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It’s About Conversion!

Turning Web Traffic Into Buyers

Are You Someone Who Moves?July 30 2008

I was thumbing through one of my many compendiums of quotes (one of my favorite collectibles) last night and I came across one of my favorite sources of inspiration–Benjamin Franklin. And the quote I stumbled on was this gem:

“All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.” -Benjamin Franklin

What struck me was this afternoon Brian Clark’s (Copyblogger.com) post on the “Zig-Zag Method For Catching Attention and Building Credibility” hammered home Ben Franklin’s 200 year old point!

Decision time are you immovable, movable, or a mover?

So often our businesses, our marketing, and our writing get stuck in the immovable or movable classes. Often this is the result of contentment with equilibrium, poor performance, or recent failure–none of which breeds break-out success.

Equilibrium

Contentment with status-quo is certainly the number one killer of dreams. We fall into the good enough class. Good

Does Your Social Network Generate Leads? It Should.July 24 2008

We’re all buzzing about social media and social networks. Is it just a waste of time or can it produce a reasonable ROI? Stop talking and do the math. Does your social network generate leads that convert into business? It should. It might even become a personal asset.

Is Your Social Network Important?

It is becoming obvious that social networks are important. Chris Brogan talks about the vital importance of your network and even ventures to state that companies (employers) will value your person networks. And, because there is real dollar value in a network Jeremiah Owyang cautions us that social media has risk and reward.

Still need to be convinced it is important?

Why Build a Social Network?

Chances are you have already have some foundation of a social network. However, building a social network that adds value to your community and produces business opportunity for you should must incorporate some strategic thinking.

A value-based social network should accomplish three primary objectives:

Use Twitter to Test HeadlinesJuly 17 2008

Twitter is a great way to test your headlines and short copy effectiveness. Hundreds of followers and a 140 characters maximum makes for a powerful marketing test environment. Twitter is a quick and efficient way to see if your headlines convert into clicks.

Article Library

Start with a good repository of articles. You should create a significant number of articles in a variety of topics. Good article diversity and quantity will ensure you have a ready-made test bed for a variety of projects.

This article library can be an article directory (eZineArticles), one or more blogs, or your website copy portfolio. Using your own blog or website gives you the added benefit of driving prospective business traffic too.

Since Twitter users, like most social networkers, don’t like constant self-promotion I suggest you routinely test using others websites, blogs, or articles as well as your own. The other authors will love the traffic, may link back to you, preserves your credibility, and it still achieves your conversion testing.

Tracking Conversions

Don’t forget the primary objective–tracking conversions. If you are using your own website or blog this is pretty simple–look at your blog stats or Google analytics. However, what about Tweets that you point at websites you don’t own?

In the past there was little opportunity to collect measurable results from these tests. You

How to Use Article Marketing to Test Your KeywordsJuly 16 2008

Keyword research and analysis is a constant effort in optimizing. Yet, optimizing requires a sandbox to test in. Article marketing and article directories, like eZineArticles.com, can be that perfect test environment–good traffic volume, competitive content, and metrics.

Keyword Analysis

The first step in setting up your tests is the keyword analysis. The methodology for analyzing your project will largely depend on the purpose of your copy. Blogs are looking for volume, PPC campaigns are looking for a profitable niche, companies are looking for product and service inquiries.

As you begin to research keywords make sure you keep these concepts in mind. Resources like Google and Wordtracker.com keyword tools can focus you on the right keywords for each objective. Once narrowed to a handful of promising keywords and phrases to are ready to seed your tests.

Writing the Test Articles

Testing with articles can be as much art as science, but done properly it will still yield valuable information for any SEO project. Article directories and Google (your ultimate client) are very fickle about duplicate content. So, simply submitting multiple iterations and controls, like a traditional scientific test, is not an option. Instead follow these guidelines:

• Try to find the most appropriate category for your SEO article test

How to Attract Venture Capital with CopywritingJuly 16 2008

Venture capital is the fuel, and often the igniting spark, of many young ventures. Unfortunately, new entrepreneurs find it difficult to connect to venture capital firms and many firms never see bright opportunities that flame out before attracting funding. Effective copywriting can be the key to solving these missed opportunities

Target Venture Capital

Finely written Web copy and experienced keyword research famously attracts search engines, motivates customers, and compels action. If you are an entrepreneur with a hot idea, but not quite enough capital to take it to its full potential angels and venture capitalist should be part of your target market in your marketing plan.

Keyword Research

Start with good keyword research and analysis an zero in on what venture capitalist are looking for–markets, benefits, ideas, and trends. Then create an SEO plan to bring vector in interest to your project or company.

Highlight Synergies

No one will know companies and technologies that are natural components of your value chain. These become powerful synergies when two or more of these opportunities are in one investor’s portfolio. Make sure your Web copy and marketing materials clearly demonstrate these connections and potentials.

Focus on Benefits

Like customers they are looking for benefits and need to be emotionally inspired to action. A professional copywriter can help you achieve this result on your website, in your ema