Archive for October, 2006

Business Week Top 25 Under 25

paulballen — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 16:54:22 -0800

BusinessWeek.com is highlighting 25 of the best young entrepreneurs in the country on its web site this week.

One of the nominees is Utah's own Cammon Randle of Copperrain Productions. The company does "promotions, training videos, and creative shorts ". He is 25 and is a member of the Provo Labs Academy, along with his wife Lorri.

You can vote for Cammon online and help him get even more national exposure.

Congrats Cammon and Lorri!

Training: Web Site Design, Landing Page Optimization and Conversion Rate

paulballen — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 16:44:32 -0800

Yesterday we held a Provo Labs Academy training session on landing page optimization. I played about 15 minutes of excerpts from the May 23rd MarketingExperiements.com conference call recording. They described how they increased the conversion rate of a hypnosis product landing page by 40% by improving the layout and design slightly.

They also offer some excellent guidelines for landing page design at the end of their report.

We also reviewed the landing page design guidelines listed in the free 30-page report from Enquiro.com (Inside the Mind of the Searcher) from 2004. (Registration is required.) Here is the list they provide:

What Purchasers looked for on a Landing Page

(in order of importance)

* Query Keywords - In a heading or other prominent location
* Product Picture
* Offers - Value added offers, i.e. free shipping
* Prices - Donâ€™t make them ask for it
* Features -- Find out more about the product
* Clean Professional Layout - Is this a trusted site
* Clear Conversion Path - Is it easy to buy or ask for more information
* Selection - Ability to see different products in one place. Should have trusted brands featured
* Comparison - Direct comparison between models
* Clear Navigation - Is it easy to move around and continue researching

It is incredible how many PPC campaigns take you to the home page of a company's web site or to a page that doesn't match at all what the person was searching for.

Your landing page should contain the keywords your visitor was searching for and if they are searching for a product, it should have a picture of the product. Otherwise, in the few seconds that they spend scanning your page, they won't immediately see what they were looking for and they will leave. Your bounce-off rate will be extremely high.

We also discussed the MarketingSherpa Landing Page Design Handbook, which sells for $247.

The editor of this handbook Stefan Tornquist shared 5 ways to increase landing page conversion rates with TechWeb last year.

Some powerful tools for optimizing landing page conversion rates include Optimost and Offermatica. The new Google website optimizer tool is in beta and we don't know anyone who has been accepted into the beta yet.

One of our Academy members has 20 years experience in direct marketing. He said long format direct mail pieces traditionally pulled better than short format, but in today's world of information overload, he has been finding more instances where short format pulls better.

In 2004 MarketingExperiments showed that most of the time long copy still pulls better than short copy, but a recent example (see test #2 on this page) had different results.

Internet companies and merchant account limits

paulballen — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 14:59:50 -0800

If you run an internet business with the potential for rapid growth, and you use a merchant account for processing credit card transactions, please check your merchant account monthly limit before you encounter the problem that we experienced over the weekend.

Wikipedia has a decent article on Merchant Accounts, but until I edited it today it said nothing about monthly transaction limits.

The merchant account limit bit one of our Provo Labs companies this weekend. Here's what happened:

WorldVitalRecords.com started selling subscriptions to its web site on October 4th. We had some initial subscribers from blogs and news releases, but we didn't turn on our online marketing efforts until last Friday. Our first email campaign went out to 80,000 genealogists. We invited them to get 2 years access to our databases and online courses for the price of 1 year. Our expiration date on this offer is today, October 31st. (MarketingExperiments.com has demonstrated how important it is to have special offers that include urgency.)

The email campaign brought us a large number of new subscribers. Our team had a contest to see who could guess how many subscribers we would get in the first 24 hours. I won the contest--my guess was within 4 of the actual number.

The large numbers of signups continued into Saturday, but then came to an almost complete stop. On Sunday, our numbers were tiny.

Upon investigation yesterday, our team discovered, much to our dismay, that we had reached our monthly transaction limit on our merchant account. Between Saturday and Sunday 113 credit cards were declined, costing us more than $5,000 in revenue.

Yesterday, when our bank helped us get the limit increased temporarily, we saw the subscription numbers soar once again. Hopefully, we can recover the lost revenue from the denied cards. But more importantly, we hope to get an increase to our limit so we won't have this problem again.

I remember many internet companies had problems with merchant account limits years ago. A 2002 story about profitable internet companies in Southern California describes the trouble that one internet startup had with their merchant account:

The toughest part, they agree, was establishing credit as a totally Internet business. The first weekend they received $10,000 in orders. "Our merchant account (for payments by credit card) would take 12 days to clear our money," Livdahl says. "Suppliers wouldn't ship because we hadn't paid. We just had to wait. It was terrible."

InternetRetailer.com sells a report that lists 500 retail ecommerce companies that had 2005 revenues of more than $3 million. Many of these companies are fast growing. I wonder how many of them have run into the merchant account limit problem at some point in their history? I bet this is a pretty common thing.

Does anyone have insights into this problem or first-hand experiences with it? What can be done to avoid it? (It's actually a nice problem to have, in comparison with other problems that many startups have, like not having enough customers.)

P.S.

Interesting thing from Google Trends when you look at the cities where people are searching for "merchant account" or "credit card processing." Apex, NC has far more queries than any other US city. Does anyone know why?

And Pakistan has far more searches on "merchant account" than any other country. Pakistan is listed by MSNBC as one of the top 5 countries involved in credit card fraud.

Find the Fastest Growing Companies in Your Own Back Yard, Then Network!

paulballen — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 22:54:01 -0700

Today in our training at the Provo Labs Academy for Entrepreneurs (yes, I know, we probably should think of a more creative name for it) we discussed how important it is to become familiar with the fastest growing companies in your own local area. In Utah, there are a lot of lists that make this quite easy.

The Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum selects the Top 25 Under 5 every summer. These are companies that are less than five years old that are growing fast. They are companies to watch. (Here are last year's winners.)

Yesterday, the annual Utah 100 was announced by the Mountain West Capital Network (MWCN). The web site hasn't been updated with this year's winners yet, but you can see the last few years of winners there. These companies are at least 5 years old, but they also have an emerging category.

Next, we looked at the Inc. 500 winners in Utah for the past 3 years. They are also at least 5 years old and are judged based on percent revenue growth. Here is the list:

Inc. 500 Companies from Utah, 2006
Eleven Utah companies are on the 25th annual Inc. 500 ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the country.

Logoworks of Lindon was the top-ranked Utah company, coming in 66th.

Omniture, Orem, 67.

Atlas Marketing Group, Provo, 143.

Backcountry.com, Park City, 165.

Summit Energy, Park City, 236

Universal Accounting Center, Salt Lake City, 313.

Edge Products, Ogden, 328.

Spring Communications, Salt Lake City, 349.

MaxStream, Lindon, 391.

Diamond Wireless, Salt Lake City, 419.

VitalSmarts, Provo, 491.

Inc. 500 Companies from Utah, 2005

Virginia ranked first in the highest number of Inc. 500 companies per capita with 4.5 companies per million residents. Massachusetts ranked second at 4, and Utah ranked third at 3.7. Companies included in the rankings posted an average three-year sales growth of 769 percent. Utah companies on this year's list, and their rankings, are:

Die Cuts With a View, Provo, 70.

Edge Products, Ogden, 89.

MaxStream, Lindon, 92.

Arena Communications, Salt Lake City, 123.

iBahn, South Jordan, 253.

Omniture, Orem, 259.

Summit Energy, Park City, 291.

VitalSmarts, Provo, 293.

Back to Basics, Bluffdale, 389.

Inc. 500 Companies from Utah, 2004

Utah has 16 companies ranked in the 23rd annual Inc. 500 list of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. . . As was the case last year, Utah led the states with the highest number of Inc. 500 companies per capita, with 6.8 per million residents. Virginia was a distant second with 3.9 per million residents. California had the most Inc. 500 companies, with 67.

Other Utah companies on the list are:

Edge Products, Ogden, 30th, with $9.6 million in sales, average annual growth of 734 percent.

Hobbytron.com, Orem, 45th, $7.9 million, 532 percent.

iBoats Inc., Draper, 48th, $8.6 million, 515 percent.

USA Lending Group, Salt Lake City, 70th, $4.8 million, 380 percent.

Backcountry.com, Heber, 93rd, $14.9 million, 306 percent.

Summit Energy LLC, Park City, 96th, $61.1 million, 292 percent.

Ibahn (STSN Inc.), Midvale, 104th, $60.6 million, 276 percent.

Ikano Communications, Salt Lake City, 132nd, $27.7 million, 231 percent.

FatPipe Networks Inc., Salt Lake City, 189th, $3.1 million, 182 percent.

Pro Look Sports Corp., Provo, 199th, $2.7 million, 177 percent.

DieCuts with a View , Provo, 228th, $7.3 million, 162 percent.

Back to Basics Inc., Bluffdale, 250th, $68.3 million, 145 percent.

Cafe Rio Inc., Provo, 368th, $16.9 million, 99 percent.

ChartLogic Inc., Salt Lake City, 445th, $5.5 million, 84 percent.

Studeo, Salt Lake City, 474th, $41.8 million, 77 percent.

Today we also reviewed the Internet Retailer Top 500 list, which includes 7 or 8 Utah companies this year. There were 6 Utah companies in the first edition, the Top 300 list that was published last year.

I didn't review the Deloitte 500 list, but I know Omniture is on that last and probably some other Utah companies are as well. I just checked--there are 5.

So what's the point of getting to know who all the fastest growing companies are in your area?

There is so much to learn from each of these startup companies. The founders' stories are probably remarkable and inspiring. Most startup companies almost hit the wall before turning the corner and finding success. Most founders are also pretty open about what it took, and what the keys to success were.

You'll find people from these companies speaking at business schools or at other local forums. You'll find them being interviewed by local journalists and telling their story. Or, if that isn't happening, create a forum and invite them to speak to you and all your entrepreneurial friends. Create an opportunity to learn from them.

Use LinkedIn.com to see how closely connected you are to people in these companies. Find a way to meet them. Don't be shy. If you need a few new ideas about how to meet people, check out "Never Eat Alone," a book that Tim Sanders recommended and I liked.

After Josh Coates (Mozy.com founder) moved from Silicon Valley to Utah, he used his networking skills, and within a few months had met just about everyone he needed to know to get his company funded, staffed, and off and running. It can be done. (If you aren't using the free Mozy.com service to back up all your most important files already, then go sign up today. It is a no-brainer. Their beta version won the PC Magazine Editor's Choice for this service.)

Phil Burn's Dev Utah Geek Dinners and Phil Windley's CTO Breakfasts are excellent examples of creating networking opportunities that will help you meet great people. Invite the people that you are dying to meet.

With the lists that are published and the social networking tools and networking opportunities that are available today, you could know someone from each of the fastest growing companies in your area within a few months. And knowing these people will change your business life forever.

MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia and Free Downloads

paulballen — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 00:44:41 -0700

Okay, I'm just keyword stuffing my blog post, to see how many visitors I get by using these keywords in my title. These are all very hot keywords according to Google Trends.

Here are the trends for MySpace, YouTube, and Wikipedia.

But the title wouldn't be complete without including "free" and "download." I can't seem to find any search terms on Google Trends that get more searches than they do. I compare "free" and "download" to "yahoo", "google", and "myspace." Interesting results.

Anyone searching on Technorati, Feedster, Ice Rocket, or Google Blog Search for any of these keywords will find this post, at least for the next few minutes until others post entries that also have these keywords in them. I wonder if I'll see a spike in traffic.

I don't believe in keyword stuffing. I'm doing this just to make a point. (I did blog about an effect press release that I saw the other day that used keyword stuffing to drive traffic to its site.)

But I do believe in careful keyword selection. Every time you post a blog entry, write a news article, or create a title for a web page, you really ought to make sure that your title does make sense, both to readers and to searchers.

Make sure that the keywords you are choosing are actually popular keywords. They should also actually match the content of your post, unlike my poor example here.

I really do check Google Trends most of the time before posting. For example, yesterday I wondered if "online marketing" or "internet marketing" would make a better title.

Clearly, internet marketing won easily.

My title was "Next 3 days: free online conference on internet marketing"

I checked "3" vs "three" and "online conference" vs several other options.

So, with a 1-2 minute check of Google Trends, I'm guessing that I increased the odds that anyone using a blog search engine would find that post by about 50-100%.

My traffic has been going up lately, but I can't tell if it is because I'm posting more frequently or if my post titles are better. But I'm going to keep using Google Trends to do this, because I think it will make a really big difference long term on my site traffic.

When the bloggers in our world history blogger network all start taking an extra minute or two before each post to check their keyword selection, I believe that the traffic there will increase dramatically.

I actually hope someone will create a WordPress plug-in that will access Google Trends within the interface. Maybe it could grade my headline while I'm writing my article, and then return some alternatives (by checking a thesaurus in the background as well as querying Google Trends) and then let me know the best ones before I finalize my post.

What do you think about keyword stuffing and careful keyword selection? Do you know any journalists or newspapers or online publishers that train their writers to do this? And if so, are their tools out there that get into the daily workflow?

My new Google Co-Op search engine

paulballen — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 16:02:15 -0700

This week Google introduced a stunningly simple and powerful new service: anyone can now create their own custom search engine for personal or public use.

Each of us can choose the sites that we want to include in our own person Google search engine, and we can share in the advertising revenue that will come if other people use our engine.

Information Week article.

"Marissa Mayer, vice-president of search products and user experience, said it was the most significant launch that Google would announce in the final months of this year. By letting companies and individuals build their own specialised search engines, it will also create competition for the many new â€œverticalâ€ search products that have recently been launched on the web, she added." â€” Financial Times.

So here is my first version that I spent 10 minutes creating:

You can select all the sites that you want to include in your search or you can invite others to collaborate with you in selecting the sites.

When Google made AdSense available to publishers, it made it possible for many thousands of content web sites to generate advertising revenue in a very efficient way, without hiring a sales force. Now, these same web site publishers will have the ability to create customized search engines for their customers. This is a great move by Google. It will be another boon to publishers and entrepreneurs who take advantage of it.

Most popular online activities by web users

paulballen — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 15:10:38 -0700

This is an important list for all web developers and marketers and entrepreneurs to keep in mind:

http://print.infoplease.com/ipa/A0921862.html

Internet stock investors: Bambi on Google

paulballen — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 13:53:55 -0700

If I were an active investor in internet stocks, I would read everything that Bambi Francisco has to say, especially about the large internet companies. She has amazing prescience. I've been reading her for columns for years. Today she has an excellent post at AlwaysOn.

She has so many connections and so often has the inside story; but it's her analysis that I like the most. Something she can do because she has been covering the industry for so long. She's the Mary Meeker of internet journalism. If Mary blogged, I'd read her religiously too. (Mary was the #1 rated investment banking analyst of internet stocks for several years running. She wrote a report two weeks ago about the future of online advertising and how Google will benefit from the purchase of YouTube.) On Oct. 13th, the Wall Street Journal said Meeker values Google at $500 per share.

So back to Bambi. In her post today, Bambi explains how revenue follows eyeballs--even now, even years after the bubble burst.

Audiences and ad dollars always meet. I recall years ago, when search was considered a commodity.

Companies like Inktomi moved into the caching business, while others -- Yahoo (YHOO), Lycos, Excite, AltaVista, etc. --quickly morphed into portals or were buried in other entities. The ad dollars would flow abundantly to portals, and transaction fees to online retailers, so most believed. Back in 2000, nearly $3.8 billion went into display ads vs. $109 million in paid search in the U.S., according to eMarketer.

Last week Google's stock went on a tear. It hit a 52-week high this week. The market cap today is $145 billion. Compare that with Yahoo's $33 billion and eBay's $44 billion.

Bambi told 8,000 investors last Wednesday that she had turned bullish on Google only after it bought YouTube, because now it would be a leader in the social networking and video space, which has huge traffic share online but a very small percentage of advertising revenue so far. Like search back in 2000.

Social networks are estimated to attract $280 million in ad dollars this year, according to eMarketer. Online video-sharing sites are estimated to attract about $385 million. EMarketer estimates that $15.9 billion will be spent in online advertisements in the U.S. this year. That means social networks and video-sharing sites only attract about 1.8% to 2.5% of total online ad spending.

Investors who paid attention to Mary Meeker's report two weeks ago or Bambi Francisco's comments last Wednesday might have gotten into Google before the recent run.

But more importantly, since I'm a firm believer in the Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger approach to investing (make only a few bets in your entire life after reading and studying all you can and getting to know the company as if you were its owner, and then stick with those bets over a long period of time), I would keep an eye on Google for the next 5-10 years. I believe it will be worth more than Microsoft within a few more years.

In May 2004 I predicted Google would be worth more than Microsoft within 10-15 years.

In February 2005 I updated my forecast and listed 7 reasons why it wouldn't even take 10 years.

Today I would guess that it will take less than 5 years and perhaps even only 2-3 years before Google is worth more than Microsoft. Acquisitions may play a role; but more importantly, each project that Google has launched (and has often been criticized for because they don't become #1 overnight with them) is maturing. The pace of innovation at Google still exceeds all the other internet companies combined.

For the last decade, PC owners have found hardware prices plummeting but the cost of Windows and Office staying rather steady. It isn't uncommon to pay as much or more for software than for hardware when you purchase a new PC.

But with Google's recent moves in the spreadsheet and word processing space (when are they going to offer a free Powerpoint killer?), it won't be long before we can buy a $300-500 PC without any Microsoft software on it and be as productive or more productive than ever before.

I'm not necessarily down on Microsoft. It will reinvent itself. Think about it. IBM is still worth $137 billion. It's just a totally different business than it was 20 years ago. Microsoft will find its place in the post-Windows world, but it just won't be making all the rules like it has for the last 10-20 years.

How many of you can live without Microsoft products today? And how many can see the time coming soon when Google will provide the OS as well as the free software applications that you and your team need to succeed? (And it will all be monetized through their most-efficient advertising engine.)

What do you think? And does it matter or not?

Since I write primarily to entrepreneurs, I'm especially eager to hear what Google's strategy and success means to you as you make investment and business plan decisions.

Next 3 days: free online conference on internet marketing

paulballen — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 13:39:35 -0700

If you can afford to stop working for part or all of the next three days, you can hear from dozens of the most successful online marketers in the industry--for free and from the convenience of your own home or office.

(Or you can sign up for $99.95 and get access to more than 175 online presentations--that's one a day for the next 6 months.)

ecomXpo starts today (Oct. 24th), with free sessions over the next 3 days from key employees at Google, Yahoo, eBay, Microsoft AdCenter, LinkShare, Searchfeed, iHispanic, Performics, and MarketingSherpa, and many others.

Utah affiliate guru Jeremy Palmer (Quityourdayjob.com) will also be presenting, as will one of my favorite authors, John Battelle, who wrote "The Search" (how Google changed the search industry.) His SearchBlog is the best coverage of the search engine industry.

I highly recommend that you budget time every day to stay sharp in internet marketing. My own personal knowledge plan has included reading MarketingSherpa every week and all the daily newsletters that come from MarketingVOX. After learning about eComXpo from Brad Pace, internet marketing specialist at Provo Labs, I'm now planning to subscribe to ecomXpo University so that I can hear these presentations over the next several months.

Apple PC market sharing growing fast

paulballen — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 22:06:59 -0700

Sales of Apple's Macintosh computers over the past twelve month's have grown faster than any other major PC manufacturer, boosting the company's share of the U.S. PC market to 6.1 percent, according to data released by Gartner on Wednesday ...

Full story

Every day I see more and more signs that Apple is gaining momentum with its PC sales. The iPod is giving Apple momentum and I think leading to more PC sales. And Mac lovers are coming out in the open and boldly telling the rest of us to get a clue.

Even software developers might start thinking once again about producing Mac versions. Yesterday, a good friend who develops recipe software said that if he gets enough pre-orders (he is shooting for 1,000) then he will go ahead and develop a Mac version. He hasn't updated his Mac application since 1999.

I wonder how many other software developers will start thinking that the market share for Macs will continue to grow and grow and grow. With amazing dominance in the iPod space, Apple will have a huge mp3 customer base to market PCs to.

I'm listening to "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs" on my iPod at the gym these days. What an amazing comeback story.

I've been in the Microsoft/Intel/Windows camp for almost 20 years, but even I'm thinking that my next PC should probably be a Mac. I don't think I could ever switch completely, but for so many applications, Macs just seem better.

What do you think?

The best traffic driving press release I've seen in a LONG time

paulballen — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 21:53:35 -0700

I remember how press releases during the bubble could make stock prices jump like crazy. Once, a press release went out to announce that SkyMall was partnering with MyFamily.com. Dick Eastman noticed the stock price jump immediately. Here is an excerpt from my personal notes database:

"Our goal at MyFamily.com is to help families use technology to bridge the distance between their various members," said Curt D. Allen, chief executive officer of MyFamily.com. "Sending and receiving gifts is an important family tradition made easier by the addition of the SkyMall catalog to MyFamily.com. The breadth and quality of the SkyMall catalog merchandise, coupled with the MyFamily.com gift registry, gives our customers a simple, welcome way to remember those they love, regardless of where they live." SkyMall is the largest in-flight catalog company in the United States. If you have flown recently on a U.S. airline, you probably found a SkyMall catalog in the seat pocket in front of you. The company also sells products via traditional mail order and via its website.

Here is a short excerpt from the press release issued by the two companies:

MyFamily.com offers families and other close-knit groups a free, private place to share and distribute family information on the Web. The personalized MyFamily.com websites are accessible only to invited visitors, providing ways for families to securely share news and photos as well as audio and video clips. A multi-user calendar on each MyFamily.com website helps track family events, and an e-mail reminder service helps people remember important family dates. The MyFamily.com gift registry allows family members to record their personal interests and gift preferences.

"We are excited to be a part of the roll-out of MyFamily.com and to offer its members quality, unique gifts from the nation's leading merchants," said Robert M. Worsley, president and chief executive officer of SkyMall. "MyFamily.com is providing families a new way to stay in touch, while at the same time capitalizing on a powerful marketing opportunity. We believe partnering with MyFamily.com and providing gifts through their gift registry and event calendar are excellent ways to expand distribution of SkyMall's shopping programs."

Mr. Worsley had a good reason to be excited. The stock price of SkyMall Inc. (SKYM) jumped 50% in extremely heavy volume after announcing that it has placed an online catalog on MyFamily.com. When asked, a SkyMall spokesperson said that it appeared that the announcement of the tie with MyFamily.com was responsible for investors' interest. The company was unaware of any other reason for the big jump in stock price. Apparently investors were impressed with the amount of advertising the company would receive.

SkyMall's stock was at $4.00 a share before the announcement on Tuesday morning but went to more than $6.25 by mid-afternoon. Some profit taking occurred during the rest of the week; the stock closed on Friday at $5.06 a share.

The amazing thing to me was that the MyFamily.com site had not yet launched. The deal was announced before the launch of our web site. Of course Ancestry.com had a lot of traffic, but the SkyMall deal's success would depend on how much traffic MyFamily.com attracted after it launched.

It's just that back then, during the bubble, any dot com-oriented press release could create fortunes overnight.

So, today I found a press release that went out on Business Wire on Oct. 17th that seems to have generated a huge spike in traffic to Hotsoup.com.

Check out this Alexa chart on Hotsoup.com.

The press release was smartly written. Check out all the prominent names in the title of the press release. The Clintons, Mitt Romney, Bon Jovi, etc.

Because Google News and Yahoo News index Business Wire press releases, and this release was stuffed with so many big names, tons of people would have found this while getting their daily news fix, and so would have clicked through to Hotsoup.com.

Stuffing a press release with the right keywords and doing it appropriately will get you far more exposure and traffic than using the wrong keywords--words that no one is searching for. I say appropriately, because in this case, all the people mentioned in the press release are presumably really going to be posting messages on the site.

The Alexa spike also happened because Hotsoup.com is now live and open for business. But I believe this press release had a lot to do with the spike. (I'd love to get someone from Hotsoup to comment on this and let us know how effective their recent pr effort has been.)

I just found the editor in chief of Hotsoup.com on LinkedIn.com, so maybe we'll be able to get someone visit here and comment.

Why people join social networks

paulballen — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 19:02:02 -0700

From a MarketingVOX article:

Users join a social networking site to meet people (78 percent), be entertained (47 percent), learn something (38 percent) and influence others (23 percent), the study found.

The article also says that social networking members are becoming immune to advertising--they are influenced most by recommendations from others in their network.

Google Click to Play Video Ads

paulballen — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 14:24:57 -0700

It's hard to stay current as an internet marketer. There are new options and channels to test every week. I quiz my BYU students every week on all the MarketingVOX headlines for the week, and literally every week there are new ways to spend online advertising dollars. The question is, which new channels and tactics will be profitable, and which will be a waste of time?

That's where Provo Labs Academy comes in. We encourage the sharing of marketing information among our 30 or so startup companies, including our own portfolio. Soon, we will expand our audience to include entrepreneurs and marketers from around the world.

But I haven't found anyone yet who has tested Google's Click to Play Video Ads, which were announced back in May.

I'm interested in knowing if any readers have run a test using this new service. You don't actually get to play a video on Google's own search results page, but you can have your videos played on other websites that are in the Google publisher network.

I'm also curious if anyone has found Google Site Targeting to be a successful tactic for very expensive keywords.

How do you select the sites that you want to advertise on? Do you check each one out to make sure they are displaying their AdSense ads above the fold? Do you check the sites to make sure they are appealing to your target demographic?

How has your cost per acquisition compared to Google Adwords for search as well as for site targeting?

Finally, what online message boards and forums do you belong to where real marketers are continually sharing actual data from campaigns with each other?

Better than Rocketboom!

paulballen — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 21:57:52 -0700

I heard about Rocketboom last year, a simple, short-format daily news video broadcast that has attracted millions of views. They have a growing archive, of course, and they use a simple web 2.0 tagging system to identify the topics that are covered in each broadcast. (See the Rocketboom Alexa chart.

When you visit Rocketboom, your first reaction is, anyone could do this. But the fact is, they did it, and they did it early in the online video revolution, and they are still doing it. Unfortunately, Amanda Congdon, the original Rocketboom news anchor left the site earlier this year. Now the anchor is Joanne Colan.

I swear that when I originally saw Rocketboom I thought about my friend Lindsay Campbell, an actress in New York with a degree from Stanford University. She was my assistant at "Infobase Ventures" (the predecessor to Provo Labs). After graduating from Stanford she got an MFA from a very fine acting school in Colorado.

I actually thought she would make a better news anchor than Rocketboom's. I tried to figure out something that worldhistory.com or one of my other companies could do that might put Lindsay in front of a daily online video news broadcast. But I didn't figure anything out and never approached her about it.

So imagine my surprise yesteday when I got an email from Lindsay saying that she is quitting her day job to become the news anchor for a new online video news site called WallStrip.com.

It's a better concept than Rocketboom because it has a more narrow focus, but it will appeal to millions of people who owns stocks and who want to know how changing trends will affect the companies they have invested in.

It's about the stock market. It's about highlighting one stock each day that is close to a 52-week high and then going behind the scenes to figure out what is powering the growth of that stock. They will interview people, figure out what is going on in pop culture that is fueling each company's growth. Then, on all the Wallstrip blogs, professional investors and others will debate the company's prospects.

Today's Wallstrip news story is on Apple Computer, whose growth is fueled by the iPod as well as the retail stores that Apple is opening.

So the bottom line is: better concept than Rocketboom. Better anchor than Rocketboom.

I've never hired a news anchor before, but I can tell good ones when I see them. I was a huge fan of Soledad O'Brien early on, back when I watched MSNBC's The Site, one of the programs that fueled the internet revolution.

I am extremely happy for Lindsay and the founding team of Wallstrip.com, and I wish them well. I think their format is excellent. I think Lindsay is perfect for this job. Her career is going to take off. I always knew she would go places!

Howard Lindzon, the founder of Wallstrip outlines one of his goals on a recent blog post:

One of my goals out of Wallstrip is to create a deeper conversation, a better MEME for stock bloggers, market investors and enthusiasts.

The tech nerds have MEME

Free Seminar

paulballen — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 15:08:14 -0700

My friends at Copper Rain Productions are offering a free seminar on how to use video to generate more leads, more customers, and more sales. Here is the info from their web site. Click here for more info and to RSVP.

What: Seminar: Show More. Tell More. Sell More.TM

When: Thursday, October 19th, 2006 from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Where: Orem (Specific location will be provided to those who RSVP)

Who: Business Owners, Marketing Managers, and Sales Professionals
(Those responsible for filling prospect pipelines, converting prospects to sales, and gaining repeat sales.)

How Much: Complimentary (Thanks to our sponsors!)

I recently wrote a Connect magazine article about how everyone, IMHO, should be jumping into online video. I've watched what happens when videos get uploaded to YouTube and Google Video. I've seen web site conversion rate jump dramatically when online video is used.

This seminar would be a good way to learn more about how to use video if you are a marketing manager or business owner in Utah.

Smartphone Sales: Blackberry #1, Palm #2

paulballen — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 03:42:46 -0700

I still like Blackberry best, but if they completely walk away from their traditional keyboard, the exact one I have been using since 1999, I may be tempted to follow a lot of my colleagues and try out a Treo. I won't switch to any new smart phone or PDA unless I can type 50+ words per minute on it. I've tried the newer Blackberry keyboards and they are miserable.

Maybe I'll use my Blackberry 7290 for the next 10 years the way one of my friends still uses his HP Jornada with DOS from about 1992 for searching the scriptures. He says there has never been anything better...

Palm has made significant strides in the smart phone market, capturing 29 percent of U.S. sales, which is second only to BlackBerry, with 51 percent, according to IDC. Sales, though, have slowed in recent months, prompting Palm officials to lower its revenue forecast.

Of course, my father used an analog computer in 1959 for machine tool selection. It had 19 dials. You changed all the settings to get output. He said no modern all-purpose computer with machine selection software has ever been better for this function than the dedicated computer he used back then.

What blog topics are most popular?

paulballen — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 16:37:28 -0700

A new study on blogging shows that technology, culture and political blogs are very popular in the United States.

In the list of the top 100 blogs in the United States, 34 are about technology, 26 cover culture and 25 deal with politics. Personal blogs accounted for only 3 of the top 100 - far lower than in other countries.

The report also states:

Technorati ranks blogs based on the number of sites linking to a blog within the previous six months. It estimates that the total number of blogs at over 56 million, with over 1.2 million posts written daily.

Only 1.2 million daily posts? That isn't an overwhelming number. If you haven't started blogging but want to become an expert on a subject that you love, start blogging. You'll meet some great people, become a better writer, and learn a lot in the process as you look for things to write about.

There aren't that many great blogs yet, so it's not too late to start.

Tributes to Ray Noorda

paulballen — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 16:08:02 -0700

This is definitely worth passing on:

Rocky Mountain Voices Syndicates Podcasting Tribute to Ray Noorda

Insights and Praise for the "Father of Network Computing"

From Those Who Knew Him Best

Salt Lake City, UTAH - October 12, 2006 - Rocky Mountain Voices, a social media community serving the Rocky Mountain Region, had the unique opportunity to sit down with colleagues and friends of Ray Noorda to discuss his great legacy as the "Father of Network Computing". This 16 minute audio podcast entitled A Tribute to Ray Noorda contains conversational tributes to this great man from those who knew him best. Insights and anecdotes ranging from the workplace to the personal discuss the personal side of Ray Noorda, with a focus on his tenure at Novell, Inc. Noorda passed away on Monday, October 9, 2006, at age 82, leaving behind a great legacy for the technology community. Noorda was best known for taking network computing company Novell from as struggling start up with 17 employees an organization of more than 12,000 people at its peak.

The podcast is available in the MP3 audio format for download from Rocky Mountain Voices (www.rockymountainvoices.com), Silicon Valley content partner PodTech Network (www.podtech.net), and from Apple® iTunes®.

What: The audio podcast entitled A Tribute to Ray Noorda contains conversational tributes to this great man from those who knew him best. Insights and anecdotes ranging from the workplace to the personal discuss the personal side of Ray Noorda, with a focus on his tenure at Novell, Inc.
Who: Drew Major, a founder of Novell, talks about how Noorda funded Novell out of his own pocket, competed with Microsoft's Bill Gates, and coined the term "coopetition"

David Bradford, former general counsel of Novell, praises Noorda as arguably the key definer of the technology movement in Utah

Ty Mattingly, right hand man to Ray Noorda at Novell, discusses Ray's work ethic, including his 6:30 am start time.

Ransom Love, former CEO of Caldera reflects on the start of the Linux movement at Caldera

Ron Heinz, Managing Director of Canopy Ventures, tells of rooming in a budget hotel in Washington, DC with Noorda to save the shareholders' money

Darl McBride, CEO of SCO, shares lessons he learned from Noorda on being a CEO
When: Thursday, October 12, 2006

MP3 URL:
Rocky Mountain Voices (www.rockymountainvoices.com)

PodTech Network (www.podtech.net)

Apple® iTunes® (www.itunes.com)

ABOUT PODTECH NETWORK

PodTech marketing partners include leading brands such as Intel, IBM, Seagate, and SAP. PodTech marketing partners benefit from our proprietary morecasting suite of services that combine social media planning, podcast production and syndication, and sponsorships to create powerful, profitable conversations with influencers and customers. PodTech was founded in 2005 and our investors include Venrock Associates and US Venture Partners.

ABOUT ROCKY MOUNTAIN VOICES

Rocky Mountain Voices is a social media company that serves the Rocky Mountain Region by creating audio and video podcasts. The Rocky Mountain Voices team reaches out to the community for stories, first hand report of breaking news, and local commentary on important issues. Rocky Mountain Voices launched an exclusive relationship with PodTech's partnership designed to give technology companies in the Rocky Mountain area access to the extensive PodTech community, driving greater visibility for our companies and innovators. Rocky Mountain Voices was founded by a group of marketing technology professionals from four Utah-based companies. Rocky Mountain Voices is a property of mCast Productions. For more information, please visit www.rockymountainvoices.com/blog/about.

Provo Labs Academy is Heating Up

paulballen — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 16:49:23 -0700

Okay, so our building on Ninth East in Provo is not quite finished and we still have a portable heater or two. But the energy level is definitely growing, and things are starting to heat up.

Today an article came out in the BYU Daily Universe about Provo Labs Academy. We are so excited to be so close to campus and to be getting noticed already.

Yesterday we held a two-hour training session for about 12 Academy members on how to do pay-per-click marketing on Google. Two of our members thought we were going to teach "paper clip" marketing at first (and they weren't too embarrassed to admit it!) but by the end of the training they totally understand the power of bidding on keywords at the world's leading search engines.

Today we had a dozen people in a session about using the internet to generate leads. We reviewed or mentioned several web sites that have been very successful at capturing email addresses from prospective customers.

OneMinuteMillionaire.com
Lifeminders.com
MarketingSherpa.com

I suggested that perhaps we could have someone from Allegiance.com visit us and share with us the presentation they are going to give at the MarketingSherpa B2B Demand Generation Summit. We could let them do a dry run on us!

We also discussed ways to communicate with leads after they have been captured. One of our Academy members does a lot of lead generation for clients, and he showed us some sites that he has built, and how he used very targeted direct mail (postcards or letters) to send people to these web sites where a very high percentage of visitors sign up for more information.

Also, two members had experience with auto responder email campaigns and online email solutions that help you manage the leads once you get them. One uses Aweber.com (Alexa ranking 257-wow!). The other likes Streamsend.com. Both are very happy with these services. Streamsend apparently keeps up with all the spam laws, so you don't get blacklisted when you use their services.

We have set up a group web site for all the Academy members so they can communicate with each other at any time, ask questions, vote on topics they want to learn about, and which guest speakers they want me to invite. They can also schedule the two conference rooms for their own business meetings or to have brainstorming meetings with other Academy members.

Next week, I think our wireless internet will be more stable. We got 100 more chairs this week. More computers are being ordered. The 2nd floor is almost completed, so the WorldVitalRecords.com genealogy team will be moving upstairs next week, leaving more room for startup entrepreneurs.

Visit the Provo Labs Academy website if you want more information or would like to schedule a visit/tour.

Profile of a $3,000 TV advertising campaign

paulballen — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 10:01:35 -0700

Interesting Inc. article about doing low budget TV advertising and buying remnant inventory from TV stations to generate new business for your company. The $3,000 brings in 100 calls (that's $30 per call) and generated web site traffic as well.

All internet marketers may want to become familiar with all traditional forms of advertising and marketing, since Google is moving into all of them: print, radio, television. I'm sure they'll do outdoor eventually too, and who knows about direct mail. Google is going into the $74 billion TV advertising market (read what CEO Eric Schmidt says about Google and television) and the $20 billion radio advertising market (they already spent $1.1 billion to buy its way into radio.

I wonder if Google Analytics will eventually try to integrate with all of these other advertising channels to provide ROI tracking for marketers on every campaign in every medium.

Online Retail Grows by 20% This Year to $211 Billion

paulballen — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:28:20 -0700

Shop.org just released its ninth annual ecommerce study. It projects $211 billion in ecommerce revenue this year, up from $176 last year.

The forecast $211.4 billion includes travel, a category valued with revenues of $73.4 billion in 2006. The top non-travel categories include computer hardware and software ($16.8 billion); autos and auto parts ($15.9 billion); and apparel, accessories and footwear ($13.8 billion). Cosmetics and fragrances ($800 million) and pet supplies ($500 million) are expected to experience over 30 percent growth in 2006, more than any other categories. Pet supplies is a new category tracked in this year's report.

Integration between online and offline activity is key for retailers who report 22 percent of offline sales are influenced by the Web. Retail Web sites are also a viable channel to reach new customers; 38 percent of online customers are first-time buyers.

Amazing.

Speaking of online retail, I just saw an Inc. Magazine profile of the largest internet shoe retailer. It turns out the entrepreneur running Zappos.com, is Tony Hseih, who sold LinkExchange to Microsoft in 1998 for $265 million (I was a huge user of LinkExchange--it was one of our best sources of traffic in the early days of Ancestry.com). Zappos.com had $252 million in online shoe sales last year, and they are obsessive about great customer service.

I love this quote:

We have to untrain employees' bad habits from previous call centers, where they're trying to be more efficient by minimizing the time they talk to the customer. If someone is looking for a specific shoe and we happen to be out of stock, we have employees direct those people to competitors' sites.

Another Inc. Magazine profile describes how Utah entrepreneur Morgan Lynch built Logoworks into a successful online business. Revenue last year was $7.3 million.

Panel on Incubators

paulballen — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 20:01:22 -0700

UVEF's monthly lunch meeting is coming up this Thursday, October 12th. They have decided to have a panel on business incubators, and I'm excited to be one of the panelists. I hope to see you there:

On Thursday, October 12, 2006, the Utah Valley Entrepreneurs

Entry Level SEO/Marketing Position

paulballen — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 17:05:52 -0700

An entrepreneur running a successful company asked me to recruit someone from my BYU internet marketing classes to work for him. I told him I'd blog about the opportunity. So here it is:

screen-scraper.com is interested in hiring someone for an entry-level
SEO/Marketing position. This would involve working with their main screen-scraper web site, as
well as their ScrapbookFinds meta-search
engine. Starting pay will be $11-15 per hour, with bonuses as progress
is made and goals are achieved. This should be an excellent opportunity
to gain real-world experience! Any interested can email Todd Wilson.
His email address is his first name at screen-scraper.com.

Team Formation Summit for Worldhistory.com

paulballen — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 15:54:32 -0700

Last year I wrote in Connect magazine that I would be trying a grand experiment in team building. I would be trying an idea I got from The Entrepreneur's Manual, a very popular book for entrepreneurs published in 1997. I would hold a 2-day retreat with a couple dozen executives to brainstorm, network, plan, and then vote on the Founders Team for Worldhistory.com.

Sometimes I have too many ideas, so I can't get around to all of them. Sometimes ideas just go away. They stop bothering me. I almost always write every idea down, so that I won't forget them forever, but they stop getting current brainshare.

But this team formation idea has been popping up its head every month or so. So I've decided to go ahead with it. Instead of a 2-day summit, we're going to try a 1-day retreat to a local cabin. The date will be Friday, October 20th. I'm going to invite 15-20 friends developers, marketers, consultants, strategists, and entrepreneurs to meet for a day (probably from 9 am to 4 pm) to determine the future of Worldhistory.com.

So far, I have invited several individuals who know about the Worldhistory.com mobile subscription business model and love it. 100% of the people invited so far have said they will come.

But since I don't know everyone (yet), I thought I should also blog about this Summit and invite others to apply to attend it. Even if you aren't looking for a new job, consider coming. We need advisory board members as well as a group of founders who can make this company happen.

If you are interested in being invited, please contact Pat Sheranian at 373-6565, our Provo Labs office manager, talk with her about your background and interest, and email her your resume. Or, email me your resume if you want. (paul "AT" provolabs.com)

This will be a great networking event, and you'll meet some fantastic people and hear some very interesting discussions about the future of mobile location-based services, the delivery of text, audio and video content to cell phones and other mobile devices, and see the very beginning of what I hope turns into another Utah business success story.

The first half of the day will be devoted to Corporate Alliance type networking, where you will have a chance to meet every other attendee and connect with them on a personal level. After lunch, which will be provided, we'll break into teams and do some planning and brainstorming.

Finally, there will be some sharing of the best ideas and plans of the day, and we'll have a discussion about how to form and fund a new corporation with all the assets that Provo Labs currently owns in the history space (including data, web sites, and software code).

I don't know if we'll actually hold a vote on who the Founding Team should be; but if the attendees want to this, we will.

I'm excited about this summit. Read the Connect article about team formation, and get your hands on a copy of the original team formation ideas in The Entrepreneur Manual. You can buy it used on Amazon for as little as $5.74.

I really believe this idea is a big one. I believe that millions of people worldwide will one day subscribe to a mobile history content subscription service, so that whereever they travel in the world they will be able to pull up text, audio, and video clips that describe or explain the history of that location. If we get the right team in place, and can get the right content and design the right interface and market this service through the right carriers (or "off portal" if necessary) I think we can pull this off right here in Utah.

I guess that makes us a Four Domino business model, right Josh?

But if we get the right team together, then we'll be down to Three.

I also think that "history" is way down the list of the content types that all the biggest players have on their radar, and so it won't be immediately launched by the larger players. History is kind of like genealogy--it's not a multi-billion dollar category like travel or finance or real estate--so it's not at the top of the list for the carriers or internet media companies.

Like I said in Connect, I promise to write an article about this experiment and what we learn from it.

Let me know if you want to come. We can only take a few more people, but if you think you are qualified and have a lot to offer here, please apply, and we'll let you know.

Domino Rally Business Models

paulballen — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 15:11:45 -0700

Josh Kopelman has a great post about Domino Rally business models that are so complicated and involve so many "ifs" that the chance for success is extremely low. It's much better to have a Two Domino business model, where you know that if you do two things really well, you will be profitable.

I think WorldVitalRecords and 10Speed Media are Two Domino business models. WorldVitalRecords needs to acquire more content every day and bring more visitors to its web site every day. (That's the same emphasis we had at Ancestry.com in the early years: content + internet marketing = subscription revenue.) So the focus for our team is clear.

10Speed Media is also focused on two things: getting more video inventory (more merchants) and getting more traffic to those videos (more affiliates). It is clear that video converts better than most other online advertising. We are generating sales and leads for our customers. So now it's about doing more of what is working.

So how do you keep focused on execution, day after day?

For me, goals and daily metrics are the key to keeping me focused. If I don't have access to the right stats, every day, it is so easy for me to move on mentally to the next thing. But if I have quick access to key metrics every day, my creativity stays within certain bounds--my ideas all center on how to achieve our goals.

I like to have my teams use Google spreadsheets and update their own key metrics every day so that the entire team can know exactly what happened the day before, and at a glance, they can see important trends.

I actually get some of my best ideas while looking at statistics. Especially when I know deep down that the stats should be better than they are. I sit and stare at them, while my mind digs deep to find in its memory bank past efforts that generated better results than our current efforts are generating. Sometimes I review lists of dozens of internet marketing tactics, or I comb through my gmail contacts or LinkedIn.com to think about companies, partners, friends who might be able to help us increase our results.

When I think we can do better, and concentrate my attention on things we could be doing that we aren't, I can always come up with new things to try. When I don't have stats that are telling me we need to do better, it is easy for me to get distracted by the "new, new thing" and not work on the present problems.

My favorite book about keeping track of key metrics is "The Game of Work" by Charles Coonradt. It is a very quick read and is full of great ideas that will help everyone keep score everyday of their results. When a team embraces this concept, work becomes more fun, and the chances of success increase greatly.