Conversation Marketing: Internet Marketing with a Twist of Lemon

Steve's Wrong: Pagerank is a Horrible Measure of Online Influence

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:28:21 -0800

Steve, Steve, Steve. Pagerank? The 'ultimate measure'? Really?

I tried to resist the urge to link to his recent post, where he says that Pagerank is the ultimate measure of online influence. But that's like trying to ignore your kid's stinky diaper in the hopes your spouse will take care of it: It only stinks more and more. At some point, the poop's gotta come out.

The pagerank you see doesn't matter. It's worthless. OK? Are we done?

Just in case we're not, here's why it doesn't matter:

The Pagerank You See Is An Illusion

First, the pagerank you see in the Google Toolbar isn't real. Real pagerank goes from zero to who-knows-how-high: Billions? Trillions? Who knows. But it sure doesn't stop at 10.

What you see in the Google Toolbar is like a horribly inaccurate Richter scale. It's an attempt to convert a number that can probably wrap around the earth (or at least your house) to a tiny scale.

The pagerank you see is an illusion.

All Sites at a Certain Pagerank Aren't Equal

You could sit at a toolbar pagerank of, say, 4, while your real pagerank vaults from 1,000,000 to 1,400,000.

And, 2 sites that both have a toolbar pagerank of 4 could have vastly different real pagerank scores.

How exactly is pagerank a great measure of online influence?

We Don't Really Know How It's Calculated

Yes, we have a handy Wikipedia article that talks about the original pagerank formula. But Google's added lots of other items to the formula, no doubt.

We don't know what a site's real pagerank score is. We can use the old formula to figure out a site's old-style pagerank. All we have to do is find every link to the site, and every link to the sites that link to the site, and all the links that link to the links that link to the site. And so on.

And even if we kept our sanity at that point, we'd still be wrong.

Google Ain't Telling

Google's not going to tell us what our real pagerank is, either.

Google Isn't Neutral

Oh, another thing: Trusting Google, or any other private corporation that earns a living by selling advertising, is insane. Crazy. Nuts.

Say your site gets a pagerank penalty. Yesterday, you had a pagerank of 6. Today it's a 3. Your influence may be the same. But you pissed Google off, and they pissed back.

But your influence is still the same.

Again: How exactly is pagerank a good measure?

Find Another Model

If you really want to measure online influence, it's going to require a more complex model. One that accounts for visits, pageviews, time on site, buzz web-wide and softer metrics.

Until then, I have to put 'pagerank' in the same category as 'maverick' and 'bailout'. Terms that are utterly inaccurate, and make me want to rip out nosehairs so I have an excuse to cry.

Even no statistics is better than bad ones.

If you'd like to hear me splutter with rage in person, please sign up for my 10/16 internet marketing webinar. It's worth it, I swear.

October 16th Internet Marketing Triage Webinar: More Info

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:03:00 -0800

Sign ups for my October 16th internet marketing triage webinar have been, uh, ~~less than stellar~~ nonexistent. So I thought I'd give it another shot.

October 16th, I'll be doing a 90-minute webinar on internet marketing. My focus: Those first things you have to do if you're going to make an honest effort at an internet marketing campaign.

It'll be based on my 59 Things internet marketing list. Here's what we'll cover:

Using Google Reader to monitor your reputation, and keep an eye on your competitors.
5 changes you can, and must, make to your site in an hour or less (and how to make them, or make your developer make them).
Step-by-step: How to test your site for load speed, broken links and standards-compliance.
How to: Make sure your site uses basic semantic markup, and then hold your developer's feet to the fire until it's right.
How to use and/or abuse Flash.
4 things you Absolutely Must Fix In Your Cart, Damn It.
Lots and lots of Q&A.

The idea of this webinar: Make you an intelligent consumer of internet marketing services, if you're a business owner; make you a better internet marketer, if that's your calling in life.

Yes, it costs $75. But it's worth it, I swear. Plus, I'll record it so you can watch it again and again, reliving every fun-filled moment.

$75. Bring lunch to work for a week and you've probably saved that much. Or get your share of the Feds' bailout package. Or just look for loose change in your dryer. Or, even better, think about what one extra sale, or lead, is worth.

If you want to see some examples of my teaching style, check out:

Google webmaster tools: A tutorial
Or any of the items in my podcast feed

It'll be worth it, I swear. I'd say seats are going fast, but they aren't, so I'll play on your sympathy, instead.

Nah, You Don't Need A Blog

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:02:30 -0800

You don't need to tell the public about your product and why it inspires you.

You don't need any great, SEO-friendly content, either.

Oh, yeah, don't worry about that connection to the entire blogging world. You don't need it, either.

A place where you can quickly post messages about product changes, or news stories about your company? HAH! Who cares.

Gasp. It might even let people talk to you. Directly.

It'll be way too much work. It'll require, what, 45 minutes a day? It might generate traffic, and customers. And more customers requires more work, too.

You don't need a blog. Give it up.

This post was written by my jet lag, not by me.

59 Things Webinar, October 16th - Sign Ups Open

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:28:31 -0800

I'm starting a webinar series on internet marketing. For lack of a great, clever name, I'm calling it my Internet Marketing Webinars.

Webinar 1: 59 Things You Should Be Doing

The first one will be based on my 59 Things list. I'll go into more detail on the key list items, and take questions about the list.

Topics will include:

Creating a friendly 404 error page for your site.
Basic changes for better SEO.
3 changes that will get you more sales.

At the end of the webinar you'll have a clear set of action items to help your internet business or organization web site do better.

The Details

Day: October 16, 2008
Time: 4-6 PM PDT
Cost: $75

Yes, that's right, I'm charging this time. You didn't think I'd give out free advice forever, did you?

Pay via PayPal. When I receive payment I'll send you a link and login.

See you on the 16th!

14 Instant Landing Page Upgrades

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:14:35 -0800

Landing pages are a great way to generate sales from pay-per-click ads and e-mail campaigns. Folks click the ad and get a page tailored to their exact needs:

You get more conversions, the customers are happy. Unless, of course, your landing page sucks.

A few tips to make an instant improvement:

Remove unnecessary fields. If you're getting signups for an e-mail newsletter, why do you need their mailing address? Or their phone number? Remove those fields and your conversion rate goes up, I promise.
Make a clearer button. For whatever reason, the Big Red Button works better than the little 'click here', every time. Replace that default 'submit' button with something big and graphical.
Put the call to action in context. Instead of a button that reads 'click here' or 'submit', try one that reads 'Sign Up Now', 'Buy Now' or whatever else might be relevant.
Get a better hero shot (the cute kid in the page above). If you have a photograph on your landing page, take a look at it. Is it directly relevant to the page? Or a cheesy stock photo? If the latter, remove it.
Make sure your hero shot faces the right way. If you have a person in your hero shot, they should face towards the page or out at the audience. Not off the page.
Compress your image. Back to the hero shot again. Last time, I promise. Make sure that image is compressed to as small a file size as possible. Faster load time means more folks stick around.
Check your heading. Is your heading a great call to action, or a painful reminder of your C- in high school English? If you write your heading on a blank sheet of paper, it should instantly tell the reader what you're selling and why they want it. If it doesn't, try again.
Use bullets. Pick the 5 most compelling reasons for the visitor to take action. Write them into bullets and put them at the top of the page, next to the hero shot or above it.
Use short paragraphs. Never have a paragraph longer than 3-4 lines of text. Don't argue, OK? Just trust me on this one. Folks don't want to read War and Peace. These days, folks don't even want to read USA Today. Keep your message short and sweet.
Avoid long words. I'm really glad you know what supercilious means. Now replace it with 'annoying' or 'patronizing' or just 'jerk'.
Move everything up. The hero shot, bullets and headline should all appear 'above the fold' - visitors shouldn't have to scroll down to read them. Make room.
Test in all browsers. Make sure your page looks OK in Internet Explorer 6 and 7 (not 8 yet, thank God), Firefox and Safari.
Validate. Make sure that, if someone leaves a field on the form blank, it's easy for them to fix it. Clearly indicate the field they left blank, and explain what they need to do. Don't wipe the whole page blank and make them start over.
Set up testing. Use Google Website Optimizer to test different headlines, copy and graphics. Find the best combination. You'll be amazed at the results.

[Bonus: Use analytics. I mean, you should be anyway. But this is your chance to nod vigorously, then slink off and get analytics set up. I won't tell.]

No landing page is ever perfect. But make a few changes here and there, and see how much you can improve performance.

Related Posts
Book Review: The 2008 Landing Page Handbook
Multivariate Testing: Why You Need It
Internet Marketing Case Study: Testing Works

3 Things Your Description Tag Must Contain

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:42:30 -0800

The description META tag won't do much to improve your rankings. But it's really important. If you write a good description tag, your search results will look something like this:

Search engines pull the 'snippet' you see above from the description tag. If you don't write one, or write a lousy one, you might end up with something like this:

That last search result is missing a few things. Always make sure your description tag has the following:

A reason to click. Why should I visit Whirlpool's web site? Hmmm. Good question. Maybe they could say something about their newest, coolest model, or widest selection, or some such. But just saying 'we have lots of colors' really doesn't get it done. Treat your description tag like a sales headline. Hint: Read Brian Clark's post about great headlines.
More text. Google's testing different snippet sizes. Go into more detail. Put as much information in there as you can.
Structure. Put your strongest point - that great headline - first. That way even a short snippet will show your best message.

Here's how I'd write the Whirlpool description tag. I'd include their brand statement (get more done) and an invitation:

"Whirlpool's energy-efficient, easy-to-use dishwashers help you get more done. Select models using our handy online wizard. See how: Click here. Etc. etc. more detail here."

I wrote this after a day in which I lost my cell phone in a taxi cab. Which makes me feel dumb. So if you don't like the description tag I wrote, please, make fun of me to my back, not my face. Thanks.

Bonus: If you're a local business, include your location and phone number. Sometimes, folks will just pick up the phone right there.

Bonus 2: I wrote about title tag formulas last week.

5 Tips To Make Sure You're Speaking to the Right Audience: Congress Bails on the Bailout

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:34:03 -0800

President Bush could have seen his bailout package passed two weeks ago, by a clear majority.

But he spoke to the wrong audience. His audience was not Congress. His audience is American citizenry. If he'd thought about that, he might have said:

"This bailout will reduce foreclosures because banks will have more money to lend. You'll get to keep your house."

Instead of:

"GAAAAAAAAAAH pass this right away OH MY GOD THE SKY IS FALLING HELP HELP?!!!!"

Persuade the voters, and they'll persuade Congress in short order. The message the President chose came off as him getting his cronies a boost. Congressmen and women's phones rang off the hook with angry calls. Congress voted against the bailout.

An historical note: During the Depression, FDR never once spoke directly to Congress. He gave speeches in Congress, but always aimed his message at the American people. He thereby passed legislation that would've gotten Herbert Hoover (his predecessor) drawn and quartered on the White House lawn. FDR spoke to the right audience.

Unless you want to repeat George Bush's mistake, make sure you're speaking to the right audience:

5 Tips To Make Sure You're Speaking to the Right Audience

Skip the middle man. If your audience actually has another, larger audience, make sure they aren't the real target.
Target the persuaders. Who in the audience will persuade everyone to take action? Don't sell to the car salesmen - sell to the drivers. Don't sell to the babies - sell to the parents. Don't sell to the officials - sell to their constituents.
Speak clearly. This should be obvious enough, but clearly the President didn't get it this time. Your message needs to be clear: Why should I support, or at least tolerate, the bailout? What's in it for me, Joe Average American?
Speak to those who can act (or will). It's an election year. Politicians are all about winning the next election. They're terrified of doing anything that might cost them votes. They won't act. Citizens who are fighting for their homes and their livelihoods will, though. They have the incentive to act and no reason not to. If you give them the right message.
Check the response. If the audience responds in a way that makes no sense, you're probably speaking to the wrong people. That's your fault, not theirs. When the President said "Save our economy" and Congress said "I'm not too sure about this", he should've known right away he had the wrong audience.

Now, I'm headed off to shop for a rifle and some beef jerky. Seems like a good time to head for the hills...

Google Analytics Tip: Learn How They Found That 1 Page.

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 22:02:46 -0800

You can use Google Analytics to figure out how folks found one specific page on your site. That kind of data is extremely helpful if, say, your traffic abruptly spikes on a Saturday morning and you're trying to figure out why.

Here's how you do it:

Log into Google Analytics. If you don't have it set up, use my somewhat dated but still useful setup tutorial.
Assuming the traffic surge happened on a single day, use the date range selector to limit your data to that one day:
Then click 'Content' and the 'Top Content' sub-menu on the left:
Google Analytics now shows you the busiest pages on your site for that day. Click the page you're wondering about.
Then (this is the critical step) select 'Entrance Sources' under 'Content Detail'.
Just like that, you can see all the web sites that sent traffic to this one page:

You can use the content detail function to see which keywords sent traffic to a specific page, too.

This kind of data is invaluable: If you know which site generated a burst of traffic, then you know your audience - they're on that site. For example, if I sell sneakers, and I just sold 4,000 pairs of my new bright green leather hi-top, and I know that 75% of those customers came from a single web site, then I'll probably want to buy a few ads there. And learn more about that site's typical visitors.

Any time you see traffic rise, you should check your top pages, and then the sites that sent traffic to those pages.

Or, you can think how lucky you were, and hope it happens again. Your choice...

Test Drive: Evri Search and Discovery Tools

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:33:54 -0800

Evri doesn't bill itself as a search engine. Their motto is 'Search less, understand more'.

It's a new entry into a field of advanced, semantically-driven knowledge discovery tool. I won't try to categorize it. I do see them as major acquisition bait, ala Powerset, because their technology could enhance search results.

How It Works: Not Too Shabby

If you visit their site at www.evri.com, you can type in a person, product or thing and it immediately aggregates information for you. Alas, it knew nothing about yours truly. But a search on Danny Sullivan showed me that he's a race car driver as well as an SEO specialist:

That wasn't totally fair, since there's also a Danny Sullivan who really is a racecar driver. Evri did a good job of ferreting out relevant images, text and videos regardless:

Widgety Goodness

What's got me intrigued, though, is their new widget. Place it on a page, and it displays content related to the discussion. That could have great applications in knowledge bases, on news sites and on a bigger scale in large document collections like the Library of Congress, or my maudlin teen-age poetry.

Nothing like throwing it into the wild to see how it works, so here's the widget:

How Evri Works

The most intriguing part of the Evri toolset is how it actually reads the semantic structure of the page, looking at headings and paragraphs. You can change the selectors so that it reads different heading levels, table content or any other element on the page.

As a semantic analyzer, Evri could be a pretty fantastic tool for internet marketers and search engine optimizers, too. It lets you pull and search on such granular 'chunks' of information - it really gets you thinking: Put the widget on a page of, say, products. Then customize the script to only pull within your site, and you have an automatic 'related products' finder that's more accurate than any previous technology.

I'm going to go geek out now...

5 Tips for Crisis Marketing: The Perils of Being McCain

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:47:22 -0800

John McCain took a big gamble yesterday, saying he was suspending his campaign until Congress could work out the $700 billion bailout plan.

It was a bad gamble, because he violated 4 of the 5 basic rules of crisis marketing. I usually apply these rules to internet marketing, but they tend to work everywhere:

1: Don't Contradict Yourself Without Explanation

First rule: If you said "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" two weeks ago, don't turn around and say "Holy crap, this is a disaster!" You start sounding like Herbert Hoover, you confuse your audience, and you start setting off alarm bells among the folks who haven't yet decided whether they like you or not.

If you must contradict yourself, explain it. This is even more important in business than in politics. If you said "Our product is fiiiiiine" last month, but this month have to say "OK, our product causes fatal nose warts", explain it with "I was wrong".

2: Be Calm

If you communicate panic, you engender it. You can communicate the fact that there's a crisis, and that you're on top of it, without screaming and running in circles.

While Senator McCain was stationery during his press conference yesterday, suspending his entire campaign and trying to duck out of the debates felt panicky to me. Can he really influence the outcome that much? No. So dropping everything and grabbing a bucket may not be the best move.

If your company's got a problem, make your appearance, state what you're doing, and then get to work. Don't describe extraordinary measures if they won't help. Make sure that folks hear: This is bad, but we can handle it. Not: OH MY GOD WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE.

3: Be Honest, and Clear

Senator McCain said he was 'suspending his campaign'. But he actually didn't. He stopped running around. His team, though, was still in action.

He's an honest guy. So I suspect this was a clarity problem, not an honesty one. But it rankled the media in particular, who are now having a field day with it.

In a crisis, get your whole team on board with your plan first. Then go public with it. That provides a unified message.

4: Don't Shirk

If you have responsibilities such as filling orders, shipping product or, say, appearing at a debate, you should attend to those. Otherwise, you look overwhelmed.

The only exception: If the crisis itself hampers your ability to cover those responsibilities. If a hurricane wipes out your warehouse, OK, you can't get the work done. If the IRS is auditing you, though, you'd better get that stuff shipped.

Also, the crisis will have an end (or it won't matter). When it's over, wouldn't you like to still have all those customers?

5: Be First to the Community

This, Senator McCain did pretty well. He got the media together, explained what was going on, and then took action. That might make him look like a go-getter who's on top of things, if the whole strategy doesn't blow up in his face.

If you're in trouble, be the first one to acknowledge it. Talk to the bloggers. Put the press release on your site. Don't let someone else do it for you. That way you'll control the conversation, and get points for keeping things under control.

Will this pay off for the Senator? I don't know. But you can still learn some valuable lessons in how to manage a crisis in your business in the mean time.

Create Better Slide Presentations: slide:ology

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:43:28 -0800

At conferences, three things are a constant:

Lack of healthy food.
Overabundance of alcohol.
Really godawful Powerpoint or other slide presentations.

I've spent a long time huddled alone in the dark, thinking I was the only one who hated seeing 25 bullets on a slide, individual animated letters and various other forms of visual vomit up on the big screen. Then along comes Nancy Duarte, a brilliant presentation designer, and her book slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations.

Her book is stuffed with great information, from grid layouts to presentation brainstorming. Plus her examples alone will help you be a better presenter.

Even if you don't do slide presentations, read the book for the design lessons. Anyone who creates content for viewing on a screen should read slide:ology.

5 Tips for Generating 10,000 Links Overnight

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:34:22 -0800

Don't
No, really, don't.
Are you listening?
If you get them naturally, good for you. But otherwise, don't!
K, for the last time, don't.

10 SEO and Marketing-Friendly Title Tag Formulas

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:18:24 -0800

You want keywords in the title tag. Your marketing VP wants the brand. You know he's wrong, because search engines are structured thinkers. He knows you're wrong, because the title tag shows up in the search snippet and branding matters:

Now what?

Here are 10 title tag formulas that balance SEO and marketing and hopefully avoid wrestling matches in the boardroom:

[product name] - [company name]. If you're selling products and you know your customers search for the product names, put the product name first, then the company name. Unless the product name is 125 characters long, in which case you have a whole other problem.
[article title] - [company name]. Worst case, put the article title first, then the company name.
[company name] - [product name / article title]. If the marketing VP just won't back down, fine. Put the company name first, and remind them that you're going to slam a drawer on their fingers when, 4 weeks from now, they come in to your office asking why the rankings haven't improved.
[custom title] - [company name]. If you really have a nifty content management system, you can edit your title tag separate from your page or article title. Put that custom title first, then your company name.
[keyword] - [company name]. If you're a one-product or one-service company, put the keyphrase that's relevant to that page, then the company name, like this: Buggy Bumpers: Ian's Buggy Emporium. Use a different phrase on each page! Repeating the same word again and again is a bad idea.
[keyword] - [product name] - [company name]. If your product name, company name and target phrase are all short, you can string them all together like this: Buggy Repair - Tune Ups - Ian's Buggy Emporium. I try to keep my title tags under 60 characters.
[really cool sales phrase]. Remember, your title tag is what shows up in the search snippet. Come up with a great selling phrase like 'Buggy repairs while you wait'. You work in the keywords and might talk the VP of marketing into leaving your title tag alone.
[company name]. Give them what they want, watch the rankings implode, and after you're fired you can laugh at them from afar. I don't recommend this.
[category] - [page or product name] - [company name]. This will almost certainly be too long, and get truncated in the search results. But if you have categories that are also search phrases, this is a nice, automated way to generate title tags throughout an entire store or collection of pages.
[ ]. You can always leave nothing in there at all. See number 8.

I used dashes to separate elements of the title tag. You can use dashes, colons or even pipe symbols ('|'). As long as you separate the phrases, you're fine.

And remember to keep your title tags under 60-70 characters. Less is even better if you can get away with it.

A few other posts worth checking
Search Engines are Structured Thinkers
The Easiest SEO Booster: Heading Tags
Choosing an SEO-Ready Content Management System

U-Haul: Fire Your Lawyer (and Your Marketer)

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:40:14 -0800

Sarah over at SEOMOZ outlined U-Haul's ridiculous case against someone who outranks them.

I won't re-evaluate the case. Sarah undoubtedly got higher grades than I did in Intellectual Property, which was one of the law courses that made me become a marketer.

Instead, I'll say this:

U-Haul, fire your lawyer.

Only a total moron or someone with severe oxygen narcosis would think, first of all, that you could defend a trademark on 'moving help' and 'moving helper'.

And only a member of the Headless Hunt would think companies can't use trademarked terms of other companies in competitive marketing. Otherwise, 'Ford' could never say "We are better than Chevy".

Unless, of course, you're doing this to just wear down a smaller competitor. Which would be unethical. And you'd never do that. Would you?

Then fire your marketer.

Only a total, unqualified hack of a marketer would let something like this happen:

...while you spend $500/hour on corporate attorneys should be fired at least, or drawn and quartered at most.

If you want to be top ranked for a phrase like 'moving helper', try having that phrase in your title tag (see the next paragraph) and not redirecting to a different page.

And get rid of the ® in the title tag. That's affecting your relevance, I'll bet.

If you don't know what that means, well, hire someone who does. It's early, I was up at 3 AM because of 3 raccoons playing in a puddle under my window (seriously) and I'm not in the mood. Geez. I sound like Michael Martinez (kidding Michael).

Consider using marketing, instead of lawyers, to win your marketing battles.

Oh, and one last thing: Hireahelper, here's a nice keyword-rich link to your site - moving help by hire a helper. Suck on that, U-Haul.

4 Metrics for Analyzing SEO Traffic (and one to ignore)

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:34:36 -0800

I have a defense mechanism: When something makes me want to puke, I look at statistics, and I feel better. Last week's economic shenanigans were more than enough to make me ill, so I figured I'd have a glance at my blog's organic search engine traffic.

Here's my analysis, with a little teaching blended in. You can do the same thing on your own site:

Keyword Diversity

First thing I noticed: My keyword diversity is way, way up over last year. I now receive traffic from 5,247 different key phrases, versus 2,100 or so this time last year.

Keyword diversity is critical to any internet marketing strategy, for three reasons:

More keywords means your less vulnerable to a drop in ranking with one of those words.
Higher diversity means you're getting traffic from more specific, 'long tail' phrases. In my experience, that traffic is higher quality, has better conversion rates, and generates far better return rates.
You get to find really funny keyword combinations like 'snidely whiplash' and 'buy a wife'. Those really did show up in my keyword list, by the way.

So, higher keyword diversity is good.

Visits from Search

There's a lot of 'em: 8,200 in the last 30 days. More than last year by a factor of 3 or so.

I keep much closer track of visits from SEO than I do rankings. That's because rankings don't matter if they don't bring you traffic.

Visit Quality

Finally, I want to see the quality of traffic from organic search results. In this case, I'm doing OK. Visitors from search engines are spending 1% less time on the site than others. That's not worth worrying about.

Rankings

Yes, I check them, but not often and not as part of my traffic analysis. Rankings for 'money' phrases takes a long time to change, so tracking them is like tracking the stock market: Depressing.

Pagerank

Yah, whatever. Pagerank doesn't matter.

5 Daily Social Media Builders In Less Than 10 Minutes (Total!)

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:34:29 -0800

I am sick of social media. Social this. Social that. Everyone asks me whether I ‘do social media’, and it's hard to resist the urge to caper around like a lunatic yelling “Am I being social? Am I?! Then quick, call the media!!!!”

I hate the phrase, the concept and the need for sound bites and catchphrases that spawned it. Sigh.

But it’s still important, so I’ve developed a routine that lets me steadily build my credibility in various social media outlets. Remember, social media is partly based on reputation. Build your reputation by contributing to the community, and you’ll get better results when promoting yourself, too.

Here's what you need to do these 5 steps:

A Google account
A Yahoo! account
A Stumbleupon account and the toolbar
A Facebook account (c'mon, you don’t have one?!)
A Twitter account

These steps take a total of 10 minutes a day, because that’s all I can stand:

Bookmark/Review 2 Businesses on Google Maps

First, I toddle over to Google Maps, log into my Google account and review two businesses I know:

If I can’t find two to review, then I add one or two to “my maps” instead. This activity (I suspect) makes me a more important reviewer in Google Maps. So, when I review a client business, it'll get more weight, too.

Be honest! I am always honest with my reviews, even if my client doesn’t like my comment about their bathrooms. Remember, you’re contributing to a community. Add value.

Total time: 2 minutes.

Go Buzzing

Visit Yahoo! Buzz. Sign into your Yahoo! account. Buzz up or comment on at least 2 articles.

I use Yahoo! Buzz instead of Digg now because Digg has become a toadying Jr. high school-style crap pile that makes Mt. Etna look like a minor belch.

Total time: 2 minutes.

Stumble Five Times

Then, I click the “stumble” button in my StumbleUpon Toolbar at least 5 times. Skim each site. Give it a thumbs up or thumbs down.

If something looks interesting, put it on your to-do list. You don’t have to read it right now.

Total time: 1 minute.

Comment on Your Favorite Blog

Take a piece of paper and write down your favorite 1 or 2 blogs. Every day, leave a useful comment on one of them.

This builds your relationship with the blogger, at worst, and gets you a few links, at best.

Total time: 2 minutes.

Follow Someone On Twitter

Go to Twitter. Log in. Look at one friend on your friends list. Follow 2 people they follow.

You just expanded your network.

Total time: 1 minute. Less if you can type faster than 20 WPM.

I just wrote about Twitter even though I swore I would not. I made it all the way to September 2008, OK? Close enough.

Update Your Facebook Page

I freely admit I am terrible about this. I’m never thrilled about dealing with the river of application requests, zombie bites, knighthoods, images of gifts I’d like (instead of the actual gift), weather trivia, quizzes and other utterly worthless junk that await me.

Nevertheless, go to Facebook and update your profile page. Update you're status and add a link or comment, if nothing else.

You just ‘pinged’ every Facebook friend you have.

Total time: 2 minutes.

Be Smart

Don’t just go to all of these sites once a day, spam them, and then never return. The idea here is to set the minimum level of participation. After that, you should use these sites as designed: Stumble cool stuff. Twitter interesting thoughts. Buzz really great articles. And so on.

Other sites to consider in your routine:

Plurk is a nice Twitter competitor that I thoroughly enjoy.
Del.icio.us is a great bookmarking service.
Reddit is another social news site that”s not quite as annoying as Digg.

There are, of course, others. List them below as a comment if you think of any.

Google Local Search: Crackdown is Coming

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:24:30 -0800

Google just published business listing quality guidelines for local search.

Warning: The new guidelines mean a crackdown's a comin’. Whenever Google issues new guidelines, it’s their way of saying “quit screwing around”. So if you’re doing anything shady to gain a higher ranking in the local search results, this is a good time to mend your ways.

A few tactics you’ll want to stop, right now:

Review spam. If you’ve been getting every friend, relative and literate pet to write a review of your business and then cut-and-paste it to Yelp, Yahoo!, Google Maps and YellowPages.com, stop now. This fits any definition of ‘manipulation’ you might want to apply. If you keep doing it, I won't want to hear you weeping about Google’s cruelty later on.
Duplication. Don’t start listing your business under every dba (doing business as) name you’ve got.
Duplication, 2. This is a direct quote from Google: “Service area businesses, for example, should not create a listing for every town they service.” and “Likewise, law firms or doctors should not create multiple listings to cover all of their specialties.” You have been warned.
Content spam. If you've been tweaking your company name from “Ian’s flowers” to “Ian’s Seattle Flowers in Seattle”, you'll want to use your real business name from now on.

Trust me. I am, in this business, an ancient, creaky old man. My right knee always hurts when Google’s about to crack down on one abuse or another, and it’s achin’ now...

Related articles: I’ve previously written about local search optimization and adding your address, and how to move up in local search listings.

Matt McGee has a great post about this, too.

Opportunistic PPC Buying: A Great Example

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:10:57 -0800

Hats off to whoever manages Barack Obama's pay-per-click advertising buy. On Lehman's bankruptcy announcement today, they immediately bought a super-relevant ad:

Very smart. I'll bet that key phrase is both cheap and a great traffic generator at the moment.

Keep this in mind: Reading the newspaper and watching the news is a great way to keep your PPC campaign current, and occasionally get a nice coup.

Book Review: 2008 Landing Page Handbook

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 07:09:20 -0800

Disclaimer: I'm a Marketing Sherpa Affiliate. I was not paid for this review. But if you buy the book from this link I will get a bit of cash. Pretty please?

I re-read this book every year, and make most of my staff read it (or at least try to) as well.

There are plenty of books out there that talk in broad generalities about internet marketing. They say great stuff like 'Write great content' and 'Offer value to your visitors'.

Duh.

The Bad

First, this book is HUGE. I would've ruptured a disc lifting it if they weren't already ruptured. Read the whole thing, no matter how daunting it seems.

Second, sometimes it gets almost too specific. The book offers amazing detail (see 'The Good', next) but it doesn't always show you the high-level view.

Unless you're a marketing geek like me, though, you aren't going to care.

Finally, it costs $497. It ain't cheap. But it earns its money, I promise.

The Good

The Landing Page Handbook offers real, actionable advice, including things like:

The best positioning of a 'hero shot' image.
Button colors that get highest conversion rates.
Results of multi-variate testing.
Best typography and use of bullets.

It's like a step-by-step course in great landing page design.

I'm not exaggerating - 90% of what I know about creating great landing pages comes from this book.

[ Buy the Landing Page Handbook ]

Branding In 30 Seconds

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:15:25 -0800

Real branding is really hard, and I suck at it.

So, I've had to come up with simpler, faster ways to make sure that, when I'm hired to do some internet marketing, I don't pick up a client's brand, rip it into a thousand tiny pieces and shove it into the garbage disposal.

Here's a quick test I use to see if my brand assumptions are on track:

The Hiring Test

Imagine you're hiring your very first employee.
Figure out three phrases that describe the perfect hire.
Make sure they're more specific than 'fast' or 'smart'.

For example, at Portent I always aim for: 'Intellectually curious', 'creative thinker' and 'honest'. It so happens that that's a pretty good picture of Portent's brand, too.

I am not suggesting this is a complete brand profile. That would be moronic. But this is a good way to make sure you're not about to destroy your brand.

Internet Freedom of Speech

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:09:04 -0800

I'm speaking tomorrow at the IAMAW's Grand Lodge Convention about free speech and the internet. These are my remarks. I would GREATLY appreciate comments and feedback, today, so I can adjust if I'm about to say something moronic. So, a little detour today from internet marketing to freedom of speech. I'm a leftie, no doubt...

Update: You should be able to watch me swallow my tongue tomorrow, around 9 AM EDT, via live streaming at this address: http://www.goiam.org/iamglc2008/video

The internet can open up speech and communications like nothing else. It has the potential to let almost anyone speak out.

But we face three huge challenges that prevent it from reaching that potential:

The web is international. What we do here in the US can impact journalists and citizens in China, the middle east and everywhere else. American companies take actions that lead to imprisonment in China, or censorship in Iran.
90% of policy makers are utterly, utterly clueless about the internet. We currently have a president who refers to the world wide web as 'the internets' and senators referring to the internet as 'a series of tubes'. My daughter is in 1st grade and better understands the issues. This isn't a slap at anyone's intelligence. It's about learning and experience with the internet. And at the policy level we have very little.
1 and 2 have created a huge imbalance of power over corporations who often participate in muzzling of free speech and surveillance online. Right now investors and governments abroad are often the only voice heard when someone's rights are at risk. Corporations only hear the other side of the story after the fact.

You may think this doesn't affect you. You're wrong. This affects everyone.

Persecution

First, you get less reliable information from around the world. Journalists, bloggers and communicators like Shi Tao, who sent an e-mail, anonymously, from his workplace via Yahoo e-mail to the NY Times. Yahoo!, upon request of the Chinese Government, turned over the information. Shi Toa is now serving 10 years in prison in China.

It's a tragedy for Shi Toa and his family. It's also one for us, as his writing is now squelched.

Censorship, Active and Passive

Second, you experience censorship when people DO publish online. Go to China and try to look up a web site about human rights abuses. Even better, walk down the street and try and look up a web site about breast cancer or gay rights in a public library. Chances are the library's filtering software is locking those sites out.

At the same time, major web services like Google and Yahoo! filter out 'controversial' sites within countries like China.

Internet service providers and other web service providers like search engines are storing more and more data about what you do. Some internet service providers recently attempted to store every packet of data you send back and forth - think of it as fingerprints on your mail - for later use. They failed, thanks in large part to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. But they won't stop trying.

Understand this: These restrictions, and limiting access to online newsgroups, and everything else businesses and government does to limit access - THEY DON'T DO ANYTHING to prevent online crime and pornography. I have an 8 year old son who reads better than I do. I want him to be safe. But these steps don't do it. WE have to exercise that control, ourselves, at home. No one else can do it.

And these restrictions don't stop terrorists, either. Yesterday we talked about fear. These kinds of measures are driven by fear and, again, by policy makers who just don't get it. I can download free software and in 5 minutes totally circumvent any and all efforts by ISPs and content owners to stop me from accessing information, or track what I do online.

What this monitoring does do, though, is chill open discussion online. If I know you're tracking everything I do online, I'm less likely to write. That's passive censorship.

Access and Net Neutrality

Third, we have the assault on net neutrality. Net neutrality means all web sites have access to the same tier of internet bandwidth and services. It's a good thing.

If network neutrality ends, network operators would create a structure where web sites have to pay for the amount of public access they want. If you don't have enough cash to pay for faster acess, you end up "in the slow lane", as Senator Obama put it: Your web site will load more slowly.

Guess who wants to end net neutrality: John McCain. He says network providers should be able to profit from their investment.

I'm a small business owner - I'm not against making a profit. But guess what? These network providers already DO rake in great, sticky piles of money.

Guess who supports net neutrality? Barack Obama.

How do we fix this?

Right now you have a terrible balance of power in the US: On this side, you have web-illiterate policy makers making bad policy. On that side, you've got corporations and ISPs who are pressured by other governments to turn over information and are storing more and more information about what we do online so they can sell more advertising.

Fixing this is about restoring the balance of power exerted on those who decide when and when not to censor or hand information over to governments. Restoring it by raising our voice.

We need to create an environment where a company like Yahoo! at least pauses to think before they turn over records or otherwise take action that'll cause innocent citizens and journalists harm.

We need to speak to elected officials and let them know we don't like what ISPs and internet corporations are doing when they start storing and retaining more and more information about what we do online.

And, we need to pressure our leadership to support net neutrality, and keep their promises about protecting it.

We can't be bystanders. We need to demand that leadership really understand how this all works.

Three things you can do when you walk out of here - head right down to the Cybercafe and do it!:

- Support the Electronic Frontier Foundation. (eff.org)
- Support Reporters without Borders.
- Read the Cyber Dissidents Handbook

Most important, vote for candidates who demonstrate they understand these issues and will act to protect free speech.

10 Rules for Setting Your Internet Marketing Budget

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:17:34 -0800

It Costs WHAT?!!!!!

I'm tired of hearing that.

Budgeting your internet marketing project may seem like a crap shoot. But I can simplify things for you:

If you're building a new site, expect to spend 2X that amount again in the year after the site launches. Unless you want it to sit there, all alone, with no traffic.
If you want a site built by a single untrained individual who 'learned how to use Dreamweaver', expect to spend less than $2000. Also, expect to build a new site within 3 months.
If you want a site built by a 5-10 person, boutique-style agency, expect to spend, at an absolute minimum, $10,000. These are experts, and they deserve to be paid as experts.
If you find a 5-10 person, boutique-style agency that'll build you a site for $2000 or less, expect something that looks like they had a sneezing fit during the design phase.
If you expect to get a #1 ranking on Google for $99, you're insane.
If you hire a smart individual with a proven track record to optimize your site for search engines, expect to pay at least $5000, one time. Unless they're your friend, or they're willing to work hourly.
If you hire a big agency with all sorts of fancy tools, an army of copywriters and other expertise for search engine optimization, expect to pay, at an absolute minimum, $50,000 for a one-year engagement.
If you want to double your sales this year, you are going to have to pay more than $1000 to do it.
Reliable hosting costs more than $9.95 a month.
If you're spending $250,000 to build your product and get it to market, don't tell me you can't spend $15,000 to give it a decent web site, unless you want to watch my eyes bug out like I've been suddenly depressurized.

I may be unusually grumpy tonight because I'm at Disney World in Florida. It's 90 degrees and 90 percent humidity. I'm jetlagged, and I just spent $17 on a cheeseburger. And I'm here working.