Article Marketing Video Tips
I just wanted to give you a video that I did on an important part of article marketing, creating interesting titles. After watching the video, leave me a comment letting me know what you think and then visit Traffic Reign for more information.
Here ya go!
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Viddler video.
Tags: article marketing, article marketing strategy
Doom & Gloom, Economic Bailouts – The Sky Is Falling!
I just wanted to share my view of all the negative information in the news today. Not in a rant but in cartoon form! Enjoy. . .
Tags: economic bailout, chicken little, recession
Searchers Getting Set In Their Ways
Being in the top 10 of SERPS just ain’t what it used to be according to a study from Think Eyetracking. I have definitely noticed significant leaps in traffic going from even the 5th position to the 3rd for a given keyword.
With universal search creeping into more and more keyword categories along with the amount of sites that show above fold in local search, now more than ever you need to think of how to diversify the traffic into your site.
Whether that means buying traffic (think outside the Adwords Box) or leveraging social media, a balanced approach will make for a healthier balance sheet.
What are some of the traffic sources you use outside the search engines?
Tags: serps, search engine rankings, think eyetracking, traffic generation
I Bet Your Site Doesn’t Sell This Well!
I came across an article from GrokDotCom.com discussing the top 10 converting retail sites as reported by Nielsen Online, here is the list:
1. Office Depot 26.90%
2. 1800flowers.com 20.90%
3. FTD.com 20.30%
4. J. Jill 19.4%
5. ProFlowers 19.30%
6. QVC 18.20%
7. LL Bean 15.9%
8. Children’s Place 15.2%
9. Blair.com 14.9%
10. Zales 14.6%
*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts
How does your site compare? I know that none of mine are even close to being on this list. One of the things that I have been lazy at is performing test to maximize conversions. It is the missing secret that very few marketers talk about.
What types of test have you run? Especially if you are an ecommerce store? What software are you using? I am curious to see what people are doing in this arena and how you manage the process.
Two of my favorite sites to get data on the types of tests you should be running and the reasoning behind them are:
)If you haven’t done and testing to this point, Google offers a couple of free tools that will get you started down the path of conversion optimization. They are:
Check out these videos on how to use Google’s stuff:
Running A/B Tests
Running Multivariate Tests:
Tags: conversion testing, google website optimizer, marketing experiments, grokdotcom.com, conversion rate
Animoto Slideshows: My First Guest Blog Post
Jack Humphrey, The Friday Traffic Report
First off I would like to thank Jack Humphrey for letting me put my graffiti on his blog, The Friday Traffic Report. I did a little video on him as well that’s well, amusing. The video was done using a free service called Animoto so if you aren’t sure what that is, check out my post about creating videos using Animoto on Jack’s blog to get a glimpse.
Let me know what you think!
Also, if you haven’t gotten a chance to take a look at Jack’s Authority Blackbook do so TODAY! It has the best collection of social media and blogging resources that you can imagine and its FREE at that.
Tags: Animoto, slideshow creator, jack humphrey, the friday traffic report
SMS Text Message Alerts For WordPress
This is the first post in a new section called “Cool Tools” (I know, very original). Anyway, I just found a new plugin for wordpress that allows a visitor to sign up for sms alerts.
I have no idea whether or not people will enter their cell phone numbers but I will give it a shot anyway. To sweeten the pot a little, I will give away a package of sofware, ebooks and website templates to anyone who does sign up. Look for the SMS sign up to your right ——>
Do you want this for your blog? Click here to download the plugin.
Tags: wordpress plugins, cool tools, sms text message
Google is Finally Showing Search Volume!
If you are an Adwords advertiser, you may have gotten an email today saying that Google decided to show actual numbers for traffic estimates! This is a beautiful thing as it will allow me to better estimate how many clicks and impressions I can expect from a particular phrase in any given position of the results.
If you you haven’t taken a look at Google’s keyword tool, click here to give it a spin.
What keyword tools do you use for your research?
Also, heres a quick video that someone already put out on the subject. The image quality is low but you can sense the excitement in this guys voice.
Google Adwords Keyword Tool Now Has Search Numbers
Tags: keyword research, google keyword tool, google adwords
10 Million Millionaires!
I just came across an article in MSN about the world now having 10 million millionaires! It is a bit a counter intuitive information given the current recession but it makes perfect sense.
People who recognize the movements in their markets can profit no matter what the conditions are.
Tags: millionaires, rich, money, msn
MSN Live To Pay You To Search
In a move the reeks of desperation, Microsoft has decided to start paying people to click on ads and subsequently make a purchase. Year over year, MSN Live continues to lose market share to the Googleplex so it is looking for anything to start getting people to get familiar and actually use Live.com.
They have partherships with about 700 advertisers that sell their own physical goods, like TV’s and tube socks. That agreement allows the advertisers to pay on a % of sale basis so that there is no upfront costs whatsoever. People using Live.com as their main search engine will get rebated a portion of what they spent with one of those advertisers.
This all sounds good on the surface until you realize one thing. People were using Google because the search results were just better! There have been countless attempts trying to share the wealth with searchers. I bet hardly anyone remembers iWin or iWon and their deceased brethren.
I do believe that this will provide a temporary bump for Live.com usage but the long term outlook isn’t good as most searches are research driven at first. Will people even remember Live.com’s offering when they are ready to buy? Not likely. Still, it will be interesting to see how this round of incentivised search will play out.
Here are some other views around the web:
- Microsoft drops Pay Per Click – goes right to pay per performance - Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) unveiled plans Wednesday to entice advertisers and users of its search engine with cash-back savings on online purchases, launching a site called Live Search cashback. The new site is ostensibly a product search …
- Microsoft To Pay Users Who Buy After Using Search Engine - Boston (dbTechno) – Microsoft has announced a new “cashback” service which will pay users who buy products they find by using the Windows Live search engine. The new program is called Windows Live Search cashback, and is an attempt by …
- Microsoft to pay you to search? - Microsoft Corp. hopes to make gains on Google Inc. in the lucrative business of Internet search through a new service that pays consumers who buy items they find through the software company’s search service. …
- Microsoft to pay users to search - Under the model, coined Live Search CashBack, an advertiser determines the cost it is willing to pay to sell a particular product via Live Search, a typical cost-per-acquisition pricing model. But instead of Microsoft getting the money …
- Microsoft Will Pay You To Use Live Search - Microsoft will pay you to use their Live Search. Well… sort of. Today Microsoft unveiled a new incentive to use their Live Search for your online shopping search needs: cash back. The big M will pay you cash back from purchases you make …
- Desperate Move? Microsoft Will Pay You To Use Its Search Engine - It appears Microsoft is so desperate, it’ll actually pay you to use its search engine. Which in all honesty might be a good gambit: I’m not sure I remembered that Microsoft actually had a search engine. Amid all the hubbub…
Tags: google, microsoft, msn live, news, search
Sell Your Baby On Ebay?
Okay, this just falls in the “what the hell were you thinking” category and is a bit outside of my normal types of posts so please forgive me.
But. . .
There is a couple in Germany that tried to sell their baby on ebay for 1 Euro. They now face child trafficking charged and claim that is was just a “joke”. Well, I don’t think that anyone is laughing including the German government who has taken custody of the 7 month old baby.
Read the whole story here on MSN.