Ashton Kutcher | Letters From Dan

Getting Website Traffic – Stuff You Don’t Hear About

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: ashton kutcher, conversion rate, followers, internet gurus, Internet Marketing: My Ph.D., minute traffic, rate statistics, relationships, spotlight, traffic tips, video series, willie crawford
Posted in An Internet Marketing Journal

So Darren and I are putting together a video series called 10 Minute Traffic Tips. You could ask why I suppose, but I don’t think the answer is very sexy. Darren came up with the idea, well then I really liked the idea. So we decided to do it. Yep, that’s about it.

So at the NAMS conference, I thought I’d take advantage of the opportunity and shoot some video with website owners that you don’t see in these kinds of tutorials. My goal was to find real website owners who were able to garner massive traffic to their sites. I wasn’t so interested in the likes of Willie Crawford and Lynn Terry – but not because they’re not interesting.

You might say they’re two of the most sought after interviews or relationships in internet marketing. And they’re both sincere, genuine and interesting people whose success is hard to deny. But I really didn’t want to be another gawker, another coat tail. When you’ve attained success like that – how many interviews do you get asked to do?

I would like our series to be more about traffic tips and less about me trying to ride the tails of success to climb my own ladder. If our readers demand that, I’ll take that demand to them and show them with legitimacy, that our intentions are honorable and customer-driven.

Our series will feature some very high profile internet gurus because we all want that nugget, but the bulk will be the little guys who’ve amassed massive traffic out of the spotlight. When you’re not in the spotlight, your name doesn’t help your traffic – it must be gotten other ways.

Ashton Kutcher, for example, what can you learn from his “traffic methods” that really doesn’t boil down to star power? I’m not saying he’s not savvy. . . but I am saying how can his “conversion rate statistics” be translated into stats the Anyday Man can follow? How many no-names announced they wanted to beat Oprah to 1,000,000 followers? And then how many of them actually did?

So keep your eye out for announcements on our upcoming series. You’re going to learn things no other course has even touched. For example we’ve already interviewed someone who purposely created a video to go viral – and then amassed 60,000 actives in her database. How about someone else who’s mastered guest blog posting to the tune of 4,000 extra hits to her website the day any of her guest posts come out. We’ve also spoken with people who use SEO, affiliates, syndication and more.

It’s fascinating to do the interviews. Wait till you have 10 minutes to watch them.

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Twitter Followers, Romania and Social Stigmas

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: ashton kutcher, business buzz, curious aspects, Government, host family, social stigmas, term customer service
Posted in What is Social Media

I lived in Romania in 1994 which was 5 years after the fall of the wall but still very early in the post Communist process. I was 20 at the time and got the wake-up call every American needs. I now think everyone needs to live abroad. Only then can you appreciate what you have, and what you don’t.

One of the curious aspects of Romania at the time was their attitude toward customer service. Coming from the U.S. where customer service has been the buzz word for 30 years, I was shocked by that particular difference.

: Image via Wikipedia

My host family once told me that Romanians didn’t like the term customer service. Not because they didn’t want to treat customers fairly but because of the history they had with the word service, servitude and serving their government. She said if that concept was to one day become a business buzz word there – the word service would likely not be part of the term.

I didn’t fully grasp that comment, at least not personally, until Twitter. For me it’s the word “followers”. I really don’t like that word at all. I think of David Koresh and the Waco, TX incident. I think of kool-aid drinkers of South America. I just can’t come up with a positive idea regarding the word “followers”.

Like the Romanians if I could rename that part of Twitter, it certainly wouldn’t include that concept. Maybe that’s because I don’t “follow” anyone. I certainly don’t log-in to Ashton Kutcher’s page to see what he did for lunch and where he is now.

Facebook calls them “friends”, LinkedIn – “Connections”. I sure do wish Twitter had called them Party Go-ers, or Tweeps or Interacters. Actually I can’t come up with a good term myself.

But if it were my business, I’d really take a good, long look at the terms I use on my site. Not only does language play a hand in the terms you choose, but so does culture. What is the culture you want to create? Does that culture mesh well with the culture of your market?