I’ve been a long-time user of the Cligs URL shortening service, and have recommended them to countless colleagues and friends. Yet they’ve recently been experiencing technical issues that have forced me to jump ship to one of their competition.

There are two main issues, both of which remain unresolved.

1: Their shortened URLs don’t always work. This is a problem for a URL shortening service.

2 : When I try to edit a URL, I’m taken to a blog post on the Orange County’s news source. This means as little to you as it does to me.

Obviously the first issue is the killer. The Cligs service essentially does one thing. When that one thing stops working, you’re left with nothing.

I did contact the company yesterday, but don’t have the time to wait for a reply. And I’ve now switched to bit.ly, whose interface and statistics are, it has to be said, a whole lot slicker.

Had I been paying for a subscription to Cligs, even a very small monthly fee, I would have emailed them about the issue, and would probably have waited longer for a fix. Even paying as little as $1 per month would have effectively bought my patience, and the income that Cligs would receive might help ensure that technical issues are dealt with a little quicker.

Sometimes the price you pay for free is your patience.

Google recently began beta testing a new product specific ad format with a select group of their advertising customers.

The new product ads are not intended as a replacement for the traditional AdWords text ads, and the two ad types will appear together in some sort of expanded “sponsored links” area.

According to an email sent by Google to participating advertisers, the new product ads will feature “product specific information directly in the ad such as price and product image.”

Only advertisers who use Google Base will be able to utilize this new ad format, as the content of the ads will be pulled directly from advertisers’ Google Base feeds.

Similarly, advertisers using the new product ads will not bid on keywords, rather the “keywords” will be taken from the text and descriptions contained in advertisers’ Google Base feeds.  Product ads will be triggered to appear when a user’s search query closely matches information contained in an advertiser’s Google Base product feed.

Google will also be significantly changing its advertising pricing model with the new product ads.

Unlike with Google’s current text ads, advertisers will not pay every time someone clicks on one of their ads, but rather only when a “qualified conversion” takes place.

Similar to setting a maximum CPC for each keyword, advertisers using product ads must set a commission amount they are willing to pay Google for each conversion.  Like keyword bids, Google will use the commission amount to determine ad rank and placement.

According to the Google email which details the product ad format, “Ad Rank = Commission × Quality Score.  The quality score takes into account the relevance of your product to the user’s query, conversion rate of the query and the matched product ad on Google, your account history, and other relevant factors.”

This new product ad program is likely an attempt by Google to counter the challenge posed by Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing.

Many online shoppers entering product-specific search queries have found that Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, offers more relevant, practical ads than does Google.  With the new product ads, which will include more  detailed, product specific information, Google hopes to provide online shoppers with more useful, product-targeted ads.

It also goes without saying that Google hopes the ads will open up a whole new advertising revenue stream.

It looks like the search engine battle is heating up just in time for summer.

Yesterday’s Website Critique Webinar was a great success, and as well as looking at six different websites in detail, we also asked attendees a series of questions in the form of live polls, with some interesting results. We’re just collating the data now, so watch this space.

As the webinar was limited to only one hour, some attendees emailed me with questions afterwards. I’m still digging my way through them, but thought that some were worth sharing here. Names have been withheld.

“You talked a lot about the “first impression” on the homepage, as one is coming via Google. I know I’m working hard to make google deep-link people into my site (which will then be their first impression).

Would you say that it’s less likely that someone ends up directly on a product page than on the home page, when searching on google (and NOT searching for company name : )”

Most websites will see most visitors enter at the home page. It’s not always the case, but this is the most common scenario.

As for making sure that Google find your other content, this is reasonably straightforward, at least in theory. Create good content, link it in, and Google will find it. Make sure you have quality and relevant incoming links to the pages, then cross your fingers and hope for the best!

“Thanks for a fascinating and entertaining hour! However I did wonder how to take your theories into the real world. For example you regularly refer to ‘improving’ a page. How can you measure whether this has in fact taken place?”

Your server logs or analytics package should contain all the information you need.

For example if you see that 95% of visitors arrive at the main page then leave within five seconds, it may be a sign that something is wrong.

However  it’s very important to first identify the traffic source. You might, for example, see that Google are sending you a large amount of traffic, but that most of this is off-target. If you’re selling Mac screenshot software, and your website ranks for the phrase “who shot my Mac”, you can exclude these visitors. Their exit rates will be high, and this will distort the data.

Also pay attention to how many pages people visit. If a visitor views an average of 1.1 pages, and most of the traffic appears to be targeted, then something isn’t right.

“In the nicest possible way, who are you to decide whether a website looks good or not?”

I’m the guy running the webinar. I’ve been working with software marketing since 1997, and Sharon has been marketing online for more than 13 years.

The site in question was AutoRun Architect, and I made the point that the buttons looked dated. If I was looking for software to create impressive menus, old-style buttons on the website would put me off. You may feel differently.

Note that the person asking the question wasn’t the site owner!

Further questions may well follow. If you have any more, please feel free to either email me or add them to the comments below.

There’s still time to register for tomorrow’s Website Critique Webinar, and I strongly recommend that you do so. I personally guarantee that every single website owner will get some good ideas and tips!

The webinar will take place tomorrow, Tuesday June 23rd at 5:00 PM UK time (12:00 Eastern, 11:00 Central).

Register for the webinar now.

The last webinar was a roaring success – take a look at what some of the last webinar’s attendees thought:

“I enjoyed the critiques, especially the thoughts about the important “first impression”. Because a site owner probably visits their own site often and is very familiar with it, it’s virtually impossible for them to determine what kind of first impressions visitors get without obtaining unbiased feedback from others.”

Albert Wiersch, AI Internet Solutions.

“The website critique webinar was very interesting, and very informative.  I learned a lot, and I’ll definitely tune in for another one.  My business partner was in the office while I was watching this, and I offered to use the headphones so the sound wouldn’t disturb him.  He told me, “In a minute” while looking over my shoulder.  The request to use headphones never came, instead, he ended up pulling his chair over to my desk.  We both enjoyed and benefited from this webinar – which is the first I’d ever watched.  It won’t be the last, however, as I’ll be tuning in for your next one.”

Susan Pichotta, Alta Web Works.

“I found the Shareware Promotions Website Critique webinar of immediate value.  As I watched I collected numerous pointers that I applied to my own website immediately following the presentation.  I believe that nearly  EVERY website owner could learn something useful by attending.”

Kenneth Lowe, Self Evident Enterprises.

Sign up for the webinar now.

Microsoft have just announced that Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), their free anti-malware software, will be released as a beta on Tuesday 23rd of June.

According to Microsoft, the produce will protect against viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans, and will use little by the way of system resources.

Many consumers and businesses alike are delighted by the news, and hope to be able to ditch their existing applications when the next billing cycle is due. But companies like AVG, Kaspersky and Symantec are probably less than delighted.

If the product turns out to be little more than a basic, less than reliable freebie, then it won’t ripple the market.

If, however, it proves to be effective, then we may all be in trouble.

Customers benefit from competition. The main reason for the high quality of the existing solutions is that they’re all fighting for customers.

If Microsoft’s product turns out to be a roaring success, it may seriously maim some of the long-standing names in the industry.

Even the strongest and most robust of industries may be reduced to a fragile ecosystem when a new giant goes blundering in.

On the other hand, the new product may serve as new competition, inspiring the existing antivirus companies to get that little more serious.

Light a fire under an industry, and the main players get active. Allow the fire to spread and everything may be destroyed.

Our company provides a range of marketing services, and each week we typically send out around 4-5 price quotations. We also turn away around 9-10 requests, when we feel that our services are not appropriate.

Most of the companies that we turn away understand what we’re saying, and appreciate our not taking their money under what would amount to false pretenses.

And a sizable number of companies we send a price quote feel that our services are too expensive.

A typical reply is a variation of the following:

“We were kind of hoping that you might be able to manage our Google AdWords account for around $200 a month? If we start to see good results for this, we might be open to spending a little more.

PS: We assume the $200 a month also includes Google’s fees?”

Seriously.

What can a person hope to get for $200 a month, averaging at around $50 per week?

How many hours of quality work can a person expect to receive for so little money?

When a company sets aside a budget of $50 a week to push their product in front of the world, that company has no chance of success.

Think small and you’ll stay small.

Note that I’m not suggesting reckless spending. If your business is a new one, then you shouldn’t be ordering a super-luxurious ebony desk with a custom-made hydromatic, air-induced, conductile chair. And if you don’t think a service is worth spending money on, then don’t use that service.

But you need to be prepared to spend money where appropriate. And you need to think that your business is worth spending money on.

If you’re planning to save $10 a month on cheap web hosting, using free or ad-supported hosting, your business will fail.

If you’re hoping to steal your neighbour’s wireless internet instead of paying for your own, that mentality will kill any hope of success.

If you’re not prepared to pay $10 a month for a business bank account, and hope your customers don’t mind paying into your personal account, you’re never going to make it.

If you won’t spend $300 on Office 2007, and don’t mind asking clients to export their documents and spreadsheets into a different format, then you won’t have too many clients to worry about.

And if you won’t spend significantly more than $200 a month to push your product in front of targeted people from all over the world, targeted people who are looking for precisely what you sell, then your business has no chance of getting off the ground.

We’ve all been there. We’ve all been at the decisive moment when we have to take a deep breath and put our money on our company.

The most you have to lose isn’t cash. It’s the future of your business.

Think small and you’ll stay small.

Note: comments, feedback and argument more than welcome!

You work hard to bring targeted traffic to your website, spending time and money to draw in potential customers.

So what’s your bounce rate? How many people arrive at your website and leave within a few seconds?

30%? 50%? 70%?

I am often asked what constitutes a “good” bounce rate, but the truth is that there’s no concrete answer.

If you pull in a lot of traffic from the search engines, then a fair number of the search queries will be off-topic. Meaning you’ll get a higher bounce rate, without this being an indication that your website is performing poorly.

You can’t control these factors, nor should you be interested in doing so. Yet you do have a surprising amount of control over which links visitors to your website click.

In our company, we are proud to have been in business since 1997, and to have worked with more than 400 companies in over 42 different countries. In our industry that counts for a lot, so we decided to draw attention to our About Us page.

How? When we recently redesigned our website, we put the About link in second position in the top navigation. It worked. The amount of traffic to this page increased by a factor of six. And 90% of the visitors to this page go on to view other pages on our site.

Small changes to your website’s content and layout can have an incredible impact on what happens to your visitors once they arrive. Changing a word or phrase, moving a navigational element, adding an explanatory sentence to the top of the page; all can significantly improve your website conversion rates.

On Tuesday June 23rd at 5:00 PM UK time (12:00 Eastern, 11:00 Central) we’re holding a second Website Critique Webinar, where Sharon Housley from NotePage, Inc. and myself will use our years of experience to dissect, criticise and sometimes rip apart a website’s appearance and setup.

The webinar is only one hour long, free to attend, and I guarantee that you’ll get some good ideas for your website.

Sign up for the free webinar here.

I hope you can join us on the 23rd.

So many websites try to be different, original and unique.

Wacky doesn’t work. Dazzle is dull. And cool is same old, same old.

This one pulls it off.

BooneOakley.com

It starts with a good idea. You bounce it off people, and the good idea becomes a great product or service. Now you need to sell it.

If the main sales channel for your product is the web, you need to do everything possible to make sure that your website is as slick, effective and functional as possible.

Yet I am permanently amazed by how many companies place a shockingly low importance on their website design.

If the initial impression created by your website is a poor one, it will only take your visitors seconds to leave your site. Probably before they even realise that you’re selling what they’re looking for.

If the language you speak confuses your visitors, they may never know just how perfect a fit your product is for their needs.

There are thousands of ways that a website can get it wrong – and getting it wrong results in lost sales.

The good news, however, is that a few minor alterations can often have a significant impact on how your website performs. And I’m not talking about improving abstract metrics. Small changes can often have a major impact on sales.

And the great news is that SoftwarePromotions and NotePage, Inc. are once again joining forces for our second Website Critique Webinar.

On Tuesday June 23rd at 5:00 PM UK time (12:00 Eastern, 11:00 Central), Sharon Housley and myself will once again be hosting our Live Website Critique, where we combine our 25 years of experience to dissect, criticise and sometimes rip apart a website’s appearance and setup.

If you’d like to submit your website for appraisal, please submit the URL when you signup. But if you’d prefer to come along for the ride, to pick up some good pointers and ideas without being under the spotlight, you’re very welcome to do so.

Space is limited so please register for the Webinar as soon as possible.

We hope you can join us on the 23rd.

Website Critique Webinar

Marketing Pilgrim are reporting that the days of PageRank sculpting are over.

You mean you don’t know what PageRank sculpting is?

“PageRank sculpting is an advanced SEO technique that gained popularity in 2007, when Matt Cutts pointed out Google was using rel=”nofollow” to control which videos YouTube passed PageRank value (commonly referred to as “link juice”) to. SEOs liked the technique as something site owners could do to direct more link juice to more important pages, and not waste a page’s link authority on navigational links—but not anymore.”

Sigh, sigh, sigh.

The idea of PageRank is a simple one. From the article Introducing PageRank – shattering the myth:

“PageRank is undoubtedly an important factor in how much traffic you will receive from Google. It is, however, merely one component in your arsenal of tools to win the battle for one particular search engine. Even with the constantly evolving web, and the ever-tightening systems employed by the search engines to quantify the usefulness of a website, content is still by far the most important factor, and will invariably form the base on which everything else is built.”

So far so good, yet an astonishing number of people spend an incredible amount of time and energy chasing the elusive PageRank ghost.

Every single time there’s a Google Dance, tens (hundreds?) of thousands of people all over the world panic, and hundreds of forums and newsgroups are full of panic-driven postings:

“Help! My PageRank has fallen from 6 to 5! What can I do?”

“My PageRank is down but I’ve done nothing wrong! What should I do to get it back?”

“I need help restoring my PageRank. Does anyone have a good contact in Google?”

If you’re planning on attending the Software Industry Conference next month, myself and Sharon Housley are co-presenting a session on “SEO – Tapping Into Google for Free” on Friday July 17th.

If you’re not going to be there, here’s the nutshell explanation:

Stop freaking out about PageRank. Build your website’s content instead.

There. That’s better.