Remember when you were a kid and the other kids on the playground would say things like “if you be my friend, I’ll let you play with my new toy?”  Or perhaps, “if you give me some of your dessert I’ll be your friend.” It’s just what kids do, and most of us grow out of that.  Or, at least I thought we did.

A growing trend in social media is to lure people to “like” or “follow” companies, products or brands by giving them something they want; a t-shirt, sticker, hair-care products or some other equally useless awesome “stuff”.  OK, that’s cool, everybody wins, sort of.

It’s a disaster, not daycare.

However, I think a line has been crossed.  While I and many other tech-minded people were at SXSW, a terrible disaster took place in Japan.  Hundreds, and possibly thousands of people were killed, wounded or went missing  after a record breaking earth quake and the subsequent tsunami.  Within a matter of hours I heard about companies promoting that if they get enough “likes” on their Facebook page they would donate money to help with search, rescue and/or recovery efforts.  One that I saw said if they get 100,000 new “likes”, they’ll send $100,000.  What?  That’s just as if they had said “we feel really bad about it and we want to help, but only if you’ll be our friend first.” Is it just me, or is that not very social?  Perhaps it even crosses into anti-social.

Let’s make social, social again.

Fundamentally, shouldn’t we as humans (even humans who run businesses) do good things because they’re good, and not because we hope people will like us for doing it?  Let’s try this – be remarkable; do something really great and worthy of being noticed and guess what, people will notice, and they will tell their friends.  In the end,  people will ACTUALLY like you, and not just on Facebook.

We should make these companies earn our friendship and not let them buy it.

Let’s make Social Media social again, what can we do to make things better?

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

Social Media is not social minded.

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Despite their best efforts, there are three things working against them.

You see, most email subscribers are naive, lazy and misinformed.  Of course I mean that in the nicest way possible ;-).

Email Subscribers are Naive

When Joe consumer buys a burgundy, cashmere, crewneck sweater from Bluefly.com and checks the “please send me offers” box, he thinks he’ll get an occasional message about a sale, or perhaps a recommendation for a snazzy vest that would go just right with his new sweater. He trusts them.  He gave them his money and expects that they will be his friend.

Poor unsuspecting Joe.  He never in his wildest dreams imagined that he’d be getting two messages a day from them (on top of all the other spam email he already gets).

But, who’s at fault?  Joe, or the marketers that just abused his trust?  Like the man said “Can’t we all just get along?”.  There has to be a happy medium somewhere, and it’s up to the marketers to search for it, and it’s up to the “Joes” of the world to let them know how much is too much.  If we work towards that balance we’ll all be happier.  Consumers will have great products to buy and marketers will have a nice bump in their conversion rates.

Email Subscribers are Lazy

Despite his keen fashion sense, Joe is lazy.  Even if he is one of the few non-marketers that knows all those emails are required to have a way to unsubscribe, he doesn’t have time to waste looking for a link buried at the bottom, in a typically smaller sized font and a color that often makes it hard to distinguish from the background.

It’s so much easier for Joe to just click “mark as spam.”

But is that really Joe’s fault? Or, are the marketers that think they have to make it as difficult as possible for someone to unsubscribe, while still following the letter of the law the ones to blame?  Many email marketers have been told over and over – “grow that list”, for some it’s even an annual performance goal that has to be met.  Over the years we have actually trained our subscribers to use the “easy” button.  I’d love to blame Joe, can’t.  Sorry.

Rather than judge a list by its size, how about we evaluate how effective it is.  What is your click rate, what is your conversion rate?

If someone decides what you are selling is not for them, make it easy for them to leave.  However – wouldn’t it be better to have figured out what they want from you before it got to that point?  The only way to do that is more testing, and monitoring what works and what doesn’t.

Email Subscribers are Misinformed

Joe doesn’t know (or doesn’t care) that there is a legal definition for “spam”.  Joe thinks any email he does not want is spam.  Joe believes that “mark as spam” is the same thing as “I just don’t want this anymore”.  From Joe’s perspective, it is the same.  He clicks the button, the mail stops showing up in his mailbox.  Problem solved.

Joe doesn’t realize that a lot of those “mark as spam” buttons all over the world are connected to mysterious back-end systems that monitor and track the companies that send the emails people like Joe call spam.  He also doesn’t know that when enough people click those buttons the companys sending out those emails are flagged as spammers, not just for him – but potentially for millions of people.

No matter how great you think your content is or how closely you follow the can-spam rules, if consumers don’t want it – IT IS SPAM.

Now that the company has been flagged, good luck getting people to buy the matching belt and fedora to go with their new sweater.

Joe didn’t intend to cripple that company’s email campaign, he was just sick of getting email from them.  Joe is lazy, remember?

So what can you as email marketers do to help this? Figure out what Joe expects and wants from you, and give it to him.  Format your messages in a way that when the time comes that Joe no longer wants to hear from you, he knows what to do and despite his laziness, resists the urge to click the spam button.

Email Marketers are Naive, Lazy and Misinformed

It seems that perhaps Joe is not the only one at fault.  The email marketers of the world need to not be so naive about what our subscribers actually expect from us, we need to not be so lazy about determining what we send and to who, and we need to help educate our subscribers about how to unsubscribe when they want to.

What would you do to  improve email marketing?  Let me know in the comments.

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

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It’s not the size of the boat; it’s the motion of the ocean.

The crew at returnpath.net recently concluded a 19 month study into how email marketers handle non-responsive addresses.  I don’t know what the researchers expected to uncover, but the results were shocking, at least to me anyway.

I’ve told you before, it’s a good idea to purge addresses from your mailing lists if you know that those people have never, ever opened or clicked on your messages.  I mean, why make your math more complicated and lower your results because a few people don’t want (or never see) what you send them?

I think I’m safe in saying that if left up to the people that actually push the “send” button, mailing lists would be as lean and clean as possible.  Unfortunately, many are stuck with bosses that believe when it comes to mailing lists (and probably other things), size matters – and bigger is better.

Which brings us to the first finding of the study; 73% of the 40 companies studied continued to send email to completely non-responsive email addresses for the full 19 months of the study. SEVENTY-THREE PERCENT! Come on – are you serious?  I can almost understand not wanting to mess with your math during a current campaign year, but why not start the year with a nice clean, fresh, VALID mailing list?  Let’s get those lists cleaned up, you can do it, just call it spring cleaning – or maybe fib a little and tell your boss it’s a can-spam requirement and you have to do it, I promise I won’t tell.

OK, so 73% is surprising, but in the big picture not terribly harmful to anything in the long run, right?  Wrong.  There is a better than average chance that the reason the emails are not being opened is because they’ve been tagged as spam. If that’s the case, each additional message you send is another nail in the coffin of your email marketing program as your reputation gets worse and worse and you get added to more and more of the spam blacklists.

Opt-in means I want you to be my friend, not my stalker.

What I found most shocking in the Return Path research was the sheer volume of email that these companies were sending.  On average these companies sent 10 emails a month.  That means an email every three days.  Think that’s bad?  It’s almost tolerable compared to the two top offenders.

Neiman Marcus sent an average of one email a day over the 19 months.  Every day? Really?

However, the worst offender was a company named “BlueFly” which from looking at their website you might be fooled into thinking they “get it”.  You’d be wrong – at least as far as email marketing is concerned.  BlueFly started the test with an average of 30 emails a month and ended it with 54 a month. Yep, two messages a day.  Can you imagine if other retailers did this?  You might have that that pimple-faced kid from McDonalds at your door a couple times a day … “What do you mean you’re not hungry? You bought a Big-Mac from us two months ago, how can you not want an apple pie – or a delicious shake?”

I wonder if the e-marketers and executives at BlueFly tolerate that behavior as consumers.  I suspect not. So why do they do it as a company?  Do unto others but not unto me?  Do as I say, not as I do?

How many of the “real” people that get all those messages from BlueFly get so frustrated they drop out, or worse – tag them as spam?

NOTE: I reached out to BlueFly via twitter to see if they would mind answering some questions about their techniques, if I get anything from them I’ll post an update.

What’s the right way to do email marketing?

If you’re an e-marketer, how do you handle non-responsive addresses, let me know in the comments.

If you’re a consumer, what do you consider the right frequency for companies to send you email, let me know in the comments.

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

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More affectionately known to the public as “spam”, unsolicited commercial email (UCE) is one of the most infuriating things facing mankind today.  Worldwide, it is estimated that there are approximately 183 BILLION spam messages sent DAILY.  Yes, BILLION and yes, DAILY.  Even though we may only spend a few seconds on each piece of spam, all those seconds add up to some staggering amounts of lost time, productivity and money.  Google has a nifty tool to help you find out what spam might be costing you.

In 2003, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enacted the “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act” in an attempt to curb the rapidly growing spam problem. Who thinks it worked?  Since then it has been revised a few times, but as far as controlling spam goes, it remains just as ineffective.  We’ll get to why I think that in a bit.

There are sections of the can-spam act that deal with email harvesting, header spoofing, adult content, deceptive practices and overall scummieness. However,  I am going to assume that you are an honest email marketer wanting to stay out of trouble; as such I won’t be covering those sections in this post.

Also, since this post is attempting to decipher a fairly complicated government document, it’s going to be long-winded.  If you just want to know what you have to do to stay “legal”, jump to the “how to be an honest email marketer” section.

What does the can-spam act do?

What the can-spam act did was to establish what a “commercial” email is and what is not.  Non-commercial email, according to the act cannot (legally) be considered spam.  Unfortunately, if the rules are followed, commercial email also is not “legally” spam.  Huh?  We’ll get to that.

Let’s get to the specifics of the act, maybe then you’ll understand why it’s so ineffective at curtailing spam.

First, as with all government and legal documents, a few definitions:

Person:

The Definition:
The term “person” is not limited to a natural person, but may refer to any of the following: An individual, a group, unincorporated association, limited or general partnership, corporation or other business entity.

What it really means:
It’s mostly mumbo-jumbo, but essentially this means that email can be sent and received by “non-humans”.  This is pretty common, most marketing email is sent as being from a generic address and not from a real person.

Why does it matter:
What if a “person” could only be a human?  It would make the definition of “sender” much more difficult, but it would also mean the rules would have to include every possible variation and pseudonym a company might use to skirt the rules.

Sender:

The Definition:

1. A person who initiates a commercial electronic mail message and whose product, service, or Internet Web site is advertised or promoted by the message. Or,
2. If more than one person’s product or service are advertised or promoted in a single email, each person shall be considered a “sender”. Unless, one of those persons meets one or more of the following criteria, in which case they will be considered the only sender:
   1. The person controls the content of the message
   2. The person controls/determines the list of email addresses used to deliver the messages
   3. The person is identified in the “from” line of the message.
3. Under certain conditions, where there appears to be more than one sender, the group of marketers may select one among them to be designated as “the sender”.  That sender shall be obligated to uphold all remaining rules.

What it really means:
Again, a lot of mumbo-jumbo, but let’s break it down for you:

The first case applies if *I* as a human send you (or your company) an email promoting my products or services – then *I* am the sender.  Easy, right?

The second case would apply if for example you received and email from a travel site and it promoted a hotel chain, a rental car chain, and perhaps even an airline all in the same message – then who is responsible? Possibly each company could be considered a “sender”, unless certain conditions are met that identify one “sender”, and if rule 3 does not apply.

The last case is a more recent addition to the rules – this lets groups who are working together designate who the “sender” is.  In my travel example, it’s logical to assume that the travel site would be the sender, not the various companies being promoted.

Why does it matter:
There is a good reason the FTC was so specific in determining who the sender is – they are the one responsible for following the rules.  They are the one that must complete any opt-outs, and they are the one that’s gets in trouble if the rules are not followed.

The can-spam act

Now for the meat of the can-spam act (sorry couldn’t resist the play on words)

The can-spam rules tell us first that there are two types of email; Transactional (also called Relationship) and Commercial.  Further, it tells us that as long as you are honest, you can send (almost) as many transactional messages as you want without risk of breaking the law. Seriously, it does.  Additionally, it tells us that as long as you are honest and follow the rules you can send as much commercial as you want.  Wait, what?  Seriously, it does that too.

Let’s first take a look at how the FTC defines a transactional message.

Transactional or Relationship Messages

In general, the term “Transactional or Relationship Messages” are emails in which the primary purpose is:

1. to facilitate, complete, or confirm a commercial transaction that the recipient has previously agreed to enter into with the sender;
2. to provide warranty information, product recall information, or safety or security information with respect to a commercial product or service used or purchased by the recipient;
3. to provide–
   1. notification concerning a change in the terms or features of;
   2. notification of a change in the recipient’s standing or status with respect to; or
   3. at regular periodic intervals, account balance information or other type of account statement with respect to, a subscription, membership, account, loan, or comparable ongoing commercial relationship involving the ongoing purchase or use by the recipient of products or services offered by the sender;
   4. to provide information directly related to an employment relationship or related benefit plan in which the recipient is currently involved, participating, or enrolled; or
   5. to deliver goods or services, including product updates or upgrades, that the recipient is entitled to receive under the terms of a transaction that the recipient has previously agreed to enter into with the sender.

What that all means is that if somebody buys something from you, you are allowed to send them email that relates to that purchase.  You can send them a “thank you” message, a “your order will ship soon” message, a “your order has shipped” message, a” how do you like your product” message….etc, etc, etc.  There is no real limit imposed on how many messages you can send, the guidelines simply say to “be reasonable”.

Further examples would be if you sold a product and then had to notify the buyer of updates or repairs, or perhaps you need to periodically notify people how many credits they have in their account, or you need to notify your employees about updates to your benefits plan – all of these are transactional messages and except that the “from” and the “subject” must be truthful, none of the can-spam requirements apply.

Even though I used the words “sold” and “buyer” in my examples, the exchange of money or tangible items is not a requirement of transactional messages.  You also have a relationship when someone subscribes to your newsletters or joins your newsgroup.  However, only the emails that relate to that specific activity or the maintenance of the account are considered transactional.  The actual newsletter you send them is commercial.

Commercial Messages – the specifications

The can-spam act defines commercial e-mail messages as

1. Messages the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service (including content on an Internet Web site operated for a commercial purpose).
2. If an electronic mail message contains both the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service as well as transactional or relationship, then the primary purpose of the message shall be deemed to be commercial if:
   1. A recipient reasonably interpreting the subject line of the electronic mail message would likely conclude that the message contains the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service; or
   2. The email message’s transactional or relationship content does not appear, in whole or in substantial part, at the beginning of the body of the message; or
   3. A recipient reasonably interpreting the body of the message would likely conclude that the primary purpose of the message is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service. Factors illustrative of those relevant to this interpretation include the placement of content that is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service, in whole or in substantial part, at the beginning of the body of the message; the proportion of the message dedicated to such content; and how color, graphics, type size, and style are used to highlight commercial content.

Commercial email messages are subject to the requirements that the sender or initiator include the following in the message:

1. A clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation,
2. if the message is sent without the ‘‘affirmative consent’’ of the recipient; clear and conspicuous notice of the recipient’s right to opt out of subsequent commercial messages from the same sender; and
3. a valid physical postal address of the sender.

The Act further prohibits false or misleading information In the message body, deceptive from addresses and subject headings, and requires that a sender provide a way that opt-out requests can be made online (requests can be either via email reply or a website), and that the sender honor a recipient’s opt-out request.  The link to opt-out may also display options for the recipient to select which type of commercial email they would like to receive, however it must also display an option to discontinue all email from the sender.

Once a person opts-out, you have 10 working days to complete the request and may not send them any commercial email ever again, unless they specifically provide affirmative consent.  Additionally, once the request is received you may not sell, rent or otherwise transfer their email address to another person.

Commercial Messages – the realities

If you are trying to sell or promote something, or even just want people to link back to your website for a visit – that is a commercial email.  If you send a message that says something like; ”hey, thanks for buying that sleeping bag…you may also enjoy this tent, this stove, this ground pad, this canteen…” then it’s a commercial email.  If you are sending commercial email, don’t try and be sneaky about it, if people don’t opt in, you MUST give them a way to opt out, and yes – you must include a valid postal address.

A recent revision to the act added that you cannot charge a fee to opt-out (were people doing that?), you cannot require any additional information beyond an email address and their opt-out preferences, and you cannot require any activity beyond a single email reply or a single visit to a single page of a website.

How to be an honest email marketer

Transactional email

If you are sending transactional or relationship emails – do THAT.  It’s fine to slip in a small amount of up-sell, but don’t go all ronco-matic on your customers.  Remember, you want them to like you.  You are not required to provide an opt-out, that would just be silly.  Also, you are not REQUIRED to give a postal  address, but why wouldn’t you want to?  Make sure your “from” and “subject” are clear and honest.

Commercial email

If you are sending commercial email you have a few things you must do:

1. Your message must either say it is promotional, or be obvious to a reasonable person that it is.
2. You must provide a valid postal address.  This can be your physical address, a PO Box, or a private mail box.
3. If your recipients did not opt-in, you must provide a way for them to opt-out, and tell them what it is. That opt-out method must be simple – a single email or a single web page.  In my opinion, even if they did opt-in, you should still provide a way to opt-out.
4. If a person opts-out, you must complete the request within 10 business days.

If you are sending commercial email you have a few things you must NOT do:

1. Don’t be scummy about how you collect email addresses.
2. Don’t use a “from” address that confuses the receiver.
3. Don’t use a subject line is unclear or misleading.
4. Don’t take more than 10 business days to process any opt-out s.
5. Don’t sell, share or otherwise transfer an email address after you get an opt-out request.

What are the penalties?

There are penalties for a variety of items you might do wrong and they can add up pretty quickly too.  If you do something dumb like forget to include an opt-out in a message you can be fined $250 per recipient, per message. Some quick math tells us that a 1,000 address mailing could cost you $250,000 if convicted. Is it worth it?

Why is there still so much spam?

I mentioned in the beginning that the can-spam act was pretty ineffective at controlling spam. After reading this do you know why?  It’s because the rules say nothing about who can send what to whom, or what they can send.  Even though the can-spam act is lengthy and full of mumbo-jumbo, it really just boils down to following a few pretty simple rules, and as long as those rules are followed no email is “legally” spam.

Another reason the act doesn’t control spam is that despite its name, it does not actually have anything to do with “spam”.  You’ve no doubt heard the expression “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. Well, spam is in the eye of the receiver.  You can follow every rule, but if what you send is of no interest to the receiver – IT IS SPAM.

When developing your email marketing campaigns, keep that phrase in mind “spam is in the eye of the beholder”.  Think about what you are sending and who you are sending to.  Just that little bit of fore-thought can increase your effectiveness and help keep your list from shrinking.

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

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Without at least a basic understanding of the language of email marketing, it can be difficult to know what you need to track and what the measurements can tell you about the success or failure of your campaign.

What follows is a list of ten terms that are commonly used with email marketing campaigns, what they mean, how they are normally calculated and why it’s important to you.

1) Email List Size

This a pretty obvious one, it’s simply the number of unique email addresses in your list.  If you are segmenting your email lists (and you should be segmenting) you’ll also want to track how many addresses you have in each segment as well.  This number is a part of almost every calculation you’ll do, so don’t lose it.  For my campaigns, I use what I call the “Net Sent” amount.  This is the total sent minus both hard bounces and opt-outs.  More on those later.

2) New Email List Subscribers

The number of people that have signed up since your last mailing.  As your popularity grows, so should this number.  However, we live in precarious times when it comes to internet marketing. More and more people everyday prefer to receive messages from brands via “on demand” sources such as Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube (thanks old spice guy).  Don’t be too surprised when these numbers start to decline, just be ready to adapt.

3) Unsubscribes

These are also called “opt-outs”. Nobody wants to have people drop off their mailing list, but it happens.  Keep an eye on WHO is unsubscribing though, if people are signing up and then quickly dropping off, you may need to adjust how you are attracting people because they are probably not getting what they thought they would.  If you start seeing long-time subscribers leaving, it’s possible that your content has become stale and no longer is of interest to them.

4) Bounce Rate

Unfortunately, not every email you send will arrive at it’s intended destination.   Bounces are either “hard” or “soft”. A hard bounce is the result of of bad addresses or technical failure and those messages will never be delivered.  A soft bounce can be caused if the recipients mailbox is full, or even if somebody has an automatic vacation message turned on.  There’s a good chance these messages will eventually be seen, but you can’t be 100 percent certain.

Hard bounces should be treated like unsubscribes and removed from your list.  Some anti-spam tools will consider you a spammer if you continue sending mail to bad addresses – keep your list clean.  If your system allows it, track your soft bounces as well, a consistently full mail box is a good indicator of an abandoned account and those should be deleted from your list.

Whether or not you include soft bounces in bounce rate calculation really depends on how quickly your company wants to calculate other measures.  If they want a snap-shop of data after just 24 hours, then you should probably consider counting soft bounces.  In any case, your bounce rate number should be SMALL and always shrinking as you remove the bad addresses.

I generally calculate both a long-term and a 24-hour bounce rate, but I have some fun with the math.

24-hour bounce rate =  Hard bounces / (List size – Soft bounces). So, if I sent 1,000 emails, 5 bounced as bad and 30 bounced as “vacation”, our formula would be; 5/(1000-30) or 5/970 or 0.52%.

Long-term bounce rate = Hard bounces /List size.  Using the same numbers, our formula would be 5/1000 or 0.50%.

Remember earlier I mentioned “Net sent?”  Well, now that you know what hard bounces and opt-outs are, you should be more comfortable with what Net Sent is.  For example, if you send 1,000 emails, have 10 hard bounces and 3 opt-outs, your Net Sent is 1,000-10-3, or 987.  I use this value most often in other formulas because I don’t want my rates to be penalized for messages that have no chance of being impactful.  However, to keep the math a little easier for this post, I’ll just be using the value for “Total Sent” in my examples.

5) Growth Rate

This is a measure of how quickly your list is growing (or shrinking, but hopefully that’s not the case).  To calculate, simply find the number of new subscribers, subtract the number of unsubscribes along with the number of hard bounces and divide by the former total number of subscribers.

Growth Rate = (New Subscribers – Opt Outs – Hard bounces)/List size.  For example;  if your subscriber list was 1,000 names and you gained 20, lost two and had 5 hard bounces, your growth rate is: (20-2-5)/1000 or 13/1000 or +1.3%.

6) Open Rate

At last! Some “real” measurements!  Open Rate measures how many times an email message was opened – sort of.  More on that later.  Open rates can be calculated two different ways, both are acceptable but whichever way you decide to do it, be consistent.

The first method is a measurement of how many of the people you sent an email to actually opened it at least one time.  The second is a measurement of how many times the messages were opened.  The difference is subtle, but very important. Consider the following example;

If you send a message to 1,000 people and 250 of them open it, using the first method, your open rate is 250/1000 or 25%.  That’s pretty good.

However, if some of those 250 people opened it once at work, then again at home, your message might actually have been opened 350 times, using the second method would give you an open rate of 350/1000 or 35%.  That’s better.

So which method is better?  That’s for you and your company to decide, but like I said before, pick one and stick to it.

To determine when a message is opened, email marketers will use what’s called a “tracking pixel” or “web beacon”.  A web beacon is usually a small transparent image that gets called from a web server. Each time the image gets called, that means a message was opened.  There are two gotchas for tracking opens – it only works with HTML formatted messages and only if the recipient has images turned on.  If images are not turned on, the receiver could open the message 1,000 times and you might never know (unless they click).

7) Click Rate

Click rate is a measure of how many times the link(s) in your  marketing email or newsletter were clicked. Like with open rates, you have some decisions to make about what numbers you use and how. There are three ways (possibly more, but these are the common ones) to determine what your click rate is.  Again, as with open rates, the difference in the formulas can seem subtle, but the results vary quite a bit with each.  Consider the following examples;

You send a message to 1,000 people.  That message has three links in it.  If you only count the number of people that click links and 100 of them do, then your click rate is 100/1000 or 10%.  Not bad.

What if some of those 100 people click more than one of those links?  You might actually have 150 clicks.  That means your click rate is 150/1000 or 15%.  That’s better.

OK, so now what if some of those 100 people clicked a couple links at work, then at home clicked them a couple more times?  You might now have 300 clicks.  That means your click rate is 300/1000 or 30%.  Wow!  Big difference, right?

Which is the best?  That’s for you and your company to decide, but you should probably use the same method for both open and click rates, and of course – pick one and stick with it.

Now for some good news – clicks are clicks are clicks.  Huh?  Unlike “opens” that rely on the email client to reach back to a web server and say “hey, I opened a message”, there is no way to mask a click.  If somebody clicks a link in your message, whether it be an HTML message or not, they MUST end up on your server…and a click gets counted.  Hooray!

Now for some more good news – if your delivery system allows you to track opens and clicks for each specific email address, you can track down people who click your links, but because they don’t allow images to show their emails, you think they never opened a message.  Sweet!

8) Open to Click Ratio

This is a measure that is useful for estimating the effectiveness of message content and your “call to action”.  It compares the number of opens to the number of clicks.  For example, if you have an open rate of 50% and a click rate of 10% you’d be pretty happy, right?  Lets do some more math – if those rates were based on a list size of 1,000 people, that would mean that 500 people opened your message and 100 clicked.  Taking that a step further, that means that only 20% of the people who opened your message were compelled to click through.  100/500 = 20%.

9) Cost per Click

This one can take a little bit of work, you need to figure out what each of your campaigns costs you to send.

Start by determining the amount of time it takes an editor to write the message, a designer to lay it out and finally the web person to convert it to a properly formatted HTML message. Now, take that time and multiply it by an average salary for each of those people.  That is your “human cost”. How you do this will probably vary some, but you get the idea.

Next, you need to determine your “technology cost”.  If you use a 3rd party/outsourced solution, it will probably be easy to calculate since most vendors will charge you based on how many messages you send.  If you use an internal tool to send your mail, work with your IT people to figure out what a good estimate to use is.  They should consider the cost of the software, hardware and possibly even a maintenance person.  My IT group arrived at a value of 1.2 cents per email for marketing messages I send.

Now add your human and technology costs to determine the campaign cost.  For example, when sending a 1,000 email marketing message, the following applies;

Editor – 2 hours at $20/hour = $40
Designer – 2.5 hours at $25/hour = $62.50
Web Person – 3 hours at $35/hour = $105

Total Human cost = $207.50

Technology cost = 1,000 * $0.012 = $12

Campaign cost = $207.50 + $12 = $219.50

Whew!  Hopefully your brain is not bleeding yet.

OK, now if your 1,000 emails received 200 clicks, your cost per click is $219.50/200, or $1.10.  The lower this number is, the better.

10) Conversion Rate

Conversion Rate tells you how many of the people you sent a message to actually clicked all the way through your buying process and completed a successful check out (or completed whatever else your desired conversion is).  This one is pretty cool – if you can do it.  This is understandably difficult to measure for a lot of companies since it requires tight integration between your mass email tools and your e-commerce package.  Thankfully, since the numbers are difficult to gather, the formula is simple.  If you sent 1,000 emails and 3 people bought something, then your conversion rate is 3/1000 or 0.3%.  Not great, if your profit is six cents per sale,but if you have a higher profit margin – happy dance!

Still with me? Good.  Hopefully now you have a better understanding of the must-have metrics for an effective email marketing campaign.

If your systems allow it you should also watch to see if messages are being opened and/or clicked on more than one machine.  You can use cookies or even IP Addresses for this.  If you see this happening it could simply mean somebody opened mail at work and again at home, but it could also mean your message is being forwarded to others, and that is a very good thing.  Watching the time stamp of the opens & clicks can help you decide what’s actually going on.

Is there something you track that I missed? Let me know in the comments.

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

Ten Must-Know Email Marketing Metrics

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In a nutshell, #SEODJWed is a group of SEOs from around the world with a wide range of musical tastes, each sending out links to music they enjoy, or have been asked to play… and it happens on Wednesday.  It’s been dubbed “Social DJing”, I just call it fun.  It’s the way radio ought to be, great music, an occasional interesting story and no commercials.  It’s defiantly NOT your parents’ radio.

To find out more about what it is and how it got started, I did an email interview with some of the frequent contributors.  I sent questions to Monica Wright (@MonicaWright), Tony Verre (@TonyVerre) and Steve Plunkett (Steve does his DJing as @djpaisley), and since I recently started pitching in, I figured I provide my own answers as well – that doesn’t make me crazy, right?

How did #SEODJWed get started?

Monica Wright is credited with creating the concept (before it got the hashtag), so I asked her how it got started.

Monica Wright:
It started really back this winter – one day I noticed Branko Rihtman (@neyne) was pushing out music via Grooveshark and not blip.fm, so I got on and we started sharing music pretty regularly. Then one day I threw it out on Twitter and asked if people wanted to hear Led Zeppelin or More Americana / AAA format music (The Doves, Conner Oburst, Hot Tuna, that sort of thing) and got a resounding response for Led Zeppelin. People started making requests, I started sending out tributes, and then next thing you know Tony Verre gave it the hashtag of #seodjwed. The following Wednesday Tony and I chatted about what we were going to play, and it went from there.

I’ve talked about music quite a bit with @djpaisley, @netmeg, @michellerobbins and Tony, so they were all part of the group. Contributors now just happen – you Jack started contributing – and I recall Branko doing an 8o’s stint once this spring. Now Steve Plunkett, and @melyssatweeting have joined in as well. Tony has been the most consistent, though. I try to take part, but most of my meetings happen on Wednesdays while in the office.

But the magic is that it just happened. Nobody really “owns” it, nobody is territorial, and anything goes. And it’s not just playing the music, people actually listen and make requests, share lyrics, you name it.

There was a subtle thing that happened at SMX Advanced this year… Chris Sherman asked attendees in advance what they want to listen to. I suggested a few songs, ones I actually really got into from #seodjwed. While at the meet and greet before the conference I heard one of the very random (and not well-known at all) songs I requested. Of course I pulled out my phone, DM’d Branko, “Holy crap they are playing PlayRadioPlay!”

And it wasn’t even a Wednesday.

How do you share music with Twitter?

There are a several different tools for “tweeting” what you are listening too, I asked each of these “Social DJs” what their favorite is and why;

Steve Plunket:
Blip.fm – integration into feeds.. prohibits download of music w/o buying from itunes, amazon or soundcloud of course.

Tony Verre:
Personally, I like Grooveshark. The interface is really straight-forward. It’s easy for me to create playlists, spending 30 minutes lining up songs, and then roll them out.

Monica Wright:
I like Grooveshark, but I use Blip occasionally as well. I just got used to the interface, and I have a desktop app, so all the ads and video aren’t flashing in my face like Blip. I haven’t really listened to Pandora much lately.

Jack Leblond:
I really like the selection at grooveshark, and the fact that it’s not polluted with people doing their at home karaoke versions of songs, but I stick to blip.fm because it creates a channel based on the #SEODJWed hashtag, people can jump in at anytime and start listening, regardless of who tweets the song and they don’t need to click each song individually.

How do you find the music you share?

To me, it seems the DJs have an endless supply of great music at their fingertips, I asked how they choose the music they play;

Tony Verre:
I like to pick themes each week, genres if you will. Sometimes I just have no inspiration, and field requests. Monica and I wanted it to be a spontaneous expression; just play good tunes. Unfortunately, when I think that people depend on something (and hopefully they do) I start thinking about songs and playlists on Monday. It’s sad, and little pathetic, but, hey, I’m a people-pleaser.

Monica Wright:
I just kind of go with it. I try to find new stuff from other people (that’s usually my mission), but I go with whatever I feel like listening to. And then when other people start requesting or sending feedback, sometimes themes can happen.

Steve Plunkett:
I go for breaking club hits from the UK, local hip hop radio playlists and secret releases from artists that leak to me.

Jack Leblond:
I play a lot of my favorites from “back in the day”, I ask for requests, but also rely on Google to provide “best of” lists that I pull titles from.  I know that’s cheating, but it’s amazing I often I find myself thinking “Wow, I forgot about that song – I loved that song back then.”

What’s your favorite music?

The music that gets played by these people varies wildly, I was curious if they had a favorite genre;

Monica Wright:
That too goes with the mood. I know it seems like I am avoiding the question. Maybe the better question is “What is your favorite genre lately?” That would be a lot of indie stuff (if you classify it that way) – The Doves, Vampire Weekend, PlayRadioPlay!… you can see what I’m listening to on Grooveshark and Blip, that would be easiest.

Steve Plunkett:
Electronica.

Tony Verre:
Jam-Band.

Jack Leblond:
As the old man of the group (you kids get off my lawn!) I tend to lean towards the classics of rock and punk from the ‘70s and 80’s.

What music won’t you play?

One of the great things about SOCIAL DJing is that people don’t feel compelled to play something they don’t like.  I asked the DJ’s if there was anything they wouldn’t play;

Steve Plunkett:
Country.

Tony Verre:
Been doing this for a while now, and I noticed I don’t play much hip-hop at all. However, that’s about to change (next #SEODJWed it’s happening). As for anything I won’t play? So far I haven’t had that challenge, and I hope it stays that way. J  I try to keep to fun and play meaningful, nostalgic stuff.

Monica Wright:
Haven’t gotten there yet, but anything REALLY noisy, violent or crude. It’s just not my thing.

Jack Leblond:
I’m really not a fan of hip-hop or rap, but if somebody requests something that doesn’t make me feel like jamming a pencil in my ear, I’ll still play it.

Why do you do it?

Given how busy I know these people are, I wondered why they took time from their work-day to do this every week;

Tony Verre:
#SEODJWed started out as something that Monica Wright (@monicawright) and I put together, after Michelle Robbins (@michellerobbins) suggested it. We’re both music junkies, quite eclectic tastes between us, but have a base in jam-band bands.

I’ve really enjoyed doing it the last few months. For me it’s another creative outlet, crafting musical themes each week and really stretching my music catalog. I really do believe it’s a more than sharing music; at sub-conscious level, you’re helping people share memories. Where you were when you heard that song, what you doing when you heard that song; your own personal wormhole.

Not to mention I think it’s another unique way to make the Twitter space less about hyper-information sharing, but give it more panache, in the same manner FollowFriday gave people something to look forward to each week.

Admittedly, #SEODJWed runs the risk of being “played out” in the same way FollowFriday did, but I think it’s still little to obscure for that yet (once people start spamming the hashtag, we’ll simultaneously know we’ve made it and know that’s it’s dead.  J)

Monica Wright:
Why not? It happened organically, now it’s an event.

Steve Plunkett:
I love music.. if I wasn’t doing SEO I would be dj’ing in a club.

Jack Leblond:
It gives me some time to “shut off the SEO” for a while and just have fun.  In the middle of the week, that can sometimes be a life saver.

Join Us

I’d like to thank Monica, Tony and Steve for taking the time to answer these questions – and for letting me play along on Wednesdays.  If you aren’t already familiar with these people, you really should make a point of checking out the things they do.

Monica Wright is a terrific Maine SEO.
You can find Monica at; blip.fm, Grooveshark.com, Twitter and of course on her on site www.monicawright.com.

Steve Plunkett is a great Digital Communications Strategist.
You can find Steve at; blip.fm, Twitter and on his site www.dallasseoblog.com.

Tony Verre is a phenomenal Milwaukee SEO.
You can find Tony at; grooveshark.com, twitter and his site www.themilwaukeeseo.com

As for me, other than right here where you have already found me, I’m on blip.fm, grooveshark.com and Twitter.

Please Tune In

If you don’t already have an account on blip.fm, or grooveshark.com, make sure you get one before Wednesday arrives so you can tune in and enjoy the music.

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

What is the deal with #SEODJWed anyway?

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In my last article I published a list of “TEN DO’s” from the 1998 edition of “Web Publishing for Dummies”, today we review ten things the authors thought you should NOT do. You might be surprised, as I was, that all ten are still applicable today.

The great thing about this book (if you ignore references to CompuServe, Prodigy and GeoCities) is that it was written before the search engines moved to the front of everyone’s mind. The information presented is primarily focused on creating a better experience for your visitors, and that is something that we should all be working towards.

Take a moment or two and review this list – did I miss anything?

1)  DON’T inadvertently limit your audience

Be careful when designing your pages not to inadvertently limit your audience by using some oddball feature that can’t be read by large numbers of people who use different Web browsers. Stick to basic HTML and Netscape additions through Netscape Navigator Version 2.0. Think twice before using HTML frames, Java programs, or ActiveX programs; many people won’t be won’t be able to access them. Warn people if you u se nonstandard features. Often providing alternative pages, such as text-only versions of your pages, is worthwhile. And including links to the software that works with your pages often pays-off; a link to Netscape if you use Navigator-specific tags, or a link to the RealAudio site if you include RealAudio sound, are two good examples.

This is still true, however, this advice is all-too-often ignored.  While the various browser makers are getter better about following standards, some still offer “extended capabilities” that some developers take advantage of; ignoring the fact that the rest of the world probably will see none of their hard work.  A larger problem though is the remaining site-owners that insist on having their site mostly in flash.  Years ago people were leery of flash because not everyone had it, and the download for the player was large (based on slower connection speeds), eventually though the folks at Adobe managed to get flash pre-installed on almost all machines.  This made some owners and developers think is was OK to go 100% flash.  WRONG. Aside from the SEO issues (that’s a whole other post), there are millions of people that access the web via mobile devices that have no idea what to do with your flash pages.

2)  DON’T abuse netiquette

Abusing the etiquette of the Internet is easy to do and can bring you a lot of negative attention. If you make any serious offenses, your Web service provider’s server may remove your page. And you can even get into legal problems. Avoid dubious practices such as spamming, sending unwanted e-mail to publicize your site; flaming, being fervently disparaging of other people or other Web pages; or putting up offensive material without some kind of warning label. Netiquette is an amorphous and evolving area of online behavior, so you may want to join a Web-oriented newsgroup where you can ask questions before publishing. Also, check out this site for more info: www.fau.edu/rinaldi/netiquette.html (link no longer valid).

Netiquette is as important now as it was then, just the ways people can ignore it have changed.  I used to say “if you wouldn’t do it in front of your mother, don’t do it on the ‘net”.  Then I moved to Texas (it’s hard to believe what people here will do in front of their mothers).  Even if you WOULD do something in front of your mother, the web may not be ready to see it.  Don’t make assumptions about anything – ever.  Ask lots of questions, participate in the community.  After you know what they want – make sure you have at it.

3)  DON’T “borrow” content without asking

Make sure that content you get from the Web to use on your own Web page is labeled as being freely available for reuse, or else get permission to reuse it. Most people are quite happy to help if you ask nicely and credit their work. The best part is that you make some good contacts with other interesting people. You also keep the law on your side.

Stealing is wrong people, no matter what you call it or how you do it.  Aside from the legal and ethical issues, this is what the search engines call “duplicate content” and it’s a good way to get your site dropped from the listings.  You want good content? Create it yourself, or pay somebody to do it for you.

4)  DON’T make your site hard to navigate

Beginners often organize their pages so that their sites are hard to navigate. If your site has more than two levels, you should give some thought as to how your visitors will navigate it. Nobody likes wandering from link to link with no idea what is where or having to follow ten links to find one piece of information. Keep the relationship between your pages simple. Make it clear which links are internal to your own site and which go out to other sites. Provide an index page or a common menu. And make navigation work consistently throughout the site.

Good site structure is becoming even more important, at the 2010 SMXAdvanced conference, one speaker used a slide that said something like “site structure + SEO = BFF”.  This is another case of the engines liking something that is good for users.  Users have always liked it when it’s easy for them to get around a site and find what they want – now the engines like it too.

5)  DON’T abuse graphics and multimedia

The biggest mistake beginning Web authors- and some experts- make is overusing graphics on a page. Keep in mind that not everyone has fast, expensive T1 lines (special high-bandwidths phone lines) wired directly to their home PCs; by far, the greatest majority of folks receive your web page via a more limited 28.8 Kbps modem. Keep your page size, including text and graphics, under 100K. Here are ways that you can do this without sacrificing design flexibility;

• Convert all photos to JPEG format.
• Use simple icons and banners- images without very many colors or complex textures-in FIG format
• Lay out your site to limit the amount of graphics on any one page, adding pages if you need to display more graphics
• Use thumbnail icons to give access to larger images

All those strategies make your pages smaller and faster for others to download. Your Net surfers will thank you.

Raise your hand if you ever connected to the ‘net via a dial-up connection…bonus points if you remember what your “baud rate” was.

Of course page load times are still important, though I can’t imagine a non-mobile page being under 100k anymore.  Once again (you may get sick of hearing this) the search engines are mirroring what users like;  Users want fast load times and the engines have started putting more emphasis on it as well.  Even though most homes now have super-fast connections, and even mobile devices are getting faster, you’ll want to make sure you tweek every ounce of speed out of your site.

6)  DON’T forget ALT tags and text-equivalent menus

Another basic mistake is not using text-equivalent menus forgetting that many people surf the Net without graphics turned on. Who would turn off graphics, you ask?

Many home user turn off graphics to speed things along, downloading only the graphics that they really need. Some people pay a high hourly rate for their Internet access, especially in much of the non-Western world, and turn off graphics to save money on their connection time. Others receive Web pages via e-mail because they don’t have a direct Internet connection. And some people who are visually impaired use the web with software that translates text-but not graphics-into spoken words. Always use the ALT tag to provide text equivalents to your graphics, as described in Chapter 7. Using the ALT tag is easy to do and will make it possible and easier for all these people to access your content.

It’s somewhat disturbing to me that the primary reason (according to the authors) to use alt-tags was for potential cost savings for users and the last reason was for screen readers/visually impaired.  Sadly, it’s only slightly better now.  Most people include alt text in their images because it helps with search engine indexing and the fact that it helps with screen readers is a nice bonus.

7)  DON’T forget the basics

Your site may be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but if you forget to include contact information for yourself in the site, how will you find out that you misspelled “bureaucracy” all over the place? Similarly, you won’t get many orders for your spiffy new widget if you put the ordering information five levels down in a web page called “fruit bat guano statistics-1876.”

More basics:

• Use mailto: tags (HTML tags used to specify your e-mail address; for example, <A HRES=*MAILTO:comments@mysite.com>).
• Include a copyright notice
• Add an index
• give credit where credit is due
• Make the important info prominent. Be ready to revise, based on user feedback.

OK, this literally made me laugh.  You have a book “for dummies” and assume they know the basics and are reminding them not to forget them.  Alrighty then.  How about instead of waiting for a site visitor to tell you about your spelling mistakes, you use this new thing we have now…maybe you’ve heard of it – “spell-check”.  But otherwise, yes – do remember to include your contact info, and make it easy for visitors to use. Do have both a site index and a menu, and for the LAST bullet (which should have been first)… make important content easy to find, and adjust if it’s wrong.

8)  DON’T start by setting up your own Web server

There are several “easy-to-use” Web server packages on the market, and Web server capability is even being built into Macs and PCs. But even with these efforts, buying, setting up, and maintaining a Web server can become the most expensive, most complicated, and most frustrating part of Web publishing. Luckily, you can use the free services described in this book, or paid services, to put your content on someone else’s Web server while you learn the other tricks of the trade. Then, as your knowledge and experience grow, consider setting up your own Web server.

I don’t think most people would even consider this an option any more, thankfully there are lots and lots of powerful and affordable web hosting companies available – I’m a fan of hotgator.com hostgator.com.  There are very few cases where it’s necessary to maintain your own server.  Additionally, the phrase “easy-to-use” should never be used to described any web server package.

9)  DON’T forget the “World” in the World Wide Web

Remember that your Web pages are available and accessible to the whole world. Think a bit about that foreign audience. Is it worthwhile to include some foreign language content? Do you use colloquialisms that may not be understood by your foreign Net surfers? How do your pages look to your overseas colleagues who view them through the slow transoceanic Net link? Will your humorous or risqué content offend someone in another country of culture?

When you become a Web publisher, you also become a global citizen and your Web pages play on a global stage. Think through the meaning of your page in advance.

This really boils down to knowing your audience – and being able to adapt if needed.  Usually, a site’s content will fall into a consistent them or category and people who want to read about that content will understand most of how you write about it, regardless of where the live. However, writing for an international audience does take a little forethought.

10)  DON’T be afraid to learn more

Web publishing is not rocket science. It is computer science, but it’s relatively easy computer science. You’re not trying to land the space shuttle here- and chances are, lives are not at stake. Experiment, try weird things. Ask for feedback. Never be afraid to learn complex and hard stuff. (It’s only complex and hard because you don’t understand it yet!) Neat stuff is being developed (and some cool stuff is already out there) that will make Web publishing even more exciting- VRML, Java, new browsers and publishing tools, groupware, Net-based games, and online business infrastructure. All this new stuff is understandable and usable by normal folks like you. Don’t be intimidated. You can use all of them. (If you’ve come this far, you’ve got what it takes!)

Not only should you not be afraid to learn more – you should do your best to always be learning more.  Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, rarely do you learn something by doing it correctly.  Be sure to document how you do things, what works and what doesn’t – this sort of testing will make your life easier.

There you have it – Ten Web Publishing DON’Ts, straight from the web design time machine.

What did you do then that you find yourself  NOT doing today?

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

Ten “DON’Ts” from the Web Publishing Time Machine

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I was somewhat startled to discover a copy of “Creating Web Pages for Dummies (1998)” on my desk this morning. The book promises I’ll be able to “Create Dazzling Home Pages – In No Time!” I’m still not sure who put it there, or what they are trying to tell me, hopefully that mystery will soon be solved, and hopefully they were thinking I’d get a laugh from it and not that I’d learn something from it. As I glanced at the table of contents, it did generate a grin or two – there’s a whole section devoted to geocites. However two chapters stood out more than the rest “Ten Web Publishing DO’s” and “Ten Web Publishing DON’Ts.” I just knew these tips from the early days of the web would create some laughs, so I flipped ahead and looked at the lists. I could not have been more wrong. Why I was wrong is connected to the fact that there is something very important to note about this book – the ONLY mention of anything search engine related is this brief definition:

Search engine: Web-based services that help you find things you are looking for.

Why is that important you ask? Because this book was written before web designers/developers thought that getting attention from Google was more important than giving visitors good content. The fact that the authors were concerned with content makes both of their lists still (mostly) accurate. Below is the list of ten “DO’s” along with my comments about how they may (or may not) apply today.

1) Do think about your target audience

Who is your Website targeting? A little thought along those lines can make your pages much more appealing to your visitors. Before you begin creating your website, choose the right look and feel and style of presentation that is appropriate for your audience. Include links that your visitors find interesting, not just the ones that you find interesting – unless that’s the point of your page, of course. In addition to using good sites as models (see the next “DO”), research other media, such as newspapers and magazines – the articles and the ads – that have a similar audience as yours to find good and bad examples.

This is still great advice – it’s impossible to deliver great content if you don’t know what your audience wants. Your site might hold the secret formula for free energy from the ocean, but if the reader is looking for instructions on how to make great mojitos, to them, your site sucks.

2) Do use good sites as models

Many good sites are out there. Ignoring those good examples when designing your own site is not the best idea. Take a look around and find the designs that work. Think about why each design you like works well for you. Is it the use of color and layout of the Web page? The fact that the site loads quickly? Well-organized content? Note what works and why, and then strive to duplicate that effect in your own Web pages. Look for conventions in presenting information that Web users have grown accustomed to, neat design ideas, and various types of content. You’ll be surprised how many ideas you get from this huge reservoir of Web expertise.

I had a boss once that was fond of saying “I don’t need you to re-invent the wheel, just find a better way to use it.” Keep that advice in mind while you research other sites for ideas. You don’t always have to do something completely different, just do it better than the rest. It’s interesting to me that in 1998 (when people were lucky to have a 56kbs modem at home) a quick load time and well-organized content where obviously important factors. Today, when most teens (college students) have NEVER used a dial-up connection, we are once again concerned about how quickly our pages load.

3) Do get permissions for content

You can easily peek at the HTML source of any Web page, and that’s a good way to learn new design techniques. But you can also easily grab any content that exists on the Web, even privately owned content that belongs to others. However, the fact that grabbing others’ content is easy does not make it right or legal. It’s also not necessary.

A great deal of public domain content is out there, and getting permission to use private content is not hard. If a Web page does not explicitly say that its content can be freely borrowed, assume that it’s copyrighted or otherwise protected – which means you should ask before borrowing any of it. Many people are happy to let you use their content in order to gain exposure on your pages, as long as you provide proper attribution and reciprocal links. In the process, you may just gain new friends or business contacts, as well as avoid legal problems down the road. (And in case you get tempted to borrow quietly, keep in mind that word of unethical practices gets around quickly on this amazing global network.)

Sadly, this is something that seems to always be forgotten. C’mon folks, don’t be a jerk – it only takes a minute (or two) to do things the right way.

4) Do use links to outside sites

No matter how great your content is, you’d be wasting the most important feature of the Web if you did not include links to sites outside your own. No matter what your topic, you can find complementary sites out there on the Web. Giving your visitors links to those sites is only courteous. If you research your links carefully and organize them well, your links can be a valuable resource to others. In your own Web surfing, you’ve probably found it to be true that one of the best experiences on the Web is the serendipity of stumbling upon some cool link that you had no idea existed; give your visitors that experience. Point them to the outside world. That’s why it’s the Web and not the Thread.

I can recall conversations with clients about this, they would get so upset about me linking to OTHER sites. “Why do you want them to leave?” they would ask. Thankfully, I think most people have now realized that links to other sites are not only NOT evil, but people like them. And, since people like them – guess what, the search engines like links too.

5) Do use graphics and multimedia

A prime attraction of the Web is that it is designed to present graphical information, yet there are still many beginning Web authors who are intimidated by graphics and shy away from using them. Include a picture, icons, bars, and graphical menus in your Web page. Go ahead, try out transparent and interlaced GIFs. Multimedia is a great addition tool one or two sound files, a QuickTime movie, even a simple animated GIF can really liven up a site. The bottom line is that sites rich with graphics and multimedia are much more interesting than purely text-oriented ones. Give it a go. (But be prudent)

This is still true, in fact it’s been shown that pages with images actually get more readers than those without. Just don’t go overboard, you don’t want to give people seizures.

6) Do think before you create

It may sound basic, but a surprising number of people lust jump in and start throwing around text and HTML tags with no clue about where they’re going or what they want to accomplish. That approach is fine if you just want to play around – in fact, that approach can be a lot of fun. But if you want to make a good impression on the Web, sitting down and thinking about a few things ahead of time really pays off. Sketch your Ideas on paper. Then describe them to someone else and ask for feedback. This prep work forces you to consider things that you may not think about otherwise: Page layout, graphic design, relationship between pages, target audience, content structure, link grouping, and other issues that, when properly integrated, can make your site a first-class Net surfing experience.

Back in 1998 look and feel were among the biggest concerns of somebody building a website. The web hadn’t started creating applications yet, sites were mostly information storage locations. While look and feel are still very important today, you need to go beyond that in your planning phases. Think about your site structure, what directories, file names, tags, categories – even how much traffic you might eventually get. It can be difficult to gather all of this, but if you don’t get it right in the beginning, your growing pains might be bad enough to kill a whale.

7) Do ask for feedback

You’ll be amazed by what people say about your pages. (Some of the comments may even be complimentary!) Put your e-mail address on your home page and ask for comments. People who have never before seen your site will have a good, fresh perspective and can give you feedback on things that you may not have thought about. Everyone can benefit from outside input. Criticism by your prospective audience is not only useful, it’s also educational. You can learn a lot about what people expect and want. Criticism can’t hurt anything but your pride, and it almost always improves your site.

It’s hard to believe, but there was a time when people would only tell you what they think of you if you asked them. Now, in the era of Twitter and Facebook, it can sometimes be difficult to make them stop talking about you. That can be good or bad, depending on what they are saying – but in any case – LISTEN TO THEM.

8) Do test your pages

Testing your pages is easy. You probably don‘t send e-mail without spell-checking lt. Similarly, you should not put up your Web pages without testing them. That means looking at your pages on your own machine before testing them on the web – follow links, see how graphics and text fit together and so on. Also, looking at your pages in different browsers doesn’t hurt. If you can`t do it, ask a friend or even a stranger to help. Oh, again, don t forget to spell-check your pages.

This is just plain crazy-talk, right? While some people are comfortable throwing up gibberish, I don’t know many people who enjoy reading it. And, as the authors pointed out – make sure all your images load correctly, links are coded with valid addresses and yes, even on 2010 you STILL have to check your site in multiple browsers.

9) Do publicize your site

Nothing is more frustrating than putting up a site that no one visits. Fortunately, publicizing your site is not hard. Add your site to the popular indexes, for example, through the excellent “Submit-it” site: www.Submit-it.com (NOTE: This is no longer a submission site)
You can also post to appropriate Usenet newsgroups, put out a press release, or shout it from the rooftops. Just building a site doesn’t necessarily mean people will come to it. You still have to get the word out.

Of course site promotion is still important, but I would certainly suggest you avoid sites/services that claim they’ll submit your site to thousands of engines and indexes. Press releases, done correctly are a good way to start. Does anyone use UseNet anymore? You should make sure your site has a valid sitemap for the engines to crawl, but beyond that – there are lots of ways to promote your site.

10) Do update your site

A static site is a boring site. True, it works for some purposes, but in general, if you want people to continually revisit your site, you must keep it updated. The best sites are those that continually provide new and interesting content. Include pointers to information that’s frequently updated, like “Thought for the day” or “Links to new, cool sites.” Let users know how often to expect updates and be sure to showcase new content. A “New” icon next to recently added or updated content can work wonders.

You’ve probably heard the phrase “content is king” more times than you care to remember, but it’s based on the fact that both people and search engines like for you to keep your site fresh and the easiest way to do that is with a steady stream of new content.

There you have it – Ten Web Publishing DO’s, straight from the web design time machine. What did you do then that you find yourself doing again today?

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

Ten Web Publishing “DO’s” from the Web Publishing Time Machine

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The quote below is word-for-word from a rather expensive looking insert, in an even more expensive looking direct-mail piece I recently received.  Ordinarily I like (Well, I don’t hate it) direct-mail, when it’s done correctly.  But this thing, which is titled “Who We Are” just talks in circles.  I’m sure I lose brain cells each time I read it.  I’ll hide the name of the company, partly because I think they are idiots, but more importantly, I don’t want to help them spread their name even a little bit.

“XXXXXX is a full-service social technology partner.
A global leader in the practice of digital consulting, community building, technology solutions, and digital measurement, XXXXXX helps our clients leverage the power of social media to drive greater value and success for their businesses.

Using expert cross-discipline strategic thinking paired with leading-edge customizable technologies, we create unique and innovative solutions that thrive in the ever changing and challenging online environment.”

BINGO!

I think what that means is they have to cool, new ways to use social media that will make more money for their customers.  If that is what it means, why don’t they just say that?  Or at least speak plain English.

The flip side of the piece does have some of the same techno-babble, marketing-speak but is actually understandable.  When I read the “what we do” section, I actually come away with a good idea of what they do.  It’s hard for me to believe the two sides of the sheet were written by the same people.

However, the bad taste and foul stench of the “who we are” blurbage makes me wonder if that’s how they’ll try talking to me if I were a customer.  No thank you.

Social Media is conversations and relationships.

It’s great to have tools and technology to help you with your Social Media, but keep in mind that a fool with a tool, is still a fool.  If you can’t (forgive me) engage your community, all the tools in the world won’t help you.  Techno-babble, marketing speak won’t help you.  Well, if you’re targeting 1992 era marketing people, then maybe they will.

You need to speak the language of the community you are reaching out to, and hopefully since they are your customers you know how to do that.

If you’re trying to sell tornado insurance to an Arkansas trailer park resident, you better not talk to them like they are playing a role in Macbeth.  And visa-versa, of course.

It’s not rocket science folks, this is old-time advertising gospel;  People respond better to images and language that reminds them of themselves, or who they want to be.

I don’t know about you, but who I want to be is NOT a 1992 marketing professional.

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

Social Media BINGO!

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Not long ago, I was dropping some shirts off at the cleaners.  I had noticed that a few of my buttons were cracked and broken.  I asked the young woman working the counter if they repaired buttons.  She simply replied “No, we don’t.”  I was puzzled, I thought all cleaners did this – now I would have to either find a new cleaner, or repair them myself.  But then, possibly sensing the building frustration on my face, she added; “We can replace the broken ones if you’d like.”  What? I was dumb founded.  How could this woman be so clueless as to not understand that is what I had meant?  It seemed fairly obvious to me that I didn’t actually expect them to be sitting back there with a tube of crazy glue repairing the buttons.  Then it occurred to me, I had asked the wrong question.  Even worse, I had expected them to interpret what I asked into what I meant.

What’s your reason for asking the question?

Before you ask any questions, you have to have a qoal – or two, or 10.  What is it you want your Web site to do?  Guess what? Tony Robbins and all the other self-help dorks have something to teach us about SEO.  If you can’t measure it, it’s not a goal.  It might be interesting, but it’s not a goal.

Which of these statements might make a good goal for a Web site?

1. I want a web site full of silly pictures of cats that spreads joy and happiness throughout the world.
2. I want a Web site full of silly pictures of cats that attracts 25 bazillion visitors a day and makes so much money in ad revenue that I have to use a wheelbarrow to take my checks to the bank.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for joy and happiness, but how do you measure it?

Are you asking the correct questions?

After you have a goal, no matter how simple or grand, you must also set measurable steps to achieve it.  Each of those measures are the questions you need to be asking.

If you want to have XX number of visitors per month, that’s an easy measurement.  If you want XX dollars in ad revenue a month, also an easy measurement.  If you want to rank on page one of Google, well, that too is measurable.  However, is the phrase your are measuring the right one?  Does it support your end goal, or is it just interesting?  For example, many companies set a goal of ranking on page one for their own name.  While that certainly is something that every company should be able to do, I don’t see that as a worth-while use of time.  Simply because if you don’t rank for your name, you have bigger problems.  A more important question; How does your site rank for the name of the products you sell?

Just because you can, does not mean you should

It’s important for you to understand that just because you CAN measure something, does not mean you should, or need to.  If you are selling widgets for $10.25 a piece, perhaps 2,00 page views is pretty good for you.  Perhaps 10,000 page views translates into sales of 150 widgets, enough to keep your staff maxed out.  But are page views really what you should be measuring?  Are they what drives the success of your site? Sure, you could show a chart the demonstrates an increase in page views equates to in an increase in sales, but that’s selling harder, not smarter.  There’s a reason wal-mart doesn’t count people as they walk into the store.  They know it doesn’t matter.  Sure, there is a general correlation, but what really drives sales is shopper’s ability to find what they want quickly, and at a price they are willing to pay.  Can you say the same about your Web site?

What if the reason it takes 10,000 page views to sell 150 widgets is because your Web site is difficult to navigate? Or your products are hard to find, or your check-out process is too complicated?  Perhaps, the questions you should be asking are;

• What’s the ratio of completed to abandoned orders?
• How much time does someone spend on the site before they make a purchase?
• How many pages do they look at before they purchase?
• What are people searching for with your on-site search tool?
• What is your bounce rate?

Conversion doesn’t not have to mean selling something, maybe you want people to request more information, or to call an 800 number or download a white-paper.  Whatever it is, identify real things that may effect your conversions.  Those are the things worth measuring.

Compare Apples to Apples

While you may be able to make some broad industry comparisons, don’t get caught up in “benchmarks”.  Your site is your site.  Even if a competitor sells the same products as you, they will (probably) be using a different method and process to do it.  You can’t and shouldn’t model yourself after what you *think* they are doing.  Do what is right for you, for your company.

Test Everything

Now that you have your goals and measurements established, make sure you do lots and lots of testing.  It’s possible that something as simple as a button shape, or the hair color of a model could make a big difference in your sales.

Share the love

Now get busy setting your goals and determining the right measurements so that the next time your boss asks how many page views your site had, you can tell him “Sorry, we don’t repair buttons.”

Have fun!

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

Are you asking the correct questions?

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