Cup of Joe: I

Thursday night I attended my first #SEOchat.

For those of you that aren’t aware. SEOchat is a Twitter style chat session that takes place every Thursday night on Twitter. The topic of Thursday’s chat was link building, but every week the organizers focus the discussion around something SEO related. Next week’s chat will feature Marketing Pilgrim’s fearless leader, Andy Beal, so don’t miss things next week!

As I was participating with the group the other night I couldn’t help myself feeling excited talking “links” with other like minded geeks. And then it hit me like a load of bricks. I love SEO. Seriously, I have a mad crush on SEO and it doesn’t look like it’s letting up anytime soon! The more I thought about it, the more I realized that my love for SEO has been a long time in the making. In fact, I think I started falling for SEO long before I even knew what SEO was. You see my love for SEO isn’t rooted in dominating search engine results but rather everything that takes place to do so.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love keyword research, because using good keywords means that you are communicating to your audience with relevant language that they can relate to.

I love content creation, because without good content your site is pretty pointless.

I love link building because it means that you are aggressively promoting your site’s name and web address. Which is at the core of Internet marketing.

I love optimizing a site’s information architecture, because having good IA means being well organized and presenting your content logically.

I love creating and improving usability, because having a well thought out user interface helps users discover more on your site and increases user retention.

I REALLY love writing code that search engines can understand. Because SEO friendly code means that it is more likely to be picked up by new emerging technologies and is also accessible to people with visual impairments.

But, most importantly, I love SEO because it raises the bar. It sets a standard in all of the areas above that matter most when creating and promoting a web site. In short, I love SEO because it is making the Internet a better place to share information and build businesses.

So the next time you hear someone criticize SEO, or call it dead. Don’t write them off because they don’t understand SEO. Instead, write them off because they don’t understand the internet, and how to make it better.

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3 Reasons to Tell Readers Why

You know you’re right, right?

Everyone should fall in line and accept what you know in your heart to be true.

Sorry, that’s not how people work.

So much of persuasive writing comes down to proof. And so many people fail at persuasion because they offer assertions without giving people reasons.

So persuasive writers know to give reasons for everything. Here are the three most important reasons to tell readers why.

1. A Reason to Read

This begins with your headline, and that’s why headlines are so important. You can be cutesy or clever to satisfy your ego, or you can get you ideas absorbed and acted upon. Busy people need a reason to invest attention. Do you have one?

2. A Reason You’re Different

Why you and not the other options? If your product or service is better, say specifically why. Your winning difference in the minds of the people you’re aiming at has to be distinct, clear, and believably better. Are you leading, or following?

3. A Reason to Believe

• Specific examples.
• Compelling case studies.
• Legitimate testimonials.
• Interesting facts and figures.
• A confident guarantee.
• Authenticity.
• Authority.
• Likeability.

Most of all, demonstrate, don’t pontificate.

What reasons work for you? What other reasons are you giving that work?

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Interview: Justin Goff

Justin Goff runs 31DayFatLossCure.com, which is a fitness/fat loss product that helps people to lose belly fat (here’s affiliate info). He’s also one of the highest paid copywriters when it comes to sales letters & video scripts for the fitness & internet marketing niches...

Tell us a little background info about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you? How long have you been working in this industry?
I grew up in a very small town in Ohio - after graduating from high school I went to Ohio State, where I majored in Sport & Leisure studies (real tough major . I actually got started with affiliate marketing in college to pay off some gambling debts that I got myself into. I'm currently 26, and this has been my career ever since...

What accomplishments so far are you the most proud of?
I’ve busted my ass for the last year to become a good copywriter and that’s really paid off lately. I’ve written copy for some of the biggest internet marketing product launches, and also copy for the sales video for our own product which I’ve actually gotten some kudos from the big A-list copywriters for....

I’ve spent tons and tons of hours learning how to write copy and I feel like it’s all coming together for me now...

How did you come to learn about this industry? Why did you choose this career? When did you first realize the full potential in affiliate marketing? When did you first “hit the big time?”
I used to be a big sports bettor in college, and I was really good at it. I wouldn’t bet much, but I would win like $5k for a college football season, and that would be enough money to keep me from having to get a real job in college.

One of the seasons though, I got in over my head, went on a little bender and ended up owing some shady people over $3,000. At the time, I didn’t have the money. I ended up getting a job as a valet to pay it back - and then I also made a website where I decided to sell my football picks. The site was ugly as HELL, but I made like $1,000 that first year and I was absolutely hooked.

From there, I went on to dabble as a poker/gambling affiliate. I did that for a few years and learned a ton about SEO. Since then I’ve sold most of that stuff off, and now I focus solely on the 31 Day Fat Loss Cure site....

What do you think it takes to be successful as an affiliate?
1. The right mindset
2. The willingness to see failure as a learning experience
3. The willingness to find a mentor
4. A deep understanding of what influences people
5. Discipline

What have been your biggest failures and frustrations?
I had a lot of bad “mental blocks” when it came to making money when I first started.

Growing up in a small town in a middle class family I always thought that $50k was a ton of money to make in a year...

That kind of thinking really held me back in a lot of ways. I would make a bunch of money with something but when it came to leveraging that and making even more money, I would always put my foot on the brake and sabotage myself.

I read Dan Kennedy’s Wealth Attraction For Entrepreneur’s book and within about 2 months my income went wayyyy up. Dan’s been one of the biggest influences on my business and this book really helped me get over a lot of mental blocks that I had that were preventing me from making money (I highly recommend this book to all entrepreneurs)

What is the single toughest problem you've had to face, and how did you get through it?
Honestly one of the hardest things I’ve had to deal with are going through a break up. I’m sure I’ll catch shit for saying that in the comments, but it’s true. When you work from your house and you don’t interact with co workers throughout the day, going through something tough like a break up, or a death in your family is 2x as hard.

I think a lot of entrepreneurs are constantly thinking about their business so we mostly live “in our heads”. And when you live like this, you don’t have the same outlets that most people have with a typical office setting...

Is there anything that you don’t like to do, that you just hate working on?
Honestly I hate writing copy. I’m really damn good at it, and I get paid a boatload of money to do it for clients, but I just don’t really like to do it. Just the thought of writing for 5 straight days makes me tense up.

That’s why I'm pretty picky about who I take on as a client. I probably get 3-4 proposals a week from people who want me to write a sales letter/video for them but I only take on the projects I really want to do...

I really like to play around more with the testing side of things once the copy is done. That’s when it gets fun for me...

If it’s possible for you to share, are there any particular niches that you currently favor? Or that you aren’t necessarily in right now but that you would recommend?
All I do is the fitness/fat loss niche right now. I’m pretty much just focused on promoting our product and helping our affiliates to promote our product so that I can build a real, sustainable business.

But being in this niche, I do know there are a lot of opportunities...

Here’s one that I think is going to blow up...

- Gluten free diets

If you’re not familiar with it, gluten is a protein found in foods like wheat, barley, oats etc...

A lot of people are intolerant to it, and millions more are intolerant to it and they don’t even know about it. It’s catching on with a lot of people, and the Hollywood crowd is beginning to notice it as well. It’s probably a smaller niche now, but easily something that you could build a product and make 6 figures a year with.

As we get more and more health conscious, more people will start to learn about it and it’s going to be the next big “diet craze” in this country...

What niche has worked best for you?
I used to be in the poker/gambling niche and did really well in that. A lot of my friends are still in that niche and they’re all raking in the dough.

Anyways, poker/gambling and then fat loss are the only 2 I've ever really done any serious work with...

Which methods of promotion do you favor?
I used to be a big SEO & blogging guy, but I've fallen in love with paid traffic. I'm just getting my bearings with paid traffic since I could never use it back when I did poker stuff. But I’m doing a lot with Facebook, POF and some smaller media buys...

If anyone wants to coach me with media buys I’d be forever grateful to you

What have you been up to recently? What projects are you working on?
Mostly recruiting affiliates for our product, and then working on dialing in our upsells so that we can make more money off each sale. We’ve seen a big increase in the value of our customers from testing our upsell process.

What are your greatest strengths?
I understand what influences people and I truly understand the fat loss market. I’m pretty relentless when it comes to learning new things, so you’ll always catch me reading 1-2 books on advertising, and then I’m always learning new things from the guys in my mastermind group as well.

If you want to be successful you have to keep learning from other people...

What are your greatest weaknesses?
Getting complacent. I always have to remind myself to not settle when stuff starts going well. This was a big problem for me back when I had a lot of the mental blocks about money. I would let off the gas before things got really good and just try and stay in my comfort zone. I've learned to recognize that now, and I understand that I need to keep pushing when I get to that point...

What motivates you?
Hitting my goals. I’m nowhere near where I want to be financially, but I make sure I remind myself everyday about what my goals are and what I need to do today to get closer to them.

What is the best advice you’ve been given and try to apply to your life?
The day I realized that I was solely responsible for everything (good or bad) that happened in my life was a big day and a big shift in my mindset for me.

I used to have a victim mentality when it came to a lot of things - so once I got over that and figured out that I was solely responsible for all of my success, I really started to see a big difference in how I looked at everything.

As human beings, whenever we don’t reach a goal or we aren’t satisfied with where we are in life, we always rationalize it to ourselves and put the blame on something outside of ourselves. Sometimes we even say it’s our own fault, but deep down there’s a rationalization that we let ourselves use.

It’s this kind of thinking that allows us to rationalize our existence when we’re not living up to our potential.

Understanding that was probably the biggest change in my life...

Who has impacted you most in your career, and how?
Dan Kennedy and Shoemoney - I've read almost all of Dan’s books, and I get so much out of every book & seminar I listen to of his. You can pick them up on Amazon for like $12 each, and they are just filled with useful business knowledge.

And then Shoemoney has been a massive help ever since I met him 2 years ago at Elite Retreat. He’s one of the most helpful people I know, and he’ll do anything for people that he actually knows and cares about... Just getting to know him and helping him out has opened a lot of doors for me...

What kinds of people do you have difficulties working with? Any good stories?
I'm a terrible employee. I really am. If you were to ask any of my former bosses back when I had a job in high school, they would probably all tell you I wasn't cut out for being an employee, haha...

What are some of your long-term goals? How much is enough? If money was no object, what would you be doing?
Honestly, I love what I do. I wake up on Saturdays and Sundays and have to force myself to not get on the computer and work. Even if I had 50 million in the bank, I would still be doing stuff like this...

How do you like to spend your free time? What does work-life balance mean to you?
Working out, boxing, being on the lake. I'm a pretty simple guy. Anything to do with sports or the outdoors is where I like to be...

I also spend a lot of time with my dogs... I usually take them to the park or for a long walk everyday. They hang out in my office with me so making sure they are worn out is always a priority when I have work to do...

If you could go back to being 18, what different career choices would you make?
Start with building my business sooner - and also stick with 1 business until it was successful. I fell into the trap of jumping from niche to niche for a while before I really settled on the fitness niche.

Once you have a plan, just stick with it until it works. Most people don’t need more information or the “newest thing” to get started. All of that is useful as you have a business is growing, but just get started with 1 or 2 things and make those successful.

Do you have a Twitter account or Facebook “Like” page?
facebook.com/justingoff is my personal one. I have a Twitter, but don't use it anymore...

Ending
I personally work with our affiliates for the 31 Day Fat Loss Cure - if you’re interested in promoting a legit product with high conversions, and no shady rebills then get a hold of me. You can check out the affiliate page on our site here....
- Justin Goff

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OnStar Declares a Social Media Emergency

“This is OnStar, what is your emergency?”

“I just saw Britney Spears buying bananas at Ralphs and I have to tell everyone I’ve ever met.”

No. I’m not kidding. Sam Mancuso, general director of marketing for OnStar told Advertising Age this week that the company is beta-testing a feature that will allow drivers to update their Facebooks by voice while on the road. It’s part of a push to make the brand seem hipper and cooler and it includes a new slogan “Safely connecting you in ways you never thought possible.”

Mancuso stands behind the idea saying that people are going to update their Facebooks by texting while driving and that’s dangerous and illegal. With OnStar, they can do it safely while keeping both hands on the wheel. He also claims that if they find this new feature to be distracting and unsafe, they will discontinue it and they’ll be upfront about the mistake.

Once you build social connectivity into a car, the next step, as with mobile phones, is figuring out how to use it for marketing purposes. Mr Mancuso’s response to that:

“There are many things that are technically possible. Whether it becomes an advertising medium depends on what our customers desire and value.”

I can’t imagine customers ever desiring advertising piped into the car like canned elevator music, we have the radio for that. Maybe OnStar will start including ads with every emergency response. “The ambulance is on the way, Mr. Jones, and remember, for the aches and pains you’ll be suffering tomorrow, Tylenol is the number one pain reliever.”

As for advertising OnStar itself, Mancuso says the outlay on their new campaign will be “significant.” In addition to radio and TV advertising, they’ll be hitting Times Square and going the social media route.

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5 Ways Twitter Can Actually Be Useful… For Anyone

Though most people who use Twitter enjoy it and think it’s a great service, it has gotten something of a bad rap for, supposedly, being useless and frivolous. When people do talk about putting Twitter to use, they’re usually discussing it solely from the standpoint of self-promotion or social news marketing.

This has, unfortunately, kept many people away from Twitter who would benefit from it. Many who are otherwise very active in social media can’t justify the time required to get involved in Twitter and, as a result, steer clear of it.

However, the people who view Twitter in that light are seeing less than half the story. Whether or not Twitter ever intended to be useful, it has become a very powerful and practical communications platform but the secret is knowing how to use it.

If you need proof of that, here are five practical things that you can do with Twitter right now and you don’t have to be a Twitter wizard or have a powerful account to do them.

5. Reach Out to Companies

If ever you’ve tried to reach a live human being at a large company, you know how difficult it can be. However, most large companies are putting people in charge of monitoring Twitter for what’s being said and many are actively responding. If you need to get in touch with a human being at a company, you can use this to your advantage.

First, see if the company is on Twitter and follow their account (very important). Then, @reply the company making sure to put something before the @ symbol if you want most of your followers to read it. If they don’t have a clear Twitter account, mention the company name and see if someone who works for it is following the term. If you followed the account, there’s a good chance they’ll DM you or reply back, giving you a chance to email or call.

Though this is most commonly used as a means to address grievances against a company, it can be useful, as I found, for finding someone to interview for your site or just getting a more difficult question answered.

4. Ask a Question or Give an Answer

Need an opinion on something real fast from an unbaised third party? Twitter can help. Drop a link to what you need thoughts on and encourage replies, even if you don’t have many followers there’s a good chance one or two will step in to help.

Twitter is a great way for getting quick feedback from those who aren’t close to the project. Likewise, it’s a great to grow your reputation as an expert by answering questions asked by others, all you have to do is search for keywords relevant to your field and answer questions when possible.

All in all, there’s no easier way to connect people with questions to ask with those who are wanting to give answers.

3. Follow Relevant News

There’s a lot of ways you can stay on top of your industry’s news but none are more up to the minute than following relevant keywords on Twitter. Though Google News and Yahoo! News can be great tools for keeping on top of an industry, there can be a great deal of delay between when a story breaks and when it appears in the alerts and feeds, especially if it is a niche field.

You can easily narrow down a Twitter search to show you only tweets with links using the advanced search tool and, though you’ll still have to separate a lot of wheat from the chaff, you can rest assured that it will probably be the best tool for up-to-the-minute news about the topics that interest you.

2. Get Important Alerts

In addition to staying on top of your industry, Twitter can help you stay on top of more urgent news. By using Twitter’s SMS feature, you can have tweets from accounts pushed directly to your phone in real time. How is this useful? Many government agencies and other groups have starting using Twitter as a means to stream real-time updates on various topics.

For example, in my hometown of New Orleans, the Department of Transportation has set up a Twitter account for area traffic alerts. Whenever an accident happens on one of the major thoroughfares causing a delay, I get a text message alerting me that I might want to consider alternate routes.

Very likely, your city has similar tools available to you, either through the government or your local media. All you have to do is search.

1. Actually Talk to People

Here’s a radical idea for Twitter: Try talking to people.

It may seem as if 140 characters isn’t enough to say anything meaningful but remember that the limit was put into place to make Twitter compatible with text messaging and consider how many conversations take place via SMS every day.

I have several friends and relatives that Twitter is my primary means of initial contact for them. If I just need to send a quick message, I either use text or Twitter and, since Twitter is free to use and can reach people both on their cell phones and computer, it has proved to be a good way to reach some of my tech-savvy friends.

I wouldn’t use it to talk to my parents, but for my social networking buff friends, it’s a means of communication that can’t be beat.

Bottom Line

In the end, Twitter is as frivolous or as useful as you make it. If you want to make it about what you had for breakfast or for pure self-promotion, that’s your choice. But don’t forget that it does have real, practical power that you can apply to make your life better.

Basically, Twitter is just a tool and you’ll get out of it what you put into it. If you try to make it something worthwhile, it will be, if you don’t, it won’t. It really is that simple.

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New Affiliate Network Software – Effectus Software

Yesterday I wrote a post about the pros and cons about direct advertiser relationships.

In that post I recommended HasOffers as my tracking system of preference for going direct to advertisers.

After I posted that, I found out about a new tracking system that just recently entered the space... like very recently. Enter Effectus Software.

About Effectus
EFFECTUS is the brain-child of affiliate network RevenueStreet.com a division of TheMediaCrew. According to their website, EFFECTUS was created to provide a cost effective, powerful tool for performance based marketing tracking.

EFFECTUS enables its users to easily and effectively run an affiliate network or run offers privately like I mentioned in yesterdays post. TheMediaCrew is a leading performance-based marketing company with enabling technology that connects marketers to consumers through a comprehensive set of email marketing and online media services. Their expertise resides in online marketing, customer acquisition, email delivery, lead generation and compliance solutions.

(You can find more details on the About page)

Demo
I decided to get a demo account and take some screenshots, look around, and see how it measured up against the other systems.

After looking through the demo account, I quickly realized that this is another tracking system that has a lot of potential to become another player in this field. Check out some of the main features:

As I looked through the site, I realized that the site is probably not even 100% finished... but it will be interesting to see if Effectus will become another commonly used affiliate network platform. From the looks of it, the features, and the price, it looks like it could be another one that helps reshape the market!

Awesome stuff!

Go check it out now.

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JangoMail Survey Says Less Isn’t More, Anymore

You’ve heard the old saying that “less is more.” Apparently, this isn’t true when it comes to email marketing. According to a recent JangoMail survey, 67% of those who enjoy consistent email marketing success include three or more calls to action in their email campaigns.

This reminds me of my college days when I worked as a telemarketer. We were instructed to get three “no’s” from a prospect before we were allowed to end the call. With email marketing, the rejection isn’t so overt, thank heavens, it’s more about the prospect’s ability to ignore a call to action than to vocally object. (Your email came in the middle of my favorite TV show! Dangnabbit!)

The trick is to offer prospects a variety of actionable choices in hopes of finding the one that meets their needs. This includes asking them to follow you on Twitter or Like your fan page on Facebook.

Of those surveyed, says JangoMail, 50% are usually pleased with campaign results, 40% are sometimes pleased, and 10% are almost never pleased. Which validates the other old saying about pleasing all the people all the time.

JangoMail also found that of the email marketers surveyed:

68% segment their email lists
86% remove unsubscribers
65% read 3 or more marketing publications or blogs  (Including Marketing Pilgrim, we hope)
88% often use advanced tools such as Google Analytics or geotracking analysis

Wait? Only 86% actually remove unsubscribed people from their mailing lists? Or more pointedly, 14% of the marketers admitted that they didn’t remove unsubscribed email addresses. I think I know a few of them.

JangoMail CEO and Founder Ajay Goel sums it up like this:

“Success in email marketing clearly sides with those who tap the many tools and educational resources out there. Customers listen to the companies that take care in reaching out to them.”

Are you running an email marketing campaign? If so, when was the last time you reviewed one of your emails in the same format as a prospect? Sign up for your own mailing list and you may realize that what you’re sending out isn’t as sharp as it could be.

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The Freakonomics Guide to Making Boring Content Sexy

It’s easy to write about certain topics, like celebrities, or technology, or even social media. Everybody wants a piece of it.

But what if your passion is botany, supply chain logistics, or cognitive psychology?

How do you get noticed with a compelling story when your subject is … well … boring?

In the summer of 2006, an economics book was on the New York Time Bestseller list. The title was provocative and promised to be anything but a boring read.

Even my hero Malcolm Gladwell said, “Prepare to be dazzled.”

Since I really can’t stand economics (hated it ever since college), I skeptically handed over my $25 and took Freakonomics home.

From the very first page, I was treated to a wild ride through the most bizarre stories I’d ever encountered. I learned about cheating schoolteachers and self-sacrificing sumo wrestlers. Why drug dealers still live with their moms and how the KKK is like a real estate agent.

Every story taught a boring economic principle in a way that made me want more.

I realized that Freakonomics was an instruction manual for transforming boring blog posts into sexy must-read masterpieces.

Check it out:

People love “dot connectors”

Our world is getting more complicated by the second. Every day your readers are trying to get a handle on what happened yesterday, what’s happening now, and what will happen tomorrow. If you connect the dots for them, you can get popular in a hurry.

Freakonomics is built around connecting dots in an interesting way. For example, it’s long been an economic principle that almost every choice we make is connected to incentives. Pretty boring stuff — until author Steven Levitt used a story about daycare centers to show how some incentives backfire.

Since parents were showing up late frequently, the daycare center started a policy of a $3 fine to incentivize parents to show up on time. Unfortunately, the fine wound up incentivizing parents to pay $3 for an hour of babysitting and not feel guilty for showing up late!

Giving your reader’s these “aha” moments is a great way to keep them reading a so-called boring topic and have them asking for more.

Headlines still matter

Even with all of our shiny social media tools, good ol’ standby skills like writing a great headline still matter.

You can be a masterful storyteller and write killer posts, but you still lose if no one reads them.

Titles are the closest thing us writers have to a “silver bullet.” Don’t waste ‘em. Do you think that Freakonomics would have been a New York Times Bestseller with the title Aberrational Behavior and the Causal Effect of Incentives?

The quickest way to give your boring blog a facelift is to put some eye-hijacking power into your headlines. In fact, write your headline first, before you even start the rest of the post. It’s that important.

Numbers are a blogger’s best friend

One common complaint of blogs is that they can’t be taken seriously. We are accused of playing fast and loose with the facts and being weak on proof. It’s easy to avoid hard numbers and focus on writing the soft stuff, but Freakonomics shows that this is a mistake.

Many bloggers are afraid that statistics, equations, and hard facts will scare away our readers, but that’s not giving our readers enough credit. The problem isn’t the numbers — it’s that we stick numbers out there without a story.

Freakonomics uses numbers to reveal a hidden story. Levitt looked up the numbers on standardized tests for Chicago students. On the face of it, this was pretty boring data. This district got such-and-such a score, this district got such-and-such a score. Yawn.

Until those numbers revealed that teachers were cheating.

In some districts, teachers received salary boosts when their students performed better on standardized tests — motivating them to fill in a few additional correct answers for their students.

The story makes the numbers interesting. The numbers make the story credible. Give it a try.

Everyone loves a mystery

Why would a successful sumo wrestler throw a match? The obvious answer would be that he’s getting paid to do so, but Levitt quickly discovered there was a much more mysterious motivation that drove who won and who lost in Japan’s sumo contests.

The answer is buried in psychology, probability, and incentives, but the only thing that I care about is that there’s a mystery. Any mystery begs for gumshoe detective work. We can’t leave well enough alone and we want to know why — especially if someone else is going to do the legwork of figuring out the answer for us. That’s why the CSI series has spun off more offspring than a jackrabbit.

You can use this quirk of human nature to make your topic enticing. Look closely at your topic and uncover some old-fashioned mysteries. Now write a post that presents the mystery and leads your reader through the investigation to its incredibly satisfying conclusion.

Provide a better way to solve common problems

Freakonomics uses a powerful set of tools to explain the way the world works. By the end of the book, you can’t help but think that every problem imaginable can be solved with the right incentive, data analysis, or storytelling. When you’re finished you feel that there is a better way to tackle your problems.

This is what “added value” means. Simply restating a problem is boring. Offering new tools and perspectives to solve problems helps your reader get closer to their goals — and that makes you someone whose content they’ll want to read every time you come out with something new.

Freakonomics: The Movie is coming out soon, and I’ll be first in line — because reading the book was so valuable to me I can’t wait to see what else the authors have to offer. To get devoted fans who’ll anticipate your every output with the same enthusiasm, give them some solutions.

Time to get freaky

Have you ever used any of these techniques to make your content sexier? Can you see how to apply some of them to your own blog?

And if you read Freakonomics yourself, tell us in the comments about any other blog-enhancing tips you picked up!

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What Moms Respond To From Advertisers

I am the first to admit that the whole ‘mommy blogger’ phenomenon has been beaten within an inch of its online life but that doesn’t make it less important. Take it a step further and really look at those who are actually reading these mommy blogger posts and you are touching on marketing gold.

Moms are the ultimate influencers on most purchases in the home as a result there can never be enough information about what clicks with them when they are looking for a blog that resonates with their particular brand of ‘mommying’.

eMarketer and Unicast help the marketing community to hopefully understand this powerful group’s online needs a little better

The No. 1 reason moms of all ages begin to read mom blogs is not that they had their first child or wanted to connect with other moms—though those are important first causes—but that they were looking for ways to save money. Similarly, the top characteristic of their favorite mom blogs was being budget-oriented, which came ahead of being informative, humorous, relatable or even fast to read.

With moms it’s really all about the benjamins (or saving a few washingtons at least). Here’s what gets a mom’s attention from advertisers in this space.

Also, when moms are hitting the parenting blog circuit they are doing what the best moms always do: they are thinking about their kids and their family first. As a result, advertising for clothing, make-up etc to the mom herself in that environment gets less attention. Here’s what moms are looking for from advertisers on mommy blogs.

This is truly a complex market because it is impossible to classify moms in large chunks. They are unique people in a circumstance that we as marketers want to say is universal but, as every parent can attest to, no two houses or families are alike no matter how alike they seem on the outside.

So if you are a marketer trying to reach this valuable online market segment what have you seen work or not work? Is this data congruent with your experience?

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Google Engineer Fired for Accessing Data of Minors

While this may not be a marketing story in the strictest sense, it is very much so because marketing has always been about data. Data collection followed by analysis followed by strategies based on that data then eventually marketing campaigns to do what we all are trying to do: sell something.

As a result we have more data that can be accessed by more people than ever before which means there is a better chance than ever before in history for data to fall into the wrong hands.

Maybe Eric Schmidt made such a fuss about nothing being private anymore because he was aware that even on the Internet’s hallowed ground of the Googleplex that data would fall into the wrong hands.

It happened for a second (known) time as reported by Gawker.

We entrust Google with our most private communications because we assume the company takes every precaution to safeguard our data. It doesn’t. A Google engineer spied on four underage teens for months before the company was notified of the abuses.

David Barksdale, a 27-year-old former Google engineer, repeatedly took advantage of his position as a member of an elite technical group at the company to access users’ accounts, violating the privacy of at least four minors during his employment, we’ve learned. Barksdale met the kids through a technology group in the Seattle area while working as a Site Reliability Engineer at Google’s Kirkland, Wash. office. He was fired in July 2010 after his actions were reported to the company.

The assumption that data is cared for, looked after and protected by ANY company is fantasyland thinking really. People try to be good for the most part but if the news is full of those who don’t want to play by the rules then that will be present in places like Google, Facebook etc.

Heck, some of the biggest and most influential companies in the world (Microsoft and Facebook come to mind immediately) have as part of their legend the basis that the original ideas for their success were stolen. We like to forget these things but that is precisely why our data is always at risk.

People, for the most part, don’t think anything will happen to them. Statistically it is unlikely but that risk increases each day as we learn more about people like a few Google engineers who, while smart people, are social miscreants or deviants and have a virtual playground with which to experiment. It’s just the way it is.

The Gawker article speaks to this cavalier approach that is taken to data. It’s not about people really, it’s about power over people.

It seems part of the reason Barksdale snooped through the teens’ Gmail and Gtalk accounts was to show off the power he had as a member of a group with broad access to company data. A self-described “hacker,” Barksdale seemed to get a kick out of flaunting his position at Google, which was the case when, with a friend’s consent, he pulled up the person’s email account, contact list, chat transcripts, Google Voice call logs—even a list of other Gmail addresses that the friend had registered but didn’t think were linked to their main account—within seconds. The friend wasn’t concerned; Barksdale seemed to him to be a “silly,” good-natured nerd.

Trust me, this is not a call for privacy groups and advocates to try to tighten the screws so hard that we can’t make any progress. It is, however, a call to be cautious and to expect bad things to happen online. For every “good-natured nerd” out there there is someone on the other end of that spectrum that wants to hurt and destroy. We just have to be very aware of this new world reality, that’s all. Putting our head in the sand will only expose our collective butts to getting kicked by digital deviants.

Oh and Google’s response? Read the Gawker article for some of the less official responses by Barksdale’s superiors but the official Google take as a result of this story is

“We dismissed David Barksdale for breaking Google’s strict internal privacy policies. We carefully control the number of employees who have access to our systems, and we regularly upgrade our security controls–for example, we are significantly increasing the amount of time we spend auditing our logs to ensure those controls are effective. That said, a limited number of people will always need to access these systems if we are to operate them properly–which is why we take any breach so seriously.”

— Bill Coughran, Senior Vice President, Engineering, Google

Strict policies or not this is only the beginning because what Barksdale was able to do is not something he discovered first. If you think that then you probably do believe that your data is safe online and that Santa Claus is just a few short months away from dropping by your place for cookies and milk.

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The Pros and Cons Of Direct Advertiser Relationships – My Experience

Having been in the affiliate marketing business full time for over three and half years now, I changed how my business functions multiple times. When I first started in 2004, I was mostly using PPC engines to get cheap clicks for my gaming websites that were plastered with ads.

As I began to research who was paying for the ads, I began to learn more about the potential of affiliate marketing. Eventually that lead me to becoming a full time affiliate marketer in early 2007. That's also around the time I closed my old blog down and started this one up. Although my business is still mostly focused on affiliate marketing, it's not the only thing I do now.

Like I said, it's an evolving business. And that brings me to now.

One thing I have been doing this past year to year and a half is going direct with certain advertisers. For those that don't know what "going direct" means, it basically means that I have a direct affiliate relationship with a company (advertiser) and cut out the affiliate network.

While this is certainly going to be a part of business model going forward, there are many pros and cons that come with that territory that I hope to cover.

The Good

• Higher Payouts - Yea, obviously not have the networks take 5-20% off the top is a nice increase in pay. This is the most obvious reason for going direct.
• Direct relationships - Being able to talk directly to the company about your campaigns can bring some great benefits. Because they know you personally, they're less likely to just charge back bad leads, talk to you before making changes (sometimes), and keep you in the loop on future changes. Basically, if you're making the company money, they'll want to keep making you happy and do whatever they can to have you stay there.
• Exclusive Offers - Sometimes you'll be able to have exclusive offers that nobody else (or a few people) will be able to run. This can lead to big paydays. If you can't get an exclusive on an offer, you'll at least be one of the first to know about the new offers that company is making.
• Insider Wisdom - The people who make the offers generally have a lot of data and knowledge about the niche they're working in. Being able to pick their brain a bit is often quite beneficial when you're making your campaigns.
• Brokering to your friends - If you're fortunate enough to have an offer that is fairly exclusive, you can broker the offer to your friends and make a bit of money on them and they'll make a bunch of money as well.

As you can see, there are a ton of good aspects to having a direct relationship with an advertiser. Unfortunately affiliates tend to only think and focus on these aspects. Now, let's look at the negative.

• Long payment terms - Nothing sucks more than having cash flow problems and when you're being paid net 30 or net 60, it's easy to happen when you're spending big bucks advertising.
• More Risk - Because this company does not necessarily rely 100% on reputation like affiliate networks do, if they don't pay you (go bankrupt, realize they cant afford it, etc), the things you can do to get back at them are a lot less than an affiliate network. I've had this happen once and lost almost $10k in affiliate commissions. It could have been a lot more but I don't like to run a huge amount of traffic to direct relationships until they have a proven payment record with my company. That way I don't lose 6-7 figures like I have heard some companies losing out on.
• Accounting - Believe it or not, not every company is the best at timely and correct payments. With affiliate networks, you really just sit back and collect the checks. When you're direct you really have to be on top of getting paid. I can't tell you how many issues I have had. It's usually wrong number of leads, they forget to pay you, there was some thing they needed to go over, etc. It can be very time consuming to do this.
• Buy Affiliate Network Tracking Software - You need to be able to accurately track your leads / sales. Trusting the advertisers system... probably won't cut it in most cases. Unfortunately, most cost an arm and a leg so unless you're making significant revenue, it's probably not even worth the extra 5-10% in revenue. That's why I have used HasOffers (and love it). It's cheap (mid $xxx/month) and really effective.
• Chargebacks - A lot of direct advertisers want you to be responsible for chargebacks or refunds. If the customer does a chargeback, the advertiser or affiliate network (more often than not) eats the cost of that chargeback. But, when you have a direct relationship, you can find that sometimes they will adjust your commissions and numbers based on chargebacks and refunds... And unless you do something about it in contract, you can't argue with them over it.
• IO's, Contracts, Legal Blah Blah Blah - Signing IO's, reading contracts, and all the legal blah blah blah can be a bit overwhelming and confusing at times. You never want to go into a direct relationship without some type of contract. It's important to remember... this is NOT an affiliate network.
• Transparency - When you're at an affiliate network, there is a certain level of transparency that you need. It's no different with advertisers. They'll generally want to know as much information as you'll give them about the campaign you're running... It can be a tough balancing act to keep them happy and to know how much is too much information.
• Did I mention how much net 30, net 45 and net 60 payments suck? Haha

So overall, there are a lot of benefits and a lot of negatives. I know that I will always use a mixture of both affiliate networks and direct relationships in my business as long as I am an affiliate.

HasOffers

I want to take a minute to talk about the main tool that I used to go direct with advertisers. My direct advertiser platform of choice is HasOffers. Like I was saying above, they have the best bang for your buck...

The tracking is extremely accurate, the system is very easy to use, and the invoicing of clients is quite easy (auto generate invoices).

Besides all of that, the base model is only $99 per month. Compare that to the $1000+ per month of most other affiliate network software and you'll quickly realize that HasOffers is a great deal.

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Building Backlinks with Article Marketing

Article marketing is a great way to grow your business and get back links without having to shell out big bucks on advertising. Instead of spending money on ad campaigns, you are focusing your efforts on quality and time, or you can simply outsource the whole process. Just like Google makes money off advertisers on search results, there are some huge article directories that make a ton of money off Google Adsense and other advertising in exchange for publishing articles and providing back links to their author’s web sites.

It’s a tough business to get extremely large in, but once you break through the barrier, you can make some serious money. Sites like EzineArticles.com and ArticleBase.com are both ranked in the TOP 500 on Alexa. This is a “build it and they will come” type of business. The article directory serves Google Adsense on their site, while the authors/publishers build up the site with content. It’s a win-win opportunity for both the article site and author publishing.

Here is a list of some of the top article directories around the web and their respective Alexa / Pagerank numbers.

ArticleBase.com – Alexa #340 – PR 6

ArticleOnlineDirectory.com – Alexa #13,350 – PR 3

EzineArticles.com – Alexa #121 – PR 6

GoArticles.com – Alexa #1,634 – PR4

Saching.com – Alexa $56,492 -PR4

Submit original article to these directories, while linking back to your web site or blog and you could see some nice boost in search engine listings and traffic. Feel free to list any other article directories you use or I may have missed.

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Groupthink: How Social Media Made Coupon Clipping Cool

The Sunday circular was once a premier destination for grandparents armed with scissors at the prospect of saving $0.15 on frozen peas. I used to roll my eyes and wonder how this habit could be a smart investment of time. Then I found FatWallet.com, a site that gives users 1%-30% cash back with a few clicks of the mouse. Suddenly, FatWallet = the Sunday ads and my mouse = scissors.

It was then I realized the apple didn’t fall far from the tree and my miserly roots were exposed. Even though I was effortlessly getting cold, hard cash back on my click investment, I was hesitant to reveal this find to friends. Saving money hasn’t ever had its time in the spotlight. Microsoft tried to build momentum around the concept with Bing Cashback, but the program never took off and sang its swan song July 30. Geek got chic, so why couldn’t frugality?

And then, just when parsimony was destined to be a virtue relegated to secrecy and smoke-filled rooms, along came Groupon.

Socially-Driven Deals Sweeten the Pot

It was a slow build at first; Facebook ads touting half-priced cupcakes and killer deals at pizzerias. Sign-up? Try and stop me! Eventually, loads of people were learning about new, interesting, and off-the-beaten-path restaurants every morning –with the prospect of eating out at deep discounts. Formula for success, right?

No, definitely not. These deals were still coming to inboxes where the cupcake-consuming cadres were drooling over emails in the privacy of their cubicles. Ho hum. Just another cooperative coupon program that will go the way of Entertainment Books – but at least with those you get a decent doorstop.

The reality was (and still is): coupons aren’t cool. Not only does the cost-benefit seem questionable, but they’re also currency of the lame, cheap, and self-conscious parts of our nature. For those reasons, they’re awkward. Throw down a BOGO on a date? Unthinkable. Chop the price of your haircut by 50%? Prepare to be judged, possibly marred. Whip out a coupon amongst a group of friends? Not unless you can withstand 12 sets of rolling eyes.

Why then are we comfortable haggling on eBay, searching exhaustively with Kayak, and tangling with the Priceline Negotiator for a cheap hotel room? The answer is simple: social context. This penny-pinching is done without looking anyone in the eye – neither customer service rep nor best friend. This phenomenon can be surmised with the following equations:

Private consumerism + promo code = WOOT!

Public consumerism + dog-eared coupon = BAIL!

Given this historic accumulation of ridicule, Groupon had to do something drastic. Sure, the online discount service was offering unthinkable deals for intriguing places, but it still had to beat the Shame Game and move deals from inbox to outgoing. Luckily it had an x-factor: digital media.

Groupon gave the age-old discount a fresh coat of warpaint in the battle against MSRP. Popular bistro? New bar? Concert tickets? All deals to share with friends and facilitate group outings over Facebook, Twitter, and other networks. To encourage conversation, Groupon played another brilliant card by incentivizing users to share deals via a link eligible for account credit if friends got their Group-on. More recently (and awesomely), the program released mobile apps that simplify the process of buying, sharing, and using deals. Not only does this add value for users and facilitate buying (it saved my freakin’ payment info!), it distances a Groupon even further from the rough-edged wad in your back pocket.

By embracing digital platforms and sparking word-of-mouth, Groupon has achieved great success; not only in making coupons acceptable to the social masses, but also expanding nationally and globally. In a textbook case of imitation as a form of flattery, that success has spawned numerous socially-driven deal sites from programs as niche as wahanda and as mainstream as foodie resource Yelp. With Groupon, future generations have another word for coupon – one that doesn’t come with a side dish of chagrin.

As Groupon continues to grow and its competition multiplies, one must wonder: Are we molding consumer behavior around the daily deal? Possibly, but that’s a separate blog post. In the meantime, enjoy savings free from shame - and without the paper cuts.

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Welcome Emails: The Perfect Non-Spammy Money Makers

The other day, I was getting a Ringcentral 1-800 number for a new ecommerce site I am starting. I've never done a lot with ecommerce, but my dad has a very successful ecommerce store. Now that we share a large office space / warehouse, I figured it was the perfect time for me to get into ecommerce as well.

Anyways... As I mentioned, I got this 1-800 number and was really impressed by how quick and easy it was. Basically, you sign up, pick the 1-800 number, enter credit card details, activate your email, and you're done!

After I went through the process, I checked out the welcome email from them.

This really impressed me... but not because of the detailed orientation guides, etc. I was impressed because they were using Vistaprint's affiliate program in a VERY non-spammy, value added way. At around $12 bucks (or more) per person who signs up, I thought this was an EPIC example of exactly how you can find great, high paying affiliate offers, and offer them to customers in a welcome email in order to feel like the customer is getting more value.

It's a win-win situation really.

Seriously, I am already thinking about ways I can use this in some of the websites I am creating. How can I earn more profit by adding an offer like this into my welcome emails? What offers would work best?

Time for me to start experimenting!

Bravo Ringcentral.

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Marketers Say Regulations Won’t Stop the Flow of Cash

eMarketer posted an interesting statement today that was drawn from a white paper called The Changing Mission of Marketing Data. It’s a pretty extensive report that looks at the shift from old fashioned mailing lists to the online availability of detailed, customer data. It pays particular attention to the amount of money that will be spent on offline vs online marketing in the near future. Those numbers, if you’re curious, go like this:

“By 2012, U.S. marketers will continue to dedicate a steady $7.8 billion to marketing data and associated services, even while the proportion of those budgets commanded by “digital” sources and applications will more than double to represent 10.8 percent of the mix—over $840 million in annual investment.”

Then we throw regulations into the mix. Right now, it’s kind of like the wild west on the WWW. The ones with money have the power and everyone expects everyone else to do what’s right and decent even if there isn’t an actual law to back it up.

The assumption is, that as we move further into this digital world, the government will begin impose stricter laws regarding privacy and how and when online data can be disseminated and used.

Here’s where it gets interesting. Marketers were asked to rate the amount of change they expected to see in their budgets once laws were put in place to halt the flow of private data. The average response was that their spending would stay the same.

Now, let’s think about this. One way to interpret this is that marketers intent to keep spending the same money for less information. That seems ridiculous, doesn’t it? eMarketer says this anomaly could be the result of “clearing the air.” Their theory is that regulation will take the guess work and the fear out of acquiring and using private data, so companies will feel free to take full advantage of legal data knowing that they can’t be sued by consumers.

Honestly? I can’t see marketers working through that kind of logic before they chose the median number 3 on the 1-5 scale. (1 being a decrease in spending, 5 being an increase.)

I may be pessimistic, but I think the answer has simpler roots. I think that online, data-driven marketing is so new that most people are just guessing. They’re throwing everything they have out there hoping something will stick and regulations aren’t going to change that. Not right away.

Remember the game show scandals of the 50′s? The government got involved when they found out that the  producers of Twenty-One had supplied the answers to the contestants in order to make the game show more dramatic. It may have been morally wrong, but it wasn’t illegal. The producers were just trying to make a buck. The government passed a law that made fixing quiz shows illegal, but did that stop anyone from pouring money into the genre? No. Game shows continued to flourish and I’d bet that many of them still found ways to rig the games and not get caught.

My point is, that when it comes to making a dollar we don’t let a little thing like government regulations stand in our way. So when marketers say that they’ll keep on spending even if the government blocks the sale of private data, what they’re really saying is, they’ll find another way. Not necessarily an illegal way, but certainly there are enough technological advances coming down the pike that will keep the courts rushing to catch up for a good long time.

What do you think? Are you concerned about the government regulation of private data? Why or why not?

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Marketing to the Marketers: LinkedIn Wins

Most advertising execs are quick to jump on the social media bandwagon when it comes to marketing a product to consumers, but when it comes to marketing themselves, not so much.

A recent study by RSW/US took a look at the business-to-business social media habits of a variety of ad agencies. As reported by Brandweek, 54% of the agencies polled said they never or rarely use social media when prospecting for new clients. Of those that did use social media for outreach, LinkedIn was the clear favorite getting 51% of the vote. Facebook polled at only 9% and Twitter less than that.

The agencies polled complained that in general, it was getting harder and harder to reach marketing execs and they blamed it on the budget. With revenue down, many people have had to take on more responsibilities within their companies leaving them too overloaded to respond to any type of outreach. Mark Sneider of RSW/US says,

“People don’t have the time to answer their phones, check out e-mail and be active in the social scene. That [fact] even more so justifies a need to make sure you’re in all those touch points.”

If marketers are so slammed, why aren’t they hiring an outside agency to help lighten the load? Again, money was mostly to blame but they also pointed to the fact that hiring a consultant slowed down the process and they were perceived as having conflicts of interest and limited value.

This is where social media can help. Sneider says that sites such as LinkedIn offer a way to get one-on-one time with an exec you’d like to pitch to. But it’s not enough to just send over your list of accomplishments.

“What’s more important here is not the tool, but the message. Where people are falling down is in simply pounding their chest and talking about how great they are.”

If you’re going to use social media for outreach, you must make sure your message is tightly on-point and useful. Don’t send a request for a meeting, send an idea and you’re more likely to get heard.

Do you use social media to prospect for clients? Or have you ever hired a consultant whom you “met” over a social media channel? We’d like to hear both sides of the story.

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Social Media Monitoring Foundation: 6 Vital Pillars

Over at TopRank Online Marketing Blog, Lee Odden was kind enough to invite me to write a guest post on a topic near-and-dear to my heart: social media monitoring.

How could I refuse!

With everyone (and their mother) jumping into social media monitoring, I thought it would be best to help you get the most out of your efforts by implementing a solid foundation. I provide six critical steps, starting with:

1. Understand Your Goals

Just because you can monitor everything that’s being said about your brand online, doesn’t mean you should just jump in, without setting clear goals. That’s the monitoring equivalent of hanging out at an open bar–you’ll quickly get dizzy and will end up with a major headache!

Take the time now, to write down what your goals are for your social media monitoring campaign. Are you trying to better understand how Twitter users talk about your products? Are looking to measure the success of your new viral marketing campaign? Or, perhaps you suspect a rogue employee is sharing too many company secrets.

We talk a lot about “monitoring” social media, but you also need to “measure” the information you collect. You can’t do that without first defining your goals!

Want to read the other five steps? Head over and read ”Six Critical Steps to Take Before Starting Your Social Media Monitoring Initiative“

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Sell Ad Space with AdSella Marketplace

Go with traditional ad networks and you can expect them to take a 50% cut. Go with affiliate marketing and you have to work hard to increase your conversion rate. Take out private advertising and you have to deal with all the administration of the ad placements. There has to be a better way to monetize your blog.

Designed to make both the ad buying and ad selling experience easier for everyone involved, AdSella has just launched into its beta testing and you can sign up right now. Is this the right deal for your website?

Buy and Sell Website Advertising

The vast majority of beginning bloggers will turn to networks like Google AdSense when they first get started. The barrier of entry is low and they can start making money right away. However, they quickly learn that private advertising can be much more lucrative.

Handling private ad sales can be very time-consuming, however, and that’s where AdSella can come into play. In short, AdSella is an online ad space marketplace where site owners can list their available ad placements and advertisers can buy these spots.

A variety of different ad types and banner sizes can be used and AdSella takes care of all the administration. Publishers are paid once a week and they really do just “set it and forget it.”

How Does It Work?

From the blogger’s perspective, the ad marketplace from AdSella is very easy to understand.

Site owners create a listing on AdSella for every block of ad space that they’d like to offer for sale, setting whatever price that they’d like, whatever duration they’d like, and whatever size they’d like. A simple line of text is then inserted into the space on the site where they would like the ad to appear.

A placeholder ad block appears immediately on the site. Ad buyers can then click directly on the “buy this ad” banner, proceed through the checkout process, upload their banners, and have the ad go live almost immediately. From the blogger’s end, no additional code needs to be added or altered; it’s automatic.

When the purchased ad time expires, the ad block once again becomes available through the AdSella marketplace for new advertisers to purchase. Once again, the blogger doesn’t have to do anything. There’s no management of expiry dates and advertiser banners; the AdSella engine takes care of all that.

Sifting Through the Marketplace

Each time that a blogger sets up a new available ad slot, it shows up in the marketplace for buyers to browse. Basic information is displayed in the main listing, including site name, URL, PageRank, run (duration), status, and price.

Clicking through to an individual listing, the buyer can then get a little more information about the advertising opportunity, ad location, acceptable formats, ad run time, website category, and other related details.

However, the purchase process cannot happen from this page. The ad buyer has to go directly to the seller’s website, find the available AdSella ad spot, click on the blue banner, and proceed through the checkout process that way. This ensures that the advertiser knows exactly where the ad will be placed.

After uploading the ad creative, the advertiser can log into his or her AdSella account to make changes. Once again, the site owner doesn’t need to do anything. The same code stays on the website.

What’s the Catch?

The good news is that it costs nothing for site owners to list their available ad placements through the AdSella Marketplace. Naturally, though, AdSella has to take a cut when a sale is completed.

The commission rate is 20%, meaning that the site owner receives 80% of the total ad price. If a one-month ad placement is $50, then the ad seller receives $40 of that and this is sent out every Sunday via PayPal.

That 20% is certainly worth avoiding all the extra administration required to sell ad space privately, not to mention the extra exposure the site owner receives through listing in the AdSella Marketplace.

Link: AdSella Marketplace

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