By David Bullock

If you have a website that is supposed to make money, one of the most important activities that you can do is tracking.

Tracking is an electronic way of tagging the people who visit your website. Testing is an electronic way of showing the visitors on your website different versions of your website. Think of it this way. As someone comes into your online store, you greet them.

As you welcome them into the store you place a sticker on them that first counts them and lets you know that they are in the store. As the visitor walks around the store the sticker allows you to see where they are and what they are doing. That is all tracking is. Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend’s gumbo hits an area you may be sick of hearing because it has been discussed in so many forums, conferences, courses, etc. Trust me, this one is different.

The picture to the right is of me and Phillip Kaplan, aka "Pud". He is the originator of the website Fu–edcompany.com (content warning), and a self-made millionaire. He is not only a laugh riot, but extremely intelligent. This picture was taken at the Boston PubCon in April of last year. For some reason, the person taking the picture put her finger over the flash. Nice.

On his advice site Pud.com (content warning) he gave one of the most concise explanations on finding your passion that it is a must share. I will post it in its entirety and then make a brief wrap-up comment.

Hi Pud,

I’m a single mom. I’ve got two kids with another on the way.

I need to get back on the right track, but I’ve got almost no support from my family. I want to go back in school, but I don’t even know where to begin.

What’s your advice?

Anne
22 years old
California

Anne, Anne, Anne…

You’re a mess. But your life doesn’t have to be. You just need to find your passion, then you’ll have direction. ‘Going back to school’ isn’t the answer.

Some people know what their passion is. Unfortunately, you do not. But I’m going to help you find it.

Here’s what you do:

Ask yourself, if you could do ANYTHING in the world, what would it be? What’s the ultimate fantasy that you’ll probably never actually achieve, but would be awesome? Rock star? Movie starlet? Teacher? Birthday party clown? Brad Pitt’s wife? That’s the ‘WHAT.’

Now ask yourself, ‘WHY?’

For example, my ‘WHAT’ was ‘be a rock star heavy metal drummer!’ Upon further analysis, my ‘WHY’ was ‘I want to do something creative. I want freedom. I want to affect lots of people.’

As it turns out, there were about a million different more tangible things I could do that would satisfy my ‘WHY.’ That’s why I became a freelance web programmer: creativity, freedom, and the opportunity to reach the masses.

What’s your ‘WHAT?’ What’s your ‘WHY?’ You’ll be surprised how easy it is to satisfy your WHY, once you’ve figured out what it is.

Pud

ps – I’m still gonna be a famous heavy metal drummer. just you wait.

It’s Monday morning. Find some place quiet. Get your business journal and watch the sunrise and reflect deep in your mind what your "What" is … and then reach down deep and find your "Why". If you are an affiliate marketer, you will finally find the product or service that is perfect for you to market and success will come to you easier than it ever has. After all, successful affiliate marketing is based on marketing what you love. I am proof to that. Now prove it to yourself.

And you too will say, "Rock on. Thanks Pud!"

By David Bullock

Eye tracking has been around for many years and I really never considered the practical nature of this type of measurement. Until, I was able to read this post that put eyetracking into a series of actionable steps that you can use to evaluate and improve your website.

Normally, eyetracking just takes note of where the eyes of the visitor are going. This (to me) is not relevant if you are looking for the action of the “click”. When visitor is clicking, it is obvious that they are looking at what they are clicking. Thus, I dismissed most of the eyetracking studies that were being generated.

Read the rest of this entry »

By David Bullock

Tracking and analysis are the core of analytics. However, many times as I watch small-to-medium online businesses that are looking to make sales, there are little to no analytics processes in place. Basically, they are not paying attention to their businesses.

It starts with gathering the data to be monitored. Monitoring is equivilent to eyesight. If you can’t see anything, you have no chance of making any moves in a positive and profitable direction.

I am not speaking of the analytics program itself. I am talking about the thinking and the processes that should drive the need for analytics. It is easy enough to install a program like Google Analytics or Clicktracks and then do nothing with the data.

What I am speaking to is putting in an actionable process in place that will use the data to make decisions about the business.

Before the business owner can improve a selling process, he or she needs to define, design and document that process. Then, the tools (i.e., counters) that are required can be put to use. Here is how these steps break down: 

Read the rest of this entry »

By David Bullock

The terms “gross profit,” “net profit” and “cost” are some of the most commonly misunderstood business terms. Too many times we hear about great and wonderful achievements of revenue generation, usually in one of these forms:

* $1,000,000 in 24 hours

* $10,000 a Week

* $1,000 a Day

There is no indication if these are gross revenue numbers, net revenue numbers or profit reports.

Perhaps you are saying to yourself “Wait a minute…you mean there is a difference?” Read the rest of this entry »

By David Bullock

As a process engineer/scientist, turned sales person, turned online marketer, looking for ways to innovate business is the next logical step.

Thus, I am always looking for new ways to look at the obvious. This is a video that I found some years ago that stretched my thinking so much that I really started to see what was there in front of me and not what I wanted to see. We are all influenced by our own ideas.

The video is called “imaging the tenth dimension” and it will help you to reposition yourself against the background noise that is commonly called life.

For business, the ability to see what other (competition) does not is a huge competitive advantage that should be developed and honed.

Here that video called "imagining the tenth dimension. "

Enjoy your stretching.

For more information, visit SEO Rainmaker.

By David Bullock

Every now and again. I come across a website that really illustrates a best practice. You will always see commentary about the “online or web user experience” and how you should engage the visitor. Instead of talking about user experience – Let me show you.

Bear in mind that I have the idea that website are to be used and are a tool for communication to the market. Your website actually should have a purpose and should “do something”. Not just look nice.

How boring is paint? When was the last time that you got excited about paint?

Here’s great example of creating a perfect online user experience. This site is for people that are looking to paint a room in their home and want to see what it will look like before they buy the paint.

You can actually paint with the image. You can play with this here.

This site gives the user a low cost and easy way to experience the visual effect and the future that they are going to have by purchasing and buying this product and service. The execution is perfect.

I am thinking of how can I structure my sales process and offer so that I can offer a low cost demo of my product and service that allows the user to “consume it” without any time or effort on my part.

Of course setting up such a system will cost money, take time and require creativity. But, what a system that would be if the user could see the “future” that I am trying to provide to them at low cost or risk.

What comes to mind are:

* what if calculators

* simulators

* virtual environments

* models

* mock ups

* assessments

The question is: What can you do for your visitors, prospects and potential customers that will show them what you can do and provide for them that is low cost to you and high value to them.

You would think that paint is boring subject. On this site, the subject is fun and visually appealing. They have moved from the can to the room and the living space itself.

How can you move your product and service into a space where the user is fully engaged and working with your information, product or service?  If you can do this, I speculate that the transaction is almost complete.

To learn more, visit SEO Rainmaker.

By David Bullock

It doesn’t take a lot of words to tell a complete story in the headline.

Telling a complete story that grabs the reader is what your headline should do.

I was just listening to my daughter as she screamed at the top of her lungs for her sister to stop messing with her hair. All I heard was the one word – Stop. I knew immediately it was more than just a casual conversation. And, I knew that I might want to get more information.

But, let’s look at this more closely. There is a marketing lesson here.

The words were coming from someone that I knew. Someone I cared about. And, I’m familiar with the current situation. In essence, I cared about the speaker and my future with the speaker. Further, the situation could affect me if I did not take action.

This is a great example a relevance and how it plays into how your visitor responds to you and your website.

So how does this work online? You have to position yourself as the one to handle the visitors current problem and handle their concerns.

One of the things that is most important in a headline is relevance. Is what you’re saying important to the listener. Too many times we use language that the listener doesn’t care about.

We don’t address their concerns. We don’t address the current situation. We try pull them into our system, not follow theirs.

So, relevance usually goes out of the window at the very beginning.

If we were really in tune with the audience and we took the time to find out what they really care about we would have a better shot at making sales. Headlines are the very beginning of the ad.

In fact, it has been said that the headline is the ad for the ad. If you get the story wrong, you have no chance of moving forward in any conversation with the client.

How can you become more relevant to your visitor?

Make sure you say something that they care about at the very beginning.

What you need to say is testable. Your market will actually help you write headlines (and copy), if you test.

* Yes, there are formulas for headlines.

* Yes, there are headline templates.

* Yes, There are secret headline formulas.

But, in the end you have to connect with your audience. Human to human.

And the only way to connect is to speak to see if what you say and how you say it communicates and get the response that you want.

* Are you relevant to your audience and market?

* What can you do to become more relevant?

* What do you need to know?

* What you need to do?

* What can you change on your site to become more relevant to your audience?

To find out more, visit SEO Rainmaker.

By David Bullock

The promise of the information superhighway was touted to be one of the most significant developments of the modern age. But, has that promise been fulfilled?

Does high search engine rank mean good quality content? Absolutely not. It means good SEO and that’s all.

No more and no less. Case in point…

As you search the Internet now with any first or second tier keyset, you will find that the Internet provides information that is not relevant to your search. That is because of those who control the first and second page of any search engine directory are experts at search engine optimization and not content generation.

If you go beyond the third page on any search engine, you will find a different world of information.

You’ll be surprised to find the wealth of good quality content and information that is not well optimized for any of the search engines to find and index.

To find good quality information, you will have to dig deep now because the Internet is so big, cluttered and is growing every day.

This brings in the concept of the hidden Web or the invisible web. Here’s a good article about the invisible Web phenomenon. As unbelievable as it sounds, much of the information that we desire so much is not indexed by any search engine.

In fact, Google indexes 13 different file types.

• But is it SEOed correctly? No.

• Does it rank highly for first tier keywords? No.

So what is it then? It is longtailed quality content. As I conduct more and more research into this area of the invisible web or the hidden web, I find that my new strategy would be first and second tier keyword sets pushing against longtailed quality content.

The question then becomes, "How can you exploit the known situation (problem) of cluttered irrelevant information and the searcher’s frustration to your advantage in your marketing effort?"

Just something to thing about as you develop you online exposure strategy.

To learn more about SEO, visit SEO Rainmaker.

Most of you know I do quite a bit of traveling. So it won’t surprise any of you I was tuning out the stewardess, er, flight attendant, as she was giving her prepared speech on what to do in the event of an emergency when I was flying back from San Diego last week. Turns out, she actually had something important to say. I just didn’t realize it until later.

She explained that in the event of a change in cabin pressure an oxygen mask would drop down from the compartment above my head. I was to secure my mask before I helped anyone else with theirs. The logic behind this instruction is simple. We can’t help anyone if we are passed out due to lack of oxygen.

While this makes sense during an emergency on the plane, it can also be practiced in our lives and in our business.

If you are like most business owners, you spend countless hours each week taking care of the needs of employees, clients, affiliates, spouses, families, friends, neighbors, and the list seems endless. All this is done in the effort to try to give all of these individuals we care about whatever they need when they need it.

The result is often the same. Many people you try to help aren’t happy, additional problems surface, and you shake your head in disbelief wondering why it didn’t turn out better. "All I tried to do was help," you sigh.

Sound familiar?

The problem is that you didn’t take care of yourself first. Therefore, you weren’t good to anyone else. While you felt you were helping, you were actually passed out due to "lack of oxygen."

Some believe that when we give and give of ourselves we will be fulfilled, but the truth is, we just end up wearing ourselves out. Take care of yourself first and then you can give those around you your true "best self". While it may seem selfish, it isn’t.

Bonus Examples

Just after this Gumbo was written, two good friends and people I greatly admire in this business recently gave me advice right up this alley … on consecutive days. One on Friday and the other yesterday (Saturday). I’d like to share their wisdom with you, as when paired with the "oxygen mask" example it fully completes the Gumbo.

The first related to a struggle I was having after an online training I had given. Many of the attendees were failing. "You have to realize that 80-90% of the students are going to fail," my friend said. He stated that it isn’t the content that failed, but the people themselves. Pareto was a smart guy and when he introduced his 80-20 rule, he knew it would have a widespread impact. "So which will you concentrate on? The 90% who fail or the 10% who succeed?"

Unfortunately, human nature is to concentrate on those who are failing. By doing so, we set ourselves up for additional feelings of failure, instead of making a stronger impact with those who are having success.

The second was in line with productivity methods. "Too many business owners concentrate only on tasks that are revenue based." In other words, if it doesn’t make money, they don’t do it. This can lead to an "unkept" business owner. Oftentimes, your ROI needs to also have an "enjoyment" factor. For example, speaking engagements may not bring any revenue to your business, but if it is something that you love, it will spur your creativity and improve your business indirectly, because you are taking care of yourself.

The first example shows that by concentrating on what is working (those who are succeeding) and ignoring that which isn’t working, your focus is going into positive areas, thus sharpening your ability to be both effective and successful. In the second example it is clear that by enjoying what you do, even though it isn’t bringing in direct revenue, is vital to your business’ health.

Really? Is that true? Think for a moment …

Is there anything better than an employee that comes in each morning whole and together, ready to work? A boss who can run a business effectively because he took time out to go fishing with his son the day before?

Your best self is the best gift you can give.