Fast-forward to July and now August.  I started to notice during July a definite drop in speed on Slicehost.  A whole percentage point in fact.  What had been quick was more sluggish, though certainly quicker than most sites.  Now that Google has admitted site speed is a part of their ranking factor for websites – read Matt Cutts article, he suggests this is not a panic issue – and given I saw results for myself in the additional speed verses rank I figured it wouldn’t hurt to play with what was reportedly a quicker service recently – Linode.

Naturally – still running on NginX and loving the server response with that.  Still miles faster than Apache.

The results was a massive speed difference.  Still awaiting third party confirmation on the exact figures – which I’ll post when I have them for comparison – but according to Google webmaster tools we’ve moved up – and to quote “This is faster than 73% of sites”.  Up from 64%.  Which was, to my mind, worth the effort of trialling it using this blog – as is my custom.  It was gratifying indeed to receive an email message from Steph G at FollowSteph noting a sudden change in SERP for this blog.  So – over came the other sites. 

Adverts?  WTF?

Yes.  It’s true, your eyes are not deceiving you.  I’ve placed two adverts for products on this blog.  I’ve said time and time again I hate Google adds, they are messy and spammy looking to my taste.  So there are still none of those here.  Rather the adds are for two products I both use and heartily endorse.  Being Woothemes – arguably the best of the best in WordPress themes and WPMUDEV for stunningly powerful WordPress plugins.   Between these two subscriptions – I have developer accounts with both – I have streamlined the number of plugins I use on this blog and my websites, such as MixAction, and increased their search engine spider readability to boot.  Lovely clean tools.  So I’m happy to endorse them, and yep – if you click the links they do drop a cookie and they are affiliate links.  Given the amount of traffic I get from non mISV’s or ISV’s for articles on rip-off sites like NowDownload it seemed reasonable to spread the load a little in terms of costs.

Seriously though.  If you’re looking for decent themes and plugins as ISV’s you can’t go past these two.  I tried the others, like ThemeForest and so on, certainly a lot cheaper, but frankly most of them are simply not up to par at all.  The backend for Woothemes is a delight, the plugins from WPMUDEV are fantastic (they have a great shopping cart in beta too).  Haven’t met anything close to these.  I’m about to trial the Thesis theme soon, which I’ve also licensed and which has caused an enormous  row in WordPress and GPL circles due to it’s non distributive license – recently partially revoked – and while it’s certainly a clean theme it’s also an ornery one.  It’s power is also it’s biggest drawback when it comes to time.  Matt Cutts uses it on his blog, as do a number of other notaries and I may trial it here once I trick something original up with it.

Finally…

I’ve succumbed to the Dark Site and purchased an Apple iPhone – the 3G, the aerial on the 4th generation will be a problem for me out in the sticks beyond Melbourne’s outer edge.  Frankly I’m enamoured.  I generally loath mobile phones, but this ones actually useful.  Synchronizing appointments, contacts, mail etc with Outlook is great and the built in iPod is awesome as a car player, cars being something else I replaced recently, upgrading from a little four cylinder Nissan Pulsar to a nice comfortable 4 litre six cylinder Ford Falcon.

Scott Kane

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It began with good intentions.  An application to finish that was six months overdue and the core of my start-up.  By years end I’d made less progress than in the last six months of 2008.  Go figure that, I can’t…

It began with the bush-fires, a month of interruption in itself.  The first anniversary of those fires is this Sunday 7th.  You’d not believe me if I stated the state government here had done virtually nothing at all to address the core reasons for those fires and that they’ve proven, yet again, that preferences from other parties and latte environmentalists in the inner city are a greater concern to them.

Without dragging out the interruptions in too much detail a damaged shoulder followed, then a hand in plaster after an operation, frequent interruptions in respect of my involvement in politics  it would be fair to say I lost at least four solid months, punctuated by two month intervals of getting anything done at all.

So yeah. Glad to see the back of 2009.  We did incorporate, that was a positive, and two applications were released that I mentioned here at the time.

2010 did start a bit rocky when I managed to give myself second degree burns on my left hand, three weeks later still bandaged. < Note to self.  Lawn Mowers get hot after use, they bite when lifted by carburettor. >

Then the development machine monitor died. Exactly one month to the day out of warranty.  Repair price?  Twice retail price paid.  I now buy wholesale so for $20 more than the price of a 22″ I bought a 24″.  No room on desk now for two monitor setup I was planning.  New desk first. 

So am getting prepped now to get serious again.

Across on his blog, Steph has some really positive things to say about 2009 and his business.  So if I’ve managed to depress you get on over to Follow Steph and a dose of good news.

Updating CMS

As you probably guess this blog runs on WordPress.  In fact so do most of my product sites.  My first “roll your sleeves up, mate” exercise this year has been to begin moving the whole lot from WordPress to WordPress MU – the multi-site edition.  This is actually pretty cool.  One installation of the software on an account on the server delivering multiple websites.  There are a few tricks to pull this off and in the next few days I’m going to document them in an article here should others decide in the future to do the same.

It’s not hard, rather it just needs to be done in the right order and tracking down the doc’s to do it can be tedious.  It might save somebody some time, beyond just being interesting in general.

Progress So Far

To date this blog – www.davidscottkane.com , which you’re reading now, www.mixactionmultimedia.com.au the company site (needing lots of data added to it, not written that yet), www.MixingPress.com – our audio related “magazine” style site and www.kliknmix.com one of our product sites have all been transferred to the WordPress MU installation and are settling in.  The rest will follow.

Note – there is no limit in WordPress MU as to how many sites you run off a single install – but your physical hosting account may well set some limits.  I’ll also include some info on basic requirements and some info on how I structure the server.

The benefit of doing this is multi-fold.

• First one install of the software means lower use of server resources.  CMS software is hungry and does use more resources than a basic HTML site of similar traffic levels.
• Secondly when an upgrade or security fix comes through for WordPress MU, or a plug-in, all sites get the update because they all use the instance of the software.
• Finally – WordPress.com runs thousands of sites off single instances of WordPress MU so it’s been pretty thoroughly road tested.

Next post I’ll document the process.

Scott Kane

==========================================================

An Australian ventriloquist visiting New Zealand walks into a
small town and sees a local sitting on his porch patting his
dog. He figures he’ll have a little fun.
Ventriloquist: Hey, good looking dog, mate. Mind if I speak to
him?
New Zealander: The dog doesn’t talk, you stupid Aussie.
Ventriloquist: Hey dog, how’s it going old mate?
Dog: Doin’ alright.
The New Zealander is shocked!
Ventriloquist: Is this Kiwi your owner? (Pointing at the New
Zealander?
Dog: Yep.
Ventriloquist: How does he treat you?
Dog: Real good. He walks me twice a day, feeds me great food,
and takes me to the lake once a week to play.
The New Zealander can’t believe his ears!
Ventriloquist: Mind if I talk to your horse?
New Zealander: Horse doesn’t talk either.
Ventriloquist: Hey horse, how’s it going?
Horse: No worries.
The New Zealander’s mouth is agape.
Ventriloquist: Is this your owner? (Pointing at the New
Zealander?)
Horse: Yep.
Ventriloquist: How’s he treat you?
Horse: Pretty good, thanks for asking. He rides me regularly,
brushes me down often, and keeps me in the barn to
protect me from the elements.
The New Zealander is TOTALLY amazed!
Ventriloquist: Mind if I talk to your sheep?
New Zealander: The sheep’s a liar.

==========================================================

<With apologies to any Kiwi readers!    >

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Regular readers will know, only painfully well, that I consider download sites to be loathsome creatures.  The justifications for this view sprinkle articles in this blog time and time again.

So I’m not going to go into detail, again, on why I consider them to be so.  Please use the search tool above if you seek clarficiation on this – but warning, it’s not pretty.

Some time back (well over twelve months ago now) I stated on several forums and this blog that the day was coming when the search engines started banning these cretinous sites.  While that day hasn’t quite arrived, it would seem we are closer than many, if not most, ISV’s suspected.

I’m a server log reader-aholic.  I religously examine my server logs through a number of tools daily (not all at once) for each website I run.  Imagine my delight today when I see the search term from Yahoo for  “free live sound mixing software” and got the following result, page after page, for the download sites:

Click the images to zoom in…

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

After page six my enthusiasm for looking flagged.

Some notable names in there, many more are not there of course.  But it’s encouraging.  Site Advisors accuracy on such matters is a matter of some dispute, but in this instance I’m not complaining.  Though I do feel for the Adwords advertiser the scumsites download sites are featuring in the listing.

Updated: Forgot to mention, and it’s important, if you’re linking to these places on your website, indeed any download sites at all – PULL THOSE LINKS NOW.  Site Advisor works on the principle of guilt by association.  If they are flagged you’ll end up flagged like this too!  That’s been the scenario in the past.

Scott Kane

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When I released PerforMixer I included a EULA (End User License Agreement) that specifically prohibits distribution by download sites unless I specify in – writing -permission.

Such permission was given to Download.com and therefore their subsidiaries.

It was not given to any other site(s).

That didn’t stop the Internet trash – download sites – from slapping it up on their sleazy sites though – did it?  Regular, polite, entreaties to take down the product listing were ignored by most.  Forcing me to submit a PAD file to them that was not what one would call “valid”.

At that point most dropped the listing – either that or their visitor goes into an endless browser window loop when downloading and playing hell with their add income in theory.  Some however simply delinked to the PAD file.

Scum.

But this doesn’t come close to SoftSea – apparently the crème  of the crud.

SoftSea decided they’d be “original” and rather than copy the Download.com text for the listing, like the other unimaginative excuses for homo sapiens, SoftSea instead ripped the content off my home page.  Proving to me that the site is run by human garbage of the worst kind – Intellectual Property thieves.

Familiar Territory

This may sound familiar?  Brandon Staggs posted about exactly this on his blog last year – you can read about it by Clicking Here

In that instance it was SoftPedia doing it – in this instance for my own product it’s SoftSea – apparently the two S’s are an acronyms for Scum and Scum.

But this didn’t satisfy these pieces of internet H1N1 Nope.  They then took the screenshot of the program and stamped their watermark over the top of it indicating ownership!

The shot above is their site. The add for a competing multimedia company to the left (for whom I have no issue with at all, it’s not their fault) inserted compliments of the download sites reason for existence – Google – is bad enough.  But to stamp their bloody name on it is a disgrace!

But it’s the text that’s really go me.   See the screenshots below this one and compare for yourself.  You can click the images to zoom in and compare…

Word for word.  Now – this is blatant theft.  They are literally taking without permission a page that clearly denotes it’s copyright at the bottom of every page in the footer – not that it’s a legal requirement mind, copyright is in force at the moment of creation, but for clarity it’s there – and thrown it on their garbage site and them placed a bloody copyright message on it pertaining to them.

That’s two violations of the Berne Convention on Copyright.   Taking IP without permission and claiming ownership of it via a copyright notice is a separate offence.

Not to mention watermarking the bloody screenshot.

I’ve written to them three times and asked for removal, pointed out the violation and have been polite on each occasion.  They’ve ignored these contacts.  To add another insult to injury they outranked me on Google for my own product name last week – even though my site name is the product name PerforMixer is PerforMixer.com simply because Google was reshuffling ranking based on IP.  Moving my hosting to the USA had an immediate effect on that – 24 hours in fact – but they are now at position two. I’m working on that as I write this.  Another set of screenshots.  The first taken last week on Friday.  The second taken today.

The “People” Who Run SoftSea Are Clearly Garbage

This, folks, has been my contention on this blog since I began it in March 2008.  These sites will damage you – they exist to damage you.  They are run by pure filth!

With Google messing about with Geo Location of DNS IP addresses, and listing accordingly, this will have a massive impact on a hell of a lot of Micro ISV’s and their rankings.  Particularly so if you’re hosting outside of the USA.

I cordially – no I enthusiastically invite SoftShite AKA SoftSea to go after me on this name calling.  Instead of being secret scumbags hiding behind email addresses that probably go into black holes – get on over here and test this in a court of law, grow a pair.  I welcome the opportunity!

But you won’t – will you?  Nope,  trash never do.  That’s why they steal.

That’s OK.  There are other options.

Even though I’m not the only person who’s woken up to this – I mourn that 98% of Micro ISV’s continue to support scum like this through submissions.  That a whole industry exits to assist in this submission.

That “experts” still advise people to submit to these HTML sewers.

That Micro ISV’s actually go as far as to defend these shysters.

I mourn because by doing that they are acting bloody stupid – and they aren’t stupid, just blind.

Sorry, the writing has been on the wall for a long time now.  There are plenty of warnings out there – not just me.  But evidence of your own eyes tells you more than I or anybody else can.

Now, if you ignore what you see for yourself – then I guess we deserve to submit to the crud that are download sites. That sites like SoftSea will continue to do as they please.

We become Sheeple, following along and led by sites like SoftSea who abuse us.

Can you imagine what they think of you?

If you think I’m being hard here – believe me my estimation on this is mild compared to the utter contempt the download sites have for our industry.

Scott Kane

Quote of the day:

“Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.”    Chesterton, Gilbert K.

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Robbie Burns wrote:

“The best-laid plans o’ mice an’ men Gang aft a-gley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain
For promised joy.”

Which means, if he was Australian and not Scottish: “Struth!  The bloody pub burned down, mate! Now what are we gonna do?”

I’ve been happy enough to talk on this blog, in a number of articles, about how writing content for my own websites propels them rather nicely into at least page one, if not in the first few results of page one, on Google painlessly and consistently.   So it’s only fair that I also talk about the converse – the opposite – when it happens. I’m referring to the sickening lurch that’s began just over a few months ago on Google.  Hard to spot because at first it’s not across the board.  It’s been slow, gathering momentum since April, into May and then the BOOM! in June.  What am I waffling on about?

Geo Location – Why Your DNS IP Address Suddenly Became A Liability

All of a sudden it was across the board – and getting worse from my perspective.  Keywords, even product named URL’s, became second class citizens in the US directory in particular.  Given that most of the worlds population of Internet buying persons are located in the USA this is a disaster.

It wasn’t just my sites either, so it’s not Google punishing me and others for some other reason – nope the slap down is because we’re “foreign” in respect of the US Google TLD.

Google clicks into my sites have dropped by over 80% from the USA, the UK and elsewhere.  But here in Australia they are massively up – which doesn’t help an ISV at all.  From what I can tell Google is ranking thus in the US Google TLD:

1. USA DNS
2. UK DNS
3. EU DNS
4. AU DNS (Australia and S.E. Asia and Pacific)
5. All the rest.

Now Google has used the geo location of the DNS IP for  a long time.  But all of a sudden this seems to have become the first consideration, then relevance as opposed to the previous relevance then geo location.

Google shares zero information on any of their changes, we all know that.  Instead we are left to run around like blind mice and it’s really made me lose my patience, for what it’s worth, with Google.

Due to the fact the Australia dollar had dropped 40% against the Greenback in January this year and because the economy was looking fouler than a chicken with no head I took the decision to move my websites to an Australian hosting company.  After my appalling experience with MoneyTemple MediaTemple late last year I decided to forgo my aspirations of hosting on a VPS till later as Linux guru I am not!

I’ve been delighted with my webhost CrucialParadigm in Sydney.  They are helpful, friendly and offer a good solid service.  For the first time I even have hosted clients on the server, which brings in another problem as those clients actually benefit from Google’s geo location dyslexia in that they target the Australian internet market directly.  But for my software sites, and even this blog, it’s not so good at all.

This week I made the painful decision to move my software site hosting back to the USA.  Happily CrucialParadigm have a US data centre.  Given it’s another server move I bit the bullet and ordered a Linux VPS.  While SliceHost is very appealing my afore mentioned Linux ignorance meant I needed a GUI to get things rolling.  So I’ve paid the extra for WHM and CPanel.  It was still tricky, Apache scripts for me are akin to black magic – especially when they mysteriously fail to apply and retain their edits.  But, the server is up and running, configured with some domains I don’t use in order to test and the painful process of moving everything across has begun.

Today is Saturday July 4th in Australia – we don’t celebrate independence day here, but Happy Independence Day to USA readers!!  So if you’re reading this just after it’s posted this blog is still on the Australian server.  However by Tuesday I’m hopeful it will be back in the USA.

Because of my Australian clients I have to keep the Australian server open, lest I create a whole new problem for them.  Given I only have a few clients this is an expensive proposition.  Gee – thanks bloody Google!

On the positive side I’ve learned a lot about configuring Linux servers, VPS’, WHM, CPanel, CNames and NS’ in the space of only a few days.  Which means, as interesting as that is, that again I’m not coding and it’s really getting my goat!  Thanks again Google, I hope this geo location makes you some money, as it’s certainly cost me enough by having to compensate for it.

Across on her blog, Sue Pichotta has a nice article on a fix for a bug in Firefox for sites that don’t always show the scrollbar in the browser.  It’s a simple fix too – Check it Out By Clicking Here.

Scott Kane

Quote of the day:
Life… is like a grapefruit. It’s orange and squishy, and has a few pips in it, and some folks have half a one for breakfast. – Douglas Adams

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PPC KEYWORD DEVELOPMENT

I think people sometimes try to over-think keywords for their PPC campaigns. The truth is that the Google AdWords Keyword Tool is a great starting point for keyword discovery. Since a majority of searchers use Google and its partner network, the idea is to ‘go to the source’ for kw lists based on actual user search queries. Simply input seed kw’s and Google will spit out additional relevant kw ideas. Access the Google Keyword Tool at the top of the kw list in any ad group.

Use the Search Query report to further expand and refine your kw lists. This report has been much improved, and now displays more granular data. Users of the new AdWords web interface will have noticed that Google now shows search queries within the management interface. For better efficiency, however, I still recommend pulling the data all at once from the reports section. Focus on search queries that have received conversions, rather than just impressions or clicks. Filter for queries with match type showing as ‘broad’ or ‘phrase’ and then add these as keywords into appropriate ad groups. Bid according to search query CPA and average CPCs.

Additionally, mine Google Analytics, Omniture, or other web analytics reporting systems for kw ideas. Just as with using Search Query reports, focus on (organic) kw’s that have resulted not only in clicks, but in conversions, goals, and measurable value. In Google Analytics, select Traffic Sources, then Keywords, then click on non-paid, and lastly select the Goal Conversion tab.

Lastly, use all 3 kw match types: broad, phrase, and exact. Using all 3 match types gives the advertiser greater visibility and control into campaigns. Add phrase and exact match versions for kw’s that show a high volume of impressions, clicks, cost or conversions – or for kw’s that are core to the products that you sell.

PPC AD CREATION & TESTING

Test Keyword Insertion (KWI) in your text ads. KWI automatically inserts the user’s search query into the text of the ad. KWI can be used in headlines or in lines 1-2. Test KWI cautiously, and only in ad groups that exclude high-volume, broad match keywords. Example headline: {KeyWord:Morphing Software}.

An often-overlooked detail is to set ad-serving to rotate. Ads must be rotated evenly in order to be tested properly against each other. AdWords defaults to serve higher-CTR ads more often than lower-CTR ads; this makes more money for Google at the expense of the advertiser. This option is found in Campaign Settings.

Lastly, remember ad text basics: highlight the advertiser value proposition; incorporate relevant ad group kw’s within ad text; use a compelling offer (e.g. Free 30-day Trial) and include a call-to-action or implied call-to-action (e.g. Learn how to improve your PPC campaigns – Free white paper).

PPC CAMPAIGN STRUCTURE

A simple PPC account structure benefits day-to-day navigation, management and bid optimization. Consider separate campaigns for breaking out geo-targets, differentiating between different target metrics, or for reporting purposes. Always run Content campaigns separately. This is acknowledged best practices, since Content is an altogether different medium vs. Search.

ADWORDS EDITOR

Download and use AdWords Editor (AE) for: bid optimization; ad creation and optimization; creating new campaigns; adding kw’s in bulk to multiple campaigns and ad groups; modifying destination URLs for conversion tracking, and much more. Download AdWords Editor here.

GENERAL APPROACH FOR EFFECTIVE PPC MANAGEMENT

Start simple and small, and go where the data takes you. PPC is an iterative activity. The data determines next steps. If you started with one campaign composed of five ad groups, expand the ad groups that show click and conversion activity and leave the others for later. Over time, advance to complex and large. Expand kw’s, ad groups and campaigns based on what has worked. In terms of time and effort, feed the winners and starve the losers. This approach will help you best focus your time and make you (or your client) more money!

—Terry Whalen from CPC Search, a paid search agency

About Terry:

Terry is a partner at CPCsearch, a full-service PPC Management firm that optimizes PPC campaigns on behalf of its clients. CPC Search is a Google AdWords Qualified Company. Prior to running CPC Search, Terry led marketing initiatives at Citrix’s GoToMyPC.

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Being a “micro” anything tends to be a tough road to hoe.  Software, where micro is actually pretty common, is no different.  On this blog I frequently toss established wisdom out the window, throw the baby out with the grey and sullied bathwater of software history and in general take careful aim at the standard Micro ISV marketing techniques – and fire.

Frankly I like most Micro ISV’s.  They’re generally pretty decent people, smart, innovative, honest and it has to be said, prone like the rest of us, to accept some things on face value or because “…it’s what’s done.”

From time to time I get the odd comment on this blog, private email and ribbing on some online forums for my stance on things, like, you know – download sites… 

Yes.  Those pesky peddlers of  pustules of Google Adsense and their puerile self righteous justifications for existing at all.  We all love them, except me apparently…

I don’t want to go into the full justifications of my stance in this article.  The curious can certainly use the search feature of this blog by searching for “download sites” without the quotes or use the site-map who’s link is in the footer of every page to browse the category dedicated to them.

The Download Sites Solution Response From Matt Cutts

Rather I’d like to cover two issues which are related to download sites, quite apart from my usual rants on the subject.  Those are Integrated Marketing as an mISV and Matt Cutts who usually says some pretty interesting things about SEO, but in this instance, seriously Matt, is guessing at best.  I’ll explain why presently.  First though – listen to Matt’s YouTube Q and A on the subject:

There ya go – the video is on the left.  Listen to it and then we’ll talk a little about this, what I consider to be, rather flippant and badly researched response on Matt’s behalf…

First – Google must love download sites as customers or sellers rather – of the content of their ad network.  I mean, nothing comes close to the amount of Adsense these guys can fit per pixel on any page.  I hate to think what they’d do if computer monitors were theater sized!  Now, I’m not implying that issue affected Matt’s perspective on this at all here.  Nope.  Rather I’m implying Google doesn’t punish more of these sites than they do already simply because, well, they’re economic pragmatists.

What Matt Cutts has done here is answer a “It doesn’t hurt…” by submitting and listing on low quality download sites.  That’s an absolute.  The problem with absolutes is nothing generally is and can be defined as “absolute”.  It’s more complex than the relatively glib reply Matt gives to the Richard M whose asking the question (and for the record I’m not Richard M, though I do know who Richard M is – Hi Richard!).

An Answer To Matt Cutts’ Vague Response

History shows us in recent times that the penalty for linking to low grade sites is indeed a heavy one – and not just from Google as Yahoo using Site Advisor do a similar thing.  If the download site has malware a number of micro ISV’s have had their sites listed as containing malware erroneously due to the download site or sites.  It’s a carry over effect.  This alone wouldn’t have been hard for Matt to research.  There are specific cases of this in articles on this blog.  Guilt through association.

I’d call the search engine telling people your site contains malware when it does not because of an association with a crummy download site an effect on your ranking.

Second is the proclivity of some download sites to:

1. Rip bleeding chunks of your content off of your sites web pages because they see themselves above decency and international copyright laws.
2. Creating sub-domains of your product name and ranking above many micro ISV’s for their own product.

That this hurts is obvious from search engine rankings of products from micro ISV’s.  If – and they do – download sites outrank many, some whom I know quite well, on important keywords then you’re losing the battle.  You need that customer or downloader on your website so you can sell to them.  Not have a download site feed them GoogleGobble by way of Adsense.

That’s my bone of contention with Matts reply here.  He didn’t research and answered a rather vague question somewhat, well, even more vaguely.

Which brings me to, what I see, as my own solution.  That I need a solution, given I don’t submit to any download sites barring Download.com and don’t permit the others to link to me – under pain of a PAD file from hell – is case in point that download sites are a blight on the search engine landscape.  They can and do on occasion beat me on some keywords.  A temporary problem as a rule if a little common sense SEO is applied.  Anyway…

Integrated Marketing

I’m pretty open about many of things I do when writing here on this blog.  But rest assured I never, and probably never will, open up on everything I do.   I make no apologies for that.  However there is something I aimed to do for some time and in recent times put into practice and that is “Integrated Marketing”.

This is a different approach to most micro ISV’s, but it seems to be starting to pay off.  Usually Google gives one a link on page one if you are relevant and optimized to the subject and you don’t try and scam them – and the market you are targeting isn’t enormous.

I state here again I loathe black hat SEO people and am not so fond of those who call themselves “white hat” or “blue hat” either.  At the same time, if you’re building a company, and not just a product, it’s reasonable for sites to be listed on page one that belong to you as not one site for the keyword but two or more.

Note that each sells a different but complimentary set of products, they have in some instances the same customers, but in other instances other customers.  So the relationship is a good fit.  They integrate.

Before I go into specific details and explain myself it’s fair to point out that in all instances quoted here I did not start with a “fresh domain name” in any instance.  I always “break a domain name in” before using it by registering well in front and providing some basic details to the search engines for them to get use to the site – to date that’s mean no sandbox treatment from the search engines.  Thus ranking to page one isn’t as hard as it would be, once the site goes fully online with content, as it would be if you registered a domain, built the site and waited within the space of a week.  As always it’s about planning ahead – we’re in business right?  That takes planning.  Something I learned after breaking every single business bone in my body – many time over.

Now, the whole structure is not complex, most of it is entirely automated and the results are starting to speak for themselves.  Searching for certain keywords on certain products will result often in two websites, both owned by me, on page one speaking about those products or related and complimentary products -  and that does not include this blog.  In some instances it’s three sites and in many instances spread over several pages due to different types of content.  This is actually a good thing as not every “page summary” in a search engine page appeals to all people, I’ve noticed, though they be entirely connected and related to the same search word.

Again, before I go further, keep in mind that if you have only one product this technique is going to be a little tougher.  Not impossible.  It’s hardly revolutionary but it is sorely overlooked by most.  Also – not all of the products are software, in the case of CDROO it’s audio files of music and sound effects.

So, apart from “Program X”, which I won’t name here at this time, the structure is something like the above.  To understand why this diagram is significant to this discussion though one has to understand what each site does.

TwoCan Software

That’s the company name.  Yes – we do know how to spell Toucan!!  It’s a hammy play on words indicating that two people, my partner and I, can get this darn thing off the ground. 

Updated 29 June 09 10:49 am: The domain name for the company site is TwoCanSoftware.com for those who went to look and found something less than desirable by not adding Software to TwoCan my apologies.  Previously the shorter domain name was just a squatter. Now seems the usual scum and villiany have moved into the shorter URL.

TwoCan on first glance appears to be a website much like other “company” websites that lists all the products a company sells.  Appearances are one thing, but that’s not why it was conceived or created.  TwoCan is also an aggregate of RSS feeds of every one of the product sites – and including this blog – which works wonders with what we’re talking about in relation to integrated marketing.  While it aggregates it does not just pull in the whole RSS feed, but rather the summary of each post and links directly back to the product sites blog article.  Forming a a rather effective bond between it and it’s products, while serving as a nice resource for folks not specifically interested in a specific product, but in general or related issues.  TwoCan does not rank at or near number one in any search engine directory.  It’s not supposed to, that’d be futile as the product sites should do that, that is their purpose.   However TwoCan is increasingly appearing on page one, albeit towards the middle or bottom of the page, and that’s a good thing.  It gives searchers two chances to find us – and I’m pleased to say has been known to push the odd download site off of page one and onto page two where they belong… 

PerforMixer

PerforMixer, compared to the other sites and with the exception of “Program X”, is a relatively new site.  PerforMixer is suffering a bit of an age and nationality crises.  It seems Google has recently started ranking sites with a different IP address range to the TLD below those from the same TLD IP range as the search engine.  So, for example, PerforMixer does well in the Australian, New Zealand and South Pacific Google engines, but not as well in the US, CA and UK ones.  Google has always done this to some extent, but recently it’s become rather acute.  Not sure what’s going on there.  I may end up buying US IP addresses to resolve this if it becomes permanent.  PerforMixer is an interesting product in some respects.  I predicted when I released it that it would be a slow seller.  It has met that prediction.  However it is a reasonably popular download and, probably because I’ve optimized in advance for it, receives a lot of search traffic from people looking for cracks, keygens and torrents for it.  So it’s no runaway success in sales, but seems popular enough to steal given that these search terms are a daily occurrence now in my logs on all my sites.

So, back to the subject, PerforMixer is on page one for most of it’s important keywords, number one of page one in many instances and then further down the page is TwoCan for the same or similar keywords.  Nice.

MixAction

The same story with MixAction.  MixAction comes in first for related keywords, then TwoCan for many of those is further down the page and then, more recently, the newest player in the game:

CDROO

Now, CDROO was created to sell royalty free music and sound effects to MixAction customers primarily, with a wider view towards podcasters and online video creators.  So it’s a good match and as it shares many keywords with MixAction it appears in an increasing number of instances for keywords on page one, often below TwoCan.

Program X

Another multimedia product and ultimately with a goal towards becoming our most important in many regards.  The same technique as above to be used over time.

OK, that’s the beginnings of Integrated Marketing.  Not download sites, they are not party of the plan beyond download.com which automatically means their affiliate sites.  Just articles, content and roll your sleeves up hard work.  A drovers dog could do it in fact!

Scott Kane

Quote of the day:
Sometimes people are layered like that. There’s something totally different underneath than what’s on the surface. But sometimes, there’s a third, even deeper level, and that one is the same as the top surface one. Like with pie. – Joss Whedon, Zack Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, and Jed Whedon

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The 43 Points And What’s Right Or Wrong With Them.

1. “Your PageRank. It’s irrelevant.”

I’ve stated here on this blog many times that PR rank is irrelevant to ranking, but your page rank I do not believe is irrelevant. Sadly the geeky days of deep research on the Net where people clicked beyond page one of the search engine results are over. If you’re not on page one you might as well be invisible and most businesses are indeed invisible – sadly those businesses include most micro ISV’s.

Being visible is relevant. What I see as I observe people using, say Google, is they tend to pay attention to the first three results on page one (yes, I’ve been known to peer over peoples shoulders in offices, libraries etc). The lower down page one you are, if they are engaged in this practice, the fewer clicks you are likey to get depending on your target group.

People who researched at school (late secondary and tertiary) *seem* (this is anecdotal not empirical) are more inclined to research deeper. Joe and Jill SixPack are not. These are the instant gratification sector of the community and therefore a majority on the net these days. If you are aiming at these folks then lower than the first few results on page one is going to have some effect on clicks. However… It’s relative. Being on page one – somewhere – is certainly better than being on page two or three or three thousand and fifty six. Not all my websites pages rank on page one for all the search terms. But for major ones most of them do. With many ranking in the first three. It’s not irrelevant. I’d be inclined to rephrase the first item here as “Don’t drive yourself to distraction about PageRank but you can’t afford to treat it as irrelevant either.” Like it or not any industry involved in marketing (all really) follows the tenets of the Real Estate industry of Location, Location, Location.

2. “How many sales, clicks or conversions you’re getting.”

Profitability crushes all these metrics. I can’t fault this. The only real value to this data is for comparative reasons such as A/B testing, or if you’re a consultant marketer who needs stat’s to impress their clients in order to sell the effectiveness of their services.   For micro ISV”s I tend to see, and it’s not a new trend, it stretches back to the 1990′s, a focus on how many downloads you get and the ratio of downloads to purchases.  This I would argue is irrelevant to most of us. It’s sales as a whole that are important.  Whether the business is profitable, expanding as and where you want it to, and of course how big your target market is to begin with.  Small vertical markets often generate higher download to sales ratios, which renders the often quoted “industry standard” of approximately 1.3% meaningless.  In some markets, for example one I was in at one point, the ratio was greater than 3%.  But that 3% wasn’t necessarily profitable.

3. “The latest marketing gimmick. Fundamentals > everything else.”

This is a classic example of black, white and gray. Some marketing “gimmicks” are only “gimmicks” because they are new – the latest – and ultimately a select few settle down to become stock standards. As in all things in life it’s a judgement call. Judgement calls are best tempered with testing, experience and an open mind.  RSS was widely viewed as a gimmick.  Web 2.0 was largely viewed as a gimmick.  Pet Rocks were largely viewed as a gimmick. All of these “gimmicks” have made a lot of people a lot of money.

4. “Achieving meaningless monetary milestones. Money is worthless unless it has a purpose.”

OK. This, as a philosophy is actually quite sound. As a philosophy.

As a guiding principle for living your life I like it, I subscribe to it. But make no mistake – if you don’t have milestones, yet want to achieve, then money or anything else you value is meaningful providing it takes you to where you want or need to go.

I shudder at the “Business Secrets” pyramid peddling, get rich schemers and their “Steps to…” <insert favourite scheme>  too. But we can’t dismiss common sense because an idiot with a penchant for over simplification (the pyramid sellers) with another simplification. Moderation, focus and balance are meaningful and like it or lump it, unless you’re aiming to be a shirtless pauper you’re going to have a time of it in this world if you want to move forward in business, unless you have set goals and an idea of where you want to be and how to get there. Perhaps that’s indeed what he means by “meaningless”?

5. “That feeling of guilt if you work less than other people. Only feel guilty for working too much. “

As a rule for workaholics this is quite sound. As a rule for the slacker masses – its’ an Epic Fail!

Horses for courses. You have to decide where you fit on this one.

6. “The keywords in your meta tags. Again, irrelevant.”

OK. This is completely wrong. Simple A/B testing for those who like evidence will quickly reveal why. Meta Tags are still important in SEO if they match natural content.

Now natural content means naturally written and not stuffed full of meta keywords in order to reinforce the tags – the old black hat SEO technique. Rather it’s the Meta Tags that should compliment the content because the content is about that topic. It does work, works even better on our sites if those Meta Tags are reinforced to more information on the topic on the site related to those tags via links that contain those keywords.

It’s very easy to simplify these things and make sweeping statements one way or another. But even in software development there is a finite limit to simplification. So it goes with these idea of meta tags. The search engines do use them, they are important but they’re not the end all and be all they were in the 1990’s and we’ve got the scammers, pyramid sellers and search engine spammers to thank for that.

The test? If you were a blogger you’d be able to test it daily… 

7. “What could happen. Care about what is happening.”

OK. This is where my inner soothe comes out.

I can guarantee that I can predict what will happen if you don’t care about what is happening.

Epic Fail!

But there is nothing unhealthy or bad about looking to the future and learning from experience the likelihood of a given outcome. We have names for such things and for good reason. “Budgets” are, whether personal, business or government, an exercise in “what could happen”. They are a fiscal forecast. It’s similar with product. If you can’t predict possible trends, or don’t try, into the future, based on past experience and current trends you’re not proactively running your business. As humans we shape our destiny. When we are young the future is indeed all rosy generally. It’s shiny and new. It’s “all out there”. As we grow older we have these pesky darn things called “experiences” and urgent, painful encounters with “reality” and “disappointment”.

After several decades of these one learns that to avoid a good many of them, never all as we are only human and “sh%$ happens” – we do this by “What if Analysis”, or “What could happen”. It is one of the main reasons why political figures and business leaders are generally, with a few very good and esteemed exceptions, leaning to the gray and wrinkly side of “older”.

8. “Search engine optimization in general. Seriously: set up a blog, install some plug-ins – boom! You’re done.”

I don’t want to rain on anybody’s parade here – but er – no.According to a 2008 survey by Technorati, which runs a search engine for blogs, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned, left to lie fallow on the Web, where they become public remnants of a dream — or at least an ambition — unfulfilled.

Now. To put that into some kind of context. Most blogs are buried, plug-ins or not, way down deep in the pages of obscurity – pick any search results of any engine. To get out of that electron pile of trash one has to post consistently and with purpose.

Google, as an engine, in particular, is not stupid – not so sure about the Microsoft engines – and if you’re not producing content crafted to the topic, aren’t using specific tags as keywords consistently and not planning for your results you simply won’t get there. Any idea how many “starting a micro isv blog” blogs are out there in the Google results? 13,900 on Google. Yet only a tiny fraction are read. The most notable are on page one – generally – not sure at all how this blog got there Like anything, point being, it takes work, maintenance and planning. Initially, particularly at the start of a trend, you’ll luck out.

But if you think by setting up a blog, tossing in some plug-ins and “boom!” you’re done is based on any kind of reality in the known universe – then I have this amazing bridge with view of a unique opera house and harbour I’d love to sell you.

9. “Perfection. Nothing’s perfect.”

Probably very true, but don’t tell my wife I said that.

10. “Launching something flawlessly. Good chance you’ll fail to do so if you try.”

There’s an awful lot of sense in this. But in trying, if you keep the premise in mind, you can realistically aim to launch doing the best you can. Being half hearted or “whatever” is as much a recipe for “failure” as trying to not have one. It’s about moderation and it’s also about accepting that so called “failures” are a learning opportunity. Treating each as an opportunity for self or business improvement is essential, which in a sense renders failures as successes.

11. “How fast your get listed in Google. Spend a couple of weeks blogging and your posts will start getting indexed within a couple of hours. It’s not that special nor should it concern you”.

OK. Yes and no, again. I know people who say it takes 3 months to rank or even get listed in Google. Others are more generous and say three weeks. I don’t like the number three. For this reason I make damn sure it takes approximately seven days to get listed and rank for something. Often, with care and planning, on page one and in some instances number one. It need not concern you if you follow the fundamentals:

Register domains months in advance of launching.

Prepare your content in advance of launching.

Have an XML sitemap ready and submitted to Google and other engines.

Have a nice starters pack of content related pages – articles in my opinion produce better results for ranking than sales and features or benefits pages (but you need them too).

Track and tweak your results.

This stuff, like many things in business, is like playing chess. You need to be aggressive, within healthy parameters, you need to plan several moves in advance and you need to know what your pieces (tools) do and how to best use them.

12. “Submitting to general directories. If there are some niche directories you can submit to then consider submitting to them, but those deals where you get 200+ submissions for $5 are a waste of money (and I’ve tested quite a few services).”

No argument from me on this one.

13. “Making sites based on fads. Arcade sites, proxies, MySpace resource sites. If you can start a side that creates a fad then you can get some quick cash, but being the follower will yield lesser returns (better to just focus on a sustainable business).”

Nor this one. The last in isn’t the brightest because the first in are invariably the brightest. But as always – there are exceptions.

14. Retirement. Care about doing something you’d want to do for the rest of your life. The idea of just getting to a certain age and saying “I’m done” terrifies me.”

He’s young. He’ll get over his terror.

15. “Blackhat techniques. Spamming, scamming and unethical practices are not sustainable and karma will come back to haunt those people involved in those practices. Build something you’re proud of.”

Absolutely agree. If it was left to me there wouldn’t be any Blackhat SEO idiots (or not so idiots) in the world. It’s not up to me (which is arguably a good thing) but don’t do it. It’s a race to nowhere.

16. “Recessions. Businesses that make smart decisions don’t go bust. Some businesses have some bad luck, and there will always be some risk but if you’re profitable, are good with finances and you’re respected then you’re not going anywhere.”

OK. The guy who wrote this across on MellowBusiness is experiencing his first recession. I’ve lived through three. Oh but it was so simple!

The reality is that each recession is different in as many ways as it’s the same as those preceding. It’s the differences that kick you in the guts.

It’s not bad luck.

You can be a wizard with finances, profitable and respected and still suffer an Epic Recession Based Fail! Ask any of the bodies jumping out windows on Wall Street in 1929.

Recessions are the financial equivalent of volcanos, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and bushfires. We know what causes them, but lack the tools (some would say will) to fix them. You can mitigate for a recession but you can’t prevent the kind of things that occur outside of your direct business or life control. Sadly those things are indeed the things that take out some businesses in a recession. In a depression they take out many or even most. It’s unfortunate but it has nothing to do with good or bad luck. In fact – my argument to point 7 above applies here too.

17 “How much money other people are making. You are not other people. Hearing about success can be inspirational but if you need other peoples success to reaffirm the direction you’re taking then you’re not following your own desires.”

How much money other people are making is indeed irrelevant largely except in the context of self measurement for improvement. So on this we tend to agree.

We feel happy when people approve of us.

But I do not agree that other people reaffirming you is a bad thing or that you should not seek it. You are a human being. Humans are gregarious tribal critters who thrive and indeed prosper on the affirmations of others.

Don’t hang by the thumbs for approval, but also, you have a right to be happy and being reaffirmed can indeed make you feel happy. Feeling happy = good. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!

Easy rule of thumb. Reaffirm others as you would have others reaffirm you.

18. “Quick bucks. Spending $8, building a quick site and selling it for $30 may seem like an easy $22. But then again, you probably spend at least 3-4 hours building and selling it. May as well work at McDonalds. It can be fun to mess around with this stuff, but don’t expect to build a business out of it.” No argument here.

19. “Pleasing everyone. You won’t be suited for everyone. Be yourself, do things your way and similar people will find you.”

Tell that to the hopefuls on FaceBook.

20. “Your search engine rankings fluctuating. Your rankings move around and will always move around. 99% of the time when there has been a significant drop in rankings my sites have recovered a couple of days later.”

Extremely true -but then all of us know only to well of the those Google Horror stories where a site simply disappears for no easily discernable reason.

Be proactive.  Don’t stress unnecessarily, but being cavalier won’t help much if Google decides you’re damaged property.

21. “The latest information product launch. Every now and then an info product with good info will launch. Don’t get sucked into the hype machine every few weeks though. Anything that provides real value will be re-launched.”

Absolutely!  Totally agree.

21. “Making everything business-y. I strictly use Facebook for personal use. No business at all. Don’t feel pressured to use every web app/tool for business. Sometimes its nice to just browse Facebook idly to see what my friends have been doing. The internet is more than just a source of income. It can be mighty fun to just be a user of it.”

I use Facebook and Twitter for both.  No reason why you can’t do the same.  There are no absolutes here.

22. “High paying Adsense keywords. Ugh, I forgot that this is still around. You will not make money just because you put the keywords student loans on a page with Adsense. ”

Yup.  That’s common sense.

23. “Sucking the profit dry. Most sites can earn more money than they’re currently making BUT that doesn’t mean they should. Google could sell front page ads for millions of dollars a year, but it’d hurt the user experience and people would hate them for it. Think about the experience the user has.”

Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t either.  When I was young I had lofty ideals too.  That was before mortgages, children, medical expenses that invariably grow as you get older and a plethora of other life cost factors.

Use common sense, always, but if you’ve got it “flaunt it!’

24. “Buying inbound links. Make content that is worth linking too. It’s a bit harder but it’s free and is not a waste of time.”

Depends on your definition of “buy”.  A free copy of a product to a blogger?  If you think you can justify the return – the blogger has the reads of the right target audience – for example then I’d say yeah, buy.

25. “Making generic “make money online” blogs. Ugh, please, just don’t do it. So…much…crap. If you have some unique insight or “angle” then go ahead and create the site, but I’ll stab the next person who writes another post about “7 ways to make $1 per day from Twitter!”

He’s right on the money here.  Get rich quick schemes are always pyramids.  No matter how many times they declare in their sales text they are not (me thinks you protest to much applies with these kind of scammers marketers)

27. “Badmouthing other people. Takes so much energy. If someone is legitimately scamming or doing something illegal then post about it. But most of the time people badmouth others for personal reasons. “

Except when you’re bad mouthing “Get Rich Quick” pyramid schemes on the net. 

28. “What everyone says. Find a few people you ‘connect’ with who are doing what you want to do and then just follow their advice. There are lots of paths you can take but if you don’t choose one you won’t take one. ”

Also referred to “eating everything you see.”  The internet is a wonderful tool of human ingenuity.  Like all such tools of human ingenuity it’s infested with more nonsense than the stars in the galaxy of Andromeda.  Pinch of salt.

29. “Knowing everything. There are people with 200+ RSS feeds in their RSS reader. No one should need to know that much current information. Subscribe to the key players in the industry and that’s it. I subscribe to 2 video shows, 2 podcasts, 4 business blogs, 1 tech blog and 1 gaming blog. You should be excited when a new item is in your RSS reader.”

Moderation is a powerful discipline.  No argument here from me.

30. “Being everything. You can’t do everything really well, so just outsource what you suck at.”

But ensure you are honest in determining what you suck at.  Some folks have zero self confidence, others have to bloody much!  If in doubt – ask some friends on colleagues that can be trusted to be honest.  No, your Mum, your wife, your girlfriend or anybody else who thinks the sun shines out of some orifice you possess is not a good resource for this.

31. “Being bigger than you are. I’d rather deal with a home business than a faceless corporation. Most people are like that. Stop worrying about being a small business – embrace it. ”

True enough – so would I.  But you’d be amazed how many people would not.  Particularly in business to business sales.  Your judgement.  Don’t lie, but there’s no need to sell people on the virtues of your “micro” ISV if they’re not actually asking either. 

32. Glitz and glamour. You don’t need HD video camera or the top editing software to create online videos. Look at some of the popular stuff on YouTube. Find the true core of everything and focus on that.”

Nope.  There’s a reason why badly made videos work on YouTube.  The popular bad ones are funny and/or are not selling product.  If you are selling a product you’d better be reasonably competent.  People have been educated by the media to demand nothing less.  YouTube in this instance is not a good example to follow in terms of “content quality”.

33. “Internet marketing”. Internet marketing is just the offspring of regular marketing which has been around for many, many years. Learn about some real, fundamental marketing for a better understanding of why things work. ”

Nope.  Not entirely.  Internet marketing in general is extremely different to offline marketing.  Something the media companies have discovered and failed to act on and it’s been at their immanent peril.  Yes, by all means read about fundamental marketing.  But the internet is about NOW.  Offline marketing is more often about “shortly”.

34.  “Tool X. Stop caring about the tools (blogs, Twitter, forums etc) and start focusing on building a business that provides continual value, has assets, is profitable, gets repeat customers/visitors etc.”

Well now, hold on a tick.  A tool is a tool.  Use a tool wisely and be moderate in how you choose to use it.  A tool that takes up more time than it produces results clearly isn’t working for you.  But that doesn’t mean drop the tool.  Twitter isn’t a great tool, for me, for blogging, but it works very well for things like politics – believe it or not.  I can see the next Australian election campaigns at the Federal and Victorian state level being conducted heavily on Twitter.  It will work well for those who get a handle on how it should be done – and lousy for those who use their “minders” to do the Tweeting. 

35. “Being who you “should” be. Never fall into the trap of being who you should be. If you’re yourself then your instantly unique in your marketplace, don’t have to pretend (which makes things a lot easier) and you will attract people who are like you. It’s really a no-lose situation. ”

As a general yardstick I think this makes good sense.  However – if you’re a sloppy, bad mouthed SOB and that’s how you act on the net in respect of your business it’s a pretty fair bet you need to make some adjustments there.

36. “Negative people. Don’t waste your time with peoples whose glass if half empty. I believe most people choose to be unhappy just because its easier to relate to most people with complaints. You don’t want to know those people.“

Yes, you do want to know them.  Not everything they say is complete negative nonsense.  Balance, as in all things, is required.  Glass half full types can at times be so optimistic they fail to see the smoke for the fire – and as a consequence all to easily get burned.

37. “Anything that doesn’t fit with your life plans. If you want to be a real estate agent but don’t want to do any cold calling find a solution to that problem, don’t compromise on your life (by the way, the book How To Get More Referrals Now! covers information about that). “

Oh yeah!!  This is so true it should be twitted, tweeted, FaceBooked, Googled, YouTubed and RSS fed as mandatory to all micro ISV’s.

Face it.  The number of micro ISV’s who conduct zero marketing, scoff at the need for marketing, cling to outmoded, outdated and often fictional theories on marketing – or worse – base their beliefs on marketing on how they, technical people, respond to marketing is positively overwhelming.  They are their own worst enemies.  Which is, of course, wonderful for the rest who strive to learn more and don’t rely on happy accidents, invariably causing them to erupt in peels of laughter – all the way to the bank.

Actually – scratch what I said about telling people. 

.

38. “Word count. Don’t dilute the quality of content with the quantity of words. “

Can’t disagree.  Though as one of those people who accidently ranks as one of the wordiest people around (read waffle) I find it hard to imagine anybody concentrating on this to begin with.

39. “Control. Don’t let your controlling nature get in the way of growing your business. Delegate work to others and let them make decisions. Let go. ”

Hard lesson for tech types, but none the less very true and very important.

40. “Time suckers. If people are unfairly sucking your time, cut em loose. Give people a chance, but there are those who will take advantage of your attention – don’t let them.”

Sadly so.  The same goes for organizations and groups of people.  I learned this the hard way.

41. “Internet marketing newsletters. Occasionally their might be good content in these but I find most of the time they’re just promoting products. If a product is that amazing/important you’ll hear about it at some point.”

Again this is sad but true.  I receive only two these days.  One of those is set to go.

42. “What you hear in forums. Misinformed forum user X and misinformed forum user Y are not good business advisors. Forums can house good discussion but remain (a) sceptic.”

I didn’t realize the original writer of these 43 points had spent anytime on the Business of Software forums. 

43. “Convincing people. If you provide quality content people will want to give you money. Convincing people is becoming a thing of a past.”

Yes, that’s right.  Please do not convince people of anything in relation to selling your products online.  It is a thing of the past.  Please stand back while myself and others concentrate on convincing them instead… 

I can’t agree with this.  Convincing people is not a thing of the past.  There is certainly a Gen Y trend that does not tolerate the traditional marketing pushed at Gen Baby Boomer and Gen X.  But that’s not the same thing at all.  Persuasion has anthropological and bio-cultural roots.  If it didn’t Gen Y’s theories on advertising wouldn’t have any currency amongst Gen Y.  FaceBook would be empty, Google would be unsearched, blogs would be unread and the sale of mobile (cell) phones would plummet overnight.

I’d like to also compliment the original author on what I felt to be an excellent and well thought out article.  Kudos to him!

Scott Kane

Quote of the day:

There’s no present. There’s only the immediate future and the recent past. – George Carlin

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I wax lyrical on this blog about the fact that I firmly believe content is not only powerful but essential to micro ISV’s in order to succeed in their endeavour.  I’ve stated before that submitting to download sites is not marketing.  It’s merely a cop out.  And we all adore a bloody good cop out – eh?

There’s no doubt it’s hard work writing content.  But once you start you’d be amazed at how easy it actually becomes, yet few ISV’s ever get to this point.  It’s about thinking outside the box.  Content is merely information about our product or service presented in an informative or even entertaining way.  We technically already have the content – it’s in our brain as we have domain knowledge – or should – in respect of our product or service.

No domain knowledge?  “Yer doin’ it wrong!”

It is hard work, but it’s not impossible work.  It has amazing results, we see those results everyday and sadly fail to consider what they actually are – results.  For example think about your favourite websites.  Why do you visit them all the time?  It’s probably a fair bet it’s because they have content, frequently updated content most likely and that content is related to your specific interest or interests.

Product Sites Without Content Is Like A Naked Turtle – Skin, Bones, But No Shell

On my product sites I have blogs, operating exactly the same way as this one, though not in all instances called a “Blog”.  CDROO calls it “News Releases” which includes articles on new product as they are released and articles related, in the case of that site, to royalty free music, podcasts and videos.  As you probably know CDROO is a relatively new site so the articles there are limited in number.  But the method used on CDROO is the same as the method used on MixAction and the other sites.  The reason those sites rank so well and so easily for a ever growing list of keywords and phrases is the content.  You can actually watch your visits grow as you post articles – content.

Across on CDROO, for example, today I posted an article titled “Music, A Heartbeat For Your Videos And Podcasts“   You can read it if you’re curious by Clicking Here

It’s not in depth, it’s not the same as the kind of articles I write here on this blog.  It’s purely explanatory and offers some elementary reasons for including music and sound in podcasts, videos and other multi media productions including live theater.

If you’re not publishing articles, content, regularly, you are missing an amount of traffic that would surprise if not render you rather aghast.  I wince when I read or hear mISV’s claim they are not interested in capturing clicks for certain key phrases from Google, related directly to thier product, when I, stupidly, contact them to inform them that I’m getting their traffic here on this blog.

What am I talking about?

From time to time I’ll write a little article here for a product produced by a fellow micro ISV.  Those articles all to frequently outrank their sites on those keywords.  The only exceptions are the handful who write content themselves.

But ranking isn’t important unless that ranking leads to clicks – right?

Sure.  But that’s the point, I wouldn’t know those articles ranked unless I saw those clicks in my logs.  I have no reason to go looking for them until I start seeing them month in month out coming here.  In time those results wane as I’ve only written one article and other savvy marketers in that domain marketplace will write articles consistently related to the subject.  So in time they, with no link to those ISV’s and often competing, end up dominating the result in many instances.  Suggesting, clearly, regular dynamic content is not only powerful, but bloody well essential.

I’m sure it’s an experience other bloggers and readers of this blog who do similar things  are all to familiar with.  People are typing sentences into the engines and those sentences will match sites that have matching phrases and prhase combinations.  If you don’t match them – even if you’re optimized for the keyword it’s more often than not the case that somebody else will out rank you in the results.

Why be number 3 when you can easily be number 1?  Why be on page 2 or 3 of the results (or page 157!!!) when you can be page one in position 1, 2 or 3 and in the case of my own products frequently all three positions because of how my sites are setup to cross feed each other when and where such a cross feed is valuable to my markets and my products - together.

Honest – if you’re not writing content, articles, features – you’re not running on all cylinders as a business.  The carburettor isn’t pumping the right amount of fuel and you’re not getting the horsepower your business is capable of achieving.  When our car is inefficient we get it serviced.  Don’t forget to service your business.  A lube job and oil change refreshes your car, it’s a mechanical spring clean.  Spring clean your websites with some content and measure it yourself.

Scott Kane

Quote of the day:
A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future. – Sidney J. Harris

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CDROO has been around awhile, previously selling talking books and offering voice over’s.   As we found ourselves moving back across to software development as our main focus we decided to turn it into a resource to support our main products, such as MixAction. CDROO is a store that sells royalty free music and sound effects.  This basically means that when you need a piece of music or special effect for a video, podcast, voice over or training tool you are able to buy professionally recorded music without having to worry about the complexities of obtaining performance rights.

One payment and you’ve got usage.  The content is produced either directly by us in our studio or specifically licensed directly from the artist with the negotiated royalty free licence being extended to you.  The thrust of the site is certainly related to theater sound producers, podcasters and video producers, but in a sense ISV’s are a combination of these, hence the relevance here.

Now, because it’s the internet and because we know so many people are, like us, boot strapping, we’ve kept the prices low.  Just enough to cover processing fees, server bandwidth and still make it worth both your and our while.

Limited Offer To Readers Of This Blog

We’re offering readers of this blog, until the 31st of July 2009, a 35% discount on anything in the CDROO store for use in their videos, podcasts and multi media productions.  All the audio is 100% Royalty Free, as already stated.  That means you can include it in a “significant* production of your own”.  To take advantage of it simply use the voucher “RecursiveISV” without the quotes when you fill out the checkout cart – hint – it’s the last textbox item on the form. The website URL is: http://www.cdroo.com or click the logo above.

*Significant is a term indicating you can’t resell the content on it’s own, the license doesn’t cover that.  However you can incorporate it freely as background music, title themes, audio punctuation etc in videos, podcasts etc.

Presently, as one might expect for such a new service, the catalogue is small, but it’s fair to say the focus is presently on quality and not quantity.  However there are a number of packages waiting in the background to be published there in the coming weeks and months.  Our goal is at least one audio package a month.  Later down the track, after we establish an appropriate method of payment that makes it worth our while to offer it, we’ll add the ability to purchase single tracks.  Right now we’ve bundled them into collections.

You’re not going to be able to purchase “Britney’s Bipolar Blather” there or “Pink’s Popular Platitudes” or other “known artists”.  The content is original, which at the end of the day is exactly what’s needed, the last thing you want in a video or podcast is somebody bopping and not paying attention to your message!

“But Music Is Subjective, It’s Not Good In Product Videos”

Yeah – I’ve heard that too, mostly from programmers strangely – but never from people who produce audio and adverts for a living.  Hmmmm?

It depends, to be honest.  For starters it’s supposed to be used as “spice” not ketchup.  There’s a reason the pro’s stand out when they use it – they grasp this.

Flooding your viewer or listeners ears with a stream of audio anarchy is not going to help you win anything.  But used as an introduction and then either pulled back – or out – of the mix is a technique you hear on radio and television everyday. The idea is to use it to focus on your message – not become Radio ISV1234.

It’s true enough that some people can be turned off something because they “don’t like the music”. No amount of salesman talk from me or anybody alters that.  So how come it works on radio, pro internet broadcasts and other places so damn effectively?

Because it’s used as spice – to reiterate.  Intro’s – extro’s (the word for the end of a multi media piece) and for punctuation where needed.  For Podcasts it’s absolutely essential but sad to say 99% of the time it’s done by either:

1. Using illegally a commercial artist’s work from the Top 40 – Epic Fail!
2. Using a terrible midi file with equally terrible sound fonts – Epic Fail!
3. It’s played full bore right through the whole piece.

Now, there are times it works when played through the whole piece – for example when what you’re demonstrating is in itself a multi media software tool, people expect it there.  But with your average video or podcast a little bit goes a long way and in turn lifts your work beyond the average, boring and ho-hum we’re exposed to in so many “rich media” productions in the Web.

Web 2.0 Is More Than Graphics And Social Networking

Web 2.0 is also about engaging the visitor – or customer.  Engaging them requires standing out from the crowd and doing something subtle but noticeably different.  In fact, I think, if we wanted a phrase to describe Web 2.0 for mISV’s it’d have to be something like “Subtle, but rich” which when you think about it covers the presentation, content and ethos of the most successful “Web 2.0″ sites.

It’s the age of wide spread broadband usage, the age of the “something else shiny just caught my attention” and frankly we need all the tools we can get.

OK.  This was the first time this blog has pitched a product.  Largely I don’t pitch here – even my own.  CDROO is primarily aimed at theater audio and podcasters, it’s not primarily aimed at ISV’s and I’m not pretending for a moment that it is.  But – this blog is focussed on starting up, it is focussed on web issues, ISV issues in general and to some extent my own business and discussion about it.  I’ve said here before, and it’s on the About page of the blog, that I don’t like Google adverts on blogs, that I prefer to sell product over clicks.  I also said that at some point I’d look at placing product where it was directly relevant.  Hence this post.

If you’re looking for a really good resource for ISV’s on the how to for creating product videos and voice over’s of your own for your company then you really should check out the folks across at ProCasts http://blog.procasts.co.uk/ and their blog.

If you’ve got any questions, concerns, issues or anything else in relation to CDROO, this post etc please feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly using the Contact Me link above.

Scott Kane

Quote of the day:
The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true. – James Branch Cabell

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