newsletter Archives | Investor Blogger Dot Com

The real question is how do you grow your business? Yesterday is gone, today is here. Tomorrow is the opportunity. I do believe that ‘the build content and visitors will come from Google’ days are over. Google is now increasingly ranking existing traffic. In other words, if you’re already popular, expect to get found in Google, but if you’re not… well, you know the story now.

The recent updates haven’t only been about finding Spam & Unnatural links in the index, but if you peel back the layers, you will see that Google is boosting branded sites; authorship is important; following social habits; and gearing up for mobile. This is at the same time as it is coming under pressure in its advertising markets from the likes of Facebook, Microsoft, & Yahoo! Advertisi

Add the list: Build the list

I had nearly 1,000,000 (that’s six zeroes) page views… but because I didn’t follow this mantra, I ended up with 150 subscribers to my mailing list. 150 out of 1 million pvs? What does that tell you?

So I would strongly recommend adding a popover for your newsletter, and push as many of the visitors you get now to sign up for the newsletter as possible. Put your RSS content into the newsletter and make your newsletter a PDF subscription only monthly update newsletter that is ESSENTIAL to have.

You can mirror the content throughout your site…but the convenience of having it once a month far outweighs the inconvenience of searching for all the disparate content on your site. Don’t leave it to late to do that…

Take your power back from Google

One of the dangers of working the SBI system is the power that you hand over to Google without realizing it. And many webmasters are now ruing the day they made that decision …of putting Google in the position to decide the future of their business. My coffee site is a classic example of this, and something that I have not remedied yet.

Essentially, a viable site has to have a diverse and diversifying source of incoming visitors. You cannot, should not ever rely on Google for your mainstream visitors. They are fickle, they are come & go, they don’t stick around, and they don’t often return to your site… too many other options to consider. However, they are loyal to Google, so it doesn’t matter to them whatever happens to your site.

Avoid Endless P&P Reports & Tweaking

Many SEO specialists, gurus and affiliate marketers advise and sell products/services that encourage you to get back into Google’s graces by endlessly tweaking your site’s keywords, URLs, keyword density, Google algo data… whatever particular flavor they are selling that day. But search engine rankings is a game for SEO specialists whose business is SEO.

Is SEO your business? No… Your business is bring the best of your site to your visitors. That is your business. Not endlessly tweaking WordPress, PHP, HTML, GWT, or whatever acronym there is. I’m not saying “neglect these”… but your purpose should be tweaking those for the sole point of satisfying your visitors enough that they will ‘Like’ you, ‘Share’ you, Subscribe, Bookmark or Purchase from your site.

So what should I be doing?

So the ultimate question becomes not how can I get my site back in Google but how can I help my exisiting traffic LOVE my site or NEED my site to the extent that they will gladly give up time, money or effort to get it. That is branding. That is what Google is now looking for.

And with only a set number of hours in the day, then you have to ask yourself is it really worth my time hacking all these errors or would the time be better spent writing the content (for the blog or newsletter or Facebook) that my visitors/customers will LOVE? So don’t let the Google errors, the plugin problems, the niggles over CSS/HTML diminish your passion for your site.

Simplify what you need to do to serve your customers better. That’s all you need to. Let Google sweat the details. Because you have a great site, a great brand, great customer loyalty, great content… it is Google that has the troubles, the software issues, the problems… they are Google’s problems.

Don’t let Google ruin your business

Your site is what matters. When you focus on that, you will find the help that your site needs. And you will benefit your customers and visitors. Directly building your own brand & brand loyalty is the best (and perhaps the only real) alternative to letting Google run and ruin your business.

It’s time to do our new business newsletter. We’ve had quite a few problems with this issue but it’s finally done… I can breathe a little when the new newsletter is done. Summer is coming and this is the best time to promote our business as our target parents are now looking for schools for the summer and afterwards. So the newsletter is a very good promotional tool.

At the moment, we’re pretty limited in the presentation for the actual newsletter: we don’t do color yet. But I’m becoming certain that this is the direction we need to go in: of course, we’ll then need to send out the flyer to be done commercially. OK. This is what it looks like! It was made using MS Publisher 98 … in Windows 98SE, but later versions of Office include this, too.

May 2008 Newsletter

Even in this era of online commerce, creating a short off-line flyer, newsletter or card can be a good way to gain additional attention for your service, store or website. You can use the wizards in Word or Publisher 2008 to get you started with the basic design, write a few short columns, make it informational and of value to the readers.

Layout

I created two documents, each A4 in size. Then I named number 1 – pages 1 and 4. Number 2 is pages 2 and 3. I used a simple printer connection to the photocopier in our office and printed 2 pages on each A4 page. It was tricky to get the double-sided effect, and I wasted quite a few sheets in the photocopier. But soon, I was able to double print each A4 page. Folded in the middle, I had a four-page newsletter.

Tracking Results

I create a special link to the online sites (use a redirect if you want to) to track the traffic. If you get really smart, you can create several runs with different URLs to track the effects of different distribution points (in a larger city, this would be a great idea!).

When clients or potential clients are just looking for simple introductory information without too much hype or a sales presentation, this kind of flyer or newsletter can really answer their questions without pressure sales. I usually attach a name card to the newsletter with a personal name on it.

And it works. New clients often pick one up on the way in. Of course, as a community tool, I also distribute it to our existing clients. So there’s an added bonus there, too.

It REALLY works.