Attract More Visitors

Last night I spoke to Mark Stern's Ethics in Marketing & Advertising class at UCLA extension on "The Importance of Ethics in Social Media in Marketing and Advertising" and I just wanted to share the slides with you in Slideshare:

Slideshare

The other thing that's cool about sharing these slides with you via SlideShare is that I can embed them (above) or get a Widget and install it in my sidebar (see the right column under "Technorati Favorites" above the Global Translator flags).

Creative Commons License

What's also great is that you can use a Creative Commons Attribution license to "...let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request."  This way others can use your PowerPoint presentation, or parts of it, but they need to credit/attribute it to you.

Online Marketing & Social Media

Slideshare is another great social media tool for sharing information with others, so they get the info they need and then they can share it with others, who can share it with others...

Descriptive Tags

Not only that, but you can include many tags describing your slideshow when you upload your slides. This way your slides can be found easily on Slideshow, but better than that, they'll be indexed by Google and easily findable in Google searches.

Google Juice

In fact, my slideshow was already #1 in the Google rankings and I only uploaded it 1 hour ago - and I ate lunch in between! See image below...

That's great Google Juice!

Thanks Slideshare!

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Of course this makes sense since Google tries to provide fresh valuable content from reliable sources/authors to it's customers: Web Searchers.

So this is just good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as well as using great tools like Slideshare.

And of course I used the "Mother-of-All" long tail Google searches too (see below & image):

The Importance of Ethics in Social Media in Marketing and Advertising

The Importance of Ethics in Social Media in Marketing & Advertising

Comments?

Have a Comment? Do you have other great ways to get Google Juice? If so, let me know...

In Part I we started looking at ways of evaluating and changing your website (or blog) to improve it. Today I'm giving you 10 Quick Questions to help with this process:

10 Quick Questions for Evaluating/Improving your Website

1. Does your website look nice and inviting? (Does it make your visitors "feel" nice, like the landscape on the right?)




2. Is it a site that you'd feel like staying at if you just happened to land on it? (Where you feel like you could lie down in the meadow, enjoy the blue sky, and watch the  clouds - in other words: hang out for awhile, check out the info/resources, and engage at the site.)




3. Can visitors find your "Buy" button? (so they can take the desired action easily, e.g., Buy, Join, Subscribe, Register, etc.).




4. Can prospective buyers (visitors) find what they need easily (information, prices, reviews/testimonials, etc.)?




5. Is it easy and intuitive to navigate around your site? (Or is it a virtual maze or an impossibly dense mishmash of text or links pretending to be organized)?




6. Is it easy to use/access your site? (Are there so many fonts and colors that the content is difficult to see, especially for visually impaired individuals)?




7. Does your site rank highly in search engine results (particularly Google's)?




8. Is your site's search engine result (Title and Description) enticing enough that you'd click on it (versus all of the others)?




9. If you click on your site's search engine result, are you taken to the site you'd expect from the Title and Description?




10. Now loop back to #1 (above) and quickly run through this list again with "fresh" eyes (based on how your site might be found by potential visitors searching the internet).

Bottom Line

IMPORTANT: Please note that "potential visitors" aren't visitors until they visit and "potential buyers" aren't buyers until they buy.

Your task is to re-design your site to create the environment that entices searchers to visit and visitors to buy. This may involve using some SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as well as some E-Marketing techniques and strategy (list building, E-Newsletters, Social Media/Networking, etc.) to promote your site and attract people to it.

If you'd like more ways to evaluate and improve your website (or blog) you might enjoy our free 77 Great Tips of Internet Marketing (at top-right of web page) for a more complete checklist.

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Have any questions, comments, or tips of your own for evaluating websites? If so, please leave a comment...

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Next post (Part III): 11 Quick Questions for Podcasts
Prior post (Part I): How's Your Website Doing? -- Part I - Opportunities for Change Looking Forward

With a New Year and a sense of there being a new outlook in the world, it's a good time to think how your website/blog/podcast is doing. While the Presidential Inaugural parade was today in Washington DC, we can also look at the recent Rose Parade on New Year's day in Pasadena for some guidance on website design and strategy.

Design, Planning, Functionality, and Theme

Looking at the before and after pictures of NAMM's* "Musical Extravaganza" float which was designed to coincide with the Rose Parade's "Hats Off to Entertainment" theme you can see that a lot of work and planning goes into creating a pleasing yet functional float. And it must have been pleasing because it won the President's Trophy.
* National Association of Music Merchants

Big Bird float - BEFORE

Big Bird float - AFTER

Before and After

This wasn't just random - the float was entirely conceptualized and planned out before it was built (structurally) and the flowers were glued on. You can see the scaffolding used to build the structure in the Before photo (on the left) and the final flower-decorated float in the After photo (on the right).

Blind Evolution versus a single Objective

But many websites have grown-up (evolved?) from initial ideas/concepts into something which might be quite different from what they originally began as.  These websites (yours?) weren't tightly themed, planned, and constructed with a sole purpose for a particular effect or goal (e.g., winning the President's Trophy).

"Now" is the Time to Step-Back and Evaluate your Site

No matter how your website got to where it is, now is a great time to step-back and evaluate it (or re-evaluate it). One way not to do this is to let your body go all limp, squint your eyes, and stare at your website for x minutes (like a "magic picture").

Ways to Evaluate (and Improve) your Site

Ok, so if that isn't the way to evaluate your site, then what is? One way would be to find a handful of brutally-honest friends and ask them what they think. A variation on this would be to find a handful of strangers and ask them what they think. The difference being that you'd have to reward the strangers in some way (free ____, pay them, etc.). Or you could simply evaluate it yourself by answering some questions or using a checklist.

See my next post for "10 Quick Questions for Evaluating your Website", or see free 77 Tip Checklist (77 Great Tips of Internet Marketing) (at top-right of web page) for a more complete checklist.

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Have any questions, comments, or tips of your own for evaluating websites? If so, please leave a comment...

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Next Post: Part II: 10 Quick Questions for Evaluating your Website
Next Next Post: Part III: Quick Questions for Podcasts