Giving in to Google….

In my last post, I encouraged you to “give in” to Google…..  start embracing their services.

Here’s a great YouTube video about how Google’s mapping tool can improve your existence.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPgV6-gnQaE[/youtube]

How To Subscribe to a Blog’s RSS feed using Google….

Writing instructions on how to subscribe to an RSS feed is kind of like writing instructions on telling you how to get a life mate. I’m most familiar with my own experience, which may or may not be “right” for you and your situation. In other words…there are MANY different ways to subscribe to RSS feeds but for this post, I’ll cover my favorite way to subscribe which is by using iGoogle.

iGoogle used to be known as your “personalized home page”. If you’re already a user of Google services (such as gmail) then you too can have an iGoogle or personalized home page.

Stuart Maxwell and Rowan Simpson have both helped to remind me that not EVERYONE uses the Firefox web browser. You probably need to know that I am using the latest version of the Firefox browser . According to Life Hack’s post on how to get started with the Google Reader, MSIE 7+ also supports the Google Reader.

Below, I’ll share screenshots with you.  To see the screen shot, just click on the image and it will open in a new window.

Here’s a screen shot in Internet Explore when you are not signed into your iGoogle account:

Notice the blue arrow is pointing to the text which is inviting you to JOIN the Google family. (It’s a lot like Invasion of the Body Snatchers…. just relax and go along with it. Donald Sutherland was much more miserable than the assimilated masses in the 1978 version of the movie.)

In Fire Fox, it’s much more sublte:

Click on the “iGoogle” link and you’ll see a similar screen to the one displayed in MSIE. Follow the instructions. Once you’ve been properly assimilated into the Google machine… it will be EASY to add RSS feeds, along with lots of Productivity Modules (thanks Mashable) to your iGoogle page! No thinking OR emotion is required!

Here’s a screen shot of my iGoogle page. On my page, I have selected several modules including my gmail account, the dictionary word of the day, the weather, my horoscope and some news sites. You can easily drag and drop each module to a place where it suits YOU and your preferences.

Micheal Sync has a post on the screen shots of the six different “themes” available to you to customize your iGoogle page . I’ve chosen the “bus stop” theme for this iGoogle page. (Ok, I have more than one.)

NOW that I have my iGoogle home page set up, I’m ready to easily subscribe to an RSS feed.

Here’s an interesting blog called The Thriving Writer.

See where the blue arrow is pointing? To the image in the address bar that looks like this, except tiny?

Click on that image…right there in the address bar. This symbols tells you that THIS site wants to stay in touch with you and offers an RSS feed!!! When you click on the image, you’ll see a screen like this:

 

This is the page that appears. See the arrow? It’s giving you a choice as to what tool you want to use to subscribe to this feed. The “default” here is Google which is good, because I’m basically lazy and love to pursue the softer easier way! The fewer clicks in my life the better… so I can just click the “subscribe now” button to proceed.

By the way, in the white box below “previews” what the feed looks like.

By clicking the “Subscribe Now” button, I’ll get this page:

 

 

I am offered a choice. I can add this “feed” to my iGoogle, so every time I log on, I see what’s new on the blogs and web sites I want to follow OR I can use my gmail account and get this information via email. I am choosing to add this page to my iGoogle, so I choose “Add to my Google homepage”. (Remember, not everyone chooses that option. If they choose email, they’ll get an EMAIL every time you update… which is why some people unsubscribe from feeds that post more than once per day!)

When I click on that choice, I am taken to my NEW iGoogle page where you’ll see an arrow pointing to my latest RSS feed

 

And THAT is how EASY it is to subscribe to an RSS Feed.

Andy Beard and I explored the subject of RSS feeds briefly and from my observation and Andy’s feedback, your RSS subscribers don’t have to share as deep a level of “trust” with you in order to subscribe to your feed. As you can see, I easily subscribed to the blog owner’s feed and unlike a traditional email newsletter subscription, she probably has no idea I did so. I didn’t have to share my email address with her and in order to “unsubscribe” from this feed, I merely click the little “x” in the corner of the box. VIOLA! I’ve unsubscribed with even less effort than it took to subscribe.

The lesson here is, act like everyone is an RSS subscriber. They’ll get bored easily if you don’t update your blog often. They’ll also get annoyed if you update TOO often. All they see is the titles of your blog posts, so make those winners every time!

And THAT is how to Subscribe to a blog’s RSS feed using Google.

 

Are Google Adwords the answer?

Various questions seem to pop up in groups within my practice. This past week, the topic that is poking its head above ground like a crocus in early March is the topic of Google Adwords.

To the casual observer, the Google Adwords program appears to be the key Effortless Marketing Magic.

• Not enough web site traffic? Google Adwords is the easy answer.
• Not enough sales?  Again, Google Adwords is the easy answer.
• Need a tighter target?  Google Adwords is the easy answer.

I have clients who are inquiring about Google Adwords before their web site development has begun.  Clients who have yet to provide documentation on their anticipated product and service offerings are already signed up for Google Adwords!

Like any other marketing tool, Google Adwords is the GREATEST THING since sliced bread when it’s used correctly.  When used improperly though, it is a recurring nightmare which will run up your credit card balances faster than a lovesick teen racks up overages on your cell phone minutes.

For example, I had one client who signed up with a self proclaimed “Google Adwords  Gurus”.    Long story short, my client ended up with a HUGE Google Adwords bill and not a single product sale or even newsletter sign up as a result.    Unfortunately, her experience is NOT unique.

In order to run a successful Google Adwords campaign, you have to have a clear target audience in mind.  You must already have mastered everything from writing compelling and selling content to meticulous order fulfillment.  You have to have a GOOD idea of what keywords your current visitors are using when they arrive at your site.   Only then are you ready to launch your Google Adwords campaign.

Even then, you have to THINK about where you want those ads displayed!  Long ago, when you signed up for Google Adwords, you were signing up to have your ads displayed worldwide.  Now, you can target your ads to a specific geographic location.  Some one should have told Arizona Furniture’s Adwords manager about that feature.

Backstory: Last weekend, I lost it.  My 14 year old cat compulsively chews on the pads of his front left paw.   (I blame myself as I had him declawed 13 years ago, shortly after he adopted us and made short work of my drapes!)  About once a month, he causes the pad to bleed and leaves a bloody footprints everywhere he steps.  (We’ve tried bandaging the paw, but it just makes matters worse.)  My tile floors clean easily, but my 2 year old beige microfiber furniture is stained beyond repair.  (So much for that scotch guard crap!)

Last Saturday, after I tried to spot clean the latest deposits… I had reached my breaking point.   I headed to my computer to begin shopping for leather furniture.  (Interesting note:  The cat is the reason we didn’t purchase leather furniture in the first place!  We feared he’d tear up the furniture with his hind claws.)

Back to Google Adwords and the Arizona Leather Furniture Company.  I head to Google and type in the search terms “wholesale leather furniture”.  Because I haven’t ignored Adwords ads for this search, I am presented with three sponsored links.  The ad’s content reads: “Quality Leather Furniture: Custom Made Leather Furniture To Fit Your Home & Lifestyle”

I arrive at the index page of the site, where I am assured that they ship nationwide.  Good, because when I click on store locations, I see their stores are clustered in the Southern California/Arizona area.  Since I’m in southern Florida, the headline encourages me to continue onward.  Then I click to see their offerings.  Well, the furniture is lovely but there’s no description of the product dimensions… no product description…. no price!  Suddenly, it dawns on me.  This site was designed to allow the Southern California resident to “pre-shop” the store from the comfort of their home.

Such a site is a GREAT idea, especially in highly populated areas where traffic congestion makes “pre-shopping” a necessity instead of a luxury.  However, displaying that ad to me, as I pre-shop in Southern Florida is a waste and an unnecessary waste at that!  How many shoppers residing in Maine, Missouri, Kansas and Virginia have clicked that ad?  What a waste and an unnecessary one at that!

Google Adwords is a GREAT way to issue “virtual invitations” to discover your business.  If your business is limited by the constraints of geography, you can limit who sees your invitation thanks to Google’s ability to target geographically where your ads are displayed.   In other words, the Arizona Leather Furniture Company could have specified that their ad only be displayed to people logging in from IP addresses in the SoCal and Tempe areas.  The only value I can see in not limiting the geographical locations for the ads’ display is so that some marketing firm can report big numbers to their client… with an equally big Google Adwords bill on the side!  (That’s what happens when you pay your agency a % of spend instead of on a % of results.)

Without a marketing plan in place… without a well defined, tightly targeted audience… well… Google Adwords then becomes just another way to drain cash from your accounts.

The trouble with sanitized content…. or how BOLD can beautiful!

Let’s face facts… success either on the web or in business  doesn’t come easily to the meek or the mild.   Whether it’s blogging or writing marketing content…. bold is not only beautiful, it’s essential.

Take for example, the experience of a client of mine.  This client had been “sanitizing” her blog posts… after all, the purpose of the blog is to ATTRACT potential clients to her practice…. so she HAD to make certain her posts weren’t offensive.  However, one day last week… she “snapped”.  She began writing from the heart and as a result, produced a very “unsanitary” post… and followed it with another…. and another!  Once she started, it seems she couldn’t stop!

Turns out, that was a GOOD thing!

The results were immediately evident.  Traffic rose sharply as did comments to her “unsanitary” posts.  Some of the comments were positive, some negative but the point is… she had motivated her readers to take action by taking off the kidskin gloves and “getting real”.

Whether it’s a blog post or a radio ad, being bold is a great way to break out of the ever growing pack of the mundane.  However, I don’t recommend being belligerent merely for the sake of being belligerent.

BOLD is different than belligerent.  Bold is daring to stand up for what you think… while belligerent is merely picking a fight.

I passed on being bold the other day.  I came across a blog post that was extolling the virtues of a certain plug in for Word Press from Microsoft that required disabling a popular Google Sitemap generator plug in.  The comments on the blog were, “Hey!  Great advice!”  and “Thanks for letting me know!”  Meanwhile, the voice in my head is screaming…. “YOU WHAT?!?!  YOU DISABLED A PLUG IN THAT AUTOMATICALLY CREATES AN XML SITE MAP FOR YOUR BLOG FOR SOME GARBAGE FROM MICROSOFT?!?!?”

I should have been bold.  I should have been daring and I could have done so without being belligerent.  I missed an opportunity to attract more readers to my blog had I done so.  Instead… I put my head down and got back to work.  My opportunity to be bold passed as quickly as it presented itself.  The opportunity to remain a part of the ” crowd of the mundane” is relentlessly persistent.

Liz Strauss would NOT be proud!

Business Reality: Email Newsletter Delivery and Economies of Scale

Recently, I’ve had a couple of clients express a desire to purchase/create their own email newsletter delivery software to run on their own hosting account. I’ve also had more than one client pass through my practice having pursued that path previously, with disastrous results.

In college, I picked up a second major in economics because I discovered that I had taken most of the courses required for a major without trying. I just really loved both micro and macro economics and what I learned in those courses have served me well, even two decades later.

In my course of study, one of the concepts covered was that of economies of scale. According to Investopedia:

Economies of Scale: The increase in efficiency of production as the number of goods being produced increases. Typically, a company that achieves economies of scale lowers the average cost per unit through increased production since fixed costs are shared over an increased number of goods.

It’s this economic principle that comes to mind when solo entrepreneurs decide to launch their own newsletter delivery/email broadcast service.

Quite simply, Marketer’s Choice (a.k.a. 1 Shopping Cart/Professional Cart Solutions/Kickstart Cart, etc.) is able to leverage economies of scale in their favor. For only $29 per month, you can subscribe to their service AND let them handle all the headaches that come with managing your own email newsletter list.

OR you can pay several hundred or even thousands of dollars (one client reported a quote of $3000) to have a custom application built for you.

The problem, as one client of mine discovered, is that the initial creation/launch of the software is just the tip of the iceberg.  Today’s effective email newsletter software is tomorrow’s invitation to hackers to find the security holes in your system.

Some of the biggest names in the internet marketing use either a version of 1Shopping Cart or Aweber to deliver their email newsletters.  Hopefully, some day, newsletter email will be a thing of the past thanks to RSS feeds.  Until then,  most web site owners would be better served to use the above mentioned services than try to develop their own.

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