A quick heads up if you have a car related site - Liam of this superb classic cars site has just started a car directory.
He's started if off as cheap as chips, so if you have a car related business in Australia (or elsewhere for that matter) jump on and get it listed while it's cheap.
I know a few of Liam's visitor numbers and the link will be well worth the money.
The premium listing on Liam's directory is a great way for any car business to get a super cheap web site.
Phil's caricatures make the best gifts possible - I've given a couple, one to a mate for his 40th (on the right) and one to my wife because she's wonderful and deserves nice things......although I'm not sure Mel has forgiven Phil for highlighting her 'unique' nose!
Anyhoo, Phil has solid rankings for a few terms:
gift ideas
personalized gifts
caricatures
Focus On The Keywords
"Gift ideas" and "personalized gifts" get tons of searches, a lot more than "caricatures".
But "caricatures" brings in more sales because it's much more focused.
It's akin to having 100 people walk in to an out of the way shop because they know they want a caricature, rather than have 1,000 walk into a shop knowing the need a gift but not sure what to buy from the 1,000 gifts on display.
Are you targeting the right search terms for high rankings. After all, any clown can get to the top of page 1 with Google AdWords. It's whether the term you are # 1 for is profitable that is the important bit.
The great thing about using a mobile massage business is I can get a massage in Brisbane if that's where I am (Brisbane is 100km up the road).
Mobile Business Increases Catchment Area
A mobile business increases your market catchment so much that it can provide a huge advantage over the usual stagnant business using the traditional shop front.
I've found with some online business previously that if you put up the "SOLD OUT" sign, it increases the attractiveness of what you sell because of its perceived scarcity.
Yep, sales go up when you're sold out. It's because people fear they'll miss out.
Like I've always said, people buy for 2 reasons: Fear and Greed.
Film Festivals in Australia - Check out Heart of Gold
One of the best regional film festivals here in Australia is Heart of Gold - a film festival in the small Queensland country town of Gympie.
The film festival is the brainchild of Toni and Philip Powell and helps Australian film makers show off their talent in a festival that the entire town embraces.
Check it out if you're looking for a film festival in Australia to display at, or a film lover looking for a great showcase of talent.
You can't buy the greatest book ever written (my old mum aways said "If you don't blow your own trumpet no one else will." Keep in mind this is the same woman who used to lock us kids under the stairs during a thunderstorm, so she's not completely logical!) anymore because it's completely and utterly SOLD OUT.
It's proven rather successful over the past 4 years and I couldn't be prouder on how it's gone and helped a ton of people.
Here's What A Few Have Said
"I don't know what we would have done without your kit. It has saved us making many mistakes and has helped us grow immensely.
We affectionately refer to it as our "Bible" and to you as "Lord Brendon"! :)"
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"I am a great admirer of your work and I have also purchased the Web Design Business kit. In few words I am about to start a business and I would like to thank you immensely for your precious advices."
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"First off, I’d like to say a million thank-you’s to you for the Web Design Business Kit.
It is my bible!
In the last 8 months since its purchase, my business has taken off like crazy. I’ve got 11 contractors signed with me, I’ve hired a bookkeeper, and a part time project manager/marketing person.
I have to admit, I never would’ve gotten this without all the professional letter templates, forms, client needs analysis, and all the other invaluable documentation the kit gives."
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"The Web Design Business Kit ROCKS!I simply had to e-mail you to tell you what I think of your business kit, yes, it rocks!"
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"Brendon, you're so hot beyond belief and I really rather fancy you." Uma Thurman
That last one may be made up, and it may have been made up by me. The rest are all true and genuine.
I have to say it's fantastic to get so much positive feedback - I've received hundreds and hundreds of the same sort of kind words and, funnily enough, I never get sick of reading them!
Refusing A Handshake Is The Same As Spitting On You
One thing a guy will almost never do is refuse to shake an offered handshake. It's pretty much the same as spitting on you.
On the news last night I saw the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, walk up to a construction worker with an outstretched hand. This moron says "I don't want to shake your hand, mate."
The Prime Minister, who is in election mode, says "That's fine, you don't have to shake my hand" and keeps walking.
The correct response from any Aussie guy in that situation is a punch in the head, then a few more if you can get them in.
Sure, violence isn't an appropriate way to resolve conflict. But it's a good way to let a guy know he can't insult you!
Everything Matters To Your Personal Brand
Everything matters to your personal brand:
the way you dress
what you say
how you say it
your handshake
what you do
how much you weigh
how you look
what sort of glasses you wear
Everyone makes a judgment on everything about you.
Vinokourov Tests Positive - Or How To Screw The Brand Of Yourself, Your Team & Your Country With One Easy Blood Transfusion
Lots of times in business you get boring quotes. Same in sport.
But every now and then you get a brilliant quote.
Like this one from Eric Boyer, Team Manager of cycling team Cofidis who are currently racing in the Tour de France.
He's talking about team Astana rider Alexandre Vinokourov, one of the pre-race favourites who has just tested positive for a blood transfusion prior to winning the time trial and a stage a couple of days ago.
Eric Boyer, Team Manager, (Cofidis):
"I feel sick. I hope that Vinokourov won't be a coward and deny everything. He said that he worked with Ferrari just for training plans.
He always told us what a brave guy he is, that he is stronger than the pain, that the French ride behind everyone else because they are lazier.
Now we see that he is a big bastard.
These practices discredit all of cycling again."
Now that's a good quote.
This is real cycling - 14 yo Jack Sinclair cycles along the road at Kirra on the Gold Coast, Australia.
It's All About Branding
All of this impacts on branding.
There was a terrific story about the Astana team and Vinokourov. You see, Vinokourov personally put together the Astana team after his team was booted from last year's Tour de France because of other riders (not him) caught up in a drug scandal.
Vinokourov rang the Prime Minister of his home country Kazakhstan and together they built the team and found the sponsors. Vinokourov was one of the favourites for the Tour de France this year before an early crash slowed him down. Astana, the name of the team, is the capital of Kazakhstan.
It would have been a fairytale win.
No blood transfusions needed for Jack (right) - just a hot chocolate about 40 kms into a 70 km ride and he's happy!
But Now...........
But now the reputation and the brand of Vinokourov has been forever tainted.
As has Kazakhstan, as has Astana (the team and the capital).
As has the brand (to a smaller extent) of the Tour de France.
But One Brand That's Gone Up
One brand that has gone up in value is that of Cofidis (and that of Eric Boyer).
There's a guy, and by association a team, who wear their heart of their sleeve, who are passionate about their sport and who want to do the right thing.
Who aren't afraid to speak their mind. To speak out and say what everyone else thinks.
These are the stats for this web site from 11 June 2006 (I chopped off the 1 when editing this graphic).
As you can see, the upward trend is quite significant and the increase is in the order of 33%.
Almost all of the gains have been in the number of visitors finding this site via search engines. Click here to learn how to change your blog post headings to be the title tag on the page.
Seamus' Inspired eBusiness went from # 426 for "web design Belfast" to top 5 within a few short weeks.
You'll be pleased to know that not only has Seamus kept solid rankings, but those rankings have brought him in new leads and clients.
Like Dave Naylor says, nothing beats a good rank (at least that's what I think he says).
More Than One Way To Skin A Cat
Interestingly, Seamus' search engine rankings work has also resulted in rankings for terms such as "googleadwords expert belfast." Now Seamus doesn't spend a lot of time on AdWords, so he signed up as an affiliate of Perry Marshall's excellent book (see my review of Perry's book here) and makes a few extra dollars that way.
There's more than 1 way to skin a cat (please be advised that I in no way condone the skinning of cats! Yep - I've had complaints before when I've used that phrase.).
I just sent this article through to my online mate Dave. One of the stories in that article is about a client who wasn't receiving any web site sales after we'd redeveloped his site - turns out his reception staff weren't responding to quote or buying requests!
Doh!
Since that article I've complete an informal review of 5 clients within the same industry.
They all sell the same thing in much the same way.
Quicker You Answer Your Emails The More Sales You'll Make
The client with the most web site sales (as a % of visitors) is the one who answers her emails the quickest.
The client with the 2nd most sales is the one who answers her emails the 2nd quickest.
Etc.
The quicker you answer your emails the more sales you'll get.
It's not only about giving the prospect the right information, but by answering your email quickly you demonstrate a whole range of favourable business attributes:
responsive
caring
easy to work with
Answer those emails as quickly as you can and show the prospect that you care.
I'm doing some research on Goji juice at present - anyone used Goji juice and had great results/bad results from it.
I'm seeing that Goji juice is very popular but struggling to find any scientific research that backs up the claims.
Goji juice comes from the Goji berry and there's a heap of information about what's in it - but no so much published information on what the Goji juice does.
Here are some stats from a site we're working on at present (click the image to make larger):
Keyword 1 has tons of visitors (501) and a bounce rate of 75.45%. That means that 75.45% of visitors leave from the same page they landed on. Which isn't so great.
Keyword 3 looks good - only 22 visitors, but they hang around: looking at 3.86 pages on average (as compared to 2.44 pages by these finding the site through keyword 1).
They also stay on the site almost 50% longer (24 seconds longer).
And their bounce rate is significantly smaller at 54.55%.
What Else?
Well, I can also tell you that keyword 3 is a much more targeted term than keyword 1 and much more likely to result in a sale.
The site in question is ranked # 55 in Google for keyword 3.
There is no specific page developed for keyword 3.
Action
But there is about to be a page specifically developed for keyword 3.
My stats analysis tells me that keyword 3 gets about 60 searches per day. We could increase our numbers from 21 visitors per month coming from that keyword search to approximately750 per month if we can achieve a decent ranking.
New page developed specifically for keyword 3
Links into this new page added
Those 2 simple jobs - taking about 30 minutes - should result in big gains.
All from a 10 minute analysis of stats. And they're free stats - Google Analytics. Simple to get and simple to install.
I was talking online marketing with a couple of people today.
When you're looking at doing marketing for anyone your basically need to know 2 things:
1. A goal. 2. A budget.
80% Don't Mention Their Budget
I always ask for both. What happens, in 80% of cases, is that people:
don't have a budget in mind, or
they're not prepared to tell me.
What they generally want me to to do is prepare a marketing plan on spec and then decide if they want to spend the money.
That's bad for a couple of reasons:
I could spend hours doing a marketing strategy that cannot be financed (after all, if I quote $2,000 for online Pay Per Click advertising and the client has a budget of $100 then we're not even close).
That's a waste of everyone's time.
If I know your budget I can tailor the best solution to meet the goal. For any given problem there are numerous solutions - money gets you the best, easiest and quickest solution.
The Best Answer
I got the correct answer to the question "What's your budget to achieve this goal?" twice today.
One guy was a client we've had for years. His web site does extremely well and makes him lots of money.
The other was a young entrepreneur we haven't worked with before.
I asked both what their budget was: "Unlimited. If it makes sales I'll keep spending money."
Marketing Should Be Cheap
Your marketing shouldn't cost you a cent. Your marketing is meant to be making you sales. If it doesn't then stop it immediately.
If you sponsor anything - an event for arguments sake - there are numerous ways you might measure the benefit to your business.
The number of sales that result directly from the sponsorship would be an excellent measurement. Here's how you do it.
1. Sponsor the event 2. Send the event organiser either a special link or discount code he can provide to all entrants 3. The link or code carries ad tracking code
Every time a visitor comes from the link or uses the discount code then you can see that.
That enables you to simply and easily measure the number of visitors and resultant sales from your web site that can be directly attributed to the sponsorship.
There are numerous ways to do the above - the important thing is to do it so you can make the right decisions when next you get asked for sponsorship.
And if I was a sponsor I'd be especially annoyed. This is what you get on the English translated site when you click on 'Sponsors'.
I especially love it how they try and blame me for the error!
"Sorry, there is no web page matching your request. It is possible you typed the address incorrectly, or that the page requested is not available yet."
The reason I wrote that post was because I wanted to see how long it would be before I hit the top 10 on Google.com.au for the terms:
CA-570
Canon MVX40i
Show A Solid Example
And the reason I wanted to do that was so that when I approach the excellent business I purchased the CA-570 adaptor off and say "Heh, I can make you more money with a better web site", I can back up what I say with some solid examples.
Because there are so many web developers around today that you need a point of difference when making a pitch for new business.
And there is no better way to make a pitch than to say "We can do this, this and this - and look here, we've already done it."
Two Other Lessons Here
Blogs are extremely effective at getting high rankings.
Web site 'reputation' is very important for high rankings.
Don't Be A Horse's Ass - Keep Your Eye On The Big Picture
Yesterday I took off from the office at 3 pm and went for a 50 km bike ride with my 14 year old son Jack (that's him on the right running the final 10km at last year's Noosa Triathlon).
We left suburbia and rode out into a nearby country valley - Tallebudgera Valley.
25 km in and the road ends. As it's a bit of an uphill climb Jack and I had a bit of a rest and a stretch before riding home.
On the way out of the Valley you can get up a bit of speed - we decided to go hard for the first 6 or so kms coming out.
So there we are.
45 km/hr on A Straight Country Road
I'm in the front. Jack's tucked in behind me making the most of the drafting. We're doing 45 km an hour on a quiet straight country road.
I'm totally focused on the road ahead. It's the lead riders' job to avoid the potholes, miss the glass, find the smooth road and generally ensure the safety of the rider(s) behind him.
(The rider behind simply follows the leader. If the leader crashes so will, mostly, the guy riding behind. The rider behind simply watches the back of the lead rider, or his wheel, and follows him.)
So that's what I'm doing. I'm looking at every detail of the road as we zoom through. I miss nothing.
I glance back at Jack as we're racing along and say "You right mate?"
"Yep," he replies.
Then he says "Bit hoarse."
Coming Down With A Cold?
I'm thinking he must mean he's coming down with a cold and his voice is a bit hoarse.
That was until he yelled it again after he'd dropped 20 metres off my wheel.
I looked up and it was at that moment I slammed the brakes on and then slammed into a horse's ass!
Yep.
Standing in the middle of the road facing the other way was, as Jack tried to warn me, a "Big horse" (not "Bit hoarse"). Just standing there.
He didn't hear us come up behind him until the last minute - then he took off running. By the time I'd slammed the brakes on the horse was running, so I didn't hit him too hard at all.
Just a glancing blow. The horse was fine and turned to give me a bit of a glare after he'd trotted down the road. 50 metres further on was a lady who was trying to catch the horse and get him back in his paddock.
I Was Focused On The Little Stuff
That was bad riding of course.
I was too focused on the little stuff - I was looking at every minute detail on that road when I should have also kept an eye on the big picture.
Because it's no use avoiding the potholes if you ride straight up a horse's ass.
And that is the best business management analogy I've ever experienced.
How To Get Higher Search Engine Rankings If You Use Blogger
That sounds so boring!
But for me it is very exciting.
You see, as I mentioned here the title tag of your page is a very important part of the page to let search engines know what the page is about.
One of the limitations with Blogger (that's what we use for this home page blog you're reading right now) was that the title of the blog post page would be:
Web and Marketing Tips To Make You Money (because that's the Home Page title tag).
But if I write a post with the heading "Unique Gift Ideas" I want the title tag to be "Unique Gift Ideas".
2 reasons:
That title tag is more relevant and descriptive (and useful) for people who find the blog post in a search engine.
Search engines are far more likely to give that blog post with the heading/title tag "Unique Gift Ideas" a higher ranking when someone types in "unique gift ideas".
But we've never been able to do that.
The closest we've ever come is having the blog post heading come after the entire blog heading: i.e: Web and Marketing Tips To Make You Money - Unique Gift Ideas
How To Change Your Blogger Headings To Also Be Your Title Tag - Finally!
But now we've discovered the fix. And it's a fix that's been around for a couple of years. And here it is.
Simple and effective and it will help people find the information they're searching for.
That is, implementing strategies to harm the search engine rankings of a competitor.
It probably goes on, I'm pretty sure. But I can't see the sense in it.
Spend Time On Your Own Site
If you spend your time and resources focusing on making your web site a better resource you'll be far, far better off in the long run.
And if you have a client for whom your doing reputation management work for, make sure they are a decent firm and don't actually deserve their crappy reputation.
Our Previous Reputation Management Work
I've worked with a client previously where our role was to increase their search engine rankings in an effort to remove negative web pages about them from the top 10 search results on Google, Yahoo & MSN.
Turns out they deserved their crappy reviews and warnings.
You don't want to be working for a company that isn't decent. Life's too short.
Canon CA-570 Compact Power Adaptor For Canon MVX40i
It's a boring title for a blog post, I agree. But there is, as always, a reason for that.
I have a Canon MVX40i video camera. It's a terrific camera - the same one I use to do the various bits of video on this site.
A couple of weeks ago I lost the power adaptor cord - that's the CA-570.
Not Absolutely Critical
Because it wasn't an absolutely critical bit of equipment for us - we can do without the video camera for a while - I didn't put any urgency into finding a replacement.
Mel tried a few places when she was out. Spent quite a bit of time at that.
I also tried a number of stores to find the CA-570 too.
4 Hours Of Searching
I tried the web quite a bit too. But I could never find the CA-570, or, when I did, there were none in stock.
I finally figured out today we'd spent close on 4 hours searching half-heartedly for the power adaptor for the Canon MVX40i video camera.
So I thought I'd better get serious.
Look In The Right Place
Being the clown I am I finally started in the right place - I searched Canon.com.au and found the service number.
Rang that and ordered.
Turns out the warehouse is about a 5 minutes drive from our offices.
5 minutes later I had the CA-570 Power Adaptor.
10 minutes after that we were using the video camera.
One of our clients are the guys at Coastal Turf - Turf suppliers on the Gold Coast and Tweed Coast. Robbie and Sarah run the business and came in for a meeting yesterday.
One aspect on their site we touched upon was whether to display prices of the turf. Prices range from $3.55 to $10 per metre - with most residential clients needing between 100-200 metres.
So anywhere between $355 and $2,000 depending on the turf selected and the size of your yard.
Testing Without Price Display
The decision was made to test the site by not displaying prices - after all, Robbie knows turf like you wouldn't believe and it's much better if he can have a chat with the customer and recommend the best turf for their particular situation.
(Then there is the other argument that a visitor who contacts Coastal Turf after seeing the price is a much better qualified prospect more likely to buy.)
Sometimes you need to give your potential clients just enough information for them to contact you. There is such a thing as too much information.
As leading turf suppliers on the Gold Coast Robbie will get enough info in the next month on whether the 'no display' is the right way to go.
Cheers
Brendon
P.S: That looks like one of my many lost golf balls.
You see, the drinks station judged to be the best at the Gold Coast Airport Marathon wins $1,000 - and the Palm Beach Scouts had the responsibility for one of the drinks station.
Mel was after that $1,000 for the Scouts.
A Marketer's Strategy
I don't think Mel realises it but she's a terrific marketer - what she did was this:
she benchmarked against the competition (she found out what people had done in the past)
she reviewed how to positively influence key people (i.e. the runners) (do a great job with the drinks, be organised, be colourful and be very supportive)
she sought to understand the choice influences on the guy who decides the winner
Here's a great example of something she did.
A Japanese Perspective
Mel looked at the runner profile.
She saw that 1,200 Japanese athletes fly into the Gold Coast for the marathon. Mel knows that the Japanese market is a tremendously important target market for race organisers.
So she knew Race Organisers would be impressed with a focus on these athletes.
So this was part of Mel's strategy:
Encouraging signs written in Japanese leading up to and away from the drinks station
Laura (our daughter - that's her in the photo above on the left) speaks Japanese - she trained the drinks station team of 22 people basic Japanese phrases to yell out in encouragement to Japanese athletes
Mel and her team came 2nd. Great effort that contributes $250 to help the Scouts get equipment and training.
Fantastic stuff.
Mel's already plotting next year - she's trying to find out what the winner did to impress the judge!
Brendon
P.S: Of course the other things she did was ensure the team stood out (colourful clothing, colourful wigs, sprayed hair, etc) and very noisy - inspirational music, yelling and cheering.
After all, you have to grab the attention of your target market.
** Winner Web Design Library - Best Book of the Web Industry 2004 **
The Web Design Business Kit is a compilation of everything Brendon has ever done and every document he has ever used to build and grow his business!
It contains two huge ring-bound folders with over 700 letter size (8.5x11) pages, plus a CD-ROM which has everything you need to build a thriving Web Design Business...
To find out more about The Web Design Business Kit click here
He's started if off as cheap as chips, so if you have a car related business in Australia (or elsewhere for that matter) jump on and get it listed while it's cheap.
