I’m sure it has crossed your mind once or twice; does commenting on blogs
really help your traffic? The simple answer, it depends on how you do it. It may be more beneficial for you to spend your time creating one well-written, useful blog post than leaving a hundred useless comments on random posts.
However, with a smart commenting strategy, you can attract the type of traffic you want.
In the Internet marketing industry, establishing relationships is the most effective way to increase your traffic. By adding comments to blog posts that have value, the blogger will begin to recognize your name. Through this growing relationship, they may eventually start sending you a significant amount of traffic.
So what exactly is “valuable” commenting? Consider the following suggestions:
- Read the post thoroughly and only make a comment if you have something interesting or important to say. And no, “what a great post” does not count as something important to say.
- Join in on existing conversations about the post. Add your own thoughts to the conversation after you have thoroughly read what is already present.
- Offer any additional resources where readers can find more information. The blogger will see you as a source of relevant information and value your comments.
- Choose one specific thing from the article to comment about and add some further insight into the topic.
If you use commenting as a way to develop relationships and stay active in the community of your peers, it can be a successful traffic strategy. If you use commenting as an easy way out of writing your own original, thoughtful content, you may find it falls short of your expectations.
So, now is your chance to share with us. What are your valuable thoughts on blog commenting as a traffic strategy?
Photo courtesy of john_a_ward
1 Comment »As the PPC display network is growing, so too is its spend. As PPC marketers we need to be sure that this spend is being directed in the right places.
So let’s picture this: You’re on a really tight Cost-Per-Lead (CPL) goal, and you notice a productive domain bringing in many conversions, but the CPL is just too high. Drat! You don’t want to exclude the entire domain, because you need to keep those leads coming in, but at a much lower cost.
How do you do this? As PPC Hero put it:
- You can delve into the domain on a URL level in order to exclude the specific URL’s that are driving up your cost but are not performing. You might also want to extend your date range to find URL’s you have been consistently unproductive on.
- An additional option would be to see if there is a theme or a pattern on the types of URL’s that are not converting well for you. Then, add negative keywords around that content to start excluding those types of sites.
As a reverse point, you not only can exclude URL’s but you can also add them to your account. If you notice certain URL’s that are super over achievers, don’t hesitate to add them as a managed placement. This way you can be sure your ad appears on the site.
So to sum up:
You exclude on the URL when the following criteria is met:
- You want to get a campaign or ad group’s Cost-Per-Lead down.
- The domain in question is bringing in many conversions but with a high cost-per-lead.
You don’t want to lose all the leads; you just want to reduce the cost of the leads. Believe me, it’s worth the hassle.
To learn more about the display network or to find out more about an effective PPC strategy, request a free PPC evaluation today!
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »
As an analytics nerd, I’ve always got my ear to the ground about new and upcoming features in my favorite analytics suite. Any change that provides me with more accurate and actionable data really gets me pumped up.
So yesterday, when Google announced a small change to the way visitor sessions are calculated in Google Analytics, I couldn’t wait to dive in and find out more!
Accurate analytics data is a vital component of any successful online marketing campaign, and understanding the way visits are interpreted by your analytics engine can provide a clearer understanding of how visitors interact with your site.
So what does that mean?
Essentially, this change allows Google Analytics to track attribution data more accurately. With the recent addition of Multi-Channel Funnels, which allow you to track the attribution of a conversion from the first-click source to the last-click source, more accurate attribution data means a more effective model of your users’ engagement with your site.
What actually changed?
To understand what any of this means, you need to know how Google Analytics used to track sessions compared to how they are tracking them going forward.
Before today, Google Analytics ended a session:
- When more than 30 minutes elapsed between pageviews
- At the end of the day
- When a visitor closed his or her browser
If the visitor returned to the site after one of those events occurred, a new session would begin.
Starting today, the following changes have been made to session tracking:
- A session is no longer ended when a visitor closes his or her browser window (which means a visitor can leave and come back within 30 minutes on a given day, and their session will continue)
- A session will now end when the traffic source for the user changes. This means that if an organic search visitor leaves the site and comes back through a Pay-Per-Click ad, his or her previous session will be ended and a new one will start.
- As before, the end of a day, or the passage of more than 30 minutes between pageviews, will cause a session to end.
Google has stated that this change may slightly increase the number of visits tracked to a site, but based on their research, “most users will see less than a 1% change”.
If you’ve seen any surprising changes in your analytics data since this change was implemented, please leave us a comment, or drop me a tweet @CliffyKOnline. I’d love to hear about how your data has been affected!
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »Check out this week’s edition of "Fathom That?!" to discover how your company can start utilizing your intranet better.
Today Kurt Krejny, Fathom's Director of Online Marketing, talks about how you can promote a unified and positive culture through your intranet. He also gives examples of how Fathom uses it’s intranet for things like sharing special thank notes to colleagues.
Check it out and see if you can better use your intranet.
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »Get ready to get down to business at the 2011 Midwest Social Media Summit on November 17, 2011 in Cleveland, Ohio. The day promises to be full of practical social media applications for business from some of the region’s top leaders. Fathom will be co-sponsoring and featuring 2 panel speakers at the event, Bill Balderaz and Kurt Krejny (see more below). The conference may be a few months away, but ...
Get a ticket package before Labor Day and save 20%!
The cost of an individual ticket is $495 $295 with the special "friends of Fathom" offer.
Register online now, or call Anne Hydock at 440-250-7041 or email ahydock@sbnonline.com.
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What: 2011 Midwest Social Media Summit, a one-day conference that shares practical social media applications for your organization.
When: November 17, 2011 | 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Where: Executive Caterers at Landerhaven, Mayfield Heights, OH (Get directions)
Who:
- Mary Henige, Director of Social Media & Digital Communications, General Motors
- Jeff Rohrs, VP of Marketing, ExactTarget
- Alan Gaffney, Director of Global eBusiness, Parker-Hannifin
- Curtis Danburg, Sr. Director of Communications, The Cleveland Indians
- Bill Balderaz, President of Fathom Columbus
- Kurt Krejny, Director of Online Marketing, Fathom
Why: Because if you don’t take part in the conversation about your brand, you’re missing out on revenue opportunities.
Cost (special rate) : $295 (mention the "friends of Fathom" rate)
Early Registration Bonus: 20% off all ticket packages purchased before Labor Day!
Contact: Anne Hydock | ahydock@sbnonline.com | 440-250-7041 | Fathom Discount Registration
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Update 11:27 a.m.: An online registration page is now available.
9/14/11: The keynote speaker has changed. It was previously Dennis Maloney, the VP of multimedia marketing at Domino’s Pizza.
9/22/11: The Cleveland Indians' speaker has changed. Previously it was Rob Campbell.
10/11/11: Special pricing update ("friends of Fathom")
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »
