Posted by:
Alexis Siemon
June 6, 2008
Issue #434
"A house may draw visitors,
but it is the possessor alone that can detain them."
Charles Caleb Colton
"Get Top 10 Rankings in Google or Your Money Back" read the subject line in my inbox Monday morning. It was a forward from a colleague, Jim - a marketing piece he’d received.
"Can you give Early to Rise a money-back guarantee on their Google rankings?" he joked in his e-mail.
I thought for a minute before replying. "No," I typed. "And I never will." Then I added, "Besides, rankings aren’t really what matters anyway."
Moments later, my phone rang. "What do you mean rankings don’t matter?" said Jim. "Isn’t that the whole point of SEO?""
"That’s a common misconception," I told him. "Think of it this way … It’s kind of like saying the whole point of e-mail marketing is blasting your message out. Isn’t the response what you’re really after?"
Jim’s not alone in his thinking. When measuring the success of a search engine optimization (SEO) effort or campaign, many people focus solely on rankings.
Your website’s search engine ranking refers to where your site’s listing appears on the search engine results page (SERP) for a particular keyword. For instance, if you performed a search on Google for one of your keywords and saw that your site was in the number four position on Google’s SERP, then your site would "rank" fourth for that keyword.
Yes, rankings are important for getting your website noticed for targeted keywords and search phrases. But that’s only the beginning. Many fly-by-night SEO agencies would have you believe the job is done once your site starts to appear in the search engine rankings. But, like any other direct-response marketing effort, there are many Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you should monitor to determine the success of your SEO campaign.
The first step toward measuring these KPIs is to get a great Web analytics tool to measure the traffic the search engines send to your site. There are several available in a wide range of prices and functionality: WebTrends, ClickTracks, Omniture’s Site Catalyst, Mint. Then, of course, there’s Google Analytics- possibly one of the best free tools available right now.
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
June 4, 2008
Issue #432
Dear Web Business Builder,
When it comes to increasing the return you get from your traffic generation investments, targeting is every bit as important as conversion.
There’s no point aiming killer sales copy at people who are ill qualified, uninterested, or otherwise unlikely to respond.
Of course, you never really know what’s going to work unless you try it.
That’s why I love working with Google AdWords. Its low minimum commitments and real time controls make it extremely flexible. Yes, there is a reason this company rakes in billions in profits each year.
There’s nothing like being able to sink just $50 or $100 (or even less) into a new traffic source today, and know by tomorrow whether it’s going to be viable or not.
It’s easy to do with the FREE tools Google gives you. You can track your cost per lead and your cost per sale in real time, and laser target your ads to increase your return on investment.
Here are three different ways to use Google AdWords to attract visitors to your site … and a whole bunch of secrets for targeting your ads more effectively.
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Posted by:
Charlie Byrne
May 29, 2008
Issue #428
“I get satisfaction of three kinds. One is creating something, one is being paid for it, and one is the feeling that I haven’t just been sitting on my ass all afternoon.” – William F. Buckley (1925-2008)
Right now, there’s no better business in the world than information publishing.
Whether you are marketing e-books, newsletters, or any other electronically distributed product, the advantages over most other businesses are enormous …
There’s no inventory or warehouses. No spoilage. With the Internet, distribution is virtually free. You can work from practically anywhere, anytime. Because of near-zero overhead, profit margins can range from very good to incredible.
There’s just one problem.
You can’t really be successful selling information.
We’ve said it before in Early to Rise (ETR). These days, no one needs more information. What people are looking for is advice … expert guidance … trusted opinions.
Just think about today’s most popular media personalities. The days of solemn "fact-reciting" talking heads such as Walter Cronkite and Harry Reasoner are long gone. The new stars are brash and opinionated. Howard Stern … Rush Limbaugh … Chris Matthews … Jim Cramer … Anderson Cooper … Keith Olbermann … Bill O’Reilly … and on and on.
In The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman explains how the data collection of straight journalism has been largely outsourced to low-paid stringers. The value is added later, when it’s filtered and interpreted in "opinion and analysis" pieces.
So here’s a thought. Maybe instead of Information Publishing, we should start calling what we do Idea Publishing! Because when you give people advice and ideas, they’ll listen … and pay for the privilege.
Rodale Inc. reported revenue of $632 million last year, primarily from marketing dozens of advice publications such as Prevention, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Organic Gardening, Runner’s World, and others. Agora Inc. had sales of over $300 million in 2007 through newsletter publishing. And thousands of individual publishing entrepreneurs on the Web today are pulling in tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
So let’s say you’re interested in getting into this field. (And why wouldn’t you be?)
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Posted by:
David Dittman
December 29, 2007
Issue #320
Welcome back for the second part of our Infrastructure talk.
Alright, last issue we discussed a very popular problem facing most businesses these days: “How do I create an IT infrastructure without breaking the bank?”
We discussed a scenario that involved a company that doesn’t have a brick and mortar building, but instead works mainly with consultants and off-site employees.
In the end I showed how a person could have a fully functional shopping cart, plus an IT infrastructure that would rival any large company, complete with remote computer access and conference calling, for less than $3000 a year or about $250 a month.
Well, this will work for most business owners that are essentially a one-man-show. But what happens when you have employees and a building?
Today I’m going to discuss that exact scenario.
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Posted by:
David Dittman
December 15, 2007
Issue #308
Welcome to another Saturday Edition!
It’s time we sit down and discuss a few things.
It’s a long awaited talk that your parents probably never gave you but SHOULD have!
It’s about the birds, the bees and most importantly your IT department.
I probably shouldn’t even be telling you this. (I can almost hear Bill Gates and the consortium of IT dorks cringing at the content of this document.)
I’m hoping that after reading this Clayton doesn’t give me the Axe …
Well, enough is enough, PEOPLE your IT department is lying is to you.
It is not that hard! IT ain’t Rocket Surgery!
Before Clayton rescued me from the clutches of computer consulting, I was often asked to do a seemingly impossible thing.
Here is the standard conversation that is asked of all consultants when it comes time to discuss the building of your IT infrastructure:
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