Exploiting the Virginia Tech shootings
There is no excuse to monetize a national tragedy like the recent Virginia tech shooting. I have nothing against making money, but lines must be drawn. On Wickedfire SEO_Mike (Don’t be fooled. In spite of having the username SEO this guy knows little about seo) tried to promote a site (virginiatechprayers.com) and get people to digg it. Here is a link to the thread This to be a disgrace, and signifies the epitome of human greed. Although the site is now a parking page earlier it had multiple adsense ads. Instead of a parking page it should be replaced by a memorial completely devoid of any monetization. How distasteful.
Why you should put all your eggs in one basket
Conventional business wisdom says not to put all your eggs in one basket. This phase is so commonplace is has become cliche. By diversifying, if one part of your business fails you will still be able to turn revenue from the other better functioning components. If you have multiple websites you can still derive income from the other sites if one site should falter.
But diversification isn’t always worthwhile and you are often better off putting all your eggs in one basket-provided that basket is very sturdy and you watch it closely. Having a single superior website over a group of mediocre websites will always produce better returns.
Many successful businesses derive their revenue over a single type of product. Google, for example, drives 99.9% of its revenue through selling adwords ads. By any metric that isn’t a diversified revenue stream. If people stop buying Adwords ads then google will falter, but do keep on mind that is extremely unlikely given the staggering success of the adwords problem. Google’s basket is virtually indestructible since there is no seemingly way google can fail. Google has many other revenue streams such as google earth, youtube ads, gmail ads, but these only constitute a tiny percentage of google’s total revenue.
By putting all your eggs in one basket you can devote ALL you resources to making one site extremely successful rather than diluting your resources on many sub par sites. This way you create a single, very sturdy basket.
I often visit webmaster blogs and usually the blogger will have their portfolio of websites listed on the blog. Usually only one or two of those sites are successful and bring in most of the revenue while the other sites on the network constitute a negligible about of revenue. So technically while the blogger is diversified his revenue stream isn’t. All his eggs are still in one basket. These webmasters would be better off focus their efforts solely on the most successful sites.
In conclusion, my advice is that instead of trying to launch and develop multiple websites focus on maybe one or two websites that have the greatest potential. Devote all your resources to those sites rather than dilute you time and money across multiple sites.
Firefox tabbed browsing hell
Is anyone besides me running into the problem of firbox tabs completely freezing? It is extremely annoying problem because you often have to close the entire browser and you lose your tabs. Sometimes the tabs freeze completely and other times they may only freeze for 2 minutes. Nevertheless, it is very irritating and a detriment to productivity.
Firefox should fix this problem or firefox users will switch back to IE, which already offers tabbed browsing. I have also ever never run into the probl of IE tabs freezing. But for some reason firefox’s tabs freeze.
Looking beyond PPC
PPC (pay per click) advertising has become an incredibly popular form of online advertising in the past four years. However, there are many downsides to PPC.
The main problem with PPC is that while people may be interested in the type of product you’re offering they may not be necessarily interested in your specific offer. For example, if you want to advertise window blinds you could put up a Google adwords ad for “window blinds??? “white window blinds??? etc. However, the problem is when someone searches for those keywords they will probably want to comparison shop before they buy to find the best deal or the highest quality, etc.
As a result your adswords ad may get lots clicks but little or no conversions. If you’re paying $1 a click or more this can be very problematic because the costs can mount quickly. There could be a fundamental flaw in your ad copy that you’re completely oblivious to that results in not getting any conversions. Or maybe your competitors offer a better deal that you simply can’t match without sacrificing profitability.
If you’ve just launched a new business or want to promote an affiliate product what is a marketing strategy that doesn’t involve PPC? Here is a very important rule:
TO SELL SUCCESSFULLY THE CUSTOMER MUST HAVE AS FEW CHOICES A POSSIBLE
This strategy worked wonders with Pfizer in the 90’s with the launch Viagra. If someone wanted a pill to treat erectile dysfunction their only option was viagra and as a result Pfizer made billions.
The same rule applies to the success of Microsoft and Intel. If someone wants to buy a computer they only have three choices for the opperating Microsoft, Linux, and Mac OS and only two choices for the microprocessor; AMD or Intel.
Why does PPC violate this rule? Because surfers not only sees your ad but all your competitors so he will just click around. Maybe he will buy from your site, but often he won’t. He has too many choices. And unless you bid high enough your ad may not be seen at all because it will be below the fold or on page 2 or 3. Meanwhile, your spending lots of money on clicks. Why not make YOUR site the only choice?
Thats why I recommend advertising via flyers because your potential customer will only be able to see your ad. He won’t be surrounded by ads from other competing companies, as is the case with PPC. This improves the chance the prospect will call the number on your flyer of visit your website and complete the sale, which equates to a higher conversion rate and better use of ad dollars.
Overall, I’m not advocating abandoning PPC. For many businesses PPC works wonders. But if you’re running into difficulties converting PPC traffic you may want to consider the rule I outlined to optimize your ad dollars instead of wasting them on non converting clicks.