sábado, 2 de noviembre de 2013

Our blog now exceeds 1m monthly page views, but does it generate ROI?

Hearty congratulations are in order in light of a big milestone that the Econsultancy blog team has reached, having for the first time surpassed 1m page impressions in a calendar month. Not bad for a niche B2B publishing operation! 

That said, we don't create content simply to generate page views. The blog team contributes so much more to our business. I shall explain why.

A recent study found that only about a third of Fortune 500 companies maintain a blog, a statistic that I find perplexing, so I thought this might be a good time to remind ourselves – and you, dear reader – of why we blog, and what it's doing for us.

Some background

We launched the blog in 2006, after deciding to divert a limited PR budget towards the hiring of full-time writer. We thought that it would be better to create our own content, rather than paying PRs to try to persuade journalists to write about us. PR is tough, and pull beats push, for all sorts of reasons.

I'm of the view that in-house writers offer the best bang for your buck, and slowly but surely we expanded our team, to ramp up the amount of content we publish. They are Graham Charlton, David Moth, Matt Owen, Ben Davis and Christopher Ratcliff, and I salute them all.

It is worth pointing out that content comes in many different shapes and sizes. You need to know your audience, and create some editorial parameters for the team to adhere to. Exceeding 1m random page impressions can be relatively easy, but it is much harder to attract highly targeted traffic.

In short, we have found that it makes plenty of sense to invest in a team who are capable of creating laser-guided content, and to produce plenty of it. 

The numbers

The proof... 

The business case

Page impressions are great. They're a good metric and reflect growth, but there are four other equally (or more) important areas that are key to ROI. 

SEO

This, for me, is the big one. 'Team Content' supports the company's search marketing goals in a number of ways. There are two main strands of attack. 

Firstly, we research and target keyphrases that we want to rank for. There are many success stories that I could share with you, some more surprising than others. This always requires a bit of thought and firm commitment, but publishing lots of tactical content is my number one SEO tip. 

Secondly, we habitually add internal links to our posts, which help prop up other pages on our site. If you do this in an organic – rather than automated – way, and mix things up a bit, you can achieve excellent results. A blog can help to strengthen the foundations of your website, from Google's perspective.

All of the above allows us to avoid retaining a search agency, or spending considerable sums of money on paid search every month. For example, at a cost of 25p per click we'd be spending around £70k a month to attract the same amount of search engine referrals. Big money.

So, from where I'm sitting a vast chunk of sales that originated via search engines should be attributed to Team Content.

Social

Content underpins a lot of brand-related activity on the social platforms, which we use to distribute our articles and messages. We listen and chat too! 

Many social platforms are free but you need people power to extract the best from them. We invested in this area by hiring Matt Owen, who is our Head Of Social. He spends a lot of time orchestrating and curating our content, while listening to heavy metal. 

Social channels bring in a lot of traffic, although much of this is obscured in Google Analytics (filed under 'Direct'). We estimate around half of our blog traffic comes in via the likes of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn

It's also worth noting that blogging is inherently social too, and more so if you accept comments. 

Brand metrics

One of the main reasons why I launched the blog was to soften the tone, as although we have 'consultancy' in our brand name we don't have a 'sharp suits' dress code and nor do we use big words when little ones will do.

The blog also allowed us to explore subjects close to our heart in a more casual way. Indeed, I'm thinking out loud as I type these words. Figuring out best practice in ecommerce and digital marketing is actually a lot of fun. And a blog allows us to have more fun, more often. 

So, metrics like brand awareness, brand perception and propensity to buy can all be positively affected by blogging, which is really just a byword for producing shedloads of quality content. 

Revenue

The blog generates direct revenue in the form of display and email newsletter advertising, though that's a relatively small part of our business. It also attracts new subscribers, which is strategically more valuable to us than advertising revenue. We direct about 5% of blog readers to our product pages, which is where the really good stuff lives. Plus - as mentioned - we save money by not needing to hire SEO and PPC agencies, among other things. 

Finally, it is worth pointing out that great content is like a gift that keeps on giving. We produce a good amount of evergreen content, which - unlike news - continues to pull in traffic from the search engines every month. It makes sense to create plenty of long-lasting content, to generate returns in perpetuity.

So the truth of the matter is that the blog has been generating ROI for years, and the 1m monthly page impressions is - all things considered - a kind of vanity metric. Not that there's anything wrong with vanity metrics!

Go team!

Is your business blogging, or otherwise increasing its investment into content creation (and curation)? Are you struggling to win a budget? Do leave a comment below...

16 Dazzling Día de los Muertos Photos on Instagram

Each year, families gather to celebrate the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos, a span of three days during which they pay respects to the dead.

Known in English as the Day of the Dead, the celebration takes place between Oct. 31 and Nov. 2. Families pray for and honor the memories of deceased loved ones by building altars called ofrendas. On these altars, family members offer the dead colorful sugar skulls, the deceased's favorite foods and bunches of marigold flowers.

Even if you haven't attended a Day of the Dead celebration, you can still experience the holiday's sights, colors and patterns through stunning Instagram photos.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Image: Instagram,

Local Sportscaster's Ron Burgundy Impression Goes Down Smooth

Paul Gerke may not, in fact, be Ron Burgundy — but he does a darn good impression. The sportscaster for Boise, Idaho, TV station KIVI delivered his entire Halloween segment in the persona of the Anchorman hero.

Sounds like a disaster, right? Surprisingly enough, Gerke pulled it off with aplomb, holding character for more than five minutes in an entertaining segment.

You can watch Gerke's masterpiece in the above YouTube video, which became a sports Internet hit Friday morning. This also seems like a good time to remind everyone that a certain NBA star's dad once bore a striking resemblance to Mr. Burgundy. But does Gerke beat out the local sportscaster who delivered an entire segment by quoting rap lyrics in September? That we doubt.

Homepage image: Donovan Moore, YouTube

viernes, 1 de noviembre de 2013

6 Job Interview Questions and Answers to Avoid

The old adage of "think before you speak" is never truer than when you're on a job interview. One unwitting slip-up could cost you your dream position, so it's crucial to know what kinds of questions and answers will set off a red flag for your interviewer.

While a hiring manager has a responsibility to avoid illegal interview questions, there are certain things that you shouldn't say as a candidate, either. Five career coaches weighed in on the most common questions and answers that interviewees should avoid at all costs.

Questions to avoid:

"What does your company do?"

Even if the job posting you read didn't include much information about the company itself, this should be a fairly obvious question to avoid. Nothing puts a big red "X" on your résumé like not having done your research. If you're coming in for a job interview, the hiring manager expects that you have a basic understanding of what the company does and who its clients are.

"Don't ask questions that you can find the answers to online," said Marie Zimenoff of A Strategic Advantage. "Questions should demonstrate some research of the company and knowledge of the position."

"What will my salary/benefits/work schedule be?"

Money is important. You need to earn money to pay the bills and take care of yourself and your family. But any career coach will tell you that you should never ask a potential employer about salary and benefits up front.

"Candidates that do this appear to only be interested in the money and not as much about performing the job," said Charlotte Weeks of Weeks Career Services.

Abby Kohut of AbsolutelyAbby.com agreed that bringing up money (or other issues like work hours, work-from-home policies and vacation time) too soon lets the hiring manager know that you only care about what the company can do for you, instead of what you can do for your potential employer. The best tactic is to wait for the employer to bring up these topics, and follow his or her lead. Zimenoff advised researching a salary range before the interview; when your interviewer does start talking numbers, you can request this range.

"What is your company culture like?"

While it's not necessarily bad manners to ask about company culture, you probably won't get an honest answer to this question.

"No company is going to say that its culture is terrible," Kohut said.

As an alternative, she recommended asking your interviewer for one thing he or she would change about the company's culture if given the opportunity. This will allow the hiring manager to give you a more truthful perspective, without forcing that person to make a sweeping generalization about having a "bad" culture.

Answers to avoid:

Anything personal in response to, "Tell me about yourself"

Nearly every job candidate is asked to tell the interviewer about him or herself. And nearly every job candidate shares far more than necessary when answering this question.

"Don't respond with your life story — where you were born, your personal habits, etc.," said Executive Career Services' Steve Provenzano, author of Top Secret Resumes and Cover Letters. "Make your answer relevant to the company and the job you seek to fill."

Sharon Good of Good Life Coaching also noted that candidates should stick to sharing professional strengths and experiences rather than personal hobbies and interests. The only time you should share personal information is if you have some kind of limitation, like a handicap or external responsibility that will affect your potential daily tasks.

"You may not want to say it in the first interview, but it's important to be honest and admit it if it's going to prevent you from doing the job as described," Good said.

"My weakness is that I'm a workaholic/perfectionist."

Another fairly common interview question asks for a candidate's greatest weakness. Since interviewees don't want to make themselves look bad for their potential employer, most respond with a "weakness" that is actually beneficial to the company, like being a workaholic or a perfectionist.

One thing that drives recruiters crazy is hearing a strength pitted as a weakness," Zimenoff told BusinessNewsDaily. "The hiring manager is asking this question to see if candidates can admit they are not perfect, and demonstrate that they can take feedback and action to improve."

Be prepared to answer this question with an actual weakness that you can improve upon, such as taking criticism too harshly or getting too wrapped up in the details of a project. You should also be able to tell the interviewer how you have resolved or plan to resolve the issue.

"You've covered everything."

Most hiring managers close the interview by asking if the candidate has any other questions about the company or the position. Regardless of whether or not it's true, telling the interviewer that he or she has covered everything and that you have nothing else to ask can be a potentially bad answer.

"Saying this can imply a lack of interest," Weeks said. "If you can't think of anything that hasn't been addressed, ask for elaboration on something that had already been talked about."

There are countless things running through your mind before a job interview, but above all, make sure you're thoroughly prepared to answer anything your interviewer might ask – which includes knowing what not to say in response.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Image: Samuel Mann

This article originally published at BusinessNewsDaily here

Another dozen apps go free, ex-Nokia Store

From Adriano Petrucci's page:

GameImageTypeDescription
SoBaShip Strategy This is a strategy and solitaire game. Find the position of the ship on the field. If you like sudoku, you will love this game too.
SoBaShip Lite Strategy This version is like the original, but has only 5-10 game levels.
1VS1 Agility 2 players game (on the same phone). Answer to the questions and be faster than your opponent. With 3 different levels and 10 skill games.
1VS1 Lite Agility 2 players game (on the same phone). Answer to the questions and be faster than your opponent. Lite version has only 2 different levels and 10 skill games.
bitPOPbox Puzzle Link the POPs in the BOX with BITs, reach other pops using the bits. With 80 levels and awards.
bitPOPbox Lite Puzzle Link the POPs in the BOX with BITs, reach other pops using the bits. Lite version has 10 levels and only 1 award.
Sputnik Poker Skill Play the best swiss skill game on your phone! And if you are good enough, save/share your highscore on the web.
ELPO Game A nice (little stupid) game to have some fun :) sounds was made with my N8, heheh
Car Services Utility Manage the events of your car, with a easy interface to your phone calendar.
Sand Glass Utility Teach you how to brush your teeth, with a 3 minutes sandglass.
Tsk Swtch Utility Shortcut to the Task Switch of your Symbian.
TAG-Station Utility Search a tag in many search engines and social networks
Cam Measure Utility This utility helps you to get an estimated height of an object, using your camera.
Cam Ruler Utility Measure objects from 0 to 40cm with your Nokia N8.
QT-Webcams: WORLDWIDE Utility See all webcams and live images of them directly on your phone! With a nice graphic-effect and easy to find.
QT-Webcams: SWITZERLAND Utility See all swiss webcams and live images of them directly on your phone! With a nice graphic-effect and easy to find.
QT-Webcams: ITALY Utility See all italian webcams and live images of them directly on your phone! With a nice graphic-effect and easy to find.
Prontuario (italy) Utility A list of all italian drugs, it is a simple database with search function.
Shift Scheduler LITE Calendar Are you a nurse, police, barman,...? Show on your homescreen when your work begins. This shift plan calendar is simple and easy to use.
Shift Scheduler BASIC Calendar Like the LITE version. But in this one you can select when the week begins and you can personalize images (in the future you can synchronize other calendars).
Shift Scheduler PRO Calendar Like the BASIC version. But in this one you can share your calendar with other friends.
Shift Scheduler VIEWER Widget If you have the LITE, BASIC or PRO version, you can show your next shifts directly in the homescreen of your phone with this app.
Swiss stamps Calendar Are you searching a swiss stamp? Do you have one but you don't know huw much is it worth? This is a collection of swiss stamps from 1945 to 2000.
Deal Extreme new arrivals Feed reader Feed reader for Deal Extreme shop! List of 100 new apps just arrived in the shop.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

On that 'Elpo' game, I thought you might be curious as to the more detailed description:

Elpo is a really sly person! He says that this is a burning platform :P Your work is to stop the fire, using the water pump. Leave pressed to charge the pump. You will only win, if you wish away Elpo from platform!

Can't think what he's referring to there.... Apparently Adriano had to change the name and remove company names in order to originally pass Nokia Q&A, but now that the mini-game is outside the Store's clutches, maybe it could be restored, I doubt there's anyone left at Nokia now who might take offense?

You may remember that I reviewed Adriano's Cam Measure here, feel free to pitch in, in the comments, with recommendations from the rest of his catalog.

Calls To Limit Speech In The Snowden Era Underscore The Importance Of A Free Press

The Snowden revelations have reignited a discussion about privacy — especially privacy in the digital age. That discussion will eventually, we can hope, not only reform how the government views the privacy of its citizens, but also how those citizens interact with private entities that might store massive amounts of their personal information.

It's stunning to consider how much better informed we are as a global citizenry thanks to Snowden's efforts and the journalists that have worked closely with him. They have carefully brought to light documents and information regarding the spying efforts of the United States government, and to a lesser degree, the British government on a scale that was previously unimaginable.

But the Snowden leaks have done more than uncover a secret world of surveillance. They are starting to drive change at the congressional level. Following revelations that the NSA taps the fiber-optic cables of the Internet, tracks the metadata of all phone calls placed in the United States, and forces technology companies to hand over user data, we've entered into a new era of transparency.

There are forces arrayed against this trend, however. The parts of the government that wish to remain hidden are not enjoying their time in the spotlight.

United States

In short, [NSA General Keith Alexander] is not much of a fan of free speech, an adversarial press, a transparent government, public accountability, or a great many other things that a constitutional, democratic republic requires to function.

Change is already under way. Bills in Congress are being proposed, with bipartisan and bicameral support, that would greatly curtail the legal authority, and therefore ability, of the NSA to collect as much data as it currently does.

The shifting tone in Congress — most recently and most notably the about-face of Senator Dianne Feinstein on the subject of the NSA — has been matched by a stiffly unshifting tone from the spy agencies themselves.

With its track record of being truthful already underwater, the NSA has managed to explain little in recent weeks — and complain much. It has become known that their talking points are as manufactured as their denials – there will come a time when leaning heavily on 9/11 will show weakness of argument, but we can have that talk some other time — now public, the public protestations of the NSA are becoming increasingly cardboardish.

But when the NSA and its ilk are clear, we can learn the most. And when it comes to something so intensely serious, clarity is useful. The NSA's General Keith Alexander recently made the following set of remarks (transcription by Politico):

"I think it's wrong that that newspaper reporters have all these documents, the 50,000—whatever they have and are selling them and giving them out as if these—you know it just doesn't make sense.

We ought to come up with a way of stopping it. I don't know how to do that. That's more of the courts and the policymakers but, from my perspective, it's wrong to allow this to go on."

It's somewhat difficult to tally just how much the general managed to get wrong in two short statements, but let's try. He's wrong that the documents are being sold; they are not. Stopping "it" would mean stopping the free press, in essence overriding the First Amendment. That's not a good idea. He's correct that it would be up to "courts and the policymakers" to gut free speech in the country, but he's wrong in that it is not "wrong to allow this to go on."

In short, the general is not much of a fan of free speech, an adversarial press, a transparent government, public accountability, or a great many other things that a constitutional, democratic republic requires to function.

Let's look at just how bad an idea it would be to follow his advice.

If we did not allow newspapers, blogs, Twitter users, writers and readers of all shapes and sizes and sorts to publish what they might, and learn what they will, then we would not know that the NSA was tapping the data connections between Yahoo and Google data centers in foreign countries. Why foreign countries? Because the rules that guide the NSA are looser in foreign countries, and so it can do what it can't in the United States. What we have learned is plain: If there is data, the NSA wants to tap, collect, store, and then analyze it at will.

Given the history of privacy, and the historical backing of the Fourth Amendment, this isn't much in line with the American Experiment. To then prevent the American citizenry from finding out that their legal protections were being hollowed out not good, and the general is wrong.

Britain

Across the pond, this is a bit more explicit. Here's The Guardian, in August [emphasis mine]:

I received a phone call from the centre of government telling me: "You've had your fun. Now we want the stuff back." There followed further meetings with shadowy Whitehall figures. The demand was the same: hand the Snowden material back or destroy it. I explained that we could not research and report on this subject if we complied with this request. The man from Whitehall looked mystified. "You've had your debate. There's no need to write any more."

During one of these meetings I asked directly whether the government would move to close down the Guardian's reporting through a legal route – by going to court to force the surrender of the material on which we were working. The official confirmed that, in the absence of handover or destruction, this was indeed the government's intention. Prior restraint, near impossible in the US, was now explicitly and imminently on the table in the UK.

The last sentence is key, as it describes a process by which what is fit and not fit to be published is determined before publication. In August The Guardian stated that such a thing was "near impossible" in the United States. And yet, General Alexander recently called for "a way of stopping it," again with "it" being the reporting about the Snowden documents. Alexaner continued: "It's wrong to allow this to go on." So, the general is calling for prior restraint, which has long been a firewall between censorship and the public learning what it might.

There are fresh threats from the British government, however, that also bear telling. Here's current Prime Minister David Cameron on the continued leaks (via The Guardian):

We have a free press, it's very important the press feels it is not pre-censored from what it writes and all the rest of it. The approach we have taken is to try to talk to the press and explain how damaging some of these things can be and that is why the Guardian did actually destroy some of the information and disks that they have. But they've now gone on and printed further material which is damaging.

I don't want to have to use injunctions or D notices or the other tougher measures. I think it's much better to appeal to newspapers' sense of social responsibility. But if they don't demonstrate some social responsibility it would be very difficult for government to stand back and not to act.

Sadly, his government has already taken to smashing laptops of journalists and threatening prior restraint. He has now introduced new legal methods as potential tools to increase pressure. Also, there is a certain sliminess to the comment that the press "feels it is not pre-censored from what it writes." There is a large gap between that and the press in fact being free to write whatever it wishes.

Hell No

It's plain that the governments of the United States and Britain would prefer it if we knew nothing of their surveillance activities. With that in mind, we now do, and they want to stop the continued leaks.

But as we are seeing from congressional activity in the United States, the leaks are producing change. Which is precisely what the NSA and GCHQ do not want. Tough. If to get their way they think for a moment we are willing to give up the right to free expression, thought and writing, then they can go to hell.

Top Image Credit: Shutterstock

Epic NBA Promo Isn't Fake — But It Is Awesome

Imagine a world where Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Miami Heat for the 2012 NBA title. Imagine a world where James Harden won last season's MVP award. Imagine a world where LeBron James finally enters the dunk contest.

In short, imagine a drastically different NBA — but still one well within the realm of possibility. That's the premise of the extremely creative promo embedded above, which has become a hit with fans to the tune of 130,000-plus YouTube views in two days.

But is it real? Is it fake? The ad's clever approach has some online thinking it's actually a fan-generated fraud. After all, hoops-obsessed YouTubers have recently cut together some very cool videos, such as this comparison of Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan and this mashup of Derrick Rose and The Dark Knight Rises.

But wonder no more: This is a real spot that TNT ran before Tuesday night's first broadcast of the NBA season, as we confirmed Thursday with Turner reps. So watch the spot, ponder its existential questions, but rest assured — it's legit.

Homepage image: beyondthebuzzercom, YouTube