Webinars rock, but it seems my "webinars rock" illustration caused more confusion than it educated! To rectify the situation, I have cut up and explained my thinking in this article. 1. Awareness and Ideas The first reason to love webinars is that you get the ...
Category Archives: Marketing
Why Webinars Rock
Check Out Magnetic Webinars ... or ask me any questions or let me know your thoughts in the comments ...
The Ugly Truth about Product Launches
One of the frustrating myths about internet marketing is that it is easy, takes no work, and can turn the web into your “personal ATM machine dispensing cash on demand”.
There is another myth though that comes up every so often that is related, but subtly different, and so attractive that people really really want to believe it.
We know the rewards are there but you have to put in some effort, and preferably stick to one proven system rather than dodge between each new, shiny, flavor of the month.
Some would have you believe though that all your effort needs to go into creating your offering. Create your product, course, service, or tool and the rest almost happens magically.
- Create your product
- Product Launch
- ???
- Profit!
It’s the product launch equivalent of “build it and they will come” …
What is Your Website’s Clear Purpose?
I couldn’t believe how much buzz and positive feedback my ARC System article received, thank you to everyone who emailed, tweeted, commented and Skyped me about it.
Today’s thought is related to that article, and the feedback I got from it. It seems a great deal of website owners are facing a similar challenge, and it comes down to the “C” in the ARC sequence.
Conversions.
There are two big issues. Can you guess what they are?
Well, I imagine you can guess one of them easily.
People want to make more sales! Sales means more income, and it also means you are serving more people.
I am glad so many of you are not in the “how dare you make money” camp! 
Really, when you offer a service or product to your audience you are doing a good thing. You are helping people, you are offering them what they want and need, and they get value from their investment.
Around a dozen people asked me how they can make more sales of their existing stuff or how they can create something that their audience will really want. Of course my default (if slightly flippant answer, heh) was to buy my course and I will show you everything in detail! But there is a short answer too, which I will share with you now.
This also brings us to the second challenge that you guys are facing …
Case Study: Can You Launch a New Site With Twitter Alone?
Just over a week ago I launched a new site, I thought I would tell you how I did it and what the results were so you could learn from my experience. The small twist with this launch was I planned to use only Twitter ...
How to Really Use Social Media Marketing as a Tool For Business
Social Media Marketing is a compelling tool for business because of the dual benefits of Huge traffic potential Free (just need to spend time) This is drawing in more and more businesses who want to extract these benefits and learn the best practices. Unfortunately we are also seeing an ...
How to Grow Your Google Authority
What is the real route to better Google rankings? Many new Internet marketers obsess over Google pagerank believing it to be the route to rising in the search results, where in fact pagerank is just one of many factors involved in your search engine ranking and, most misleading, what you see in the Google Toolbar is ...
Are You Ready for Social Media?
The online marketing world moves in waves, with the majority of businesses following a trend not because it is fashionable but out of commercial necessity.
- Going online, just to be online.
- SEO was king for many years.
- Then it was Adwords.
- Blogging came next.
- Now it is Social Media that is gaining all the attention.
In the past competitiveness and innovation played the largest part, but I have no doubt worries about the global economy are driving the most recent moves.
Although Social Media has been growing steadily for a few years, it seems now most businesses are looking towards these tools and services to find a good ROI alternative to their offline marketing, without the heavy prices that Adwords require in many niches.
Is Social Media the solution that you are looking for?
Why Social Media?
There are many advantages to social media over and above just “Traffic”:
- Modern version of traditional PR.
- Speed up your reaction times.
- Super-efficient word of mouth marketing.
- World wide focus group.
- Instant answers to business or technical questions.
- Brand awareness.
- Be on top of market news and moves.
- Grow your network.
There are also valuable indirect benefits. Attention creates the opportunity for links and traffic, which drives search rankings, which in turn will attract people who want what you offer. Buzz does not need to be the end you strive for, but can also be a means to an end.
But there are also pitfalls:
- Social Media can spread bad news too.
- Pitch and promote approach will meet with resistance. Traffic to direct offers seldom convert well, you need to find a new way to bring attention to your products and services.
- The chit-chat aspect can be addictive. Use Twitter best practices.
- This stuff takes time and experimentation.
What to Do?
We are still at the beginning with these tools, there are no rules. The best social media strategies for each type of organization or individual are still being developed. There are though guidelines that you can use to make sure you get the most out of all this social media stuff:
- Have a purpose, direct your efforts. Unguided meandering will just cause you to get bogged down.
- Give before expecting anything in return. The most generous, genuine and valuable are those who’s ideas spread best.
- Monitor your reputation. Use tools like TweetDeck, Google Alerts and Twitter Searches to see who is talking about your brand keywords and why. Respond appropriately.
- Measure your ROI and do more of what works.
- Experiment. Keep learning from case studies and good examples.
As always, I recommend you link all your social media activity back to your blog or website. Bring people back home, and give them good reasons to stick around. Build up your own base of loyal and egaged advocates.
Whatever you do, do not abandon what has been working for you and is still providing returns. Find ways to integrate the new stuff rather than throw out good tactics just because the new stuff is, well, new.
- Create valuable content and optimize for search engines.
- Engage your subscribers and customers.
- Grow your links and referrals.
- Build your lists.
Survey
Mike Stelzner is running a Social Media Survey and I am really looking forward to the results. If you take part you can get the results too. Take the survey here.
How to Grow Both Twitter Followers and Your Blog Subscribers
Check your Twitter Follower Count and compare it against your Blog Subscriber Count. Which is the bigger number? Which of those counts is growing faster?
I asked my Twitter followers this question, and overwhelmingly the answer came back that you have more Twitter followers or Twitter is catching up fast and likely to overtake.
The folks who have far fewer Twitter followers than blog subscribers are those who I would call “Well Established”. Their audience has been subscribed for a long while and in large numbers, while their Twitter following is recent and likely made up of a subset of their huge blog or email list audience. Uber bloggers like Darren Rowse and Brian Clark come to mind, and internet marketers who can call on hundreds of thousands of email subscribers like Frank Kern, Jeff Walker, and Rich Schefren.
Why is Twitter Overtaking Blog Subscriber Count?
In the case of Twitter dominating, I believe this is down to the relative ease of recruiting followers and the method in which it happens.
Twitter is like blogging but accelerated and concentrated. Rather than links, comments and trackbacks, we discover new people to follow through replies, both to you and to others. If someone replies to me with an interesting comment, or if someone I am following has an interesting conversation with someone I haven’t discovered, I am more likely to follow them. People who would otherwise go unnoticed in the blogosphere have found attention far more efficiently in the Twittersphere.
This is even more pronounced when you get noticed by the Twitter movers and shakers. As in the blog world where an A-List link can boost your subscriber count, this happens much more often on Twitter. Tweets are cheap, it isn’t a big deal to fire off a message, compared to writing up a blog post, so a conversation with a big named Tweeter can drive hundreds of follows with little effort or risk on either side.
There is also the “reciprocal follow” where someone follows you so you follow them back. It doesn’t happen all the time but it is virtually unheard of in blogging.
In the case of personal blogging, Twitter has mostly taken a big chunk of the action. Before we would subscribe to the feed of people we wanted to stay in touch with. Family, friends, or just people who we found interesting. Twitter now provides the same role, with the bonus of immediacy of updates and instant interaction.
The End of the Blog Feed?
There is much to be said for the blog, or email newsletters. Not least is depth and detail that is not possible in 140 characters. But that in itself could be seen as a disadvantage as reading more than a few sentences feels like “effort”. Writing a few hundred words even more so. 140 characters means “just the facts”.
Blogs will more and more have to provide value greater than mere links, quips and trivialities. The chit-chat conversation has moved, and your content and community will need to evolve. Discussions on blogs will need to take more thought and provide more value.
What Should We Learn?
People with large, established audiences, can add many more Twitter followers just by pointing out their Twitter Feed, but to move their audience to follow in quantity will require the promise of something over and above business as usual. That requires interaction and original content. Not everyone will have the time or see the benefit, so we are unlikely to see 1:1 matches across the board, however those that do engage will benefit from viral effects and social audience growth.
Chris Brogan is the reverse of the big-blogger stereotype. While obviously being an established blogger pre-Twitter, it was social media and Twitter especially that cemented his popularity and profile, and therefore I see his Twitter following fueling his blog subscriber count growth through fantastic content promoted via cleverly tweeted links. The lesson here is your Twitter Feed can grow your blog if you model successful Tweeters like Chris B.
Either way, you need to:
- Provide unique value in both Twitter and Blog.
- Drive followers to your sites with carefully crafted and selected links.
- Encourage subscribers to engage you in conversation in Twitter.
- Be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of both.
- Continue to observe those who are gaining traction and learn from their example.
What Do You Think?
Are you seeing this phenomenon? Have your own theories? Please share your thoughts in the comments, or of course, on Twitter 
Aweber Popup Email Subscription Form Test Results
For just over a week now I have been testing the Aweber “lightbox” popup email subscription form. I wrote about the experiment here, and now I wanted to share some results.
Aweber Email Subscriptions
Google Analytics Traffic for Same Period
As you can see when I placed the form up I actually got a small dip in subscriptions before it corrected to become an increase to eventually settling down to a 5.9% conversion rate, up from 2.4%. A client is trying it also and is getting a 5.5% conversion.
Why the dip? There is a weekend lull, but I looked at my analytics and I believe it is because of traffic source. Referral links and search traffic seems to convert much better than social media and my regular visitors.
Aweber Report Key
What I need to keep my eye on is the unverified and the unsubscribes. It’s hard to tell at the moment but I think some of the people signing up were just looking for the freebies and nothing more.
Thing that surprises me is if you take a wider view, the results are not terribly dramatic:
So what is the conclusion?
It’s worth a try for newer blogs to get that early momentum, and certainly others are gaining subscribers at a better rate, but for me I am not entirely convinced the results justify the damage to credibility and longevity.
I want my content to sell my subscription, and I want people to stay subscribed because they see value. Like I often say on this blog, it is not worth burning up your long term value for the sake of some short term gains.
To test this I am going to look at segmenting people who join via popup and see if there is a difference in engagement before trialling my alternative.
Make sure you stay subscribed so you don’t miss those results or what my alternative subscription idea is!
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Chris Garrett is a blogging and internet marketing consultant. This blog is here to help you make the most out of the web.
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