Finally a super affiliate reveals how he makes $1,000's every week. Now he is showing people how he does it.
Nothing is left out in his in-depth book, detailing everything you have to know to succeed.
1. So you want to get into affiliate marketing. This is very competitive so you'll have to know some insider tricks first.
2. Finding the best products is crucial to your success. Digital one's have proven to be the best converting as they can be downloaded immediately by your customer. People love receiving their product straight away.
3. Everyone should have a lead capture page. All the top guru's maintain that the money is in the list, so it makes sense to have one. With your lead capture page, you'll capture their name and email address. This you can use to sell other things of interest.
4. Then you'll need a good auto responder, this email software is essential for anyone doing business on the net. You can find them on the net, just do a Google search, the most popular ones are, Aweber and Getresponse.
5. Offer a FREE product to get them to sign up for your news letter, this way they feel like their getting something of value. You should offer something good, people don't want junk. Help them, people love help, it will gain you credibility. This is very important, for people to trust you.
6. When they've signed up, don't just ignore them. Keep in touch and every now and then send them something free. This will keep them trusting you.
7. Now you should start promoting your site. Without traffic you won't get any sales, no sales = no income. You don't want that. You can use Pay Per Click like Google, or you can find email companies that will send out your promo. Or you can do article marketing, which you can find out more at my Squidoo site at:www.squidoo.com/secrets-to-articlemarketing/.
8. Look for some joint venture partners, a lot of top marketers use this tactic. Look for your niche keyword on say, Google, then go to the top sites on your search. Contact them if they have contact details, and ask them if they'd like to help you promote your product. Offer them something really good, like a percentage of the profits.
9. Don't forget, look for your products on sites like, Clickbank, Commission Junction, which are some of the favorites. Check out the percentages they offer. Above 50% is good, a lot now offer 75%. Choose the ones on the front page as they are the most popular.
10. Now, once this campaign is going 'gung ho' repeat the whole process. At this stage you should know that there are programs that help you do all of this. By joining a solid site that has a proven track record, you're going to fast track your ability to get up and running. So where do you find one of these sites, well, check out my resource box and you'll find out.
Now that you've got a good idea on how to get going on affiliate marketing, you can start on your first site. If you're a little daunted why not check out a good site that walks you through everything. They supply squeeze pages and lots more for you to get started. Check out my blurb at the bottom in the resource box.
This article may be used on your site, ezine, blog or whatever, so long as you include my bio box below.
jeudi 4 mars 2010
10 Basics for Starting Your Online Business
10 Basics for Starting Your Online Business
Launching an online business can seem either simple or harrowing,
depending on your perception of the Internet. For many, the task at hand will
come naturally because they’re comfortable maneuvering the ‘Net with ease. For
others, it’s an entirely alien idea requiring heavy guidance.
Everyone who has ever sought out legitimate business opportunities online
has probably scoured the Internet for sites that offer both direction and devices to
make their journey easier.
Most people are looking for a place where Internet Marketers can make a
single stop to gather and implement all of the information they need to carry them
from A to Z and a turnkey marketing system that supplies everything they need
for success.
There are ten basic steps to initiating and cultivating your dream of
starting of your very own Internet-based business. The steps begin the moment
you first conceptualize your dream and they culminate with continued revenue
from your customers.
1. Motivation and Goal Setting
If you’re reading this book, then you have already instilled some of the
motivation needed to be a successful online entrepreneur. But are you ready to
invest the time and money needed to realize your vision?
Before you ever start the first formal step of launching your cyberbusiness,
you have to have the right mindset and a list of goals that you plan to
accomplish one step at a time.
First, you need to gather the support of those who will be closely involved
with you in your endeavor. It may be a work partner or your spouse and children
if you’re working solo from home.
Even if you’re interested in signing up with an established affiliate
program, you should still set and try to maintain your own personal goals. While
some seasoned marketers have long-term success, those who sustain their
victories in the marketplace know that they have to put in equal effort to building
a successful affiliate network.
Sit down with a list of things you hope to accomplish with this business
and be as specific as possible. It may help convince others (and even yourself) if
you map out a simple business plan to show them how your idea will come to life.
You can see a small business plan outline at www.sba.gov.
If you run into opposition, or self-doubts, then you may want to take some
time to thoroughly review your business plan and try to solve any areas of
concern before you begin investing too much time or money into your operation.
If you’re considering joining an affiliate program, look at it carefully to
determine what its drawbacks are, if any. Then, if you still have concerns, contact
the administrator or a sponsor of the program and open a dialogue so that you can
find out for yourself if these problems really exist, and if so, how they are solved.
Along with the plan itself, you should have several stages of goals that you
hope to reach and the timeline to accompany them. Too many people sit down
one day and decide to start a business with no direction to go. These people wind
up off the path very quickly, and all the time and funds they devoted to their
business goes down the drain.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew with your goals. Start small and
remember that goals are to be viewed as a “living list,” and can be altered at any
time depending on the success rate of your business.
You might want to set monetary goals – such as hoping to make $2,000
per month within the first three months. Remember that most new businesses
don’t even see a profit until after the first year, so don’t despair if yours is slow to
grow.
On the Internet, your growth rate will be much quicker because your
audience is global, not limited to your physical location. Another bonus with
online selling is that many products are informational, and don’t require the
standard upfront investment that other companies do.
When you find a business opportunity that piques your interest, you need
to make sure that there is a system in place that offers plenty of member support
and training to get your own enterprise underway.
For example, Empowerism is not only a site that houses one of the largest
learning environments on the ‘Net, but it’s also a community where members can
interact with one another and get answers on issues that are important to them.
Look for a company that doesn’t stop at just putting the facts and figures
out there. You want one that takes an active interest in your success, offers a
turnkey marketing system, and wants to make sure that your growth spurs more
growth within the industry, which is exactly what a company called Empowerism
has accomplished since 1998.
2. Time Management Control
If you’re working from home or doing this business as a second career
until it firmly gets on its feet, then you’ll have to set and meet your schedule in
order to carefully control your online enterprise.
You don’t want to fall at one end of the spectrum – investing too much or
too little time into your business. Instead, you want a healthy balance where
you’ve spent enough time working toward your goals and plenty of time to spend
enjoying family time or recreational life in general.
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” You’ve heard the saying.
It rings true for many whose lives are consumed by their business. Don’t let this
happen to you! If you fall into the trap of working yourself to death, your
business will suffer in the end because you’ll become too frustrated to think
clearly and make sound business decisions.
If your online business is your only job, then you can afford to spend 8-10
hours a day working toward its success. But if you’re working at home, those 8-
10 hours a day might be marred by constant interruptions and personal pauses that
so easily take precedence over your work life.
If you have a family at home, remind them that you’re going to be putting
in formal work hours and that even though you might be available to temporarily
stop and help them when they need it, they must respect your efforts to build your
business.
Your time is important! You know the saying, “Time is Money” and you
will find that to be especially true online where you can spend hour after hour on
repetitive tasks that deliver marginal results. Don’t fall into the trap of doing the
same thing over and over again without results. Look for a true “turnkey system”
that finds, sorts, and sells to your prospects, while you’re spending time doing
things that contribute to the long haul, like building relationships with your
customers.
How many affiliate programs on the ‘Net have you found who promise a
turnkey investment? Just set it up and it runs itself. When it comes down to it,
not many make the grade – then you eventually end up unwilling to spend the
necessary time – and failure closes in.
Empowerism knows the difference between hype and truth, and makes
promises that are kept by providing actual step-by-step instructions and a turnkey
system that will help you make the most of your time.
3. Product Conception
Many people go through life wishing they could sell something and
become instant millionaires. It rarely works this way, but the possibility still tugs
at us and we’re always looking for the “magic solution” to our financial stresses.
In order to develop a good product line, you have to look at the
marketplace. What are consumers buying? What’s being heavily advertised?
You know it takes money to market your products, so the successful companies
will be advertising greatly because they can afford to.
Is there a need that’s not being met? Many success stories come out of
regular consumers who couldn’t find a particular product to solve their own
problems, so they invented one themselves to help others!
Many thriving online businesses do nothing but sell information on the
‘Net. Information is the hottest commodity, and almost anyone can do it with
very little upfront investment of money.
Think about your own personal experiences. What skills do you have that
cause people come to you for help? Are you a wiz at writing? Do you have a
knack for investing or real estate solutions?
You can write an eBook to sell on the ‘Net and rake in a lot of money –
just for sharing your knowledge with others! Why are eBooks so popular? For
several reasons, including the fact that they can be purchased and read in seconds
from the comfort of your own home.
No bookstores. No traffic. No-hassle returns on most sites. Plus, eBooks
usually come with a package deal, so customers get bonus materials just for
ordering. This can be an extra eBook, a teaser eBook (a shorter version of the
same book, highlighting a few excerpts), or a membership to a free Ezine.
If you aren’t confident in your writing skills, but have an idea you’d like
to see in print, consider hiring a professional to do it for you. Writing consultants
can research and write about topics quickly and gear them toward consumers for
about $20 per page.
Products that are already created can be sold in affiliate programs. The
advantages of marketing someone else’s products or services are many, including
time savings, low monetary investment (and risk), and less work. If that appeals
to you, at least as a stepping stone to “bigger and better,” then the perfect starting
place is Empowerism.
4. Site Structure
The structure of your website can mean the difference between a stalled
business and a flourishing one. If your website isn’t built for the consumer, then
the consumer will steer clear.
Have you ever ventured into a store and found it messy or crowded and
hard to maneuver? Did you ever go back to that place? Probably not. The same
thing goes for your online business.
Some websites are not built for the average customer. They use large
graphics that take hours for a 56K modem to download, or their links don’t work.
If you don’t know how to build a website yourself, then hire a professional who
knows how to do it for you.
Your site needs to be user-friendly so that customers keep coming back –
not only for their first purchase, but also for follow-up sales once they’ve
devoured your initial product.
Some basic tips for building a better website include using professional
colors and fonts. You don’t want a rainbow site with happy faces and flowery
lettering trying to sell your serious eBook on Investing for Seniors.
You also want to make sure you have a separate domain for your business.
You can register your very own dot com at GoDaddy.com for only $8.95 per year,
and the investment is well worth it for the professionalism it gives your business.
Once the designer drafts your site and your content is in place, ask a few
friends or family members to make a test run through it and tell you if they notice
any areas where the user would run into problems, like dead links or layout
trouble.
Sometimes, something as simple as the browser the customer is using will
distort the website and make it appear as if an amateur has launched an online
business. Any reputable designer knows how to appeal to the masses, so you
shouldn’t run into any trouble if you check references and hire someone who’s
been in the business for at least 5 years.
If you’re not quite ready to hire a website designer, there are companies
that offer low-cost, ready-made templates that you can customize. Empowerism
will give you 35 templates and teach you what to do with them. You will have a
wide variety of options so that your enterprise is created with a personal slant –
designed however you choose. These types of tools reduce the usual worries that
plague other first time cyberpreneurs. Turnkey!
5. Constructive Content
Content can make a big difference if you fail to urge the audience to take
action on your site. You have to create words that provoke the reader to continue
reading until they are convinced to buy your product or sign up for something on
your site.
Some websites run on for pages, causing the reader to scroll forever.
Others use a mere paragraph or two to make their point and hope for the best
results. What length you require depends on the product you’re selling and how
much convincing needs to be done to make the sale.
Many websites are sheer sales propaganda, and it often works! Your sales
strategy should reflect the customer and how they approach buying on the
Internet. Many people like and expect to see testimonials sprinkled throughout
your home page, for instance.
Whenever you work on your content, make sure that you answer the 5
W’s: Who (who the product is for and who you are as well); What (what the
product is exactly, along with any other bonus materials included); When (when
the offer expires – an often crucial element in making the sale tonight as opposed
to never); Where (where they can reach you in case they have any questions or
need assistance); and Why (why they need your product above any others selling
on the ‘Net).
You might want to write your online sales content like a personal letter,
complete with an image of your signature at the bottom of the page. Don’t forget
your Postscripts (P.S.) – you can have up to five Postscripts where you sum up the
important facts and urge the client to purchase now or miss out on the deal
altogether.
You content will play a key factor in your search engine placement, so you
will need to learn how to “write for the search engines” and incorporate that
whenever possible. If that’s something you’re not familiar with, Empowerism
offers a full training module on keyword and keyphrase integration for search
engine optimization.
Content isn’t confined just to your website! Email marketing is a vital
aspect of Internet Marketing, and the content of your communications to your
prospects and customers must be professional, with a good blend of relationshipbuilding,
soft-sell, and hard-sell copy. This is also something that Empowerism
excels at, in fact you can pick up a complimentary Email Marketing Course on
their website, which addresses email content, among other critical topics. The last
thing you want to do is offend a prospect or appear amateurish in your
communications!
6. Search Engine Support
Without aiming for a decent search engine ranking, you might have
difficulty in achieving the kind of sales results you’re after. In addition to
content, addressed in the previous section, there are several tools you can use to
help you increase your search engine placement.
While many engines have their own criteria for developing their unique
ranking system, most rely on a combination of keywords, relevancy, and even
link reciprocation. In order to move into the top ten, most coveted positions, you
have to know how to play their game.
First, sit down and brainstorm the keywords most used to describe your
product. Google has a keyword tool that helps you determine the most widely
used search terms for your business. You can find it at:
https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox.
For example, if you enter “investing,” the tool will return the following
terms to you: Real estate investing, online investing, socially responsible
investing, value investing, stock market investing, stock investing, investing
online, gold investing, drip investing, & investing money – and these are only the
top 10 out of 50+ terms it returns.
How do you use these search terms? You use them both behind the scenes
and on center stage. Your web developer will want to include many of them in
your META tags, which allows search engine spiders to classify your site more
easily.
You’ll also want to use them in your keyword content when crafting the
home page of your website. When the spider crawls onto your site, it scans the
keywords to make sure the site is really relevant to that particular subject matter,
and not just a scam to get traffic in the door.
You will need to continue recreating your search engine strategy, since
many engines change their formula to keep everyone on their toes. Google and
others, for instance, now factor into the ranking formula the number of other sites
who have a link to your site. This is known as link reciprocation.
Don’t have a web developer? It’s easy to learn this from Empowerism.
Not only will you learn about issues such as link reciprocation, but you’ll see how
to generate targeted traffic to your website using search engines and free tools
reserved especially for subscribers. Or you can always use their turnkey system
and never have to worry about anything related to search engines again!
7. Advertising Issues
Advertising will be the lifeblood of your business, so this is where the
majority of your time, money, and effort will be spent. Your goal is to build a
database (list) of prospects and customers you can sell to time and time again.
In the ever-changing (and challenging) world of online advertising, there
are two primary categories: Free and Paid. The basic rule of thumb is that if you
have much more time than money, Free advertising may be your most logical
choice. However, if you have even just a little room in your budget for
advertising, Paid advertising, combined with effective free methods, will save you
bundles of time and is the most direct route to success.
The entire goal of your advertising efforts should be to drive targeted
traffic to your website, where visitors are encouraged to add their name and email
address to your database. Plain and simple. Database Marketing 101.
Free online advertising methods include (but are not limited to) posting to
free safelists, engaging in message board discussions and including your tagline
on each post, posting to free classified ad sites, using traffic generators
(surfing/clicking for credits), submitting your website to search engines, banner
exchanges, reciprocal linking with similar sites, submitting free ezine ads, writing
articles and including your byline at the end, and writing a press release about the
launch of your site or a new product and submitting to online news media.
These methods can be tedious and frustrating, but when you’re starting
off, with no extra funds, if you can choose two and stick with them religiously,
you will most likely generate enough profit to form a Paid advertising plan.
Empowerism can help you get started with any of these, as well as teach you how
to test and track your results, which is vitally important to your sanity!
Paid advertising methods are virtually endless. Some of the most popular
include renting opt-in lists, buying opt-in leads, placing ads in reputable ezines,
using pay-per-click search engines, buying banner ad space, and buying targeted
traffic. When using a completely turnkey system like the one Empowerism
supplies, your opt-in leads, delivery method, and content are automatically
included, leaving you free to try other advertising venues to complement these
efforts.
Just because you have an online business, that doesn’t mean all of your
advertising has to be on the Internet. However, online advertising is usually less
costly than offline avenues. You don’t have to pay for pricey prime time
placement, but you do have to spend more time figuring out where your prospects
are so that your dollars are not wasted in your efforts.
8. Customer Service
Everyone knows that keeping a customer is ten times harder than getting
one initially. We can all recall numerous times when we’ve purchased something
and vowed never to return.
You don’t want to be labeled one of those businesses that doesn’t seem to
value its customers. Word on the Internet spreads rapidly. If you burn one
customer, he or she might post that experience on an online message board or
mention it in an email discussion list, and no one else will want to do business
with you, either.
What does customer service mean? Does it mean the customer is always
right? If you want it to! But more often than not, it means that you are willing to
listen to a customer’s complaints and work toward a mutual resolution.
Sometimes the only resolution that will work means a full money-back
guarantee. Yes, even if you know the consumer is only doing this to scam you
out of your money.
But other times, the customer is lodging a legitimate complaint, and this
can be very helpful to you when it comes to satisfying the needs of other
customers. Say a customer emails you with a request for a refund because many
of the links in your eBook were dead links (they no longer worked).
First of all, you need to thank this customer profusely because he’s just
done you a big favor. He’s saved you money. How? Because you can instantly
refund his money, fix the dead links, and avoid dozens of other returns.
Then you should happily refund the money for this sale and promise him
that you’ll be repairing the problem and ensuring it never happens again. As a
result, you might have salvaged his business for your release of the next edition of
your informational eBook.
No matter what the situation, always be courteous and friendly when
dealing with a customer – even those who are furious with you for no good reason
(that you can see). Remain calm and gently take care of the problem.
The biggest complaint online consumers have in working with customer
service departments is their slow reply. To combat this problem, make sure you
stay on top of customer contact so that you can resolve any issues before they
grow into larger ones.
By aligning yourself with a company with an unprecedented reputation for
integrity and fast, friendly service, you will garner the experience to serve your
clients with the respect they expect.
9. Recurrent Marketing Efforts
Don’t think that once you launch a single ad campaign, your efforts are
finished. Marketing your products is a never-ending task that has to be factored
into the continued growth of your business. Even after you’ve made the sale, the
show must go on – your goal is to keep these customers for life, if not longer!
Whenever you create a product to sell on the Internet, you must have a
way to capture and store the contact information of your customer – preferably
through email – and let them know they will hear from you from time to time. So
long as you provide a way for them to opt out of receiving your emails, this is
standard procedure.
When someone becomes your customer, the next time he hears from you
will be right after his first purchase – thanking him for becoming a valued
customer. From that point on, you can occasionally contact him to alert him to
other special offers, upgrades, or complementary products that are available to
him at a special discount because he’s an existing customer.
Your new best friends will be an auto-responder and your mailing list
software. Auto-responders usually come with a mass mailing function, which is
very convenient. With auto-responders, the “after-the-sale” marketing is done for
you automatically – contacting the customer periodically with various “drive ‘em
back” messages. You can either write these messages or hire a professional.
Your mailing list software (or the mass mail feature of your autoresponder)
allows you to contact your customers “on the fly” with up-to-theminute
information that would not typically be loaded into an auto-responder.
This can be in the form of special reports or a newsletter you send out regularly.
Keep your eye on the media – newspapers, television, even radio – and
send your customers a message whenever you find information that could benefit
their lives in some way, relevant to their relationship with you. These reports can
be drafted in a matter of hours, and can be anywhere from one to five pages long.
For example, if you sell an eBook on lowering telecommunications costs,
and you see a story about it on the 5 o’clock news, whip up a short report and
send it to your customers. They will appreciate knowing you’re on top of the
situation and looking out for their best interests. At the same time, you’ll be
positioning yourself as an expert in your field.
Out of all the tools you’ll want to use, one clever tool Empowerism
provides its members is the ability to plug your name and URL into existing
material that you can give away to future prospects and customers. The data is
already there – you just substitute your contact information, and you’ve instantly
produced a quality product.
10. Necessity of Reinvention
From time to time, once your business becomes an established entity,
you’ll want to reinvent your methods or your products. If your approach in
selling begins to weaken, and you notice a decline in sales, try something new
before you change your entire product line.
It may be that your audience is now gathering somewhere else online and
you have to find them so that you can begin your new marketing campaign. It
could be that your marketing efforts themselves need a boost or a facelift!
If so, you can find a professional to help you create an ad campaign –
banners, killer content, auto-responders, and more. What if all of those efforts
still don’t reap any rewards? Then it’s time to reassess your products.
Is what you’re trying to sell outdated? Has technology taken over and
demanded a newer approach to solving a problem than what you’re touting as the
“next big thing?” Is your product or service overpriced when compared to the
competition? Stay abreast of current events in your industry and begin
developing a strong affinity to continuing education.
Are you simply tired of selling eBooks based on real estate options and
want to tackle a fresh subject matter? You can do it, but that doesn’t mean you
have to throw away your current enterprise. In fact, if you’ve built a formidable
reputation on the ‘Net as an honest businessperson who provides excellent
information to his or her customers, that will aid you in any endeavors you pursue
online!
Finding your groove in the online community will eventually come
naturally as your products and selling mechanisms begin to harmonize with your
customers’ needs. To keep your business fluid (changing with the times) and
growing, your challenge is to stay organized, focused, and in tune with hot topics
emerging on the Internet.
Keep in tune? How? The best way is by having conversations with
people who are doing the same thing you are! Network with fellow
entrepreneurs, customers, service providers, gurus – ask questions, solicit
opinions, be a sounding board, don’t stop learning. You never know what
contacts you might make or information you’ll learn that could be the key to
taking your business to the next level. Even the shyest among us can send an
email to another business owner to strike up a conversation! No phone required!
This eBook has outlined and described the basics of successful online
entrepreneurship. Now it’s up to you to take the next step. No matter who you
are, your level of formal education, or your financial situation – armed with the
tools available to you, you can be as successful as you are committed to being.
Start NOW – don’t waste another day!
Summary
I hope you feel you have benefited from the time you spent reading this
eBook. The material presented here was written and supplied by Empowerism,
which was the first Internet-based company to offer subscriptions to high-quality
online marketing training and mentoring.
This eBook is just the beginning. After you check out the Empowerism
site and see the magnitude of the tools and guidance available to empower your
success, you will, like tens of thousands before you, be convinced that the training
and turnkey system is second to none.
Our mutual goal is to lead you to a level of accomplishment where you not
only empower yourself to succeed, but you have the opportunity to lead the way
for others to prosper in your footsteps.
Go ahead – take a look, check it out. Plug into the turnkey system and see
for yourself that a business on autopilot is a beautiful thing. It will leave you free
to focus on the future, rather than being bogged down in the daily grind of staying
afloat.
Here’s to your success!
Sincerely,
Lana Robinson
http://www.empowerism.com/e/224169
P.S. Picture your business having more customers than ever possibly doubling or
tripling its size in months. Imagine having more free time to do the things you
enjoy. Think about spending more time with your family and experiencing the
finer things in life. How can you do this? Subscribe TODAY to Empowerism
and you’ll learn the premier marketing strategies the pros are using, plus you can
take advantage of a turnkey system to put your business on autopilot. You may
find yourself achieving more of your business goals this year than you expected!
Launching an online business can seem either simple or harrowing,
depending on your perception of the Internet. For many, the task at hand will
come naturally because they’re comfortable maneuvering the ‘Net with ease. For
others, it’s an entirely alien idea requiring heavy guidance.
Everyone who has ever sought out legitimate business opportunities online
has probably scoured the Internet for sites that offer both direction and devices to
make their journey easier.
Most people are looking for a place where Internet Marketers can make a
single stop to gather and implement all of the information they need to carry them
from A to Z and a turnkey marketing system that supplies everything they need
for success.
There are ten basic steps to initiating and cultivating your dream of
starting of your very own Internet-based business. The steps begin the moment
you first conceptualize your dream and they culminate with continued revenue
from your customers.
1. Motivation and Goal Setting
If you’re reading this book, then you have already instilled some of the
motivation needed to be a successful online entrepreneur. But are you ready to
invest the time and money needed to realize your vision?
Before you ever start the first formal step of launching your cyberbusiness,
you have to have the right mindset and a list of goals that you plan to
accomplish one step at a time.
First, you need to gather the support of those who will be closely involved
with you in your endeavor. It may be a work partner or your spouse and children
if you’re working solo from home.
Even if you’re interested in signing up with an established affiliate
program, you should still set and try to maintain your own personal goals. While
some seasoned marketers have long-term success, those who sustain their
victories in the marketplace know that they have to put in equal effort to building
a successful affiliate network.
Sit down with a list of things you hope to accomplish with this business
and be as specific as possible. It may help convince others (and even yourself) if
you map out a simple business plan to show them how your idea will come to life.
You can see a small business plan outline at www.sba.gov.
If you run into opposition, or self-doubts, then you may want to take some
time to thoroughly review your business plan and try to solve any areas of
concern before you begin investing too much time or money into your operation.
If you’re considering joining an affiliate program, look at it carefully to
determine what its drawbacks are, if any. Then, if you still have concerns, contact
the administrator or a sponsor of the program and open a dialogue so that you can
find out for yourself if these problems really exist, and if so, how they are solved.
Along with the plan itself, you should have several stages of goals that you
hope to reach and the timeline to accompany them. Too many people sit down
one day and decide to start a business with no direction to go. These people wind
up off the path very quickly, and all the time and funds they devoted to their
business goes down the drain.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew with your goals. Start small and
remember that goals are to be viewed as a “living list,” and can be altered at any
time depending on the success rate of your business.
You might want to set monetary goals – such as hoping to make $2,000
per month within the first three months. Remember that most new businesses
don’t even see a profit until after the first year, so don’t despair if yours is slow to
grow.
On the Internet, your growth rate will be much quicker because your
audience is global, not limited to your physical location. Another bonus with
online selling is that many products are informational, and don’t require the
standard upfront investment that other companies do.
When you find a business opportunity that piques your interest, you need
to make sure that there is a system in place that offers plenty of member support
and training to get your own enterprise underway.
For example, Empowerism is not only a site that houses one of the largest
learning environments on the ‘Net, but it’s also a community where members can
interact with one another and get answers on issues that are important to them.
Look for a company that doesn’t stop at just putting the facts and figures
out there. You want one that takes an active interest in your success, offers a
turnkey marketing system, and wants to make sure that your growth spurs more
growth within the industry, which is exactly what a company called Empowerism
has accomplished since 1998.
2. Time Management Control
If you’re working from home or doing this business as a second career
until it firmly gets on its feet, then you’ll have to set and meet your schedule in
order to carefully control your online enterprise.
You don’t want to fall at one end of the spectrum – investing too much or
too little time into your business. Instead, you want a healthy balance where
you’ve spent enough time working toward your goals and plenty of time to spend
enjoying family time or recreational life in general.
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” You’ve heard the saying.
It rings true for many whose lives are consumed by their business. Don’t let this
happen to you! If you fall into the trap of working yourself to death, your
business will suffer in the end because you’ll become too frustrated to think
clearly and make sound business decisions.
If your online business is your only job, then you can afford to spend 8-10
hours a day working toward its success. But if you’re working at home, those 8-
10 hours a day might be marred by constant interruptions and personal pauses that
so easily take precedence over your work life.
If you have a family at home, remind them that you’re going to be putting
in formal work hours and that even though you might be available to temporarily
stop and help them when they need it, they must respect your efforts to build your
business.
Your time is important! You know the saying, “Time is Money” and you
will find that to be especially true online where you can spend hour after hour on
repetitive tasks that deliver marginal results. Don’t fall into the trap of doing the
same thing over and over again without results. Look for a true “turnkey system”
that finds, sorts, and sells to your prospects, while you’re spending time doing
things that contribute to the long haul, like building relationships with your
customers.
How many affiliate programs on the ‘Net have you found who promise a
turnkey investment? Just set it up and it runs itself. When it comes down to it,
not many make the grade – then you eventually end up unwilling to spend the
necessary time – and failure closes in.
Empowerism knows the difference between hype and truth, and makes
promises that are kept by providing actual step-by-step instructions and a turnkey
system that will help you make the most of your time.
3. Product Conception
Many people go through life wishing they could sell something and
become instant millionaires. It rarely works this way, but the possibility still tugs
at us and we’re always looking for the “magic solution” to our financial stresses.
In order to develop a good product line, you have to look at the
marketplace. What are consumers buying? What’s being heavily advertised?
You know it takes money to market your products, so the successful companies
will be advertising greatly because they can afford to.
Is there a need that’s not being met? Many success stories come out of
regular consumers who couldn’t find a particular product to solve their own
problems, so they invented one themselves to help others!
Many thriving online businesses do nothing but sell information on the
‘Net. Information is the hottest commodity, and almost anyone can do it with
very little upfront investment of money.
Think about your own personal experiences. What skills do you have that
cause people come to you for help? Are you a wiz at writing? Do you have a
knack for investing or real estate solutions?
You can write an eBook to sell on the ‘Net and rake in a lot of money –
just for sharing your knowledge with others! Why are eBooks so popular? For
several reasons, including the fact that they can be purchased and read in seconds
from the comfort of your own home.
No bookstores. No traffic. No-hassle returns on most sites. Plus, eBooks
usually come with a package deal, so customers get bonus materials just for
ordering. This can be an extra eBook, a teaser eBook (a shorter version of the
same book, highlighting a few excerpts), or a membership to a free Ezine.
If you aren’t confident in your writing skills, but have an idea you’d like
to see in print, consider hiring a professional to do it for you. Writing consultants
can research and write about topics quickly and gear them toward consumers for
about $20 per page.
Products that are already created can be sold in affiliate programs. The
advantages of marketing someone else’s products or services are many, including
time savings, low monetary investment (and risk), and less work. If that appeals
to you, at least as a stepping stone to “bigger and better,” then the perfect starting
place is Empowerism.
4. Site Structure
The structure of your website can mean the difference between a stalled
business and a flourishing one. If your website isn’t built for the consumer, then
the consumer will steer clear.
Have you ever ventured into a store and found it messy or crowded and
hard to maneuver? Did you ever go back to that place? Probably not. The same
thing goes for your online business.
Some websites are not built for the average customer. They use large
graphics that take hours for a 56K modem to download, or their links don’t work.
If you don’t know how to build a website yourself, then hire a professional who
knows how to do it for you.
Your site needs to be user-friendly so that customers keep coming back –
not only for their first purchase, but also for follow-up sales once they’ve
devoured your initial product.
Some basic tips for building a better website include using professional
colors and fonts. You don’t want a rainbow site with happy faces and flowery
lettering trying to sell your serious eBook on Investing for Seniors.
You also want to make sure you have a separate domain for your business.
You can register your very own dot com at GoDaddy.com for only $8.95 per year,
and the investment is well worth it for the professionalism it gives your business.
Once the designer drafts your site and your content is in place, ask a few
friends or family members to make a test run through it and tell you if they notice
any areas where the user would run into problems, like dead links or layout
trouble.
Sometimes, something as simple as the browser the customer is using will
distort the website and make it appear as if an amateur has launched an online
business. Any reputable designer knows how to appeal to the masses, so you
shouldn’t run into any trouble if you check references and hire someone who’s
been in the business for at least 5 years.
If you’re not quite ready to hire a website designer, there are companies
that offer low-cost, ready-made templates that you can customize. Empowerism
will give you 35 templates and teach you what to do with them. You will have a
wide variety of options so that your enterprise is created with a personal slant –
designed however you choose. These types of tools reduce the usual worries that
plague other first time cyberpreneurs. Turnkey!
5. Constructive Content
Content can make a big difference if you fail to urge the audience to take
action on your site. You have to create words that provoke the reader to continue
reading until they are convinced to buy your product or sign up for something on
your site.
Some websites run on for pages, causing the reader to scroll forever.
Others use a mere paragraph or two to make their point and hope for the best
results. What length you require depends on the product you’re selling and how
much convincing needs to be done to make the sale.
Many websites are sheer sales propaganda, and it often works! Your sales
strategy should reflect the customer and how they approach buying on the
Internet. Many people like and expect to see testimonials sprinkled throughout
your home page, for instance.
Whenever you work on your content, make sure that you answer the 5
W’s: Who (who the product is for and who you are as well); What (what the
product is exactly, along with any other bonus materials included); When (when
the offer expires – an often crucial element in making the sale tonight as opposed
to never); Where (where they can reach you in case they have any questions or
need assistance); and Why (why they need your product above any others selling
on the ‘Net).
You might want to write your online sales content like a personal letter,
complete with an image of your signature at the bottom of the page. Don’t forget
your Postscripts (P.S.) – you can have up to five Postscripts where you sum up the
important facts and urge the client to purchase now or miss out on the deal
altogether.
You content will play a key factor in your search engine placement, so you
will need to learn how to “write for the search engines” and incorporate that
whenever possible. If that’s something you’re not familiar with, Empowerism
offers a full training module on keyword and keyphrase integration for search
engine optimization.
Content isn’t confined just to your website! Email marketing is a vital
aspect of Internet Marketing, and the content of your communications to your
prospects and customers must be professional, with a good blend of relationshipbuilding,
soft-sell, and hard-sell copy. This is also something that Empowerism
excels at, in fact you can pick up a complimentary Email Marketing Course on
their website, which addresses email content, among other critical topics. The last
thing you want to do is offend a prospect or appear amateurish in your
communications!
6. Search Engine Support
Without aiming for a decent search engine ranking, you might have
difficulty in achieving the kind of sales results you’re after. In addition to
content, addressed in the previous section, there are several tools you can use to
help you increase your search engine placement.
While many engines have their own criteria for developing their unique
ranking system, most rely on a combination of keywords, relevancy, and even
link reciprocation. In order to move into the top ten, most coveted positions, you
have to know how to play their game.
First, sit down and brainstorm the keywords most used to describe your
product. Google has a keyword tool that helps you determine the most widely
used search terms for your business. You can find it at:
https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox.
For example, if you enter “investing,” the tool will return the following
terms to you: Real estate investing, online investing, socially responsible
investing, value investing, stock market investing, stock investing, investing
online, gold investing, drip investing, & investing money – and these are only the
top 10 out of 50+ terms it returns.
How do you use these search terms? You use them both behind the scenes
and on center stage. Your web developer will want to include many of them in
your META tags, which allows search engine spiders to classify your site more
easily.
You’ll also want to use them in your keyword content when crafting the
home page of your website. When the spider crawls onto your site, it scans the
keywords to make sure the site is really relevant to that particular subject matter,
and not just a scam to get traffic in the door.
You will need to continue recreating your search engine strategy, since
many engines change their formula to keep everyone on their toes. Google and
others, for instance, now factor into the ranking formula the number of other sites
who have a link to your site. This is known as link reciprocation.
Don’t have a web developer? It’s easy to learn this from Empowerism.
Not only will you learn about issues such as link reciprocation, but you’ll see how
to generate targeted traffic to your website using search engines and free tools
reserved especially for subscribers. Or you can always use their turnkey system
and never have to worry about anything related to search engines again!
7. Advertising Issues
Advertising will be the lifeblood of your business, so this is where the
majority of your time, money, and effort will be spent. Your goal is to build a
database (list) of prospects and customers you can sell to time and time again.
In the ever-changing (and challenging) world of online advertising, there
are two primary categories: Free and Paid. The basic rule of thumb is that if you
have much more time than money, Free advertising may be your most logical
choice. However, if you have even just a little room in your budget for
advertising, Paid advertising, combined with effective free methods, will save you
bundles of time and is the most direct route to success.
The entire goal of your advertising efforts should be to drive targeted
traffic to your website, where visitors are encouraged to add their name and email
address to your database. Plain and simple. Database Marketing 101.
Free online advertising methods include (but are not limited to) posting to
free safelists, engaging in message board discussions and including your tagline
on each post, posting to free classified ad sites, using traffic generators
(surfing/clicking for credits), submitting your website to search engines, banner
exchanges, reciprocal linking with similar sites, submitting free ezine ads, writing
articles and including your byline at the end, and writing a press release about the
launch of your site or a new product and submitting to online news media.
These methods can be tedious and frustrating, but when you’re starting
off, with no extra funds, if you can choose two and stick with them religiously,
you will most likely generate enough profit to form a Paid advertising plan.
Empowerism can help you get started with any of these, as well as teach you how
to test and track your results, which is vitally important to your sanity!
Paid advertising methods are virtually endless. Some of the most popular
include renting opt-in lists, buying opt-in leads, placing ads in reputable ezines,
using pay-per-click search engines, buying banner ad space, and buying targeted
traffic. When using a completely turnkey system like the one Empowerism
supplies, your opt-in leads, delivery method, and content are automatically
included, leaving you free to try other advertising venues to complement these
efforts.
Just because you have an online business, that doesn’t mean all of your
advertising has to be on the Internet. However, online advertising is usually less
costly than offline avenues. You don’t have to pay for pricey prime time
placement, but you do have to spend more time figuring out where your prospects
are so that your dollars are not wasted in your efforts.
8. Customer Service
Everyone knows that keeping a customer is ten times harder than getting
one initially. We can all recall numerous times when we’ve purchased something
and vowed never to return.
You don’t want to be labeled one of those businesses that doesn’t seem to
value its customers. Word on the Internet spreads rapidly. If you burn one
customer, he or she might post that experience on an online message board or
mention it in an email discussion list, and no one else will want to do business
with you, either.
What does customer service mean? Does it mean the customer is always
right? If you want it to! But more often than not, it means that you are willing to
listen to a customer’s complaints and work toward a mutual resolution.
Sometimes the only resolution that will work means a full money-back
guarantee. Yes, even if you know the consumer is only doing this to scam you
out of your money.
But other times, the customer is lodging a legitimate complaint, and this
can be very helpful to you when it comes to satisfying the needs of other
customers. Say a customer emails you with a request for a refund because many
of the links in your eBook were dead links (they no longer worked).
First of all, you need to thank this customer profusely because he’s just
done you a big favor. He’s saved you money. How? Because you can instantly
refund his money, fix the dead links, and avoid dozens of other returns.
Then you should happily refund the money for this sale and promise him
that you’ll be repairing the problem and ensuring it never happens again. As a
result, you might have salvaged his business for your release of the next edition of
your informational eBook.
No matter what the situation, always be courteous and friendly when
dealing with a customer – even those who are furious with you for no good reason
(that you can see). Remain calm and gently take care of the problem.
The biggest complaint online consumers have in working with customer
service departments is their slow reply. To combat this problem, make sure you
stay on top of customer contact so that you can resolve any issues before they
grow into larger ones.
By aligning yourself with a company with an unprecedented reputation for
integrity and fast, friendly service, you will garner the experience to serve your
clients with the respect they expect.
9. Recurrent Marketing Efforts
Don’t think that once you launch a single ad campaign, your efforts are
finished. Marketing your products is a never-ending task that has to be factored
into the continued growth of your business. Even after you’ve made the sale, the
show must go on – your goal is to keep these customers for life, if not longer!
Whenever you create a product to sell on the Internet, you must have a
way to capture and store the contact information of your customer – preferably
through email – and let them know they will hear from you from time to time. So
long as you provide a way for them to opt out of receiving your emails, this is
standard procedure.
When someone becomes your customer, the next time he hears from you
will be right after his first purchase – thanking him for becoming a valued
customer. From that point on, you can occasionally contact him to alert him to
other special offers, upgrades, or complementary products that are available to
him at a special discount because he’s an existing customer.
Your new best friends will be an auto-responder and your mailing list
software. Auto-responders usually come with a mass mailing function, which is
very convenient. With auto-responders, the “after-the-sale” marketing is done for
you automatically – contacting the customer periodically with various “drive ‘em
back” messages. You can either write these messages or hire a professional.
Your mailing list software (or the mass mail feature of your autoresponder)
allows you to contact your customers “on the fly” with up-to-theminute
information that would not typically be loaded into an auto-responder.
This can be in the form of special reports or a newsletter you send out regularly.
Keep your eye on the media – newspapers, television, even radio – and
send your customers a message whenever you find information that could benefit
their lives in some way, relevant to their relationship with you. These reports can
be drafted in a matter of hours, and can be anywhere from one to five pages long.
For example, if you sell an eBook on lowering telecommunications costs,
and you see a story about it on the 5 o’clock news, whip up a short report and
send it to your customers. They will appreciate knowing you’re on top of the
situation and looking out for their best interests. At the same time, you’ll be
positioning yourself as an expert in your field.
Out of all the tools you’ll want to use, one clever tool Empowerism
provides its members is the ability to plug your name and URL into existing
material that you can give away to future prospects and customers. The data is
already there – you just substitute your contact information, and you’ve instantly
produced a quality product.
10. Necessity of Reinvention
From time to time, once your business becomes an established entity,
you’ll want to reinvent your methods or your products. If your approach in
selling begins to weaken, and you notice a decline in sales, try something new
before you change your entire product line.
It may be that your audience is now gathering somewhere else online and
you have to find them so that you can begin your new marketing campaign. It
could be that your marketing efforts themselves need a boost or a facelift!
If so, you can find a professional to help you create an ad campaign –
banners, killer content, auto-responders, and more. What if all of those efforts
still don’t reap any rewards? Then it’s time to reassess your products.
Is what you’re trying to sell outdated? Has technology taken over and
demanded a newer approach to solving a problem than what you’re touting as the
“next big thing?” Is your product or service overpriced when compared to the
competition? Stay abreast of current events in your industry and begin
developing a strong affinity to continuing education.
Are you simply tired of selling eBooks based on real estate options and
want to tackle a fresh subject matter? You can do it, but that doesn’t mean you
have to throw away your current enterprise. In fact, if you’ve built a formidable
reputation on the ‘Net as an honest businessperson who provides excellent
information to his or her customers, that will aid you in any endeavors you pursue
online!
Finding your groove in the online community will eventually come
naturally as your products and selling mechanisms begin to harmonize with your
customers’ needs. To keep your business fluid (changing with the times) and
growing, your challenge is to stay organized, focused, and in tune with hot topics
emerging on the Internet.
Keep in tune? How? The best way is by having conversations with
people who are doing the same thing you are! Network with fellow
entrepreneurs, customers, service providers, gurus – ask questions, solicit
opinions, be a sounding board, don’t stop learning. You never know what
contacts you might make or information you’ll learn that could be the key to
taking your business to the next level. Even the shyest among us can send an
email to another business owner to strike up a conversation! No phone required!
This eBook has outlined and described the basics of successful online
entrepreneurship. Now it’s up to you to take the next step. No matter who you
are, your level of formal education, or your financial situation – armed with the
tools available to you, you can be as successful as you are committed to being.
Start NOW – don’t waste another day!
Summary
I hope you feel you have benefited from the time you spent reading this
eBook. The material presented here was written and supplied by Empowerism,
which was the first Internet-based company to offer subscriptions to high-quality
online marketing training and mentoring.
This eBook is just the beginning. After you check out the Empowerism
site and see the magnitude of the tools and guidance available to empower your
success, you will, like tens of thousands before you, be convinced that the training
and turnkey system is second to none.
Our mutual goal is to lead you to a level of accomplishment where you not
only empower yourself to succeed, but you have the opportunity to lead the way
for others to prosper in your footsteps.
Go ahead – take a look, check it out. Plug into the turnkey system and see
for yourself that a business on autopilot is a beautiful thing. It will leave you free
to focus on the future, rather than being bogged down in the daily grind of staying
afloat.
Here’s to your success!
Sincerely,
Lana Robinson
http://www.empowerism.com/e/224169
P.S. Picture your business having more customers than ever possibly doubling or
tripling its size in months. Imagine having more free time to do the things you
enjoy. Think about spending more time with your family and experiencing the
finer things in life. How can you do this? Subscribe TODAY to Empowerism
and you’ll learn the premier marketing strategies the pros are using, plus you can
take advantage of a turnkey system to put your business on autopilot. You may
find yourself achieving more of your business goals this year than you expected!
10 Ways to Write More Effective Ads
What is advertising?
Is it something to be regarded as a work of beauty or art? Is it clever
slogans or amusing prose? Is it workmanship to be judged for an
award or recognition?
It’s none of the above.
Advertising is salesmanship multiplied.
Nothing more.
And advertising copy, or copywriting, is salesmanship in print.
The purpose of a copywriter’s job is to sell. Period.
The selling is accomplished by persuasion with the written word,
much like a television commercial sells (if done properly) by
persuading with visuals and audio.
As Claude Hopkins wrote in his timeless classic, Scientific Advertising:
“To properly understand advertising or to learn even its rudiments one must
start with the right conception. Advertising is salesmanship. Its principles
are the principles of salesmanship. Successes and failures in both lines are
due to like causes. Thus every advertising question should be answered by
the salesman's standards.
“Let us emphasize that point. The only purpose of advertising is to make
sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.
“It is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the people. It
is not primarily to aid your other salesmen. Treat it as a salesman. Force it
to justify itself. Compare it with other salesmen. Figure its cost and result.
Accept no excuses which good salesmen do not make. Then you will not go
far wrong.
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“The difference is only in degree. Advertising is multiplied salesmanship. It
may appeal to thousands while the salesman talks to one. It involves a
corresponding cost. Some people spend $10 per word on an average
advertisement. Therefore every ad should be a super-salesman.
“A salesman's mistake may cost little. An advertiser’s mistake may cost a
thousand times that much. Be more cautious, more exacting, therefore. A
mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your trade. Mediocre
advertising affects all of your trade.”
These points are as true today as they were when they were written
nearly one hundred years ago!
So the goal then becomes: how can we make our advertising as
effective as possible.
The answer is to test. Test again. And then test some more.
If ad “A” receives a two percent response rate, and ad “B” receives
three percent, then we can deduce that ad “B” will continue to
outperform ad “A” on a larger scale.
Testing takes time, however, and can be expensive if not kept in
check. Therefore, it’s ideal to start with some proven tested known
ideas and work from there.
For example, if testing has shown for decades or more that targeted
advertising significantly outperforms untargeted advertising (and it
does), then we can start with that assumption and go from there.
If we know based on test results that crafting an ad that speaks
directly to an individual performs better than addressing the masses
(again, it does), then it makes little sense to start testing with the
assumption that it does not. This is common sense.
So it stands to reason that knowing some basic rules or techniques
about writing effective copy is in order. Test results will always trump
everything, but it’s better to have a starting point before you test.
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So this starting point is the essence of this book.
The ten tips expressed here have been generally time-tested and
known to be effective.
But I can’t emphasize enough that when using these
techniques, you should always test them before rolling out a
large (and expensive) campaign.
Sometimes a little tweak here or there is all that is needed to
increase response rates dramatically.
And with that, let’s move onward…
Focus on Them, Not You
When a prospect reads your ad, letter, brochure, etc., the one thing
he will be wondering from the start is: “what’s in it for me?”
And if your copy doesn’t tell him, it’ll land in the trash faster than he
can read the headline or lead.
A lot of advertisers make this mistake. They focus on them as a
company. How long they’ve been in business, who their biggest
customers are, how they’ve spent ten years of research and millions
of dollars on developing this product, blah, blah.
Actually, those points are important. But they should be expressed in
a way that matters to your potential customer. Remember, once he’s
thrown it in the garbage, the sale is lost!
When writing your copy, it helps to think of it as writing a letter to an
old friend. In fact, I often picture a friend of mine who most closely
fits my prospect’s profile. What would I say to convince this friend to
try my product? How would I target my friend’s objections and
beliefs to help my cause?
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When you’re writing to a friend, you’ll use the pronouns “I” and
“you.” When trying to convince your friend, you might say: “Look, I
know you think you’ve tried every widget out there. But you should
know that…”
And it goes beyond just writing in the second person. That is,
addressing your prospect as “you” within the copy. The fact of the
matter is there are many successful ads that weren’t written in the
second person. Some are written in the first person perspective,
where the writer uses “I.” Other times the third person is used, with
“she,” “he,” and “them.”
And even if you do write in the second person, it doesn’t necessarily
mean your copy is about them.
For example:
“As a real estate agent, you can take comfort in the fact that
I’ve sold over 10,000 homes and mastered the tricks of the
trade”
Although you’re writing in the second person, you’re really still
focusing on yourself.
So how can you focus on them? Glad you asked. One way is to…
Emphasize Benefits, Not Features
What are features? They are descriptions of what qualities a product
possesses.
• The XYZ car delivers 55 miles per gallon in the city.
• Our ladder’s frame is made from a lightweight durable steel
alloy.
• Our glue is protected by a patent.
• This database has a built-in data-mining system.
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And what are benefits? They are what those features mean to your
prospects.
• You’ll save money on gas and cut down on environmental
pollutants when you use our energy saving high-performance
hybrid car. Plus, you’ll feel the extra oomph when you’re
passing cars, courtesy of the efficient electric motor, which they
don’t have!
• Lightweight durable steel-alloy frame means you’ll be able to
take it with you with ease, and use it in places most other
ladders can’t go, while still supporting up to 800 pounds. No
more backaches lugging around that heavy ladder. And it’ll last
for 150 years, so you’ll never need to buy another ladder again!
• Patent-protected glue ensures you can use it on wood, plastic,
metal, ceramic, glass, and tile…without messy cleanup and
without ever having to re-glue it again—guaranteed!
• You can instantly see the “big picture” hidden in your data, and
pull the most arcane statistics on demand. Watch your business
do a “180” in no time flat, when you instantly know why it’s
failing in the first place! It’s all done with our built-in datamining
system that’s so easy to use, my twelve year-old son
used it successfully right out of the box.
I just made up those examples, but I think you understand my point.
By the way, did you notice in the list of features where I wrote “steel
alloy?” But in the benefits I wrote “steel-alloy” (with a hyphen). Not
sure off-hand which one is correct, but I know which one I’d use.
Here’s why: you are not writing to impress your English teacher or
win any awards. The only award you’re after is your copy beating the
control (control being the best-selling copy so far), so take some
liberty in grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. You want it
to be read and acted upon, not read and admired!
But—back to benefits…
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If you were selling an expensive watch, you wouldn’t tell your reader
that the face is 2 inches in diameter and the band is made of leather.
You show him how the extra-large face will tell him the time at a
glance. No sir! He won’t have to squint and look foolish to everyone
around him trying to read this magnificent timepiece. And how about
the way he’ll project success and charisma when he wears the
beautiful gold watch with its handcrafted custom leather band? How
his lover will find him irresistible when he’s all dressed up to go out,
wearing the watch. Or how the watch’s status and beauty will attract
the ladies.
Incidentally, did you notice how I brought up not squinting as a
benefit? Does that sound like a silly benefit? Not if you are selling to
affluent baby boomers suffering from degrading vision. They
probably hate it when someone they’re trying to impress sees them
squint in order to read something. It’s all part of their inner desire,
which you need to discover. And which even they may not know
about. That is, until you show them a better way.
The point is to address the benefits of the product, not its features.
And when you do that, you’re focusing on your reader and his
interests, his desires. The trick is to highlight those specific benefits
(and word them correctly) that push your reader’s emotional hot
buttons.
How do you do that? Read on!
Push Their Emotional Hot Buttons
This is where research really pays off. Because in order to push those
buttons, you need to first know what they are.
Listen to this story first, and I’ll tell you what I mean: Once upon a
time a young man walked into a Chevrolet dealer’s showroom to
check out a Chevy Camaro. He had the money, and he was ready to
make a buying decision. But he couldn’t decide if he wanted to buy
the Camaro or the Ford Mustang up the road at the Ford dealer.
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A salesman approached him and soon discovered the man’s dilemma.
“Tell me what you like best about the Camaro,” said the salesman.
“It’s a fast car. I like it for its speed.”
After some more discussion, the salesman learned the man had just
started dating a cute college cheerleader. So what did the salesman
do?
Simple. He changed his pitch accordingly, to push the hot buttons he
knew would help advance the sale. He told the man about how
impressed his new girlfriend would be when he came home with this
car! He placed the mental image in the man’s mind of he and his
girlfriend cruising to the beach in the Camaro. How all of his friends
will be envious when they see him riding around with a beautiful girl
in a beautiful car.
And suddenly the man saw it. He got it. And the salesman recognized
this and piled it on even more. Before you know it, the man wrote a
nice fat check to the Chevy dealership, because he was sold!
The salesman found those hot buttons and pushed them like never
before until the man realized he wanted the Camaro more than he
wanted his money.
I know what you’re thinking…the man said he liked the car because it
was fast, didn’t he?
Yes, he did. But subconsciously, what he really desired was a car that
would impress his girlfriend, his friends, and in his mind make them
love him more! In his mind he equated speed with thrill. Not because
he wanted an endless supply of speeding tickets, but because he
thought that thrill would make him more attractive, more likeable.
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Perhaps the man didn’t even realize this fact himself. But the
salesman sure did. And he knew which emotional hot buttons to
press to get the sale.
Now, where does the research pay off?
Well, a good salesman knows how to ask the kinds of questions that
will tell him which buttons to press on the fly. When you’re writing
copy, you don’t have that luxury. It’s therefore very important to
know upfront the wants, needs, and desires of your prospects for
that very reason. If you haven’t done your homework, your prospect
is going to decide that he’d rather keep his money than buy your
product. Remember, copywriting is salesmanship in print!
It’s been said many times: People don’t like to be sold.
But they do like to buy.
And they buy based on emotion first and foremost. Then they justify
their decision with logic, even after they are already sold emotionally.
So be sure to back up your emotional pitch with logic to nurture that
justification at the end.
And while we’re on the subject, let’s talk a moment about perceived
“hype” in a sales letter. A lot of more “conservative” advertisers have
decided that they don’t like hype, because they consider hype to be
old news, been-there-and-done-that, my customers won’t fall for
hype, it’s not believable anymore.
What they should realize is that hype itself does not sell well. Some
less experienced copywriters often try to compensate for their lack of
research or not fully understanding their target market or the product
itself by adding tons of adjectives and adverbs and exclamation
points and big bold type.
Whew! If you do your job right, it’s just not needed.
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That’s not to say some adverbs or adjectives don’t have their
place…only if they’re used sparingly, and only if they advance the
sale.
But I think you’d agree that backing up your copy with proof and
believability will go a lot farther in convincing your prospects than
“power words” alone. I say power words, because there are certain
adverbs and adjectives that have been proven to make a difference
when they’re included. This by itself is not hype. But repeated too
often, they become less effective, and they take away (at least in
your prospect’s mind) from the proof.
Which brings us into our next tip…
Incorporating Proof and Believability
When your prospect reads your ad, you want to make sure he
believes any claims you make about your product or service. Because
if there’s any doubt in his mind, he won’t bite, no matter how sweet
the deal. In fact, the “too good to be true” mentality will virtually
guarantee a lost sale…even if it is all true.
So what can you do to increase the perception of believability?
Because after all, it’s the perception you need to address up front.
But of course you also must make sure your copy is accurate and
truthful.
Here are some tried and tested methods that will help:
• If you’re dealing with existing customers who already know you
deliver as promised, emphasize that trust. Don’t leave it up to
them to figure it out. Make them stop, cock their heads, and
say, “Oh, yeah. The ABC Company has never done me wrong
before. I can trust them.”
• Include testimonials of satisfied customers. Be sure to put full
names and locations, where possible. Remember, “A.S.” is a lot
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less believable than “Andy Sherman, Voorhees, NJ.” If you can
also include a picture of the customer and/or a professional
title, that’s even better. It doesn’t matter that your testimonials
aren’t from somebody famous or that your prospect does not
know these people personally. If you have enough compelling
testimonials, and they’re believable, you’re much better off
than not including them at all.
• Pepper your copy with facts and research findings to support
your claims. Be sure to credit all sources, even if the fact is
common knowledge, because a neutral source goes a long way
towards credibility.
• For a direct mail letter or certain space ads where the copy is in
the form of a letter from a specific individual, including a
picture of that person helps. But unlike “traditional” real estate
letters and other similar ads, I’d put the picture at the end near
your signature, or midway through the copy, rather than at the
top where it will detract from your headline. And…if your sales
letter is from a specific individual, be sure to include his
credentials to establish him as an expert in his field (relating to
your product or service, of course).
• If applicable, cite any awards or third-party reviews the product
or service has received.
• If you’ve sold a lot of widgets, tell them. It’s the old “10 million
people can’t be wrong” adage (they can be, but your prospect
will likely take your side on the matter).
• Include a GREAT return policy and stand by it! This is just good
business policy. Many times, offering a double refund
guarantee for certain products will result in higher profits. Yes,
you’ll dish out more refunds, but if you sell three times as many
widgets as before, and only have to refund twice as much as
before, it may be worth it, depending on your offer and return
on investment. Crunch the numbers and see what makes
sense. More importantly, test! Make them think, “Gee, they
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wouldn’t be so generous with returns if they didn’t stand
behind their product!”
• If you can swing it, adding a celebrity endorsement will always
help to establish credibility. Heck, if ‘ol honest Abe Lincoln
recommended your product and backs up your claims, it must
be true! Ok, you get the idea, though.
• When it makes sense, use 3rd party testimonials. What are 3rd
party testimonials? Here’s some examples from some Web site
copy I wrote when there weren’t many customer testimonials
available yet:
“Spyware, without question, is on an exponential
rise over the last six months.”
- Alfred Huger, Senior Director of Engineering,
Symantec Security Response (maker of Norton
security software)
“Simply clicking on a banner ad can install
spyware.”
- Dave Methvin, Chief Technology Officer, PC Pitstop
A deployment method is to “trick users into
consenting to a software download they think they
absolutely need”
- Paul Bryan, Director, Security And Technology Unit,
Microsoft
Do you see what I did?
I took quotes from experts in their respective fields and turned
them to my side. But…be sure to get their consent or
permission from the copyright holder if there’s ever any
question about copyrighted materials as your source.
Note that I also pushed an emotional hot button: fear.
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It’s been proven that people will generally do more to avoid
pain than to obtain pleasure. So why not use that tidbit of info
to your advantage?
• Reveal a flaw about your product. This helps alleviate the “too
good to be true” syndrome. You reveal a flaw that isn’t really a
flaw. Or reveal a flaw that is minor, just to show that you’re
being “up front” about your product’s shortcomings.
Example:
“You’re probably thinking right now that this tennis racket is a
miracle worker—and it is. But I must tell you that it has one
little…shortcoming.
My racket takes about 2 weeks to get used to. In fact, when you first
start using it, your game will actually get worse. But if you can just
ride it out, you’ll see a tremendous improvement in your volleys, net
play, serves, …” And so on.
There’s a tendency to think, with all of the ads that we are
bombarded with today that every advertiser is always putting
his best foot forward, so to speak. And I think that line of
reasoning is accurate, to a point.
But isn’t it refreshing when someone stands out from the crowd
and is honest? In other words, your reader will start to
subconsciously believe that you are revealing all of the flaws,
even though your best foot still stands forward.
• Use “lift notes.” These are a brief note or letter from a person
of authority. Not necessary a celebrity, although that can add
credibility, too. A person of authority is someone well
recognized in their field (which is related to your product) that
they are qualified to talk about. Lift notes may be distributed as
inserts, a separate page altogether, or even as part of the copy
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itself. As always, test!
• If you are limiting the offer with a deadline “order by” date, be
sure the deadline is real and does not change. Deadline dates
that change every day are sure to reduce credibility. The
prospect will suspect, “if his deadline date keeps changing, he’s
not telling the truth about it…I wonder what else he’s not
telling the truth about.”
• Avoid baseless “hype.” I discussed that in my previous tip.
Enough said.
The Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Also known as the unique selling position, the USP is often one of the
most oft-misunderstood elements of a good sales letter. It’s what
separates your product or service from your competitors. Let’s take a
quick look at some unique selling propositions for a product itself:
1) Lowest Price – If you’ve got the corner marketed on budget
prices, flaunt it. Wal-Mart has made this USP famous lately, but
it’s not new to them. In fact, selling for cheaper has been
around as long as capitalism itself. Personally, I’m not crazy
about price wars, because someone can always come along
and sell for cheaper. Then it’s time for a new strategy…
2) Superior Quality – If it outperforms your competitor’s product
or is made with higher quality materials, it’s a good bet that
you could use this fact to your advantage. For example,
compare Breyers Ice Cream to their competitor’s. From the
packaging to the wholesome superior ingredients, the quality is
evident. It may cost a little more than their competitor’s ice
cream, but for their market, it sells.
3) Superior Service – If you offer superior service over your
competitor’s, people will buy from you instead. This is
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especially true with certain markets that are all about service:
long-distance, Internet service providers, cable television, etc.
4) Exclusive Rights – My favorite! If you can legitimately claim
that your product is protected by a patent or copyright,
licensing agreement, etc., then you have a winner for exclusive
rights. If you have a patent, even the President of the U.S.
must buy it from you.
Ok, what if your product or service is no different than your
competitor’s? I would disagree, because there are always differences.
The trick is to turn them into a positive advantage for you. You want
to put your “best foot forward.” So what can we do in this scenario?
One way is to present something that your company has devised
internally that no other company does. Look, there’s a reason why
computer store “A” offers to beat their competitor’s price for the
same product by X%. If you look closely, the two packages are never
exactly the same. Company “B” offers a free scanner, while company
“A” offers a free printer. Or some other difference. They are
comparing apples to oranges. So unless you find a company with the
exact same package (you won’t…they’ve seen to that), you won’t be
able to cash in.
But what if you truly have the same widget for sale as the guy up the
road?
Unless your prospect knows the inner workings of both your and your
competitor’s product, including the manufacturing process, customer
service, and everything in-between, then you have a little potential
creative licensing here. But you must be truthful.
For example, if I tell my readers that my product is bathed in steam
to ensure purity and cleanliness (like the cans and bottles in most
beer manufacturing processes), it doesn’t matter that Joe’s Beer up
the road does the same thing. That fact that Joe doesn’t advertise
this fact makes it a USP in your prospect’s eyes.
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Want some more USP examples?
• We are the only car repair shop that will buy your car if you are
not 100 percent satisfied with our work.
• Delivered in 30 minutes or it’s on us!
• No other furniture company will pay for your shipping.
• Our recipe is so secret, only three people in the world know it!
As with most ways to boost copy response, research is the key with
your USP. Sometimes your USP is obvious, for example if you have a
patent. Other times you must do a little legwork to discover it (or
shape it to your target market).
Here’s where a little persistence and in-person selling really pays off.
Let me give you an example to illustrate what I mean:
Suppose your company sells beanbag chairs for kids. So you, being
the wise marketer that you are, decide to sell these beanbags in
person to prospects before writing your copy. After completing
twenty different pitches for your product, you discover that 75
percent of those you visited asked if the chair would eventually leak.
Since the chairs are for kids, it’s only logical that parents would be
concerned about their youngster jumping on it, rolling on it, and
doing all things possible to break the seam and “spill the beans.”
So when you write your copy, you make sure you address that issue:
“You can rest assure that our super-strong beanbag chairs are triplestitched
for guaranteed leak-proof performance. No other company
will make this guarantee about their beanbag chairs!”
For a really in depth look at how to perfect a better USP checkout
http://www.informativebooks.com
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The Headline
If you’re going to make a single change to boost your response rate
the most, focus on your headline (you do have one, don’t you?).
Why? Because five times as many people read your headline than
your copy. Quite simply, a headline is…an ad for your ad. People
won’t stop their busy lives to read your copy unless you give them a
good reason to do so. So a good headline promises some news and a
benefit.
Perhaps you’re thinking, “What’s this about news, you say?”
Think about the last time you browsed through your local newspaper.
You checked out the articles, one by one, and occasionally an ad may
have caught your eye. Which ads were the ones most likely to catch
your eye?
The ones that looked like an article, of course.
The ones with the headline that promised news.
The ones with fonts and type that closely resembled the fonts and
type used in articles.
The ones that were placed where articles were placed (as opposed to
being placed on a full page of ads, for example).
And the ones with the most compelling headlines that convinced you
it’s worth a few minutes to read the copy.
The headline is that powerful and that important.
I’ve seen many ads over the years that didn’t even have a headline.
And that’s just silly. It’s the equivalent of flushing good money spent
on advertising right down the toilet.
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Why? Because your response can increase dramatically by not only
adding a headline, but by making that headline almost impossible to
resist for your target market.
And those last three words are important. Your target market.
For example, take a look at the following headline:
Announcing…New High-Tech Gloves Protect
Wearer Against Hazardous Waste
News, and a benefit.
Will that headline appeal to everyone?
No, and you don’t care about everyone.
But for someone who handles hazardous waste, they would sure
appreciate knowing about this little gem.
That’s your target market, and it’s your job to get them to read your
ad. Your headline is the way you do that.
Ok, now where do you find great headlines?
You look at other successful ads (especially direct response) that
have stood the test of time. You look for ads that run regularly in
magazines and other publications. How do you know they’re good?
Because if they didn’t do their job, the advertiser wouldn’t keep
running them again and again.
You get on the mailing lists of the big direct response companies like
Agora and Boardroom and save their direct mail packages.
You read the National Enquirer.
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Huh? You heard that correctly.
The National Enquirer has some of the best headlines in the
business.
Pick up a recent issue and you’ll see what I mean. Ok, now how
could you adapt some of those headlines to your own product or
service?
Your headline should create a sense of urgency. It should be as
specific as possible (i.e. say $1,007,274.23 instead of “a million
dollars”).
The headline appearance is also very important. Make sure the type
used is bold and large, and different from the type used in the copy.
Generally, longer headlines tend to out pull shorter ones, even when
targeting more “conservative” prospects.
Some other sites online where you can get great headlines (from
master copywriter John Carlton, no less) are:
• http://www.otsdirect.com/products.html
• http://www.trsdirect.com/product.php
• http://www.ohpdirect.com/product.php
On each page, click on the individual products in order to view the
ads and headlines.
It should go without saying that when you use other successful
headlines, you adapt them to your own product or service. Never
copy a headline (or any other written copyrighted piece of work for
that matter) word for word. Copywriters and ad agencies are
notoriously famous for suing for plagiarism. And rightfully so.
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The More You Tell, The More You Sell
The debate on using long copy versus short copy never seems to
end. Usually it is a newcomer to copywriting who seems to think that
long copy is boring and, well…long. “I would never read that much
copy,” they say.
The fact of the matter is that all things being equal, long copy will
outperform short copy every time. And when I say long copy, I don’t
mean long and boring, or long and untargeted.
The person who says he would never read all that copy is making a
big mistaking in copywriting: he is going with his gut reaction instead
of relying on test results. He is thinking that he himself is the
prospect. He’s not. We’re never our own prospects.
There have been many studies and split tests conducted on the long
copy versus short copy debate. And the clear winner is always long
copy. But that’s targeted relevant long copy as opposed to
untargeted boring long copy.
Some significant research has found that readership tends to fall off
dramatically at around 300 words, but does not drop off again until
around 3,000 words.
If I’m selling an expensive set of golf clubs and send my long copy to
a person who’s plays golf occasionally, or always wanted to try golf, I
am sending my sales pitch to the wrong prospect. It is not targeted
effectively. And so if a person who receives my long copy doesn’t
read past the 300th word, they weren’t qualified for my offer in the
first place.
It wouldn’t have mattered whether they read up to the 100th word or
10,000th word. They still wouldn’t have made a purchase.
However, if I sent my long copy to an avid die-hard golfer, who just
recently purchased other expensive golf products through the mail,
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painting an irresistible offer, telling him how my clubs will knock 10
strokes off his game, he’ll likely read every word. And if I’ve targeted
my message correctly, he will buy.
Remember, if your prospect is 3000 miles away, it’s not easy for him
to ask you a question. You must anticipate and answer all of his
questions and overcome all objections in your copy if you are to be
successful.
And make sure you don’t throw everything you can think of under
the sun in there. You only need to include as much information as
you need to make the sale…and not one word more.
If it takes a 10-page sales letter, so be it. If it takes a 16-page
magalog, fine. But if the 10-page sales letter tests better than the
16-page magalog, then by all means go with the winner.
Does that mean every prospect must read every word of your copy
before he will order your product? Of course not.
Some will read every word and then go back and reread it again.
Some will read the headline and lead, then skim much of the body
and land on the close. Some will scan the entire body, then go back
and read it. All of those prospects may end up purchasing the offer,
but they also all may have different styles of reading and skimming.
Which brings us to the next tip…
Write To Be Scanned
Your layout is very important in a sales letter, because you want your
letter to look inviting, refreshing to the eyes. In short, you want your
prospect to stop what he’s doing and read your letter.
If he sees a letter with tiny margins, no indentations, no breaks in
the text, no white space, and no subheads…if he sees a page of
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nothing but densely-packed words, do you think he’ll be tempted to
read it?
Not likely.
If you do have ample white space and generous margins, short
sentences, short paragraphs, subheads, and an italicized or
underlined word here and there for emphasis, it will certainly look
more inviting to read.
When reading your letter, some prospects will start at the beginning
and read word for word. Some will read the headline and maybe the
lead, then read the “P.S.” at the end of the letter and see who the
letter is from, then start from the beginning.
And some folks will scan through your letter, noticing the various
subheads strategically positioned by you throughout your letter, then
decide if it’s worth their time to read the entire thing. Some may
never read the entire letter, but order anyways.
You must write for all of them. Interesting and compelling long copy
for the studious reader, and short paragraphs and sentences, white
space, and subheads for the skimmer.
Subheads are the smaller headlines sprinkled throughout your copy.
Like this.
When coming up with your headline, some of the headlines that
didn’t make the cut can make great subheads. A good subhead
forces your prospect to keep reading, threading him along from start
to finish throughout your copy, while also providing the glue
necessary to keep skimmers skimming.
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The Structure of AIDAS
There’s a well-known structure in successful sales letters, described
by the acronym AIDA.
AIDA stands for:
• Attention
• Interest
• Desire
• Action
First, you capture your prospect’s attention. This is done with your
headline and lead. If your ad fails to capture your prospect’s
attention, it fails completely. Your prospect doesn’t read your stellar
copy, and doesn’t order your product or service.
Then you want to build a strong interest in your prospect. You want
him to keep reading, because if he reads, he just might buy.
Next, you channel a desire. Having a targeted market for this is key,
because you’re not trying to create a desire where one did not
already exist. You want to capitalize on an existing desire, which your
prospect may or may not know he already has. And you want your
prospect to experience that desire for your product or service.
Finally, you present a call to action. You want him to pick up the
telephone, return the reply card, attend the sales presentation, order
your product, whatever. You need to ask for the sale (or response, if
that’s the goal). You don’t want to beat around the bush at this point.
If your letter and AIDA structure is sound and persuasive, here’s
where you present the terms of your offer and urge the prospect to
act now.
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A lot has been written about the AIDA copywriting formula. I’d like to
add one more letter to the acronym: S for Satisfy.
In the end, after the sale is made, you want to satisfy your prospect,
who is now a customer. You want to deliver exactly what you
promised (or even more), by the date you promised, in the manner
you promised. In short, you want to give him every reason in the
world to trust you the next time you sell him a back-end offer. And of
course you’d rather he doesn’t return the product (although if he
does, you also execute your return policy as promised).
Either way, you want your customers to be satisfied. It will make you
a lot more money in the long run.
Use Takeaway Selling to Increase the Urgency
When you limit the supply of a product or service in some way (i.e.
takeaway selling), basic economics dictates that the demand will rise.
In other words, people will generally respond better to an offer if
they believe the offer is about to become unavailable or restricted in
some way.
And of course, the opposite is also true. If a prospect knows your
product will be around whenever he needs it, there’s no need for him
to act now. And when your ad is put aside by the prospect, the
chance of closing the sale diminishes greatly.
It’s your job, therefore, to get your prospect to buy, and buy now.
Using scarcity to sell is a great way to accomplish that.
There are basically three types of takeaways:
1) Limiting the quantity
2) Limiting the time
3) Limiting the offer
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In the first method, limiting the quantity, you are presenting a fixed
number of widgets available for sale. After they’re gone, that’s it.
Some good ways to limit the quantity include:
• only so many units made or obtained
• selling off old stock to make room for new
• limited number of cosmetically-defected items, or a fire sale
• only a limited number being sold so as not to saturate the
market
• etc.
In the second method, limiting the time, a deadline is added to the
offer. It should be a realistic deadline, not one that changes all the
time (especially on a website, where the deadline date always seems
to be that very day at midnight…when you return the next day, the
deadline date has mysteriously changed again to the new day).
Deadlines that change decrease your credibility.
This approach works well when the offer or the price will change, or
the product/service will become unavailable, after the deadline.
The third method, limiting the offer, is accomplished by limiting other
parts of the offer, such as the guarantee, bonuses or premiums, the
price, and so on.
When using takeaway selling, you must be sure to follow-through
with your restrictions. If you say you only have 500 widgets to sell,
then don’t sell 501. If you say your offer will expire at the end of the
month, make sure it does. Otherwise your credibility will take a hit.
Prospects will remember the next time another offer from you makes
its way into their hands.
Another important thing you should do is explain the reason why the
offer is being restricted. Don’t just say the price will be going up in
three weeks, but decline to tell them why.
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Here are some examples of good takeaway selling:
“Unfortunately, I can only handle so many clients. Once my plate is
full, I will be unable to accept any new business. So if you’re serious
about strengthening your investment strategies and creating more
wealth than ever before, you should contact me ASAP.”
“Remember…you must act by [date] at midnight in order to get my 2
bonuses. These bonuses have been provided by [third-party
company], and we have no control over their availability after that
time.”
“We’ve obtained only 750 of these premiums from our vendor. Once
they are gone, we won’t be able to get any more until next year. And
even then we can’t guarantee the price will remain the same. In fact,
because of the increasing demand, it’s very likely the price could
double or triple by then!”
Remember when I said earlier that people buy based on emotions,
then back up their decision to buy with logic? Well, by using
takeaway selling, that restriction becomes part of that logic to buy
and buy now.
Conclusion
Great copy is made, not born. It is derived from proven test results
designed to do one thing and do it well: sell.
Effective advertising doesn't always use "grammatically correct"
English. It uses short sentences, fragments. Like this.
It convinces you to buy, and buy now. Period.
It talks about benefits, not features. It sells on emotion and
reinforces the decision to buy with logic.
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It paints a compelling picture and irresistible offer that forces your
prospect to act and act now! And if it doesn't, then you drop that ad
like a hot potato and go with one that does.
Effective persuasion is like your top salesperson--the one who
continues to break all your sales records year after year--on the job
24 x 7, multiplied by thousands or millions! Just imagine if that
salesperson, the one with proven results, could be multiplied as much
as you wanted.
Now that would be effective (and cost-efficient) marketing!
And that's the kind of proven marketing you need to employ.
Is it something to be regarded as a work of beauty or art? Is it clever
slogans or amusing prose? Is it workmanship to be judged for an
award or recognition?
It’s none of the above.
Advertising is salesmanship multiplied.
Nothing more.
And advertising copy, or copywriting, is salesmanship in print.
The purpose of a copywriter’s job is to sell. Period.
The selling is accomplished by persuasion with the written word,
much like a television commercial sells (if done properly) by
persuading with visuals and audio.
As Claude Hopkins wrote in his timeless classic, Scientific Advertising:
“To properly understand advertising or to learn even its rudiments one must
start with the right conception. Advertising is salesmanship. Its principles
are the principles of salesmanship. Successes and failures in both lines are
due to like causes. Thus every advertising question should be answered by
the salesman's standards.
“Let us emphasize that point. The only purpose of advertising is to make
sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.
“It is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the people. It
is not primarily to aid your other salesmen. Treat it as a salesman. Force it
to justify itself. Compare it with other salesmen. Figure its cost and result.
Accept no excuses which good salesmen do not make. Then you will not go
far wrong.
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“The difference is only in degree. Advertising is multiplied salesmanship. It
may appeal to thousands while the salesman talks to one. It involves a
corresponding cost. Some people spend $10 per word on an average
advertisement. Therefore every ad should be a super-salesman.
“A salesman's mistake may cost little. An advertiser’s mistake may cost a
thousand times that much. Be more cautious, more exacting, therefore. A
mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your trade. Mediocre
advertising affects all of your trade.”
These points are as true today as they were when they were written
nearly one hundred years ago!
So the goal then becomes: how can we make our advertising as
effective as possible.
The answer is to test. Test again. And then test some more.
If ad “A” receives a two percent response rate, and ad “B” receives
three percent, then we can deduce that ad “B” will continue to
outperform ad “A” on a larger scale.
Testing takes time, however, and can be expensive if not kept in
check. Therefore, it’s ideal to start with some proven tested known
ideas and work from there.
For example, if testing has shown for decades or more that targeted
advertising significantly outperforms untargeted advertising (and it
does), then we can start with that assumption and go from there.
If we know based on test results that crafting an ad that speaks
directly to an individual performs better than addressing the masses
(again, it does), then it makes little sense to start testing with the
assumption that it does not. This is common sense.
So it stands to reason that knowing some basic rules or techniques
about writing effective copy is in order. Test results will always trump
everything, but it’s better to have a starting point before you test.
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So this starting point is the essence of this book.
The ten tips expressed here have been generally time-tested and
known to be effective.
But I can’t emphasize enough that when using these
techniques, you should always test them before rolling out a
large (and expensive) campaign.
Sometimes a little tweak here or there is all that is needed to
increase response rates dramatically.
And with that, let’s move onward…
Focus on Them, Not You
When a prospect reads your ad, letter, brochure, etc., the one thing
he will be wondering from the start is: “what’s in it for me?”
And if your copy doesn’t tell him, it’ll land in the trash faster than he
can read the headline or lead.
A lot of advertisers make this mistake. They focus on them as a
company. How long they’ve been in business, who their biggest
customers are, how they’ve spent ten years of research and millions
of dollars on developing this product, blah, blah.
Actually, those points are important. But they should be expressed in
a way that matters to your potential customer. Remember, once he’s
thrown it in the garbage, the sale is lost!
When writing your copy, it helps to think of it as writing a letter to an
old friend. In fact, I often picture a friend of mine who most closely
fits my prospect’s profile. What would I say to convince this friend to
try my product? How would I target my friend’s objections and
beliefs to help my cause?
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When you’re writing to a friend, you’ll use the pronouns “I” and
“you.” When trying to convince your friend, you might say: “Look, I
know you think you’ve tried every widget out there. But you should
know that…”
And it goes beyond just writing in the second person. That is,
addressing your prospect as “you” within the copy. The fact of the
matter is there are many successful ads that weren’t written in the
second person. Some are written in the first person perspective,
where the writer uses “I.” Other times the third person is used, with
“she,” “he,” and “them.”
And even if you do write in the second person, it doesn’t necessarily
mean your copy is about them.
For example:
“As a real estate agent, you can take comfort in the fact that
I’ve sold over 10,000 homes and mastered the tricks of the
trade”
Although you’re writing in the second person, you’re really still
focusing on yourself.
So how can you focus on them? Glad you asked. One way is to…
Emphasize Benefits, Not Features
What are features? They are descriptions of what qualities a product
possesses.
• The XYZ car delivers 55 miles per gallon in the city.
• Our ladder’s frame is made from a lightweight durable steel
alloy.
• Our glue is protected by a patent.
• This database has a built-in data-mining system.
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And what are benefits? They are what those features mean to your
prospects.
• You’ll save money on gas and cut down on environmental
pollutants when you use our energy saving high-performance
hybrid car. Plus, you’ll feel the extra oomph when you’re
passing cars, courtesy of the efficient electric motor, which they
don’t have!
• Lightweight durable steel-alloy frame means you’ll be able to
take it with you with ease, and use it in places most other
ladders can’t go, while still supporting up to 800 pounds. No
more backaches lugging around that heavy ladder. And it’ll last
for 150 years, so you’ll never need to buy another ladder again!
• Patent-protected glue ensures you can use it on wood, plastic,
metal, ceramic, glass, and tile…without messy cleanup and
without ever having to re-glue it again—guaranteed!
• You can instantly see the “big picture” hidden in your data, and
pull the most arcane statistics on demand. Watch your business
do a “180” in no time flat, when you instantly know why it’s
failing in the first place! It’s all done with our built-in datamining
system that’s so easy to use, my twelve year-old son
used it successfully right out of the box.
I just made up those examples, but I think you understand my point.
By the way, did you notice in the list of features where I wrote “steel
alloy?” But in the benefits I wrote “steel-alloy” (with a hyphen). Not
sure off-hand which one is correct, but I know which one I’d use.
Here’s why: you are not writing to impress your English teacher or
win any awards. The only award you’re after is your copy beating the
control (control being the best-selling copy so far), so take some
liberty in grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. You want it
to be read and acted upon, not read and admired!
But—back to benefits…
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If you were selling an expensive watch, you wouldn’t tell your reader
that the face is 2 inches in diameter and the band is made of leather.
You show him how the extra-large face will tell him the time at a
glance. No sir! He won’t have to squint and look foolish to everyone
around him trying to read this magnificent timepiece. And how about
the way he’ll project success and charisma when he wears the
beautiful gold watch with its handcrafted custom leather band? How
his lover will find him irresistible when he’s all dressed up to go out,
wearing the watch. Or how the watch’s status and beauty will attract
the ladies.
Incidentally, did you notice how I brought up not squinting as a
benefit? Does that sound like a silly benefit? Not if you are selling to
affluent baby boomers suffering from degrading vision. They
probably hate it when someone they’re trying to impress sees them
squint in order to read something. It’s all part of their inner desire,
which you need to discover. And which even they may not know
about. That is, until you show them a better way.
The point is to address the benefits of the product, not its features.
And when you do that, you’re focusing on your reader and his
interests, his desires. The trick is to highlight those specific benefits
(and word them correctly) that push your reader’s emotional hot
buttons.
How do you do that? Read on!
Push Their Emotional Hot Buttons
This is where research really pays off. Because in order to push those
buttons, you need to first know what they are.
Listen to this story first, and I’ll tell you what I mean: Once upon a
time a young man walked into a Chevrolet dealer’s showroom to
check out a Chevy Camaro. He had the money, and he was ready to
make a buying decision. But he couldn’t decide if he wanted to buy
the Camaro or the Ford Mustang up the road at the Ford dealer.
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A salesman approached him and soon discovered the man’s dilemma.
“Tell me what you like best about the Camaro,” said the salesman.
“It’s a fast car. I like it for its speed.”
After some more discussion, the salesman learned the man had just
started dating a cute college cheerleader. So what did the salesman
do?
Simple. He changed his pitch accordingly, to push the hot buttons he
knew would help advance the sale. He told the man about how
impressed his new girlfriend would be when he came home with this
car! He placed the mental image in the man’s mind of he and his
girlfriend cruising to the beach in the Camaro. How all of his friends
will be envious when they see him riding around with a beautiful girl
in a beautiful car.
And suddenly the man saw it. He got it. And the salesman recognized
this and piled it on even more. Before you know it, the man wrote a
nice fat check to the Chevy dealership, because he was sold!
The salesman found those hot buttons and pushed them like never
before until the man realized he wanted the Camaro more than he
wanted his money.
I know what you’re thinking…the man said he liked the car because it
was fast, didn’t he?
Yes, he did. But subconsciously, what he really desired was a car that
would impress his girlfriend, his friends, and in his mind make them
love him more! In his mind he equated speed with thrill. Not because
he wanted an endless supply of speeding tickets, but because he
thought that thrill would make him more attractive, more likeable.
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Perhaps the man didn’t even realize this fact himself. But the
salesman sure did. And he knew which emotional hot buttons to
press to get the sale.
Now, where does the research pay off?
Well, a good salesman knows how to ask the kinds of questions that
will tell him which buttons to press on the fly. When you’re writing
copy, you don’t have that luxury. It’s therefore very important to
know upfront the wants, needs, and desires of your prospects for
that very reason. If you haven’t done your homework, your prospect
is going to decide that he’d rather keep his money than buy your
product. Remember, copywriting is salesmanship in print!
It’s been said many times: People don’t like to be sold.
But they do like to buy.
And they buy based on emotion first and foremost. Then they justify
their decision with logic, even after they are already sold emotionally.
So be sure to back up your emotional pitch with logic to nurture that
justification at the end.
And while we’re on the subject, let’s talk a moment about perceived
“hype” in a sales letter. A lot of more “conservative” advertisers have
decided that they don’t like hype, because they consider hype to be
old news, been-there-and-done-that, my customers won’t fall for
hype, it’s not believable anymore.
What they should realize is that hype itself does not sell well. Some
less experienced copywriters often try to compensate for their lack of
research or not fully understanding their target market or the product
itself by adding tons of adjectives and adverbs and exclamation
points and big bold type.
Whew! If you do your job right, it’s just not needed.
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That’s not to say some adverbs or adjectives don’t have their
place…only if they’re used sparingly, and only if they advance the
sale.
But I think you’d agree that backing up your copy with proof and
believability will go a lot farther in convincing your prospects than
“power words” alone. I say power words, because there are certain
adverbs and adjectives that have been proven to make a difference
when they’re included. This by itself is not hype. But repeated too
often, they become less effective, and they take away (at least in
your prospect’s mind) from the proof.
Which brings us into our next tip…
Incorporating Proof and Believability
When your prospect reads your ad, you want to make sure he
believes any claims you make about your product or service. Because
if there’s any doubt in his mind, he won’t bite, no matter how sweet
the deal. In fact, the “too good to be true” mentality will virtually
guarantee a lost sale…even if it is all true.
So what can you do to increase the perception of believability?
Because after all, it’s the perception you need to address up front.
But of course you also must make sure your copy is accurate and
truthful.
Here are some tried and tested methods that will help:
• If you’re dealing with existing customers who already know you
deliver as promised, emphasize that trust. Don’t leave it up to
them to figure it out. Make them stop, cock their heads, and
say, “Oh, yeah. The ABC Company has never done me wrong
before. I can trust them.”
• Include testimonials of satisfied customers. Be sure to put full
names and locations, where possible. Remember, “A.S.” is a lot
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less believable than “Andy Sherman, Voorhees, NJ.” If you can
also include a picture of the customer and/or a professional
title, that’s even better. It doesn’t matter that your testimonials
aren’t from somebody famous or that your prospect does not
know these people personally. If you have enough compelling
testimonials, and they’re believable, you’re much better off
than not including them at all.
• Pepper your copy with facts and research findings to support
your claims. Be sure to credit all sources, even if the fact is
common knowledge, because a neutral source goes a long way
towards credibility.
• For a direct mail letter or certain space ads where the copy is in
the form of a letter from a specific individual, including a
picture of that person helps. But unlike “traditional” real estate
letters and other similar ads, I’d put the picture at the end near
your signature, or midway through the copy, rather than at the
top where it will detract from your headline. And…if your sales
letter is from a specific individual, be sure to include his
credentials to establish him as an expert in his field (relating to
your product or service, of course).
• If applicable, cite any awards or third-party reviews the product
or service has received.
• If you’ve sold a lot of widgets, tell them. It’s the old “10 million
people can’t be wrong” adage (they can be, but your prospect
will likely take your side on the matter).
• Include a GREAT return policy and stand by it! This is just good
business policy. Many times, offering a double refund
guarantee for certain products will result in higher profits. Yes,
you’ll dish out more refunds, but if you sell three times as many
widgets as before, and only have to refund twice as much as
before, it may be worth it, depending on your offer and return
on investment. Crunch the numbers and see what makes
sense. More importantly, test! Make them think, “Gee, they
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wouldn’t be so generous with returns if they didn’t stand
behind their product!”
• If you can swing it, adding a celebrity endorsement will always
help to establish credibility. Heck, if ‘ol honest Abe Lincoln
recommended your product and backs up your claims, it must
be true! Ok, you get the idea, though.
• When it makes sense, use 3rd party testimonials. What are 3rd
party testimonials? Here’s some examples from some Web site
copy I wrote when there weren’t many customer testimonials
available yet:
“Spyware, without question, is on an exponential
rise over the last six months.”
- Alfred Huger, Senior Director of Engineering,
Symantec Security Response (maker of Norton
security software)
“Simply clicking on a banner ad can install
spyware.”
- Dave Methvin, Chief Technology Officer, PC Pitstop
A deployment method is to “trick users into
consenting to a software download they think they
absolutely need”
- Paul Bryan, Director, Security And Technology Unit,
Microsoft
Do you see what I did?
I took quotes from experts in their respective fields and turned
them to my side. But…be sure to get their consent or
permission from the copyright holder if there’s ever any
question about copyrighted materials as your source.
Note that I also pushed an emotional hot button: fear.
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It’s been proven that people will generally do more to avoid
pain than to obtain pleasure. So why not use that tidbit of info
to your advantage?
• Reveal a flaw about your product. This helps alleviate the “too
good to be true” syndrome. You reveal a flaw that isn’t really a
flaw. Or reveal a flaw that is minor, just to show that you’re
being “up front” about your product’s shortcomings.
Example:
“You’re probably thinking right now that this tennis racket is a
miracle worker—and it is. But I must tell you that it has one
little…shortcoming.
My racket takes about 2 weeks to get used to. In fact, when you first
start using it, your game will actually get worse. But if you can just
ride it out, you’ll see a tremendous improvement in your volleys, net
play, serves, …” And so on.
There’s a tendency to think, with all of the ads that we are
bombarded with today that every advertiser is always putting
his best foot forward, so to speak. And I think that line of
reasoning is accurate, to a point.
But isn’t it refreshing when someone stands out from the crowd
and is honest? In other words, your reader will start to
subconsciously believe that you are revealing all of the flaws,
even though your best foot still stands forward.
• Use “lift notes.” These are a brief note or letter from a person
of authority. Not necessary a celebrity, although that can add
credibility, too. A person of authority is someone well
recognized in their field (which is related to your product) that
they are qualified to talk about. Lift notes may be distributed as
inserts, a separate page altogether, or even as part of the copy
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itself. As always, test!
• If you are limiting the offer with a deadline “order by” date, be
sure the deadline is real and does not change. Deadline dates
that change every day are sure to reduce credibility. The
prospect will suspect, “if his deadline date keeps changing, he’s
not telling the truth about it…I wonder what else he’s not
telling the truth about.”
• Avoid baseless “hype.” I discussed that in my previous tip.
Enough said.
The Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Also known as the unique selling position, the USP is often one of the
most oft-misunderstood elements of a good sales letter. It’s what
separates your product or service from your competitors. Let’s take a
quick look at some unique selling propositions for a product itself:
1) Lowest Price – If you’ve got the corner marketed on budget
prices, flaunt it. Wal-Mart has made this USP famous lately, but
it’s not new to them. In fact, selling for cheaper has been
around as long as capitalism itself. Personally, I’m not crazy
about price wars, because someone can always come along
and sell for cheaper. Then it’s time for a new strategy…
2) Superior Quality – If it outperforms your competitor’s product
or is made with higher quality materials, it’s a good bet that
you could use this fact to your advantage. For example,
compare Breyers Ice Cream to their competitor’s. From the
packaging to the wholesome superior ingredients, the quality is
evident. It may cost a little more than their competitor’s ice
cream, but for their market, it sells.
3) Superior Service – If you offer superior service over your
competitor’s, people will buy from you instead. This is
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especially true with certain markets that are all about service:
long-distance, Internet service providers, cable television, etc.
4) Exclusive Rights – My favorite! If you can legitimately claim
that your product is protected by a patent or copyright,
licensing agreement, etc., then you have a winner for exclusive
rights. If you have a patent, even the President of the U.S.
must buy it from you.
Ok, what if your product or service is no different than your
competitor’s? I would disagree, because there are always differences.
The trick is to turn them into a positive advantage for you. You want
to put your “best foot forward.” So what can we do in this scenario?
One way is to present something that your company has devised
internally that no other company does. Look, there’s a reason why
computer store “A” offers to beat their competitor’s price for the
same product by X%. If you look closely, the two packages are never
exactly the same. Company “B” offers a free scanner, while company
“A” offers a free printer. Or some other difference. They are
comparing apples to oranges. So unless you find a company with the
exact same package (you won’t…they’ve seen to that), you won’t be
able to cash in.
But what if you truly have the same widget for sale as the guy up the
road?
Unless your prospect knows the inner workings of both your and your
competitor’s product, including the manufacturing process, customer
service, and everything in-between, then you have a little potential
creative licensing here. But you must be truthful.
For example, if I tell my readers that my product is bathed in steam
to ensure purity and cleanliness (like the cans and bottles in most
beer manufacturing processes), it doesn’t matter that Joe’s Beer up
the road does the same thing. That fact that Joe doesn’t advertise
this fact makes it a USP in your prospect’s eyes.
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Want some more USP examples?
• We are the only car repair shop that will buy your car if you are
not 100 percent satisfied with our work.
• Delivered in 30 minutes or it’s on us!
• No other furniture company will pay for your shipping.
• Our recipe is so secret, only three people in the world know it!
As with most ways to boost copy response, research is the key with
your USP. Sometimes your USP is obvious, for example if you have a
patent. Other times you must do a little legwork to discover it (or
shape it to your target market).
Here’s where a little persistence and in-person selling really pays off.
Let me give you an example to illustrate what I mean:
Suppose your company sells beanbag chairs for kids. So you, being
the wise marketer that you are, decide to sell these beanbags in
person to prospects before writing your copy. After completing
twenty different pitches for your product, you discover that 75
percent of those you visited asked if the chair would eventually leak.
Since the chairs are for kids, it’s only logical that parents would be
concerned about their youngster jumping on it, rolling on it, and
doing all things possible to break the seam and “spill the beans.”
So when you write your copy, you make sure you address that issue:
“You can rest assure that our super-strong beanbag chairs are triplestitched
for guaranteed leak-proof performance. No other company
will make this guarantee about their beanbag chairs!”
For a really in depth look at how to perfect a better USP checkout
http://www.informativebooks.com
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The Headline
If you’re going to make a single change to boost your response rate
the most, focus on your headline (you do have one, don’t you?).
Why? Because five times as many people read your headline than
your copy. Quite simply, a headline is…an ad for your ad. People
won’t stop their busy lives to read your copy unless you give them a
good reason to do so. So a good headline promises some news and a
benefit.
Perhaps you’re thinking, “What’s this about news, you say?”
Think about the last time you browsed through your local newspaper.
You checked out the articles, one by one, and occasionally an ad may
have caught your eye. Which ads were the ones most likely to catch
your eye?
The ones that looked like an article, of course.
The ones with the headline that promised news.
The ones with fonts and type that closely resembled the fonts and
type used in articles.
The ones that were placed where articles were placed (as opposed to
being placed on a full page of ads, for example).
And the ones with the most compelling headlines that convinced you
it’s worth a few minutes to read the copy.
The headline is that powerful and that important.
I’ve seen many ads over the years that didn’t even have a headline.
And that’s just silly. It’s the equivalent of flushing good money spent
on advertising right down the toilet.
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Why? Because your response can increase dramatically by not only
adding a headline, but by making that headline almost impossible to
resist for your target market.
And those last three words are important. Your target market.
For example, take a look at the following headline:
Announcing…New High-Tech Gloves Protect
Wearer Against Hazardous Waste
News, and a benefit.
Will that headline appeal to everyone?
No, and you don’t care about everyone.
But for someone who handles hazardous waste, they would sure
appreciate knowing about this little gem.
That’s your target market, and it’s your job to get them to read your
ad. Your headline is the way you do that.
Ok, now where do you find great headlines?
You look at other successful ads (especially direct response) that
have stood the test of time. You look for ads that run regularly in
magazines and other publications. How do you know they’re good?
Because if they didn’t do their job, the advertiser wouldn’t keep
running them again and again.
You get on the mailing lists of the big direct response companies like
Agora and Boardroom and save their direct mail packages.
You read the National Enquirer.
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Huh? You heard that correctly.
The National Enquirer has some of the best headlines in the
business.
Pick up a recent issue and you’ll see what I mean. Ok, now how
could you adapt some of those headlines to your own product or
service?
Your headline should create a sense of urgency. It should be as
specific as possible (i.e. say $1,007,274.23 instead of “a million
dollars”).
The headline appearance is also very important. Make sure the type
used is bold and large, and different from the type used in the copy.
Generally, longer headlines tend to out pull shorter ones, even when
targeting more “conservative” prospects.
Some other sites online where you can get great headlines (from
master copywriter John Carlton, no less) are:
• http://www.otsdirect.com/products.html
• http://www.trsdirect.com/product.php
• http://www.ohpdirect.com/product.php
On each page, click on the individual products in order to view the
ads and headlines.
It should go without saying that when you use other successful
headlines, you adapt them to your own product or service. Never
copy a headline (or any other written copyrighted piece of work for
that matter) word for word. Copywriters and ad agencies are
notoriously famous for suing for plagiarism. And rightfully so.
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The More You Tell, The More You Sell
The debate on using long copy versus short copy never seems to
end. Usually it is a newcomer to copywriting who seems to think that
long copy is boring and, well…long. “I would never read that much
copy,” they say.
The fact of the matter is that all things being equal, long copy will
outperform short copy every time. And when I say long copy, I don’t
mean long and boring, or long and untargeted.
The person who says he would never read all that copy is making a
big mistaking in copywriting: he is going with his gut reaction instead
of relying on test results. He is thinking that he himself is the
prospect. He’s not. We’re never our own prospects.
There have been many studies and split tests conducted on the long
copy versus short copy debate. And the clear winner is always long
copy. But that’s targeted relevant long copy as opposed to
untargeted boring long copy.
Some significant research has found that readership tends to fall off
dramatically at around 300 words, but does not drop off again until
around 3,000 words.
If I’m selling an expensive set of golf clubs and send my long copy to
a person who’s plays golf occasionally, or always wanted to try golf, I
am sending my sales pitch to the wrong prospect. It is not targeted
effectively. And so if a person who receives my long copy doesn’t
read past the 300th word, they weren’t qualified for my offer in the
first place.
It wouldn’t have mattered whether they read up to the 100th word or
10,000th word. They still wouldn’t have made a purchase.
However, if I sent my long copy to an avid die-hard golfer, who just
recently purchased other expensive golf products through the mail,
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painting an irresistible offer, telling him how my clubs will knock 10
strokes off his game, he’ll likely read every word. And if I’ve targeted
my message correctly, he will buy.
Remember, if your prospect is 3000 miles away, it’s not easy for him
to ask you a question. You must anticipate and answer all of his
questions and overcome all objections in your copy if you are to be
successful.
And make sure you don’t throw everything you can think of under
the sun in there. You only need to include as much information as
you need to make the sale…and not one word more.
If it takes a 10-page sales letter, so be it. If it takes a 16-page
magalog, fine. But if the 10-page sales letter tests better than the
16-page magalog, then by all means go with the winner.
Does that mean every prospect must read every word of your copy
before he will order your product? Of course not.
Some will read every word and then go back and reread it again.
Some will read the headline and lead, then skim much of the body
and land on the close. Some will scan the entire body, then go back
and read it. All of those prospects may end up purchasing the offer,
but they also all may have different styles of reading and skimming.
Which brings us to the next tip…
Write To Be Scanned
Your layout is very important in a sales letter, because you want your
letter to look inviting, refreshing to the eyes. In short, you want your
prospect to stop what he’s doing and read your letter.
If he sees a letter with tiny margins, no indentations, no breaks in
the text, no white space, and no subheads…if he sees a page of
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nothing but densely-packed words, do you think he’ll be tempted to
read it?
Not likely.
If you do have ample white space and generous margins, short
sentences, short paragraphs, subheads, and an italicized or
underlined word here and there for emphasis, it will certainly look
more inviting to read.
When reading your letter, some prospects will start at the beginning
and read word for word. Some will read the headline and maybe the
lead, then read the “P.S.” at the end of the letter and see who the
letter is from, then start from the beginning.
And some folks will scan through your letter, noticing the various
subheads strategically positioned by you throughout your letter, then
decide if it’s worth their time to read the entire thing. Some may
never read the entire letter, but order anyways.
You must write for all of them. Interesting and compelling long copy
for the studious reader, and short paragraphs and sentences, white
space, and subheads for the skimmer.
Subheads are the smaller headlines sprinkled throughout your copy.
Like this.
When coming up with your headline, some of the headlines that
didn’t make the cut can make great subheads. A good subhead
forces your prospect to keep reading, threading him along from start
to finish throughout your copy, while also providing the glue
necessary to keep skimmers skimming.
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The Structure of AIDAS
There’s a well-known structure in successful sales letters, described
by the acronym AIDA.
AIDA stands for:
• Attention
• Interest
• Desire
• Action
First, you capture your prospect’s attention. This is done with your
headline and lead. If your ad fails to capture your prospect’s
attention, it fails completely. Your prospect doesn’t read your stellar
copy, and doesn’t order your product or service.
Then you want to build a strong interest in your prospect. You want
him to keep reading, because if he reads, he just might buy.
Next, you channel a desire. Having a targeted market for this is key,
because you’re not trying to create a desire where one did not
already exist. You want to capitalize on an existing desire, which your
prospect may or may not know he already has. And you want your
prospect to experience that desire for your product or service.
Finally, you present a call to action. You want him to pick up the
telephone, return the reply card, attend the sales presentation, order
your product, whatever. You need to ask for the sale (or response, if
that’s the goal). You don’t want to beat around the bush at this point.
If your letter and AIDA structure is sound and persuasive, here’s
where you present the terms of your offer and urge the prospect to
act now.
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A lot has been written about the AIDA copywriting formula. I’d like to
add one more letter to the acronym: S for Satisfy.
In the end, after the sale is made, you want to satisfy your prospect,
who is now a customer. You want to deliver exactly what you
promised (or even more), by the date you promised, in the manner
you promised. In short, you want to give him every reason in the
world to trust you the next time you sell him a back-end offer. And of
course you’d rather he doesn’t return the product (although if he
does, you also execute your return policy as promised).
Either way, you want your customers to be satisfied. It will make you
a lot more money in the long run.
Use Takeaway Selling to Increase the Urgency
When you limit the supply of a product or service in some way (i.e.
takeaway selling), basic economics dictates that the demand will rise.
In other words, people will generally respond better to an offer if
they believe the offer is about to become unavailable or restricted in
some way.
And of course, the opposite is also true. If a prospect knows your
product will be around whenever he needs it, there’s no need for him
to act now. And when your ad is put aside by the prospect, the
chance of closing the sale diminishes greatly.
It’s your job, therefore, to get your prospect to buy, and buy now.
Using scarcity to sell is a great way to accomplish that.
There are basically three types of takeaways:
1) Limiting the quantity
2) Limiting the time
3) Limiting the offer
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In the first method, limiting the quantity, you are presenting a fixed
number of widgets available for sale. After they’re gone, that’s it.
Some good ways to limit the quantity include:
• only so many units made or obtained
• selling off old stock to make room for new
• limited number of cosmetically-defected items, or a fire sale
• only a limited number being sold so as not to saturate the
market
• etc.
In the second method, limiting the time, a deadline is added to the
offer. It should be a realistic deadline, not one that changes all the
time (especially on a website, where the deadline date always seems
to be that very day at midnight…when you return the next day, the
deadline date has mysteriously changed again to the new day).
Deadlines that change decrease your credibility.
This approach works well when the offer or the price will change, or
the product/service will become unavailable, after the deadline.
The third method, limiting the offer, is accomplished by limiting other
parts of the offer, such as the guarantee, bonuses or premiums, the
price, and so on.
When using takeaway selling, you must be sure to follow-through
with your restrictions. If you say you only have 500 widgets to sell,
then don’t sell 501. If you say your offer will expire at the end of the
month, make sure it does. Otherwise your credibility will take a hit.
Prospects will remember the next time another offer from you makes
its way into their hands.
Another important thing you should do is explain the reason why the
offer is being restricted. Don’t just say the price will be going up in
three weeks, but decline to tell them why.
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Here are some examples of good takeaway selling:
“Unfortunately, I can only handle so many clients. Once my plate is
full, I will be unable to accept any new business. So if you’re serious
about strengthening your investment strategies and creating more
wealth than ever before, you should contact me ASAP.”
“Remember…you must act by [date] at midnight in order to get my 2
bonuses. These bonuses have been provided by [third-party
company], and we have no control over their availability after that
time.”
“We’ve obtained only 750 of these premiums from our vendor. Once
they are gone, we won’t be able to get any more until next year. And
even then we can’t guarantee the price will remain the same. In fact,
because of the increasing demand, it’s very likely the price could
double or triple by then!”
Remember when I said earlier that people buy based on emotions,
then back up their decision to buy with logic? Well, by using
takeaway selling, that restriction becomes part of that logic to buy
and buy now.
Conclusion
Great copy is made, not born. It is derived from proven test results
designed to do one thing and do it well: sell.
Effective advertising doesn't always use "grammatically correct"
English. It uses short sentences, fragments. Like this.
It convinces you to buy, and buy now. Period.
It talks about benefits, not features. It sells on emotion and
reinforces the decision to buy with logic.
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It paints a compelling picture and irresistible offer that forces your
prospect to act and act now! And if it doesn't, then you drop that ad
like a hot potato and go with one that does.
Effective persuasion is like your top salesperson--the one who
continues to break all your sales records year after year--on the job
24 x 7, multiplied by thousands or millions! Just imagine if that
salesperson, the one with proven results, could be multiplied as much
as you wanted.
Now that would be effective (and cost-efficient) marketing!
And that's the kind of proven marketing you need to employ.
13 Pillars of Internet Marketing
- 4 - THE 13 PILLARS OF INTERNET MARKETING
Introduction
________________________________________________________________________
The 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing offers a broad introduction to internet
marketing methods for people like you – for marketing managers, business
owners and entrepreneurs.
It has been written to help you build your overall online marketing knowledge,
explaining a wide variety of internet marketing activities or ‘pillars’.
Few businesses understand the technical aspects of internet marketing. I
strongly believe that companies need to have some understanding of internet
marketing methods in-house, so that they can understand why things need to be
done. Businesses can then make the decision to either do everything in-house, or
manage the process and outsource the technical side to a good search engine
optimization firm.
Search engine optimization firms are good technicians, but they don’t necessarily
understand how to portray your business online. They will do what they are told
to do, or they will tend to do a very good job of just certain aspects of search
engine optimization. However, you know your businesses best and that’s why
it’s important for you to understand what you can and can not do, or should or
should not do, from an internet marketing perspective.
The content of this book will introduce you to the fundamentals of internet
marketing and give you a broad understanding of how to implement them. I
will be using real life and fictional examples to demonstrate the concepts
discussed.
© Copyright 2007-2010 Purple Internet Marketing Limited www.26WeekPlan.com
Introduction - 5 -
The 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing is not just about search engine optimization,
and overall, internet marketing is a lot more than just search engine
optimization. However, the two aspects of search engine optimization (namely
onsite and offsite search engine optimization), are key features of a successful
internet marketing campaign.
Onsite search engine optimization includes getting all aspects within your site
right, such as (but not limited to) having the correct title tags and heading tags
on your web pages.
Offsite search engine optimization consists of controlling, as much as possible,
the relevance of the sites on which your links appear, the relevance of the pages
within those sites and the wording used within the links on those pages.
Therefore, when a site wants to link to you, you need to be aware of what linking
text to request from the webmaster in order to maximize the value of the link.
Inbound links from other websites play a large part in your final search engine
rankings so it is important to try and generate as many relevant inbound links as
possible. Increasing your inbound links can be done using a range of different
techniques, which I will discuss throughout the 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing.
Internet marketing as a whole includes paid advertising as well as other forms of
internet marketing, such as podcasting, video marketing, email marketing or any
other method of bringing traffic to your website or driving prospects to your optin
pages. (We’ll come to what an opt-in page is later on)
Ideally, when undertaking an internet marketing campaign, you want to mimic
what happens naturally when people find a website to be a useful resource. By
employing a successful internet marketing campaign, you try to replicate the
natural building of links when increasing the popularity of your website. You do
this by generating a wide variety of links and building diverse forms of traffic
towards your website.
Internet marketing can be summed up as any activity that helps to promote and
measure the success of your business online. By reading the 13 Pillars of Internet
Marketing book you will better understand what needs to be included in an
internet marketing plan for your own business.
I’ve tried to provide a broad-based overview of internet marketing methods in as
a logical manner as possible. I’ve tried to do this in a way that makes internet
marketing methods easily comprehendible, while still providing some of the
© Copyright 2007-2010 Purple Internet Marketing Limited www.26WeekPlan.com
- 6 - THE 13 PILLARS OF INTERNET MARKETING
‘meaty details’ within each of the internet marketing areas discussed. By
sectioning off these internet marketing methods I began to realize that there were
13 key important areas to understand – and therefore 13 Pillars of Internet
Marketing.
There are two things to bear in mind when reading this book…
Firstly, the purpose of the book and who the book is aimed at. The purpose of
this book is to provide a comprehensive general introduction to internet
marketing for marketing managers, business owners and entrepreneurs. If you’re
a seasoned Internet marketing expert I would hope that you know most of the
information – although a little recap never did anyone any harm!
Secondly, this book is free. This means that it’s less likely to get updated as often
as a paid book which is surely understandable. That’s not to say this book will
ever become completely outdated. The principles behind each of the 13 Pillars of
Internet Marketing will be alive and well for many years to come.
However, to try and keep things as updated as much as possible, instead of
including any links to recommended websites within the book, what I’ve
decided to do is to keep all the resource links online. That way it’ll be much
easier to always recommend the most relevant of resources. Links to every
website mentioned in this book (as well as many other relevant, useful resources)
can be found at http://www.13pillars.com/resources.
Finally, when you get to the end of this book, you’ll see that I also provide a
follow-up 26-week internet marketing plan ‘action plan’ newsletter.
This newsletter is free-of-charge and it’s a great way to help you implement the
13 Pillars. Just visit www.26weekplan.com to sign-up.
But now it’s time to get going with the 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing.
© Copyright 2007-2010 Purple Internet Marketing Limited www.26WeekPlan.com
Pillar #1 – Keyword Research - 7 -
Pillar #1
Keyword Research
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- 8 - THE 13 PILLARS OF INTERNET MARKETING
Pillar #1 – Keyword Research
________________________________________________________________________
Keywords are the phrases that people type into search engines to find a
product or service.
At the very beginning you need to make sure all the different pages on your
website are targeting the right keywords - the phrases that people are likely to
type into search engines in order to find the product or service that you offer.
The keyword phrase myth
There is a myth that the best scenario is to appear at the top of Google’s search
results for a really popular word that relates to your industry. However, this is a
mistake because if you’re doing this then the chances are that you are focusing
on your competitors instead of your own prospective customers. The keywords
that you need to focus on are the ones that provide great conversion rates for
your website in addition to a reasonable amount of website visitors (traffic).
Conversion rates are measured by calculating the number of visitors to your
website divided by those that go on to undertake the action required in order to
reach your ultimate goal.
If you’re a college or university you may think, ‘Oh, it would be fantastic just to
appear at the top of Google for the keyword search ‘college’. Not necessarily. For
instance you might offer very specific courses. You obviously cover just a specific
locality – and a specific price bracket. Therefore, you are not likely to get very
good conversion rates from just that one word.
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Pillar #1 – Keyword Research - 9 -
Another example is you may think, ‘If I offer a business articles website,
wouldn't it be fantastic just to get thousands of visitors for the keyword
‘business’? However, in this instance as well your conversion rates will suffer as
the keyword ‘business’ can have a very generic meaning and as a result it is more
likely that these visitors will have reached your website and not found what they
were looking for.
Rather than think about single term keywords you should be focusing on
succeeding with longer phrase keywords, commonly called long-tail keywords
which are easier to rank highly in search engines and often lead to better
conversion rates.
Long-tail keyword phrases
It is important to use what are called long-tail keyword phrases. By using longtail
keyword phrases you face less competition from similar businesses, making
it easier to get ranked in search engines. Long-tail keyword phrases also give
you higher conversion rates as they pull in more relevant traffic to your website,
with visitors more likely to follow-through and become your customers.
By focusing on long-tail keyword phrases, relevant people who have specifically
searched for what you have on offer will be visiting your website, rather than
people stumbling upon your website by chance. Not only are visitors from longtail,
more relevant keyword phrases more likely to stick around and purchase
from you. They’ll be more likely to bookmark your website and come back later.
Internet search patterns
Think of the patterns that people make when search for something online. Think
about how you use a search engine. Do you just search once and then pick out a
website from your first set of results? You are more likely to perform an initial
search using just one or two words and then try and narrow down the results
further after that.
This improved search is generally made by adding extra words (often
determined by the initial search results) or the use of inverted commas “around a
phrase” to indicate that it's a specific phrase that you’re searching for. Most
internet users are aware that the more precise your search terms are, the more
likely you are to find the precise resource you're looking for.
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- 10 - THE 13 PILLARS OF INTERNET MARKETING
People are looking for something specific when they type in a longer keyword
phrase into a search engine. That’s another reason why you shouldn’t necessarily
worry about not coming up in the first set of search results.
The keyword phrase solution / using keyword phrases
The more keyword phrases that you are trying to aim for on a single page; the
harder it is to achieve high search engine rankings for your chosen page. Do not
be tempted to go for lots of different keyword phrases for your home page - you
should aim for one main keyword phrase on each individual webpage plus some
longer-tail keyword phrases (preferably encompassing your main keyword
phrase) – up to a maximum of 3 phrases per page. Any more than 3 keyword
phrases per page will dilute the impact of each of the phrases on your individual
pages.
A good example would be if you had determined that your main keyword
phrase for your home page should be ‘UK travel guide’ then a couple of longer
tail keyword phrases that you could include on the same page without diluting
their impact might be ‘free UK travel guide’ and ‘UK travel guide for tourists’.
You should also focus on different keyword phrases for different pages of your
site, again up to a maximum of 3 per page. The main content on your web pages
will naturally allow search engines to find alternative longer keyword phrases.
That’s another reason why you should have just the one main keyword phrase as
a main target as well as just a few specific longer-tail keyword phrases.
Note: Pillar #2 will review different areas on your web pages where you should
be including your chosen keyword phrases.
Search engine ranking
In the 1990’s search engines like AltaVista were the most popular means of
finding information on the web. At that time the meta-keywords tag was the
primary factor in determining the relevance of individual pages, and where
those pages should be ranked in search engines.
From roughly the year 2000 onwards, search engines started to realize that their
results could be easily skewed if they focused on the meta-keywords tag too
heavily. Instead of relying on this piece of meta data for ranking decisions,
Google counted the quantity of links to a webpage from other websites and the
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Pillar #1 – Keyword Research - 11 -
text used within those links (amongst other things) when deciding on the search
ranking of a web page.
The meta-keywords tag has continued to drop in value as the large search
engines such as Google and Yahoo! have become wise to spotting ‘keyword
stuffing’. This has happened to such an extent that may search engine
professionals don’t bother with it anymore.
Selecting the appropriate keyword phrase
As Google has evolved the way it ranks pages, you should review your keyword
phrase strategy accordingly.
In order to implement the optimum keyword phrase strategy, you should use
different levels of keyword phrases according to the relevance of the keyword
phrase, the degree of difficulty in getting that keyword phrase ranked highly by
a search engine and the structure of your website.
To help you determine the appropriate keyword phrase for each page on your
website I would recommend that you think of your keyword phrases as
belonging to one of three categories:
- Your home page keyword phrase
- Your category page keyword phrases
- Your keyword phrases on individual pages within your categories
Category keyword phrases explained
By category keyword phrases I’m assuming that your website is structured in a
hierarchical order and therefore has a certain amount of links on the home page,
and these pages that the home page links to have further links that point to
additional pages. I’m referring to the pages which are linked to directly from
your main pages menu as your category pages.
Helping search engines to determine the relevance of your site
By structuring your keyword phrases into different levels you are helping
explain to search engines the precise relevance of your site. The means search
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- 12 - THE 13 PILLARS OF INTERNET MARKETING
engines are more likely to understand the meaning of your site and they will be
more confident that your website is an authority on a particular topic.
You should have a separate keyword phrase for your home page, your category
pages, and your individual pages within. For your home page you can afford to
choose a keyword phrase that is searched more often, and which will generate
more traffic to your site; category pages less so and individual pages even less so.
As a rule of thumb I tend to focus on a two-word keyword phrase for my home
page, three-word keyword phrases for my category phrases and four-word
keyword phrases for my individual pages.
Figure 1.1 – Google External Keyword Tool
Google External Keyword Tool
Determining subject areas to cover on your website
One of the first areas you should address with your website is to determine your
main category subject areas. A category represents subsections on your website
which help search engines and visitors to determine the contents of that
particular subsection of your website. I suggest having approximately 10 to 30
main categories within your site with different keyword phrases associated with
each of them.
For example, if your keyword phrase on your home page is ‘golf lessons’, you
may wish your category keyword phrases to include ‘london golf lessons’,
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Pillar #1 – Keyword Research - 13 -
‘cheap golf lessons’ and ‘golf driving schools’. Your category keyword phrases
needn’t contain exactly the same words as your home page keyword phrase, but
they should be topic related – and more specific.
Researching keyword phrase categories
There are different ways of researching categories for your site and there are a
number of resources you can use to help determine the most appropriate
categories.
First of all, you should go to competitors’ websites and have a look to see how
they are structuring their websites, taking note of any categories they have on
their sites.
Secondly, you can use what is called the Google External Keyword Tool (Figure
1.1). This tool offers you suggestions and ideas for other keyword phrases
associated to a smaller word or phrase that you type into it. This tool can be
used for both website category ideas and keyword research.
Another available tool is KwMap - this gives you ideas based on what people
type into search engines. It maps words closely related to, but not the same as,
the search term. It provides a similar function to a thesaurus which is another
option for researching different categories.
The best way of understanding how KwMap can help you brainstorm new
website categories and keyword phrases is to have a play with the service.
Taking the guesswork out of determining keyword phrases
Having determined your categories you should then research the keyword
phrases that people use to find the kind of product or service you offer. There
are tools available for researching your keyword phrases. These will give you an
understanding of the levels of phrases that people type into search engines. The
main keyword research tool I recommend is called Wordtracker.
CASE STUDY 1 – Product-based Online Retail
Freddie Faldo is a golf shop owner with an online retail presence. Below is an
example of how he can use Wordtracker to conduct his keyword research. In the
first instance Freddy would type the word ‘golf’ into Wordtracker
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- 14 - THE 13 PILLARS OF INTERNET MARKETING
Figure 1.2 – Keyword Tracker Tool
Wordtracker
Knowing which keywords to target
It is going to be difficult for him to run at the top of search engines for the word
‘golf’ unless he puts a lot of effort in, as there is a great deal of competition for
the keyword ‘golf’. View a screenshot of the Wordtracker search on the word
‘golf’ in figure 1.3.
Even if he does get to the top of search engine rankings for the keyword ‘golf’,
are people looking for what he offers? Perhaps they are looking for golf courses
or golf lessons rather than buying golf equipment from a local shop.
Ideally, the keyword phrase that he should be targeting for his home page is
something like ‘golf equipment’ as that is specifically what he offers.
Drilling down deeper into Wordtracker results
In order to determine the keyword phrases that Freddie should be using for his
category pages, he can click on the links within the Wordtracker results for golf
equipment to show results such as: ‘used golf clubs’, ‘discount golf clubs’, ‘ping
golf clubs’. As these are actual search phrases that people use on a regular basis
they are more beneficial. They are also longer phrases and therefore more
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Pillar #1 – Keyword Research - 15 -
specific to Freddie Faldo’s website.
Figure 1.3 – Keyword Tracker Tool
Searching for the keyword ‘golf’ in Wordtracker
He will also be able to see within these results how many times a day these
phrases are searched for e.g. the phrases ‘used golf clubs’; ‘discount golf clubs’
and ‘ping golf clubs’ are typed into search engines roughly 800 times a day.
He now has an idea of how to structure his website by using the keyword
phrases used ‘golf clubs’, ‘discount golf clubs’, ‘ping golf clubs’ within the
category of ‘golf equipment’, back with the knowledge that there are a great deal
of people that regularly search for those phrases online.
CASE STUDY 2 – Service-based Online Retail
Jane Jobs runs a Sales Executive Recruitment Company. Jane is already aware
that her business is about sales jobs. But what categories should she choose for
her website?
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Using Wordtracker Jane can see that people type in ‘sales jobs’ 150 times a day.
That is a nice level in terms of number of visitors for a keyword phrase to aim for
your home page. Roughly you should aim for between 100 and 1,000 times
searched for a home page keyword phrase.
Category phrases should be searched a bit less - probably something in the
region of 20 to 200 times depending on the size of business or on how hard you
are prepared to work at getting those pages ranked highly in search engines.
From the Wordtracker results (Figure 1.4), the different categories that she could
have within her website are: “medical sales jobs” (51 searches), “pharmaceutical
sales jobs” (31 searches) and “direct sales jobs” (17 searches). Jane can now be
confident that these are the phrases which people are actually searching for.
Using Wordtracker to amend your website strategy
Having initially considered structuring the site keywords on a regional basis,
Jane can now see that people don't as commonly conduct regional searches e.g.
‘sales jobs Belfast’ or ‘sales jobs Newcastle’. This research therefore gives her a
much better idea of how to structure her website and how to cater her offering
towards the majority of potential website visitors.
Drilling down even further, she can structure different keyword phrases for her
individual pages as well. By clicking on the phrase ‘medical sales jobs’, she can
include these longer keyword phrases on individual pages within that category.
Examples of longer-tail keyword phrases that Jane can use on her pages within
the medical sales jobs category include ‘medical equipment sales jobs’, ‘medical
device sales jobs’, and ‘sales jobs medical equipment’.
Pillar #1 – Keyword Research Summary
· Structure your site correctly to begin with. You know what your business is
about and what your home page is about. Make sure your keywords reflect
your business purpose.
· You should aim to structure your website in a logical manner for both users
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and for search engines.
· After you choose your home page keyword phrase, choose your site
categories. What categories represent your business? Brainstorm ideas and use
resources such as an online thesaurus, KWmap, Wordtracker and the Google
External Keyword Tool to come up with 10-30 relevant categories for your
site.
· Focus on your individual pages after your categories. In an ideal world you
should devise a structure of 10 to 30 individual pages within each category. If
you want, and if your website is large enough, then you can go for
sub-categories within categories before drilling down to pages within that
section.
· Conduct keyword research to come up with one keyword phrase per page.
· Be as specific as possible. By selecting long-tail keyword phrases, even if you
have fewer visitors to your site, you will have a higher conversion rate from
the traffic you do receive. In the long term bringing in a couple of visitors per
day to an individual page, equals 500-600 very relevant visitors over a year.
· Position your keyword phrase in your site architecture – and this is where we
start Pillar #2 – Website Design.
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Pillar #2
Website Design
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Pillar #2 – Website Design - 19 -
Pillar #2 – Website Design
________________________________________________________________________
Website design, pillar #2, aims to make the best use of the keywords you
have chosen for your site. In addition this pillar helps you position your
keywords in the most appropriate places on your site.
The main aspects of pillar #2 consist of behind the scenes coding, navigation
structure, onsite optimization, the precise relevance of each page and improving
conversion rates.
Behind-the-scenes coding
The ‘behind the scenes’ coding on any website needs to be as efficient as possible
to assist with search engine optimization.
When designing sites using software such as Dreamweaver, although it’s
constantly getting better, surplus and repeated code can sometimes still be
generated. For example, in Dreamweaver, if you highlight some text and make it
bold, then remove the bold at a later point, some duplicate code has been known
to be produced.
Note that this isn’t any slight on Dreamweaver – Dreamweaver is probably one
of the best pieces of software available for designing a beautiful website without
any knowledge of HTML code – but you can never 100% replicate the ability of a
human website coder.
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So while some software is excellent for designing websites, the best solution for
optimizing the code is somebody manually checking to ensure all unnecessary
code is taken out.
The use of cascading style sheets
One method of keeping your web page code as tidy as possible is the use of
something called cascading style sheets. Among other things, cascading style
sheets (or CSS for short) help you reduce the repetition of code that might
otherwise be required when you have a particularly repetitious design style on
your pages.
Examples of such styles might include common fonts for headings, subheadings
and links throughout the site.
Another advantage (in addition to the reduction of your website source code) of
using cascading style sheets and storing all of your styles in the one file is that it
gives you the facility to quickly and easily alter just the one file on your website
in order to amend the properties of any one element across your entire website.
(For example the style of any main heading that appears on your website)
Ordering your website code in an efficient manner
One thing you need to be aware of is that search engines crawl through your
website source code in order to try to understand what each of your web pages is
about. They don’t see your design – just the code behind your design. And the
higher up within your page source code the relevant content, the easier that
search engines will find it to determine that your web page is about a particular
topic.
If you have a flashy, involved top section at the top of each of your website
pages, then the chances are that there is a great deal of code that is required to
make that top section display correctly.
In an ideal website design, your code will get to your main page heading as soon
as possible, shortly followed by the body content on your web page. This is the
main reason why lots of blogs display their site navigation toward the right hand
side of each page. It means that search engines quickly crawl through the post
content before they get to the standard site navigation, so there is a greater
chance that this page will be ranked higher in search engine results for the body
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Pillar #2 – Website Design - 21 -
content.
Website navigation for visitors and search engines
It is of great benefit to you when you tailor your website navigation towards
both users and search engines.
Within your website navigation structure you often have categories, subcategories
and individual relevant pages within these sub-categories.
If a web page features ‘backwards compatible navigation’, this will allow a
person who has reached an individual page in a website, either via a search
engine or an external link, to understand where that page fits into the website as
a whole. The navigation should provide them with the option of browsing your
site and if they can easily understand your structure they will be more likely to
visit another individual page within the site.
Figure 2.1 – Trek the UK travel guide
http://www.trektheuk.com/cornwall.php
For example, in figure 2.1, when somebody stumbles upon this page which is
about a place called Cornwall in England, they immediately understand where
this it fits into the website as a whole. They’re therefore much more likely to
continue to browse through the website.
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This associated navigation also helps search engines by showing them the topics
that are associated with the page, therefore justifying why the search engine
should rank the page as more relevant for a particular topic.
The navigation on the page in question reads as follows:
Home > Places to go > England > Southwest England > Cornwall
Home > [Category] > [Sub-category] > [Sub-sub-category] > [Individual page]
A visitor can quickly familiarize themselves with the website and navigate
through the different categories.
Another helpful pointer for search engines is to include the keyword phrases
within a text link that points to a page. This keyword phrase in the link needs to
reflect the content on the page that the link points towards – and not the page on
which the text link resides.
For example, if you wanted to link to a page which was about ‘French language
courses’ and you linked to that page with a text link that contained the words
‘French language courses’, this would be assisting with the search engine
optimization of the landing page.
This is another reason why in the example above, the text ‘England’ and
‘Southwest England’ is used within the navigation links. It greatly assists with
the search engine optimization of the landing pages.
Onsite optimization
There are 8 essential aspects of onsite optimization. These are things that you
should be aware of and should instruct your website designer to design your site
in a manner that appeals most to search engines.
1. Page Title
Your page title can be found in the (commonly blue) bar at the very top of your
website browsing software. (i.e. Internet Explorer / Firefox / Safari etc)
In figure 2.2, the page title text in the blue bar says “The internet marketing
strategy specialists – Purple Internet Marketing”.
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Pillar #2 – Website Design - 23 -
Figure 2.2 – Purple Internet Marketing
The ‘Page Title’ text can be found in the blue bar at the top of this screenshot
The Page Title serves the dual purpose of helping your users understand what
the page is about, as well as providing search engines with a keyword phrase
inside the Page Title.
It is important that your site should use different Page Titles on individual pages
in order to optimize each page on your website. This will enable individual
pages to be found by a search engine. Failing to do this will have a detrimental
effect on your web page rankings in search engines.
When search engine results are displayed the Page Title is the link that is
underlined. By making the page title as relevant to the search as possible, the
searcher is more likely to find what they are looking for and click through to
your website.
Of course the Page Title must explain to people exactly what is on each page too
– otherwise you’re your new website visitors aren’t going to hang around too
long.
2. Meta Description
Although the meta-description isn't generally thought by search engine
optimization professional to be part of the search engine ranking algorithm, this
meta tag can still significantly positively impact your search engine result view
to click conversion rates.
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To view the meta-description you can enter an individual web page and right
click to select ‘view source’ or ‘view page source’. This enables you to see the
code behind the individual web pages and near the top you are most likely to
find the meta-description.
Figure 2.3 – Page Source of BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz
View of the page source
The meta-description viewed as highlighted in figure 2.3 begins ‘Business
Articles – Latest business news & management advice’.
At the time of writing if you search Google for ‘business articles’, the number one
result is the website www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz. (Figure 2.4) When you
view the descriptive text underneath the clickable title you will see that the text
used in the description has been taken from the meta-description.
Figure 2.4 – Google Search
Searching Google for ‘business articles’
This shows why conversion rates from a user viewing a search engine result to
the user deciding to click through to the website can be significantly improved. If
you manage to include a meta-description in the search results which is
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Pillar #2 – Website Design - 25 -
extremely relevant to the users’ search then it is much more likely that the user
will decide to click through to the website.
Note: If you decide not to use a meta-description in your website coding, or if a
search engine deems your meta description to be irrelevant compared with the
content on your page then the search engine may instead decide to use some
alternative content from within your page as the description with the search
result. This is generally extremely unfavorable when it comes to trying to
improve your conversion rates.
Remember – you do not need to incorporate the keyword phrase within your
meta-description – this probably won’t influence search engines. The most
important thing is that you tailor your meta-descriptions towards users and
trying to persuade users to visit your page without being misleading.
It is fairly simple to ensure that your meta-description is different for each page
on your site. If you are using a content management system, you can commonly
generate the meta-description automatically, potentially from the first few lines
of your main page content. However, ideally it is good to have the facility to
include manual meta-descriptions with each page. In addition to individual page
titles, this will significantly improve your conversion rates from search engine
result (SERP) pages.
3. Heading Tags
Heading tags should appear either side of a heading within a page. For example
the heading in figure 2.5, the home page of www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz is
‘Latest business articles’.
Some hidden tags behind the source code of that heading explain to search
engines that this is an important heading, and therefore that provides a very
good indication to search engines about the content on the page.
If you view the source code behind the page (View > Source in Internet Explorer)
you will be able to see the heading tags in the source code. Heading tags consist
of text enclosed by where x is a numerical value from 1 to 6, with 1 being
the most important of headings.
For main headings like ‘Latest Business Articles’ (the heading shown in figure
2.5) the code generated will look like:
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Figure 2.5 – BuildYourOwnBusiness
www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz
Remember, the purpose of heading tags is to help explain to search engines what
your page is about. If you have your keyword phrase within the heading tag, it
is more likely that search engines will consider that your page is likely to be
about your keyword phrase topic.
4. ‘ALT’ Tags
‘ALT’ tags are alternative text that appears if an image does not display properly.
Sometimes if you hover over an image with your mouse the ‘ALT’ text will be
displayed. ‘ALT’ tags originated in the 1990s when Internet pages were slow to
load because of dial-up connections. The text appeared instead of the image,
describing what the image was. Users could then click on this text to download
the image if required.
However, ‘ALT’ tags now have several additional uses. They can be used to help
to explain to search engines what your pages and images are about, again
helping your site ranking. Additionally they provide a route into your website
when people are searching for images using Google Image Search or MSN Image
Search. If you have ‘ALT’ text associated with each image it is more likely those
images will appear in search results, increasing the traffic to your site.
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‘ALT’ tags are also beneficial for visually impaired people who use software to
read pages out loud. If you have text that explains what images are, it assists the
software and makes your site more accessible, also giving your site greater
compliance with certain web standards.
5. Keyword Rich Navigation
Within your website, you should be linking to different pages using keyword
phrases. The keyword phrase should reflect the content of the page that you are
linking towards. For example, if I am linking to a page about change
management articles, ideally, I want to be using the text, ‘change management
articles’ within the text link to that page. (Figure 2.6)
Figure 2.6 – BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz
An example of keyword rich navigation
Above, the orange ‘Change Management Articles’ text link links to the page
which can be seen in figure 2.7.
Figure 2.7 – www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz
The ‘Change Management Articles’ page
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In figure 2.7, there are aspects that optimize this page for the ‘Change
Management Articles’ keyword phrase. You can find the phrase ‘Change
Management Articles’ within the page title, heading tags, page content and links
towards that page.
6. Good URL Format
The URL does not really impact search engine optimization a great deal, but it is
important to have a consistent URL structure within your website that search
engines can follow.
Some websites have their pages generated from databases with long URLs that
aren’t consistent because they change depending on which users are visiting
your website and what they are looking at. This isn’t good, as search engines will
find it hard to determine which URL is the correct one and which one should be
ranked.
Just remember that if you make things easier for search engines then they are less
likely to come up with an excuse not to rank your web pages as highly as they
might otherwise be ranked.
There is often no need to have lots of question marks and different query strings
within a URL. Try and make them as simple as possible. For example, the
following formats of URLs are ideal:
www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/change-management-articles
(category URL)
www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/change-management-articles/what-is-changemanagement
(page URL)
7. Don't Link to the Same Page in Two Different Ways
Many websites link to their homepage within their own site by using /index.html
at the end of their URL. The reason that website designers do this is that this the
way to tell your internet browser to load a particular page as the first page when
somebody visits your website.
However, all you need to do is link to your home page using your main domain
name for example www.buildyourownbusiness.biz, instead of
www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/index.html. You should also ensure that you
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Pillar #2 – Website Design - 29 -
are consistent with your choice of whether or not you use ‘www.’
Using more than one format of link for the same page could dilute the impact of
your linking structure. If you have links within your site using one format, but
have links from other websites in a different format, then it can reduce the
popularity of your homepage with search engines.
(i.e. if you link to your homepage using www.yourdomain.com/index.htm from
within your site yet other sites just use www.yourdomain.com)
The reason that you should just stick to the one format of link is because search
engines are less likely to rank your site highly if they are not able to recognize
how popular your site actually is. In addition, as a worst case scenario from
these duplicate styles of linking, search engines may think that these two
different pages offering duplicate content. This means that they may choose to
de-rank one of these pages completely because they think you are offering
duplicate content on your website.
8. Use ‘No Follow’ tags where appropriate
The final aspect of on-site search engine optimization that I’d like to include here
is the use of ‘No Follow’ tags within your linking structure.
‘No Follow’ tags enable you to tell search engines ‘Don't rank this page’ or ‘Don't
rank these pages’ because they are not important.
Pages that you do not want to be ranked in search engines should make use of
the ‘No Follow’ tag, for example the ‘about us’, ‘disclaimer’ or ‘terms &
conditions’ pages within your website. There may well be lots of pages within
your site that you do not want search engines to include in their results pages.
By deliberately diverting search engines away from certain pages, search engines
are more likely to focus their efforts on determining what the rest of your site is
about and rank the rest of the pages in your site more highly.
The format of a ‘No Follow’ tag looks like:
rel=“nofollow”>About Us
If you are constructing a simple HTML link, and you don’t want search engines
pass any credence to the page that you’re linking towards, you should include
the ‘nofollow’ attribute.
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More site architecture tips
Make sure that you stick to one precise topic per page. It is not just one keyword
phrase per page, but it is one relevant, precise topic per page that is relevant for
users. This will make life as easy as possible for search engines – so you’ll have a
good chance of getting a high search engine result – and getting a high
conversion of users clicking through to your pages – and those visitors staying
on their site because they’re immediately aware of the precise nature of the page.
Have a logical progression within as well as within your individual pages.
(Remember the navigation in figure 2.1) This will encourage users to progress
through your site after stumbling upon your page through a search engine result
page.
Less is often more when it comes to conversion rates. You may want to
minimize navigation on some pages and give people less options. This in turn
drives your website visitors towards the one option that you really want them to
choose.
Precise relevance of each page
Each page within your website needs to be extremely relevant. Why not survey
your visitors and ask them how you can improve your website? This may help
you reduce the amount of visitors who leave within a few seconds of arriving –
thinking that your site is not relevant for their needs.
You’ve done the hard work when you get visitors to visit your website after
finding your pages listed in search engine result pages. Don’t uncoil your efforts
by making your site seem irrelevant for you visitors’ needs.
Your web pages should be designed for your visitors – with search engines in
mind. Don’t overload your pages with keyword phrases or make your visitors
have to scroll to read the content that they are looking for. The best optimized
web pages don’t look ‘optimized’.
Improving conversion rates
Improving conversion rates should be another imperative area of focus within
website design. You need think about what your goals are for an individual
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Pillar #2 – Website Design - 31 -
visitor in addition to how you will measure your goals. Do you simply want
people to leave a name, an email address, and get them to fill in a form? These
types of goals are the easiest to measure.
Other goals you might have include – selling something; tracking free
downloads; tracking link clicks or tracking pages viewed to name just a few.
Many businesses will want to capture contact details of visitors e.g. name, email
address etc. An important though is that you shouldn’t rely on search engines
forever for free traffic in you business model, as your website might not be
ranked highly by Google or Yahoo or MSN forever. You should aim to build an
email list in order to reduce your reliance on search engines in the future.
A final important aspect of improving conversion rates is to test different sales
techniques. Software programs such as AWeber and Google AdWords will let
you display different versions of the same page and test alternative versions
against each other. You can test your headings on your pages, your descriptions,
or even the text within a button. This will help you to produce the optimum
versions of your copy.
Perhaps you don’t need all the information that you’re requesting your visitors
for? Maybe you’ll treble your opt-in rates if you just ask for name and email
address instead of asking for name, email address and physical address.
Ideally, you need to be testing all the time. Once you find a winning page, you
should keep it but continue to test and tweak it to see if you can further improve
conversion rates.
Pillar #2 – Website Design Summary
· Take some time to think about your behind the scenes coding – make your
whole website as efficient as possible, which will help search engines when
they crawl through your site.
· Get your navigation structure right and make sure it's logical for search
engines and individual users.
· Remember that your website visitors may land on an individual page via a
search engine and good navigation will allow them to quickly understand
where that page is in relation to the rest of your site. This will make your new
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visitors more likely to stick around for longer.
· Ensure that you’re aware of the 8 essential aspects of onsite optimization
which will help to improve your search engine rankings.
· Have you considered the precise relevance of each page? Having just the one
topic per page will make life easier for both visitors and search engines.
· By undertaking continuous testing and analyzing what does and doesn’t
work, you can alter the structure of the site to maximize conversion rates.
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Pillar #3
Blog Technology
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Pillar #3 – Blog Technology
________________________________________________________________________
Blog technology is how I prefer to describe the marketing benefits of
blogging. I view a blog as a great piece of technology rather than an online
journal or diary. Many businesses dismiss blogs as informal online diaries in
which people voice opinions. However, the technology behind a blog can be
harnessed as a powerful Internet marketing medium for business – and the
communication style can be any style you like.
Pillar #3 Blog Technology covers:
- What a blog is
- A review of some of the different types of blogging software available
- How to quickly and easily personalize a blog with the use of themes and
plugins
- What Pinging and RSS feeds are and how they impact internet marketing
- Why Podcasting is so closely related to blogging and how to use a blog to start
your own podcast
What is a blog?
Wikipedia describes a blog as being a website with entries made in a journal
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Pillar #3 – Blog Technology - 35 -
style, however, this is not necessarily the case – I don’t like that description.
While the vast majority of blogs may be presented in reverse chronological order,
the content topic and style is entirely your choice. Your blog can include news
stories, or have formal content. It could be targeted internally within your
organization.
How useful is a blog?
A good piece of blogging software is also a great content management tool. Blogs
are an excellent way for non-HTML literate workers within an organization to
upload new information onto a website.
Search engines tend to rank websites higher if you continually add new content
to your site. You should not think of your website as being a static entity – it
should be continuously updated with content regularly added to your site.
When sites are updated regularly, then search engines are more likely to consider
it current and therefore more relevant than a website that has not been updated
for a period of time. A blog makes it very easy to add new pages to your
website. It makes it much easier to keep your website current.
Popular blogging software
- Blogger
Blogger is software that you can use that isn't hosted on your own server. I
would not recommend it for business use. If you are new to blogging it can be
useful to register and create your own account to see how blogging works. It is
owned by Google and free to use.
- WordPress
The software that I recommend for business use is WordPress. (Figure 3.1) It is
open source blogging software and it is also free to use. WordPress.org can be
downloaded onto your server and installed on your website. As you can use it
on your own domain a typical address for your blog may be
YourDomain.com/blog.
WordPress themes
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When using WordPress you can also use WordPress themes, which allow you to
personalize the look and feel of your blog. Anything relating to the layout,
design, look and feel of the blog itself is derived from a WordPress theme, and
there are thousands of free themes that you can use.
Figure 3.1 - WordPress
wordpress.org
Figure 3.2 is an example of a website that is giving away a theme free-of-charge
is Copyblogger. At the time of writing Copyblogger has over 100,000 RSS
subscribers, so it goes to show that giving away a good WordPress theme for free
can be a very effective form of internet marketing.
Figure 3.2 - Copyblogger
Copyblogger has over 100,000 RSS subscribers
Even if you decide to download and use the Copyblogger theme, you do not
necessarily have to stick to the same color scheme. You can use a theme as a base
for your blog and then amend it according to your brand or website colour
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Pillar #3 – Blog Technology - 37 -
scheme, if required.
You can even get a personalized WordPress theme. If you want to install your
blog on your domain, then the blog can be tailored to look exactly like your site.
Your visitors will probably not be aware of the fact that they’re viewing pages
which have been delivered via another content management system.
You can search for a free theme to suit your individual needs at WordPress.net.
Search by style, colour, general look and feel, or browse to view different themes
that are appropriate for your business.
Content management
Blogs are a great content management tool as they don’t require you to be
technically literate to post pages or manage the publishing of new content. All
you have to do is enter your title and content within the blog post, choose your
category and press ‘submit’.
If you install a WordPress blog on your server you can give different levels of
authority to different users. You can limit access to particular categories, or
allow certain users to only create posts, as opposed to authorizing them to
amend the look and feel of the blog.
Figure 3.3 – Backend of WordPress
Adding an entry to the WordPress blog
Figure 3.3 shows the back office of www.PurpleInternetMarketing.com, which is
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a site completely designed and managed via a WordPress blog installation. If
you want to write a post, all you do is click on ‘write’ to add and entry to your
WordPress blog. (See figure 3.3)
Click ‘write post’ and enter the title and post text. Then select the various
categories you want the post to be associated with (if you want more than one
category press ‘add’) and then press ‘publish’. It’s as easy as that to add new
posts and therefore add new content to your website.
WordPress plugins
WordPress has been specially designed to be ‘lean and mean’ in the way it
operates. This is because they understand that different WordPress users certain
features and not other features.
In order to cater for everyone’s needs, they made the sensible choice of designing
WordPress to be a world-class core product without any extra ‘bells and
whistles’. However, because WordPress is open-source it means that
independent coders can add additional functionality to the software in the form
of ‘plugins’. This means that users aren’t lumbered with downloading a bloated
core product which has features that they don’t intend to use.
To provide these different features and functionality there is a wide range of
plugins available of which the majority are free-of-charge. All plugins are are
small software programs which work together with your standard WordPress
installation.
You can search for plugins in the plugins directory on the WordPress website.
(wordpress.org/extend/plugins) Search by what you want your plugins to do.
Whatever additional feature you are looking to add to your blog somebody else
has probably had the same thought – and perhaps built a plugin to accomplish
the required task.
Perhaps you want to amend your graphics or the look and feel of your blog, or
even amend your linking structure. You may want a plugin which will allow you
to help you build a revenue stream into your blog.
Recommended plugins
At the time of writing there are many plugins which I use on one of my blogs –
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the Purple Internet Marketing website. The following are 5 plugins which I
currently use and that I am comfortable recommending.
(Please note that these kind of recommendations change all the time.
Visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar3 for an up-to-date list of plugin
resources + links to 2 highly recommended professional WordPress themes.)
1) Akismet is a great spam filter if you have ‘comment posting’ functionality at
the bottom of your blog posts. Some businesses may choose to disable the
comment functionality but it can be useful to encourage interaction within your
website. Comments can provide up to date content for your site, while it also
makes your blog more of a community that people are more likely to come back
to and listen and read other comments.
The Akismet plugin should disable around 90% of your spam comments and
save you a great deal of time in comment moderation.
2) aLinks is a tool to control links within a blog. One of the potential issues with
blogs is that people can ‘steal’ your content via your RSS feed (we’ll get to what
that is in a bit) and automatically publish it on their own site. You may not
necessarily want them to be able to do that.
aLinks allows you to build in automatic links within your blog posts. For
example, if I mention the phrase ‘business articles’ within a blog post I might set
it up so that the plugin automatically generates a link to the home page of
www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz. If people republish that post which contains
that link, then the link will probably now be on the other person's website
pointing back to your site. At least is somebody steals your content you gain by
getting a link on their site.
3) Popularity Contest is a tool to make popular posts easily available for your
visitors to view. As previously discussed, blogs commonly display posts in
reverse chronological order which can make it difficult for users to find old posts
that still have good content or are of interest.
What Popularity Contest does is to provide a listing of your most popular posts
of all-time in a sidebar within your blog navigation. Because the chances are that
this is your best every content, it will give you a greater opportunity to retain
new visitors on your site.
4) Get Recent Comments is a plugin that shows the most recent comments that
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people have made on all of your blog posts in a widget in your sidebar.
If you are encouraging people to comment on your blog to build up community
interaction, one way of doing that is to publish the latest comments made on
every post within your menu system. You can display the five or the ten most
recent comments made by people on your blog. This is beneficial in a couple of
different ways. You are encouraging your blog to be more of a community and if
people can see their latest comment in the main sidebar it will encourage them to
post a comment again.
The Get recent Comments plugin has additional benefits too. By being able to see
a comment on an archived post, this may well encourage a user to visit the
original post. One other way that this plugin adds value to your site is that you're
improving the search engine optimization as these links point directly to the
comments at the bottom of different posts and not to the posts themselves. This
drives alternative search engine crawls throughout your site.
5) My Avatars is a plugin that’s associated with a website called MyBlogLog, a
very popular blogging community. When users register at MyBlogLog, they
upload a small picture, or avatar of themselves (perhaps even a company logo).
After somebody has uploaded this image to MyBlogLog, in addition to the avatar
image displaying on MyBlogLog, whenever a blog has the MyAvatars plugin
installed, the avatar image will also be displayed next to comments by that
registered MyBlogLog user on the blog.
This again encourages your blog to become more of a community and more
interactive as people can see their own avatar images beside any comments
made.
If you register with MyBlogLog, you can of course have your own image at the
bottom of any comments you make on other blogs. An additional service that
you should register with is called Gravatar.
Blog pinging
Pinging is a process built into WordPress that automatically tells other blog
directories and news portals that you have added a new post to your blog.
Within your WordPress back office if you click on Options and then select
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‘write’, if you scroll down you will see that by default WordPress has a pinging
service called ping-o-matic built into it.
There are other pinging services, but ping-o-matic works well and is already
incorporated into WordPress. You don't need to visit the ping-o-matic website
for it to submit your posts because automatically whenever you add new content
to your site it will automatically be ‘pinged’ to many major blog directories and
news portals.
When you publish a post, this pinging mechanism will be aware of your post
title, your post description and the link back to the original post.
One of the major services that will be pinged is called MyYahoo. Anyone who
searches MyYahoo for a particular topic; (if you have made a recent blog post
within that topic yourself), then your blog post will come up there in the search
results. This is one of the many automated internet marketing tools that make
blogging such a powerful part of your online strategy.
RSS
RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication is another great automated
marketing tool built into blogging software. It is a tool which lets people
subscribe to the latest content published on your blog.
RSS feeds are also features of many other types of website but it is probably most
commonly found on blogs.
The main advantage of RSS on blogs for your readers is that it allows them to see
when you have updated your blog without having to directly visit your blog. It is
an easy way for them to be made aware as soon as you publish a new post.
How do RSS feeds work?
Your RSS feeds are the website URLs that people can use in order to subscribe to
your latest content. WordPress automatically generates as many RSS feed URLs
as you require. By default there is a main feed and a feed for each of your blog
categories.
When someone subscribes to your RSS feed in an RSS reader (like Google
Reader), the software will display your latest blog post title, and possibly some of
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the content depending on the RSS reader settings. People will then have an
option of visiting your blog post if they think the full content will be of interest to
them.
RSS feed format
Instead of retaining the default RSS feed URLs from WordPress, you should
register with a free service called Feedburner (figure 3.4) and submit your
original feed URL to Feedburner.com.
Feedburner will then give you an alternative feed URL to use. They call this
service ‘burning’ your feed. The advantage with giving your subscribers your
Feedburner feed URL instead of your default feed URL is that Feedburner will be
able to give you lots of statistics such as how many subscribers you have and
which software your readers are using to subscribe to your feed.
Figure 3.4 - FeedBurner
Submit your URL at FeedBurner
How to find and burn your feed
Let’s take my old WordPress blog www.PurpleInternetMarketing.com/blog as an
example. As the folder /blog/ is where WordPress has been installed, you’ll be
able to find the original feed at
http://www.PurpleInterentMarketing.com/blog/feed.
I took this URL and submitted it to Feedburner (I ‘burned’ the feed). The feed
URL I chose at Feedburner was
http://feeds.feedburner.com/purpleinternetmarketing.
This feed URL delivers exactly the same content to a user when they subscribe to
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Pillar #3 – Blog Technology - 43 -
updates, but using this version lets me gain access to really useful statistics about
my subscribers when I log into my Feedburner account.
A glimpse at Feedburner stats
Feedburner will provide you with a breakdown of the stats for each feed that you
decide to burn. The feed below (Figure 3.5) is from a podcast feed that hasn’t
been promoted a great deal. As you can see there are 30 subscribers to that feed,
i.e. 30 people going to be told as soon as another episode is published.
It doesn’t take too much promotional work to quickly build up a few hundred
subscribers to your feed. After that you’ll start to naturally gain more subscribers
as people tell their friends – as long as if you consistently deliver quality new
content on a regular basis.
It is important to use the Feedburner service to ‘burn your feed’ prior to
publishing your feed URL and making it available for subscribers. The service
lets you gain access to lots of important statistics about your subscribers
including how many subscribers you have and what kind of software people are
using to subscribe to your feed.
Figure 3.5 – FeedBurner
Viewing statistics on FeedBurner
In addition to Google Reader, another example of an RSS feed reader is in fact
iTunes. iTunes is an RSS reader that specializes in reading podcast RSS feeds.
Subscribing to an RSS feed
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How do you subscribe to RSS feeds? Do you subscribe to RSS feeds at the
moment? (If so you need to subscribe to some feeds so that you’re fairly
comfortable with how the protocol works.) If you’re subscribing to a standard
RSS feed, not a podcast, the chances are that it will be text based updates. One of
the most popular RSS feed readers at the time of writing is iGoogle or the
personalized Google home page (Figure 3.6).
Take time to visit iGoogle. This is the personalized Google home page. You can
personalize this page by adding your own RSS feeds to display content that
interests you.
The ‘Add Stuff’ link on the iGoogle page is where you can search for different
small widgets and feeds to add to your personalized page. At the bottom
left-hand side of the ‘Add Stuff’ is where there is an option to add an RSS feed.
Once you add your chosen feed, you should be able to view the latest content
from that feed on your iGoogle page.
More RSS reading software
Remember that there is a great deal of free RSS feed reader software available if
iGoogle or Google Reader doesn’t suit your needs. Simply search online to find
something more suitable for you. (www.google.com/search?q=free+rss+software)
Using an RSS reader will let you quickly scan the latest headlines within a blog
without having to visit the blog directly. You might find only 1 in 5 posts on a
blog of interest, so by subscribing to the feed using an RSS reader, you can easily
judge if it is worthwhile for you to visit a blog page, saving you a great deal of
time.
RSS readers are a popular medium for people to use to subscribe to updates, a
method of website update subscription which is growing in popularity and one
which is going to become more important in the future.
It is therefore important that you build an RSS subscription option into your
website, also utilizing the Feedburner service as explained above.
Figure 3.6 – iGoogle homepage
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Pillar #3 – Blog Technology - 45 -
The personalized iGoogle home page
Podcasting
Many people / businesses wish to publish a series of MP3 (audio) or MP4 (video)
recordings online. It is wise to associate these media recordings with an RSS feed
so that people can subscribe to updates and be made aware as soon as you have
released a new media file for consumption. This use of RSS feeds is called
podcasting.
Another benefit with broadcasting a podcasts is that subscribers tend to be very
‘sticky’ – that is once people subscribe they will generally stay subscribed. If you
stop producing podcasts for a while, and decide to start again a few months later,
then you will probably find that you still have around the same number of
subscribers – the people that had previously subscribed will simply be notified
via their subscription software (possibly iTunes) as soon as your new episode has
been released.
Creating your podcast
It is relatively simple to use a portable MP3 recorder to create your podcast. You
could also record your audio with a microphone at a computer with tools such as
Skype or Google Talk with HotRecorder. A great free piece of software called
Audacity can be used to edit your recording.
Recording and editing audio
Recording and editing your own audio – or even video – is not as difficult as you
might think. HotRecorder is software that works in conjunction with Skype (an
online VOIP / telephone service). HotRecorder can be used to record any call
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you are making online using your computer. It only costs about $15, (around
£10) for the software but it can be used to record hours of conversation if
required to do so.
I have used HotRecorder to record Skype based interviews with people from all
around the world and have got great quality recordings from using the service.
One tip I’d share with you is to use the setting that records both voices on
separate tracks (stereo). This will let you edit each voice separately at the end of
the recording which is especially handy if you find that one person’s voice has
been recorded at a louder volume that the other person.
To edit the audio recording I use some software called Audacity. Audacity is
open-source and free-of-charge although I’d always recommend making a small
donation to such projects.
In figure 3.7 you can view a screenshot of Audacity in action (editing a
recording). The software allows you to manipulate the audio recording - you can
highlight a section (perhaps if there has been too big a pause or a stutter) and
remove it by selecting edit, highlighting the section in question and then cut.
Figure 3.7 - Audacity
Sample screenshot of Audacity
Publishing your podcast
Having recorded and edited your audio, the next step is for you to publish your
podcast. One of the easiest and most effective methods of publishing a podcast is
to release the episodes in a category on your blog, and use the category RSS feed
as your podcast feed.
There’s an excellent free WordPress plugin called PodPress that’s dedicated to
helping you publish your podcast via your WordPress blog.
Once you install the plugin, all you need to do is upload the MP3 or MP4 file to
your blog via PodPress in your WordPress back office. The PodPress plugin
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provides a flash-based MP3 player where your blog visitors are able to play the
track directly from your blog. It also provides a direct download to the MP3 or
MP4 file for users to download and play the track directly through a media
player device such as an iPod.
Remember to use the Feedburner service
If you’re going to give this a go, remember to ‘burn’ your blog category feed that
you’re using for the podcast through the Feedburner service – and remember to
select the ‘podcast’ option on Feedburner.
(For example, I used
http://www.purpleinternetmarketing.com/blog/tags/podcast/ as the category on
the Purple Internet Marketing website for an old podcast, but instead of using
the feed address
http://www.purpleinternetmarketing.com/blog/tags/podcast/feed as my podcast
feed, I burned this address with Feedburner to create
http://feeds.feedburner.com/InternetMarketingStrategyPodcast as the new
podcast feed URL.)
Creating a new podcast feed with Feedburner gives you two distinct advantages.
First of all, as with your blog feed, you get access to a lot of useful statistics such
as the number of listeners you have and what software they are using to
subscribe to your feed. Secondly, Feedburner will also submit your podcast to
various podcast directories.
Don’t commit to a schedule before you try podcasting
Podcasting is a marketing medium which is worthwhile trying. The great thing
about it is that you don’t have to commit to a regular schedule. It could simply be
delivered on an ad-hoc basis as part of your blog posting strategy.
If you find out that podcasting suits your communication style then perhaps you
can publish episodes on a regular basis in the future, but the important thing is
just to give it a go.
An added benefit to podcasting – transcripts
If you do decide to publish a podcast, then you may also want to create audio
transcripts. This way, you can provide written content in your blog from the
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podcast and search engines will pick this up as fresh new content, helping you
significantly with better search engine results.
Another positive with offering transcripts to your podcasts is that you’re also
catering for people who struggle with hearing your audio, or simply prefer the
written word as a communications medium.
Of course you can outsource the transcription of your podcasts. One such place is
CastingWords.com, who will transcribe audio from only 75 cents a minute. This
can ensure that you use your own resources in a much more cost efficient
manner. (Note: Additional transcription services are listed at
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar3)
Pillar #3 – Blog Technology Summary
· A blog doesn’t necessarily have to be published in a journal style and
displayed in chronological order. The content of a blog can be anything from
articles to opinions and the most important aspect about a blog from a
business standpoint is the technology – the inbuilt automated internet
marketing capability
· Wordpress.org is probably the most appropriate blogging software for most
businesses. It’s free to use, state-of-the-art and offers bespoke design and
functionality
· Plugins are small software programs designed by independent coders that
add additional functionality to your blog. There are thousands of plugins to
choose from and most of them are free-of-charge.
· Pinging and RSS feeds can be used to help to automate your blog marketing.
Pinging is the process that makes a blog and news directories aware of the fact
that you’ve just published a new post. RSS Feeds let people subscribe to your
content and allow them to view the content without actually visiting your site.
· Podcasting can be used as a way to augment your blog posts. Podcasts are
generally audio (or video) files, and they are published using RSS so
subscribers are alerted as soon as a new episode is published. Tools such as
Audacity and Skype can be used to create and edit podcasts. iTunes is the
most popular software to use to subscribe to a podcast feed.
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Pillar #4
Autoresponders
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Pillar #4 – Autoresponders
________________________________________________________________________
Autoresponders aren’t just an automatic email response delivered by your
email software when you are out of the office. They can be an extremely
effective part of your internet marketing arsenal. Among other things,
autoresponders can deliver personalized broadcast e-mails and newsletters to
your entire email list – at a predetermined time. Pillar #4 Autoresponders looks
at the best autoresponder software available; how to build a responsive and
worthwhile list of recipients; as well as building relationships with your contact
list so that you improve your email conversion rates over time.
What are autoresponders?
Autoresponders are anything delivered by email automatically at a
predetermined time that can be partly personalized for the recipient.
Because these emails often include people's names, the recipients commonly
think that they are receiving personal emails from you, rather than an automated
e-mail machine!
An autoresponder sequence can be set up so that e-mails are delivered on a set
day of the month or over intervals of time after somebody subscribes.
Autoresponder sequences can be as long or as short as you want – when people
subscribe to your updates, you can decide if they should receive an email after 2
days, 10 days, 21 days, or even as much as 5 years.
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Other uses of an autoresponder service
But autoresponders don’t just have to be emails or email newsletters. They can
also be used to deliver a step-by-step email course. You could perhaps
encourage your website visitors to subscribe to a short email course delivered
over a few days with a view to upselling a better, more informative email course
after building a trusting relationship with the prospect over the free course.
You can also use an autoresponder to deliver a free product, and use this to build
an opt-in list. For instance, if you have a free PDF report that you want to offer
you can deliver it via your autoresponder, and get people to automatically
subscribe to your newsletter or email updates when they request the free report.
Once they have subscribed or opted-in to your list, you can then market to them
at any point in the future, either by using an autoresponder sequence over a
period of time or by using broadcast emails. (Unless they decide to opt-out.)
Broadcast emails
Broadcast emails are an important part of using an autoresponder service. Not
everything can be built into sequence in advance - some items are timely in that
they are focused on products or events that maybe sold out by a certain date. By
sending broadcast emails to people, you are sending them offers or providing
information that is pertinent to a particular date.
By using a decent autoresponder, if you have a list of 1 to a million people, you
can send a personalized broadcast email on a particular issue to your group of
subscribers within an hour.
If I were sending an email for the first time to a list that is business to business,
you can perhaps send one email introducing yourself, your product and/or your
services, without an unsubscribe option. (Please check your own country for
legislation appropriate for you.) However, you should not send emails to private
e-mail addresses who haven’t already agreed to receive an email from you.
A good autoresponder service will automatically include an unsubscribe option
in all of your emails, to allow recipients to easily remove themselves from your
mailing list if they decide that they do not want to hear from you again in the
future. As you do not want to have your email address flagged as a SPAM
sender, this is wise to do.
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Newsletters
Email Newsletters are generally a little bit more formal, but can be built into an
autoresponder process as well. You can load newsletters into an autoresponder,
so that they will be delivered either on a certain date or within a certain period of
time after people have subscribed to that sequence.
If you have a period of time available (perhaps a quiet time in your business
year) you can complete the work of writing a series of newsletters for the whole
year. These can be uploaded to your autoresponder, and the recipients will
automatically get the newsletters at specified times throughout the year.
Email marketing software
Which autoresponder should you use? One that I recommend, probably the most
popular one available, is called AWeber, (Figure 4.1) which is probably the
world’s most popular autoresponder service. (Visit
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar4 to view up-to-date
recommendations.)
Figure 4.1 – AWeber.com
AWeber Communications
The disadvantage with using your own server to deliver email
If you are using your own server to send emails to your list at the moment then
you’re at a serious disadvantage. Your servers will not be trusted enough by
other email programs to get the kind of delivery rate that as service like AWeber
can give you. If you’re currently sending emails from your own domain, you
may be struggling to deliver up to half of your emails without knowing it. This is
probably partly due to your domain’s IP address not being trusted enough by
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SPAM filters.
Advantages of using an experienced email marketing company’s server
Because an experienced email marketing / autoresponder service has been
established for many years, this has given them an opportunity to build a trusted
relationship with many email providers. This means that services like Hotmail
and Gmail will know that when an email is sent through a service like AWeber,
the person who is receiving the correspondence has requested to receive it.
This is just one of the reasons why if you are thinking of building up an email
list, then I advise that hosting that email list on an on an experienced email
marketing company’s server, and sending e-mails out from that server is the best
approach.
Emails being sent by such as service can still look as if they are being sent from
you. They can still appear to come from your email address, and you can still
receive replies to your own email address. However you are using someone
else’s more trusted server to ensure that the vast majority of emails reach the
person they are intended for.
Figure 4.2 – Writing an email using AWeber
AWeber Communications
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More about AWeber
AWeber provides autoresponder and newsletter functionality. It supplies HTML
templates for newsletters as well, so you can easily design your own newsletter,
upload it, and deliver it whenever you want.
Another thing you can do with AWeber, which is worthwhile considering if you
have or are going to have a blog, is to import RSS feeds into the service, and
automate the delivery of these posts as a newsletter. Many people prefer to
subscribe to email updates rather than an RSS feed, and AWeber can provide you
with the functionality to give your subscribers this opportunity. Of course
offering this service also encourages people to join your email list – and provides
you with a bigger subscriber list for future marketing campaigns.
Personalizing your automated emails
After you create an account and login to AWeber, you may wish to write your
email content in your normal word processer before copying and pasting it into
AWeber’s text editor. (Figure 4.2) Here you will have the option to include
personalized fields such as the names of people you wish to send your emails to.
You can use a greeting e.g. "Hi," or and then a variable for their name, which will
automatically insert their name from your email list.
The variable that you use in order to automatically include a subscriber’s first
name within the email is {!firstname_fix}. This variable will include a subscriber’s
personalized first name in each email, but also ensures that a capital letter is used
at the beginning of the name after it is inserted.
Sending HTML newsletters
AWeber lets you send HTML email newsletters as well as plain text newsletters.
A HTML email allows you to use more color and create more visually attractive
designs. However, it’s very important that you test deliverability rates and the
actual design that your subscribers see in different types of email reading
software. (E.g. Outlook, Entourage, Gmail, Hotmail etc.) Just because something
looks good on your computer, don’t assume that it looks just the same on other
people’s computers.
An important rule of thumb is to always send a plain text version of the
newsletter as well as the HTML version. This means that if the HTML version
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gets stuck in SPAM filters – or for some other reason isn’t able to be displayed –
then the plain text version should reach your subscriber.
Setting goals for your newsletters
In addition to being useful and informative, the content and format of your
newsletter should relate to the action you wish your subscribers to take after they
read your newsletter. If you wish them to browse through your website navigate
through your items for sale, you should consider including a mini navigation
menu in your newsletter which replicates the selection of choices available in
your website navigation.
There is no definitive answer on whether an HTML or plain text email campaign
will work best for you business – the only way to know for sure is to test, and
good email software like AWeber will have an inbuilt split testing capability
build into its program.
Set an objective
When sending out emails you should have a certain target or objective in mind.
You need to consider your intention behind sending that email when creating
and formatting the content. Do you want them to click on a link? If you wish
them to visit a certain page on your website, you should mention the link at least
twice within the email – and feature it prominently, describing the benefit for
your subscriber to click on the link.
More reasons to communicate with your audience on a regular basis
You can use regular email contact with your subscribers via an autoresponder for
virtually any reason – email is a great tool to build relationships.
Many long-term, successful email marketing campaigns often send out two or
three emails in a row which have no end-goal to ‘sell’ anything. The primary
purpose of these emails is to build a relationship with the subscriber by offering
good, solid, reliable information. The advantage with offering such valuable,
useful content is when you do decide to recommend a particular product or
service in a future email, your subscriber is much more likely to trust your
recommendation and make a purchase decision.
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Build relationships first
A significant advantage with using autoresponders is that they give you the
ability to build relationships people on with your email list – without having to
make personal contact with them. An autoresponder sequence can increase the
level of trust that your subscribers feel for you. This increased level of trust, in
turn, greatly improves the likelihood of that subscriber converting to a customer
in the future.
An important tip is to get started on building your email subscriber list at the
earliest opportunity. Even though you don’t have a future email marketing
strategy, by building up a bank of subscribers, you’re safeguarding your
business’ future.
Figure 4.3 – An opt-in form on the 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan website
An AWeber opt-in form on www.26weekplan.com
Installing an opt-in form on your website
AWeber (and other autoresponder and email software services) will supply you
with some code to paste on your web pages. This code displays a simple opt-in
form (Figure 4.3). You can personalize the text used to suit your needs. In this
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Pillar #4 – Autoresponders - 57 -
example I’ve chosen to use ‘Free Tips & Updates’.
Having this type of form on your website will let your visitors subscribe to your
future updates – assuming they like your present website content. They can
simply enter their names and email addresses. This in turn allows you to start to
build an opt-in list.
Double opt-in or single opt-in?
AWeber insists on something called a double opt-in, which means that when
people enter their name and email address into your form, they are not
automatically subscribed even when they select ‘submit’. Instead, your want-tobe
subscriber gets an email back to their email address saying something like,
“We want to make sure that you did actually request to subscribe to this list, so
please click on this link to confirm”. Your intended subscriber has to click on
that link before they are added to your list.
The double opt-in not only decreases the risk for AWeber that their servers are
being used to send SPAM email. It increases the quality of your own email
subscribers. A double opt-in is not legally necessary, but it is advised by many
because you can demonstrate that your recipients have definitely opted-in to
receive your email updates.
There are, however, pros and cons with using single or double opt-ins when
collecting subscriber data. If you use a single opt-in, you’re probably going to
get more subscribers – and you will be able to import subscribers from previous
campaigns to your new email software. If you’re using double opt-in, your list
won’t be as big – but it will be of better quality.
Which ever way you choose to go (double or single opt-in) will have its benefits
and drawbacks. If you are particularly good at managing data, and send regular
updates to your subscribers like clockwork then single opt-in may well be best
for you. However, this is where it’s probably best to seek the advice of a
professional internet marketing consultant before making the decision on what’s
the correct choice for your business.
How to build a bigger subscriber list
Just having the one opt-in box on your site is not going to maximize your
number of subscribers. By solely relying on the one opt-in box on your website
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sidebar you’ll be lucky if you get more than one percent of your website visitors
who choose to subscribe to your updates – but there are much quicker ways to
build an email list.
Figure 4.4 – The 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing pre-launch screenshot
www.13pillars.com
Start by focusing on an individual market segment. If you are a reasonable-sized
business you are likely to have a range of products and services within your
portfolio. You should aim to focus on niche markets within your portfolio by
targeting individual pages and offer an incentive for people to receive for
information about the subject matter that interests them.
Figure 4.4 is a screenshot of what the www.13pillars.com website looked like
before this book was released. It was just a single-page website which had one
main purpose – telling people to subscribe to updates if they wanted to be made
aware as soon as the book launched. Because there was just the one requested
action – and because the incentive was significant (a big free ebook), a significant
percentage of people who visited this page decided to opt-in to the subscriber
list.
Optimizing your opt-in request
There are many different on-page aspects that you can improve in order to
increase the likelihood of somebody deciding to submit their personal details
into one of your forms.
Firstly, you need to ensure that your persuasive reason to opt-in is targeted at
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Pillar #4 – Autoresponders - 59 -
exactly the right audience. Secondly, you need to ensure that the reason to enter
their details in your form is as compelling as possible.
If building an emails list is important to your business model – and it should be –
then you should be prepared to test every aspect of your opt-in page or page
section in order to maximize your conversion rates. This topic is reviewed in
much greater depth in the 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan.
(www.26weekplan.com)
Increasing double-opt-in conversion rates
If you’re using a double-opt-in autoresponder service like AWeber, your signups
will reach a page after they complete the form. And you have the option of
personalizing this page in any manner that you see fit.
Figure 4.5 – Increasing double-opt-in percentages
An example of how to increase your double-opt-in conversion rates
Should you wish to, you can use this ‘space’ to try to sell a product or service, or
direct your interested parties towards the best free content on your website.
Alternatively, what I would recommend if you are running a double-opt-in
process is to tell people to go to their email service and click on a link in an email
that you have just sent them. This confirms the opt-in. (Hence double opt-in)
Figure 4.5 shows a screenshot from a page which attempts to maximize double
opt-in conversion rates. This is an example of a page that people might see once
they have completed the first stage of the double-opt-in (filled out the form) but
have yet to click on the link in their email to complete the joining of the list.
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By now you should know that if you do decide to use a double-opt-in
autoresponder then there are prod and cons. One of the cons in that you are
never going to be able to get everyone who completes the first stage of the
double-opt-in process to complete the second stage. Some people have an
inherent distrust of clicking links belonging to website domains that they don’t
know. All you can do is try to maximize the percentage of people to go on to
complete the double opt-in. It’s never going to be 100%.
However, selling the double opt-in process to the people that complete your
form (as in the page seen in figure 4.5) should hopefully mean that 85% of these
people go back to their inbox and click on the link in their email.
Remember – this double opt-in process is protecting you as well as your
subscribers. It means that you won’t be in any danger of a competitor trying to
list you as a SPAM sender by subscribing people to your list who haven’t asked
to be subscribed. It also means that you won’t be trying to send emails to fake
email addresses.
More ways to encourage people to opt-in
The more that your opt-in focus is targeted towards a niche market segment, the
higher your conversion rates should be. However, it’s good practice that you
should also consider having lots of different methods of encouraging your
visitors to subscribe to the same list.
For example, you can give away a free eBook as an incentive to join your list.
This can be delivered in the form of a PDF and the whole delivery process can be
automated through your autoresponder software.
An addition or instead to a free eBook how about a free email course, delivered
on a daily or weekly basis for a set period of time? Again, once you set this up
with your autoresponder the whole process is automated. An email course has
the added benefit over an eBook of continually reminding people about you –
and thus automatically building a better relationship with your subscribers.
What to do after people opt-in
It’s one thing building an email list and another thing entirely continuing a
relationship with that email list over a period of time. It’s imperative to
determine a long-term newsletter or email content strategy for your
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Pillar #4 – Autoresponders - 61 -
correspondence with your subscribers.
You need to decide on your message, your communication style and your
message sending schedule – prior to starting a campaign. It’s a big mistake to
alter any of these 3 areas significantly after you start. One of your aims should be
to try to be dependable and predictable for your subscribers.
It's impossible to say that you should only send so many emails per day, week or
month to your list. Some people are quite comfortable receiving an email every
day if it is good, free information and if it is appropriate to the particular market
segment you are aiming at. If you train your list to expect one email per week,
then that is what you should send. If you train your list to expect one email per
day, then that is what you should send.
Building automated relationships and minimizing ‘unsubscribes’
Once tool I always make use of when giving away free eBooks via an
autoresponder is the automation of a few messages in the days and weeks that
follow after the free eBook has been delivered.
It’s all well and good to get people to fill out the form, perform the double opt-in
if appropriate, receive your eBook and then be subscribed to your updates.
However, if your new subscriber receives an email that isn’t much to do with his
free eBook shortly after subscribing, there’s a very good chance that this new
prospect – a prospect you’ve worked very hard to obtain – will instantaneously
decide to unsubscribe from receiving future correspondence.
You need to remember that the people who have just decided to fill out a form to
receive your free eBook probably haven’t heard of you before – and almost
certainly haven’t subscribed to your email updates before.
Because of this, in order to try to minimize the likelihood of your new lead
deciding to unsubscribe immediately, you should deliver some email
correspondence initially that relates directly to the eBook – or adds value to the
eBook. For example, a week after delivering the eBook you may want to
automate the sending of an email that covers the common questions that people
have from the eBook. A week after that perhaps you may wish to deliver a
follow-up chapter. Perhaps after that you could ask your new subscriber for
some feedback on the eBook. All this communication continues to build a
relationship with your new prospect while training them to expect good,
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relevant information from you on a weekly basis.
Building Relationships by Surveying
As per the previous paragraph I suggested that you may be able to request some
customer feedback as part of your autoresponder sequence. In other words, you
can continue to build relationships with your list of subscribers by surveying.
For example, you may wish to send out a survey to your longer term subscribers
saying something like, ‘We are thinking of offering these products in the future
and we are considering between these three or four different widgets to include
as part of the product features – which features would you prefer?’
This is fantastic tool for market research as it targets your existing customers.
Not only is it market research, it’s a great way of building relationships with
your list at the same time.
Perhaps you want to consider building a monthly survey into your regular email
communication with your subscribers. This will provide invaluable information
and the whole process can be automated through your autoresponder. The only
caveat I’d put on implementation of this is not to do it too often – perhaps a
maximum of one in every four emails.
Survey software
Another method of starting to add surveys to your online marketing strategy is
to publish them as a blog post – this has added value because you’re displaying
‘social proof’ when you demonstrate to other readers that you have many people
who are interested in participating in the vote. If you use WordPress then you
can add a survey as a plugin. One of the most popular WordPress survey plugins
is called SurveyGizmo.
By adding a survey as part of your website interaction, it encourages your users
to become a little more ‘sticky’ – that is, a little more likely to stick around for
longer. People will be more likely come back to your websites in the future. If
you wanted to add a survey to a stand-alone website, (where there isn’t a
WordPress blog installed) there is a good free service called SurveyMonkey
(Figure 4.6) that you should consider using.
Note: SurveyMonkey also offer a paid service as well, which will let you create
everything with your own branding as well as receiving more survey results.
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Pillar #4 – Autoresponders - 63 -
However, the free version is great too.
Figure 4.6 – SurveyMonkey
You can use survey monkey to easily create online surveys
Why building a list of interested subscribers is so important
If you build a list of relevant, interested subscribers it means you won’t have to
rely on the search engines in the long term for your Internet marketing. And like
any business, if you have just one customer, or you have one source of
customers, and that source suddenly dries up, then your business will suffer.
If you are fortunate enough to be able to drive lots of visitors to your website
from search engines, then take advantage of that by preparing for an uncertain
future – just in case.
Convert those website visitors into leads by using an autoresponder to deliver
additional content that isn’t available elsewhere. By doing so you’re reclaiming
greater control over your website visitor traffic.
Pillar #4 – Autoresponders Summary
· Autoresponders are a great way for you to build relationships with your
customers. They can deliver virtually anything by email on an automated,
pre-meditated and usually personalized basis.
· Broadcast Emails are informal emails which are usually personalized to the
receiver. They are great for sending up-to-date news and building better
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business relationships. When creating the text for e-mails they should be as
personalized and relevant as possible to cement the relationship.
· Newsletters are a more formal, professional method of keeping in touch with
your client list and are a great reason for regular communication with your
customers. A newsletter can be sent immediately, or pre-loaded into you
autoresponder to be delivered on a certain date. They can also be part of an
autoresponder sequence, delivered so many days, weeks or months after the
initial sign-up.
· One of the autoresponder which I recommend which is specifically built for
email marketing is called AWeber. Find links to AWeber and other
recommended email marketing resources here:
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar4
· Building a list of relevant subscribers is an essential aspect of successful
internet marketing, and you can greatly speed this process up by offering free
bonus content or a PDF eBook as an incentive for people to subscriber to your
newsletter or email updates.
· Having a large, responsive email database will take the onus off relying on
search engines for traffic in the future. It’s never good to have total reliance on
something that brings in a lot of business which you don’t control.
· By building a thoughtful, relevant autoresponder sequence into your new
subscriber process you will be automatically building business brand loyalty
without having to speak to your subscribers personally.
· Use autoresponders to survey your subscribers. This is a great way of
conducting market research in addition to continuing to grow the quality of
your subscriber relationships.
© Copyright 2007-2010 Purple Internet Marketing Limited www.26WeekPlan.com
Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising - 65 -
Pillar #5
Paid Advertising
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Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising
________________________________________________________________________
Paid advertising is an essential part of most internet marketing campaigns. I
would like to focus on two key paid advertising methods, both of which I
consider to be an essential part of any internet marketing campaign.
1) Pay per click advertising - using services like Google AdWords
2) Major directory submissions – getting your website featured in major
directories such as the Yahoo! directory.
Pay per click
Although there are hundreds of different pay per click networks, I’d like to
concentrate of three of the biggest…
1) Google AdWords
2) Yahoo Search Marketing
3) Microsoft AdCenter
Google AdWords
Google AdWords is by far the largest pay per click network – it has access to the
largest amount of prospective customers, so it’s the best place to start.
In order to use Google AdWords, you need to create a Google account – it’s free
to do this. Once you login you will be able to view instructions of how to get
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Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising - 67 -
going with your campaign. In the sign up wizard you will be able to target your
advert to a specific country, area or town (Figure 5.1).
Figure 5.1 – Google AdWords
Starting your Google AdWords campaign
Writing your advert
After selecting your location and language, it’s time to write your advert.
However, before you do this you should consider your target market and the
keyword phrases appropriate for your campaign.
Using the Wordtracker service discussed in Pillar #1 Keyword Research, you need
to obtain a list of keyword phrases suitable to describe what you are going to
advertise.
Your landing page, hence your advert should be targeted towards a very specific
market segment, giving you the best opportunity to convert your visitors
through to your particular goals for the campaign.
Maximizing your conversion rates
You will maximize your conversion rates by designing a unique landing page for
each area of pay per click focus. Once you have designed your landing page and
are comfortable with your keyword phrases, you need to ensure that the correct
landing page URL is used with each PPC (pay per click) ad.
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Setting your budget
After researching your keyword phrases using Wordtracker, you then insert
these in the box titled ‘Enter as many specific words or phrases as you like, one
per link’ (Figure 5.2). Next choose your currency and set your budget. It doesn’t
have to be a significant investment to begin with, but it’s a good idea to start a
campaign wit your budget spread throughout the week to try and determine
optimum conversion periods.
Figure 5.2 – Google AdWords
Selecting your keywords in Google AdWords
Calculating your maximum bid
Your cost that you will have to pay per click in order to have to appear on the
first page of pay per click results will vary considerable depending on what
industry with are wishing to target.
One industry sector that’s notoriously costly is finance where you may even have
to pay more than $10 per click for certain keywords.
However, bear in mind that you may be paying an exorbitant amount to take the
top listing. I often find that you get best value for a decent volume of traffic by
aiming to appear in the third position.
Three Essential AdWords Tips
Running a successful pay per click advertising campaign can take a great deal of
time, but there a few things that you can be doing to move ahead of the
competition.
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Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising - 69 -
1) Use square brackets
I recommend placing square brackets around all of your keyword phrases – at
least until you can prove that your campaign is reaching your initial objectives.
e.g. [luxury cruise to mars] instead of luxury cruise to mars
Without the square brackets, this example advert will appear for anyone that
types in any of the luxury cruise to mars words into a search engine.
However, with the square brackets you are aiming for a much more specific
market, as the advert will only appear when people type that specific phrase into
Google. Using the square brackets will narrow your focus and allow you to aim
your campaign at a very specific market segment. This should help to optimize
your conversion rates.
Only once you have started to create a profit from your ‘exact match’ keyword
phrases then you can test moving towards more of a ‘broad match’ option. A
broad match advert will bring in more traffic, but it will be less targeted traffic.
That’s the reason that there’s no point in getting a broad match campaign up and
running unless you can make a profit out of an exact match keyword campaign.
2) Test your ads constantly
There’s no point in assuming that just because you’ve got an advert which is
generating high enough conversion rates to give you a decent profit that there
still aren’t any improvements that you can make to your Google AdWords
campaign.
Google AdWords has a built-in functionality (A:B split-testing) which lets you
split-test different parts of your adverts with alternative versions in order to
determine the optimum version of that advert.
You are able to split-test your ad title, description and URL – and it’s important
to test all 3 aspects of your advert at different times in order to develop your
overall winner.
Testing your ad title
Start with your title. When you’re testing your ad title, you need to ensure that
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your description and URL is the same in all version of the ad that you’re testing.
You’d be surprised at how such a small change can make such an incredibly
large difference to your conversion rates. For example, something as simple as a
question mark at the end of your ad title has the power to significantly alter your
ad click-through rates.
The tricky thing about your ad title is that it can be no more than around 25
characters in length. This significantly impacts what you can say – and the
chances are that you won’t be able to say as much as you want to. This limit in
length makes it even more important to ensure that you’re maximizing the
potential of this little piece of sales space.
When you are testing one ad against the other – and all you are changing is the
title, you may well be shocked at the differences in click-through rate
percentages. The Google AdWords software will provide you with all the stats
and control measures that you require in order to determine which of your ad
titles you should choose to use over the longer-term.
The important thing when you’re doing your testing is to absolutely make sure
that you change just the one variable. That way you’ll be 100% sure what is
having the impact on your click-through rates.
Testing your ad description
After you’re comfortable with your ad title, the next thing to work on is your ad
description. Again, just like the title, there aren’t many words to work with.
You’ll be luck to manage to squeeze in 10 words, so these 10 words will have to
be thought over very carefully.
Because you are so limited by space, it’s important not to think that you have to
have perfect English. The most important thing is conversion rates, so just
because your description doesn’t work as a sentence, it doesn’t mean that it’s not
worth testing. Doing something as simple as swapping round the first and
second lines of the ad description can increase the click-through rates enough to
turn a loss-making campaign in to a profit-making one.
Another significant aspect of running the most efficient PPC campaign possible
is to have an additional focus on Google’s quality score.
Google wants to ensure that although it’s making money from its PPC service, its
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Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising - 71 -
users feel that they are getting value from the PPC adverts – in other words the
adverts are for what they claim to be. In order to try to ensure that the adverts
are as relevant as possible, Google will consider the quality and relevance of the
landing page in addition to the quality and relevance of the advert as well as the
bid amount and click-through rate in order to determine where to position the
advert in their listings.
Because of this, you should try to include the keyword phrase that you are
targeting in your description – and ideally in your ad title and URL as well.
Testing your URL
Once you’ve tested your ad title and description, next in line is your ad URL.
One of my website addresses (URLs) is www.PurpleInternetMarketing.com.
However, that’s not necessarily going to be the best website address to use in a
Google AdWords advert.
Although this Purple Internet Marketing website address includes the words
‘Internet Marketing’ it isn’t from a country-specific TLD (top-level domain – i.e.
the .com part). It also doesn’t indicate what type of internet marketing service
that the company specializes in.
Alternative options to test would include using a country specific TLD like .co.uk
if the service was tailored towards that particular UK-based market segment.
Another possibility would be to have a domain name which specifically
describes the service being offered (e.g. emarketingseminars.co.uk).
Although testing different website addresses in your advert is the last thing that
you should be testing, and you should only bother testing a different website
address if you’re already happy with your conversion rates from your existing
advert, it is certainly worth bearing in mind that the URL that you are displaying
underneath your advert could be significantly impacting your conversion rates.
Just because you’re already making a profit from your campaign doesn’t mean
that you couldn’t be making more money by further improving your clickthrough
rates.
3) Use negative matches
It’s also worthwhile testing descriptions to include reasons not to click on your
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advert. This sounds counter-intuitive, but it pays to remember that you’re
looking for customers – not clicks!
For example, if somebody is specifically searching for something for free, there is
very little point in encouraging them to click on your advert if all you offer is
paid products. Including a price in your description may reduce your click
through-rates but it will probably increase the quality of those clicks. This means
that you aren’t paying as much for your traffic (as you’ll be paying for fewer
clicks).
This strategy does however have to be used in conjunction with analyzing the
effect it is having on your Google AdWords quality score. The lower your clickthrough
rates, the lower position that Google is likely to show your ad.
To test a negative match strategy, all you have to do is include a negative symbol
in front of the keyword that you don’t want your ad to appear for if they type it
into a search engine.
For instance, if you don’t want your advert to appear when somebody includes
the word free as part of their web search, then you’d include –free in your list of
Google AdWords keywords.
Note that this strategy does not apply for exact phrase match campaigns as will
already have chosen the specific phrases for which you want your ad to appear.
Google AdWords summary
Because it’s the biggest and can drive you the most quality traffic, Google
AdWords should always be your first port of call when it comes to pay-per-click
marketing. Only once you’re confident that you’re driving as much PPC traffic
from Google AdWords as possible should you start trialing other services found
at http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar5.
If you are struggling to make money from Google AdWords, then you should
revisit whether or not you’ve thoroughly tested all the different aspects of your
campaign to try to improve you conversion rates. Google AdWords works for
millions of businesses, and the chances are that if it doesn’t work for you then it’s
something that you’re doing wrong, not something that’s wrong with Google
AdWords!
© Copyright 2007-2010 Purple Internet Marketing Limited www.26WeekPlan.com
Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising - 73 -
Major Directories
Another form of important paid advertising that is major directory submissions.
Search engines like Google crawl all the major website directories, and if your
website features in a relevant major directory category then this will enhance
your website’s reputation in the eyes of the search engine.
There are many significant directories getting your website listed in. However
many you choose to try to get listed in will depend on your budget and time.
Four major directories that I would always advise trying to get your website
listed in are DMOZ (The Open Directory Project), Yahoo Directory, Business.com
Directory and Best of the Web (BOTW.org).
DMOZ
DMOZ (the Open Directory Project – Figure 5.3) is the biggest free-to-get-listed
website directory. However, free often has its downside. On this instance it’s the
fact that the editing and publishing of these free submissions are made by
volunteers. This means that submissions have taken a very long time to get
published in the past – sometimes over 6 months and some editors have been
accused of being less than neutral when it comes to deciding which sites to
publish.
Figure 5.3 – DMOZ.org
DMOZ – The Open Directory Project
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All in all with DMOZ, the best thing to do is to make sure you find the correct
category, write and independent website description and submit your website.
Then forget about it. It may get listed, it might not. You can’t do anything more
about it after you make your submission, so once you do so, just move on and
start to concentrate on other directories.
Yahoo directory
The next major directory that you try to get your website listed in should be the
Yahoo directory. Although there is a free submission option with Yahoo, in
reality if you do that there’s hardly any chance that you’ll manage to get your
website listed.
The best thing to do with the Yahoo directory is to forget that the free submission
option exists and pay the $299 annual fee for guaranteed review within 7 days.
Just bear in mind that if they decide not to list your site you will not get your
money back. In my experience as long as you are not overtly selling in your title
or your description of your website, and your website does what it says in the
description, and it belongs to the category you submit it to then you should get it
listed without any problem.
Submitting a website to the Yahoo directory
Using the fictitious case study of Freddy Faldo with his golf equipment shop - he
would use the Yahoo directory and browse to find his initial category - Sports.
Figure 5.4 – The Yahoo! directory
Finding the ‘Sports’ sub-category in the Yahoo! directory
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Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising - 75 -
He would then browse through the various sub-categories within the sports
category, browsing his way through ‘Golf’, ‘Shopping and Services’, ‘Equipment’
and ‘Retailers’.
By browsing all the different sub-categories within the Yahoo! directory Freddie
takes the time and effort to ensure that he has chosen to submit his website to the
most appropriate category for his business. This, along with ensuring that his
website title and description is accurate and contains no hype should mean that
Freddie shouldn’t have any problems with getting his website listed in Yahoo.
Although getting listed in the Yahoo directory should help your website’s search
engine rankings, the traffic that you get directly from the Yahoo directory should
justify the listing fee alone, assuming that your website model is revenue-based.
The Business.com directory
The Business.com directory (Figure 5.5) is another extremely popular website
directory which is well thought of by search engines.
However, as the name suggests, it is a website directory which largely focuses on
businesses, which means that if you offer a business-to-consumer services, it
probably wouldn’t be worth your time or money submitting your website.
Figure 5.5 – business.com
Business.com – more aimed at business-to-business services
Best of the web directory
The last major directory that I’d like to cover in this segment is called Best of the
Web (botw.org – figure 5.6). Again, in a similar manner to getting your website
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listed in the Yahoo Directory, it’s important to browse through the site and select
a website category which is particularly relevant for your business in order to get
your listing approved.
Figure 5.6 – botw.org
Best of the web – another worthwhile directory
At the time of writing Best of the Web charges either a one-time review fee of
$249.95 or an annual fee of $99.95. Links to all the above directories and many
more up-to-date directory resources can be found at
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar5.
Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising Summary
· Google AdWords should be your primary initial focus for pay-per-click
website traffic. Only when you’ve mastered AdWords should you move onto
other services like Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft AdCenter and
Facebook Advertising.
· When creating your Google AdWords ad, use square brackets to get an exact
match of your keyword phrase. Always test your ads to work out which
strategies work best by remembering to take advantage of the Google
AdWords A:B split testing functionality.
· It’s incredibly important to optimize your ad landing pages as well as your
pay-per-click adverts. In an ideal world you’ll have a landing page which has
been designed with a specific advert in mind.
© Copyright 2007-2010 Purple Internet Marketing Limited www.26WeekPlan.com
Pillar #6 – Press Releases - 77 -
Pillar #6
Press Releases
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Pillar #6 – Press Releases
________________________________________________________________________
Online press releases are slightly different to conventional offline press
releases. Conventional press releases are targeted at encouraging a journalist to
reprint part or all of your release in their publication. However, in addition to
targeting journalists, an online press release also needs to focus on tow other
areas:
The end reader – your target market may end up reading your online press
release on a press release website.
Search engine optimization – many press release websites have significant
authority with search engines because of the volume of original material which is
regularly published. Because of this, an online press release should be structured
in an optimized manner.
Online press releases should also help you by increasing your brand awareness,
and increasing your number of leads.
Online press releases as part of your internet marketing strategy
An online press release can be one of the most effective methods of promoting a
new website. And one of the great things about an online press release
submission is that it doesn’t have to cost anything near to the cost of submitting a
press release through a conventional PR agency.
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An online press release doesn’t have to be completely unique, but it should have
a unique angle, something which will encourage journalists to consider
republishing a segment from your release.
If writing a press release is your forte, you my well find that just half an hour per
week focused in writing and submitting press releases could be an extremely
effective form of internet marketing.
5 online press release tips
The following are 5 characteristics which embody an effective press release…
1) Have a great, eye catching title – and include your keyword phrase
Your headline needs to be targeted at journalists, end readers, and search
engines. In other words, in needs to be engaging enough for both journalists and
other interested readers to be encouraged to read further – and it needs to
include a keyword phrase that you deem suitable for the story.
2) Briefly describe the story in the first two lines, again including your
keyword phrase
The first two lines of your press release should contain absolutely no waffle. It
should try to summarize your whole press release story while also including a
reason to read further. Finally, in should also include the same keyword phrase
that you included in the title.
3) Keep all paragraphs short and to the point
All the paragraphs from your press release should be as simple as possible, with
no more than three or four lines per paragraph. It is difficult for a reader to
browse through long bits or chunks of text online, and journalists are even more
likely to stop and move on to the next release if they perceive yours to be even
the slightest bit dull. Eliminate anything that doesn’t contribute to your story.
4) Include a call to action
A well-constructed press release will have two distinct calls to action for a
journalist. Firstly, an easy-to-capture section within your press release of which
the journalist use as a section within one of their own articles. Secondly, a source
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for more information on the specific subject matter being discussed in your press
release.
You also need to include a call to action for readers who are interested in your
subject matter on a personal level. To achieve this, you need to include a rather
subtle mention of not only you and your company – but also what your company
does.
An example of a call to action which may be of interest to both journalists and
readers would be something like an invitation to read a full report on the subject
matter discussed in the press release.
5) Include a non-HTML URL link
It’s extremely important to include a non-HTML full http:// version of your URL
in your online press release. This is your domain name with http:// and perhaps
www. (depending on your chosen website address format) in front of it. The
reason being, if journalists or bloggers republish your press release online, quite
often, this URL will automatically be converted into a live link.
Where to publish – PRWeb
Probably the biggest press release site in the world is PRWeb (Figure 6.1).
PRWeb is good for a broad range of press releases as it has a wide audience of
journalists and end readers interested in a broad range of subject matter.
PRWeb basic visibility package: $80
The $80 PRWeb press release option provides you with a reasonable level of
visibility. As well as making your release available to Google News and Yahoo
News, it gets syndicated to up to 5 industry specific targets and 2 regional
targets. This syndication allows you to gain visibility in front of journalists who
have specifically requested to be made aware when a press release from those
industry sectors have been published.
PRWeb have thousands of journalists worldwide who are subscribing to the
various industry and regional channels, ensuring that you have an increased
chance to get your story in front of the most relevant pairs of eyes.
At the time of writing, PRWeb have 4 different levels of press release
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distribution. These services range from $80 to $360.
Figure 6.1 – PRWeb
PRWeb is the largest press release website
I would recommend for you to try the $80 press release distribution service
initially. I wouldn’t recommend going for the higher cost distribution services
until you can prove to yourself that the PRWeb service will offer a positive
outcome for your region and industry sector.
Figure 6.2 – PressBox
PressBox can be used to release press releases
Where else to publish your press release?
For UK targeted businesses, another website to publish your press release on in
PressBox. (Figure 6.2) All through not as wide-reaching as PRWeb, the PressBox
service is completely free of charge to use, so it’s certainly worth a go.
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Again, like PRWeb, journalists can subscribe to PressBox category feeds, which
means that you’re able to target your press release to journalists interested in
specific industry sectors.
Tracking the success of your online press release with Google Alerts
It’s important not just to write what you think is an excellent press release,
submit it to all the top online press release services and site back to wait until
your website traffic pours in.
Online press release marketing can sometimes appear to be fickle when trying to
determine why it has or hasn’t been a success. You have to be able to analyze
what the reason behind a particular press release’s success was, so that you are
able to replicate the success in the future.
One of the ways that you should be measuring the impact of your release is
through a service called ‘Google Alerts’. Google Alerts is a service where Google
will alert you as soon as a particular term is published in a news story on the
web. This means that if you put the title of your press release as your alert term
in Google Alerts, Google will send you an email with a link to that story as soon
as it finds it.
If you use your press release heading as your Google Alert, then the chances are
that this will be one of the only stories with that heading, meaning that you
shouldn’t receive many false alerts.
Comparing the success of online press release distribution services
If you decide to use different press release websites at the same time (to try to
achieve the maximum possible distribution volumes for your online press
release), you need to know which service has proven to be the most valuable.
In order to be able to be able to compare the success of multiple press release
distribution services, there are 2 tools that I would recommend you to consider.
The first option to implement is to amend a sentence within your press release
very slightly before submitting the different versions to different release services.
Once submitted, you set up a Google Alert for each of the different phrases and
take note of which version is republished more often.
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The next method of tracking the success of a press release distribution service is
to use a different call to action in each version of your press release. For instance,
if you have 2 different website addresses you can give a different address in each
of the different press release versions – and then track to see how many visits
were received to each web page.
The importance of the personal touch
Once you start to use Google Alerts on a regular basis, and you start to submit a
few press releases, you’ll hopefully start to view a variety of different
publications which reprint your material.
You should contact these publications directly to try and create more of a
strategic relationship with them, aiming to submit your press release to them on
an individual basis rather than through a third party, so that you build your own
portfolio of people that want to accept your press release in the future.
By developing a personal relationship with these publications, you’re making it
more likely for them to think of you in the future when they need a quote from
your industry sector. You’re also reducing your reliance on the press release
distribution sites, potentially saving you future PR costs.
Online press releases not a direct replacement for offline press releases
Although online press releases can be a very important part of your internet
marketing arsenal, this tool may never totally replace the knowledge that a local
or industry focused PR professional can provide you with.
An online press release strategy should be viewed as an augmentation to an
offline PR strategy, and not a direct replacement of conventional press releases.
However, it should be remembered that online press releases also offer the
significant additional benefits of search engine optimization and automated
tracking.
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Pillar #6 – Press Releases Summary
· Online press releases are a great way of generating awareness and traffic
directly to your site. By including a non HTML URL link with http:// you can
also improve your off-site search engine optimization as some republishing
sites will automatically convert that website mention into a live, SEO friendly
link.
· PRWeb is the largest and most popular website for submitting online press
releases. Selecting the $80 service should be sufficient for your initial needs;
although if you find that it’s successful you should then test the higher-cost
services.
· Include a descriptive title for your online press release that includes a
keyword phrase.
· The first couple of sentences of your press release should be short punchy,
provide an overview to your whole story and also include your keyword
phrase.
· Always include a call-to-action for journalists as well as your end readers. This
could be in the form of additional information or a free related report
available at a website address.
· Use Google Alerts to track the success of your press releases. You will be able
to view who is publishing your article and you can use this to build direct
relationships with publishers for the future. You can also use Google Alerts to
test the effectiveness of different online press release distribution services.
· Online press releases aren’t a replacement for conventional PR agencies – they
should be viewed as an augmentation of this service
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Pillar #7 – Link Building - 85 -
Pillar #7
Link Building
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Pillar #7 – Link Building
________________________________________________________________________
There are a variety of right and wrong ways to build links to your website.
Building up good quality, relevant links has to be an integral part of any search
engine optimization strategy.
However, bear this in mind – link building is about quality, relevant links and
not about the number of links. While I believe it to be a little easier to ‘game’
Yahoo or MSN search with simply generating a large volume of links that point
to your website, this is a short-term game. Although it didn’t in the past, Google
certainly now prefers quality over quantity – and that isn’t going to change in the
future.
The consistent approach works best
You need to view your link building strategy as an ongoing project. Attempting
to get 1,000 links to your site this week and then thinking ‘that’s my link building
done!’ will have little or no impact.
When developing your link building strategy you need to think about how links
would evolve to a web page naturally, and do your best to try to mimic the
evolvement of links in a similar manner.
You have to remember that Google and other major search engines have now
been going for more that 10 years, and in that time they’ve continually improved
the manner in which their software works. Good search engines do this for 2
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Pillar #7 – Link Building - 87 -
reasons. Firstly, to continually improve the user experience and try to stay ahead
of the competition. Secondly, to try and stay one step ahead of those who try to
game the search engine results with underhand (often called ‘black hat’) search
engine optimization tricks.
Because of this, the focus on search engines have been to try and study how links
evolve naturally, and try and determine link building patterns which don’t
appear to be very natural at all.
The lesson from this with regards to link building is not to try to do things that
have no chance of happening naturally. That way your link building techniques
have a better chance of flying underneath the search engine radar.
Link building methods discussed in this chapter
Pillar #7 (this chapter) discusses 5 ways in which you can build links to your
website:
1) Free Directories – where to find relevant directories that offer you free website
listings
2) How to establish who is linking to your competitors’ websites and how to get
the same web pages to link you your site.
3) How to acquire links from respected institutions and why these links are often
a lot more valuable in the eyes of a search engine.
4) How top acquire links by giving testimonials to other people’s products.
5) How to search Google and other search engines to find other relevant web
pages that may consider linking to you.
Free Directories
There are 2 main sorts of free directories that are worthwhile focusing on to build
your inbound links:
- Industry specific directories
- Local specific directories
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1) Industry specific directories
There is a useful website called Directory Critic, which is actually a directory of
directories (Figure 7.1). Use this resource to search for directories within a niche
that is most relevant for your business type.
Figure 7.1 – Directory Critic
Directory Critic is the directory of directories
Relevant industry-specific directory link building is a useful and worthwhile
place to start. Search engines regularly crawl directories, and these directory
links will start to educate search engines about your website topic.
The more relevant the links are, the better the quality of the link. This is because
if search engines are able to make a reasonable assumption about your website
topic, your site will be more likely to rank more highly for that topic in search
engine results pages.
Where else to find industry specific website directories
Another incredibly easy method of discovering new directories suitable for your
industry is to search Google for a keyword phrase that describes your industry,
and adding the word ‘directory’ at the end. Let’s consider an example of this
using our old fictitious favourite, Freddie Faldo the golf shop owner.
Searching for a golf directory
After searching for ‘golf directory’ in Google, one of the first websites I found
was a website called Your Golf Directory (Figure 7.2). To get his golf equipment
shop listed within this directory, Freddie should simply navigate to the category
called ‘golf equipment and accessories’ - and then complete a form with a little
information about his website before submitting his details.
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Pillar #7 – Link Building - 89 -
There are often a number of options when submitting your link for possible
inclusion in the directory. If paid links aren’t too expensive, and for that you
receive a more prominent position on a relevant, valuable website and a
comparably rapid review time, then it may be worthwhile just going for the paid
review option. You’re just going to have to judge whether or not you think that
this is of value.
Reciprocal links
Five to ten years ago, one of the easiest methods of ‘gaming’ the search engines
was to swap links with as many websites as you possibly could – no matter
whether the content on either website had anything in common at all!
Exchanging links is generally referred to as reciprocal linking.
Reciprocal links worked so well because it was much easier to persuade other
webmasters to link to your site if you were prepared to link to their site.
Figure 7.2 – Your Golf Directory
Searching for the correct category on Your Golf Directory
However, because search engines gave a reciprocal link the same amount of
weighting as a one-way link, this actively encouraged reciprocal linking as a
form of search engine optimization.
Other websites quickly evolved which functioned as a meeting place for people
who were interested in trading links. As a result, this actively encouraged
webmasters to try to short-cut their way to the top of Google search results.
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As a result, in order to try to continue to deliver the best possible search results
to their users, Google decided that it needed to radically change its search engine
ranking algorithm. And the first stage in this significant algorithm change was
the reduction in value of reciprocal links – and the reduction in value of links
from website deemed to be not from the same industry sector.
Choosing to link for the right reasons
If a website chooses to link to your home page, or another page on your site
because they find it to be a valuable resource for their own visitors then that’s the
right reason for wanting to link to a web page.
The secret is to try and replicate that linking ideology and style in future links
that point to your site. That’s in addition to trying to replicate the style of sites
and locations of links on those sites that point to your web pages – replicate the
natural building of links and you can’t go too far long!
Don’t think it’s always a bad idea to exchange links
You shouldn’t think that it’s always a bad idea to exchange links. As long as if
you have links from lots of other sources, it’s quite acceptable to have one or two
link exchange pages on your site that feature relevant link partners. As a rule of
thumb, as long as if less than quarter of your links are from link exchanges, and
hand-on-heart you could say that each link which you include on your own site
could be a useful resource for visitors, then this volume and quality of reciprocal
links should only have a positive effect.
By participating in a minimal amount of industry-relevant link exchanges, it
demonstrates to Google that you are an independent authority within your
industry, because you are comfortable linking out to other websites in the same
industry sector and spreading some ‘link love’.
Another example of an industry-specific directory
Figure 7.3 is another example of searching for an industry-related directory,
using the case study of Jane Jobs' sales executive recruitment company.
Having searched Google for ‘sales recruitment directory’, one of the first search
engine results I encountered was a website called SalesWork, which contains a
list of useful links of where to find sales work.
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Pillar #7 – Link Building - 91 -
Figure 7.3 – Sales Work Website
The free link exchange form on the SalesWork website
Remember, whatever your business is, search for your industry sector keyword
and the word ‘directory’ in Google or another search engine, and you will
hopefully find at least 10 good, relevant directories that you can get decent
one-way links from to your site. For these types of links you need a combination
between quality and quantity – so be selective – but not too selective.
Optimizing your link text (title) and description
Another thing to bear in mind when you are submitting your site to various
directories is to try to ensure that you vary the title text and the description of
your submission details.
Because you’re submitting your own website for prospective inclusion in a
directory, the chances are that if the directory owner decides to include your
website in their listings, they’ll choose to use your suggested title and description
instead of bothering to write one for themselves.
This gives you a fantastic opportunity to influence your off-site search engine
optimization (i.e. controlling the links and text in the links from other sites witch
point to your site).
To maximize the search engine optimization impact from your directory
submissions you should use a mixture of different keyword phrases within your
title and description choices.
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This is because if you just used the same title and description in all of your
directory submissions, search engines could easily assume that it’s you that’s
been doing the submitting. However, if you mix things up a bit, it may well be
perceived by the search engines as being the directory owners choosing to link to
you.
Search engines have lots of different ways of deciding whether or not it looks as
if you’ve been building links yourself, or other sites have chosen to link to you.
One easy method that they use is to analyze the text within the links that point to
your pages – if most websites use exactly the same phrase then that may be
perceived as representing unnatural link building. Another rule I go by is to
never have more than 50% of my text links to any one page linking using the
same keyword phrase.
Comparing Directories
There are 3 main methods which you should use whenever you need to analyze
the potential effectiveness of getting listed in a directory.
- Manual review for relevance and suitability
- Google Page Rank
- Alexa Rank
- Manual review for relevance and suitability
As already briefly covered, you need to try to ensure that your website is being
featured in the right neighborhoods. That’s on sites which already feature a
reasonable quantity of subject matter in your chosen field, and don’t display
material that you aren’t comfortable having your business associated with.
- Google Page Rank
Google Page Rank is a method of ranking individual web pages between 0 and
10, 10 being the highest score and 0 being the lowest. It is an approximation,
according to Google, of their perceived value of a page. It is not a very accurate
method of measuring, but it does give you an indication of the potential value of
having a link to your site on the page.
One of the easiest ways to determine the Page Rank of an individual web page is
to download the Google Toolbar. (Simply search for ‘Google toolbar’ in any
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Pillar #7 – Link Building - 93 -
search engine). The Google Toolbar is a small software program which adds on
additional functionality to the top of your website browser – there is a version for
both Internet Explorer and Firefox.
As part of the toolbar you will be able to view the Page Rank of each web page
you visit via a small green line representing the Page Rank score. The length of
the green line indicates the quantity of Page Rank that the web page has been
awarded by Google.
However, bear in mind, Page Rank is only updated about every three months.
This therefore means that Page Rank isn’t an accurate present-day representation
of what Google currently feels about the page, but it provides a reasonable
starting point for analysis.
It’s also important to remember that just because a web page doesn’t have any
Page Rank; it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t bother trying to get your website
listed on that page. It could be a very popular site that gets lots of visitors, and
there may be some technical reason why Google isn’t choosing to give the web
page in question any Page Rank. That’s why you still need to use your gut
instinct – along with one other method of rating the value of a website – Alexa
Rank.
- Alexa Rank
Unlike Google Page Rank, Alexa Rank gives you a rating score for the popularity
of a website as a whole. It can also give you a reasonable estimate of how
popular a website is in a particular country.
Alexa ranks the top several million websites, and it will give you an approximate
traffic ranking value for your website. If it is number one this means it is the best
website in the world!
To show you how it compares websites against each other, Figure 7.4 is an Alexa
Rank graph showing a ranking comparison between the Google.com,
Yahoo.com, and MSN.com websites over a five-year period.
The great thing about Alexa is that you can view how much websites have
increased in popularity (or decreased in popularity) over a period of time. This
will allow you to make more of an informed decision on whether or not it may
be valuable to approach a website, and ask the owner to link to your site.
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Alexa has is limits though. When a website has a ranking of much lower than
200,000, Alexa struggles to produce a graph to represent the popularity of that
website over time.
Figure 7.4 – Alexa.com
Alexa graphs comparing traffic of Google, Yahoo and MSN
2) Local specific directories
Having covered major directories in pillar #5, and industry directories over the
few previous pages, local directories are the final type of directories to which you
need to submit your website.
Figure 7.5 – Google Local Directory
Google Local Directory – one of the most important local directories
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Pillar #7 – Link Building - 95 -
If you are a business with a physical address then there are 2 local directories I
would class as being very important to try and get your website listed in –
Google Local and Yahoo! Local.
You can also search Directory Critic (as previously discussed) to find different
local directories. As well as having industry-specific directory categories,
Directory Critic has a section for country-specific regional directories. And once
again, in a similar manner to what was suggested to find more industry-specific
directories, you can easily find additional local-specific directories by searching
for them in Google.
Google Local Directory
You can add your business to the Google Local directory (Figure 7.5). To do this,
you will need to create a free Google account. Having done so, you will be able
to fill in your business name, description and your address. Google then sends
you a physical postcard to your business address with a pin code. You need to
log back into your Google account and enter this PIN code to make your listing
live.
Figure 7.6 – The Yahoo! Local Directory
The Yahoo! Local Directory is important local directory
Getting your business listed in Google Local will only become more important in
the future as being featured will also mean that you will be able to appear in
associated services like Google Maps. It could be argued that local mobile search
is the next Internet frontier, and getting your business listed in all the big online
local directories now will give you a head-start in the next stage of local directory
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evolvement.
Yahoo! Local Directory
Yahoo! Local (Figure 7.6) works in a similar way to Google Local – and when
your business is listed on this directory it should appear in Yahoo! Maps.
Don’t forget Directory Critic – and the 2 reasons why you’re building links
Remember not to forget the Directory Critic website when you’re searching for
local-specific directories. These types of links should be able to offer you 2 main
benefits. Firstly, the search engine optimization benefits, and secondly, the
visitors who click on the links through to your website.
More Local Directories
As with industry directories, you can find other local directories using search
engines. Below (Figure 7.7) shows the Google search results when you search for
“Glasgow directory”.
Figure 7.7 – Google Search results
Searching for local directories in Google
Glasgow, of course is just an example. You can conduct a similar search for any
other city in the world. This search will help you find specific directories that are
often run by local people on a non-profit basis who are simply interested in
providing great information about their local area.
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Links from these types of sites can be extremely valuable for a number of
reasons. For instance, in addition to the benefits of helping to educate search
engines about the locality of your business, these directories often have categoryspecific
sections which will be better for your SEO.
‘Glasgow Trading’
Figure 7.8 below shows the categories found on the Glasgow Trading website.
Remember, when you’re reviewing local directories which may be appropriate
for your business, make sure that you take time to browse and find the most
appropriate category for inclusion in.
Figure 7.8 – Glasgow Trading
Selection the most appropriate category on Glasgow Trading
Reviewing the categories on the Glasgow Trading website, you can see that once
you click on ‘Professional Services’, there are plenty of options to choose from
including ‘Accountancy’, ‘Advertising’, ‘Architects’ etc.
To submit your website to a great, relevant local directory like this, it’s often just
the case of navigating your way to the most relevant category, and them looking
for a ‘submit’ button.
You will then be presented with an online form which requests the title and
description of your website. Because it’s a local directory, it may also ask you for
your business address and telephone number – and perhaps a password so that
you can return to the site in the future to edit your business information. (See
figure 9 for completing a submission form on Glasgow Trading)
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Figure 7.9 – Glasgow Trading
Completing a website submission form on Glasgow Trading
Remember to bear search engines in mind when you’re submitting your website
to local directories. As well as selection the optimum category for your business,
it’s important to remember to try to include a relevant keyword phrase in your
submission title and description.
Figure 7.10 – Glasgow Trading
An example of a company listing on Glasgow Trading
Another thing to bear in mind is that if you’re planning of trying to get listed in
lots of local directories, it may be a prudent idea to replicate your submission
strategy that you have with other directories by rotating your titles and
descriptions.
Figure 7.10 shows you why it’s worthwhile spending some time to come up with
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a quality, lengthy description for your business prior to submission to local
directories. As well as giving each directory submission having their own web
page (with a unique URL), the web page also contains a link that visitors can
click to see a location map of the business.
Although this particular local directory example doesn’t actually give you a
keyword rich link back you your website, it does pass on ‘link juice’. You can tell
this because if you view the source code of the listing, the link HTML doesn’t use
a ‘nofollow’ attribute.
Competitor backlinks
Another important part of a successful link building campaign is to be able to
analyze the links that are pointing to your competitors; (backlinks) determine
which ones are most valuable and come up with a strategy to try to encourage
these web pages to link to your site too. Let’s take a look at our fictitious example
Freddy Faldo, and how he would analyze which websites to target using the
keyword phrase ‘golf equipment’.
Using the previously mentioned Google Toolbar, after having loaded one of his
competitor’s home pages, Freddie would begin by selecting the drop-down
menu on the right-hand side of the PageRank icon. Then clicking on ‘backward
links’, he would be able to view a list of several other respected websites which
link to his chosen competitor (Figure 7.11).
Figure 7.11 – The Golf Shop Online
Searching for competitor backlinks using Google toolbar
Don’t just rely on Google to analyze your competitor’s backlinks
It’s important to note that Google chooses not to display all the links (according
to their data) which link to your competitor’s home page. In fact, Google may
only display around five percent of the links that they know about. So you
shouldn’t just rely on Google when you’re analyzing your competitor’s
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backlinks!
However, the good news is that Yahoo is a lot more willing to divulge its link
count information, so collating the Yahoo and Google results together means that
you will be able to get a good feel for who’s linking to your competitors.
You’re better off downloading all this research onto a spreadsheet – or it may be
a good idea to use semi-automated search engine optimization software like SEO
Elite to carry out this task, as suggested at
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar7.
This SEO software – or the added time investment to create your own
spreadsheet will help to make sure that you don’t miss out on as many link
building opportunities as you otherwise would do.
Analyzing the number of links pointing to a competitor’s website using Yahoo
To analyze the number of links pointing to a competitor’s website using the
Yahoo search engine, all you have to do is visit
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/, and then type in linkdomain: and then the
full URL of your competitor’s home page – for example this search would look
something like linkdomain:http://www.competitorsdomain.com.
Once you’ve selected a number of competitors, and downloaded all of their
backlinks according to both Google and Yahoo onto your spreadsheet, you need
to sort them in order of value. This is generally done by using a combination of
Google PageRank and Alexa Rank.
(This is probably the point where you choose to definitely select some semiautomated
time-saving SEO software instead of doing all of this manually!)
Contacting the websites that link to your competitors
So, you’ve solved half of the puzzle – you’ve discovered which websites are
linking to your competitors, and that’s the main reason why your competitors
are ranking so well. The next half of the puzzle though is to work out a strategy
that is most likely to get you competitor’s link partners to want to link to you too.
One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make when they’re trying to
encourage other websites to link to them, is they send out generic emails saying
something like:
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“Hi, I really like your site and wondered if you might be interested in swapping
links?”
Webmasters receive emails like the above one far too often. And because there
isn’t one degree of personalization – or indication that the message sender has
even looked at the recipient’s website, the chances are extremely small that the
message will be treated with any serious consideration.
Alternatively, if you took just a little time to visit each web page on which you
wanted to get your business listed, decided how exactly how your competitor’s
links came to be and educated yourself on the business model of the website in
question, then you would be phenomenally more likely to obtain a link back to
your website.
This is because your new email to the website on which you would like to get
listed would look something like:
“Hi David,
I’d like to compliment you on the set of useful resources that you are listing at
http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/cat/index/36/Entrepreneur-Articles.php.
I regularly revisit your entrepreneur articles – they’re full of really informative content. I
especially like the most recent article by Laurie Hayes on ‘how 3 simple no’s can change
your life and business’.
I run the website www.businessfocustime.com which helps businesses brainstorm
with each other to try to improve their long-term business models.
I was hoping that you feel that my website would be a really useful resource for your
readers – and that you’d be happy to link to this resource from your Entrepreneur
Articles section.
In anticipation that you’d be happy to do this I’d like to offer you a complimentary bottle
of wine as a thank you!
Just reply showing our live link, your preference for red or white wine, and an address to
send the bottle to and I’ll get it in the post!
Many thanks and keep up the good work with Build Your Own Business!
Craig Thomas
Owner, Business Focus Time”
If you approach people in the right manner, say why their site is valuable and
explain why they should want to link to you, then ask them to potentially add
your link as well, you might be surprised at the number of websites that will give
you a link to your website. (An incentive like a free bottle of wine might help
too!)
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Taking a personal approach and ensuring that you are focused in your requests
will be much more successful that using automated software to request links.
Like building any kind of relationship, you only have one chance to make a first
impression, so be sure you do not spam people with generic e-mails.
Take the time to find out a little about the website that you want to appear on –
and the person who runs the website before you make contact. It will make the
world of difference to your link request conversion rates.
How to discover the owners of websites
You don’t just have to rely on finding a website owner / manager’s contact
details on their website. Don’t forget the often forgotten tool to assist you with
an internet marketing campaign – a telephone! It’s always worthwhile phoning
up a head office to see if you can try to discover the name of the person
responsible for looking after the website.
Another option that you have if you just can’t find out who’s responsible for
managing the website is to look up a service that may tell you the person
responsible for the site admin according to the domain registration.
Whenever you register a domain, you have to submit some contact information.
Most people don’t hide this contact information, meaning that it’s possible for
the general public to view – as long as if people know where to look. This is
called the WHOIS of a domain – where you can see who is registered as the
administrative contact for an individual domain.
One of the places where it’s possible to view this information is through a service
called easywhois.com. (Figure 7.12) As you can see, from this screenshot, the
admin contact email address for the domain purpleinternetmarketing.com
admin@purpleinternetmarketing.com, with the contact name being me, David
Bain. If you wanted to request a link from this website you now have a contact
name and email address with which to proceed from.
Although looking up these contact details in a service like this shouldn’t be your
first port of call when trying to make contact with a website owner – as the
details are often wrong and it can come across as a little bit impersonal to contact
someone after finding them here – if this is the only option you have, it’s
certainly worthwhile.
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Figure 7.12 – easywhois.com
Looking up the contact details for the domain purpleinternetmarketing.com
Respected institutions
It’s all about thinking out of the box when it comes to attracting valuable, oneway
links.
Search engines often value links on educational, charity or government-run
websites a little higher than links on other websites. There is a lot of opinion on
why this is the case.
Reasons have been cited including the length of time that a domain has been
around for and the quality of links that point to the website of the respected
institution. Either way, it’s not important why these links are often deemed to be
more valuable by search engines. What’s important is the fact that they are, and
that getting links from these types of websites are very good for your own
website’s ranking.
One way to obtain links from a respected institution is to try to forge a
relationship with a university, perhaps offering to give a seminar to a group of
students about a particular topic in exchange for them mentioning you on their
website and giving you a link to your site.
Libraries often have local directories which you can get listed in for free. There
are numerous business networks that you can join, many for free, that will give a
one-way link – all you have to do is ask.
A local Chambers of Commerce can also be very useful – they often have a
directory of businesses which are members and an additional directory of
members which are willing to offer special discounts to other chamber members.
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This is yet another method of creating a valuable, one-way link to your site.
Testimonials
Another great way of getting one-ay links to your site is through giving
testimonials. Any product or service you buy will no-doubt be happy to hear
positive reviews on what you though about your purchase.
Sending an unsolicited, positive testimonial about a product or service that you
have purchased to a marketing director – not the customer service department –
can be very effective. A receipt of a positive testimonial by a company’s
marketing department may prompt them to use it as part of their future
promotional material.
When you’re leaving your testimonial, always leave your website address rather
than your phone number for your contact details. That way, if your testimonial
is published, readers will be able to visit your website to find out more –
hopefully via a live one-way link.
Searching Google for more link partners
Searching Google – or other search engines – can quickly find you additional,
relevant link building opportunities. Try searching Google for your keyword
phrase and the phrase ‘add URL’, or your keyword phrase and the phrase ‘add
site’.
Figure 7.13 – afgs.com
A quick online search will find you more link building opportunities
For instance, using Freddie Faldo and the golf example, if you search Google for
‘golf’ and ‘add URL’, what you are searching for is any pages that mention the
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word ‘golf’, but also mention the phrase ‘add URL’, or the phrase ‘add site’.
Generally, these types of web pages will be about golf – and be looking for link
partners.
Figure 7.13 is one of the first pages that we find when we conduct a Google
search for ‘golf’ and ‘add URL’. The afgs.com website (America’s favorite golf
schools) offers a link building opportunity. They ask for your website name, site
description, and a reciprocal link.
When you search for link building opportunities like this online, you’ll often find
that websites look for a reciprocal link. That’s’ not a bad thing – it’s just not as
good as a one-way link from them to your site.
As long as if you build links in lots of different ways, that any reciprocal links are
relevant resources for your readers and that reciprocal links are the minority of
links that point to your site, this can still be part of an effective internet
marketing strategy.
Pillar #7 – Link Building Summary
· To achieve good, consistent search engine rankings it is important to get
quality links from relevant sites to your website. However, large numbers of
non-relevant links pointing to your site can have a negative effect on your
search engine rankings.
· Submit your website to free directories, such as local or industry-specific
directories. Use DirectoryCritic.com to search for niche industry directories.
Both Google Local and Yahoo Local are valuable local directories.
DirectoryCritic.com can also be used to find more local directories.
· Researching the links that point to your competitor’s site can be a good way to
discover which sites might be willing to link to your site. You can contact
these site owners by using contact forms on their website, or using the
easywhois.com service.
· Respected institutions such as universities, libraries, or business networks are
often willing to link to your site if you’re willing to help them out by giving a
free lecture or seminar on your specialized subject. Perhaps you can offer
these organizations something else of value in exchange for a link?
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· Remember to send a testimonial for any product or service that your business
invests in. Send your testimonial to the marketing director and include your
website address to make it much more likely to give you a free one-way link.
· Search Google for your keyword phrase plus the phrases ‘add url’ or the
phrase ‘add site’ to find websites that are actively looking for link partners. If
the site is relevant for your readers then consider arranging a reciprocal link.
This offers value as long as if is part of a wider link building campaign, and
not the primary focus of the campaign.
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Pillar #8
Article Submission
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Pillar #8 – Article Submission
________________________________________________________________________
Pillar #8 covers article submission – an excellent way of increasing the links
that are pointing to your site, and guaranteeing that there are keyword-rich links
which point to your site.
Article submission is one of the most consistently popular and effective ways of
improving your industry respectability and predictably increasing the number of
your back links.
The great thing about allowing your article to be reprinted is that there are an
unlimited number of websites that may then be willing to republish your article.
Effective article marketing can be extremely viral in nature.
Article marketing background
Article marketing used to be one of the most consistently successful forms of
internet marketing for many years.
Between the years 2000 and 2004, before search engines like Google started to
develop more complex algorithms, link building was largely a numbers game.
Because of this, publishing your articles on other sites which included links back
to your site was one of the easiest ways to build up back-links that mattered to
search engines.
Article marketing is still is an extremely effective way of internet marketing, and
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still one of the best ways to control the links that point to your website. The only
issue is that nowadays you can’t get away with getting credit from search
engines for the same article that appears on hundreds of different directories. So
in summary there’s not quite as much search engine optimization benefit as there
used to be from article marketing – but some SEO benefits still exist. Moreover,
article marketing can also drive relevant readers directly to your site.
Article marketing overview
When submitting articles to free reprint directories it’s essential that you just
focus on subject areas that are particularly pertinent to your own website
visitors. There’s no point in trying to drive visitors to your site who have just
read an article which has nothing to do with the subject matter that they will be
finding out more about on your own website.
First-things-first is to decide on your subject matter – there are plenty of tips to
help you with choosing that later on in this pillar.
After you complete your article, ensuring that you optimize it with relevant
keywords, the next thing that you need to think of is your author bio – this
should include a brief summary about you, your website and two links back to
your site.
Author bio format
It’s important to careful consider your author bios – and the exact nature of the
links that point to your website from within your author bios. I always
recommend including a keyword rich HTML link back to your site and a full
http:// version of your URL within your author bio.
The HTML for an author bio in this format would look something like:
David Bain is the founder of the Internet Marketing Training
Company http://www.PurpleInternetMarketing.com
If the article directory that you are submitting your articles to accepts HTML
within their author bios, then the code above will produce the phrase ‘Internet
Marketing Training’ that links to http://www.PurpleInternetMarketing.com.
The reason that you also want to include a full http:// version of your URL within
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your author bio is that if article directories ignore your HTML, then they still
might decide to create live links from mentions of your domain name – and
they’re more likely to do this if you include the full URL (with http:// at the front
of it).
This is especially applicable if you are submitting your article to an article reprint
directory which is especially popular with ezine publishers.
Below is what the example author bio would look like if both the HTML and the
full mention of the URL became live links.
David Bain is the founder of the Internet Marketing Training Company
http://www.PurpleInternetMarketing.com
The ideal author bio format
Ideally, you want your author bios to be in a format which includes:
- A keyword- rich link to your home page.
- A keyword- rich link to an internal page on your site – this is in addition to the
keyword rich link to your home page.
Having links to internal pages on your website is a great way of getting one-way,
search engine friendly links to internal pages within your website. A non-HTML
full URL (including http://) mention of your website address.
Bearing this strategy in mind, you should be ensuring that you submit at least
one article to an article directory for every single category on your website – with
a keyword rich link back to each of your website categories.
Using the www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz website as an example, if I wanted
to link directly to the change management articles section, I would link to the
page http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/cat/index/32/Change-Management-
Articles.php using the keyword phrase ‘change management articles’ from at
least one of my submitted author bios.
Article Format
The optimum length for the kind of article that you would submit to an article
directory should be around 500 to 800 words in length. Any less than 500 words
may not be deemed to be of sufficient quality by some article directories. More
than 800 words and readers may get bored with your article – and may not even
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reach your author bio at the bottom!
Your article should have an informative introductory paragraph which will
appeal to your own website target market as well as acting as a synopsis for the
whole article.
The quality of your article title is imperative – a well-though-out article title
should appeal to both readers and search engines. ‘How to’ or ‘Top 10 ways of
doing something’ works really well. Try to include a relevant, targeted keyword
phrase.
All paragraphs within the article should be short, punchy and to the point. You
should try to include the same keyword phrase that you are using in your title
within your article body – once near the beginning, once somewhere in the
middle. When reading articles online, people do not like to scroll through
paragraphs. Readers prefer to be personal, straight-to-the-point articles, so be
careful if your natural language style is quite formal – you might want to tone
things down a bit.
Figure 8.1 – Ezine Articles
Ezine Articles, by far the most popular of the article directories
Ezine Articles – the best starting point
There are several hundred different ‘free article reprint’ directories. At the time
of writing, Ezine Articles (figure 8.1) is by far the biggest and probably offers the
best value for your time investment. For the vast majority of novice article
marketers, Ezine Articles is the best starting point.
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Figure 8.2 – Ezine Articles
Submitting your article to Ezine Articles
You will need to create an account before you get started. After you’ve registered
you’ll be able to choose from hundreds of different categories in which to include
each article, so there should be a category that is able to house most niche topics.
Researching keyword phrases for your articles
Just like you do when you’re trying to improve the search engine optimization of
the pages on your own website, you can use the Wordtracker service to research
a keyword phrase to include within your article title and content.
For articles published elsewhere you’re generally better off aiming for an
extremely relevant long-tail keyword phrase. In other words, a keyword phrase
that’s particularly relevant for your article, yet not that difficult to hit the top of
search engine results with.
Remember to include your chosen keyword phrase in your title and in the
content of your article so that when the article is republished it is more likely to
be found by search engines.
Formatting your articles
Ezine Articles allow you to use some HTML tags within your article. This means
that you are able to emphasize different areas within your articles such as
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subheadings with styles such as bold and italics. This is an extremely important
tool when you submit your articles to Ezine Articles as most article publishers
will be too lazy to make use of them – meaning that your article will stand out by
looking a lot more professional than the vast majority of the other articles.
Other major article submission sites
The next of the major article submission sites which I also recommend using is
called iSnare (figure 8.3). But iSnare isn’t just an articles directory – it’s also an
article distribution service.
This means that when you submit your article to iSnare, as well as getting your
article published in their directory, if you pay for their article distribution service
– which costs a maximum of $2 per article – you’ll also get your article
distributed to up to 40,000 other publishers.
Figure 8.3 - iSnare
iSnare
That’s not to say that your article will appear on 40,000 other websites – it just
means that 40,000 other publishers will be made aware of the fact that you have
just published a free-to-reprint article.
Technically, iSnare works in a similar manner to Ezine Articles. In other words,
you need to create a free account, sign in to your account and submit your article.
Although you are able to submit the same articles to iSnare as you do to Ezine
Articles, in an ideal world, to provide unique content for search engines it may
be worthwhile considering submitting different articles to each service.
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However, if you do want to try submitting the same article to both Ezine Articles
and iSnare, it’s a good idea to try to track which service is encouraging the most
other websites to reprint your article. An effective free way of doing this is by
using Google Alerts to track the amount of times that your article title is used on
the web. If you use a different article title for each submission service, this will let
you track which service works best for you.
There are about 30 different categories on iSnare. The reason that they can’t offer
as many categories as Ezine Articles is that they have to tie up their categories
with their distribution partner’s categories.
Another thing that iSnare offers you is the facility to choose a pen name instead
of using your real name – and they let you associate multiple pen names with the
same account.
Editing tips for iSnare
However, iSnare don’t allow any HTML to be included within your article body
– that’s because many of their publishers may wish to republish your article as
an email to their list, and your HTML therefore might not display as intended.
But that’s not to say that you’re not able to have some kind of design control over
your article. If you just think a little bit creatively then you’ll discover that by
adding a couple of dashes either side of your subheadings, or by including
numbered lists, your article will stand out as being head and shoulders better
than the competition. This means that it’s got a better chance of being republished.
Something else to bear in mind with iSnare is that you get asked to complete 2
author bios – and it’s important that you complete both author bios. One author
bio allows HTML – this is generally for publishers who wish to re-publish your
article online. The option that doesn’t allow HTML is generally for publishers
who choose to reprint your article as an email. Just remember for the no-HTML
version to include your full URL which might be re-published as a live link.
Niche article sites
Although less general, and more ‘niche’ article sites won’t have as much total
traffic to their sites, they may well have just as much relevant traffic as other,
much larger sites like Ezine Articles.
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For example if you wish to submit an article about ‘Sales management advice’,
you may be better off searching Google for relevant sales management article
sites. Not only could this drive more relevant traffic to your site, it could end up
being more beneficial to you from a search engine optimization perspective due
to the close overall relevance of the site on which your inbound link sits.
The importance of tracking traffic from article sites
It’s important not to spend a great deal of effort submitting your articles to the
same article site without analyzing the quantity and quality of the resultant
visitors from that site. For instance, some sites will drive a lot of visitors, but they
may not stay on your site for very long. Other sites may send a great deal less
visitors – but a large percentage of them may turn out to be loyal customers. You
can analyze this by setting up ‘goals’ with Google Analytics.
Consistency is the key with article marketing. To gain a good return from article
marketing you need to be prepared to submit articles to reprint sites on an
ongoing basis – at least one per week. And you have to submit original articles.
Submitting articles that have already been published elsewhere, or re-hashed
articles will simply not work as well.
The benefit of submitting unique articles to individual article directories
It’s a good idea to use the free Google Alerts service to track the republishing of
your release. As previously mentioned, if you enter the titles of your articles as
your Google Alerts, this will let you keep track on when and where your articles
have been republished. This will help you decide which article directories may
be worthwhile building a one-one one relationship with, and submitting unique
articles to for their sole-use in the future.
Remember that unique content is more likely to get ranked more highly by
search engines. By offering unique content to specifically targeted niche article
directories you are working on building up much better quality links to your site.
It may take time to build these unique articles and links up, but in the long-run,
it’s certainly worthwhile.
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Pillar #8 – Article Submission Summary
· Start your article marketing by submitting a minimum of one article per week
to Ezine Articles. Aim to make your articles between 500 and 800 words long.
Include an author bio at the bottom of all your articles which contains a
keyword link to your home page, a keyword link to a category page on your
site and a non-HTML link to your home page.
· Effective articles are often formatted in the ‘How to…’ and ‘Top 10 ways of…’
doing something. Use subheadings, keep your paragraphs short and
remember not to be too formal in your tone of language.
· Think quality and quantity. Quality will help your article to stand out from
the competition, and give you a much bigger chance of getting your article republished
on other sites. Quantity is important too – this will keep your
articles featured on the home pages of the various article directories and start
to get you featured as a top author on various sites.
· After you submit articles to top general article directories, offer to submit
additional unique articles to other highly respected industry specific websites.
This unique content and unique links will drive good quality, relevant traffic
from the sites and have an extremely positive effect on your search engine
optimization.
· Remember to use Google Alerts to track the republishing of your articles. This
will help you to identify sites to which it would be worthwhile to offer unique
content to in the future.
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Pillar #9
Group Interaction
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Pillar #9 – Group Interaction
________________________________________________________________________
Group interaction allows you to form relationships with prospective
customers before they’re even aware of you or your company.
Pillar #9, Group Interaction covers:
- Participating in discussion forums
- Social networking groups
- Answering questions posed by other people
- Commenting on other people’s blogs
Participating in discussion forums
Discussion forums are websites on which that you can interact on to build up
your reputation as a figure of authority within your own industry.
One thing that you should ensure that you take advantage of is something called
a signature message. A signature message is a common footer, which appears at
the bottom of every post made on a forum. The great benefit of having a
signature messages is that you can generally also include a keyword-rich link
back to your website. This means that as well as driving visitors back to your
website from these forums, the search engine optimization benefits are also
extremely valuable.
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Industry Specific Forums
The important aspect of using forums as an effective form of internet marketing
is to make sure that you interact on forums that are relevant for your business. In
other words, think about your target market, and the kinds of forums where you
target are likely to gather.
You should use search engines to find the right forums for your industry – by
entering your keyword phrase and the term ‘forum’. For example you could
search for ‘golf equipment’ and the word ‘forum’ or ‘sales management’ and the
word ‘forum’. The exact keyword phrase of course depends on your industry –
and your own Wordtracker research.
Deciding which forum is right for you
Once you’ve made a list of a few forums which may be worthwhile to interact
on, the next step is to decide which of those forums would be most beneficial for
you.
The first method of ‘weeding out’ less valuable forums isn’t tangible. It’s simple
a matter of you browsing through each of the selected forums and deciding
which of the forums house participants which are more likely to be your
customers in the future.
Once you’ve reduce the list to no more than around five forums, it’s time to
analyze the approximate amount of visitors that each of the forums gets. The can
be done by using a combination of Google Page Rank and Alexa Rank.
In my personal experience, an Alexa Rank of lower than 200,000 (the lower the
better) and a Google Rank of four or better indicates that a forum could provide
a reasonable return to make it worthwhile participating in on an ongoing basis.
How many forums?
You should try to find about ten forums to begin with in search engines – this
should ensure that you limit the chance of missing out and not discovering
forums that are very relevant for your business.
After choosing your ten forums, manually knock a few forums off this list after
reviewing some of the posts before reducing the list further by choosing the
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forums with the best Google Page Ranks and Alexa Ranks.
Starting to interact on forums
Once you’ve reduced your list of forums down to about three, double-check that
each of the forums allow live signature links, then register a profile of each on
your chosen forums and start interacting with the existing members.
Bear the following thought in mind, though. A forum is a tool where members
meet, interact and help each other on a particular topic area. Do not overtly talk
about you’re your own products and services – and certainly not within your
first few posts. If you simply contribute in a giving manner in forums posts then
fellow members will be able to find out more about you from your signature
link. That’s all the self-promotion that you should participate in.
Case study - how Freddie Faldo discovers and interacts on golf forums
If Freddie Faldo wanted to discover the best golf forum for him to participate in
online, he’d begin by searching for ‘golf forums’ on Google. One of the first
forums which comes up after conducting this search is Golf Forum (Figure 9.1).
By interacting on this forum, he can see that some people use the signature link
to describe the golf clubs that they use. This means that if Freddie has a golf
equipment shop, he could use his signature link to describe the kind of
equipment on offer in his shop. Freddie should ideally use keyword phrases that
link to specific categories on his Golf Equipment website.
This too may be a valuable method of building keyword-rich links to your
website.
Figure 9.1 – The Golf Forum Online
A sample post from ‘The Golf Forum’
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Remember that the less common the signature links are on the forum you choose
to interact on, the more chance you have of driving visitors through to your
website from that signature link. In other words, if you’re involved in an
industry which generally isn’t that knowledgeable of different methods of
internet marketing, signature links on forum posts are more likely to be fruitful
when it comes to driving traffic to your site.
Case study – Jane Jobs & Sales Recruitment Forums
Like Freddie Faldo, Jane Jobs should search for forums that are appropriate for
her business, using a search term like ‘Sales Recruitment Forums’. When you
conduct this search using Google, one of the first forums which you should come
across is called highprobsell.com - a Sales Discussion Board which may well be
an ideal discussion area for her industry sector.
My example – Digital Point Forums
One of the forums which I have consistently posted at in the past is called Digital
Point Forums (Figure 9.2). At the bottom of every post that I make, I have a
message which says “Free Report – The 10 Biggest SEO Mistakes” and a link to
where to download that report.
I’ve made a few hundred posts so far on the Digital Look Forums, which means I
have a few hundred posts that contain this marketing message at the bottom of
each forum post.
As long as if your chosen forum supports signature links, they will appear on
every post you make in that forum. Search engines can pick up these signature
links easily when they crawl the forum, making it another great search engine
optimization opportunity.
In addition to my ‘10 Biggest SEO Mistakes’ link on my signature in figure 9.2
you can also see two other links - Internet Marketing Consultant, and Website
Promotion Marketing. These are linked to different category sections on my
website, meaning that I’m maximizing the SEO potential from my signature link
opportunity – as well as trying to make the content relevant and useful for
reader.
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Develop credibility
There are other reasons apart from search engine optimization of why
contributing to forums on an ongoing basis will benefit your business. If you
submit posts on an almost daily basis, people will start to respect you more and
treat you as a figure of authority within your industry.
Figure 9.2 – Digital Point Forums
A sample of one of my posts on the Digital Point Forums website
Looking back at figure 9.2, you can see that the discussion topic was article
marketing. In my post – a response to another forum member, I said: “Ezine
Articles worked great for this. I always include a non-HTML URL, a keyword
link to the home page and a keyword link to an internal page in my author bio.”
Looking further down the same forum thread, one of the other forum users has
quoted me, adding: “Excellent advice just the way that I set my Author boxes up
for some time now and it works great.”
By quoting my post in his post, and agreeing with me, he has made me just a
little bit more of a figure of authority within the forum, and by default within the
internet marketing community.
If you participate in different forums which are relevant for your industry sector,
and offer good, free advice without trying to sell something, then forum readers
will be more likely to visit your website – overtly selling your own service in
forums is likely to be of no use – and perhaps even counter-productive.
Register and post
Having found the forum that is right for your business you will generally need
register with the forum prior to being able to submit your own posts. This is a
good thing as the effort that it takes to register is enough in itself to put-off many
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spammers.
Quite often there are forum rules that only allow the use of signature links after
so many posts – commonly 10, 20 or 50. This is again to put off spammers – not
many spammers would be willing to put in the effort to write 10 posts before
being able to get a link.
Make sure that you offer especially great value content in your first few posts.
This is the stage where you develop a reputation quickly – good or bad.
Three key reasons to participate in forums
In summary, the following are three key reasons to participate in forums:
1) Build up your reputation
Once you have researched, selected and registered with appropriate forums, start
participating on these forums - asking and answering questions from other users
making sure that you offer good, independent advice.
Remember – do not actively market your own website outwith your signature
link. Start participating by demonstrating that you are a respected figure of
authority within your industry.
2) Drive relevant visitors directly to your site
Ensure that when you’re given the opportunity to include links within your
signature file that you don’t waste the opportunity. Include as many relevant
links as you can – while maintaining the readability of the signature – and
remember to use the keyword phrases which are most appropriate for your
landing pages. Finally, if allowed to, you may wish to vary the colors of your
signature links so that they ‘stand out from the crowd’.
3) Improve your search engine ranking
As mentioned above, it’s highly recommended that you include links to your
website in your signature file. If you take the time to research keyword phrases
using a tool like Wordtracker, these links will be much more likely to offer search
engine optimization benefits.
Social Networking Groups
Another increasingly important element within online group interaction is social
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networking. Social networking represents represent another important route to
generate additional brand awareness, trust and more visitors. Two key examples
of social networking sites are MySpace and Facebook, both of which I’d like to
examine in a little more details below.
MySpace
Although appearing to be slightly on the wane, MySpace is still an incredibly
popular website, ranked approximately the eighth most popular website in the
world at the time of writing. When you visit MySpace and navigate towards the
‘Groups’ category, you can literally view hundreds of thousands of specialinterest
groups which have been set up by MySpace users.
For instance, at the time of writing there are 29,823 groups in the Business and
Entrepreneurs category and 48,705 members in the top group within this
category.
One of the top groups on MySpace is called Online Skill Game Business (figure
9.3). The business strategy behind their MySpace Group is to use it as a launch
pad for a future online game launch. That’s just one of what you can use a
MySpace Group for.
One benefit of building your group membership on MySpace is that MySpace
offer you the ability to send a message to all of your group members. For
instance, you can send broadcast emails to your members alerting them to
different events and special offers. As long as if you give people a reason / a
benefit to join your group, your membership level should grow. Like a rolling
snowball gathering pace, if more people join your group, more people will tell
their friends and the pace at which your group increases in size with grow
considerably.
Figure 9.3 – MySpace Group Page
Online Skill Game Business are using MySpace to advertise an upcoming product
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The difficult part is recruiting your first few hundred members – after that the
viral effect of current members recruiting new members should take effect. That
is one of the reasons why you should try to build up a good relationship with
your list of email subscribers. If you continually provide people with good,
valuable free content, then they’re more likely to be willing to take action on any
requests that you might have – such as joining new groups.
Imagine if you have a list of 5000 subscribers, and just 5% of those subscribers are
willing to join your new MySpace Group. That would mean that you
immediately have 250 group members – enough to kick-start things nicely.
Facebook
Although much younger than its rival MySpace, Facebook is already more
popular. It does however depend on where your target market is more likely to
‘hang out’ that really determines the best social networking site for your
business. There are pros and cons to each network, with MySpace starting to
position itself as more of a site for music lovers.
Just as there are thousands of different groups, some with hundreds of
thousands of members on MySpace, there are also thousands of similar sized
groups on Facebook.
Figure 9.4 - Facebook
A Facebook group discussing ‘Facebook for business’
Figure 9.4 shows a group on Facebook called ‘Facebook for Business’. It offers
information about how you can conduct business on Facebook and advice on
how promote your business on Facebook. Part of this group is also an online
forum discussing topics related to Facebook for business use.
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If you view the Discussion Boards on this Facebook group, once of the first posts
discusses tips for growing Facebook group membership numbers – so you can
see it may even be a very useful group for you to join.
Answering Questions Online
Another part of group interaction and indeed interactive marketing is answering
questions online. There are several websites which specialize in questions and
answers on various topics. Some question-based websites are on specialized
subject areas – others offer more generalized questions on which virtually
anything can be asked or answered.
As long as if you take the time to search for the right question, you will find
questions which relate specifically to your industry segment, enabling you to
interact on a topic that relates to your business – which allows you to
demonstrate that you are an authority in your field.
Yahoo Answers
In Yahoo! Answers (figure 9.5) there are many questions and many different
categories. Categories include ‘advertising in marketing’ and ‘careers and
employment’. All you need to do to begin answering questions on Yahoo!
Answers is register for your own free account.
You can then browse through to find out what questions are being asked and
begin answering questions. Just remember that your answers should be
carefully though out and relevant to the question. You shouldn’t try to sell your
company – allow your profile to do that.
The way that Yahoo! Answers works means that the person who asked the
question views all the answers before picking the answer which in their opinion
is the best answer - the most relevant response to their question. If your answer
is selected as the best response in the opinion of the question poser then it will be
displayed as the most appropriate answer to that question forever. And other
users will be able to view your profile from your answer and find out more
about you from there.
Just remember that it’s not about selling your business within the answer; it’s
about getting your profile together in the first instance – and then answering
questions in a knowledgeable, unbiased manner. If people appreciate your
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answer, there is a good change that they will want to view your profile.
Figure 9.5 – Yahoo! Answers
Yahoo! Answers
LinkedIn
LinkedIn offers a very similar question asking and answering service to Yahoo!
Answers. It’s effectively a social networking community for business – an online
networking service where you can build relationships and meet potential new
business partners online. To participate on LinkedIn, you begin by inviting your
friends and colleagues to participate with you on the service.
Figure 9.6 - LinkedIn
LinkedIn – a social networking community for business
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Once you start to build your list of contacts who you know personally, you are
able to view who your own contacts know (your second-tier contacts on
LinkedIn) and who their contacts know (your third-tier contacts). You’re not
able to contact those second and third tier contacts directly, but you can, just like
traditional networking, ask for an introduction to these contacts through the
people who are already your personal contacts on LinkedIn.
Because of the way that LinkedIn works, if you’re looking to meet someone with
a particular skillset, you should be able to get introduced to them through
someone you know. It could even be argued that LinkedIn is a more efficient
form of networking than traditional face-to-face networking. Imagine LinkedIn
as being like traditional business networking, but with everyone pinning a list of
their own contacts on their lapels.
Although LinkedIn provides a great way to meet new business contacts, it also
offers an opportunity for you to demonstrate your knowledge on a particular
subject matter. LinkedIn has a ‘LinkedIn Answers section’ (Figure 9.6) which is
very similar to Yahoo! Answers.
When you use the LinkedIn Answers service, like Yahoo! Answers, do not
attempt to sell your company or your services overtly. You’re much better off
relying on your LinkedIn profile to sell your business on your behalf – people
will click through to look at your profile if you provide enough relevant value in
your answer to somebody’s question. There are people on LinkedIn that answer
over a hundred questions a week on the site – so obviously they find it a really
effective marketing tool for their businesses. Answering questions may or may
not be the right approach for your business but you should certainly test it to see
if it works for you.
Blog Comment Marketing
The final important part of group interaction is blog comment marketing. By
blog comment marketing I mean participating and interacting on other people’s
blogs – I’m not talking about your own blog here.
With blog comment marketing, like with answering questions on Yahoo!
Answers and LinkedIn Answers, make sure you avoid the temptation to market
your own products or services within your blog comments. If you make
comments on relevant, popular posts which are timely and add value, then
people who read your comments will be likely to click through to find out more
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about you from your name. (With any blog comment you make you get to add
your name and your website address – your name automatically links to your
website address in the vast majority of blog systems.)
Remember to register on the service MyBlogLog that we talked about in Pillar#3
if you want an avatar (your personal image – perhaps your company logo or
your picture) to appear beside comments that you make on other people's blogs.
How to find the best blog posts to comment on
Technorati is a great pace to find fresh, relevant, popular blog posts on which to
leave a comment. Technorati is essentially a directory of the latest blog posts
from the majority of the top blog in the world. The posts are categorized in a
manner which means that you don’t have to wade through piles of irrelevant
posts before finding something that’s worthwhile to comment on.
Figure 9.7 – The Golf Blog
The Golf Blog, where Freddie Faldo can leave comments on
At the time of writing there are around 100 million different blogs which appear
on Technorati. You’re bond to find at least some blogs that are worthwhile
participating on! Using the previously mentioned case study of Freddie Faldo –
the fictitious golf shop owner – we’ll try searching Technorati for blogs which
talk about golf. When conduction a search on Technorati for golf blogs, one of
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the first blogs we come across is called ‘The Golf Blog’. (Figure 9.7)
This would be a great blog for Freddie Faldo to start interacting on – he’d be
bound to find a recent blog post on a subject matter which was of particular
interest to him.
The more Freddie interacts and adds a valuable contribution to each relevant
blog post, the more he will enhance his reputation in his industry, and the more
targeted traffic he will drive back to his website. Although it’s very important to
always include your website address in the form that submits your blog post
comments, the vast majority of these links to your website will include ‘nofollow’
tags. In other words, broadly speaking, these links will not help with your search
engine optimization. However, blog comments are still valuable links – they
drive relevant visitors to your website who are interested in finding out more
about you.
Subscribe to the most relevant blogs
I’d advise you to take the time to so find ten different blogs relevant to your
business. By relevant to your business I mean blogs that your target market is
likely to read as well as blogs from your industry segment.
Technorati should be your first port of call to find these 10 blogs. Another great
place to find relevant blogs is the blog directory on BlogCatalog.com. Once you
have found your chosen blogs, you can subscribe to their RSS feeds, which
means you will not have to visit their blog every time you want to find out if
they have updated their content by publishing a new post.
The most efficient way to stay updated as soon as your chosen blogs have
updated their content is to use RSS feed reading software. An example of this is
Google Reader. You can have Google Reader installed on your personalized
iGoogle home page which means that you se whenever these blogs have been
updated as soon as you open up your internet browser.
Be consentient with your adding of blog comments
When you decide that it is appropriate to start adding your comments to blog
posts on a particular blog you should do so consistently. Once people who often
read that blog see that you add comments on a regular basis, they’ll start to take
you more seriously and will be more likely to remember you.
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Also, note that many blogs also offer you the facility to subscribe to comments s
well as blog posts. That way, if you do add a comment, and you wish to keep
tabs on whether or not someone has replied to your comment, then it is a good
idea to subscribe to the comments feed for individual posts as well. That way,
you can keep track of any responses to your comments and immediately choose
whether you wish to revisit the post and add to your initial comment.
Pillar # 9 – Group Interaction Summary
· Forum Participation can be a great way of building up your reputation in your
industry. By posting good quality, relevant posts in a forum (which is
relevant for your industry segment) together with using a good signature
which links to your site with a keyword phrase, you will be generating direct
traffic to your site as well as tremendously helping your search engine
rankings.
· Social networking groups such as MySpace and Facebook can help to create
awareness of your company. They can be used to promote new products that
you are releasing in the future as well as be a good way of allowing people to
let their friends know of your business. Just make sure that you initially
interact with people by aiming to assist people rather than aiming to sell them
something.
· Consider driving people on your email list towards good forum posts that
you’ve made. This will encourage interaction and quickly increase your
credibility in that forum.
· Answering questions on Yahoo! Answers and LinkedIn Answers is another
way to increase your credibility. You should post good quality answers on
relevant topics. Don’t promote your own business in the answers – aim to
drive people to your site from your profile. If your answers are good enough
and relevant enough people will want to read your profile.
· Blog comment marketing – posting comments on blogs that are relevant to
your business can also help raise your industry awareness and drive traffic to
your site. You should aim to select about 10 relevant blogs and subscribe to
them. Every time there is a relevant post, make sure you add a valuable
comment. They key with making this a success is consistency
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Pillar #10
Viral Marketing
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Pillar #10 – Viral Marketing
________________________________________________________________________
Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use
pre-existing social networks to increase brand awareness, through a selfreplicating
viral processes. Viral marketing is often known as word-of-mouth
marketing, in fact it’s any medium which your existing customers use that
enables a peer-to-peer recommendation to be made. Viral marketing means that
your customers do your marketing on your behalf. The process of encouraging
viral marketing to take place is to make it as easy as possible for your customers
to tell their friends about you – and to give them a reason to do so.
Pillar #10 covers what viral marketing is and how you can use it as part of your
overall internet marketing strategy. I would like to focus on two main viral
marketing opportunities. Firstly Social bookmarking – something that you can
easily build into your blog with ease and secondly Video marketing. By driving
people towards your videos on video sharing sites like YouTube you increase the
ranking of your videos on those sites by increasing your number of views. This
increased ranking of your video makes it more likely to be found on YouTube by
people who haven’t heard of you before. You then have an opportunity to drive
people back you your site after viewing your video.
An early example of effective Viral Marketing – Hotmail
One of the first examples of a super-successful viral marketing campaign came
back in the late 1990's. Hotmail was just developing as a company and doing OK
– until they hit upon an idea. Why not automatically add a little bit of text at the
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bottom of each email that people sent saying something like, “Would you like a
free email account too? Visit www.hotmail.com”
At the time (the late 1990’s) many people still paid for an email account. So, this
fact, combined with the “free email” message at the bottom of each mail
exploded Hotmail’s business. Hotmail’s message spread like a virus – hence viral
marketing. This one idea is probably the main reason why Hotmail became so
big so quickly. Hence, in my opinion, this one line of text is the reason that
Microsoft paid millions of dollars to buy Hotmail.
So, a simple email signature worked for Hotmail. But that’s not necessarily what
I’m recommending for you. Your viral marketing strategy does not necessarily
have to revolve around an e-mail signature. Remember that a viral marketing
campaign can be anything that encourages your users to pass on information
about you, your business or your business’ products to their friends. The
question is what’s the right viral marketing strategy for you?
Social bookmarking
Social bookmarking allows anyone who views web pages the opportunity to
save a list of their favorite pages online, and at the same time, if they wish to do
so, to share these favorite web pages with their friends. Two examples of social
bookmarking tools / websites are StumbleUpon and Delicious.
There are two main reasons why it’s a good idea to encourage your website
visitors to book your web pages online. Firstly, other users of these social
bookmarking services can see to most recently popular web pages that have been
bookmarked. This provides a way for other people to discover your web pages
on these social bookmarking sites. Secondly, search engines also like these social
bookmarking sites because t shows which web pages are popular with users at
any given moment in time. Therefore, if search engines crawl these social
bookmarking sites and find that lots of users are bookmarking your site, then
your site will be more likely to be ranked higher in search engines – social
bookmarking also helps with your search engine optimization.
Don’t think that social bookmarking is the same as traditional bookmarking
where people save their favorite websites on their internet browser software.
That way of saving bookmarks is just for their personal use as the information is
stored on their internet browser software on their computer. Search engines can
only crawl bookmarks that are stored online – so that’s the kind of bookmarking
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that you want to encourage.
Social bookmarking and tags
Another great reason why social bookmarking is so good is the use of ‘tags’ with
each bookmark. A tag is a word or a phrase that a user associates with a web
page. Again using Freddie Faldo’s golf shop site as an example, people may
decide to save his home page on their bookmarks and add the 3 tags ‘golf’, ‘golf
clubs’ and ‘golf shop’ to the bookmark. This tag addition will make it easier for
them to find your website in their bookmarks in the future – it’s like listing the
web page in multiple categories. It’s a more modern, more user-friendly version
of storing web pages in folders.
Another reason why tags are great is that they help to educate search engines
about the subject matter on your website. i.e. if lots of different people are saving
your home page on a social bookmaking site using the tag ‘golf store’, then this
will give search engines more of a reason to rank your home page higher for the
keyword phrase ‘golf store’.
Delicious.com
Figure 10.1 shows the Delicious.com social bookmarking site homepage. This is
a great example of the kind of website I have been referring to.
Figure 10.1 – Delicious.com – a popular social bookmarking site
Browsing popular bookmarks on Delicious
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But how do you encourage your website visitors to save your website pages?
Apart from producing great, valuable content that people will want to come back
to and regularly revisit in the future, the next thing that you should do is make it
easy for people to bookmark your web pages.
AddThis.com
You may well have noticed on web pages – especially on blog posts that you are
occasionally invited to bookmark the page or share it with your friends. Websites
commonly link directly to the ‘add’ page on social bookmarking sites to increase
the chances that people will bookmark the page. One popular free service that
makes it easy to add this service to your website is AddThis.com (figure 10.2).
Figure 10.2 – AddThis.com
AddThis.com is easy to integrate into your website
AddThis is a service that people may recognize when you add it to your website
– because it’s already very popular and on lots of other websites.
Once a user clicks on it for the first time, it gives you a list of the social
bookmarking service for them to select the one that they regularly use (figure
10.2). If it’s Delicious.com then once someone selects the Delicious icon in the
AddThis window, they’ll proceed to a window like figure 10.3.
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Figure 10.3 – Adding a web page to Delicious.com bookmarks
Entering a bookmark’s URL, title and notes on Delicious.com
After you select your chosen bookmarking service through the AddThis service,
AddThis will remember your bookmarking service for next time. This reduces
the amount of clicks that it takes for someone to save your web page to their
bookmarks.
StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon (Figure 10.4) offers a similar service to Delicious.com.
StumbleUpon lets users ‘randomly find’ other people's bookmarks by searching
the StumbleUpon website within certain categories.
Figure 10.4 – StumbleUpon.com
StumbleUpon lets users ‘stumble upon’ new, related web pages
The service will then recommend other websites that people have already tagged
in a similar manner. The more that you can get people to ‘stumble’ (bookmark)
your web pages, the more likely it will be that StumbleUpon will recommend
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your web pages.
A special request to all readers
This is probably a good time to ask for your assistance to help me get the 13
Pillars of Internet Marketing book in as many people’s hands as possible. If you’ve
found this book valuable so far I’d really appreciate if you could share
http://www.13pillars.com with a few of your friends. If you could tell your
Twitter followers, share it with your Facebook friends and bookmark the page on
an online bookmarking service line StumbleUpon it would be much appreciated!
Thanks! :)
Video Marketing
Thanks to every-increasing broadband capacity, online video is becoming more
and more the norm. At the time of writing around 10 of the top 100 websites in
the world are video-based. This means that ignoring video as a medium to drive
traffic towards your website could be a significant mistake.
I’d like to share with you a few of the top online video sharing sites, show you
how easy it is to create your own videos for these sites, share with you how to
include a ‘call to action’ within your video and recommend a great free service
that les you upload your video to many of these sites at the same time, tracking
your video views too.
Figure 10.5 – YouTube
YouTube – the most popular video sharing website by far
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YouTube
YouTube is the granddaddy of all online video sharing sites. In fact, by June
2007 it was 50 percent more popular than all other video sites combined,
according to Hitwise. But even though YouTube is still miles ahead of other
video sharing sites in terms of visitor numbers at the moment, as a content
producer it would be folly just to rely on YouTube as a marketing medium. I’d
advise on distributing your videos to at least 10 video sharing sites.
I’m assuming that you’ve seen it before, but figure 10.5 shows you what the
YouTube website looks like. I published the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oheBDHB-IZU (An introduction the 13
Pillars of Internet Marketing) in May 2007, and over the first year it was on the
first page of YouTube search results for the phrase ‘internet marketing’. At the
time of writing it’s now had over 14,000 views.
How to make your videos more popular on YouTube
There are a few small things that I did to make the introduction to the 13 Pillars
video more popular of YouTube and drive more visitors back to my website. I’d
like to share them with you now…
YouTube is one of the websites which will reprint your URL as a live link if you
include ‘http://’ in front of it. If you include this link in the description of your
video you will get a live link back to your website, meaning that people will be
much more likely to visit your website after viewing your video. Although it’s a
‘nofollow’ link, it will still increase your website visitor numbers.
Include your keyword phrase in your video title and your video description. i.e.
Including ‘internet marketing’ within the video title and description made
YouTube much more likely to rank it more highly in searches for that keyword
phrase.
Drive visitors to your newly published video and ask them to help you by rating
the video, adding the video as one of their favorites and adding a comment to
the video. All these measures are indicators to YouTube of your video’s
popularity. And if your video quickly becomes popular then YouTube are much
more likely to rank it highly themselves.
Once of the best ways of driving visitors to your video is to have your own email
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list of appreciative subscribers. If you regularly over-deliver, you’ll find that
members of your list are much more likely to be willing to help you when you
ask a favor from them. This is just one of the reasons why it’s an extremely
valuable thing for your business to build up a list of subscribers – even although
you don’t have an email marketing strategy at the moment.
Other Video Sites
As mentioned already, there are other popular video sites available apart from
YouTube – get your videos in as many places as possible! So which sites apart
from YouTube should you be using to host your videos?
Yahoo! Video
Yahoo! Video originally began as a search engine during 2005. It combined
traditional search engine techniques to crawl other websites to look for videos on
other sites together with a web 2.0 facility that allows users to upload, share, tag
and host their own videos on Yahoo!
However, as part of a recent upgrade, Yahoo is indexing more video from
several new media sources, including CBS News, MTV, the Discovery Channel
and The Food Network which the users of Yahoo! can see embedded within the
Yahoo! video player.
Figure 10.6 – Yahoo! Video
Yahoo Video
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MySpace Video
In early 2007, MySpace introduced MySpaceTV. Since launch it has been
rebranded to MySpace Video. (Figure 10.7)
Figure 10.7 - MySpace Video
MySpace Video
MySpace Video works in the same way as most of the other video sharing sites.
However, because it’s part of the MySpace network, you need a MySpace
account to upload videos.
However, this also means that if you are already an active MySpace user, when
you up load videos to the MySpace Videos service, you can share these videos
with your existing MySpace contacts.
Metacafe
Metacafe (Figure 10.8) is another similar online video sharing service. However,
it does have a couple of policies that differentiate it:
Using its unique ‘VideoRank’ system, Metacafe attempts to gauge viewer
reactions to videos in order to feature those that prove most popular to its
viewers.
Additionally, Metacafe pays video creators for original work that has exceeded a
certain threshold of both total views and Videorank score via its Producer
Rewards Program.
Any video that is viewed a minimum of 20,000 times, and has achieved a
Videorank rating of 3.00 or higher (and does not violate any copyrights or other
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Metacafe community standards) is awarded $5 for every 1,000 views.
Figure 10.8 – Metacafe
Metacafe
Revver
Revver (Figure 10.9) is another popular video sharing website that hosts usergenerated
content. It attaches advertising to user-submitted video clips and
shares all ad revenue 50/50 with the creators. Revver includes adverts on all its
videos, whether you like it or not which may be a problem for you depending on
what your business offers.
Figure 10.9 – Revver
Revver
Each video is automatically made available in both Flash and QuickTime formats
and you are given the HTML code to embed either format along with the ability
to add your own branding or logo into the Flash player interface.
Uploading to Revver is easy and it provides a progress bar to show your upload
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status. They review all videos before making them live and this process can take
up to 24 hours.
DailyMotion
DailyMotion (Figure 10.10) is a French-based video website which was founded
in 2005. The videos that it features on its site are often of good quality in
comparison to many other video sites. As of April 2009 DailyMotion was ranked
by Alexa Rank as being the 67th most popular website in the world.
Figure 10.10 – DailyMotion
DailyMotion
Blip TV
Blip.tv (Figure 10.11) is a video sharing site which features videos that tend to be
more professional in quality rather than simple clips. On Blip.tv the videos are
like mini TV series and often very entertaining. You can search for your favorite
episodes by category, use the search box or search by popular tags. You can also
become a subscriber to your favorite shows so you do not miss an episode.
If you like to produce videos, you can create your own show and advertise it to
others through a trailer or you can participate as a critic and rate the shows.
Blip.tv also offers advertising schemes with profit being split 50/50 between you
and them. You can also submit your videos to iTunes through Blip.tv, creating a
video podcast.
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Figure 10.11 Blip TV
Blip TV
Brightcove
Brightcove (Figure 10.12) was originally a company who helped create video
content on websites such as the New York Times and MTV but they’ve recently
launched a video service with the motto ‘Share your videos in style’.
Figure 10.12 Brightcove
Brightcove
Every publisher who creates a Brightcove account is assigned a channel, their
own page on Brightcove.tv.
Publishers can customize their channel through the Brightcove Console. Simple
details like the channel's name, logo, and description can be updated in the user's
profile. The content of a channel is defined by changing the settings of
individual titles, lineups, and players to allow distribution and promotion on
Brightcove.tv.
Brightcove.tv - along with syndication, search engine indexing and a user's own
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site - serves as a distribution and promotion tool for video publishers.
Veoh
Veoh (Figure 10.13) lets you upload a range of video formats with no limits on
file size, resolution, or length. If your video is over 45 minutes a viewer will
need to download it to watch the full video.
Figure 10.13 Veoh
Veoh
To download and watch videos on your computer rather than watch videos
online, users must use the VeohTV desktop application. VeohTV is also what
you need to be using to upload videos over 100MB. You can also upload videos
directly from a URL or if you have a Veoh Pro account you can upload via an
RSS feed.
A Veoh Pro account is free. However, it requires a credit card account number to
confirm your address. When that is given, you can then take advantage of
advertising programs where you can share revenue 50/50 and sell or rent video
downloads through Veoh's e-commerce system (you keep 70 percent of the sale
price). As a Veoh Pro account holder, your uploaded video will be transcoded
into Flash 8 video. Flash 8 is superior to the Flash 7 format used for converting
video submitted by basic Veoh users.
Imeem
Imeem (Figure 10.14) is a video sharing service where users interact with each
other by watching, posting, and sharing content of all media types, including
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blogs, photos, audio and videos.
Launched in October 2004, the Imeem has a social network structure as well as a
content browsing/filtering structure similar to that of YouTube. It works on an
advertising-based business model and is free to use.
Figure 10.14 – Imeem
Imeem
They also provide a broader range of privacy options and incorporate peer-topeer
technology for better security and unlimited bandwidth.
Editing video
For PC users you probably already have a piece of software installed on your
computer – Windows Movie Maker (Figure 10.15). This allows you to edit and
produce your own video. If you have a Mac the alternative is Final Cut Studio
and if you are using Linux then there are plenty of open source programs that
you can simply download for free – try searching Download.com.
All these video editing software will allow you to import your own videos into
the program, add titles, endings or music to it. They will also allow you to create
videos out of still photos as well.
If you have a number of still photos that you want to create a movie with, you
can import the photos into your movie editing software and then drag the photos
into your video timeline. Then you can then choose video transitions from your
software to include in-between your photos. Transitions mean that each new
photo can appear either from the side, up or down or in fact in one of any
manner of options preinstalled in your video editing software. You can also
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apply effects to your individual photos such as slowly zooming in or out.
Figure 10.15 – Windows Movie Maker
Windows Media Player – the free video editing software from Microsoft
When you create a sequence of photos and ass multiple effects, you will be
surprised at how quickly your photos start to become a video – and how quickly
and easy the process is. After you’re satisfied with your video sequence it’s also
easy to add beginning titles and end credits should you wish to do so. It’s also
easy to import audio.
Adding audio to your video
Bearing in mind copyright restrictions, you should be careful about the audio
you use with your video. However, there is a website called PodsafeAudio
(figure 10.16) that download and use any of the audio tracks on the website – as
long as if you credit the artist.
Figure 10.16 – PodsafeAudio
PodsafeAudio is a great place to find royalty-free backing music
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Simply mention the artist name and song title at the end of your video clip to use
the audio legally. There are lots of great audio tracks on PodsafeAudio including
some great tracks from unsigned, independent new artists. Simply download the
audio that you wish to use in MP3 format to be able to use it as a backing track
for your video.
Including a ‘call-to-action’ in your videos
It’s important to include a ‘call-to-action’ in your video – a call-to-action is
simply asking the viewer to do something after they have viewed your video.
This must be measurable, and of potential benefit to your business.
I’d certainly recommend including an easy-to-remember domain name as a
subheading throughout your video in additional to a clip at the end of your
video telling the viewer why they should visit that domain.
However, if you find that video marketing is an important part of your overall
marketing mix I’d say that it’s important to have a unique URL within your
video i.e. a URL, domain name that is not mentioned anywhere on your website,
or anywhere else. That way, when people visit that website address you know
that it can only be your videos which are responsible for driving those visitors.
For example, your video could be an introduction to a subject matter and for
more information they can visit your website address to watch more videos or
perhaps download a free report. Just remember to make the first free video
valuable and informative.
A common successful strategy for the web pages that viewers are asked to visit
after viewing an informative video is to ask for someone’s name and email
address in exchange for more great content. Remember that if there is no link to
this website address from anywhere else online, you know that your visitors
have landed on your web page because they viewed one of your videos on a
video sharing site like YouTube. More information about tracking your visitors
will be covered in Pillar #11 – Visitor Analysis).
Saving your video in the optimum format
There are literally tens of different formats in which to save your video – and
then there are so many different sizes of videos. Until recently, 320x240 pixels
was the size that most video sharing sites preferred. This happens to be in the
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traditional 4x3 television screen size.
However, more recently video sites have started to prefer videos in widescreen
format which is 16x9 screen size. As broadband speeds have increased, so have
the number of pixels per video. 16x9 videos for online distribution are now most
commonly uploaded in 640x360 pixels size. At the time of writing (April 2009)
that’s the size which I’d recommend.
When it comes to video format many file types will work just fine, but most
video sharing sites recommend MP4 format with h.264 codec. However, you’ll
probably find that WMV or AVI will work just fine. If you’re worried about your
video format compatibility it’ probably best to create a test YouTube video site
first-of-all to confirm what your video will look like when it’s published.
Figure 10.17 – TubeMogul
TubeMogul helps you upload your videos to multiple sites and track video views
Uploading you video to video sharing sites
I’ve already introduced you to several video sites – and it’s worthwhile to upload
your video to several of those video sites and more. However, if you haven’t
done so already you’ll start to realize that uploading videos to video sharing sites
can take a great deal of time and resources.
Many internet connections upload files at much slower speeds that they
download files. This means that it could take you a day just to upload one tenminute
video to all the video sharing sites that you want your video to feature
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on.
However, help is at hand. There’s a great free-to-use (for their basic service)
website called TubeMogul which will upload your video to several video sites at
the same time. All you have to do is upload your video to TubeMogul, enter
your usernames and passwords for the various video sharing sites and
TubeMogul will upload your videos to several sites on your behalf. This makes
the whole process a great deal easier and a lot less time consuming.
As a bonus TubeMogul will also track your video views on each of the sites,
meaning that you’ll be able to quickly and easily track your conversion rates for
your call-to-action.
Of course TubeMogul have a partially free service for a reason – they want you
to sign-up for a more comprehensive service that offers more. However, whether
you choose to upgrade or not, as it stands their free service is great.
Other video sites
Assuming that you decide not to upgrade to TubeMogul’s paid service, it’s
probably a good idea for you to manually upload your video to a few other
services. Viddler is another good general video sharing site and 5Min calls itself
a one-stop shop for instructional videos and DIY projects. For this reason, you
may well find 5Min to be a good site for uploading informative business videos.
You may also find that there are other video sharing sites that are aimed
specifically at your industry segment. For instance, I have also uploaded the 13
Pillars of Internet Marketing seminar videos to a video sharing site called IM
Broadcast (Internet Marketing Broadcast). You can see my 13 Pillars videos here:
http://www.imbroadcast.com/users/13pillars/videos/public.
So make sure that if you’re in sales recruitment like Jane Jobs then you search for
a video sharing site that specializes in sales advice. And if you own a golf shop
like Freddie Faldo then check to see if there’s a video sharing site that specializes
in golf videos.
Tweaking your conversions
After testing video marketing as a form of internet marketing you find that
you’re finding it to be a productive tool for your business, then it’s important to
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try to improve your conversion rates. Test including different calls-to-action for
different videos.
For example, try including a free report as the incentive at the end of the video
instead of more videos. Perhaps you should also try to drive viewers towards
your main website.
Remember that if you increase your conversion rates from 1% to 2% then that’s
100% more potential customers driven towards your business from your video
marketing efforts.
Pillar #10 – Viral Marketing Summary
· Viral marketing uses word-of-mouth, peer-to-peer communication to
advertise your website.
· Social bookmarking and video marketing are two examples of what you can
use to encourage viral marketing to take place.
· Aim to improve your number of returning visitors using social bookmarkingby
allowing people to quickly and easily make your site one of their favorites.
Try incorporating the AddThis.com tool within your blog.
· Remember to kick-start the popularity of your videos on video sharing sites
like YouTube by driving people on your email list to your videos and asking
them to add comments.
· Be efficient in the uploading of your videos – make sure that you use the free
TubeMogul uploading and tracking service. Don’t just upload your videos to
YouTube. There are lots of other sources of video viewers and some sites will
convert a lot better than YouTube even though they don’t necessarily bring as
many video views.
· Have you included a call-to-action in your videos? Do people know who has
uploaded the video and what else they could get from you if they visited your
website?
· For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date viral
marketing resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar10.
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Pillar #11
Visitor Analysis
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Pillar #11 – Visitor Analysis
________________________________________________________________________
Visitor analysis is absolutely essential if you want to discover which of your
internet marketing activities is proving to be the most valuable for your business.
By tracking which websites are providing you with most traffic, knowing which
websites your users are visiting prior to your site, which websites they are
leaving your site for, and which inbound links are providing the most valuable
visitors, you can target specific areas and focus future marketing campaigns.
Here are just a few of the things that you should be finding out about your
website visitors:
- Where did a visitor come from?
- How long did they stay when they visited your site?
- Which page(s) did they visit on your website?
- Have they visited your site before?
- Can you improve your conversion rate?
- Did they complete a specific action on your website? (i.e. buy a product, complete a
service enquiry form, download a free report) Perhaps some of your visitors
opted-out half-way through an order process? Is so, that’s essential information.
Hopefully you will understand the valuable nature of this information. If you’re
looking at it from a business efficiency perspective then by paying attention to
which of your marketing activities is providing the most high-quality visitors,
then you will know where to concentrate a lot more of your energy in the future.
If you’re thinking about this from a marketing managers’ perspective, then by
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being aware of where your website visitors are coming from and what they do
will be able to justify a greater investment in certain areas in the future.
Google Analytics
The most popular method of gathering good quality visitor analysis data is to
use the free analysis software from Google called Google Analytics (Figure 11.1).
All you need to access the Google Analytics service is to have your own free
Google Account – you will already have one if you’re started a Google Adwords
pay-per-click campaign.
A small number of businesses or other organization aren’t comfortable with
letting Google have access to their website’s and their visitor’s data. Unless this is
the case for you, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t install the Google
Analytics code on your website. At least then – even if you decide to go for a
paid alternative – you’ll have some alternative data to be able to compare against
your preferred visitor tracking software.
Figure 11.1 – Google Analytics
The Google Analytics Dashboard
Setting up your Google Analytics service
Having registered your website with Google Analytics, the first things to do is to
insert some tracking code on the footer of each page on your site. It’s fairly easy
to do – Google provides you with a step-by-step guide of how to get things
going. They also provide an excellent help section should you get stuck.
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The importance of setting goals with Google Analytics
With regards to Google Analytics, a goal is a page on your website that follows a
specific action that you want your visitors to take. An example of a goal might be
something like your ‘thank you page’ that people see they once they complete an
enquiry form on your website.
Figure 11.2 – Google Analytics
Setting up a goal on Google Analytics
E.g. the path of URLs that your visitors take to reach your goal URL might look
something like this:
1) http://www.yourdomain.com
2) http://www.yourdomain.com/enquiry_form.htm
3) http://www.yourdomain.com/thanks_for_completing_enquiry_form.htm
In the above example the page
http://www.yourdomain.com/thanks_for_completing_enquiry_form.htm might include
the following text:
‘Thanks for filling out your information. We’ll respond to your enquiry as quickly as
possible. In the meantime, have you downloaded our free report?
That is your goal page. You enter the URL of this page into your Google
Analytics control panel, in your goal settings. You then give your goal a name so
you can differentiate it if / when you set up additional goals.
Define your goal funnel
Once you’ve decided on your goal page, and taken a note of your goal URL
you’ll need to do something called ‘defining your goal funnel’ (figure 11.3).
Defining your goal funnel tells Google Analytics the path from your visitor
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entrance page to your goal page. Defining your funnel will help you determine if
there is any specific part of the path towards your goal page at which your
visitors tend to drop off.
An example of a simple goal funnel is the above URL path which looks at
someone when they enter your site on your home page, then visiting an enquiry
form page, through to completing the enquiry form and therefore visiting the
‘thank you for completing your details’ page.
A slightly more complicated goal funnel path might be as follows:
- Your website home page
- Category page
- Product page
- Upselling page
- Purchase confirmation page
- Credit card details page
- Thank you for purchasing page
Figure 11.3 – Google Analytics
Defining your goal funnel on Google Analytics
Analyzing your funnel blockages
Once you have defined your funnel you can analyze which steps of your funnel
are blockages – in other words which steps of your funnel people stop at and for
whatever reason do not proceed any further.
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Figure 11.4 – Google Website Optimizer
The sign-up page on Google Website Optimizer
Perhaps it’s not obvious what your shipping charges are? Maybe people would
like to see a better picture of your product before they make a decision to
purchase? Perhaps you’re requesting too much information when you’re asking
people to complete an enquiry form? Whatever it is it’s your job to try and find
out what the main problem areas are on your website and defining accurate
funnels of Google Analytics can help you do this.
Plugging your funnel leaks
But remember, determining the problem is only half the job. There’s no point in
working out where people are leaving your goal funnel unless you do something
to try to plug the leaks.
Probably the best way to try to improve the situation is to split-test the aspect
that isn’t performing too well against an alternative option. Google’s recently
introduced some software called Google Website Optimizer (figure 11.4) which
will allow you to split-test different aspects within the same page at the same
time.
Set a monetary value for each of your goals
One other essential aspect of setting a goal is setting a monetary value for the
goal. You can enter a monetary value at the bottom of your goal settings (see
bottom of figure 11.2). This value is how much it’s worth to your business if a
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website visitor completes the Google Analytics goal in question.
What do you mean you don’t how much the people who complete your Google Analytics
goals are worth to your business financially!?
If you don’ know exactly how much the people who complete your Google
Analytics goals are worth you your business financially then you need to take an
educated guess. Because if you don’t include a monetary value then a lot of the
reports that Google Analytics can produce for you won’t be available.
Taking an educated guess on how much completed goals are worth to you
If you don’t know exactly, it’s important to take an educated guess as to how
much people who complete your Google Analytics goals are worth to you
financially. So how do you guesstimate this value? If we assume that we’re talking
about a completed enquiry form as a goal, then you should already know how
many people who complete your enquiry form go on to make a purchase. And
you should also know the average order value for your business.
Therefore, for example, if for every 20 people that enquire about your service one
person buys, and that your average transaction value represents £1,000 profit
then you know that each person who enquires about your product or service is
worth £50 to you, so your goal value will be £50.
Next – work out your conversion rates to determine your advertising budget
The next thing to work out is your conversion rates from someone visiting your
home page to completing your enquiry form. You should be able to easily get
this figure from your Google Analytics stats – assuming that you’ve set up your
goal correctly.
Say you see that 2% of your website visitors go on to complete your enquiry
form. Because you’ve already determined that each of your completed goals is
worth £50 to you, that means that you know that, on average, each new website
visitor is worth £1 to your business.
Therefore if you decide to pay for some website traffic in the future, you have a
good idea of how much you can afford to pay for the advertising.
Knowing where you are now gives you something to aim for in the future
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The great thing about knowing that a completed goal is worth an average of £50
profit to your business and that 2% of your website visitors go on to reach this
goal is that it gives you something to aim for – it means that you can turn your
focus towards improving your average transaction profit value and increasing
your visitor to goal conversion rates.
Increasing your goal conversion rates could be incredibly important for your
business. For example, if you can increase your average goal conversion rates
from 2% to 4%, then this in turn increases your average visitor value from £1 to
£2.
This increase in average visitor value may well open up your access to thousands
of more visitors. If your average visitor value increases, so does your ability to
pay more for traffic, meaning that you will have access to bigger networks of
paid traffic sources.
Have you inserted your Google Analytics tracking code on your website yet?
Of course all this talk about improving your goal conversion rates is pointless
unless you’ve inserted your Google Analytics tracking code on your website and
set up your goals – so if you haven’t done this already, do it now!
Figure 11.5 – Google Analytics
Looking at www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz traffic sources using Google Analytics
Insert the Google Analytics tracking at the bottom of each page on your site (if
you can’t figure out how to do this yourself any website coder will find it fairly
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simple to do). This isn’t as time consuming as you would think – most pages on
your website will have what is called a common footer which is replicated on all
the pages. This common footer means the code only has to be pasted in one place
for it to be automatically included on every page on your site - allowing you to
track visits to individual pages.
By setting goals and tracking your visitors you can determine which aspects of
your internet marketing campaign are most successful, and which aspects aren’t
working so well. It’s extremely important to undertake this analysis to optimize
the success of your internet marketing campaign.
Looking at an example of stats on Google Analytics
Using the website www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz as an example (figure 11.5)
you can see that over a set period of time, 122,194 website visits have been
referred from 1,584 traffic sources.
The same screenshot shows that the average visitor viewed 2.21 pages and spent
2 minutes and 11 seconds on the site. You can get a lot more information about
your visitors from Google Analytics including which country they’re from and
what browser they’re using to view your web pages.
You can also see in figure 11.4 that 86.54% of the website visits were from people
who hadn’t been to the website before – and that 68.85% of visitors left the
website before choosing to view another page (that’s called the bounce rate).
Although these stats are encouraging in terms of the quantity of visitors, it’s a bit
concerning that so many people are choosing to leave the website after viewing
just the one page. It’s even more concerning that only 13.46% of visitors choose to
come back and visit the website again.
Here you see the advantage of using a good visitor tracking system like Google
Analytics. Unless you’re aware of the statistics that you could improve on,
there’s very little chance that you’ll know which changes to implement on your
website to try to change things for the better.
Keyword Phrases
Something else that Google Analytics allows you to do is to analyze the keyword
phrases that people are using to find your website in search engines.
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By reviewing which keyword phrases have been driving the most traffic to your
website through search engines (Figure 11.6), you’ll be able to see how successful
your search engine optimization strategy has been so far.
As you can see in figure 11.6, the most successful keyword phrase by far is
‘business articles’, the phrase that has driven over 10,000 visits from search
engines. The next best keyword phrase has driven just 666 visits.
On the face of it, this isn’t good. If you rely too heavily on traffic from just the
one keyword phrase, then if search engines – for whatever reason – decide to
rank your website in a lower position for that keyword phrase then you may take
a big hit on the overall amount of visitors to your website.
Figure 11.6 – Looking at keyword phrases on Google Analytics
Looking at the keyword phrases driving traffic from search engines in Google Analytics
Fortunately though, this isn’t the case for the www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz
website. If you look more closely at figure 11.5 you can see that although 10,319
visits have been generated via the keyword phrase ‘business articles’, this is from
a total of 94,285 visits. The ‘business articles’ keyword phrase therefore
represents just under 11% of all the organic (free traffic as apposed to pay per
click) visits from search engines.
The extremely positive thing from an organic SEO perspective for this website is
the quantity of different keyword phrases which are driving traffic. 52,015
different keyword phrases have referred website visits.
You can also see that the category pages are well optimized. For instance, the
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keyword phrase ‘business law articles’ referred 592 visits, ‘free business articles’
referred 506 visits and ‘operations management articles’ referred 497 visits.
This provides a very important lesson – if you just focus on optimizing for just
the one keyword phrase, and just the one page (i.e. your home page) then even if
you manage to hit the top of Google for your chosen keyword phrase, the
chances are that you’ll still be missing out on 90% of your potential search engine
traffic because you haven’t considered longer-tail keyword phrases.
Broadening the quantity of keyword phrases that people use to find your website
in search engines has an additional benefit. Not only will you be driving more
visitors to your site, you’ll also be safeguarding your traffic from search engines.
In short, the more routes into your website, the less you risk having your
business seriously affected if you lose the high search engine ranking of ne
keyword phrase.
Analyzing traffic from links to your site
Yet another important use of visitor analysis software like Google Analytics is to
analyze the quantity and quality of traffic driven to your site directly from links
as opposed to search engines.
By selecting ‘traffic sources’ and then ‘referring sites’ in Google Analytics you
can view all the different websites that are driving traffic to your site.
From there you can click on one of the listed links and drill down further. If the
website that you’re analyzing sent traffic from multiple pages, you’ll be able to
see which pages sent the most traffic. You’ll also be able to analyze the quality of
traffic from each individual page that sends you traffic. For instance, some
websites may send you traffic which on average views many more pages. Other
website many send you visitors that are much more likely to convert to your
Google Analytics goal target.
Reviewing the quality of traffic from Top10SalesArticles.com
By reviewing the quality of traffic delivered from the website Top10SalesArticles
in Google Analytics (Figure 11.7) we can see how much better (or worse) traffic
from an individual link is compared with other sources.
For instance, we can se that the average amount of time that a visitor from this
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site spends on the BuildYourOwnBusiness website is 2 minutes and 9 seconds.
This compares with an average of 1 minute and 50 seconds from traffic from
search engines.
Figure 11.7 – Google Analytics
Reviewing the quality of traffic from Top10SalesArticles
You can also see that the bounce rate of traffic from this site is slightly higher –
74.20% compared with a bounce rate of 68.85% from all traffic.
These statistics are interesting, and information about the quality of the landing
page can be inferred from the data. For instance, it could be argued that the
quality of the home page on the BuildYourOwnBusiness website isn’t
encouraging enough visitors to click through and view other pages – it therefore
needs to be improved.
Not all traffic to your website is equal
This little exercise of reviewing the differences in website traffic to
BuildYourOwnBusiness from varying sources shows that it’s important for you
to be aware that not all traffic to your website is equal.
If you are fully aware of the quality of traffic delivered from a certain website –
including how much on average each visitor is worth to you, you may be able to
justify an increased affiliate referral fee for that website. Visitor value knowledge
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is power.
This again emphasizes how important it is to set up a monetary value with your
Google Analytics goals. Unless you include this, you’ll find it a lot harder to
differentiate between the value of traffic from different sources – and therefore
much harder to make highly informed future marketing spend decisions.
Can you list the top 10 websites that refer traffic to your website? If so, what
have you done to try to increase the volume of traffic from these sources?
Is your website as clearly laid out as it should be?
Something else that’s really important to consider is the pages that your visitors
tend to view on your website – for instance, is there a link from your home page
which tends to be visited more than any other? If so, you need to know why.
Perhaps you’re website’s as not as clearly laid out as it needs to be. Check how
long people stay on their second page for. If’ it’s only a manner of seconds then
you should question the value and relevance of the information on that page.
Have you tested your website in different browsers?
Check if there’s any significant difference between people who view your web
pages in less common web browsers. If you notice any major difference then you
should do some usability testing – test that your site performs and looks just as
good in different scenarios.
That’s why testing your site before you start marketing it to the general public is
so very important. You can put off quite a few visitors if your website doesn’t
display properly in Firefox or Safari. It’s easy to forget that just because you
might be using Windows and Internet Explorer to view your web pages, many of
your visitors might not be.
Website coding is an art as well as a science. In other words, there’s not
necessarily a logical reason why certain parts of your web page might look
significantly different, or act in a significantly different manner when viewed
through different devices. I recall that for several months a major UK
supermarket’s website just didn’t work properly at all when viewed through the
FireFox browser. That meant that they may have alienated 30% of their website
visitors simply because their website wasn’t thoroughly tested!
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Mobile browsing devices
Depending on the technical profile of your audience, you may find that a
significant percentage of your website visits come through mobile internet
devices. Do you know what your website looks like in a mobile phone? How
quickly does it load? Do people viewing your web pages on mobile phones have
to scroll before being able to read anything worthwhile?
If being able to view and operate your website from a mobile phone is important
for your business (or likely to become important for your business in the future)
then you should consider having a special version of your site designed for these
devices with less images and straight-to-the-point text.
Don’t guess – make an informed decision
There really isn’t any excuse for guessing when it comes to improving your
website for your visitors. Analyzing the statistics from your current visitors
should provide you with all the information that you require to make an
informed decision to improve things.
And even if you’re not entirely sure, you should use that split-test software
which I mentioned earlier (Google Website Optimizer) to test different
improvement options. Thorough website visitor analysis is a must if you want
your website to reach anywhere near its full potential.
Pillar #11 – Visitor Analysis Summary
· Using Google Analytics you can track many vital visitor statistics like where
your visitors come from and how long they stay. You can then use this
valuable information to find weak spots in your website like improving
important conversion rates.
· Once you have identified your weak spots or discovered a blockage on the site
you can amend your website to improve your conversion rates. This is
probably something that your competitors aren’t doing.
· You can track the sources of traffic to your site, and more specifically which
websites your visitors are coming from, as well as keyword phrases used in
search engines to find your site. You can use this to help you determine which
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keyword phrases to focus on in the future for your SEO.
· Remember that it’s imperative to set goals for your site – and give them a
monetary value.
· Make sure you test what your website looks like and performs like on
different browsers – this includes mobile phone browsers.
· Don’t delay on getting your visitor tracking set up – unless you set it up now,
you won’t have any comparable historical data to analyze in the future.
· Use Google Analytics to help you pinpoint the most valuable sources of traffic
to your site – you might be able to make a decision that you can afford to pay
more for traffic from certain sources if you can justify it.
· How can you justify any future marketing spend unless you track its
performance. Online marketing is unique – the majority of it is entirely
trackable and therefore justifiable.
· For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date
visitor analysis resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar11.
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Pillar #12
Continuous Content
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Pillar #12 – Continuous Content
________________________________________________________________________
Continuous content is probably the shortest of the 13 Pillars of Internet
Marketing in terms of length, but it should be one of the broadest pillars of your
internet marketing strategy. By broadest I mean that not only should it be
ongoing, it also impacts other pillars.
If linking is queen, content is king
I can’t remember who I heard this quote from first, but it certainly describes the
high degree of importance of continuous content:
“If Linking is Queen, Content is King”.
While the number of quality links to your website tells search engines that your
site is likely to be important, search engines are less likely to rank your site
highly for a continuous period of time unless you continually update your
website with fresh, original, relevant content.
It doesn’t even have to be content produced by you or your organization. But it is
important to rank highly in search engines that it’s original content. Mad Content
(Figure 12.1) is a great value content writing service which charges just $1.50 per
100 words.
Fresh information shows search engines that your website is more likely to be
up-to-date, and therefore more relevant in your industry segment compared
with your competitors.
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Figure 12.1 – Mad Content
Mad Content offers an excellent value-for-money content writing service
Blog technology makes your website easier to update
One of the reasons I encourage you to integrate blog technology into your
website to make it easy to add new content to your site on a regular basis. By
using a blogging system like WordPress, all you have to do is to log-in to your
back office, enter a heading, some post content and press ‘submit’. That’s all it
takes to create a new web page on your site through a blogging system.
With WordPress you can even schedule posts to be published at different points
in the future. You just select your time of publication when you upload your post
and it will be made live at your chosen date and time.
Great new content will encourage natural, organic linking
Whenever you add great quality new content to your site, and long as if it is
good quality and useful, the more people that view it, the more likely it is that
people will choose to link to it because they find it to be a valuable resource.
That’s one of the reasons why many successful bloggers don’t have to do any
other form of internet marketing. Because they offer great content, and they’ve
built up a band of loyal followers, as soon as they publish a new post, they
suddenly obtain a build-up of new links to that new page.
Grinding out new content is worth it
Grinding out fresh content on a regular basis is something which you will have
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to work hard at. It is quite tough to begin with – especially if writing’s not your
natural skill. But it doesn’t matter if you’re never going to be the world’s greatest
novelist, you’ll still have your own distinctive style.
If for whatever reason you decide that you just can’t product one new article per
week for your website, you can always outsource the production of the content.
Just make sure that your business is represented in a professional, consistent
manner. And that you try to get the same writer to write for you all the time.
There are lots of great outsourcing services where you can find writers. Links to
there can be found in the Pillars #12 resources section at
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar12.
Pillar #12 – Continuous Content Summary
· If ‘Linking is Queen, Content is King’ – links tell search engines that you are
important, but search engines are less likely to rank you highly unless you
have good content.
· Continuous new content on your site is so important. It needs to be updated
as often as possible. Search engines love new content as a website with fresh
content is more likely to be the most up-to-date in its industry.
· Fresh information = more relevance.
· Great new content encourages natural, organic link building.
· Remember to integrate blog technology for ease uploading and effective
distribution. If you are using WordPress then you can pre-set your blog to
release blog posts on certain dates in the future.
· For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date
continuous content related and outsourcing resources visit
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar12.
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Pillar #13
The Evolving Web
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Pillar #13 – The Evolving Web
________________________________________________________________________
The evolving web means that the World Wide Web continues to rapidly
change – and therefore so must also your internet marketing strategy.
Three stages of web development
There will be at least three stages of web evolvement that you need to be aware
of. So far there has only been two distinct stages – but the next stage is just
around the corner.
The three stages of web development: (from an internet marketing perspective)
Stage 1: Web 1.0 – 1996 to 2004
Stage 2: Web 2.0 – 2004 to ?
Stage 3: Web 3.0 - ? to ?
The evolvement of the web and how this impacts marketing activities
The web has evolved as a marketing medium since the mid 1990s. Back then the
internet could be described more as one-way source of information. Web pages
were viewed, read and/or printed out. The internet was a good resource for
researching information. Any marketing that occurred was based on existing
offline advertising techniques.
Pillar #13 – The Evolving Web reviews how marketing techniques have evolved
since then, ensuring that you stay up-to-date with to most effective methods of
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marketing your business online.
Why the web changed as a communications medium when Web 2.0 arrived
Remember that Web 1.0 was a one-way communication process, like a
newspaper. However, when Web 2.0 arrived it represented the massintroduction
of user-generated content. This is where blogging and social
networking came in for the masses. People formed their own communities on
niche topics and began interacting between themselves.
What will Web 3.0 look like and how will it impact internet marketing?
Web 3.0 hasn’t happened yet – it might not happen for a while – it might not
happen ever. But Web 3.0 is a good term to describe what might be. It’s a useful
term to represent the fact the web constantly changes, and it evolving into
something else.
My opinion is that the web is becoming more of a personalized experience. Social
networks are offering more and more ways to make each user’s experience more
unique. Personalized home pages are continually offering more personalization.
Perhaps another impact of web evolvement will have a greater impact than
personalization on internet marketing in the future. The essential part of Pillar
#13 – The Evolving Web is to keep your ear to the ground and be prepared to
adapt your internet marketing model in the future.
How Web 2.0 marketing differs from Web 1.0 marketing
Web 2.0 marketing lets you do a lot more than speaking to your potential
customers – it allows you to interact with your potential customers – at a place
where they feel at home. Let’s use the golf course as an example…
What you need to be acutely aware of when it comes to interacting with your
potential customers is that it’s like them inviting you out for a game of golf –
they’ve invited you out because they like you and they know that you play the
game too.
You limber up on the first tee, and just as your new acquaintance is about to hit
his first drive, you pull a flip chart out of your golf bag and start a sales
presentation. This may seem a bit crazy example but it articulates how a lot of
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businesses are still wrongly approaching Web 2.0 marketing.
Web 2.0 marketing is not about your advertising your web services. It’s about
you developing relationships with people and offering value – free of charge
with no catch. If people like you and what you represent then they’ll make the
decision to find out more about you from reading your profile on whatever
social network you’re participating on. That’s where you can sell your business.
Web 1.0 still exists – it hasn’t gone and isn’t likely to go away
Although Web 2.0 marketing is the ‘in thing’, Web 1.0 marketing still exists. It
hasn’t gone and it isn’t likely to go away. Web 1.0 includes search engine listings,
press releases, banner ads and many other internet marketing techniques.
I’d like to be clear that I’m not trying to persuade you to disregard the use of
Web 1.0 internet marketing techniques. All I’m trying to get you to do is to be
aware of when to market in a Web 2.0 style and when to market in a Web 1.0
style. As long as if you’re aware of where to use each marketing style, then
you’re not going to look like an aggressive salesman on a golf course.
Some thoughts on Web 3.0 marketing opportunities
I’ve already mentioned that I feel that the web is evolving to become a more
personalized experience for each user. So how will this personalized web
experience manifest itself?
There are two main areas that I’d like to discuss within this yet-to-be Web 3.0 –
Virtual Reality Marketing and something I call MyPage Marketing.
Virtual Reality Marketing
As computer abilities improve, and internet bandwidth increases, so does the
quality of software programs that produce a virtual reality experience.
The more effectively that these virtual reality programs simulate real life
experiences, or provide thrills on a similar level to doing whatever it is in real
life, the longer and more often that people will use these virtual reality programs.
Second Life – and example of a virtual reality website
Once of the most popular and well known online virtual reality programs is
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called Second Life (figure 13.1).
Although the Second Life has been live for several years, it’s never become as
popular as the main social networking sites. It should therefore not be your
primary focus in an internet marketing campaign. However, it’s worth being
aware of, because some companies have already invested significantly in the
Second Life project.
Figure 13.1 – Second Life
Second Life – an early example of Web 3.0?
In Second Life you can buy land, build your own house or build your own
business. And here’s where it gets interesting – you can market your own
Second Life business. Believe it or not there are many people who are making
full-time incomes within Second Life by selling services. Presently, much of the
income is being made by graphic designers and programmers who assist with
the design of avatars and other images.
Once you join Second Life you can bid to buy virtual land. Once you own your
own Second Life land you can build a business, employ people, the imagination’s
the limit. A lot of real-life companies have actually bought land in Second Life to
secure their virtual retail space.
The Second Life website has some frequently asked questions which will help
you start your own ‘second life’. They provide examples of different businesses
that are already successful in Second Life and you can use these examples to see
how you could run your own Second Life business.
As mentioned, I would not recommend spending too much time marketing your
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business on Second Life at the moment, but if you can think of an angle that is a
little bit different, something particularly relevant for you, then it may be
worthwhile testing this as an online marketing medium.
However, if you do decide to give Second Life a go make sure that you carefully
track time and money spent. And make sure that you set up a method of tracking
the success of your marketing activities.
MyPage Marketing
The second example of what may be referred to as Web 3.0 marketing is what I
call MyPage Marketing. By MyPage Marketing I mean focusing the initial part of
your marketing activities on the personalized home pages or personal profile
pages of social networking sites.
MyPage Marketing falls flat on its face unless implemented flawlessly. In order
for MyPage Marketing to be successful you need to be offering your audience
something fun or useful and free.
Google Gadgets – an example of MyPage Marketing in action
I would call Google Gadgets an example of MyPage Marketing in action. Google
now offer their users the option to personalize their home page – they call this
your iGoogle page (Figure 13.2). You can choose from thousands of different
independently designed gadgets to use to personalize your iGoogle page. Simply
select “Add stuff” at the top right hand side of the page to search for gadgets hat
are of interest to you.
One of the most popular Google Gadgets is a simple to-do list. Figure 13.3 shows
a selection of some useful Google gadgets that you can use to personalize your
iGoogle page.
By clicking on the “Add it now” button, you can add the to-do list to your
personalized iGoogle page (Figure 13.4). This gadget allows you to store your
list of things to do electronically, making them accessible when you login to your
home page on any computer.
You can find a Google gadget that will do just about anything for you. There are
dictionary and thesaurus tools, weather forecast gadgets, share dealing gadgets,
currency converters. Most things you can think of really.
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Figure 13.2 - iGoogle
Personalize your iGoogle page by selecting “Add stuff”
But you can design your own Google Gadget – or have your own Google Gadget
designed for you. That’s where the internet marketing opportunity is. Imagine if
you could design a Google Gadget that was to useful or so fun that it was
downloaded by hundreds of thousands of users. You may be able to build one of
these bespoke software programs (that’s in effect what a Google Gadget is) to
lead people down your internet marketing funnel. Your Google Gadget is a
really useful free tool – but you can also offer a more complex paid-for version.
Figure 13.3 - iGoogle
The to-do list is the third option down on the “Add stuff” page on iGoogle
Creating your own Google Gadget
When you’re logged into your iGoogle page, you also have the option to create
your own gadget. Just click “Try it now” to get started. This “try it now” page
shows you different options for how you can easily create your own
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personalized gadget.
However, this option probably isn’t what you’re looking for. What most
businesses will need is the “For developers” section which will show you exactly
how your developers can build gadgets. And it’s completely free of charge to
submit your own gadget.
Figure 13.4 - iGoogle
The to-do list as seen on a personalized iGoogle homepage
Perhaps you can incorporate your website link at the bottom of your gadget with
an unobtrusive and optional call to action? But remember, the important thing is
for it to be useful for whoever chooses to install and see your gadget – otherwise
your gadget will be an exercise in negative publicity. If you’re looking to market
your services too overtly from within your gadget, you’re much more likely for it
to be a failure.
One of your internet marketing objectives should be to build a more responsive,
trusting list of prospective customers. And there’d hardly a better way of doing
this than offering your prospects something valuable free-of-charge – with no
catch. That’s what Google Gadgets allow you to do.
If you can persuade just a hundred people from your list to download your
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Google Gadget and have it on their own iGoogle page, then it will rise up the
popularity ranking within the Google Gadgets search engine, allowing more
people will become aware of it.
There are virtually no upside limits and costs for producing your own gadgets
are minimal. The main constraint is your imagination – what new Google Gadget
can you design that would be useful to users and related to your industry?
The Evolving Web isn’t the place to start – even if it’s fun!
Web 2.0 is still a very much an evolving field. Web 3.0 barely exists – and even if
it does, it’s barely a concept. There is no point in actively focusing on these
evolving areas as an internet marketing medium initially; it would be a mistake
not to focus most of your time of more conventional forms of internet marketing
at the start of your campaign. Things like directories, link building and article
marketing are proven internet marketing techniques that should be among your
initial areas of focus.
Always test the success of your campaign
However, if you do decide to test virtual reality marketing or MyPage Marketing
please remember to put in place as many methods to test the success of the
campaign as possible.
Track things like how many people have viewed your gadget description,
downloaded your gadget and how many people have gone on to complete a
paid purchase at your site as a result of choosing to download your free gadget.
There are many other metrics which you should be testing. And with the
Evolving Web, like with nearly every other aspect of internet marketing, the
more you test and measure, the more you will be able to optimize your campaign
and achieve the best possible results for your business in the future.
Pillar #13 – The Evolving Web Summary
· Web 1.0 is represented by a one-way communications process. Web 1.0
marketing opportunities are therefore more like traditional advertising
opportunities, including things like submitting your website to directories,
submitting online press releases and article marketing.
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· Web 2.0 represents the interactive web and marketing therefore started to
recognize the importance of interacting in a community and encouraging
more interaction, joining social networking groups, forming your own groups
and thinking about the seeding of a viral marketing campaign.
· Web 3.0 represents the future. It doesn’t necessarily exist yet, but I call it the
personalized web. Marketing tools for Web 3.0 could include virtual reality
marketing and something I call MyPageMarketing – providing useful
interaction from within someone’s personalized home page or personal profile
on a social networking site.
· The Evolving Web means you can never assume you know everything about
Internet marketing. Internet marketing techniques can change quickly. If you
feel that you’re up-to-date with things now, unless you continue to study
more material (like the 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan –
www.26WeekPlan.com) you’ll very quickly find your knowledge to be out-ofdate.
· Think laterally of how new opportunities in Web 3.0 could impact your
business. You should test new methods of marketing and ensure you find
ways to track your success when using those new forms of marketing. Never
stand still.
· For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date links
that relate to the Evolving Web visit our ‘future of internet marketing’
resources: http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar13.
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~ In a Nutshell ~
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The 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing – In a Nutshell
________________________________________________________________________
If you’d like a recap, or you’re revisiting the book for a quick summary, here
are the 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing ‘in a nutshell’…
PILLAR 1: Keyword Research
There are several paid-for, and a couple of free keyword research tools that you
can use. But what is keyword research? Keyword research and the correct positioning
of those keyword phrases makes sure that your web page is targeted towards
the phrases that people actually type into search engines. Keyword research
tools work by analyzing previous search trends.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #1 – Keyword Research:
· Structure your site correctly to begin with. You know what your business is
about and what your home page is about. Make sure your keywords reflect
your business purpose.
· You should aim to structure your website in a logical manner for both users
and for search engines.
· After you choose your home page keyword phrase, choose your site
categories. What categories represent your business? Brainstorm ideas and use
resources such as an online thesaurus, KWmap, Wordtracker and the Google
External Keyword Tool to come up with 10-30 relevant categories for your
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site.
· Focus on your individual pages after your categories. In an ideal world you
should devise a structure of 10 to 30 individual pages within each of those
categories. If you want, and if your website is large enough, then you can go
for sub-categories within categories before drilling down to pages within that
section.
· Conduct keyword research to come up with one keyword phrase per page.
· Be as specific as possible. By selecting long-tail keyword phrases, even if you
have fewer visitors to your site, you will have a higher conversion rate from
the traffic you do receive. In the long term bringing in a couple of visitors per
day to an individual page, equals 500-600 very relevant visitors over a year.
· Visit all the resources mentioned in Pillar #1 Keyword Research here:
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar1
Position your keyword phrase in your site architecture – and this is where we
start Pillar #2 – Website Design.
PILLAR 2: Website Design
There are two essential facets of good website design: Pleasing design and efficient
coding. Your website needs to be pleasing to your consumer's eyes. It also
needs to 'flow' nicely. Essential coding to pay attention to includes your page title,
heading tags and navigational links.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #2 – Website Design:
· Take some time to think about your behind the scenes coding – make your
whole website as efficient as possible, which will help search engines when
they crawl through your site.
· Get your navigation structure right and make sure it's logical for search
engines and individual users.
· Remember that your website visitors may land on an individual page via a
search engine and good navigation will allow them to quickly understand
where that page is in relation to the rest of your site. This will make your new
visitors more likely to stick around for longer.
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· Ensure that you’re aware of the 8 essential aspects of onsite optimization
which will help to improve your search engine rankings.
· Have you considered the precise relevance of each page? Having just the one
topic per page will make life easier for both visitors and search engines.
· By undertaking continuous testing and analyzing what does and doesn’t
work, you can alter the structure of the site to maximize conversion rates.
Visit all the resources mentioned in Pillar #2 Website Design here:
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar2
PILLAR 3: Blog Technology
Just because a website looks like a website doesn't mean it's just a website. It
could be a blog too. Blogs have lots of great tools built into them that make
search engines like them a lot more than a static website. Features like category
tags, RSS feeds and the 'pinging' of new content to other sites means you can't afford
to ignore the value of blogging as an internet marketing strategy.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #3 – Blog Technology:
· A blog doesn’t necessarily have to be published in a journal style and
displayed in chronological order. The content of a blog can be anything from
articles to opinions and the most important aspect about a blog from a
business standpoint is the technology – the inbuilt automated internet
marketing capability
· Wordpress.org is probably the most appropriate blogging software for most
businesses. It’s free to use, state-of-the-art and offers bespoke design and
functionality
· Plugins are small software programs designed by independent coders that
add additional functionality to your blog. There are thousands of plugins to
choose from and most of them are free-of-charge.
· Pinging and RSS feeds can be used to help to automate your blog marketing.
Pinging is the process that makes a blog and news directories aware of the fact
that you’ve just published a new post. RSS Feeds let people subscribe to your
content and allow them to view the content without actually visiting your site.
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· Podcasting can be used as a way to augment your blog posts. Podcasts are
generally audio (or video) files, and they are published using RSS so
subscribers are alerted as soon as a new episode is published. Tools such as
Audacity and Skype can be used to create and edit podcasts. iTunes is the
most popular software to use to subscribe to a podcast feed.
Visit all the resources mentioned in Pillar #3 Blog Technology here:
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar3
PILLAR 4: Autoresponders
The majority of marketing managers don't know what autoresponders are. And
that's a big mistake. Autoresponders have the power to build relationships with
your customers when you're busy doing something else. You could be on holiday
and come back to find that your customers have placed orders – all because
of your autoresponder.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #4 – Autoresponders:
· Autoresponders are a great way for you to build relationships with your
customers. They can deliver virtually anything by email on an automated,
pre-meditated and usually personalized basis.
· Broadcast Emails are informal emails which are usually personalized to the
receiver. They are great for sending up-to-date news and building better
business relationships. When creating the text for e-mails they should be as
personalized and relevant as possible to cement the relationship.
· Newsletters are a more formal, professional method of keeping in touch with
your client list and are a great reason for regular communication with your
customers. A newsletter can be sent immediately, or pre-loaded into you
autoresponder to be delivered on a certain date. They can also be part of an
autoresponder sequence, delivered so many days, weeks or months after the
initial sign-up.
· One of the autoresponder which I recommend which is specifically built for
email marketing is called AWeber. Find links to AWeber and other
recommended email marketing resources here:
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar4
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· Building a list of relevant subscribers is an essential aspect of successful
internet marketing, and you can greatly speed this process up by offering free
bonus content or a PDF eBook as an incentive for people to subscriber to your
newsletter or email updates.
· Having a large, responsive email database will take the onus off relying on
search engines for traffic in the future. It’s never good to have total reliance on
something that brings in a lot of business which you don’t control.
· By building a thoughtful, relevant autoresponder sequence into your new
subscriber process you will be automatically building business brand loyalty
without having to speak to your subscribers personally.
· Use autoresponders to survey your subscribers. This is a great way of
conducting market research in addition to continuing to grow the quality of
your subscriber relationships.
Visit all the resources mentioned in Pillar #4 Autoresponders here:
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar4
PILLAR 5: Paid Advertising
Sometimes the only quick way of turning on the flow of website traffic is to pay
for it. And that's where pay-per-click, pay-per-impression and sponsored advertising
come in. It's important to include paid advertising as part of your internet
marketing budget. But only part of it. Ideally you will be spending a lot initially,
but not so much after six months of your internet marketing campaign.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising:
· Google AdWords should be your primary initial focus for pay-per-click
website traffic. Only when you’ve mastered AdWords should you move onto
other services like Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft AdCenter and
Facebook Advertising.
· When creating your Google AdWords ad, use square brackets to get an exact
match of your keyword phrase. Always test your ads to work out which
strategies work best by remembering to take advantage of the Google
AdWords A:B split testing functionality.
· It’s incredibly important to optimize your ad landing pages for your pay-per-
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click adverts. In an ideal world you’ll have a landing page which has been
designed with a specific advert in mind.
Major directory submission should also form part of any serious internet marketing
campaign. For a list of updated major website directories and other paid internet
marketing resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar5.
PILLAR 6: Press Releases
One of the secrets to effective internet marketing is to get other people talking
about you and your website. And one of the ways to do that is to appeal to specialist
publications through the submission of a press release. Press releases don't
have to cost anything and all they take is time and planning.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #6 – Press Releases:
· Online press releases are a great way of generating awareness and traffic
directly to your site. By including a non HTML URL link with http:// you can
also improve your off-site search engine optimization as some republishing
sites will automatically convert that website mention into a live, SEO friendly
link.
· PRWeb is the largest and most popular website for submitting online press
releases. Selecting the $80 service should be sufficient for your initial needs;
although if you find that it’s successful you should then test the higher-cost
services.
· Include a descriptive title for your online press release that includes a
keyword phrase.
· The first couple of sentences of your press release should be short punchy,
provide an overview to your whole story and also include your keyword
phrase.
· Always include a call-to-action for journalists as well as your end readers. This
could be in the form of additional information or a free related report
available at a website address.
· Use Google Alerts to track the success of your press releases. You will be able
to view who is publishing your article and you can use this to build direct
relationships with publishers for the future. You can also use Google Alerts to
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test the effectiveness of different online press release distribution services.
· Online press releases aren’t a replacement for conventional PR agencies – they
should be viewed as an augmentation of this service
For up-to-date links to recommended online press release resources visit
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar6.
PILLAR 7: Link Building
The heart of the internet pumps because of links. If websites didn't link to each
other, then search engines would find it very difficult to determine which websites
belong to any given field. Search engines would also find it very difficult to
decide which website is better. The long and short of it is – the more relevant,
quality links to your website, the higher your website will be ranked by search
engines.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #7 – Link Building:
· To achieve good, consistent search engine rankings it is important to get
quality links from relevant sites to your website. However, large numbers of
non-relevant links pointing to your site can have a negative effect on your
search engine rankings.
· Submit your website to free directories, such as local or industry-specific
directories. Use DirectoryCritic.com to search for niche industry directories.
Both Google Local and Yahoo Local are valuable local directories.
DirectoryCritic.com can also be used to find more local directories.
· Researching the links that point to your competitor’s site can be a good way to
discover which sites might be willing to link to your site. You can contact
these site owners by using contact forms on their website, or using the
easywhois.com service.
· Respected institutions such as universities, libraries, or business networks are
often willing to link to your site if you’re willing to help them out by giving a
free lecture or seminar on your specialized subject. Perhaps you can offer
these organizations something else of value in exchange for a link?
· Remember to send a testimonial for any product or service that your business
invests in. Send your testimonial to the marketing director and include your
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website address to make it much more likely to give you a free one-way link.
· Search Google for your keyword phrase plus the phrases ‘add url’ or the
phrase ‘add site’ to find websites that are actively looking for link partners. If
the site is relevant for your readers then consider arranging a reciprocal link.
This offers value as long as if is part of a wider link building campaign, and
not the primary focus of the campaign.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date link
building resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar7.
PILLAR 8: Article Submission
Article submission is still one of the most effective ways to get both readers and
search engines interested in your website. By submitting a quality article for publication
on the biggest and best (as well as subject specific) article directories, you
increase your credibility in your field as well as being given the opportunity to
link back to your own website.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #8 – Article Submission:
· Start your article marketing by submitting a minimum of one article per week
to Ezine Articles. Aim to make your articles between 500 and 800 words long.
Include an author bio at the bottom of all your articles which contains a
keyword link to your home page, a keyword link to a category page on your
site and a non-HTML link to your home page.
· Effective articles are often formatted in the ‘How to…’ and ‘Top 10 ways of…’
doing something. Use subheadings, keep your paragraphs short and
remember not to be too formal in your tone of language.
· Think quality and quantity. Quality will help your article to stand out from
the competition, and give you a much bigger chance of getting your article republished
on other sites. Quantity is important too – this will keep your
articles featured on the home pages of the various article directories and start
to get you featured as a top author on various sites.
· After you submit articles to top general article directories, offer to submit
additional unique articles to other highly respected industry specific websites.
This unique content and unique links will drive good quality, relevant traffic
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from the sites and have an extremely positive effect on your search engine
optimization.
· Remember to use Google Alerts to track the republishing of your articles. This
will help you to identify sites to which it would be worthwhile to offer unique
content to in the future.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date article
marketing resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar8.
PILLAR 9: Group Interaction
An additional way to become respected in your field is to regularly participate in
your industry groups and forums. By answering queries from less experienced
people and having a link in your signature in the bottom of each post, again
you're taking the opportunity to appeal to both readers and search engines.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #9 – Group Interaction:
· Forum Participation can be a great way of building up your reputation in your
industry. By posting good quality, relevant posts in a forum (which is
relevant for your industry segment) together with using a good signature
which links to your site with a keyword phrase, you will be generating direct
traffic to your site as well as tremendously helping your search engine
rankings.
· Social networking groups such as MySpace and Facebook can help to create
awareness of your company. They can be used to promote new products that
you are releasing in the future as well as be a good way of allowing people to
let their friends know of your business. Just make sure that you initially
interact with people by aiming to assist people rather than aiming to sell them
something.
· Consider driving people on your email list towards good forum posts that
you’ve made. This will encourage interaction and quickly increase your
credibility in that forum.
· Answering questions on Yahoo! Answers and LinkedIn Answers is another
way to increase your credibility. You should post good quality answers on
relevant topics. Don’t promote your own business in the answers – aim to
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drive people to your site from your profile. If your answers are good enough
and relevant enough people will want to read your profile.
· Blog comment marketing – posting comments on blogs that are relevant to
your business can also help raise your industry awareness and drive traffic to
your site. You should aim to select about 10 relevant blogs and subscribe to
them. Every time there is a relevant post, make sure you add a valuable
comment. They key with making this a success is consistency.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date group
interaction (social marketing resources) visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/
pillar9.
PILLAR 10: Viral Marketing
Viral marketing simply means marketing that spreads like a virus – quickly,
from peer to peer and often unintentionally from a strategic perspective. You
don't necessarily have to think of a world beating viral marketing campaign to
take advantage of the power of viral marketing. Just make it a bit easier for people
to tell their friends about your service. And try and give them a reason to tell
their friends.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #10 – Viral Marketing:
· Viral marketing uses word-of-mouth, peer-to-peer communication to
advertise your website.
· Social bookmarking and video marketing are two examples of what you can
use to encourage viral marketing to take place.
· Aim to improve your number of returning visitors using social bookmarkingby
allowing people to quickly and easily make your site one of their favorites.
Try incorporating the AddThis.com tool within your blog.
· Remember to kick-start the popularity of your videos on video sharing sites
like YouTube by driving people on your email list to your videos and asking
them to add comments.
· Be efficient in the uploading of your videos – make sure that you use the free
TubeMogul uploading and tracking service. Don’t just upload your videos to
YouTube. There are lots of other sources of video viewers and some sites will
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convert a lot better than YouTube even though they don’t necessarily bring as
many video views.
· Have you included a call-to-action in your videos? Do people know who has
uploaded the video and what else they could get from you if they visited your
website?
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date viral
marketing resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar10.
PILLAR 11: Visitor Analysis
If you don't know where your visitors live, how they're finding your website and
what they're doing when they're on your website, then how do you know what
to improve about your website? Visitor analysis is key to gaining the knowledge
that helps you make informed decisions on your future website strategy.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #11 – Visitor Analysis:
· Using Google Analytics you can track many vital visitor statistics like where
your visitors come from and how long they stay. You can then use this
valuable information to find weak spots in your website like improving
important conversion rates.
· Once you have identified your weak spots or discovered a blockage on the site
you can amend your website to improve your conversion rates. This is
probably something that your competitors aren’t doing.
· You can track the sources of traffic to your site, and more specifically which
websites your visitors are coming from, as well as keyword phrases used in
search engines to find your site. You can use this to help you determine which
keyword phrases to focus on in the future for your SEO.
· Remember that it’s imperative to set goals for your site – and give them a
monetary value.
· Make sure you test what your website looks like and performs like on
different browsers – this includes mobile phone browsers.
· Don’t delay on getting your visitor tracking set up – unless you set it up now,
you won’t have any comparable historical data to analyze in the future.
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· Use Google Analytics to help you pinpoint the most valuable sources of traffic
to your site – you might be able to make a decision that you can afford to pay
more for traffic from certain sources if you can justify it.
· How can you justify any future marketing spend unless you track its
performance. Online marketing is unique – the majority of it is entirely
trackable and therefore justifiable.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date visitor
analysis resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar11.
PILLAR 12: Continuous Content
Search engines love new content on your website. It shows them that your information
isn't out of date and that you're trying to offer the best possible service to
your readers. If you haven't updated your website for a year or so then you're always
going to find it more difficult to get higher rankings from search engines.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #12 – Continuous Content:
· If ‘Linking is Queen, Content is King’ – links tell search engines that you are
important, but search engines are less likely to rank you highly unless you
have good content.
· Continuous new content on your site is so important. It needs to be updated
as often as possible. Search engines love new content as a website with fresh
content is more likely to be the most up-to-date in its industry.
· Fresh information = more relevance.
· Great new content encourages natural, organic link building.
· Remember to integrate blog technology for ease uploading and effective
distribution. If you are using WordPress then you can pre-set your blog to
release blog posts on certain dates in the future.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date continuous
content related and outsourcing resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/
pillar12.
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PILLAR 13: The Evolving Web
The internet never stays the same. That means that if you continue to use the
same online marketing channels, and never re-analyze the marketplace, you'll
slowly lose your marketshare. Whenever you see a new website ask yourself two
questions – firstly, is there anything that I can learn from the way that they do
business? And secondly, can I use their website as a marketing medium?
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #13 – The Evolving Web:
· Web 1.0 is represented by a one-way communications process. Web 1.0
marketing opportunities are therefore more like traditional advertising
opportunities, including things like submitting your website to directories,
submitting online press releases and article marketing.
· Web 2.0 represents the interactive web and marketing therefore started to
recognize the importance of interacting in a community and encouraging
more interaction, joining social networking groups, forming your own groups
and thinking about the seeding of a viral marketing campaign.
· Web 3.0 represents the future. It doesn’t necessarily exist yet, but I call it the
personalized web. Marketing tools for Web 3.0 could include virtual reality
marketing and something I call MyPageMarketing – providing useful
interaction from within someone’s personalized home page or personal profile
on a social networking site.
· The Evolving Web means you can never assume you know everything about
Internet marketing. Internet marketing techniques can change quickly. If you
feel that you’re up-to-date with things now, unless you continue to study
more material (like the 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan –
www.26weekplan.com) you’ll very quickly find your knowledge to be out-ofdate.
· Think laterally of how new opportunities in Web 3.0 could impact your
business. You should test new methods of marketing and ensure you find
ways to track your success when using those new forms of marketing. Never
stand still.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date links
that relate to the Evolving Web (the future of internet marketing) visit
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar13.
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The Next Step - 195 -
The Next
Step
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The Next Step – A Strategic Internet Marketing Plan
________________________________________________________________________
I’d like to take to congratulate you for getting this far! I sincerely hope that you
have found this book to be relevant and useful for your needs.
The 13 Pillars isn’t a strategic internet marketing plan
But please bear in mind that because the 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing book is
aimed at providing the reader with an general, broad introduction to internet
marketing, it’s been structured in a manner which attempts to make the subject
matter as easy to understand as possible.
This means that the order in which the 13 Pillars appear in the book is most likely
not the order in which you would want to implement them in your business.
Establishing your own strategic internet marketing plan
Therefore, the next step, after reading the 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing, is to
establish your own internet marketing plan.
Thankfully you don’t have to do that by yourself, because I’ve already done it for
you!
It’s called the 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan, and it’s a free, weekly action-
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The Next Step - 197 -
plan newsletter supported by video tutorials. Just visit www.26weekplan.com to
sign-up today.
Internet marketing techniques never stand still
As Pillar #13 The Evolving Web discusses, internet marketing techniques never
stand still.
Sometimes search engine algorithms are continually altered to try to counter
spammers. On other occasions completely new online business models open up
new internet marketing opportunities.
That’s another reason why you should subscribe to the 26-Week Internet
Marketing Plan newsletter – you’ll be kept up to date with all the new techniques
I consider to be important enough to incorporate into your ongoing strategic
internet marketing plan.
Introduction
________________________________________________________________________
The 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing offers a broad introduction to internet
marketing methods for people like you – for marketing managers, business
owners and entrepreneurs.
It has been written to help you build your overall online marketing knowledge,
explaining a wide variety of internet marketing activities or ‘pillars’.
Few businesses understand the technical aspects of internet marketing. I
strongly believe that companies need to have some understanding of internet
marketing methods in-house, so that they can understand why things need to be
done. Businesses can then make the decision to either do everything in-house, or
manage the process and outsource the technical side to a good search engine
optimization firm.
Search engine optimization firms are good technicians, but they don’t necessarily
understand how to portray your business online. They will do what they are told
to do, or they will tend to do a very good job of just certain aspects of search
engine optimization. However, you know your businesses best and that’s why
it’s important for you to understand what you can and can not do, or should or
should not do, from an internet marketing perspective.
The content of this book will introduce you to the fundamentals of internet
marketing and give you a broad understanding of how to implement them. I
will be using real life and fictional examples to demonstrate the concepts
discussed.
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Introduction - 5 -
The 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing is not just about search engine optimization,
and overall, internet marketing is a lot more than just search engine
optimization. However, the two aspects of search engine optimization (namely
onsite and offsite search engine optimization), are key features of a successful
internet marketing campaign.
Onsite search engine optimization includes getting all aspects within your site
right, such as (but not limited to) having the correct title tags and heading tags
on your web pages.
Offsite search engine optimization consists of controlling, as much as possible,
the relevance of the sites on which your links appear, the relevance of the pages
within those sites and the wording used within the links on those pages.
Therefore, when a site wants to link to you, you need to be aware of what linking
text to request from the webmaster in order to maximize the value of the link.
Inbound links from other websites play a large part in your final search engine
rankings so it is important to try and generate as many relevant inbound links as
possible. Increasing your inbound links can be done using a range of different
techniques, which I will discuss throughout the 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing.
Internet marketing as a whole includes paid advertising as well as other forms of
internet marketing, such as podcasting, video marketing, email marketing or any
other method of bringing traffic to your website or driving prospects to your optin
pages. (We’ll come to what an opt-in page is later on)
Ideally, when undertaking an internet marketing campaign, you want to mimic
what happens naturally when people find a website to be a useful resource. By
employing a successful internet marketing campaign, you try to replicate the
natural building of links when increasing the popularity of your website. You do
this by generating a wide variety of links and building diverse forms of traffic
towards your website.
Internet marketing can be summed up as any activity that helps to promote and
measure the success of your business online. By reading the 13 Pillars of Internet
Marketing book you will better understand what needs to be included in an
internet marketing plan for your own business.
I’ve tried to provide a broad-based overview of internet marketing methods in as
a logical manner as possible. I’ve tried to do this in a way that makes internet
marketing methods easily comprehendible, while still providing some of the
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‘meaty details’ within each of the internet marketing areas discussed. By
sectioning off these internet marketing methods I began to realize that there were
13 key important areas to understand – and therefore 13 Pillars of Internet
Marketing.
There are two things to bear in mind when reading this book…
Firstly, the purpose of the book and who the book is aimed at. The purpose of
this book is to provide a comprehensive general introduction to internet
marketing for marketing managers, business owners and entrepreneurs. If you’re
a seasoned Internet marketing expert I would hope that you know most of the
information – although a little recap never did anyone any harm!
Secondly, this book is free. This means that it’s less likely to get updated as often
as a paid book which is surely understandable. That’s not to say this book will
ever become completely outdated. The principles behind each of the 13 Pillars of
Internet Marketing will be alive and well for many years to come.
However, to try and keep things as updated as much as possible, instead of
including any links to recommended websites within the book, what I’ve
decided to do is to keep all the resource links online. That way it’ll be much
easier to always recommend the most relevant of resources. Links to every
website mentioned in this book (as well as many other relevant, useful resources)
can be found at http://www.13pillars.com/resources.
Finally, when you get to the end of this book, you’ll see that I also provide a
follow-up 26-week internet marketing plan ‘action plan’ newsletter.
This newsletter is free-of-charge and it’s a great way to help you implement the
13 Pillars. Just visit www.26weekplan.com to sign-up.
But now it’s time to get going with the 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing.
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Pillar #1 – Keyword Research - 7 -
Pillar #1
Keyword Research
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Pillar #1 – Keyword Research
________________________________________________________________________
Keywords are the phrases that people type into search engines to find a
product or service.
At the very beginning you need to make sure all the different pages on your
website are targeting the right keywords - the phrases that people are likely to
type into search engines in order to find the product or service that you offer.
The keyword phrase myth
There is a myth that the best scenario is to appear at the top of Google’s search
results for a really popular word that relates to your industry. However, this is a
mistake because if you’re doing this then the chances are that you are focusing
on your competitors instead of your own prospective customers. The keywords
that you need to focus on are the ones that provide great conversion rates for
your website in addition to a reasonable amount of website visitors (traffic).
Conversion rates are measured by calculating the number of visitors to your
website divided by those that go on to undertake the action required in order to
reach your ultimate goal.
If you’re a college or university you may think, ‘Oh, it would be fantastic just to
appear at the top of Google for the keyword search ‘college’. Not necessarily. For
instance you might offer very specific courses. You obviously cover just a specific
locality – and a specific price bracket. Therefore, you are not likely to get very
good conversion rates from just that one word.
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Pillar #1 – Keyword Research - 9 -
Another example is you may think, ‘If I offer a business articles website,
wouldn't it be fantastic just to get thousands of visitors for the keyword
‘business’? However, in this instance as well your conversion rates will suffer as
the keyword ‘business’ can have a very generic meaning and as a result it is more
likely that these visitors will have reached your website and not found what they
were looking for.
Rather than think about single term keywords you should be focusing on
succeeding with longer phrase keywords, commonly called long-tail keywords
which are easier to rank highly in search engines and often lead to better
conversion rates.
Long-tail keyword phrases
It is important to use what are called long-tail keyword phrases. By using longtail
keyword phrases you face less competition from similar businesses, making
it easier to get ranked in search engines. Long-tail keyword phrases also give
you higher conversion rates as they pull in more relevant traffic to your website,
with visitors more likely to follow-through and become your customers.
By focusing on long-tail keyword phrases, relevant people who have specifically
searched for what you have on offer will be visiting your website, rather than
people stumbling upon your website by chance. Not only are visitors from longtail,
more relevant keyword phrases more likely to stick around and purchase
from you. They’ll be more likely to bookmark your website and come back later.
Internet search patterns
Think of the patterns that people make when search for something online. Think
about how you use a search engine. Do you just search once and then pick out a
website from your first set of results? You are more likely to perform an initial
search using just one or two words and then try and narrow down the results
further after that.
This improved search is generally made by adding extra words (often
determined by the initial search results) or the use of inverted commas “around a
phrase” to indicate that it's a specific phrase that you’re searching for. Most
internet users are aware that the more precise your search terms are, the more
likely you are to find the precise resource you're looking for.
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People are looking for something specific when they type in a longer keyword
phrase into a search engine. That’s another reason why you shouldn’t necessarily
worry about not coming up in the first set of search results.
The keyword phrase solution / using keyword phrases
The more keyword phrases that you are trying to aim for on a single page; the
harder it is to achieve high search engine rankings for your chosen page. Do not
be tempted to go for lots of different keyword phrases for your home page - you
should aim for one main keyword phrase on each individual webpage plus some
longer-tail keyword phrases (preferably encompassing your main keyword
phrase) – up to a maximum of 3 phrases per page. Any more than 3 keyword
phrases per page will dilute the impact of each of the phrases on your individual
pages.
A good example would be if you had determined that your main keyword
phrase for your home page should be ‘UK travel guide’ then a couple of longer
tail keyword phrases that you could include on the same page without diluting
their impact might be ‘free UK travel guide’ and ‘UK travel guide for tourists’.
You should also focus on different keyword phrases for different pages of your
site, again up to a maximum of 3 per page. The main content on your web pages
will naturally allow search engines to find alternative longer keyword phrases.
That’s another reason why you should have just the one main keyword phrase as
a main target as well as just a few specific longer-tail keyword phrases.
Note: Pillar #2 will review different areas on your web pages where you should
be including your chosen keyword phrases.
Search engine ranking
In the 1990’s search engines like AltaVista were the most popular means of
finding information on the web. At that time the meta-keywords tag was the
primary factor in determining the relevance of individual pages, and where
those pages should be ranked in search engines.
From roughly the year 2000 onwards, search engines started to realize that their
results could be easily skewed if they focused on the meta-keywords tag too
heavily. Instead of relying on this piece of meta data for ranking decisions,
Google counted the quantity of links to a webpage from other websites and the
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text used within those links (amongst other things) when deciding on the search
ranking of a web page.
The meta-keywords tag has continued to drop in value as the large search
engines such as Google and Yahoo! have become wise to spotting ‘keyword
stuffing’. This has happened to such an extent that may search engine
professionals don’t bother with it anymore.
Selecting the appropriate keyword phrase
As Google has evolved the way it ranks pages, you should review your keyword
phrase strategy accordingly.
In order to implement the optimum keyword phrase strategy, you should use
different levels of keyword phrases according to the relevance of the keyword
phrase, the degree of difficulty in getting that keyword phrase ranked highly by
a search engine and the structure of your website.
To help you determine the appropriate keyword phrase for each page on your
website I would recommend that you think of your keyword phrases as
belonging to one of three categories:
- Your home page keyword phrase
- Your category page keyword phrases
- Your keyword phrases on individual pages within your categories
Category keyword phrases explained
By category keyword phrases I’m assuming that your website is structured in a
hierarchical order and therefore has a certain amount of links on the home page,
and these pages that the home page links to have further links that point to
additional pages. I’m referring to the pages which are linked to directly from
your main pages menu as your category pages.
Helping search engines to determine the relevance of your site
By structuring your keyword phrases into different levels you are helping
explain to search engines the precise relevance of your site. The means search
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engines are more likely to understand the meaning of your site and they will be
more confident that your website is an authority on a particular topic.
You should have a separate keyword phrase for your home page, your category
pages, and your individual pages within. For your home page you can afford to
choose a keyword phrase that is searched more often, and which will generate
more traffic to your site; category pages less so and individual pages even less so.
As a rule of thumb I tend to focus on a two-word keyword phrase for my home
page, three-word keyword phrases for my category phrases and four-word
keyword phrases for my individual pages.
Figure 1.1 – Google External Keyword Tool
Google External Keyword Tool
Determining subject areas to cover on your website
One of the first areas you should address with your website is to determine your
main category subject areas. A category represents subsections on your website
which help search engines and visitors to determine the contents of that
particular subsection of your website. I suggest having approximately 10 to 30
main categories within your site with different keyword phrases associated with
each of them.
For example, if your keyword phrase on your home page is ‘golf lessons’, you
may wish your category keyword phrases to include ‘london golf lessons’,
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‘cheap golf lessons’ and ‘golf driving schools’. Your category keyword phrases
needn’t contain exactly the same words as your home page keyword phrase, but
they should be topic related – and more specific.
Researching keyword phrase categories
There are different ways of researching categories for your site and there are a
number of resources you can use to help determine the most appropriate
categories.
First of all, you should go to competitors’ websites and have a look to see how
they are structuring their websites, taking note of any categories they have on
their sites.
Secondly, you can use what is called the Google External Keyword Tool (Figure
1.1). This tool offers you suggestions and ideas for other keyword phrases
associated to a smaller word or phrase that you type into it. This tool can be
used for both website category ideas and keyword research.
Another available tool is KwMap - this gives you ideas based on what people
type into search engines. It maps words closely related to, but not the same as,
the search term. It provides a similar function to a thesaurus which is another
option for researching different categories.
The best way of understanding how KwMap can help you brainstorm new
website categories and keyword phrases is to have a play with the service.
Taking the guesswork out of determining keyword phrases
Having determined your categories you should then research the keyword
phrases that people use to find the kind of product or service you offer. There
are tools available for researching your keyword phrases. These will give you an
understanding of the levels of phrases that people type into search engines. The
main keyword research tool I recommend is called Wordtracker.
CASE STUDY 1 – Product-based Online Retail
Freddie Faldo is a golf shop owner with an online retail presence. Below is an
example of how he can use Wordtracker to conduct his keyword research. In the
first instance Freddy would type the word ‘golf’ into Wordtracker
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Figure 1.2 – Keyword Tracker Tool
Wordtracker
Knowing which keywords to target
It is going to be difficult for him to run at the top of search engines for the word
‘golf’ unless he puts a lot of effort in, as there is a great deal of competition for
the keyword ‘golf’. View a screenshot of the Wordtracker search on the word
‘golf’ in figure 1.3.
Even if he does get to the top of search engine rankings for the keyword ‘golf’,
are people looking for what he offers? Perhaps they are looking for golf courses
or golf lessons rather than buying golf equipment from a local shop.
Ideally, the keyword phrase that he should be targeting for his home page is
something like ‘golf equipment’ as that is specifically what he offers.
Drilling down deeper into Wordtracker results
In order to determine the keyword phrases that Freddie should be using for his
category pages, he can click on the links within the Wordtracker results for golf
equipment to show results such as: ‘used golf clubs’, ‘discount golf clubs’, ‘ping
golf clubs’. As these are actual search phrases that people use on a regular basis
they are more beneficial. They are also longer phrases and therefore more
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Pillar #1 – Keyword Research - 15 -
specific to Freddie Faldo’s website.
Figure 1.3 – Keyword Tracker Tool
Searching for the keyword ‘golf’ in Wordtracker
He will also be able to see within these results how many times a day these
phrases are searched for e.g. the phrases ‘used golf clubs’; ‘discount golf clubs’
and ‘ping golf clubs’ are typed into search engines roughly 800 times a day.
He now has an idea of how to structure his website by using the keyword
phrases used ‘golf clubs’, ‘discount golf clubs’, ‘ping golf clubs’ within the
category of ‘golf equipment’, back with the knowledge that there are a great deal
of people that regularly search for those phrases online.
CASE STUDY 2 – Service-based Online Retail
Jane Jobs runs a Sales Executive Recruitment Company. Jane is already aware
that her business is about sales jobs. But what categories should she choose for
her website?
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Using Wordtracker Jane can see that people type in ‘sales jobs’ 150 times a day.
That is a nice level in terms of number of visitors for a keyword phrase to aim for
your home page. Roughly you should aim for between 100 and 1,000 times
searched for a home page keyword phrase.
Category phrases should be searched a bit less - probably something in the
region of 20 to 200 times depending on the size of business or on how hard you
are prepared to work at getting those pages ranked highly in search engines.
From the Wordtracker results (Figure 1.4), the different categories that she could
have within her website are: “medical sales jobs” (51 searches), “pharmaceutical
sales jobs” (31 searches) and “direct sales jobs” (17 searches). Jane can now be
confident that these are the phrases which people are actually searching for.
Using Wordtracker to amend your website strategy
Having initially considered structuring the site keywords on a regional basis,
Jane can now see that people don't as commonly conduct regional searches e.g.
‘sales jobs Belfast’ or ‘sales jobs Newcastle’. This research therefore gives her a
much better idea of how to structure her website and how to cater her offering
towards the majority of potential website visitors.
Drilling down even further, she can structure different keyword phrases for her
individual pages as well. By clicking on the phrase ‘medical sales jobs’, she can
include these longer keyword phrases on individual pages within that category.
Examples of longer-tail keyword phrases that Jane can use on her pages within
the medical sales jobs category include ‘medical equipment sales jobs’, ‘medical
device sales jobs’, and ‘sales jobs medical equipment’.
Pillar #1 – Keyword Research Summary
· Structure your site correctly to begin with. You know what your business is
about and what your home page is about. Make sure your keywords reflect
your business purpose.
· You should aim to structure your website in a logical manner for both users
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Pillar #1 – Keyword Research - 17 -
and for search engines.
· After you choose your home page keyword phrase, choose your site
categories. What categories represent your business? Brainstorm ideas and use
resources such as an online thesaurus, KWmap, Wordtracker and the Google
External Keyword Tool to come up with 10-30 relevant categories for your
site.
· Focus on your individual pages after your categories. In an ideal world you
should devise a structure of 10 to 30 individual pages within each category. If
you want, and if your website is large enough, then you can go for
sub-categories within categories before drilling down to pages within that
section.
· Conduct keyword research to come up with one keyword phrase per page.
· Be as specific as possible. By selecting long-tail keyword phrases, even if you
have fewer visitors to your site, you will have a higher conversion rate from
the traffic you do receive. In the long term bringing in a couple of visitors per
day to an individual page, equals 500-600 very relevant visitors over a year.
· Position your keyword phrase in your site architecture – and this is where we
start Pillar #2 – Website Design.
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Pillar #2
Website Design
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Pillar #2 – Website Design - 19 -
Pillar #2 – Website Design
________________________________________________________________________
Website design, pillar #2, aims to make the best use of the keywords you
have chosen for your site. In addition this pillar helps you position your
keywords in the most appropriate places on your site.
The main aspects of pillar #2 consist of behind the scenes coding, navigation
structure, onsite optimization, the precise relevance of each page and improving
conversion rates.
Behind-the-scenes coding
The ‘behind the scenes’ coding on any website needs to be as efficient as possible
to assist with search engine optimization.
When designing sites using software such as Dreamweaver, although it’s
constantly getting better, surplus and repeated code can sometimes still be
generated. For example, in Dreamweaver, if you highlight some text and make it
bold, then remove the bold at a later point, some duplicate code has been known
to be produced.
Note that this isn’t any slight on Dreamweaver – Dreamweaver is probably one
of the best pieces of software available for designing a beautiful website without
any knowledge of HTML code – but you can never 100% replicate the ability of a
human website coder.
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So while some software is excellent for designing websites, the best solution for
optimizing the code is somebody manually checking to ensure all unnecessary
code is taken out.
The use of cascading style sheets
One method of keeping your web page code as tidy as possible is the use of
something called cascading style sheets. Among other things, cascading style
sheets (or CSS for short) help you reduce the repetition of code that might
otherwise be required when you have a particularly repetitious design style on
your pages.
Examples of such styles might include common fonts for headings, subheadings
and links throughout the site.
Another advantage (in addition to the reduction of your website source code) of
using cascading style sheets and storing all of your styles in the one file is that it
gives you the facility to quickly and easily alter just the one file on your website
in order to amend the properties of any one element across your entire website.
(For example the style of any main heading that appears on your website)
Ordering your website code in an efficient manner
One thing you need to be aware of is that search engines crawl through your
website source code in order to try to understand what each of your web pages is
about. They don’t see your design – just the code behind your design. And the
higher up within your page source code the relevant content, the easier that
search engines will find it to determine that your web page is about a particular
topic.
If you have a flashy, involved top section at the top of each of your website
pages, then the chances are that there is a great deal of code that is required to
make that top section display correctly.
In an ideal website design, your code will get to your main page heading as soon
as possible, shortly followed by the body content on your web page. This is the
main reason why lots of blogs display their site navigation toward the right hand
side of each page. It means that search engines quickly crawl through the post
content before they get to the standard site navigation, so there is a greater
chance that this page will be ranked higher in search engine results for the body
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Pillar #2 – Website Design - 21 -
content.
Website navigation for visitors and search engines
It is of great benefit to you when you tailor your website navigation towards
both users and search engines.
Within your website navigation structure you often have categories, subcategories
and individual relevant pages within these sub-categories.
If a web page features ‘backwards compatible navigation’, this will allow a
person who has reached an individual page in a website, either via a search
engine or an external link, to understand where that page fits into the website as
a whole. The navigation should provide them with the option of browsing your
site and if they can easily understand your structure they will be more likely to
visit another individual page within the site.
Figure 2.1 – Trek the UK travel guide
http://www.trektheuk.com/cornwall.php
For example, in figure 2.1, when somebody stumbles upon this page which is
about a place called Cornwall in England, they immediately understand where
this it fits into the website as a whole. They’re therefore much more likely to
continue to browse through the website.
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This associated navigation also helps search engines by showing them the topics
that are associated with the page, therefore justifying why the search engine
should rank the page as more relevant for a particular topic.
The navigation on the page in question reads as follows:
Home > Places to go > England > Southwest England > Cornwall
Home > [Category] > [Sub-category] > [Sub-sub-category] > [Individual page]
A visitor can quickly familiarize themselves with the website and navigate
through the different categories.
Another helpful pointer for search engines is to include the keyword phrases
within a text link that points to a page. This keyword phrase in the link needs to
reflect the content on the page that the link points towards – and not the page on
which the text link resides.
For example, if you wanted to link to a page which was about ‘French language
courses’ and you linked to that page with a text link that contained the words
‘French language courses’, this would be assisting with the search engine
optimization of the landing page.
This is another reason why in the example above, the text ‘England’ and
‘Southwest England’ is used within the navigation links. It greatly assists with
the search engine optimization of the landing pages.
Onsite optimization
There are 8 essential aspects of onsite optimization. These are things that you
should be aware of and should instruct your website designer to design your site
in a manner that appeals most to search engines.
1. Page Title
Your page title can be found in the (commonly blue) bar at the very top of your
website browsing software. (i.e. Internet Explorer / Firefox / Safari etc)
In figure 2.2, the page title text in the blue bar says “The internet marketing
strategy specialists – Purple Internet Marketing”.
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Pillar #2 – Website Design - 23 -
Figure 2.2 – Purple Internet Marketing
The ‘Page Title’ text can be found in the blue bar at the top of this screenshot
The Page Title serves the dual purpose of helping your users understand what
the page is about, as well as providing search engines with a keyword phrase
inside the Page Title.
It is important that your site should use different Page Titles on individual pages
in order to optimize each page on your website. This will enable individual
pages to be found by a search engine. Failing to do this will have a detrimental
effect on your web page rankings in search engines.
When search engine results are displayed the Page Title is the link that is
underlined. By making the page title as relevant to the search as possible, the
searcher is more likely to find what they are looking for and click through to
your website.
Of course the Page Title must explain to people exactly what is on each page too
– otherwise you’re your new website visitors aren’t going to hang around too
long.
2. Meta Description
Although the meta-description isn't generally thought by search engine
optimization professional to be part of the search engine ranking algorithm, this
meta tag can still significantly positively impact your search engine result view
to click conversion rates.
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To view the meta-description you can enter an individual web page and right
click to select ‘view source’ or ‘view page source’. This enables you to see the
code behind the individual web pages and near the top you are most likely to
find the meta-description.
Figure 2.3 – Page Source of BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz
View of the page source
The meta-description viewed as highlighted in figure 2.3 begins ‘Business
Articles – Latest business news & management advice’.
At the time of writing if you search Google for ‘business articles’, the number one
result is the website www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz. (Figure 2.4) When you
view the descriptive text underneath the clickable title you will see that the text
used in the description has been taken from the meta-description.
Figure 2.4 – Google Search
Searching Google for ‘business articles’
This shows why conversion rates from a user viewing a search engine result to
the user deciding to click through to the website can be significantly improved. If
you manage to include a meta-description in the search results which is
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Pillar #2 – Website Design - 25 -
extremely relevant to the users’ search then it is much more likely that the user
will decide to click through to the website.
Note: If you decide not to use a meta-description in your website coding, or if a
search engine deems your meta description to be irrelevant compared with the
content on your page then the search engine may instead decide to use some
alternative content from within your page as the description with the search
result. This is generally extremely unfavorable when it comes to trying to
improve your conversion rates.
Remember – you do not need to incorporate the keyword phrase within your
meta-description – this probably won’t influence search engines. The most
important thing is that you tailor your meta-descriptions towards users and
trying to persuade users to visit your page without being misleading.
It is fairly simple to ensure that your meta-description is different for each page
on your site. If you are using a content management system, you can commonly
generate the meta-description automatically, potentially from the first few lines
of your main page content. However, ideally it is good to have the facility to
include manual meta-descriptions with each page. In addition to individual page
titles, this will significantly improve your conversion rates from search engine
result (SERP) pages.
3. Heading Tags
Heading tags should appear either side of a heading within a page. For example
the heading in figure 2.5, the home page of www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz is
‘Latest business articles’.
Some hidden tags behind the source code of that heading explain to search
engines that this is an important heading, and therefore that provides a very
good indication to search engines about the content on the page.
If you view the source code behind the page (View > Source in Internet Explorer)
you will be able to see the heading tags in the source code. Heading tags consist
of text enclosed by
the most important of headings.
For main headings like ‘Latest Business Articles’ (the heading shown in figure
2.5) the code generated will look like:
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Latest Business Articles
Figure 2.5 – BuildYourOwnBusiness
www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz
Remember, the purpose of heading tags is to help explain to search engines what
your page is about. If you have your keyword phrase within the heading tag, it
is more likely that search engines will consider that your page is likely to be
about your keyword phrase topic.
4. ‘ALT’ Tags
‘ALT’ tags are alternative text that appears if an image does not display properly.
Sometimes if you hover over an image with your mouse the ‘ALT’ text will be
displayed. ‘ALT’ tags originated in the 1990s when Internet pages were slow to
load because of dial-up connections. The text appeared instead of the image,
describing what the image was. Users could then click on this text to download
the image if required.
However, ‘ALT’ tags now have several additional uses. They can be used to help
to explain to search engines what your pages and images are about, again
helping your site ranking. Additionally they provide a route into your website
when people are searching for images using Google Image Search or MSN Image
Search. If you have ‘ALT’ text associated with each image it is more likely those
images will appear in search results, increasing the traffic to your site.
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‘ALT’ tags are also beneficial for visually impaired people who use software to
read pages out loud. If you have text that explains what images are, it assists the
software and makes your site more accessible, also giving your site greater
compliance with certain web standards.
5. Keyword Rich Navigation
Within your website, you should be linking to different pages using keyword
phrases. The keyword phrase should reflect the content of the page that you are
linking towards. For example, if I am linking to a page about change
management articles, ideally, I want to be using the text, ‘change management
articles’ within the text link to that page. (Figure 2.6)
Figure 2.6 – BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz
An example of keyword rich navigation
Above, the orange ‘Change Management Articles’ text link links to the page
which can be seen in figure 2.7.
Figure 2.7 – www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz
The ‘Change Management Articles’ page
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In figure 2.7, there are aspects that optimize this page for the ‘Change
Management Articles’ keyword phrase. You can find the phrase ‘Change
Management Articles’ within the page title, heading tags, page content and links
towards that page.
6. Good URL Format
The URL does not really impact search engine optimization a great deal, but it is
important to have a consistent URL structure within your website that search
engines can follow.
Some websites have their pages generated from databases with long URLs that
aren’t consistent because they change depending on which users are visiting
your website and what they are looking at. This isn’t good, as search engines will
find it hard to determine which URL is the correct one and which one should be
ranked.
Just remember that if you make things easier for search engines then they are less
likely to come up with an excuse not to rank your web pages as highly as they
might otherwise be ranked.
There is often no need to have lots of question marks and different query strings
within a URL. Try and make them as simple as possible. For example, the
following formats of URLs are ideal:
www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/change-management-articles
(category URL)
www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/change-management-articles/what-is-changemanagement
(page URL)
7. Don't Link to the Same Page in Two Different Ways
Many websites link to their homepage within their own site by using /index.html
at the end of their URL. The reason that website designers do this is that this the
way to tell your internet browser to load a particular page as the first page when
somebody visits your website.
However, all you need to do is link to your home page using your main domain
name for example www.buildyourownbusiness.biz, instead of
www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/index.html. You should also ensure that you
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are consistent with your choice of whether or not you use ‘www.’
Using more than one format of link for the same page could dilute the impact of
your linking structure. If you have links within your site using one format, but
have links from other websites in a different format, then it can reduce the
popularity of your homepage with search engines.
(i.e. if you link to your homepage using www.yourdomain.com/index.htm from
within your site yet other sites just use www.yourdomain.com)
The reason that you should just stick to the one format of link is because search
engines are less likely to rank your site highly if they are not able to recognize
how popular your site actually is. In addition, as a worst case scenario from
these duplicate styles of linking, search engines may think that these two
different pages offering duplicate content. This means that they may choose to
de-rank one of these pages completely because they think you are offering
duplicate content on your website.
8. Use ‘No Follow’ tags where appropriate
The final aspect of on-site search engine optimization that I’d like to include here
is the use of ‘No Follow’ tags within your linking structure.
‘No Follow’ tags enable you to tell search engines ‘Don't rank this page’ or ‘Don't
rank these pages’ because they are not important.
Pages that you do not want to be ranked in search engines should make use of
the ‘No Follow’ tag, for example the ‘about us’, ‘disclaimer’ or ‘terms &
conditions’ pages within your website. There may well be lots of pages within
your site that you do not want search engines to include in their results pages.
By deliberately diverting search engines away from certain pages, search engines
are more likely to focus their efforts on determining what the rest of your site is
about and rank the rest of the pages in your site more highly.
The format of a ‘No Follow’ tag looks like:
rel=“nofollow”>About Us
If you are constructing a simple HTML link, and you don’t want search engines
pass any credence to the page that you’re linking towards, you should include
the ‘nofollow’ attribute.
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More site architecture tips
Make sure that you stick to one precise topic per page. It is not just one keyword
phrase per page, but it is one relevant, precise topic per page that is relevant for
users. This will make life as easy as possible for search engines – so you’ll have a
good chance of getting a high search engine result – and getting a high
conversion of users clicking through to your pages – and those visitors staying
on their site because they’re immediately aware of the precise nature of the page.
Have a logical progression within as well as within your individual pages.
(Remember the navigation in figure 2.1) This will encourage users to progress
through your site after stumbling upon your page through a search engine result
page.
Less is often more when it comes to conversion rates. You may want to
minimize navigation on some pages and give people less options. This in turn
drives your website visitors towards the one option that you really want them to
choose.
Precise relevance of each page
Each page within your website needs to be extremely relevant. Why not survey
your visitors and ask them how you can improve your website? This may help
you reduce the amount of visitors who leave within a few seconds of arriving –
thinking that your site is not relevant for their needs.
You’ve done the hard work when you get visitors to visit your website after
finding your pages listed in search engine result pages. Don’t uncoil your efforts
by making your site seem irrelevant for you visitors’ needs.
Your web pages should be designed for your visitors – with search engines in
mind. Don’t overload your pages with keyword phrases or make your visitors
have to scroll to read the content that they are looking for. The best optimized
web pages don’t look ‘optimized’.
Improving conversion rates
Improving conversion rates should be another imperative area of focus within
website design. You need think about what your goals are for an individual
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visitor in addition to how you will measure your goals. Do you simply want
people to leave a name, an email address, and get them to fill in a form? These
types of goals are the easiest to measure.
Other goals you might have include – selling something; tracking free
downloads; tracking link clicks or tracking pages viewed to name just a few.
Many businesses will want to capture contact details of visitors e.g. name, email
address etc. An important though is that you shouldn’t rely on search engines
forever for free traffic in you business model, as your website might not be
ranked highly by Google or Yahoo or MSN forever. You should aim to build an
email list in order to reduce your reliance on search engines in the future.
A final important aspect of improving conversion rates is to test different sales
techniques. Software programs such as AWeber and Google AdWords will let
you display different versions of the same page and test alternative versions
against each other. You can test your headings on your pages, your descriptions,
or even the text within a button. This will help you to produce the optimum
versions of your copy.
Perhaps you don’t need all the information that you’re requesting your visitors
for? Maybe you’ll treble your opt-in rates if you just ask for name and email
address instead of asking for name, email address and physical address.
Ideally, you need to be testing all the time. Once you find a winning page, you
should keep it but continue to test and tweak it to see if you can further improve
conversion rates.
Pillar #2 – Website Design Summary
· Take some time to think about your behind the scenes coding – make your
whole website as efficient as possible, which will help search engines when
they crawl through your site.
· Get your navigation structure right and make sure it's logical for search
engines and individual users.
· Remember that your website visitors may land on an individual page via a
search engine and good navigation will allow them to quickly understand
where that page is in relation to the rest of your site. This will make your new
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visitors more likely to stick around for longer.
· Ensure that you’re aware of the 8 essential aspects of onsite optimization
which will help to improve your search engine rankings.
· Have you considered the precise relevance of each page? Having just the one
topic per page will make life easier for both visitors and search engines.
· By undertaking continuous testing and analyzing what does and doesn’t
work, you can alter the structure of the site to maximize conversion rates.
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Pillar #3
Blog Technology
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Pillar #3 – Blog Technology
________________________________________________________________________
Blog technology is how I prefer to describe the marketing benefits of
blogging. I view a blog as a great piece of technology rather than an online
journal or diary. Many businesses dismiss blogs as informal online diaries in
which people voice opinions. However, the technology behind a blog can be
harnessed as a powerful Internet marketing medium for business – and the
communication style can be any style you like.
Pillar #3 Blog Technology covers:
- What a blog is
- A review of some of the different types of blogging software available
- How to quickly and easily personalize a blog with the use of themes and
plugins
- What Pinging and RSS feeds are and how they impact internet marketing
- Why Podcasting is so closely related to blogging and how to use a blog to start
your own podcast
What is a blog?
Wikipedia describes a blog as being a website with entries made in a journal
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style, however, this is not necessarily the case – I don’t like that description.
While the vast majority of blogs may be presented in reverse chronological order,
the content topic and style is entirely your choice. Your blog can include news
stories, or have formal content. It could be targeted internally within your
organization.
How useful is a blog?
A good piece of blogging software is also a great content management tool. Blogs
are an excellent way for non-HTML literate workers within an organization to
upload new information onto a website.
Search engines tend to rank websites higher if you continually add new content
to your site. You should not think of your website as being a static entity – it
should be continuously updated with content regularly added to your site.
When sites are updated regularly, then search engines are more likely to consider
it current and therefore more relevant than a website that has not been updated
for a period of time. A blog makes it very easy to add new pages to your
website. It makes it much easier to keep your website current.
Popular blogging software
- Blogger
Blogger is software that you can use that isn't hosted on your own server. I
would not recommend it for business use. If you are new to blogging it can be
useful to register and create your own account to see how blogging works. It is
owned by Google and free to use.
- WordPress
The software that I recommend for business use is WordPress. (Figure 3.1) It is
open source blogging software and it is also free to use. WordPress.org can be
downloaded onto your server and installed on your website. As you can use it
on your own domain a typical address for your blog may be
YourDomain.com/blog.
WordPress themes
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When using WordPress you can also use WordPress themes, which allow you to
personalize the look and feel of your blog. Anything relating to the layout,
design, look and feel of the blog itself is derived from a WordPress theme, and
there are thousands of free themes that you can use.
Figure 3.1 - WordPress
wordpress.org
Figure 3.2 is an example of a website that is giving away a theme free-of-charge
is Copyblogger. At the time of writing Copyblogger has over 100,000 RSS
subscribers, so it goes to show that giving away a good WordPress theme for free
can be a very effective form of internet marketing.
Figure 3.2 - Copyblogger
Copyblogger has over 100,000 RSS subscribers
Even if you decide to download and use the Copyblogger theme, you do not
necessarily have to stick to the same color scheme. You can use a theme as a base
for your blog and then amend it according to your brand or website colour
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scheme, if required.
You can even get a personalized WordPress theme. If you want to install your
blog on your domain, then the blog can be tailored to look exactly like your site.
Your visitors will probably not be aware of the fact that they’re viewing pages
which have been delivered via another content management system.
You can search for a free theme to suit your individual needs at WordPress.net.
Search by style, colour, general look and feel, or browse to view different themes
that are appropriate for your business.
Content management
Blogs are a great content management tool as they don’t require you to be
technically literate to post pages or manage the publishing of new content. All
you have to do is enter your title and content within the blog post, choose your
category and press ‘submit’.
If you install a WordPress blog on your server you can give different levels of
authority to different users. You can limit access to particular categories, or
allow certain users to only create posts, as opposed to authorizing them to
amend the look and feel of the blog.
Figure 3.3 – Backend of WordPress
Adding an entry to the WordPress blog
Figure 3.3 shows the back office of www.PurpleInternetMarketing.com, which is
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a site completely designed and managed via a WordPress blog installation. If
you want to write a post, all you do is click on ‘write’ to add and entry to your
WordPress blog. (See figure 3.3)
Click ‘write post’ and enter the title and post text. Then select the various
categories you want the post to be associated with (if you want more than one
category press ‘add’) and then press ‘publish’. It’s as easy as that to add new
posts and therefore add new content to your website.
WordPress plugins
WordPress has been specially designed to be ‘lean and mean’ in the way it
operates. This is because they understand that different WordPress users certain
features and not other features.
In order to cater for everyone’s needs, they made the sensible choice of designing
WordPress to be a world-class core product without any extra ‘bells and
whistles’. However, because WordPress is open-source it means that
independent coders can add additional functionality to the software in the form
of ‘plugins’. This means that users aren’t lumbered with downloading a bloated
core product which has features that they don’t intend to use.
To provide these different features and functionality there is a wide range of
plugins available of which the majority are free-of-charge. All plugins are are
small software programs which work together with your standard WordPress
installation.
You can search for plugins in the plugins directory on the WordPress website.
(wordpress.org/extend/plugins) Search by what you want your plugins to do.
Whatever additional feature you are looking to add to your blog somebody else
has probably had the same thought – and perhaps built a plugin to accomplish
the required task.
Perhaps you want to amend your graphics or the look and feel of your blog, or
even amend your linking structure. You may want a plugin which will allow you
to help you build a revenue stream into your blog.
Recommended plugins
At the time of writing there are many plugins which I use on one of my blogs –
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the Purple Internet Marketing website. The following are 5 plugins which I
currently use and that I am comfortable recommending.
(Please note that these kind of recommendations change all the time.
Visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar3 for an up-to-date list of plugin
resources + links to 2 highly recommended professional WordPress themes.)
1) Akismet is a great spam filter if you have ‘comment posting’ functionality at
the bottom of your blog posts. Some businesses may choose to disable the
comment functionality but it can be useful to encourage interaction within your
website. Comments can provide up to date content for your site, while it also
makes your blog more of a community that people are more likely to come back
to and listen and read other comments.
The Akismet plugin should disable around 90% of your spam comments and
save you a great deal of time in comment moderation.
2) aLinks is a tool to control links within a blog. One of the potential issues with
blogs is that people can ‘steal’ your content via your RSS feed (we’ll get to what
that is in a bit) and automatically publish it on their own site. You may not
necessarily want them to be able to do that.
aLinks allows you to build in automatic links within your blog posts. For
example, if I mention the phrase ‘business articles’ within a blog post I might set
it up so that the plugin automatically generates a link to the home page of
www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz. If people republish that post which contains
that link, then the link will probably now be on the other person's website
pointing back to your site. At least is somebody steals your content you gain by
getting a link on their site.
3) Popularity Contest is a tool to make popular posts easily available for your
visitors to view. As previously discussed, blogs commonly display posts in
reverse chronological order which can make it difficult for users to find old posts
that still have good content or are of interest.
What Popularity Contest does is to provide a listing of your most popular posts
of all-time in a sidebar within your blog navigation. Because the chances are that
this is your best every content, it will give you a greater opportunity to retain
new visitors on your site.
4) Get Recent Comments is a plugin that shows the most recent comments that
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people have made on all of your blog posts in a widget in your sidebar.
If you are encouraging people to comment on your blog to build up community
interaction, one way of doing that is to publish the latest comments made on
every post within your menu system. You can display the five or the ten most
recent comments made by people on your blog. This is beneficial in a couple of
different ways. You are encouraging your blog to be more of a community and if
people can see their latest comment in the main sidebar it will encourage them to
post a comment again.
The Get recent Comments plugin has additional benefits too. By being able to see
a comment on an archived post, this may well encourage a user to visit the
original post. One other way that this plugin adds value to your site is that you're
improving the search engine optimization as these links point directly to the
comments at the bottom of different posts and not to the posts themselves. This
drives alternative search engine crawls throughout your site.
5) My Avatars is a plugin that’s associated with a website called MyBlogLog, a
very popular blogging community. When users register at MyBlogLog, they
upload a small picture, or avatar of themselves (perhaps even a company logo).
After somebody has uploaded this image to MyBlogLog, in addition to the avatar
image displaying on MyBlogLog, whenever a blog has the MyAvatars plugin
installed, the avatar image will also be displayed next to comments by that
registered MyBlogLog user on the blog.
This again encourages your blog to become more of a community and more
interactive as people can see their own avatar images beside any comments
made.
If you register with MyBlogLog, you can of course have your own image at the
bottom of any comments you make on other blogs. An additional service that
you should register with is called Gravatar.
Blog pinging
Pinging is a process built into WordPress that automatically tells other blog
directories and news portals that you have added a new post to your blog.
Within your WordPress back office if you click on Options and then select
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‘write’, if you scroll down you will see that by default WordPress has a pinging
service called ping-o-matic built into it.
There are other pinging services, but ping-o-matic works well and is already
incorporated into WordPress. You don't need to visit the ping-o-matic website
for it to submit your posts because automatically whenever you add new content
to your site it will automatically be ‘pinged’ to many major blog directories and
news portals.
When you publish a post, this pinging mechanism will be aware of your post
title, your post description and the link back to the original post.
One of the major services that will be pinged is called MyYahoo. Anyone who
searches MyYahoo for a particular topic; (if you have made a recent blog post
within that topic yourself), then your blog post will come up there in the search
results. This is one of the many automated internet marketing tools that make
blogging such a powerful part of your online strategy.
RSS
RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication is another great automated
marketing tool built into blogging software. It is a tool which lets people
subscribe to the latest content published on your blog.
RSS feeds are also features of many other types of website but it is probably most
commonly found on blogs.
The main advantage of RSS on blogs for your readers is that it allows them to see
when you have updated your blog without having to directly visit your blog. It is
an easy way for them to be made aware as soon as you publish a new post.
How do RSS feeds work?
Your RSS feeds are the website URLs that people can use in order to subscribe to
your latest content. WordPress automatically generates as many RSS feed URLs
as you require. By default there is a main feed and a feed for each of your blog
categories.
When someone subscribes to your RSS feed in an RSS reader (like Google
Reader), the software will display your latest blog post title, and possibly some of
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the content depending on the RSS reader settings. People will then have an
option of visiting your blog post if they think the full content will be of interest to
them.
RSS feed format
Instead of retaining the default RSS feed URLs from WordPress, you should
register with a free service called Feedburner (figure 3.4) and submit your
original feed URL to Feedburner.com.
Feedburner will then give you an alternative feed URL to use. They call this
service ‘burning’ your feed. The advantage with giving your subscribers your
Feedburner feed URL instead of your default feed URL is that Feedburner will be
able to give you lots of statistics such as how many subscribers you have and
which software your readers are using to subscribe to your feed.
Figure 3.4 - FeedBurner
Submit your URL at FeedBurner
How to find and burn your feed
Let’s take my old WordPress blog www.PurpleInternetMarketing.com/blog as an
example. As the folder /blog/ is where WordPress has been installed, you’ll be
able to find the original feed at
http://www.PurpleInterentMarketing.com/blog/feed.
I took this URL and submitted it to Feedburner (I ‘burned’ the feed). The feed
URL I chose at Feedburner was
http://feeds.feedburner.com/purpleinternetmarketing.
This feed URL delivers exactly the same content to a user when they subscribe to
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Pillar #3 – Blog Technology - 43 -
updates, but using this version lets me gain access to really useful statistics about
my subscribers when I log into my Feedburner account.
A glimpse at Feedburner stats
Feedburner will provide you with a breakdown of the stats for each feed that you
decide to burn. The feed below (Figure 3.5) is from a podcast feed that hasn’t
been promoted a great deal. As you can see there are 30 subscribers to that feed,
i.e. 30 people going to be told as soon as another episode is published.
It doesn’t take too much promotional work to quickly build up a few hundred
subscribers to your feed. After that you’ll start to naturally gain more subscribers
as people tell their friends – as long as if you consistently deliver quality new
content on a regular basis.
It is important to use the Feedburner service to ‘burn your feed’ prior to
publishing your feed URL and making it available for subscribers. The service
lets you gain access to lots of important statistics about your subscribers
including how many subscribers you have and what kind of software people are
using to subscribe to your feed.
Figure 3.5 – FeedBurner
Viewing statistics on FeedBurner
In addition to Google Reader, another example of an RSS feed reader is in fact
iTunes. iTunes is an RSS reader that specializes in reading podcast RSS feeds.
Subscribing to an RSS feed
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How do you subscribe to RSS feeds? Do you subscribe to RSS feeds at the
moment? (If so you need to subscribe to some feeds so that you’re fairly
comfortable with how the protocol works.) If you’re subscribing to a standard
RSS feed, not a podcast, the chances are that it will be text based updates. One of
the most popular RSS feed readers at the time of writing is iGoogle or the
personalized Google home page (Figure 3.6).
Take time to visit iGoogle. This is the personalized Google home page. You can
personalize this page by adding your own RSS feeds to display content that
interests you.
The ‘Add Stuff’ link on the iGoogle page is where you can search for different
small widgets and feeds to add to your personalized page. At the bottom
left-hand side of the ‘Add Stuff’ is where there is an option to add an RSS feed.
Once you add your chosen feed, you should be able to view the latest content
from that feed on your iGoogle page.
More RSS reading software
Remember that there is a great deal of free RSS feed reader software available if
iGoogle or Google Reader doesn’t suit your needs. Simply search online to find
something more suitable for you. (www.google.com/search?q=free+rss+software)
Using an RSS reader will let you quickly scan the latest headlines within a blog
without having to visit the blog directly. You might find only 1 in 5 posts on a
blog of interest, so by subscribing to the feed using an RSS reader, you can easily
judge if it is worthwhile for you to visit a blog page, saving you a great deal of
time.
RSS readers are a popular medium for people to use to subscribe to updates, a
method of website update subscription which is growing in popularity and one
which is going to become more important in the future.
It is therefore important that you build an RSS subscription option into your
website, also utilizing the Feedburner service as explained above.
Figure 3.6 – iGoogle homepage
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Pillar #3 – Blog Technology - 45 -
The personalized iGoogle home page
Podcasting
Many people / businesses wish to publish a series of MP3 (audio) or MP4 (video)
recordings online. It is wise to associate these media recordings with an RSS feed
so that people can subscribe to updates and be made aware as soon as you have
released a new media file for consumption. This use of RSS feeds is called
podcasting.
Another benefit with broadcasting a podcasts is that subscribers tend to be very
‘sticky’ – that is once people subscribe they will generally stay subscribed. If you
stop producing podcasts for a while, and decide to start again a few months later,
then you will probably find that you still have around the same number of
subscribers – the people that had previously subscribed will simply be notified
via their subscription software (possibly iTunes) as soon as your new episode has
been released.
Creating your podcast
It is relatively simple to use a portable MP3 recorder to create your podcast. You
could also record your audio with a microphone at a computer with tools such as
Skype or Google Talk with HotRecorder. A great free piece of software called
Audacity can be used to edit your recording.
Recording and editing audio
Recording and editing your own audio – or even video – is not as difficult as you
might think. HotRecorder is software that works in conjunction with Skype (an
online VOIP / telephone service). HotRecorder can be used to record any call
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you are making online using your computer. It only costs about $15, (around
£10) for the software but it can be used to record hours of conversation if
required to do so.
I have used HotRecorder to record Skype based interviews with people from all
around the world and have got great quality recordings from using the service.
One tip I’d share with you is to use the setting that records both voices on
separate tracks (stereo). This will let you edit each voice separately at the end of
the recording which is especially handy if you find that one person’s voice has
been recorded at a louder volume that the other person.
To edit the audio recording I use some software called Audacity. Audacity is
open-source and free-of-charge although I’d always recommend making a small
donation to such projects.
In figure 3.7 you can view a screenshot of Audacity in action (editing a
recording). The software allows you to manipulate the audio recording - you can
highlight a section (perhaps if there has been too big a pause or a stutter) and
remove it by selecting edit, highlighting the section in question and then cut.
Figure 3.7 - Audacity
Sample screenshot of Audacity
Publishing your podcast
Having recorded and edited your audio, the next step is for you to publish your
podcast. One of the easiest and most effective methods of publishing a podcast is
to release the episodes in a category on your blog, and use the category RSS feed
as your podcast feed.
There’s an excellent free WordPress plugin called PodPress that’s dedicated to
helping you publish your podcast via your WordPress blog.
Once you install the plugin, all you need to do is upload the MP3 or MP4 file to
your blog via PodPress in your WordPress back office. The PodPress plugin
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provides a flash-based MP3 player where your blog visitors are able to play the
track directly from your blog. It also provides a direct download to the MP3 or
MP4 file for users to download and play the track directly through a media
player device such as an iPod.
Remember to use the Feedburner service
If you’re going to give this a go, remember to ‘burn’ your blog category feed that
you’re using for the podcast through the Feedburner service – and remember to
select the ‘podcast’ option on Feedburner.
(For example, I used
http://www.purpleinternetmarketing.com/blog/tags/podcast/ as the category on
the Purple Internet Marketing website for an old podcast, but instead of using
the feed address
http://www.purpleinternetmarketing.com/blog/tags/podcast/feed as my podcast
feed, I burned this address with Feedburner to create
http://feeds.feedburner.com/InternetMarketingStrategyPodcast as the new
podcast feed URL.)
Creating a new podcast feed with Feedburner gives you two distinct advantages.
First of all, as with your blog feed, you get access to a lot of useful statistics such
as the number of listeners you have and what software they are using to
subscribe to your feed. Secondly, Feedburner will also submit your podcast to
various podcast directories.
Don’t commit to a schedule before you try podcasting
Podcasting is a marketing medium which is worthwhile trying. The great thing
about it is that you don’t have to commit to a regular schedule. It could simply be
delivered on an ad-hoc basis as part of your blog posting strategy.
If you find out that podcasting suits your communication style then perhaps you
can publish episodes on a regular basis in the future, but the important thing is
just to give it a go.
An added benefit to podcasting – transcripts
If you do decide to publish a podcast, then you may also want to create audio
transcripts. This way, you can provide written content in your blog from the
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podcast and search engines will pick this up as fresh new content, helping you
significantly with better search engine results.
Another positive with offering transcripts to your podcasts is that you’re also
catering for people who struggle with hearing your audio, or simply prefer the
written word as a communications medium.
Of course you can outsource the transcription of your podcasts. One such place is
CastingWords.com, who will transcribe audio from only 75 cents a minute. This
can ensure that you use your own resources in a much more cost efficient
manner. (Note: Additional transcription services are listed at
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar3)
Pillar #3 – Blog Technology Summary
· A blog doesn’t necessarily have to be published in a journal style and
displayed in chronological order. The content of a blog can be anything from
articles to opinions and the most important aspect about a blog from a
business standpoint is the technology – the inbuilt automated internet
marketing capability
· Wordpress.org is probably the most appropriate blogging software for most
businesses. It’s free to use, state-of-the-art and offers bespoke design and
functionality
· Plugins are small software programs designed by independent coders that
add additional functionality to your blog. There are thousands of plugins to
choose from and most of them are free-of-charge.
· Pinging and RSS feeds can be used to help to automate your blog marketing.
Pinging is the process that makes a blog and news directories aware of the fact
that you’ve just published a new post. RSS Feeds let people subscribe to your
content and allow them to view the content without actually visiting your site.
· Podcasting can be used as a way to augment your blog posts. Podcasts are
generally audio (or video) files, and they are published using RSS so
subscribers are alerted as soon as a new episode is published. Tools such as
Audacity and Skype can be used to create and edit podcasts. iTunes is the
most popular software to use to subscribe to a podcast feed.
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Pillar #4
Autoresponders
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Pillar #4 – Autoresponders
________________________________________________________________________
Autoresponders aren’t just an automatic email response delivered by your
email software when you are out of the office. They can be an extremely
effective part of your internet marketing arsenal. Among other things,
autoresponders can deliver personalized broadcast e-mails and newsletters to
your entire email list – at a predetermined time. Pillar #4 Autoresponders looks
at the best autoresponder software available; how to build a responsive and
worthwhile list of recipients; as well as building relationships with your contact
list so that you improve your email conversion rates over time.
What are autoresponders?
Autoresponders are anything delivered by email automatically at a
predetermined time that can be partly personalized for the recipient.
Because these emails often include people's names, the recipients commonly
think that they are receiving personal emails from you, rather than an automated
e-mail machine!
An autoresponder sequence can be set up so that e-mails are delivered on a set
day of the month or over intervals of time after somebody subscribes.
Autoresponder sequences can be as long or as short as you want – when people
subscribe to your updates, you can decide if they should receive an email after 2
days, 10 days, 21 days, or even as much as 5 years.
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Other uses of an autoresponder service
But autoresponders don’t just have to be emails or email newsletters. They can
also be used to deliver a step-by-step email course. You could perhaps
encourage your website visitors to subscribe to a short email course delivered
over a few days with a view to upselling a better, more informative email course
after building a trusting relationship with the prospect over the free course.
You can also use an autoresponder to deliver a free product, and use this to build
an opt-in list. For instance, if you have a free PDF report that you want to offer
you can deliver it via your autoresponder, and get people to automatically
subscribe to your newsletter or email updates when they request the free report.
Once they have subscribed or opted-in to your list, you can then market to them
at any point in the future, either by using an autoresponder sequence over a
period of time or by using broadcast emails. (Unless they decide to opt-out.)
Broadcast emails
Broadcast emails are an important part of using an autoresponder service. Not
everything can be built into sequence in advance - some items are timely in that
they are focused on products or events that maybe sold out by a certain date. By
sending broadcast emails to people, you are sending them offers or providing
information that is pertinent to a particular date.
By using a decent autoresponder, if you have a list of 1 to a million people, you
can send a personalized broadcast email on a particular issue to your group of
subscribers within an hour.
If I were sending an email for the first time to a list that is business to business,
you can perhaps send one email introducing yourself, your product and/or your
services, without an unsubscribe option. (Please check your own country for
legislation appropriate for you.) However, you should not send emails to private
e-mail addresses who haven’t already agreed to receive an email from you.
A good autoresponder service will automatically include an unsubscribe option
in all of your emails, to allow recipients to easily remove themselves from your
mailing list if they decide that they do not want to hear from you again in the
future. As you do not want to have your email address flagged as a SPAM
sender, this is wise to do.
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Newsletters
Email Newsletters are generally a little bit more formal, but can be built into an
autoresponder process as well. You can load newsletters into an autoresponder,
so that they will be delivered either on a certain date or within a certain period of
time after people have subscribed to that sequence.
If you have a period of time available (perhaps a quiet time in your business
year) you can complete the work of writing a series of newsletters for the whole
year. These can be uploaded to your autoresponder, and the recipients will
automatically get the newsletters at specified times throughout the year.
Email marketing software
Which autoresponder should you use? One that I recommend, probably the most
popular one available, is called AWeber, (Figure 4.1) which is probably the
world’s most popular autoresponder service. (Visit
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar4 to view up-to-date
recommendations.)
Figure 4.1 – AWeber.com
AWeber Communications
The disadvantage with using your own server to deliver email
If you are using your own server to send emails to your list at the moment then
you’re at a serious disadvantage. Your servers will not be trusted enough by
other email programs to get the kind of delivery rate that as service like AWeber
can give you. If you’re currently sending emails from your own domain, you
may be struggling to deliver up to half of your emails without knowing it. This is
probably partly due to your domain’s IP address not being trusted enough by
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Pillar #4 – Autoresponders - 53 -
SPAM filters.
Advantages of using an experienced email marketing company’s server
Because an experienced email marketing / autoresponder service has been
established for many years, this has given them an opportunity to build a trusted
relationship with many email providers. This means that services like Hotmail
and Gmail will know that when an email is sent through a service like AWeber,
the person who is receiving the correspondence has requested to receive it.
This is just one of the reasons why if you are thinking of building up an email
list, then I advise that hosting that email list on an on an experienced email
marketing company’s server, and sending e-mails out from that server is the best
approach.
Emails being sent by such as service can still look as if they are being sent from
you. They can still appear to come from your email address, and you can still
receive replies to your own email address. However you are using someone
else’s more trusted server to ensure that the vast majority of emails reach the
person they are intended for.
Figure 4.2 – Writing an email using AWeber
AWeber Communications
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More about AWeber
AWeber provides autoresponder and newsletter functionality. It supplies HTML
templates for newsletters as well, so you can easily design your own newsletter,
upload it, and deliver it whenever you want.
Another thing you can do with AWeber, which is worthwhile considering if you
have or are going to have a blog, is to import RSS feeds into the service, and
automate the delivery of these posts as a newsletter. Many people prefer to
subscribe to email updates rather than an RSS feed, and AWeber can provide you
with the functionality to give your subscribers this opportunity. Of course
offering this service also encourages people to join your email list – and provides
you with a bigger subscriber list for future marketing campaigns.
Personalizing your automated emails
After you create an account and login to AWeber, you may wish to write your
email content in your normal word processer before copying and pasting it into
AWeber’s text editor. (Figure 4.2) Here you will have the option to include
personalized fields such as the names of people you wish to send your emails to.
You can use a greeting e.g. "Hi," or and then a variable for their name, which will
automatically insert their name from your email list.
The variable that you use in order to automatically include a subscriber’s first
name within the email is {!firstname_fix}. This variable will include a subscriber’s
personalized first name in each email, but also ensures that a capital letter is used
at the beginning of the name after it is inserted.
Sending HTML newsletters
AWeber lets you send HTML email newsletters as well as plain text newsletters.
A HTML email allows you to use more color and create more visually attractive
designs. However, it’s very important that you test deliverability rates and the
actual design that your subscribers see in different types of email reading
software. (E.g. Outlook, Entourage, Gmail, Hotmail etc.) Just because something
looks good on your computer, don’t assume that it looks just the same on other
people’s computers.
An important rule of thumb is to always send a plain text version of the
newsletter as well as the HTML version. This means that if the HTML version
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gets stuck in SPAM filters – or for some other reason isn’t able to be displayed –
then the plain text version should reach your subscriber.
Setting goals for your newsletters
In addition to being useful and informative, the content and format of your
newsletter should relate to the action you wish your subscribers to take after they
read your newsletter. If you wish them to browse through your website navigate
through your items for sale, you should consider including a mini navigation
menu in your newsletter which replicates the selection of choices available in
your website navigation.
There is no definitive answer on whether an HTML or plain text email campaign
will work best for you business – the only way to know for sure is to test, and
good email software like AWeber will have an inbuilt split testing capability
build into its program.
Set an objective
When sending out emails you should have a certain target or objective in mind.
You need to consider your intention behind sending that email when creating
and formatting the content. Do you want them to click on a link? If you wish
them to visit a certain page on your website, you should mention the link at least
twice within the email – and feature it prominently, describing the benefit for
your subscriber to click on the link.
More reasons to communicate with your audience on a regular basis
You can use regular email contact with your subscribers via an autoresponder for
virtually any reason – email is a great tool to build relationships.
Many long-term, successful email marketing campaigns often send out two or
three emails in a row which have no end-goal to ‘sell’ anything. The primary
purpose of these emails is to build a relationship with the subscriber by offering
good, solid, reliable information. The advantage with offering such valuable,
useful content is when you do decide to recommend a particular product or
service in a future email, your subscriber is much more likely to trust your
recommendation and make a purchase decision.
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Build relationships first
A significant advantage with using autoresponders is that they give you the
ability to build relationships people on with your email list – without having to
make personal contact with them. An autoresponder sequence can increase the
level of trust that your subscribers feel for you. This increased level of trust, in
turn, greatly improves the likelihood of that subscriber converting to a customer
in the future.
An important tip is to get started on building your email subscriber list at the
earliest opportunity. Even though you don’t have a future email marketing
strategy, by building up a bank of subscribers, you’re safeguarding your
business’ future.
Figure 4.3 – An opt-in form on the 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan website
An AWeber opt-in form on www.26weekplan.com
Installing an opt-in form on your website
AWeber (and other autoresponder and email software services) will supply you
with some code to paste on your web pages. This code displays a simple opt-in
form (Figure 4.3). You can personalize the text used to suit your needs. In this
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Pillar #4 – Autoresponders - 57 -
example I’ve chosen to use ‘Free Tips & Updates’.
Having this type of form on your website will let your visitors subscribe to your
future updates – assuming they like your present website content. They can
simply enter their names and email addresses. This in turn allows you to start to
build an opt-in list.
Double opt-in or single opt-in?
AWeber insists on something called a double opt-in, which means that when
people enter their name and email address into your form, they are not
automatically subscribed even when they select ‘submit’. Instead, your want-tobe
subscriber gets an email back to their email address saying something like,
“We want to make sure that you did actually request to subscribe to this list, so
please click on this link to confirm”. Your intended subscriber has to click on
that link before they are added to your list.
The double opt-in not only decreases the risk for AWeber that their servers are
being used to send SPAM email. It increases the quality of your own email
subscribers. A double opt-in is not legally necessary, but it is advised by many
because you can demonstrate that your recipients have definitely opted-in to
receive your email updates.
There are, however, pros and cons with using single or double opt-ins when
collecting subscriber data. If you use a single opt-in, you’re probably going to
get more subscribers – and you will be able to import subscribers from previous
campaigns to your new email software. If you’re using double opt-in, your list
won’t be as big – but it will be of better quality.
Which ever way you choose to go (double or single opt-in) will have its benefits
and drawbacks. If you are particularly good at managing data, and send regular
updates to your subscribers like clockwork then single opt-in may well be best
for you. However, this is where it’s probably best to seek the advice of a
professional internet marketing consultant before making the decision on what’s
the correct choice for your business.
How to build a bigger subscriber list
Just having the one opt-in box on your site is not going to maximize your
number of subscribers. By solely relying on the one opt-in box on your website
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sidebar you’ll be lucky if you get more than one percent of your website visitors
who choose to subscribe to your updates – but there are much quicker ways to
build an email list.
Figure 4.4 – The 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing pre-launch screenshot
www.13pillars.com
Start by focusing on an individual market segment. If you are a reasonable-sized
business you are likely to have a range of products and services within your
portfolio. You should aim to focus on niche markets within your portfolio by
targeting individual pages and offer an incentive for people to receive for
information about the subject matter that interests them.
Figure 4.4 is a screenshot of what the www.13pillars.com website looked like
before this book was released. It was just a single-page website which had one
main purpose – telling people to subscribe to updates if they wanted to be made
aware as soon as the book launched. Because there was just the one requested
action – and because the incentive was significant (a big free ebook), a significant
percentage of people who visited this page decided to opt-in to the subscriber
list.
Optimizing your opt-in request
There are many different on-page aspects that you can improve in order to
increase the likelihood of somebody deciding to submit their personal details
into one of your forms.
Firstly, you need to ensure that your persuasive reason to opt-in is targeted at
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Pillar #4 – Autoresponders - 59 -
exactly the right audience. Secondly, you need to ensure that the reason to enter
their details in your form is as compelling as possible.
If building an emails list is important to your business model – and it should be –
then you should be prepared to test every aspect of your opt-in page or page
section in order to maximize your conversion rates. This topic is reviewed in
much greater depth in the 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan.
(www.26weekplan.com)
Increasing double-opt-in conversion rates
If you’re using a double-opt-in autoresponder service like AWeber, your signups
will reach a page after they complete the form. And you have the option of
personalizing this page in any manner that you see fit.
Figure 4.5 – Increasing double-opt-in percentages
An example of how to increase your double-opt-in conversion rates
Should you wish to, you can use this ‘space’ to try to sell a product or service, or
direct your interested parties towards the best free content on your website.
Alternatively, what I would recommend if you are running a double-opt-in
process is to tell people to go to their email service and click on a link in an email
that you have just sent them. This confirms the opt-in. (Hence double opt-in)
Figure 4.5 shows a screenshot from a page which attempts to maximize double
opt-in conversion rates. This is an example of a page that people might see once
they have completed the first stage of the double-opt-in (filled out the form) but
have yet to click on the link in their email to complete the joining of the list.
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By now you should know that if you do decide to use a double-opt-in
autoresponder then there are prod and cons. One of the cons in that you are
never going to be able to get everyone who completes the first stage of the
double-opt-in process to complete the second stage. Some people have an
inherent distrust of clicking links belonging to website domains that they don’t
know. All you can do is try to maximize the percentage of people to go on to
complete the double opt-in. It’s never going to be 100%.
However, selling the double opt-in process to the people that complete your
form (as in the page seen in figure 4.5) should hopefully mean that 85% of these
people go back to their inbox and click on the link in their email.
Remember – this double opt-in process is protecting you as well as your
subscribers. It means that you won’t be in any danger of a competitor trying to
list you as a SPAM sender by subscribing people to your list who haven’t asked
to be subscribed. It also means that you won’t be trying to send emails to fake
email addresses.
More ways to encourage people to opt-in
The more that your opt-in focus is targeted towards a niche market segment, the
higher your conversion rates should be. However, it’s good practice that you
should also consider having lots of different methods of encouraging your
visitors to subscribe to the same list.
For example, you can give away a free eBook as an incentive to join your list.
This can be delivered in the form of a PDF and the whole delivery process can be
automated through your autoresponder software.
An addition or instead to a free eBook how about a free email course, delivered
on a daily or weekly basis for a set period of time? Again, once you set this up
with your autoresponder the whole process is automated. An email course has
the added benefit over an eBook of continually reminding people about you –
and thus automatically building a better relationship with your subscribers.
What to do after people opt-in
It’s one thing building an email list and another thing entirely continuing a
relationship with that email list over a period of time. It’s imperative to
determine a long-term newsletter or email content strategy for your
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Pillar #4 – Autoresponders - 61 -
correspondence with your subscribers.
You need to decide on your message, your communication style and your
message sending schedule – prior to starting a campaign. It’s a big mistake to
alter any of these 3 areas significantly after you start. One of your aims should be
to try to be dependable and predictable for your subscribers.
It's impossible to say that you should only send so many emails per day, week or
month to your list. Some people are quite comfortable receiving an email every
day if it is good, free information and if it is appropriate to the particular market
segment you are aiming at. If you train your list to expect one email per week,
then that is what you should send. If you train your list to expect one email per
day, then that is what you should send.
Building automated relationships and minimizing ‘unsubscribes’
Once tool I always make use of when giving away free eBooks via an
autoresponder is the automation of a few messages in the days and weeks that
follow after the free eBook has been delivered.
It’s all well and good to get people to fill out the form, perform the double opt-in
if appropriate, receive your eBook and then be subscribed to your updates.
However, if your new subscriber receives an email that isn’t much to do with his
free eBook shortly after subscribing, there’s a very good chance that this new
prospect – a prospect you’ve worked very hard to obtain – will instantaneously
decide to unsubscribe from receiving future correspondence.
You need to remember that the people who have just decided to fill out a form to
receive your free eBook probably haven’t heard of you before – and almost
certainly haven’t subscribed to your email updates before.
Because of this, in order to try to minimize the likelihood of your new lead
deciding to unsubscribe immediately, you should deliver some email
correspondence initially that relates directly to the eBook – or adds value to the
eBook. For example, a week after delivering the eBook you may want to
automate the sending of an email that covers the common questions that people
have from the eBook. A week after that perhaps you may wish to deliver a
follow-up chapter. Perhaps after that you could ask your new subscriber for
some feedback on the eBook. All this communication continues to build a
relationship with your new prospect while training them to expect good,
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relevant information from you on a weekly basis.
Building Relationships by Surveying
As per the previous paragraph I suggested that you may be able to request some
customer feedback as part of your autoresponder sequence. In other words, you
can continue to build relationships with your list of subscribers by surveying.
For example, you may wish to send out a survey to your longer term subscribers
saying something like, ‘We are thinking of offering these products in the future
and we are considering between these three or four different widgets to include
as part of the product features – which features would you prefer?’
This is fantastic tool for market research as it targets your existing customers.
Not only is it market research, it’s a great way of building relationships with
your list at the same time.
Perhaps you want to consider building a monthly survey into your regular email
communication with your subscribers. This will provide invaluable information
and the whole process can be automated through your autoresponder. The only
caveat I’d put on implementation of this is not to do it too often – perhaps a
maximum of one in every four emails.
Survey software
Another method of starting to add surveys to your online marketing strategy is
to publish them as a blog post – this has added value because you’re displaying
‘social proof’ when you demonstrate to other readers that you have many people
who are interested in participating in the vote. If you use WordPress then you
can add a survey as a plugin. One of the most popular WordPress survey plugins
is called SurveyGizmo.
By adding a survey as part of your website interaction, it encourages your users
to become a little more ‘sticky’ – that is, a little more likely to stick around for
longer. People will be more likely come back to your websites in the future. If
you wanted to add a survey to a stand-alone website, (where there isn’t a
WordPress blog installed) there is a good free service called SurveyMonkey
(Figure 4.6) that you should consider using.
Note: SurveyMonkey also offer a paid service as well, which will let you create
everything with your own branding as well as receiving more survey results.
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Pillar #4 – Autoresponders - 63 -
However, the free version is great too.
Figure 4.6 – SurveyMonkey
You can use survey monkey to easily create online surveys
Why building a list of interested subscribers is so important
If you build a list of relevant, interested subscribers it means you won’t have to
rely on the search engines in the long term for your Internet marketing. And like
any business, if you have just one customer, or you have one source of
customers, and that source suddenly dries up, then your business will suffer.
If you are fortunate enough to be able to drive lots of visitors to your website
from search engines, then take advantage of that by preparing for an uncertain
future – just in case.
Convert those website visitors into leads by using an autoresponder to deliver
additional content that isn’t available elsewhere. By doing so you’re reclaiming
greater control over your website visitor traffic.
Pillar #4 – Autoresponders Summary
· Autoresponders are a great way for you to build relationships with your
customers. They can deliver virtually anything by email on an automated,
pre-meditated and usually personalized basis.
· Broadcast Emails are informal emails which are usually personalized to the
receiver. They are great for sending up-to-date news and building better
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business relationships. When creating the text for e-mails they should be as
personalized and relevant as possible to cement the relationship.
· Newsletters are a more formal, professional method of keeping in touch with
your client list and are a great reason for regular communication with your
customers. A newsletter can be sent immediately, or pre-loaded into you
autoresponder to be delivered on a certain date. They can also be part of an
autoresponder sequence, delivered so many days, weeks or months after the
initial sign-up.
· One of the autoresponder which I recommend which is specifically built for
email marketing is called AWeber. Find links to AWeber and other
recommended email marketing resources here:
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar4
· Building a list of relevant subscribers is an essential aspect of successful
internet marketing, and you can greatly speed this process up by offering free
bonus content or a PDF eBook as an incentive for people to subscriber to your
newsletter or email updates.
· Having a large, responsive email database will take the onus off relying on
search engines for traffic in the future. It’s never good to have total reliance on
something that brings in a lot of business which you don’t control.
· By building a thoughtful, relevant autoresponder sequence into your new
subscriber process you will be automatically building business brand loyalty
without having to speak to your subscribers personally.
· Use autoresponders to survey your subscribers. This is a great way of
conducting market research in addition to continuing to grow the quality of
your subscriber relationships.
© Copyright 2007-2010 Purple Internet Marketing Limited www.26WeekPlan.com
Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising - 65 -
Pillar #5
Paid Advertising
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Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising
________________________________________________________________________
Paid advertising is an essential part of most internet marketing campaigns. I
would like to focus on two key paid advertising methods, both of which I
consider to be an essential part of any internet marketing campaign.
1) Pay per click advertising - using services like Google AdWords
2) Major directory submissions – getting your website featured in major
directories such as the Yahoo! directory.
Pay per click
Although there are hundreds of different pay per click networks, I’d like to
concentrate of three of the biggest…
1) Google AdWords
2) Yahoo Search Marketing
3) Microsoft AdCenter
Google AdWords
Google AdWords is by far the largest pay per click network – it has access to the
largest amount of prospective customers, so it’s the best place to start.
In order to use Google AdWords, you need to create a Google account – it’s free
to do this. Once you login you will be able to view instructions of how to get
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Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising - 67 -
going with your campaign. In the sign up wizard you will be able to target your
advert to a specific country, area or town (Figure 5.1).
Figure 5.1 – Google AdWords
Starting your Google AdWords campaign
Writing your advert
After selecting your location and language, it’s time to write your advert.
However, before you do this you should consider your target market and the
keyword phrases appropriate for your campaign.
Using the Wordtracker service discussed in Pillar #1 Keyword Research, you need
to obtain a list of keyword phrases suitable to describe what you are going to
advertise.
Your landing page, hence your advert should be targeted towards a very specific
market segment, giving you the best opportunity to convert your visitors
through to your particular goals for the campaign.
Maximizing your conversion rates
You will maximize your conversion rates by designing a unique landing page for
each area of pay per click focus. Once you have designed your landing page and
are comfortable with your keyword phrases, you need to ensure that the correct
landing page URL is used with each PPC (pay per click) ad.
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Setting your budget
After researching your keyword phrases using Wordtracker, you then insert
these in the box titled ‘Enter as many specific words or phrases as you like, one
per link’ (Figure 5.2). Next choose your currency and set your budget. It doesn’t
have to be a significant investment to begin with, but it’s a good idea to start a
campaign wit your budget spread throughout the week to try and determine
optimum conversion periods.
Figure 5.2 – Google AdWords
Selecting your keywords in Google AdWords
Calculating your maximum bid
Your cost that you will have to pay per click in order to have to appear on the
first page of pay per click results will vary considerable depending on what
industry with are wishing to target.
One industry sector that’s notoriously costly is finance where you may even have
to pay more than $10 per click for certain keywords.
However, bear in mind that you may be paying an exorbitant amount to take the
top listing. I often find that you get best value for a decent volume of traffic by
aiming to appear in the third position.
Three Essential AdWords Tips
Running a successful pay per click advertising campaign can take a great deal of
time, but there a few things that you can be doing to move ahead of the
competition.
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Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising - 69 -
1) Use square brackets
I recommend placing square brackets around all of your keyword phrases – at
least until you can prove that your campaign is reaching your initial objectives.
e.g. [luxury cruise to mars] instead of luxury cruise to mars
Without the square brackets, this example advert will appear for anyone that
types in any of the luxury cruise to mars words into a search engine.
However, with the square brackets you are aiming for a much more specific
market, as the advert will only appear when people type that specific phrase into
Google. Using the square brackets will narrow your focus and allow you to aim
your campaign at a very specific market segment. This should help to optimize
your conversion rates.
Only once you have started to create a profit from your ‘exact match’ keyword
phrases then you can test moving towards more of a ‘broad match’ option. A
broad match advert will bring in more traffic, but it will be less targeted traffic.
That’s the reason that there’s no point in getting a broad match campaign up and
running unless you can make a profit out of an exact match keyword campaign.
2) Test your ads constantly
There’s no point in assuming that just because you’ve got an advert which is
generating high enough conversion rates to give you a decent profit that there
still aren’t any improvements that you can make to your Google AdWords
campaign.
Google AdWords has a built-in functionality (A:B split-testing) which lets you
split-test different parts of your adverts with alternative versions in order to
determine the optimum version of that advert.
You are able to split-test your ad title, description and URL – and it’s important
to test all 3 aspects of your advert at different times in order to develop your
overall winner.
Testing your ad title
Start with your title. When you’re testing your ad title, you need to ensure that
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your description and URL is the same in all version of the ad that you’re testing.
You’d be surprised at how such a small change can make such an incredibly
large difference to your conversion rates. For example, something as simple as a
question mark at the end of your ad title has the power to significantly alter your
ad click-through rates.
The tricky thing about your ad title is that it can be no more than around 25
characters in length. This significantly impacts what you can say – and the
chances are that you won’t be able to say as much as you want to. This limit in
length makes it even more important to ensure that you’re maximizing the
potential of this little piece of sales space.
When you are testing one ad against the other – and all you are changing is the
title, you may well be shocked at the differences in click-through rate
percentages. The Google AdWords software will provide you with all the stats
and control measures that you require in order to determine which of your ad
titles you should choose to use over the longer-term.
The important thing when you’re doing your testing is to absolutely make sure
that you change just the one variable. That way you’ll be 100% sure what is
having the impact on your click-through rates.
Testing your ad description
After you’re comfortable with your ad title, the next thing to work on is your ad
description. Again, just like the title, there aren’t many words to work with.
You’ll be luck to manage to squeeze in 10 words, so these 10 words will have to
be thought over very carefully.
Because you are so limited by space, it’s important not to think that you have to
have perfect English. The most important thing is conversion rates, so just
because your description doesn’t work as a sentence, it doesn’t mean that it’s not
worth testing. Doing something as simple as swapping round the first and
second lines of the ad description can increase the click-through rates enough to
turn a loss-making campaign in to a profit-making one.
Another significant aspect of running the most efficient PPC campaign possible
is to have an additional focus on Google’s quality score.
Google wants to ensure that although it’s making money from its PPC service, its
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Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising - 71 -
users feel that they are getting value from the PPC adverts – in other words the
adverts are for what they claim to be. In order to try to ensure that the adverts
are as relevant as possible, Google will consider the quality and relevance of the
landing page in addition to the quality and relevance of the advert as well as the
bid amount and click-through rate in order to determine where to position the
advert in their listings.
Because of this, you should try to include the keyword phrase that you are
targeting in your description – and ideally in your ad title and URL as well.
Testing your URL
Once you’ve tested your ad title and description, next in line is your ad URL.
One of my website addresses (URLs) is www.PurpleInternetMarketing.com.
However, that’s not necessarily going to be the best website address to use in a
Google AdWords advert.
Although this Purple Internet Marketing website address includes the words
‘Internet Marketing’ it isn’t from a country-specific TLD (top-level domain – i.e.
the .com part). It also doesn’t indicate what type of internet marketing service
that the company specializes in.
Alternative options to test would include using a country specific TLD like .co.uk
if the service was tailored towards that particular UK-based market segment.
Another possibility would be to have a domain name which specifically
describes the service being offered (e.g. emarketingseminars.co.uk).
Although testing different website addresses in your advert is the last thing that
you should be testing, and you should only bother testing a different website
address if you’re already happy with your conversion rates from your existing
advert, it is certainly worth bearing in mind that the URL that you are displaying
underneath your advert could be significantly impacting your conversion rates.
Just because you’re already making a profit from your campaign doesn’t mean
that you couldn’t be making more money by further improving your clickthrough
rates.
3) Use negative matches
It’s also worthwhile testing descriptions to include reasons not to click on your
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advert. This sounds counter-intuitive, but it pays to remember that you’re
looking for customers – not clicks!
For example, if somebody is specifically searching for something for free, there is
very little point in encouraging them to click on your advert if all you offer is
paid products. Including a price in your description may reduce your click
through-rates but it will probably increase the quality of those clicks. This means
that you aren’t paying as much for your traffic (as you’ll be paying for fewer
clicks).
This strategy does however have to be used in conjunction with analyzing the
effect it is having on your Google AdWords quality score. The lower your clickthrough
rates, the lower position that Google is likely to show your ad.
To test a negative match strategy, all you have to do is include a negative symbol
in front of the keyword that you don’t want your ad to appear for if they type it
into a search engine.
For instance, if you don’t want your advert to appear when somebody includes
the word free as part of their web search, then you’d include –free in your list of
Google AdWords keywords.
Note that this strategy does not apply for exact phrase match campaigns as will
already have chosen the specific phrases for which you want your ad to appear.
Google AdWords summary
Because it’s the biggest and can drive you the most quality traffic, Google
AdWords should always be your first port of call when it comes to pay-per-click
marketing. Only once you’re confident that you’re driving as much PPC traffic
from Google AdWords as possible should you start trialing other services found
at http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar5.
If you are struggling to make money from Google AdWords, then you should
revisit whether or not you’ve thoroughly tested all the different aspects of your
campaign to try to improve you conversion rates. Google AdWords works for
millions of businesses, and the chances are that if it doesn’t work for you then it’s
something that you’re doing wrong, not something that’s wrong with Google
AdWords!
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Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising - 73 -
Major Directories
Another form of important paid advertising that is major directory submissions.
Search engines like Google crawl all the major website directories, and if your
website features in a relevant major directory category then this will enhance
your website’s reputation in the eyes of the search engine.
There are many significant directories getting your website listed in. However
many you choose to try to get listed in will depend on your budget and time.
Four major directories that I would always advise trying to get your website
listed in are DMOZ (The Open Directory Project), Yahoo Directory, Business.com
Directory and Best of the Web (BOTW.org).
DMOZ
DMOZ (the Open Directory Project – Figure 5.3) is the biggest free-to-get-listed
website directory. However, free often has its downside. On this instance it’s the
fact that the editing and publishing of these free submissions are made by
volunteers. This means that submissions have taken a very long time to get
published in the past – sometimes over 6 months and some editors have been
accused of being less than neutral when it comes to deciding which sites to
publish.
Figure 5.3 – DMOZ.org
DMOZ – The Open Directory Project
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All in all with DMOZ, the best thing to do is to make sure you find the correct
category, write and independent website description and submit your website.
Then forget about it. It may get listed, it might not. You can’t do anything more
about it after you make your submission, so once you do so, just move on and
start to concentrate on other directories.
Yahoo directory
The next major directory that you try to get your website listed in should be the
Yahoo directory. Although there is a free submission option with Yahoo, in
reality if you do that there’s hardly any chance that you’ll manage to get your
website listed.
The best thing to do with the Yahoo directory is to forget that the free submission
option exists and pay the $299 annual fee for guaranteed review within 7 days.
Just bear in mind that if they decide not to list your site you will not get your
money back. In my experience as long as you are not overtly selling in your title
or your description of your website, and your website does what it says in the
description, and it belongs to the category you submit it to then you should get it
listed without any problem.
Submitting a website to the Yahoo directory
Using the fictitious case study of Freddy Faldo with his golf equipment shop - he
would use the Yahoo directory and browse to find his initial category - Sports.
Figure 5.4 – The Yahoo! directory
Finding the ‘Sports’ sub-category in the Yahoo! directory
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Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising - 75 -
He would then browse through the various sub-categories within the sports
category, browsing his way through ‘Golf’, ‘Shopping and Services’, ‘Equipment’
and ‘Retailers’.
By browsing all the different sub-categories within the Yahoo! directory Freddie
takes the time and effort to ensure that he has chosen to submit his website to the
most appropriate category for his business. This, along with ensuring that his
website title and description is accurate and contains no hype should mean that
Freddie shouldn’t have any problems with getting his website listed in Yahoo.
Although getting listed in the Yahoo directory should help your website’s search
engine rankings, the traffic that you get directly from the Yahoo directory should
justify the listing fee alone, assuming that your website model is revenue-based.
The Business.com directory
The Business.com directory (Figure 5.5) is another extremely popular website
directory which is well thought of by search engines.
However, as the name suggests, it is a website directory which largely focuses on
businesses, which means that if you offer a business-to-consumer services, it
probably wouldn’t be worth your time or money submitting your website.
Figure 5.5 – business.com
Business.com – more aimed at business-to-business services
Best of the web directory
The last major directory that I’d like to cover in this segment is called Best of the
Web (botw.org – figure 5.6). Again, in a similar manner to getting your website
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listed in the Yahoo Directory, it’s important to browse through the site and select
a website category which is particularly relevant for your business in order to get
your listing approved.
Figure 5.6 – botw.org
Best of the web – another worthwhile directory
At the time of writing Best of the Web charges either a one-time review fee of
$249.95 or an annual fee of $99.95. Links to all the above directories and many
more up-to-date directory resources can be found at
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar5.
Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising Summary
· Google AdWords should be your primary initial focus for pay-per-click
website traffic. Only when you’ve mastered AdWords should you move onto
other services like Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft AdCenter and
Facebook Advertising.
· When creating your Google AdWords ad, use square brackets to get an exact
match of your keyword phrase. Always test your ads to work out which
strategies work best by remembering to take advantage of the Google
AdWords A:B split testing functionality.
· It’s incredibly important to optimize your ad landing pages as well as your
pay-per-click adverts. In an ideal world you’ll have a landing page which has
been designed with a specific advert in mind.
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Pillar #6 – Press Releases - 77 -
Pillar #6
Press Releases
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Pillar #6 – Press Releases
________________________________________________________________________
Online press releases are slightly different to conventional offline press
releases. Conventional press releases are targeted at encouraging a journalist to
reprint part or all of your release in their publication. However, in addition to
targeting journalists, an online press release also needs to focus on tow other
areas:
The end reader – your target market may end up reading your online press
release on a press release website.
Search engine optimization – many press release websites have significant
authority with search engines because of the volume of original material which is
regularly published. Because of this, an online press release should be structured
in an optimized manner.
Online press releases should also help you by increasing your brand awareness,
and increasing your number of leads.
Online press releases as part of your internet marketing strategy
An online press release can be one of the most effective methods of promoting a
new website. And one of the great things about an online press release
submission is that it doesn’t have to cost anything near to the cost of submitting a
press release through a conventional PR agency.
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Pillar #6 – Press Releases - 79 -
An online press release doesn’t have to be completely unique, but it should have
a unique angle, something which will encourage journalists to consider
republishing a segment from your release.
If writing a press release is your forte, you my well find that just half an hour per
week focused in writing and submitting press releases could be an extremely
effective form of internet marketing.
5 online press release tips
The following are 5 characteristics which embody an effective press release…
1) Have a great, eye catching title – and include your keyword phrase
Your headline needs to be targeted at journalists, end readers, and search
engines. In other words, in needs to be engaging enough for both journalists and
other interested readers to be encouraged to read further – and it needs to
include a keyword phrase that you deem suitable for the story.
2) Briefly describe the story in the first two lines, again including your
keyword phrase
The first two lines of your press release should contain absolutely no waffle. It
should try to summarize your whole press release story while also including a
reason to read further. Finally, in should also include the same keyword phrase
that you included in the title.
3) Keep all paragraphs short and to the point
All the paragraphs from your press release should be as simple as possible, with
no more than three or four lines per paragraph. It is difficult for a reader to
browse through long bits or chunks of text online, and journalists are even more
likely to stop and move on to the next release if they perceive yours to be even
the slightest bit dull. Eliminate anything that doesn’t contribute to your story.
4) Include a call to action
A well-constructed press release will have two distinct calls to action for a
journalist. Firstly, an easy-to-capture section within your press release of which
the journalist use as a section within one of their own articles. Secondly, a source
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for more information on the specific subject matter being discussed in your press
release.
You also need to include a call to action for readers who are interested in your
subject matter on a personal level. To achieve this, you need to include a rather
subtle mention of not only you and your company – but also what your company
does.
An example of a call to action which may be of interest to both journalists and
readers would be something like an invitation to read a full report on the subject
matter discussed in the press release.
5) Include a non-HTML URL link
It’s extremely important to include a non-HTML full http:// version of your URL
in your online press release. This is your domain name with http:// and perhaps
www. (depending on your chosen website address format) in front of it. The
reason being, if journalists or bloggers republish your press release online, quite
often, this URL will automatically be converted into a live link.
Where to publish – PRWeb
Probably the biggest press release site in the world is PRWeb (Figure 6.1).
PRWeb is good for a broad range of press releases as it has a wide audience of
journalists and end readers interested in a broad range of subject matter.
PRWeb basic visibility package: $80
The $80 PRWeb press release option provides you with a reasonable level of
visibility. As well as making your release available to Google News and Yahoo
News, it gets syndicated to up to 5 industry specific targets and 2 regional
targets. This syndication allows you to gain visibility in front of journalists who
have specifically requested to be made aware when a press release from those
industry sectors have been published.
PRWeb have thousands of journalists worldwide who are subscribing to the
various industry and regional channels, ensuring that you have an increased
chance to get your story in front of the most relevant pairs of eyes.
At the time of writing, PRWeb have 4 different levels of press release
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Pillar #6 – Press Releases - 81 -
distribution. These services range from $80 to $360.
Figure 6.1 – PRWeb
PRWeb is the largest press release website
I would recommend for you to try the $80 press release distribution service
initially. I wouldn’t recommend going for the higher cost distribution services
until you can prove to yourself that the PRWeb service will offer a positive
outcome for your region and industry sector.
Figure 6.2 – PressBox
PressBox can be used to release press releases
Where else to publish your press release?
For UK targeted businesses, another website to publish your press release on in
PressBox. (Figure 6.2) All through not as wide-reaching as PRWeb, the PressBox
service is completely free of charge to use, so it’s certainly worth a go.
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Again, like PRWeb, journalists can subscribe to PressBox category feeds, which
means that you’re able to target your press release to journalists interested in
specific industry sectors.
Tracking the success of your online press release with Google Alerts
It’s important not just to write what you think is an excellent press release,
submit it to all the top online press release services and site back to wait until
your website traffic pours in.
Online press release marketing can sometimes appear to be fickle when trying to
determine why it has or hasn’t been a success. You have to be able to analyze
what the reason behind a particular press release’s success was, so that you are
able to replicate the success in the future.
One of the ways that you should be measuring the impact of your release is
through a service called ‘Google Alerts’. Google Alerts is a service where Google
will alert you as soon as a particular term is published in a news story on the
web. This means that if you put the title of your press release as your alert term
in Google Alerts, Google will send you an email with a link to that story as soon
as it finds it.
If you use your press release heading as your Google Alert, then the chances are
that this will be one of the only stories with that heading, meaning that you
shouldn’t receive many false alerts.
Comparing the success of online press release distribution services
If you decide to use different press release websites at the same time (to try to
achieve the maximum possible distribution volumes for your online press
release), you need to know which service has proven to be the most valuable.
In order to be able to be able to compare the success of multiple press release
distribution services, there are 2 tools that I would recommend you to consider.
The first option to implement is to amend a sentence within your press release
very slightly before submitting the different versions to different release services.
Once submitted, you set up a Google Alert for each of the different phrases and
take note of which version is republished more often.
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Pillar #6 – Press Releases - 83 -
The next method of tracking the success of a press release distribution service is
to use a different call to action in each version of your press release. For instance,
if you have 2 different website addresses you can give a different address in each
of the different press release versions – and then track to see how many visits
were received to each web page.
The importance of the personal touch
Once you start to use Google Alerts on a regular basis, and you start to submit a
few press releases, you’ll hopefully start to view a variety of different
publications which reprint your material.
You should contact these publications directly to try and create more of a
strategic relationship with them, aiming to submit your press release to them on
an individual basis rather than through a third party, so that you build your own
portfolio of people that want to accept your press release in the future.
By developing a personal relationship with these publications, you’re making it
more likely for them to think of you in the future when they need a quote from
your industry sector. You’re also reducing your reliance on the press release
distribution sites, potentially saving you future PR costs.
Online press releases not a direct replacement for offline press releases
Although online press releases can be a very important part of your internet
marketing arsenal, this tool may never totally replace the knowledge that a local
or industry focused PR professional can provide you with.
An online press release strategy should be viewed as an augmentation to an
offline PR strategy, and not a direct replacement of conventional press releases.
However, it should be remembered that online press releases also offer the
significant additional benefits of search engine optimization and automated
tracking.
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Pillar #6 – Press Releases Summary
· Online press releases are a great way of generating awareness and traffic
directly to your site. By including a non HTML URL link with http:// you can
also improve your off-site search engine optimization as some republishing
sites will automatically convert that website mention into a live, SEO friendly
link.
· PRWeb is the largest and most popular website for submitting online press
releases. Selecting the $80 service should be sufficient for your initial needs;
although if you find that it’s successful you should then test the higher-cost
services.
· Include a descriptive title for your online press release that includes a
keyword phrase.
· The first couple of sentences of your press release should be short punchy,
provide an overview to your whole story and also include your keyword
phrase.
· Always include a call-to-action for journalists as well as your end readers. This
could be in the form of additional information or a free related report
available at a website address.
· Use Google Alerts to track the success of your press releases. You will be able
to view who is publishing your article and you can use this to build direct
relationships with publishers for the future. You can also use Google Alerts to
test the effectiveness of different online press release distribution services.
· Online press releases aren’t a replacement for conventional PR agencies – they
should be viewed as an augmentation of this service
© Copyright 2007-2010 Purple Internet Marketing Limited www.26WeekPlan.com
Pillar #7 – Link Building - 85 -
Pillar #7
Link Building
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Pillar #7 – Link Building
________________________________________________________________________
There are a variety of right and wrong ways to build links to your website.
Building up good quality, relevant links has to be an integral part of any search
engine optimization strategy.
However, bear this in mind – link building is about quality, relevant links and
not about the number of links. While I believe it to be a little easier to ‘game’
Yahoo or MSN search with simply generating a large volume of links that point
to your website, this is a short-term game. Although it didn’t in the past, Google
certainly now prefers quality over quantity – and that isn’t going to change in the
future.
The consistent approach works best
You need to view your link building strategy as an ongoing project. Attempting
to get 1,000 links to your site this week and then thinking ‘that’s my link building
done!’ will have little or no impact.
When developing your link building strategy you need to think about how links
would evolve to a web page naturally, and do your best to try to mimic the
evolvement of links in a similar manner.
You have to remember that Google and other major search engines have now
been going for more that 10 years, and in that time they’ve continually improved
the manner in which their software works. Good search engines do this for 2
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Pillar #7 – Link Building - 87 -
reasons. Firstly, to continually improve the user experience and try to stay ahead
of the competition. Secondly, to try and stay one step ahead of those who try to
game the search engine results with underhand (often called ‘black hat’) search
engine optimization tricks.
Because of this, the focus on search engines have been to try and study how links
evolve naturally, and try and determine link building patterns which don’t
appear to be very natural at all.
The lesson from this with regards to link building is not to try to do things that
have no chance of happening naturally. That way your link building techniques
have a better chance of flying underneath the search engine radar.
Link building methods discussed in this chapter
Pillar #7 (this chapter) discusses 5 ways in which you can build links to your
website:
1) Free Directories – where to find relevant directories that offer you free website
listings
2) How to establish who is linking to your competitors’ websites and how to get
the same web pages to link you your site.
3) How to acquire links from respected institutions and why these links are often
a lot more valuable in the eyes of a search engine.
4) How top acquire links by giving testimonials to other people’s products.
5) How to search Google and other search engines to find other relevant web
pages that may consider linking to you.
Free Directories
There are 2 main sorts of free directories that are worthwhile focusing on to build
your inbound links:
- Industry specific directories
- Local specific directories
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1) Industry specific directories
There is a useful website called Directory Critic, which is actually a directory of
directories (Figure 7.1). Use this resource to search for directories within a niche
that is most relevant for your business type.
Figure 7.1 – Directory Critic
Directory Critic is the directory of directories
Relevant industry-specific directory link building is a useful and worthwhile
place to start. Search engines regularly crawl directories, and these directory
links will start to educate search engines about your website topic.
The more relevant the links are, the better the quality of the link. This is because
if search engines are able to make a reasonable assumption about your website
topic, your site will be more likely to rank more highly for that topic in search
engine results pages.
Where else to find industry specific website directories
Another incredibly easy method of discovering new directories suitable for your
industry is to search Google for a keyword phrase that describes your industry,
and adding the word ‘directory’ at the end. Let’s consider an example of this
using our old fictitious favourite, Freddie Faldo the golf shop owner.
Searching for a golf directory
After searching for ‘golf directory’ in Google, one of the first websites I found
was a website called Your Golf Directory (Figure 7.2). To get his golf equipment
shop listed within this directory, Freddie should simply navigate to the category
called ‘golf equipment and accessories’ - and then complete a form with a little
information about his website before submitting his details.
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Pillar #7 – Link Building - 89 -
There are often a number of options when submitting your link for possible
inclusion in the directory. If paid links aren’t too expensive, and for that you
receive a more prominent position on a relevant, valuable website and a
comparably rapid review time, then it may be worthwhile just going for the paid
review option. You’re just going to have to judge whether or not you think that
this is of value.
Reciprocal links
Five to ten years ago, one of the easiest methods of ‘gaming’ the search engines
was to swap links with as many websites as you possibly could – no matter
whether the content on either website had anything in common at all!
Exchanging links is generally referred to as reciprocal linking.
Reciprocal links worked so well because it was much easier to persuade other
webmasters to link to your site if you were prepared to link to their site.
Figure 7.2 – Your Golf Directory
Searching for the correct category on Your Golf Directory
However, because search engines gave a reciprocal link the same amount of
weighting as a one-way link, this actively encouraged reciprocal linking as a
form of search engine optimization.
Other websites quickly evolved which functioned as a meeting place for people
who were interested in trading links. As a result, this actively encouraged
webmasters to try to short-cut their way to the top of Google search results.
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As a result, in order to try to continue to deliver the best possible search results
to their users, Google decided that it needed to radically change its search engine
ranking algorithm. And the first stage in this significant algorithm change was
the reduction in value of reciprocal links – and the reduction in value of links
from website deemed to be not from the same industry sector.
Choosing to link for the right reasons
If a website chooses to link to your home page, or another page on your site
because they find it to be a valuable resource for their own visitors then that’s the
right reason for wanting to link to a web page.
The secret is to try and replicate that linking ideology and style in future links
that point to your site. That’s in addition to trying to replicate the style of sites
and locations of links on those sites that point to your web pages – replicate the
natural building of links and you can’t go too far long!
Don’t think it’s always a bad idea to exchange links
You shouldn’t think that it’s always a bad idea to exchange links. As long as if
you have links from lots of other sources, it’s quite acceptable to have one or two
link exchange pages on your site that feature relevant link partners. As a rule of
thumb, as long as if less than quarter of your links are from link exchanges, and
hand-on-heart you could say that each link which you include on your own site
could be a useful resource for visitors, then this volume and quality of reciprocal
links should only have a positive effect.
By participating in a minimal amount of industry-relevant link exchanges, it
demonstrates to Google that you are an independent authority within your
industry, because you are comfortable linking out to other websites in the same
industry sector and spreading some ‘link love’.
Another example of an industry-specific directory
Figure 7.3 is another example of searching for an industry-related directory,
using the case study of Jane Jobs' sales executive recruitment company.
Having searched Google for ‘sales recruitment directory’, one of the first search
engine results I encountered was a website called SalesWork, which contains a
list of useful links of where to find sales work.
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Pillar #7 – Link Building - 91 -
Figure 7.3 – Sales Work Website
The free link exchange form on the SalesWork website
Remember, whatever your business is, search for your industry sector keyword
and the word ‘directory’ in Google or another search engine, and you will
hopefully find at least 10 good, relevant directories that you can get decent
one-way links from to your site. For these types of links you need a combination
between quality and quantity – so be selective – but not too selective.
Optimizing your link text (title) and description
Another thing to bear in mind when you are submitting your site to various
directories is to try to ensure that you vary the title text and the description of
your submission details.
Because you’re submitting your own website for prospective inclusion in a
directory, the chances are that if the directory owner decides to include your
website in their listings, they’ll choose to use your suggested title and description
instead of bothering to write one for themselves.
This gives you a fantastic opportunity to influence your off-site search engine
optimization (i.e. controlling the links and text in the links from other sites witch
point to your site).
To maximize the search engine optimization impact from your directory
submissions you should use a mixture of different keyword phrases within your
title and description choices.
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This is because if you just used the same title and description in all of your
directory submissions, search engines could easily assume that it’s you that’s
been doing the submitting. However, if you mix things up a bit, it may well be
perceived by the search engines as being the directory owners choosing to link to
you.
Search engines have lots of different ways of deciding whether or not it looks as
if you’ve been building links yourself, or other sites have chosen to link to you.
One easy method that they use is to analyze the text within the links that point to
your pages – if most websites use exactly the same phrase then that may be
perceived as representing unnatural link building. Another rule I go by is to
never have more than 50% of my text links to any one page linking using the
same keyword phrase.
Comparing Directories
There are 3 main methods which you should use whenever you need to analyze
the potential effectiveness of getting listed in a directory.
- Manual review for relevance and suitability
- Google Page Rank
- Alexa Rank
- Manual review for relevance and suitability
As already briefly covered, you need to try to ensure that your website is being
featured in the right neighborhoods. That’s on sites which already feature a
reasonable quantity of subject matter in your chosen field, and don’t display
material that you aren’t comfortable having your business associated with.
- Google Page Rank
Google Page Rank is a method of ranking individual web pages between 0 and
10, 10 being the highest score and 0 being the lowest. It is an approximation,
according to Google, of their perceived value of a page. It is not a very accurate
method of measuring, but it does give you an indication of the potential value of
having a link to your site on the page.
One of the easiest ways to determine the Page Rank of an individual web page is
to download the Google Toolbar. (Simply search for ‘Google toolbar’ in any
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Pillar #7 – Link Building - 93 -
search engine). The Google Toolbar is a small software program which adds on
additional functionality to the top of your website browser – there is a version for
both Internet Explorer and Firefox.
As part of the toolbar you will be able to view the Page Rank of each web page
you visit via a small green line representing the Page Rank score. The length of
the green line indicates the quantity of Page Rank that the web page has been
awarded by Google.
However, bear in mind, Page Rank is only updated about every three months.
This therefore means that Page Rank isn’t an accurate present-day representation
of what Google currently feels about the page, but it provides a reasonable
starting point for analysis.
It’s also important to remember that just because a web page doesn’t have any
Page Rank; it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t bother trying to get your website
listed on that page. It could be a very popular site that gets lots of visitors, and
there may be some technical reason why Google isn’t choosing to give the web
page in question any Page Rank. That’s why you still need to use your gut
instinct – along with one other method of rating the value of a website – Alexa
Rank.
- Alexa Rank
Unlike Google Page Rank, Alexa Rank gives you a rating score for the popularity
of a website as a whole. It can also give you a reasonable estimate of how
popular a website is in a particular country.
Alexa ranks the top several million websites, and it will give you an approximate
traffic ranking value for your website. If it is number one this means it is the best
website in the world!
To show you how it compares websites against each other, Figure 7.4 is an Alexa
Rank graph showing a ranking comparison between the Google.com,
Yahoo.com, and MSN.com websites over a five-year period.
The great thing about Alexa is that you can view how much websites have
increased in popularity (or decreased in popularity) over a period of time. This
will allow you to make more of an informed decision on whether or not it may
be valuable to approach a website, and ask the owner to link to your site.
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Alexa has is limits though. When a website has a ranking of much lower than
200,000, Alexa struggles to produce a graph to represent the popularity of that
website over time.
Figure 7.4 – Alexa.com
Alexa graphs comparing traffic of Google, Yahoo and MSN
2) Local specific directories
Having covered major directories in pillar #5, and industry directories over the
few previous pages, local directories are the final type of directories to which you
need to submit your website.
Figure 7.5 – Google Local Directory
Google Local Directory – one of the most important local directories
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Pillar #7 – Link Building - 95 -
If you are a business with a physical address then there are 2 local directories I
would class as being very important to try and get your website listed in –
Google Local and Yahoo! Local.
You can also search Directory Critic (as previously discussed) to find different
local directories. As well as having industry-specific directory categories,
Directory Critic has a section for country-specific regional directories. And once
again, in a similar manner to what was suggested to find more industry-specific
directories, you can easily find additional local-specific directories by searching
for them in Google.
Google Local Directory
You can add your business to the Google Local directory (Figure 7.5). To do this,
you will need to create a free Google account. Having done so, you will be able
to fill in your business name, description and your address. Google then sends
you a physical postcard to your business address with a pin code. You need to
log back into your Google account and enter this PIN code to make your listing
live.
Figure 7.6 – The Yahoo! Local Directory
The Yahoo! Local Directory is important local directory
Getting your business listed in Google Local will only become more important in
the future as being featured will also mean that you will be able to appear in
associated services like Google Maps. It could be argued that local mobile search
is the next Internet frontier, and getting your business listed in all the big online
local directories now will give you a head-start in the next stage of local directory
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evolvement.
Yahoo! Local Directory
Yahoo! Local (Figure 7.6) works in a similar way to Google Local – and when
your business is listed on this directory it should appear in Yahoo! Maps.
Don’t forget Directory Critic – and the 2 reasons why you’re building links
Remember not to forget the Directory Critic website when you’re searching for
local-specific directories. These types of links should be able to offer you 2 main
benefits. Firstly, the search engine optimization benefits, and secondly, the
visitors who click on the links through to your website.
More Local Directories
As with industry directories, you can find other local directories using search
engines. Below (Figure 7.7) shows the Google search results when you search for
“Glasgow directory”.
Figure 7.7 – Google Search results
Searching for local directories in Google
Glasgow, of course is just an example. You can conduct a similar search for any
other city in the world. This search will help you find specific directories that are
often run by local people on a non-profit basis who are simply interested in
providing great information about their local area.
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Links from these types of sites can be extremely valuable for a number of
reasons. For instance, in addition to the benefits of helping to educate search
engines about the locality of your business, these directories often have categoryspecific
sections which will be better for your SEO.
‘Glasgow Trading’
Figure 7.8 below shows the categories found on the Glasgow Trading website.
Remember, when you’re reviewing local directories which may be appropriate
for your business, make sure that you take time to browse and find the most
appropriate category for inclusion in.
Figure 7.8 – Glasgow Trading
Selection the most appropriate category on Glasgow Trading
Reviewing the categories on the Glasgow Trading website, you can see that once
you click on ‘Professional Services’, there are plenty of options to choose from
including ‘Accountancy’, ‘Advertising’, ‘Architects’ etc.
To submit your website to a great, relevant local directory like this, it’s often just
the case of navigating your way to the most relevant category, and them looking
for a ‘submit’ button.
You will then be presented with an online form which requests the title and
description of your website. Because it’s a local directory, it may also ask you for
your business address and telephone number – and perhaps a password so that
you can return to the site in the future to edit your business information. (See
figure 9 for completing a submission form on Glasgow Trading)
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Figure 7.9 – Glasgow Trading
Completing a website submission form on Glasgow Trading
Remember to bear search engines in mind when you’re submitting your website
to local directories. As well as selection the optimum category for your business,
it’s important to remember to try to include a relevant keyword phrase in your
submission title and description.
Figure 7.10 – Glasgow Trading
An example of a company listing on Glasgow Trading
Another thing to bear in mind is that if you’re planning of trying to get listed in
lots of local directories, it may be a prudent idea to replicate your submission
strategy that you have with other directories by rotating your titles and
descriptions.
Figure 7.10 shows you why it’s worthwhile spending some time to come up with
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a quality, lengthy description for your business prior to submission to local
directories. As well as giving each directory submission having their own web
page (with a unique URL), the web page also contains a link that visitors can
click to see a location map of the business.
Although this particular local directory example doesn’t actually give you a
keyword rich link back you your website, it does pass on ‘link juice’. You can tell
this because if you view the source code of the listing, the link HTML doesn’t use
a ‘nofollow’ attribute.
Competitor backlinks
Another important part of a successful link building campaign is to be able to
analyze the links that are pointing to your competitors; (backlinks) determine
which ones are most valuable and come up with a strategy to try to encourage
these web pages to link to your site too. Let’s take a look at our fictitious example
Freddy Faldo, and how he would analyze which websites to target using the
keyword phrase ‘golf equipment’.
Using the previously mentioned Google Toolbar, after having loaded one of his
competitor’s home pages, Freddie would begin by selecting the drop-down
menu on the right-hand side of the PageRank icon. Then clicking on ‘backward
links’, he would be able to view a list of several other respected websites which
link to his chosen competitor (Figure 7.11).
Figure 7.11 – The Golf Shop Online
Searching for competitor backlinks using Google toolbar
Don’t just rely on Google to analyze your competitor’s backlinks
It’s important to note that Google chooses not to display all the links (according
to their data) which link to your competitor’s home page. In fact, Google may
only display around five percent of the links that they know about. So you
shouldn’t just rely on Google when you’re analyzing your competitor’s
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backlinks!
However, the good news is that Yahoo is a lot more willing to divulge its link
count information, so collating the Yahoo and Google results together means that
you will be able to get a good feel for who’s linking to your competitors.
You’re better off downloading all this research onto a spreadsheet – or it may be
a good idea to use semi-automated search engine optimization software like SEO
Elite to carry out this task, as suggested at
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar7.
This SEO software – or the added time investment to create your own
spreadsheet will help to make sure that you don’t miss out on as many link
building opportunities as you otherwise would do.
Analyzing the number of links pointing to a competitor’s website using Yahoo
To analyze the number of links pointing to a competitor’s website using the
Yahoo search engine, all you have to do is visit
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/, and then type in linkdomain: and then the
full URL of your competitor’s home page – for example this search would look
something like linkdomain:http://www.competitorsdomain.com.
Once you’ve selected a number of competitors, and downloaded all of their
backlinks according to both Google and Yahoo onto your spreadsheet, you need
to sort them in order of value. This is generally done by using a combination of
Google PageRank and Alexa Rank.
(This is probably the point where you choose to definitely select some semiautomated
time-saving SEO software instead of doing all of this manually!)
Contacting the websites that link to your competitors
So, you’ve solved half of the puzzle – you’ve discovered which websites are
linking to your competitors, and that’s the main reason why your competitors
are ranking so well. The next half of the puzzle though is to work out a strategy
that is most likely to get you competitor’s link partners to want to link to you too.
One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make when they’re trying to
encourage other websites to link to them, is they send out generic emails saying
something like:
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“Hi, I really like your site and wondered if you might be interested in swapping
links?”
Webmasters receive emails like the above one far too often. And because there
isn’t one degree of personalization – or indication that the message sender has
even looked at the recipient’s website, the chances are extremely small that the
message will be treated with any serious consideration.
Alternatively, if you took just a little time to visit each web page on which you
wanted to get your business listed, decided how exactly how your competitor’s
links came to be and educated yourself on the business model of the website in
question, then you would be phenomenally more likely to obtain a link back to
your website.
This is because your new email to the website on which you would like to get
listed would look something like:
“Hi David,
I’d like to compliment you on the set of useful resources that you are listing at
http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/cat/index/36/Entrepreneur-Articles.php.
I regularly revisit your entrepreneur articles – they’re full of really informative content. I
especially like the most recent article by Laurie Hayes on ‘how 3 simple no’s can change
your life and business’.
I run the website www.businessfocustime.com which helps businesses brainstorm
with each other to try to improve their long-term business models.
I was hoping that you feel that my website would be a really useful resource for your
readers – and that you’d be happy to link to this resource from your Entrepreneur
Articles section.
In anticipation that you’d be happy to do this I’d like to offer you a complimentary bottle
of wine as a thank you!
Just reply showing our live link, your preference for red or white wine, and an address to
send the bottle to and I’ll get it in the post!
Many thanks and keep up the good work with Build Your Own Business!
Craig Thomas
Owner, Business Focus Time”
If you approach people in the right manner, say why their site is valuable and
explain why they should want to link to you, then ask them to potentially add
your link as well, you might be surprised at the number of websites that will give
you a link to your website. (An incentive like a free bottle of wine might help
too!)
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Taking a personal approach and ensuring that you are focused in your requests
will be much more successful that using automated software to request links.
Like building any kind of relationship, you only have one chance to make a first
impression, so be sure you do not spam people with generic e-mails.
Take the time to find out a little about the website that you want to appear on –
and the person who runs the website before you make contact. It will make the
world of difference to your link request conversion rates.
How to discover the owners of websites
You don’t just have to rely on finding a website owner / manager’s contact
details on their website. Don’t forget the often forgotten tool to assist you with
an internet marketing campaign – a telephone! It’s always worthwhile phoning
up a head office to see if you can try to discover the name of the person
responsible for looking after the website.
Another option that you have if you just can’t find out who’s responsible for
managing the website is to look up a service that may tell you the person
responsible for the site admin according to the domain registration.
Whenever you register a domain, you have to submit some contact information.
Most people don’t hide this contact information, meaning that it’s possible for
the general public to view – as long as if people know where to look. This is
called the WHOIS of a domain – where you can see who is registered as the
administrative contact for an individual domain.
One of the places where it’s possible to view this information is through a service
called easywhois.com. (Figure 7.12) As you can see, from this screenshot, the
admin contact email address for the domain purpleinternetmarketing.com
admin@purpleinternetmarketing.com, with the contact name being me, David
Bain. If you wanted to request a link from this website you now have a contact
name and email address with which to proceed from.
Although looking up these contact details in a service like this shouldn’t be your
first port of call when trying to make contact with a website owner – as the
details are often wrong and it can come across as a little bit impersonal to contact
someone after finding them here – if this is the only option you have, it’s
certainly worthwhile.
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Figure 7.12 – easywhois.com
Looking up the contact details for the domain purpleinternetmarketing.com
Respected institutions
It’s all about thinking out of the box when it comes to attracting valuable, oneway
links.
Search engines often value links on educational, charity or government-run
websites a little higher than links on other websites. There is a lot of opinion on
why this is the case.
Reasons have been cited including the length of time that a domain has been
around for and the quality of links that point to the website of the respected
institution. Either way, it’s not important why these links are often deemed to be
more valuable by search engines. What’s important is the fact that they are, and
that getting links from these types of websites are very good for your own
website’s ranking.
One way to obtain links from a respected institution is to try to forge a
relationship with a university, perhaps offering to give a seminar to a group of
students about a particular topic in exchange for them mentioning you on their
website and giving you a link to your site.
Libraries often have local directories which you can get listed in for free. There
are numerous business networks that you can join, many for free, that will give a
one-way link – all you have to do is ask.
A local Chambers of Commerce can also be very useful – they often have a
directory of businesses which are members and an additional directory of
members which are willing to offer special discounts to other chamber members.
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This is yet another method of creating a valuable, one-way link to your site.
Testimonials
Another great way of getting one-ay links to your site is through giving
testimonials. Any product or service you buy will no-doubt be happy to hear
positive reviews on what you though about your purchase.
Sending an unsolicited, positive testimonial about a product or service that you
have purchased to a marketing director – not the customer service department –
can be very effective. A receipt of a positive testimonial by a company’s
marketing department may prompt them to use it as part of their future
promotional material.
When you’re leaving your testimonial, always leave your website address rather
than your phone number for your contact details. That way, if your testimonial
is published, readers will be able to visit your website to find out more –
hopefully via a live one-way link.
Searching Google for more link partners
Searching Google – or other search engines – can quickly find you additional,
relevant link building opportunities. Try searching Google for your keyword
phrase and the phrase ‘add URL’, or your keyword phrase and the phrase ‘add
site’.
Figure 7.13 – afgs.com
A quick online search will find you more link building opportunities
For instance, using Freddie Faldo and the golf example, if you search Google for
‘golf’ and ‘add URL’, what you are searching for is any pages that mention the
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Pillar #7 – Link Building - 105 -
word ‘golf’, but also mention the phrase ‘add URL’, or the phrase ‘add site’.
Generally, these types of web pages will be about golf – and be looking for link
partners.
Figure 7.13 is one of the first pages that we find when we conduct a Google
search for ‘golf’ and ‘add URL’. The afgs.com website (America’s favorite golf
schools) offers a link building opportunity. They ask for your website name, site
description, and a reciprocal link.
When you search for link building opportunities like this online, you’ll often find
that websites look for a reciprocal link. That’s’ not a bad thing – it’s just not as
good as a one-way link from them to your site.
As long as if you build links in lots of different ways, that any reciprocal links are
relevant resources for your readers and that reciprocal links are the minority of
links that point to your site, this can still be part of an effective internet
marketing strategy.
Pillar #7 – Link Building Summary
· To achieve good, consistent search engine rankings it is important to get
quality links from relevant sites to your website. However, large numbers of
non-relevant links pointing to your site can have a negative effect on your
search engine rankings.
· Submit your website to free directories, such as local or industry-specific
directories. Use DirectoryCritic.com to search for niche industry directories.
Both Google Local and Yahoo Local are valuable local directories.
DirectoryCritic.com can also be used to find more local directories.
· Researching the links that point to your competitor’s site can be a good way to
discover which sites might be willing to link to your site. You can contact
these site owners by using contact forms on their website, or using the
easywhois.com service.
· Respected institutions such as universities, libraries, or business networks are
often willing to link to your site if you’re willing to help them out by giving a
free lecture or seminar on your specialized subject. Perhaps you can offer
these organizations something else of value in exchange for a link?
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· Remember to send a testimonial for any product or service that your business
invests in. Send your testimonial to the marketing director and include your
website address to make it much more likely to give you a free one-way link.
· Search Google for your keyword phrase plus the phrases ‘add url’ or the
phrase ‘add site’ to find websites that are actively looking for link partners. If
the site is relevant for your readers then consider arranging a reciprocal link.
This offers value as long as if is part of a wider link building campaign, and
not the primary focus of the campaign.
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Pillar #8
Article Submission
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Pillar #8 – Article Submission
________________________________________________________________________
Pillar #8 covers article submission – an excellent way of increasing the links
that are pointing to your site, and guaranteeing that there are keyword-rich links
which point to your site.
Article submission is one of the most consistently popular and effective ways of
improving your industry respectability and predictably increasing the number of
your back links.
The great thing about allowing your article to be reprinted is that there are an
unlimited number of websites that may then be willing to republish your article.
Effective article marketing can be extremely viral in nature.
Article marketing background
Article marketing used to be one of the most consistently successful forms of
internet marketing for many years.
Between the years 2000 and 2004, before search engines like Google started to
develop more complex algorithms, link building was largely a numbers game.
Because of this, publishing your articles on other sites which included links back
to your site was one of the easiest ways to build up back-links that mattered to
search engines.
Article marketing is still is an extremely effective way of internet marketing, and
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still one of the best ways to control the links that point to your website. The only
issue is that nowadays you can’t get away with getting credit from search
engines for the same article that appears on hundreds of different directories. So
in summary there’s not quite as much search engine optimization benefit as there
used to be from article marketing – but some SEO benefits still exist. Moreover,
article marketing can also drive relevant readers directly to your site.
Article marketing overview
When submitting articles to free reprint directories it’s essential that you just
focus on subject areas that are particularly pertinent to your own website
visitors. There’s no point in trying to drive visitors to your site who have just
read an article which has nothing to do with the subject matter that they will be
finding out more about on your own website.
First-things-first is to decide on your subject matter – there are plenty of tips to
help you with choosing that later on in this pillar.
After you complete your article, ensuring that you optimize it with relevant
keywords, the next thing that you need to think of is your author bio – this
should include a brief summary about you, your website and two links back to
your site.
Author bio format
It’s important to careful consider your author bios – and the exact nature of the
links that point to your website from within your author bios. I always
recommend including a keyword rich HTML link back to your site and a full
http:// version of your URL within your author bio.
The HTML for an author bio in this format would look something like:
David Bain is the founder of the Internet Marketing Training
Company http://www.PurpleInternetMarketing.com
If the article directory that you are submitting your articles to accepts HTML
within their author bios, then the code above will produce the phrase ‘Internet
Marketing Training’ that links to http://www.PurpleInternetMarketing.com.
The reason that you also want to include a full http:// version of your URL within
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your author bio is that if article directories ignore your HTML, then they still
might decide to create live links from mentions of your domain name – and
they’re more likely to do this if you include the full URL (with http:// at the front
of it).
This is especially applicable if you are submitting your article to an article reprint
directory which is especially popular with ezine publishers.
Below is what the example author bio would look like if both the HTML and the
full mention of the URL became live links.
David Bain is the founder of the Internet Marketing Training Company
http://www.PurpleInternetMarketing.com
The ideal author bio format
Ideally, you want your author bios to be in a format which includes:
- A keyword- rich link to your home page.
- A keyword- rich link to an internal page on your site – this is in addition to the
keyword rich link to your home page.
Having links to internal pages on your website is a great way of getting one-way,
search engine friendly links to internal pages within your website. A non-HTML
full URL (including http://) mention of your website address.
Bearing this strategy in mind, you should be ensuring that you submit at least
one article to an article directory for every single category on your website – with
a keyword rich link back to each of your website categories.
Using the www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz website as an example, if I wanted
to link directly to the change management articles section, I would link to the
page http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/cat/index/32/Change-Management-
Articles.php using the keyword phrase ‘change management articles’ from at
least one of my submitted author bios.
Article Format
The optimum length for the kind of article that you would submit to an article
directory should be around 500 to 800 words in length. Any less than 500 words
may not be deemed to be of sufficient quality by some article directories. More
than 800 words and readers may get bored with your article – and may not even
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reach your author bio at the bottom!
Your article should have an informative introductory paragraph which will
appeal to your own website target market as well as acting as a synopsis for the
whole article.
The quality of your article title is imperative – a well-though-out article title
should appeal to both readers and search engines. ‘How to’ or ‘Top 10 ways of
doing something’ works really well. Try to include a relevant, targeted keyword
phrase.
All paragraphs within the article should be short, punchy and to the point. You
should try to include the same keyword phrase that you are using in your title
within your article body – once near the beginning, once somewhere in the
middle. When reading articles online, people do not like to scroll through
paragraphs. Readers prefer to be personal, straight-to-the-point articles, so be
careful if your natural language style is quite formal – you might want to tone
things down a bit.
Figure 8.1 – Ezine Articles
Ezine Articles, by far the most popular of the article directories
Ezine Articles – the best starting point
There are several hundred different ‘free article reprint’ directories. At the time
of writing, Ezine Articles (figure 8.1) is by far the biggest and probably offers the
best value for your time investment. For the vast majority of novice article
marketers, Ezine Articles is the best starting point.
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Figure 8.2 – Ezine Articles
Submitting your article to Ezine Articles
You will need to create an account before you get started. After you’ve registered
you’ll be able to choose from hundreds of different categories in which to include
each article, so there should be a category that is able to house most niche topics.
Researching keyword phrases for your articles
Just like you do when you’re trying to improve the search engine optimization of
the pages on your own website, you can use the Wordtracker service to research
a keyword phrase to include within your article title and content.
For articles published elsewhere you’re generally better off aiming for an
extremely relevant long-tail keyword phrase. In other words, a keyword phrase
that’s particularly relevant for your article, yet not that difficult to hit the top of
search engine results with.
Remember to include your chosen keyword phrase in your title and in the
content of your article so that when the article is republished it is more likely to
be found by search engines.
Formatting your articles
Ezine Articles allow you to use some HTML tags within your article. This means
that you are able to emphasize different areas within your articles such as
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subheadings with styles such as bold and italics. This is an extremely important
tool when you submit your articles to Ezine Articles as most article publishers
will be too lazy to make use of them – meaning that your article will stand out by
looking a lot more professional than the vast majority of the other articles.
Other major article submission sites
The next of the major article submission sites which I also recommend using is
called iSnare (figure 8.3). But iSnare isn’t just an articles directory – it’s also an
article distribution service.
This means that when you submit your article to iSnare, as well as getting your
article published in their directory, if you pay for their article distribution service
– which costs a maximum of $2 per article – you’ll also get your article
distributed to up to 40,000 other publishers.
Figure 8.3 - iSnare
iSnare
That’s not to say that your article will appear on 40,000 other websites – it just
means that 40,000 other publishers will be made aware of the fact that you have
just published a free-to-reprint article.
Technically, iSnare works in a similar manner to Ezine Articles. In other words,
you need to create a free account, sign in to your account and submit your article.
Although you are able to submit the same articles to iSnare as you do to Ezine
Articles, in an ideal world, to provide unique content for search engines it may
be worthwhile considering submitting different articles to each service.
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However, if you do want to try submitting the same article to both Ezine Articles
and iSnare, it’s a good idea to try to track which service is encouraging the most
other websites to reprint your article. An effective free way of doing this is by
using Google Alerts to track the amount of times that your article title is used on
the web. If you use a different article title for each submission service, this will let
you track which service works best for you.
There are about 30 different categories on iSnare. The reason that they can’t offer
as many categories as Ezine Articles is that they have to tie up their categories
with their distribution partner’s categories.
Another thing that iSnare offers you is the facility to choose a pen name instead
of using your real name – and they let you associate multiple pen names with the
same account.
Editing tips for iSnare
However, iSnare don’t allow any HTML to be included within your article body
– that’s because many of their publishers may wish to republish your article as
an email to their list, and your HTML therefore might not display as intended.
But that’s not to say that you’re not able to have some kind of design control over
your article. If you just think a little bit creatively then you’ll discover that by
adding a couple of dashes either side of your subheadings, or by including
numbered lists, your article will stand out as being head and shoulders better
than the competition. This means that it’s got a better chance of being republished.
Something else to bear in mind with iSnare is that you get asked to complete 2
author bios – and it’s important that you complete both author bios. One author
bio allows HTML – this is generally for publishers who wish to re-publish your
article online. The option that doesn’t allow HTML is generally for publishers
who choose to reprint your article as an email. Just remember for the no-HTML
version to include your full URL which might be re-published as a live link.
Niche article sites
Although less general, and more ‘niche’ article sites won’t have as much total
traffic to their sites, they may well have just as much relevant traffic as other,
much larger sites like Ezine Articles.
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For example if you wish to submit an article about ‘Sales management advice’,
you may be better off searching Google for relevant sales management article
sites. Not only could this drive more relevant traffic to your site, it could end up
being more beneficial to you from a search engine optimization perspective due
to the close overall relevance of the site on which your inbound link sits.
The importance of tracking traffic from article sites
It’s important not to spend a great deal of effort submitting your articles to the
same article site without analyzing the quantity and quality of the resultant
visitors from that site. For instance, some sites will drive a lot of visitors, but they
may not stay on your site for very long. Other sites may send a great deal less
visitors – but a large percentage of them may turn out to be loyal customers. You
can analyze this by setting up ‘goals’ with Google Analytics.
Consistency is the key with article marketing. To gain a good return from article
marketing you need to be prepared to submit articles to reprint sites on an
ongoing basis – at least one per week. And you have to submit original articles.
Submitting articles that have already been published elsewhere, or re-hashed
articles will simply not work as well.
The benefit of submitting unique articles to individual article directories
It’s a good idea to use the free Google Alerts service to track the republishing of
your release. As previously mentioned, if you enter the titles of your articles as
your Google Alerts, this will let you keep track on when and where your articles
have been republished. This will help you decide which article directories may
be worthwhile building a one-one one relationship with, and submitting unique
articles to for their sole-use in the future.
Remember that unique content is more likely to get ranked more highly by
search engines. By offering unique content to specifically targeted niche article
directories you are working on building up much better quality links to your site.
It may take time to build these unique articles and links up, but in the long-run,
it’s certainly worthwhile.
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Pillar #8 – Article Submission Summary
· Start your article marketing by submitting a minimum of one article per week
to Ezine Articles. Aim to make your articles between 500 and 800 words long.
Include an author bio at the bottom of all your articles which contains a
keyword link to your home page, a keyword link to a category page on your
site and a non-HTML link to your home page.
· Effective articles are often formatted in the ‘How to…’ and ‘Top 10 ways of…’
doing something. Use subheadings, keep your paragraphs short and
remember not to be too formal in your tone of language.
· Think quality and quantity. Quality will help your article to stand out from
the competition, and give you a much bigger chance of getting your article republished
on other sites. Quantity is important too – this will keep your
articles featured on the home pages of the various article directories and start
to get you featured as a top author on various sites.
· After you submit articles to top general article directories, offer to submit
additional unique articles to other highly respected industry specific websites.
This unique content and unique links will drive good quality, relevant traffic
from the sites and have an extremely positive effect on your search engine
optimization.
· Remember to use Google Alerts to track the republishing of your articles. This
will help you to identify sites to which it would be worthwhile to offer unique
content to in the future.
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Pillar #9
Group Interaction
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Pillar #9 – Group Interaction
________________________________________________________________________
Group interaction allows you to form relationships with prospective
customers before they’re even aware of you or your company.
Pillar #9, Group Interaction covers:
- Participating in discussion forums
- Social networking groups
- Answering questions posed by other people
- Commenting on other people’s blogs
Participating in discussion forums
Discussion forums are websites on which that you can interact on to build up
your reputation as a figure of authority within your own industry.
One thing that you should ensure that you take advantage of is something called
a signature message. A signature message is a common footer, which appears at
the bottom of every post made on a forum. The great benefit of having a
signature messages is that you can generally also include a keyword-rich link
back to your website. This means that as well as driving visitors back to your
website from these forums, the search engine optimization benefits are also
extremely valuable.
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Industry Specific Forums
The important aspect of using forums as an effective form of internet marketing
is to make sure that you interact on forums that are relevant for your business. In
other words, think about your target market, and the kinds of forums where you
target are likely to gather.
You should use search engines to find the right forums for your industry – by
entering your keyword phrase and the term ‘forum’. For example you could
search for ‘golf equipment’ and the word ‘forum’ or ‘sales management’ and the
word ‘forum’. The exact keyword phrase of course depends on your industry –
and your own Wordtracker research.
Deciding which forum is right for you
Once you’ve made a list of a few forums which may be worthwhile to interact
on, the next step is to decide which of those forums would be most beneficial for
you.
The first method of ‘weeding out’ less valuable forums isn’t tangible. It’s simple
a matter of you browsing through each of the selected forums and deciding
which of the forums house participants which are more likely to be your
customers in the future.
Once you’ve reduce the list to no more than around five forums, it’s time to
analyze the approximate amount of visitors that each of the forums gets. The can
be done by using a combination of Google Page Rank and Alexa Rank.
In my personal experience, an Alexa Rank of lower than 200,000 (the lower the
better) and a Google Rank of four or better indicates that a forum could provide
a reasonable return to make it worthwhile participating in on an ongoing basis.
How many forums?
You should try to find about ten forums to begin with in search engines – this
should ensure that you limit the chance of missing out and not discovering
forums that are very relevant for your business.
After choosing your ten forums, manually knock a few forums off this list after
reviewing some of the posts before reducing the list further by choosing the
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forums with the best Google Page Ranks and Alexa Ranks.
Starting to interact on forums
Once you’ve reduced your list of forums down to about three, double-check that
each of the forums allow live signature links, then register a profile of each on
your chosen forums and start interacting with the existing members.
Bear the following thought in mind, though. A forum is a tool where members
meet, interact and help each other on a particular topic area. Do not overtly talk
about you’re your own products and services – and certainly not within your
first few posts. If you simply contribute in a giving manner in forums posts then
fellow members will be able to find out more about you from your signature
link. That’s all the self-promotion that you should participate in.
Case study - how Freddie Faldo discovers and interacts on golf forums
If Freddie Faldo wanted to discover the best golf forum for him to participate in
online, he’d begin by searching for ‘golf forums’ on Google. One of the first
forums which comes up after conducting this search is Golf Forum (Figure 9.1).
By interacting on this forum, he can see that some people use the signature link
to describe the golf clubs that they use. This means that if Freddie has a golf
equipment shop, he could use his signature link to describe the kind of
equipment on offer in his shop. Freddie should ideally use keyword phrases that
link to specific categories on his Golf Equipment website.
This too may be a valuable method of building keyword-rich links to your
website.
Figure 9.1 – The Golf Forum Online
A sample post from ‘The Golf Forum’
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Remember that the less common the signature links are on the forum you choose
to interact on, the more chance you have of driving visitors through to your
website from that signature link. In other words, if you’re involved in an
industry which generally isn’t that knowledgeable of different methods of
internet marketing, signature links on forum posts are more likely to be fruitful
when it comes to driving traffic to your site.
Case study – Jane Jobs & Sales Recruitment Forums
Like Freddie Faldo, Jane Jobs should search for forums that are appropriate for
her business, using a search term like ‘Sales Recruitment Forums’. When you
conduct this search using Google, one of the first forums which you should come
across is called highprobsell.com - a Sales Discussion Board which may well be
an ideal discussion area for her industry sector.
My example – Digital Point Forums
One of the forums which I have consistently posted at in the past is called Digital
Point Forums (Figure 9.2). At the bottom of every post that I make, I have a
message which says “Free Report – The 10 Biggest SEO Mistakes” and a link to
where to download that report.
I’ve made a few hundred posts so far on the Digital Look Forums, which means I
have a few hundred posts that contain this marketing message at the bottom of
each forum post.
As long as if your chosen forum supports signature links, they will appear on
every post you make in that forum. Search engines can pick up these signature
links easily when they crawl the forum, making it another great search engine
optimization opportunity.
In addition to my ‘10 Biggest SEO Mistakes’ link on my signature in figure 9.2
you can also see two other links - Internet Marketing Consultant, and Website
Promotion Marketing. These are linked to different category sections on my
website, meaning that I’m maximizing the SEO potential from my signature link
opportunity – as well as trying to make the content relevant and useful for
reader.
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Develop credibility
There are other reasons apart from search engine optimization of why
contributing to forums on an ongoing basis will benefit your business. If you
submit posts on an almost daily basis, people will start to respect you more and
treat you as a figure of authority within your industry.
Figure 9.2 – Digital Point Forums
A sample of one of my posts on the Digital Point Forums website
Looking back at figure 9.2, you can see that the discussion topic was article
marketing. In my post – a response to another forum member, I said: “Ezine
Articles worked great for this. I always include a non-HTML URL, a keyword
link to the home page and a keyword link to an internal page in my author bio.”
Looking further down the same forum thread, one of the other forum users has
quoted me, adding: “Excellent advice just the way that I set my Author boxes up
for some time now and it works great.”
By quoting my post in his post, and agreeing with me, he has made me just a
little bit more of a figure of authority within the forum, and by default within the
internet marketing community.
If you participate in different forums which are relevant for your industry sector,
and offer good, free advice without trying to sell something, then forum readers
will be more likely to visit your website – overtly selling your own service in
forums is likely to be of no use – and perhaps even counter-productive.
Register and post
Having found the forum that is right for your business you will generally need
register with the forum prior to being able to submit your own posts. This is a
good thing as the effort that it takes to register is enough in itself to put-off many
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spammers.
Quite often there are forum rules that only allow the use of signature links after
so many posts – commonly 10, 20 or 50. This is again to put off spammers – not
many spammers would be willing to put in the effort to write 10 posts before
being able to get a link.
Make sure that you offer especially great value content in your first few posts.
This is the stage where you develop a reputation quickly – good or bad.
Three key reasons to participate in forums
In summary, the following are three key reasons to participate in forums:
1) Build up your reputation
Once you have researched, selected and registered with appropriate forums, start
participating on these forums - asking and answering questions from other users
making sure that you offer good, independent advice.
Remember – do not actively market your own website outwith your signature
link. Start participating by demonstrating that you are a respected figure of
authority within your industry.
2) Drive relevant visitors directly to your site
Ensure that when you’re given the opportunity to include links within your
signature file that you don’t waste the opportunity. Include as many relevant
links as you can – while maintaining the readability of the signature – and
remember to use the keyword phrases which are most appropriate for your
landing pages. Finally, if allowed to, you may wish to vary the colors of your
signature links so that they ‘stand out from the crowd’.
3) Improve your search engine ranking
As mentioned above, it’s highly recommended that you include links to your
website in your signature file. If you take the time to research keyword phrases
using a tool like Wordtracker, these links will be much more likely to offer search
engine optimization benefits.
Social Networking Groups
Another increasingly important element within online group interaction is social
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networking. Social networking represents represent another important route to
generate additional brand awareness, trust and more visitors. Two key examples
of social networking sites are MySpace and Facebook, both of which I’d like to
examine in a little more details below.
MySpace
Although appearing to be slightly on the wane, MySpace is still an incredibly
popular website, ranked approximately the eighth most popular website in the
world at the time of writing. When you visit MySpace and navigate towards the
‘Groups’ category, you can literally view hundreds of thousands of specialinterest
groups which have been set up by MySpace users.
For instance, at the time of writing there are 29,823 groups in the Business and
Entrepreneurs category and 48,705 members in the top group within this
category.
One of the top groups on MySpace is called Online Skill Game Business (figure
9.3). The business strategy behind their MySpace Group is to use it as a launch
pad for a future online game launch. That’s just one of what you can use a
MySpace Group for.
One benefit of building your group membership on MySpace is that MySpace
offer you the ability to send a message to all of your group members. For
instance, you can send broadcast emails to your members alerting them to
different events and special offers. As long as if you give people a reason / a
benefit to join your group, your membership level should grow. Like a rolling
snowball gathering pace, if more people join your group, more people will tell
their friends and the pace at which your group increases in size with grow
considerably.
Figure 9.3 – MySpace Group Page
Online Skill Game Business are using MySpace to advertise an upcoming product
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The difficult part is recruiting your first few hundred members – after that the
viral effect of current members recruiting new members should take effect. That
is one of the reasons why you should try to build up a good relationship with
your list of email subscribers. If you continually provide people with good,
valuable free content, then they’re more likely to be willing to take action on any
requests that you might have – such as joining new groups.
Imagine if you have a list of 5000 subscribers, and just 5% of those subscribers are
willing to join your new MySpace Group. That would mean that you
immediately have 250 group members – enough to kick-start things nicely.
Although much younger than its rival MySpace, Facebook is already more
popular. It does however depend on where your target market is more likely to
‘hang out’ that really determines the best social networking site for your
business. There are pros and cons to each network, with MySpace starting to
position itself as more of a site for music lovers.
Just as there are thousands of different groups, some with hundreds of
thousands of members on MySpace, there are also thousands of similar sized
groups on Facebook.
Figure 9.4 - Facebook
A Facebook group discussing ‘Facebook for business’
Figure 9.4 shows a group on Facebook called ‘Facebook for Business’. It offers
information about how you can conduct business on Facebook and advice on
how promote your business on Facebook. Part of this group is also an online
forum discussing topics related to Facebook for business use.
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If you view the Discussion Boards on this Facebook group, once of the first posts
discusses tips for growing Facebook group membership numbers – so you can
see it may even be a very useful group for you to join.
Answering Questions Online
Another part of group interaction and indeed interactive marketing is answering
questions online. There are several websites which specialize in questions and
answers on various topics. Some question-based websites are on specialized
subject areas – others offer more generalized questions on which virtually
anything can be asked or answered.
As long as if you take the time to search for the right question, you will find
questions which relate specifically to your industry segment, enabling you to
interact on a topic that relates to your business – which allows you to
demonstrate that you are an authority in your field.
Yahoo Answers
In Yahoo! Answers (figure 9.5) there are many questions and many different
categories. Categories include ‘advertising in marketing’ and ‘careers and
employment’. All you need to do to begin answering questions on Yahoo!
Answers is register for your own free account.
You can then browse through to find out what questions are being asked and
begin answering questions. Just remember that your answers should be
carefully though out and relevant to the question. You shouldn’t try to sell your
company – allow your profile to do that.
The way that Yahoo! Answers works means that the person who asked the
question views all the answers before picking the answer which in their opinion
is the best answer - the most relevant response to their question. If your answer
is selected as the best response in the opinion of the question poser then it will be
displayed as the most appropriate answer to that question forever. And other
users will be able to view your profile from your answer and find out more
about you from there.
Just remember that it’s not about selling your business within the answer; it’s
about getting your profile together in the first instance – and then answering
questions in a knowledgeable, unbiased manner. If people appreciate your
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answer, there is a good change that they will want to view your profile.
Figure 9.5 – Yahoo! Answers
Yahoo! Answers
LinkedIn offers a very similar question asking and answering service to Yahoo!
Answers. It’s effectively a social networking community for business – an online
networking service where you can build relationships and meet potential new
business partners online. To participate on LinkedIn, you begin by inviting your
friends and colleagues to participate with you on the service.
Figure 9.6 - LinkedIn
LinkedIn – a social networking community for business
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Once you start to build your list of contacts who you know personally, you are
able to view who your own contacts know (your second-tier contacts on
LinkedIn) and who their contacts know (your third-tier contacts). You’re not
able to contact those second and third tier contacts directly, but you can, just like
traditional networking, ask for an introduction to these contacts through the
people who are already your personal contacts on LinkedIn.
Because of the way that LinkedIn works, if you’re looking to meet someone with
a particular skillset, you should be able to get introduced to them through
someone you know. It could even be argued that LinkedIn is a more efficient
form of networking than traditional face-to-face networking. Imagine LinkedIn
as being like traditional business networking, but with everyone pinning a list of
their own contacts on their lapels.
Although LinkedIn provides a great way to meet new business contacts, it also
offers an opportunity for you to demonstrate your knowledge on a particular
subject matter. LinkedIn has a ‘LinkedIn Answers section’ (Figure 9.6) which is
very similar to Yahoo! Answers.
When you use the LinkedIn Answers service, like Yahoo! Answers, do not
attempt to sell your company or your services overtly. You’re much better off
relying on your LinkedIn profile to sell your business on your behalf – people
will click through to look at your profile if you provide enough relevant value in
your answer to somebody’s question. There are people on LinkedIn that answer
over a hundred questions a week on the site – so obviously they find it a really
effective marketing tool for their businesses. Answering questions may or may
not be the right approach for your business but you should certainly test it to see
if it works for you.
Blog Comment Marketing
The final important part of group interaction is blog comment marketing. By
blog comment marketing I mean participating and interacting on other people’s
blogs – I’m not talking about your own blog here.
With blog comment marketing, like with answering questions on Yahoo!
Answers and LinkedIn Answers, make sure you avoid the temptation to market
your own products or services within your blog comments. If you make
comments on relevant, popular posts which are timely and add value, then
people who read your comments will be likely to click through to find out more
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about you from your name. (With any blog comment you make you get to add
your name and your website address – your name automatically links to your
website address in the vast majority of blog systems.)
Remember to register on the service MyBlogLog that we talked about in Pillar#3
if you want an avatar (your personal image – perhaps your company logo or
your picture) to appear beside comments that you make on other people's blogs.
How to find the best blog posts to comment on
Technorati is a great pace to find fresh, relevant, popular blog posts on which to
leave a comment. Technorati is essentially a directory of the latest blog posts
from the majority of the top blog in the world. The posts are categorized in a
manner which means that you don’t have to wade through piles of irrelevant
posts before finding something that’s worthwhile to comment on.
Figure 9.7 – The Golf Blog
The Golf Blog, where Freddie Faldo can leave comments on
At the time of writing there are around 100 million different blogs which appear
on Technorati. You’re bond to find at least some blogs that are worthwhile
participating on! Using the previously mentioned case study of Freddie Faldo –
the fictitious golf shop owner – we’ll try searching Technorati for blogs which
talk about golf. When conduction a search on Technorati for golf blogs, one of
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the first blogs we come across is called ‘The Golf Blog’. (Figure 9.7)
This would be a great blog for Freddie Faldo to start interacting on – he’d be
bound to find a recent blog post on a subject matter which was of particular
interest to him.
The more Freddie interacts and adds a valuable contribution to each relevant
blog post, the more he will enhance his reputation in his industry, and the more
targeted traffic he will drive back to his website. Although it’s very important to
always include your website address in the form that submits your blog post
comments, the vast majority of these links to your website will include ‘nofollow’
tags. In other words, broadly speaking, these links will not help with your search
engine optimization. However, blog comments are still valuable links – they
drive relevant visitors to your website who are interested in finding out more
about you.
Subscribe to the most relevant blogs
I’d advise you to take the time to so find ten different blogs relevant to your
business. By relevant to your business I mean blogs that your target market is
likely to read as well as blogs from your industry segment.
Technorati should be your first port of call to find these 10 blogs. Another great
place to find relevant blogs is the blog directory on BlogCatalog.com. Once you
have found your chosen blogs, you can subscribe to their RSS feeds, which
means you will not have to visit their blog every time you want to find out if
they have updated their content by publishing a new post.
The most efficient way to stay updated as soon as your chosen blogs have
updated their content is to use RSS feed reading software. An example of this is
Google Reader. You can have Google Reader installed on your personalized
iGoogle home page which means that you se whenever these blogs have been
updated as soon as you open up your internet browser.
Be consentient with your adding of blog comments
When you decide that it is appropriate to start adding your comments to blog
posts on a particular blog you should do so consistently. Once people who often
read that blog see that you add comments on a regular basis, they’ll start to take
you more seriously and will be more likely to remember you.
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Also, note that many blogs also offer you the facility to subscribe to comments s
well as blog posts. That way, if you do add a comment, and you wish to keep
tabs on whether or not someone has replied to your comment, then it is a good
idea to subscribe to the comments feed for individual posts as well. That way,
you can keep track of any responses to your comments and immediately choose
whether you wish to revisit the post and add to your initial comment.
Pillar # 9 – Group Interaction Summary
· Forum Participation can be a great way of building up your reputation in your
industry. By posting good quality, relevant posts in a forum (which is
relevant for your industry segment) together with using a good signature
which links to your site with a keyword phrase, you will be generating direct
traffic to your site as well as tremendously helping your search engine
rankings.
· Social networking groups such as MySpace and Facebook can help to create
awareness of your company. They can be used to promote new products that
you are releasing in the future as well as be a good way of allowing people to
let their friends know of your business. Just make sure that you initially
interact with people by aiming to assist people rather than aiming to sell them
something.
· Consider driving people on your email list towards good forum posts that
you’ve made. This will encourage interaction and quickly increase your
credibility in that forum.
· Answering questions on Yahoo! Answers and LinkedIn Answers is another
way to increase your credibility. You should post good quality answers on
relevant topics. Don’t promote your own business in the answers – aim to
drive people to your site from your profile. If your answers are good enough
and relevant enough people will want to read your profile.
· Blog comment marketing – posting comments on blogs that are relevant to
your business can also help raise your industry awareness and drive traffic to
your site. You should aim to select about 10 relevant blogs and subscribe to
them. Every time there is a relevant post, make sure you add a valuable
comment. They key with making this a success is consistency
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Pillar #10
Viral Marketing
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Pillar #10 – Viral Marketing
________________________________________________________________________
Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use
pre-existing social networks to increase brand awareness, through a selfreplicating
viral processes. Viral marketing is often known as word-of-mouth
marketing, in fact it’s any medium which your existing customers use that
enables a peer-to-peer recommendation to be made. Viral marketing means that
your customers do your marketing on your behalf. The process of encouraging
viral marketing to take place is to make it as easy as possible for your customers
to tell their friends about you – and to give them a reason to do so.
Pillar #10 covers what viral marketing is and how you can use it as part of your
overall internet marketing strategy. I would like to focus on two main viral
marketing opportunities. Firstly Social bookmarking – something that you can
easily build into your blog with ease and secondly Video marketing. By driving
people towards your videos on video sharing sites like YouTube you increase the
ranking of your videos on those sites by increasing your number of views. This
increased ranking of your video makes it more likely to be found on YouTube by
people who haven’t heard of you before. You then have an opportunity to drive
people back you your site after viewing your video.
An early example of effective Viral Marketing – Hotmail
One of the first examples of a super-successful viral marketing campaign came
back in the late 1990's. Hotmail was just developing as a company and doing OK
– until they hit upon an idea. Why not automatically add a little bit of text at the
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bottom of each email that people sent saying something like, “Would you like a
free email account too? Visit www.hotmail.com”
At the time (the late 1990’s) many people still paid for an email account. So, this
fact, combined with the “free email” message at the bottom of each mail
exploded Hotmail’s business. Hotmail’s message spread like a virus – hence viral
marketing. This one idea is probably the main reason why Hotmail became so
big so quickly. Hence, in my opinion, this one line of text is the reason that
Microsoft paid millions of dollars to buy Hotmail.
So, a simple email signature worked for Hotmail. But that’s not necessarily what
I’m recommending for you. Your viral marketing strategy does not necessarily
have to revolve around an e-mail signature. Remember that a viral marketing
campaign can be anything that encourages your users to pass on information
about you, your business or your business’ products to their friends. The
question is what’s the right viral marketing strategy for you?
Social bookmarking
Social bookmarking allows anyone who views web pages the opportunity to
save a list of their favorite pages online, and at the same time, if they wish to do
so, to share these favorite web pages with their friends. Two examples of social
bookmarking tools / websites are StumbleUpon and Delicious.
There are two main reasons why it’s a good idea to encourage your website
visitors to book your web pages online. Firstly, other users of these social
bookmarking services can see to most recently popular web pages that have been
bookmarked. This provides a way for other people to discover your web pages
on these social bookmarking sites. Secondly, search engines also like these social
bookmarking sites because t shows which web pages are popular with users at
any given moment in time. Therefore, if search engines crawl these social
bookmarking sites and find that lots of users are bookmarking your site, then
your site will be more likely to be ranked higher in search engines – social
bookmarking also helps with your search engine optimization.
Don’t think that social bookmarking is the same as traditional bookmarking
where people save their favorite websites on their internet browser software.
That way of saving bookmarks is just for their personal use as the information is
stored on their internet browser software on their computer. Search engines can
only crawl bookmarks that are stored online – so that’s the kind of bookmarking
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that you want to encourage.
Social bookmarking and tags
Another great reason why social bookmarking is so good is the use of ‘tags’ with
each bookmark. A tag is a word or a phrase that a user associates with a web
page. Again using Freddie Faldo’s golf shop site as an example, people may
decide to save his home page on their bookmarks and add the 3 tags ‘golf’, ‘golf
clubs’ and ‘golf shop’ to the bookmark. This tag addition will make it easier for
them to find your website in their bookmarks in the future – it’s like listing the
web page in multiple categories. It’s a more modern, more user-friendly version
of storing web pages in folders.
Another reason why tags are great is that they help to educate search engines
about the subject matter on your website. i.e. if lots of different people are saving
your home page on a social bookmaking site using the tag ‘golf store’, then this
will give search engines more of a reason to rank your home page higher for the
keyword phrase ‘golf store’.
Delicious.com
Figure 10.1 shows the Delicious.com social bookmarking site homepage. This is
a great example of the kind of website I have been referring to.
Figure 10.1 – Delicious.com – a popular social bookmarking site
Browsing popular bookmarks on Delicious
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But how do you encourage your website visitors to save your website pages?
Apart from producing great, valuable content that people will want to come back
to and regularly revisit in the future, the next thing that you should do is make it
easy for people to bookmark your web pages.
AddThis.com
You may well have noticed on web pages – especially on blog posts that you are
occasionally invited to bookmark the page or share it with your friends. Websites
commonly link directly to the ‘add’ page on social bookmarking sites to increase
the chances that people will bookmark the page. One popular free service that
makes it easy to add this service to your website is AddThis.com (figure 10.2).
Figure 10.2 – AddThis.com
AddThis.com is easy to integrate into your website
AddThis is a service that people may recognize when you add it to your website
– because it’s already very popular and on lots of other websites.
Once a user clicks on it for the first time, it gives you a list of the social
bookmarking service for them to select the one that they regularly use (figure
10.2). If it’s Delicious.com then once someone selects the Delicious icon in the
AddThis window, they’ll proceed to a window like figure 10.3.
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Figure 10.3 – Adding a web page to Delicious.com bookmarks
Entering a bookmark’s URL, title and notes on Delicious.com
After you select your chosen bookmarking service through the AddThis service,
AddThis will remember your bookmarking service for next time. This reduces
the amount of clicks that it takes for someone to save your web page to their
bookmarks.
StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon (Figure 10.4) offers a similar service to Delicious.com.
StumbleUpon lets users ‘randomly find’ other people's bookmarks by searching
the StumbleUpon website within certain categories.
Figure 10.4 – StumbleUpon.com
StumbleUpon lets users ‘stumble upon’ new, related web pages
The service will then recommend other websites that people have already tagged
in a similar manner. The more that you can get people to ‘stumble’ (bookmark)
your web pages, the more likely it will be that StumbleUpon will recommend
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your web pages.
A special request to all readers
This is probably a good time to ask for your assistance to help me get the 13
Pillars of Internet Marketing book in as many people’s hands as possible. If you’ve
found this book valuable so far I’d really appreciate if you could share
http://www.13pillars.com with a few of your friends. If you could tell your
Twitter followers, share it with your Facebook friends and bookmark the page on
an online bookmarking service line StumbleUpon it would be much appreciated!
Thanks! :)
Video Marketing
Thanks to every-increasing broadband capacity, online video is becoming more
and more the norm. At the time of writing around 10 of the top 100 websites in
the world are video-based. This means that ignoring video as a medium to drive
traffic towards your website could be a significant mistake.
I’d like to share with you a few of the top online video sharing sites, show you
how easy it is to create your own videos for these sites, share with you how to
include a ‘call to action’ within your video and recommend a great free service
that les you upload your video to many of these sites at the same time, tracking
your video views too.
Figure 10.5 – YouTube
YouTube – the most popular video sharing website by far
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YouTube
YouTube is the granddaddy of all online video sharing sites. In fact, by June
2007 it was 50 percent more popular than all other video sites combined,
according to Hitwise. But even though YouTube is still miles ahead of other
video sharing sites in terms of visitor numbers at the moment, as a content
producer it would be folly just to rely on YouTube as a marketing medium. I’d
advise on distributing your videos to at least 10 video sharing sites.
I’m assuming that you’ve seen it before, but figure 10.5 shows you what the
YouTube website looks like. I published the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oheBDHB-IZU (An introduction the 13
Pillars of Internet Marketing) in May 2007, and over the first year it was on the
first page of YouTube search results for the phrase ‘internet marketing’. At the
time of writing it’s now had over 14,000 views.
How to make your videos more popular on YouTube
There are a few small things that I did to make the introduction to the 13 Pillars
video more popular of YouTube and drive more visitors back to my website. I’d
like to share them with you now…
YouTube is one of the websites which will reprint your URL as a live link if you
include ‘http://’ in front of it. If you include this link in the description of your
video you will get a live link back to your website, meaning that people will be
much more likely to visit your website after viewing your video. Although it’s a
‘nofollow’ link, it will still increase your website visitor numbers.
Include your keyword phrase in your video title and your video description. i.e.
Including ‘internet marketing’ within the video title and description made
YouTube much more likely to rank it more highly in searches for that keyword
phrase.
Drive visitors to your newly published video and ask them to help you by rating
the video, adding the video as one of their favorites and adding a comment to
the video. All these measures are indicators to YouTube of your video’s
popularity. And if your video quickly becomes popular then YouTube are much
more likely to rank it highly themselves.
Once of the best ways of driving visitors to your video is to have your own email
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list of appreciative subscribers. If you regularly over-deliver, you’ll find that
members of your list are much more likely to be willing to help you when you
ask a favor from them. This is just one of the reasons why it’s an extremely
valuable thing for your business to build up a list of subscribers – even although
you don’t have an email marketing strategy at the moment.
Other Video Sites
As mentioned already, there are other popular video sites available apart from
YouTube – get your videos in as many places as possible! So which sites apart
from YouTube should you be using to host your videos?
Yahoo! Video
Yahoo! Video originally began as a search engine during 2005. It combined
traditional search engine techniques to crawl other websites to look for videos on
other sites together with a web 2.0 facility that allows users to upload, share, tag
and host their own videos on Yahoo!
However, as part of a recent upgrade, Yahoo is indexing more video from
several new media sources, including CBS News, MTV, the Discovery Channel
and The Food Network which the users of Yahoo! can see embedded within the
Yahoo! video player.
Figure 10.6 – Yahoo! Video
Yahoo Video
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MySpace Video
In early 2007, MySpace introduced MySpaceTV. Since launch it has been
rebranded to MySpace Video. (Figure 10.7)
Figure 10.7 - MySpace Video
MySpace Video
MySpace Video works in the same way as most of the other video sharing sites.
However, because it’s part of the MySpace network, you need a MySpace
account to upload videos.
However, this also means that if you are already an active MySpace user, when
you up load videos to the MySpace Videos service, you can share these videos
with your existing MySpace contacts.
Metacafe
Metacafe (Figure 10.8) is another similar online video sharing service. However,
it does have a couple of policies that differentiate it:
Using its unique ‘VideoRank’ system, Metacafe attempts to gauge viewer
reactions to videos in order to feature those that prove most popular to its
viewers.
Additionally, Metacafe pays video creators for original work that has exceeded a
certain threshold of both total views and Videorank score via its Producer
Rewards Program.
Any video that is viewed a minimum of 20,000 times, and has achieved a
Videorank rating of 3.00 or higher (and does not violate any copyrights or other
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Metacafe community standards) is awarded $5 for every 1,000 views.
Figure 10.8 – Metacafe
Metacafe
Revver
Revver (Figure 10.9) is another popular video sharing website that hosts usergenerated
content. It attaches advertising to user-submitted video clips and
shares all ad revenue 50/50 with the creators. Revver includes adverts on all its
videos, whether you like it or not which may be a problem for you depending on
what your business offers.
Figure 10.9 – Revver
Revver
Each video is automatically made available in both Flash and QuickTime formats
and you are given the HTML code to embed either format along with the ability
to add your own branding or logo into the Flash player interface.
Uploading to Revver is easy and it provides a progress bar to show your upload
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status. They review all videos before making them live and this process can take
up to 24 hours.
DailyMotion
DailyMotion (Figure 10.10) is a French-based video website which was founded
in 2005. The videos that it features on its site are often of good quality in
comparison to many other video sites. As of April 2009 DailyMotion was ranked
by Alexa Rank as being the 67th most popular website in the world.
Figure 10.10 – DailyMotion
DailyMotion
Blip TV
Blip.tv (Figure 10.11) is a video sharing site which features videos that tend to be
more professional in quality rather than simple clips. On Blip.tv the videos are
like mini TV series and often very entertaining. You can search for your favorite
episodes by category, use the search box or search by popular tags. You can also
become a subscriber to your favorite shows so you do not miss an episode.
If you like to produce videos, you can create your own show and advertise it to
others through a trailer or you can participate as a critic and rate the shows.
Blip.tv also offers advertising schemes with profit being split 50/50 between you
and them. You can also submit your videos to iTunes through Blip.tv, creating a
video podcast.
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Figure 10.11 Blip TV
Blip TV
Brightcove
Brightcove (Figure 10.12) was originally a company who helped create video
content on websites such as the New York Times and MTV but they’ve recently
launched a video service with the motto ‘Share your videos in style’.
Figure 10.12 Brightcove
Brightcove
Every publisher who creates a Brightcove account is assigned a channel, their
own page on Brightcove.tv.
Publishers can customize their channel through the Brightcove Console. Simple
details like the channel's name, logo, and description can be updated in the user's
profile. The content of a channel is defined by changing the settings of
individual titles, lineups, and players to allow distribution and promotion on
Brightcove.tv.
Brightcove.tv - along with syndication, search engine indexing and a user's own
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site - serves as a distribution and promotion tool for video publishers.
Veoh
Veoh (Figure 10.13) lets you upload a range of video formats with no limits on
file size, resolution, or length. If your video is over 45 minutes a viewer will
need to download it to watch the full video.
Figure 10.13 Veoh
Veoh
To download and watch videos on your computer rather than watch videos
online, users must use the VeohTV desktop application. VeohTV is also what
you need to be using to upload videos over 100MB. You can also upload videos
directly from a URL or if you have a Veoh Pro account you can upload via an
RSS feed.
A Veoh Pro account is free. However, it requires a credit card account number to
confirm your address. When that is given, you can then take advantage of
advertising programs where you can share revenue 50/50 and sell or rent video
downloads through Veoh's e-commerce system (you keep 70 percent of the sale
price). As a Veoh Pro account holder, your uploaded video will be transcoded
into Flash 8 video. Flash 8 is superior to the Flash 7 format used for converting
video submitted by basic Veoh users.
Imeem
Imeem (Figure 10.14) is a video sharing service where users interact with each
other by watching, posting, and sharing content of all media types, including
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blogs, photos, audio and videos.
Launched in October 2004, the Imeem has a social network structure as well as a
content browsing/filtering structure similar to that of YouTube. It works on an
advertising-based business model and is free to use.
Figure 10.14 – Imeem
Imeem
They also provide a broader range of privacy options and incorporate peer-topeer
technology for better security and unlimited bandwidth.
Editing video
For PC users you probably already have a piece of software installed on your
computer – Windows Movie Maker (Figure 10.15). This allows you to edit and
produce your own video. If you have a Mac the alternative is Final Cut Studio
and if you are using Linux then there are plenty of open source programs that
you can simply download for free – try searching Download.com.
All these video editing software will allow you to import your own videos into
the program, add titles, endings or music to it. They will also allow you to create
videos out of still photos as well.
If you have a number of still photos that you want to create a movie with, you
can import the photos into your movie editing software and then drag the photos
into your video timeline. Then you can then choose video transitions from your
software to include in-between your photos. Transitions mean that each new
photo can appear either from the side, up or down or in fact in one of any
manner of options preinstalled in your video editing software. You can also
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apply effects to your individual photos such as slowly zooming in or out.
Figure 10.15 – Windows Movie Maker
Windows Media Player – the free video editing software from Microsoft
When you create a sequence of photos and ass multiple effects, you will be
surprised at how quickly your photos start to become a video – and how quickly
and easy the process is. After you’re satisfied with your video sequence it’s also
easy to add beginning titles and end credits should you wish to do so. It’s also
easy to import audio.
Adding audio to your video
Bearing in mind copyright restrictions, you should be careful about the audio
you use with your video. However, there is a website called PodsafeAudio
(figure 10.16) that download and use any of the audio tracks on the website – as
long as if you credit the artist.
Figure 10.16 – PodsafeAudio
PodsafeAudio is a great place to find royalty-free backing music
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Simply mention the artist name and song title at the end of your video clip to use
the audio legally. There are lots of great audio tracks on PodsafeAudio including
some great tracks from unsigned, independent new artists. Simply download the
audio that you wish to use in MP3 format to be able to use it as a backing track
for your video.
Including a ‘call-to-action’ in your videos
It’s important to include a ‘call-to-action’ in your video – a call-to-action is
simply asking the viewer to do something after they have viewed your video.
This must be measurable, and of potential benefit to your business.
I’d certainly recommend including an easy-to-remember domain name as a
subheading throughout your video in additional to a clip at the end of your
video telling the viewer why they should visit that domain.
However, if you find that video marketing is an important part of your overall
marketing mix I’d say that it’s important to have a unique URL within your
video i.e. a URL, domain name that is not mentioned anywhere on your website,
or anywhere else. That way, when people visit that website address you know
that it can only be your videos which are responsible for driving those visitors.
For example, your video could be an introduction to a subject matter and for
more information they can visit your website address to watch more videos or
perhaps download a free report. Just remember to make the first free video
valuable and informative.
A common successful strategy for the web pages that viewers are asked to visit
after viewing an informative video is to ask for someone’s name and email
address in exchange for more great content. Remember that if there is no link to
this website address from anywhere else online, you know that your visitors
have landed on your web page because they viewed one of your videos on a
video sharing site like YouTube. More information about tracking your visitors
will be covered in Pillar #11 – Visitor Analysis).
Saving your video in the optimum format
There are literally tens of different formats in which to save your video – and
then there are so many different sizes of videos. Until recently, 320x240 pixels
was the size that most video sharing sites preferred. This happens to be in the
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traditional 4x3 television screen size.
However, more recently video sites have started to prefer videos in widescreen
format which is 16x9 screen size. As broadband speeds have increased, so have
the number of pixels per video. 16x9 videos for online distribution are now most
commonly uploaded in 640x360 pixels size. At the time of writing (April 2009)
that’s the size which I’d recommend.
When it comes to video format many file types will work just fine, but most
video sharing sites recommend MP4 format with h.264 codec. However, you’ll
probably find that WMV or AVI will work just fine. If you’re worried about your
video format compatibility it’ probably best to create a test YouTube video site
first-of-all to confirm what your video will look like when it’s published.
Figure 10.17 – TubeMogul
TubeMogul helps you upload your videos to multiple sites and track video views
Uploading you video to video sharing sites
I’ve already introduced you to several video sites – and it’s worthwhile to upload
your video to several of those video sites and more. However, if you haven’t
done so already you’ll start to realize that uploading videos to video sharing sites
can take a great deal of time and resources.
Many internet connections upload files at much slower speeds that they
download files. This means that it could take you a day just to upload one tenminute
video to all the video sharing sites that you want your video to feature
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on.
However, help is at hand. There’s a great free-to-use (for their basic service)
website called TubeMogul which will upload your video to several video sites at
the same time. All you have to do is upload your video to TubeMogul, enter
your usernames and passwords for the various video sharing sites and
TubeMogul will upload your videos to several sites on your behalf. This makes
the whole process a great deal easier and a lot less time consuming.
As a bonus TubeMogul will also track your video views on each of the sites,
meaning that you’ll be able to quickly and easily track your conversion rates for
your call-to-action.
Of course TubeMogul have a partially free service for a reason – they want you
to sign-up for a more comprehensive service that offers more. However, whether
you choose to upgrade or not, as it stands their free service is great.
Other video sites
Assuming that you decide not to upgrade to TubeMogul’s paid service, it’s
probably a good idea for you to manually upload your video to a few other
services. Viddler is another good general video sharing site and 5Min calls itself
a one-stop shop for instructional videos and DIY projects. For this reason, you
may well find 5Min to be a good site for uploading informative business videos.
You may also find that there are other video sharing sites that are aimed
specifically at your industry segment. For instance, I have also uploaded the 13
Pillars of Internet Marketing seminar videos to a video sharing site called IM
Broadcast (Internet Marketing Broadcast). You can see my 13 Pillars videos here:
http://www.imbroadcast.com/users/13pillars/videos/public.
So make sure that if you’re in sales recruitment like Jane Jobs then you search for
a video sharing site that specializes in sales advice. And if you own a golf shop
like Freddie Faldo then check to see if there’s a video sharing site that specializes
in golf videos.
Tweaking your conversions
After testing video marketing as a form of internet marketing you find that
you’re finding it to be a productive tool for your business, then it’s important to
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try to improve your conversion rates. Test including different calls-to-action for
different videos.
For example, try including a free report as the incentive at the end of the video
instead of more videos. Perhaps you should also try to drive viewers towards
your main website.
Remember that if you increase your conversion rates from 1% to 2% then that’s
100% more potential customers driven towards your business from your video
marketing efforts.
Pillar #10 – Viral Marketing Summary
· Viral marketing uses word-of-mouth, peer-to-peer communication to
advertise your website.
· Social bookmarking and video marketing are two examples of what you can
use to encourage viral marketing to take place.
· Aim to improve your number of returning visitors using social bookmarkingby
allowing people to quickly and easily make your site one of their favorites.
Try incorporating the AddThis.com tool within your blog.
· Remember to kick-start the popularity of your videos on video sharing sites
like YouTube by driving people on your email list to your videos and asking
them to add comments.
· Be efficient in the uploading of your videos – make sure that you use the free
TubeMogul uploading and tracking service. Don’t just upload your videos to
YouTube. There are lots of other sources of video viewers and some sites will
convert a lot better than YouTube even though they don’t necessarily bring as
many video views.
· Have you included a call-to-action in your videos? Do people know who has
uploaded the video and what else they could get from you if they visited your
website?
· For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date viral
marketing resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar10.
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Pillar #11
Visitor Analysis
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Pillar #11 – Visitor Analysis
________________________________________________________________________
Visitor analysis is absolutely essential if you want to discover which of your
internet marketing activities is proving to be the most valuable for your business.
By tracking which websites are providing you with most traffic, knowing which
websites your users are visiting prior to your site, which websites they are
leaving your site for, and which inbound links are providing the most valuable
visitors, you can target specific areas and focus future marketing campaigns.
Here are just a few of the things that you should be finding out about your
website visitors:
- Where did a visitor come from?
- How long did they stay when they visited your site?
- Which page(s) did they visit on your website?
- Have they visited your site before?
- Can you improve your conversion rate?
- Did they complete a specific action on your website? (i.e. buy a product, complete a
service enquiry form, download a free report) Perhaps some of your visitors
opted-out half-way through an order process? Is so, that’s essential information.
Hopefully you will understand the valuable nature of this information. If you’re
looking at it from a business efficiency perspective then by paying attention to
which of your marketing activities is providing the most high-quality visitors,
then you will know where to concentrate a lot more of your energy in the future.
If you’re thinking about this from a marketing managers’ perspective, then by
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being aware of where your website visitors are coming from and what they do
will be able to justify a greater investment in certain areas in the future.
Google Analytics
The most popular method of gathering good quality visitor analysis data is to
use the free analysis software from Google called Google Analytics (Figure 11.1).
All you need to access the Google Analytics service is to have your own free
Google Account – you will already have one if you’re started a Google Adwords
pay-per-click campaign.
A small number of businesses or other organization aren’t comfortable with
letting Google have access to their website’s and their visitor’s data. Unless this is
the case for you, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t install the Google
Analytics code on your website. At least then – even if you decide to go for a
paid alternative – you’ll have some alternative data to be able to compare against
your preferred visitor tracking software.
Figure 11.1 – Google Analytics
The Google Analytics Dashboard
Setting up your Google Analytics service
Having registered your website with Google Analytics, the first things to do is to
insert some tracking code on the footer of each page on your site. It’s fairly easy
to do – Google provides you with a step-by-step guide of how to get things
going. They also provide an excellent help section should you get stuck.
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The importance of setting goals with Google Analytics
With regards to Google Analytics, a goal is a page on your website that follows a
specific action that you want your visitors to take. An example of a goal might be
something like your ‘thank you page’ that people see they once they complete an
enquiry form on your website.
Figure 11.2 – Google Analytics
Setting up a goal on Google Analytics
E.g. the path of URLs that your visitors take to reach your goal URL might look
something like this:
1) http://www.yourdomain.com
2) http://www.yourdomain.com/enquiry_form.htm
3) http://www.yourdomain.com/thanks_for_completing_enquiry_form.htm
In the above example the page
http://www.yourdomain.com/thanks_for_completing_enquiry_form.htm might include
the following text:
‘Thanks for filling out your information. We’ll respond to your enquiry as quickly as
possible. In the meantime, have you downloaded our free report?
That is your goal page. You enter the URL of this page into your Google
Analytics control panel, in your goal settings. You then give your goal a name so
you can differentiate it if / when you set up additional goals.
Define your goal funnel
Once you’ve decided on your goal page, and taken a note of your goal URL
you’ll need to do something called ‘defining your goal funnel’ (figure 11.3).
Defining your goal funnel tells Google Analytics the path from your visitor
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entrance page to your goal page. Defining your funnel will help you determine if
there is any specific part of the path towards your goal page at which your
visitors tend to drop off.
An example of a simple goal funnel is the above URL path which looks at
someone when they enter your site on your home page, then visiting an enquiry
form page, through to completing the enquiry form and therefore visiting the
‘thank you for completing your details’ page.
A slightly more complicated goal funnel path might be as follows:
- Your website home page
- Category page
- Product page
- Upselling page
- Purchase confirmation page
- Credit card details page
- Thank you for purchasing page
Figure 11.3 – Google Analytics
Defining your goal funnel on Google Analytics
Analyzing your funnel blockages
Once you have defined your funnel you can analyze which steps of your funnel
are blockages – in other words which steps of your funnel people stop at and for
whatever reason do not proceed any further.
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Figure 11.4 – Google Website Optimizer
The sign-up page on Google Website Optimizer
Perhaps it’s not obvious what your shipping charges are? Maybe people would
like to see a better picture of your product before they make a decision to
purchase? Perhaps you’re requesting too much information when you’re asking
people to complete an enquiry form? Whatever it is it’s your job to try and find
out what the main problem areas are on your website and defining accurate
funnels of Google Analytics can help you do this.
Plugging your funnel leaks
But remember, determining the problem is only half the job. There’s no point in
working out where people are leaving your goal funnel unless you do something
to try to plug the leaks.
Probably the best way to try to improve the situation is to split-test the aspect
that isn’t performing too well against an alternative option. Google’s recently
introduced some software called Google Website Optimizer (figure 11.4) which
will allow you to split-test different aspects within the same page at the same
time.
Set a monetary value for each of your goals
One other essential aspect of setting a goal is setting a monetary value for the
goal. You can enter a monetary value at the bottom of your goal settings (see
bottom of figure 11.2). This value is how much it’s worth to your business if a
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website visitor completes the Google Analytics goal in question.
What do you mean you don’t how much the people who complete your Google Analytics
goals are worth to your business financially!?
If you don’ know exactly how much the people who complete your Google
Analytics goals are worth you your business financially then you need to take an
educated guess. Because if you don’t include a monetary value then a lot of the
reports that Google Analytics can produce for you won’t be available.
Taking an educated guess on how much completed goals are worth to you
If you don’t know exactly, it’s important to take an educated guess as to how
much people who complete your Google Analytics goals are worth to you
financially. So how do you guesstimate this value? If we assume that we’re talking
about a completed enquiry form as a goal, then you should already know how
many people who complete your enquiry form go on to make a purchase. And
you should also know the average order value for your business.
Therefore, for example, if for every 20 people that enquire about your service one
person buys, and that your average transaction value represents £1,000 profit
then you know that each person who enquires about your product or service is
worth £50 to you, so your goal value will be £50.
Next – work out your conversion rates to determine your advertising budget
The next thing to work out is your conversion rates from someone visiting your
home page to completing your enquiry form. You should be able to easily get
this figure from your Google Analytics stats – assuming that you’ve set up your
goal correctly.
Say you see that 2% of your website visitors go on to complete your enquiry
form. Because you’ve already determined that each of your completed goals is
worth £50 to you, that means that you know that, on average, each new website
visitor is worth £1 to your business.
Therefore if you decide to pay for some website traffic in the future, you have a
good idea of how much you can afford to pay for the advertising.
Knowing where you are now gives you something to aim for in the future
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The great thing about knowing that a completed goal is worth an average of £50
profit to your business and that 2% of your website visitors go on to reach this
goal is that it gives you something to aim for – it means that you can turn your
focus towards improving your average transaction profit value and increasing
your visitor to goal conversion rates.
Increasing your goal conversion rates could be incredibly important for your
business. For example, if you can increase your average goal conversion rates
from 2% to 4%, then this in turn increases your average visitor value from £1 to
£2.
This increase in average visitor value may well open up your access to thousands
of more visitors. If your average visitor value increases, so does your ability to
pay more for traffic, meaning that you will have access to bigger networks of
paid traffic sources.
Have you inserted your Google Analytics tracking code on your website yet?
Of course all this talk about improving your goal conversion rates is pointless
unless you’ve inserted your Google Analytics tracking code on your website and
set up your goals – so if you haven’t done this already, do it now!
Figure 11.5 – Google Analytics
Looking at www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz traffic sources using Google Analytics
Insert the Google Analytics tracking at the bottom of each page on your site (if
you can’t figure out how to do this yourself any website coder will find it fairly
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simple to do). This isn’t as time consuming as you would think – most pages on
your website will have what is called a common footer which is replicated on all
the pages. This common footer means the code only has to be pasted in one place
for it to be automatically included on every page on your site - allowing you to
track visits to individual pages.
By setting goals and tracking your visitors you can determine which aspects of
your internet marketing campaign are most successful, and which aspects aren’t
working so well. It’s extremely important to undertake this analysis to optimize
the success of your internet marketing campaign.
Looking at an example of stats on Google Analytics
Using the website www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz as an example (figure 11.5)
you can see that over a set period of time, 122,194 website visits have been
referred from 1,584 traffic sources.
The same screenshot shows that the average visitor viewed 2.21 pages and spent
2 minutes and 11 seconds on the site. You can get a lot more information about
your visitors from Google Analytics including which country they’re from and
what browser they’re using to view your web pages.
You can also see in figure 11.4 that 86.54% of the website visits were from people
who hadn’t been to the website before – and that 68.85% of visitors left the
website before choosing to view another page (that’s called the bounce rate).
Although these stats are encouraging in terms of the quantity of visitors, it’s a bit
concerning that so many people are choosing to leave the website after viewing
just the one page. It’s even more concerning that only 13.46% of visitors choose to
come back and visit the website again.
Here you see the advantage of using a good visitor tracking system like Google
Analytics. Unless you’re aware of the statistics that you could improve on,
there’s very little chance that you’ll know which changes to implement on your
website to try to change things for the better.
Keyword Phrases
Something else that Google Analytics allows you to do is to analyze the keyword
phrases that people are using to find your website in search engines.
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By reviewing which keyword phrases have been driving the most traffic to your
website through search engines (Figure 11.6), you’ll be able to see how successful
your search engine optimization strategy has been so far.
As you can see in figure 11.6, the most successful keyword phrase by far is
‘business articles’, the phrase that has driven over 10,000 visits from search
engines. The next best keyword phrase has driven just 666 visits.
On the face of it, this isn’t good. If you rely too heavily on traffic from just the
one keyword phrase, then if search engines – for whatever reason – decide to
rank your website in a lower position for that keyword phrase then you may take
a big hit on the overall amount of visitors to your website.
Figure 11.6 – Looking at keyword phrases on Google Analytics
Looking at the keyword phrases driving traffic from search engines in Google Analytics
Fortunately though, this isn’t the case for the www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz
website. If you look more closely at figure 11.5 you can see that although 10,319
visits have been generated via the keyword phrase ‘business articles’, this is from
a total of 94,285 visits. The ‘business articles’ keyword phrase therefore
represents just under 11% of all the organic (free traffic as apposed to pay per
click) visits from search engines.
The extremely positive thing from an organic SEO perspective for this website is
the quantity of different keyword phrases which are driving traffic. 52,015
different keyword phrases have referred website visits.
You can also see that the category pages are well optimized. For instance, the
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keyword phrase ‘business law articles’ referred 592 visits, ‘free business articles’
referred 506 visits and ‘operations management articles’ referred 497 visits.
This provides a very important lesson – if you just focus on optimizing for just
the one keyword phrase, and just the one page (i.e. your home page) then even if
you manage to hit the top of Google for your chosen keyword phrase, the
chances are that you’ll still be missing out on 90% of your potential search engine
traffic because you haven’t considered longer-tail keyword phrases.
Broadening the quantity of keyword phrases that people use to find your website
in search engines has an additional benefit. Not only will you be driving more
visitors to your site, you’ll also be safeguarding your traffic from search engines.
In short, the more routes into your website, the less you risk having your
business seriously affected if you lose the high search engine ranking of ne
keyword phrase.
Analyzing traffic from links to your site
Yet another important use of visitor analysis software like Google Analytics is to
analyze the quantity and quality of traffic driven to your site directly from links
as opposed to search engines.
By selecting ‘traffic sources’ and then ‘referring sites’ in Google Analytics you
can view all the different websites that are driving traffic to your site.
From there you can click on one of the listed links and drill down further. If the
website that you’re analyzing sent traffic from multiple pages, you’ll be able to
see which pages sent the most traffic. You’ll also be able to analyze the quality of
traffic from each individual page that sends you traffic. For instance, some
websites may send you traffic which on average views many more pages. Other
website many send you visitors that are much more likely to convert to your
Google Analytics goal target.
Reviewing the quality of traffic from Top10SalesArticles.com
By reviewing the quality of traffic delivered from the website Top10SalesArticles
in Google Analytics (Figure 11.7) we can see how much better (or worse) traffic
from an individual link is compared with other sources.
For instance, we can se that the average amount of time that a visitor from this
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site spends on the BuildYourOwnBusiness website is 2 minutes and 9 seconds.
This compares with an average of 1 minute and 50 seconds from traffic from
search engines.
Figure 11.7 – Google Analytics
Reviewing the quality of traffic from Top10SalesArticles
You can also see that the bounce rate of traffic from this site is slightly higher –
74.20% compared with a bounce rate of 68.85% from all traffic.
These statistics are interesting, and information about the quality of the landing
page can be inferred from the data. For instance, it could be argued that the
quality of the home page on the BuildYourOwnBusiness website isn’t
encouraging enough visitors to click through and view other pages – it therefore
needs to be improved.
Not all traffic to your website is equal
This little exercise of reviewing the differences in website traffic to
BuildYourOwnBusiness from varying sources shows that it’s important for you
to be aware that not all traffic to your website is equal.
If you are fully aware of the quality of traffic delivered from a certain website –
including how much on average each visitor is worth to you, you may be able to
justify an increased affiliate referral fee for that website. Visitor value knowledge
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is power.
This again emphasizes how important it is to set up a monetary value with your
Google Analytics goals. Unless you include this, you’ll find it a lot harder to
differentiate between the value of traffic from different sources – and therefore
much harder to make highly informed future marketing spend decisions.
Can you list the top 10 websites that refer traffic to your website? If so, what
have you done to try to increase the volume of traffic from these sources?
Is your website as clearly laid out as it should be?
Something else that’s really important to consider is the pages that your visitors
tend to view on your website – for instance, is there a link from your home page
which tends to be visited more than any other? If so, you need to know why.
Perhaps you’re website’s as not as clearly laid out as it needs to be. Check how
long people stay on their second page for. If’ it’s only a manner of seconds then
you should question the value and relevance of the information on that page.
Have you tested your website in different browsers?
Check if there’s any significant difference between people who view your web
pages in less common web browsers. If you notice any major difference then you
should do some usability testing – test that your site performs and looks just as
good in different scenarios.
That’s why testing your site before you start marketing it to the general public is
so very important. You can put off quite a few visitors if your website doesn’t
display properly in Firefox or Safari. It’s easy to forget that just because you
might be using Windows and Internet Explorer to view your web pages, many of
your visitors might not be.
Website coding is an art as well as a science. In other words, there’s not
necessarily a logical reason why certain parts of your web page might look
significantly different, or act in a significantly different manner when viewed
through different devices. I recall that for several months a major UK
supermarket’s website just didn’t work properly at all when viewed through the
FireFox browser. That meant that they may have alienated 30% of their website
visitors simply because their website wasn’t thoroughly tested!
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Mobile browsing devices
Depending on the technical profile of your audience, you may find that a
significant percentage of your website visits come through mobile internet
devices. Do you know what your website looks like in a mobile phone? How
quickly does it load? Do people viewing your web pages on mobile phones have
to scroll before being able to read anything worthwhile?
If being able to view and operate your website from a mobile phone is important
for your business (or likely to become important for your business in the future)
then you should consider having a special version of your site designed for these
devices with less images and straight-to-the-point text.
Don’t guess – make an informed decision
There really isn’t any excuse for guessing when it comes to improving your
website for your visitors. Analyzing the statistics from your current visitors
should provide you with all the information that you require to make an
informed decision to improve things.
And even if you’re not entirely sure, you should use that split-test software
which I mentioned earlier (Google Website Optimizer) to test different
improvement options. Thorough website visitor analysis is a must if you want
your website to reach anywhere near its full potential.
Pillar #11 – Visitor Analysis Summary
· Using Google Analytics you can track many vital visitor statistics like where
your visitors come from and how long they stay. You can then use this
valuable information to find weak spots in your website like improving
important conversion rates.
· Once you have identified your weak spots or discovered a blockage on the site
you can amend your website to improve your conversion rates. This is
probably something that your competitors aren’t doing.
· You can track the sources of traffic to your site, and more specifically which
websites your visitors are coming from, as well as keyword phrases used in
search engines to find your site. You can use this to help you determine which
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keyword phrases to focus on in the future for your SEO.
· Remember that it’s imperative to set goals for your site – and give them a
monetary value.
· Make sure you test what your website looks like and performs like on
different browsers – this includes mobile phone browsers.
· Don’t delay on getting your visitor tracking set up – unless you set it up now,
you won’t have any comparable historical data to analyze in the future.
· Use Google Analytics to help you pinpoint the most valuable sources of traffic
to your site – you might be able to make a decision that you can afford to pay
more for traffic from certain sources if you can justify it.
· How can you justify any future marketing spend unless you track its
performance. Online marketing is unique – the majority of it is entirely
trackable and therefore justifiable.
· For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date
visitor analysis resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar11.
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Pillar #12
Continuous Content
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Pillar #12 – Continuous Content
________________________________________________________________________
Continuous content is probably the shortest of the 13 Pillars of Internet
Marketing in terms of length, but it should be one of the broadest pillars of your
internet marketing strategy. By broadest I mean that not only should it be
ongoing, it also impacts other pillars.
If linking is queen, content is king
I can’t remember who I heard this quote from first, but it certainly describes the
high degree of importance of continuous content:
“If Linking is Queen, Content is King”.
While the number of quality links to your website tells search engines that your
site is likely to be important, search engines are less likely to rank your site
highly for a continuous period of time unless you continually update your
website with fresh, original, relevant content.
It doesn’t even have to be content produced by you or your organization. But it is
important to rank highly in search engines that it’s original content. Mad Content
(Figure 12.1) is a great value content writing service which charges just $1.50 per
100 words.
Fresh information shows search engines that your website is more likely to be
up-to-date, and therefore more relevant in your industry segment compared
with your competitors.
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Figure 12.1 – Mad Content
Mad Content offers an excellent value-for-money content writing service
Blog technology makes your website easier to update
One of the reasons I encourage you to integrate blog technology into your
website to make it easy to add new content to your site on a regular basis. By
using a blogging system like WordPress, all you have to do is to log-in to your
back office, enter a heading, some post content and press ‘submit’. That’s all it
takes to create a new web page on your site through a blogging system.
With WordPress you can even schedule posts to be published at different points
in the future. You just select your time of publication when you upload your post
and it will be made live at your chosen date and time.
Great new content will encourage natural, organic linking
Whenever you add great quality new content to your site, and long as if it is
good quality and useful, the more people that view it, the more likely it is that
people will choose to link to it because they find it to be a valuable resource.
That’s one of the reasons why many successful bloggers don’t have to do any
other form of internet marketing. Because they offer great content, and they’ve
built up a band of loyal followers, as soon as they publish a new post, they
suddenly obtain a build-up of new links to that new page.
Grinding out new content is worth it
Grinding out fresh content on a regular basis is something which you will have
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to work hard at. It is quite tough to begin with – especially if writing’s not your
natural skill. But it doesn’t matter if you’re never going to be the world’s greatest
novelist, you’ll still have your own distinctive style.
If for whatever reason you decide that you just can’t product one new article per
week for your website, you can always outsource the production of the content.
Just make sure that your business is represented in a professional, consistent
manner. And that you try to get the same writer to write for you all the time.
There are lots of great outsourcing services where you can find writers. Links to
there can be found in the Pillars #12 resources section at
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar12.
Pillar #12 – Continuous Content Summary
· If ‘Linking is Queen, Content is King’ – links tell search engines that you are
important, but search engines are less likely to rank you highly unless you
have good content.
· Continuous new content on your site is so important. It needs to be updated
as often as possible. Search engines love new content as a website with fresh
content is more likely to be the most up-to-date in its industry.
· Fresh information = more relevance.
· Great new content encourages natural, organic link building.
· Remember to integrate blog technology for ease uploading and effective
distribution. If you are using WordPress then you can pre-set your blog to
release blog posts on certain dates in the future.
· For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date
continuous content related and outsourcing resources visit
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar12.
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Pillar #13
The Evolving Web
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Pillar #13 – The Evolving Web
________________________________________________________________________
The evolving web means that the World Wide Web continues to rapidly
change – and therefore so must also your internet marketing strategy.
Three stages of web development
There will be at least three stages of web evolvement that you need to be aware
of. So far there has only been two distinct stages – but the next stage is just
around the corner.
The three stages of web development: (from an internet marketing perspective)
Stage 1: Web 1.0 – 1996 to 2004
Stage 2: Web 2.0 – 2004 to ?
Stage 3: Web 3.0 - ? to ?
The evolvement of the web and how this impacts marketing activities
The web has evolved as a marketing medium since the mid 1990s. Back then the
internet could be described more as one-way source of information. Web pages
were viewed, read and/or printed out. The internet was a good resource for
researching information. Any marketing that occurred was based on existing
offline advertising techniques.
Pillar #13 – The Evolving Web reviews how marketing techniques have evolved
since then, ensuring that you stay up-to-date with to most effective methods of
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marketing your business online.
Why the web changed as a communications medium when Web 2.0 arrived
Remember that Web 1.0 was a one-way communication process, like a
newspaper. However, when Web 2.0 arrived it represented the massintroduction
of user-generated content. This is where blogging and social
networking came in for the masses. People formed their own communities on
niche topics and began interacting between themselves.
What will Web 3.0 look like and how will it impact internet marketing?
Web 3.0 hasn’t happened yet – it might not happen for a while – it might not
happen ever. But Web 3.0 is a good term to describe what might be. It’s a useful
term to represent the fact the web constantly changes, and it evolving into
something else.
My opinion is that the web is becoming more of a personalized experience. Social
networks are offering more and more ways to make each user’s experience more
unique. Personalized home pages are continually offering more personalization.
Perhaps another impact of web evolvement will have a greater impact than
personalization on internet marketing in the future. The essential part of Pillar
#13 – The Evolving Web is to keep your ear to the ground and be prepared to
adapt your internet marketing model in the future.
How Web 2.0 marketing differs from Web 1.0 marketing
Web 2.0 marketing lets you do a lot more than speaking to your potential
customers – it allows you to interact with your potential customers – at a place
where they feel at home. Let’s use the golf course as an example…
What you need to be acutely aware of when it comes to interacting with your
potential customers is that it’s like them inviting you out for a game of golf –
they’ve invited you out because they like you and they know that you play the
game too.
You limber up on the first tee, and just as your new acquaintance is about to hit
his first drive, you pull a flip chart out of your golf bag and start a sales
presentation. This may seem a bit crazy example but it articulates how a lot of
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businesses are still wrongly approaching Web 2.0 marketing.
Web 2.0 marketing is not about your advertising your web services. It’s about
you developing relationships with people and offering value – free of charge
with no catch. If people like you and what you represent then they’ll make the
decision to find out more about you from reading your profile on whatever
social network you’re participating on. That’s where you can sell your business.
Web 1.0 still exists – it hasn’t gone and isn’t likely to go away
Although Web 2.0 marketing is the ‘in thing’, Web 1.0 marketing still exists. It
hasn’t gone and it isn’t likely to go away. Web 1.0 includes search engine listings,
press releases, banner ads and many other internet marketing techniques.
I’d like to be clear that I’m not trying to persuade you to disregard the use of
Web 1.0 internet marketing techniques. All I’m trying to get you to do is to be
aware of when to market in a Web 2.0 style and when to market in a Web 1.0
style. As long as if you’re aware of where to use each marketing style, then
you’re not going to look like an aggressive salesman on a golf course.
Some thoughts on Web 3.0 marketing opportunities
I’ve already mentioned that I feel that the web is evolving to become a more
personalized experience for each user. So how will this personalized web
experience manifest itself?
There are two main areas that I’d like to discuss within this yet-to-be Web 3.0 –
Virtual Reality Marketing and something I call MyPage Marketing.
Virtual Reality Marketing
As computer abilities improve, and internet bandwidth increases, so does the
quality of software programs that produce a virtual reality experience.
The more effectively that these virtual reality programs simulate real life
experiences, or provide thrills on a similar level to doing whatever it is in real
life, the longer and more often that people will use these virtual reality programs.
Second Life – and example of a virtual reality website
Once of the most popular and well known online virtual reality programs is
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called Second Life (figure 13.1).
Although the Second Life has been live for several years, it’s never become as
popular as the main social networking sites. It should therefore not be your
primary focus in an internet marketing campaign. However, it’s worth being
aware of, because some companies have already invested significantly in the
Second Life project.
Figure 13.1 – Second Life
Second Life – an early example of Web 3.0?
In Second Life you can buy land, build your own house or build your own
business. And here’s where it gets interesting – you can market your own
Second Life business. Believe it or not there are many people who are making
full-time incomes within Second Life by selling services. Presently, much of the
income is being made by graphic designers and programmers who assist with
the design of avatars and other images.
Once you join Second Life you can bid to buy virtual land. Once you own your
own Second Life land you can build a business, employ people, the imagination’s
the limit. A lot of real-life companies have actually bought land in Second Life to
secure their virtual retail space.
The Second Life website has some frequently asked questions which will help
you start your own ‘second life’. They provide examples of different businesses
that are already successful in Second Life and you can use these examples to see
how you could run your own Second Life business.
As mentioned, I would not recommend spending too much time marketing your
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business on Second Life at the moment, but if you can think of an angle that is a
little bit different, something particularly relevant for you, then it may be
worthwhile testing this as an online marketing medium.
However, if you do decide to give Second Life a go make sure that you carefully
track time and money spent. And make sure that you set up a method of tracking
the success of your marketing activities.
MyPage Marketing
The second example of what may be referred to as Web 3.0 marketing is what I
call MyPage Marketing. By MyPage Marketing I mean focusing the initial part of
your marketing activities on the personalized home pages or personal profile
pages of social networking sites.
MyPage Marketing falls flat on its face unless implemented flawlessly. In order
for MyPage Marketing to be successful you need to be offering your audience
something fun or useful and free.
Google Gadgets – an example of MyPage Marketing in action
I would call Google Gadgets an example of MyPage Marketing in action. Google
now offer their users the option to personalize their home page – they call this
your iGoogle page (Figure 13.2). You can choose from thousands of different
independently designed gadgets to use to personalize your iGoogle page. Simply
select “Add stuff” at the top right hand side of the page to search for gadgets hat
are of interest to you.
One of the most popular Google Gadgets is a simple to-do list. Figure 13.3 shows
a selection of some useful Google gadgets that you can use to personalize your
iGoogle page.
By clicking on the “Add it now” button, you can add the to-do list to your
personalized iGoogle page (Figure 13.4). This gadget allows you to store your
list of things to do electronically, making them accessible when you login to your
home page on any computer.
You can find a Google gadget that will do just about anything for you. There are
dictionary and thesaurus tools, weather forecast gadgets, share dealing gadgets,
currency converters. Most things you can think of really.
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Figure 13.2 - iGoogle
Personalize your iGoogle page by selecting “Add stuff”
But you can design your own Google Gadget – or have your own Google Gadget
designed for you. That’s where the internet marketing opportunity is. Imagine if
you could design a Google Gadget that was to useful or so fun that it was
downloaded by hundreds of thousands of users. You may be able to build one of
these bespoke software programs (that’s in effect what a Google Gadget is) to
lead people down your internet marketing funnel. Your Google Gadget is a
really useful free tool – but you can also offer a more complex paid-for version.
Figure 13.3 - iGoogle
The to-do list is the third option down on the “Add stuff” page on iGoogle
Creating your own Google Gadget
When you’re logged into your iGoogle page, you also have the option to create
your own gadget. Just click “Try it now” to get started. This “try it now” page
shows you different options for how you can easily create your own
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personalized gadget.
However, this option probably isn’t what you’re looking for. What most
businesses will need is the “For developers” section which will show you exactly
how your developers can build gadgets. And it’s completely free of charge to
submit your own gadget.
Figure 13.4 - iGoogle
The to-do list as seen on a personalized iGoogle homepage
Perhaps you can incorporate your website link at the bottom of your gadget with
an unobtrusive and optional call to action? But remember, the important thing is
for it to be useful for whoever chooses to install and see your gadget – otherwise
your gadget will be an exercise in negative publicity. If you’re looking to market
your services too overtly from within your gadget, you’re much more likely for it
to be a failure.
One of your internet marketing objectives should be to build a more responsive,
trusting list of prospective customers. And there’d hardly a better way of doing
this than offering your prospects something valuable free-of-charge – with no
catch. That’s what Google Gadgets allow you to do.
If you can persuade just a hundred people from your list to download your
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Google Gadget and have it on their own iGoogle page, then it will rise up the
popularity ranking within the Google Gadgets search engine, allowing more
people will become aware of it.
There are virtually no upside limits and costs for producing your own gadgets
are minimal. The main constraint is your imagination – what new Google Gadget
can you design that would be useful to users and related to your industry?
The Evolving Web isn’t the place to start – even if it’s fun!
Web 2.0 is still a very much an evolving field. Web 3.0 barely exists – and even if
it does, it’s barely a concept. There is no point in actively focusing on these
evolving areas as an internet marketing medium initially; it would be a mistake
not to focus most of your time of more conventional forms of internet marketing
at the start of your campaign. Things like directories, link building and article
marketing are proven internet marketing techniques that should be among your
initial areas of focus.
Always test the success of your campaign
However, if you do decide to test virtual reality marketing or MyPage Marketing
please remember to put in place as many methods to test the success of the
campaign as possible.
Track things like how many people have viewed your gadget description,
downloaded your gadget and how many people have gone on to complete a
paid purchase at your site as a result of choosing to download your free gadget.
There are many other metrics which you should be testing. And with the
Evolving Web, like with nearly every other aspect of internet marketing, the
more you test and measure, the more you will be able to optimize your campaign
and achieve the best possible results for your business in the future.
Pillar #13 – The Evolving Web Summary
· Web 1.0 is represented by a one-way communications process. Web 1.0
marketing opportunities are therefore more like traditional advertising
opportunities, including things like submitting your website to directories,
submitting online press releases and article marketing.
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· Web 2.0 represents the interactive web and marketing therefore started to
recognize the importance of interacting in a community and encouraging
more interaction, joining social networking groups, forming your own groups
and thinking about the seeding of a viral marketing campaign.
· Web 3.0 represents the future. It doesn’t necessarily exist yet, but I call it the
personalized web. Marketing tools for Web 3.0 could include virtual reality
marketing and something I call MyPageMarketing – providing useful
interaction from within someone’s personalized home page or personal profile
on a social networking site.
· The Evolving Web means you can never assume you know everything about
Internet marketing. Internet marketing techniques can change quickly. If you
feel that you’re up-to-date with things now, unless you continue to study
more material (like the 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan –
www.26WeekPlan.com) you’ll very quickly find your knowledge to be out-ofdate.
· Think laterally of how new opportunities in Web 3.0 could impact your
business. You should test new methods of marketing and ensure you find
ways to track your success when using those new forms of marketing. Never
stand still.
· For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date links
that relate to the Evolving Web visit our ‘future of internet marketing’
resources: http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar13.
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~ In a Nutshell ~
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The 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing – In a Nutshell
________________________________________________________________________
If you’d like a recap, or you’re revisiting the book for a quick summary, here
are the 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing ‘in a nutshell’…
PILLAR 1: Keyword Research
There are several paid-for, and a couple of free keyword research tools that you
can use. But what is keyword research? Keyword research and the correct positioning
of those keyword phrases makes sure that your web page is targeted towards
the phrases that people actually type into search engines. Keyword research
tools work by analyzing previous search trends.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #1 – Keyword Research:
· Structure your site correctly to begin with. You know what your business is
about and what your home page is about. Make sure your keywords reflect
your business purpose.
· You should aim to structure your website in a logical manner for both users
and for search engines.
· After you choose your home page keyword phrase, choose your site
categories. What categories represent your business? Brainstorm ideas and use
resources such as an online thesaurus, KWmap, Wordtracker and the Google
External Keyword Tool to come up with 10-30 relevant categories for your
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site.
· Focus on your individual pages after your categories. In an ideal world you
should devise a structure of 10 to 30 individual pages within each of those
categories. If you want, and if your website is large enough, then you can go
for sub-categories within categories before drilling down to pages within that
section.
· Conduct keyword research to come up with one keyword phrase per page.
· Be as specific as possible. By selecting long-tail keyword phrases, even if you
have fewer visitors to your site, you will have a higher conversion rate from
the traffic you do receive. In the long term bringing in a couple of visitors per
day to an individual page, equals 500-600 very relevant visitors over a year.
· Visit all the resources mentioned in Pillar #1 Keyword Research here:
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar1
Position your keyword phrase in your site architecture – and this is where we
start Pillar #2 – Website Design.
PILLAR 2: Website Design
There are two essential facets of good website design: Pleasing design and efficient
coding. Your website needs to be pleasing to your consumer's eyes. It also
needs to 'flow' nicely. Essential coding to pay attention to includes your page title,
heading tags and navigational links.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #2 – Website Design:
· Take some time to think about your behind the scenes coding – make your
whole website as efficient as possible, which will help search engines when
they crawl through your site.
· Get your navigation structure right and make sure it's logical for search
engines and individual users.
· Remember that your website visitors may land on an individual page via a
search engine and good navigation will allow them to quickly understand
where that page is in relation to the rest of your site. This will make your new
visitors more likely to stick around for longer.
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· Ensure that you’re aware of the 8 essential aspects of onsite optimization
which will help to improve your search engine rankings.
· Have you considered the precise relevance of each page? Having just the one
topic per page will make life easier for both visitors and search engines.
· By undertaking continuous testing and analyzing what does and doesn’t
work, you can alter the structure of the site to maximize conversion rates.
Visit all the resources mentioned in Pillar #2 Website Design here:
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar2
PILLAR 3: Blog Technology
Just because a website looks like a website doesn't mean it's just a website. It
could be a blog too. Blogs have lots of great tools built into them that make
search engines like them a lot more than a static website. Features like category
tags, RSS feeds and the 'pinging' of new content to other sites means you can't afford
to ignore the value of blogging as an internet marketing strategy.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #3 – Blog Technology:
· A blog doesn’t necessarily have to be published in a journal style and
displayed in chronological order. The content of a blog can be anything from
articles to opinions and the most important aspect about a blog from a
business standpoint is the technology – the inbuilt automated internet
marketing capability
· Wordpress.org is probably the most appropriate blogging software for most
businesses. It’s free to use, state-of-the-art and offers bespoke design and
functionality
· Plugins are small software programs designed by independent coders that
add additional functionality to your blog. There are thousands of plugins to
choose from and most of them are free-of-charge.
· Pinging and RSS feeds can be used to help to automate your blog marketing.
Pinging is the process that makes a blog and news directories aware of the fact
that you’ve just published a new post. RSS Feeds let people subscribe to your
content and allow them to view the content without actually visiting your site.
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· Podcasting can be used as a way to augment your blog posts. Podcasts are
generally audio (or video) files, and they are published using RSS so
subscribers are alerted as soon as a new episode is published. Tools such as
Audacity and Skype can be used to create and edit podcasts. iTunes is the
most popular software to use to subscribe to a podcast feed.
Visit all the resources mentioned in Pillar #3 Blog Technology here:
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar3
PILLAR 4: Autoresponders
The majority of marketing managers don't know what autoresponders are. And
that's a big mistake. Autoresponders have the power to build relationships with
your customers when you're busy doing something else. You could be on holiday
and come back to find that your customers have placed orders – all because
of your autoresponder.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #4 – Autoresponders:
· Autoresponders are a great way for you to build relationships with your
customers. They can deliver virtually anything by email on an automated,
pre-meditated and usually personalized basis.
· Broadcast Emails are informal emails which are usually personalized to the
receiver. They are great for sending up-to-date news and building better
business relationships. When creating the text for e-mails they should be as
personalized and relevant as possible to cement the relationship.
· Newsletters are a more formal, professional method of keeping in touch with
your client list and are a great reason for regular communication with your
customers. A newsletter can be sent immediately, or pre-loaded into you
autoresponder to be delivered on a certain date. They can also be part of an
autoresponder sequence, delivered so many days, weeks or months after the
initial sign-up.
· One of the autoresponder which I recommend which is specifically built for
email marketing is called AWeber. Find links to AWeber and other
recommended email marketing resources here:
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar4
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· Building a list of relevant subscribers is an essential aspect of successful
internet marketing, and you can greatly speed this process up by offering free
bonus content or a PDF eBook as an incentive for people to subscriber to your
newsletter or email updates.
· Having a large, responsive email database will take the onus off relying on
search engines for traffic in the future. It’s never good to have total reliance on
something that brings in a lot of business which you don’t control.
· By building a thoughtful, relevant autoresponder sequence into your new
subscriber process you will be automatically building business brand loyalty
without having to speak to your subscribers personally.
· Use autoresponders to survey your subscribers. This is a great way of
conducting market research in addition to continuing to grow the quality of
your subscriber relationships.
Visit all the resources mentioned in Pillar #4 Autoresponders here:
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar4
PILLAR 5: Paid Advertising
Sometimes the only quick way of turning on the flow of website traffic is to pay
for it. And that's where pay-per-click, pay-per-impression and sponsored advertising
come in. It's important to include paid advertising as part of your internet
marketing budget. But only part of it. Ideally you will be spending a lot initially,
but not so much after six months of your internet marketing campaign.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising:
· Google AdWords should be your primary initial focus for pay-per-click
website traffic. Only when you’ve mastered AdWords should you move onto
other services like Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft AdCenter and
Facebook Advertising.
· When creating your Google AdWords ad, use square brackets to get an exact
match of your keyword phrase. Always test your ads to work out which
strategies work best by remembering to take advantage of the Google
AdWords A:B split testing functionality.
· It’s incredibly important to optimize your ad landing pages for your pay-per-
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click adverts. In an ideal world you’ll have a landing page which has been
designed with a specific advert in mind.
Major directory submission should also form part of any serious internet marketing
campaign. For a list of updated major website directories and other paid internet
marketing resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar5.
PILLAR 6: Press Releases
One of the secrets to effective internet marketing is to get other people talking
about you and your website. And one of the ways to do that is to appeal to specialist
publications through the submission of a press release. Press releases don't
have to cost anything and all they take is time and planning.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #6 – Press Releases:
· Online press releases are a great way of generating awareness and traffic
directly to your site. By including a non HTML URL link with http:// you can
also improve your off-site search engine optimization as some republishing
sites will automatically convert that website mention into a live, SEO friendly
link.
· PRWeb is the largest and most popular website for submitting online press
releases. Selecting the $80 service should be sufficient for your initial needs;
although if you find that it’s successful you should then test the higher-cost
services.
· Include a descriptive title for your online press release that includes a
keyword phrase.
· The first couple of sentences of your press release should be short punchy,
provide an overview to your whole story and also include your keyword
phrase.
· Always include a call-to-action for journalists as well as your end readers. This
could be in the form of additional information or a free related report
available at a website address.
· Use Google Alerts to track the success of your press releases. You will be able
to view who is publishing your article and you can use this to build direct
relationships with publishers for the future. You can also use Google Alerts to
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test the effectiveness of different online press release distribution services.
· Online press releases aren’t a replacement for conventional PR agencies – they
should be viewed as an augmentation of this service
For up-to-date links to recommended online press release resources visit
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar6.
PILLAR 7: Link Building
The heart of the internet pumps because of links. If websites didn't link to each
other, then search engines would find it very difficult to determine which websites
belong to any given field. Search engines would also find it very difficult to
decide which website is better. The long and short of it is – the more relevant,
quality links to your website, the higher your website will be ranked by search
engines.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #7 – Link Building:
· To achieve good, consistent search engine rankings it is important to get
quality links from relevant sites to your website. However, large numbers of
non-relevant links pointing to your site can have a negative effect on your
search engine rankings.
· Submit your website to free directories, such as local or industry-specific
directories. Use DirectoryCritic.com to search for niche industry directories.
Both Google Local and Yahoo Local are valuable local directories.
DirectoryCritic.com can also be used to find more local directories.
· Researching the links that point to your competitor’s site can be a good way to
discover which sites might be willing to link to your site. You can contact
these site owners by using contact forms on their website, or using the
easywhois.com service.
· Respected institutions such as universities, libraries, or business networks are
often willing to link to your site if you’re willing to help them out by giving a
free lecture or seminar on your specialized subject. Perhaps you can offer
these organizations something else of value in exchange for a link?
· Remember to send a testimonial for any product or service that your business
invests in. Send your testimonial to the marketing director and include your
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website address to make it much more likely to give you a free one-way link.
· Search Google for your keyword phrase plus the phrases ‘add url’ or the
phrase ‘add site’ to find websites that are actively looking for link partners. If
the site is relevant for your readers then consider arranging a reciprocal link.
This offers value as long as if is part of a wider link building campaign, and
not the primary focus of the campaign.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date link
building resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar7.
PILLAR 8: Article Submission
Article submission is still one of the most effective ways to get both readers and
search engines interested in your website. By submitting a quality article for publication
on the biggest and best (as well as subject specific) article directories, you
increase your credibility in your field as well as being given the opportunity to
link back to your own website.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #8 – Article Submission:
· Start your article marketing by submitting a minimum of one article per week
to Ezine Articles. Aim to make your articles between 500 and 800 words long.
Include an author bio at the bottom of all your articles which contains a
keyword link to your home page, a keyword link to a category page on your
site and a non-HTML link to your home page.
· Effective articles are often formatted in the ‘How to…’ and ‘Top 10 ways of…’
doing something. Use subheadings, keep your paragraphs short and
remember not to be too formal in your tone of language.
· Think quality and quantity. Quality will help your article to stand out from
the competition, and give you a much bigger chance of getting your article republished
on other sites. Quantity is important too – this will keep your
articles featured on the home pages of the various article directories and start
to get you featured as a top author on various sites.
· After you submit articles to top general article directories, offer to submit
additional unique articles to other highly respected industry specific websites.
This unique content and unique links will drive good quality, relevant traffic
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from the sites and have an extremely positive effect on your search engine
optimization.
· Remember to use Google Alerts to track the republishing of your articles. This
will help you to identify sites to which it would be worthwhile to offer unique
content to in the future.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date article
marketing resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar8.
PILLAR 9: Group Interaction
An additional way to become respected in your field is to regularly participate in
your industry groups and forums. By answering queries from less experienced
people and having a link in your signature in the bottom of each post, again
you're taking the opportunity to appeal to both readers and search engines.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #9 – Group Interaction:
· Forum Participation can be a great way of building up your reputation in your
industry. By posting good quality, relevant posts in a forum (which is
relevant for your industry segment) together with using a good signature
which links to your site with a keyword phrase, you will be generating direct
traffic to your site as well as tremendously helping your search engine
rankings.
· Social networking groups such as MySpace and Facebook can help to create
awareness of your company. They can be used to promote new products that
you are releasing in the future as well as be a good way of allowing people to
let their friends know of your business. Just make sure that you initially
interact with people by aiming to assist people rather than aiming to sell them
something.
· Consider driving people on your email list towards good forum posts that
you’ve made. This will encourage interaction and quickly increase your
credibility in that forum.
· Answering questions on Yahoo! Answers and LinkedIn Answers is another
way to increase your credibility. You should post good quality answers on
relevant topics. Don’t promote your own business in the answers – aim to
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drive people to your site from your profile. If your answers are good enough
and relevant enough people will want to read your profile.
· Blog comment marketing – posting comments on blogs that are relevant to
your business can also help raise your industry awareness and drive traffic to
your site. You should aim to select about 10 relevant blogs and subscribe to
them. Every time there is a relevant post, make sure you add a valuable
comment. They key with making this a success is consistency.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date group
interaction (social marketing resources) visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/
pillar9.
PILLAR 10: Viral Marketing
Viral marketing simply means marketing that spreads like a virus – quickly,
from peer to peer and often unintentionally from a strategic perspective. You
don't necessarily have to think of a world beating viral marketing campaign to
take advantage of the power of viral marketing. Just make it a bit easier for people
to tell their friends about your service. And try and give them a reason to tell
their friends.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #10 – Viral Marketing:
· Viral marketing uses word-of-mouth, peer-to-peer communication to
advertise your website.
· Social bookmarking and video marketing are two examples of what you can
use to encourage viral marketing to take place.
· Aim to improve your number of returning visitors using social bookmarkingby
allowing people to quickly and easily make your site one of their favorites.
Try incorporating the AddThis.com tool within your blog.
· Remember to kick-start the popularity of your videos on video sharing sites
like YouTube by driving people on your email list to your videos and asking
them to add comments.
· Be efficient in the uploading of your videos – make sure that you use the free
TubeMogul uploading and tracking service. Don’t just upload your videos to
YouTube. There are lots of other sources of video viewers and some sites will
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convert a lot better than YouTube even though they don’t necessarily bring as
many video views.
· Have you included a call-to-action in your videos? Do people know who has
uploaded the video and what else they could get from you if they visited your
website?
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date viral
marketing resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar10.
PILLAR 11: Visitor Analysis
If you don't know where your visitors live, how they're finding your website and
what they're doing when they're on your website, then how do you know what
to improve about your website? Visitor analysis is key to gaining the knowledge
that helps you make informed decisions on your future website strategy.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #11 – Visitor Analysis:
· Using Google Analytics you can track many vital visitor statistics like where
your visitors come from and how long they stay. You can then use this
valuable information to find weak spots in your website like improving
important conversion rates.
· Once you have identified your weak spots or discovered a blockage on the site
you can amend your website to improve your conversion rates. This is
probably something that your competitors aren’t doing.
· You can track the sources of traffic to your site, and more specifically which
websites your visitors are coming from, as well as keyword phrases used in
search engines to find your site. You can use this to help you determine which
keyword phrases to focus on in the future for your SEO.
· Remember that it’s imperative to set goals for your site – and give them a
monetary value.
· Make sure you test what your website looks like and performs like on
different browsers – this includes mobile phone browsers.
· Don’t delay on getting your visitor tracking set up – unless you set it up now,
you won’t have any comparable historical data to analyze in the future.
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· Use Google Analytics to help you pinpoint the most valuable sources of traffic
to your site – you might be able to make a decision that you can afford to pay
more for traffic from certain sources if you can justify it.
· How can you justify any future marketing spend unless you track its
performance. Online marketing is unique – the majority of it is entirely
trackable and therefore justifiable.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date visitor
analysis resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar11.
PILLAR 12: Continuous Content
Search engines love new content on your website. It shows them that your information
isn't out of date and that you're trying to offer the best possible service to
your readers. If you haven't updated your website for a year or so then you're always
going to find it more difficult to get higher rankings from search engines.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #12 – Continuous Content:
· If ‘Linking is Queen, Content is King’ – links tell search engines that you are
important, but search engines are less likely to rank you highly unless you
have good content.
· Continuous new content on your site is so important. It needs to be updated
as often as possible. Search engines love new content as a website with fresh
content is more likely to be the most up-to-date in its industry.
· Fresh information = more relevance.
· Great new content encourages natural, organic link building.
· Remember to integrate blog technology for ease uploading and effective
distribution. If you are using WordPress then you can pre-set your blog to
release blog posts on certain dates in the future.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date continuous
content related and outsourcing resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/
pillar12.
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PILLAR 13: The Evolving Web
The internet never stays the same. That means that if you continue to use the
same online marketing channels, and never re-analyze the marketplace, you'll
slowly lose your marketshare. Whenever you see a new website ask yourself two
questions – firstly, is there anything that I can learn from the way that they do
business? And secondly, can I use their website as a marketing medium?
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #13 – The Evolving Web:
· Web 1.0 is represented by a one-way communications process. Web 1.0
marketing opportunities are therefore more like traditional advertising
opportunities, including things like submitting your website to directories,
submitting online press releases and article marketing.
· Web 2.0 represents the interactive web and marketing therefore started to
recognize the importance of interacting in a community and encouraging
more interaction, joining social networking groups, forming your own groups
and thinking about the seeding of a viral marketing campaign.
· Web 3.0 represents the future. It doesn’t necessarily exist yet, but I call it the
personalized web. Marketing tools for Web 3.0 could include virtual reality
marketing and something I call MyPageMarketing – providing useful
interaction from within someone’s personalized home page or personal profile
on a social networking site.
· The Evolving Web means you can never assume you know everything about
Internet marketing. Internet marketing techniques can change quickly. If you
feel that you’re up-to-date with things now, unless you continue to study
more material (like the 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan –
www.26weekplan.com) you’ll very quickly find your knowledge to be out-ofdate.
· Think laterally of how new opportunities in Web 3.0 could impact your
business. You should test new methods of marketing and ensure you find
ways to track your success when using those new forms of marketing. Never
stand still.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date links
that relate to the Evolving Web (the future of internet marketing) visit
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar13.
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The Next Step - 195 -
The Next
Step
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The Next Step – A Strategic Internet Marketing Plan
________________________________________________________________________
I’d like to take to congratulate you for getting this far! I sincerely hope that you
have found this book to be relevant and useful for your needs.
The 13 Pillars isn’t a strategic internet marketing plan
But please bear in mind that because the 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing book is
aimed at providing the reader with an general, broad introduction to internet
marketing, it’s been structured in a manner which attempts to make the subject
matter as easy to understand as possible.
This means that the order in which the 13 Pillars appear in the book is most likely
not the order in which you would want to implement them in your business.
Establishing your own strategic internet marketing plan
Therefore, the next step, after reading the 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing, is to
establish your own internet marketing plan.
Thankfully you don’t have to do that by yourself, because I’ve already done it for
you!
It’s called the 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan, and it’s a free, weekly action-
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The Next Step - 197 -
plan newsletter supported by video tutorials. Just visit www.26weekplan.com to
sign-up today.
Internet marketing techniques never stand still
As Pillar #13 The Evolving Web discusses, internet marketing techniques never
stand still.
Sometimes search engine algorithms are continually altered to try to counter
spammers. On other occasions completely new online business models open up
new internet marketing opportunities.
That’s another reason why you should subscribe to the 26-Week Internet
Marketing Plan newsletter – you’ll be kept up to date with all the new techniques
I consider to be important enough to incorporate into your ongoing strategic
internet marketing plan.
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