How to Increase Online Customer Loyalty By 82%

         You know the facts. Increasing customer loyalty…

• yields big profits over the long haul

• creates raving fans that promote your products for free

• is cheaper than finding new customers

But the question remains. How can you increase customer loyalty online?

How Artificial Advancement Increases Customer Loyalty

Not long ago, in a major metropolitan area, two consumer researchers named Joseph Nunes and Xavier Drèz conducted a customer loyalty experiment at a local car wash.
On two consecutive Saturdays, they gave out a total of 300 customer loyalty cards. Half of those required 8 purchases to earn a free car wash. The other half required 10, but instead of requiring the full 10, the car wash gave 2 car wash head-start as a free bonus.
This means, in both scenarios, customers still needed to make 8 additional purchases before they could redeem a free car wash. The only difference was varying degrees of completeness. On one hand, customers were 0% complete, and on the other, they were 20% complete.
Now the question is, would this “artificial” progress increase customer loyalty?
During the next 9 months, 28 out of 150 people without a head-start earned a free car wash, but 51 out of 150 people with the head-start earned a free car wash. That’s an increase of 82%!
Artificial progress worked. This is big news for customer loyalty. If you give your customers a head-start on completing a loyalty program, they’re much more likely to continue to use your products and services.

Can Endowed Progress Increase Customer Loyalty Online?

Yes, but before we get into details, how do you define customer loyalty?
If you’re a blogger, customer loyalty is represented by how many people buy more than one of your information products. For example, if someone buys 4 of 4 of your products, I would consider that 100% customer loyalty.
However, if you’re a consultant or designer, customer loyalty is represented by how many people continuously use your services for their needs. For example, if I always use the same designer every time I need a blog design, that’s 100% loyalty.
Now let’s get down to business. How can endowed progress help increase customer loyalty online? Follow these three steps and you should have it working for your business in no time.

Step 1: Create A Goal

To take advantage of endowed progress, you need a goal for people to work towards. It could be a free hour of consulting, free ebook download, or a free ebook design. It doesn’t matter. You just need a valuable carrot at the end of the stick.

Step 2: Decide What Your Customers Must Do

What behavior do you want to reward? You could reward customers for each purchase they make. Or, maybe you could reward them for sending you referrals? Since you saw how you can reward purchases, here’s an example of how you can reward referrals:

Imagine you’re running a membership website. You recently released your affiliate program and you want your members to  promote it. You come up with a contest to increase membership. Every person who refers 10 customers gets a free pass to a conference.
This is your chance to use endowed progress. Instead of asking them to refer 10 people, you can ask them to refer 12 people, but you’ll give them a 2 person head-start because it’s a brand-new promotion.

Step 3: Pitch the Head-Start as a Bonus

You can’t skip this step. Giving people a head-start without telling them why they got it will adversely affect the results. So how can you present it?
Personally, I think the best way is by offering it as a limited-time bonus. I like this route because you can use it when you just launch a new product or service. It will create hype and get people moving now instead of later.

Who Uses Endowed Progress to Increase Customer Loyalty?

Less than everyone. And that’s a problem.
One of my favorite quotes comes from Dan Pink’s Ted Speech. He said, “there’s a mismatch between what science knows and what business does.”
Well, endowed progress is one of those mismatches. Science proved that it increases customer loyalty, yet most businesses fail to use it.
How do you think you could implement endowed progress in your business? Leave a comment. Or, do you know of someone who uses it online? Share that too!
         

Customer Satisfaction: How to Increase Customer Satisfaction in 3 Steps

        you should develop a content strategy for customers who already bought one of your products. To summarize, she recommends that you:

• Confirm they made the right choice
• Tell them what they just bought
• Give them something to share
• Get there early

I’m sharing this with you because this is a crucial phase in the customer life cycle. If you execute it right, you can minimize returns, prevent buyer’s remorse, and increase customer satisfaction.
What else can you do? How can you create a satisfied customer who will continue to buy more stuff from you?

1. Justify the Sale with Social Proof

When most sales are made, chances are that the buyer will have to justify the purchase to another person – a boss, spouse, or anyone that may pass judgment.
To make this go smoothly, you should arm each one of your customers with testimonials from other people and companies. Or, if you have a low return rate, you might emphasize how few people returned it.
You likely recognize this as social proof. The problem is, many people use it in the selling process, but forget about it in the post purchase phase. It works, so don’t make that mistake.

2. Surprise Customers with a Bonus

When people spend money on a product, the last thing you want them to think is “was this worth it?” To combat this, you should surprise each one of your customers with a little bonus. To elaborate, let me share the fascinating experiment that helped waiters – service professionals – increase their tips by 23%.
Picture a restaurant that offers mints on the way out. Do you think customers will leave a bigger tip if the waiter left a mint with the check? How about 2 mints? Or, what if the waiter left 1 mint, walked away, and then out of no where, went back to the table to leave an additional mint?
As you may have guessed, leaving a mint increased the tip size. However, in each scenario, the increase was different. For 1 mint, the tip was 3% higher. For 2 mints, it was 14% higher. And for the third scenario it was an amazing 23% higher. The surprise triggered the largest tip because customers didn’t expect it.
So think about this. If tips are represenative of customer satisfaction, which I believe they are, you should surprise your customers with a free, valuable bonus. They won’t expect it and it will help them answer “was it worth it?” with an enthuasiastic, head-nodding, “yes!”
Ref: Sweetening the Till: The use of Candy to increase tipping by David Strohmetz.

3. Offer Free Product Training and Support

This is a clear, business-winning decision. Nothing decreases customer satisfaction more than being confused with how to make a product work. And free product training and support will be how you alleviate this customer frustration.
For example, the amazing e-learning software provider, Articulate, provides a free blog, for customers and non-customers, that teaches people how to create more effective e-learning training material. I had the chance to interview Artciulate’s CEO Adam Schwartz and he said this blog helped keep customers happy and bring in new business.
Why does this work? For starters, when people spend money on something, they tend to doubt themselves and their ability to make the product work right. With detailed, free training, you’ll alleviate that self-doubt and win a life-long customer.

The Bottom Line

Just because you made the sale, it doesn’t mean the work is over. Your job is to turn one-time buyers into loyal customers. If you follow these strategies, you should be well on your way. What do you think?
         

How to Sell More, At Higher Prices, and Keep Customers Coming Back

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Got a product or service to sell?
Then you probably already know that blogging is one of the smartest ways to get sales online…
…But what else can you do? How can you increase online sales, sell more at higher prices, and keep customers buying your stuff?
The legendary direct marketer Claude Hopkins once said, “The competent advertising man must understand psychology. The more he knows about it the better.”
Well, he was right. Once you know how the human mind works, generating sales online becomes a cinch.

If you’re loving this article series, share it on Twitter by clicking here

Introducing: The 5-Part Series on Increasing Online Sales

Everything you read in this 5-part blog series is backed up by psychological research and case studies.
…But don’t worry. There won’t be any jargon. The articles use plain and simple language, provide detailed examples, and give you action plans that should help you increase your online sales.

                       

How A New Blog Brought In $2,000 in Revenue—and Attracted 800 Readers—In A Single Day (case study)

      The brutal truth of blogging is this:
It’s hard to get readers.
And it’s even harder when you follow some of the fluff marketing advice you see these “experts” put out.
But the fact remains that you need readers—more readers equals more business.
That’s why I want to show you how one entrepreneur used my drafting technique to flood her business with hundreds of new readers in just one day.

But First, What’s the Drafting?

I filmed a video about it last month, and you can see that here: how to land major press with no connections.
It’s a short video. So, go watch it right now, and I’ll wait .
Now that you’ve watched that, let’s talk about this one blogger who used this method to go from 20 hits a day… to more than 800 hits in a day.
And then, how those 800 hits helped her generate $2,000 in revenue.

Here’s How Katrina Padron Used The Drafting Technique To Score Blog Traffic

Let me break this down:
Drafting is about hopping into your competitor’s slipstream. If they get featured somewhere, you try to get featured there too.
Well, Katrina Padron saw that one of her competitors was featured on a blog, a large blog, that was capable of sending a whole lot of traffic.
Most people would have wondered “aww, I wish I could get featured there too…”
And then they would have left the site never to return.
Fail. People who are serious about increasing their blog traffic would NEVER do that.
So what did Katrina do?
She used what I call the Drafting technique, took her success into her own hands, and BAM!
She got featured, and her new blog went from getting 20 hits in a day… to over 800 hits. Here’s the proof:

Not bad
But what’s amazing is this:
That burst in traffic attracted 171 subscribers, and $2,000 in revenue from two new client acquisitions.
And thats’ not all!

It Gets Better…

…Instead of resting on her laurels, she then leveraged her success to land a major interview on a HUGE blog.
How?
She saw one of her competitors get featured for explaining how they saw a massive traffic increase with a unique strategy.
Well, since she did just that… saw a massive traffic spike from my technique… she decided to leverage that success to land an interview.
And she got it! She pitched herself as a potential interviewee, and bam! Now she’s got that too.

Now How Can You Land Media Coverage Too?

By now you know why I share this advice with you.
When I release my premium training course, you won’t wonder “does it work?” Instead, you’ll think “is this right for me?”
(If you run a blog, then it is right for you ).
But that aside, this technique has worked for years, and I’ve personally used to build my email list and my business.
(And I still use it today!)
But if you’re stuck…
…Even after watching the video, then here are step-by-step directions on how to use the drafting technique to land major press coverage.
One note: I can’t guarantee that you’ll see the same results. That would be irresponsible of me. So, just remember, your results are entirely dependent on how you execute this simple 3-step formula.

Step 1: Discover the Perfect People and Businesses to Draft

Before you begin drafting, you’ve got to take inventory on who you’d like to draft. There are two types of people (or businesses) that I’d target:
1. Direct competitors – Find people who offer competing products, services, or yes, even content.
These people are perfect to draft because you offer almost the same thing. If they’re getting coverage, you can too.
2. Indirect competitors – These are companies or people who are in the same vertical as you, but offer something slightly different. For example, they might offer invoicing software for designers whereas you offer invoicing software for freelancer writers.
These people are GREAT to draft because you’ve got a unique angle to approach reporters with, right off the bat.
To be safe, I’d build a list of 10-20 people.
Once you have that, keep an eye on where they’re getting featured. With Google’s new tools for searching by date (within 1 week), it should be easy to check up on each of them.
Then, when you see an opportunity, here’s what you do next:

Step 2: What Incentive Can You Provide Reporters With to Cover Your Company?

When you’re looking to get featured on a website, you’ve got to realize one thing:
It’s not about you or your company. It’s about providing the reporter with an incentive to cover your company.
Because remember, reporters are people, and as Levitt and Dubner wrote in Super Freakonomics, “People are people, and they respond to incentives. They can nearly always be manipulated—for good or ill—if only you find the right lever.”
Now I’m not telling you to bribe people. That doesn’t work. But there are other incentives that fire a reporter up. Let’s go through that.
First, what does a reporter do?
They write stories, and their stories cover unique ideas, controversy, and/or new developments to an existing story.
Now if you can make their job easier… and provide them with a story… you’re golden. You made the reporter’s work life easier, and who doesn’t want that?
Yes, I may have over simplified it, but you get the idea.
Keeping that in mind, when you want to draft behind one of your competitors (both direct and indirect), you’ve got to position your company in a way that creates a story for the reporter.
To do that, analyze the story about your competitor. Was there any holes? Concerns? Or was there room for additional commentary?
If so, you’ll want to pitch the story idea, and position your article, product, or service as the focal point of that story. Or you can focus on crafting contagious content.
Now what happens when you have your story idea? Proceed…

Step 3: How to Pitch Your Story to Reporters and Bloggers

This is the final step, but as a fair warning, if you skimped on the prep work and story creation in Step 2, this step is pointless.
That aside, let’s do this.
Most people pitch reporters and bloggers ALL WRONG.
I know you know what I’m talking about too…
If you run a blog, chances are you’ve seen a PR rep send you an email that talks about some new press release and asks you to link them because “they think you’ll be interested.”
Are you ever interested?
Nope .
So what’s the right way to pitch a reporter or blogger?
The trick is to NEVER send a long email with a long pitch. People are busy, and they ignore long emails from people they don’t know.
Instead, you want to write an email that people can’t resist. YOu want to write an email that BECKONS a response.
What’s an email like that look like?
Here:

Hey Name,
I saw you wrote about [insert topic]. Well, I’ve got some [insert unique story angle] that answers the concerns you raised in your original article. Here’s the article:
[insert link to article here].
You’re busy but you’ll find this as the perfect answer to [insert the concern they raised].
- Derek

And that’s it.
That template works great for a three reasons:

1. You’re drafting behind one of their topics, as shown with the first sentence.
2. It also works because you’re promisnig a unique angle, which all reporters and bloggers want.
3. This email works because it opens an information gap.

Note: I don’t recommend you copy this email word for word. Also note how I don’t ask for a link. That’s key. Asking for a link alerts the BS meters .

Getting Press Coverage Is That Easy, But…

…You have to take action on this advice.
When I first shared this tactic a month ago, you had the opportunity to implement it.
Did you?
Katrina did, and she reaped the rewards.
(My content contains no fluff. Just concrete marketing advice)
But how about you?
What’s holding you back?
Remember this:
In the end, building a blog that generates business is possible… even in an overcrowded marketplace.
But you’ve got to take action.
Now leave a comment and tell me how you plan on leveraging the drafting technique
                         

How to Get 2,281 Subscribers—and Increase Traffic by 69%—in 27 Days

Today I’m going to show you how I slapped a jetpack on my blog’s growth.
And more importantly, I’m going to tell you exactly what I did so you can model it.
What’s better is this:
Even though I used this simple strategy to increase my blog traffic, you can use this framework to grow anything, from raw traffic numbers to loyal customers.
You ready?
Let’s do this.

First, A Little Backstory

Back in early November 2011, I was hanging with Pat Flynn in Los Angeles, and between beers, I heard Pat say “~20% of my readers said they first found me on iTunes.”
I didn’t spit on myself, thank god, but I did have the foresight to DRILL him on that number.
You see, I never ran a podcast before, but with results like that, I knew I had to create one.
But I wasn’t going to rush it…
Instead, I was going to follow what I call the “launch anything” formula.
And here’s what happened:

My Podcast Came Out In Early January…

…and here’s what happened:
It’s January 27th, and Social Triggers has already grown over December’s full month of traffic by 43%—and there’s still 5 days left before month-end!
If this rate continues, Social Triggers will experience 69% growth over December 2011, my previous “best month” for blog traffic.
But let’s not just talk about traffic…
…let’s talk about RSS subscribers.
On January 1st, 2011, Social Triggers had 14,309 subscribers, and on January 27th, 2011, Social Triggers has 16,590 subscribers, meaning my RSS list grew by 16% too!
(I don’t publicly reveal my email list size or my revenue on purpose, so don’t ask ).
Why was the podcast a huge success?
It’s because I used the “launch anything” formula I told you about.
But now you’re likely wondering “how can I pull off the same thing?”
And more importantly, “how can this same strategy work for anything… not just a podcast?”
Keep reading.

The 3-Step Formula to Launching Anything (I Just Happened to Launch a Podcast)

Let’s get one thing straight:
Yes, I used this 3-step formula to launch a podcast, but it can be used to launch anything.
Releasing a new ebook? A product? A training program? A new service? New real estate listings?
It doesn’t matter. This formula works.
Why am I giving it away for free?
That’s simple.
You see, when I give away sure-fire formulas that get you results, that means you know my material works.
That way, when I release my premium training product, you won’t wonder “does it work?” Instead, you’ll think “is this right for me?”
That’s the psychology behind why it’s smart to give away some of your best material.
Makes sense?
Good.
Now let me walk you through this 3-step formula.

Step 1: Discover Your Unique Selling Proposition

Here’s the most important step, and if you plan on skipping it, you might as well stop reading right now.
Whenever you launch something new (a blog, a podcast, anything), you’ve got to fill a need in the market with a solution that doesn’t exist.
I know that sounds complicated, but it’s not.
All you’ve got to do is this:
First, Take a look at your main competitors (look at the biggest and best only) and figure out their core topics and target market.
Second, Write those topics on a piece of paper, and then begin to write other topics that might be related.
Finally, Begin combining 2, 3, or 4 topics together with your personality, and you’re set. You may not have unique ingredients, but you’ve got a unique recipe.
And that unique recipe is all that matters.
I’ll say that one more time…

For a successful launch, you don’t need unique ingredients. You need a unique recipe. – Tweet This

Nothing works better than a real-life example, so here’s mine:
When I decided I want to release a podcast, I knew I had to do something different from Pat Flynn, and the other podcasters out there.
You see, I write about internet marketing, which is one of the most crowded niches. So what did I plan on doing to stand out?
Instead of bringing on the usual suspects, the top social media influencers, I decided to go outside social media to introduce new people into our community.
I began featuring world-class researchers, professors from top universities, New York Times best-selling authors, and anyone else who could talk about the psychology of monetization.
And BAM. I was done.
But having a unique selling proposition wasn’t enough…
Yes, when you’re using the “launch anything” formula, the unique selling proposition is vital, but you also need something more.
And that’s where this next section comes into play.

Step 2: How to Build Anticipation The Right Way

Here’s the deal:
When most people release something new, they often announce it AND release it on the same day…
…And that’s a huge mistake.
No matter what you release… whether it’s a podcast… a new product… a new type of content on your site… you MUST build anticipation.
Why?
1. That anticipation gets people talking about you and your upcoming release.
2. That anticipation gets people to comment on your blog and say “I can’t wait for it.”
(Note: When people commit to something, they like to remain consistent with their publicly declared actions, as originally pointed out by Robert Cialdini’s consistency principle).
3.That anticipation opens what’s known as an information gap, and people can’t wait to fill it.
(When there is a gap between what people know and don’t know, they seek to fill it. This was first discovered by George Loewenstein, and it’s called “information gap theory.“)
How Do You Build That Anticipation?
That’s easy.
You tell people what’s coming, but you’re not too specific about it. You give details, but hold back the real meat.
For example, when I launched Social Triggers Insider, I filmed a short video that said “Introducing Social Triggers Insider.”
In that video, I told people what my podcast was about, but I never told them who I planned to feature. That was going to be a surprise.
And what happened?
That video announcement post attracted well over 300 blog comments… 300 tweets… and thousands of hits.
Just announcing the release of my upcoming podcast generated a huge amount of buzz, but there was an added benefit…
People KNEW I was releasing something new!
The reality is this: Most of your readers don’t read every email or blog post you write.
So, when you break it down into two separate articles (or emails), you get two chances to grab attention instead of one.
To really illustrate this, when I finally released my first Social Triggers Insider master class, that email update had a 75.3% open rate.
Yes, 75.3% open rate… The industry average is often less than 20%, especially when dealing with email lists as large as mine.
Anticipation works .

Step 3: How to Deliver On Your Promises

Here’s where things get sticky…
When you build anticipation, you’ve got to deliver.
I know that sounds simple, but I’ve found that when people just do what they say they’re going to do, they’re light years ahead of everyone else.
Cynical, yes, but still true.
Now if you really want to woo your readers… and ensure that people KNOW you brought the goods… you should over deliver.
Here’s how:
1. Add an unannounced bonus – For example, when I released my podcast, I said it was an audio master class. However, I delivered a transcript, an audio file, and a video.
2. Deliver beautiful packaging – Your design is essential for building trust. So, if you deliver a nicely designed finished product, people will thank you for it. (I’m lucky that I like minimalism )
3.DELIVER RESULTS – You can’t get around this. No matter what you release, you’ve got to make sure you’re delivering results to your readers and customers.
And that’s it.
You’re set.

Now Here’s What I Want You To Do

If you found this article helpful, share it with your friends.
I hope to help as many people as possible with my free content, and I need you to help spread the word. So, thank you.
But now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty:
First, you’ll need to come up with what you’d like to launch. Remember, it can be anything.
But here are some things to consider:

1. You can introduce a brand-new type of content. If you often write articles, maybe now you can create a video series.
2. You can release a brand-new, or updated service package. And I suspect that’s self explanatory.
3. You can release a brand-new series of content. Instead of simply writing a one and done blog post, announce the launch of a blog post series.

And you’re done.
Once you know what you plan to release, just go back through this article and follow the 3-step formula.
Then, when it’s time to get traffic, use what I call “The Drafting Technique.”
Now let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Increasing CTR

Making real money using Google’s AdSense program is easy. The key is to increase the AdSense click through rate (CTR) on a site. This means converting traffic to your site into traffic to your advertisers' sites.

Theoretically this is very easy. Making it work in practice, however, requires a some time and effort. But, if you are able to increase the CTR, the results can be quite surprising. In fact, many people who have mastered this to their favor have done wonders for their lives.

Let’s look at some of the ways to achieve this.

• Search Engine Optimization. This requires you to increase the concentration of highly used search engine keywords on the website. This works on the principle that if enough people visit your site, some of them will actually click through to the ads. The website content should also be rich in keywords while still offering good information.
• Make ads blend in. Another way is to make the adverts look similar to the website content in color schemes, fonts etc.
• Reduce outgoing links. By limiting the visitor's option of where to go next, the CTR can be increased very easily.
• Try different ad sizes. This is basically a trial-and-error method of experimenting with the size and color schemes of the ads to find out which works best for your site.

The process of increasing the CTR will be slow and hence time consuming, but the effort is well worth the results. The idea is to make a site relevant and enticing enough that visitors will want to click through on the ads to learn more about potential products and services related to the content.

Beware: Repeatedly reloading your page to jack up page impressions can get you banned. Click-through-rate (CTR) is ratio of clicks per impressions. It can range from 0.1% to 30%, but most commonly around 1% to 10%.

Online Money making - Myths and remedies

I have seen many a posts on the internet where people are complaining that they have not made any serious money although they have been religiously posting on their blogs and using site monetizing techniques. People need to understand that earning moneythrough full time blogging is a very difficult and tedious process and not everybody is made for it. I present below some of the associated myths and remedies thereof...

• Just setting up a website and thinking that now the money will start falling through the roof is downright stupid - it will never happen.
• Similarly, just adding Google Adsense code into your website will not ensure ringing cash register, a lot needs to be done and believe me, its very hard work.
• Do not believe in people saying that they are making six-figure incomes just by adding adsense into their website and working two hours a day - Its a white LIE.
• Your website needs real content for it to make some money. Small 1-5 page websites can never make the kind of money those emails promised.
• Plagiarism is a strict no-no, it will never even be listed on popular search engines.
• I have seen many ads delivered to my email, selling 1-2 step websites. Never fall for them, they are lying and you will never make any money buying them... stay away from them.
• You need to have passion for the medium if you are serious about setting up an online business. The activity of creating websites that millions go to needs dedication and a lot of tecnical skills.
• Before monetizing your website/Blog make it popular. Only about 10% of people click on ads (If you are very lucky). That means if only 100 people are visiting your website every day, then you might get at maximum about 10 clicks - which translates into $1 (again, if you are lucky).
• Go for niche interests for which not much information is available online. This ensures more traffic and hence more income.
• You must have a working knowledge of HTML, so that you are not dependent on your developers for making small changes in the website.
• Post regularly - This is very important. You must post new content on the website/ blog for people to visit it again and again. This builds traffic as also it results in improving your site position on the search results. Ideally you should post everyday, but posting quality content once a week is also very good.
• And last but foremost is that you must have a flair for writing. Bad writing skills will not take you far in this field. Grammatical and spelling mistakes are very bad for a budding writing career in the blogosphere.

If you like the above post please do post your comments here so that I can improve on my future posts

Importance of Blog Carnivals

I can almost hear many groans from my audience complaining about yet another jargon I have just introduced at the blog. This jargon you better pay attention to as this might be the ultimate in traffic building tools that are available to budding bloggers.

Blog carnivals are nothing but communities that show case particular niche blogs on selsected dates and provide links to all the blogs who have shown interest in the event. They are like road shows where even upstarts your truly are given equal opportunities. There are many such carnivals on the internet that cater to this demand of a "Link Fair".

A blog carnival offers a unique captive audience for your blogs and gives a boost to the traffic for flagelling blogs in the beginning of their lives. The best part of such carnivals is that you get so much in-bound traffic and publicity and that too for free. Only thing left for bloggers is to find their niche subjects in the huge collection of categories and sub-categories and post their best posts for the participants to read. Each carnival event can easily fetch hundreds if not thousands of new subscribers for your blog and can go a long way to publicising your blog.

As Steve Pavlina says;

In my early traffic-building days, I’d do carnivals submissions once a week, and it helped a great deal in going from nothing to about 50,000 visitors per month. You still have to produce great content, but carnivals give you a free shot at marketing your unknown blog for free. Carnivals are like an open-mic night at a comedy club - they give amateurs a chance to show off their stuff. I still submit to certain carnivals every once in a while, but now my traffic is so high that relatively speaking, they don’t make much difference anymore.

This is one tool for blog publicity that no blogger worth his salt should ignore.

If you like this post then do leave your comments here and subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog to get intimation for any new posts in the future.

Thanks

Improving PR for maximum Adsense Revenues

As discussed earlier also the key to maximum adsense revenues is through a high Google Page Rank (PR). This results in a higher traffic for the bog/website which increases the CTR of the adsense ads culminating in a increased revenue. Thus you might say increase PR and everything is taken care of... Yes this might be the case in Utopia but increasing PR is no joke. This has now evolved into an art-form and books are being written on the subject. While this post is no lengthy testament but still here I try to bring to you some of the tips and tricks that will definitely increase your PR on popular search engines.

1. Keywords: Keywords research is a very important aspect of the quest for higher PR. You must know what your audience is searching for on popular search engines and the search results should have your site/blog in a prominent position. Using common words and phrases for which there might be hundreds of other sites, may prove to be useless as you will end up competing with more well known websites and your PR will never increase. Therefore, try and use uncommon phrases and these should still cover what your audience will use while searching for it. It is confusing, but hell, this is how it works - You must use uncommon words but they must be in most search queries. You can use free online tools to search for what the world is searching for - they can be found here and hereamong others.
2. Title Tag: Title tag is very important for Google. Google search algorithm looks for Title Tag (Anything between the tags) and considers it to be the most relevant and important part of the web page it spiders. This is the underlined text that appears in the Google search results. The important thing here is to keep it descriptive enough as well as to pack in all the keywords that you have discovered through the tools described above.
3. Description Tag: This gives the information about the content of the web page and appears immediately below the Title in the search results. This should of course be descriptive in nature and also pack in some of the lesser of the keywords discovered above.
4. Domain Name: Ideally your domain name must carry the keywords of the website as it gives a definitive boost to the PR of the website. If the keywords are not present in the domain name then the relevancy of your website is lost with respect to the search query (for the search engine)
5. Content: It cannot be reinforced anymore that the "Content Is King". Your site/blog must have relevant content if you want your site to be successful. Forget PR, if you pack your site with relevant keywords and use many other fringe techniques your PR might increase, but if your site lacks good relevant content then users to the site will never come back. Repeat visitors for the backbone of any website's traffic.
6. Linking: Your site must be linked with other similar sites or other sites having content of the similar subject. This is very important as Google looks for other sites linked to your site while deciding on the relevancy of your site with respect to others. The links can be of two types - One way and Two way. One way links mean that the other site links to your site but does not ask for a corresponding link to itself on your site. These links are hard to get for startups and for them the second types are more relevant. Here you find sites which are on similar subjects as your site and ask them to feature links to your site on them and in return you feature their links on your site. This is mutually beneficial and very effective in PR as well as general traffic building. You can use this tool to check whether the site your are going to link to has any links to bad sites. This is important because Google penalizes sites which link to bad sites.
7. There is no Short-Cut: Above all please keep in mind this is no fast food. You will not begin to see results immediately after taking the above steps. The results will only come after sustained eforts by you. It is also possible that the above worked for me but may not work for you, so you must be patient and devise your own strategy for getting that elusive better PR.

Cracking the Google Algorithm

Understanding the algorithm that determines the index of search results through Google is in fact the hottest topic of interest among the webmasters. This is a vital information as it determines where your website ranks among the search results. The higher the rank, the better chance your site has of getting a visitor.

Another factor here is the popular keywords that users are using to search for their subject of interest. So not only your site should rank high on search results but this should happen for most popular keywords also. This is the most sought after information that SEO companies are after. Every webmaster therefore must be aware what his site rank is and what are the popular keywords his users are using. Here we have been talking about Google results only as it is common knowledge that Google is the major supplier of web traffic among all major search engines in the world. Therefore understanding the "Google Algorithm" is the Holy Grail of Site Optimization.

Today we discuss the major factors that affect the site optimization and result in better search results giving your site a better ranking.

1. Keywords in the URL: Your domain name or the URL should contain your while the webpage should contain the description. Another key is to add keywords on the webpage enclosed within H1, H2 or H3 tags. This causes the search spiders to index the pages with respect to the keywords.
2. Keywords in the Title: Placing of keywords on the title tag of the page as well as the body of the page results in better search results coming out of popular search keywords. Another way to call attention to keywords and keyword phrases on the webpage is to enclose them in H1, H2 or H3 tags.
3. Good Content: The most important of the factors is good and updated content which is relevant to the topic. It is pertinent that the content is regularly updated so that it remains relevant to the users.
4. Internal Links: The website should have links to all the internal pages of the website and any page should be withing 2 to 3 clicks away from the starting page.
5. High Quality External Links: Another important factor to make your site popular with search engine spiders is to have links to reputed external sites. Take special care that the linked site is is not spam filled or is a link farm or is generally a "bad neighbourhood" website.
6. Inbound Links: Care should also be taken that your site is linked by high quality websites. This can be done by submitting articles in online article directories. The articles should have links to various relevant pages of your website. Some experts are of the opinion that you should add new inbound links to your site every month to increase your PR.
7. Reliable Server: Another very important feature critical to get better result with Google is to have highly reliable web server. If your website is not available when the spider visits, then it will not be indexed at all and your popularity as a result will suffer greatly.
8. Plagiarim: Plagiarism is detested by the Google spiders and if they find duplicate content on your site copied from somewhere else then is very difficult to get your site in their primary results.

There are many more factors in this but if you keep the above in mind while starting out then your site will go a long way in getting better results with Google.

Maximize Adsense Revenues

As I have stated over and over again here, that content is KING. Good content will attract traffic to your site and some of those will click on your Adsense Ads giving you revenues. Good content means having multiple pages of content focussing on your chosen niche topic. These topics can be anything like babies, baby photos, pets, automobile tires or Adsense like mine. So the first step obviously is to find out your niche topic and then religiously post information on your website regularly. The benefits of having good content are many, some of them are:

• If the visitor likes your content then the probability of him lingering on longer at your site is quite high and in the process he might click on those strategically placed ad units.
• Search Engine spiders will crawl your site easily and more visitors will get to reach your pages.
• If you have rich content, then most visitors will make it a point to revisit as reading all information in a single visit is not possible. The subsequent visits will also ensure a steady traffic. If your site has more data in the next visit your site might become a regular feature for many netizens.
• This loyal set of visitors will then subscribe for the RSS feeds from the website and also recommend your site to their friends.
• Other sites or blogs will link to your site to provide good content to their own readers.
• Your site will as a consequent of the above will get a prominent rank in most popular search engines and therefore get even bigger traffic.

The key to create good content website is to get the attention of your reader and then provide him with good information in a lucid way to get his undivided attention for as long as possible. The main things to remember here are:

• Write medium sized articles which the reader is able to read in about 5 minutes. But keep in mind that it should not be so short that it just gives an overview of the topic and the reader is forced to whet his hunger for knowledge in the field from another source. You will lose an potential regular reader this way every time a new won visits your site.
• Create a bunch of articles around a topic covering all the aspects and allied subjects. This will provide information not only on the core subject but also cover allied subjects thereby, attracting even more visitors.
• Categorize your articles and place the category list on the first page itself. This will make the job of a potential visitor easier as he does not have to sift through all your articles to search the ones he wants to read.

The content rich site thus created will be able to catch a lot of new visitors, but to get a loyal audience you will need to put up such good content on a regular basis. This will inturn result in a marked increase in your adsense revenues.

If you like the above write up then please do jot down your comments in the comments section and you can also subscribe to this site's RSS feed to get updates whenever a new article is added.

7 Steps to Create Scannable Content

One thing you must keep in mind while putting up content online is that the online reader is very finicky about what he or she wants to read. If your post is quite lengthy and deals with an arcane subject, then it is quite possible your reader might dump you in between.

This calls for making your content tailor made for such readers. 16% average web users actually go through every word of what you have put down, rest scan your page keywords of interest and only read the relevant sections that are of interest. So I present today some measures to take to keep such readers happy and not lose their interest.

1. Make Lists: Always try and present your facts and figures in list form. If you have a bunch of things to tell your audience then it is advisable that you list them out in numbers and make headings of each point, much like how I am presenting these points to you right now. Therefore avoid putting your text in lengthy essay form and always favor bulleted lists instead.
2. Bold and Italized: Wherever you are referring to important points take special care to either italize the text or make it Bold. This grabs the attention of the reader and if the topic of discussion is of interest to him then he wont go anywhere before reading it fully.
3. Headers: Structure your post body so as to include headings and sub-headings to stress upon key areas of the topic. This will ensure that all points being covered in your article will be seen by the visitors and will not remain unread.
4. Graphics: It is said that a picture says a thousand words and here too if your article uses an image or a graphic to illustrate a point then it is always better. The picture will attract the attention of the reader and the words will deliver the whole story.
5. Borders: You can enclose certain key points and sections within borders to stress importance.
6. White Space: Always leave ample space around your article and do not try to fill up all the page real estate. A fully filled up page gives a feeling of claustrophobia to the reader and the empty space give a feeling of freshness to the reader, give it to him.
7. Keep it short:Always keep your points short and if required break them up in small parts. Also place these points in separate paragraphs.

I sincerely hope that the above points will sure help you to create such content that will attract readers who are only looking at posts and only reading them if it is of interest.

If you liked this post then please do leave your comments here and also you can subscribe to the RSS feed to this blog to enable you to be informed whenever I am able to update it.

Reduce your Bouce Rate and earn Millions

I hope you all have installed Google Analytics in your blog. If not then quickly do so. The information and means to do it are available here. If you do not already know then you should know that Google Analytics is a tool that provides vital statistics about your website like how many people are visiting it and what time do they spend there etc. As you see above the Google Analytics gives information such as Visits, Page Views, Bounce Rates, Average time spent on the website, new visitors etc.

The most important parameter given above is the Bounce Rate. This is the percentage of people who come to the website and go back without going to any other page on the website. The higher this number the greater number of customers you are losing everyday. The endeavor on the webmaster's part should be to reduce this to bare minimum. In fact the ideal bounce rate should be 0. Any number more than zero is totally unacceptable.

To reduce the bounce rate the following steps must be taken immediately.

1. Targeted keywords: If your website is lacking targeted keywords, then the visitors will not find it relevant to their search results and will therefore move out. The website should not waver from the niche topic. Targeted audience is hard to get if the website covers a wide variety of topics. Your keywords should be there in titles, articles, and all other parts of your website.
2. Get the right look: Make your website look like it should be. If your recipe site looks like an auto review site then the potential audience of chefs will desert it like mice in a drowning ship. The look and feel of the site is therefore, very important. The color scheme and the images used should match the theme of the site.
3. Images in articles: Always insert images in the articles. Bland articles are not binding enough to catch hold of the visitors. Always insert relevant images, illustrations, diagrams in the articles to get the desired visitors to spend more time at your website.

I hope you will benefit from this article of mine and get a good traffic to your website/blog.

If you liked this post then please do subscribe to the RSS feed and give your valuable comments for the post.

How To Become A Web Design Expert

Have you ever wanted to take a client by the collar, shake them around vigorously and demand that they take you seriously because you are the expert? If so, you are not alone. Whether you consider yourself an expert and want recognition or are looking to one day become one, you need to step back and ask why being perceived in that way is important.

(Smashing's side note: Have you already pre-ordered the brand new Smashing Mobile Book? The book features everything you need to know as a designer or developer to create beautiful and rich mobile experiences. Get your book today!)

Why We All Want To Be Seen As An Expert

Many of us desire to be seen as experts because we would like our opinions to be taken seriously. Others want to be respected and valued, partly to satisfy our own ego, but largely due to a belief that we know best and that things should be done our way.

However, as we will see later, being an expert is more than about getting people to listen. If that is all you can manage, then they will see through this shallow desire and not give you the status that you believe you deserve.

Respect is not the only thing we expect from being regarded as an expert. Many of us also think that we would be able to charge more and that people will line up to hire us. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Many experts are largely unknown, even within their field, and do not demand high salaries. Being an unheard-of expert is of little value to your career.

In spite of all this, being perceived as an expert can be helpful when working with clients, and it does create the potential to attract better-quality work.

What, then, does it take to become an expert?

What Does It Take To Become An Expert?

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell suggests that becoming an expert in any particular field takes approximately 10,000 hours of practice. For most full-time Web designers, this equates to almost four years’ worth of work.

I find this figure of 10,000 hours dubious. While I can see how this would apply to something like playing a musical instrument or a sport, I am not sure it applies to a field as diverse as Web design. 10,000 hours of Photoshop experience, for example, would not make you an expert in Web design. At most, you would be a Photoshop expert.

That said, Gladwell’s claim is right in one respect. To become an expert, you need time and experience.

Many people claim to be experts, but only few invest thousands of hours of work to become one. Image byBrett Jordan.

TIME AND EXPERIENCE

There can be no doubt that expertise only comes with time and perseverance. It does not happen overnight, and there are no shortcuts to achieving a high level of expertise. The longer you do the job, the more you’ll see and the less likely you’ll be surprised by new scenarios.

One could argue that things move so quickly in Web design that lessons learned four years ago do not apply today. But I’m not convinced that is the case. In my experience, although technology changes, people do not. The majority of unexpected issues that arise when developing a website relates either to human error or to some element of user experience. Also, years of experience will improve your ability to solve problems. Even if the challenges are new, the fact that you have tackled so many before makes you more proficient at overcoming problems. Your methodologies and processes make you better equipped. Therefore, lessons learned years ago still stand today.

OBSESSIVE PASSION

I’m not suggesting that only experience matters. For instance, I don’t believe you should require a certain number of years of experience when employing somebody. Instead, look for a desire to learn, an ability to work in your company’s culture and, most of all, passion.

I began my career working at IBM and can attest that years served is not a reflection of expertise. Too many of the people I worked with coasted through the years with no passion for their work. Without passion, they had no desire to learn new things or push boundaries.

I believe that an almost obsessive passion for Web design is required to be a true expert.

In addition, my colleagues at IBM never took risks. Experimenting and making mistakes are crucial if experts are to establish their credibility.

The Importance Of Making Mistakes

At the heart of being a true expert lies one universal truth: you need to be willing to make mistakes, and a lot of them.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in a culture that celebrates failure. We want winners, people who succeed. But success comes down not to inspiration, but perspiration. Winston Churchill put it best:

Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.

Succeeding in your chosen career and becoming a true expert requires that you fail not just once or twice, but again and again.

Failure is a crucial part of the journey to becoming an expert. As Charles Willson once said:

The definition of an expert is someone who knows what not to do.

Without failure, we cannot hope to learn the best way to do things. Although learning from the failures of others is possible, nothing beats experiencing failure first-hand.

We need to overcome our aversion of failure. We should go as far as celebrating it. Being willing to fail is a sign of maturity, bravery and a desire to do better.

Most importantly, we need to learn to face our failures. When a project goes wrong, people tend to react in one of two ways. Some of us carry on regardless, denying the issue. We pour good money and effort after bad. Knowing when to let go is so important. The others get rid of the problem as quickly as possible and pretend it never happened. But this route means that you will never learn from your mistakes. We need to take time at the end of a disastrous project to review where things went wrong and learn from it. This path can be a hard, especially when you have to deal with an unhappy client.

Those who are never seen to fail are either too timid to try, for fear of public ridicule, or simply do not desire success enough to endure the sting of failure.

You may be concerned that public failure undermines the perception of you as an expert. Although this is certainly a possibility, the public’s perception of you is shaped by more than whether you succeed or fail at a particular endeavour.

How To Ensure You Are Perceived As An Expert

Being an expert though never being appreciated as such is possible. Being knowledgeable is not enough; one also needs to be recognized for that knowledge.

This is a common problem and one you may be experiencing. You have done your 10,000 hours, made mistakes and learned your lessons. Nevertheless, your clients or boss fail to recognize the knowledge and experience you have accumulated.

How do you convince them that you are an expert and that they should take your opinion seriously?

SHOW SOME HUMILITY

The first step to being recognized as an expert is to stop insisting that you are one. People who are generally regarded as experts are often the last to call themselves one. In fact, they often go to great lengths to point out the limitations of their knowledge and to encourage others not to take their opinion as gospel.

People are suspicious of those who claim to be experts. Allow your knowledge to speak for itself, rather than insisting that people pay attention. But while saying that you are an expert is not wise, you could imply it in a number of ways. One of the most powerful ways is context.

USE CONTEXT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

If you took some modern art out of a gallery and hung it in a primary school, it could be mistaken for children’s painting. This is because context influences how it is perceived. The same is true with expertise.

Witness how managers take the opinions of consultants more seriously than their staff, even if both are saying the same thing. Consultants are paid more, and so their opinions are more highly valued.

You might not have much room to change your rate; nonetheless, you can change your context so that people value you more highly.

Like a work of art in a gallery, your expertise will be recognized if it is experienced in the right context. For example, people will give your comments more weight if you are standing on a conference stage than if you are in a pub. Likewise, your expertise will be taken more seriously if it is read in a book than shared around a conference-room table.

I often get mistaken for an expert simply because I stand on stage. Photo by Marc Thiele.

Getting a speaking engagement or a book deal requires that you first convince someone of your expertise. Conference organizers and publishers act as guardians of quality, and if these guardians have approved you, then people will assume you know what you’re talking about.

Not all of us can secure book deals and speaking slots. In this case, self-publishing, podcasting, blogging and participating in open-source projects are just a few alternatives. Standing out as an expert is easier than you think.

Not that context is everything. It’s also about what you say and how you say it.

STYLE AND SUBSTANCE

Another reason that books, presentations, blogs and podcasts are more effective than mere conversations could be that the arguments in them are better structured and more thoughtful.

How you articulate yourself is critical. While something might seem obvious to you, it is not always clear to others, particularly if the issue is recurring. When a client asks you to make their logo bigger or to fill up white space that you have so carefully crafted, being dismissive and irritable is easy because you have heard the request so many times before. Rather, carefully structure your response so that it is as convincing as possible.

That said, it is not just about substance, but also the style in which you present your arguments. An expert should speak with a quiet confidence. The truly great have little to prove, and so talk with a certain presence and authority. They don’t get flustered when someone disagrees with them. Instead, they seamlessly switch to a different approach.

If you want to be perceived as an expert, know yourself, be relaxed and present with confidence.

Unfortunately, problems will arise if the other party in the relationship already has certain preconceptions.

Overcoming Prejudices

Establishing yourself as an expert with your current boss or client can be a challenge. When you are seen as a junior member of the staff, their opinion won’t change overnight. Fortunately, you can do a couple of things to help shift that perception.

First, present evidence to support your positions. If your boss is worried about content being below the fold, show them a report on scrolling behavior.

Quoting research such as this report on scrolling can increase your credibility.

Secondly, quote established experts who support your case. Jakob Nielsen, for one, has written extensively on the topic of scrolling.

These techniques have benefits beyond just supporting your argument. They also demonstrate how well read you are in your field. Also, by demonstrating that your position is in line with that of other experts, you build your credibility by way of association. Their expertise rubs off on you!

Unfortunately, there is no quick way to overcome biases. This is hard for those who work regularly with the same people. But over time, by consistently demonstrating your expertise and using the techniques mentioned above, you can change their view.

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

The focus of this article is on becoming an expert. But before concluding, I want to say a word about what happens when you finally achieve your aim.

Once you gain the respect of your clients, boss or peers, what next? Becoming an expert has to be about more than having an ego trip. Rather, it should always be about serving others. You become an expert so that you can do a better job for your clients, provide more value to your organization and help others establish best practice in your industry. Ultimately, if all you want is to be loved and respected, you will never achieve your aim. People can detect that kind of narcissism a mile away and will dismiss you as vain.

That said, being taken seriously is important in our line of work. If we are not taken seriously, then good websites can go bad. I am sure you will share in the comments stories of how Web projects have gone wrong because people didn’t listen to you. But hearing some experiences of how you convinced bosses and clients to take you seriously would also be nice.