How To Use Google AdWords

I found this very interesting writeup about using Googles AdWords. It's very practically focused with examples and everything, and it looks like a nice way to get started using AdWords. Neil mentions the need for goals and the importance of tracking your visitors, which I fully agree with. I'm not that familiar with AdWords yet, but I quite sure he's right in all his points.

Google's PageRank

The online strategy for this blog is coming along nicely, and I'll tell you more about it later. I just wanted to give you a few link that might be helpful when working on optimising your website and attract more users.

Pagerank

One of the many calculations behind your ranking on Google, is the Google Pagerank. The pagerank is a number from 0 and up indicating the relevance of your site compared to others. If you've installed the Google Toolbar, the pagerank will be shown for each site you visit (unless you disabled the feature - or spyware as some might consider it) with a number between 0 and 10 (indicating a pagerank of 100,000,000,000+ or something). This blog is 'only' a three (pagerank between 10,000 and 100,000), but hopefully that'll change with time when I start putting more content in, and people start noticing the site.

Google Cheat Sheet

Back to the links i promised. The first link is to a Google cheat sheet with loads of hints on how to use Google's products, and where to find various things. One of the things on the cheat sheet is the Google PageRank formula. From what I gather, it's been dug out of one of the original research papers on the Google system. The formula by it self makes no sense, but with a bit more explanation you should be able to see the point. Apparently your pagerank is the pagerank divided by the number of external links of all the sites that link to you. The value is calculated for each site, then added to a grand total and multiplied with 0,85 (a number Google researchers is said to have found by testing all values between 0 and 1, to get the most appropriate result) I haven't dived deeply into the math of it all, but it seems that it would be helpful to have links to your site on other sites with a good pagerank (or better than yours anyway) besides just having loads of links to your site.

Visual PageRank View

The only problem with the Google Toolbar is, that it's quite a hassle to browse through all the sites you link to and those they link to, to see the pagerank. Enter iWebtools Visual PageRank tool. This will show you a small bar on each of the link on your site, indicating the page rank of each page that you link too! :) It can't be easier then that.

The Hard Part

The problem with the pagerank formula, is that it's fairly difficult to affect the result. You can't just set up an army of websites that link to your site, because they would most likely have a pagerank of 0, and never get a better one. You have to 'earn' your links, by supplying interesting products or information that people think are work linking to.

Examples of How To Implement an Online Strategy

We went out for lunch today, and I found an example of a simple way to combine an online strategy with an offline one. The restaurent wants customers to become more loyal, and keep up with what is happening in the various branches, and they probably want a way of spamming as many people as possible if they have something on offer. What have they done? simple placed small leaflets on the tables advertising a competition, where you can win a price by signing up to their newsletter.

Not only online

Thier focus is not only on their website, but on thier whole business, which is why they also offer that you can sign up by texting a specific number, and recieve news directly on your mobile phone. Nice to see someone utilizing all the available channels to reach their market.

Images of the leaflet

This is the leaflet it self. The image is a bit out of focus, but I only had my mobile with me to act as a camera. And here is how it was placed on the table.

Complexity of Online Strategies

You may claim that developing an online strategy for this site is like shooting flies with stinger missiles, but who've said an online strategy needs to be huge and complicated? No one claims that an online strategy needs to include a self service area as well as a full blown shop. Some might think about big complex things when they read the word "strategy", but think about it again. A strategy is just "A plan of action…intended to accomplish a specific goal" (see Dictionary.com) and nothing more. If your goal is to increase the number of visitors to your website, your strategy is basically just an explanation of how you will attempt to reach that goal. It could be as simple as "I’m going to launch five different AdWord campaigns, to get people to my site. I’ll continue to fine-tune the campaigns till I get a steady 500 users pr. Week. In the meantime I’ll use my tracking data to optimize my website, so that I won’t loose users during the ordering process"

Formulating an Online Strategy Can Be Easy

Why complicate things when they can be dealt with in a simple and easy manner? You can always expand or change your strategy once you have a better idea about what your site is capable off, and how you can use it as an integrated part of your business. If the strategy I’ve just mentioned has a vision of surpassing a physical store in total sales, the two goals I mentioned are naturally not enough. Once they’ve been reached, new goals should already have been set in place, e.g. reaching a conversion rate of 3% out of those 500 users pr. week and reaching a level of 1000 users pr. week within a set timeframe. Your vision should be fairly fixed (depending on the marked naturally) but your goals and strategies should be flexible. Online strategies can of cause be complex for companies like Amazon, Dell and Coca Cola, because their sites are so much a part of their business or brand-communication that they need to make it part of everything else. But there is no need to go from no strategy at all, to the full blown Amazon-size.

Keep Focusing on Your Online Strategy

You can definitely start small and grow slowly, as long as you have focus on it. I've seen a few companies who've launched a website (with or without e-commerce) and left it at that. They have no idea who their users are, how they behave on their website, and they don't seem to care either. That is the worst online strategy you can think of. If you choose to launch an online presence or e-commerce site, you need to have an idea about what you want to do with it, and how it is being used!

Getting hits on misspelling

I've been wandering why I keep getting hits on "todays dilbert", without actually checking it. It turns out, that I'm actually no. two on Google, with that search :) Unfortunately I'm only there because I've forgotten the '-character in "Today's", but it shows an alternative way of getting hits. It's obvious that I'm not the only one forgetting the '-character, and luckily the real Dilbert page is no. one on the result list, but image what would happen if it wasn't, and if it was your product that could be misspelled. It clearly shows that you need to cover all bases, and not just focus on getting your product on the first Google page, but look at what your users are actually doing. If your product is named "hoogabooga", will it be found in the results for "hogaboga"? This is especially important if you deal with clients that might not have English (or whatever language your site is in) as their first language, or might just be lousy spellers :)

Online Strategies

You should always have a purpose with the things you do, if you want to make something out of it, that is. Defining that purpose is basically what you do when formulating strategies. You set visions, goals and milestones, and define values you can measure and track. If you happen to be a larger group of people, you can also use strategies to announce the future of the group and where it is headed. It might be the local tennis club that aim to win the next amateur cup, or the 30.000 people company that wants to take on Microsoft.

Having an Online Strategy is Important

Strategies are important, and if your group has a web presence, you should also have an online strategy. “Isn’t that part of our marketing strategy” you might ask, and the short answer is: “No!” You mustn’t see the web as only another advertisement media, but recognize that it is something quite unique. If you try to impose your print marketing strategy onto a website, I guarantee you’ll fail. Print marketing is static, broadly aimed, and frankly quite unintelligent :) With the web you have the option of working interactively with the user, and provide an experience you can’t provide with a printed medium or even TV. The web also allows you to track every single move your user makes, and customize every view to match the user’s preferences. But you have to know what you’re doing, and why you’re doing it. This is where online strategies come in.

Working On an Online Strategy for This Blog

As mentioned earlier, I’ve been wandering what attracts readers to this blog, and how to get more readers. The main purpose of this blog is to expose me, and my views and knowledge, but since I’ve lacked what you might call a “Life Strategy” this blog hasn’t had a specific focus. This is why I’m working on an online strategy for the blog, as part of my life strategy (an online strategy should never be formulated on it’s own – it should be as much part of your or your group’s general strategies, as the website should be a part of you or your group). The vision for the blog is part of my general life vision, of someday working as a management consultant or coach, helping clients work out strategies, solve complex business or technical problems or simple be there to help them work through a difficult process (more on this later…). The vision for this blog, is therefore to be a way for clients to get to know me before they even meet me, and show that I actually know what I’m talking about. Formulating this vision, and knowing where I’m trying to go, enables me to set a series of goals and milestone, but it also enables me to pinpoint how I’ll get the blog to where I want it. So far, I’ve only managed to formulate my vision (it’s quite a lengthy process, working with your life strategies) so I’ll talk more about goals and milestones later. I’ll also spend more time writing about online strategies in general e.g. the need for complex strategies and how to live up to your strategy once you’ve formulated it.

CRM gone haywire?

I found this image while cleaning out my harddrive. I'm not sure how Amazon got to the conclusion, that people who own the Da Vinci Code book, would also be interested in kincky games :) Normally I would say that the way Amazon handles their CRM is should be the goal for most e-commerce sollutions, but as it shows even the best have room for improvement...