Brian Gardner’s one smart cookie….

I met Brian just before the Colts went to the Superbowl.  Brian’s not only a talented Word Press blog theme developer, he’s also a Colts fan who happens to live in the heart of Chicago Bear (the Colt’s Super Bowl XLI opponent) country.    Are all great minds Colts fans, or is it just an amazing coincidence?

Anyhow, Brian has since quit his day job and struck out on his own and he’s hit the ground running!!!  Last week, he launched an affiliate program where he pays commissions on sales of his premium Word Press themes.  Yesterday, Brian has announced his own version of March Madness…. offering fabulous prizes to his top affiliates in the month of March.

The promotion works on two levels:

a) It’s a great way to promote affiliate sign ups.

Sales is a numbers game.  In affiliate programs, 20% of your affiliate will generate 80% of your sales.  The more affiliates you have, the more sales they will generate.  It’s just that simple.

b) It’s link bait.

Not only must you sign up as an affiliate to join the contest, but you must also link back as well!

GREAT JOB Brian on crafting a compelling contest to promote your new affiliate program.

Questions about Web Site Traffic: Hits vs Visitors

I’m having these conversations more and more often… so I probably need to address it here… again. It’s about web site log files and the analysis of them.

Here’s how it goes: Web site owner contacts me… says his web site is getting 3,000 unique visitors each and every month. Then says despite the huge traffic, the web site in question is not working.

Is there anything I can do to help?

When these come in via email, I begin with detective work. Since I don’t have access to this person’s log files, I go and look at said website with the Alexa and Google PR tool installed in Firefox. Alexa tells me said web site is 11,080,071.

WOW! I didn’t know Alexa WENT that high. I know it’s not reliable for sites out of the top 100,00 and according to Aaron Wall in his post “Wow! My Alexa Ranking is Great!“says that

Just a few people from each browsing my site with an Alexa toolbar caused the rankings to nearly double, which is a huge change on a logarithmic scale for a site in the top 10,000.

So yeah… the Alexa toolbar is not a reliable measure of traffic. It only measures how many people who have the Alexa tool bar installed have visited the site. Those visitors tend to be web master types who are nosy about other people’s traffic. But for 3,000 visitors to come to a site in a relatively short period of time (one month) to a relatively NEW site (less than 6 months old), WITHOUT any other form of promotion is highly unlikely.

Next, I head over to Compete.com. No data for the site there either. Hmm…. the site IS a WordPress blog but it isn’t linking out and according to it’s PR ranking (which is zero) it’s not getting a lot of link love from reliable sources. It’s also not registered with any of the social networking tools for blogs like Blog Catalog or Technorati.

At this point, I have to question whether we’re seeing VISITOR or HITS.

To clarify, a hit is defined as a “call” made to the web server. Every time a visitor enters a web site, depending upon the structure of the page, they will cause MULTIPLE “hits” to the server. If a web site or blog has 49 small graphics on the page, every time a visitor loads the page, the site will register not one hit, but perhaps 50 or more hits on the server (49 graphic files plus the html file. PLUS any java applets, etc which are also “hitting” the server).

With this in mind, 3,000 “hits” may actually translate into 60 unique visitors.

A good traffic analysis program will actually TRACK the visitor’s movement throughout the site. I ADORE the program Click Tracks for this, but it can be a bit pricey for the “non-professional” webmaster. If you’re serious about using your web site to market your business, it’s a GREAT investment. (I need to upgrade my version as I see there are lots of shiny new toys in their latest version!)

So as you look at your log files, whether it be AW Stats and Webalizer (both are better at providing amusement rather than hard data, but they are free and readily available) remember that a VISITOR is not the same as a “hit”. It’s also important to note that I’ve had a couple of cases of client blogs with fewer than 100 visitors per month who are actually seeing client referrals from their blogs. I’ve also heard complaints from people with blogs with incredibly high visitor counts who aren’t seeing ANY referrals of clients from their blogs… which is the opposite side of the same coin.

The moral to that story: A handful of interested potential clients reading your blog is much, much better than a throng of visitors who want something for nothing.

Why blogging in the dark can be a good thing….

The email was short and sweet….

” Kathy!  It’s me again.  I am wondering if you can tell how much activity my blog gets.  I looked at the stats sheet, but couldn’t tell.  Am I writing about the right kind of stuff?”

My reply:

This is a COMMON problem.

It’s been my experience that you can’t judge which posts are the most “powerful” by the comments because often, the only people who leave comments are other bloggers who want to leave a breadcrumb trail from your blog to their blog.

With that said, I peeked at your stats …[snip] I also saw that you’re getting lots of love from the Google bot.   That’s good.

However, aside from the dry information readily available in your log files, ….for right now, you’re blogging in the dark so to speak.   It’s true that your stats can tell you what page people entered on and how many left after reading that page.  I can also see how many pages each “visitor” consumed “on average”.    Log file analysis doesn’t always tell the story.  We know your average page view is 2.32 pages…. was that the result of each and every visitor visiting 2.32 pages or was it hundreds of single page views combined with three or four visitors consuming 10-20 blog posts on their visit?  Because of the high traffic, analysis is difficult at best!  It’s easier in this case to see 10 visitors with an average page view of 8 pages per viewer.   Then we know SOMEONE is very interested in what you have to say!   It’s very common for high traffic blogs to have a low number page views because an interested reader who consumes 10-20 blog posts won’t drive up the average number of page views over thousands of visitors.

Then the question is…. did those visitors who consumed a single page on their visit… were they “regular” readers (who subscribed via RSS feed).  An RSS feed subscriber may visit every time you post an entry… or they may only visit when you have an interesting headline that catches their eye.  The blogs I subscribe to via RSS will only see me visiting a single page if I was just there the day before, reading the previous day’s entry.

In a word, you could drive yourself NUTSO worrying about this.  Or, you can continue to blog from your heart.  Write as if you were speaking directly to a potential client.  What would she need to know about you before signing up for your services?  How can you build TRUST with this stranger?  The goal is to build up trust to the point where the reader will take a chance and contact you.

The more you post, the more trust opportunities you’ll have.   As you post, you’ll be revealing MUCH more than you should even focus on.  For example, today’s post is EXCELLENT!  It tells me a lot… I read this one and the one before it and if I didn’t know before, I do now that you’re a Christian.

Now, that may be a HUGE turn off to some people.  That might be enough to “cross” your name off their list.  But those people weren’t really even in the running to be your client.  On the contrary.  Once they had a conversation with you, they would have seen that and never contacted you again.  This way, they learned it from your blog BEFORE they wasted your time by calling.

Again, you’ll drive yourself CRAZY trying to define the single post that was the “tipping point” and caused the potential client to fill in the contact form or pick up the phone.  You can ask, but they probably weren’t aware of the process.  Was it the last post they read or the first?  Which straw broke the camel’s back?

I am aware when I reach that tipping point… but only because I’m ACUTELY aware of the process.  I don’t ask “regular, normal, functional” people the question of “when did you decide to pick up the phone” because it’s not that they WON’T answer it, it’s that they can’t answer it.

On the one hand, you don’t want to “ruin” the intake process by grilling them on what made them decide to call.  On the other hand, if you WERE to grill them, you need to be aware that psychologists estimate that 85% of the buying decision is made at an unconscious level.  All your potential client could answer would be what the last post was that they read before they called or contacted you.  The probably can’t tell you when they made the decision.

The moral to the story…. many of us are “blogging in the dark”.  I remember one potential client contact a few months back.  A woman called late on a Friday afternoon and she opened the conversation with me with an unforgettable phrase,

“I don’t know why, but for some reason… I think you might be able to help me.”

She’s normal… she’s functional… and she’s not obsessed with this stuff…. of course she can’t pin point WHY she called.   However, her comments and questions clearly referenced a few blog posts I had made a few months earlier.  Looking back, she hadn’t posted a question or a comment on the post…. no one did!  It wasn’t a “powerful” post by anyone’s definition except hers!!!

On the other hand, my serious introspection of my bellybutton lint when it comes to making major sale decisions is BOUND to affect my decision making process as well.  By trying to see past the veil… the one the hides the 85% of the buying decision making process from view… am I skewing the results?

As I try to measure, I find myself entering aCatch 22 world similar to that in Quantum Mechanics… “when a quantum system interacts with a measuring apparatus, their respective wavefunctions become entangled, so that the original quantum system ceases to exist as an independent entity.”  In other words, by trying to MEASURE  the quantum state one will actually ALTER the quantum state rendering the measurement useless.

In other words… tis far better to blog naked, in the dark.  That way, when you think no one is reading… you can really speak your mind and blog from the heart.

Spend too much time “blogging” from your head makes blogging scary… difficult…. and not fun.  When you’re blogging “from your head” you end up viewing posting to your blog in a similar vein to working up the courage to go streaking across the field of the Super Bowl during the first quarter.  Turn off the television cameras and all the lights and it’s a MUCH easier proposition!

Instead… just post to your blog.  The more you blog, the sooner you’ll find your “blog’s voice“.

Superbowl XLII and defining your role….

I am a Colts fan.  Therefore, it naturally follows that I am NOT a huge Patriots fan.  As a Colts fan, I have held a special place this season for Peyton’s younger brother Eli as well. Therefore, because of Peyton’s little brother’s appearance, Superbowl XLII was not purely an exercise of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”.

For the first time, in a long time… the game was MUCH better than the commercials.   What a game it was.  What made it EVEN BETTER was that it defied the predictions of the “experts”.    On the front page of the sports section in our local Sunday paper were all kinds of articles written with the Patriot’s Superbowl XLII win already penciled in.

I love it when the underdog wins.   I guess that is why I work with small business owners… because the odds really are stacked against them from the start and I LOVE helping them to beat the odds.

However, it takes a LOT of hard work to beat the odds.  That’s probably why I enjoy American style football.  No football game was ever won AT ANY LEVEL without an entire TEAM of  players and coaches working hard… physically AND mentally preparing to win the game.

There isn’t any “just in time” learning going on in football… and there aren’t many generalists playing the game.  Each player has a job to do on the field.   Failure to execute one’s assigned tasks means failure pure and simple.

Imagine if Lawrence Tynes (the kicker for the NY Giants) suddenly decided in the first quarter that he wanted to be a running back.  When the Giants lined up to score their first field goal… imagine the chaos if he had picked up the ball and tried to run for a touchdown.  Sure… it has the potential to be a great “trick” play… but it only has a chance of success if the whole team is in on it!  If Tynes had suddenly decided to engage in “freestyle football” last night, I’m not sure he would have literally survived to see the end of the game!

Lawrence Tynes may have what it takes to play another position, but ever since high school he’s always been a kicker for the team.  His role is tightly defined.  Most of the time, his job is to stand on the side lines and be ready to walk onto the field and put the ball through the goal posts from ANY position on the field. That is his job.  He’s not the fastest, he’s not the strongest…. and it’s possible that he doesn’t even know how to tackle properly.  That doesn’t matter.  He does what he does EXCEEDINGLY well and he can do it under pressure, when it counts.

As the mother of a kicker for his high school football team, I’m sure that Tynes suffered the same “ribbing” my son endures.  Kickers, in general, aren’t considered “real” football players… however, if not for Tynes performance last night… (he scored the first and last points for the Giants) the Patriots would be having a much better morning this morning.

What’s your role in your customers/client’s lives and/or business?  Do you really want nutritional advice from your CPA?  I didn’t think so.  Define your role and it makes everything MUCH easier when it comes to marketing your business.

Trade offs and compromising

According to my sources, the weather in the Northern US states is downright awful. Wind chills are bone chilling and snow is falling on top of a layer of ice. Tomorrow, when Phil the groundhog pears out of his burrow, many will be rooting for him NOT to see his shadow!!! Meanwhile, my conversations with those on the frozen tundra tend to begin with an accusatory, “What’s the temperature down there?”

In Port Saint Lucie, Florida on February 1, 2008…. it’s 81 F and it feels like 81. It’s sunny outside my window right now. The sky is blue and there are thin wispy white clouds, which in the Sunshine State officially qualifies as “partly cloudy”.

Now, before you begin cursing my “luck”… you should also be aware that living in Florida has its downsides as well. That snow and ice you Northerner’s are complaining about? That’s killing your insects so they don’t grow big enough to fight back when you step on them.

Let’s skirt over the obvious “them bugs is BIG in Flo-ri-da” and the “we don’t swim or ski in any pond or lake because of the alligators and water snakes” and move directly to the wildlife that I have encountered WITHIN MY NEWLY CONSTRUCTED HOME.

First, there was the bathroom snake incident of 2006… when my daughter stepped on a baby snake on her way to the shower. We’ve only had that happen once… on the other hand there are the jumping spiders, critters don’t spin webs because they feast on prey that is too big to be caught in a web. It takes almost a full large can of insecticide to stop one in it’s tracks. (Screaming in terror just seems to draw them towards you as well!) We’ve had multiple run ins with these 8 legged predatory beasts.

They say you “pay” for the sunshine… and my budget includes a nice hefty “pest control” entry as just one of those many payments. Incredibly high insurance premiums combined with ridiculous property tax bills are also part of the “sunshine payment package”.

Now, for those who are already sick of the snow respond with, “Those are a small prices to pay indeed! It’s WORTH it to not deal with snow and ice!” Meanwhile others respond with, “UGH! I guess snow isn’t as bad as that!”

Life is FULL of trade offs and compromises. It’s not whether the weather is better here than there… it’s a case of “Is is worth the price?” More importantly, it’s a question of “Is this a price you’re willing to pay?”

The same trade offs and compromises are present when one decides to pursue the “self employment” path. Just as some are more than willing to “pay the price” of ample Florida sunshine, some are more than willing to “pay the price” of self employment than others.

The same “trials and tribulations” of running a business will energize one person and while totally draining another.

Which do you value more? Is independence important to you? Do you find being master of your own fate (good OR bad) appealing? Do you RAIL at the thought of doing things someone else’s way simply because they’re the ones who are signing your paychecks? Then perhaps you’re cut out to be a business owner!

On the other hand, if you DESPISE making decisions and hate even more to be held ACCOUNTABLE for that decision (by the universe, your spouse, the bank, your creditors, etc.) then perhaps self employment is not your calling! If you treasure your “off the clock” hours and think of evenings and weekends as “your time”…. then perhaps that’s another reason that self employment may not be a great option for you either.

An essential part of self employment is marketing. If all you want to do is:

• accounting
• arranging flowers
• counseling troubled youth
• etc.

and the thought of doing anything outside of your passion drains you, then think twice about self employment as an option.

At the very least, invest a lot of time before hand building a team of experts to with whom to surround yourself. After all, it takes a village to build a one person business!

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