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June 25, 2011 By

Getting Web Traffic For Free – Top Questions Answered

Getting web traffic to your site isn’t what it used to be anymore. Especially free tactics. We can lament all we want but the smart thing to do really is to adapt and keep forging ahead.

Sadly though, there are tons and tons of really bad tools out there that could give you a temporary traffic boost at best. There’s also a lot of people still dishing out old advice.

Rush Hour

Which is why I was really curious when I received an email from Jimmy D Brown about an hour long video presentation about free traffic. I was curious because I wanted to know what he had to say about getting web traffic for free in today’s framework. And also because I always pay attention to Jimmy because he always manages to give a new twist to things and leave me wondering, now why didn’t I think of that… even on the stuff that you may think you already know.

I sat through this video and here’s quick summary for you.

The video is formatted as a classic Q&A where Jimmy answers the top 10 questions his readers asked and these questions are:

  1. Is Article Marketing still a good and reliable strategy?
  2. Isn’t paid traffic better than free traffic?
  3. What should be included in a great free offer that can be used to drive traffic?
  4. How to ensure traffic you get from free sources are qualified buyers and not useless traffic?
  5. Do viral e-books still work?
  6. How much effort should you put into SEO?
  7. What percentage of people on Jimmy’s list have been obtained from free traffic methods?
  8. How do you drive traffic to a squeeze page?
  9. What is the BEST way to get free traffic?
  10. How do you get A-listers to email for you when you are starting out?

In answering those, Jimmy emphasized several things that he is not a fan nor a proponent of temporary tactics and tools. What he is after is long-lasting traffic. Traffic where:

  • You only have to do work once or at least minimal work in the beginning and keeps drawing people again and and again
  • Once it is set on the loose, cannot be turned off

Now that I like – don’t you?

There are also other things that stuck out for me and they were:

  • Getting others to distribute your content
  • Source of traffic is key whether paid or free

These just happened to stand out for me because of where I am right now. I’m confident you will likely find something extremely valuable that’s applicable for your business. Watch it today – Jimmy did not mention when this will be pulled. Better watch it before it is gone.

Photo by Tim Arai

File under: Marketing
April 29, 2011 By

How To Untether Your Business And Work Anywhere

It is almost strange in these days of wide spread smart phone adoption that we are talking about this because some days, it seems to me everyone is ‘mobile’. Yet, judging from the questions and comments we receive, I am proved wrong and so I’d like to share some thoughts on how I made gradual changes to my business so now, I no longer have to be in my office and at my desk all day long if I choose.

Before going too far I must say that not all businesses or entrepreneurs require, want or can be mobile. If you own a wedding cake business, obviously you can’t work from anywhere. However there are parts of any business that could be.

In our business, I do a variety of things. Some examples are blogging, writing guest posts, appearing on web casts, creating written and video content, fixing or tweaking web sites and of course application programming.

At this point in time, I still have not found a good way to program or fix web sites on the go. The reasons are varied but it is largely because there are certain programming environments I need to have access to that just aren’t available on a mobile device or if they do it’s plain uncomfortable. Give me a power house desktop and multiple monitors any time for that kind of work.

However there are plenty of other areas where I can implement mobility. Like, content creation, communicating with customers and followers on social networks or email, brain storming, project planning, team management. You get the idea. These are things you just don’t have to do in the office or for that matter need a computer to accomplish.

With that in mind, I started looking for tools that can help me write, brain storm, communicate and manage from anywhere.

One of the first things I purchased was not a smart phone surprisingly, but a Livescribe pen. If you didn’t have to be in touch with anyone at all this pen alone would suffice. It has really been great. Here is a short list of some ways I’ve used it:

  • Record conversations with clients as we went over their web site and hashed out wants, likes, changes
  • Write articles for distribution, affiliates and blog posts at the beach
  • Brainstorm new projects, company direction and focus at the park
  • Wrote standard operating procedures including sketches etc to share with helpers so they know exactly what I want and how I want it done
  • Record and note important points listening to an MP3 while traveling

The next thing I did, was to consciously seek out and utilize tools that are not desktop bound and when I say desktop I also mean laptop. I’ve never really been a fan of laptops and would much rather not carry one if I can carry something many times lighter and smaller.

Back to the tools, when choosing them I also made it a point to ensure the tool has either a mobile app or mobile interface. While I placed a high value on this, it was not entirely necessary depending on what the system is because if the program is accessible online, most modern smart phone browsers can handle it. Here’s a rough list of what I ended up implementing:

  • Our payment system was not a problem because we already utilize a web based shopping cart and set everything up for automatic delivery. For the service portion of our business, we used Zoho Invoice which is also web based and we will soon be switching to another script also web based but installed on our servers.
  • For emails, I put our domain on Google Apps that allowed me the use of Gmail, Google Docs and other applications under our domain name. This actually took care of more than just emails but document sharing and calendars.
  • When it comes to task and project management, I specifically seek out web apps that can be tied into Google Apps. I’m still moving back and forth between a few solutions with no concrete decision which yet but as of now, it’s a close race between ManyMoon and GQueues.
  • In other areas, I chose Evernote and Dropbox.

Lastly, I upgraded my phone. While I’ve always had a smart phone, I felt it was important to switch to a different platform that offers more current and popular apps and also one that the tools chosen above supported. Because I made sure the tools I used had mobile options in the step above, this part was like riding downhill. It just ‘fell in place’. All I needed to do was to get and install the mobile apps.

Somewhere along the way I also added a tablet. It does not get as much use as the phone though. And now, I have everything I need to stay productive no matter where I am and even at very short notice. A wonderful example was when my husband asked me to accompany him on several trips to a nearby city these past 2 months. Without having to think too much about it, all I needed to do was pick up the phone, my Livescribe pen and notebook. I’m good to go.

Have you gone mobile too? What do you use most? Do you like it? Do share use the comments space to share.

File under: Blog, Technology
January 27, 2011 By

Accept Credit Cards On Your Phone or iPad

People have been wanting to process credit card payments on the go for years. I still remember the applications and hardware that you have to have before.

As with anything, new technology makes it lighter and easier than ever. Take Square for example. It is a small little card reader that you plug into your phone or iPad.

When you sign up for an account with Square,  you will get the card reader free in the mail. Then you can start processing payments. There are no monthly contracts or fees or merchant account involved. They do take a cut out of each payment and card swipe – that’s to be expected.

Supported phones or devices are iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and selected Android devices.

File under: Blog, Business, Technology
January 24, 2011 By

Learn From Others’ Split Testing Results

In my last post, I made a strong case why you should start testing right away – so you have time to build data. But if you really need to refer to data that you don’t have, one of the next best things you can do is – look at other people’s testing results.

One site where you can look at what other people have done, their results and also figure out what to test on your own sites is ABtests.com. You can see the results of ad click through tests, landing page tests, sign up or registration tests. Or, if you’re in the mood for sharing, you can also upload your own test results.

File under: Blog, Business, Marketing
January 22, 2011 By

Just Start Tracking Now

We all know metrics are important. You need to know which ad is pulling sales, which emails are getting clicks and so on. But sadly, many people I talk to still don’t track their efforts. When they finally need to come up with some data to make decisions, woo an affiliate or show results, they don’t have it.

I have a feeling it is because people feel intimidated. ‘Tracking’ sounds so complicated and so technical they are afraid it will take so much time technical know how so they don’t do it. I’m here to tell you, it can be as easy as sending an email. This is particularly true if you use a system like WordPress to manage your website.

We use Pretty Link Pro. It is a plugin that can automatically create ‘short’ links for all your posts. But you can also create short links for anything. Including links you want to include in your emails. Because these shortened links are redirects, you can also track them and the plugin has statistics for you to review. Using it is easy. Paste your destination URL and hit create link. You’ll get a new URL that you distribute. Any traffic going through that is tracked.

If you don’t use WordPress, you can also use third party services like Linktrackr.

But my point is this. Track everything and track it now.  This is a hard lesson I learned. Tracking or any type of data collection is time based. Which means, the information it gives you gets better or more accurate with time. The earlier you start, the better it is for you.

It doesn’t matter if you’re ready or not. Every email you send out, every link to a product or affiliate recommendation or anything that is important to you – use a tracking link. You may not know what you want to use it for just create a tracking link and pass all your traffic through that link. What is important is, you are collecting data.

When we started tracking, we did just that. We weren’t sure how we were going to use that data or even use it at all. But you know what? When we needed it, it was right there waiting for us. Some links, we didn’t even look at until 2 years later and by then, the data was much more reliable and the fact that we have a history to compare with, was priceless.

Yes, eventually you will learn to track things in finer detail and have specific trackers for more definite things. However, in general – there’s no better time to start than now.

File under: Blog
January 18, 2011 By

Making The Most of Commute Time

We entrepreneurs are a busy bunch. It seems we hardly have a spare moment to fit in learning anything. Thankfully, some good books and learning material come in the handy audio format. Which means, you can learn while you’re commuting or really, anytime you have a pocket of time like when you’re waiting for something or somebody.

Audio learning is not new. Even in the days of cassettes and 8-tracks (remember those? Yes, I’m showing my age), there have been motivational audios, business management and so on. But today, you got to admit our gadgets make it so many times easier to carry our learning material around.

For me, I keep them all on my phone (thank goodness for huge SD cards!). I even have video lessons in there. Anytime I’m on the road, waiting at the doctor’s office or waiting in line for anything. All I need to do is pull out the phone, pop in the headsets to start learning. Of course, you don’t need a smartphone, nor do you need an expensive iPod. Any MP3 player works. However, if you want to take advantage of DRM-ed (locked) content through services like Audible, then there’s a good chance you will have to use a brand name player.

Besides Audible, there are other places you can get downloadable audio and video learning material. One such is iAmplify. They have a pretty varied library from fitness to meditation to business development. Here are two products in their library that might interest you.

Photo by Gabriel Rocha
File under: Blog
January 10, 2011 By

Why A Memorable Contact Can So Powerful

Weeks ago, I took my children to a party. They had a blast and left with a bag of goodies. One of them declared what a great day it was and how happy they were.

On the way home, she discovered her sister has a coveted toy that is not in her goodie bag (the contents were different). She starts pouting, becomes upset and spits out the famous words,

“This is the worst day of my life”

I wondered what happened. How did that happy day turn into the worst day of their lives in a heartbeat?

Then I watched this presentation by Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman about experience versus memory (below).

There are many take-aways from this presentation but the focus is this. When people think about how happy they are, or how happy they are with something like a vacation (or a product), the answer people give is not based on the real experience but the memory of the experience.

While we aren’t children, the story above is pretty common regardless of age. I know I have gone through similar situations many times. An awesome day is ‘bad’ because it was tainted by one bad experience. Suddenly, the rest of the hours of good experiences counted for nothing.

Watch this presentation (below). Lots of interesting insights that lead me to think. What we should be working towards is a memorable contact with our customers, not so much a good experience.

What are your thoughts?

File under: Blog, Branding, Business, Marketing
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