Archive for December, 2007

1) Interview of popular person. Post Pictures & a short video from the interview. Although, publishing the text of the interview will provide more searchable terms, and a more “authoritative” webpage…according to the search algorithms. Using both video and the full-text is a win-win situation for users and the ability to drive search traffic.

2) Linking to another high-profile blogger to get a trackback, and clickthrough traffic. If they censor their trackbacks, just hope they approve yours.

3) Giveaway something for free ( widget, template, tool, ringtone, etc).

4) Create a funny/fun flash game. Perhaps, it’ll go viral. Or, go all out, and create something similar to the Subservient Chicken.

5) Get a celebrity to announce your URL on TV. Perhaps, if one of the Grammy-nominated bands for “Best New Artist” like Paramore win, and announce their new site. I’m sure their fans would love to see all the Paramore pictures and Paramore Videos. Imagine how much traffic that could send! Or, perhaps they plug YOUR site.

6) Contests (If it’s cash, get it underwritten. Or, be creative in your prize). Perhaps, offer your services as the prize?

7) Press Releases. Use best practices to optimize press releases.

Social Media. Using sites like Youtube, Stumbleupon, Digg, Delicious can mean driving thousands of visitors to your site.

9) Writing blog posts that use an Attack hook, Shock hook, or a breaking News hook to drive traffic.

10) Get a link on a popular unrelated website. Perhaps offer a free or discounted service in exchange for the link.

11) Create a facebook app.

12) Speak at a trade show, organization meeting, or local event.

I just received my Google Holiday gift for 2007. It’s a Google branded Flip Video Camera. So, instead of taking a picture and displaying a photo image, I decided to take a video of the Flip Video Camera with another Flip Video Camera. This way you can see the level of quality of the video.

As of the writing of this post, Youtube hasn’t fully processed the Google Holiday Gift video, so there isn’t a “Video Still” yet. But, the video works regardless.

I know that I’m straying a bit from the core topic of this blog, which is SEO and SEM. But, I think it’s very important to discuss business basics from time to time, rather than just focusing on Strategic and Tactical issues revolving around Search Engine Marketing.

So, this is the 3rd post in the series from Evaluating Ad Revenue Potential, and Questions to Ask When Buying a Web Business (Sphunn).

Once you identified a web business for sale, and have entered into the due diligence process, it’s time to evaluate the current financial data, and create some of your own.

So, here’s a handy Cash Flow Spreadsheet template (download) to use, or keep as a reference. Additionally, CCH has a Family Monthly Budget Worksheet (download) that will probably be of interest to many readers.

It’s important to get both the revenue and the expenses to determine whether or not you want to pursue the web business. It’s better to be a little conservative in forecasting, than to be optimistic. Bankers like to see realistic numbers also, just in case you need to go that route.

This is a continuation of my previous post regarding Evaluating Ad Revenue potential.

Technical Questions:
1) Can you get a login to the Backend?
2) Is the site and/or software framework Scalable? Open source?
3) Will there be Technical Support available after sale?
4) What database is used? Eg: SQL?
5) What programming languages are used?
6) Is it on a dedicated server? Webhost?
7) Are there any bugs?
How many hours/day does it take to maintain the site?
9) What is involved in the daily maintenance? Tasks?

Business related Questions:
1) Financial info? Cash-flow sheet? Tax returns? Balance Sheets? For the last 5 yrs?
2) Are they doing advertising for the site now? If so, how much $, and where? Cost/month?
3) Are they willing to finance any portion of the sale? Perhaps, $X amt upfront, then another amount as a % of profits per month. Perhaps, inflate the sale price as an incentive.
4) What is the legal structure of the business (is it a sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation)?
5) What are the reasons for selling?
6) How is the business doing?
7) Any outstanding liabilities?
Any lawsuits?
9) If you buy the company, insist upon an asset only sale. So you buy the assets, and the seller retains liability for a specified period of time.
10) What are some competitive sites?
11) Do they have any contracts with others for advertising or otherwise? Are all contracts current?
12) Web Analytics. Do they use any? Monthly Visitors? PageViews/Visitor? Top referring domains?

These are some initial questions to ask to get some basic due diligence.

After your first serious meeting with the ownership, you should request:
1) The login in info to the Web Analytics.
2) The financial data like cash-flow sheets from the past 12 months (ideally 5 yrs).
3) A login to see the backend.

As a rule-of-thumb, I wouldn’t speak about your intended enhancements or marketing of the website with the present ownership. Because, they might not like what you have planned, and squash the entire deal. Or, it could give them the idea, and they pull-back from the sale, and implement your idea.

Depending on how sophisticated the web business is, you might want to consider a professional business valuation.

When the time is right, engage a good attorney & good accountant.

If you own a website, and want to serve ads using a 3rd party ad server, then here is a method to calculate the Ad Revenue Potential.

Either use your own Web Analytics or use Compete to discover the Visitor and Page View metrics.

Method #1 to Calculate Ad Revenue Potential:

Let’s say there are 5 ads/page. Add up the total of ads on page.
Ad1=$7.00 CPM (728 x 90 Leaderboard)
Ad2=$5.00 CPM (120 x 600 Skyscraper)
Ad3=$3.50 CPM (125 x 125 Square Button)
Ad4=$3.50 CPM (125 x 125 Square Button)
Ad5=$3.50 CPM (125 x 125 Square Button)

The Total Ad Revenue on each page is: $22.50 CPM

Let’s say there are 20,000 Visits/Month, and each visitor has 7 Page Views per Visit. Thats 20,000 x 7 = 140,000 Page Views. 140,000 x 5 Ads = 700,000 Impressions.

The formula is: CPM x Impressions / 1000 = Ad Revenue
$22.50 CPM x 700,000 Impressions = 15,750,000. So, 15,750,000 / 1000 = $15,750.

Method #2 (Simple Method) to Calculate Ad Revenue potential:
Total PageViews (1,000,000) x Ads on page (5)= Total Impressions (5,000,000)
Avg CPM = $4
So, in our scenerio…..
5,000,000/1000 = 5,000 x $4 Avg CPM = $20,000 Ad Revenue Potential.

Remember to abide by the IAB Rules - Terms & Conditions.

Bonus:
Here’s a formula to calculate what CPM to charge to generate a Desired Ad Revenue:
Desired Ad Revenue / Impressions = CPM to charge
Eg: $20,000/5,000,000 = $4.00 CPM.

Naturally, the smart marketer will look for ways to increase Engagement (Page Views), and Traffic (Visitors).

We talk/write/learn/listen about optimizing websites, link building, content development, and using Paid Search (PPC) strategies to drive traffic to websites. Let’s not forget about the age-old method of using a well written Press Release to drive traffic, buzz, and links.

Here is a Top 10 List of Bestpractices for optimizing Press Releases.

1. Keyword Selection. Keyword selection is a crucial part of press release optimization. Be very careful while deciding on a keyword phrase that is relevant to the release. Optimize the Press Release for only 1 or 2 keyword phrases. Do this based on your business objectives for each campaign.

2. Keyword placement. Be sure to place keyword phrase into the Headline AND the Title of the press release. Try to repeat it nearly 3-5 times for every 100 words within the content of the release. Put two hyperlinks that contain the chosen keyword within the content.

3. Generally speaking, don’t use abbreviations. Write out full keyword text.

4. Use an occasional bold-type for the keyword phrase.

5. Replace pronouns with keyword phrase. Instead of using “their”, or “it’s”, use the keyword phrase.

6. Select the right PR distribution networks. Below is a list of press release distribution services that are search engine friendly and can offer an excellent channel for link building as well as getting your news distributed.

http://www.prweb.com
http://www.prleap.com
http://i-newswire.com
http://www.webwire.com
http://www.pressbox.co.uk
http://www.pr.com
http://www.marketwire.com

7. Make the effort for substantial media coverage. Eg: Make list of publications, send emails and correspondence emails to journalists for the release. Make sure you don’t send the complete release into the email. Write a concise but short intro, and include the URL to the entire press release with the email.

8. Make it easy for journalists to read. Everyday thousands of press releases are emailed to the journalists. So make the press release presentable and well written to be noticed by them. Journalists usually ignore poorly written releases.

9. Offer RSS feeds. Help journalists by offering RSS feeds specifically for your Press Releases. Many journalists specialize in a specific topic, and categorize their feed reader by subjects. So, make it easy for journalists to find your Press Release. “KISS” (Keep It Sweet and Simple).

10. Publish releases frequently. It’ll benefit your entire domain to have frequent, additional, and unique content crawled by the Search Engines.

You just landed your first PPC client, now what?

Here’s a PPC Campaign kick-off spreadsheet that will help you create the PPC Strategy document.

Your client needs to identify things like:
1) Business Objective(s)
2) Are they using a third party partner (i.e. Omniture, WebTrends)? Account Log-In Information?
3) Are they using Bid Mgmt/Conversion Tracking software?
4) If there are multiple properties, do the campaigns/reports need to be set up separately?
5) Is there Historical Data?
6) Bulk sheets for all current or past campaigns?
7) Are there any restrictions? (Keywords, markets, match type, etc.)
Who are the Competitors?
9) Any promotions outside of search? If so, please indicate type of media and timing
10) Is there Seasonality? - Are there any seasons, months, or weeks that stand out performance wise?

And, you’ll want to manage expectations with this highly customizable PPC Campaign “Timeline to Launch” template. This provides a timeline from the initial contract approval, to the actual Campaign launch date, and everything in between.