I recently published this 2-minute link optimisation tip to avoid a common mistake a lot of people make.
Archive for the 'Traffic' Category
I’ve blogged about long tail niche marketing before with a YouTube video that has become a classic amongst the exponential marketing community. Just click on the hyperlink to view it.
Even though as a small business, Internet advertising is not something you’re probably engaged in, a recent report by CONTEXTWEB reveals something that I have known all along, albeit anecdotally -
Average click-through rates (CTRs) for ads placed
on long-tail websites are 24% higher than
those placed on short-tail sites.
Long tail versus short tail marketing refers to specialised niches versus broad mass markets respectively. What’s of particular interest is that the MORE specialised and targeted you are with your web strategies, the greater the returns you’ll produce.
Our clients have known this for years – often out-performing their much larger, national competitors with very deep pockets.
Long tail websites—the millions of smaller websites with niche audiences—offer significant ad performance advantages across a wide number of verticals.
Among all 20 categories studied, long tail ads registered increased CTRs over short-tail ads, led by alcohol beverages (50%), B2B (48%) and charities (48%). The lowest long-tail lift observed was for auto advertisers, but still had (12%) better CTRs.
The trade off remains between quantity and quality of the communication. This is something we cover in depth in our Killer Kopywriting Konversations™ workshops as we help our clients design Killer Kampaigns That Konvert Klients™.
As shown below, among 21 publisher categories, 16 categories registered increased CTRs on long tail sites whereas in five content categories, ads on short tail sites underperformed long tail ads.
Data Source: CONTEXTWEB‘s Intelligence Report: Using Long Tail Sites to Optimize Media Spend was published in March 2011. It analysed digital media performance from roughly 18,000 publisher sites across 1,000 campaigns in the second half of 2010.
It’s no surprise that selling online has become harder. More and more consumers are researching before they even consider a purchase decision.
Results of the “Social Shopping Study”, conducted by PowerReviews in association with the e-tailing group, indicate that consumers who shop online are on a mission to get thorough information about products and find the best prices before they buy.
About half of the survey respondents spent 75 percent of their overall online shopping time researching products, compared to about one in five just a year ago. That’s a considerable increase.
When it comes to purchases such as computers and televisions, 71 percent of respondents say they spend a few days or more doing online research. Some respondents claim to spend “a few weeks” (18 percent) on research. Almost half of these online shoppers (44 percent) start with a search engine and look for top search results for the products that interest them. That’s a lot of time and effort to save a few dollars…
Amazon gets high scores from consumers as a place for product information, reviews, and price comparisons.
- Fifty-eight percent of survey respondents say they use reviews and ratings at Amazon as part of their research “all the time” or “very often.”
- In comparison, just 29 percent say they use Google Shopping to read product reviews, but that’s a good showing for Google’s relatively new service.
- Sixty-three percent think the reviews and recommendations found at Amazon are “extremely or very credible.”
- Of those who use their mobile phones for shopping, 36 percent look for competitive pricing on Amazon while they are in a physical store.
One of the more interesting findings is what consumers say about social media.
Facebook and Twitter are not highly regarded when it comes to shopping research.
- In fact, half (49 percent) of respondents says they “never” use social media to research products they want to purchase online.
- Only 13 percent say a company Facebook page has a significant impact on their buying behavior, while 59 percent of respondents say it is customer reviews of products that influence them, and 42 percent indicate it is customers asking and answering products about questions that influence them.
The survey respondents were pretty evenly split between male and female, with the predominant age group being 35 – 44 (31 percent), followed by 45 – 54 (26 percent) and 25 – 34 (24 percent). Forty-two percent of the respondents said they shopped online several times a month in the past year.
So what does this mean for your online sales channel approach?
- Online shoppers have discovered how to do research prior to purchase, they take it seriously and invest a lot of time and effort into it. If you don’t have sufficient information available for your products and services, you’re probably going to miss out on a lot of sales.
- Online retail shoppers seem to rely on Amazon for product reviews and to check prices. Which is important to know if you’re selling a product that is or could be sold on Amazon…
- I have been saying this all along… Facebook and Twitter are not a factor in (most) online purchasing decisions. It doesn’t mean it won’t change in the future, just that it’s not your lowest hanging fruit if you’re focused on sales. Sales is a four-step process. Knowing when to engage social media is beyond a free blog post. It’s what I share and teach my clients – sorry!
It was bound to happen… Real Time Google Analytics! If you’re an exponential Internet marketer who adheres to Management By Metrics™, this is BIG!
Just thought you should know!
Psst! Thanks to Ray Keefe of Successful Endeavours for forwarding it to me in real time!
I have an event coming up called Business Blogging For Sales Lead Generation that will reveal how quick, easy and fun strategies can help you improve your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and acquire new leads for free by blogging.
Here is an example using an Infographic. Karen Bonanno posted an interesting infographic (shown below) on what happens on the Internet in 60 seconds on her School Management Library Blog.
Along with these amazing stats:
- Search engine Google serves more that 694,445 queries
- 6,600+ pictures are uploaded on Flickr
- 600 videos are uploaded on YouTube videos, amounting to 25+ hours of content
- 695,000 status updates, 79,364 wall posts and 510,040 comments are published on Social Networking site Facebook
- 70 New domains are registered
- 168,000,000+ emails are sent
- 320 new accounts and 98,000 tweets are generated on Social Networking site Twitter
- iPhone applications are downloaded more than13,000 times
- 20,000 new posts are published on Micro-blogging platform tumbler
- Popular web browser FireFox is downloaded more than 1700 times
- Popular blogging platform WordPress is downloaded more than 50 times
- WordPress Plugins aredownloaded more than 125 times
- 100 accounts are created on professional networking site LinkedIn
- 40 new Questions are asked on YahooAnswers.com
- 100+ questions are asked on Answers.com
- 1 new article is published on Associated Content, the world’s largest source of community-created content
- 1 new definition is added on UrbanDictionary.com
- 1,200 new ads are created on Craigslist
- 370,000+ minutes of voice calls done by Skype users
- 13,000+ hours of music streaming is done by personalized Internet radio provider Pandora
- 1,600+ reads are made on Scribd, the largest social reading publishing company
This blog post alone has 6 embedded strategies to help Karen and me attract new sales leads.
If you want to know what they are and how other business owners are leveraging their blogs to generate free sales leads, you’ll have to attend the Business Blogging For Sales Lead Generation event!
Even though small businesses in Australia lag in Internet adoption with most small businesses either not having a website established or not having a fully integrated, functional website, in contrast, Australian consumers are quite techno-savvy.
According to recent research, 37% of Australians use smart phones and is predicted to be 50% by the end of 2011. 92% say they use smart phones while consuming other media; 46% while watching TV, 43% while listening to music, 36% while online. A whopping 26% say they have purchased something on their smart phone. Average number of apps is 25, with 8 being purchased. Nearly 50% browse the web every day on their phones.
Nielsen research shows Australians are #1 in usage of social networks
Neilsen reports that Australians spend 7 hours 17 minutes per person each month on social networks and blogs. Australian social media usage was highest for the second year running, out of Nielsen’s Internet-metered markets including: Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, U.K., and U.S. This means Australians used social media 25 minutes more per month than the previous year. That’s quite a bit more.
Most small business owners still don’t fully appreciate the value of social networking for business purposes.
A lot of it is due to ignorance (not knowing) and confusion. For example, there’s a common misconception that links last a lot longer on Facebook than Twitter, because the newsfeed moves slower than the stream, but recent research confirmed this is not the case.
The half life of a link (i.e. the time it takes to receive half its total clicks from when it’s first shared) is on average 2.8 hours on Twitter and 3.2 hours on Facebook – not a massive difference, although on YouTube links last considerably longer.
What’s more interesting is that a link pointing to a topical news story – like an earthquake – is likely to have a lot shorter half-life than a link pointing to something oblique (like lolcats).
The graph below illustrates this phenomenon, but once again ignorance (not knowing) can be damaging. The concept of the half life of a link is important if you’re in the news business, but if you’re a business looking to stay in business for years to come, what is important and relevant to you is the value of the individual links established, not the half life.
Half Life Of Internet Links In Social Media Networks
This is a vitally important concept we will cover at our Business Blogging For Sales Lead Generation event, it’s an exclusive by-invitation-only event that you need to contact us if you want to attend.
Why is a blog important for business?
Blogs are used to establish contact and communication with a business. A website by design is static, whereas a blog and Facebook are interactive, engaging the prospect. More importantly, he/she can read and assess the type of communications others have had with you/the business.
In this day and age, it’s not a nice-to-have sales and marketing tool, a blog is a must-have sales, marketing and customer support and brand building tool.
Let’s face it, if you’re not blogging, you’re just not serious about sales lead generation.
In a recent article,”Companies in the dark over converting web traffic into sales” it was reported that sixty per cent of Australian companies with an online presence have no idea how to convert website visitors into customers.
More than 300 Australian marketers were surveyed through independent research with the report also revealing 89% of companies don’t use tools to assess how people use their sites.
Moreover, the companies surveyed spend 40% of their budget attracting traffic to their website.
Some 30% of marketers either do not evaluate the success of their website or only evaluate on an annual basis.
A further 25% assess their website biennially. This lack of engagement and measurement of their websites means most marketers have no idea what small simple changes could be made to their websites to increase sales.
Isn’t this alarming?
So how do you stack up to these stats?
If you want help to grow your online presence and bottom-line results, give us a call. We have a RESULTS GUARANTEED Platinum Program that will have you out-performing and out-selling your competitors in no time – if you qualify!
The Grand Rapids LipDub Video (below) was filmed May 22nd, with 5,000 people and involved a major shutdown of downtown Grand Rapids, which was filled with marching bands, parades, weddings, motorcades, bridges on fire, and helicopter take offs. It is the largest and longest LipDub video, to date.
This video was created as an official response to the Newsweek article calling Grand Rapids a “dying city.” They of course disagreed strongly and wanted to create a video that encompasses the passion and energy they feel is growing exponentially, in this great city.
Rob Bliss, Director & Executive Producer explains that they chose Don McLean’s “American Pie,” a song about death but was in the end, triumphant and filled to the brim with life and hope.”
This $40,000 production was entirely financed by the generosity of local sponsors that are listed below.
This is yet another example of Exponential Mindset Thinking™ in action, leveraging the power and persuasive influence of the Internet. Enjoy this WORLD RECORD SETTING* video!
I have many clients who ask me how to communicate with kinesthetic people over the Internet. This video, even though a visual cue, puts you right back into the movie which is critical for a touchy feely kinesthetic person. So there you have it, a quick, simple solution. Integrate videos to tap into the SENSORY experience!
This tip is one of many I share with clients as part of my Killer Kopywriting System™. If you’d like to learn more, click on the hyperlink and imagine how much more traffic you’d get to your website or blog and how much better your conversions would be if you knew how to have Killer Konversations™!
A lot of people debate the pros and cons of Social Media, what I have come to call Social NOTworking – where people waste countless hours exchanging posts, chats, pokes, photos and other electronic elements with people they wouldn’t be caught dead with face-to-face. But that’s my personal bias AND I am not saying that Social Media is not worth doing – it is, but not for the reasons MOST people think…
That’s a discussion for another day and one I reserve for my paying clients to help them out-perform their peers by doing out-of-the-ordinary things that create extra-ordinary results.
Results that baffle their competitors – BECAUSE they (the competitors) have no clue…. Shhh! It’s called Stealth Marketing and means they can’t copy what you’re doing!
In support of my bias, I came across recent reports that continue to show that website traffic from social media networks is still pretty low.
SeeWhy studied 60,000 ecommerce transactions across a variety of sites in February 2011. Since running an online store is about selling things, they looked at only the people who actually loaded items into their shopping cart. Here’s one of the summary results:
Email Marketing Generates More Buyer Traffic Than Social Media
Email Marketing Still Outperforms Social Media
As you can see, email brought in the most traffic, with direct and search significantly less. Social media came in at only 4.3%, not great, but better than display advertising, so that’s something to think about.
Next they took that info and charted the percentage of people from each source who completed their transaction. In other words, the people who handed over their credit card number and hit submit.
Email Marketing Converts To More Sales Than Social Media
If you want more sales, send more emails!
In the above pie chart you can clearly see that email and direct hits to the site still resulted in the best sales conversions, social media picked up a dismal 2.11% of the overall, but look at display advertising. Yikes, only 0.53% conversion rate? Maybe you should be spending money on your Facebook page rather than on display ads, but once again that’s a discussion for another day. Social NOTworking does have its place, but not where or how you might think. We explain this in our Killer Konversations™ Workshops if you’re interested…
At the end of all of this, SeeWhy does put in the usual disclaimer. Your mileage may vary and different types of ecommerce sites will have different results. While I understand that this is a study of ONLY 60,000 transactions, it supports my bias that email marketing still is the primary source for online sales.
There’s a fundamental reason – it’s a privileged conversation that people still value – as long as it’s not violated.
If you’re asking yourself why email marketing isn’t in the news more often, it’s because it simply isn’t as new and trendy as social media marketing.
The news “media” are always searching for new trends and buzzwords to fill their empty pages.
My clients don’t care about the buzz and hype – all they want is more people buying their products and services.
If that’s what you want – send them more emails – but not just any emails… That’s considered spam. You need to know what to send to whom.
That’s what we teach our clients to do – become a client today. Contact us now and we’ll help you avoid making mistakes that cost money and lost sales.
Google Instant is not new, but it is having a dramatic influence on how people search….
As you can see when you use Google, the search results change dynamically AS YOU TYPE. The suggestions DO influence what people will type in – this is having a dramatic effect on Google Adwords…
Ray Keefe of Successful Endeavours sent this Google Warning article link to me several months ago. I shared this with my clients giving them hints and suggestions, but those are beyond the scope of a blog post.
If you’d like ‘instant’ access to tip and tricks to make sure you avoid mistakes and are kept informed in ‘real time’ – contact us to join one of our many programs.
Recently, I was reviewing infomercials (they are a great source of creative ideas). A popular TV pitchman had the audience repeating the mantra, “just set it and forget it!”
Set And Forget Might Work For BBQ Chicken, But Not Your Website
While this might be an exciting idea for a dinner appliance, it’s suicide for your website. Like a car or a house, your website requires regular, on-going maintenance.
What is “Website Maintenance”?
I define website maintenance as both the art and science of keeping a website current in both technology and (Killer Kopy™) content. That means assuring proper functionality (how users move around the pages), verifying the accuracy of copy, fixing any broken links and images as well as performing an overall brand/positioning assessment of the site to make sure it reflects how you and /or your company wants to be perceived online.
An easy metaphor to explain website maintenance is home maintenance.
You can take a look at your home for light bulbs that need to be replaced, look to see if there are any new cracks in the foundation, maybe a room needs some new paint, tiles or carpet.
The same is true of your website. It’s good practice to review your site at least once a month.
Website review tips:
- Check date sensitive content such as an announcement of an upcoming event. After the date passes, it should no longer be “upcoming” and the date or deadline changed. The longer the old date remains, the more out-of-date your website appears to your visitors.
- Even though computers “don’t make mistakes”, functional elements of your website including contact us forms, event registrations, product purchase links and other e-commerce and database functionality should be checked. Often, these break due to an indirect parameter being changed somewhere else on the site. You don’t need to check everything each month, just run a random spot check or pick a section of your site each month to review.
- Check external links (links to other sites) on your site. There are several free utilities that can provide this function for you. Recently, I had someone send me an email with a link in her signature that was broken…
- You should review as many pages on your site as you can, paying special attention to the links in the navigation bar(s), make sure the visual elements appear correctly on all pages. This can be done very quickly to find the most obvious errors.
- Check for images that are not displaying correctly or have the dreaded “red x”. This can usually be done by skimming the pages quickly – you may realise that some images load too slowly (all you need to do is reduce the file’s resolution to a web optimised format.)
I highly recommend taking notes as you do your website review. You’ll get ideas for immediate and future improvement that can become part of your tactical and strategic deployment respectively.
What do you do when you find an issue?
Google has made recent changes that significantly affect your SEO effectiveness. One of them I discussed recently, called Google Previews. Today’s post is regarding Google Places – another attempt by Google to fend off Facebook’s domination by forcing you to put additional information into Google to increase Google’s ranking – not necessarily improve your own SEO results. In fact this complicates the process in a zero sum game. More work, effort and cost for the same or WORST outcome than you previously had.
Contrary to what they want you to believe, Google is in business for themselves and Google Places I am sure you’ll agree is yet another task that you have to undertake to not lose whatever presence you previously had.
As a blog reader and subscriber, I want you to know about these shifts. If you want to know what to do about them, you’ll need to become a client. We have a wide variety of Internet programs and products to choose from. Contact us and we’ll discuss the various available options.
I don’t want to leave you completely in the dark so here is a link that explains the potential negative impact of Google Places. Ray Keefe of Successful Endeavours originally sent it to me.
(Psst! Thanks Ray!)
Earlier this week, I blogged about how Vaseline and radioactivity are related to make a point – well actually, to illustrate how William Tucker has been able to reduce the fear mongering propaganda of the mass media to simple, easy-to-understand metaphors and analogies that any 5th grader can understand.
Mt Tucker recently added another article to his on-going explanation regarding Infant formula made from Tokyo tap water.
His brilliance is simplifying the otherwise complex into something easy for the layperson to grasp.
One of the key strategies that I will be teaching our elite VIP and Platinum Members this weekend is how to do this systematically.
How to leverage tools like the one below that Mr Tucker shared with us in one of his recent articles.
Every business has hidden assets like this – the key is to know how to use them effectively within an automated approach.
We’ll miss you this weekend.
Japanese Earthquake - Radiation Dose Chart
Psst! If you’d like to give your business results a non-radioactive boost, contact us to discuss our business coaching options and we’ll have a chat about how we can GUARANTEE RESULTS in writing…
Did you know you can fart proof your dog? If you’ve ever had a dog with flatulence, you know how valuable this can be.
The Internet Marketing Lesson is that I explained how to leverage this fact to two clients: One leveraged it and the other didn’t.
Which one do you think has doubled sales and tripled profits?
Enough said.
The point is that you have to capture people’s attention – especially on the Internet where people’s attention is measured in seconds.
The proof is in the pudding – I bet you you can’t bear NOT knowing how you can fart proof your dog – EVEN IF YOU DON’T HAVE A DOG!
This is how powerful Killer Kopywriting™ can be. The difference between struggling to get people to your website and having an avalanche of qualified prospects…
As I mentioned yesterday, we’re at the Marriott Hotel, staging the last of the Exponential Internet Marketing Bootcamps - ever. We’re not opening it up to the general public anymore, we’re going to keep the content for our most privileged clients – our Platinum Program Members… That being said, there is one concept that you can gain instant access to, it’s called Virtual Real Estate and as I’ve mentioned previously on several occasions, the program will be re-branded, re-formatted and the price substantially increased. At this price, it’s an absolute bargain because it introduces you to the concept that we’re leveraging for brick and mortar businesses every day. Plumbers, dentists, engineers, doggy day care centres, consultants, you name it.
Social Media Marketing is a time consuming waste of time – UNLESS you know what you’re doing and how to do it properly.
This is a program that can save you in excess of 200 hours of searching plus a lot of the information in the bonuses you simply would never find on your own.
Go ahead and click here on the hyperlink here – to find out about Virtual Real Estate.
At the Bootcamp, I am spending 3 hours explaining this concept in detail – not for people to actually Flip Websites For Profit, but to leverage the business model to create an endless stream of qualified prospects walking into their stores or businesses that become paying clients.
Imagine having a lead generation system that is free. That’s right, new leads that don’t cost you a cent.
That’s what Bootcamp attendees are learning about this weekend – you’re not there, so the next best thing you can do is get the online video program and try to get as much from it as you can. Otherwise you’re wasting a lot time and effort for… nothing.
There is a better way, an exponential way of doing things.
As a business coach to entrepreneurs and business people who want to increase sales and expand their businesses, I advocate the 1 Percent Improvement Doctrine. It’s a concept that is covered on Day 3 of my Bootcamp events when we cover the concepts of Pathways To Profits™ and determining your Next Best Step™. With Internet strategies there are so many things to do, the most important question is “what should I focus on?”
That is the “million dollar question”.
At my upcoming Exponential Internet Marketing Bootcamp, I will, for the last time, reveal how to do this for non-Platinum Program Members. The process takes a few hours to learn, but once mastered, you will always do the right thing, at the right time for the right reason/outcome.
It’s a simple, easy-to-learn methodology that I’ve developed to re-create success for over 2,000 businesses across 200 industries over the past 20 years. In fact, the strategies are so effective that I now GUARANTEE RESULTS when you attend the Bootcamp as a VIP Ticket holder.
As a business coach I don’t just reveal strategies, techniques and tactics that work, I advise and mentor my clients to learn to do it themselves. That is why I am The Exponential Growth Strategist and not “just a business coach“.
The saying “teach a man how to fish and he’ll feed himself for a lifetime” is true with business coaching, but most coaches don’t have the competency to teach, they consult and create a dependency with their clients to ensure they need them so their personal income is “secured”. I don’t do that. I make sure I teach people how to think exponentially leveraging a MasterMind Group of the most ambitious entrepreneurs around.
Why is this important? Because success on the Internet is about doing what works. Finding that out is a process. If you want to know how my clients do it, contact us and we’ll reveal the secrets to you, but you should know that this upcoming Exponential Internet Marketing Bootcamp is the last one I’m doing. That means in 2011, you’ll have to be a Platinum Program Member to learn these strategies.
I’m going ‘upmarket’ with my most valuable information and strategies. I will still have introductory seminars and workshops, but the most powerful will be reserved exclusively for those willing to pay for it. Their reward will be that I GUARANTEE RESULTS. I would think you’d agree that’s not just fair, that makes good business sense.
That’s the whole point, it’s win-win.. Ka-Ching!
Google Page 2 ‘Almost’ As Good As Page 1? Google recently reported that 38 to 45% of people searching on Google immediately click to page 2 because too many people are manipulating keywords to be on Page 1. That means you now need to be both on Page 1 and Page 2…
“The Internet is the easiest thing that is hard to do.”
As a business coach, advisor and mentor, I teach my clients little known facts like these to make sure they are always one step ahead of the competition. There’s a joke that explains this metaphorically:
There are two guys in the forest and they come across a bear. One says to the other “Oh SH_ _! We have to out-run the bear!” when the other says “No mate, all I have to do is out-run you!”
That’s the reality of Google rankings. If you want to make sure you’re always one step ahead of your competition, contact us. Most of our programs now come with a RESULTS-BASED GUARANTEE.
That says it all don’t you think?
With Google Caffeine, Google now analyzes the web in small portions and updates its search index on a continuous basis, globally. As they find new pages, or new information on existing pages, they can now add these straight to the index. That means you can find fresher information than ever before—no matter when or where it was published.
Google Caffeine
Google Caffeine allows the indexing of web pages on an enormous scale. In fact, every second Google Caffeine processes hundreds of thousands of pages in parallel. If this were a pile of paper it would grow three miles taller every second. Google Caffeine takes up nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database and adds new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of gigabytes per day. You would need 625,000 of the largest iPods to store that much information; if these were stacked end-to-end they would go for more than 40 miles.
That’s what happens when you drink too much caffeine – you get hyper!
On the last night of every Exponential Business Building Bootcamp there is a session on Internet Strategies where participants can ask any question to increase their online traffic, sales and/or conversions. The Internet Marketing Strategies we teach are proven and tested for real brick and mortar businesses – not the spam like ‘link building’ and other affiliate marketing strategies associated with get rich quick schemes.
This November, in Melbourne, we’re staging the last Exponential Internet Marketing Bootcamp. We’re not abandoning Internet Marketing Strategies, we’re just going to restrict access to our Platinum Program Members. As I’ve mentioned before, there are too many Internet Marketing Spruikers out there selling empty dreams at multi-speaker salesfest events. We don’t want to be associated with that genre. We’re focused on producing GUARANTEED RESULTS for our clients.
Today’s post is an example from Ray Keefe of Successful Endeavours. At this year’s Exponential Business Building Bootcamp, I explained how to blog to optimise Search Engine Optimisation for new lead generation as well as improving your Google Keyword Ranking. Ray, as a multi-award winner, knows that you need to take action to create results.
His latest blog post, called Squash Lessons For Engineering is an ideal example of how to do it. It’s a derivative of my Squash Lessons For Marketing and another case study in how to grow your business exponentially leveraging my 1 Percent Improvement Doctrine. Too many people chase the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow when all the success, wealth, health and happiness is right there, within their reach – if only they knew what to do and how to do it… That’s why you should seriously consider attending one of our events – our programs now include a RESULTS BASED GUARANTEE.
