A lot of companies are paying for back links to boost their natural search results in Google.

These purchased links really work because they are from very well-known publishers. In fact, many of the most well known, prestigious publications are selling links.

It’s very difficult for Google to catch these paid links because 1) they look like regular links and 2) these publishers are top publishers with great reputation and brand recognition.

If you’re an advertiser, should you join the game and purchase back links?

It’s up to you. I have worked in the internet marketing industry long enough to tell you that buying links is like addicting to drugs.

Once you get a good ranking in Google due to the links you purchased, you’ll become dependent on the purchased links. You have to keep spending money to “subscribe” the links. Otherwise, you’ll see a drop in your ranking.

It’s like addicting to drugs. You’ll have some instant gratifications, but you’ll be addicted to something bad.

Let me tell you: there are a lot of similarities between the stroller world and the car market.

The low-end of stroller market is like Honda Civics: reliable, sturdy, and plain. (Disclaimer: I have nothing against Honda Civics. In fact, it’s one of my favorite cars.)

The high-end of stroller market is like Mercedes: good looking, powerful, and luxury. Just check out the $979 Bugaboo Cameleon Stroller.

Then, there is the SUV equivalent of the stroller world for active parents — Bob Ironman Sports Utility Stroller. I can tell you from experience that it’s a great stroller for both parents and kids. I have talked to quite a few parents about their Bob Strollers. Everyone loved it.

What’s really interesting about Bob Stroller is that almost everyone parent I talked to purchased additional add-ons/accessories to the stroller.

Here are some examples of the add-ons:

• Car Seat adopter that allows parents to attach car seats from other manufacturers to the Bob Stroller.
• Handlebar console that holds water bottles, keys, cell phones, etc.
• Weather shield that protects kids from the rains.
• Warm and Fuzzy fleece panel and padded quilting that keeps kids warm.

These add-ons are not cheap. And the list of add-ons are expanding.

One could argue that the add-ons is a rip-off. They should be included as part of the stroller.

But, the bare bone Bob Stroller is such as a high quality product that many happy customers are willing to make the extra purchase.

The Bob Stroller is the platform.  It’s also designed in such a way that manufacturers could add many new features on top of the platform.

I thought it’s a brilliant strategy.

We often talk about platform strategy in the software world (e.g. Microsoft Windows 7, Mac OS, Linux, etc.) But, it’s not a concept that is limited to the software industry.

Regardless of which industry you’re in, you should think about a platform strategy: build a high-quality core set of functionality that customers are willing to pay, but also has the flexibility to add bells and whistles to generate incremental sales.

Today, I want to share with you a few demand generation lessons I learned from Amazon Fresh.

To generate more sales, a retailer has a few options:

• have existing customer buy more each time
• have existing customer buy more frequently
• acquire new customers

When I received the first delivery from Amazon Fresh, we also received 3 things that made us surprised and delighted:

• they sent us beautiful flowers to welcome us as first-time customer.
• we ordered 1 box of Cheerios, but they sent us 3 boxes. The additional two boxes were "surprise gifts".
• they included a 10% off coupon for our next purchase.

The nice surprise gifts of flowers and extra boxes of Cheerios serve as "nice gestures". It helps to retain us as customer so that we will continue to order from Amazon Fresh.

Amazon Fresh’s price is about 5% above regular grocery stores. And they charges $5 delivery fees for orders less than $75. With the 10% coupon, they essentially removed the barrier for us to order again.

Additionally, we also received two coupons for us to give to our friends:

• coupon #1 is a free grocery sampler for any first-time customer
• coupon #2 is a 10% off discount for any first-time customer

I’ll certainly give the coupons to my friends. I’m happy to help my friends. My friends will enjoy the savings.

It’s a win-win-win situations for all parties.

As a result, Amazon Fresh will acquire a couple of new customers.

Just think about the viral effect — every new customer will refer a couple of new customers.

Absolutely brilliant demand generation strategy.

Related posts:

• GeekMBA360.com publishes How to get a job at amazon.com: A definitive Guide
• Is Amazon Fresh the future of grocery shopping and more?
• The Hot Dog Guy
• Why Amazon.com bought its way into casual gaming

Excellent resources:

• Lead Generation for the Complex Sale: Boost the Quality and Quantity of Leads to Increase Your ROI
• World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories
• Marketing Metrics: 50+ Metrics Every Executive Should Master
• Customer Loyalty: How to Earn It, How to Keep It
• The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits, and Lasting Value

• On choosing strategy: "We do no market research. We don’t hire consultants.”
• On demanding reputation: “My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better.”
• On Apple’s focus: “Apple is a $30 billion company, yet we’ve got less than 30 major products. I don’t know if that’s ever been done before.”. “It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”
• On launching Apple Store: “It was very simple. The Mac faithful will drive to a destination, right? They’ll drive somewhere special just to do that.”
• On catching tech’s next wave: “One of our biggest insights [years ago] was that we didn’t want to get into any business where we didn’t own or control the primary technology because you’ll get your head handed to you.”
• On managing through the economic downturn: “What I told our company was that we were just going to invest our way through the downturn, that we weren’t going to lay off people, that we’d taken a tremendous amount of effort to get them into Apple in the first place — the last thing we were going to do is lay them off. And we were going to keep funding.”

I feel I can apply many of these lessons to my current job and side projects. I think you’ll benefit from reading the article as well. Check it out.

But, Amazon Fresh has really impressed me. Amazon Fresh started to deliver grocery in limited number of zip codes in the Seattle area. It then expanded to more zip codes. Recently it started to deliver to my neighborhood. By the end of 2009, it’ll deliver to the entire Seattle area.

I can now order meat, vegetables, fruits, diapers, detergents, diary products, etc. It’ll save me at least 3 hours a week. That’s 156 hours a year. We’ll have more time to read, exercise, play with the kids, enjoy family time.

We have two little ones at home. There are times that after a full day of work and several hours of playing, bathing and putting kids to bed, I had to drive to grocery store because we run out of milk or diapers or whatever although I was exhausted.

If there is one thing we need more, that’s TIME. Plus, grocery shopping is not exactly my favorite activity.

Amazon Fresh works beautifully.

• If I order before mid-night and choose the “pre dawn” delivery option, the grocery will be left at my door stop by 6AM in a temperature controlled box.
• During the day, as long as I order 7 hours in advance, I’ll get same day delivery.
• I can set up automatic delivery for items that runs out periodically (e.g. milk, diaper, etc.). I’ll get 10-15% discount for automatic delivered items.
• There is a requirement for $30 minimum purchase. The delivery cost is $5 for purchase under $75. But, if I made enough purchase, I’ll be qualified for free delivery in the following month.

I’ll make fewer trips to Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Fred Meyer’s. I think Amazon Fresh is going to steal market share from these grocery stores.

I’m also very impressed by amazon’s execution. They worked hard to avoid Webvan’s mistakes. Amazon hired a former Webvan executive to run their grocery business. They have a very limited marketing budget to limit cost. It rolls out its service in only one geographic area (i.e. Seattle) to limit the infrastructure cost and test the concept. I also notice that Amazon Fresh’s price is a little bit higher than traditional grocery stores. But, for the convenience and time saving, I think many people are willing to pay.

I also think that amazon’s ability to deliver on the same day is going to be huge. Once they build up the infrastructure in all major cities in the United States, they’ll be able to control the “last mile” of delivery.

Amazon Fresh is “Costco meets FedEx”. I don’t know Amazon Fresh’s revenue and profit. But, if amazon can make it economically viable,  it could be a game changer that fundamentally disrupts many traditional businesses.

Related Post:

• GeekMBA360.com publishes How to get a job at amazon.com: A definitive Guide
• 4 retail businesses that are doing well during recession
• Mediocrity at Barnes & Nobles and why Amazon.com is winning
• Why I don’t like Sequoia Capital’s "R.I.P Good Time" presentation
• Why Amazon.com bought its way into casual gaming

Excellent reading:

• Changing How the World Does Business: Fedex’s Incredible Journey to Success – The Inside Story
• Big Brown: The Untold Story of UPS
• Amazon Top Seller Secrets: Insider Tips from Amazon’s Most Successful Sellers
• Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com Juggernaut

I’m a fan of the PBS “Great American Scenic Railroads ” series. I have been to the official web site (www.gsrj.com) before, but I forgot to bookmark it.

Last night, I searched “Great American Scenic Railroads” on Google. I couldn’t find the official site on the first 3 pages of the search results. In fact, I stopped browsing through the search result pages since most of the search results are online shops who sell the Great American Scenic Railroads DVDs.

For the first time in a long time, I gave up on Google. I went to Bing.com, entered the exact search keywords “Great American Scenic Railroads”.

The official web site was returned as #1 search result. That’s exactly what I was looking for.

Why is Google not showing the official site? Is it because of search engine optimization (SEO) done by all of the online sellers who’re gaming for the top spots on the search result pages?

Google CEO Eric Schmidt commented on Bing recently: “"It’s not the first entry for Microsoft. They do this about once a year.” I think Google needs to take Bing and Microsoft more seriously. Microsoft had a lot of problems over the past few years and failed many times. But, Microsoft is a very resilient company. It seems to be at its best when its back is against the wall. Remember the browser war between Netscape and Microsoft? Microsoft kept trying, and eventually got it right.

Don’t count Microsoft out yet in the search war.

Related posts:

• Microsoft Laid-off Employees spoke up! — Layoff Satisfaction Survey Results – Microsoft
• Microsoft second round layoff satisfaction survey results
• Would Microsoft have been better off if DOJ broke Microsoft into pieces
• Great Depression 2.0 Survival Guide — May, 2009 Edition

Excellent resources:

• Competing On Internet Time: Lessons From Netscape And Its Battle With Microsoft
• High Stakes, No Prisoners: A Winner’s Tale of Greed and Glory in the Internet Wars
• Burn Rate: How I Survived the Gold Rush Years on the Internet
• Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story

A friend works for a start-up company. They’re on track to generate $30 million revenue this year, which will allow the company break even. Eighty percent of the revenue are from the US, while the other twenty percent are from western Europe. They still have about $10 million of cash that they received as part of their most recent round of venture capital financing.

Lately, the company has received inquiries from 3 potential customers who are very interested in doing business with them. But, these 3 potential customers are from 3 different countries: South Korea, Russia, and Brazil.

They have no presence in any of these countries. They would need to make some changes to their product in order to support customers in these emerging market.

The sales people are eager to close the deals. The head of marketing is excited because it’ll be a "great story" to talk to the media about.

The CFO is shaking his head: it’ll be very costly to enter these market. And it’s very hard to estimate how many customers they can get once they enter each of the emerging market. The financial risk is high. The VP of engineering is also very concerned: his small team of developers have already been working their tails off to ship products. Customizing the products for those emerging market customers will only add more pressure to the team. Does it really worth it? The director of operation and support is equally concerned: how could his small team to support customers with such diverse languages and customized products?

If you’re the CEO, what would you do? Should the company stay focused in the US market and continue to grow revenue and profit? Should the company enter the emerging markets? Or there is something in between? How would you decide?

I’ll share my thoughts in another post.

Recommended reading:

• Emerging Markets: Lessons for Business Success and the Outlook for Different Markets (Economist Books)
• Understanding Emerging Markets: Building Business Bric by Brick (Response Books)
• Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East
• The Chinese Century: The Rising Chinese Economy and Its Impact on the Global Economy, the Balance of Power, and Your Job (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks)

Right after I started college in the early 1990s, I discovered the Lynx text browser for World Wide Web (WWW). A few months later, I "upgraded" to the Mosaic Browser, and later moved to use Netscape Browser. I was like a kid in the candy store — it was amazing how much one could do on the web. I was excited, inspired, and full of ideas.

I haven’t had this feeling for a long time. The Internet has been a huge growth engine in the past decade. But, what’s the next big thing?

I recently saw something that really got me excited, inspired, and full of ideas, again.

It was on the Oprah Show last week. Dr. Oz mentioned the "Intelligent Toilet" system from Japan that can measure sugar levels in urine, blood pressure, body fat and weight.

In other words, it is a medical device that moves medical test from hospital lab to your home.

This is a very powerful idea. Just think about the health benefits and medical care cost saving due to early disease detection. The potential benefit is enormous. How big will this market be? One could argue that every family should have at least one "intelligence toilet" installed. The market is potentially huge if the price becomes affordable.

I think there are many forms of medical lab tests could be moved from hospitals to homes. Personalized, technology-driven, home-based preventive medicine could be an important step toward cost-effective preventive care.

There are technical, medical, and regulatory hurdles we have to overcome. But, I believe this could be the "next big thing". Oprah joked on her show that the "smart toilet" could be our own bailout program. Well, she might just be right.

Excellent resources on innovation:

• The Innovator’s Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business (Collins Business Essentials)
• The Innovator’s Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth
• Seeing What’s Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change
• The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm

Do you think the new album will do well? I’m keeping my expectation very low because I don’t want to get myself disappointed.

I think for top music brand such as U2, your past success could easily become your biggest enemy. That’s why I think the success of Apple in recent years has been truly remarkable – just think about the expectation from Apple fans. Apple has a knack for meeting and exceeding the high expectations. That’s very hard to do. It requires an amazing blend of innovation, execution, expectation setting, and marketing.

I believe that Innovation will be the engine that get us out of our current economic mess. But, how do you build on your past success, continue to innovate, and meet and exceed your customers’ expectations? I guess we’ll soon find out if U2’s new album is a success. At meantime, I’m curious to hear what our fellow readers are doing to innovate and continue to meet customers’ expectations. Feel free to leave a comment or email me (regularguy@geekmba360.com).

It’s interesting that how technologies have failed when we need them the most before and during the snow storm:

• Because of extremely slippery road condition, many people were trying to take buses. But, the metro bus web site was down for three days since the very beginning of the snow storm. When I hit the metro bus URL,I got a page with "Out Of Service" message. Later, Metro Bus published a text page with schedule and re-route updates. But, many of the updates were inaccurate. Ironically, this was the best time for metro bus to acquire new customers.
• The weather forecast was frequently inaccurate in term of timing and severity. According to the forecast, initially my area was supposed to have 5 inches of snow over night. I woke up in the morning and there was no snow. Many people like myself thought the forecast was wrong. So, we went to work. But, it started snowing hard in mid-morning. The forecast was off by about 6 hours, which caused a lot of inconvenience to commuters. Also, it happened for several times that the forecast said that we’d have 1-2 inches of snow, but we ended up having 5 inches of snow or more.
• No detailed updates on local road condition. Local news focused on major highways. But, the most troublesome and dangerous spots are the local roads. I tried to use Google Map, but it didn’t show how drivable the roads were.

Public transportation, weather forecast, and road conditions are probably the three most important aspects of responding to major snow storms. I see several opportunities from technology perspective to help improve our infrastructure and ability to respond to snowstorms:

• a twitter-based network of drivers who volunteer to update local road conditions 
• granular, more local-based weather forecast. I think most weather forecasts cover a wide area with multiple micro climates. We need forecast at more granular, micro-climate level.
• the local government and department of transportation need to get their acts together. They need to load test their web site to make sure it’s ready to handle huge traffic spikes.

What’s next?

Are you intrigued by the study of weather (i.e. Meteorology)? The snowstorm experience really piqued my interest. I found an excellent weather blog by Cliff Mass, a professor at University of Washington in Seattle. If you want to learn more about weather forecast, check out Cliff Mass Weather Blog.

Good amateur equipments for observing weather:

• Vantage Pro Wireless Weather System
• La Crosse Technology WS-7014CH-IT Wireless Weather Station
• Oregon Scientific RGR126 Cable Free Long Range Rain Gauge