Tag Archives: internet marketing

We can learn from Porn, Or If you build it, will they come?

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Let’s look at the numbers first.  The monthly search volume for the word, “porn” last month was over 13 million. That’s the number coming from Google, Yahoo and MSN combined.  The term sex? Almost 22 million times last month. What does this tell you? Let’s put into perspective real quick. So you know that there is a major housing/mortgage crisis going on right now. It’s been in the news a lot lately. Well,  the term mortgage had been searched on a mere 7 million times as of last month. The Iraq war you ask? 189,000 times. I know, how about Britney? She has been in the news too much and the numbers don’t lie. Try 14 million times last month, now that’s more like it.

Ok so the point is this, in the porn industry, the ultra competitive  nature drives internet marketers to be on their game.  The reason why is for the simple fact that tastes and technology change quicker than the bath water. Think about it, leaving out the fact that porn marketers are shameless and unethical, with over 30 million searches combined for the terms sex and porn, there is money to be made. Lots of it. They know this. They also are accutely aware that they either can change quickly, either with the content or the technology, or be eaten alive. Good porn marketers are better than your average internet marketer because they push the technology as far as they can, and then find new ways after that. They take chances because they have to.

Because attracting eyeballs online is the name of the game internet marketers have to use every tactic and trick to get you there and keep you there. That’s why porn marketers are willing to try any and every new technology to achieve that. They are months ahead in some respects to what some traditional marketers might employ for user attraction and retention.

Starting with the user experience, porn marketers realize that content is king but too much “free” content will make them a pauper, thus the usage of creating crumb trails to the main paid content is the objective. In fact, porn price points for entry are almost nil, but, the usage of a recurring billing model and and the ability to accept any and all forms of payment in any and all currencies make it an ideal business model. Customer service doesn’t really exist in the porn game, except to the extent that they make it difficult to cancel an order, so to dwell on that aspect is a moot point.

Another reason  good porn marketers are better, is because they study the competetiton. They recreate what works best, and when that doesn’t work, they test something else, when that quits working they move on.  I can point to some normal sites that haven’t changed their GUI in 3 years and still pull a 9% conversion rate. But it always begs the question, what would a new look and feel pull? Guess they’ll never know. Good porn marketers will have days, weeks, months and years of data for you.

Another thing that traditional marketers could learn is that porn is as niche based as it has ever been. The more niche based, the better the audience retention is.  We will avoid naming for you specific niche examples, but I’m sure you can use your imagination.  The bottom line is that the recurring revenue model  in this situation is perfect as long as content is updated regularly but still retains the integrity of the niche. If you change the niche, they are gone.

At this point, you’re probably thinking, “Wow this person certainly knows the porn business well.” Actually, I will leave that comment as is. As someone who studies any and all online business models, I would be remiss if I did not look at why the porn business model is so successful. The majority of that success of course will always stem from peoples’ utter facination with sex and the search numbers that support that. But one caveat would be assuming the, “If you build it, they will come…” (no pun intended although it seems very appropo), model. That  business model would not last long in the hyper-speed nature of porn business models. At the advent of the internet, it probably worked very well. Now though, you need top programmers and savvy business people who understand the online marketplace backwards and forwards to be successful.

So if you think porn marketers operate in a vacuum and have no clue what they are doing. Rest assured, they are doing things from a technology standpoint, that the rest of the online marketing world would love to learn. Why? What do you think the PPC model might look like in the porn universe? If porn marketers relied on ppc, they would shoot their wad in one day(again excuse the pun) and be out of the business in a week. Instead they have to use not only traditional methods of internet marketing coupled with SEO best practices but they also have to test, test and test and then act at a moments notice.

Although I don’t expect you to rush out and go “study” porn sites, from an internet marketers standpoint. If you should uh.. stumble upon one, do take the time to study the structure and the messaging and the content… and then read the articles.

If Google went away, would you care?

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How would Google impact your life if by happenstance, they just,”went away”? As a casual user of the web, I would think that you wouldn’t miss a beat, you’d just migrate over to Yahoo or MSN or one of the hundreds or thousands of other second tier search engines out there. Would your results suck? Would they be tainted by gross inacurracies? I’m sorry to say, and it probably pains Google to hear this (not really) but the answer is more than likely, no and no.

You see, the other search engines are not that bad, in fact Ask.com for instance, is really really good. But when you are trying to compete against this Goliath of a company, you’re little pebbles will have no noticeable effect or impact, no matter how cool and powerful.

I imagine that if Google went away, their 10,674 employees would have to find new jobs doing something that we have no clue about. Since they are so secretive anyways… Then there are the tens of thousands of people that make money on Adsense. What would they do? Arghhhh!!!! Get real jobs?  I suppose they might go back to that fine affiliate marketing model that was and is still so annoying. Here’s a thought. Maybe the CTR on banners would go north of 1% if Google went away?

SEO and SEM professionals would naturally just shift their attention in the forums and their blogs to bitching about Yahoo and MSN’s “Algo” and why it’s so unfair, and why they never get back to you, and why they never give you a straight answer, and why you need to do it “this way”.  They also would be lost without having a Google toolbar that gave them their PR’s; Oh and Matt Cutts, the Google Guru, would probably be an authority on something, but it just won’t be in search.

Would there be less web sites if Google wasn’t around? What would be the ideal business model for making money on the web? Yahoo would own PPC outright at this point so what would they do differently if Google wasn’t around?

Would MSN be even more formidable if Google wasn’t around? Since Google has come on the scene, casual water cooler talk has shifted from, “I wonder what Microsoft will release next”? to “Did you see where Google’s stock is at”?

Are we better off socially because Google is so entrenched into our daily lives? Do they make us better at what we do? Do they solve nagging problems that previously existed before they came on the scene? Do they have our best interests at heart? Does Google care about you and I?

What do you think life would be like without Google? Does Google impact your life?

Dumb People and Technology

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According to Wikipedia:

Dumb may refer to:

  • Stupidity, the state of
  • Dumbing down, a term referring to over-simplification

I recently wrote about the fact that sometimes technology and the use thereof, may be too complicated for some “slower” people to grasp, therefore what they might use their computer for, might not neccessarily be what others use it for. Is that ok?

In creating web apps and websites, we always try to dumb down what we are creating, in the hopes that its simplicity will push it over the top in terms of the broadest possible audience grasping what we are trying to convey. In lieu of words sometimes we create icons. Yet other large manufacturers choose to assume that people will “get it” and if they have problems just call the help desk. Can you say focus group? Or lack thereof?

Maybe Dumb people shouldn’t operate computers? Maybe we underestimate the dumb person; Or perhaps they use it to go to YouTube? Do dumb people use email? Has anyone or any company actually looked at that sector of the public to see, just what they use the computer for? Is it a group that we should market to? Are we missing out on this demographic? Or do we just assume that they will get it? Isn’t it the goal of all technology innovations that they are accessible to all? If so, doesn’t that mean regardless of your mental capacity, that that person will be able to grasp it? That you, the slow one, will get it?

Is technology biased towards people who are educated? If it is, do they leave the dumb people in their wake? What are dumb people supposed to do? Rely on smarter people? Or the Geek Squad? Do dumb people want a  crack at technology and what it has to offer?  Does technology provide a fair shake to people who want to learn but just are really really challenged?

A dumb person might have the grandest of intentions when buying a computer, but what are they to do when they have to install software, get an internet connection, download updates, install security software, burn a disc, download some music from itunes, buy some porn, etc etc etc…?

You see the world is moving more and more towards a paperless virtual high speed electronic environment. But it moves at a speed that not a lot of people are comfortable with. And you know what? Technology could not care less! Social networking sites are great but I’m willing to bet the affluency of the users is solid middle class and up. Educationally, we provide our 1st graders with a solid foundation for technology, but we’ve forgotten about the boomers and some gen X’ers even, and those who may have slipped through the cracks and those that it just passed right over. For whatever reason, those people are missing out on what technology can do for them. But now that I think about it, maybe they don’t care. Maybe to them, playing FreeCell, Bejeweled and watching Videos on YouTube, is just fine…

Google Envy

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 GE…  Google Envy. We all have it. Even if you don’t admit it because you are above that, deep down you know you have it.

In contemporary times, GE is the term used metaphorically to refer to the idea that we all wish  we worked for Google, had Google stock. or were bought by Google. In more subtler terms it refers to the anxieties we as marketers and site owners and SEO folks feel about our impact in Google’s search engine.

Think about our world and how Google has managed to work its  way into our lexicon.   Lik Pez, Google is a proper noun.  Pez is a candy and Google is…. Google. But where they differ is that I can’t “Pez you” but I can “Google you”.  You know this conversation happens a half million times a day… “Hey I Googled Thomas/Cynthia last night, and you won’t believe what I found!”

So alas, Pez is not a verb and Google has become one. How many companies can become a verb? Not Microsoft, Nike, Coke, McDonalds, Toyota, NBC, Rolling Stone, The Rolling Stones, Yahoo, The NFL, The NBA, Nintendo, Sony, The World Cup, The Olympics, Not even…. Microsoft-cue the reveal music.

I wonder if Microsoft has Google envy? I used to have Microsoft envy. In fact right after the bubble burst in my dot com world, I still had Microsoft envy. I wanted Microsoft to buy my company. Didn’t they buy anything that was cool and had a pulse back then? They were the big dog and I think we all worked for small start-ups with the hope that Microsoft would notice us and decide to buy us. It’s at this juncture that we should bring in Andy Rooney from 60 Minutes.

Andy: “Do you ever wonder if Microsoft has GE? or Google Envy? I bet they do. I know I do. I think we all have Google Envy. Even my dog has Google Envy.

As a world that now uses technology in every day life in every way possible, we now measure things by our ability to search for them on Google. It’s almost as if it’s the great judge of legitimacy. However, from the perspective of the marketer and the SEO’r, it’s also the gold standard by which one is measured. If you rank #1 in Google, then you must be good. Because Google said so. 

So it just goes without saying that Yahoo and MSN, the other 2 search engine’s, should have major GE. They fight over the scraps of what is left in Google’s vapor trail. And like it.  I envision Shaq going up against Herbie the wannabe dentist destined for Misfit Island, and The Keebler Elf. All fighting over the gold and girl, and it really not being much of a fight. It’s just not fair. But I like Shaq, he’s a likeable guy. I even think Herbie and the Keebler Elf are cool, but in the end, you know they wish they could trade places with the big man. Even if they don’t admit it.

Technology. Is it making our lives easier? Or does it complicate them?

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While thinking of what to write about this morning I thought that some questions should be asked.

Does technology serve a broad audience?  Or a broad enough audience? In other words, are we serving enough people, with what technology brings to the table? What do people who happen to have a computer, who have no more than a high school education, and possibly less, use the computer for? Do they use it to look at porn? Do they use it to set up My Space? Is it for Flickr? Music? Email? Is the computer user friendly enough for people who might be learning challenged? If it’s not, then what do they do with it?

Who do we as marketers and web masters gear our websites to? What is the demographic? Do we even consider the number of people using a computer who don’t really fit the audience that we THINK we are attracting? Do we even TRY to speak to that segment?

Is the cell phone and it’s current capabilities the “dumb’ed  down” version of the PC? Is what is on the phone from a spec standpoint what all users en masse want? Or what we think will sell more phones? Do we not give the people that use any type of technology on a day to day basis, enough credit for what they want? and how they might want to utilize it?

When does any type of app, fly completely over someone’s head? What is the level, when someone just shuts it down and says,”this is too difficult”? Will all generations from here on out be so technically gifted, and knowledgable that nothing will be impossible for them to grasp? Regardless of educational levels?

What does user friendly really imply? Does everyone need a computer? If so why? If not, how come? Does anyone use a fax machine anymore?  Why is YouTube so popular? Why is MySpace the same? Does anyone care about social networking? DO I really want my friends to know what I’m doing at all times?  How can I find really cool web sites? Without having to put up with google ads?

And speaking of Google, should I care about what they do? and how they do it? Does Google make my life easier? Does Microsoft? Does technology make my life easier, or does it complicate it because of updates and licences and fees and subscriptions and user names and passwords and security threats and viruses and hackers and…..???

Do we know what we want? Do you know what we want? Do we know what you want?  We all think we do, but you know what? No you don’t, and neither do we..

Driving quality traffic to your website.

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So you have built a killer website, it’s optimized and ready to go, but you want to drive traffic to the site, and you don’t want to spend a dime. You have one month to do it. What are going to do? Do You:

a) link bait
b) blog spam
c) forum spam
d) submit to all of the free directories
e) whore out your sites ad space
f) manually try and create backlinks with sites that have cross-promotional relevance with your site
g) create 10 other sites and link them together…
h) something that has not been written here
i) ask for more time
j) ask for money to do some ppc
k) social networks and social bookmarking

The reason I ask, is I am faced with that challenge from time to time, and as much as I wish I could make the process move quicker, unfortunately it does not. So I am always curious as to what other people do. Perhaps a few dimes need to be spent on certain things, if so what would you spend your money on to get the biggest bang of sustained traffic? For more answers to these questions I would check out one of the few Naples, Florida’s SEO companies.