I have been playing around with the new Youtube Channel functionality and amazingly for a Google product, the UI is getting slicker and slicker

I created a number of simple analytics videos to test out playing with colours and settings. Google are providing important ways to SEO the videos you upload now. I do a lot of recording with Screenr and it uploads to Youtube with default data, so its important to set the data up properly in Youtube

• Title
• Description
• Category
• Tags
• Licences (Standard Youtube or CC attrib)

A quick Screenr to Youtube video on Removing spam from your Google+ stream – using the stream content slider control

Youtube is suggesting that you start a Google+ Hangout within the Embed dropdown i.e. they are trying to get you to watch a video on a Google+ Hangout rather than embedding it anywhere.

This is pretty aggresively against the best interests of Youtube and shows the push that Google is making towards Google+

You also get to make a nice looking channel for yourself http://www.youtube.com/user/firstconversion/featured and you can link out to other Youtube channels that you think may be useful to your viewers

So far I’ve had 1700+ views of a handful of Analytcis videos. Half were from the embed of an Analytics video post on Econsultancy and the other half are from within the Youtube system itself

Inbound Marketing Strategies by Stephen Croome @firstconversion - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsZUBpNLGAU

I saw an SEO use science, and it wasn’t pretty

They used a famous experiment to make a point about SEO. I understand that in short speeches, speakers sometimes do not have time to draw out the reasoning or working behind each point they make. But this was different.

In this example, the speaker either intentionally, unintentionally or ignorantly did not understand the experiment they were using as the “evidence” for their point.

We are not talking about some subtle point, some small, easy to disregard aside

They did not mention the single, fundamental core of the study, instead using a small facet of it to “prove” their point. The actual study would more likely have argued against the point they were making – their evidence actually disproved their argument!

Which brings us to the next point – what can I say about it? Its impolitic to bring this type of thing up, in the small, friendly world of SEO. Its a single point in a larger presentation, hardly worth the bother. But it does bother me

Inbound Marketing Strategies by Stephen Croome @firstconversion - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsZUBpNLGAU

This imaginary keyword makes up about 50% of traffic

when you click through, there is no medium or any data

Anyone know whats going on? Is this simply undeclared sampling?

Inbound Marketing Strategies by Stephen Croome @firstconversion - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsZUBpNLGAU

I followed a retweet to Dan Zarella’s site – he is “The Social Media Scientist”.

Given my background as a SEO and with a Social Media degree, its definitely a site I would have a look around on and see if the content was worth further following or follow Dan on Twitter.

Aggressive pop ups

I was immediately struck by the aggressive pop ups to sign up for something or other. I closed it and went to a second page – pop up again. I closed it and went to a third page – pop up again.

Normally I would have been annoyed and left that site and never come back. But I decided to ask Dan on Twitter about maybe using a different approach.

Now of course I know that numerically those goddamn pop ups give more sign ups. If you use your email list to make your money, that is a very important channel for you to maximise

The conversation was something like this:
@danzarella if i close your website pop up but still navigate your site, it means I am undecided about you content. Spamming it won’t help

@firstconversion It goes away after a few views.

@danzarrella I see now, mighty annoying, must shoot up your exits something fierce ^^ How about goes away after 1 but comes back after 5?

@firstconversion no, it actually slightly reduced bounce rates and skyrocketed subscriptions.

@danzarrella Certainly people like me may be interested enough to subscribe after a bit of info, would be turned off by the aggressiveness

@firstconversion the net effect in the end was positive

@danzarrella I know it improves your numbers, but I think may lose you a certain quality of follower as well

How do you assign a value to a follower? Only short term?

What I was trying to suggest via the stunted medium of Twitter, was that he may be harvesting low value signups via that form; people don’t know enough about his work to make an informed decision to follow him. He may be losing higher value signups by the constant harassment of the form, where more savvy people just close the site

Test Pop up cadence

What I wanted to suggest he test; after people close the first pop up, you wait for them to navigate 2 or 3 more pages, getting a good feel for your work, before popping up the signup box again

If I have more time to understand what you do, I am more likely to willingly and happily sign up, instead of ignorantly being badgered into it

I have no doubt Dan gets more signups with pop ups than without and he strikes me as the type of guy who knows how much each of his signups is worth to him in $. But not every follower can or should be measured in short term numbers or $

I just suggest a trial with a different cadence of pop ups to try catch the engaged types without annoying them

Inbound Marketing Strategies by Stephen Croome @firstconversion - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsZUBpNLGAU

I’m thrilled to be joining the SEOgadget team

Inbound Marketing Strategies by Stephen Croome @firstconversion - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsZUBpNLGAU

I saw the ad for www.warrenevans.com on the tube this morning. They make beds.

Their tag line was: love making beds

I thought this was cute, funny, practically descriptive of what they did and memorable. A super tagline in my book.

Inbound Marketing Strategies by Stephen Croome @firstconversion - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsZUBpNLGAU

Yes. Googel has banned all .co.cc domains from its index

.co.cc domains are banned by Google. Like music.co.cc, tv.co.cc, sex.co.cc, film.co.cc, software.co.cc, free.co.cc, sport.co.cc, video.co.cc

Inbound Marketing Strategies by Stephen Croome @firstconversion - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsZUBpNLGAU

There is a glut of startups posts by rich and experienced founders and VCs about hiring only AAA+ people for your startup

This is a completely egocentric worldview. Even if you could define some of the qualities of what would make a hire AAA+, people with those qualities would not by definition be AAA+ candidates

What makes someone a AAA+ hire at one startup can make them a F- at another

Many VCs and Founders try to condense incredibly complex personal decisions down to easily digestible and practicably implementable advice and blog posts. In these scenarios, the easy things to talk about are the practical and easily measurable

• does the candidate have a degree from a top university?
• have they worked at a start up before?
• have the cashed out at start up before?

or any of many other good qualities, skills or experiences that would be an asset to a startup

But they would be lying if they said they hired only on these criteria. These criteria are necessary but not sufficient for classifying someone as AAA+, and are often not even necessary

What is rarely addressed are some of the most critical qualities that make someone AAA+ – the qualities within the startup and within the recruiter. A candidate being AAA+ is all relative. All parts of the equation must align for someone to be AAA+ – the candidate, the company, the problem being solved and the environment

Don’t fall into the trap of looking for Mark Suster’s or Fred Wilson’s AAA+ candidate, because its going to be different from yours

Inbound Marketing Strategies by Stephen Croome @firstconversion - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsZUBpNLGAU

Missioning my way through Liverpool Street Station in the London rush hour on my way to the office, I am likely to be all of

• tired
• hungry
• in a rush
• annoyed at being in the middle of rush hour

As I enter the station, there are a number of convenience food kiosks along the way. The Pasty Shop is one of these. It sells coffee, baked goods and cooldrinks. I often try to do what you expect all their customers would like to do – grab a sausage roll and a diet coke  as quickly and hassle free as possible

Unfortunately, I never get the experience I am after. The Pasty Shop thinks it is a fast food outlet and this is where it goes wrong

There is a fine but important distinction between optimising your business primarily for fast food or for fast service. In the customers’ perfect world, The Pasty Shop should be a fast service outlet. Get in, get out, don’t take up any of my brain space

Upsell is a critical for a fast food businesses, but it is counter productive in a fast service businesses

Death by Measurement
Its easy to measure short term sales and optimise your sales pipeline for it. How much did we make yesterday? lets try make more today!

The Pasty Shop upsell is a perfect example of not being able to see the wood for the trees. Yes, you increase your average basket value, but you erode your client base.

Now you have to put more money into new client acquisition rather than the relatively less money required for client retention

Death by management consultant
Having worked in food and beverage retail, from top to bottom, I lay part of the blame on management consultants.  When an outlet is underperforming, consutants are dispatched to improve its take – normally in the manner of advice like

1. say hello and smile at every customer
2. Upsell by asking ask customers if they want to take the deal of 2 cooldrinks rather than 1
3. Upsell by asking customers if they want napkins or sauces (it shows they care)

Now, 1 is part of being a human being, but 2 and 3 are the slow death of your business and how you annoy customers into not coming back. The marketing strategy for The Pasty Shop is just not right

The Result
I no longer bother with The Pasty Shop, I now keep a box of cereal at work. It’s just much less mental bother

measurement
management

Inbound Marketing Strategies by Stephen Croome @firstconversion - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsZUBpNLGAU