The Organ Grinder’s Monkey

Hugh McCleod is talking about the true size of your audience vs just what you can count up via website metrics and list length. Turns out, your audience may be enormously bigger than you think:

Another way to think about this is akin to a favorite rock band. You may not listen to their recordings every day, but pull out their music every so often, when your life needs a dose of their particular brand of inspiration. They might not be a daily fix, but they’re nonetheless a regular and important part of your life.

So following this logic, I’m guessing there are a lot of people who read me in the same manner that I read [fellow blogger] Weinberger. I may not be part of their daily fix, but they are part of my audience nonetheless.

In other words, just because someone doesn’t subscribe to your newsletter, stop by your blog every day (or even every week) or open most of your emails doesn’t mean that they’re not out there, waiting for you to say something that touches them and makes them want to reconnect.

Conversely, in a few quick notes at the end of the post, one of Hugh’s Twitter friends points out why traffic isn’t always the best measure of your audience.

..if ‘traffic’ is what you want, then more cartoons may mean more traffic. If you want connections and relationships, that’s harder.

And that’s the kicker right there. You can have a million people an hour hitting your site, but if none of them connect with you, your product, your personality or your message, they might as well not be there. OTOH, a small, but dedicated audience (even if they only check in on you once a month) is pure gold and worth 10 times the traffic numbers in actual value.

So, how big is your audience, really? You may never know. But one thing you need to realize is that focusing on traffic over building relationships = fail.

Tags: Conversation Economy by Soni Pitts
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During the holiday week, I slacked off and forgot to check in on this weeks SEO Guide for Bloggers tips, and as it turns out this next section is a doozy, requiring much work on my behalf in order to give you a fair run-down on the tips and advice.

So, rather than phone it in, I’m going to work on that this week and start up again next week. Sorry about that. I absolutely blame the eggnog.

Tags: Housekeeping, Announcements and Related Fussing About by Soni Pitts
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Hubs and I like to joke that telling our friends what we got each other for Christmas does nothing for our reputations as eccentric weirdos.

For instance, along with a nice gift box of gourmet chocolates, I got him a small pottery cup he admired and a rock. I got a CD, a small and inexpensive assortment of knitting/crocheting tools and three wooden spoons. And we were both ecstatically happy with our gifts.

OTOH, our friends, who all fall into the “expensive jewelry, electronics and other civilized doo-dads” category of officially-approved gift ideas, think we’re insane. Or poverty-stricken. Or both.

And what’s more, they’ve gone to ridiculous lengths in the past to try to convince hubby (I don’t bother talking to them about it) that “it’s a trap,” that I really want the sort of things they want - jewelry, roses, expensive electronics, etc. - and that I’m just “testing” him to see if he really loves me. Or something like that.

But the fact is, we both got exactly what we wanted. I’ve been kinda-sorta knitting on and off for years, but have just taken up crochet and it’s reignited my interest for both. And somewhere along the line, I have failed to accumulate any useful tools such as row counters and stitch holders, so I’ve been stuck basically making scarves, simple hats and other basic projects. But I want to try something more complicated, so I’ve been hinting outrageously about getting some of these tools all month. (I, for one, consider the prospect of spousal psychic abilities to be right up there with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, and prefer to act accordingly.)

Ditto the wooden spoons. If you’ve ever tried to mix up gingerbread cookies or biscuit dough with a flat-handled, stamped metal spoon, you’ll understand my excitement upon unwrapping a package containing a sturdy, straight-grained wooden mixing spoon with a fat, ergonomically-designed handle, along with a matching slotted spoon and spatula-like scraper implement, neither of which we have any real good substitute for and the absence of which we have been miserably bitching about all year.

For his part, hubs has been talking about how he needed a “manly teacup,” since he enjoys joining me and our neighbor for tea but feels a little silly doing the pinky thing with one of my distinctly girly delicate floral versions. Hence the lovely pottery cup, hand-made by a local artisan and just the right size for cupping in the hands. And it’s not in the slightest bit girly (it’s roughly glaze-washed with a vaguely oriental grasslike motif embossed on the side - very manly).

Oh, and the rock? Well, hubby is a rock guy. Not in the geological sense, but in a spiritual sense. He feels strongly connected to rocks and keeps a collection of rocks he’s come across which provide him with, variously, soothing, healing or energizing vibes. Weird? Maybe. But it’s deeply meaningful to him. And this particular rock - a deep, glassy black to begin with - was hand-painted with beautiful, shimmering Asian-style goldfish by artisans engaged in a fair-trade project, creating an piece that strongly resembles a gold-on-black goldfish art print that hubby fell in love with, but that we couldn’t afford to buy. He loves it.

So he got a rock. I got spoons. And we’re both tickled pink.

What does this have to do with business or marketing? Simply this: Too many business act like our friends and neighbors, convinced that we, the customers, would really prefer to have what they, the businesses, want to sell us, if only they can figure out how to convince us of this truth. So instead of finding out what the customer really wants and providing them with that, they spend all their money making what they want and trying to convince the customers to buy that.

But the customer wants what they want. If they want wooden spoons or a rock, that’s what they want, regardless of how weird it sounds to you. And no matter how much money you throw at it, no amount of marketing or advertising is going to convince them that they want diamond necklaces, a game console or a plasma tv, even if you’re sure that they’d really love it if they just tried it. Because, see, you really love it.

But they’re not you and they’re never going to be you. It has nothing to do with the intrinsic value of your product, it’s monetary worth, it’s quality or it’s “rightness” for their situation. It simply has to do with human nature. They don’t care that you spent years perfecting your system for self improvement, or that your heart and soul went into making this incredible gizmo. It it’s not what they want, they aren’t going to be convinced to buy it. Or, if you do manage to talk them into it, they won’t be happy with it when they get it. Because it’s what you always wanted, not them.

If you want to make your customers happy - deeply, lastingly, loyally happy - find out what they want and, no matter how weird it seems to you and assuming it’s legal and ethical, give it to them. And if you find out that what you’re selling isn’t what they want to buy, for heaven’s sake don’t spend all your time, energy and money trying to convince them that they’re wrong.

Because that’s an argument you’re never going to win.

Tags: Society and Culture by Soni Pitts
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A lot of businesses focus on finding customers by directing traffic to their site, investing in lead generating services, building lists and so on. And they fiercely guard access to this list of potential customers as the key to their success.

But did you know that a veritable buried treasure of sales could be your hiding in your list of existing customers? And that the map that leads to this hidden wealth is in your hands already?

In a recent article for Early To Rise, Wendy Montes de Oca shows you how to use the RFM model to slice and dice your list into finely-targeted segments that you can use to optimize your sales pitches, your marketing strategy and your customer communications.

Montes notes:

By using the RFM model and other data-mining techniques, I’ve seen conversion rates double and triple. I’ve also seen inactive subscribers’ open rates surge from 0 percent to more than 30 percent. That’s quite an accomplishment, considering that the average open rate for the industry is about 20 percent.

Her success is no accident. By quantifying the details of her customers’ interactions and creating a system that allows her to call up very narrow, specific lists based on past behavior, she can customize offers and send them only to those customers most likely to buy.

“Know thy customer” is the prime commandment for optimized sales and marketing strategies. Montes’ technique offers an easy and powerful way for you to get to improve sales and maximize your time and effort.

Tags: Business by Soni Pitts
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I almost never sign up for (or if I do, keep) daily newsletters, mainly because they’re almost never value-positive enough to make up for filling my email box. But “Early to Rise” is one of my must-have e-newsletters.

Every day, the newsletter is full of investment tips, business advice and ideas, fitness news and much more. It’s a powerhouse of health, wealth and success information. It’s rare for me not to find something of value or interest in every issue, and more often than not I at least skim every section and come away with several new and useful bits of knowledge.

Over the next week and some, ETR is doing a “12 Days of Christmas Give-Away Bonanza.” In each of their issues, starting back on 12/24, there will be a link to a free downloadable pdf from one of their expert contributors. Downloads so far have included Your Best Holiday Season Ever (how to prepare your business - and your off-work time - to get the most out of the holidays), Living Rich (how to live like a millionaire without being one), How To Get Motivated… (a motivational ebook) and Make Up to $100,000 This Year… (12 ideas for making money).

Instead of linking to the downloads directly (I’m not sure if they are intended only for subscribers or not), I’m simply going to link to the “Early To Rise” archive page. Starting with 12/24 and working your way up, you should be able to read through the articles and spot the free downloads.

Note that the download links are scattered through the articles like Easter Eggs, rather than being set apart, so you have to pay attention and may have to do some hunting around (or just scan the links until you find the one’s labeled as Christmas gifts). But it’s worth the extra effort - not only are the downloads full of valuable information, but so are the newsletters themselves.

Enjoy!

Tags: Resources and Tools by Soni Pitts
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Speaking of SEO -

Even if you’re not doing your own copywriting, you should know at least the basics of what is good SEO copywriting and what is bad SEO copywriting.

The American Artists and Writer’s, Inc (AWAI) Copywriting Insider newsletter is currently doing a series on SEO and copywriting. Although it’s primarily written for copywriters with the intention of discussing a vital skill set and potential professional niche, there’s plenty of good information from some real heavy-hitters in the copywriting field that would benefit anyone who has a website.

You can get the first AWAI SEO issue here and the second AWAI SEO issue here, or just go to their archive’s page to access all of their back issues.

Tags: Copywriting by Soni Pitts
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This is Part 4 of my field test of the Blogger’s Guide to SEO. During this series, I’ll be starting at the beginning of this guide and working my way down, trying out the advice (or noting why I’m not going to). In the end, my hope is to wind up with a more optimized blog while demonstrating the why’s and how’s of blog SEO.

In this short, but very important, section, BGTSEO covers the importance of writing really good headlines.

Advice: This section consists almost entirely of an embedded YouTube video of an interview, in which uber-blogger Cory Doctorow’s is quoted as saying, “Write headlines as though you are a wire service writer.” They also include a link to Copyblogger’s Magnetic Headlines blog series.

(Note: the embedded video link they have is broken, so I’ve embedded the video below so you can get to it without having to comb YouTube looking for it.)

The bottom line? In people terms, writing concise, descriptive headlines that are front-loaded with keywords increases readership. In SEO terms, search engines give greater weight to title text, headlines (as demarcated by various < h > tags) and other emphasized copy than to the main content.

Creating keyword-rich, descriptive headlines means that people are more likely to click through on your blog and in the feeds. And when someone is searching the sort of stuff you’re writing about, your postings will turn up more often and higher in the search results and your clear headlines will make it easier for searchers to see at a glance that your post has the information they need.

Monkey Status: This one is hard for me. I have a writer’s love for the “creative” headlines. Sticking to journalistically strong, straight-to-the-point, keyword-focussed headlines feels boring, clinical and, basically, no fun. Like a gift-giver who likes to get creative with giftwrap and presentation, I want to entice, tease or even puzzle the reader (but in a fun, mysterious way, not a bad, “wtf” way) before pulling back the curtain and revealing the main event.

However, for a commercial or business blog, this is a poor way to build SEO brownie points, nor is it particularly conducive to attracting and retaining readers. People are too busy to futz around with cutesy or vague headlines. They want to be able to scan your blog, their RSS reader’s feed or their search results and pick out the stuff that will be interesting to them - without having to play “guess the content.” Artistic, mysterious or misleading headlines create more work for your reader and causes search bots to overlook or mis-categorize your content, therefore decreasing your traffic, readership and search engine ranking.

This is a habit I’m trying very hard to break. So far, I’ve managed to keep my “artistic” tendencies more or less in check, mostly by promising myself that I can be as creative, mysterious and silly as I want on my personal blog. And I’ve been trying out a few different ways to format headlines so that they work best for me, so if you’ve seen any weird headline changes or inconsistencies, that’s probably what’s going on.

But it’s worth fighting my personal leanings on, because I know this advice is so completely dead-on.

Comments: Take Cory’s advice. The man knows what he’s talking about - BoingBoing hasn’t gotten to be one of the world’s most read blogs by being coy and hiding it’s light under a bushel of fuzzy headlines. Hear what he has to say on the subject in the video below - he says it all far better than I can.

Tags: Blogs and Blogging by Soni Pitts
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“Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes.” Tom Peters

(And just to make sure you get it, here’s a lighter take on the subject by the Master of the Surreal himself: “Have no fear of perfection - you’ll never reach it.” Salvador Dali)

Tags: Success by Soni Pitts
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Full contact blogging will resume as soon as these last few gallons of eggnog wear off. In the meantime, enjoy these profoundly wise words from Hugh McLeod:

Tags: Conversation Economy by Soni Pitts
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The sub-prime mortgage debacle. The incredible shrinking dollar. Global climate change. The building strength of the EU and China as world economic superpowers.

Over and over, the economic news reporters have been nursing their pricking thumbs and warning us about the bad stuff that’s coming down the pike. And the fact is, the coming economic storm that’s darkening the horizon is bound to hit sooner or later. So what can you do to keep your business afloat, and maybe even take advantage of the crisis to get ahead?

One simple thing: Keep advertising.

I actually came across this tidbit in a newsletter from John Forde. He writes the Copywriters Roundtable and was revisiting an article he’d written in Oct 2001 about dealing with economic crashes like 9/11.

In this article, he points out that the survivors of The Great Depression and several subsequent recessions all had one thing in common: They either maintained or even stepped up their marketing and advertising budgets during the hard times. As a result they all gained an edge over the competition that took years or even decades for the competition to reclaim, if ever. A few of the winners he pointed out were Kellogg’s cereals, Stanley Tools, Coca Cola and Chevy.

In the article, John points out that, “In April 1927, the Harvard Business Review found companies that advertised most during recessions had the biggest sales increases,” and that, “In recessions of 1949, ‘54, ‘58, and ‘61, companies tracked for ad spending cutbacks saw sales and profits fall off. Those who kept ad budgets, saw profits increase… and kept an edge in the years that followed.”

The problem is, it’s counterintuitive. When economic downturns strike, the immediate response is to cut costs, not increase them. And yet, every time a recession hits, it’s the businesses that stick to their guns who wind up reaping the rewards. Like Southwest Airlines after 9/11, the only airline that was not only not laying off, but still hiring in the aftermath, and - not coincidentally - the only airline that was still profitable when the dust cleared.

I’d love to link you to his article so you can get the full effect of the evidence he presents, but unfortunately he doesn’t have his archive online yet.

But the long and short of it is simply this: When the shit hits the fan, the only successful way to cope is to open your sails and let it push you forward instead of hunkering down and remaining a static target. The former get a boost from the wind (and will live to clean their sails). The latter just end up getting buried under piles of drying guano.

Tags: Business by Soni Pitts
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