Web & Marketing Info Galore

Tuesday, June 20  

Excellent Way To Showcase Your Online Product

Excellent Way To Showcase Your Online Product

Here's a neat way to sell more stuff - a great way to showcase your product or service.
Check it out in action below and here.

Brendon

One Of My Best Marketing Articles

One Of My Best Marketing Articles

I just received a very kind email from a business student (thanks Kellen) who'd stumbled upon this site somehow and read a marketing article.

Kellen wrote me a kind note to say how good it is and how useful it was to them.

I've just re-read the article and I've gotta agree! It's a damn fine article!

One of my better ones.

It's about how to market a Cigar Store but could be useful for anyone wanting to know how to market any business.

Click here for Selling cigars - all smoke and mirrors?

Cheers

Brendon

VoIP Hitting Mainstream Here In Australia

VoIP Hitting Mainstream Here In Australia

I caught a little bit of Today Tonight - one of Australia's big current affairs shows - and they had a segment devoted to Voice Over IP (using your broadband connection to make your phone calls).

(I'll skip over the fact that they announce that "Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) - launched today in Australia" - when anyone with broadband has been able to use VoIP for years.)

When things start hitting mainstream media they get a lot bigger a lot quicker.
So if you're interested in free and cheap phone calls here are 2 easy ways to do it:

1. Skype - make calls directly from your computer.
Download the bit of Skype software here and go from there.

The software is free. You can then call any other Skype user anywhere in the world for free.

You can credit money into your account and buy time - at a hugely decreased rate on normal call rates.

The only other thing you'll need is a microphone (we use a combined mic and headphones - a Logitech USB 250 which is $70 from Harvey Norman).

2. Engin - this is a great solution that simply plugs into your wall socket and then a normal phone.

Then you just use your phone like normal. The box costs $139+ (there are a couple of options) and you pay for calls at, again, a hugely reduced rate.

We've cut our office phone bill from $220 per month to $80 per month.

Give either or both a try. You'll save yourself a heap of money.

Cheers

Brendon

Monday, June 19  

Why Marketing Doesn't Stop Girls From Smoking

Why Marketing Doesn't Stop Girls From Smoking

I was talking with someone on the weekend and they were of the view that marketing is pretty ineffective in stopping people from smoking.

His thinking was that despite all of the anti-smoking marketing, people still take up smoking. The largest increases are in the number of girls/young women taking up cigarette smoking.
And when you think about it, there is tons of anti-smoking marketing and absolutely minimal smoking advertising. And most of us are well aware of the dangers of smoking.

So why doesn't the marketing work?


The Marketing Doesn't Work Because It's Not Strong Enough

That's right, the anti-smoking marketing doesn't work because it's not strong enough to beat the pro-smoking marketing.


Why People Take Up Smoking

1. Because marketing works. The marketing that gets people smoking is peer group pressure (a kind of word of mouth). As anyone who has ever been a kid knows, this is an incredibly powerful pressure.

2. Family influences - the child sees a parent smoking and emulates them. (Some say this is a genetic thing caused by the "Stupid Gene".)

To read studies on the uptake of smoking click here and here.

Like I said in this post, marketing works. And marketing isn't just a newspaper ad. Marketing can be a whole range of influences.

Cheers

Brendon

Sunday, June 18  

Podcast up, Example Of Working Video

Podcast up, Example Of Working Video

Check out our latest Podcast at TailoredPodcast (Show # 39) - it's about making bigger sales than you do now. (BTW, you might want to listen to my first ever podcast - either click here or scroll down to BS-Biz-Mix-2005-11-22 on the player.....it's so bad it's almost good! But it is very, very boring.).

I've been asked for a good example of video that helps sell a product online - that's easy: check out SEO Book Review. It works very well at converting visitors into buyers (plus it's a great book).

We also have Google AdWords Review if you're interested in finding out how to get the most of your Pay Per Click Advertising.

Cheers

Brendon

Saturday, June 17  

This Looks Very Special

This Looks Very Special

If you read this blog a lot you know I get excited about stuff that means I can measure the effectiveness of the stuff I do.

I have just fallen in love.........and like with a lot of my early girlfriends, the promise is spectacular.....I'm just waiting to see what comes of it all.

But what I am seeing is making me all hot and flustered!

(And a big shout out to Aaron Pratt of SEO Buzz Box for blogging about it and making me aware of it.)


Introducing Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg is a "free and easy tool" that shows you where visitors are clicking on your web page (and where they're not). Wow. That would be incredibly useful for a whole range of reasons.


2 Views Of Where Visitors Are Clicking

Looks like there will be 2 views:






I'll keep you posted.

Brendon

Here's How Marketing Works - And What Does This Ass Have To Do With It?

Here's How Marketing Works - And What Does This Ass Have To Do With It?

Okay, let's test something.

Let's write this letter to 200 people who play tennis regularly:

"Hello

I understand that you play tennis regularly at the Smith Club. As a regular player you would know the importance of quality tennis shoes. All-purpose runners just don't do the job - they lack the specific traction tennis requires.

And that means you often won't be in the best position to hit the right shot.

All-purpose runners also make you more suspect to injurys because the over-gripping can make your feet stop whilst your legs are still going - it's the same reason netball players have the largest incidence of knee injuries in any sport (Editors note: I'm pretty sure that's actually true.).

I'll Give You What You Need

• To play better tennis you need the right tennis shoes.
• To avoid serious leg injuries you need purpose built tennis shoes.
• To be the best you can you need "Nike Aces".

Nike Aces For Just $99.....+ Free Balls

To celebrate the coming Wimbledon, and my recovery from a knee reconstruction after snapping my Anterior Cruciate playing tennis whilst wearing a pair of all-purpose runners (that hurt!), we're having a sale on Nike Aces.

They are the best tennis shoes available - I've researched and reviewed absolutely everything on the market. And being a shoe store owner for 20 years means I know what's out there.

So be safe. Play better tennis. Take better care of the court and yourself.


Save $45 & Receive A Free Gift

Come on in for this very special offer - just $99 for Nike Aces (save $45) and I'll toss in 3 Dunlop US Open Issue tennis balls (valued at $18). You'll be saving yourself $63!

That'll put some bounce into your game..........and so will the balls!

Call in, call me on 5555 5555 or buy online at www.madeupdomain.com today to take advantage of this and our great service!

Best Wishes

John Smith"

==========================

Good letter?
Bad letter?

I just wrote it off the top of my head, but I'll guarantee you this - it will make some sales.

Then you do Step 2 - that's refining the letter, the offer and the list to get a better response.

And then Step 3 - refine again.

And Step 4 is going back to previous customers from Steps 1, 2 and 3 and making them an offer on the latest tennis racquets, or getting them in the store for a talk from a tennis pro (and giving 10% discounts on any products sold that night) or.....you get the drift.


What You've Done

And you know what those 4 Steps have done?


Marketing works. You just have to do some.

Cheers

Brendon

Friday, June 16  

Simple Audio Will Increase Sales

Simple Audio Will Increase Sales

To be sure, to be sure. Using a simple audio button (like the one below) is a great way to deliver testimonials to your web site visitors.

Check out an audio testimonial about Brendon by clicking the Play button below......from someone who knows!

Want To Give It A Try?

If you'd like to trial audio (or video) on your site, then give us a call on 07 5598 4898 and we'll help you out.

An audio testimonial like the one above is charged at $80 per hour - for that you'll get our recommendations on what sort of testimonials to ask for, the best way to ask them, we'll record and edit, convert to mp3 and apply to your site with a groovy little player like the one above.

Mel

Video Ready To Roll

Video Ready To Roll

We do quite a bit of online video here in the office and we need to take some video of a running track.

Our initial thought was to just run with the video, but that would make it too jerky.

Then I thought of riding a bike holding the video recorder. Again, too jerky.

Then Tina had the idea to mount a tripod head onto the aero-bar of my bike - easy!

Then the camera goes on - totally stable and when I'm riding it gives as smooth a video as I could hope for.

What's that about necessity being the mother of invention?!

Cheers

Brendon

Thursday, June 15  

Give Me a Big Blob Of Vaseline.....And Put Bandaids On My Nipples

Give Me a Big Blob Of Vaseline.....And Put Bandaids On My Nipples

Sure, that sounds like the start of some strange sexual fetish post but this is a family blog and I'm keeping it clean!

I ran my first marathon in, I think, 1995 (that's me on the right with my beautiful daughter Laura at a run last year...may have been 2004).

The day of the marathon was a cold, cold day in Richmond, Tasmania and we set off at about 8 am from memory. I'd just worked the night shift at a local hospital and came straight from the hospital.


Aim Was 5 Minute Kilometres

My aim was to run 5 minute kilometres which would give me a time of 3 1/2 hours for the 42.2 kilometres..

I was about 10 km from the finish when I first noticed the blood. Actually I didn't notice it, it was someone at the aid station that did.

Blood Trickling Down My Chest

What it was was blood trickling down my chest - enough to leave big blotches on my short - from my nipples. You see, with the cold air and being rubbed continuously against my running shirt for 3 hours had made my nipples crack and bleed.

After a quick clean up and bandaids I was on my way.

The other 'medical' type treatment I got on the way was the fairly regular application of vaseline between my thighs where the legs rub at the top.

When you're running a marathon your legs tend to chaff a lot. And if you don't use vaseline or have the right pair of shorts, you can rub the skin off without too much effort.

And trust me, nothing hurts quite as much as that.


Experience Counts

As with marathon running and business, experience counts. Those 2 simple tricks above can save you a lot of pain.

Just like having the benefit of experience to make the right decisions in business can save you from a different sort of pain.

And you don't have to suffer to get the experience. With marathon running and business, there are lots of ways to access that experience without pain.

• Read this blog!
• Read other web sites
• Find a mentor
• Ask questions of those who have been there and done that

A Million Different Ways

There are a million different things you can do to access the right information.

In this day of amazing information distribution - think web sites, think magazines, think emails, think mobile phones - it's an easy task to get the right information so you can make the right decisions.

As you might know from earlier blogs, I'm currently training for the Gold Coast Half Marathon on July 2. Check out my progress here if you're interested.

Cheers

Brendon

P.S: And yes, I finished my first marathon on time - in 3 hours 29 minutes and 20 seconds.

Wednesday, June 14  

The Power Of The Web - Beware Thieves!

The Power Of The Web - Beware Thieves!

Case 1: Have you heard the case of the stolen SideKick (pictured right)?

Millions of others have.

A guy has a friend who leaves her phone in the back of a taxi. It ends up with 16 year old Sasha. She takes plenty of photos of herself and they get uploaded to the phone?s AOL account.

The guy (Evan) sets up a web page devoted to the ongoing saga of trying to get the phone back.

A simple enough thing you would think? but he has had no success - and the web site flooded with visitors and using up 3 GB of bandwidth a day.


Amir, The Dodgy eBay Seller

Case 2: Then there is Amir, the dodgy eBay computer seller. Amir apparently sold a computer that was no?t what it was meant to be on eBay. The new owner was a little angry.

So angry in fact, that he set up a blog devoted to exposing Amir for the dodgy little fellow he is.

He writes the blog in the first person (if he was Amir) and shows quite an impressive collection of camera phone photos of legs that Amir left of the computer! (Amongst other things.)

The media attention that both sites have received is growing, page views are in their millions and the shame of the thieves must be acute.

I guess it could be the start of a risky vigilante movement within the web.

I'll be interested to see how things pan out.

Cheers

Brendon

Testimonials MUST Be Used By Your Business

Testimonials MUST Be Used By Your Business

Check out why you MUST use testimonials in your business with this 12 second audio snippet below (and check the full Internet radio show out at TailoredPodcast.com for more information).



Brendon

Tuesday, June 13  

Shoemoney Show Worth Checking Out

Shoemoney Show Worth Checking Out

Shoemoney (Jeremy Schoemaker) is one of the regular blogs I read for no-nonsense, real-life info.

Good news to hear that Shoemoney now has a radio show (Net Income) on WebMasterRadio.fm every Tuesday night at 5pm CST 6pm EST.

Shoemoney had a few controversial things to say after Markus Frind of PlentyOf Fish.com (a huge dating site and forum) claimed to be making big $ on his site.


How To Make Money From Forums

Shoemoney's next show is about how to make money from forums and other social networking sites. He'll be interviewing Lee Dodd, owner of Sprint Users and other large forums - he's a guy who has been there, done that and is still doing it.

Should be well worth a listen.

Check out more information here.

Cheers

Brendon

Monday, June 12  

How Not To Demonstrate Your Expertise....

How Not To Demonstrate Your Expertise....

Baker & McKenzie is (apparently) one of the world's leading law firms. But they don't seem so smart to me.

Following on from this hilarious and saucy incident (you have to read that!) reported in June 2005, the lads at Baker & McKenzie have launched a pre-emptive strike on web sites that might infringe the rights of one of their clients in regards to the World Cup.

Leading web site BoingBoing have reported this:

Hideous company sends Boing Boing a pre-emptive nastygram

You see, Baker & McKenzie have told BoingBoing (and others) that they will be "actively monitoring your website ... to identify unlawful activity and will, if necessary, take appropriate action to ensure the protection of Infront's rights of those licenses."

Mmmmm, threatening people before they actually do anything wrong...... I'm pretty sure I didn't see that mentioned in "How To Win Friends & Influence People"!

Cheers

Brendon

Friday, June 9  

Always Have Your Sign Up

Always Have Your Sign Up

Here in our office block there are 2 offices and a retail shop currently vacant. They've been vacant for about 3 months.

And the owner is getting worried.

I know that because there is presently a small crane outside my window putting up a large sign advertising the offices and shop. It's been at the building all morning afixing 2 other large signs.

Advertise Constantly

In the 4 years I've been here the owner has always had vacant offices. But this is the first times he's put big signs up advertising the fact.

Wouldn't it be better to have the signs up all the time so you can always have leads coming in, rather than wait for a vacancy and then put a sign up?

Wouldn't it be better to advertise all the time , not just when you haven't got much work on? That way you'll never be struggling for work, or a tenant.

Cheers

Brendon

Thursday, June 8  

How Links Matter To Search Engines

How Links Matter To Search Engines

I've just responded to an email from a reader and thought it would make a good post to explain a a little how and why links are important for high search engine rankings. (Craig has given permission to use it.)

============================

Hi Brendon,

I am an avid reader of your blogs etc and I know that you talk a lot about SEO etc. Well I got an email yesterday telling me to do a google search on the word failure.

It asks to click the “I’m feeling lucky” button and it takes you to George W Bush’s home page – the official White House biography page for the President.

I had a quick look at the page and noticed that not once was the word failure mentioned on it. In fact having a look I can’t work out how or why google would have that listed as the top page for that word.

I was wondering if you thought there was anything that could be learnt from this? Is this Google playing a bit of a practical joke?

Anyway I thought it might interest you, as I know you are big on google at the moment.

Cheers

Craig

E-Millmo Web Development
W: www.emillmo.com.au
=================================


My Answer

Howdy Craig

Thanks for the email.

No trick - it's just a great example of the importance of anchor text in incoming links.

That is, what words are used to link to another web site.

Google tries and find the most relevant page for that term in the 'Feeling Lucky' search - and because the www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html page comes up for 'failure' first in the normal rankings (and there is no other more relevant site in Google's eyes) then that's what they display.

If a site has lots of links coming into it with the word "failure" as the linking text then that web site will rank high for the term "failure".

It's one of the more important elements of getting high rankings for your targeted search term.

So if you want to rank well for "avanti bikes" then the sites that link to you should use the linking words "avanti bikes".

I just ran a program that checked the links to the page (www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html) and there are about 483 sites linking to that page. And the majority (approximately 70% are linking to that page with the term "miserable failure").

From memory there was a concerted campaign to have Bush rank high for the term "miserable failure" a while back - and yep, he's # 1 in Google for that term too.

http://www.google.com/search?&q=miserable+failure

You'll see a story about it ranked at # 3.

And here is a good comment on it: http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/google.asp

Thanks for the info Craig. The message is, if you want high rankings for a term in Google you need to get plenty of good quality links (and links with the words you're targeting) coming in to your web site.
==============================

Cheers

Brendon

Labels: search engine promotion

A Few Things

A Few Things


About Actions

My training for the Gold Coast Half Marathon is going well. You can check it out here if you're interested. Although I've only given myself 40 days to train, it's amazing what doing a little bit each day does. I feel fit and energised.

It's the same in marketing - market a little every day and you'll get results. If nothing changes, nothing changes.


About Consequences

Here in Australia one of the major sports is Australian Rules Football. One of the players in each team is the ruckman - usually a giant of a man whose job it is to grab the ball when it's in the air.

One of the ruckman for a major league (AFL) team is a guy called Dean Brogan. Dean is HUGE.

He's 200 cm (about 6 foot 6 inches) and very solid.

Dean was wandering through an airport recently when a dumb ass called Dale Mortimer, a supporter for another team, had a not-so-smart idea. He called out to Brogan:

"You're playing in the wrong team........ you dickhead."

So Dean steps up to this guy and asks him to repeat the insult. So Mortimer does.

Dean then punches him square in the face. Mortimer starts doing what happens when a huge guy punches you in the face - he holds his face and starts bleeding profusely.

Mortimer wants the player held accountable for his actions.....but not himself

"I didn't go looking for trouble, it was just a joke and he shouldn't have reacted like he did," Mortimer said.

Mortimer doesn't understand the old marketing chestnut - every action has a consequence. Call a guy a "dickhead" and chances are pretty good you'll get punched in the face. It's not that hard to understand.


Free Trial

Speaking of old marketing chestnuts, here's one you might like to use if it fits your product.

The free trial.

It's always hard to get people to commit the time and energy to trialling your product. With things like software, learning how to effectively use a program can take quite a bit of time and commitment.

One way software companies try and overcome this and encourage a trial is to offer a free trial: "Try our product FREE for 30 days."

It works well at breaking across that initial reluctance barrier.

Can you offer your customers a free trial to get them using your product?


I've Just Trialled Google Spreadsheet

Speaking of trials, I've just trialled the Google Spreadsheet. It's okay, but I really can't see it being of much use to many people. The big issue for Google when they launch new products like this is that people need to use them a fair bit before they get the hang of them.

Click here for some reviews.

And there is such great familiarity with Microsoft Office that if/when Google launches an 'Office-type' suite of products, it is going to be very, very difficult to get people to change (even if the price is free).

Cheers

Brendon

Wednesday, June 7  

Top 4 Ways To Promote Your Cafe

Top 4 Ways To Market Your Cafe

A cafe was the first business that popped into my head. Maybe because we're surrounded by cafes where we are and none of them seem to do any marketing.

1. Send a nicely dressed and friendly staff member to go to all businesses and houses within a 5 km radius handing out flyers and explaining that weeks' specials.
   
   
2. Get a testimonial from a happy customer. Then promote it with a big banner above your entrance.
   
   
   "The Best Cafe Food & Coffee In The City"
   
   
3. Start a 'frequent customer' program. Buy 10 coffees and get your next one free kind of thing.
   
   
4. This one is never done - ask your existing customers to come back - "You just have to come back tomorrow - we're having the best fish dish ever!"

Now they are pretty basic things to do and the cost is tiny. But the important thing is to do something.

Then measure. Then try something else. Then measure if that works. Then try something else, etc.

Cheers

Brendon

Monday, June 5  

How Quickly Can You Get High Search Engine Rankings

How Quickly Can You Really Get High Search Engine Rankings

We've been doing a little work on a client's web site to achieve better search engine rankings. The client has a fairly new domain which, in my experience, slows down to a big extent how quickly you can achieve top rankings for fairly competitive key words.

But not so in this case.


Results So Far

We've been working on this site just under a month and already we've achieved top rankings across the 3 major search engines for the client's 2 major key words/phrases.

That kind of surprised me (but I'll take those results any day!).


But Be Patient

Whilst we've achieved these high rankings fairly quickly, it's not always the case (especially with new domains).

The big 3 issues that affect your rankings are:

• Age of domain
• Fresh and lots of content
• Links to your site (especially links to your site using the words you are trying to get ranked for)

Search engine work is an ongoing commitment that can reaps excellent return on investment. Keep at it!

Brendon

Labels: search engine promotion