I just gave a talk at WordCamp San Francisco 2009 . Thanks to Matt Mullenweg and the Automattic folks for a great time! I think there will be a video up soon , but if you want to browse the slides in the mean time, here they are: You can also download the talk in PowerPoint format .

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Straight from Google: What You Need to Know

We’ve noticed some misconceptions about Google Analytics floating around, and we thought we’d take a shot at correcting the most common ones. Without further ado, here they are, the top ten myths about Google Analytics debunked. MYTH 1: “You get what you pay for.” Google Analytics is free, which means the system is down a lot. Google Analytics makes use of the same network of secure and reliable data centers used to power Google.com, making downtime an extremely rare occurrence. We have a large team focused exclusively on keeping your data safe and accessible, and benefit from multiple redundancies in our infrastructure around the globe (this makes us fast as well). We even rely on Google Analytics for our own mission-critical products such as AdWords, which see huge volumes of traffic every day. If you’re still having doubts, we’d encourage you to talk to some users and ask them how their experience has been with uptime. MYTH 2: Google Analytics is basic and doesn’t have any “advanced” features or metrics Ack, this one is a tough one to swallow! A more frequent complaint is actually that Google Analytics has too much data. The product includes over 90 standard reports with more than 125 metrics and dimensions covering everything from visits to internal site search queries. Custom reports and user-defined variables allow you to create your own metrics and reports where the standard ones don’t meet your needs. With Pivoting , Advanced Segmentation , Secondary Dimensions , Event Tracking and the ability to share customizations , Google Analytics reports are more powerful than ever. Google Analytics may look “basic,” on the surface, but it can do a lot more than you think! If you have complex needs try talking to a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant or diving into the documentation on the Google Code Site . More Info ( Feature List , Custom Reports , Advanced Segmentation , Analytics API ) MYTH 3: Google Analytics only supports third-party cookies False! Google Analytics has always used first-party, not third-party cookies. First-party cookies are important because they allow Google Analytics to track repeat visitors, so you can see which keyword, referring site, etc is responsible for bringing buyers even when it takes multiple visits for them to convert. MYTH 4: Google Analytics is not really accurate If you’ve spent time doing web analytics work, you’ll know the sinking feeling that comes when two sets of numbers don’t match. If you’re experiencing a data discrepancy, don’t panic. There are many others in the same boat. Google Analytics uses JavaScript tags to collect data. This industry-standard method yields reliable trends and a high degree of precision, but it’s not perfect. Most of the time, if you are noticing data discrepancies greater than 10%, it’s due to an installation issue. Common problems include JavaScript errors, redirects, untagged pages and slow client-side load times. For tips on how to sensibly approach data reconciliation, check out this post by Avinash Kaushik, Google’s Analytics Evangelist, or this whitepaper on accuracy in Google Analytics. You can also talk to an expert . All web analytics tools face the same technical limitations posed by JavaScript tags, so if another vendor claims their tool is more accurate, ask for some evidence. More Info ( Web Analytics Data Reconciliation Checklist , Whitepaper ) MYTH 5: It’s not possible to export your data from Google Analytics Not true! You have two options for exporting data. Use the “export” button at the top of each report to export the current view in PDF or XML (up to 500 rows). Or, use the new Analytics Export API to extract large amounts of data in any format you like. Also, if you want to share data with a colleague, you can schedule reports to be delivered directly to their email inbox, or even send regular updates to your own email address. More Info ( How to Export your Data , Analytics API ) MYTH 6: With Google Analytics you can’t control your data You have three options for data sharing in Google Analytics. You can change these options at any time from inside your Analytics account. do not share your data share your data with Google to improve its products share your data anonymously for benchmarking No matter which option you choose, your data is protected by several layers of defense: Dedicated security and infrastructure teams Multiple redundancies to prevent data loss Network redundancies to keep data accessible Advanced security, firewalling and routing to keep data secure Restricted access and principle of least privilege for personnel If you opt-out of data sharing, your data will remain within Google Analytics and will not be shared with other products or services. If you decide to share your data with Google, it will be used to improve those products and services. Lastly, if you decide to share your data anonymously with others, it will be blended with other data to support the Google Analytics benchmarking feature. For more information on these options and what they mean, refer to the Google Analytics data sharing FAQ . If you’re still concerned, Google also offers a software product called Urchin (www.urchin.com) that you can run locally. More Info ( Data Sharing FAQ , Google Privacy Policy ) MYTH 7: There is no professional support for Google Analytics Contrar! We flipped the model. Instead of providing an expensive analytics product with a one-size-fits-all professional services plan, we provide a free product and let you purchase the professional services that fit your needs. There are several ways to get support: email support, help forums , the help center , and a network of Authorized Consultants . Authorized Consultants speak your language, accept your currency and often share your timezone. More than 80 companies across the globe provide a full range of installation and analysis support for Google Analytics. Some examples of things they can help you with are: Validate and troubleshoot your installation Integrate your analytics data with other data sources or CRM Optimize your marketing efforts Train your staff on how to use Analytics Respond to support tickets, phone calls and provide on-site consulting To find out more, give one or two of them a call . Our Authorized Consultants are hand-picked and are the best in the business. More Info ( Google Analytics Authorized Consultants ) MYTH 8: Google Analytics does not support A/B or multivariate testing and isn’t well-integrated with other tools Google offers a full range of marketing products including a free testing tool called Google Website Optimizer . You can use it to test different page elements and find out which ones yield the highest conversion rate and ROI. You can also use Google Analytics in conjunction with Website Optimizer to create an optimization plan for your site. Google Analytics is also integrated with many of Google’s other business products including AdWords , AdSense , and AdPlanner . It is also widely supported by third party tools ranging from content management systems, to email suites, to call center applications. In addition, you’ll find many products that are complementary to Google Analytics including DoubleClick , TVAds , Webmaster Tools , Google Trends , Insights for Search , Feedburner , and more. More Info ( Google Website Optimizer , GWO Blog ) MYTH 9: You can’t segment data in Google Analytics In the fall of 2008, Google Analytics released three new Enterprise Features: Advanced Segmentation , Custom Reports and Motion Charts . Advanced Segmentation lets you segment visits by dozens of metrics and dimensions such as geographic location, time on site, referral site and much much more. You can create segments on the fly and apply them to virtually all the standard reports in Google Analytics as well as custom reports. More Info ( In Depth Look at Advanced Segments , Video ) MYTH 10: You have to spend a lot of money to get “real” web analytics Getting a return from your Analytics data does take an investment. The most important investment to start with is making sure you or someone at your organization has the expertise and time to put your data to use. If at that point you still feel you need to pay more for a more complicated tool, that’s OK, but remember that every dollar you spend on a tool takes away from money you could be spending on actually getting results, i.e. hiring or contracting a talented analyst (see the 90/10 Rule ). The question sometimes comes up, “if Google Analytics is free, what’s in it for Google?” Google benefits from Google Analytics in two ways. First, if webmasters build better sites, it helps us connect searchers with the information they need faster. Second, if advertisers use Google Analytics, they are able to see their advertising ROI, which helps us demonstrate the value of Google AdWords. Both aspects have helped create a strong business case for Google Analytics over the years. Google Analytics is getting more powerful with each new update, and you may be surprised by what it can do. Find out more by attending an Analytics Seminar for Success or talking to an Authorized Consultant in your area. If you’re an AdWords advertiser, you can also speak with your Customer Service Representative. More Info ( 90/10 Rule , Google Analytics Authorized Consultants , Seminars for Success ) Leave a comment That’s it for the top 10 myths. Still not convinced? Leave a comment and let us know! Posted by Sebastian Tonkin, Google Analytics Team

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Top Ten Myths About Google Analytics

Back in early 2004, Google took an interest in a tiny mapping startup called Where 2 Tech, founded by my brother Jens and me. We were excited to join Google and help create what would become Google Maps . But we also started thinking about what might come next for us after maps. As always, Jens came up with the answer: communication. He pointed out that two of the most spectacular successes in digital communication, email and instant messaging, were originally designed in the ’60s to imitate analog formats — email mimicked snail mail, and IM mimicked phone calls. Since then, so many different forms of communication had been invented — blogs, wikis, collaborative documents, etc. — and computers and networks had dramatically improved. So Jens proposed a new communications model that presumed all these advances as a starting point, and I was immediately sold. (Jens insists it took him hours to convince me, but I like my version better.) We had a blast the next couple years turning Where 2’s prototype mapping site into Google Maps. But finally we decided it was time to leave the Maps team and turn Jens’ new idea into a project, which we codenamed “Walkabout.” We started with a set of tough questions: Why do we have to live with divides between different types of communication — email versus chat, or conversations versus documents? Could a single communications model span all or most of the systems in use on the web today, in one smooth continuum? How simple could we make it? What if we tried designing a communications system that took advantage of computers’ current abilities, rather than imitating non-electronic forms?  After months holed up in a conference room in the Sydney office , our five-person “startup” team emerged with a prototype. And now, after more than two years of expanding our ideas, our team, and technology, we’re very eager to return and see what the world might think. Today we’re giving developers an early preview of Google Wave. A “wave” is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. Here’s how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It’s concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use “playback” to rewind the wave and see how it evolved. As with Android , Google Chrome , and many other Google efforts, we plan to make the code open source as a way to encourage the developer community to get involved. Google Wave is very open and extensible, and we’re inviting developers to add all kinds of cool stuff before our public launch. Google Wave has three layers: the product, the platform, and the protocol: The Google Wave product (available as a developer preview) is the web application people will use to access and edit waves. It’s an HTML 5 app, built on Google Web Toolkit . It includes a rich text editor and other functions like desktop drag-and-drop (which, for example, lets you drag a set of photos right into a wave).  Google Wave can also be considered a platform with a rich set of open APIs that allow developers to embed waves in other web services, and to build new extensions that work inside waves. The Google Wave protocol is the underlying format for storing and the means of sharing waves, and includes the “live” concurrency control, which allows edits to be reflected instantly across users and services. The protocol is designed for open federation, such that anyone’s Wave services can interoperate with each other and with the Google Wave service. To encourage adoption of the protocol, we intend to open source the code behind Google Wave.  So, this leaves one big question we need your help answering: What else can we do with this? If you’re a developer and you’d like to roll up your sleeves and start working on Google Wave with us, you can read more on the Google Wave Developer blog about the Google Wave APIs , and check out the Google Code blog to learn more about the Google Wave Federation Protocol .  If you’d like to be notified when we launch Google Wave as a public product, you can sign up at http://wave.google.com /. We don’t have a specific timeframe for public release, but we’re planning to continue working on Google Wave for a number of months more as a developer preview. We’re excited to see what feedback we get from our early tinkerers, and we’ll undoubtedly make lots of changes to the Google Wave product, platform, and protocol as we go. We look forward to seeing what you come up with! Posted by Lars Rasmussen, Software Engineering Manager

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Went Walkabout. Brought back Google Wave.

by Mike Moran Image by horizontal.integration via Flickr Last week in this space, I urged organic search marketers to focus on optimizing for one keyword per page , rather than taking a scatter shot approach where they are trying to shoehorn many keywords into the same landing page. I knew that it wasn’t the normal advice that people hear, but I wasn’t prepared for how many comments and questions I got, so I thought it was worth revisiting the topic this week. If you’re still unpersuaded about the approach of targeting one keyword per page, I want to take another shot at it. I got lots of questions about this stark advice, most along the lines of, “Yeah, but can’t I target several keywords effectively with the same page?” The short answer is that you can, but I can’t guarantee how successful you’ll be. Let’s take an example. Suppose you own a shoe store in Sheboygan, where you feature expensive women’s fashion shoes. You could decide that you want your home page to come up when your customers search for “women’s fashion shoes in Sheboygan” and I bet you’d have a good chance of your site coming up high in the rankings. And maybe you’d also get high rankings for “shoe store In Sheboygan.” And maybe “women’s shoes in Sheboygan.” It could happen. And it’s just fine. But most people that I talk to think that they can also get rankings on that page for “women’s shoes”–you won’t. Or even “women’s fashion shoes”–fat chance. Or worse, they think that you can stuff in “women’s sandals” and “high heels” and you think you’ll be able to squeeze all those terms onto the page and just keep optimizing the hell out of the page and it will all come up roses. I think it’s the wrong approach. I am not saying that you won’t have pages that will rank well for multiple keywords. You will. But you are better off shooting for one keyword for page and getting lucky than thinking you can target five different keywords on a page–you’ll probably end up with a page about nothing. Now understand, I am not telling you that you have to avoid using other keywords on the page. You don’t. Write naturally. Write to persuade people. Make sure that you use the keyword you are looking to optimize but don’t avoid other words that naturally crop up. But, I advise, make one keyword the primary focus of the page. Lots of smart people disagree with me. Jill Whalen, a copywriting expert, offered a comment disagreeing vehemently. And it’s fine with me that she can target 3-5 keywords per page and it works. I’m not giving her advice–she doesn’t need it. I’m giving advice to the average person out there. I run across far more people who try to target many keywords on a page and fail than people who target one keyword and fail. It’s that simple. Professionals like Jill understand which kinds of keywords are related to each other and can be combined on the same page. Most people don’t and get themselves into more trouble by doing so. Feel free to try it the other way. I won’t be upset. But when people ask me for advice, I find that they end up doing the right thing more often when they try for one keyword on a page rather than three or five. And they are pleasantly surprised when the page ranks for multiple keywords rather than upset when it ranks for none.

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Targeting one keyword per page–controversial?

I came to Google because I wanted to work on hard problems and have a big impact on the world. Four years later, I’m still constantly awed by how challenging search is. We work on improving the entire search process, including formulating queries, evaluating results, reading and understanding information, and digging deeper with this new information. Every day we work on ways, both big and small, for search to be better, faster, and more effortless. My fellow engineers and I wanted to give a peek into some of the challenges we face and how we’re trying to make search even better. We created a series of short videos so you could hear straight from the engineers. Here’s mine, where I talk about a change to spell suggestions. Some of the videos may talk about things you are already familiar with and some may be new. Either way, we hope that you enjoy hearing these stories, and do stay tuned for more! Posted by Patrick Riley, Software Engineer

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Search engineer stories

Today is the first day of Google I/O — two days of developer talks, fireside chats and demos, all focused on the latest innovations in the web as a development platform. We’re excited to have this chance to welcome more than 3,000 developers to the Moscone Center in (unusually) sunny San Francisco for a variety of interactive roundtables and talks on subjects like Android, Google Maps and Google Apps for the Enterprise. We’ll be back with more news as the conference progresses. In the meantime, you can follow updates on the @googleio  Twitter stream; videos of all sessions will be available on code.google.com shortly after they conclude. Posted by Emily Wood, Google Blog team

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Kicking off 2nd annual Google I/O developer gathering

Bill from SEO By The Sea published a good article entitled ” Writing Content for Small Businesses Online “, in which he talks about search taxonomies. For those new to the topic, I thought I’d go over it, and show it applies to SEO strategy. I’m basing this article on the study ” A Taxonomy Of Web Search “(PDF), by Andrei Broder. Andrei is VP of Search Advertising at Yahoo , although he wrote this report while he was with AltaVista. What Is A Search Taxonomy? In summary, a taxonomy is the practice and science of classification. In terms of search, we focus on classifying keywords into three distinct classes - navigational, informational and transactional. If you can determine user intent behind keyword queries, you can better target your keyword strategies. For example, if your aim is to sell goods online, you may choose to focus on transactional queries e.g. “where can I buy an LCD monitor….”, as opposed to informational queries e.g. “power requirements of an LCD monitor……”. There is, of course, a lot of cross-over between these three types of queries, which I’ll address shortly. The Three Types Of Searches In the study, keyword queries are divided into three groups. Navigational A navigational query indicates the searcher wants to find a specific site. For example, a search for “BMW” most likely indicates the the user wants to find BMW.com. Navigational queries usually only have one “right” answer. The user either finds the site they are after, or they do not. Informational An informational query indicates the searcher is looking for specific information. For example, “symptoms of cancer”, “San Francisco” or “Scoville heat units”. Informational queries tend to be broad. The informational query doesn’t tend to be site specific. Transactional A transactional query indicates the searcher wants to perform a web-mediated activity. For example, “buy LCD TV online”. If your aim is to sell goods and services online, you might focus more on transactional queries than informational queries. The problem with such classification, of course, is that it is narrow. We can’t really determine user intent from just looking at the keyword, however this classification gives us a useful way of thinking about which keyword terms might be the most useful in achieving our goals. Results Of The Survey There are some really interesting results in this report. 24.53% of people want to get to a specific website they already have in mind. This is a navigational query This is why brand, and making your brand memorable, is so important. Searchers often type a site name into a search engine, rather than type http://www….etc into the address bar. Optimizing for the name of your site is imperative if you want to catch navigational queries. 68.41% of people want to find a good site on a particular topic. They don’t have a specific site in mind. This is an informational query A lot of SEO is focused on this type of query. Why did people conduct their searches? 8.16% were shopping for something to buy on the internet 5.46% of people were shopping to buy an item, but not on the internet 22.55% of people wanted to download a file (i.e. image, music, software, etc) 57.19% None of these reasons What were people looking for? 14.83% were looking for a collection of links to other sites regarding a particular topic 76.62% The best site regarding this topic Interesting, huh. Site’s like About.com and Mahalo capture both these types of queries. Eye Tracking Studies Now, with these figures in mind, check out this eye tracking study . Although the test data is limited, it is interesting to note that sites targeting a transactional query can be further down the search result set than the informational query and still receive attention, if not a click. When conducting an informational query, if searchers don’t see the information they want in the first search result, they will refine their search. The same goes for navigational queries. If you’re targeting the transactional query, however, the wording of your title tag could give you an advantage over those who rank higher than you. When conducting a transactional query, searchers often hunt further down the result page, or across to the Adwords, to see which listing sounds most interesting to them. How To Integrate This Knowledge Into Your Strategy So how do you apply this information? If you choose to focus on one type of query….. Know Your Users There are many cues of relevancy left by the market. All you have to do is look for them. Look at the ads Google typically only shows AdWords ads above the organic search results *if* they generate a high clickthrough rate (CTR). And since advertisers using AdWords are paying for every click, you can presume that for expensive keywords many of those ads are matched up with strong user intent. Tools like SpyFu ad history and KeywordSpy can help show you who has been advertising on those keywords for the longest period of time. Those who have been doing it a long time are typically either optimizing their ad copy OR losing a lot of money. Where Are They Searching From? Google’s keyword tools, Insights for Search , and Google Trends show where a particular search query is popular (and if there is any interesting news that is driving search queries). In addition to seeing the query breakdown by country (or state, or city), you can view ads from different locations by using the Google ad preview tool and/or the Google Global plug in . Understanding Search Demographics Google’s Insights for Search categorizes user searches for the broad match version of a particular keyword Microsoft offers a tool to categorize content . Google’s Ad Planner lets you select pre-defined audiences, websites, and keywords to analyze. Both Microsoft and Quantcast offer similar functionality on a per website or per keyword basis. What Did They Recently Search For? Microsoft offers a search funnels tool which allows you to research keywords they recently searched for prior to searching for a keyword, OR keywords they searched for after they searched for a keyword. Microsoft also has an entity association tool which can be used to find keywords that were co-occuring in the search or searched for in the same session. Commercial Intent? Microsoft’s Online Commercial Intent tool estimates if search queries or web pages have a high probability of being informational or commercial in nature. Who is Getting The Click? Since Google AdWords factors ad clickthrough rate into their calculations, you can presume that the top advertisers are either getting a decent CTR, or are paying through the nose for clicks. Compete.com’s keyword destination data lets you know the relative click volume sites receive for a particular search query. Further Analysis Beyond data from the above tools, you can also infer a lot of data just by putting yourself in the mind of the consumer Determine which type of search you’re targeting - informational, transactional, navigational - and segment the audience accordingly Align your site to the intent of the user. For example, a searcher who is after information is going to want to see an authoritative looking site. What is an authoritative looking site? It will differ depending on the market you are in, but it is highly unlikely the searcher will react well to a site plastered with advertising. The site will have markers of authority, such as recommendations, perhaps a display of qualifications, and information laid out in an “academic” way (Wikipedia), as opposed to a blatant sales pitch (Multi-Level Marketing). The transaction searcher will want confirmation (e.g. a big logo) s/he has arrived in the right place. Track user behavior to confirm intent. Get people to sign up for more detailed information, note which pages people spend the most time on, which keyword terms lead to conversion, etc. Feed this information back into your strategy The transactional user is more likely to forgive ads. In fact, they may even welcome them, so long as the advertising is relevant. Conversely…. Integrate All Three Search Types One of the problems with the study, as noted in the study, is that it is very difficult to determine intent just by looking at the keyword. For example, an informational search could end up being a transactional search once the user is satisfied that with the answer to the information they were seeking. For example, “symptoms of flu” might turn into a purchase for a flu remedy. That’s why it can be a good idea to target all types of query, in an integrated way. Carefully consider how you word your title tags. Integrate brand aspects for the navigational query i.e. “SEOBook.com - SEO Training Made Easy” . Convey the information you provide “i.e. SEO Training” and transactional information i.e. the implication is that people can buy “SEO training” . This information is also repeated in the snippet, although webmasters often have less control over this aspect. Keep in mind that transactional doesn’t just mean e-commerce. It can relate to any desired action, such as a sign-up to a newsletter, or a request for more information. One aspect of web marketing that is getting more important is building communities and tribes. People who will return, in other words. You’re unlikely to engage a community of people if all you ever offer is transactions. This is why Amazon integrates reviews and other social aspects in order to hook people in on a number of levels, even though the primary aim is to sell goods. Also check out Bill’s excellent ” Bills Blues ” example. What approach do you take? Do you narrow in on one type of query? Go wide and try to catch all three? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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The Search Taxonomy: Getting Inside the Mind of the Searcher

Honesty Tax The anonymous nature of the web acts as a tax on anyone who is an honest merchant. Sales are driven by perceived value, and many marketers spend 90%+ of their time & effort on front end marketing and optimizing their sales channels, while providing little to no substance to anyone who buys from them. By the time those customers get to people like us, they are already more distrusting, cynical, and jaded due to having been scammed - in many cases multiple times. To someone new to a field, scams often look more legitimate than the real thing. Just ask anyone who has spent their share of the 100’s of millions of dollars on acai diet reverse billing fraud promoted through fake blogs advertised on the Google content network. Quality vs Perceived Quality In terms of sales, the quality of the product or service is typically nowhere near as important as how much mindshare you have. That last sentence sorta reveals one of the major weaknesses of most non-salespeople. You can’t just focus on having the best product and think that will be enough. You have to use push marketing until you build enough momentum that it starts becoming a force of its own. And it needs to be periodically refreshed through advertising, public interaction, and viral marketing. This is where advertising , building trust , website credibility , and cumulative advantage play a big roll in making a business ubiquitous so the perceived risk of being a customer is much lower. Word of mouth marketing is great, but you have to encourage it, and promote it. Scaling a Website The good news is you do not need a lot of employees to look large, so long as you are good at structuring your customer interactions. Through the above strategies (and being super-efficient), our site (which has 2.5 employees and has its highest value portions locked up as member’s only content) gets more traffic than competing businesses with 20 employees and some of the largest public forum websites (with 10x as many pages in Google & no barrier to entry). The Alexa blog recently referenced the success of our site’s current model: seobook.com gets more traffic than seochat.com and seomoz.org. But how do they do it? Loyalty. Despite getting less traffic from search engines, and despite having fewer links than seomoz, and despite scaring away potential customers with aggressive marketing, seobook is doing quite well. They are converting visitors to customers, and turning those customers into regular visitors. The take-away lesson is that good SEO is important, but it can’t compete with a loyal and engaged user-base. Seobook.com is a perfect case in point. Building Loyalty Such loyalty does not come easy though. This quote represents the barrier you have to overcome if you want to build a lasting online community that matters : In effect, this guy who has twenty thousand friends is completely alone in the real world. … In this age of great digital connectedness, we increasingly find ourselves clinging to illusions of intimacy, adrift in a sea of anonymity, surrounded by the great faceless, nameless masses from which no commonality can be extracted. What barriers are preventing people from getting the most out of your community? What can you do to make your interactions more life-like? How open should your community be? What pieces should you focus on building most aggressively? How can you make it grow larger without damaging the quality of the community? How many customers can you have before you need to hire more people? Who should you hire? What should they work on? Where can you add value to your customer’s experience? How can you leverage your knowledge most efficiently? Ubiquity Growing a community is a quite tricky process because every type of marketing causes expected and unexpected consequences. Our ebook, when priced at $79, was coupled with a brand that was seen far and wide. The price-point was so low that it was an impulse purchase that reached virtually every piece of the market - entrepreneurs, small businesses, b2b, retailers, Fortune 500’s, hedge funds, etc. Direct interaction with 10,000+ customers made us quite good at knowing what questions are commonly asked, and how to answer them accurately and efficiently. The most common questions got worked into the content. Death of Ubiquity The growing complexity of search (particularly the subjective nature of Google hand edits), the general low perceived value of ebooks (largely destroyed by scammers), and Google teaching people to steal our ebook (via suggested “torrent” searches) killed our old business model. Luckily we saw those market changes coming, and shifted our business model in time to more than double our revenues while focusing on higher quality customers. The minute a profitable business model appears on the web, many forces work to commoditize and disintermediate it. The only ways to stop that are to build a platform that other people build on, or to build deeper relationships with customers. One of the most important points of Seth’s Tribes is that to build a community you have to have outsiders. Growing a Community Growth of a community beyond a certain point gets tricky though. Any membership site has some level of decay rate and some level of growth. If you push into markets where you don’t fit well then you (temporarily) increase your revenues while lowering your lifetime customer value, lowering average customer quality, polluting your community with people that do not fit, and increasing your maintenance cost of advertising to less receptive markets and supporting transient short-term members. Rather than trying to get more members, it often makes sense to increase what you get from current members, and look for ways to increase the value delivered to members to increase member stay time. Price as a Filter Even though our training program has a similar price-point as the ebook did, it is perceived as being far more expensive because it is recurring. That increases the perceived risk to some of the potential customers who are less committed to learning SEO. This higher perceived cost shaped our community to filter out some of the worst pieces of the market (like the people who buy lots of internet marketing junk on Clickbank and reverse charge most of it) and attract many high quality customers (many of our members have 20x more the business experience and know-how than I do). But it makes it harder for the brand the site to be as relevant to as wide of a group as the old business model was. More Filters Our price-point and the stuff we write about on the blog likely makes many people think that we aim for high end experienced web professionals who have a lot of SEO experience. While that perception keeps our forum levels above the level of quality anywhere else on the web, it also causes us to miss 90%+ of the market. The approach of simply having hands down the best customers, the best customer service, and delivering the highest level of value (which causes people to stay subscribed for a long time) was the best approach to take when running this site as a 2.5 person business, because churn is expensive when you do marketing, public relations, advertising, quality assurance, content creation, customer support, and customer interaction (all while keeping up with changes in the market). We still want to keep our core customers, but might try expanding. Appealing to More Beginners You are not your own customer. I am not my own customer. Designing for yourself gives you a good chance of creating something of value , but most of the buying market for how to information are people new to the field. Put another way, beginners are the largest market segment, and everyone was a beginner at one point in time. This is precisely why email list internet marketers make so much money. There is always a new, desperate, and gullible crop to feed off of - an Eternal September . And until they get burned a few times and hardened by the market (and/or go bankrupt) they convert at rates well above what other market segments convert at. Greed makes it easy to make poor financial decisions, especially when matched against seasoned marketers and promises of automated wealth generation. If we are to expand, we will likely need to reach some of the market that thought our site was too advanced for them. Our offers won’t be as hyped as the email guys, but we do have a lot of channels we could use much more effectively. Our training program is certainly easy enough for most beginners to get it, but we need to make our marketing reflect that. My wife used to do offline tech sales stuff, and she is going to help try to do some of the online stuff for this site too. Given that she is up for helping out, I think we can grow the site again…there are lots of things we could make better (like re-doing the intro video, making more video content, and building a few more tools) that I had not got around to because the community was about as big as it made sense to be without more labor. Websites and tools can be great for both beginners and experts . We just have to figure out how to better reach both market segments without alienating the other.

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Social Cues & Increasing Sales

I should be back over at mattcutts.com. I’m sure some bits have sloshed around in the transition from dullest.com to mattcutts.com–let me know if you see anything truly weird. I plan to talk sometime soon about what I learned in the process of moving to a completely different domain for a month.

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I’m back!

I should be back over at mattcutts.com. I’m sure some bits have sloshed around in the transition from dullest.com to mattcutts.com–let me know if you see anything truly weird. I plan to talk sometime soon about what I learned in the process of moving to a completely different domain for a month.

Original post:
I’m back!