Last week Facebook announced that it will rollout the Facebook timeline to all users.

The Facebook timeline is a chronological display of Facebook activity.

Denver Social Media – What You Need To Know About The Facebook Timeline

• Currently, it is optional, but it will be mandatory in the next couple of weeks.
• You can convert your page by searching for "timeline."  At the bottom of the announcement page is a green button that says "Get Timeline."
• Facebook timeline works by displaying your status updates in reverse chronological order.
• The Facebook timeline will replace your profile and wall.
• You can edit your timeline by adjusting the global settings (pen icon in the upper right) or the editing function next to each post or update.
• If you want to delete some of your previous posts, this can be done with the editing function next to each post or update.

Denver Social Media – What Do You Do?

The net, net is that you don't have a choice.  The change is coming!  Facebook is forcing all users to adopt the new platform.

At Denver Social Media by KCC, we believe social media is a critical piece of your online sales funnel.

Choosing an online shopping cart is a big decision.  

The first thing you must decide is whether you want a hosted or open source cart.  Being a proponent of the 80/20 principle, we never use open source carts.  Here's why…

• Paid carts are quick to setup
• Paid carts require little technical skill
• Security and backups are included with paid carts
• And paid carts often include a robust set of features.

Still, there are many open source carts like Magento, OSCommerce, and Zencart that people love, so you should check them out.

Denver Web Design – Shopping Cart Feature Requirements

Regardless of whether you purchase hosted services or download an open source cart, here are some features that are important to us…

• Search engine friendly
• PCI compliant hosting and security
• Up-sells and cross-sells
• Product review feature
• Flexible pricing management
• Easy catalog management
• Analytics and reporting
• Integrated shipping
• Product feed support
• Gift certificates

Denver Web Design – Conclusion

Denver Web Design recommends that you purchase slowly.  If your website is your primary method of customer acquisition, this decision needs to be right!  Take your time and of research.

The #1 reason my clients do not have successful online marketing campaigns is follow up failure.  They have every intention of following up, but they fail because…

1. They forget
2. They get busy working "in" the business, instead of "on" the business
3. They are busy
4. A lack of automation
5. They do not delegate the task

Online Marketing – How To Avoid Follow Up Failure

You can avoid follow up failure using the following tips…

1. Write it down – Make sure you put critical steps into your calendar.  It puts the power of intention behind it.
2. Delegate – As a business owner or manager, you are busy.  Give the task of implementing your online marketing initiatives to a key employee or vendor.
3. Automate – Use automation software and services whenever possible.  Use a writing service to provide content for your blog.  Use a syndication software to post your blog posts to web 2.0 software sites.  Use email service providers to follow up with leads after they op in to a free report or webinar.  Use a CRM to track leads through the lead nurturing process.  All of this helps.

Hi.  I use Authoritylabs.com to track my website rankings in Google and Bing.

In this post, I am going to review the web design and give feedback on what I like, dislike, etc.  Cheers!

Denver Web Design Criteria #1- Get attention

The headline is great…"Rank Monitoring Made Easy"

Denver Web Design Criteria #2 – Identify the problem

The problem is clear, as ranking your website is not as easy as you would think.

Denver Web Design Criteria #3 – Present your credentials

The screen shots of the program shows the credentials.

Denver Web Design Criteria #4 – Show the benefits

Under the primary headline, they have 10 benefits listed…which is good.  Maybe they could use more graphics here, though.

Denver Web Design Criteria #5 – Give social proof

The site has endorsements from Symantec, mint.com, and jobing.com.  Also, there are a couple of testimonials below the fold.

Denver Web Design Criteria #6 – Make Your Offer/Call to Action

The offer is very clear…"Sign up free."

Denver Web Design Criteria #7 – Give a guarantee

The offer is free, so they have implemented risk reversal.  The only other issue is information security, which could be handled by a trust symbol.

Denver Web Design Review – Overall Thoughts

In general, I would give MInt.com an "B" for their design.  I suggest that they add a trust symbol, a guarantee of some sort…maybe for customer service, and more graphics in the "why" section.  Still this is a very good design.

In this book, Eric Ries discusses the lean startup methodology…where the following principles are discussed:

Principles of The Lean Startup

Entrepreneurs are everywhere

You don’t have to work in a garage to be in a startup.

Entrepreneurship is management

A startup is an institution, not just a product, so it requires management, a new kind of management specifically geared to its context.

Validated learning

Startups exist not to make stuff, make money, or serve customers. They exist to learn how to build a sustainable business. This learning can be validated scientifically, by running experiments that allow us to test each element of our vision.

Innovation accounting

To improve entrepreneurial outcomes, and to hold entrepreneurs accountable, we need to focus on the boring stuff: how to measure progress, how to setup milestones, how to prioritize work. This requires a new kind of accounting, specific to startups.

Build-Measure-Learn

The fundamental activity of a startup is to turn ideas into products, measure how customers respond, and then learn whether to pivot or persevere. All successful startup processes should be geared to accelerate that feedback loop.

http://lean.st/

My favorite part of the book was how Erik demonstrates how A/B split testing can be applied to product development in a lean or agile environment using the Build-Measure-Learn continuum.  The benefits include smaller capital costs and faster market introduction. 

- Bottom Line -

If you are a startup or an existing company with a stale product line, you need to read this book.  It will change how you view product development.

Have you ever gone to a website, looked around, and didn't know what to do? 

It happens all of the time!  What happens next is very predictable.  You click the "x" in the upper right and leave the page.

Why?  You have just experienced offer confusion?

Offer confusion is where a website has way to much information, so that the call to action is not clear or defined.  Generally, there are too many different calls to action…buy now, optin in, signup, contact now, etc.

When prospects and customers are faced with too many options, they leave! 

Web Design – What Is Your Call To Action?

When thinking about desiging a webstie or redesigning a website, you need to define your offer first.  Then the site should be designed around creating a clear call to action for your ideal customer. 

And that call to action should either be an opt-in or a sale…period!

I urge you to review your web design…is the call to action clear or confusing?

In some of my web design projects, I recommend trust seals for my clients.  If you don't already know, what is a trust seal?

Trust seals are certification symbols that communicate to potential customers that their data will be safe when they purchase your product from your website. There are hacker safe seals, privacy seals, PCI compliance seals, business validity seals, even industry-specific seals, and more; so you need to determine what seal your online business can profitably use.

Web Design – Do I Need A Web Seal?

If you have an ecommerce website, I would suggest having trust seals. They do increase conversions.

If you have a lead gen site, then you would want to have a clear privacy symbol or certificate that shows the user that their information is safe and that you won't rent, sell, or share their personal information.

And if you have a brochure site, good luck!  It is hard to make money from a brochure site?

Web Design – Is Your Site Performing?

Is your website producing an ROI?  If not, then you need a direct response website…a website that creates leads or sales.  Contact KCC today to learn how you can turn your website into an online sales machine on steriods!

"Trada has developed a PPC marketplace that allows agencies and in-house advertisers to leverage the skills of hundreds of the best PPC experts in the world, who in turn earn money risk free by generating clicks and conversions for advertisers."  http://www.crunchbase.com/company/trada

PPC: Does Crowdsourced PPC Work?

I have spoken to Scott Calvert, VP sales at Trada.  Trada is growing like crazy.  They are getting fantastic reviews from their customers, so if you are looking to get instant traffic to you sight you should talk to them.

In addition, Trada is backed by Google Ventures and the Foundry Group, two heavy hitters in the VC world.

Lastly, Trada expanded their PPC platform to Facebook in November…which is pretty cool.

PPC: How to learn more about Trada?

If you want to learn more, you can go to Trada.com.

Go to http://www.trada.com/resources/ for some fantastic resources about and on pay per click advertising.

Also, you can email me at kevin (at) kevincohen (dot) com, and I'll personally introduce you to Scott.

Cheers!

So, you have a website…

And it isn't generating any sales for you.

You're mad…that agency charged you ten grand for a lawn sign.  Yes, a f*cking web sign!

Why is it lawn sign?

Denver SEO – Where's The Traffic?

If your website is not driving traffic via SEO, social media, and PPC, then it probably won't get seen.  Yes, you might get lucky and get a drive by, but is that enough? 

Most business that we talk to at Denver SEO by KCC want to drive targeted leads and sales from their website.

Denver SEO – The Questions To Ask

If you are creating a new website or revisting your existing site, ask your provider two questions:

1. Traffic – How are you going to get people to our site?
2. Conversion – How are we going to convert this traffic into sales or leads?

To learn how you can generate leads and sales from your website via Denver SEO, social media, and PPC, contact KCC today!

As an online marketing consultant, my friends and clients ask me how often you should post new content to your blog. 

Before I answer that question though, I should explain that blogging drives traffic in two ways…

1. SEO – The more blog posts you have, the more visibility you'll have on search engines.
2. Social Media – New content syndicated to your social media accounts shows users that you are the subject matter expert.  These users are more likely to click your post link and check out your website.

On a more granular level, Hubspot noted that you should blog 2-3 times per week, which is consistent with my experience.  In addition, Hubspot noted that it take 52 blog posts to raise your site authority.   At 3 times per week, that's 17 weeks…wow!

Online Marketing – 5 Strategies For Increasing Your Blog Frequency

1. Schedule Your Posts – Put your writing times on your calendar; this will ensure that you write!
2. Recruit – Your staff will love to contribute.
3. White Board – Brainstorm topics, so that you know what you are going to write about ahead of time.
4. Buy Content – There are many blog post writers on the web and Elance.
5. Hire A Writer – The Panda content showed that content is king, so if you rely on web traffic for your business you may want to consider hiring a writer.