Why I Do Not Use FeedBurner
Apr 30 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Marketing, Reviews, Strategies, Traffic Generation
Ever heard of FeedBurner? Stupid question, huh…
It seems as if the majority of bloggers use FeedBurner to distribute and track the use of their RSS feeds.
Every day I come across blogs showing off the neat little counter proudly displaying how many subscribers they have, just like so…
Here is the thing I have with Feedburner.
Feedburner feeds are, per default, in a format that looks like this…
http://feeds.feedburner.com/KeywordPhrase
And more strangely, when you view a blog post in a feed reader their URLs look like this…
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KeywordPhrase/~3/279888022/
Isn’t this a bit strange? How do you know to which site or post you’re subscribed to or what that post is about?
Another thing is word-of-mouth. Imagine you send the FeedBurner URL of a particular blog post to a friend. You eventually provide a short description to entice him/her to click trough. Yet still, it is fairly hard to imagine what one will find when clicking on such a ghost link.
Whereas, when one sends an RSS feed link of one of my blog posts to someone it is clearer what you will find when you click on it since it serves as a “URL headline.”
Do not underestimate word-of-mouth! I get lots of visitors from mail services like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Live Mail. Many of them enter my blog on individual pages. (My blog announcement list mentions the home page only.) It is likely some of them picked up the post’s URL from my RSS feed and sent it via e-mail to a friend.
How often did you hear that the headline is the most important part of a message? With a great headline you can pull a reader to your site to read all the rest. You can entice him, brag him and encourage him, but with a Feedburner feed… where is that “URL headline?”
Let’s compare the following two RSS feed links. Assuming both lead to the same location, which one would make you click?
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InternetBusinessGuide/~3/279888022/
http://www.hochstadt.com/aweber-secret
See?
This is my main reason why I’m not a FeedBurner.
Another thing is that FeeBurner owns your feed when you use their services. Theoretically, they could do whatever they wish with it. They could even terminate your account. In such a case, you would instantly lose all of your subscribers. Think that won’t happen?
Recently, there was a guy using myspace.com as platform to social network with others and promote his upcoming first music CD. He built a large following in a fairly short time period. He had lots of friends and even established connections to popular names in the music industry. What happened?
Myspace.com terminated his account two days before his CD came out, without providing any reason.
BANG!
What was supposed to become a hit became a flop.
Bottom line, if, after reading the above, you still think it is advantageously to use FeedBurner, I at least strongly encourage you to remove the counter (unless it shows thousands of subscribers.)
—Marcus Hochstadt
45 CommentsPermalink Tags: feedburner, rss feed, subscription, word of mouth
Brent Hodgson Got It
Apr 30 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Pickups
Copywriter Brent Hodgson got a page of insights from one of my interview DVDs with James Brausch. And he discovered a hidden message. Which?
Check it out…
I relate to what he says about sticking at it. Let me expand that by saying: Instead of adjusting your goals, adjust the action steps.
—Marcus Hochstadt
SundayTV
Apr 27 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Better-Than-TV
Today’s SundayTV show features Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple Computers, and his fabulous 2005 Stanford University speech. In plainspoken terms, his address struck a balance between the obstacles he has encountered during his notably public life and the lessons he has gleaned.
Entertainingly, he was wearing sandals and jeans under his black robe, which gave his speech a somewhat witty touch.
Wow, I get the creeps each time I watch it…
There’s more info about Steve Jobs’ speech at the Stanford University Web site. Enjoy!
—Marcus Hochstadt
Party Contest Deadline Approaches!
Apr 26 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Contests
The last day to participate in the huge Hochstadt.com Party Contest with prizes worth more than $7,000 and a giveaway of 66,666ec approaches fast. In other words, May 1st (the “Draw Day”) is VERY close!
Are you excited? Me too. :-) And so are our sponsors.
It is indeed a contest with a win-win-win situation.
If you thought about whether or not to enter, think again. Entering is sooo easy (go to the Party Contest page and see for yourself how easy it is,) and it looks like everyone wins something. But…
The longer you wait the higher the chances that someone else grabs your prize (i.e., by receiving two prizes)! Wouldn’t that be disappointing? Seeing someone else receiving the prize that you would have gotten if, yeah if you just would have entered the Party Contest?
So stop thinking and start acting—NOW! Before it’s too late and you start eating your desk… ;-)
—Marcus Hochstadt
72 Hour Special
Apr 25 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Specials
E-mail & RSS – A Magical List Building Approach
Discover Guaranteed Methods For Dramatically Increasing Subscriber Lists
“The Money Is In The List” – Ever heard that? Sure you did…
Besides, many of the big names in our industry consistently advertise to increase the subscriber base because it would be easier to promote something to them rather than to a bounce rate.
This may be true… If you’ve successfully built a relationship with them in the first place, that is.
Imagine having a list of 100,000 subscribers, but only a fraction of them, say 0.1%, care about you and what you have to offer; how much is it worth? See?
The goal is to have a motivated and responsive “fan base,” people who subscribe because they want to.
“And how do we build such a fan base?”
Glad you asked. :-) The answer is on DVD, where I was talking with James about his approach in detail so you can apply his techniques to your own Internet business and substantially increase your “fan base.”
Oh yeah, and since I personally connect the word “list” also with RSS, we were talking about feeds and FeedBurner, too.
Now, because it’s Friday and the weekend is very close, I’m going to release the DVD today as a 72 hour special. So…
Until Monday 28th, noon time (PDT, or GMT -7,) you get E-mail & RSS – A Magical List Building Approach for $35. After this 72 hour special the price will go up to $100.
Here is the link to order the DVD…
http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00ZIH0IA
—Marcus Hochstadt
No CommentsPermalink Tags: list building, rss
MuVar Vs. Google Website Optimizer
Apr 24 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Marketing, Reviews
Since Google recently opened the gates for its Website Optimizer to a wider audience, and because we have a paid alternative called MuVar for quite a while, I figured it’s time to compare both programs and see which one brings greater returns in terms of profitability and actual results.
First though, what is multivariate testing anyway?
Before I answer that question, ever heard of split testing, or A/B testing? It is an approach where you show one piece of “something” to 50% of your visitors and another piece of that “something” to the other 50%. After a while, you’ll see which version brings the greater returns (in terms of profitability, conversion rate, etc.)
So split testing is indeed a powerful thing when optimizing sales letters, sign-up pages, and the like. You have a number, a conversion rate, and you want to increase that number. Sure, the first thought would be to increase traffic then you often automatically increase sales or sign-ups. But what if traffic stays the same and you still can optimize the process?
That’s where testing comes into place. And while split testing is a well-known option, multivariate testing is more often than not a much better one because you get results much faster. What it does is it compares multiple variations with each other and shows you which versions or combinations convert better.
So let’s say you want to compare 3 different headline versions with each other, then at the same time you also have 4 different testimonials, and 3 different pictures, different font sizes, and on and on. You get the idea. It actually doesn’t matter what, just that you compare whatever you have in mind, and various options with each other at the same time (not just two.)
Lots of ideas and possibilities, and multivariate testing helps you find out which combination sells better or converts more visitors into subscribers, etc. You have different variables, plug them into the testing system, and compare them with each other to find THE combination.
Now, let’s take a closer look at the two options at hand, MuVar and Google Website Optimizer (gonna call it GWO from now on.) I’m going to continue with bullet points to illustrate the main elements…
- GWO gives you the opportunity of setting up multivariate as well as split tests while MuVar focuses on multivariate tests only. Google says that split tests may be better when your site gets less than 1,000 page views per week. I’m not sure about that. You need a considerable amount of traffic anyway in order to get statistically significant results. When you have only 100 page views per week any testing result is not as meaningful as with 1,000 or 10,000.
- Both MuVar and GWO provide you with video tutorials to walk you through the set-up process. GWO further explains the differences between split and multivariate testing, which does MuVar on its sales page. Google may have an advantage here since it offers an extensive online help (in many different languages!) “behind” the two video tutorials (and its integrated powerful search feature which we’re using every day, aren’t we?)
- The video tutorial MuVar provides walks you through the whole installation and configuration process, so does the GWO, too. But I found the lady in the GWO tutorial is rushing through all the steps within 14 minutes, while the gentleman in the MuVar tutorial takes more than 30 minutes and makes sure each and every step is explained thoroughly. Besides, he shows you a real computer screen instead of a Powerpoint presentation. In other words, I find the GWO tutorial a bit superficial. Yes, I do see what I can do, but I miss the real live examples and “walk-through” shown in the MuVar tutorials. Further, the Google lady speaks into the microphone instead of aside from it, which is the reason why you hear those annoying pop sounds when she’s virtually spiting into the mic. (I’m allergic against this; it’s something many video tutorialists do wrong, often unknowingly.)
- GWO is placed on your Google Account’s home page and is accessible from within your Google Analytics account. I like it when many of my daily tools are available from one place and I don’t have to go to multiple locations in order to get what I want. With MuVar, you need to log in to your site’s MuVar account. When you installed MuVar on, say, 5 sites you need to log in at 5 different locations.
- GWO provides you with reports that show you which combination gives the best results. MuVar gives you these kind of reports as well, but it does a very important task… it optimizes your page by itself without me having to lift a finger! This is a huge advantage and a great time saver. One can say GWO tests while MuVar tests and improves. It’s like having a human resource do that for you every single day, for free. (OK, there is a sort of “batch processing” thing in MuVar that you have to perform occasionally, going to a particular URL once a week or so. I did it myself already; it’s pretty straight forward and can be done within a couple minutes.)
- MuVar can only be used on HTML or HTM pages, whereas (as far as I can see) GWO can be used on PHP pages as well, is that right? They only show HTML extensions in their examples, but they do not explicitly state that you cannot use it in PHP, ASPX, or something like that. I don’t see a need for PHP when having a sales letter or a sign-up page, but more technically inclined Webmasters may have some arguments towards PHP and ASPX.
- Setting up a multivariate test with GWO is a bit more challenging (and perhaps complicated?) than with MuVar. It may be because the lady in the tutorial rushed through the process and even after watching it the third time I haven’t completely understood it quite yet. They do show you where to put which JavaScript code. Though, with MuVar you simply upload a couple files, go to the MuVar administration area on that site, and then enter all the variables you want to use. It’s pretty straight forward. You can even add variables without logging in! And you can use existing HTML code, copy & paste it into MuVar, and then modify it or create multiple variations right there. Pretty simple, pretty neat.
Bottom line, GWO is available for free while MuVar cost $300. I see the quality in what Google does since I use a couple of their tools myself every day. So the word “free” may not apply here when talking about quality. How often did it happen you had to pay for a certain service, then Google bought that company and made that service available free of charge from that point on. (Now, you may wish Google goes ahead and purchases MuVar, but let’s not go that direction for now…)
The biggest advantage MuVar has is its automation and “built-in human resource.” It optimizes whatever you wish to optimize by itself, without me having to do anything (except the occasional “batch processing” and perhaps adding more variables.)
I don’t know about you, but when there is a tool available that saves me a bunch of time I become VERY interested and excited, and I’m more than happy to pay for that excitement. There are lots of things I have to do during the day. And when there is a tool that helps to empty my desk, I’m very grateful for that.
And although all your GWO tests are available from one location, it does not take so much time to go to a few Web sites in order to manage your MuVar installations.
With all that being said, my vote goes to MuVar. I’m going to use it from now on and am really looking forward to substantially improve my business and conversion rates.
—Marcus Hochstadt
If You Build It They Will Come…
Apr 23 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Business
Everyone you know seems to be running a Web site these days. Large corporations, the tiniest of local businesses, local clubs and societies, while there are long-dead celebrities on Facebook and teenagers networking on MySpace.
The Internet is relatively new. There is still that element of glamour and mystery attached to it, that magical element that created the dot.com millionaires, then snatched their success from under them, while a new wave of Internet success stories, such as social networking sites, are turning casual users into wide-eyed enthusiasts.
It’s easy to set up a business online. It’s like printing your own money they say.
Almost everywhere you look, someone is trying to make their fortune on the Internet. But when you compete against millions of online businesses you need to know what you’re doing, and there are some myths to being successful online…
If You Build It They Will Come
So, you’ve built your Web site. You uploaded it to the Internet and to your dismay, no one is visiting it.
The obvious question is: Do people know you are there? Have you marketed your new site, informed your new and existing customers, and did you offer any incentive to visit your site when it was launched? Don’t assume the Internet contains a wealth of untapped customers that will find you without direction.
What about your domain name? It should be short, sharp, and very easy to remember. Avoid using hyphens, as these are awkward to type and often forgotten, and preferably include your main keyword.
You also need to know what you’re doing in terms of SEO. Ensure that your Web site includes the keywords and content to attract the major Search Engines. SEO is something you start doing right from the beginning of your Internet businesses life. It takes ongoing campaigns and approaches to maintain and the rules are always changing.
I Already Have A Successful Business Offline
With careful planning many businesses find the transition from offline to online remarkably smooth, but this may not be ideal for everyone. Your customers may still want to visit a store or have that personal contact, or you may sell a product that they want to inspect before purchasing. A Web site is a great new store front opportunity that allows your customers to browse and investigate your products 24/7, but some may still want to make that purchase in person.
On the other side, too many offline businesses still underestimate the enormous profit potential and time freedom a thriving online business can bring. It just needs to be seriously and properly set up.
In Order To Make Money Online One Needs A Big Budget
Yes, there exist major corporations that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on Web design and marketing campaigns, but they may not serve as a good example to look at.
Many of the overheads involved in setting up your own Internet business can be alleviated when you work online. You may only need a laptop, and never ever get caught up on creating a “professional” Web design. Sure thing, there exist enough companies and individuals coding you a professional looking design for a few thousand dollars.
But remember, it’s the content you provide that is more important, especially at the beginning. No one sees your site quite yet, and you can attract more visitors by providing high quality content rather than a flashy design.
Focus on simplicity and the words you put up.
So Is It All About Luck?
True, some businesses did get a lucky break creating the right Web site at the often quoted “right time,” but successful entrepreneurs do not rely on luck, nor did they start from a privileged background.
They were motivated by a desire to succeed and a determined belief in their abilities. They follow proven paths, increment big into very small steps, and take considerable action towards the fulfillment of their goals. They feel a huge desire to follow their dreams.
Surprise your followers with your determination and results.
Show them that it IS doable. Then help them achieve the same.
—Marcus Hochstadt
Mirjam’s Journey
Apr 23 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Pickups
Isn’t it amazing to follow Mirjam’s journey and her progress? Seems she’s getting rid of the limitations and boundaries she had built herself and is now well on her way of living a more fulfilling life…
http://www.memyselfandiblog.com/2008/04/23/dare-to-dream-big/
Isn’t this what it’s all about? Aren’t we supposed to live a life full of peace, happiness and abundance?
It’s amazing what a short break can cause.
—Marcus Hochstadt
2 CommentsPermalink Tags: mirjam
Protecting Your WordPress Blog
Apr 22 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Business, Pickups
Turnip has a great post about protecting your WordPress blog and the entire installation, so to speak. It’s a excellent addition to a post by Matt Cutts I read earlier this year giving 3 tips on protecting your WordPress installation.
To add something to this, what I personally also use is a WordPress plugin called Login LockDown by Michael VanDeMar. It may be similar to creating a particular .htaccess file discussed on the above blogs but may be easier to create using this plugin.
Besides this, I strongly encourage everyone to upgrade to the newest WordPress version whenever available (currently v2.5) so you close old security leaks and ban attackers.
—Marcus Hochstadt
Stine’s E-Widget
Apr 22 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Pickups
Stine from mumsgotta.com has me on her E-Widget this week…
http://mumsgotta.com/this-week-on-my-e-widget/
The amazing thing about her is not only that she lives in beautiful Norway, but she’s raising six kids, wow! Six!
Stine must have an incredible amount of power and patience…
—Marcus Hochstadt
24 Hour Special
Apr 21 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Specials, Traffic Generation
Surprising Traffic Generation Secrets
Guaranteed Methods For Dramatically Increasing The Flood Of Visitors To A Site
“I Want More traffic!”
That’s a wish most Webmasters express, isn’t it? You have a great idea, you start building a Web site, you may even create a couple products, but then… without traffic you have no business, whether it’s online or off.
The DVD I’m releasing today (my birthday) is another high-profile conversation I had with James Brausch in Costa Rica in March. I tapped his brain and asked him which methods he uses to get 11,000 highly targeted visitors to his blog each and every day.
The entire conversation is, again, on video.
Until noon tomorrow (PDT, which is GMT -7) you get Surprising Traffic Generation Secrets for $35. After this 24 hour special the price will go up to $100.
Here is the link to order the “birthday DVD”…
http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00ZHQH7V
—Marcus Hochstadt
10 CommentsPermalink Tags: james brausch, Traffic Generation
Still Procrastinating?
Apr 21 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Pickups
Ben Barden likes my article on Procrastination, too. So much that he put it into his weekly round-up…
http://www.benbarden.com/view.php/article/1074/weekly-round-up-april-2008-part-3
The other two articles he refers to are also very interesting.
—Marcus Hochstadt
SundayTV
Apr 20 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Better-Than-TV
Today’s SundayTV show features a 21:22 min. “round stand-up” Robert Kiyosaki had with his wife Kim and three of his business partners (Blair Singer, Marco Antonio Regil and Ken McElroy.) It’s a very interesting discussion on The Psychology Of Winning.
Think you’ll enjoy it since it’s much better than sitting in front of the tube, don’t you agree? ;-)
And, what do you take home and apply?
—Marcus Hochstadt
Ryan’s View Of The Top 100
Apr 19 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Pickups
Gavin a.k.a Ryan Shamus has put together an awesome elaboration of Mark Wielgus’ popular Top 100 Make Money Online list…
http://ryanshamus.com/make-money-online/top-100-make-money-online-blogs/
On Ryan’s list I’m still on #64 although the recent Alexa dance kicked me down to #96 (as of today.)
How much time it may have taken him to compile that list! It’s very interesting to read how Ryan sees the various make money online blogs.
You may wanna bookmark it for future reference.
Thank you, Ryan!
—Marcus Hochstadt
The Alexa Dance
Apr 19 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Pickups
On my recent post about the Alexa dance I indicated that I’ve only seen blogs that dropped in ranking. Now I found one who climbed the ranks! That’s nice.
It’s the blog of James D. Lee…
http://onlinebusinessfreedom.com/my-alexa-traffic-ranking-plummeted-150000-places/
Why don’t you congratulate him? He climbed up 149,342 positions!
Congratulations, James! :-)
—Marcus Hochstadt
5 CommentsPermalink Tags: james lee
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