While reading yet another info-packed blog post by Seth Godin, THE marketing guru, about focused intent traffic, it reminded me of the importance of increasing pageviews.

However, this time, Seth mentioned about bounce rate. It’s another site traffic measure that gauges the percentage of the people that leave your site as soon as they get to it.

Seth’s tips are about engaging your existing users more deeply and turn them into ambassadors, which makes so much sense. Why not focus on what you already have rather than obsessing on your bounce rate, right?

But for those who can’t stop obsessing about their Google Analytics stats, yeah all of you, er, us, there is a solution to your bouncy traffic. Make your content as focused as possible. How? Post as much relevant and yet interesting info that your site promised to offer, whether through your site’s title (if it’s obvious, more on this later) and/or domain name.

But what if you think your content’s focused enough already? Hmmm…

A large percentage of site traffic bounces for many reasons. A few of the factors that make traffic bounce off easily include:

- Too lengthy articles

This one I’ve learned from providing off-page marketing service to one great writer who produce really long articles. No matter how well-written the writeups are, readers get easily overwhelmed when they see a 1000 to 3000-word article. So my suggestion here is make articles easy to digest by writing shorter ones. But if that’s not your style, you can write long and short articles alternately to mix things up.

- All-Text Content

Images, Images, Images. Don’t blame all the visual addiction to men - it’s human nature to enjoy eye-catching images so include some relevant images on your site.

- Overly Clever Titles

Oftentimes, easy reads (meaning not too many brain hemorrhage-inducing paradoxes, oxymorons, hyperboles, metaphors) score more cookie points than being too snarky. Just imagine if I wrote “It’s Your Right to Get the Right People Whom You’ve Been Long Writing For to Notice Your Site” instead of this post’s current title. Wait, that’s not a snarky title, it’s an uber-long title, which actually sounds stupid to me. But I hope you get the picture… :-)

The main idea is keeping things simple and just quickly giving the needs of the traffic that the search engines (yep, another SEO technique) drove to your site. Titles and subheadings that say what the content is all about greatly helps here. I call it WYRITTIWYG.

And the rest of the pageview-increasing tips might be of help as well.

What else can you suggest in keeping site bounce rates low?

image credits to sxc.hu

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One of the most important factors in making your online business succeed, is getting out there and networking. One of the best ways to market yourself and get the connections you need, are to attend trade show events, conferences and exhibit halls. Here are just a few of the premier conferences during 2008 that you should try and attend.

Affiliate Summit
Boston (August 10-12, 2008) & New York City (October 5, 2008)
Over the past several years, Affiliate Summit has continually been increasing in size and recognition in the affiliate marketing and internet advertising industry. This is one of the premier events and conferences you should try and attend every year. This year Affiliate Summit is adding a one day NY networking event in addition to their EAST and WEST conferences. I have always made it priority to attend every Affiliate Summit, and I haven’t missed one yet! ( Except for London… but that doesn’t count! )
- Affiliate Summit Information

Ad:TECH
SanFrancisco (April), Chicago (August) & New York (November)
One of my favorite shows to attend is Ad:Tech, and that’s strictly just for the exhibit halls. Over the past few years Ad:Tech NY has been covered THREE FLOORS of the NY Hilton. Ad:Tech San Fran was just last week, Chicago is next on the list and New York is in November. I always make sure to attend the NY show and will try and make it to San Fran one of these times.
- Ad:Tech Information

BlogWorld Expo
Las Vegas, NV - September 20-21
A new conference and expo show last year was BlogWorld. At first, I had no idea what to expect when attending BlogWorld, however it ended up being one of my favorite events I’ve had the joy of attending. Not only did I get to meet up with a whole new niche area of bloggers and marketers, but the event had an awesome line up of speakers. With the addition of Marc Cuban as the last day keynote speaker, this was simply a can not miss event. I’m looking forward to this year’s BlogWorld in September.
- BlogWorld Expo Information

EliteRetreat
April 3-4 in San Francisco, California (2009 TBD?)
I was fortunate enough to attend EliteRetreat this year. I’ve seen the even advertised for prior years and always wondered how it was and if it was worth the cost attendees were paying to be there. EliteRetreat is the premier learning experience. Jeremy puts together an awesome display of speakers with vast knowledge and during the whole event, all of the speakers make themselves available for you to ask anything, or just to chill and have a good time. EliteRetreat caters to all of it’s attendees is one of the best “learning experiences” available.
- EliteRetreat Information

IzeaFest
September 11-13, Grand Bohemian Hotel, Orland FL
I just heard about IzeaFest today and it looks to be a combination of fun times and learning from great marketers. With headliner names such as keynote Jeremy Shoemaker and many big name speakers such as John Chow and Brian Clark, this event looks to have some potential. The event it put together by Izea, formerly known as PayPerPost. I’m still deciding if I will be able to attend this event as there now seems to be a new event every other month, but I wouldn’t mind visiting Florida for a week and meeting up with some of the speakers, since I’m good friends with most of them.
- IzeaFest Information

These are just a few of the networking and conference events that I look forward to attending this year. In addition to the ones highlighted above, there are also SXSW, eComXpo, CJU (my first conference back in 2000!) and many other smaller conventions and networking events thrown by smaller companies. Have you attended any of these events or looking to make the visit later on this year?

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Another elevator pitch from an animated guy called Zane Savage. Great pitch… assuming he wants people to think he’s nuts. LOL. It really is a good pitch. What do you think?

How about sending in your own elevator pitch? Email me the link and I’ll feature it here on this blog.

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So, how do YOU pronounce the word “niche”? As “nitch”, or “neesh”? See my pronunciation in the video below.

Let’s end this debate. It’s time to vote. Go here and cast your vote. If you want, make a video of yourself saying it and send me the link and I’ll post it here.

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Is your blog or site mobile web ready? If you’ve ever tried to use your web-enabled mobile device to surf blogs and sites, you may have experienced the difficulty of having to see blogs and sites properly. Many blogs and websites are not ready to be viewed on mobile devices - they’re too big and/or load too slowly. Hence, losing possible viewers, readers and customers.

If you’re not able to find a quick and easy way to make your blogs or sites available to mobile users, then try Mofuse. It’s very simple to set up your blog or site to make it mobile device-friendly. Just sign up, enter some basic details, and you’re all set.

You can even use some of their tools like permanent redirects (to redirect viewers on mobile device to your mobile version), widgets, and buttons. Plus, you can even customise your mobile site with your logo. There’s even iPhone settings. And, you can view stats on how many people get to visit your mobile site.

Another cool thing about Mofuse is that you can register for their revenue sharing programme, to make money with your mobile site. It’s free to join the programme, just indicate your interest and choose between using Google Adsense or AdMob. You get 50% of revenue on the free version.

Yes, Mofuse has Free and Pro versions. The free version is completely usable. The professional version (US$3 a month, with first month free) just has some extra bells and whistles as follow:

• Ability to use any domain name you want
• Create as many mobile sites as you want!
• Unlimited text messaging from our SMS widget to promote your website or blog
• Keep 100% of the revenue from your mobile site
• Exclusive Professional mobile badges for you to display!
• Your logo replaces the MoFuse logo on your SMS widget
• No Powered by MoFuse at the bottom of your mobile

If you want to see a mobile site in action, I used Mofuse with my personal blog, and here’s a sample of the mobile version. I’m on the free version at the moment. And, currently, it’s very basic as I still need to customise a couple of things, Also, I’ve only started using this a couple of days ago, so I have yet to see how it will affect monetisation of my blog. But, overall, I like the concept and the service. I especially like the fact that mobile device users can now view and read my blog a lot better.

What about you? Have you mobilised your blog or site yet? If yes, are you using a service like Mofuse? Or, are you registered Mofuse as well? What do you think of it?

In any case, I’ll let you know if I learn anything more on this service.

Tags: make money with mobiles, mobile apps, mobile phones, mobile web, mofuse

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Here’s another elevator pitch sent in from someone brave enough to try. This time from Roger from Zing Sales Solutions.

It’s a few over the 15-second mark, but it’s “ok”. I admit after watching it once I only know that he does some type of sales solution, but I’m not sure “exactly” what. That is a bad thing. Feel free to try again and resend me another.

Where’s YOUR elevator pitch? Send me your video link and I’ll feature it here on this blog. Try to keep it 15-seconds or less.

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Yesterday I was looking up some information for Reena’s sister because she has an interview for a new job today. I was specifically looking for information on some contacts at a companies that she is going to be working with. While searching through Google, I noticed that one of the searches was listed on LinkedIn. I took a look, then logged into my account to see what was new. It’s been a few months since I last logged into my LinkedIn account, so I had a few networking requests.

I then went to Twitter and made a tweet for anyone interested in linking up with me on LinkedIn. Soon enough, I had several requests for networking. The best part of seeing all of these new contact requests was that a good majority of them were from old friends and contacts from over the years. In addition to networking with old contacts, it’s already brought in some new business for me. The internet business is unlike any other, and people jump in between companies like it’s nothing. Like Twitter, LinkedIn is a great source to keep in touch with your contacts, which they can also update and change as they move into new markets or work at new companies.

How many of your old contacts are still out that, but have just lost contact over the years? Setup or renew your interest on Twitter or LinkedIn and see where some of your old friends and contacts might be today! It might just be that extra contact or motivation you need to bring your business to the next level.

- Network with me on LinkedIn
- Join me on Twitter

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

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If you read my blog you’ll know I think most ad networks marketing and sales teams suck! They do. Except this new ad network called Marketleverage.com. Note: I’m talking about their marketing prowess only; I have no idea if they are a worthy network to promote yet. (Note, if you’re going to sign up and find out, ask for Kyle McCall as your aff manager).

It’s funny how this little upstart company is EATING THE LUNCH of the big ad networks. I mean, they are seriously drinking their milkshakes. The marketing director at Marketleverage should be snapped up by one of these big giant ad companies right now and given free reign. I applaud this person, Dina Riccobono, for their innovation in the form of video, and beyond. Great work.

Here’s a little video I did talking about them and some video footage from them as well.

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Several months ago I reported on eBaumsWorld.com being acquired for several millions of dollars. A month after that post, I made another one about how the company that was purchasing eBaumsWorld.com, saw a huge increase in their ComScore figures. The company that acquired eBaumsWorld.com and multiple other high traffic entertainment sites is HandHeld Entertainment and their stock symbol is ZVUE. Why is this relevant to affiliate marketing? It’s completely relevant, because all of the acquired web sites made their money from Affiliate Programs and CPM based advertising. Let’s take a look at the RISE and FALL of ZVUE.

The two year high for ZVUE, was back when they first announced they were acquiring Dorks.com for a million dollars. ZVUE went on to acquire several other sites such as FunMansion.com, YourDailyMedia.com and PutFile.com. In my previous post I did a break down of how much each site was acquired for, but based off their earnings and traffic levels, I would say ZVUE overpaid on all of them. Unfortunately for many of the site owners, their deal included a large portion of STOCK, instead of complete cash deals. Now their million dollar deals have dwindled in size to multi-hundred thousand dollar deals. (Yet another deciding factor to think about when deciding if you should Sell or Not to Sell.)

Before YouTube & 2.0 Sites, EBaumWorld.com was King.

Today ZVUE stock is at a miserable .39 per share and down 71.59% on the year. To make matters worse, ZVUE was issued a Delisting Warning Letter from NASDAQ today. I can’t imagine there is much hope for this company should they get pushed down to the pink sheets. It’s amazing how badly their numbers and stock price has dropped since the acquisition of eBaumsWorld.com, which is still a powerhouse in the entertainment area. With the stock price now as low as it is, an acquisition from another company could make sense, even just for the amount of volume of traffic it’s network of sites produce.

What do you think of ZVUE’s performance with it’s network of web sites and have you ever attempted to make money in the video/entertainment niche area?

 

(Disclaimer: I do not recommend buying or selling this stock. This is simply a write up based on a company that deals with web sites and affiliate marketing. This post is in no way intended for action on your part based on making money or stock trading. You are responsible for any actions you take, whether it is affiliate marketing or through the stock market.)

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

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To all of those who are making money online through helping netpreneurs manage their businesses in various ways - Happy Admin Assistant’s Days!

If you’re planning to be a virtual assistant, here are some helpful resources and associations for new VAs:

VANetworking - one of the largest virtual assistant’s associations with one of the most helpful forums.

International Virtual Assistants Association - a non-profit association for VA education and certification, they’re currently having their Annual Summit.

Online Tools of the Trade - Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Zoho, BaseCamp, and many other virtual tools.

Freelance Marketplaces - oDesk, RentACoder, and ScriptLance are just a few of the places that’ll help you land your first few VA gigs.

Got other useful resources for newbie VA’s?

image credits to klsanderson

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