Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

Test Results
A couple of weeks ago I told you I had started a month-long marketing test and would share my results when I finished.

I decided to end that test halfway through because it was pretty clear how the results were turning out. I tested two different approaches to commenting on blogs.

On one day, I commented on higher traffic blogs that typically add a "nofollow" tag to blog comments. The nofollow tag lets readers click through to visit my site, but effectively blocks search engine spiders from giving credit to my site for those links.

On alternate days, I commented on blogs that aren't as well trafficked, but that pass credit for links. I wanted to see whether visitors from high traffic sites would outweigh visitors from increased search engine rankings due to increased links.

I ended my test early because I simply couldn't find enough "dofollow" blogs in my niche. I could easily post to 5 nofollow blogs in an hour, but couldn't find more than two an hour of the dofollow blogs.

I was disappointed at the difficulty in finding dofollow blogs, because I had used the dofollow strategy with great success for clients. It just goes to show, though, that you can't assume that just because a strategy works in one niche it will automatically work in every niche. You always need to test.

I'm adding at least a month to the nofollow half of that test. Results have been pretty much as expected so far: low traffic but definitely building momentum. I want to see how that momentum grows over a longer stretch of time. And I'll report how it turns out.

Whatever the results, though, I'll have learned a bit more and be able to plan from experience. And that's the best marketing training you can get.

Jeff

Labels: case studies

What We're Meant to Be
I found a quote the other day by William James that got me thinking:

"Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, 'This is the real me,' and when you have found that attitude, follow it."

We start out in life helpless, unable to communicate, unable to control anything about our environment. We quickly learn that we are insufficient to meet our own needs.

Our whole lives revolve about learning how to make our environment more like we would like it to be. And in the process of focusing on what's around us, we lose sight of the unique value that we all bring to our world.

The best antidote to our fears about the uncertainty of the world around us is to strive not to be what we THINK the world wants us to be, but to be what we are best suited to be.
Jeff

Labels: inspirational quotes

Giving Away the Farm
I recently inventoried my site and all the content I have created over the past seven years and found a surprising wealth of content I could use for both free giveaways and paid products.

I've given away plenty of free giveaways. Where I could have done better is in thinking through how I was going to leverage them.

Any time you create a free giveaway, you should have in mind specifically how to leverage it. More and more as I create content nowadays, I look beyond the specific content I am creating to see how I can later repurpose it either for free giveaways or paid content of a larger scope.

I strive to keep in mind how to make things both benefit the recipient and reimburse me for my efforts -- an exchange of value.

When I first ventured online with my business nearly five years ago, I did so with determination to give away more things for free than anyone else did. I would offer businesses free hosting, free domain names, free website assessments, free this, free that, free everything.

I planned to offer everything for free with the hope that somewhere down the line, somehow, someone would pay me to do something for them. But I didn't really know what that something would be.

I figured, "Well, I have a well-rounded background in Internet marketing. I can do just about anything they need done." Aside from a huge flaw in trying to market too broadly, I still had no plan about how I would make my living off of giving away everything I had for free.

As it stands right now, I get plenty of comments from people who visit my site about how much valuable information I give away for free. That's fine. I'm glad to have that reputation.

Reputation, however, doesn't buy groceries. To stay in business, you need more than just having people think well of you.

It's better to have them think well of you because you provide them with something better than they can get for free. It's better even if they have to exchange some money at a rate that they still feel is a bargain for what they got in return.

It's easy to give things away and hope for the best. The true value of free giveaways is in planning out how you will leverage them.
Jeff

Labels: online business, successful business

My Jerry Maguire Moment
Last night, I had my Jerry Maguire moment.

You see, early in the movie "Jerry Maguire," Jerry, a successful sports agent, got up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep, ideas racing through his head. He has just had an uncomfortable incident where a little kid forced him to look at the failed moral compass that marred his successful facade.

Mine wasn't so much a questioning of moral compass, but an ongoing angst over a business that never has developed the sure business compass I had hoped. A talk with one of my mastermind group members last night pointed out how, after a solid two weeks of what I felt was progress, I still hadn't addressed the key business needs I had set out to address.

I lay awake stewing over how to pull all the pieces together of a very disconnected business so that I could really serve those who I had set out to serve. Ideas raced through my head.

Suddenly, the pieces started falling together. I got up and started writing everything down. It all made sense. Some holes remain, but for the first time, I could see more than just a shadowy image of what I had always hoped my business to be.

Expect more on this soon.
Jeff

Labels: business system, start business, successful business

Proof of Hope
I've been writing lately about why the struggles that many are experiencing now don't have to be hopeless. I really need to get away from focusing on this from a negative perspective, so this should be my last post that focuses on words like "struggling," and "pain," and "loss."

But I want to draw your attention to a young man who amply demonstrates that being reduced to nothing can actually lead to new and profitable beginnings.

Adam Shepard graduated from college in 2006. Before he graduated, a professor urged him to read a book touted as a definitive treatment of poverty.

The book, "Nickeled and Dimed," by Barbara Ehrenreich, followed her two years posing as as a poverty stricken woman working at minimum wage jobs. In her book, she pictured everyone living under the poverty level as hopelessly trapped by a system that wouldn't let them escape, and that crushed them under unrelenting despair.

Shepherd decided to do his own research project. After graduation, he moved to a different city with only $25 in his pocket, and no other resources to draw from. He wanted to see if, in a year, he could work his way up to having his own apartment, his own car, and $2500 in the bank.

By working hard and being careful with his money, he easily hit his goals and exceeded them. Along the way, he saw both faces of poverty. He saw those who worked just enough to have something to party with. And he saw those with great determination who worked their way into a better life.

Along the way, he learned that even the worst of situations are no dead end to those who are determined to improve their situation -- and are willing to work rigorously to do so. I can sum his message up no better than with his own words.

"I'm frustrated with hearing 'I don't have,' rather than, 'Let's see what I can do with what I do have.'"

Jeff

Labels: mindset