Adobe’s going to launch the CS5 package, seems lately like all they’re doing is churning out more and more versions of their package suite… AND they’re getting more bloated! The last one was awful close to 8GB in size. Took 4 DVDs to install… Crazy! But has anyone else noticed that they’re coming more regularly too? It used to be a version of photoshop would be the top knotch (with many updates) for a few years or more.
Now, updates come in the form of new versions.. 
But, this version does come with some pretty sweet features… One such feature was announced yesterday and has created a HUGE webmaster buzz on Youtube. If you haven’t seen the “content aware sneak peak” – even if your not a web developer or Photoshoper type person, you should STILL watch it. They’re about to give some amazing juice to the uneducated photoshoper…
But, that’s not what compelled me to write this post, although that in itself is pretty killer news… What impressed me the most was their launch website. It’s incredible! It’s a perfect (yes – a word I usually can’t use) example of how a launch should be done. Twitter integration and live communication, YES! Count down clock making everyone dying for it to finally be the day.. YES! BRILLIANT!
I know, PR3 isn’t much and PR should not be a focus… But for Google to give any website some weight that early in the life of a domain, it makes you wonder.
How does a person in 8 short months go from an idea and a domain name and a simple wordpress blog to a completely optimized site getting 1200 hits per month and a PR3 domain?
It’s not as hard as you might think! What’s also interesting is how much optimization would be left to get this to a $250+ per month ads revenue. Mind you I know that’s not much, but automated cash is just that – free money, right? Beats breaking your back with a shovel anyhow.
Here’s some stats from the auctioning of the site itself:
Since it’s not my website, and it’s just some random website for sale on the Warrior forum, I don’t know how I could get in trouble discussing it, so here’s what I found!
Domain age…
Usually, with most sites even especially in competitive markets like weight, diet, quit smoking, Viagra, any legal term, real estate and other competitive industries, a domain name as young as this would not have early success of any kind… Maybe 30-50 uniques a day, so as you can see, with the registration info from whois.sc to the right here, this is pretty amazing early success…
Website Content
I wasn’t impressed with the content, but I would give it a 6 out of 10. It’s not the content you’d get hiring former New York Times employees, but it’s also not $5 articles from Indian outsourcers either. It’s mid-grade researched material that can be had from any starving college student for $10-15 each. Nothing earth shattering here.
Link Juice…
Yeah, come on buddy, you knew we were all going to look there… And I was at first incredibly impressed! I was thinking, I gotta study this (and this is probably where most of the inspiration to blog about it came from!) Then, I sorta got sad, that this is *WHY* He’s a PR3 with ONLY 1200 uniques a month and not 3,000.
But they’re impressive backlinks none-the-less and done correctly, it could have been a monster strategy instead of a ho-hum strategy.
What he did to get 1600 links from sites that Google trusts
- Blog Comments
Some with keywords, some with usernames like ‘philly’ and some where there’s a blatant link just copied and pasted right into the body of the blog comment. (a bit spammy, yes but in some social circles this is like a signature line)
- Commenting on Reviews
One of the smarter things he did was comment on reviews that were related to products in the weight, workout type markets. Quite neat.
- Being added to lists on powerful sites…
http://sportsvl.com/bodybuilding/
Links like this one are just amazing…
- Fast Company Magazine?
Apparently all their comment links are DO-FOLLOW!
Holly shmoley!
I won’t dig in any deeper as many of you have the tools to do that already (Yahoo site explorer and the domain name I mentioned). The thing is, 99% of the links this guy is getting aren’t REALLY folks voting for the site but just him influencing the search engine.
A link was designed to be a ‘vote’ saying “I like this website”. But if the owner of the site votes for himself 1160 times, and it COUNTS… how does that work? It doesn’t.
How to monster this strategy
Yes, it’s important to comment and be a member of your particular niche’s community, and i wouldn’t entirely fault the blog comment links like on fastcompany in general topics either, but there are ways of tightening the screws.
#1. Stay on Topic as much as you can.
Seeing links from search engine optimization website comments and such and other non-specific sites even if there WAS a great link opportunity makes me think this guy was spreading too thin. That audience on that page would not be likely to even WANT to look at his site anyway… Getting in front of the right audience of people who DO want your info helps quite ab it.
#2. Having juicy content on the site.
Once you do get the odd click from all those links you have out there, having stuff so amazing, so graphically enticing, so well wordsmithed that it jumps off the page like a mexican jumping bean.. I mean it doesn’t have to be poetic literature but a hint less textbook like… and those few who did click down to his website to see what he had would have probably linked back… If it were easy to…
#3. Making it easier to get links to you naturally
Adding the social sharing buttons at the bottom of your page helps dramatically to allow people to naturally tweet, email, send to a friend, digg, stumbleupon, linked in or other ways of viralling out your post, or web page. It’s so much easier to share content when it does have those buttons. Heck, I even LOOK for those buttons when I really REALLY like a post.
#4. Don’t forget to use competition spying tools!
Did you know SEO for Firefox works on Yahoo Site Explorer, imagine finding out which articles caught fire and got a ton of link juice and traffic and spin-off and using those to get your comments?
?
You know, a couple days ago I was reading an RSS feed on my Blackberry from SEOMoz. One of their writers had mentioned that he often watches auctions on Flippa from guys with young domains and HUGE traffic. He’s always using the comp intel tools to find out HOW they did it and how so quickly.
I dismissed it and thought that was something i’d look at one day if i had time, in the far off future. Of course, I won’t have time. But this was really cool and I just had to share it. Totally advanced SEO.
Until Next Time,
Daniel J Deyette
P.S. Hey!!!!! – Share this with the share buttons or tweet it, would ya! If you like it, someone else will. Helping others always comes back to you.
HEY!! – Signup to the newsletter if you like this kinda stuff sent to your inbox.
Not often I write about stuff where the goal is to dump a link and run, but this is a worthwhile mention that I know a ton of my clients could use…
- 10 Things You Didn’t Know about _______
- 10 Reasons to Hate _________
- 10 Amazing Blogs about ________
- 10 Secrets about __________
- How Does ______ Work?
- How to be Great at _______
I can’t steal the guy’s entire post, so go to his blog to read the rest of them… but you get the idea.
(read the rest)
This has been one of my favorite tools for years, especially since so many of the clients I work with come from the USA, and yet I can’t really support them looking at CANADIAN search results!?!
But this tool has allowed me to do it.
I strongly suggest you install it.Even if you dont’ work with other countries, there will come a time when you need to see search results in another country to see an entirely new set of competitors and what their rankings are like in the USA or other countries vs yours it’s worth taking a look at.
http://www.redflymarketing.com/blog/google-global-view-results-different-locations/
You might notice (if you visit my blog often enough) that today, we’ve upgraded the theme and look to provide:
- Cleaner look with a more positive image.
Any site with a dark color scheme and dark graphics is sure to help promote doom and gloom. I certainly want people who visit my blog feeling warm and cheery and so hopefully it now accomplishes that.
- Whitespace!
I’ve preached this to many clients over the years and even asked this of the designer who built the first theme we ever used, but he wasn’t the greatest listener and didn’t totally understand what I was asking for. This theme
Totally accomplishes just that.
- Server Speed – yum!
I’m addicted to speed, and the host BCWebNet that I was using provided that because they were local to me, but the down time can’t really count as “speed” and that bothered me. So did the unanswered phone calls and support tickets. <argh> so we’re now on a new server and that should help everyone.
On a side note, I realized during the time my site was down just how much I appreciate having the voice to discuss the marketing and web related thoughts that go thru my head during a day and so you may see a burst in new material here. It’s like you don’t know what you have until you no longer have it. Folks, I plan to blog like crazy… Often short snippets but useful content. If your not subscribed to the RSS or newsletter, you may not receive updates and these updates can mean money in your bank account and strategies you can use… So be sure and do that.
Warning!
Based on my enjoyable time with BCWebNet (sarcasm) – I invite and remind all using WordPress to frequently backup their databases, I don’t just mean thru the wordpress program itself, but i mean in PHPMyAdmin or similar. Loosing your site can mean revenue loss and SEO rankings loss and that’s serious stuff!
There’s so much hype and material out there from the blogs on Blackhat SEO to the material on the web where people are constantly trying to leverage the brand equity that others have built when not enough time is built creating their OWN brand equity.
I really do think that if you’re in a situation where you need brand exposure and visitor loyalty that – just as these very businesses folks steal from – did in the begining, they built a business the old fashioned way. You start off by creating an answer to people’s problems. You develop resources and supportive help materials (pamphlets, blog entries, web content, videos etc) to support the product. Things that help people even if they don’t buy from you… People love you so much they talk for hours about you and the message spreads… It’s that easy!
Now, even trustable and reputable guys like Seth Godin are stealing people’s brands and making money on them… All at the same time folks are building brilliant SEO campaigns all designed to borrow link equity to rank for the brand, make and model of products to sell those products at a commission of the sale. It’s getting ugly.
Truth is, all of these efforts to borrow searches for another person’s name are short term strategies. You can’t make long term money that way and you won’t build a long lasting business. People who are devoted to YOU… not Guess Jeans, not Ferrari motor cars, not Fender Guitars are going to come back to YOU over and over again… People who have a brand addiction are just that, addicted to that brand… The next time they want something the chances of them coming to you are like zip, zero nada.. So why keep doing it? Fishing for customers that won’t buy again and again? I Dunno.
Yet, leveraging brands (Like the Apple recent launch of the iPad) could be quite beneficial if done correctly. Using YOUR service and your products to enhance an industry product, does get your name out there, your brand and your products. Quite a wild idea. Check out how one guy used the iPad to sell diamonds.
Imagine the amount of links their site is getting from this beautifully executed link building campaign concept.
Daniel J Deyette
This hard working girl put her own money into fighting someone who was seeking a trademark on the term “SEO”.
And to what benefit of her own, not much as I gather except a big $17,004 hole in her bank account.
That’s as good of a thank you as a slap in the face, I figure. I’m sure the exposure and links will probably re-pay her in effect, it’s really not much of a consolation to a fight that started in April 2008 that finally resolved March 11, 2010.
Thanks to Rhea, the industry doesn’t have to worry about someone suing them for using the term “SEO” to provide services, information or knowledge of any kind.
Don’t read my post about this anymore though as it’s not my thunder to steal. Go read Rhea’s post about SEO Trademark on her blog.
And if God has so blessed you with the ability to do so, maybe send her a donation (instructions @ bottom of her post) as a thank you to the fact that we do not have a 20-something kid governing our industry and the use of the term “SEO”.
That could have been ugly.
Daniel J Deyette
While this is not entirely exhaustive, it’s a pretty amazing resource for those starting out or trying to grasp where to go to get more traffic to their website. Some of these strategies and traffic types should not be executed by an amateur, they will cause more harm than good without understanding the RIGHT strategy behind it.
Daniel J Deyette
These guys might have the answer… I won’t write a pile of detail, but this is the kind of tool that can really speed up your day
not constantly mashing the excel data round… and best part is… It’s FREE!
Check it out at http://excellentanalytics.com/how-to/
March 4th, 2010 in
Analytics |
No Comments
It’s amazing how many people try to leverage the internet while missing a key piece, or ignoring a piece because it’s too hard, too expensive or some other internal reason (personally or within the business) that makes them NOT want to do things right the first time.
HOW do you effectively plan your entire online marketing campaign RIGHT from step 1?
CRITICAL INGREDIENT #1 – TARGET AUDIENCE
First thing (and I myself have ignored this many times, and the effects are disastrous) is to identify, draw and sketch out every little detail that you currently KNOW about the person who buys your stuff… Or the person who frequently buys the product you want to sell the most right now. Could be because that product has your highest profit margin, or because you know folks who buy that first product often buy others. Either way, nail down who buys it… or who it’s right for…
WHAT TO COLLECT
- Age group
- Websites they visit (Sports sites, coupon trading sites, investing sites)
- What level of computer savvy they have
- What social networks they tend to be on
- How they word things when they search online (are they educated or ignorant?)
- What industry acronyms might they use?
- What other interests might they typically have?
- What gender are they? Males or females
- What kind of money do they have? Are they over $40k a year or under?
Once you have that kind of information ALONE, you can begin to write copy and build landing pages. Landing pages that target their hopes, dreams desires… That build on the critical 7 emotions that sell… (Lust, vanity, pride, envy, laziness, greed, fear) and you can offer them exactly what they’re looking for. You can select the right colors, the right call to action, the correct language (intelligent or simple) and really get maximum impact. You can ALSO easily start identifying search targets, content network targets (websites you can advertise on) that will hit close to home, but cost very little.
CRITICAL INGREDIENT #2 – COMPETITION ANALYSIS
You should know what your competitors are peddling, because.. Guess what? Your customers know! Most consumers research and dig around before deciding to buy most things. When they do, they’ll be met with many other offers that focus on different guarantees & benefits. Price (cheapest or most expensive), Quantity (more widgets or less), Guarantee (7 days or 90 days) and a whole host of other elements…
Google the phrases your consumers will type and see what they’re getting currently. Take screenshots if you have to of each so you can use those when you go to craft your own campaigns. This is one of the most critical elements because without this, you can’t really ACTUALLY come up with a good USP (Unique Sales Proposition) or what separates you from the competition. What makes you better? Why should someone choose you? Why are YOU the best out there?
Keep in mind, you can’t say “I have no competition, I’m the only one selling something…” because even Accounting Software had a competitor when it came onto the market. THE PENCIL. Why are you better than a pencil? Yes, you have to tell them that. They may not know.
CRITICAL INGREDIENT #3 – LANDING PAGE CREATION
When your target audience shows up, after looking at all those other competitors (brick & mortar or otherwise) what do they see? Does YOUR Page instill the critical ingredients gleaned from your research above?
- Credibility (BBB, Verisign logos, CNN Logos, Expert endorsements, clinical trial results, testimonials)
- Simple Layout (Simple benefits, headline and call to action, little other navigation or un-neccesary clicks)
- Email address collection (Your insurance, at least build a list so you can contact them later if they don’t buy)
- Strong offer that’s better than the competition (And here’s why!)
- Tracking – Obviously some form of analytics should be in place or your wasting your time
- Graphical or visual (video,flash) examples.
CRITICAL INGREDIENT #4 – TRAFFIC STRATEGY
Once you know who your audience is, you know what their 3am issue keeping them up at night is, and you know how to give it to them… The next part really can’t be much easier… When you go to execute your PPC strategy and your identifying keywords and writing ads for maximum click thru, use your research that you learned from competitors, consumers and what they WANT. You can attract alotta bears with the right honey.
When you consider your SEO setup, do the keyword research and ensure every bit of content that you want users to link to and chat about to be written STRAIGHT to Joe Smith we learned about in critical element #1 your research. Ensure your content is viralled out to the websites they hang out on, and visit most often. Ensure you’ve got a “share on this network” and it links to Linkedin or whatever network that audience uses most frequently. When you go to execute your media buys, your content network and other ads, ensure you target sites this audience is likely to frequent.
CRITICAL INGREDIENT #5 – ANALYTICS
Learn quickly how to identify your wins (optins or sales or both). Adjust and split test and always be on the lookout for a way to improve what you have. There’s ALWAYS room for improvement and you should always be testing. Relaunch the successful tests into your existing marketing. Take successful headlines to email, twitter, facebook, content network and so on and roll out those pieces. Continually survey your email list ensure your material is hitting the right spots, helping them and showing them what they want to see.
Sincerely,
Daniel J Deyette
