One of the reasons I maintain a blog is to share information I find around the web with clients. And to share it in a place where I’ll find it easily again (my blog).
With that, I’d like to share a trio of recent posts by Scott Design about Web Analytics. I appreciate the concise and targeted information Scott Design routinely provides.
There are many different sources for web analytics. You can set up free Google Analytics on your site, you might get analytics from your website or blog host, and you might have paid for an advanced analytics tool. But what happens when they all return different numbers in their reports? Which one is right? Read more »
When looking at web analytics reports, it’s easy to get sucked in by the numbers and start treating the metrics as precise counts. There is a difference between “accurate” and “precise,” and this difference is particularly useful when working with analytics data. Read more »
While you can’t get exact numbers from any one analytics program, the data from one program, such as Google Analytics, can be used to do valuable comparisons that can help you gain insights about your visitors, spot patterns and trends, and figure out what is working on your site and what isn’t. Read more »
Tagged as:
web analytics
Click to enlarge.
One of my coolest new discoveries recently is this infographic to the right about Web Equity — Owning Your Digital Presence, courtesy of Mike Blumenthal. (Click on image to enlarge, click again to enlarge more.)
In one infographic, you can see an overview of many basics that contribute to your strong online marketing and search engine optimization (SEO).
From the author, Mike Blumenthal:
The many elements of an online presence can build on each and can work together for a business. The process is best done in an environment with more control ratherthan less. Because of the changing nature of the Internet, a SMBs marketing investment should always reinforce and strengthen the elements over which they have the most ownership.
I look forward to sharing and discussing this with clients when we meet to discuss their web presence, local search, and SEO.
View original infographic here.
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infographic
I appreciated Alex Cowan’s recent blog post called “Less Hostess, More Sushi. In this post, Cowan discusses providing more content for freelancers, so I took note. The post presents six ideas — he calls them “Freelancing Products” — that leverage Design Thinking, and Lean Startup. He writes that the six ideas are “highly a) sellable b) repeatable and c) valuable to the consultant’s progressive accumulation of relevant expertise.”
Cowan is the author of this book: Starting a Tech Business: A Practical Guide for Anyone Creating or Designing Applications or Software.
After a brief intro of good news vs bad news, he summarizes the Old (Hostess) Method and the New (Sushi) Method, about which he writes:
“These newer techniques require that everyone acknowledge the inherent uncertainty in creating a new product or market. Weaning yourself and everyone else off that sugary diet of fake certainties presents a challenge. Now you’re expecting me to say something like ‘challenge == opportunity’? Actually, what I think you should do is present a clear, actionable alternative. You should also make sure you have bite-sized starting points so you can hit doubles and make friends.”
His summary of the six ideas — aka Freelancing Products — is:
- Business Model Canvas: Sketch out the client’s business using the canvas. Identify the key linkages, strategic pivots, and, if applicable next steps.
- Personas & Problem Scenarios: Set the client up to ‘get outside the building’ and figure out who’s really using their product and why.
- User Stories: With the above as an input, make explicit the individual assumptions about what the user wants to do and how to make it happen with the product.
- Lean Strategy Management- Design: Lay out the client’s pivotal assumptions paired with an initial take on experimental design/means of vaildation.
- Lean Strategy Management- Maintenance: Set up checkpoints and workshops to shepherd implementation of the above.
- Lean Strategy Management- Financial Plan: Put together a working set of financials for the above.
For more information, read his intro to Product Development for the Non-Engineer and view his two videos about New Product Improv.
In general, Cowan has great resources for Product Managers and Developers on his website, including video and presentation slides. It’s clear he really cares to help others be successful at product development. This is refreshing since most folks in his position really want to sell their own consulting services so they generally don’t provide quite so much helpful content online. Cowan is quite generous.
Tagged as:
Alex Cowan
I have a friend who has added me to her personal email list on which she promotes the activities of her worthy local nonprofit organization. Mind you, she isn’t a volunteer, she is the executive director. The frequency of her email hasn’t been burdensome, however if I didn’t know her, I would take steps to remove myself from her list. (I’m already on a number of professional and personal lists, already receive too much email each day, bla bla bla.)
Unfortunately, my friend is not following the guidelines of the CAN-SPAM Act, so I can’t opt out without writing to her and asking directly, which feels a bit uncomfortable because I do appreciate the social and professional relationship I have with her. Another option would be to mark her email as junk/spam so that my email client does the filtering, but then I would miss the occasional non-nonprofit social conversation. That is what I do when I receive unsolicited email (spam) from strangers.
Today I reviewed the CAN-SPAM act of 2003. The law was instituted to cut down on unwanted and misleading email, however my main interest today was to learn how this law applies to NONPROFIT organizations.
According to this CAN-SPAM Act Rules for Nonprofits article by Joanne Fritz:
“Most of the rules that apply to commercial emails apply as well to nonprofits, especially if your organization sells merchandise or delivers commercial offers from corporate sponsors to your donors or members. Even if you do not fall into that category, CAN-SPAM rules comprise best practices for email for any organization.”
The important point for nonprofits is that the CAN-SPAM Act provides a guideline for email best practices, even if the nonprofit doesn’t legally fall into the CAN-SPAM requirement.
To be clear, here is what a nonprofit should do:
- Provide a clear and conspicuous notice of the opportunity to opt-out. The notice must be in every email message and must be provided to all individuals receiving the message whether or not they have opted-in to receive commercial email offers.
- Provide a functioning opt-out in every email message, such as a return email address or other Internet-based function. Do not send subsequent offers more than 10 business days after a recipient has requested to not receive further emails. If the recipient has opted-out, the sender may not rent, exchange or otherwise transfer or release the email address of the recipient.
- Provide a valid physical postal address of the sender.
- If there is a commercial advertisement in your email, you must be clear that the email is an advertisement to individuals who have not opted-in to receive commercial email messages. If you have an in-house list, or rent a list of individuals who have opted-in to receive commercial email offers, you are exempt from the use of words such as “advertisement” or “solicitation” to label the message.
- If there is a commercial advertisement in your email, and if you are sending an offer to individuals who have not opted-in to receive commercial email offers, you must make it clear that the message is a promotion, advertisement, or offer. Use phrases such as “you might be especially interested in this offer” in the body copy of the email.
- Provide a “from” line that accurately and clearly indicates the sender. Doing so provides reassurance to supporters and donors that the email is from a trusted organization.
- Use a subject line that is not misleading as to what is contained in the email.
For the full article containing this helpful summary of recommendations for email best practices for nonprofit organizations, see: http://nonprofit.about.com/od/onlinefundraising/a/canspamrules.htm.
Sara Isenberg
Sara Isenberg Web Consulting & Project Management
http://saraisenberg.com
Tagged as:
CAN-SPAM act,
nonprofits
Are you a book author? I’ve worked with a variety of book authors over the years. Fortunately they know how to write. However, they’re not always familiar with the ways that social media and blogging can help them promote their book.
Here are some informative links that have been sitting in my inbox with resources specifically for book authors.
- From Blogging Authors: Here are some suggestions on how to quickly evaluate and improve your book author website.
Tagged as:
authors,
book authors
Steve Penny, SEO guru, shares his search engine optimization expertise, in these four tips:
TIP 1. Learn the top 10 SEO reasons website redesigns lose rankings and traffic.
TIP 2. Do KeyWord Research with Google’s Keyword Research Tool
TIP 3. Know about the Google Sandbox.
TIP 4. Spider Check Your Website for Top SEO
TIP 1. Learn the top 10 SEO reasons website redesigns lose rankings and traffic.
Steve strongly suggests that clients and webdevelopers review this article so they have an understanding of how much is involved in this - and that failure to think through one element undoes everything else. He says that this checklist of the top 10 reasons redesigns lose rankings and traffic is a topic he deals with on a daily basis. People don’t realize how much is involved in doing this thoroughly and so don’t get the outcome at the end they were hoping for due to one over-site. You won’t find this checklist of the TOP 10 SEO REASONS WEBSITE REDESIGNS LOSE RANKINGS AND TRAFFIC anywhere this concisely on the Internet. Read more…
TIP 2. Do KeyWord Research with Google’s Keyword Research Tool
The Google keyword research tool is located here. Per Google, in answer to “How do I use the Keyword Tool to get keyword ideas?”
You can search for keyword ideas by entering a keyword related to your business or service or a URL to a page containing content related to your business or service. Or, you can go straight to filtering keyword categories. You can use one or the other or both together; the tool is completely flexible depending on how you’d like to use it. Things to try:
- Click Advanced options to further refine your search, for example, by country, language, or mobile search.
- Select or deselect the keyword match type checkboxes to further refine your search in the main browser pane.
- Click the Columns button above the results table to customize the columns you see within your results data.
Learn more here…
TIP 3. Know about the Google Sandbox
The Sandbox (a.k.a. Sandboxing or the sandbox effect or the Google penalty) is a name given to an observation about the way Google ranks web pages in its …
If you are starting up a new website, it is very important to understand the Google Sandbox for immature domains that have not yet built trust rank.
If you are dealing with existing sites, the ways that site redesigns lose rankings and traffic is far more common than people realize if your web developer doesn’t know and think through all of the ten elements outlined here.
TIP 4. Spider Check Your Website for Top SEO
If you want a website that works for both people and search engine spiders like the GoogleBot, you have to spider check your work. It sounds obvious and simple, but if you don’t spider check your work – how do you know it works? Search engine optimization or SEO is an environment where humans have limited visibility. There is definitely a limit how much human eyeballs alone can see in terms of how the GoogleBot sees your website without actually spider checking your work on Google. Read more…
Tagged as:
Steve Penny
Here are some great resources with tips and hints on blogging for business.
- How to Improve Your Blog – A collection of 110 informative tips from a wide variety of bloggers. Some of my favorites include:
- Resist the Urge to Overplug — make it more than self-promotion.
- Short Attention Spans Rule — keep it short.
- Gimme News I Can Use.
- Six Reasons Every Brand Should Blog — From Huffington Post blogger, Paula Berg:
- “Despite the evidence in favor of blogging, with the rise of Twitter and Facebook, many brands are reluctant to blog. While blogs can be a lot of work, they provide a foundation for information on the web and an owned platform for your social business.”
- Brand Identity: A blog provides a low-cost, long-term venue to continuously bring your brand to life.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): A blog provides an informative resources for anyone seeking information about you or issues related to your brand.
- Control the Message: A blog provides you with a platform to accurately tell the important brand stories.
- Social Media Home Base: A blog provides a long-term home for content than can be continually accessed and pushed through other social and traditional channels.
- Lead generation: A blog can help grow your business
- Analytics: Blog analytics can help you perfect your online communication strategies and improve ROI.
- Good Blogging Etiquette for Guest Posting Hopefuls — from Tutorial Blog:
- “As bloggers, wanna-be writers and hopeful freelancers, we hear, probably on a daily basis, just how important guest blogging is. We know we should be guest blogging which means we know we should be actively seeking out new blogs and new sites as potential homes for our precious content.”
- Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice — add your own kick and spunk.
- Make the Host Blogger’s Job as Easy as You Possibly Can
- Be Yourself, But Try to Fit In Too
- Don’t Be a Stranger – don’t just blog and vanish.
Tagged as:
Blogging for Business,
Tips on Blogging
Here are 5 (6, actually) Super Resources for the Small Business Owner Who Wants a Great Website! [June 15, 2011 update: added #6!]
I’m gearing up for my June 14 and June 21 classes. I want to make sure I let you know about these articles and tools:
If we can push past the alarming use of profanity against a toddler, there’s something to be gleaned from Mad Mall Mama’s concise call-to-action. The 25-character statement included at least 4 smart components.
This information is intended for very small business owners, like a local landscaper or painter or maybe a daycare establishment. A business that will likely never be able to justify the ROI of hiring a competent and professional SEO. And quite frankly? Likely doesn’t need to.
Here are 5 common web design mistakes you must avoid to create a great user experience and grow your bottom line.
Page Speed Online analyzes the content of a web page, then generates suggestions to make that page faster. Reducing page load times can reduce bounce rates and increase conversion rates.
This is the gold standard tool for keyword research.
From Outspoken Media: “Hello. I’m a potential new customer and I just landed on your Web site for the very first time. I’m taking a look around and I think I may like what you’re offering. In fact, your services/that pair of shoes/that quirky owl necklace are exactly what I’ve been waiting for. But, as a new customer, before I take the plunge, I have some questions. Things I need to know or at least would like to know before I commit to doing business with you.”
Tagged as:
great website,
Small Business,
web design
Yesterday (2/10/2011), Facebook introduced a major set of changes to the Facebook Page layout. Everybody’s blogging about it so here’s mine. Rather than reinvent, here’s my collect of other worthy blog posts to read if you want to learn about this new change. The essential update (for me) is that, whereas before I could post on other Pages just as my individual profile self, now I (a Page owner) can post as my Page’s identity. It’s a bit 
Sara Isenberg
Sara Isenberg
Sara Isenberg
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