Archive for the 'Blog' Category



Blog Interruption

Blogs are supposed to be an awesome new strategy to get in touch with your audience.

Some firms are doing it successfully.

This is great, no interruption marketing. Users love it.

However if your blog isn’t consistent and on focus. You are interrupting your audience.

For example if i launch a new product and mention it on my blog. I am interrupting my audience. When my blog comes up in their reader they are expecting another great marketing post. Not shameless self promotion.

Let go and stop interrupting me. It’s annoying.

May 27th, 2008

Core Users ARE your most profitable

Hows this.  We always hear to identify your core users and target them.

They are your most profitable.

You would think that this relates to purchasing of merchandising or buying products/services.

However I have found it also applies to consumption of advertising.  O you say.  Well…..

Recently we transferred StillSpoiled to WordPress.  During this transition we were removed from the google index.  We get roughly 95% of our traffic from Google.

Our traffic took a hit.  Thinking adsense would as well i investigated.  However this was not the case.

Check out these numbers:

Date Impressions Clicks CTR ECPM Earnings
Tuesday, May 6, 2008 3,587 ** ** $0.42 **
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 216 ** ** $4.20 **

I took a 16 fold decrease in traffic! only to see my earnings drop 40%.  My ECPM in fact went up 10 fold!

These have been fairly consistent.

ECPM adjusts by Google automatically calculating the quality of these clicks.  A higher ecpm means higher quality clicks (and therefore are purchasing/profitable for my advertisers).  Ie my core users aren’t just clicking they are buying.

It seems my core users who have bookmarked my site, know it by name and visit regularly consume the most advertising.

(Most of the advertising sells merchandise to tv shows we write about, so relevance is a factor)

This makes sense if you think about it, in theory my passionate fans will be most willing to lay out cash. Turns out this translates to advertising.

Question is now, should i set noindex on the site? Therefore only letting people find me via word of mouth.

Seems it will be more profitable.

Maybe you should deindex for a fortnight to identify your core users.

May 21st, 2008

Ten Barriers to Marketing Success

Having worked with a number of Internet Start Ups over the years I have experienced these barriers first hand.

  • Marketing viewed as an expense. Start / Stop.
  • Wanting full control of content. Users MUST subscribe to access content.
  • Every Search Engine Ad needs my Brand in it.
  • Marketing is advertising. We don’t do that.
  • Voice overs are a great way to engage [scare off] users.
  • Instant results are best.
  • All communications must include a sales pitch.
  • Marketing is a mechanism to boost the entrepreneurs ego.
  • Conversations starting with “If only….”.
  • Entrepreneurs afraid of success.

On the flipside to break down these barriers:

  • Marketing is an investment. Treat it as such. Continual investment yields the best results. (Ever heard of compounding?).
  • Marketing is in every interaction in your business. Some companies marketing is that they focus all their energy into making a great product, think Google.
  • If your holding the business back maybe its time to step aside.
  • Trust the Marketing firm you’ve hired. If you can’t get someone you can!
  • The cost of lessons learnt from mistakes is often less than the cost of indecision.
  • Barriers restrict engagement.

Note: these are a minority, the majority of start ups get it.

May 20th, 2008

We think you're AWESOME!

Remember when you dined at a restaurant and everything was great, the food was great, the service was great, the atmosphere was great. You loved it. You told all your friends.

Remember the thrill you got after going on that Jet Boat or Bungi Jump or from an unforgettable travel experience. You loved it. You told all your friends.

This is what i like to call the ‘We think your AWESOME!’ feeling. Do your customers think your awesome?!? why not?

May 13th, 2008

Fifteen Percent On

On public holidays restaurants & cafe’s put a 15% surcharge for all their customers.

Hang on. Stop.

Let’s look at this again. On public holidays staff are paid time and a half plus holidays. Costs go up.

Majority of places to eat are closed. Therefore selection is limited. People are more likely to try a new place today.

15% off is what you want. Grab customers whom have never tried your service and show them a good time. Just makes sense to me.

May 6th, 2008

What are you doing all the way down here? You could:
- View my about page
- Or for first timers the New Here? page
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