Archive for Web 2.0
“KISS” Your Website
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You remember the saying “KISS” (keep it simple silly)? If there is one place in business where this is true, it is in your approach to your website. Here are a few tips to help you give your website a quick little KISS.
#1 – Simple is best. When it comes to selling information you don’t want to use a full content-rich site. The best approach is often a sales-letter type website where you answer all the concerns of the reader and show them exactly why they need your product.
Stick to a simple sales page without many graphics or clutter. Keep the reader focused in a congruent order – reading down the page – until they get to the order button.
#2 – Build trust and credibility. It’s no longer enough to simply have a long sales page saying how great your product is. Reader’s today want to know that there is a real person behind the website they can trust. You can build this trust and credibility by including a few important pages on your website. They are:
FAQ – A frequently asked questions page is great because although it is directly answering the reader’s concerns, it’s also emphasizing your sales message. Include this page on your information product sales page website for great results. Make sure you include an order button within your FAQ page.
About Us – People buy from people they like and trust. Include an “about us” section so that your potential customer can learn more about the person behind the website. Include business information as well as a little personal information about the business. This is a great way to connect with your customers and build trust.
Contact Us – Including your contact information on your website is really important. No one wants to buy from an anonymous source. Remember you’re asking these people to trust you with their money, so you need to give them a reason to do so. Include clear contact information including an address, email option as well as telephone number.
Customer Feedback – While you don’t want to give exact testimonials or sales figures to remain compliant with the FTC, you can include positive comments your customers have sent you. This can be information about how your product has helped them or even about your customer service. Positive comments can go a long way towards building trust and credibility.
#3 – Make it clear. The final component to include in your website structure is a clear call to action. Make it easy for customers to order your product. Include links to your order page and reinforce the order in a summary. Let them know what they’re getting for how much and how the item will be delivered.
All of this information not only makes it easy for your customer to understand what they’re getting from you, it’s also a simplistic formula to follow.
Website Analytics Tools
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Analytics are a business owner’s best friend. They can help you optimize your strategies and tactics. They help you get a better understanding of what your customer wants and needs. Website analytics can be the most valuable asset you have. However, choosing the right analytic tools can be overwhelming. There are many to choose from. Here’s a brief list of some of the more popular analytic tools, and advice on how to choose the right one for you.
Google Analytics is free. You simply register with Google if you don’t already have an account. Sign up for the analytics tool by providing a bit of information about your website. Then it’s merely a matter of cutting and pasting the code into your website.
You can choose your settings and the data you track. Google tracks visits, average time on site, page views and the referral source. It also tracks geographic data and can be used to track split testing results. It’s a comprehensive analytics tool that provides just about everything a website owner could need.
Piwik is an open source type of analytics. That means it’s free. It’s also open for development. This can be a big advantage if you want your analytics to accomplish something new. Piwik is designed to be the open source alternative to Google analytics so their offerings are similar. With Piwik your analytic data is on your server. You own your data. Additionally, you can customize your interface to suit your needs.
AWStats is another popular analytics tool. Again, it provides much of the same data as most other analytics tools. However, it also provides some unique data. For example:
- Visits of robots
- Worm attacks
- HTTP errors
- Number of times your site is added to a visitor’s favorites
AWStats doesn’t work with all websites. You’ll need to double check before you install it. It can work with all web hosting providers which allow Perl, CGI and log access.
Site Meter offers two options. They offer a free version. They also offer a paid version that starts at $6.95 for 25,000 page views. The rate increases depending on your page views. Site Meter offers a vast amount of information including page views, bounce rate and time spent on your site. Site Meter also tracks the path your visitor takes when they arrive at your website. This is extremely valuable information. It can help you tighten your website content and copy to achieve a desired result.
Which Analytic Tool Do You Choose?
Decide which data points will be most useful. What do you need to know to optimize your website? Also consider who you trust with your data. If you utilize a service, then they have access to your website data. If you install the software on your server then you’re the only one that has access to your data. Also make sure you can easily read and understand the reports. All of the tools mentioned provide demo data and reporting.
Once you have a trusted source and the data you need to grow your business, it comes down to price and personal preference. Most analytics tools are free or very inexpensive. Choose your tool, install it and start taking advantage of the information website analytics provide.
How to Get Started on Facebook
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You would like to get in on the social networking scene, but maybe you aren’t quite sure where to start. Whether you are interested in promoting your business through social networking or just want to catch up with friends, it can be intimidating if you aren’t sure how it works. Facebook is a good place to start for social networking. To start using this popular networking site, here are some ideas that tips that can help you take the first steps to getting on the networking scene.
What Is Facebook?
You can think of Facebook as a way for people to stay connected. You update your status and read the status updates of other people, and you can search for people whom you know and who know you. You “friend” people and accept friend requests from others. You can join and start groups, and invite others to join. Facebook allows you to share sites, pages, and information that you like.
1. First, log on to Facebook.com and follow the on-screen directions for setting up an account. It’s quite user friendly, and you can change the information you put in your profile at any time.
2. Your profile should say pertinent things about you, whether it’s your business or your personal account. You do need to decide whether or not you are going to go at this from a business or personal perspective, because the general opinion is that personal and business communications on Facebook should be separate.
3. Once you set up your account, you can search for friends using the Search feature. Facebook allows you to search groups, or search for people according to a certain demographic (people who share your graduation year, for example, or your home town). Once you have a few friends, you can search for friends of friends – those mutual friendships you share. Then your friend list will start growing.
4. Privacy settings can be adjusted according to your preferences. Check into the guidelines and make sure you have the settings where you want them. You are in control of who sees your profile and updates. You can also block people you don’t want to contact you on Facebook.
5. You can communicate with your friends in various ways. If you “write on their wall” then you are posting something others can see. The friend whose wall you wrote on would have his or her own privacy settings, and your friend decides who sees what’s on his or her wall. So just beware that the wall is considered “public.”
You can also send messages to individuals. If you hover your mouse pointer over a person’s picture, the option to send a message comes up. Messages sent this way are not readable by others.
6. Groups are a nice feature of Facebook. Take some time to participate in groups within your specific niche.
If you would like more strategies for using Facebook for business, I suggest taking a look at Facebook 4 Biz…a new session is starting on Monday, January 9th. Get more information about the class and sign up today at:
Web 2.0 Marketing
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Web 2.0 is a very popular phrase these days, although a lot of people really don’t know what it means. It’s basically marketing your business via social networking sites. The whole idea is to enable you to get into a conversation with your customers. So instead of pushing your sales message at them, you will be listening to their needs, and meeting them.
What is a “2.0 site”?
It’s just another word for a social networking site. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are prime examples of 2.0 sites. They could also include your own blog.
No matter which 2.0 marketing method you choose, the most important tip is that you get involved helping others. Today, more than ever, trust is very important for businesses. Customers are very wary of people trying to sell them something.
Web 2.0 is a way to get you past this barrier, and help people trust you. It’s no longer enough to just have a sales letter and email list. You have to involve your customers.
What’s the key to success with 2.0?
It is genuinely trying to help people. One of the best ways is to answer their questions. Sure, you have a reason for doing it: trying to increase trust, and ultimately your profits. However, when you genuinely answer questions with an eye to really helping them, people will be more likely to trust you.
When they know you really want to benefit them, they will trust what you have to say more. “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” So the key is to get involved in discussions, and establish yourself as an expert.
Where are the best places to market?
Forums are awesome places to get involved and start answering questions. There is a lot of discussion going on here. Therefore getting involved and answering questions will really establish you as an expert.
On some of the sites, like Squidoo or Twitter, you can add informative posts. Assuming they are interesting and have good information, people will then leave comments on them, which you can respond to.
Also, video marketing is very effective. And if you do good keyword research and post them to the right sites, you can get your videos ranked in the search engines. Finally, you can start a blog on your own domain, and get that ranked. Basically involvement is the key.
Finding and establishing a way to connect with your potential clients via social media is what web 2.0 is all about. Start getting involved and you will benefit with increased profits and expert status.
Increase Your Twitter Vocabulary with Popular Twitterisms
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Do you have trouble understanding Twitter? Whether you want to use it for marketing or social purposes, you still have to understand the language. Here is a list of the more popular terms to get you up to date.
Twitterism – Any word that is only used by the Twitter community. They are generally formed by putting the letters TW before a basic word, like Twaffic in place of traffic.
Tweet – Your 140-character or less message. This is the backbone of the site.
Twitterjacking – Where people hack other twitter accounts and pretend to be that person. Celebrities are particularly vulnerable to this.
Twitterer – Any user of the site. Also called Tweeple on occasion.
Twitterverse – The whole society of people who use the site. This includes both those using it for business and those just using it for social reasons. Also sometimes called the Twittosphere.
Twittersona – Someone’s Twitter persona.
Retweeting – Alerting those following you to another person’s tweet. You are basically quoting that person’s tweet and reposting it on your account. Just make sure it’s clear you didn’t originate it. You must add RT at the beginning and then provide the username of whoever you are quoting. For instance, if you are quoting JanetSlack, you would say RT @JanetSlack and then the message. If you don’t format it this way, you are actually claiming their tweet as your own. This is a violation of Twitter policies, and could get you in serious trouble.
Followfriday – This is where you provide the usernames of people that your followers should follow themselves. You don’t necessarily have to include a reason. You format it #FF @the username of whoever you are suggesting.
Twaffic – All the visitors you get from using Twitter.
Tweekend - When you devote an entire day of the weekend to using the site.
De-Follow – When you stop following someone. It’s a play of the standard “de-friend” term used by most social sites.
Hashtag – Tagging a specific tweet by placing the hash prior to the tag. For instance, you would put #pgatour if you were talking about the PGA Tour.
Mistweet – When you send one of your messages to someone you didn’t intend to.
Tweeps – Used to describe people following you that you also interact with on other social sites.
There are many more terms to learn, and this just gives you a rundown of the essentials. You will discover the rest as you start using the site more regularly.
Twitter can be a very effective marketing platform for your business. Hopefully this article has helped you understand this complex world a bit better, and will help you use it properly in your business.
