Central Perk

miercuri, 25 aprilie 2012

Why It's So Easy to Get Marketing All Wrong

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 04:11 PM PDT

I got a couple emails last week I wanted to share in anonymized format. Here's the first one:

It's me again <redacted>, just wondering I have been learning allot more about how to link build without software like senuke x and other automatic software and becoming a better manual link builder with google alerts etc.

And here's the second:

I look after around 6 clients at the moment, but my daily jobs just seem to be very repetitive e.g. finding related blogs, commenting on them, submiting sites to decent directories and guest posting, an now and again creating infographics and sharing them with blog owners and across sites such as reddit/quora etc...mostly I'm just blog commenting though.

I get A TON of emails like this. When folks are relatively new to the field of online marketing, or are moving from classic marketing into SEO, they often reach out seeking advice and help. Unfortunately, the volume's become a bit overwhelming of late, and I'm only able to respond to 50%, sometimes less (side note: I tried an experiment w/ email scalability a couple months back that failed). Thus, I wanted to write a post to express some empathy.

Yes. Marketing is really, really damned hard.

I understand the temptations to phone it in, to spam instead of creating authentic value, to outsource responsibility, to proclaim for all to hear that you HATE marketing, to give up. You're not alone. In fact, I've been just inches from all of those perspectives time and again over the last decade.

But that's also what makes great marketing so powerful. When:

Very few people are qualified or capable to do something
Many people believe that thing to be impossible
Only a handful make exceptional invesments to achieve it

That, in my opinion, is when remarkable things are in your grasp.

The marketing channels we invest in - SEO, social media, content marketing, community building, virality - fit these parameters well. It's easy do the basics, tough to get the intermediate items right and mind-blowingly challenging to get that last few percent that takes us from mediocrity to extraordinary.

Roadmap for Great Stuff on the Web

So many times, marketing professionals are called in to execute on Step 3 after being handed half-assed 1s and 2s. My friend Philip Vaughn told me at a lunch some months ago that "startups aren't really an engineering, product or organizational problem. They're mostly a marketing problem." But if we're handed crap to market, we can't help but do crap marketing.

At the risk of pissing a lot of people off - A large portion of SEO is just compensating for not being awesome.
— Rob Woods (@robdwoods) April 23, 2012

So many of the questions I see around inbound marketing boil down to the same fundamental challenge:

Marketing's Big Challenge

The way I see it, we only have two options:

A) Give in to giving up.
B) Take/earn responsibility for Step 1 and 2

Embracing option B and taking responsibility for your product -> marketing lifecycle is something very few people are qualified or capable of doing, many people believe to be impossible and only a handful ever execute exceptionally well. And it means remarkable results are in your grasp.

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How We Managed to Benefit from the Panda Updates

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 03:28 AM PDT

Posted by Martin Panayotov

This post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.

As I am into the online marketing field, I read a lot about SEO. This is my first post about SEO, so please don't be harsh in the comments. The Panda update is what made the SEO community roar about how many websites lost ranking and so on. There is so little information about the ones that benefited of the update and we are one of the winners.

I personally think that the Panda update made the SERPs quality a lot better and to some point buried the medium to low quality websites deep into the results. Even some of the high-authority websites went down.

I will share some insights of an user generated moving reviews website MyMovingReviews.com and how we got positively impacted by the Panda update. The website features many US and Canadian moving companies and provides the opportunity for people to rank them and write moving reviews. Additionally to that, there is a blog/article section with moving tips and info.

Industry specifics that influence the analytics data

Before we begin, you should know that the specifics of the industry add some additional noise to the analytics data. These are the main trends in the moving industry:

Weekly trends: People search a lot more about moving services in the beginning of the week in the working days. Mondays are usually the most active days. We assume that people usually search for movers at work during work hours.
Monthly trends: People search for movers more by the end of the month and less in the middle of the month and during holidays.
Seasonality: People search 30% more for movers in the summer months than during the rest of the year. Nobody wants to move in the winter (especially in the Northern states).

The Fist Panda update

Since the first Panda update in 2011 we started seeing some increase in rankings. Because of the specifics of the users behavior in our industry, the analytics data is looking weird but you can see the pattern.

first panda update mymovingreviews

Further benefits from the Panda update

As we saw a huge opportunity in the Panda update, we tried to adjust the website to better suit the visitors, give them alternatives once they visit the website and make visitors consume more of the moving industry related content. The goals were to increase the time on site, reduce the bounce rate and increase the pages per visit.

What we did to increase rankings/visitors

1. Reducing the bounce rate

We stared by working on the high bounce rate pages. We edited some of the content and deleted some of the pages. One of the very high bounce rate pages were the blog section posts. Since we are always committed to build only high quality content, we knew that the problem with the high bounce rate on the blog was elsewhere. We knew that visitors were able to find the information they were searching for and after that they were leaving the blog. We added a suggestion fly-box. The box appears on the right side on the page once the visitors scrolls by the end of a post and suggests another random post from the blog. This had a huge impact on the blog bounce rate by lowering it with more than 30%. From the highest bounce rate section of the website, the blog become the lowest one overnight.

2. Creating a mobile website

mobile visits my moving reviews We have about 11 percent mobile visits (we don't consider iPads to be mobile traffic). We decided to further lower the bounce rate by creating a full-featured mobile website. This of course brings the benefits of higher conversion rates. We've been postponing the mobile website for some time now and we finally decided to finish it and launch it by December. We kept the same URLs as the desktop version and only changed the templates.

3. More content

As part of the Panda update is the amount of content on page. We didn't want to have many pages with thin content so we increased the minimum text required for a moving review to be posted. After reading about how Zappos corrected the spelling mistakes of all their reviews, we additionally wanted to avoid spelling mistakes as much as possible. We included a spell checker on the moving review form. We are also planning to correct the mistakes on all old reviews in the future.

To recap, here are the changes we did:

Editing some of the content with the highest bounce rate.
Adding a spell checker on the write a review page and setting a higher minimum amount of text for the reviews.
Giving suggestions to users once they finish reading a blog post to reduce the bounce rate.
Started a mobile website to reduce the bounce rate and time on site for mobile visitors.

The results

We had almost 50% increase in visits in the next one-two months. Please note that we introduced most of the changes in December, so we can't really measure how fast did these changes influenced the rankings because of the holidays. Not surprisingly, the largest part of the increase was from the blog as this is where we managed to reduce the bounce rate the most.

MMR traffic increase

Conclusion

I can't say that all of the gained increase of visitors came because of the above changes, but given the changes and tactics we did at the time, these were the most significant ones. Targeting the visitor and thinking of how to enhance the customer experience results in more visitors. It is as simple as that. Working on the design and thinking of techniques to reduce the bounce rate will result in better rankings, especially if you are a high-traffic website.

What do you think about the bounce rate and its impact on rankings/visitors? Let us know your opinion in the comments below.

"Awwww Yeah": President Obama on Jimmy Fallon

Your Daily Snapshot for
Wednesday, April 25, 2012

"Awwww Yeah": President Obama on Jimmy Fallon

In July, if Congress doesn't act to keep interest rates low, more than 7 million students around the country will rack up an average of $1,000 of extra debt each. That's why President Obama is asking students to tweet using the hashtag #DontDoubleMyRate.

The President stopped by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night, where he had a message for Congress: This is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people.

Watch the President "slow jam" the news on student loans:

Google’s ‘Over Optimisation’ Algorithm Update – Coming Soon!

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 04:16 PM PDT

Many speculated for weeks over the launch of Google’s next algorithm update targeting websites that Matt Cutts described as “over optimised”. The new algorithm update is meant to launch in the next few days and according to the Official Google Search Blog, this particular update will affect sites that employ the following “black-hat” tactics:

Keyword stuffing
Link schemes (paid links, excessive reciprocal linking, links from (and to) spammy or unrelated sites etc.)
Article spinning

According to Matt Cutts, the change will go live for all languages at the same time. The update is meant to affect 3.1% of queries in English where “regular users” will notice. This number is relatively small when compared to the effect the original Panda update had on search queries (12% of search queries for regular users).

So how does one make sure not to fall pray to Google’s next update? Cutts emphasises that in addition to improving site usability, creating “great” content, and improving site speed; site-owners must also need to think of creative marketing campaigns that make sites more compelling “that help search engines as well as social media”.

The SEO community have long known the indirect benefits of launching “high level” online marketing campaigns that gain publicity and higher visibility on social networks and the blogosphere. However, this is probably the most compelling hint that the search giant has dropped on SEOs which stress the need for SEOs to graduate from it’s infant state and take it’s rightful place at a strategic marketing level.

Google’s ultimate objective is to provide the most relevant results for their users and this algorithm update seems to be an aggressive step toward that goal. We will be updating this space as and when we hear more from the search giant so be sure to watch this space. Also feel free to voice your opinions and share your thoughts with the community.

Seth's Blog : Don't expect applause

Don't expect applause

Accept applause, sure, please do.

But when you expect applause, when you do your work in order (and because of) applause, you have sold yourself short. That's because your work is depending on something out of your control. You have given away part of your art. If your work is filled with the hope and longing for applause, it's no longer your work--the dependence on approval has corrupted it, turned it into a process where you are striving for ever more approval.

Who decides if your work is good? When you are at your best, you do. If the work doesn't deliver on its purpose, if the pot you made leaks or the hammer your forged breaks, then you should learn to make a better one. But we don't blame the nail for breaking the hammer or the water for leaking from the pot. They are part of the system, just as the market embracing your product is part of marketing.

"Here, here it is, it's finished."

If it's finished, the applause, the thanks, the gratitude are something else. Something extra and not part of what you created. To play a beautiful song for two people or a thousand is the same song, and the amount of thanks you receive isn't part of that song.

• Email to a friend •

marți, 24 aprilie 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

U.S. Creates New Spy Service (Because 16 Intelligence Agencies is Not Enough)
Marc Faber Discusses Imminent Market Crash, a Recession in China, Says Fiscal Condition of US a "Catastrophe"
Does it Matter if Obama Beats Romney? Does it Matter if Hollande Beats Sarkozy?

U.S. Creates New Spy Service (Because 16 Intelligence Agencies is Not Enough)

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 08:01 PM PDT

The US currently has sixteen intelligence agencies. The Secretary of Defense now wants yet another agency, and the only logical conclusion is the sixteen existing agencies simply cannot get the job done.

Collectively US intelligence agencies missed 911, Egypt, Libya, events in Iran, and they thought Hussein hid weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Currently they do not know if Iran is attempting to build nuclear weapons or not. Alternatively, they do know, but do not want us to know what they know because it might make the oil embargo look downright silly.

Occasionally the agencies get something correct, such as finding Bin Laden after nearly a decade of looking. However, given the overall track record, one has to wonder if that discovery was simply an accident as opposed to careful analysis.

The Mark comments U.S. Creates New Spy Service Because 16 intelligence agencies just wasn't enough.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that the Pentagon will soon launch a new intelligence agency to be known as the Defense Clandestine Service that will be tasked with tracking issues of "global strategic importance," such as nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea. The DCS will become the 17th active intelligence agency within the sprawling U.S. government and is expected to complement Defense Intelligence Agency, which is more focused on finding out information on battlefield tactics and maneuvers of enemy combatants. DCS, then, will take a broader approach to military intelligence, which is sort of what the Central Intelligence Agency already does, but hey, at least it means someone in the U.S. government will be doing some hiring in the near term.

Do we really need yet another intelligence agency, complete with yet another bureaucracy? I suggest we don't. In fact, I think we should collapse all of the existing agencies under one umbrella (assuming of course they are worth keeping at all). Unfortunately, that is debatable.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Marc Faber Discusses Imminent Market Crash, a Recession in China, Says Fiscal Condition of US a "Catastrophe"

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 10:06 AM PDT

Inquiring minds are listening to Marc Faber on the global economy.

Link if video does not play: Marc Faber speaks of Imminent Market Crash

Faber says China faces a recession defined as a slowdown to 3%.

Interestingly, 3% is the same long-term target that Michael Pettis at China Financial Markets has come up with. Indeed Pettis has made two bets with the Economist over growth rates and when Chain will surpass the US in terms of GDP.

The Economist says China will pass the US up by 2018. Pettis and I say no way. Pettis also says China will average 3.5% or less growth for the rest of the decade. I agree with Pettis.

For details of the bet and my thoughts, please see 12 Predictions by Michael Pettis on China; Non-Food Commodity Prices Will Collapse Over Next Three to Four Years; Nails in the Hard Landing Coffin?

Faber does not believe China's GDP as stated now, and neither do I. Both of us think China has hugely understated inflation.

However, Faber sees a chance of serious inflation in the US. I don't. Faber narrowly focuses on money supply and ignores credit. And credit will collapse once again if the US heads back into recession as Faber thinks. Indeed credit has at best held steady in this recovery, after one corrects for student loans.

Please see The Real Consumer Credit Story: Virtually No Recovery in Revolving Credit, No Recovery in Non-Revolving Credit
for a discussion.

Since credit dwarfs money supply, odds of significant inflation in the face of negative credit growth is not high. Those betting on high inflation or hyperinflation have simply been wrong, and will continue to be wrong until Bernanke reignites bank lending.

Given capital constraints on banks, consumer needs to deleverage, boomers heading for retirement with insufficient savings, and businesses reluctant to expand, Bernanke is fighting a losing battle and will be for quite some time.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Does it Matter if Obama Beats Romney? Does it Matter if Hollande Beats Sarkozy?

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 03:25 AM PDT

Does it really matter who wins the French presidential election between socialist François Hollande and incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy?

What about the race in the US between President Obama and Mitt Romney? Let's discuss those questions one at at time.

Does it Matter if Hollande Beats Sarkozy?

In spite of alleged differences, both candidates are in support of Eurobonds, both candidates want immigration controls, both candidates want the ECB to be more proactive, both candidates want to protect French farms from import threats.

To varying degrees both candidates are against free trade. Most importantly, both candidates want Germany to take on more risk and pony up more money to "save" the euro.

Judging from their platforms, allegedly center-left by Hollande, and center-right by Sarkozy, there is little difference. So does it matter?

Actually it does. The risk the eurozone splinters to smithereens sooner rather than later is greater under Hollande than Sarkozy for two reasons.

Hollande wants to rework the Merkozy treaty and doing so may collapse the treaty immediately
Hollande will not have the same respect of the rest of Europe that Sarkozy had. Thus any new agreements needed to hold the eurozone together may become politically impossible, immediately

Since I believe a breakup of the eurozone would be a good thing, I hope Hollande wins even though that puts me in the seemingly preposterous position of rooting for a socialist.

Many will disagree with my supposition "a breakup of the eurozone would be a good thing". However, it is going to happen regardless. No currency union in history has ever survived in the absence of a political union, and it should now be clear that a political union is impossible.

Thus, the eurozone focus should not be on how to save the unsavable, but rather how to breakup the eurozone at the least cost. Delays are clearly costly as Greece proves. What was at one time a 40 billion Euro problem is now, after multiple haircuts, a 200 billion euro problem.

Spain and Portugal will prove to be the same, only bigger. Simply put, the sooner the eurozone break apart, the smaller the ultimate damage. Since Hollande provides a better opportunity for a faster breakup, he is the better candidate to support.

Does it Matter if Obama Beats Romney?

On the surface, and for similar reasons it will not matter whether Obama wins or Romney wins.

Discounting a supreme court decision, the US will be stuck with Obamacare on one hand or Romneycare on the other. If you think that matters, please tell me how.

Both Romney and Obama are warmongers, the only question is to the degree. When it comes to military spending and waging wars, Romeny is nutzoid-rightwing and Obama simply strongly-rightwing. Romney practically guarantees war with Iran but Obama makes the odds merely likely.

Trade policy is similar. Romney guarantees a trade war with China while trade wars are merely highly likely under Obama.

On the plus side (or minus side depending on your point of view) Obama will of pander to the public unions but Romney won't, but will either candidate bring about much change in either direction?

I suggest not.

Will Romney or Obama deal with the budget deficit? Once again the answer is no. Romney might claim to, but details on his proposals are sorely lacking.

Moreover, once elected, Romney's primary goal will to be reelected. That means Romney will pander to the politics of graft and bailouts. His wishy-washy track record proves just that.

So does it matter?

On the surface it doesn't. Except for women's reproductive rights issues (and on that issue I side with Obama), Romney and Obama are nearly the same.

However, if Romney is elected, four years from now the US may face the disastrous choice of Hillary Clinton vs. four more years of Romney. That thought alone should be enough to make any sensible US citizen throw up.

The beauty of an Obama second term win is Obama is guaranteed to be gone four years from now whereas the US could conceivably be stuck with Romney for eight more years.

Rand Paul 2016

Should Obama win, Republicans will have the chance to get their heads screwed on straight and nominate a candidate with broad appeal to the center as opposed to broad appeal to the far right.

Rand Paul 2016 has a nice ring to it (assuming he has the common sense to stay away from war-mongering and abortion like his father Ron Paul).

However, Rand Paul (or if you prefer, NJ governor Chris Christie) will only be possible if Obama wins this election.

Thus, short of a miracle finish by Ron Paul, the actual best hope for a sensible Republican candidate who appeals to the middle and the independents just might be four more years of Obama.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

miercuri, 25 aprilie 2012

Why It's So Easy to Get Marketing All Wrong

Why It's So Easy to Get Marketing All Wrong

Industry specifics that influence the analytics data

The Fist Panda update

Further benefits from the Panda update