money that could easily be eaten up in payroll during slow months.  Part of the reward of taking this approach has been the satisfaction in the work being done and the idea that I was actually helping people.

However, personal satisfaction does not pay the bills, nor does it make the work worth doing.  When I finished looking at what I actually make for working 60-plus hours and 7 days a week, the added costs associated with doing business after healthcare reform and the sunset of the Bush-era tax breaks, took the value of doing what I do right out of the equation.

Here I am making 5 figures a month without getting out of bed.  Even with no direct customers and no employees, I could grow this all day long.  But instead, I have chosen to spend all those hours working my buns off, growing a business, and hiring more employees so I can gross an extra $60K per year.  I then get to send nearly 50% of that “extra” money to the United States Treasury between income tax & SSI, and as an added bonus, I get to pay state unemployment taxes (something I must pay, but never get to collect) and higher personal tax rates in 2011.

Now, the federal government thinks that a measly 35% “Healthcare Tax Credit” on $6-8K in private healthcare insurance costs (that eventually goes away), along with the added costs and liability that they burden me with to comply, is going to mean I am “incentivized” to keep employees, hire more employees, work the same amount of hours 7 days a week, all so I can make even less, with significantly higher risks on even smaller profit margins?  Sure Mr. President…this makes perfect economic sense.

With “healthcare reform” alone, starting in 2011, we are going to begin seeing a reduction in consumer choice as many small business owners walk away from business.  As one of the largest costs for most businesses is payroll-related expenses, we are going to begin seeing increases in the costs of goods and services.  I expect these increases to begin showing up as early as the 4^th quarter of this year.  This is bad for consumers, as it will further reduce the buying power of an already shrinking amount of “net” dollars consumers have available to spend.

To make matters worse, we are going to begin seeing a reduction in real wages used as a tool to offset the higher benefits costs to businesses.  I believe with some of the larger firms, we’ll see salary freezes and we’ll also begin to see more layoffs.  This time, the government will not have Census workers to offset the actual employment numbers.

I have no doubt that new employees will be hired at lower wages to compensate and I suspect we’ll begin seeing a rollover of existing employees as a tool for payroll reduction.  Employee rollover simply means that an employee making a $45K annual salary will be let go and replaced by a new employee who will be hired at $30K or $35K a year.  The initial upfront costs of unemployment benefits being paid today will easily be offset by long term savings in payroll and future benefits costs.  Continuing high unemployment rates will make this a smart choice for many business owners.

Other business owners will simply elect to pay the $3K yearly tax penalty, eventually pushing employees into a government program that will lead to even higher income and corporate taxes.  Finally, I believe we are going to see an uptick in self-employed people.  While their earnings will most likely be slightly above average, their net earnings and spending power will be reduced by the self-employment taxes and healthcare costs which they must now absorb.

The net effect of this type of legislation is that the small business owner and consumer will lose.  The economy, by tax year 2012, will reflect the real cost of this legislation as the actual costs to businesses begin showing up during 2011.  Consumers will have less to spend and the cost of many products and services they buy will increase, leading to a stagnant economy and a gradual increase in unemployment and underemployment.  This, of course, leads to reduced tax revenue for government and higher costs to government in “benefits” paid to non-tax payers.

It’s a never ending cycle…a true formula for disaster that will take a decade or more to undo—just like it did with the Great Depression.  When the money supply dries up, there will not be a lot left to restart the economic engine.

This is what happens when politicians—and the people that elect them—have no idea what it costs to start or run a business that actually creates jobs while forced with competing for a small slice of the market segment against major corporations.  This is what happens when government makes short-term policy decisions without taking into account the long-term consequences.  What compounds the problem when government over-reaches is the undeniable fact that it takes the “heart” out of people who have the means and ability to start new business ventures.  An environment is nurtured where the reward no longer justifies the risk, leading to a stagnant or declining economic outlook.

Just this past Friday, I received a phone call from one of my clients.  The government just shut down an entire industry in the state of New York, putting him, those that work for him, and a thousand other people out of work.  What makes this even more troublesome is the median income for the area is only right around $20K a year.  How did they do it?  As I understand the secondhand story, New York, working with Washington D.C., has made it illegal to mail cigarettes through the U.S. Postal Service.  FedEx and UPS do not ship cigarettes.

Why would the state want that?  Well, the Indian reservations in New York are exempt from state taxes, just as they are here in Florida.  They sell the cigarettes online and ship them via USPS around the state and around the country.  The state wants that sales tax revenue, so in a move that eliminates the sellers’ right to profit, the state of New York has made it impossible for them to make money shipping a legal product.  The irony is, if the state didn’t have their taxes so high on the cigarettes in the first place, they wouldn’t have this problem.

Now just imagine how many more stories there are where government regulation has killed jobs, repressed opportunity, and destroyed those that create them.  It ends up being a thousand jobs lost here, ten thousand jobs lost there, in actions you and I never even get to hear about; actions not because of the economy, but direct consequences to government over-reactions which lead to over-regulation.

As isolated incidents, the layoffs might seem small or insignificant—of course, with exception to the people they directly affect.  When we begin adding together the totals for these so-called isolated incidents, the numbers can be truly staggering.  And they don’t just affect your neighbor or someone you don’t even know; in reality, they begin to affect you directly in how your employer thinks and the future decisions they will make about your own job.

Democrat, Republican, Independent; we are all affected by policy. I find it highly doubtful that the dreams we have for our children are found in poverty and lost opportunity.

With the government controlling nearly 60% of our economy—and yes, it is now indeed nearly 60%—the unfortunate consequence of this control means more and more dreams of individuals, small business owners, and entrepreneurs will crumble under the weight of bureaucratic regulation, red tape, and what is called “the cost of doing business.”

Rather than expand consumer choice and individual opportunity, this tactic eventually leads to fewer opportunities, reduced choices, and more abuses of consumers by gigantic corporations and government itself.

More regulation, by its very nature, will almost always increase costs, reduced opportunity, and will ultimately lead to more and more people dependent upon the very government who created the problems to write regulation designed to create a specific outcome that only makes the root problem they created all that much worse.  It is at its core a very un-American, co-dependent relationship that is rarely about benefits to the people, and almost always about control over something or someone.

While excess regulation will negatively impact large and mid-size companies, the greatest impact will always fall on those who can least afford it.  It falls on those who have the audacity to dream of being something more—on those who have a dream of building a business and the security that comes from the opportunity to create self-earned wealth in this country.

While I am hopeful that the outcome of my trip to Congress will be positive, I am very doubtful my small voice will be heard or make a difference.  In the end, I firmly believe the only way we will achieve real change and a truly thriving, blessed economy is a change in the hearts of Americans.  Then, and only then, will Americans stand-up to vote out all of these progressive Democrats and Republicans who are gleefully destroying the economic engine that once inspired the entire world.

Hopefully, this true change in direction will happen before we must all pay the ultimate price for what they have done.

Until Next Time.
George Chaney
President/CEO
SEO King, Inc.

Contact: SEO King, Inc.
George Chaney
(813) 567-1201
110 West Reynolds Street
Suite 101
Plant City, FL 33563
seo.king@gmail.com

Florida Web Development Firm Helps Debt Settlement Company Connect With Customers Online

New Debt Solutions and Lending, LLC website created by SEO King, Inc. is now online, effectively attracting a broad spectrum of targeted customers.

July 24, 2009 – Plant City, FL – With a national economy in turmoil, it was eminently clear to the professionals at Debt Solutions and Lending, LLC that the financial problems commonly experienced by the average American would continue to become worse.  To exasperate the situation, most consumers who were experiencing financial problems with spiraling debt and unmanageable mortgages were not aware of where to turn or what their options to resolve their situations were.

Because of this, the company knew they had to do something differently to reach out and connect with those in need of professional attorney-based assistance.  The company decided that the best opportunity to reach potential clients in need would be to establish a high quality new website aimed at most effectively attracting a broad spectrum of targeted customers with an emphasis on using organic search.  Ultimately contracting with SEO King, Inc., an established web development firm based in Plant City, Florida, all of the pieces were quickly put in place to create a results-producing new web presence.

“We know right away what would be required to establish a new website for Debt Solutions and Lending that would penetrate through an extremely competitive online marketplace to put targeted in-need clients in touch with a very professional debt solutions company,” said Mr. George Chaney of SEO King®.  “The finished result was an all new website and blog that is attractively designed for visual appeal, but also highly optimized to perform well in the search engines.”

The new website (http://www.debtsolutionsandlending.com) has been finalized and was pushed live to the internet a short while ago.  Essential to the website’s performance is its finely-tuned lead generation capability.  Nearly every component of the site has been designed to draw visitors in and explain the benefits of expert attorney-based debt settlement and mortgage modification while giving them the opportunity to instantly reach out to a knowledgeable customer service representative.  This naturally increases lead generation and customer conversions for the company while providing solutions to those facing financial hardship.

SEO King, Inc. is headquartered at 110 West Reynolds Street in Plant City, FL and serves clients throughout the United States with web design, hosting, search engine optimization and search marketing services.  For more information, call 813.567.1201 or visit http://www.seoking.com/.

Debt Solutions and Lending, LLC is located at 11524 E US Hwy 92 in Seffner, FL and serves clientele throughout the United States with professional debt settlement and mortgage modification services.  For more information, call 877.246.3450 or visit http://www.debtsolutionsandlending.com/.

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When it comes to building high-performance websites, along with creating and implementing ground-up search optimization strategies, these days, successful businesses all over the country are turning to George Chaney (and it’s no surprise that Chaney is known as "The SEO King").

Who Is George Chaney?

The brief bio goes something like this: As founder and President of SEO King, Inc., George Chaney is the quintessential example of a hard-working entrepreneur who’s found ongoing success on many levels in life. Developer and owner of 5 A-List websites, 4 with a national audience along with 1 that’s regional, George has managed to build what many would consider to be a "golden web empire."

Of course, like many entrepreneurial success stories, the road to success didn’t exactly reveal itself without the expected speed bumps and obstacles along the way. Choosing to get right to work after high school, Chaney is actually quite educated – both in the school of hard knocks and with real life, hands on professional experience that’s as varied as it is remarkable.

Prior to getting into the growing field of web development and optimization, Chaney prospered through a series of fast paced professional employment experiences. With 8 years in the banking industry (3 of those years specializing in the field of mortgages) preceded by 8 years in B2B commodity sales (mostly within the manufacturing industry), professional career highlights easy to come by.

Enter the web business. Like any "Generation X’er," Chaney didn’t have the good fortune of growing up with the internet or learning it from a young age. For this generation, even having a couple of computers in school was a luxury. Internet and web experience had to be something that was learned step-by-step from scratch – with passion.

Chaney began his foray into where he’d ultimately find his most enduring successes not unlike many in the early days of the web. He was very impressed with the potential of the web and built his first web presence more than 10 years ago – an AOL personal web page. Naturally, it didn’t take long for things to progress from there.

Just a brief couple of years later, Chaney was rapidly progressing full speed ahead with his very own web business. Today, with more than 7 years of professional web marketing experience, his own portfolio of sites has netted more than 12.6 million pages served over just 4 years and on pace to serve nearly 1,000,000 unique visitors this year alone.

Keep reading for the complete interview with George…

What got you into the web business anyway?

George Chaney: Well that is kind of a long story and it really plays into how so many entrepreneurs get started. Here’s how it all happened for me.

I was with a regional bank for 3 years and worked my way up to a bank officer position. I saved them a ton of money – I’m confident it was millions – and was rewarded accordingly by the VP I worked for.

Anyway, I applied for an Assistant VP position, which I had more than enough experience for. I really felt that my proven performance as the third in charge of a moderately sized operation justified the promotion.

I was called up to the Senior VP’s office and I will never forget him pointing to his degree posted on his office wall and saying, "Until you get one of these, as long as I am here, you won’t go any further in this bank." Now, I think he was really trying to get me to actually better myself. I was young then…had the time to do it.

For me, that was the end of my banking career as far as I was concerned. From that point forward, I just kind of lost all interest.

Fast forward 8 years. I had done a stint with a regional manufacturing company and had become fairly well-known in our industry due to the role I had with turning them around. Within about 2 or 3 days after leaving that post to further my career, I was contacted by a similar operation that was in buyout negotiations with a very well known major national company.

The director of the company looking to sell out had a lot of capital tied to the profitability of the Florida operations. I got a phone call from him out of the blue, and was asked to meet for lunch. Long story short, I was offered the job about 3 minutes into lunch, and of course, I accepted the opportunity. I felt like I was on top of the world!

My first day at the new job, I reviewed operations revenue reports – the month prior, the division had done about $25K in revenue. Things were a real mess. I led a staff that was – let’s say, reluctant at best – to $450K a month in just less than 11 months. I was doing really well as the guy in charge for this regional company.

Then, as the company’s sale was finalized, the new corporate regional Senior Vice President flew in. During my "interview" with him, he said that I was "grossly unqualified" for my position. Grossly Unqualified? My accomplishments meant nothing! Once again, it was all about that degree – not the proven profitable results I’d produced.

Two weeks later, they flew in a "corporate guy" from another state to take over the regional operations and put me out of work. And to boot, the new guy even got my $20K performance bonus that I was due the next month. Guess it was what they used to entice him to move down!

With the money I made, and my lack of advanced education, corporate America was not going to hire me, and they didn’t. So I took the only job I could get that would give me a chance to make a good living. A friend of mine worked for a mortgage division for a bank out of New York and got me a job. It turned out to be a really great gig because I got to work from my home; as a single dad, that was a huge plus.

I built a mortgage lead website to help generate leads for myself that did exactly what it was supposed to do. I quickly became the highest producer in Tampa the first year I worked for that bank, and by the second year, things were really rocking. Then, I received an attractive offer from another mortgage firm and the bank made me an offer for my mortgage website that I couldn’t refuse.

This was the true "ah-ha" moment for me, when I realized I could make a living from home without having to deal with the politics and bureaucracy of corporate America any longer.

Enter, building websites for myself. After having finally received my advanced degree, from the school of hard knocks, I had truly found my calling!

Today, who do your websites serve?

George Chaney: I own and operate 3 websites that serve consumers and 2 that aim to serve entrepreneurs. Each site has its own unique niche focus and market (with the exception of the SEO King, Inc. corporate website).

How many top ten search engine rankings have you earned?

George Chaney: Based upon keyword traffic logs, I would estimate multiple tens of thousands. It’s really tough to gauge across any website that gets significant traffic within its niche, as you’re just pulling from everywhere when relevance factors come into play.

Once you start ranking a quality resource that really has value, it’s going to pick up citations naturally and your keyword relevance (authority) expands and grows without a lot of work. Frankly, watching keywords is kind of like watching paint dry; when you first roll it on, you’re all excited and can’t wait – but by the time you get one wall painted, you just can’t wait to get it done!

Who is your most successful client?

George Chaney: I think I am. But since I can’t nominate myself, I would have to say Your Direct Source, Inc. Three and a half years ago, the company CEO came to me with a dream and a respectable amount of capital he was willing to invest. It was six months before we closed the deal, but once we did, it was full steam ahead.

During the course of three years, his firm went from a startup to being one of the most well known names in his niche industry (and doing incredible sales last year). Over that time period, the founder never wavered and stuck with the program each step of the way, making all the investments recommended. It certainly helps when a company has a very savvy, driven leader to make a company go – one who is willing to empower the company they are paying to help them succeed. Since that time, we’ve developed four new websites under three different companies for that very same owner.

So many clients will try to micro-manage or quit way too early – ultimately wasting their investment. When that happens, I do tend to get frustrated – losing is not acceptable for me personally, and the only way to win in the "online business game" is delivering traffic and sales.

What project are you most proud of?

George Chaney: This one is easy. It would be Lifestyle Mortgage. The owners of a mortgage brokerage house had all of the citation elements in place to have a very popular and successful website, but through the course of 3 or 4 years couldn’t point to one phone call or application that originated from the website.

We redesigned and rebuilt the entire site from the ground up – including the content. It was a huge project that started small and expanded nearly every week. About 5 months after launch of the newly designed and SEO’d site, I got a phone call. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that phone call either…it was just one of those unexpected moments that stands out.

So it was a Saturday and the guy calls and basically says he quits. When I asked him why, he said he was getting so many phone calls and applications from his website that he couldn’t get anything done and was just tired of dealing with it. Seriously, he quit his business because he had received so much business that he couldn’t get anything done.

I like to say be careful about what you ask for – too much, too fast can mean big trouble. What’s amazing is the fact this site has a less than 3% bounce rate! Absolutely incredible for its industry. That’s like 97%-plus of all visitors that stick around to read more about the company’s mortgage services.

This isn’t an informational site either, it’s selling a service. To make sure these numbers weren’t a fluke, we monitored his site for over a year, tracking monthly data. Just amazing results. Based upon the applications we were monitoring for performance, he was getting at least a 15% conversion rate on some pretty decent traffic numbers.

This is on top of who knows how many phone calls that were being received (our metrics on this project didn’t allow us to track that). It really is just a phenomenal site – a once in a lifetime build out where performance is concerned.

And what was your worst project?

George Chaney: Oh, now that’s tricky to answer. I don’t really have a worst project, but the one I got most aggravated with was a site that ultimately turned out to be really great. It was a retail site with a spectacular niche product. The site turned out just beautifully; however, it took a full year to launch.

That was actually the frustrating part, just getting it done. We never did do the SEO on it, simply because from where it started to where it finished, it was just too large to do within the budget available.

Can you tell a little about your business philosophy?

George Chaney: I am a firm believer in treating people how you would want to be treated. Always. Be honest, be up front, and don’t sell to what someone wants to hear – tell them what they need to hear. I go out of my way to go the extra mile to help every client achieve exactly what they asked for.

In fact, I can’t think of a single client that doesn’t actually like or our firm. Now I am a realist, and while there are probably one or two out there that I don’t know about, it’s just going to be a very small number regardless.

My philosophy on it is simple. I will go out of my way to deliver exactly what the client asks for, to a point of what is fair. My results are proven over and over. It’s not a one-off result; it is something I can duplicate regardless of the industry, time and again.

However, if you expect those results in 90 days, 6 months, or 12 months, in a competitive market, that’s probably unreasonable. The days of fast money in organic results are long gone. As I tell every client, we operate on an 18 to 36 month program, and if your budget is too low, it could be longer.

I always explain to my clients before beginning that it’s important to be able to make the investment recommended. The fact is, not everyone has what it takes to be successful. Not everyone is willing to make the financial sacrifices that sometimes have to be made in order be better off financially in several years.

What is it that makes the SEO King brand go?

George Chaney: It’s unique. Let’s face it – SEO sets the foundation for a successful web project. Building your internet brand is what having a successful online website is all about!

When it comes to the SEO King name, I was fortunate enough to lock it in early, trademark it and develop a trusted name. I came up with the concept because I understand what it takes to do it right from personal experience, and I absolutely understand what entrepreneurs and business owners are trying to accomplish.

It’s really important for entrepreneurs and business owners to understand how important a brand is to the success of a venture. It not only adds value to your bottom line, but adds significant value to your company when it comes time to sell.

What are the consequences for using someone else’s brand to make money? They’re actually quite hefty. I know the owner of a pool guard company who hired an SEO firm to do web marketing for their company. Guess what…that SEO Firm marketed that website using another company’s trademarked name. It ended up costing them half a million dollars to settle out of court and nearly put them out of business.

What’s the lesson to be learned here? Well, if you plan on making money online, you definitely have to be extremely careful about whom you deal with and how you rollout an online marketing strategy. And, you must make absolutely sure not to do it by making money on another company’s brand without their permission.

Ever consider selling SEO King, Inc.?

George Chaney: I’m an entrepreneur! The fact is, there isn’t a web asset I own that I wouldn’t sell for the right price. I actually just sold a brand I was developing for another venture to one of my web design competitors (of all people). It was such a cool name and was a fantastic concept. Why would I sell something with so much potential? I think the real question is, "why wouldn’t I sell…if the price is right?"

You are well known in the SEO forum community – do you have a favorite SEO forum?

George Chaney: I rarely participate in forums anymore as I just get weary of all the speculation and misinformation spread around out there. Back in the day, Rand Fishkin (of SEOmoz.org) and I, along with some other shakers at the time, taught and shared in what was one the best forums to actually learn something. That group in that forum ultimately produced and taught some of today’s most well known and respected SEO industry leaders.

It’s actually where I first posted my article on pattern linking – a more specific approach to what people today call "targeting the long tail." The intent of the article on pattern linking was to teach people how to build into more difficult terms while gathering the traffic you need to actually make some money.

What are your growth plans for SEO King, Inc. in the future?

George Chaney: Really, I don’t have any right now. SEO King is a great concept – a fantastic brand – but running this company takes a huge amount of my time and energy, and sometimes takes away from the things I personally want to be doing – like spending quality time with my daughter and enjoying sunny Florida, the place I’ve called home for 40 years now.

Over the past 3 years, our growth has been fantastic. If I hadn’t controlled it, it would have definitely been out of control! With unchecked growth comes employees, overhead, difficult clients, and a huge assortment of hassles that can just make doing what you love not so much fun anymore.

Are you planning any new projects outside of SEO King?

George Chaney: I’m in process of developing two online stores and getting really excited about the opportunity to get back into turning over commodities again. We just wrapped up the incorporation for one – have to head over to the old trademark office before I can actually make the name public. We’ll then start prepping the shopping cart for launch.

The reality is, selling a product is so much easier than selling an intangible service like SEO or internet marketing where results take an investment of both capital and time to really appreciate. Many times, people just don’t have the patience they need to see the results they want, and I’m not into selling someone on just what they want to hear.

From my experience over the last 4 years, I’ve found that honesty and integrity are a hard sell to business owners.

Shouldn’t those be the things that matter the most?

Interviewer: Scott Stadler
Mr. Stadler is a professional copywriter with more than 10 years of experience. He is, in fact, my favorite freelance copywriter to use for my own personal project development. He can be reached via his company website at scottstadler.com.

Contact: SEO King
George Chaney
(813) 567-1201
110 West Reynolds Street
Suite 101
Plant City, FL 33563
seo.king@gmail.com

Local Search Engine Marketing Firm Aids Clearwater Mortgage Broker in Attracting New Borrowers Statewide

First Continental Mortgage, Inc. Broker Thomas Martin Credits New Site Created by SEO King, Inc.
With Producing a Steady Stream of Quality Mortgage Inquiries

November 19, 2007 – Plant City, FL – Thomas Martin, a veteran mortgage broker, knew that he had to do something different if he was going to continue to be a top producing mortgage broker in the current slowing housing market. As an expert in FHA home loans, private money mortgages for investors and hard money loans for preventing foreclosure, Mr. Martin was better positioned than some of his competitors for today’s Florida mortgage market.

“I’ve been busy because of the niches that I serve, but also because of a decision I made at the end of this summer to use the Internet to attract mortgage clients from across Florida,” said Mr. Martin.

“I looked at several large Internet marketing companies, but was referred to George Chaney and SEO King® by a mortgage broker friend in another state,” said Martin. “His designer created a visually appealing site and the copywriters created a site that really tells our story well,” said Martin. “I’m delighted to have a site that allows potential clients to learn about our qualifications, get a quick home loan quote, or do a full mortgage application securely online,” continued the Clearwater-based mortgage broker.

“FHAmortgageprograms.com was designed to produce inquiries for bad credit mortgages, investor rehab loans, mobile home loans, and FHA loans for first time homebuyers,” said Martin. “I would say that it has been a success. The site went live on August and the bulk of the deals that I recently closed have originated as leads from the site,” said Martin.

“Tomas Martin is an ideal client because he came to us with a clear vision of the site that he wanted, and he has been extremely proactive in marketing his mortgage site (http: //www.fhamortgageprograms.com),” said SEO King® President George Chaney.  “We’re pleased that the site has contributed so much to his marketing mix and look forward to helping him build upon that success,” continued the Plant City-based Internet marketing expert. Chaney is a 6-year veteran of search marketing, and he has carved out a niche helping small and medium-sized businesses market themselves effectively online.

SEO King, Inc. is headquartered at 110 West Reynolds Street in Plant City and serves clients throughout the United States with web design, hosting, search engine optimization and search marketing services. For more information, call 813.567.1201 or visit http://www.seoking.com/.

Thomas Martin is a Florida Mortgage broker at 1^st Continental Mortgage. He serves borrowers throughout Florida and can be reached at 1.800.570.0448 or at http: //www.fhamortgageprograms.com.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      

Internet Marketing Firm SEO King Becomes Miva Merchant
Distribution Partner and Commences SEO Module Development

Plant City Internet Marketing Firm to Develop Proprietary
Search Engine Marketing Module for Miva Merchant E-Commerce Platform

October 18, 2007 – Plant City, FL – The U.S. Census Bureau has been publishing quarterly statistics on e-commerce retail sales in the United States since late 1999.  Correcting for inflation, Economist Aaron Schiff estimates that U.S e-commerce retail sales were just under 120 billion. According to Schiff’s figures, e-commerce has grown at 18.3 percent per year over the last two years, but it still only accounts for 3% of total retail sales in the United States.

“The Internet is a stand-alone global market selling goods and services, through Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer, to the sum of trillions of dollars annually,” stated Search Engine Optimization expert, George Chaney.  “One look at reported sales by Internet-based companies, can give a glimmer of how big e-commerce will become.”

“Global commerce from the Internet generates revenue larger than any country or economist can presently fully quantify,” stated Chaney.  “Part of our objective here at SEO King is to educate our clients on the opportunities the Internet represents for their business.  The numbers really only tell a tiny part of the story.” 

According to Pew Internet, 87% of Generation Y, the 78 million strong demographic that includes people born between 1977 and the mid 1990s, use the Internet extensively to find and buy goods and services. As they grow older, that trend isn’t likely to change.

“The winners in the Internet game aren’t always the largest or most well funded,“ insisted Chaney. “Even small companies willing to do the work and invest the effort can garner top ranking in the search engines for competitive search terms and make a respectable return on investment.”

“As experts in the SEO industry, we have worked hard to identify a platform that can help us, to help our clients achieve their business goals. We’re delighted to have just been selected by Miva Merchant as a distributor for the premier e-commerce solution for small and medium sized businesses,” said Chaney. 

“Miva Merchant 5.0 is something that we’re thrilled to be able to offer to our clients who want an easy to use, secure, cost effective e-commerce platform with the capability to grow as a client’s business does,” offered Chaney.

“Miva Merchant is excited about our partnership with SEO King. We consider SEO to be one of the pillars of successful e-commerce. We’re happy our customers will be able to achieve this with SEO King,” said Richard Wilson, Executive VP of Miva Merchant.

In addition to inking a deal to serve as a distributor for Miva Merchant, SEO King has started development on a proprietary module to help users of Miva Merchant ensure their online stores have the ability to rank well in the search engines. “With over 90% of web traffic arriving at online stores from search engines, appearing on the first page of the search engine results can be the difference between a flood and a trickle of e-commerce sales,” said Chaney.

SEO King, Inc. has begun the development of a new SEO module. Mr. Chaney anticipates that the finished module will be available for BETA in the second quarter of 2008 for all Miva Merchant 5.0 users. This module will help Miva Merchant clients ensure that their e-commerce store pages have the ability to incorporate all of the on-page elements necessary to ranking well in the search engines. 

Miva Merchant (http://mivamerchant.com/) is a leading supplier of e-commerce software and services to small and medium sized businesses with over 200,000 users of Miva Merchant worldwide. Miva Merchant provides online merchants, developers, designers and web hosts with the information and technology to be successful in today’s online selling environment.

SEO King is headquartered at 110 West Reynolds Street in Plant City and serves clients throughout the United States with web design, hosting, search engine optimization and search marketing services. For more information, call 813.567.1201 or visit http://www.seoking.com.

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