Interesting Marketing Articles
October 7, 2009
Despite my already mentioned disdain for a lot of agency blogs – there are a lot of brilliant folks out there that are sharing lots of great information. I tend to scan this information, bookmark it, and occasionally come back to it during brief spurts of downtime. I draw on it and provide info to Academy members, but rarely just link out from my blog.
It is also a lot easier just to link you out to folks that are much better than me at sharing this info :)
Here are some good articles to check out:
Turning non-customers into customers (SEO specific, but still good theory for anyone)
SEO for Public Relations – Good info on how SEO and PR interconnect
PPC Copywriting for Quality Clickthroughs – Vital for PPC Conversion Rates
I could seriously go on all day – but you’ll have to join the Academy to get more.
Just get it started already.
September 23, 2009
I’m a planner. In a big way. I’m also a perfectionist. This makes launching new affiliate campaigns difficult (client campaigns have deadlines, so that makes it easy). I want everything to be 100% before it goes out. On one note, that makes a lot of sense – I have no intention of throwing a thousand bucks away on a product/offer that isn’t going to work.
On the other hand – this often leads to lots of potential money making projects left to die “on the vine.”
So, how do you force yourself into action?
Well, if you’re a business owner, you set goals and create a system to make yourself accountable for them. If you happen to be an Internet marketing geek whose most regular work day contact is with his dog, you blog about it. Nothing sets you up for success like the risk of abject public humiliation.
So – what is my goal? It’s pretty simple – I have $2,000 to use over the next 6 weeks. I have to turn that into $3,000 in 6 weeks, using absolutely nothing that is currently in existence. (I’m making a small exception for a couple sites that already exist, but aren’t generating revenue, as those are the stimulus for this whole idea).
Let me break it down – no campaigns are set up, no SEO foundation has been built for these sites…with the exception of already having a couple domain names purchased, and a glimmer of a plan – I’m starting from scratch.
I have to choose my next steps carefully – more importantly, I have to move forward – no way I reach that goal from scratch without making some big time progress early on.
By the way – did I mention I’m getting married next week? HA.
I’ll update my progress here – several posts describing more in depth what I’m doing will be protected…so you’ll need to join 7xo Academy to get access to those. (see the signup box in the upper right?)
Improve your PPC ROI in an Hour
April 8, 2009
Here’s a quick tip to improve the conversion rates for some of your pay per click keywords:
If you’re using broad match – stop. I don’t mean completely stop – that would be silly. I mean stop and think for a second. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and spend an hour with your analytics and see what you can learn.
Here are two things you should be able to find:
- Longer Keyphrases that aren’t converting. Your keyword bid on “widgets” might be sending lots of folks looking for “free widgets” even though you charge for yours. This means you should add “free” as a negative keyword in that campaign. That will save you money.
- Longer Keyphrases that are converting. Your keyword bid on “widgets” also sends a lot of clicks for “red widgets”, and those people convert like crazy. So, break “red widgets” out into a different ad group, phrase or exact match it, and save money on click costs and watch your conversions jump even higher.
Those are the two primary tenents of keyword optimization – but you have to have the analytics in place to tell. If you’re broad matching hundreds or thousands of words, and not doing this on a regular basis (meaning daily if you can) you’re wasting money.