Book Launch : Personality Not Included

I'm quite excited about tomorrow's lauch of Rohit Bhargava's 'Personality Not Included.' I'm a firm believer in the fact that brands need a "Personality (that) is the unique, authentic and talkable soul of your brand that people can get passionate about." If you'd like a taster, you can read the books introduction here.

As a proponent of social media (he celebrated his 500th Influential Marketing blog post this week) Rohit's taking a fairly enlightened and inclusive approach to the launch. He's asked bloggers to send him five questions, which he will answer. Here are mine and I'll update with the answers when they come in:

1. As a director of Sound Strategies, I believe that sound and music has a powerful, yet largely undeveloped role to play in corporate personality - particularly in an online world. What's your view on this, Rohit? RB: I think you are absolutely right, and you will probably find my technique section on what I call "Sensory Marketing" very interesting. One of the examples I share about this, which is more of a marketing gimmick but does demonstrate the tecnique (if not necessarily the entire idea of personality) is the promotion for the Sony picture The Messengers with their secret ringtone that only young people could hear because of the frequency.


2. Which - if any - role models do you beleive are the ones to watch for using sound and music to create a 'unique, authentic, talkable soul?' RB: I think the most obvious example has to be Apple and their success with setting their advertising to songs that become iconic. Case in point, the New Soul song that has been #1 on all the charts thanks to its debut as part of the Macbook Air TV spots. The other place I would point to is YouTube, though in that case it is not so much brands as indivuals, but some of the most iconic videos are set to songs that convey the emotion in the most powerful way.


3. Perhaps the better examples are from outside the worlds of marketing and branding. Are there lessons we can draw from other fields of study on how to use sound and music to stir the passions of our audiences? RB: I am sure there are. For example, what about sound research as a part of physical therapy or as part of treatment for a high risk pregnancy. There are lots of applications that we have not yet even begun to understand. This is a fascinating area and I love this series of questions you have here.


4. Companies are increasingly experimenting with video and audio as part of their marketing, what is it that makes the combination of image, words and sound so much more compelling and dynamic than words alone? RB: I think it's simply because we as humans are very visual learners and prefer that type of interaction. What is most powerful today is that technology has finally caught up so that these experiences can now be delivered with a relatively good experience.


5. How are you using sound as part of your outreach, Rohit? RB: Ok, of all the question I have had so far, I have to say this is the one where I am going to like my answer the least. I'm not doing very much and this interview has gotten me thinking about what more I could be doing. At the very least, publishing a podcast of some of my speaking engagements. If you have any other ideas to share, I would love to hear them!

Thanks for such quick responses Rohit, I'll have a chat with my Sound Strategies partners and come back to you!

Social Media Starter Moves for Freelancers

I spent most of yesterday researching some business ideas for the public relations freelancers niche, and specifically as an option for women returning to work after childcare breaks who find their options more limited. So I was pleased to come across this great post from Chris Brogan: Social Media Starter Moves for Freelancers. If you’re a freelancer hoping to use social media to get work, here’s a quick summary:

• Make your blog your storefront.
• Kill all the extraneous stuff from it.
• Write posts that establish your experience and abilities in the industry.
• Write other posts that promote other people, too.
• Contribute beyond the walls of your blog.
• Attend real time events, too.
• Consider if you want to add audio and video.
• Give to get.
• Ask for the sale.

If you are a freelancer, pop over to the post and comment on what else you want to share with people seeking Starter Moves? What’s your take on this advice? What can YOU do to help freelancers?"

11 Deadly Marketing Myths | Marketing Tips Featuring Derek Gehl

A word of warning…

Included here are the most common myths and misunderstandings that keep would-be entrepreneurs from making their dreams reality and starting their own online businesses.

These stumbling blocks are also the primary culprits in keeping new Internet start-ups from building a solid business foundation and growing a successful online e-commerce site.

So don’t fall victim to these 11 deadly myths!

MYTH #1: Starting an online business is expensive

Reality: Depending on the type of business you wish to start, your start-up costs can be as little as 50 bucks.

The fact is, most businesses do NOT need to incur expensive start-up costs… and most businesses should not invest a lot of start-up capital before they’ve tested their business and their market online. That’s where so many "dot bombs" made such a grave mistake in the past, and there’s just no need to take that risk.

Only once you’ve tested your business idea on the ‘Net and found it to be a viable opportunity should you start investing in the kind of software, web design, inventory (or whatever) that you’ll need to grow your business. Then again, you may want to just do it all yourself every step of the way…

We started our first site in 1996 on a budget of 20 bucks.

MYTH #2: I need to be an expert before I can start a business

Reality: It’s really a shame that so many people put off starting the online business they’re dreaming of because they think that before they can start, they need to become a web designer… a search engine expert… a programmer… and an MBA.

The truth is that the most successful people on the Internet are often none of the above!

The key: Learn just ONE thing, and learn it well… then move on to the NEXT strategy, and the next, and the next…

Anybody can start an online business. All it takes is a little courage to start and a little resolve to keep going and keep learning new strategies, techniques, and ways to grow and improve your business.

MYTH #3: All the good Internet business ideas are gone

Reality: Opportunity abounds on the Internet, and e-business success is not a waning proposition. Far from it — the online shopping community is rapidly increasing both in terms of how many online shoppers there are and how much they’re willing to spend.

And there are so many proven business models on the ‘Net that you can simply follow… or there’s plenty of room for you to develop your own, unique approach to your market. And there are so many different things you can sell! For example, you could…

• Sell your own products
• Sell your own services
• Drop ship products
• Recommend affiliate products
• Sell ad space
• Joint venture with like-minded businesses
• Start an affiliate program

… and more.

These are the top online profit streams, but of course you can always find others. Plus, there’s no reason why you can’t incorporate several of them into your business model! The key is to focus on one, maximize revenue from it, and then move on to the next.

MYTH #4: I need a good product idea before I can start

Reality: You do not need a product idea to start — and not only that: If you do start with a product idea… you’ll be off to a bad start!

The reality is, most businesses that start off with what they think is a good product idea are destined for failure. Your product might be great, but if nobody wants it, your business isn’t going to get very far!

That’s why it makes so much more sense to look for your market first. If you can find a need in a market you can reach, then simply give them what they’re asking for… your business is bound for success from day one.

For example, we know a man named Eric Weeks who doesn’t really like trucks very much — he’s never owned one himself. But when he noticed that thousands of people search the Internet for "truck accessories" every day, he knew there was a market just waiting for him to give them what they needed…

Well, we interviewed Eric for our "Secrets To Their Success" Private Web Site when his Truck-Bed-Covers.com site was only one year old… and already Eric was generating $800,000 annually in online sales!

Eric’s advice is, "I sure as heck wouldn’t consider building an e-commerce site on personal interests. So whether it’s weight loss or travel, home business or truck bed covers… if enough people are interested in those subjects, then THERE is where you need to apply your efforts."

It pays to remember: Find your market first. Then look for a product to give them.

MYTH #5: I need "brand recognition" on the Internet

Reality: Online branding has been preached in the past as one of the big "Do or Die" marketing strategies. But the fact is, "brand recognition" is something you probably don’t even need.

Effective branding creates the kind of fierce product loyalty that leaves customers indifferent to the marketing tactics of the competition. It’s what compels you to walk past all of those no-name-brand on-sale colas at the local grocery store and pick up the 6-pack of Coca-Cola that costs three times more. It’s what makes children plead and beg to go back to McDonalds again and again. And it’s what has made the phrase "Just Do It" synonymous with Nike.

It’s all very impressive, right? Well… yes. But the truth is, most small, online business do NOT need to make their company or product a household name — and will likely go bankrupt trying.

You’ll be most successful and most profitable if you closely target your market. Focus on getting your business name and your advertising in front of your best potential customers — the people who have an expressed interest in what you’re offering — as opposed to everyone!

If you’re a small or home-based business then, chances are, you don’t have the millions of advertising dollars it takes to build a nationally recognized brand and make your company a household name — at least not yet!

So let’s skip the high-priced large corporate branding techniques — after all, these strategies simply don’t translate to e-businesses with limited advertising budgets — and instead, focus on your target market.

MYTH #6: Affiliate programs are hard to start

Reality: Enlisting an army of affiliates is extremely easy!

The great thing about affiliate programs is that it’s easy to persuade people to join. They have nothing to lose as there’s no cost to them, it just takes them a few minutes to get set up, and they have the potential to make a lot of money!

They persuade visitors to click through to your site by posting a simple banner ad or text link on their web site — or perhaps by writing a short referral letter to their customers — and you do everything else. You lead the visitor through your web site, close the sale, process their payment, fulfill their order, and handle any customer service issues.

You also track how many orders each affiliate sends you, calculate their commissions, and ensure that they get paid what they deserve. You take care of the big issues and they get paid for simply referring new customers to your site.

So what’s in it for you?

There are no advertising costs! With your own affiliate program, you only pay for advertising that gets results! It doesn’t matter how much traffic an affiliate’s site receives — whether the site gets 10 visitors a day or 10,000 visitors a day! You are paying on a per result basis… so you make money every single time!

And, thanks to affiliate tracking software, managing hundreds, even thousands, of affiliates is extremely easy. The software automatically keeps track of which affiliate made which sale… where each customer is coming from… exactly how much you owe each affiliate… etc.

So tracking 10,000 affiliates is just as easy as tracking one affiliate! It takes us about two days a month to run our affiliate program — and we have over 100,000 affiliates who generate over $3 million in business for us every year! (That’s about $250,000 in sales for every day that we work on it!)

So the moral of this story is: Affiliate programs are incredibly easy to start, easy to run, and definitely worth your while!

MYTH #7: Pay-per-click advertising is expensive and doesn’t work

Reality: Pay-per-click listings are an excellent option for small online businesses, or for those of you who need a quick, cheap injection of highly targeted traffic to your web site!

Pay-per-clicks can get you to where you want to go in the search engines fast — and if you ensure that you are not competing against large, wealthy corporations for hugely popular keywords, you can get there without spending a lot of money.

If you are just getting started online, you are in an especially interesting position to begin experimenting with the pay-per-clicks, because the beauty of pay-per-click advertising is that you can see immediate results. You don’t have to wait weeks or months for your listing to be posted. You can simply fork over the cash for a top-three position and see how it affects your business…

Just keep it simple! Don’t try to outbid industry giants who can afford to pay big money for the highest-traffic terms. Go after the lower numbers and the neglected terms that you can scoop up for next to nothing and use to your enormous advantage.

If you don’t get the kind of ROI (return on investment) you expected, you can simply cancel your bids for that spot, and try out another one!

You can test, hone, re-test, and perfect your pay-per-click marketing campaign very easily with pay-per-click search engines, as long as you keep an eye on your bid amounts and watch to ensure that you are always at least breaking even on your bids.

MYTH #8: "If you build it, they will come"

Reality: Many people think that if they build an attractive, well-designed web site, people will come to it.

Don’t believe it! It may be true of phantom baseball players in Kevin Costner movies… but it’s not true for YOUR business on the Internet!

You can’t just build a pretty web site and pack it full of interesting, useful information… and expect it to succeed. No matter HOW good your site or your business model may be, this just won’t work.

Why? Because nobody will find you!

People won’t just appear out of nowhere. In order to build a business that has a good chance of being successful, you have to take your great business model and your beautiful web site… and promote the heck out of it!

You know how the old saying in the brick-and-mortar business is "location, location, location"?

Well, online, you could say that the key to success is: "Promotion, promotion, promotion!" The only way to get people coming to your web site is to let them know about it… and to put it right in front of their faces at every opportunity. Whatever marketing techniques you choose, whether they’re free or paid, online or offline, small scale or huge endeavors, make sure that you’re running your promotional campaigns constantly and that you test their effectiveness.

MYTH #9: Viral marketing does not work!

Reality: Viral marketing allows you to exponentially increase your visibility online by turning your existing network of clients and newsletter subscribers into a giant word-of-mouth referral machine!

Much like a flu virus which can easily spread from one person to many others, awareness of your company can be dramatically increased by persuading your clients and subscribers to refer you to their friends and family.

Hotmail, for example, is probably the BEST example of viral marketing there is. Why? Because their phenomenal success has been based on their simple tactic of adding a small Hotmail advertisement to the bottom of every e-mail sent by a user on the Hotmail system.

A Hotmail user sends a friend an e-mail. At the bottom of the e-mail, the following advertisement appears:

________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

The friend thinks to themselves, "Hey Look! I can get a free e-mail account from MSN Hotmail. Obviously they are a reputable company because my friend has an account with them… I think I’ll sign up for one too!"

A word-of-mouth referral from a trusted friend or relative carries much more weight than self-proclamations of greatness!

So the friend clicks on the Hotmail link and heads off to get their very own Hotmail account. Essentially, Hotmail has developed the ultimate referral system! Hotmail users promote Hotmail each and every time they send an e-mail.

The power of viral marketing lies in the snowball effect these referrals can have on your business. And these referrals pack a great deal of punch, because people who learn about your business via a third party are much more likely to trust you.

So believe it when we tell you that viral marketing does work, and it works very well.

MYTH #10: My customers don’t want me to e-mail them

Reality: If you don’t e-mail your customers and subscribers, you’ll be doing them a disservice!

Think about it: Your opt-in e-mail list is made up of people who want to hear from you. (They’ve visited your site, or they’ve come into your shop, and they’ve decided that they like what they see enough to give you their e-mail addresses.)

And that means you are giving your customers and subscribers something they’ve asked you for. When someone gives you their e-mail address, they understand that you’ll be using it to send them information that they actually WANT to receive.

Plus, you are developing valuable lifetime relationships with your customers and subscribers. E-mail allows you to contact the people on your list over and over again, so that you can build genuine relationships with them. Don’t think your customers won’t appreciate this!

And the best part is that e-mail marketing really works! 82% of online buyers have completed at least one purchase in response to an e-mail promotion. With numbers like these, you can understand why we’re always stunned to hear about a business that STILL hasn’t started using e-mail marketing.

MYTH #11: Web salescopy should be short

Reality: Long copy is generally preached as a "no-no" by online marketers. They’ll tell you that you should stick to using multiple short "pages" that contain a single, complete thought.

But do you know what I discovered after extensive testing and re-testing? Long copy sells! The key here is that if people are interested, they will read as much as you can write. I have proven this time and time again.

We have always used a direct salesletter that is about eight pages long….

We use these eight pages to walk the reader smoothly through the sales process… so by the time the reader arrives at the section where we explain our offer and ask for the sale, they are convinced of the value of the product and are open to our sales "pitch."

Have we tried short copy on this site? You bet!

We tested a multi-page web site, but when we broke it down into four separate web pages, sales dropped by almost 70%!

The fact is, a well-constructed salesletter leads people through each stage of the sales process, giving them exactly the right information at exactly the right time to ensure that you overcome their objections to buy and close the sale successfully.

It takes a certain amount of time to orchestrate this process, and you need to implement a number of steps to create the right formula. That’s why your salescopy often needs to be long.

So the moral of this story is, long copy can definitely work!

It all depends on your business, your market, and the product or service that you are trying to sell. You should take the time to test both strategies on your web site and see which works best for you.

If you want to learn more about the ins and outs of internet marketing, and how it can boost the profits of ANY business (online OR off) -- I suggest you check out my best-selling course, Insider Secrets To Marketing Your Business on the Internet.

It will tell you exactly what you need to do start running highly lucrative email campaigns that will boost your profits by at least 50% -- or more!

Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real people how to start profitable Internet businesses that make $100,000 to $2.5 Million (or more) per year.

To get instant access to all his most profitable marketing campaigns, strategies, tools, and resources that he's used to grow $25 into over $60 Million in online sales, visit: MarketingTips.com.

Long vs. short articles as a content strategy

By Robin Good at Master New Media. What's better? Writing short summary posts with the essence of the info you want your readers to get or long, in-depth articles and reviews like the ones I often feature here on Master New Media?

I am sure I am not the only independent online publisher asking himself these questions, as traffic, credibility, advertising conversion rates and costs to produce long or short content can vary a great deal depending on this one choice.

The majority of successful blogs and sites I know that perform well in terms of traffic and monetization are generally made of relatively short posts. Rarely, if ever, these sites engage into in-depth reviews with truly original content, in research topics or analysis that has not been discussed and conducted elsewhere.

The much less numerous sites sites that do in-depth, long-winded article writing, do not seem to apparently enjoy as much exposure and notoriety as the other group, but given my own traffic and revenue data, I can't say we are doing bad either.

So if I was to judge superficially, I would tend to think that the long style approach used here at Master New Media, at Ars Technica and on few other online resources, while it could possibly feel more prestigious or providing extra credibility to the site it is definitely a lot more costly, time consuming, error-prone and therefore not as good solution as going for shorter content.

But would these intuitive assessments really reflect the best way to go about making a wise choice?

How do I tell whether it is best to write long or short content for my site?

Internationally respected usability guru Jakob Nielsen dissects in this in-depth analysis this very issue by utilizing "information foraging" models to analyze scientifically the type of "information diet" that readers are most likely to follow on a blog or web site.

"More precisely, diet selection is a modeling tool that tells us what food animals will eat and what articles users will read. In both scenarios, animals and people decide what to consume in a way that optimizes their benefits relative to the costs."

What counts for online readers is in fact the cost/benefit ratio between having more information about a subject (long content approach) or being able to read more articles and news (short content approach). "A long article might contain more information, but if it takes too long to read, users will abandon the website and read shorter, easier pieces elsewhere."

How much information is enough?

How much is too much? And, most importantly, how much information is optimal? Jakob Nielsen answers all of these questions with a good rational analysis. Here his full report:

Long vs. Short Articles as Content Strategy

By Jakob Nielson

Summary: Information foraging shows how to calculate your content strategy's costs and benefits. A mixed diet that combines brief overviews and comprehensive coverage is often best.

How much information is enough? How much is too much? And, most importantly, how much information is optimal?

Information foraging gives us a way to formally model user trade-offs in deciding how much to read on your website. More precisely, diet selection is a modeling tool that tells us what food animals will eat and what articles users will read. In both scenarios, animals and people decide what to consume in a way that optimizes their benefits relative to the costs.

For example, say a forest is inhabited by large and small rabbits. Which will the wolf eat? The obvious answer might seem to be "large rabbits" because they provide the biggest benefit in terms of filling the stomach. But if the big bunnies run faster and are harder to catch, the benefit decreases. Much better to eat lots of small tasty bites if tiny bunnies are easier to nab.

So, basically, the wolf must eat more calories than it expends pursuing prey. The real question is not which prey provides the most food, but how you get the most food relative to the cost of chasing it down.

The cost/benefit ratio is what matters, not the benefit alone.

Exactly the same is true for informavores. A long article might contain more information, but if it takes too long to read, users will abandon the website and read shorter, easier pieces elsewhere.

Cost/Benefit Metrics for Reading

To formalize the model, we must quantify the costs and benefits of reading different articles.

Cost is easy to model: we calculate it as the amount of time it takes to read an article. For an intranet, this would be a direct cost in dollars, because we're paying employees for every minute they spend reading stuff during working hours. For a website, time is a more indirect cost, because users don't get paid to surf the Web. But still, life is short, and you only have so many hours in the day. Even if users don't get paid, they're still conscious of their time and don't like wasting it.

Benefit can be modeled by hypothetical benefit units that represent whatever value users get from online information. For a B2B user researching a company purchase, the benefit units translate directly into dollars, because they represent the extent to which the company gets a better deal or decides to buy a better product as a result of that user's time on the Web.

For home users, benefits might also have a dollar value. For example, if you're looking into buying airline tickets, the benefit of checking one more site or one more alternate departure time would be the average savings on the airfare that resulted from using a richer data set to decide which ticket to buy.

If people are browsing the news or reading an entertainment site, the benefit units would represent the amount of enjoyment they got from each page.

Example: Long vs. Short Articles

Let's work through an example, using the following values for our cost-benefit metrics:

• Short articles:
  600 words, meaning a cost of 3 minutes to read (assuming a reading speed of 200 wpm)
  7 benefit units gained from reading each article
• Long articles:
  1,000 words, meaning a cost of 5 minutes to read
  10 benefit units gained from reading each article
• Finding a new article to read: 1 minute. The top chart (above) shows how the accumulated benefit units increase as a user keeps reading short articles (blue curve) or long articles (red curve):

The dots on the curves represent points of change — that is, when the user stops reading one article, starts searching for something else to read, and starts reading the next article. No benefit is gained during the user's search time.

(Here, I use the term "search" to indicate any user activity aimed at finding the next interesting article, whether it's using a search engine, a site's navigation system, or any other method of finding the next thing to read.)

The chart clearly shows that users gain more benefit from sticking to a diet of short articles. The cumulative benefit is as follows:

• Short articles: 105 benefit units per hour
• Long articles: 100 benefit units per hour

The conclusion is clear: people prefer to read short articles. This is also what we've found in empirical studies of users' behavior while reading websites. People tend to be ruthless in abandoning long-winded sites; they mainly want to skim highlights.

Benefit of Cutting Word Count

If you read my assumptions carefully, you'll notice why the math favors short articles: I assumed that short articles were 60% of the length of the long articles but still provided 70% of the benefit.

Is this realistic? In most cases, I'd say yes. A good editor should be able to cut 40% of the word count while removing only 30% of an article's value. After all, the cuts should target the least valuable information.

When Long Has Value

Now, let's change the assumptions and assume that every third long article is 3 times more valuable than the previous two. In other words, 2/3 of the long articles continue to provide the user with 10 benefit units' worth of information, but 1/3 of the long articles now have a benefit value of 30.

This scenario corresponds to the occasional situation in which you really, really need to know everything about a problem.

For example, consider a rare disease in which sufferers risk death if they eat 6 particular foods: 4 common foods, and 2 foods that almost nobody eats anyway. If you're reading about the disease out of idle curiosity, you'll probably be satisfied with a short article covering the four common foods. If you just got diagnosed with this disease, however, you won't be content reading an article that says: "there are 6 things that'll kill you, but we won't talk about 2 of them because they're rare." You'll obviously want the long article that will warn you about all the things you need to avoid.

The second chart above shows the cost-benefit curves under this new assumption.

The blue line shows the progression of gains from reading only short articles (the same curve as in the previous chart). The red line shows the gains from reading long articles under the new assumptions: for every third article, the benefit jumps up and thus considerably outpaces the blue line.

The obvious conclusion is that long articles are better now that they're sometimes more valuable.

But there's a third behavior users can choose: a mixed diet, where they sometimes read short articles and sometimes read long ones. The green line shows this reading behavior.

For the mixed diet, we have to change the assumptions about the time needed to identify the next article to read. I'll assume that this now takes 1.2 minutes, versus 1 minute for the simpler scenario in which people always read a single type of article. This increase accounts for the extra overhead of having to consider both types of articles and decide when to read what.

Decisions take time, which is why it's often best to offer a simple user interface rather than one with many options. Every extra thing users can do requires consideration, which takes time away from actually using the features.

In this case, the green line is even better than the red line, because users don't waste time on the 2/3 of the long articles that aren't sufficiently valuable.

In the new scenario, users' cumulative gains from the different reading strategies are:

• Short articles: 105 benefit units per hour
• Long articles: 167 benefit units per hour
• 2/3 short articles + 1/3 long articles: 181 benefit units per hour

Mathematical Models vs. Real Life

Of course, in real life, you don't need in-depth information exactly every third time you read an article.

But the general idea in my model is extremely realistic:

• Reading benefits vary, depending on user circumstances.
• Most of the time, short articles contain more value per word.
• People sometimes gain higher value from complete or very detailed information about a problem. The exact numbers in my calculations are merely assumptions for the sake of the exercise. You can run similar calculations for your type of material and your type of users.

What Should You Do?

So: should your website have concise or in-depth content?

• If you want many readers, focus on short and scannable content. This is a good strategy for advertising-driven sites or sites that sell impulse buys.
• If you want people who really need a solution, focus on comprehensive coverage. This is a good strategy if you sell highly targeted solutions to complicated problems. Typically, people who really need something are the highest-value users because they're more likely to turn into paying customers. That's why I recommended writing articles instead of blog postings.

But the very best content strategy is one that mirrors the users' mixed diet. There's no reason to limit yourself to only one content type. It's possible to have short overviews for the majority of users and to supplement them with in-depth coverage and white papers for those few users who need to know more.

Of course, the two user types are often the same person — the one who's usually in a hurry, but is sometimes in thorough-research mode. In fact, our studies of B2B users show that business users often aren't very familiar with the complex products or services they're buying and need simple overviews to orient themselves before they begin more in-depth research.

Hypertext to the Rescue

On the Web, you can offer both short and long treatments within a single hyperspace. Start with overviews and short, simplified pages. Then link to long, in-depth coverage on other pages.

With this approach, you can serve both types of users (or the same user in different stages of the buying process).

The more value you offer users each minute they're on your site, the more likely they are to use your site and the longer they're likely to stay. This is why it's so important to optimize your content strategy for your users' needs.

Learn More

More discussion of information foraging and the implications of user behavior patterns for website design in my course on Fundamental Guidelines for Web Usability at the User Experience 2007 conference in Las Vegas (December 2-7).

The conference also has a two-day tutorial on writing for the Web.

Jakob Nielsen - Reference: Useit [ Read more ]

Ten golden rules for building your personal brand

By Jay Berkowitz. This post was inspired by Rohit Bhargava’s blog entry made on November 8th, How to Build Your Personal Brand:

“Just as the Internet once created a level playing field for small companies to compete with larger ones, personal branding has now become much simpler thanks to the Internet. You can create your brand online …For the vast majority of corporate workers … building a personal brand is the single best thing they can do for their careers.”

In March 2003 I was fortunate to attend an inspirational presentation by syndicated columnist Jeff Zbar at an American Marketing Association event. Jeff said “If you are the brand manager of your personal brand, what have you done to improve your brand? What have you done to put a shine on your resume? What new product enhancements have you made? What is your personal brand marketing plan?For the first 20 years of my career I had spent a lot of time and effort building brands for companies such as McDonald’s Coca-Cola, Sprint and eDiets.com. I hit a stage in my career where I had achieved the top marketing job and I needed to manage my own brand/future. Jeff Zbar’s comments inspired me to create my personal brand.

I have been working on a presentation called the Ten Golden Rules for Building Your Personal Brand; here is the first draft of my Ten Golden Rules, please comment and help me craft this list!

Be Your Own Brand Manger – Think of yourself as a brand. As my friend Andrea Nirenberg, author of Nonstop Networking said in a recent interview we did for my internet marketing podcast “If you were in the grocery store of life, why would somebody pick you up off the shelf? Are you new and improved, repackaged, what are you doing to get the competitive edge?” What can you do to improve your skill set? Is there a course you’ve been planning to take? Can you get to the next level with self-study through books, blogs and podcasts?

1. Develop your brand marketing plan. How are you going to promote your brand? How are you going to take it to the next level? Set specific, measurable goals for yourself for example: ‘I will get booked for 1 speaking engagement each quarter in 2008’ or ‘I will write 1 chapter of my book each month in the next 6 months’.
2. Determine Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? – What makes you Distinctive? - How can you enhance your unique skills to separate yourself from other competitors for future business and career opportunities? I determined that my USP was a combination of brand marketing and direct/online experience. I wrote a presentation called “The Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing” which shaped my personal brand and propelled my life and career in exciting directions.
3. Embrace Your Inner Author – Perhaps the strongest tool for building your personal brand is creating unique content. Write a blog. Write a book or a free eBook or white paper. Write articles and submit them to industry publications. Create your own website. Build interesting content on your Facebook profile and your LinkedIn page. The reason I know that Rohit Bhargava is a brilliant interactive strategist is because I discovered links to three of his blog posts within about two weeks. Content is King! And if writing isn’t your thing, try podcasting - it is inexpensive and easy to get started.
4. Build Your Net – Learn the skills of a successful networker. Attend high level networking events. Set a goal to make a few quality connections at each event and find out what you can do for the people you meet. Ask the new people you meet about them before sharing your elevator pitch. When you get home, add new contacts to Outlook or another contact management system. Follow up with your new acquaintances to connect them with business opportunities, employment leads and personal connections. The person who cares and follows up is the one that is remembered! Give with no intention of getting and watch the benefits come your way. Individuals with a strong network of real connections don’t interview for their next job, they get business opportunities by answering the phone, and if necessary, they have a ‘safety net’ if a real need arises. Use online social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and even Twitter to build your social connections.
5. Craft an Image. When you think of Bono I’m sure you can picture his blazer and stylish sunglasses. Donald Trump – signature hair, blue suit and bright tie. How can you stand out? Develop an authentic personal image that represents the next stage you want to achieve. Do you want to be a creative director or a department manager or a keynote speaker…what image does that person portray? How will you represent your authentic personal brand?
6. Communicate a Strong Consistent Brand Message – If your business card doesn’t sell your personal brand, create a personal brand card. Develop a memorable personal title or slogan representing your personal brand message such as ‘internet copywriter extraordinaire’ or ‘Facebook application guru’ . Copy your eBook or podcast to a mini CD and hand it out with your business card. Send out Press Releases for major personal events such as speaking events and new websites.
7. Volunteer to Shine – I have used volunteer positions on boards and fund-raising organizations to refine my skills or to develop new ones! When I first accept a volunteer role, I normally select a role in an area I have previous experience. Once I learn the way the group operates and I have made a valued contribution I select a new role that pushes my comfort zone. I managed my first PR campaign as a volunteer and I managed a large group of people for the first time as a committee chairperson. Another way to enhance a skill is through freelance opportunities. Web sites such as Guru, e-Lance and the Gerson Lehman expert network offer an opportunity for you to sell personal assets that might not be part of your current job but can be on your future resume!
8. Innovate to Lead. Test new technologies. Try the iPhone. Send a Twitter Tweet. Most new web technologies offer a free trial. Give the new tools a test drive and report on how they work on your blog. Position yourself as an early adopter and soon people will be asking you about the next big thing!
9. Entrepreneur. To entrepreneur is a verb and an easy skill to learn…I wish I started entrepreneuring in my spare time much earlier in my career. More employers are looking to hire people who have managed their own business and there are almost no barriers to getting started. You can start selling products as an affiliate for free! Just visit Commission Junction or LinkShare, sign up as an affiliate and add links or banners to your personal blog and you’re in business.
10. Speak Up! Perhaps the single biggest differentiator for my career has been public speaking. I wasn’t always comfortable in front of a crowd, so early in my career I attended weekly Toastmasters meetings and I devoured everything I could read about making great presentations. I also volunteered for small speaking opportunities for the social committee at work and the charity association I was involved with. Practice makes perfect and with experience you will feel confident in front of that roomful of CEO’s.

Jay Berkowitz is the founder of internet marketing consultant TenGoldenRules.com, host of the Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing Podcast, a hockey player and a big fan of Rohit Bhargava. You might see Jay present at Webmaster World's Pubcon in Las Vegas, December 6, 2007 and at the Specialized Internet Publishers Association Annual Conference in Miami, December 13, 2007.

A 'black hole' that eats website visitors!

By Derek Gehl, CEO, Internet Marketing Centre

Whenever I surf on the Web, I always come across dozens of sites that are missing a VITAL ingredient to online success.

I wish I had to time to contact the owners of all these websites personally and tell them what a fatal mistake they're making!

Because the absence of this vital ingredient is like a giant, sucking black hole into which the vast majority of their visitors are vanishing, never to be heard from again....

What is this key element they're missing?

An opt-in form!

An opt-in form is simply a small script-based form on your site that allows you to collect people's names and email addresses and add them to a database, so you can send them relationship-building emails in the future.

If you don't have an opt-in form to collect your visitors' contact information on your site, I can guarantee that you're only making a small fraction of the sales you could be making!

That's because the vast majority of online shoppers DON'T make a purchase on their first visit to a web site. Most people need a minimum of 7-8 points of contact with a business before they feel comfortable enough to buy from them.

So if you don't reach out to them and give them a compelling reason why they should give you their contact information-- so you can stay in touch with them and overcome their buyer resistance -- you'll never realize your full income potential.

Here are some more reasons why it's essential that you start building an opt-in list as soon as you possibly can...

• Your "opt-in" email list is made up of people who want to hear from you. They've visited your site, or they've come into your shop, and they've decided that they like what they see enough to give you their email address. They are actually inviting you to sell to them!
• You are giving your customers and subscribers something they've ASKED you for. When someone gives you their email address, they understand that you'll be using it to send them information they actually want to receive — meaning your opt-in list will be highly responsive to any email promotions you run in the future.
• You are developing valuable lifetime relationships with your customers and subscribers. Email allows you to contact the people on your list over and over again, so you can build genuine relationships with them. There's simply NO WAY you could do this offline without spending a fortune on printing and postage!
• Every time you send a mailing, the response is 100% measurable. Unlike other forms of marketing and advertising, email allows you to evaluate the success of your campaigns within just a few hours. This will save you thousands in wasted advertising dollars!
• Opt-in email marketing is effective... instantaneous... and FREE! This is my favorite thing about email marketing: You can contact your customers and subscribers whenever you want, with whatever offer you want, and it never costs you a single dime!

So those are the "whys"... now here are the "hows":

The key to growing your opt-in list is to convince your visitors to give you their contact information by offering an enticing free gift that's so valuable they can't say "no" to it. What kind of free gift am I talking about?

Here are some ideas that have proven to be incredibly successful for us and our clients:

• An eBook on a topic that's of interest to your visitors
• A free report full of valuable information
• A free subscription to an online newsletter that covers topics your visitors want to know more about
• A free "how-to" course, delivered as a series of emails
• Entry into a contest for a fabulous prize! (Just make sure that prize isn't the product you sell... after all, who's going to BUY a product when they have a chance to win it for free?)

It doesn't matter if you're currently set up to deliver email promotions or not... You should get an opt-in form on your site and start building your opt-in list NOW.

Then, once your email marketing efforts are set up and ready to go, you'll have a large list of people you can start mailing to!

If you want to learn more about the ins and outs of email marketing, and how it can boost the profits of ANY business (online OR off) -- I suggest you check out my best-selling course, Insider Secrets To Marketing Your Business on the Internet.

It will tell you exactly what you need to do start running highly lucrative email campaigns that will boost your profits by at least 50% -- or more!

Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real people how to start profitable Internet businesses that make $100,000 to $2.5 Million (or more) per year. To get instant access to all his most profitable marketing campaigns, strategies, tools, and resources that he's used to grow $25 into over $60 Million in online sales, visit: MarketingTips.com.

Viral Marketing: Basic Training Manual

In the past,Viral Marketing and Guerrilla Marketing were used by only small, start-up businesses. Here's why they've now found their way into the marketing mix of Fortune 500 Companies along with guides on how to use them for your business.

Viral marketing is one of the ever emerging variations of guerilla marketing, a promotional strategy first made popular in 1984 by Jay Conrad Levinson in his best-selling book, Guerrilla Marketing.

Guerrilla marketing employs aggressive, non-traditional, low cost promotional activities to produce profits, rather than utilizing costly conventional media such as TV and magazine advertising. Like guerrilla warfare, it relies on timing, creativity, enthusiasm, energy, and of course, swift action.

These strategies and tactics make guerrilla marketing ideally suited for small start-up businesses and entrepreneurial ventures.

Today, however, it's also used by mega-marketers, even Fortune 500 Companies, as part of their overall marketing plans.

Viral marketing is simply “word of mouth advertising” for the Internet Age. Although initially considered another guerrilla tool for small businesses, it has evolved to become an effective form of marketing for large companies too.

Like its traditional “word of mouth”, counterpart, viral marketing encourages people to voluntarily pass on information about a product, service or company to their social and business contacts.

Conventional word of mouth advertising relies on telephone calls, snail mail, discussions at church socials or random conversations in the grocery store to spread testimonial endorsements. Customers become voluntary brand ambassadors and a free source of publicity. But that's pretty much where the similarity to traditional word of mouth advertising ends.

Viral marketing is designed for today's digital world and its diverse Internet-based social networks. Using today's high-speed technology to communicate with existing online communities, it has the power to reach a potential audience of millions with incredible speed. The effectiveness of viral marketing results from its ability to quickly and cleverly infiltrate these online social networks at little or no cost.

The viral campaign process is simple. A message with a strong, irresistible offer is developed and then passed along through the online community. It spreads the same way a human or computer virus does --- by ongoing contact. Once the message starts spreading, it's propagated and voluntarily passed along from person to person -often in a matter of just days.

One of the keys to success in any “word of mouth advertising” is the ability to identify “opinion leaders” to jump on the bandwagon and spread your message. Traditional “word of mouth” advertising identifies active members of the local community and have extensive “spheres of influence” they interact with frequently. These spheres are groups of social or business contacts that follow the trends the opinion leaders set and try products they endorse or use. Identifying these groups in traditional marketing is a relatively subjective process, time-consuming and a often unreliable process.

Viral marketers, however, can take a more scientific approach. To maximize the impact of their marketing they seek individuals with a high Social Networking Potential or SPN. This Social Networking Potential is an algorithmic representation of the size of a person's social network and their ability to influence it. (For those of us who had trouble with basic Algebra, an algorithm is a series of carefully defined successive steps that need to be completed in order to accomplish a specific task. Algorithms are also the basis of Google's search engine operations.)

A number of different factors enter the SNP equation. They include the number of online community memberships, blogging frequency, web sites visited, content of personal websites, online affiliates, number of articles published, job title, employer, and other relevant data. Once this demographic and lifestyle data is analyzed, a SNP coefficient is calculated and assigned to an individual or social networking group. This rating can then be used to pinpoint people and groups who are prime viral contact points.

Savvy marketers and advertising agencies are also developing their own unique ways of identifying prospects with strong social networks and communicating with them through viral campaigns. There are now also specialized viral marketing consultants and advertising agencies whose clients include Fortune 500 companies. This investment of time and money indicates viral marketing is finding its niche in corporate America.

Many viral marketers simply compile “seeding lists” of high-traffic websites and online communities whose visitors are strong social networker. A typical could include sites like, myspace.com, bebo.com, kontraband.com,borednation.com , linkedin.com and a wide range of others. There are specific social network sites that appeal to teenagers, college students, twenty-somethings, music groupies, parents, and even corporate executives. More sites like youtube.com tare emerging and developing a more broad based audience appeal. Today, there's an online social network for just about everyone.

Viral seeding lists aren't direct mail lists or email lists. Contrary to the belief of many mainstream marketers, viral communications are not confrontational or unsolicited. The objective is not to annoy prospects with “pop up boxes”, “ banner ads” or spam.

“Discovery” is what viral marketing is all about. The idea is to get a prospect to voluntarily find or discover and then interact with a communication containing an offer and branded content, and then pass it along to a friend. The communication could be a website, a video, music, a blog, a photo of the day, an advergame or other message. That's why they're “planted” on high traffic, highly targeted websites and portals, in news groups, bulletin boards forums and other online places where the right people will discover them and pass them along.

Very often, the offer in viral marketing is “Free”. It could be a free email account, a free web page, a free screensaver or wallpaper, free software, video or music downloads, a free magazine subscription, a free T Shirt or product sample. The big creative challenge is to make the free offer appear to be really free with no strings attached and not just another advertising gimmick.
Viral marketing is far more sophisticated that many traditional marketers or even guerrilla markets give it credit for. And an increasing number of large companies are finding a place in their promotional mix for viral marketing as well.

In order to be effective, viral marketing requires a carefully developed plan. The plan is no different that a traditional marketing plan. A basic plan includes:

• Objectives: a clear outline of exactly what you want to accomplish
• Strategies: a detailed plan of how you're going to it
• Target Audience: the market segments you're trying to reach
• Media: What social networks and online communities you're going to use
• Creative Strategy- What are the formats, styles, tones and offers of the communications.
• Budget - How much you plan to spend annually and how the money is allocated
• Tracking and Results Analysis- How you measure the effectiveness of the campaign

One very effective way for any business to use viral marketing is to boost the effectiveness of a TV, print or direct response advertising campaign. It's a simple, low cost and very efficient means of increasing your advertising effectiveness. Viral campaigns can be “seeded” in targeted social network sites and online communities that will “discover” your message quickly and pass it along. The message very often reaches a potential audience of millions virtually overnight.

Usually you can see measurable results and a “lift” in your advertising performance in a matter of days.

In presenting the idea of viral marketing to some clients, I've encountered some very strange and humorous misconceptions it. One very conservative client described viral marketing as a “pack of high school kids in garages, techno-geeks in basements and pornography merchants in seedy bedrooms sending out spam that will infect PCs everywhere with deadly computer viruses.” Wow! I never realized viral marketing is destined to bring about the downfall of online civilization as we know it today. Well, thank God I'm a MAC guy and immune to most dreaded viruses. Better abandon your PC right away and get yourself a MAC today!

Viral Marketing has become serious business. Major national advertisers are shifting an increasing percentage of their advertising dollars from TV, radio, print and mail into interactive online media, including viral marketing. Like search engine marketing, pay per click advertising and guerrilla marketing, it's found its niche and is here to stay.

By Michael Crozer, Bizcovering.com