2013
How video and email marketing can drive more traffic to your website
source: www.startupsmart.com.au
Cindy Cornett Seigle via Compfight.
.
.
Shareable video blog
Video is king. If you can record a two to three-minute video every few days and post that on your blog and YouTube page (tagged correctly, of course), you’ll start driving people who match your typical customer profile directly to your blog.
Keep it simple and inexpensive. Set up a blog on a free platform like WordPress where you will embed your videos as blog posts after uploading them to YouTube.
Email marketing
Start a weekly or monthly newsletter with useful content that contains a limited number of product promos only.
Your newsletters should educate your subscribers, not give them the hard sell.
Repurpose the videos you’ve been recording for your blog and include them in the newsletter (use screenshots of videos in newsletter — unfortunately, you can’t embed videos in email).
Make sure you link the screenshots to your blog posts, NOT the videos on YouTube. You want to drive traffic to your website.
Place buttons at the top and bottom of your newsletters that encourage subscribers to follow you on Twitter and Facebook.
And at the end of each issue, include a coupon code — or better still, a product that you can afford to heavily discount.
You want people to look forward to receiving your newsletter, and a good deal can be a great motivator.
Make sure your newsletter has a share button (MailChimp is free and has one). You want as many people as possible to see your information.
Now, why are you going through all this effort?
The goal of your guerrilla marketing is to get your profit up to a few thousand dollars a month, so you can invest in a search engine optimisation consultant and a Google AdWords expert.
This might take a few weeks or months, depending on your guerrilla marketing tactics, profit margins, etc. But it’s worth it.
A good SEO consultant should be able to get you ranking at the top of Google/Yahoo/Bing for at least a few keywords.
The process could take as little as four months and may cost anywhere from $300 to $3000 per month depending on the scope of your effort. But be smart.
Make sure you check references and actually see with your own eyes that their past clients are ranking high and call their clients up for feedback.
While your SEO consultant is working, run a trial Google AdWords campaign yourself for some of your popular products (around $100/day) and see if you can make it profitable. (For more insight, read Perry Marshall’s eBook for Google AdWords strategies.)
When you can afford it, also bring on a Google AdWords consultant. He or she will charge from $100 to $2000 or more per week, depending on hours worked, number of keywords you’re advertising for, number of ads, and other factors.
The goal is to have two experts handling your most critical traffic-driving activities: SEO and SEM.
When this happens, your critical traffic-driving activities are on auto-pilot, maintained by experts so you can focus on serving your customers and turning them into raving, lunatic fans.
Another option is investing in an online software-as-a-service like HubSpot. This service optimises your blog and social media accounts and gets your content recognised by search engines for $200 to $1000 a month.
2013
How 123reg Almost Crippled My Business! from Ben Hunt
www.webdesignfromscratch.com
There was actually nothing I could do to prevent this severe downtime. It wasn’t an issue with hosting, or DNS…
I could have fixed that.
No, the problem was that my domain registration company, 123reg, lost my domain name and failed to get it back for more than two weeks.
Here’s a screenshot of my 123-reg control panel, showing my domain as having renewed for another 3 years.
Ben wrote an e-mail — please read this :
2013
… made a new website
.. using the open source software by wordpress.org and a theme from presscoders.com
please visit: www.thienktb.com
Mr. Gerhard Thien and his team created a new vacuum cleaner system:
The vacuum cleaner with no exhaust air.
We invented a new vacuum cleaner system – innovative and good for the environment,
easy to use and produceable at low cost. This idea will revolutionise the market.
2013
“Outsider” — The Flame
There is a deeper background behind the text: The lyrics were written before the wall came down in East-Germany 1989. Many people got big problems with the GDR secret service only because they were different and said their thoughts in public. Michael Kohler and Frank Flemming have written these lyrics and all of us should never forget how to live under oppressive regimes.
2013
The Flame — nice songs !
Cover Album Outsider
Album Outsider — here are some clips
all songs shortened — you can get it on iTunes and Amazon
Link website The Flame: www.flame-vox.com
2012
Why is it dark at night?
Have you ever wondered why you look up and see a dark sky at night?
via YouTube
Help share science with the world: translate.minutephysics.com
2012
Our lovely Maureen found this on YouTube
Bo Inspects the 2012 White House Holiday Decorations — YouTube … for your inspiration
2012
Google is Hunting for Quality Content
source: www.jeffbullas.com
In the last 2 months I have noticed a significant spike in traffic from search engines to the blog and I am talking figures of a 15% increase or over 2,000 more hits per day. My blogging and content creation activities have not changed but it appears that Google’s search engine has. The Panda and Penguin updates are starting to produce some substantial changes to who ranks high in Google. Google’s aim is to remove the content farms that add no value and replicate poor quality content.
Google changes its search engine formulas over 500 times a year in the pursuit of delivering results that are relevant to “you” the user of search. Google says that it search engine is about finding and ranking high in search results, websites and blogs that provide a high quality experience for your readers.
“Search is a complicated and evolving art and science, so rather than focusing on specific algorithmic tweaks, we encourage you to focus on delivering the best possible experience for users.” – Google
Creating the best possible experience for users comes down to the key element of quality content creation. That one activity alone will make a major difference in pushing your website and blog higher in search results.
For a great visual on how content and SEO work together here is an Infographic to keep your neurons ticking over.
source: www.brafton.com
2012
from “what-how-why” to “why-how-what”
.
Build a cult…not a company
.
source: http://blog.kissmetrics.com
“… Apple is easily one of the most recognized brands in the world. And it has one of the most loyal fan bases, too. Why? Because Apple created a brand that is way more popular than any single product they create.
See, it doesn’t matter if it is a Mac, iPhone or iPad. What matters is that it is an Apple.
Compare this to Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of the Blackberry. Their smart phone is vastly cooler and more popular than the company. In fact, ask people if they’ve ever heard of RIM, and most will give you a blank stare.
In fact, search Blackberry and RIM on Google Insights, and the volume for the product will be higher than for the company. Do the same thing with Apple and iPhone, and you’ll see that the spikes are always side by side, meaning people talk about the company as much as they talk about their products.
Takeaway: Create products and experiences that are based upon your brand and core message in order to cultivate that almost cult-like connection with your customers. Focus on building the killer brand, not the killer product. … ”
Start with why
” …
Speaking of building the killer product—this is how many companies begin their branding journey. They look to create the product that changes lives and neglect the brand.
Let’s look at Apple again. They will never start with the common what-how-why advertising message. Instead, they flip that formula so it is why-how-what. They start off by promoting the reason why they exist. It’s as if they say something like this: “Apple exists to challenge the status quo. We emphasize gorgeous design. And we happen to make digital devices.”
The reverse of that is this: “Apple makes digital devices. They are gorgeously designed. We exist to challenge the status quo.” See how that can make a difference. The first emphasizes the mission, while the other emphasizes the product. Products come and go. A brand should last forever.
Takeaway: Get everyone involved in understanding the mission—the why you exist. This starts at the top and works all the way down to the bottom. Then everyone is working to create a meaningful way to get people to see your brand, not just your products. ..”
2012
INFLUENCER OUTREACH
source: www.istrategyconference.com
” …
Today I want to share with you an interesting influencer case study which was done a few months ago by Volkswagen.
According to The Telegraph, over 500,000 road accidents are caused by women drivers applying make-up in the UK.
Volkswagen decided that more women drivers should be more aware about this statistic and decided to take the lead in bringing more attention to women drivers.
To do so, they went to the “source” where women discuss make-up.…. YOUTUBE (oh what did we do before the Internet happened). If you don’t know, YouTube is a place where millions of women around the world learn tips, get to know the latest trends and get inspired about make-up! …”
2012
An Ode to Creative Work via behance.net
source: www.behance.net
A film about the opportunity, hardship and responsibility of creative work.
Latest Tweets
twitter
Recent Posts
- The Science of Productivity
- Angela Lee Duckworth: The key to success? Grit
- How video and email marketing can drive more traffic to your website
- 10 Lessons on Marketing
- How 123reg Almost Crippled My Business! from Ben Hunt
Categories
Tags
Recent Comments
- Elke on The Flame — nice songs !
wp
- Customizing Comet: Beau and Arrow EventsWho doesn’t love “Before and After” home improvement shots? It’s always amazing to see how just a couple of changes, like a coat of paint or a quick do-it-yourself project, can transform a living space dramatically. It’s no different when it comes to WordPress.com blog themes, in which a little customization can go a long […] […]
- Freshly Pressed: Friday FavesAn ode to a father, a story of growing up with two mothers, a request for a cloak of visibility, and a reflection on goodbyes. Here are four Freshly Pressed standouts from this week — all quite personal pieces that have resonated with many readers. Go ahead and dive in: Why I Don’t Diet — […] […]
- New Theme: SnapHappy Theme Thursday! Sharing and managing your work online should be easy, and today I’m thrilled to announce a new theme from our friends at The Theme Foundry that helps you do just that! Snap is a responsive, lightweight, and minimalist theme that makes it easy to feature your projects. Snap’s clean grid based blog […] […]