January 14th, 2010
How to View a Web Page’s Source Code
Internet marketing touches on topics far and wide. Many of those topics require a simple explanation. Often, I’ve found myself saying “I should write down those directions.”
Source code is a valuable source of information in competition research. This quick guide shows you how to view the source code of a web page. How to view source code is the one topic that comes up over and over again. So I finally got a clue and created easy to follow directions for finding source code. (Jeez! Only took 2 years!)
Tags: how to, source code
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January 12th, 2010
Free Blogging eBooks
Blog Traffic Made Easy
Great for: Getting started in blogging especially if you plan to set up a WordPress blog
http://sitefever.com/website-traffic-tactics/95-blog-traffic-made-easy/
This is one lean, mean ebook! Excuse me, “article.” The author, John Robinson doesn’t like the word “ebook.” In 22 pages he touches on the essential WordPress plugins you will need, explains all the lingo and good ideas for driving traffic to your blog. John’s personal trick for driving traffic is a great idea I never would have thought of on my own.
Blog Profits Blue Print
Great for: People who want to make money blogging (and the rest of us)
http://www.blogmastermind.com/
This 54 page ebook focuses on how to make money by writing and promoting your blog. Blogging as a source of income is a pretty lofty goal but there is still plenty of good advice for the blogger looking to build and existing business.
Killer Flagship Content
Great for: Understanding how to write content people want and remember
http://www.chrisg.com/killer-flagship-content-free-ebook-to-download/
Who’s tired of hearing “…and then you write great content and wait for the money to roll in”? Meee! Writing content people remember, save, share and link to is hard work most internet marketers brush over on their path to promising riches. It’s also the KEY to getting clients online. The information in this ebook transcends blogging and applies to overall marketing strategy. Read it. Internalize it. Do it!
Tags: blogging, free ebooks
Posted in Featured | 2 Comments »
December 2nd, 2009
When Good Marketers Go Bad: Another Segment in an Ongoing Series
I just listened to one of the worst teleclasses I’ve ever heard. What was particularly shocking was that it was done by someone well known in the PR field. (No. I’m not going to name names for reasons soon to be obvious but if you email me I’ll tell you.)
People expect that in a 60 minute teleclass you’re going to talk for 45 – 50 minutes then take questions. This is important for two reasons.
Problem #1: Asking Questions Throughout the Teleclass vs. Questions at the End
When people are in listening mode, they aren’t thinking of questions to ask you in the next 30 – 90 seconds. Asking if there are any questions every 3 – 5 minutes is annoying and leave a lot of uncomfortable dead air. Solution: If you’re going to ask questions through out have some plants (people on the call ready to ask pre-determined questions). Also, in your promotional copy tell people you’re going to take questions throughout the call so they have time to think of stuff.
Problem #2: Listening Mode vs. Discussion Mode
Taking questions throughout a teleclass requires Discussion Mode which means we all get to hear what’s going on in the background of each attendees life. It’s surprising how noisy many people’s lives are. One is bad. Imagine how much worse it is when there are 6 attendees with serious background noise. Unfortunately, they are usually the last to realize they’re the problem so it pretty much ruins the call for everyone. Solution: Don’t do discussion mode unless people know up front that it will be discussion mode and people will need to mute themselves. Also, tell them how to mute themselves in the call in directions.
P.S. If you’re going to charge $67 A MONTH for a press release template, be sure to communicate the value other than it shows you where to put your business name, address, website and email. I can get that info for free with a simple web search.
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September 10th, 2009
Take the Time to Write Well!
Today I came across an article in Search Engine Land’s Strictly Business column that annoyed the hell out of me. Not because I disagree with the point the author was trying to make. If I understand her correctly, I whole heartedly agree! I’m annoyed because the article was so poorly written the very important point she was trying to make got lost in bad writing! (you can read the article here. )
I believe that the overall point of the article is “When there is a mis-match between the key words you are targeting on a web page and the overall tone of the page copy, that web page won’t yield the results you expect. Here’s what you can do to fix it.” I can only assume this was the point the author meant to make because at no point does the author tell the reader what point she is trying to make.
The Major Mistakes Made
1. The author breaks the Golden Rule of Copywriting which is “Tell the reader what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Then tell the reader what you told them.”
2. The other major mistake the author makes is that she doesn’t write like she would speak. See the example below. Would you speak like this?
Bad Writing:
Considering that, it is important to first gain clarity about the issues affecting performance before prematurely changing your keywords. Otherwise, you might find yourself “throwing out the baby with the bathwater” when you toss keywords that seem to be underperforming.
Moreover, be mindful that changing keywords can greatly affect your visibility in the search results. Given that it takes a great deal of time and effort to achieve visibility on certain keywords, you need to consider whether or not any keywords changes are worthwhile
Plain English:
Changing keywords can have a big impact on your rankings and traffic. You need to know what issues affect performance before you change the keywords you target. Otherwise you run the risk of “throwing the baby out with the bath water.”
I could go through the article and give you more examples but I’m willing to bet at least 95% of the people reading this article bailed out before the author got around to explaining how to solve the problem.
Who’s to Blame?
I know how much guts it takes to put your work out there on the web. I don’t blame the author for this poor writing. I’m all for giving people the benefit of the doubt and I’m willing to bet that if the author set this article aside for a few days then ran it through the crucible one more time she’d be able to boil it down to the good stuff.
Who do I blame? I blame the editors at Search Engine Land who should have read this with both eyes instead of just looking for an article to publish in this week’s column.
This could have been a really good column that generated links. Instead the author and the editors punted and missed a good opportunity. No wonder why people think social media doens’t work.
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September 8th, 2009
Hiring Subcontractors: How to Keep Costs Low and Quality High
I was recently asked by a journalist for my advice about how to hire a virtual assistant (VA). I started my business as a virtual assistant over 8 years ago and as an internet marketing consultant I’ve hired all kinds of subcontractors for a wide variety of tasks. Since I’ve been on both sides of the equation I hoped my answer makes life easier for both parties.
It sucks to overspend on a project and not get what you expected. It also sucks to have unhappy clients due to miscommunication. That’s why the #1 most important piece of advice I would give any one looking to hire a virtual assistant is to write down in as much detail as possible what you need them to do. You might think “Oh I just need them to do data entry” or “I just need them to update my website.” But once you starting writing down what you mean by data entry or website updates, you will be surprised at the variety of tasks involved.
Before you start looking for and interviewing possible candidates, you need to answer the following questions in as much detail as possible:
1. What exactly do you need this person to do?
The more detail the better. I explain why below.
2. How often will they do it?
Is this daily, weekly, monthly or as needed. You don’t want them assuming it’s a fulltime job if it’s not.
3. What skills are necessary to get the task done?
Don’t forget the soft skills like excellent communication or attention to detail.
4. What software programs are necessary to get the task done?
5. What is the pay range for these tasks?
What would you pay someone you have to teach versus expecting they can run with the task?
Do you want to start them at an intro rate with the ability to make more once they prove themselves?
6. Are you paying by the piece or by the hour?
I try to pay on a project basis as much as possible. That way I know what I’m spending and they know what they’re making. When project based pay is not possible, I give the person a range of how long I expect it will take with an understanding to check in at about the 30% point so we cal see how it’s going and re-evaluate the agreement.
Getting Clear on What You Need a Subcontractor to Do
A request I often hear from people is “I need someone to update my website.” That may sound clear but it actually covers a lot of ground. To decide who to hire, you need to have a clear picture of their skill level. You need to answer questions like:
What pages will they update? Are they just copy pasting text or do they need to know HTML well enough to add images and format the page?
Will they be adding products to a shopping cart?
Will they adding blog posts? If so what systems do the need to know? WordPress or Blogger?
Do they need to know how to use a online content management system or do they need to have Dreamweaver? (An expensive but often necessary program for updating websites.)
The answers to these questions will determine if you can hire someone at $20 an hour or you need someone who will likely charge you $60 an hour.
The Key To Keeping Costs Low and Quality High
Another important reason for answering these questions is that if you need a variety of tasks done, you might need more than one person. For example, if you need data entry, travel arrangements, copy editing and website updates, you probably need to hire three different people. Other wise you wind up paying too much for data entry or get poorly done copy editing and website updates.
Far too often business people try to hire one person to do it all. They interview a virtual assistant who assures them they can do it all while they’re thinking to themselves “I’ll figure it out.” You don’t want someone “figuring it out” on your dime (unless that’s part of the agreement). In the long run understanding what are logical skill sets and hiring accordingly will help you keep costs low and quality high.
If you’ve spent some time thinking about your answers to the questions above writing a job description doesn’t have to take more than about 20 minutes. If you’re looking for someone online, you’re going to need this info any way so just take the time and write it down!
Resources:
Writing Job Descriptions:
http://www.howtodothings.com/business/how-to-write-a-job-description
http://www.entrepreneur.com/humanresources/hiring/article56490.html
http://blogs.payscale.com/compensation/2009/03/how-to-write-a-job-description.html
Tags: hiring subcontractors virtual assistant
Posted in Featured | 3 Comments »
April 24th, 2009
Should I Have a Blog?
The following is a down-and-dirty quick way to decide if blogging is for you and your business.
- It’s a lot easier to add a new blog post than it is a new web page. With a little training, a non-technical person can add a blog post but you need a programmer to add a web page.
- A blog is a great way to build relationships online.
- A blog is a great way to keep in touch with clients and prospects.
- Because readers can comment on what you’ve written, you can create a dialogue with readers. (Depending on how you set up a blog, you can moderate comments before they are viewable to others.)
- A blog is a great way to become a recognized expert in your industry and to the media.
- People can find your business in ways they otherwise wouldn’t be able to find you. (i.e. blog directories, mentions in other blogs, social media sites like Digg or Technorati)
Blogging Options:
The first decision that needs to be made about a blog is figuring out where it will “live.” A blog (like a website) needs to be hosted on a server. There are two ways to do this:
Use a service like https://www.blogger.com/ where the blog lives on their server.
Host your blog on the same server as your website.
| Here are the benefits and drawbacks of each: | ||
| Using a Service | Hosting Your Own | |
| Benefits | It’s free Can be set up in a few minutes |
It does nothing for your own website’s rankings To get it to look like the other pages on your site, you need to have someone create a custom template |
| Drawbacks | Can drastically improve your website’s rankings Looks more professional than using a service Can make it look like the other pages on your website |
Need to have someone set it up for you May need to have a slightly more expensive hosting plan |
- Use a service if money is really tight or you’re not sure you will keep up with it, go with a service. You can always go with hosting your own later. BUT, it’s kind of pain to move your old blog posts to a new blog.
- Host your own if improving your rankings and looking professional are important.
- Explain how all this works in plain English.
- Help figure out what features you need.
- Give you pointers on what can be done to help improve your blog’s rankings.
- Coordinate with the programmer to minimize programming expenses.
- Give you pointers on how to increase readership and comments.
- Submit the blog to blog directories.
Tags: blogging
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April 2nd, 2009
My Two Cents on Twitter
If your only goal is to “figure out how to make money from it”, please do us all a favor and cancel your Twitter account. You’re not going to make money from Twitter. I don’t care what the self styled internet marketing Gurus are telling you. You might – and that’s a big might – make money because of relationships you’ve nurtured on Twitter but that’s it.
There is no 1:1 relationship between Twitter and your income. And I think that’s a good thing. The internet was originally designed as a way to share information and despite the best efforts of the Gurus, it’s still primarily a way to share information. If sharing of information leads to business, great. But it starts with sharing information!
I only follow people who provide quality information. My time is valuable to me and I’m sure you’re time is valuable to you. It’s one of the few things in life we can’t make more of or get back once it’s gone.
My Twitter Red Flags…
You follow more people than follow you.
It tells me you think Twitter is a numbers game and you expect that if you follow someone they will follow you. I’m sure there are self proclaimed internet marketing gurus who think it’s some great secret they’re sharing when they tell their minions “You can get TONS of traffic (they love the phrase “tons of traffic”) by following everyone you can find because they will follow you back. If they don’t, un-follow them.”
You measure your Twitter success by the number of followers you have.
Me, I graduated from high school. Not just literally but emotionally. Having 9000 followers on Twitter won’t make me feel more confident about the success of my business. Having quality relationships with people I respect and trust makes me feel better about the success of my business.
All your Tweets all start with @friendsname.
If your Twitter stream consists primarily of replies, it tells me you use Twitter as an instant messaging service. I actually take the time to read tweets and I really don’t care to follow your disjointed personal conversations. Sometimes replying to a Tweet can be interesting but please, try to include the rest of us in the conversation.
Most of your Tweets are back to your own content.
Really? You think you’re the only one with something interesting to say? Oh I get it! You’re using Twitter as a “traffic generator.” (Smells like the Gurus again!) You know. You can also get traffic by sharing other people’s content. Not only does it make you look well informed, it makes you look generous. And it makes you interesting.
Phew. Okay. I feel better now.
Tags: Twitter
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March 13th, 2009
How Much Is a Link Worth?
A link can be worth £100 ($139) or it can be worth 1p (1¢).
I came across the following question on LinkedIn today and thought it perfectly illustrated the question “What is a link worth?”
Here’s the question:
I’m doing some work with a client who has used a linkbuilding service to help with their SEO in the past but at £100 per month it wasn’t exactly cheap! Can anyone recommend someone they’ve used for this service who delivers results but doesn’t charge silly fees?
Here’s My Answer:
Depending on the types of links this service gets, £100 can be a great deal or a waste of money.
One link can be worth £100 if your most desirable key phrase is in the anchor text and the link is on a blog or website your target market reads with a page rank of 4 or more. This kind of link can both help your rankings for the key phrase in the anchor text AND get real live human visitors interested in your product to your website. Win! Win!
On the other hand, 100 links to the URL in totally obscure directories is a waste of money because they won’t help rankings at all and won’t get in front of anyone. Lose! Lose! (Except if you own the directory.)
So, The question should be “What links did they get you?”
If this service gets even one high quality link a month, it’s worth it. Links on websites and blogs with a high page rank that include your anchor text and can be expected to drive traffic require a lot of research and leg work to get. They don’t happen on accident.
If the link service gives you a list of 10 directories you’ve never heard of that they submitted the site to this month, you might as well use those pound notes to wipe your arse!
Tags: backlinks, linking
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
January 6th, 2009
6 Internet Marketing Articles You Really Ought to Read
12 Different Types of Links and How To Get Them
by Todd Malicoat
“What is a backlink?” is one of the top five most frequently asked questions I get from clients and colleagues. My short answer is that a backlink is a link from another website or blog to your website. It’s like a vote of popularity for your website and backlinks are a crucial but often ignored aspect of improving your website’s rankings. There are many types of backlinks and although this article is a few years old, it’s still a great explanation of the types of links you can get to your website. Hopefully it will help “backlinks” go from something that seems beyond your control to something you can put on your To Do List.
Comprehensive Guide to Key word Research, Selection & Organization
by Stony DeGeter
I firmly believe that key phrase research and selection is the foundation of – not just an SEO campaign – an effective overall internet marketing campaign. Fail to target phrases or target the wrong ones and you will wind up wasting many hours and lots of dollars. While I don’t agree with everything Stony says, if you read all 12 of these articles, you will know just about everything you need to know about finding, selecting and prioritizing the right key phrases.
The First Three Questions
by Joe Hage
The most challenging part of my job is getting clients to dig deep and go beyond describing “What I Do” and getting them to describe “These are the results I provide and the benefits of hiring me.” Joe’s article helps me help my clients start thinking about their business in a new way. I suggest you read it, write about it and incorporate your thoughts into you website copy. It will definitely help improve the conversion rate of your website.
What Makes a Good Blog?
by Merlin Mann
Most of the time when I see yet another “What Makes a Good Blog (Post)” article, I want to gouge out my eyeballs. This version actually has important stuff you should know by a guy who’s in a position to know.
50 Resources for Getting the Most Out of Google Analytics
by Kissmetrics.com
This list of Google Analytics resources includes everything you ever wanted to know about Google Analytics from tutorials for beginners, to tips and tricks and tools and hacks for advanced users.
Blogger Outreach
by Matt Dickman
Contacting bloggers who might be willing to write about your product or service is a great low cost way to attract clients and build your expert-factor online. If you’ve ever read The Bad Pitch Blog, you know even seasoned PR people make stupid mistakes when it comes to pitching to bloggers. If you follow the advice in this blog post, you will go along way to preventing any accidental foot-in-mouth learning experiences.
Tags: articles, best of, blog posts, internet marketing
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
November 23rd, 2008
How to Say Absolutely Nothing on Your Home Page
I love it when I come across an especially jargon laden site. These sites save me a lot of time. I can show them to my clients and all of a sudden light bulb goes off. They get how bad it is to use generalities to the point of vagueness.
I came across the mother load of all jargon sites today. The following is the home page text of a company on track to reach 1 billion dollars in revenue by 2010. Obviously, this is not a small company and yet, this is their home page text. I have replaced the company name with “Our Company”.
Our Company efficiently and effectively integrates a wide range of
resources and core competencies to provide unique and timely solutions that
exceed our customers’ stated needs and expectations.
We are guided by integrity, innovation, and a desire for a safer world. Our Company’s professionals leverage state-of-the-art training facilities, professional
program management teams, and innovative manufacturing and production
capabilities to deliver world-class, customer-driven solutions.
Our corporate leadership and dedicated family of exceptional employees adhere to essential core values- chief among these are integrity, innovation, excellence,
respect, accountability, and teamwork.
Tags: bad copy, jargon
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