Here is a recent exchange with a client regarding questions about site branding, traffic generation and marketing for their information product website. It might be helpful to other site owners who want to improve visitor engagement to their brand. Hope you enjoy, and feel free to contact me with any marketing, branding and promotion questions for your business. (Note: The names and site links are changed to protect the privacy of my client.)

Q: Dwayne – I know you are knowledgable with internet marketing and blog promotion, etc.  We have been experimenting with traffic generation under the theory that it will warm visitors up to our product, but we seem to be getting luke warm reception when submitting posts to reddit.  We did find that a link to our site inserted in a blog comment could generate decent hits, but I was wondering if you knew of any other sites that might give us more ideas. – Thanks! Neal

Hi Neal;
Yes sir, blog commenting works well and gives you decent backlinks. Of course you are selling a niche product so targeting is more important for you than just bulk traffic. Remember since the launch of Caffeine the three legged table rule is 100% in effect so you must satisfy all three value metrics in order to grow and maintain authority and SERPs.

I took the liberty of looking at your site. You are trying to market an information product on Seduction Techniques right? The first thing I recommend you focus on is the site experience and content. We can talk about niche traffic generation later. First develop the product and conversion scenaio…

Here are a couple of suggestions:

Landing impact:
What are you doing on this site? Why do I not know at a glance? When a visitor lands on your site they should know right away where they are and what they might get here. You have less than 5 seconds to accomplish this. The back button is calling…
So how about a visual (metaphor) image – above the fold – to let me know I’m in a place where men go to learn how to approach and attract women?

The blocks of text on the site are crazy long. Break that stuff up. No one wants to read pages of text in long paragraphs. Forget the grammar rules for paragraphs you learned in school and use the copy writing rule instead. No more than 5 lines of text without a full double break space. Break your copy into little info-nuggets – not big intimidating blocks of text. (People quit reading web copy in the 90′s… They want bullets and short clips of text they can follow by scanning).

Conversion scenario:
Where is my gift? Give me something to make me engage the site please. Yes, you have to bribe me or you suck. Where is my free ebook? Where is my video? What about a ’10 ways to attract hot girls’ list? Some kind of swag please. Give me something to engage me. Also note if your free gift and bonuses are valuable enough they can be used as link bait. You then have something to blog and brag about. So consider developing a free gift that everyone who joins your list or Likes you on Facebook or follows you on Twitter gets just because you’re that kind of great humanitarian.

Hint: Recently video has been shown to be the absolute most effect free gift. Easy and instant! Videos also help engage the visitor. For example a video giving away the ‘ultimate secret’ of seduction to people who connect with your site could promise to share a really cool secret – but then give them three in the video. Don’t be stingy! Over-deliver. Then use the closing section of the video to upsell into your real product. And of course the whole operation gets uploaded to Youtube, Vimeo, Daily Motion etc…

Speaking of social reach… Where are your social signals? No feeds? No social site badges? Where are your FB and Twitter signals? Don’t have time for Twitter and Facebook? Oh no problem – then your site is a relic — like a dusty old mausoleum statue… isn’t it quaint? Better get that fan page up and running and push your blog content to it and to your twitter stream using plugins (free and easy). You can’t possibly expect busy people to actually visit your site every day hoping you have provided a new nugget of info for them – you have to reach out and give them an dead simple way to see your content. Hint: Social media.

Aesthetics:
I understand you’re going after the whole spartan blog look here but if you are trying to promote a product or service you must hype the benefits. Pictures of the sexy women your clientele could possibly attract would be a good start. You need some compelling images to tease the visitor into engaging the site and returning. Does not have to be pornographic or anything – just a couple provocative images here and there would go a long way.

Your choice of design colors is fine for what you’re doing. White is a trust color so the white background is fine. You will need to figure out a third color to complete the design at some point. Use this free site to play with brand color ideas and when you find something you like make note of the colors so you can try to integrate them into your site. http://colorschemedesigner.com/

Nuts and bolts:
- You are not using permalinks (search engine friendly URL rewrites) in your blog settings. This is a must to help elevate your site to bots so they can pick up your content.

- Use Pages instead of Posts for persistent content. Don’t put page content in a post. Make it a static page. You can then write a post about it and link it so you take advantage of the ping services, but critical persistent information should be main menu content.

– Your header image is does not link to your home page. Did you realize your visitors must use their back button to return to your index page if they drill down to article page? This frustrates surfers and they often double-click the back button because you made then use it. Don’t depend on the web browser for site navigation.

- Your site does not allow comments. Why would you prevent your visitors from engaging you? Comments are the easiest way to generate conversion activity on your website. You need conversion activity on your site to satisfy the third leg of the three legged table = ACTIVITY. Without visitor engagement and activity your site can have all the backlinks and content in the world and still be totally irrelevant.

Hint: Let people leave comments – but moderate the comments of course using your blog settings and once you start to choke on the comment spam flip your site settings so that visitors must by registered and logged in to comment. This create more activity and conversions.

This is just a quick set of suggestions Neal. We can certainly go deeper into any of these topics at your convenience. Feel free to ask questions about any of the issues. Once you have the site ready for prime time we can talk about the secrets of magnetic traffic seduction.

At your servers…
Dwayne

Posted via email from Dwayne Coots

A client recently asked some great questions and I thought they deserved to be seen by our readers.

Dwayne,
Thank you for your information.  We have been working to address all  the issues you made us aware of.

If I understand the areas we need to address they are as follows:
1. Our Centric
2. Our Social Message
3. Our Internet Outreach
4. Our Branding
5. Our Website Design

Am I missing anything?

1. The Centric
Tenlittlelaws.info is the website at this time, but the focus is not  on the Ten Commandments as much as it is on the Kingdom of God.  The  Commandments are the elementary laws that teach people how to have  basic love for one another.  The ultimate result is developing the  character to be a citizen through baptism for the Kingdom of God when  Christ returns.  All people will have an opportunity to learn of God’s  way.

Revelation 21:1-3 is the focus point!
Rev 21:1-3 KJV  And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first  heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more  sea.  2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from  God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  3   And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle  of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his  people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Where exactly this fits into the Categories I don’t know.  We’re still  rolling it over in our minds.  We have done some checking on the  keywords and the numbers are not very high for “kingdom of God”,  ”God’s Kingdom”, “Preaching the Gospel” or “Ten Commandments”.  Can  you assist us in better defining out niche?  Do you have a certain  link we can go and check the keywords?  The Rovin Search Engine  Visible was where I was trying to check keywords.

2. Our Social Message
Can you give me an example?  Is it the same as the message on the  Twitter and WordPress blog, and Facebook websites by getting people to  engage?  Mrs. Harrison and I have been working on a power point  presentation we were going to make into a video for the website.   Would this be more likely used on the social pages?

3. Our Internet Outreach
I’m assuming this would be tied to the blog etc.?

4. Our Branding
We have a logo, which I need to make some modifications too.  I’ll be  making those adjustments.  I have a logo which you can use until the  revisions are made.  It will be generally the same, size, color etc.   I have a colored logo and a pencil sketch of the logo which I like.   Both are attached.  The Logo depicts Revelation 21:1-3.  The Scripture  and the logo would the same branding.

5. Our Website Design
We have allocated $750 as our beginning budget, but when you break it  down into hours, it’s only thirty hours.  Everything we’ve discussed  up to this point will need to be scaled back.  I don’t know how much  you can get done in thirty hours.

At this point I would say that the look of the website could stay the  same, but the CMS and SEO codes would be the focus point.  I would  like to have a new design, but I believe it’s functionality is more  important than it’s looks.

We need more of a break down and get specific about what we hope to  achieve in this venture.  As you said before, we need a clear  understanding of what is going to happen and the cost.  If we can have  some design changes in the looks that won’t take away from the  functionality design then we can proceed to change the looks.

With this all being said, have I given you enough information you can  generate a plan of action on your part.  I keep thinking that the  redesign of the website has to be driven by us if we hope to keep the  cost down by us giving you a look and you executing it; otherwise, the  hours would be spent on design work.  Please don’t hold back, I need  you to be blunt and to the point with what we’re discussing.  I need  to make decisions based on your input.

To be blunt, I think that if you have a commitment to reach out to people, deliver your message in various forms and media, engage them where they are congregating, provide them with compelling messages of hope, relieve their fear, offer help when asked and ask them to help you promote your program, reward them with a unified and beneficial message, and be a leader; you will win. In your life and in your ministry brother.

As far as a plan of action:
1 – Gather a logical outline of the main categories of your site (not the one you have now but the idea one you want). Making sure you do not confuse titles of articles with categories of content.  This will become your new navigation system

2 – Make a list (a tweet sheet) of at least 100 small quotes and scriptures that provide guidance. Keep each quote below 100 character – including spaces – so we still have room for a shortlink back to your site.

3 – Make a list of the prime keywords that you would like to attack. You can acquire this using the Google public keyword suggestion tool. Just go to Google and type in Keyword suggestion tool and Google usually puts its tool at the top. Limit your list to 50 keywords for now that have the most searches.

4 – Take each keyphrase from this list and sort it into the category structure you set up in step #1. So each keyphrase is now under the site navigation in one category or another.

5 – Take each keyphrase and do research on it to compose an informative article on it of at least 500 words. Make sure the article is 100% about that keyphrase. You can have opinion of course, but it should be about the topic. Compile the images you want to use or illustration as well as any supporting information like Youtube video links, tables and charts, links etc so each article is a nice little niche information package.

6 – Go over each article and look for every opportunity to utilize the other keywords in your master list. Highlight those in the copy because when you publish them those keyphrases will be used as cross links to your other articles and sections to provide SEO buoyancy for the site.

7 – Extract the most salient points of interest from each article. Use that to make a talking point outline you can adlib a video/audio/podcast delivery from. We’ll need this later to drive a multimedia marketing campaign for you.

8 – Compile a list of the top 20 or 30 most authoritative sites you would most like to get a link from. Then compose a open honest email message you can send to their administrator at a later date to solicit a link exchange.

9 – Compile a list of all the people you know and prepare a message for them asking them to visit your new site and to consider please mentioning your site to their friends, visit your facebook organization page and liking it, and also to follow your updates on Twitter.

10 – Compile a series of short messages that welcomes someone to your ministry, explains the mission you are on, delves into the message you are giving and how it will benefit them. Design this series of messages in a conversational voice (like you are talking to them in an email) and keep them in bite size chunks of 100 to 300 words each. Develop them in a logical sequence that will take the person from welcome to full understanding and even to loyal supporter. This series will become your first email autoresponder series. We’ll plug that into MailChimp to interlock with your other social messages.

Okay sir this should be a good start. Ironically I stopped at 10 steps (probably the marketer in me) but it should be plenty to get started with.

We can begin the site migration and CMS process any time. but this will give you plenty to work on so the project is always in a forward motion.

Thanks;
Dwayne

Revisions to this 81-page FTC guideline document — innocently tagged ‘Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising’ — were aimed squarely at web bloggers. The changes define thinly sliced examples of how web endorsements can be defined and how each can stray into the territory of advertisements. It also heralds stern punishment for offenders who write product or service reviews and saddles the blog author with stiff penalties should they fail to divulge that their review is a paid or barter endorsement, or if they make any claims about a product that does not prove true. According to the document available in PDF form here: http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005endorsementguidesfnnotice.pdf these new regulations will be enforceable starting December 1st, 2009

Sadly, this attack on free speech also endangers countless bloggers who depend on income earned by product reviews.

So what? It’s about time somebody took control and closed down these bloggers clogging up the web with their reviews and cheesy info sites full of affiliate links and questionable testimonials!”

That seems to be the mainstream response, however, those who closely follow the ongoing battle between corporate media and the independent bloggers will see more sinister intent here. Bloggers have made a huge dent in corporate media consumption and advertising revenue. In the early days of the web, corporate media satisfied itself first by stiff arming web publishers as unimportant and amateur — basically not worth following. Then as more consumers flocked to the Internet for information rather than just amusement, the mainstream press turned up the heat with an endless cycle of scare pieces about the dangers of the web and how harmful it could be to surf.

Then amazingly, once the corporate powers had positioned themselves on the web, they proceeded to (attempt to) extend their authority into the new media. Now any news outlet who wishes to survive must maintain sites with interactive Web 2 aspects and social media components. Now they seemed to suddenly embrace the web and everything about it. Every news page and program had the corporations web branding and URL. The web is ours! Bwah ha ha!

The migration of major media onto the web is now complete. Sadly they seem to have brought all their bad baggage along with them. Corporatist slant, raging hyperbola, and elitist globalism still clog their message. So nothing has changed for the better, but at least they can compete in the free market right?

Wrong. Instead of a heads up competition, mainstream media does little else but complain about bloggers and independent news outlets because they are not accountable. More learned media experts point this fact out but also acknowledge the counter point: that bloggers and independent news sources represent the very last resource for information that has not passed through a corporate filter. Professional bloggers make up the huge diversity of information and opinion we now have available to augment or challenge globalist groupthink news outlets.

So no, it is not a heads up competition. Now comes the price. Apparently, the talking heads at big news cannot convince their consumers that unregulated bloggers should be struck from the web by the mere wieght of negative spokesmanship. So the FTC has been called in to begin its little campaign of regulation. It will not escape the informed reader that the FTC is made up of 5 presidentially appointed commissioners, who come to their 7 year post directly from, (you guessed it): corporate law firms. More pointedly still, is how former FTC commissioners are reshuffled back into the corporate law miasma.

Okay so does this mean the end of free speech on the web?

No, but it is another brick in the wall.

##

According to CEO Michael Voulgarelis, Orizzi connects businesses with potential buyers by providing instant text notices right to their cell phone. You can catch a quick elevator pitch video on the Orizzi home page but in a nutshell, the system provides you with a short code (a 5-digit number you enter into your cell phone) you promote to customers as a way to get super specials. Customers use your code to subscribe to your dispatches so you can reach out to them anytime to summon them to your store or site.

The true power of this clever idea is based in the text phenom. Consumers are deleting emails and ignoring calls, but everyone stops on a dime to check a text message. (And it’s true LOL) Note that the Orizzi system will also dispatch to the customer’s instant messenger and email if the text message is ignored.

So check out Orizzi and start communicating with your customers where they live.

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It occurs each day. I cannot tell you how often someone will query a person’s perspectives and all of a sudden it becomes private. Can’t we just leave our egos at the door and debate things rationally? I don't have any doubt this latest event is going to return to bite this person on the fanny. When you do, you only finish up looking petty and childish. As for yourself, please take this guidance to heart. When searching out an internet site promotion company, you should have a look for firms which offer that breadth of thinking. Not only do they attempt to generate valuable and original content for the customer ( or counsel concerning how to do this ), but they employ a selection of methods and processes to deliver consistent, top of the range traffic to a domain, and increase the amount of conversions from each action to maximize the potential results. The services they are going to offer should ideally include : E-mail Promoting Forum and blog promoting pay-per-click campaigns landing-pages Conversion tracking and metrics Ebooks and article promotion services promotional release distribution Optimized content creation Social networking and bookmarking Video and audio content and promotion As well as the trusty on and offpage optimization needed to get the search engine listings. For each company looking to market online, there'll be a different mixture of methods which should yield the most impressive results, dependent on product, brand, audience and more.

It was short and to the point. Well, the originally thread starter came back and made private attacks on both myself and the person that queried some of his info. I concluded with both folk in part. Most non marketers do not get so anal about that kind of stuff. So they will look for whatever reason at all the slam you into the ground. The explanation, and this is what baffles me, is that marketing pros hate being promoted to. Not many are like that, but many are.

If you're out to draw in potential customers and develop your internet presence and exposure, you owe it to oneself and the economic future of your business to learn all that you can about online marketing. You really ought to know what your visitor wants to read, as it was you who brought them to your page, and it'll be your text which should lead them to register on your capture page. Need to learn more online marketing methodologies on the way to build a profitable businesses online? If that is the case read about and download my new free e-book twenty-seven Habits of web marketing Super Stars. See, some prospects need to go right to the sales page. They hate the concept of having to ‘join’ a list to be in a position to see your product. So some prospects, on seeing a capture page, will simply close up their browser…never to be seen again. Well, on the positive side, the prospect is taken right to the sales page…which is what they wanted to begin with. Nonetheless the drawback to this, at least for the merchant, is that with a hover box for the opt in, the prospect is free to overlook it.