Letters From Dan » 2012

Recovering from Google Penguin, Fast!

Posted By: DanRMorris | Posted in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

On FreeWeeklyMastermind.com a friend asked a question about recovering from Google Penguin. I couldn’t tell from her question whether she was even 100% sure Penguin was the problem. So here are the steps you need to take in the event you were hit by Penguin and you’re interested in recovering from Google Penguin.

Let’s do this on a Step-by-Step basis to make it easy:

Step 1.

Pull up your Google Analytics and look at April 23 – April 25. If your traffic dropped that day you got hit by Penguin. If it didn’t dive that day, you didn’t get hit. You have a different problem – but the recovery steps may be the same.

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Analyzing your bounce rate? Mistakes are common

Posted By: DanRMorris | Posted in Common Marketing Mistakes

What do I mean by bounce rate mistakes? The bounce rate is typically what analysts note as the percent of people that come to your website and then almost immediately hit the back button. When they “bounce” off they’re considered part of the bounce rate.

But most people look at the term incorrectly and start talking about bounce rate mistakes if your bounce rate is too high. Some even think Google cares about the bounce rate.

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Consumer Buying Process: Messaging Makes all the Difference

Posted By: DanRMorris | Posted in Consumer Buying Process

I always enjoy “analyzing” the consumer buying process in different industries. For instance it doesn’t take much effort to sell a candy bar at the grocery store checkout. But it takes a heck of a lot of work to get a country to buy a Boeing 747.

This past week I met with both an insurance guy and a financial services guy (sales calls basically). I don’t need either, and imagine a great number of their appointments are with people who don’t want to change insurance or need a new money manager. But they make sales – so how does that work? And can we translate that to the web?

According to the financial services guy, there’s no way to makes sales in the financial services sector without first establishing a personal relationship with the clients, basically over coffee to start. In his mind even when people are shopping for what you have, unless you have a relationship with them they’re not doing business with you. The insurance guy felt the same way.

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Using Customer Feedback to Make your Business Better

Posted By: DanRMorris | Posted in Consumer Buying Process

Using customer feedback is critical to your success. I recently wrote a guest blog post on Savvyblogging.net about making sure you know what actions you’re going to take BEFORE you survey your audience. That kind of customer feedback can help you make changes and take action immediately.

But there are more important reasons to be using customer feedback.

Interviewing Customers

Nothing can take the place of interviewing your customers. What you really want to understand is the process your customers went through to get to you. And then what happened to get them to pull their wallet out and pay you money. Once you understand where they were mentally, you can craft your web copy, headlines and email subject lines.

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A Marketing Calendar: More than holidays

Posted By: DanRMorris | Posted in Marketing Calendar Blueprint

Every December I see people peddling marketing calendars. Most of them are blank templates which I’ve always called a calendar. Others include lists of holidays to put on the calendar, and places for “important dates”. But planning your business is way more involved than labeling a few holidays.

While an editorial calendar is useful, it should be part of your overall plan – not THE plan. Whether you’re a scrapbooker, a service based business, a holiday decorations website or Nike – you need tie everything you know about marketing to a timeline from which you can plan your success. Assigning dates to your productivity makes you a ton more productive.

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Can you start a new site outside your niche?

Posted By: DanRMorris | Posted in Niche Internet Marketing

Prior to going to BlogWorldExpo I’ve maintained the position that trying to build an audience in a new, unrelated niche wasn’t the best idea. The whole point of list building and empire creation is culling together an audience of similar interests to which you can create a community.

Starting a second site in a related niche means you have the power of your community behind you. Emailing your loyal fishing enthusiasts about your new rainbow trout site makes a ton of sense. You get instant engagement and typically great testimonials from the old people. And doesn’t it make more sense than inviting all your fishing enthusiasts to your new quilting website?

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Red Hot Chili Peppers at Bonnaroo: Marketing Brilliance

Posted By: DanRMorris | Posted in Niche Internet Marketing

I turned on YouTube the other night to catch the Red Hot Chili Peppers taking the stage at Bonnaroo. In fact, I turned it on a few minutes early and watched the stage hands finish up prepping the equipment. But what caught my eye and hopefully the eyes of millions of people watching around the world were the two screens on either side of the main stage.

Imagine the darkest night with only a few flashlights on an almost imperceptible stage. But then like a sun in blackness, two red billboards shown out over the crowd. Both said “Buy and download tonight’s concert, go to http://rhcp.com/live”. And history is made.

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