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Ok, had to laugh yesterday when seeing the website for a niche hotel provider in the U.K., called “Rooms for Baboons”. What do these guys do? They provide hotels rooms for “Stag & Lad” parties in Great Britain. Eh?

Not being a Brit myself, I can only imagine that if I am getting married and going on an extended bachelor party, I book my through “Rooms for Baboons.” Who wants to spend several hundred dollars (oops…I meant Pounds) on a hotel in Newcastle only to get kicked out for being too loud?

Did I get that right? Anyone want to tell me what a Stag and Lad party really is?

I mention their website for several reasons. First, it is a brilliant example of picking a niche, defining it, and doing everything that you can to dominate it. What could be more niche than stag parties in the U.K.? I have gone to the website several times, from several computers and noticed that I am seeing different headlines and text, so they are obviously collecting data and testing what works. Here’s an example:

AVOID STAYING IN NEWCASTLE HOTELS WITH FAMILIES & OLD PEOPLE

and here’s their subtext:

“If you’re not visiting Newcastle on a stag or hen party, or looking to have some fun, we won’t accept your hotel reservation under any circumstances.”

You think I am kidding? Take A Look: Stag Hotels in Newcastle.

And here’s the other version that I saw:

FIND ROOMS IN NEWCASTLE FOR YOUR GROUP IN 30 SECONDS

The subtext:

“If you’re struggling to find rooms for your lads weekend in Newcastle, don’t get frustrated calling dozens of hotels that won’t take your group - Find your group’s central, lad-friendly rooms now…”

Which do you think performs better? I am going for headline #1. Reading it, I am reminded of a quote (Dan Kennedy?), which reads, “Your readers don’t have time for your pathetic subtlety.”

I may be doing some SEO work for this company at some point, so I may write about them again.

cheers -Ryan

Are focused, niche bookmarking websites the future of the Web?

Several weeks ago, I bumped into http://sphinn.com/ a self-described, “Internet Marketing & Discussion Forum.” Unlike Digg, Furl, Reddit, Technorati and others, Sphinn accepts links for a relatively narrow group of subjects. Topics related search marketing (SEO, PPC etc.), online marketing and social media will make it onto Sphinn.

I was immediately hooked. Sphinn is nirvana to someone like me who is interested in online marketing. It gives me exactly what I want. I don’t have to dig through a bunch of posts on topics that I don’t like, I don’t have to search some huge website for the most relevant tags or categories. By definition, Sphinn contains the most relevant topics for me.

And from what I can tell it is a professional network. The people who post seem to be knowledgeable about their topics, I haven’t seen any flame wars or nasty attacks (I haven’t been using the network for a few weeks, so perhaps, I just haven’t found the flame wars?)

**Update: Ok, I was being a little naive. There does seem some name calling and flaming, here and there on Sphinn.

I can’t help but wonder if smaller networks like Sphinn are the future of social bookmarking. Don’t many people want to quickly and easily find targeted information on the subjects they are interested in? Don’t you?

And, of course, for times when not in the mood, you can always take a nice random walk down stumbleupon.

Update: 8/5/08: Andy Hagans, from Tropical SEO has compiled a useful list of social niche websites.

I have had several conversations recently with managers in E-commerce departments who want to lower their Google pay-per-click costs and increase the ROI on their campaigns. I have a simple but often overlooked answer:

Do search engine optimization on your sales pages and segment your PPC campaigns so that each keyword group goes to a webpage that is optimized for that group.

Why SEO lowers Google PPC costs

Google prides itself, and in fact, bases it’s search business on the idea that relevance matters. They want you to keep returning to their search engine because it gives you the most relevant results for your keyword search. And they do their best to clearly label “organic” or natural search results from “paid” or PPC results. Go to a search engine that mixes up paid and search results or doesn’t let you know what is paid and what is not. How does it make you feel when you search? Annoyed? Don’t know if you can trust the results? Google tries to avoid that at all costs.

And that leads to a key factor in lowering pay-per-click costs: Google’s desire for serving relevant results also applies to their paid results.

Let’s say that you are bidding on the keyword “back pain.” If you send your visitors to a page that talks about sciatica and chiropractic care you will pay more per click than if you sent them directly to a page that speaks about back pain.

Do you see why? Google wants you to send people to pages immediately and directly relevant to keywords that the person is searching. And even without the lower price you would be doing better. Why? When you give a searcher what they want, they are more likely to buy and stay on your website. The take home message is simple: Do SEO for the keyword that you are targeting.

Keyword Segmentation for Lowering PPC costs

Understanding keyword relevance and its relation to buyer motivation is another way to lower pay-per-click costs. Segment your campaigns into related keyword groups and send people to a web page optimized for that keyword. For example, a person searching for “lower back pain relief” is likely to have different motivation and wants than someone searching for “kidney back pain relief.” If you send each person to a page relevant to the keyword searched, google will reward you with a lower pay-per-click charge. And again - you will be sending someone to a page that is more likely to give them what they want and thus be more likely to gain a customer.

Also note that a more inclusive term like “back pain” is harder to optimize for buyer motivation. Yes, you can optimize for back pain and save some money on click costs, but what in the world is the person trying to find with the keyword? Relief? Medical Advice? An exercise device? Information for a term paper? You don’t really know and you are likely to pay for tons of irrelevant clicks.

I hope that was useful. Bye for now - Ryan

Many people are of the opinion that making comments on other people’s blog posts is a good tool for gaining traffic and incoming links to your own websites. There are dissenting opinions of course, including those that mention the dreaded “nofollow” tag that many blogging platforms add to URLs in comments. Regardless, if you do track and measure your traffic via Google Analytics or some other tool, you will find that making blog comments can drive a certain amount of traffic to your websites.

Not convinced? Try it for two weeks. Every day for the next 14 days, do a Google search for blog topics related to your website. Go to the blog, read the post and make a thoughtful, intelligent comment, making sure to fill in your website URL in the comment form. Do not add a direct link within the text of your comment as you are likely to get banned and your comment will not show up.

Wait another two weeks or so and check your analytics traffic. Depending on the popularity of the blog on which you posted and the popularity of your comment, you should see some incoming traffic. People will click on the link associated with your comment and come take a look at your website.

You may also want to use a tool like Yahoo’s free site explorer to see if the incoming links are listed: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

I have recently begun doing some search engine optimization for Gregg Cochlan’s website, which promotes his wonderful book “Love Leadership: What the World Needs Now.”

As it stands today, February 2nd, 2008, the Love Leadership website is at #10 on Google for the term “Love Leadership.” I anticipate that as I work on the site it will rise to one of the top 3 positions on google. Right now only one page is showing up. However, several pages of the websites should be listed on the top page when I am done - making it even easier for people to find the book.

Update: As of today, Feb 5th, Love Leadership has risen to #4. It was #5 yesterday and it should continue to rise in the coming days.

Given the importance of the web for new and aspiring authors, I thought now might be a good time to review some useful strategies for increasing book sales online.

Using the Internet to Increase Your Book’s Sales

If you want to increase your book’s online sales, people need to be able to find and buy your book. You can sell it on Amazon or another online bookstore of course. But you could also promote the book on your own and give sales a boost. This is especially important if you are a consultant, coach or speaker. A book can give you new clients. So think about creating a website that promotes both you and your book (more on this below).

Promotion is one of several reasons why authors have hired me to do search engine optimization. Having a website doesn’t do much good without having plenty of visitors. Authors want a high ranking on google, yahoo and other search engines to bring visitors to their websites. Why? Some of the visitors will buy their book or other products and services.

To repeat: People need to be able to find you and your book. And they need to do so in the quickest and most efficient way possible. Think of it this way: If a people are searching for the title of your book online, they may be motivated buyers. They are taking action and want more information. You want them to find you and connect with you as soon as possible: Make it easy.

A brief overview of promoting your book online.

Let’s take a few moments to consider some basic steps for promoting your book online. Even, if you have not published yet, you can (and probably should) do the steps below. You will be able to show a potential publisher that you understand the internet and internet marketing - perhaps making it more likely that you will get a contract.

Let’s begin.

1) You will need a website address and a hosting company.

Go to godaddy.com or another low-cost website registrar and register the name of your book. Your website address might look like this: www.mybookname.com. There are thousands of web-hosting companies. For now, choose a simple, low-cost provider ($5 - $10.00 per month maximum). Do not buy expensive add-ons. You probably do not need them. And if you find out later that you do, you can add them.

2) You will need a basic website.

Create (at minimum) a 1-page website explaining and promoting your book and its content. If you don’t know how to create a website, then get a blog, they are much easier to learn. Or you can outsource the website creation process (elance.com, scriptlance.com and others)

If your book is available for purchase you will want to have direct links to websites where it can be bought. Don’t be shy - your book is great and people need a chance to buy it - give them that chance. Create clear and obvious links that users can click to buy your book.

3) Install an open source blogging platform such a Wordpress on your website.

Your blog address might look like this: www.mybooksname.com/blog. You could also create a free blog at wordpress.com or blogger.com.

Why use a blog? When I make blog posts, they are usually listed on the google search engine results in less than 20-minutes. It’s a bit like having my own news wire. You can use your blog to create instant buzz about your book and its topics.

4) Get some incoming links to your new website.

Ask friends and colleaugues if they would be willing to link to your website. If all else fails, go to elance.com or scriptlance.com and pay someone to manually submit your site to other websites (often called “link directories”). You need to have incoming links - think of them as “votes” for your websites.

Doing all of the above will give you a great start. It will also give you a base from which you can begin expanding your professional presence.

If you would like a wonderful example of an author who “gets” how to use the internet to promote his books, take a look at Malcom Gladwell’s site: http://www.gladwell.com/

That’s all for now.