Website-ROI-Guy.com

Bing vs. Google, a side-by-side comparison

Want to see how searches on Bing and Google compare side-by-side?  Check out Bing-vs-Google.com.  Type is a keyword or phrase and compare the results of the 2 SERPs side-by-side.

Something I learned while looking up something else!

-- Kurt

Cool Web 2.0 Website Recommendations

Here are some Web 2.0 websites you may find interesting. I found them while looking up other things.

Collecta monitors the update streams of news sites, popular blogs and social media.

SocialMention is like Google Alerts, but for social media.

Twitority bills itself as "Authority based Twitter search."

TweetBeep is also like Google Alerts, but for Twitter AND they email hourly.

Twitcam allows you to stream live on Twitter.

Who Follows Whom allows you to see who collectively follows up to 5 Twitterers.

Neat applications! Give them all a try!

-- Kurt Scholle, the WebsiteROIGuy

Twitscoop

One of the benefits of hanging out on Twitter is discovering new things before many others do.  This morning I discovered Twitscoop.  According to their website:

"Through an automated algorithm, twitscoop crawls hundreds of tweets every minute and extracts the words which are mentioned more often than usual. The result is displayed in a Tag Cloud, using the following rule: the hotter, the bigger"

It's a cool way to determine what people are talking about on Twitter.  I think they're still working the bugs out of their algorithm, but this application may have some interesting applications.  (That sentence is almost Yogi Berra-esque)

Or maybe it's just bad writing.

This tool should probably be part of your marketing resources.  It will help determine what people are looking for and how you can tailor your offer to meet their needs.  That's an important ongoing activity for any successful web site.

-- Kurt Scholle

Fun With ROI

Here's a fun little post to end the week - something I learned while looking up other things.

A new survey by AskMen.com and a hair coloring company tries to answer the age-old question, "Blond or Brunette?"

According to their survey of 4,000 men ages 18-34, about 2/3 would rather spend their money on a date with a brunette than a blonde.  But here's what caught the Website ROI Guy's eye, 63% claimed they have a "better ROI" with a brunette!

I wonder how we can make this apply to websites?

I wonder what Mrs. Website ROI Guy will have to say about this?

There are other interesting statistics, but they don't really apply to ROI.  So I won't even be reading that stuff...probably.

-- Kurt

People Buy What They Want, Not What They Need

Here's something I learned while looking up other things. 

A guy is blogging today about Internet marketing being all about selling benefits; of creating new needs and wants.  And then goes further to say that you can reinforce those needs by selling them ideals. (EG: a Hummer is not just transportation, it's a coveted lifestyle or wearing Nike jogging shoes does not necessarily mean that you are a runner)

He quotes William Feather, "The philosophy behind much advertising is based on the old observation that every man is really two men - the man he is and the man he wants to be."

I assume that applies to women, as well.

I find that interesting, especially in light of something i read last week and wrote down in my journal: "People buy what they WANT, not what they NEED.  Find out what they are buying and convince them to buy from you."

That's a great perspective regardless of whether you're selling online or now.

Feathers' quote was not made with the Internet in mind.  Depending on the source, William Feathers died in either 1976 or 1981.  And while I like the quote above, I like this one just as much, "Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go."  Perseverance and frequency of message are important to (website) success.

Feathers is also quoted as saying, "Early morning cheerfulness can be extremely obnoxious."  We'll comment on that in a future post!

-- Kurt Scholle

Blogging: A 10-Year Anniversary

Monday marked the 10th anniversary of the coining of the term "weblog."  10 years!  Who knew?

Jorn Barger, an interesting guy, interested in AI (artificial Intelligence) and James Joyce and Robot Wisdom, says that his intent for weblogs was to "make the web as a whole more transparent, via a sort of "mesh network," where each weblog amplifies just those signals (or links) its author likes best."  He says the Golden Age for blogs was 1998-1999 when the following principles were widely understood:

1. A true weblog is a log of all the URLs you want to save or share. (So del.icio.us is actually better for blogging than blogger.com.)

2. You can certainly include links to your original thoughts, posted elsewhere … but if you have more original posts than links, you probably need to learn some humility.

3. If you spend a little time searching before you post, you can probably find your idea well articulated elsewhere already.

4. Being truly yourself is always hipper than suppressing a link just because it's not trendy enough. Your readers need to get to know you.

5. You can always improve on the author's own page title, when describing a link. (At least make sure your description is full enough that readers will recognize any pages they've already visited, without having to visit them again.)

6. Always include some adjective describing your own reaction to the linked page (great, useful, imaginative, clever, etc.)

7. Credit the source that led you to it, so your readers have the option of "moving upstream."

8. Warn about "gotchas" -- weird formatting, multipage stories, extra-long files, etc. Don't camouflage the main link among unneeded (or poorly labeled) auxiliary links.

9. Pick some favorite authors or celebrities and create a Google News feed that tracks new mentions of them, so other fans can follow them via your weblog.

10. Re-post your favorite links from time to time, for people who missed them the first time.

Awesome Example of Guerrilla Marketing

I was reading the paper this morning about Oprah's campaigning over the weekend for Barack Obama in Columbia, South Carolina.  29,000 people showed up and it's estimated that Obama will not only close the 2-3% gap with Hillary in early voting states, but surpass her.

But what was really interesting is that Obama's campaign distributed cards to the attendees with the phone numbers for 4 registered voters, along with a script, and asked the attendees to use their cell phones to solicit support for Obama.

That's Awesome!

Can you imagine the impact of having thousands of spectators, turned into volunteers, whipped into a frenzy, calling 4 (or more) people to tell them what's going on and asking for support?  Think of the impact on awareness.  Think of what it would have cost to run a more traditional phone bank to reach the same 100,000+ people.  Think of how much longer it would have taken.  Think of the impact on Obama's competition.

Apparently, the Guinness Book of World Records will list the stunt in their book as the world's largest phone banking.

And it's classic Guerrilla Marketing - using low and no-cost techniques to market your business, organization or self.  There are a number of great marketing books listed to the right if you'd like to learn what a little creativity and effort can do for you.

The lesson here is how can you get the buzz going?  How can you turn your 'peeps' into raving fans who will refer you?

-- Kurt Scholle
    Web Asylum

10 Passwords to Avoid

Here's something I learned while looking up other things...

PC Magazine has released a list of the Top 10 passwords people use.  These are certainly not very imaginative..  You should not use these!!!

#10 (your first name)
#9 blink182
#8 password1
#7 myspace1
#6 monkey
#5 let me in
#4 abc123
#3 qwerty
#2 123456
#1 password

I may have told you that the name Web Asylum came in 1996 from putting something, long forgotten, into an anagram generator.  2 of the words that came out were web and asylum.  Before we discovered those words, we also had something come back with the 2 words "Angela's crotch."  It was an amusing surprise, but certainly not something to name our new company.  But we did use 'cr0tch' as our first company password. (Note the zero replacing the 'o')

Two Words for You

An online article says most people (31.9%) searching for information in search engines use two words in their query.  An Amsterdam-based analytics study shows that 3 words are used in searches 27% of the time.  One and four word searches each account for about 15% of search engine queries.

It has only been in the last year or so that searchers began using more than one term.  The use of multiple terms indicates that users are learning how to narrow their searches.  Online marketers can use this information when developing keyword and phrases lists.

From Russia With Love

Here's something I read in the paper, sort of 'a thing I learned while searching for the box scores.'

Russian bureaucrats are mandating an improvement in customer service!  A Siberian oil town mayor has banned the use of defeatist phrases by government employees.  More than 2 dozen phrases, including "It's not my job," and "I don't know" are not to be uttered to citizens seeking service.

This is pretty amazing when you think about it, even if it's only being pushed in one city.  Russian customer service has always been viewed as lacking.  Click over to this tongue-in-cheek offering.

But we've all had bad experiences that have affected our decisions to patronize a store, business, restaurant, school or non-profit organization.  Bad customer service hurts your brand.  Maybe it's the cashier who continues talking on the phone with a friend, while you're trying to check out.  Or the waiter who never seems to be available for a coffee refill.  My wife's organization recently had some updates done to their website by a firm that specializes in convention and visitors bureau websites.  To their horror (and after nearly a year in the works) they found that some of the content on their site included links to other CVBs in the Chicago area.  Apparently the vendor told my wife's firm that he would "fix it when he had a chance." 

Two things here:  First, the site should have been reviewed in a testbed.  The updates should never have been published before the revisions were approved.  Second, the appropriate response should have been, "Gadzooks!  We're sorry about that.  We'll have that fixed by the close of business TODAY."

Many people, me included, think that simple courtesies and decent customer service are going the way of the pet rock or 45 RPM records.  But good customer service is essential to winning over your prospect, not only for the first sale, engagement or donation, but for future transactions.

Besides, it'll make you feel good inside.

-- Kurt