Author: Nancy McCord

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Check Out the MWS February e-Newsletter

Check out our online copy of our February 2009 e-newsletter.

In this issue we talk about:

  1. Getting Links the Easy Way with Press Releases and Feature Articles
  2. Newsletter or Blog, What Should I Do?
  3. Organic Blogging – a Case Study on Blog Posts as Search Entry Points

The first article talks about how you can get a volume of inbound links with article and press releases and deals with the staying power of those links by reviewing one clients actual statistics.

The second article talks about when you should do a blog and when you should do an e-newsletter. It may help you decide which avenue you should pursue for your own business.

The last article gives a real life example of how blogging lead to a search entry point for a customer lead and why the blog title and content is so important for organic searches.

We have great content every month. Make sure to review our e-newsletter archive for previous issues or subscribe to get the March issue in your in box.

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Take Your Kids to Work Day

Today two of my three children will be blogging. I’m just letting you know ahead of time. :0)

Today is “take your kids to work day” here in Maryland. One of my 12 year old triplets is going with my husband to the Naval Research Laboratory and the other two triplets are staying here in my office today. They think that they will have it easy. They expect to watch me for about five minutes and then go off and play their video games. They have no idea what I have in store for them.

Actually I have an incredibly busy day ahead. I am working on two design projects and have several regular webmaster updates to do as well as a phone conference planned and several other projects. I plan on keeping them very busy. In fact as a project they will each be doing a blog post on Monday so get ready!

Kids need to know first hand what their parents do for work. It can give them a wonderful sense of reality to see that no Mom does not sit in front of the computer and do games nor does she talk endlessly on the phone with friends, she is actually working earning money for the family and that the work is hard and takes time to do.

These are some of the things that I am having my kids do today:

  1. Answer all the phones.
  2. Punch holes in papers for client time sheets.
  3. Do a blog post on my blog about their experience.
  4. Log how many phone calls I make and receive.
  5. List the time spent on web design, Internet marketing services, and client management.
  6. Review the blog posts from our 7 blog writers to see if they are done and on time.
  7. Write a report for school on what their Mom actually does.
  8. Make me lunch, get me drinks, and be my go-fer for the day.

Actually I think they will be surprised at the wide variety of things that I do and the number of calls and projects I accomplish in one day. Although I have a full day planned, I know that my schedule has simply been flown out the window, so if you get a McCord child on the phone today, don’t get your email responded to, you will know why, I am performing a very important task in regards to preparing future web designers and Internet marketing managers.

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Pro Bono Work? Do You Do It?

I used to when I was first starting out in web design in 2001. If I was in your club or organization I offered to design your website or webmaster your website for free, but I no longer do Pro Bono work.

There is a place for free services and typically that place is for new start-ups or web businesses that are trying to get their foot in a market. You cannot demand top dollar when you are untested and unknown. But once you have paid your dues and established a clientèle base, most businesses, such as mine, no longer offer free services.

What do you do about Pro Bono or free work requests? Do you do them? If you do are you established or just getting started? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this as a reality check for my view point.

Why we are on that topic how about family work? Do you do it? Do you discount your services or offer them free? I have worked for family members and find that for me mixing business and pleasure is not the best solution. I do not seek to perform services for family members or friends. I value the relationship too much to have business stresses interfere. What about you?

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How Do You Monitor Google AdWords?

It is shocking, but there are business out there that are spending thousands of dollars on Google each month without any checks and balances in place to monitor the performance of their programs.

Before we start working with an AdWords client we want several things in place. (This is really in the client’s best interest.) We want to have metrics to evaluate the success, or lack thereof,  of their Google AdWords program.

This is what we recommend:

  1. Have a website statistics package installed. AWStats is not enough. We like Urchin and second best Google Analytics.
  2. Have a contact form on the website that when the script is triggered drops the client to a new URL for the thank you page. Contact forms that simply place text on the same page thanking the client for a form submission will never be able to have Google AdWords conversion tracking installed.
  3. Make sure that AdWords conversion tracking is installed on the thank you or order confirmation page.
  4. Have a budget established for $800 to $1,500 per month for clicks to start with. Less than that, you really should not use our services as we will add too much to your program’s overhead.
  5. Consider custom landing pages targeted to your ad group’s themes. Some clients don’t always need this as they may have a page on their website that is a good match, but we never recommend dropping the AdWords clickee on the home page of the website. When we do custom landing pages we always enable a form at the bottom to allow for fast questions and an additional way to capture the lead for further contact.

If you are not using metrics to evaluate your AdWords program, you are just leaving your pocket book or wallet open on the table for Google to grab your cash without accountability. You should only spend on Google AdWords when it is smart for your business.

I’ve seen and made happen some absolutely wild success stories with Google AdWords, but I’ve also told some clients that AdWords is not working for them and they should stop advertising there. If you don’t measure the activity and leads generated by your program, you will simply be guessing at whether AdWords is working for you. You should not be guessing, you should know!