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
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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
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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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November 14th, 2008
Doing a Crawl Test
Hi Folks,
I’m testing out Google to see how fast they find links from various sources. I’m trying to get them to crawl this wrongful death lawyer page.
I’ll explain why I’m diong this and let you know what I find out in a future post.
Tags: Featured
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November 12th, 2008
Best Facebook Group Names According to Non Required Reading
My Favorite segment of Non Required Reading is the lists. One of this year’s lists, Best American Facebook Groups, seemed especially pertinent to the internet audience.
Here are my favorite’s from the Best American Facebook Groups list. (Please note, I just think they’re funny. I don’t necessarily agree with them.):
I Thought You Were Hot Until I Clicked on “View More Pictures”
I Feel Bad When I See Kids on a Leash
If This Group Reaches 15k, Kevin and I Will have a Pine Cone Eat Off
Catholic School Screwed Me Up, but I’m Still Sending My Kids There
I Beat George W. Bush on the SAT’s
Disney Gave Me Unrealistic Expectations about Love
When I Was Your Age, Pluto Was a Planet
I Wish My Homework Was Asexual So It Would Do Itself
I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar
Every Time I Walk into Math Class a Little Part of Me Dies
Legalize Dueling
Automatic Doors Make Me Feel Like a Jedi
I Have to Sing the ABCs to Know Which Letter Comes Before the Other
It Wasn’t Awkward Until You Said “Well, This Is Awkward.” Now It’s Awkward.
I Refer to People by Nicknames They Will Never Know
Friends Don’t Let Friends Invade Russia with Winter Approaching
I’m Asian, You’re Asian, Let’s Compare Grades!
I Stay Up Late and I Don’t Do Anything Productive
Mr. Miyagi Taught Me How to Fight
…So Apparently I’m Going to Hell
If You’re OCD and You Know It Clap Your Hands!
I Had a Leash When I Was Little
Being Bilingual Obviously Makes You a Better Person
I Love How We Are Friends on Facebook, but We Don’t Actually Talk in Person
When I’m Super Bored, I Go on Facebook and Join Tons of Pointless Groups
Intrigued? Buy the book and support the cause! We need more people to do Non Required Reading.
Tags: best american non required reading, Facebook
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October 29th, 2008
Cool Tool: Mechanical Turk
I had coffee last week with a web designer here in Portland, OR I work with and he told me about an outsourcing website owned by Amazon called Mechanical Turk. Oh, man. My world has changed!
I do a lot of writing for websites and article marketing and there are two things I’ve long wished I could get cheap:
1. answers to specific questions
2. transcriptions of conversations with clients.
It pains me to admit that I’ve paid virtual assistants $30 to answer questions. And I went into sticker shock when I found out transcriptionists get $180 for an hour long phone call. It’s pretty tough to turn ideas into words when you’re paying those kinds of prices.
So when my website designer pal George, told me about how he’s been using Mechanical Turk to get answers to questions, I was intrigued. He even told me about Andy Baio author of Waxy.org who created an awesome blog post about how he used MTurk to get a transcription of a conversation done quickly and cheaply.
I first tested out MTurk on an answer I’d wasted half an hour trying to fiind for a web page I’m working on. I posted my HIT (MTurk’s name for a question) at about 8:00 PM. The next morning I had an answer with resources that sent me on my way happily writing again
I then tested out Andy’s method for using MTurk to transcribe a conversation I had with a client whose website I am writing. Knowing I was getting a transcription of the conversation was liberating. I could just focus on the conversation instead of having to worry about the notes I was taking. I found that I was asking better questions and getting better content for the website.
Although I’ve never used an audio editing software program before, it did take some time to figure out how to use the free audio editing program to edit the hour long conversation into 10 minute segments. It was a bit of a challenge but well worth the time investment.
Less than 12 hours later I had all 40 minutes transcribed and it cost me $20. Now I’m happily on my way writing again.
Tags: mechnaicla turk, mturk, reserach, transcription, www.snaptortoise.com
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October 17th, 2008
How to Improve Your Copywriting: Nuts & Bolts Examples
I hate it when books and articles on copywriting make lists of suggestions without examples. I think they do that because it’s easier to make suggestions than keep track of actual examples. So, today when I was working on editing some articles that will be used in article marketing for a client, I kept track of the suggestions and the examples.
Start with the solution instead of ending with it. Often, sentences flow better if you start with the solution.
Original: One of the best sources for you find ideas to aid you operating your ranch in the most affordable ways would be the Internet.
Updated: The internet is one of the best sources for finding ideas to help you operate your ranch affordably.
Be mindful in the use of pronouns like “it” or “this” especially at the beginning of a sentence. These words are vague and can lead to confusion. Sometimes when I come across them I find myself thinking “Huh? Or “What are you referring to?” Many times you can replace pronouns with a more specific word or phrase that makes the sentence clearer. You can also replace vague pronouns with key words or phrases which helps improves your rankings. In the example below, I replaced the word “it” with what “it” is referring to. Doing so makes for a more understandable sentence.
Original: Many ranch owners had ranching or farming experience in their past or in previous generations of their family and assume this makes them able to profitably run a ranch. It doesn’t necessarily mean they will be successful because profitable ranching practices are constantly evolving.
Updated: Many ranch owners had ranching or farming experience in their past or in previous generations of their family and assume this makes them able to profitably run a ranch. However, previous experience does not ensure future success because profitable ranching practices are constantly evolving.
Break up run on sentences. They slow the reader down and can be a bail out point which works against your goals. It can be hard to identify a run on sentence when you write it. Reading your articles out loud will help you find them.
Original: There are numerous reasons this may well be the best route for you to consider if you are hoping to get a huge return on your ranch investment and you should have this in mind when you’re looking at ranches for sale.
Updated: There are numerous reasons this may well be the best route for you to consider if you are hoping to get a good return on your ranch investment. Plus, you should have this in mind when you’re looking at ranches for sale.
Two for one example. The phrase “key to doing so” makes me think “Key to doing what?” and this sentence is a run on.
Original: The key to doing so can be as easy as taking the time to do some extensive research that will pay huge dividends for you in the future when it comes to ranch management, and this is something you should consider as early as the time you’re looking at ranches for sale.
Updated: The key to effective ranch management can be as easy as taking the time to do some detailed research. This is something you should consider as early as the time you’re looking at ranches for sale.
Tags: article writing, copywriting tips, website copywriting
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October 16th, 2008
Make Your Copy Work by Entering into the Conversation
You know when you’re reading website copy that’s compelling and gets the job done. Even if it’s for a product or service you don’t need, you want to bookmark the site or forward the URL to someone who needs it. You want to take action! But, do you know why it’s good?
Nine times out of ten it’s because the good copy enters into the conversation the reader is having in their mind. This is especially important on the internet because
Writing for the internet is different from other forms of advertising because of how people access the information. Other than the phone book, I can’t think of an advertising method where your potential customers are actively looking for you. They have a problem and are looking for a solution. So it makes sense that most copy writing coaches and courses subscribe to the problem/solution/benefit model.
It’s been my experience that writing compelling copy is a process of evolution. Typically we start with “This is who I am and these are my services.” When this fails to yield results, we go to the problem/solution/benefit model. Most service professionals stay stuck at this level. They wonder why they don’t get more clients from the internet and live with poor internet marketing results.
If you do the hard work of crafting copy that enters into the conversation going on in your prospect’s mind, it will improve all your results from newsletter sign ups to phone calls.
Take a look at the following websites:
http://www.sensiblecoaching.com/
http://www.millionairemind.com/
Now I’m really not trying to slam Shell’s website. For all I know, she’s perfectly happy with the copy on her home page. However, when you compare it to T. Harv’s you can see the difference. Where Shell starts with a list of problems, T. Harv’s jumps right into “Have you ever wondered why this is the case? Here’s why that’s the case.”
Although they’re both selling products designed to help you change your relationship to money, T. Harv’s is more likely to make the reader say “This guy has the solution to my problem! I want that!” He assumes you’re both discussing the same problem and puts the majority of his word toward describing his solution and benefits, benefits, benefits.
You can even see this difference in their domain names. Would you rather have ‘sensible coaching’ or a ‘millionaire mind’?
Tags: enter the conversation, internet marketing, internet marketing best practices, website copywriting, website text
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October 18th, 2008
Comment SPAM: You Are an Idiot if You (or Someone You Hired) Do It
My blog is set up so that I have to approve comments. And like everyone else in the world, I HATE SPAM. So imagine how happy I was to get the following comment on my last blog post which was about copy writing from “
Making the rather questionable assumption that “Justin” is a real person*, as opposed to an outsourced company in India or South America that has no strategy behind internet marketing, Justin has screwed up on so many levels it warrants a blog post from me:
* When you go to the Article Post Robot website, all the glowing recommendations are for “David” not “Justin.”
Here’s why this comment is wrong in so many ways:
Congratulations. Your one size fits all approach to internet marketing has done more damage than good. Was that worth the time savings of automating your internet marketing campaign?
Tags: spam, spam comment
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »