Since we joined forces last year, it’s seemed inappropriate to continue to call our business Doc Sheldon’s Clinic. And trying to work Doc and Lisa into the company name didn’t really make sense to us. So we did some brainstorming and came up with something entirely new: Top Shelf Copy.

“Top Shelf”, of course, refers to the sort of quality we offer our clients. We’re expanding our offering from simply content strategy and SEO copywriting, to include many other aspects of SEO and internet marketing. More on that in a bit. Let’s talk first about the quality of our core service: copy.

We found ourselves swamped with work, which is, of course, a wonderful problem to have. But when you’re trying to build up a business, it’s very frustrating to have to turn down work in order to maintain  the standards you’ve set for your service. So we started looking at ways to achieve more.

Before Lisa joined the Clinic, I was working 16-18 hours per day, 7 days per week, and barely keeping up. For some reason, I had it in mind that with her on board, that might lessen a bit.

Foolish me! The end result was that now there were TWO of us working 16-18 hour days, 7 days per week! Time for another brainstorming session. We needed more writers.

My immediate concern was where to find quality writers. There are a lot of folks out there that claim to be SEO copywriters, but as we all know, some of them miss the mark. Often by a couple of miles.

Lisa, however, knows a million writers (give or take a couple hundred), so we decided to solicit samples, in hopes of ending up with 6-8 good ones.

In no time at all, we had over 100 submissions. And this is where I was really blown away… nearly 75 were very good, and had extensive experience. We starting selecting the best of the best, and soon had a couple dozen that we agreed were Top Shelf quality.

Thus was born our team, which we dubbed the Top Shelf Stars. The group is comprised of teachers, business professionals and widely published authors, each with several years of experience – well over a century of aggregate experience, in fact. And they’re not just a list of freelancers that we can tap now and then… they’re part of the Top Shelf team. They each have their areas of particular expertise, niches in which they specialize, and are as demanding of their own quality as we are. And as you should be.

So for the last couple of weeks, we’ve been working feverishly to get out new site up and presentable. We still have a couple of pages to write, but the heart of it is there. And neither Lisa nor I are the patient sort, so we’re throwing open the doors today.

Stop by and take a look! Sign up for our newsletter if you like… it won’t be fluff, I assure you… just solid, actionable stuff! (Note: don’t bother with a membership at this point… that’s a part of the site that’s still under development)

With over $2,000 in cash prizes ($1,000 to 1st Place), can you afford not to enter?

So get your Mad SEO Scientist butt over there and sign up! There’s money to be made and plenty of cool non-cash prizes to be won, too. The sooner you start, the more promoting of your post you can do!

And Good Luck!

Figuring out online buying trends is extremely tricky and very subjective. What is certain is the fact that people buy for generally the same reasons, such as:

1)      Comfort – Everyone wants this. If possible, they prefer to do all purchases from the comfort of their home.On another note, comfort draws in a huge number of buyers since most, if not all, always find ways to increase or upgrade their current comforts such as a new couch to replace the old and worn one or a new power tool that has a better grip and more features.

2)      Savings – Face it, anyone who has bought something through the web knows that he or she saves precious time, money, and sweat. It hardly matters that they cannot touch nor see the real item as the overall savings more than makes up for it.

3)      Convenience – All a consumer has to do is search online, make his or her selection, fill out an order form and wait for the order to arrive. The alternative is to go out to the limited stores around your locality, hope someone has it and further hope it has a reasonable piece tag.

4)      Security – All sorts of security systems are bought online from security suites for your computer to high tech home security systems. Also included are different kinds of insurance policies from home to personal.

5)      Curiosity – You’ve heard that there’s a new software out there that beats the one you have by a long mile or there’s a hot online strategy that guarantees $47 per hour on autorun and guarantees you thousands of targeted traffic to your website on a daily basis (sound familiar?). Believe it or not, the number of visitors who go for these is staggeringly high.

6)      Vanity – Here is where a lot of cash flow occurs online. Think about health products such as slimming pills, manuals, and other paraphernalia, jewelry, the latest electronic gadgets, devices, and equipment, etc.

7)      Pleasure – For many, the Internet has become a refuge of sorts for de-stressing. These are usually expressed through movies, music, humor and all kinds of entertainment.

8)      Price  -The price of a singular item varies slightly from site to site. Although the variation would usually be less than a dollar, people would still go for something that is a cent cheaper. Why? Simply because they can! It only takes a click or two to save a cent.

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Owner of SERPd.com, Guest Blog It, and Burn SEO. I enjoy web development, semantic web architecture, ecommerce, seo, and internet marketing. I would say it’s my profession, but I spend so much of my free time thinking, talking, and doing things in this arena I suppose it’s much more than that. Please feel free to contact me at any of my sources listed in this profile!

When you’re looking to build an ecommerce website, website design 411 can help.

My computer finally gave up the ghost this morning, after 2-1/2 years of 16+ hours a day, 7 days a week abuse. I guess I can’t complain… Dell probably didn’t figure on that kind of use when they designed that laptop. The keyboard was worn naked long ago, so it’s a good thing I can touch-type.

I won’t have another computer ’til around Tues. or Wed. of next week, but I wanted to pop in and wish everyone a safe and happy New Year, and a very prosperous 2012.

To those that have stuck with me throughout the year, thank you. Since last month, you’re sticking by me and Lisa, my “partner in crime”.

Which reminds me…

Lisa, Happy New Year to you and yours, as well. Having you as a partner is the best thing that happened to me in 2011 and I’m sure we’re headed for bigger and better things together.

To the gang in the SEO Dojo, thanks to each of you, too! I’ve learned a lot of great stuff and had more than a little fun with you all. I’m looking forward to spending 2012 dissecting SEO techniques with you, even more.

Finally, to a bunch of my special e-friends (who I won’t embarrass by naming, ’cause you know who you are), thanks for believing in me, putting up with me and supporting me!

Happy New Year to you all!

Testing for my buddy, Josh, here’s a link to a good SEO provider