My Business Diary | Techie Go Slows, Missing Meta Tags & Indian Gifts
Last Friday started with a business breakfast at Durrington High School before hosting a Webinar with Colin Turner which got rave reviews even though we had some sound issues with my voice being a bit echoey – luckily Colin did most of the talking! You can watch the first 10 minutes below and then click to watch the rest if you like what you hear. So I spent some of Saturday doing editing to try and equalise our voices a bit and edit the worst out and I was pleased I managed to salvage the interview. Watch it here >>>
Technology is a wonderful thing – when it’s working! We have had internet issues this week with Virgin Media losing our internet connection on a regular basis, which covered up the fact that my Firefox started to move with the speed of a slug this week, but I disabled as many add-ons as I could and that sorted it out eventually. Phew, thought it was my trusty laptop for a while!
I’ve been re-reading Rich Schefren’s brilliant report on traffic this week, after watching the latest excellent webinar, and resolving again to extract the maximum value from my existing traffic before seeking more. This is a bit of a catch-22 because in order to be able to split test etc., which helps you extract maximum value from your squeeze and sales pages, you need a bit of traffic! Too little data can give false readings, so I’ve been playing with Microsoft Bing advertising before going back to the Big Daddy Google Adwords. However, none of that traffic is converting to leads, much less sales, although my warm traffic unique visitors convert very well at between 8% and 25% to leads and around 1-2% to sales of everything from eBooks to top level mentoring.
But unless you can create and then convert cold traffic, you can’t really…
…grow your business sustainably so I’m persevering. I identified that the key phrase I was targeting was too far “back” in the info seeking / buying process, so I’ve identified a couple of other phrases where people who searched them (and there are thousands per month) would definitely be looking to opt in or buy some information / help so we will see if that works better at converting to leads / customers.
The recent Google Panda algorhythm amendments (aka Google Farmer’s Update) hasn’t hurt my traffic, in fact I’m noticing a jump every three months and many of my sites-for-rent are now Page One Number One of Google – although that itself doesn’t’ guarantee traffic, by a long shot. Click here for a fairly decent roundup of the Google Panda Update (even though it’s not an English as 1st language site, the explanation is easy to understand)
One of my sites is at the top even though when I click on it, I don’t seem to have added any content! That just shows what having a great domain name with the key phrase in the URL and the All-In-One-Plugin can do for a site. Better add some before I fall victim to the Panda Update on that one!
Another of my clients, who has a great Indian Gifts website specialising in beautiful objects from the Assam region, spent some time with me on the phone last week and she’s emailed me today to report that, from not being listed at all on Google, she is now – within a week – being listed on Page Three (and climbing) for her key phrase.
She had paid to have her site all set up but nobody had put any meta-title, meta-description or meta-tags in at all. This means Google can’t index it and it is something I see so regularly it’s frightening. One other client asked me for a Marketing MOT and I couldn’t put it online I was so cross with what she had paid for – and not got! And this by a firm who were promoting themselves as a Local Business Marketing company. Grrrrrrrrr!
Alternatively, I got a call from someone the other morning, who had found my site, downloaded my book and read it, and who now wanted to coach with me, promptly signing up and paying immediately for my top level mentoring programme
As Rich Schefren says “the goal of great marketing is to make selling redundant” and I certainly didn’t need to sell anything in that instance!
I’m hopeful that the interview with Tina Tilley from the Worthing & Adur Chamber of Commerce will come out in the Worthing Herald this week and that it will appear online so I can send you a link. The poor Business Editor had a job to get a word in edgeways but he was making copious notes and I sent him some follow up stuff about QR Codes and how local businesses can get busy using them right now, with some examples I have found recently. http://thebusinesssuccessfactory.com/how-qr-codes-can-help-you-make-more-money-now-in-your-real-world-business/
I had to get very strict with another client this week – he’s a great guy and we have a laugh every time, but he’s very busy with two things at the moment and the one I’m coaching him on is getting left aside rather. We talked about diary zoning and how important it is, when you are working on more than one thing, and you have family commitments too. We also talked about out-sourcing, and using virtual staff to get things done that are not getting done when left to you!
Did you know that for around $300 – $500 a month, you can have a full time VA from the Philippines? They are really bright, hardworking people, and often have EXCELLENT written and spoken English. I haven’t gone down this route as I can’t face ploughing through all the CV’s but it’s a great idea if you are just swamped but only have a limited budget. You could also use 123Employee.com as they apparently insist that the VA’s go to work at their office and you have a project manager who farms out the work and makes sure it gets done.
Because if something crucial – a critical success factor – isn’t getting done in your business, then you need to find a way to get it done. And if you aren’t doing it, for whatever reason, practical or emotional, then you need to find someone who will.
For example, I know that I need to create an “optimum selling system” for my business The Business Success Factory. The marketing is starting to work well, in terms of mentoring clients, but the “All Done For You” outsourced marketing service needs to be sold – these customers just simply don’t spend all day online.
If I want to reach Local Business Clients, the way to do it is via some of the more traditional routes, like direct mail, advertising, following up by telephone, etc. And I’m just not going to do all that. I know myself and I just won’t. So I either need to find someone to do it for me, or I need to find another way. So the thinking cap is on, right now!
Popularity: 7% [?]
You Might Also Enjoy...
-
James Fryer
Social Media Updates
Follow Or Like On…
-
Check The Podcast!
Get Nicola’s Book!
