September 15, 2011

Google Analytics – Are you tracking website visitors?

By Lisa Nelson | Website

I’m a big advocate of tracking your results online. Some of the many statistics I check on a regular basis include the number of visitors my websites receive, what sources are referring traffic to my sites, and what are the web pages with the most views.

If you have a WordPress based website there is a plug-in that makes tracking simple . . . and it’s free!

The plug-in I use and recommend is Ultimate Google Analytics for tracking website visitors.

If you do not currently have this plug-in installed go to your WordPress Dashboard. Select to add a new plug-in and search for Ultimate Google Analytics. Click install and activate.

After activating you still need to connect the plug-in to your Google Analytics account.

September 8, 2011

What is the best day to publish an email newsletter?

By Lisa Nelson | Business Manager, Email Marketing

The last study results I reviewed found Tuesday to be the best day to publish an email newsletter, which may also be referred to as an ezine. This was found to be the day of greatest response. HOWEVER, this may not be the best day for you. It’s very important for you to track your open and click through rates. If you publish your newsletter on Tuesdays and your open rate drops below 20% it’s time for a little trial and error with a different day of the week. Maybe your list will be more responsive on a Wednesday or Thursday.

If you are subscribed for newsletter updates (sign up for the free report below and you’ll be added to the list!) you’ll notice that I publish the newsletter on a Friday. I do this because my list is typically working a traditional job during the week and it’s the weekend when they have the time and energy to focus on non-traditional income sources. So far that day has worked best for my subscribers . . . BUT I’m constantly tracking open and click thru rates and I will make adjustments if need be.

All the best,
Lisa Nelson

August 24, 2011

5 Changes to Grow Your List and Increase Conversion Rates

By Lisa Nelson | Email Marketing, Social Media, Website

Do you get a decent amount of traffic to your website everyday, but your list size continues to grow at a snails pace? If so, here are some suggestions I encourage you to analyze and tweak if need be.

1. Are you asking people to ‘Join Our Mailing list’?

Just about all online sites are now trying to collect names and email addresses of their visitors. That’s why just having a ‘Join Our Mailing’ list box doesn’t cut it anymore. You need to entice people to give you their name and email address and this requires more than just a subscription to your newsletter. Examples of enticements would be a free report, ecourse, or audio file that focuses on the reason they came to your site in the first place. For example, if your ideal client is trying to lose weight your free report may be geared toward ‘The Top 10 Steps for Lasting Weight Loss’. Whatever your ‘freebie’ is you want it to be something they just can’t pass up.

Tip: If you have a freebie and it’s not converting well you may not need to change the content of your freebie, just do some trial and error with the title to increase conversion rates.

2. Are you leading traffic to an opt-in page or your website home page?

August 16, 2011

Create a Swipe File for Writing Ideas

By Lisa Nelson | Business Manager, Email Marketing, Website

Are you struggling to come up with a topic idea for this week’s blog post or newsletter article? If so, it’s time to start a swipe file for writing ideas. This is simply a place you can store ideas when they come to you.

That’s exactly how I’ve come up with the topic for this blog post. I made myself the following note I don’t know how long ago:

Where to get content ideas

July 14, 2011

Are you asking your readers to tell you what they want? – Kissinsights

By Lisa Nelson | Website

Do you ask your blog readers to submit questions or topics they are interested in learning more about?

If not, Kissinsights is a simple and free tool that invites your blog readers to submit questions or comments. Plus, it doesn’t take much in the way of tech skills to set up.

First, what is KissInsights?

June 30, 2011

Facebook – Do you need a business ACCOUNT or a business PAGE?

By Lisa Nelson | Social Media

If you haven’t jumped into the Facebook waters yet, then this is some important information to know in advance.

When you register for a Facebook account you have the option of setting up a personal account or a business account. Select a personal account. Business accounts have limitations and reduced functionality compared to personal accounts. If you set up a business account you’ll be able to view pages and social ads you create, but you are not able to view the profiles of others on Facebook. This means you are not able to engage or interact with potential customers. Also, business accounts are not found when someone searches Facebook.

June 20, 2011

How to Create a Facebook Welcome Tab for Your Fan Page

By Lisa Nelson | Social Media

A Facebook welcome tab can serve many purposes, such as increasing the number of ‘fans’ you have, boosting subscribers to your newsletter, or promotion of a particular product/service.

My preference is to create a two step welcome tab:

Step 1: Encourage page visitors to ‘Like’ your fan page.
Step 2: Invite them to sign up for your newsletter in exchange for information they want.

Here are examples of two fan pages set up using this strategy:

June 17, 2011

The Downside of Auto Importing Blog Posts to Facebook

By Lisa Nelson | Social Media

In a recent blog post titled – How to Link Your Blog to Your Facebook Fan Page – I showed you how to set up your blog to automatically import to your Facebook Fan page using the NetworkedBlog application.

However, there is a down side to having automatic updates on your Facebook page. Online Visibility Expert, Denise Wakeman published a post discussing the reason you may not want to have your blog automatically update your Facebook fan page wall. She’s given me permission to share her post with you. You can view the original post here.

Guest Post by Denise Wakeman: I’m giving up on automation…

June 8, 2011

How to Get a Facebook Vanity Url

By Lisa Nelson | Social Media

Do you wonder how people get a custom url for their facebook page? Or maybe we should start with what is a Facebook vanity url.

What is a Vanity Url?

When you create a facebook fan page or profile your page url looks something like this:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Health-Practices-Online/146118965433138

Way to long and complicated to share with someone verbally. That is why you may want to create a vanity or custom facebook url. Here is the custom url I created for the above link:

http://facebook.com/HealthPracticesOnline

For Facebook Fan Pages you must have at least 25 ‘Likes’ before you can create a vanity url. Also, it’s important to think about what you want to use, because once you change your url you are stuck with it. Right now Facebook doesn’t allow multiple changes.

Are you ready?

If so, here is the link to update your Facebook url:

https://www.facebook.com/username/

All the best,
Lisa Nelson

May 31, 2011

Article Marketing for Consistent Website Traffic

By Lisa Nelson | Website

There is nothing exciting about article marketing, but it is a proven way to continuously bring new visitors to your website.

What is Article Marketing?

Article marketing is when you take an article you’ve written and post it in article directories that syndicate your content. This can be very beneficial for a variety of reasons:

Some article directories may have a higher google page rank than your website. This means when someone is searching for information on a topic your article on the article directory may be more likely to show up in the google search results than the article on your blog. Either way, you have a new potential client reading your content.

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