Stumbleupon

The Stumbleupon Download: Who Needs Another Toolbar?

You probably know that, as a user, you can quickly find sites others have found useful through the Stumbleupon download of – yes – yet another toolbar. Sometimes with these toolbars, you tend to wonder if the added load on your browser memory is actually worth the aggravation. But if you’ve done what I once did – downloaded the Stumbleupon toolbar, only to discard it as a time waster, not long afterwards – you might reluctantly wish to go ahead and restore it again, just like me.

You see, it’s not with you as a user that Stumbleupon can actually benefit your business. On the contrary: You can use Stumbleupon from the other “side”, as an effective means to actually increase site traffic!

The popularity of Stumbled sites is not set by Google, or any other Search Bot – it’s set by readers, who attach a perceived value and promote the ones they like best.

The truth is, you don’t even have to spend hours being a Stumbleupon user for being Stumbled to suddenly explode your traffic. All you need is one person to give your site that vote of confidence and pass on the link – and if you’re lucky enough to actually get stumbled to your relevant market, away you go!

A Double-Edged Sword?

Now, there are 2 huge drawbacks to Stumbleupon traffic – and they should be obvious to you, straight away!

PROBLEM #1: Your visitor may have fallen in love with your magnificent front page photo of a spectacular Old English oak tree. She stumbles it for the photo – and your site is flooded with people who like to draw elves, and want to use it as a background. It’s hardly targeted traffic. But that experience can actually be a great lesson for you!

ANSWER: It gives you a chance to go over every element on your page, asking yourself the question – “Does every item I have on here support my USP and message? Does it speak only to my niche? Does it have a clear purpose?”

That gives you a chance to remove any distracting elements – like that fairy-tale tree. If elements need replacing, replace them with something more targeted and focused on your market.

PROBLEM # 2: Stumbleupon has taken a tip from Google: It doesn’t tell you its Secret Formula – the one that will push you to the top of the “favorites” heap quicker than any other strategy.

ANSWER: Again, it goes back to Problem # 1. Overhaul your site, and make sure every message and element supports your USP. Your site will need to be content rich – and above all, you’ll need to know how to send a specifically-focused message with universal appeal.

And if you don’t have time to do that – or you don’t need to – take a tip from the Squidoo community: Make sure you interact and “Friend” people whose relevant sites you genuinely like. (That proved to be the quickest way, for me, in getting people to Stumble my sites back.)

Avoid artificial ways like Tweeting a trumped-up, artificial Stumbleupon link in Twitter. Your Twitter followers won’t thank you for “tricking” them – even the ones scrambling to duplicate your brilliant, sneaky strategy!

Splash Pages

Do Splash Pages Increase Website Traffic?

We’ve all seen them – beautiful introductory pages, containing almost no text, but making up for it with a spectacular graphic or animated Flash movie – but do these Splash pages actually increase your website traffic?

Your web designer, who relates to the world visually, would no doubt tell you “yes, of course!” And so would any other artist, or right-brain oriented person. If you’re selling a course on graphic design, or promoting graphics packages, perhaps there’s some merit to having one of these gorgeous displays.

But let’s look at the down side…

A member of your niche market actually finds your site. He comes to see what you have to offer. Instantly, he finds himself faced by what feels like a brick wall; one that’s stopping him on his focused dash towards finding what hoped to find.

Now, if your animated Flash movie is stunningly clever, relevant or beautiful, you might think he’d stay and be dazzled. And a small percentage of your visitors (those with graphic inclinations) actually may do so.

But for the rest, finding the equivalent of a bus-stop and being forced to wait for the bus is an annoying and frustrating check. (Especially if they’re still on dial-up, and your Flash movie takes forever to load.)

People Don’t Like To Be Held Hostage…

You know the unwritten (but no less real) rule: You have a few seconds, at most, to capture your visitor’s interest and convince him it would be his loss if he were to abort his visit before allowing himself the privilege of reading your scintillating message.

“But I paid a lot of money for that Splash page,” you argue. “It was designed by the best!”

That may be, but the proof is there, right in your website stats. Go check for yourself, and see how long the average visit to your splash page lasts. (I guarantee you’ll find it’s less than 11 seconds.)

The truth is, as far as your visitor is concerned, your splash page is holding him hostage, stopping him from finding the information he came here to claim. He looks for navigation buttons, or a “Skip This Page” one. If he finds the latter, you might actually be lucky, and get a click-through. If not, he’s out of there, before a quarter of your page has barely had time to load in. It’s as simple as that.

Nor Do Search Engine Bots…

But there’s another reason Splash pages won’t be your best visitor-enticing strategy. These graphic giants are coded with JavaScript, which cannot be indexed. When it’s at the mouth of your site, Search Bots come up hard against it, and find themselves checkmated as firmly as did your potential customer.

Search Bots don’t even wait a second, but bounce out of your site instantly, continuing on their busy way – your site un-indexed and unranked.

They found no keywords, no unique, relevant text. No content at all, as far as their algorithms are concerned. (And if your Splash page is hosted on a remote site, at a Graphic service, and the Search Bot is diverted to it via a Redirect, it’s a coin flip to decide which sin is worse – redirect or no index-able content.)

So yes, those Splash pages are catchy and gorgeous, but if you’re tempted into adding one to increase website traffic, apply the left side of your brain, and stop and do the math instead.

After all, the proof is in the stats.

Traffic Monitoring

Website Traffic Monitoring Made Easier

Those of you who indulge in website traffic monitoring may remember SEOMoz.org’s useful page strength tool… and while it did nothing to actually increase site traffic in itself, of course, it did at least provide a powerful analysis of where your site needed to be strengthened. Its most important function lay in mirroring the way Google ranked sites. Qualities it rated included the relative value of a page, as well as its internet visibility.

It’s been a while now since SEOMoz replaced it with their Trifecta tool. Fans were dubious, and even after the Trifecta tool started to show promising strength, the jury was still whispering behind closed virtual doors.

Many felt like Tolkien’s famous wizard, Gandalf, on the subject of breaking things on over-zealous quests to find out what makes them work; and even though Gandalf was no internet marketer, I thought, at first, he did have a point.

But I soon forgave SEOMoz, after trying the pleasing selection of (mostly) free SEO tools they’ve provided – along with the new Trifecta tool – on its page.

Here’s a short run-down of what you’ll find:

Linkscape – a potent “in-link” tool, powered by SEOMoz’ patent-pending metrics.

Term Target – analyzes your page (or your competitor’s) to see how well-targeted it is towards the keyword you specify.

Crawl Test – helps you discover what Search Bots “trip” over on your site. Elements it dissects are your Title tags, presence in Search Engine indices, cache dates, and HTTP response code. (N.B. You need to be one of their PRO subscribers, before you can use this particular tool.)

Term Extractor – A little reverse-engineering, anyone? The Term Extractor analyzes any page’s content, extracting SEO-targeted terms. (You can drag the link to your browser toolbar: A time-saving feature, if it’s a site you want to check often.)

Backlink Analysis Tool – Gives you an “advanced” look at the keywords linked to you by other sites.

SEOMoz Firefox Toolbar – If you’re a blogger, you’ll most likely have this one. It attempts to harness Linkscape’s thunder. Many swear by it – but I find it “messy”.

Rank Tracker – the really quick way to monitor and track your rank in all major Search Engines (including Bing and Yahoo, as well Google!)

Popular Searches – Archives, as well as aggregates, the most popular Searches from multiple sources (handy for niche generation ideas!)

Juicy Link Finder – The quickest way to find “authority” sites for your keyword!

GeoTargeting Detection – Good if your site is optimized for a local area or target country. You can check to see how well it’s optimized to your areas of interest.

Keyword Difficulty – This tool gives you an actual percentage score and detailed analysis of the top-ranking Google and Yahoo sites. Helps you decide how competitive a keyword might actually be.

SEOMoz Labs – Fascinating to visit, but suited to SEO developers more than users. It’s geared to their PRO subscribers.

But what do I actually think of the Trifecta tool, compared to the old Page Strength one?

Well… I’ve decided this one case where old Gandalf should have gone ahead and smashed the clock!

Website Traffic

Does More Website Traffic Continue To Elude You?

You wonder why more website traffic continues to elude you. So you beef up your efforts like never before, in a desperate attempt to bring in more visitors. But perhaps the real problem is not the lack of new faces to your site. Maybe it has more to do with why you’re not taking more care of the potential customers you’ve already got.

How do you nurture those who sign up for your list – and why should you do it?

Well, apart from being a nice guy who really cares about them, let me remind you what happens, when you start to discuss a TV show you enjoy with your friends…

Say you all love fishing; and you discover you all love watching “Fishing the Flats,” with Henry Waschuk. You don’t need any encouragement to agree how great the show is, or how much you enjoy his fishing tips, the recipe the chef provides – and the incredible variety of amazing fish found off the Florida Keys, or further down South.

Do you love the show for his obvious skill and the things you learn there? Partly – because he really is skillful, and the show has a great, well-designed format, packed with value.

But it’s more than just the tips, or Henry Waschuk’s skill, that makes you feel like you’ve had a mini fishing vacation, when you take that half hour to watch it on Sunday mornings…

It’s More Than Just The Tips, Or The Expertise

… It’s Henry’s enthusiasm. His passion, his joy – and how he so obviously lives for the sport! He’s like a little kid always caught in Christmas Day (in the warm, sunny Florida coastal waters) – and what’s more, he’s the sort of outgoing, friendly kid who lives to share his best presents with you.

(Even his chef – who so quickly shows you that fabulous, mouth-watering fresh-catch recipe – mirrors that enthusiasm and keeps the mood – and the party - flowing right along.)

How long has it been, since you brought that sense of joy and adventure to your website? How long since you shared your toys with absolute wonder and gleeful delight? Or do you calculate, plot, weigh consequences – and dole out content to your reader, inch by reluctant inch?

You need to give them a reason to really want to come back to your website. You want them running up your driveway, every Sunday morning, eager to see what you’ve got to share, like Henry, today.

Rediscover What Made It Fun

That’s the missing lure you may need to put back into your marketing strategy, to get more traffic. Make the most of the readers you’ve got – and they’ll do the work for you!

That example I used about “Fishing the Flats” was a real one. As we sat there and discussed it, we quickly found out four people in our midst hadn’t yet discovered the show – but after listening to us, they quickly became avid fans!

Just think - if that happened with 400 groups, each gaining 4 more subscribers in 4 weeks – that TV show would have 1,600 new viewers per week.

And if those 1,600 new viewers go out and 400 of them get into conversations with other fishing buddies… well, you can already see where I’m going with this, I’m sure.

So look for those two qualities – genuine enthusiasm and generosity in sharing a passion – in your marketing journey. If they’re not there in yours, step back. Take a “vacation” for yourself until you rediscover what lights you up like Henry Waschuk, before you take another step.

After all, why kill yourself, working night and day to drag in new visitors – when your enjoyment could be the missing key element helping your current subscribers haul in an even greater catch!

Offline Ways

3 Potent Offline Ways To Help Increase Site Traffic

You already know about putting your signature link on your business card – and sure that might have helped increase site traffic – but there are 3 potent offline methods you may simply have never considered yet.

Using A Local Marketing PR Firm

Many of them are run by skilled single agents – and although good ones won’t dance for a penny, their services may not be as out of reach (or non-cost-effective) as you might think.

A local Marketing Consultant has her pulse on all the buzz. She knows every resource, probably has ideas about where to promote you – and all that even before you’ve taken off your coat and ordered your coffee.

A basic rule of business is to expend your energy where your money-making skills lie. So you can be focusing on those areas, leaving your Marketing PR consultant free to do what she does best – promote you and drive people to your sites.

Consider Local TV

We’ve all been used to thinking of TV and glossy magazine advertising as something only the Big Leagues can afford – and, in general, that’s certainly true.

But did you know that advertising with your local TV station can be surprisingly affordable? As well as building your visibility as a “celebrity” – and even in just your own home town, you’d be surprised how far that goes!

One advantage: Local newspaper editors are much more inclined to print your press releases, if they know you’re seen on TV (and trust me, they know!)

And now there’s been a press release stating that Google will act as an advertising broker between local TV and NBC. According to the terms of the deal, Google advertisers will be able to buy ads on 6 cable networks owned by NBC (including Oxygen, MSNBC, Sci-Fi and CNBC. (This is actually history – it’s the first time Google has ever brokered ads via a television network!)

Offer A Weekend Workshop To Your Community College

Now this may not sound as exciting as your own local TV ad, or as workload-relieving as a simply hiring a Marketing Consultant or local PR firm – but offering a workshop to your Community College is a long term status and traffic increasing strategy every online business person should use!

Draw up a solid proposal, find out who to contact and make your pitch. (After all, you do that online every day, right?)

Yes, you’ll put work into it, I guarantee – and you may not get immediate clients from your actual class. But I guarantee, you’ll learn far more than you teach, and it will open you up to brilliant ideas for your market (providing your workshop subject was actually relevant!)

And it’s another great opportunity to increase website traffic by sending out press releases – both to offline sources like local newspapers and trade magazines, and to online paid and free PR services (like PRWeb).

The thing about a little work: The more you do, and the more enthusiastically you put into it, the more you’ll notice benefits returning to you… So stay positive, stay proactive, make the most of every online and offline opportunity – and watch your credibility and business repuatation grow.