internetmarketing

Dayparting, or ad scheduling, is the process of scheduling pay-per-click advertising campaigns to display ads at specific hours of the day or days of the week. It’s a common practice in traditional marketing.  For example, a television advertiser might show its ads during prime time, but not at other times of the day.

Late last night, I dropped by the very popular Internet Marketing Warriors discussion forum to listen in on the conversation. Since this forum has 490,968 registered members, all interested in building a home-based business, I often just drop in to see what topics interest my market.

In the main forum, I notice and responded to a thread with the title “Are Coaches/Mentors Really Even Necessary?”

The majority of the respondents seem to feel that since you really can study what others are doing, and then try to copy what you observe, that hiring a coach or mentor is not 100% necessary.

The predominant sentiment seemed to be that you can save money by learning via trail and error, even though it may take a little longer.

I happen to value my time too much to want to grow my business via trial and error.

I also want to ensure the results that I get enough to be willing to pay someone to share with me what they’ve spent a lot of time and energy learning.

As I reflect back upon my life, I realize that I’ve actually spent my whole life paying others to teach me things that I could probably learn on my own… if I were willing to put in months… or years, experimenting.

I spent 12 years in grade school, and then spent a small fortune to got to college (for five years) and earn a degree. The college degree that I earned was in Business and Economics, but I then went into the military for 20 years.

Do, I consider those five years in college a waste?

No… You needed a college degree to become a military officer, which wasn’t even a goal that I started out with. Initially, I wanted to be a medical doctor. A few chemistry classes told me that I didn’t really have the background preparation for that. In high school, I wasn’t guided along a college prep path. Most kids who grew up on welfare as I did, had no real hope of going to college, and most of those who did were so poorly prepared that they flunked out.

I discovered after 2 1/2 years that I probably didn’t have what it took to be a doctor, so I switched majors. That’s part of why it took me five years to graduate!

I also worked as many as three different part-time jobs to be able to afford college, and I consider the “mentoring and coaching” that I received in college to have been an excellent investment.

After college, the military NEVER stopped putting me through mentoring and coaching. I was first trained as a navigator, then to do airdrops, then to be an instructor, then to be a staff office, and then to manage a budget in the tens of millions of dollars, and then to test computer software and manage software tests.

In all of those things, I was first instructed, then watched as I did what I was taught, then had someone give me at least one formal evaluation each year.

Lives often depended upon my mentors being able to transfer their knowledge and skill-set to me. I dropped people and tanks out of airplanes, so there was no room for cutting corners in my training. Lives literally depending upon me actually KNOWING what I was doing.

I actually think of my online training as being just as critical. Since most new online businesses fail, I considered it essential to get the best training practical.

Incidentally, most new offline businesses fail too.

As I started my online business, I didn’t spend a lot of money on learning for my first SIX years. I largely just subscribed to every free newsletter that I could find, and bought a few books.

That led to a period of painfully slow growth.

After six years online, I was successful enough, selling a physical cookbook, that I was invited to speak at an internet marketing seminar. At that seminar, the other speakers suggested that we jointly create and market a few products.

At that very first live seminar, December of 2002, I discovered that we all grow our businesses a lot faster by cooperating, and by sharing information.

Most of the other speakers at that first seminar developed into my informal mentors and coaches. One, Ramon Williamson, developed into a more formal coach when I attended one of his weekend workshops, and wrote my second physical book under his mentor-ship.

Two years later, I was really enjoying being a platform speaker and getting invited to speak at lots of events. However, I noticed that many of the other speakers were MUCH better at selling things from the platform, and so I decided to let Armand Morin’s mentor, John Childers, coach me in being a better speaker.

I attended John’s “$30,000 Speaker Training” and developed skills that I probably would have not developed in another five years of trying to figure thing out on my own.

Today, I get invited to speak at so many events that I turn down 80% of the invitations. Many of the event hosts do base their invitations on how well speakers sell from stage, and whether or not they have been professionally trained.

So, investing in professional mentoring and training has paid off for me hundreds of times over.

As I look at the mentoring available to internet marketers today, I’m convinced that the very first thing that most aspiring internet marketers need to do is get to a live event. That WAS the first significant thing that I did that was a tremendous growth catalyst for my business.

Not all live events are the same though. Out of ALL of the live events that you can attend, I recommend the Niche Affiliate Marketing System (NAMS) Workshop to practically anyone who asks me.

The reason that I recommend NAMS is because NAMS provides actual classroom instruction. It’s a workshop where any of approximately 40 instructors teach you how to do things, and then have you actually do them right then and there, to confirm that you actually understand how to do them.

NAMS divides the students into four different groups, based upon experience levels, and the instructors teach experience-level-appropriate topics. It’s an actual workshop rather than a “pitch-fest.”

The next NAMS is August 3rd – 5th, 2012, in Atlanta, Georgia, and you can register here: http://goo.gl/aMtDo

I can’t recommend NAMS enough. In fact, I loved the quality of the instruction so much that it’s the ONLY workshop that I currently teach at.

If you wanted to avail yourself of my personal mentoring, you could go here: http://WillieCrawford.com/mentoring.html and sign up for $50,000…. and if you made it through the application process, I’d happily teach you everything that I know.

Alternatively, you can attend NAMS, for less than the cost of a night out on the town and I’ll happily teach you what I know, but so will dozens of equally qualified instructors.

Getting back to the question, “Are Coaches/Mentors Really Even Necessary?”… I’m anticipating a high seven-figure year myself, and I still have mentors. I don’t think I would be anywhere near as successful without them.

So my answer is YES!

Go ahead and register for the NAMS workshop here: http://goo.gl/aMtDo

Send me a note after you do via my support desk at: http://WillieCrawford.com/helpdesk/ and I’ll treat you to dinner in Atlanta in August.

By the way, one of the things that I learned at my very first seminar was the easiest way to get lots of time, for free, with one of the experts… You offer to buy them breakfast,lunch or dinner.

No, I’m not fishing for you to buy me dinner. I just offered to treat you

Willie

Optimizing your website for maximum conversions is not a quick process, says conversion expert Keith Hagen in this video interview. He suggests you start with the 'low hanging fruit,' areas where you can make a big difference fast, then move to the more difficult areas.

Of all the diet gurus, what factors really determine who you’ll read, follow, and buy from?  It’s likely not performance or documented results or scientific evidence. Almost all major, well-known diets can claim those three factors. But fad diets — with none of those factors — oftentimes manage to attract just as many adherents.  In those cases, it isn’t a matter of results. It’s likely a matter of users selecting an expert’s advocated position that matches their own inclinations.

If you’re old enough to remember the classic movie, Cool Hand Luke, there’s a moment when a rebellious prisoner played by a young Paul Newman refuses to “go along” with prison rules despite some grueling punishment. The warden, played by Strother Martin, made the famous observation about a lack of communication.

The failure to communicate is probably the most important cause of failure with client and internet marketing consultant relationships. Everything from managing expectations to performance reporting are affected. One of the most common outcomes from a lack of communication in a consulting engagement is the failure to implement.

Tweet this: What’s worse than bad social SEO advice? Failure to implement the good advice that gets results. 

There are many reasons for a failure of implementation when it comes to online marketing tactics and the fault lies both with consultants and client side marketers alike. Here are a few common reasons for each. Hopefully you can identify whether your situation falls into one of these categories so you can avoid wasting time, money and lost revenue growth for all.

Marketing Consultant Implementation Fails:

• Selling Incomplete Expertise – Not understanding what it really takes to implement a certain type of consulting can result in the agency not properly preparing the client for what their obligations are for successful implementation. “Fake it til you make it” is a common practice with consultants and agencies breaking into new areas (like all the SEOs getting into content marketing now or PR/Ad/Interactive agencies getting into SEO a few years back) and a common casualty is the inability to follow through. Lesson: Consultants need to develop processes for new areas of expertise, bring in outside consultants to build the practice area expertise and be up front with potential clients to ensure adaptability and to manage expectations. The other lesson is to simply not over-state capabilities and sell things you don’t know how to do.
• Failure to Assess Capabilities – A review of both internal and client side responsibilities for successful implementation is critical. A company that says they want to develop a content marketing strategy and hires a consultant who says yes without identifying the company has no intention of hiring writers or tasking employees with content creation is a major fail for all. Lesson: Understand the essential processes and tasks involved with new consulting engagments and identify the capabilities of anyone at the company who may be potentially involved with implementation. Confirm in the agreement who will do what and what is expected.
• Failure to QA & Manage Tasks – While many client and consulting engagements begin with good intentions all around, projects that take months for discovery, strategy and implementation can go off track if they are not managed properly. Lesson: Consultants must manage and share a timeline. They must also require time to oversee implementation and ongoing QA of content, SEO and social consulting implementation because it is inevitable that client staff or other consultants will implement partially, differently than intended or overwrite good work 6 months down the road.

Client Side Marketer Implementation Fails:

• Lack of Consultant & Tactical Due Diligence – Companies that hire consultants will get more value for their investment when they have some awareness of how the tactics they’re hiring for actually work. Too often companies hire social media “brandividuals” or chase after a shiny social media object tactic without really having an idea of how things fit in their marketing plan. Lesson: Either some effort is put forth to gather that knowledge through internal efforts or education is made part of the consulting engagement.  In particular, SEO and social media brandividuals and hot social apps in the press need to be vetted for real-world expertise, experience and practical application for the business.
• Mis-Alignment of KPIs vs Business Goals – Imagine a company hiring a consultant to grow a Facebook fan page to 10,000 fans. The consultant delivers. But then the company fires the consultant because revenue didn’t increase. Lesson:  A responsible marketer should identify measurement goals that account for progress AND business outcomes. Consultants can view a goal like fans, followers or rankings as easy money but the connection to business value must be made. This one is on both client and consultant. Corporate marketers must be able to answer “why” when they identify performance measures that do not have a direct impact on business objectives.
• Lack of Influence and Internal Support – Ambitious marketing managers who have become aware and educated about the significant impact of an integrated SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing program may get budget to hire a consultant only to discover that PR, Social, Content, Legal, HR and other parties that need to be involved are “not on board” with key implementation approvals and tasks. Lesson: As research is conducted into what is involved with bringing an outside consultant into the mix, it’s important that client side marketers map out who they will need to work with internally to get tasks implemented. The time to grow that internal network of “friendlies” should begin long before the engagement begins.  Identify how those peers will benefit from participation and cooperation with your consulting investment. Make sure they have a clear picture of the benefits for themselves, their group/department and the organization overall.

Of course there are more ways to fail internet marketing consulting implementation than the short lists above, but the key is responsibility about capabilities, planning, managing expectations, allocating appropriate resources and most of all: communication.

It takes two to tango and if a consultant is involved it will inevitably be deemed the consltants fault. That’s why it’s essential for online marketing consultants to properly identify key characteristics of companies that are capable of implementing or able to adapt or adjust to enable proper implementation. In the end, we all want a 360 degree win and that requires better communication during prospecting, kickoff, engagement and with ongoing consulting.

If you’re a corporate marketer, what are some of the fails you’ve seen from consultants that have caused failures of marketing implementation?   Your turn consultants: What implementation fails have you experienced and how did you overcome them?

 

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Classic Marketing Consulting Fail: “What We Got Here is a Failure to Implement” | http://www.toprankblog.com

In early May, Rovio came out with their financial results for 2011. Today, the National Board of Patents and Registration Of Finland has received Rovio's official financial filing for the year 2011. One would expect that there is no news value in the filing since Rovio already came out with their results prior to this, but it shows a big discrepancy regarding the company's funding situation. In early March last year, the company announced it has raised a $42 million round from Accel Partners, Atomico Ventures as well as Felicis Ventures.

$42 million is about €32.85 million in today's exchange rate. This €30+ million is however missing from Rovio's financial statement for 2011, which begs an answer to the question:

Who did the money go to and why did Rovio feel the need to announce a funding round when it clearly wasn't one? When a round of this size isn't visible in the books of the company, it must have gone to one or more of the owners of Rovio as the new investors came on board. Atomico Ventures and Accel Partners bought an equal size ownership in the company for the reported $42 million invested.

In March 2011, Niklas Zennström was quoted saying “this investment will give Rovio wings” in the press release regarding the investment.

This investment, or purchase of stock, has given the new owners each 10% of the company as can be seen in the ownership structure shown below (which dates back to February 2012):

Kaj Hed / Trema International Holdings BV 69,7% Niklas Hed 4,3% Peter Vesterbacka 3,1% Mikael Hed 0,6% Employees 1,3% Accel Partners 10% Atomico Invest 10% Felicis Ventures 1% Total 100%

The assumption one could easily make is that Kaj Hed, the owner of Trema International Holdings, has cashed in partially and sold 21% of his ownership in the company to Atomico Ventures, Accel Partners and Felicis Ventures. It is not yet known if only Kaj Hed sold his equity or if other previous owners took part in the sale as well.

According to the financials filed, Rovio raised only €700 000 in new equity for the firm in 2011.

It seems that the reason behind publishing the company's annual results proactively a couple of weeks earlier may be to hide the investment that never took place. The money is clearly somewhere else and not in Rovio's books.

We have reached out to Rovio for a comment on this, but at the time of this article being published - we have not yet heard back from them. We will update the story with Rovio's comment, if they do decide to get back to us on this.

Favor is a open publishing platform where users can post any kind of media to their feed. There's not much difference between difference between it and your standard microblogging platform, but their main difference lies in their commenting system. If you want to comment on (or just reward) the media, you must pay at least $0.10, with 90% of the proceeds going directly to the content producer. Doing so also gives you the opportunity to comment underneath the media, where you could just comment, criticize, or even advertise. Paying more money puts you at the top of the comments, providing an incentive system to give more to the content producer. While Favors are seen as just a nice thing to do for content producers, another way to look at them is a direct line to advertising space under some popular content.

I imagine the company might see some content growth just for the hypothetical payout that content producers can receive from posting content to the site. While Flattr buttons are becoming more common across the web, it would seem almost in bad taste to directly charge for comments on your own website. But on a purely capitalist platform like Favor, it's the law of the land I suppose.

But still, what draws people back to their content is a sense of community, which is somewhat destroyed with even the mental cost of $0.10 a post.

Favor sees their service as an interesting way to monetize comics, and just presented at the Arctic Comics Festival in Kemi, Finland. A comic contest was also run on their platform, with the winner being whoever could generate the most interest through the platform.

Favor is based in Rovaniemi, Finland, and is partly financed with assist of the Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment.

Posted by Lisa - MozStaff

I’m pretty new here at SEOmoz, and one of the projects I’m working on is improving the Mozscape API wiki content so it’s easier for you to learn how to access all of the cool data available through the Mozscape API.

I decided to jump in and try to figure it out. My initial plan was not to cheat... that is, not use the help I have as an employee that’s not available to most API users.  But I got stuck, so I had to change the rules... You’ve heard of Calvinball, right?  I made a new rule that I get to cheat, as long as I share.

Joining the Game

I’d already signed up, since I work here, but this part isn’t hard. If you’re not already a member, go to http://www.seomoz.org/api/keys, and either sign up for a free PRO trial, or register for the SEOmoz community. Both of these give you access to the free version of the Mozscape API. If you like what you see and want more requests and full access to the API, details on what’s available are on our API Pricing page.

Getting My Secret SEOmoz API Key

This part would fit right into Calvin Ball... I get a secret key! Once I’m signed in, the Getting Started page shows the Generate API Credentials section. I wasn’t sure what to put in the Your Access ID section, so I just clicked the button. Then had to agree to the terms of service, and clicked it again, and voila, I have my Access ID and my Secret Key.

Tip #1: You don’t enter Your Access ID, we generate it. Just read our terms of service, click the box agreeing to them, and then push the big Generate Secret Key button (or Regenerate, if you’ve already done it once).

Secret Keys, Signatures, and Signed Authentication, Oh My!

As I looked at creating my first API request, I came to a complete standstill figuring out how to authenticate my request. My problems were completely self-inflicted, but I had to resort to cheating to overcome them.

Cheat #1 - Asking for internal guru help

I’d started reading the forums, and the number one issue on the forums at the moment is failed authentication. Before I started this exercise, I’d read a forum post that said the authentication example on the Getting Started page was old and no longer the recommended way to do things.

This led me to ignoring what it actually said on this page, and trying all sorts of things to create a Unix Timestamp and Valid Signature on my own, when it was sitting in front of me the whole time. It took talking to folks here to get me back on track.

Tip #2: Remember that the forums represent a moment in time.  We’ve been changing things, and fixing things, and what you read in the forums *could* be outdated.  We noticed the sample was bad, wrote about it in the forums, and then fixed it, meaning the forum post is now out-of-date.

The Sample Valid API Signature really is a Valid API Signature

After the above flailing about, and my first cheat, I realized the Sample Valid API Signature is actually a genuine, A#1, valid API signature, and allows me to do a query right away.

So, I was able to use the Sample Request on the Getting Started page to get the correct member ID, timestamp, and signature in the correct format.

Tip #3 & 4:

• If you've been flailing about after getting your secret key (as I did), you'll need to refresh the page to update the timestamp. The timestamp on the sample is only valid for about 5 minutes.
• Your signature has to be base64 and then URL encoded. This is why the Signature line on the Getting Started page is slightly different from the Signature in the Sample Request, which has been encoded for you. Make sure you use the Sample Request string.

 

URL Metrics for the Win

Once I realized the signed authentication was provided for me in the sample request, it came down to just using the wiki documentation to modify the request for the URL and metrics that I wanted.  The URL was easy; I just changed the website in the sample request from “www.seomoz.org&2fblog” to the website of my local food coop.

Then, since the sample request uses the url-metrics API call, I looked up how to add the URL metrics I wanted on the URL-Metrics API wiki page. I picked these metrics:

Metric	Bit Flag	Returns
Title	1	ut
URL	4	uu
Subdomain	8	ufq
Links	2048	uid

Adding all of the bit flags for these up gives me 2061. So I put 2061 in the Cols parameter.

Cheat #2 - Knowledge Aforethought

Since I’ve been here a little over a month, I had already looked at the URL-metrics API page, and been working on improving the content there. So I already knew how to use the Cols parameter and how to add up the bit flags to get the metrics I wanted.

Hobbes gets the Link Data

All of the above modifications to the Sample Request gave me my first working query:

http://lsapi.seomoz.com/linkscape/url-metrics/www.snoislefoods.coop?Cols=2061&AccessID=<my_member_ID>&Expires=<My_sample_timestamp>&Signature=<My_sample_signature>

I put it in a new browser window, hit enter, and got my first response:

{"ufq":"www.snoislefoods.coop/","uid":864,"ut":"Organic Produce Co op, Natural Food Cooperative | Sno-Isle Natural Foods Co-op Everett WA","uu":"www.snoislefoods.coop/"}

Success! I used the table on the URL-metrics API page (excerpted above) to interpret my link data.

Changing the Rules

So, this is what I learned that might be helpful to you if you’re just starting out. Now, most of the time, you’re not going to access your link data by typing a request like I did in the browser window, but I hope this helps you in understanding what all of the moving pieces are when generating your queries programmatically.

After my experience with this, I’ll be working on improving the Getting Started page, forum pages, and the wiki docs to help you avoid the parts that confused me on my first go around.

If you have any suggestions, success stories, or really good cheats, I’d love to hear from you. Email api@seomoz.org.

Lisa - Mozstaff

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A pioneer among foreign investors on the Russian venture scene, David Waroquier of Mangrove Capital Partners is a recognized expert of the local Internet ecosystem and a reference partner for several Russia-based ventures. He shared with East-West Digital News his vision of the fast-growing Russian online retail market, its challenges, and the exit scenarios for investors in this industry.

This interview is an excerpt from an in-depth research paper on Russian e-commerce that will be released soon. What makes Russian e-commerce attractive from your point of view as an investor?

Russian e-commerce is still a relatively young industry, with penetration rates that are well below Western standards. The organic growth of the country represents a unique upside potential. Combine this with a growing middle class willing to spend, an Internet penetration that’s still about half that of Western economies, and an appetite for consumers in the regions to access deeper inventories of goods, which otherwise they could not easily buy locally, and you have an ideal mixture of driving forces to build massive e-commece companies in the country, if executed well.

Have you noticed a change in foreign investors’ perceptions of Russia over the past few years?

There is still a weak knowledge of Russia in general around the world.

But Russia, which had been neglected by international investors until only a couple of years ago, has started to arouse significant interest. Big projects like Rusnano and Skolkovo also make Russia’s modern face more visible. And of course major European and US venture capitalists who started investing early in Russia, like Mangrove, are paving the way for the others. Undoubtly, interest in Russia is increasing.

So, things are changing for the best. KupiVip.ru and Ozon.ru raised $55 million and $100 million, respectively, in 2011; more recently, Wikimart.ru secured $30 million, while Okotogo.ru in its last round, in March 2012, reached $10 million. Western investors and even Japanese investors were present in all these rounds.

Russia needs to show its success stories, to talk about people like Oskar Hartmann [the founder of KupiVip.ru]. Such founders should be the poster boys of the Russian economy.

Compared to Western Internet markets, what are the main issues in Russian e-commerce?
One obvious difficulty is fulfillment. Delivering across this huge country is like delivering across Europe and the US at same time. This is a real challenge in terms of infrastructure. Delivery providers do not work in fully satisfactory conditions, which has led leading players such as Ozon.ru and KupiVip.ru, our portfolio company, to progressively develop their own logistical capacities.

A problem here is that supply chain is a relatively new concept in Russia. Most Russian workers with experience in this field are working at large corporations, they are not trained to deal with the highly flexible conditions of fast growing e-commerce companies.

Lean e-commerce is also impacted by payment issues, and in particular the relative low usage of bank cards compared to Western standards. The bulk of e-commerce transactions happens using cash on delivery methods, which creates additional challenges in online retail. However, in certain segments such as online travel, credit card payments are more commonly used. Actually, the more you move to services, the higher the rate of bank card payments, and travel booking sites usually manage to raise payments by bank cards to over 50%.

The lack of qualified human resources in a fast-growing industry is also a major issue. Good COOs and CMOs are rare in Russia. Relatively high salaries and high employee turnover are mostly affecting Moscow. However, we do not see the same dynamic in other regions.

On a positive note, it is worth noting that Russia is building its first generation of e-commerce entrepreneurs and specialists. We believe in Russian entrepreneurs, who are hungry for success. Some of them are very bold, like Oskar Hartmann of KupiVip.ru or Maria Kolesnik of travel booking site Oktogo.ru, to name just two in the field of e-commerce.

How do you envision exits in Russian online retail?
We have no doubt that Russia is building several major e-commerce companies in various segments. Because of the nature of the Russian market, such companies have built well-performing and valuable assets which go beyond strictly e-commerce. They are building excellence in superior consumer service, infrastructure, and distribution capacities. To reach profitability, they innovate in the way they approach consumers in this vast country.

Such assets are of high interest for some offline retail businesses in Russia, but they also increasingly wake up the interest of global non-Russian retail and e-commerce groups. There is also more interest nowadays to create liquidity in the form of public listings for those companies.

In the coming two years, we expect to see a few major exits happening in the e-commerce sphere.

David Waroquier is a Partner at Mangrove Capital Partners. David spends significant time in Eastern Europe to scout for the successes of tomorrow and to help Mangrove’s portfolio companies there. Back in 2006, David pioneered early-stage investment from Western VCs in Russia. His areas of interest revolve around consumer Internet and e-commerce while he tries to be involved with founders who are passionate about their business and whose personality traits combine creativity, humility, and ambition. David currently serves on the boards of Bestylish, KupiVIP, and Oktogo.

RUSSIAN E-COMMERCE REPORT 2012 – The total volume of Russian online retail reached 310 billion rubles, a little more than $10 billion, in 2011, up 25% from the previous year. EWDN’s research study of Russian e-commerce, which includes a review of related venture deals over the last two years, will be available soon. To receive free insights or to order the full version, please contact us at editor@ewdn.com.

Just like in our Tallinn and Stockholm events, we want to reach out to our community again by giving a chance to win a free ticket to Arctic15, the awesome startup and growth entrepreneurship conference we're putting together for October.

We're giving out four lucky ArcticEvening Copenhagen attendees a free ticket to Arctic15. All you need to do is sign-up to the event held on the 31st of May (it's free by the way) and attend (we'll be in touch by e-mail a day before the event what you need to do to be eligible). Did we tell you we had an awesome event lined up for you? We'll have Tommy Ahlers from Podio sharing his story on the acquisition of the company by Citrix as well as Kristel Verhasselt of X.commerce on how they help companies monetise online.

You don't want to miss this - sign-up today to attend and participate in the draw for a free Arctic15 ticket!

Sponsors

Please take a minute to thank our sponsor with your time. They make the events possible and keep it free for participants. If you'd like to sponsor our event, feel free to contact sales@arcticstartup.com.

Amazon Web Services In 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) began offering IT infrastructure services to businesses in the form of web services -- now commonly known as cloud computing. One of the key benefits of cloud computing is the opportunity to replace up-front capital infrastructure expenses with low variable costs that scale as a business grows. With the Cloud, businesses no longer need to plan for and procure servers and other IT infrastructure weeks or months in advance. Instead, they can instantly spin up hundreds or thousands of servers in minutes and deliver results faster. The AWS platform has grown rapidly since the launch of the first service and it is now the underlying infrastructure for businesses around the world from start-ups to enterprises to government agencies. AWS has hundreds of thousands of customers in over 190 countries leveraging the services from infrastructure locations in the U.S., Europe, South America, Singapore, and Japan. Companies around the world using AWS range from smaller, fast-growing companies such as Playfish, Airbnb and Supercell to larger companies such as Netflix, NASA and News International.

PayPal PayPal enables your business to accept credit card, debit card and PayPal payments from customers shopping online or on their mobile. You can also use PayPal to get paid via email invoices, over the phone or by post. With a solution suited to businesses new or established, local or global and regardless of size, you’ll benefit from opening your business to our 15 million active UK account holders and 106 million worldwide who value our reputation for security and simplicity. PayPal can be added as an additional payment option on your website or can be integrated as your complete online payment solution, either way integration is quick, simple and mobile supported.

Visit paypal.co.uk/testimonials to hear what our customers have to say about what PayPal has done for their business. For more information about products and services and to find the right payment solution for your business, visit us at paypal.co.uk/business.

Microsoft Bizspark, Denmark Microsoft Bizspark is an excellent program for all startups seeking help with development tools, publicity and in general - the way forward. Microsoft's Bizspark program helps companies all around the world get their development tools sorted out and help from one of the largest technology companies in the world.

Nokia Nokia is our venue & drinks partner at the event. They were kind enough to let us use their auditorium for the event as well as bring some drinks and snacks for our audience.

Elance Today there's a new way to launch a startup - by building your team in the cloud. Sign-up on Elance today, and connect with over a million experts to design your logo, create your website, develop your prototype, kickstart your marketing campaign and more! With Elance, getting your business launched is faster, more cost-effective, and the smarter way to take your company to the next level.

If you sign-up through here, you will get a $50 voucher for your first job you accept!

Posted by Chris Warren

The Penguin update sent a strong message that not knowing SEO basics is going to be dangerous in the future. You have to have the basics down or you could be at risk. Penguin is a signal from Google that these updates are going to continue at a rapid pace and they don't care what color your hat is, it's all about relevance. You need to take a look at every seemingly viable "SEO strategy" with this lens. What you don't know can hurt you. It's not that what you are doing is wrong or bad, the reality is that the march towards relevance is coming faster than ever before. Google doesn't care what used to work, they are determined to provide relevance and that means big changes are the new normal.

All that said doing great SEO is an achievable goal, make sure you are taking these steps.

1. Understand your link profile

This is essential knowledge post Penguin. The biggest risk factors are a combination of lots of low quality links with targeted anchor text. There seems to be some evidence that there is a new 60% threshold for matching anchor text but don't forget about the future, I recommend at most 2 rankings focused anchor texts out of 10. The key metrics I look at for this are:

• Anchor text distribution
• The link type distribution (for example, article, comment, directory, etc.)
• Domain Authority and Page Authority distributions

The goal here is to find out what is currently going on and where you should be going. Compare your site with the examples below.

Tools for this:

For anchor text Open Site Explorer gives you an immediate snapshot of what's going on while MajesticSEO and Excel can be better at digging into some of the really spammy links.

Great Excel templates for DA/PA analysis

For link type analysis I use Link Detective but it seems to be down at the moment (please come back!).

2. Learn what makes a good link

Great links:

• Come from respected brands, sites, people and organizations
• Exist on pages that lots of other sites link to
• Provide value to the user
• Are within the content of the page
• Aren't replicated many times over on the linking site

Those are lofty requirements but there is a lot of evidence that these high value links are really the main drivers of a domain's link authority. At the 1:00 mark Matt Cutts talks about how many links are actually ignored by Google:

That's not to say there isn't wiggle room but the direction of the future is quite clear, you have no control over how Google or Bing values your links and there's plenty of evidence that sometimes they get it wrong. The beauty of getting great links is that they aren't just helping you rank, they are VALUABLE assets for your business SEO value aside. At Distilled this was one of the primary ways we built our business, it's powerful stuff.

3. Map out your crawl path

This is a simple goal but it can be very difficult for larger sites. If it's really complex and hard to figure out then it's going to be hard for Google to crawl. There are few bigger wins in SEO than getting content that wasn't previously being indexed out there working for you.

Sitemaps unfortunately can only help you so much in terms of getting things indexed. Furthermore, putting the pages that are the most important higher up in the crawl path lets you prioritize which pages get passed the most link authority.

4. Know about every page type and noindex the low value ones

I have never consulted on a website that didn't have duplicate or thin content somewhere. The real issue here is not that duplicate content always causes problems or a penalty but rather if you don't understand the structure of your website you don't know what *could* be wrong. Certainty is a powerful thing, knowing that you can confidently invest in your website is very important.

So how do you do it?

A great place to start is to use Google to break apart the different sections of your site:

1. Start with a site search in Google 
2. Now add on to the search removing one folder or subdomain at a time 
3. Compare this number you get to the amount of pages you expect in that section and dig deeper if the number seems high

Note: The number of indexed pages that Google features here can be extremely inaccurate; the core idea is to reveal areas for further investigation. As you go through these searches go deeper into the results with inflated numbers. Duplicate and thin content will often show up after the first 100 results.

5. Almost never change your URLs

It's extremely common to change URLs, reasons like new design, new content management systems, new software, new apps... But this does serious damage and even if you manage it perfectly the 301 redirects cut a small portion of the value of EVERY single link to the page. And no one handles it perfectly. One of my favorite pieces of software Balsamiq has several thousand links and 500+ linking root domains pointed at 404s and blank pages. Balsamiq is so awesome they rank their head terms anyway but until you are Balsamiq cool you might need those links.

If you are worried that you have really bad URLs that could be causing problems Dr. Pete has already done a comprehensive analysis of when you should consider changing them. And then you only do it once.

6. Setup SEO monitoring

This is an often overlooked step in the process. As we talked about before if your content isn't up and indexed any SEO work is going to go to waste. Will Critchlow has already done a great job outlining how to monitor your website:

• Watch for traffic drops with Google Analytics custom alerts
• Monitor your uptime with services like Pingdom
• Monitor what pages you noindex with meta tags or robots.txt (you would be shocked how often this happens)

Some more tools to help you keep an eye out for problems:

• Dave Sottimano's traffic and rankings drop diagnosis tool
• Google Analytics Debugger
• The various rank tracking tools
• SEOmoz's Google Analytics hook formats landing pages sending traffic in an easy graph

7. Embrace inbound marketing

To me inbound marketing is just a logical progression from SEO, thinking about your organic traffic in a vacuum really just doesn't make sense. Dedicate yourself to improving your website for your users and they will reward you, Balsamiq which I mentioned earlier is a perfect example of this. I guarantee you they have done little to no SEO and yet they rank first for their most important keywords and have a Domain Authority of 81. How did they do it? Less features.

So what does that really mean? Balsamiq had a rigorous dedication to what their customers really wanted. That's really good marketing, smart business and intelligent product design all in one. Remember the future is all about relevance to your users, if you aren't actively seeking this you will get left behind. There is no excuse anymore there are plenty of proven examples of making seemingly boring page types fascinating and engaging.

Want to learn more?

If you need more high impact changes to your SEO check out the topic list for SearchLove San Francisco, it's the first time Distilled is going to be doing a conference on the West Coast.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

Many people feel like they have absolutely no control over circumstances in their lives anymore.

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Many people, when they really think about it, haven’t even been truly happy for many, many years.

If they’ve had any real consistent feeling for all of that time, it’s been a fear of some impending catastrophe.

Life doesn’t have to be that way.

It really can be as simple as shifting your perspective.

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Watch this short video to discover how to get me to buy you dinner at the NAMS8 workshop, in Atlanta, August 3rd – 5th, 2012.

On top of buying you dinner, I’d like to create a product that you can later sell or even give away, perhaps as a list builder.

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Notify my at: http://WillieCrawford.com/helpdesk/

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I recently received an email from my good friend Terry Dean, someone I’ve know since around 2003. Terry’s email shared that he was getting $4.68 per unique click from promoting one affiliate product.

Terry Dean

That product was one that I helped my online accountability partner to launch, several years ago

It caused me to go back and look over my own numbers, and based upon what I discovered, this is the ONLY affiliate program that I can say has paid me commissions, consistently for 3-4 years now.

That’s significant!

David Perdew, who set it all up, often talks about “one and done” product launches. Those are the types of launches where you do one or two promotions for a product and then it’s pulled off the market.

David Perdew

I don’t know about you, but I personally DISLIKE those types of promotion for two reasons:

1) It means that as an affiliate marketers, even if I am successful at selling my customers that products, I need to look for something else to sell them a week later. The big DISCONNECT there is that that means I can’t really even give them time to benefit from what I just sold them before I’m suggesting that they buy something else.

I honestly don’t think that’s fair to my subscribers who would really benefit from that first product IF they would just take the time to go through it and actually APPLY what it teaches. I shouldn’t be distracting them from being able to do that.

2) With many promotions that we do, our subscribers may not even get around to reading an email, or being ready to buy, until a week or more later. With the one-and-done promotions, by the time they are ready to focus on the offer, it’s too late.

So, we waste all that effort. Those are two reasons that I’m focused on the product that Terry recommends. It’s something that you can honestly promote today, and earn commissions on a year or more later.

David actually “tags” your referrals in his database in a way that you earn LIFETIME commissions… and you get credit even if they delete their cookies because his affiliate tracking system does not depend upon cookies.

The “creame de le cream” of David’s products is his Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop, which is THE very best internet marketing workshop that I have ever personally attended.

In fact, I now teach at each of David’s workshops. NAMS #8 is coming up in August, and unless I’m mistaken, I will have only missed teaching at one out of the eight.

Take a minute now and check out what I’m convinced is the very best, hands-on, internet marketing training out there. There is a member-only affiliate program that is also, as I just explained, in my opinion, the best affiliate program out there.

Check it out here: http://TheRealSecrets.com/MySingleHighestRecommendation/

Oh, here’s part of Terry’s email, that caused me to go back and take a hard look at my numbers… edited slightly so that we can track responses:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Subject: affiliate payout $4.68 per unique click

I’m a numbers guy.

Either something works or it doesn’t based on the numbers.

Track everything.

Measurement eliminates argument.

Many affiliate programs will hype you up by claiming huge payouts.

They’ll talk about the prizes you can earn in the new contest, or they’ll have their affiliates compete with each other to be the top of the scoreboard.

Nothing wrong with any of that.

But when it comes down to it, it’s about the numbers.

And it’s also about delivering value to the customers.

This morning I was running through some of my affiliate accounts.

And I took notice of an affiliate program that I haven’t given much attention to, but sends me money through Paypal every single month.

I promoted them in September 2011, so less than a year ago.

And did some other minor mentions of them, but haven’t done anything heavy.

What jumped out to me from the stats is they have paid me $4.68 per unique clickthrough so far.

And they’re not finished yet. Each month they send me money for clicks I sent 8 months ago.

That $4.68 per unique click for me has been increasing each month.

You can find out more about this affiliate program and register for free here: http://TheRealSecrets.com/MySingleHighestRecommendation/

It is a two tier program so you’re also paid off JV referrals.

What’s unique here is they pay:

- Commissions on their entire product funnel from $5 to $500

- Multiple free eCourse link bait for driving new members

- First click referral tagging – get paid forever off a referral today (that’s what I like)

Basically you earn more money every time they send out an email to those you’ve referred.

Awesome deal!

At least I think so. Seeing the numbers this morning means I will be promoting for them more.

And I haven’t even mentioned the quality of the products yet.

The reason those commissions keep growing is because members STICK with them.

They receive value.

And once they see the quality of what is offered, they buy more.

This program is run by David Perdew who runs the NAMS events (Niche Affiliate Marketing System).

That’s where my initial promotion came from. I attended the event as a speaker and was impressed with how it was a step-by-step workshop to help people at any level…from beginner to advanced.

In addition, they have a membership program with 17 ways to give you better training, content, and tools for your online business today.

Check it out: http://TheRealSecrets.com/MySingleHighestRecommendation/

Make sure to use the coupon code MyNAMS80 to get the best price.

Your Marketing Coach,

Terry Dean “The Internet Lifestyle Mentor” Earn More. Work Less. Enjoy Life!

Note: Your results will vary of course, because it’s based on how responsive your visitors are, the offers being made, and buying interest.

P.S. If you’re in any type of internet business field, and you’re not an affiliate with them, why in the world not?

http://TheRealSecrets.com/MySingleHighestRecommendation/

P.P.S. Look for the 8 Affiliate Myths that are killing your commissions coming in the next email…

This is what life is like when you work for yourself. P.S. Battleship Spoiler Alert – The movie wasn’t very good unless you like loud noises and lots of explosions that try to cover up major gaps in the story.

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Willie

GM's Facebook page is a sterling example of a company that wants to broadcast instead of listen, ignore instead of engage.