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Nothing is Guaranteed To Make Money Online So Get Off Your Ass And Get To Work

Jason Katzenback — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:40:10 +0000

Over the past couple of days I have been private messaged and emailed from a few people, who seem to want me to be able to predict the future for them and make everything OK.

They ask questions like…

“If i do this, how much money can I make?”

“What do I have to do to make this much $$$ in 60 days?”

…and the list goes on and on and on.

I have bad news… NO ONE CAN GUARANTEE anything like that!

Now before I sound too hypocritical… yes there are things that can be “Guaranteed”… but that does NOT mean that they work for absolutely everyone.

What I mean by that is I can 100% guarantee that if you join my Web2Mayhem system and you use my tools and strategies that you WILL get a dramatic increase in traffic. I can offer that because I back it up with a 100% money back guarantee and if you get lazy and do not do anything or you do a half ass job; then you will not get good results and I will simply give you your money back.

What I can NOT and will NEVER do however, is tell you that I guarantee that if you do A,B and C that you will earn this much money.

There are just WAY TOO many variables.

Is the traffic made up of “buyers” or “freebie info seekers”
Does the content relate to the audience and cause them to want to take action
Does the offer convert
and the list continues…

There is one secret to success… and one secret ONLY…

HARD WORK!

You need to understand that I have busted my ass off to create a business that earns 7+ figures a year… nothing “just happened”. The affiliate marketing side of my business for example, is not made up of me making one site and suddenly earning $14000 a month (like a recent product claimed).

THAT IS BULLSHIT!

What you need to understand is it is all about testing, tracking and tweaking… and doing this over and over again. Not just building one site and BANG you are rich.

My personal affiliate marketing system is made up of making a certain number of new sites every month and then after a couple of months I look to see which ones have taken off and I focus consistent promotion and new content on them.

The thing is NO ONE can be 100% certain that any niche will make them money… you need to test and try lots of different things.

As a real life example (I am revealing this exact test, showing the domains and everything in the Web2Mayhem next week), I built 5 small niche blogs that are focused on amazon products. I built these blogs following a super easy strategy that was focused on what someone just starting out could realistically do. These are 5 related niches to each other but are each a tight niche blog that only contains a couple pieces of unique content and then is added into my auto content system (which web2mayhem members get) and after 2 months now, I have identified three of the five that are doing very well traffic wise and are converting and this month will net about $400.

The two that are not doing well I am going to give another month and if nothing, I will sell them… which will more then pay for the cost of them.

The point here is if I just built one or two of them, I might have built only the two that are making no money and from the initial research… they looked just as good as the winners did. I also made sure to build them correct, use great content and promote them.

You see the only guarantee is the effort… you have to do something to achieve results.

If you ever saw chariots of fire, a quote that really gets to me is when the character Sybil Gordon says to Harold…

“If you don’t run, you can’t win.”

You see Harold was pouting because he got beaten badly in his last race and as a result refused to race anymore because if he could not win he did not want to race.

Well it goes the same with trying to make money online, you do not quit just because you did not succeed on a single attempt. You have to keep racing!

I have heard so many people cry a river saying “this or that does not work” only to find out they never really tried or tried some short cut and never put any real effort into it.

It is NOT…

the tools
the training
the niche
the… enter your own reason here

It IS the work. You have to use the tools, implement the training, test different niches and see what works and then keep doing what works.

Hope that speaks to you on some level and would love to hear a comment or two from you

The $1 trail to my Web2Mayhem is coming down tonight and if you want to sign up right now CLICK HERE NOW to go to the order page.

If you want to check out our sales letter then go here http://web2mayhem.com/W2Mvideo.html and watch the video.

If You Want To Make Money Online Then You Cant Just Follow

Jason Katzenback — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:08:42 +0000

One thing I am very adamant about is that no matter what system or strategy you are using to try and generate revenue; if you do not make it “Yours” it is never going to effectively achieve the results you are after.

For example, in the Web2Mayhem, I provide a very detailed three phase traffic system that walks members from start to finish on not only how to use the tools but more important then that is how to GENERATE TRAFFIC.

The training is made up of detailed checklists, videos and flowcharts and is designed with one purpose in mind… to get more traffic!

There is a HUGE risk though… and this is why I hate making such detailed strategies sometimes.

The person becomes a robot and does not think for him or herself.

No matter what, the most important thing you have to do, no matter the strategy that you are following, you have to make it your plan.

What Does That Mean?

First of all let me say that this does not just relate to my Web2Mayhem training, but it relates to any system or membership (even ebook) that you purchase with hopes of success. You need to figure out how to make the system fit in with what you are currently doing and figure out how to make it work for you.

That might sound super obvious… but it is not… NOT AT ALL.

What works for me is by no means what works best for you. We each have different strengths and ways of thinking and as a result what might flow and seem logical to one person, might be not be optimal for another.

You need to own what it is you are doing, you want to ensure you don’t simply stop what you are currently doing and you need to tweak and test and do what works for you.

A huge thing I see a lot of people doing is they start trying some seo strategy and then a mailing comes out for a new cpa course and they stop what they were doing and start trying that, then a new social media course comes out and they stop again and start over with that… and the cycle continues.

As made famous in the 80′s… STOP THE INSANITY

The fact is lots of money can be made with SEO, PPC, PPV, Media Buys, Social Media and more… Yes they ALL work. But anyone I know that is doing really well did not focus on all those, they picked one… got good and profitable with it and are expanding to another. In fact most of them stick with one or two only, cause they are good at it and can manage it.

Stop following butterflies and looking for the next best thing. The diamonds are in your backyard now (read Acres of Diamonds. its a great book) and you need to just stop, pick one thing to focus on, follow the training and advice, figure out how it works and then tweak it to work for you… then follow the money. What I mean is see what is making you money and then improve on it. Then once you have a system and can maybe hire people to do things for you, and then move on to try something new.

If you have not gotten good at any one thing, have not been able to make your own plan that works for you… then chances are I can bet you are spending way more money then you are earning.

Enough of my rambling on

Don’t forget, there is only a couple days left for my $1 fourteen day trial to my Web2Mayhem traffic system… you will be glad you did!

If you want to sign up right now CLICK HERE NOW to go to the order page.

If you want to check out our sales letter then go here http://web2mayhem.com/W2Mvideo.html and watch the video.

What Watching Julie and Julia Taught Me About Business (Don’t Laugh)

Jason Katzenback — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:59:42 +0000

I finally got around to seeing Julie and Julia, the movie about blogger Julie Powell and also about Julia Child’s life while she was writing her famous cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. My movie tastes usually skew a little more towards movies where things blow up, but I was at home and it was on tv on the movie channel, so I gave it a shot. Plus, half the story was about a blogger, so it was almost like doing research, right? What I didn’t expect that I’d find things in it that I could apply to business.

For example, when Julie Powell was deciding what her blog should be about, she said something along the lines of that she wanted to do the blog as an escape from the day-to-day life that she wasn’t happy with – specifically, the cubicle life at a government job that she didn’t find fulfilling or interesting, but paid the bills – a situation most people have found themselves in, especially in this economy. She loved cooking and admired Julia Childs, so that’s where the Julie/Julia project cam from – where she would cook all 500+ recipes found in Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

And it was a blog that succeeded. Of it was born a book (a process you see in the movie) and, of course, the movie itself. It was a blog born out of interest and passion. Now, not every blog born out of passion and interest will necessarily succeed, but a lot more of them will than the ones without interest and passion behind it (that’s pretty much none.) It confirmed something I’ve always said on this blog – if you want to make money online, you’ve got to have an interest and passion (have I said that enough times in one paragraph?) in order for it to be a success.

The other interesting point the movie made (for me, anyway) came from Julia Child’s story. Now, it was interesting to me to find out that Julia Childs, arguably one of the most famous and easily recognized chefs in the world, ever, did not become successful in her chosen field until later in life. Heck, she didn’t even find it until later in life. She didn’t even start learning to cook until after she moved to Paris in her 40s. But one thing she always knew was that she loved food, and even though she ended up trying a bunch of different things before she figured it out, what made her successful was finally following her heart and doing something she loved.

It was heartening to me – it said that, just because you aren’t where you want to be right now, doesn’t mean that you won’t get there. I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there, working to make a living, doing enough to get by and feeling like they’ve failed because they don’t have a career that they love.

So, the message I took form Julie and Julia is that it’s ok is you absolutely don’t love what you’re doing right now, and that it doesn’t make you a failure if you don’t make the top 30 under 30 list anywhere. And you’re also not required to stick with something for the rest of your life just because you’ve put a few years into it, or it’s what you took in school. But what’s not ok if is you settle, and say that it’s good enough. Keep searching for that thing you love to do and figure out a way to make money doing it. As Julia Childs said, “I’ve been looking for a career all my life and now I’ve found it!”

Can’t Make Money With Your Website – I Think This Might Help!

Jason Katzenback — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:30:47 +0000

First of all Happy New Years… kind of hard to believe it is 2010… for me anyway.

In the spirit of New Years (new beginnings and all that stuff) I wanted to take some time and offer some help to some of you. A couple hours a go I was approving comments on this here blog and I read the following…

So I thought to myself…

“What a great idea for a post!”

The problem however is I am not sure many of you are in the mood for reading much since last night was the number 1 hangover creator of the year. So instead I thought… hey lets do a podcast.

So, if you are one of the many out there that can relate to that comment and have been trying to make money online and seem to be going nowhere… well maybe this 20 minute podcast can help.

This is 100% content… no trying to sell or pre-sell anything.

It is a very one sided podcast… simply because it is me simply talking… but I think it is some pretty good stuff and hopefully it can help a bit.

I do have a request though. As mentioned in the comment, the site Jim is struggling with is…

http://www.ebay.internet-money.org/ebay-rules.php

And I was going to critique it but I would love instead to get some of you, my awesome readers, to give Jim feedback instead. Not looking for huge paragraphs of feedback but instead simply comment below with an answer to the following question…

–> What is the number one thing you recommend Jim modify with this web page to help him get conversions?

I will follow up on the post with my opinions and feedback to your comments but I would love to hear all your opinions first.

OK, so download the podcast (great stuff I think)…

(The free MSN tool I mention in the podcast is
http://adlab.microsoft.com/Online-Commercial-Intention/)

…and then check out http://www.ebay.internet-money.org/ebay-rules.php and come back here and answer…

–> What is the number one thing you recommend Jim modify with this web page to help him get conversions?

(here is a little hint of one of my opinions… WAY TOO MANY DISTRACTIONS on the left and Crappy Title… oops that’s two.. but what’s yours… and be a little more specific then I am here.. this is just a hint, I will give details in the next post)

PS – Don’t forget to check ut the latest cool contest here at Johncow –> http://www.johncow.com/happy-new-years-and-some-free-super-cool-prizes-for-you/

Why You Need to Become a “Trusted Expert” in Your Field

Jason Katzenback — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:42:38 +0000

Why a Trusted Expert?

Because people want to do business with people they trust. It’s as simple as that. And unless you’ve got millions of dollars lying around, you don’t have the money to put into an advertising campaign to gain recognition for yourself and to build trust with your target audience like the major corporations do. And really, does anyone trust anything that’s said in advertising anymore?

Instead, you need to start looking at your communications in a different way. You need to come up with a strategy that will help you reach people, and build a level of trust with them that will cause them to seek you out when they need your product. And all for little to no money spent on your part. Just time, effort, and some authenticity are all that is required.

You just need to make other people start seeing you as a Trusted Expert. People want to do business with people they trust, and there’s not a whole lot of trust in online business. By being authentic and genuinely helpful (and don’t worry, I’ll explain how to do that if it seems like a foreign concept for business) you will position yourself as an authority in your niche or category.

By putting information first and sales second, it will actually make people want to buy from you more. It sounds counter-intuitive to everything you’ve read (trick them into buying stuff, hypnotize them so they don’t know what’s going on!) but it works, and even better, it establishes a long-term relationship that can provide you with sustained revenue down the road.

It may seem daunting (and a tad egotistical) to brand yourself as a Trusted Expert…

But there ain’t no room in business for humble, and you’ve got to blow your own horn because no one else is going to do it for you!

But to become a Trusted Expert, you first have to know more about your audience. In order to provide them with the information they want, you have to know what they need and why they need it.

So whats your thoughts on this post?

Quick Fixes to Improve Your Abandonment Rate

Jason Katzenback — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:43:18 +0000

Your PPC campaign has done its job; it’s driving traffic to your landing page. But your landing page abandonment rate is really high – people are bailing almost as soon as they get there. What have you been doing wrong?

You need to look at it from the user’s point of view. When they click on a PPC ad, there are certain things they are looking for when they hit the landing page. If you don’t meet those expectations, they leave.

Here is a list of things that a user wants to see when they hit your landing page:

What they expected to see. Did your PPC ad feature a certain offer? Make sure that it’s front and center so that the user sees it quickly when they first arrive. If the offer is hard to find, or isn’t what was promised in the ad, they will lose faith in you and bail.

That your site looks trustworthy. If you’re running a PPC ad campaign, chances are that you’re ultimate goal is to complete a sale. If your website looks chancy or doesn’t have guarantees or point-of-sale assurances, people won’t take the risk to buy from you. Any affiliation with a respected governing body or security measures that you have to keep your buyers safe, make sure that they’re prominently displayed to reassure the user that you’re credible the moment they hit the site.

How to learn more. If all you have are ‘buy now’ buttons without a way for people to learn more about who you are and what you’re selling, people will bail. Users are naturally suspicious (and often rightly so) of someone who if just pushing the hard sell without giving out any information about who they are or what they do. Even a single link to an “About Us” page is very useful in this regard.

What the next steps are. Generally, people like to know what the purchase process will be and what will be required of them before they commit to anything. By being completely transparent in your interactions with the user, you will encourage a feeling of trust and they will be more easily moved down the buying cycle.

Where they can get their questions answered. If someone isn’t ready to buy right just then, or perhaps has a question that you haven’t answered on the page, make sure that your contact information is prominently displayed so people can get a hold of you easily. If people can’t easily find this information, they will most likely give up and search for what they were looking for elsewhere. This is a pool of customers that you don’t want to lose – if they are interested enough to contact you about your product, they are further into the buying cycle than the normal visitor to your site, and with a little effort, can be easily converted into a sale.

Take a look at these simple guidelines and see if you’ve been breaking any of them. If you have, fix it, and then watch your abandonment rate decrease.

Prune & Water Your Money Tree – How to Make More Money Without Increasing Traffic

Jason Katzenback — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:29:32 +0000

To which you react with horror and suspicion….

How could it be possible to increase my sales without driving more people to my site?

And the answer to that is simple:

convert more of the visitors that are already visiting your site!

Yes. Mr Cow, you say, that would be great. But do you have any actual helpful tips to, maybe, you know, help me do that?

At this point I realize that my imaginary reader is quite sarcastic today, and I might want to lighten up, because it obviously says something about my own issues.

Anyways, fear not, imaginary reader, because I certainly do have advice for you on how to improve your conversion rate without spending money on additional traffic.

The secret is: make simple changes to your website to improve its overall performance. The best part about this is, unlike buying traffic, which is a short-lived benefit (i.e. only for as long as you’re paying for it) the changes you make to optimize your conversion rate is the gift that keeps on giving.

The first thing that you need to do is figure out your list of priorities, and I can’t tell you what these should be. Look at your metrics, and find out if there’s an obvious place to start – i.e. a page where the drop-off rate is drastically higher than anywhere else on the site. If there is, then start with that page. If there isn’t an obvious place to start, then I would start with your checkout process and work out from there.

You need to identify where people abandoned the buying process, and try to figure out why. Go over those pages. Is there something that would turn a buyer off, or lose trust in you as a seller. Are you asking for too much information, or is the buying process not transparent? Look at things from a buyer’s point of view – what do you look for when you’re buying something?

Here’s a list of simple things that are easy to do that could help improve your conversion rate, without much effort on your part:

Make sure your ‘buy now’ button looks like a button
You’d be surprised how many people miss this. Your purchase button should be the most prominent thing on the page, and make sure that it’s obvious that it’s a button.

Give security assurance at the point of purchase
People want to know that they’re buying in a secure place, and that your site is a safe place for them to buy. Don’t assume they’ll see the https://, tell them about it on the page.

Make sure you’re providing what your ad promised
Even if you’re offering the same thing, if you word it differently, people may think that you’re not proving what the ad promised. (Eg. – Ad says buy one, get one half off! Website says buy 2, get 25% off both! It’s the same thing, but it sounds like a different offer.

Be clear about the whole buying process if it includes multiple steps
People don’t like thinking that they’re almost done, only to have to keep filling out page after page. By letting your customer know how long the process will take, and what information they will give and get at every stage, they’ll be less likely to drop out in the middle of the process.

Be clear about shipping charges as soon as possible, if you have any
If you’re shipping out physical product, let people know what the shipping charges are before the final checkout screen. Surprise shipping charges are the cause of a lot of mid-checkout abandonment’s.

If you’ve already done all these things, then great. Start testing other elements to see what else you can do to improve you conversion rate. If you haven’t then start now! The true benefit of these improvements is seen over a longer period of time, so the longer you wait, the less money you’ll be making.

BloggersBase.com – Get Discovered and Make Money Online

Jason Katzenback — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:00:20 +0000

Looking to Start a Blog? Looking to Actually Have People Read It?

BloggersBase.com is a competition-based discovery platform where anyone – writers, journalists, bloggers – can submit content and get immediate exposure. And the better you are, the more exposure you get. And the higher your ranking, the more cash and prizes you get…and I loves me some cash and prizes.

But seriously, when I heard about BloggersBase, I was intrigued. Formatted as an online magazine made up of multi-authored blogs, covering a variety of topics, BloggersBase is also moderated by algorithm-enhanced reader input, which determines the rankings of the blogs.

The competition runs like this: each category has a limited amount of official bloggers at any given time. Everybody else is in the Goldmine, competing to become one of the official bloggers. There are Timeslots with specific time limits; at the end of each Timeslot, the lowest ranked bloggers are relegated back down to the Goldmine, while the Goldmine posters with the best-rated Nuggets (the name for the Goldmine blogposts) gets elevated to official blogger. And so it goes, with people continually having to maintain the quality of their blogs to stay on top.

And where do the cash and prizes come in? (Cause you know I’m all about making money online. Have I mentioned that before?) You can earn them two ways: either by participating in the Timeslot contests, or by inviting your friends via affiliate links; in that case, if your friends win the competition, you’ll be rewarded as well. Blogs are ranked on everything from professionalism and presentation to value and imagination. As with the bloggers, the readers gain rankings with how accurately they rate, although they’re not regulated by the Timeslot contests.

The system seems fairly intuitive and easy to use. And in going through some of the comments, any suggestions about improving the functionality of the site or ideas for new categories, etc., were responded to quickly. BloggersBase seems interested in what their bloggers have to say and takes their opinions seriously.

And for those of you that already have established blogs that you want to promote, BloggersBase does not require exclusivity, and encourages you to publish all your posts for them on your own sites as well. You can also put links in your profile and your posts to your sites. You’ll reach a new targeted reader base instantly and get critiques and rating to improve your writing. So you can promote your sites as well as win cash and prizes; sounds like a win-win to me.

Go check out BloggersBase for yourself!

How To Do It: Indirect Marketing

Jason Katzenback — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:54:07 +0000

This post is written by Mattaw of Moneybites.com and BlogGears.com. Moneybites shares tips, tricks, and ideas to make money online.

Indirect marketing is a great way to get some excellent promotion and coverage on websites or blogs. It is a type of creative marketing that is cheap BUT very effective.

What is indirect marketing?

Indirect marketing is when…

“products and services are sold through third part distributors (versus direct marketing)”

I’m not talking in this case about selling products or services through a third party though. Instead, I’m talking about getting your product or service promoted by using the help of a third party to get at the place where you want the promotion to occur.

How to do it

Indirect marketing can be done fairly simply. The first step you need to take is researching your target. Find out about friends and family (family is best) and their habits. Next send the friend or family your promotion along with a promotion for the person you want to target.

What this does is gets the friend talking to the target about your company, and your target is already happy because they got something for you. Also, it can show the target that you cared enough to do some research and be kind to people around them (if they look at the indirect gift first as well).

For example, if my target was Mr. X, I’d research Mr. X first and find out everything about him (in this case let’s say he has a son). I’d then send Mr. X a promotional package along with something extra for his son. What this would do is get his son on your side (he just received a gift out of the blue) and get the target thinking about you. Mr. X might be so impressed (or nagged crazily by the indirect person) that he may give me some exposure on his website or blog.

A real life example

John Chow (yeah, I know a lot of examples involve him), at one point received a promotional package from MarketLeverage (A CPA company). Inside this package was a host of stuff for his daughter as well as a few treats for John.

What MarketLeverage did here was appealed to John’s fatherly sense and also did something nice for a loved one. In response (and probably motivated slightly by the kindness), John wrote about it on his blog, not too shabby.

This is a classic example of indirect marketing. They appealed to someone close to the target and as a result got the promotional “bang” they wanted.

Wrap up

Indirect marketing can really help you make some “noise” for your product. It can get people talking if done right and really get you some good exposure. So, before your next marketing attempt, find a website you like, do a little research and perhaps extend a well thought out promotion attempt to the webmaster and owner (and the indirect target). You might just get the “bang” you’re looking for.

So what are your thoughts about the idea of Indirect Marketing?

Planning Contest Criteria – Part 5 of AnAudLife dot Com

Jason Katzenback — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:02:34 +0000

In the previous post “Planning a Contest to Get the Buzz Going” we talked about deciding on what the best prizes would be for your market and today we are going to talk about planning the criteria that participants are required to perfrom to be entered to win.

One of the challenges of holding a contest is how do you make it viral so it gets loads of attention. People that enter the contest usually do not want to talk about it with others since it will decrease their chances of winning. With http://www.anaudlife.com, my goal of the contest is to get exposure for the blog and in order to do that I want the contest to encourage participants to talk about the contest in other places and personally I am a fan of the “Ticket” system for allowing participants the opportunity to earn more chances to win by spreading the word.

There are many people who are not big fans of the multi ‘Ticket’ system but the problem is if you have a new blog and you do not already have a significant reader base, having a contest or giveaway that is just a simple “subscribe”, is not going to get you any extra exposure.

Now do not get me wrong, contests with simple one step registrations can be very successful but you need to already have lots of traffic coming to your site to take advantage of it.

For our case study blog we are going to use the multi ‘Ticket’ system and now we need to plan out the criteria.

This can prove to be somewhat of a challenge for people, especially in non “IM” (internet marketing) related niches. One of the great things about the IM niche is you can be pretty sure that most people in the market own a website or blog, have accounts at social networks, know what digg, twitter and squidoo are and the list goes on and on.

You need to be able to take advantage of systems that the sites market will be familiar with and it can not be done in such a way that would appear to be spamming someone. One thing you will want to consider is providing small little video instructions of each criteria that your readers may not be familiar with, this way you can help those that want to participate but do not know how.

Criteria 1: Subscribe to RSS feed via email: This is the top thing that I want people to do. Getting someone opted in to the sites list means repeat traffic. It is important that you also mention that they must remain opted into the list in order to win.

Possible optional criteria:

The optional criteria are the extra things the participant can do to get more chances to win. You will want to award points based on effort and so something that is very easy to do would earn a few points but something that is more difficult would earn more points. Before you worry about the points however, you need to figure out what optional steps to use. Some ideas for our case study blog is…

Vote for Video on YouTube: We would need to create a video about the site but most people know what Youtube is and it would be easy to make a quick video about how to vote the video up and comment on it.

Facebook and or Myspace: You can be pretty sure that a lot of people are familiar with these sites and have accounts at one or both of them. You can create a group or page and have them join and write on their wall about the contest.

Content Creation: Some people love to write and you could have them create content for you that you can use. Ask them to write a 400 word article about your contest and blog, you can then submit this article to a site like ezinearticles.com to get some exposure. You can even offer to link to their site with the article as well, this way you both get a good quality backlink.

Link to Your Blog: I can guarantee you that the majority of your readers will not own a blog but a lot of them will have some way of adding a link to your blog. It never hurts to ask.

Stumble the Page: This is one of those things that a lot of people will not have accounts with but you can provide instructions and hope for the best.

Comment on Other Blog: This one you need to be careful with and provide detailed instructions but is an easy way to get some links via comments. Explain that the comments must be worthwhile and relate directly to the post they are commenting on and are not to enter a link in the comment but simply enter your sites name and url in the asked for comment fields. Make sure that the blog they comment on is at least remotely related to your market.

Cow Brained Idea –> Hmmm…. thinking outside the box here but maybe you could get a little script made that you prefill with blogs you would like them to comment on and the post randomly shows one for them to comment on. Damn I think I am going to get that made… it is freakin genius bwa hahahaha.

Once you have decided on the criteria you are going to use, you will then need to figure out the point values.

Your Help is Wanted –> What other ideas do you have… please comment below and share other possible ideas you have for a non IM “arthritis” blog.

In the next post of this series, I am going to about protecting yourself with your contest.

Part 1 – Planning Your Promotion Strategy
Part 2 – Understanting the How and Where of Your Promotion Strategy
Part 3 – Planning the Subscriber Traffic Strategy
Part 4 – Planning a Contest to Get the Buzz Going
Part 5 – Planning the Contest Criteria
Part 6 – Protect Yourself Before You Start a Contest
Part 7 – Rule of the Contest Prize Delivery

Make Money as a JohnCow Affiliate

Jason Katzenback — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:05:30 +0000

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Fat & Lazy People Will Make You Rich

Jason Katzenback — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:08:21 +0000

If I offended you by the title let me first of all apologize but once you listen to the below podcast you will 100% understand what I am talking about.

As you may recall, last week I mentioned about an interview I was going to do today… well I did it a few hours ago, I know you are going to love it and one of the things that really stuck out to me was the “Fat & Lazy” comment.

Now, I know that is not politically correct but the concept of what was being talked to in the podcast is an important one. The idea of people wanting you to do everything for them is so true and it is such a powerful revenue model. Look at Home Depot, they have such an amazing business model… they give you the tools, they give you the training but if you have the money they will also do 100% of the work for you to.

I have incorporated this in my business because there are people that love the tools and or training but there are others that want it all and they want you to do it for them and most important of all…

They Will Pay For It!

As you listen to this interview, ask yourself these questions…

1. What problems are people in my niche complaining about?
2. What solution to those problems can I provide those that have more time than money?
3. What solution to those problems can I provide those that have more money than time?

This is a great conversation with someone that has transformed their business and if you can not get some fantastic ideas from this then you are not listening. There is advice and ideas that can be applied to every niche there is.

Now for those of you that are subscribed readers of Johncow.com via email, I sent you the written transcript in PDF format. If you would like to receive the transcript then opt in and you will also get a free copy of my “How to Build a Business Not Just a Blog”.

Right Click Here and select “Save As” to Download the Audio and listen to it in your favorite MP3 player (download is in Zip format)

Listen online now –> Click Here

REMINDER: There is absolutely nothing to up sell or buy with this podcast… this is just 100% good content.

Make sure to also check out Timothy Sykes site at http://www.timothysykes.com/

So, what is your feedback on this interview… did you like it.. did you learn something?

Get Off The Make Money Online BandWagon & Make a Fortune!

Jason Katzenback — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:26:06 +0000

I need to be completely honest here and I am just going to say it like it is. If you are just starting out online and want to create a blog and choose to create a ‘Make Money Online’ blog… you are missing the BIG PICTURE!

When I started online I did absolutely nothing in the “Online Business” niche… instead I had websites on health, parenting and so on. The reason I got into this business (Make Money Online) is because 3 years ago we were able to take what we were successfully doing with our business and teach others how to do it successfully… and we made a lot of money doing that. It was also what made me realize that I LOVE to teach people about running a business online –> “It is my passion”. This is why I jumped at the opportunity to buy JohnCow… i wanted to have a blog like this for over 2 years now.

So, when I see someone that is working for minimum wage and has no clue about Making Money Online and wants to start a blog and immediately jump on the bandwagon because they see that some others are making money here it frustrates me to absolutely no end.

If you want to make money online then you need to get this through your head right now…

“FOCUS ON WHAT YOU ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT HELPING PEOPLE WITH”

Since i have taken over ownership of JohnCow, I have walked through building two blogs with you and I hope you notice that neither of them had anything to do with the MMO (Make Money Online) niche.

OK, now I do not want to sound like a hypocrite but Yes there is money to be made in practically any niche.. including the MMO niche but it is a lot harder if you are not passionate about it.

Want proof… well I will show you proof.

I just got off the phone with a guy whose name I will with-hold until a little later (just because I want to make this fun and interesting), but I called him because I recieved an email from a reader of JohnCow who wanted me to check something out… and DAMN am I ever glad I did. This is exactly the type of stories I love because it backs up exactly what I want people to understand.

You see this guy (lets call him Mr X for even more fun.. oh and he was recently featured in Young Money magazine, so if you are bored you can probably figure out who he is) tried doing this the way others were doing it… not following his passion but following what looked to be working for others.

Well guess what???

That was going no where!

Then suddenly he decided to follow something that I preach over and over again…

“Make a plan and MAKE IT YOUR OWN PLAN”

Mr X decided that he was going to follow his passion and put a plan together that was modified to be completely his own plan.

NOTE –> This is so important to understand that it is not that he did not listen to others but he took from others what he wanted to and made it into his own plan. Do not take anything I give you here at Johncow as the one and only way… you need to look at it as a guideline and modify it to be your own personal plan.

So how has this worked out for Mr X?

Well 4 months ago he made $9,000 in one month, then the next month $15,000, then last month $45,000 and with less then half of this month gone through he is already at $30,000 (looks like a $60,000 + month for him)

Want to know how he did it and how you can do it?

Well I am going to be doing a podcast with Mr X on Monday and I will reveal all about it them. His name, website and everything. I promise, there is nothing to buy, nothing to opt in for or anything. This is purely 100% content and I am doing it to prove to you that following your ‘passion’ and making your ‘own’ plan works!

So, What Questions Do You Got for Mr. X?

(the call will not be live but will be recorded and uploaded this coming Monday… so please ask away)

Oh there is one catch… I m going to be getting a written transcript of the call but that will only be made available to those that are subscribed to JohnCow via email and I promise you this is going to be KICK BUTT content!

Understanding the Where and How of Your Promotion Strategy – Part Two of An Aud Life dot Com

Jason Katzenback — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 01:05:56 +0000

In the previous lesson “Planning Out Your Promotion Strategy“, we decided upon our traffic goals and now it is time to lay out the where and how to achieve those goals.

Step 1: Where are we going to get the Traffic?

I think we often jump into a promotion strategy and immediately think “link building”. While that is an essential part of it, you want to be able to really understand where your traffic is coming from. This is where you need to really understand your audience and where they are. If you simply focus on getting good rankings in Google then you are going to be missing a huge part of the bigger picture. So this is where we lay out where it is we want to get traffic from.

1 – Subscribers (repeat visitors)
2 – Search Engines (Mainly Google)
3 – Forums & Social Networks
4 – Word of Mouth / Recommendations

These are basically the same for all our promotions but it is the next part that separates them for each different niche. You may also wonder why such a different approach compared to that of the COWpetiton blog from our eBook and the simple reason is TIME. We only had 30 days in that example to accomplish our goals and some of these above steps take a lot longer then 30 days to even get started.

Step 2: How are we going to get Traffic from those sources?

Those above 4 steps might seem really basic to you and the reason is “They Are”. Those are essentially all that we are going to focus on and if I did not really want to give you good information I could stop here but the fact is you need to go much deeper and drill down into each specific section to the “HOW”.

It is easy to say I am going to get traffic from subscribers, but if I truly do not understand or plan out how I am going to achieve that, then I may as well say I am going to pull them out of my butt.

So how do you figure out the “HOW”?

You need to clearly understand two things…

1. Who is your audience?
2. What resources do you have available?

For http://www.anaudlife.com, the target audience are people who are suffering with Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms or have a loved one who is suffering with it and are looking for help, answers and someone they can relate to. Audrey is not targeting “customers” at all right now and instead is looking to build relationships with her readers.

NOTE: This is an important point and I am not saying you can not monetize your blog right away but you need to be careful and not be in such a rush to make a quick buck. Often we want to start earning revenue so badly that we become “in your face” with our marketing message and completely forget about building a relationship with the reader. Now on the other end of this, their comes a time when you need to try to earn some money and do not be afraid to do it. You may have some of your readers send you hate mail but remember, you have mouths to feed and you are in this to generate revenue.

One of the strong points to the arthritis niche, and I do not want to sound bad here, is that there is no cure for this condition. Of course we pray for a cure everyday but right now there is not one and because of this, it is not a market that people do not come and go out of. Once you have arthritis, you have it for life. (Man that sounds bad to say, please do not take it that way). The point here is it can be tough to build a subscriber base if the niche is one time purchases (say a mattress or GPS device), it is not impossible but a lot harder.

As for the resources available, Audrey is in a very good position here as she is a stay at home mom, who has a husband (ME) that does this for a living. Now for those of you that are not in that boat, what you need to do is take a realistic view of your time and money situation and be honest with yourself as to how much time per day you can spend on this and how much of a monthly budget you can afford to invest in. You NEED to understand this from the beginning because it will influence the next steps dramatically.

IMPORTANT: I want to assure you that 5 years ago I was working a 8 hour day job, supporting a young family and trying to get this business started. I was living pay check to pay check and barely had any time during the day to focus on the business. It was small successes and victories that eventually lead to bigger and better things and if you are in that boat, please do not get discouraged. I understand your situation and I promise that you do not need loads of cash and tonnes of free time to get this started. What you need is a plan, commitment and dedication.

Once you clearly understand your audience and the resources you have available, the next step (which I will cover in the next post) is a continuation of the “HOW” step and we are going to list out exactly how we are going to reach our target audience with the resources we have available to get traffic from each “WHERE” source.

hmm say that three times fast!

So what are you thoughts on this post… does it make sense to you?

Part 1 – Planning Your Promotion Strategy
Part 2 – Understanting the How and Where of Your Promotion Strategy
Part 3 – Planning the Subscriber Traffic Strategy
Part 4 – Planning a Contest to Get the Buzz Going
Part 5 – Planning the Contest Criteria
Part 6 – Protect Yourself Before You Start a Contest
Part 7 – Rule of the Contest Prize Delivery

Planning Your Promotion Strategy – Part One of An Aud Life dot Com

Jason Katzenback — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:34:02 +0000

When I originally did the COWpetition section a few months ago on promoting the GamerzReviewz blog, I saw a few people try to replicate what I did without understanding the need to step back, look at the big picture and then properly plan. You see, each niche is a completely different animal and what works in one niche is not guaranteed to work in another niche.

For example, I have found twitter to be very good for markets that are full of people that are online addicts, these include marketers, bloggers, programmers and gamers. The real power of Twitter comes from getting people that actually use it to follow you. Getting someone to create a twitter account and follow you is almost useless if they never actually visit the account.

So the first step is to plan out our strategy and this includes creating a goal and then planning out how we are going to achieve that.

Step 1: Set Our Goal

When doing a promotion campaign, you should set your goal as “Traffic” not google rankings, links or subscribers. The reason for this is traffic is where the money is and rankings, links and subscribers are stepping stones to achieving that goal. We also want to create three goals… 6 months, 3 months and 1 month. You can plan out further then that if you want but I do not like to because the blog might not catch on.

This is not by business goal, it is my specific traffic goal for this specific blog. The fact is that not all sites and blogs are going to catch on and after 6 months you will know if you should continue to focus a lot of effort into this project or move on.

Remember you blog is a part of the bigger picture and is a stepping stone to achieving your financial goals. You do not want to digg your heels in and focus your energy on something that is not returning an investment and so after 6 months, re-evaluate the situation and either make plans to grow it more or move on to focus efforts elsewhere. At the minimum I will let a site run for 3 months and within that time will have a good idea about how well it will do but I have also had sites that sucked at first and suddenly 9 months later Google started ranking and sending traffic to it.

Our Traffic Goals:

6 Month: 600 Uniques a day
3 Month: 300 Uniques a day
1 Month: 100 Uniques a day

My Reasoning: I have found that on average doing standard promotion strategies that these numbers are about what we should expect from a niche specific site in the health industry. Whether you agree with me or not, I do not really care and when you set your goals remember they are your goals not someone elses. You do not want to go too high because your first initial few months are in need of momentum and a great way to give you momentum is by achieving realistic goals. You also do not want to under estimate too much because if you make it too easy on yourself you will get lazy.

Now here is the challenge and I know a few of you will say… “I told you so”

http://www.anaudlife.com is already averaging 100+ a day because of this case study and being mentioned on this blog. The challenge is I want to show exactly what we are doing and there is no way to hide the site from you but what we can do (using google analytics) is calculate the traffic from all other sources and get an estimate. The traffic being sent from JohnCow is also not niche targetted and so for the most part will disappear once the case study is over, so we want to dismiss this traffic up front.

IMPORTANT –> Do not be distracted by the fact that the results will not be exact due to the mentioning of the blog, look at the strategies and follow along and implement them yourself. Here is a twist on a popular saying for you that is something I truly believe…

Some people say the glass is half empty, others say half full, I say… why waste time over analyzing the darn thing, slam it down and enjoy it!

If you are going to sit here and over anlyze and pick apart different things, you are going to miss out. I encourage each of you to follow along and figure out how to make this work for you. Make the best of what you are given and enjoy it.

Also, for those of you that have read the eBook “How to Build a Business and Not Just a Blog” this is going to give you a different view because the goal of the COWpetition blog was to sell in 30 days and that limited us on what we could do with it. This one is different and will be a great compliment to the eBook.

Tomorrow I am going to show how I come up with the actions steps to achieve my goals.

[poll id="9"]

So what is your feedback on this post?

Part 1 – Planning Your Promotion Strategy
Part 2 – Understanting the How and Where of Your Promotion Strategy
Part 3 – Planning the Subscriber Traffic Strategy
Part 4 – Planning a Contest to Get the Buzz Going
Part 5 – Planning the Contest Criteria
Part 6 – Protect Yourself Before You Start a Contest
Part 7 – Rule of the Contest Prize Delivery

How to Promote & Run a Contest – A Case Study of An Aud Life dot Com

Jason Katzenback — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:00:12 +0000

If you have been a reader of JohnCow for a while now, you will know that we are constantly holding contests here. Contests are fantastic ways to get a good amount of exposure, gain readers and more.

One of the huge advantages of us having a well established blog (along with lots of business contacts) is we have been able to sponsor some pretty sweet contests that have not cost us a single penny. This however does not mean that if you are just starting out and have few (if any) contacts that you can not hold a successful contest. What it does mean however is you are going to have to work a little harder to get some buzz going for it and you may have to spend some of your own money on the prizes.

Over the next week or so I am going to put together a case study for promoting a new blog which includes how to hold a contest and we are going to lay out every step of the process here in a blog series so you can learn first hand how to do it. The blog I am going to use for this is a blog that my beautful wife of 12+ years just created at http://www.anaudlife.com

Since I first got into running a business online, my wife has had 0 interest in any part of it. She did not like computers, had no interest in running a business and had not a clue as to how to describe to others what it was I did. The only part that she had any interest in was spending the money that it generated

As a stay at home mother (raising our two daughters) she has recently started to show an interest in blogging and getting involved with some forums and places like FaceBook and about 2 months ago asked if she could have her own blog. After about 10 minutes of laughing (because I thought she was joking), when I could tell from the look on her face that at that moment she thought I was a jackass… I then said in disbelief…

“Are You Serous?”

Well, she was serious and so immediately it popped into my mind… “What a great opportunity for a case study for my readers!”

So the first thing I had her do was list the top 5 things she was passionate about and loved to research on the internet. Number 2 on her list (after shopping for clothes) was rheumatoid arthritis. You see my wife was diagnosed three years ago at the age of 30 with rheumatoid arthritis and in fact it had gotten so bad that she had to use a cane full time. Once she knew what the cause of the pain was, she immediately began researching and testing treatments and everything else related to this condition. She has since eliminated the need for a cane completely and has become very physically active (our dog cant even keep up with her anymore).

As soon I saw this on her list –> BINGO!

You see, having a niche that you are 100% passionate about is a niche you want to be in. You can write with passion, relate to your readers and best of all it encourages you to learn even more about the topic so you can have stuff to write about.

Over the past 4 weeks Audrey has started to piece together a blog that is pretty darn good and she has done it by herself…

She has wanted to learn how to do it and so alI I have done (other then a little graphics help from some of my office staff) is provided some direction. It is a definite learning curve for her (little things like how to write a title, researching keywords, using forums for ideas and so) but I am very proud of how well she has done so far.

She is now at the stage of starting the promotion for her blog and this is the part that I am going to get a little more involved in and this is also the part that I am going to completely share with all of you. You will see first hand what we are going to do and the first part of this is going to be planning out the promotion strategy and organizing a contest.

So, you are going to want to get your pen and paper ready (you will want to jot down ideas that pop in your head) and get ready for some fun learning. I also recommend, if you have not done so already, that you subscribe to our blog so you can keep up with us… we will also be putting this into an ebook form for all our readers after it is done.

PS – One of my good online buddies is putting together a wicked contest for you all that will be hosted here on JohnCow starting next week, so stay tuned!

So out of curiosity…

[poll id="8"]

Part 1 – Planning Your Promotion Strategy
Part 2 – Understanting the How and Where of Your Promotion Strategy
Part 3 – Planning the Subscriber Traffic Strategy
Part 4 – Planning a Contest to Get the Buzz Going
Part 5 – Planning the Contest Criteria

Inter-Network Marketing – The New Revolution Turning Failure On It’s Head

Jason Katzenback — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:30:16 +0000

Guest Post from Dean Caporella (Network Marketing Lead Generator)

There is a revolution going on right now in the network marketing world and the good news is, if you’ve tried it in the past and failed, then chances are you’ll make a better fist of it this time around.

Why?

Two words…internet marketing.

In fact, Renegade network marketer Ann Sieg and Site Build It’s Ken Evoy recently dubbed the new craze inter-network marketing. People who used to struggle to recruit even one prospect a month are now recruiting in the double figures simply by using the power of internet marketing to market themselves.

So why was network marketing such a tough business for most to make an impression on? Quite simply, the answer lies in the recruiting techniques taught to new recruits and the unconscious lies they were told before they joined and once they were in the business.

More than 90% of network marketers will dump their businesses within the first three months. When one analyzes how they were recruited and what they’re taught, it’s easy to see why. If you’re currently network marketing or have tried it in the past then see if any of these “lies” resonate with you:

everyone is your prospect
anyone can do this
we’ll build your business for you
it’s not really sales – we just share products
well, you don’t have enough belief

That’s just a handful but the truth is, the short answer to each of the above is a resounding NO!

The first lie for example, is what has given network marketing the bad rap. Treating everyone as a prospect is unprofessional, untargeted and will will get you blacklisted by friends and family.

There is many a network marketer who has adopted this approach bearing the scars of rejection and banished to the MLM scrap heap.

The truth is, everyone is not a prospect simply because everyone is not looking for a business opportunity. And by using haphazard prospecting methods like this, rejection becomes a huge issue because people hate hearing no and if they hear it often enough within a short period, they’ll do the natural thing and bail out.

So what’s the answer?

Simple…putting your offer in front of a market hungry to hear it. And this is where the internet comes in.

Targeting your audience means you will have genuine home business seekers responding, people who actually want to hear what you have to say.

And the benefits…they will actively seek you out which means a huge reduction in rejection and best of all, with the drawing power of the internet, you won’t have to go chasing people down and harassing them anymore about a home business opportunity.

It’s part of the new attraction marketing model which frustrated network marketers are embracing in droves. Remember, before Ann Sieg released The Renegade Network Marketer, the majority of MLMers were flailing around struggling with old school offline methods.

Now, the playing field has been well and truly leveled.

Learn more at http://www.squidoo.com/networkmarketinglead

Google Analytics – Advanced Tracking with JavaScript Events

Jason Katzenback — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:06:59 +0000

In the previous post I talked about “Google Analytics – Content” and how you can use the information to understand what are popular topics on your site to create content about. Today I want to talk about another “Content” feature in Analytics but this one is a little bit of a different tactic.

Google Analytics offers the ability to create what is called “Java Script events” that are added to the html of a link on your blog. These events will treat the link like it is an actual page and by doing this you will be able to see specific details about the links that are very worthwhile to know.

There are dozens of different things you can use this strategy to track and when you tie it in with setting up goals (I talk about this tomorrow) you have an extremely powerful “one – two” punch that gives you very powerful data.

Some examples of things you can track using this strategy…

If you have a page with multiple call to actions that link to the same page, you can track which one is getting the most action.
If you want to track clicks on different banner ads on your site, you can know specifically which banners are getting the most clicks.
If you want to track the amount of times someone downloads a PDF, ZIP or some other file.
If you run PPC and you have multiple copies of the same page for specific keywords and you are promoting the same affiliate product, you can track which specific page is getting the best CTR (Click Through Rate) on the actual “Call to Action” link. This is very powerful since most affiliate products do not allow you to put conversion tracking on their thank-you page… hmmm I see another series of posts here for tracking PPC.
and the list can go on and on…

To create an event you simple add the following code to your link…

onClick=”javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/event/nameofevent’);

So the html of your link would appear like…

the (‘/event/nameofevent’) is what Analytics will use to identify the specific link. So for example, say I have a pre sales page that I want to track which call to action link on that page is getting the most amount of “Action” to the product I was promoting at abc.com, I would put with the top link in the post…

(‘/aff_event/top_abc.com’)

…and with the second link you could put…

(‘/aff_event/bottom_abc.com’)

…and if I had a banner ad in the post to the same product, I would put…

(‘/aff_event/image_abc.com’)

This is effective for testing links in different parts of your page and also using different call to actions or images.

Another example of how you could use a Java Script event is if we were giving away a free download. For that I would use…

(‘/downloadevent/pagefilename_pdf’)

If the file name is too long then just use abbreviations.

These are just two simple examples of how to use Java Script events and again when you tie them in with goals, it is very worthwhile.

How to Track the Events

Step 1: In the sidebar navigation menu, click on “Content” and then “Content Drilldown”

Step 2: Make sure to select “500″ in the display drop down and you will see all the content that Analytics has tracked being visited. Scroll down and click on /event/ (or what ever you called the first part of your file name in your event)

Note: you can name this what ever you want in the code.

Step 3: You will now get a list of all the javascript events you have created on your blog and you can start to see what links visitors are actually clicking on.

Purpose: I realize I reviewed different strategies already but for a lot of you who are just getting started and are primarily promoting other affiliate programs and this strategy is very effective for helping to understand whether a specific affiliate product is converting well or not. What you can do is add the javascript event to your links and if you see you are sending a lot of traffic to the affiliate site but not making sales, then you would want to test different affiliate offers, since you are sending lots of traffic but the sales page itself they are landing on is not converting.

If however you notice that you are sending very little traffic (getting a small amount of clicks on the affiliate links) you would want to focus on getting more visitors on your page and test a stronger “call to action”.

Often times we want to blame the affiliate program for not selling well but we are to blame because we are not even sending traffic to them… or we think we suck at affiliate marketing because we can not make sales when it is the actual affiliate product that is doing a poor job of converting sales.

Whew I hope that makes sense

So, any ideas pop up on how you can use this strategy?

Part 1: Google Analytics – Installing
Part 2: Google Analytics – Keywords
Part 3: Google Analytics – Incoming Links
Part 4: Google Analytics – Outgoing Traffic
Part 5: Google Analytics – Content
Part 6: Google Analytics – Tracking with JavaScript Events
Part 7: Google Analytics – Creating Goals

Google Analytics – Content

Jason Katzenback — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:05:16 +0000

This was honestly one of the last things I ever started looking at when it came to using Google Analytics but I quickly realized it was one of the most important for planning out your content.

Step 1: In the left hand navigation menu click on “Content” –> “Top Landing Pages”

Step 2: Make the date range a couple months of data.

Step 3: Now you will have a list of pages on your blog that are ranked by highest to lowest for traffic.

Step 4: Click on the link and look at the data that Analytics provides for where the traffic to that page is coming from and what keywords are being used to find it.

Purpose: There are a couple different things you want to look for here…

What content is getting lots of activity? You can not always tell by the amount of comments that a blog post gets (although it is a fantastic indicator), sometimes the content does not really cause a reader to comment but it does cause them to share it with others. You want to highlight this content because obviously it is important to your readers and you will want to write more content on that topic. It is great to poll and ask your readers what they want but this is truly not the majority opinion because everyone does not participate… but using the Analytics data will tell you the true answers.
Where is the Traffic Coming From? Do not assume that the traffic must be coming from the search engines… I often find very popular posts have recieved most of the traffic from sites like StumbleUpon. If this content was popular on Stumbleupon, then it is probably a good idea to create more similar content.
What Keywords Are Being Used? Check out what keywords your page is being found with, check to see where you rank in Google for that keyword and if it can be improved… Just Do It!

So what are your thoughts on todays tip and do you have any to add?

Google Analytics – Outgoing Traffic

Jason Katzenback — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:35:07 +0000

This is continued from the previous post Google Analytics Incoming Links

Getting lots of traffic is great but if no one is going where you want them to, well then there is a problem. Google Analytics helps you get a clear picture of not only where the traffic is coming from but also what it is doing once it gets there. Below is a very brief walk through of one way you can use this data provide.

Step 1: In the left hand navigation menu, click on “Content” and then “Top Exit Pages”

Step 2: You will now have a list of pages from your blog that are the top pages that people are leaving your site according to Analytics. Click on the top link.

Step 3: You want to look at “Time on Page” and if the page has a very low time on page.

Purpose: This is very powerful information because if you are finding that there is one page in particular that is getting lots of traffic but is also losing lots of traffic, then you know you may need to focus on that page.

You will want to look at the time spent on that page and if the average time on your top exit page is 20 seconds or less, then it is safe to assume that people are landing on that page and leaving right away. Now you will also have to understand the type of page it is. If your top exit page is an opt in “thank-you for opting in please confirm your subscription” page, then that is a good thing but if it is your main sales page… well then that is not so good.

STOP –>The time frames I gave are NOT hard fast rules. Alot depends on the length of your content and all that good stuff. If you want to see how long the average person should be on a certain page (say a pre sales page), then time yourself. Time how long it takes you to quickly read over the content and then click the link to buy… then that should become your goal for that page.

IMPORTANT –>You want to look at each page listed and look at the type of page they are and focus on ways of improving these pages.

TIP –> Do not just ignore pages like a ‘Thank-You’ page as a top exit page. This is very valuable real estate and if the ‘thankyou’ page only says “Thanks for Opting In” and does not provide other instructions, then there is roon for improvement. This is a great time to offer a recommended resource or an upsell.

So did any lights come on from this post?