Want to keep track of what people are saying online about a topic, an issue, a product, a company, a person - even you? Enter Artiklz, a new ‘conversation search engine.’
Artiklz allows you to generate and aggregate the discussions taking place across the most popular blogging and commenting platforms, forums and social media sites.
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And it wasn’t devote 100 percent of their attention to your sales letter. Okay, it may not have been a summer survey, but according to the GfK Rober September-October survey, nearly 59 percent of Internet users listen to music or talk on the phone while using the Internet, while 54 percent watch television. And that’s not all…
In fact, here’s Gfk Rober’s list of the various activities people engage in while online. And, just to clarify, it does NOT take into account the multi-tasking people engage in while online e.g. clicking between websites:
The opening keynote address at the recent Add-on-Con conference (December 11, 2008, Mountain View, California) focused on how to make money producing and/or distributing browser add-ons.
You know, those cool little add-ons or ‘plugins’ such as the Alexa toolbar or SEO for Firefox.
The consensus was that, in general, the same monetization methods available for websites are available for browser add-ons. The models cited included selling ad space (i.e within the add-on), promoting affiliate products, and building and selling add-ons to other companies.
A report published by Forrester Research and discussed in ReadWriteWeb indicates that company blogs are the least trusted sources of information among U.S. adults.
When asked ‘how much do you trust the following information sources?’ just 16 percent of the respondents to Forrester’s survey said they trusted company blogs. At the other end of the spectrum, 77 percent of people said they trusted email from people they knew.
What else is trusted or not trusted? Here’s the list:
I find these results fascinating. Among other things, the results indicate very clearly that the more you can become an individual (rather than a company or brand) your prospects ‘know’, the more likely they will trust you.
Source: Richard MacManus, “Report: Corporate Blogs Not Trusted”, December 10, 2008
Reply.com has launched an interesting pay-per-click (PPC) advertising marketplace called the Click Marketplace. It aims to give small businesses without huge ad budgets access to highly targeted advertising.
Here’s how it works. A user clicks on an ad and is immediately taken to a page that prompts them for basic information related to the category of the ad. For example, a real estate ad might prompt users to enter their zip code.
Based on the user’s input, the Reply system will then direct the user to the website of one of its pool of advertisers in the Click Marketplace. Which advertiser’s website the user will see will depend on the outcome of a real-time auction between the various advertisers.
If my interpretation of Reply.com’s click funnel is correct, Reply.com estimates that out of all the raw clicks on your ad, 30 to 50 percent will be filtered out at the ‘qualification’ stage i.e. when users are prompted for more information. This means that, if you win the real-time auction, about 50 to 70 percent of the original prospects - who, in turn, are more qualified – will arrive on your website.
Nowadays, there are a number of keyword and competitive intelligence tools on the market. One of my favorites, and one that we’ve used for several years now, is Wordtracker.
Wordtracker has a database of about 330 million search terms which are updated weekly. There are a few bells and whistles but, essentially, Wordtracker allows you to type in a phrase e.g. ‘tomato soup’ and it will generate all the related terms used by search engine users in the previous period.
For each generated search term, Wordtracker will, among other things, give you the ‘count’ - the number of times people have entered the keyword from all the search queries in Wordtracker’s database - the estimated number of searches in a 24 hour period - and the number of competing web pages for each keyword in the relevant search engines.
What I particularly like about Wordtracker is that it’s comprehensive and offers good value for money. In fact, it’s free if you simply wish to generate a list of up to 100 related keywords. If you want full functionality, you can subscribe for $59 per month or $329 per annum.
Overall, Wordtracker is a great keyword tool for:
Now, Wordtracker also faces some stiff competition these days. One of its chief competitors, Trellian, actually has its headquarters just a few streets away from me, here in Melbourne, Australia.
My husband has chatted with the Trellian guys a few times and what they have to offer is very impressive, albeit more expensive than Wordtracker.
I’ll tell you more about them and their product offerings in a future Lab article. In the meantime, if you’re interested in a solid, value-for-money keyword tool, take a look at Wordtracker.
You can visit http://www.wordtracker.com or go through our affiliate link:
==> Wordtracker
Based on Hitwise’s top search terms for September 2008, the most popular terms in the ‘Shopping Rewards and Directories’ category were (in order):
coupons
grocery
coupons
free samples
black friday 2008
black friday
free stuff
consumer reports
free coupons
‘Black Friday’ is a reference to the Friday after Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. This traditionally marks the first day of the shopping season.
While ‘Black Friday’ may be popular at this time of year… the terms ‘coupons’, ‘grocery coupons’, ‘free samples’, ‘free stuff’ and ‘consumer reports’ are consistently popular terms in this category. They were also in the top 10 for the same category in January 2008… and similar terms appeared in the top 10 back in June 2007.
If you run an online business, knowing the most popular keywords used by your target market is certainly relevant. But not just for search engine optimization (SEO) reasons. It’s also relevant in terms of knowing the ‘trigger’ words that are likely to attract your prospects’ attention and interest in what you have to offer.
In other words, knowing such trigger words will enable you to use them in your copy - again, not just for SEO purposes, but to resonate with your target market. Simply because you are using the words that are on their minds.
So how do you find out the trigger words for YOUR target market? Well, just like Hitwise, you could research the most popular words used by search engine users looking for the kind of products or services you offer. To do that you need one or more keyword tools.
The free Google AdWords Keyword Tool is one such tool you can use. Another is Wordtracker. I’ll explain Wordtracker – and why we use it – tomorrow.
Source: ClickZ, “Top 10 Search Terms in 10 Categories”, October 2008, ClickZ, November 20, 2008
I’m not a huge fan of targeting prospects based on their “generation”. Call me old fashioned, but I would have thought that there are a range of better ways to target people than how old they are.
Really, you don’t want me to get started on the marketing to people based on whether they’re Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y or some other broadbrush generalization about people based on their age.
But apparently some people do study these things, and for what it’s worth Charles Schwab has studied the online buying behvavior of Generation X (which it defines as people born between 1965 and 1981).
As reported by eMarketer, Charles Schwab’s survey of 2,000 Gen Xers reveals that they are well educated (28 percent have bachelor’s degrees or higher), debt-ridden (45 percent of respondents said they had too much debt to think about saving, with most being concerned about credit card debt, car loans and mortgages) and skeptical.
eMarketer’s conclusion is that Gen Xers seek value for money, and aren’t afraid to shop at discount or diverse stores to get it.
Source: eMarketer, “The Gen X Online Shopper”, eMarketer, November 10, 2008
Today I reproduce an email sent to me by a Kikabink News subscriber (published with his permission).
WARNING: if you are easily offended, don’t read on.
If, on the other hand, you’re ready for a rather confronting article, go ahead. It’s controversial… I don’t necessarily agree… and it’s definitely food for thought (if you think deeply about the underlying ideas)…
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“Websites that Hypnotize Your Prospects… and COMMAND them to buy! Hypnotic Websites, Hypnotic Email Messages, Hypnotic PR… We’ll show you step-by-step how to create marketing that literally tricks your prospects into obeying your every command…
“Steal this”
“Murder your job”…
and the list goes on.
Can you show me any reason other than greed, as to why anyone would tell you they have a way to MAKE people buy your items? Can you tell me why we have to “steal” this or that to make it on the Internet?
What is wrong with the old fashioned way of selling?
Do a sales page and whatever else it takes to bring prospects to you, and if they want, they will buy. Hell, do a 33 page sales page as some do, but do it right and honestly. Would you want someone to sell you something you do not need just because they found a way to MAKE you like it or think you want it?
Here is an example for you and a crude one at that: would you want someone to put a drug in a drink and take advantage of you, against your wishes? Now you may ask, “what has that to do with Internet marketing?” The reason is that in both cases someone is taking advantage of you in a way you would not normally want.
In your right mind you would not want to go anywhere with someone who spiked your drink, just as in your right mind you would not buy something you really don’t need.
And what about the people who tell you to “steal this” from someone.
Why should I have to “steal” anything? I know it’s a gimmick, and the idea is not really to steal anything. But the use of “stealing” still leads people to believe they’re getting something for a cheaper price. And, if you think about it, such language is appealing to that part of people that is negative and greedy.
I don’t need to steal anything and I don’t need to cheat or dupe people into thinking they need to buy from me. This Internet marketing business should be honest, but it is getting worse every day. Why not call it the “IM419 Marketing”. If you don’t know what a “419er” is, go to Google and search on it. You will find out what I am talking about.
Why should anyone have to “trick” “steal, “kill”, “hypnotize”, “lie” and so one to sell a product? All of those words are negative and appeal to the base side of all of us. Do we need to be criminals to participate in the Internet marketing arena?
If a product is good and serves our purposes then we can buy it. We do not need to be browbeaten and lied to. Nor should we be told how to cheat others to sell. A good sales letter of a few pages to a few dozen should do the job. I don’t think anyone should advertise for a company that advocates what these people are saying.
Besides… what happens when someone wakes up and realizes they have been screwed? Refund time and a host of other problems they wouldn’t have experienced had they been honest. If your product is good, then sell it proudly and with honor. If it is bad, then redo it and try again. How much more simple can it be?
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What do you think? Agree? Disagree?
Circuit City, one of the nation’s largest electronics retailers, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday after months of declining sales. Skip to next paragraph Related Times Topics: Circuit City Stores Inc.
The company said bankruptcy reorganization would help it win back vendors worried about being paid, and that a $1.1. billion line of credit would keep goods flowing to Circuit City stores through the crucial holiday season. But outside experts said the prospects of long-term survival for a chain in Circuit City’s position were bleak.
The company’s problems go back a decade, and it had long been faulted by Wall Street analysts for poor strategic decisions.
Circuit City is still the nation’s second-largest dedicated consumer electronics retailer after Best Buy, with more than 700 stores.
Interestingly, visitors to both the Circuit City and Best Buy websites have been tracking in tandem over the past few months, with Best Buy clearly pulling in more visitors. But both pale in comparison with the visitors to Amazon.com.
Source: Stephanie Rosenbloom, “Circuit City Seeks Bankruptcy Protection”, New York Times, November 10, 2008
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