Alpaca Journal

By Mike Safley

By Lisa Banks
Marketing Director and senior alpaca copywriter at SEO Advantage,

   It’s common knowledge that a website plays a major role in an alpaca farm’s marketing strategy. But the question alpaca ranch owners are now asking is "How do I get more from my website?"

  With advances in Internet technology, alpaca website owners can take advantage of more options for building exposure and generating leads online. So if you’ve wondered whether you should start a blog, run a newsletter, distribute press releases, and what other choices are out there, read on… It may be easier than you think to take advantage of these and more ideas.Read more.

By Lisa Banks
Marketing Director and senior alpaca copywriter at SEO Advantage,

A basic guide to help alpaca farmers use press releases to establish credibility and strengthen online marketing efforts.

A press release is a specially written and formatted document that is intended to provide information to editors and journalists in the hopes that they will carry your newsworthy information in their publication.

Now with online press release submission portals, you can reach your end customers directly, too.

Some benefits of using press releases as part of your marketing strategy for your alpaca farm include:

• Build credibility – even if you have just started out, you can develop a reputation as an active alpaca resource with regular press releases.
  
  

• A professional way to make announcements – news professionals prefer to receive well-written press releases, so you’ll be more likely to gain exposure.
  
  

• Relatively low cost – if you write and distribute them online yourself, you can gain decent exposure for around only $40 per press release (though it will require several hours of your time).
  
  

• Search engine optimization – when optimized for keywords and submitted through online portals, your press release can rank high in the search results for several weeks. As well, news sites will pick up your release and create links to your website, all valuable for SEO.
  
  

• Fresh content for your site – adding press releases to your Farm News section is a great way to add new content regularly.
  
  

Many an alpaca farmer has been able to generate coverage by local news media by submitting press releases to local newspapers, radio stations, and TV stations. Imagine the great exposure if a television station shows up at your next farm event!  Read more

By Lisa Banks
Marketing Director and senior alpaca copywriter at SEO Advantage,

How search engine optimization works to help alpaca websites gain visibility online.

It's not enough to simply have a great website. You need to make sure it will show up online, too.

If you type the search term "alpacas" in Yahoo! or Google, you can see that nearly 2 million results appear. From your own experience searching online, you know that few searchers are willing to click beyond the first one or two pages…

Search engine optimization helps alpaca websites achieve greater exposure online, making it possible for your website to rank high in search engine results.

While the keyword “alpacas” may be too competitive a term to aim for ranking when you first start out, ranking high for terms like “alpacas for sale” can be extremely lucrative for alpaca ranchers. Many enlist the assistance of a search engine optimization company to achieve their ranking goals on an ongoing basis.  Read more

Provide the Information Your Audience Wants Online

By Lisa Banks
Marketing Director and senior alpaca copywriter at SEO Advantage,

Your website represents your alpaca farm online. This is your chance to make a great first impression.

The type of information you’ll want to make available depends on the needs of your customers. The majority of your prospective customers fall into two groups:

1. Potential alpaca ranchers who are researching the business, and
2. Existing alpaca farmers looking to purchase alpacas and related services.

Click here to read more

By Pat Reuning
Senior SEO Associate at SEO Advantage SEO Advantage,

Whether it's an alpaca website or any types of websites for livestock, laying the right foundation will get your site ready for your customers as well as the search engines.

Choosing your keyword phrases

A better-targeted and more specific keyword phrase tends to yield better-qualified prospects. If you run an alpaca farm in Ohio, targeting regional keyword phrases may be a better option. Phrases such as “Ohio alpaca farm, alpacas for sale in Ohio, Ohio huacaya alpacas” are phrases that come to mind.

If you want to see actual search phrases that searchers use to find alpaca-related terms, SEO companies can provide you with a detailed keyword study.

Read more

Binder and husband Laurence, also an educator, were inspired to raise alpacas — shaggy-haired animals that are cousins to llamas — after deciding they wanted to leave city life behind and move to the country. Worried about the expense of buying land, "we thought we'd look at different ways to get tax breaks — and that led us to having animals," she says. Intimidated by cattle ranching, the couple discovered gentle-natured alpacas at Houston's big annual rodeo. Within months, the couple had sold their city home, moved into a rental, broke ground for a new house on an 18-acre farm, and acquired five alpacas. Read more

By Lisa Banks
Marketing Director and senior alpaca copywriter at SEO Advantage,

With 73% of the U.S. population using the Internet according to 2006 reports by Pew Internet & American Life Project, there is almost no business that can afford to forego a Web presence.

The Internet has become a favored source for information, news, advice, and communication for most people - including those in the alpaca industry. That includes alpaca rancher wannabes searching for information as well as established alpaca farmers looking for good livestock to invest in. A website for your alpaca farm can give you several significant advantages in reaching the growing alpaca market online.

Indeed, with the majority of alpaca ranchers already online, your alpaca farm could be placed at a disadvantage if it doesn’t have a website. Read more

By Lisa Banks
Marketing Director and senior alpaca copywriter at SEO Advantage,

You’ve done your homework. You know alpaca ranching is the business for you, and you’re prepared to invest in marketing to help make your business profitable.

While the alpaca farmer faces dozens of alternatives for marketing his or her ranch, none has the potential to create such great reach in so short a time as an alpaca website.

Let’s look at best practices that have emerged for this Web 2.0 environment and how you can take advantage of them to add value to your alpaca website and business – whether you’re a veteran of the alpaca industry or just starting out. Read more

     For all of you who have not finished your holiday shopping I have the perfect solution.  Northwest Alpacas is offering some great discounts on the following books:  Alpacas-Synthesis of a Miracle, The Ideal Alpaca: From Myth to Reality, The Alpaca Shepherd.  We are also offering free shipping within the USA, and in the holiday spirit of last minute shoppers we will send your order via UPS to make sure Santa gets it in time.

Related Links:

• Alpaca Art Gallery

By Mike Safley

     To begin I want you to know that the idea of taxes is not new nor the exclusive sin of the United States Government.  In Roman times, Caesar Augustus decreed, "that all the world should be taxed."  Politicians have taken taxation to heart for centuries.  We have, on occasion, been given good advice about our responsibility to pay tax. The Honorable Supreme Court Justice Learned Hand instructed the IRS, in a high court decision, that it was not a citizen's duty to conduct himself so as to pay the maximum tax possible, but that a common man might arrange his affairs so as to pay the least amount of tax possible.  God bless the judge, and God bless our alpacas and their tax advantages. Read more

Related Links:

• Alpaca Sales
• Studmaster™ Males

By Mike Safley

The Spring 2004, Alpaca World magazine, published in England, carried an article by an American author, entitled, "Ship of Fools."  The large print, pull quote, in the center of the two-page spread captured my attention by proclaiming:

"To me, participation in the closed US alpaca market is analogous to being on a cruise ship that has left dock with giddy passengers who have been promised unbelievable lottery prizes.  But when they awake and take a good sober look at what’s going on they find the crew is tyrannical and on a course known only to them."

I was wide-awake and sober when I read the offering and I began to wonder, was the author’s analogy of the American alpaca market a rational, clear-minded analysis based in reality or a narcissistic vision sailing forth on hyperbolic breath force?

Read the Entire Article

By Mike Safley

The alpaca market in the United States has been a long-running success.  Beginning in 1980, when alpacas were re-introduced into the U.S. from England the market has grown year in and year out and the population of registered alpacas between 1989 and 2004 has grown at an annual compound rate of 32%.  One of the most important factors in the success of the American marketplace was the magic marriage between alpacas and television that began in 1993.  In 2004, the market has never been stronger; the history of this success is a textbook case of guerilla marketing practiced by a committed band of breeders who used the concept of marketing co-ops to leverage their advertising dollars.

To read the entire article click here.

By Mike Safley

Warren Buffet, the world’s richest and most famous investor, said, "My favorite time frame for holding a stock is forever." Mr Buffet was talking about financial stocks but his thoughts are similar to mine when I consider my investment in alpaca livestock.

Click here to read entire article.

By Mike Safley

Summer is fading and year-end is looming. Uncle Sam is looking forward to taking a big slice of your income for 2004. Northwest Alpacas is a patriotic institution and we agree with Uncle Sam on most things. But, when it comes to taxes we are of the persuasion that less is better. We like to see our favorite Uncle on a diet. Especially when it comes to our alpaca income.

Click here to read entire article.

Executive Summary
Department of Primary Industries

Market research was conducted to investigate sheep breeding decisions from a consumer behavior perspective.  Interviews with woolgrowers, extension professionals, brokers and consultants were used to identify the key criteria that influence the sheep breeding decisions of woolgrowers.  The interviews were used to design a mail survey that was distributed to woolgrowers throughout Victoria.

Click here to read the article.

Becoming involved in the alpaca business can be a life changing experience. It often begins by falling in love, maybe not in the romantic sense, but almost. When people see their first alpaca or maybe just an alpaca image on TV or in a magazine, something clicks. They are intrigued. They begin to inquire, search the internet, travel to a nearby alpaca farm, and slowly, but surely, their life changes.

Soon they are dreaming of a farmhouse in the country or of renovating that unused barn on the five acres behind the house. A young mother with children begins to wonder, can I really become self employed in the alpaca business? An older couple might ask, can this be what we are going to do when we retire? A professional man says to himself, can we really make a living in the alpaca business?

Click here to read more.