Written By Alyssa Morris

Occasionally, stores emerge with items that seem incongruous to one another- items that are strange bedfellows in a way. However, with these odd pairings, you can find a larger niche audience. Doing this exclusively at the brick and mortar level can prove to be a bit of a risk. In contrast, including an online angle with this strange mass appeal can prove mutually beneficial to both consumer and merchandiser. Shop-Suey Boutique offers that fashion sweet and sour- something for everyone.

When the main criterion for someone’s fashion search is celebrity connoisseurship, items of interest may vary indefinitely. In new arrivals section of their website at this moment, Shop-Suey offers everything from bejeweled trucker hats to patent leather oversized tote bags- something for Rock of Love 2 fans and Posh Beckham zealots alike.

A look at a variety of popular fashion searches offers proof of the sort of mass appeal that Shop-Suey yields. Here are just a few of the common search phrases associated with women’s fashions and accessories (according to Word Tracker):

• Designer look alike rings (6 searches/day)
• Four leaf clover jewelry (12 searches/day)
• Designer inspired jewelry (118 searches/day)
• Replica designer sunglasses (22 searches/day)
• Fashion headbands (93 searches/day)
• Designer replica handbags (78 searches/day)

These items searches range from faux vintage to holiday party statements, but they share two important attributes: popular demand and availability at Shop-Suey Boutique.

Due to the nature of the industry, Shop-Suey Boutique goes one step further in offering unique merchandise that appeals on a large scale- their site offers instant gratification. When shoppers find an exact replica of celebrity fashion iconography or the perfect finishing touch for their New Year’s Eve outfit, they are likely to stop searching as soon as they locate an item of quality and value that meets their demands. Essentially, Shop-Suey Boutique has the attention of the buyer because they create a product of fun to support flings with in the moment style.

“Stay Classy Dallas.”
-Ron burgundy

Dallas is known as one of the most affluent cities, it also known as a city with one of the worst credit ratings. One thing is for sure, people do not skimp on looking the part- big houses, fancy cars, flashy watches, even if he/she can not afford the lifestyle. Those details don’t matter, since perception is reality.

On the search radar, which is what this Buzz blog is about, there seems to be a suprising number of searches for the classic show of opulence: using limousine services. Little known to me, before my research, I found one of the most popular uses of limo services is to and from the airport similar to a taxi. It can be a very affordable, pleasurable experience if you have a group chip in.

Below are some common search phrases associated with limousine services:

transportation limousine service 217 daily searches
limo dallas 179 daily searches
airport transportation dallas 108 daily searches
limousine dallas 100 daily searches
dallas texas christmas limo 15 daily searches

These were the predicted numbers for Google using data collected by smaller engines over the last 90 days.

I’m sure the next limo ride I’ll get will be my wedding day. I guess I’ll just have to get used to my Jeep.

If you were on the internet, or just were awake AT ALL during 2007, you got to see the trainwrecks that are celebrities unfold before your eyes. Well there was a whole slew of trainwrecks that didn’t get covered in gossip columns and news websites and Yahoo! Tech has exposed them to us all. They released their list of the “Top 10 Tech Train Wrecks of 2007″ and we get to breath a sigh of relief because “train wreck” and “Britney” were not in the same headline, and we also get some useful information.

Here is my stripped down version of their list:

Xbox 360: The 360 hardware was glitchy, prone to overheating, and susceptible to critical hardware failure.

BlackBerry: The service got so overloaded in April that it ground to a hault and caused users to be frantic and peeved at email delay.

Skype: The VoIP provider became an instant messenger as well and struck down the service in August for two days when they ran into a “software issue.”

AppleTV: Didn’t hear about it? No big surprise. Read the rest of this entry »

They say owning a home is part of the American dream. Additionally, many top financial gurus say you can only start building true wealth after acquiring a home. Today’s subject is about protecting that investment and maintaining its value without falling victim to one of the most common homeowner hindrances – foundation problems.

Foundation problems can sometimes be the fault of the builder, but are often just acts of God or natural settling of the soil dependent upon geography or long term weather conditions. Checking if your home’s foundation is sound is most likely not on your day-to-day list of things to do and usually only comes on the radar when some overt sign presents itself. Here are six signs that you could have foundation problems:

You see:

1. Cracks in the interior walls of your house.
2. Nails popping out of gypsum board.
3. Water puddles standing still in your lawn near the house days after rain.
4. Leaky roof when material is in good shape or even new.
5. Closet doors that don’t shut properly.
6. Cracks in brick on the exterior of the house.

Only when these signs start appearing do homeowners start researching what the problem could be. Some already know what the problem is, but they go to the Internet to confirm their suspicions. They may even try to learn to fix their home’s foundation themselves (”do it yourselfers” or DIY). Or the homeowners want to become more educated on the subject before calling a company to help, so he/she does a little research. Sometimes there are no signs that the home is displaying, only surrounding the home, such as standing water in your lawn, otherwise known as landscape drainage problems.

Below are the common variations of phrases people use when searching with the predicted daily Google search volume. Each section demonstrates searchers at a different point in his/her search cycle.

Early in Cycle – Info Seeking

The searches below are ambiguous and could be those only seeking information and may/may not be looking to hire someone right now.

foundation repair 287 a day
foundation crack repair 49 a day
foundation repair techniques 28 a day
foundation wall repair 26 a day

Below are three specific foundation repair techniques. You can assume these searchers are really “in the know.”

Sophisticated Searcher - Mid Cycle

mud jacking ( mudjacking) foundation repair
helical pier foundation repair

From a search standpoint, localized search is the name of the game in regard to being able to assume the searcher’s commercial intent or likelihood that he/she is seeking an actual business solution soon.

Local Company Research - Near End of Cycle

foundation repair dallas texas 15 a day
foundation repair texas 4 a day
foundation repair fort worth 4 a day

Related Content
The Basics of Mud Jacking for Foundation Repair

In an effort to contribute to our local non-profit community, LevelTen decided to participate in the Light the Night walk in late October. Light the Night is a fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and is held in various cities across the nation. Our particular walk was held on Sunday, October 21^st at the beautiful Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas, Texas. In order to raise funds, participants were encouraged to start or join a team and utilize the Society’s personalized web pages for each team. The actual walk was beautiful - all participants recieved a red balloon that included a light inside to honor and remember those who have fought and those who continue to fight the battle against leukemia and lymphoma. There were even special gold balloons if you were walking in memory of a particular person, and white balloons for those who were survivors. Our team was able to raise nearly $700 for the society, and we all were able to participate in the walk.

Thank you very much to all who donated and supported our team. I am incredibly honored to have walked for such a cause, and would especially like to thank my fellow team members: Neil Lemons, Alice Noyes, Jamie Swartz, Kayla Wren, and honorary LevelTen Team member Fadi Boury.

We at LevelTen look forward to continuing our support of the non-profit community and hope to see your support for us in our future endeavors!

I am fortunate in my job to have the opportunity to research dozens of businesses and learn what phrases people search to find those businesses online. Today I was doing some foundational search engine optimization for a client of one of LevelTen’s sister companies and discovered something fascinating.

Good Stinks™ sells battery operated, flameless candles and candle warmers. They do not sell any regular candles that burn with wicks.

I was blown away by the popularity of Good Stink’s niche. It was not only popular, but had relatively low competition, which is what got my attention.
In the book The Long Tail, Chris Anderson encourages business owners and entrepreneurs to “scratch your niche” online, instead of trying to be everything to everyone. I am sure the online market for regular candles became saturated long ago, but these specialty candles are unique. Affiliate marketing professionals love these types of opportunities, and are always on the lookout for them.

These wickless candles seem to be all the rage, and I am definitely noticing them more often in bars and restaurants (to cut down on liability due to accidental fire no doubt). I love how they even flicker to simulate real candles. Below are some of the related keywords and their daily search volume for this niche.

Candle warmer (5535)*
Flameless candles (3360)*
Pillar candles (5550)*
Battery operated candles (5190)*
Wickless Candles (252)*

*Montlhly Searches on Yahoo. 22% of the search engine market.

With the holiday season coming up, I can foresee Good Stinks™ doing quite well. It seems like the opportunities for niche marketing are endless online. So if you have a niche in mind, do your research, then by all means…scratch it.

Recently, we at LevelTen have been hard at work promoting a new site we created for National Breast Cancer Foundation. We have employed a variety of web marketing tools such as the more standard methods of paid search advertising, linking, and search engine optimization, to the more viral methods of social networks, blogs, forums, and niche communities.

On top of SEO/SEM, LevelTen has also been facilitating and monitoring the MyNBCF breast cancer forum and breast cancer message board, where survivors, patients, supporters, family members, and friends can chat about breast cancer-related topics.

The first two months have been an interesting journey. Through keyword research, monitoring the site’s analytics, and collecting the market research from paid search, we have become much more familiar with what the most popular and relevant terms and phrases users are searching that pertain to the breast cancer site.

Here are some examples of relevant terms related to breast cancer that are getting searched. (According to Overture)

Mammograms (196.8 searches per day)
Free mammograms (21.5 searches per day)
Types of breast cancer (53 searches per day)
Inflammatory breast cancer (162.6 searches per day)
Breast cancer survivor stories (12 searches per day)
Breast cancer chemotherapy chat (12 searches per day)
Breast cancer charities (17 searches per day)
Metastic breast cancer (86 searches per day)
Breast cancer stages (148 searches per day)

If you are the owner of a privately held company and offer your employees stock options, you better make sure your company’s stock is held at fair market value or you could end up in trouble with the IRS and consequentially in need of a highly qualified damages expert.

Recently, new tax related laws have been passed that govern these practices, specifically section 409(a). Basically, 409a requires private companies to withhold income taxes on the awarded stock options that have prices below fair market value. This is directly related the financial reporting issue under FAS 123.

FAS 123 provides alternative methods for the voluntary change to the fair method of accounting. While the FASB 15X provides a way to measure the fair value under a wide variety of accounting statements.

Since this has been passed, non-public companies have labored to find the proper ways to establish that their stock option price is reasonably aligned with fair market value. Before, when the stock price was determined by management, the tax burden was on the company to prove the reasonability of the fare market value to the IRS. Now, one of the best ways for companies to do this is through business valuation methods with a qualified independent appraisal expert, because then the burden of proof will shift to the IRS.

By also using an independent appraiser for a business valuation method, your company’s valuations can be used by auditors in FAS 123. Just a piece of knowledge that is valuable to any private business owner.

Two weeks ago today, I was en route to Bonnaroo, a four-day music and arts festival in Manchester, Tenn. This was my second year to attend the festival, but the first for my group of friends to enjoy the VIP accommodations. Regardless of where you camp or stay, the main focus is the same - the music. This year’s lineup was by far the most diverse, with acts ranging from the “classics” (The Police, Ornette Coleman), to bluegrass/jambands (Widespread Panic, String Cheese Incident), to new rock and alternative (The White Stripes, Wolfmother, Kings of Leon), to electronica and hip-hop (The Roots, DJ Shadow). When I returned last Monday, my brother-in-law, a festival veteran and attorney in the music industry, asked me what my “moment” was this year – the time when you look around and say “Are you seeing this?!”

After some serious thought, I narrowed it down to a tough Top 10:
Read the rest of this entry »

It seems HBO’s The Sopranos turned out a large number of fans for its finale.
Fox estimates The Sopranos final episode captured the attention of an estimated 12 million viewers, despite this year’s viewership numbers being near an all-time low.

With this closing of one chapter, many assumed there would be the opening of another. There has been much talk and rumors of a Sopranos movie in the works. Much to the chargrin of the fans, the Sopranos movie rumors were quashed today.

All this Italian mafia obsession and hubbub inspired me to pick up a book about famous criminals this weekend while at Barnes & Noble. I read about how
Al Capone would have literally gotten away with murder if he would not have been caught for income tax evasion. If only he would have had a good federal criminal defense lawyer.

Why does America have this obsession with ruthless killers and the Mob? I have no idea. I wasn’t a huge Sopranos fan, but bring on Scarface and The Godfather’s trilogy.