Low quality traffic could be -

1. The traffic that doesn’t convert well
2. The traffic that generates invalid / bad leads

Now, I’d agree that #2 type of traffic should be avoided as it’ll definitely save time in verifying the leads. Sources that generate invalid or bad leads pose a risk : You end-up paying for the invalid leads if those aren’t detected, and even if the invalid leads are detected well, the very process definitely adds an overhead.

The traffic which we should just love is the #1 type of affiliate traffic. Marketing teams generally rush to the affiliate agency as soon as they detect that the traffic from one of the affiliates isn’t converting well. This is because, the low conversion rate of a high traffic affiliate would adversely impact the  overall conversion rate of the site – and hence showing up bad on the reports!

But wait.. Assuming that your site doesn’t get practically slowed down by this traffic, I don’t see anything wrong with the traffic to get rejected! Well, with affiliate traffic – you pay only for the conversions. So, essentially the non-converting traffic you get is all a bonus. Plus, affiliates usually run on 30/45 day cookie. So, if even a small percent of the huge non-converting traffic is converting after the 45 days, you don’t pay for the conversion. More bonus!

Let’s take a use-case. I plan to fly abroad 6 months from now. I come across this ad for a cheap flight booking site through an affiliate ad. I simply bookmark the site. I come back after 3 months and complete my booking with the site. How often do we do this?

Why do marketers forget the product / brand awareness created by the campaign, which could lead to long-term gains? Too much focus on only conversions, isn’t a good thing!

Anyway, here it is. Just below the video – click the “Share” button. Now, a link to the video is displayed ready to be copied. Below that, there’s the small “Embed” button. Click it to get the embed code for the video. Hope this helps!

Now, Twitter by definition is a micro-blogging service – which lets you share content limited to 140 characters. This limitation in content size was possibly due to two reasons:

1. Twitter wanted content to be shared via SMS, which was limited to 160 chars
2. Twitter, by very defintion was intended to share bits of content

Social Media is like a 2-sided market place. The platform should be optimal for both the content publishers & the target audience (yet another reason, why Twitter clicked!). Most Twitter publishers publish content, along with a URL (usually shortened) they want the audience to visit. Content publisher’s #1 way would’ve been if the audience could follow their RSS feeds. However, the audience found it easier to follow Twitter, instead. Hence the publishers had to move to Twitter as well!

Now, what’s Tumblr? If Twitter is like a house-hold knife, Tumblr is Swiss Army Knife. Tumblr describes itself as follows:

“Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors, to your theme’s HTML.”

The posts in Tumblr are called as Tumblogs, and they aren’t limited to text. They can be text, audio recordings (sent directly from mobile – and you don’t need internet enabled on your phone!). In addition it comes as a package. With Twitter, one needs to have accounts with URL shortening services & analyse the traffic there. On the other hand, Tumblr allows Google Analytics integration! You can’t make Tumblogs from Twitter – but you can tweet from Tumblr!  Optionally, one can also post Facebook updates from Tumblr.

In short, Tumblr gives you all the tools to publish content. The question is, can Tumblr outscore Twitter’s strength – its simplicity?  Tumblr is currently ranked 54 on Alexa, which is extremely good. However, in a “winner-takes-it-all” market where it is, it needs to reach the masses. When internet was new, no one knew how to send emails. Then, everyone learnt to. Video streaming wasn’t popular with slow internet connections. But, Youtube changed the rule, and got adopted. Twitter achieved excellent adoption as well.

Tumblr is an out-right winner in terms of features. The only barrier I can see is with adoption, which I believe Tumblr will achieve with time. Then, Twitter will be a thing of past!

Before getting on to the details, I assume that most of us would’ve used IRCTC (irctc.co.in) for booking trains. Originally, tickets could be booked through IRCTC portal, or directly at booking offices. People started trusting offline agents, to get tickets because – it was easier to get tickets through agents (although the agents charged their own commissions). Now, why were people willing to pay more to agents – it was because of assured ticket availability (or the agent had higher chances of getting a ticket). Agents knew the tricks of getting tickets, through the rush hours, when booking opens for normal / tatkal tickets.

After sometime, OTAs like Cleartrip, Makemytrip & Yatra ventured into rail booking. These OTAs are allowed to take bookings an hour after the bookings open at IRCTC. Usually Tatkal (and sometimes even normal tickets) are sold out on busy sectors by this time. These OTAs charge a fee, in addition to the IRCTC fare. But have they added value? They have, well to some extent. The booking is easier for sure : Better user interface, saved payment details & one consolidated place for air & rail bookings. Plus, better customer support relative to IRCTC.

However, is the ease of use good enough for the commission? May be, to some extent. How useful is this, if tickets aren’t even available? The trick is to maximise ticket availability. How? Take a look at Makemytrip have done. They’ve worked within the restrictions to maximise ticket availability in trains.

First, when you look for tickets – the system automatically identifies near-by stations and looks for points between which tickets are available. For example, if you’re trying to book a ticket between Bangalore City & Chennai Central you probably won’t get a ticket. However, you might get a ticket from Kengeri (outskirts of Bangalore) or Krishnarajapuram to Chennai Central. Makemytrip does all the permutations between stations internally & hence maximises ticket availability. When I used Makemytrip first to book trains, I was amazed at the intelligence level of this product.

Second, the flexibility of the system. Often one books a train, because the journey is more convenient. For them journey by train is important – timing, class are less important. For some, even travel dates are less important. Makemytrip lets you look for ticket availability across all classes (and/or) if required across multiple dates too – with one click.

Well, once you check the availability on Makemytrip can’t I go back to IRCTC & book the same ticket without paying the agent fee? I can. But I guess the force of requital comes into play here. Add to that the other benefits I’ve mentioned above.

Only problem with their product is the IT implementation – I have always encountered some not-so-serious errors while booking on Makemytrip. Shortcomings apart, I must say – Makemytrip, you beauty!

Let me make onething clear – I’m not trying to say that Sachin makes India lose by scoring centuries. All I’m trying to state here is, statistically India lose more when Sachin scores a century. This could be because – others don’t play well when Sachin does, or possibly even there’s a conspiracy in the team to lose when Sachin scores a century!

Let us assume that a hypothetical player has 15 centuries in winning cause. Would you say that he’s outstanding? Well may be – IF he had totally made 15 centuries and all 15 centuries were in winning causes. What if the player made 100 centuries and only 15 were in winning causes? Not so great yeah? That’s why we need to look at Team’s winning percentage, when a player scores a century. If you look the percentages below – you’ll find why the critics are complaining. Sachin’s centuries contribute the least to winning at 69%. You may say that the Indian team has been bad – but why has the team been so bad only when Sachin scores centuries? Ganguly has a 82% success rate & Sehwag has 93%.

Now, look at this table. Since 2004 India overall has a 57% winning rate. However, during the same period India has a 42% winning rate in matches where Sachin has scored a century, which is considerably low.

Why is this? Is there a conspiracy against Sachin in the team? Or is it just that the other players take it easy when Sachin plays well.

PS: I’m hoping that Sachin & other players would work on improving these numbers!

Second, look at the schedule. India’s first four matches were against – Bangladesh, England, Ireland & Netherlands. Why not South Africa, West Indies & England first? You may say that it was by lot – I wouldn’t believe that. Once again, the objective was to ensure that the viewership was maintained at high levels by making India play against easier teams first. If India had first two games against South Africa, West Indies, and the third one against England. And suppose, if India had lost the first two games & tied the third one (as it happened) you wouldn’t really follow the other games.

Third, the media gave the Indian cricket team the “favorites” tag to win the world-cup. Why? Money again. Wouldn’t more of us follow the matches if “they” say that India is a favorite, knowing that the team’s bowling is weak & it has been that way for ages. “Experts” like Viv Richards, Wasim Akram etc wouldn’t hesitate to say that India are favorites – Saying so would get them some super publicity in Indian Media & chances in TV Talk Shows. Boils down to money!

Finally, all that India (or any other team) has to do is win one serious game (quarter finals), to enter the semi finals & keep their fans interested. And, win 2 serious games to enter the final, and make their fans crazy. If India reaches the final, maximum money would be made!

The cricket world cup, is an excellent case-study in the making to maximize revenue, using the law of probabilities!

1. Force of Requital

If someone helps you or gives something, you’ll feel obliged to return the favor. That’s human tendency, that’s how we’re brought up! Let’s use this in business. Give your customers a free lunch. If you were selling T-Shirts, give away some free t-shirts to potential long term customers. Sometimes the cost of such a campaign would be lower than the cost of acquiring customers through regular PPC. In addition you end up building the Requital force.

If you are into Web Hosting business, give free hosting for a reasonable span: say 3 months. If you are into SEO business, offer a free SEO report. The tricks to this sort of approach are :

a. Identifying the right potential customer base. (Else you’ll end up giving away free stuff to those who’ll never pay for your stuff)
b. Don’t explicity market your products / services. Keep it implicit. For eg, don’t send an SEO report and tell the customer that you’ll improve the numbers for $xxx. (You don’t help someone & ask for a return, do you?)

2. Force of Pricing

Pricing is a very potent force. However, right price is the key here rather than low price. Customers perceive the price as a function of product quality.

So, for them a low priced product could translate into a low quality product. However, if there’s little differentiation in terms of the product or service offered (as perceived by the customers) then low price can help you establish a customer base, especially when you’re new to the business.

On a long term, it may be necessary to stay close to competitors in terms of price, but do not use this as your main force to compete. Because, lower price also means lower margins!

3. Force of Urgency

Customers often take days, if not weeks to make a choice. Let’s say that a customer visits your online store, to buy a wireless speaker, finds what he wants

for $100. He then visits Amazon, PriceGrabber.com to see if he gets a better deal. Then he visits a local store to check the product. A friend who called him two days later, bought similar speakers but is not using them now. Hence he might share the speakers. Or, someone might tell him that wireless speakers don’t produce good sound.

Long-story short – The longer the time span you give your customers to make decision the higher the chances that the customer will not end up buying.

Woot.com gives 1-day deals. So does Amazon.com – they have several deals which are time-bound. Often, the force of urgency does well in tandem with pricing (deals). When you introduce force of urgency, the customer pays a cost for delaying his decision : he misses the deal (which he wouldn’t want to).

4. Force of Scarcity

Using this force requires that you either have : product exclusivity or price advantage. That is, you should either have a product no one else has, or should be able to sell for the product for real low price (force of price again)!.

We see this force in action at Ebay auctions & even Amazon deals. Amazon limits the daily deals by number of units of the item sold. Another example is the Gmail launch. The initial registrations were only through invites, and this created scarcity. In fact, Gmail invites were sold on Ebay for several dollars.

Black-Friday mad-rushes at various sites are also examples of this force. However, to use this force the potential customers should believe (and be sure) that there’s value in what you’re offering.

5. Force of Immediacy

Customers tend to perceive the value in a product delivered tomorrow higher than that of the same product delivered the day after! “Sameday Shipping” can convert atleast 25% better than “Shipping in 3-4 days”. How often do we see this : “Make Payment & Download the Ebook Immediately”. This one is a lot different from “Make Payment & the Ebook will be delivered within 24 hours”. If implementing Immediacy doesn’t cost a lot, it is a force to use to your advantage as it can definitely improve your competitive advantage.

6. Force of Expert Opinion

Expert / Authority opinions can be powerful forces, especially in certain verticals: technology, health etc. People do make their buy/no-buy decisions based on Cnet Editor reviews. New book authors often send out free copies of their books to big names to get expert opinion – which can help with the sales. You can give a free copy of your product or service & ask for a honest review from people believed to be experts in the vertical. May be even a blog post by the expert could help!

7. Force of Social Opinion

We all read product reviews by customers on Amazon before buying a product. This could be an extremely powerful force, specifically if the opinions are negative they could spell doom for the business. A customer needs to read atleast 5-6 good reviews to make a “buy” decision, but it takes only 1 bad review to make a “no-buy” decision! To top that, the ones with bad experiences are more likely to write reviews. The extreme potential of this force has given rise to the practice of ORM (Online Reputation Management). I’ve had some interesting experiences with companies handling this social opinion force very carefully. I’ll share them in one of my later posts.

You can proactively ask your customers to write reviews. Often dis-satisfied customers reply to such review requests with their problem. If you fix them, you’ll get some super-good reviews! You can also incentivize your customers to write honest reviews of your product. Without an incentive, two types of customers write reviews by themselves: The dis-satisfied ones, and the over-satisfied ones. It’d take a bit of effort to over-satisfy your customers!

8. Force of Fitting the Frame

This force is the one that marketing guru Seth Godin, discusses in his book “All Marketers are liars”. Customers see the the world from a certain frame or beliefs. This frame is based on the way they were brought up, and the environment in which they’ve been. So, as marketers you need to tell them what they would believe based on their current beliefs. ie., Extrapolate their current beliefs, such that it helps you sell. The better the fit of your extrapolation, the better it is for your sales!

For example, you would have heard of SEO Hosting. We all are with the frame (belief) that links from different C-Class IP addresses would help with our SEO efforts. Businesses have used this belief to come up with SEO Hosting giving multiple C-Class IP addresses per account. If I start a simple webhosting service, without multiple C-Class IP addresses I shouldn’t be targetting the SEO savvy guys. I should be rather targetting the normal webmasters, because they don’t believe in SEO Hosting (or probably not aware of it).

If you were selling sunglasses & lenses, and if the customers coming to your store probably believe that wearing sunglasses makes them cool. So, tell them how the sunglasses you sell makes them extra cool, rather than trying to sell them colored contact-lenses claiming that sun-glasses aren’t as cool! That would be a very bad idea.

9. Force of Consistency

Customers try to be consistent with what they say. So, the trick is to map your product or service with what the customers would be consistent with. This method is used by sales-people across the globe, and is also widely used in sale copy-writing.  This force should have its place in your site’s sales copy. For eg, ask them “Isn’t your site getting enough traffic?”,

“Are your SEO efforts not giving enough results?”. The customers would say “Yes” for each of those questions, within their minds. A series of these “Yes” creates a positive disposition. Now, finally propose your solution!

10. Force of Safety

Customers are often worried before making the payment – What if this thing doesn’t work? What if this purchase makes me regret? This is probably the last barrier to the “buy” decision. Assure them that they would never have to regret. Businesses offer warranty on electronic goods. We see money-back guarantee on several software packages too.  When you offer your customers safety, ensure that the same isn’t abused.

While Google does credit your website for incoming links, it doesn’t hesitate to penalize you for bad link building & SEO practices. Some of these methods might give you a short-term boost in SERPs, however – the chances of getting penalized is pretty high.

1. Strictly avoid Xrumer blasts – spamming on Forums & Blogs. If your spam links do end up appearing as blog comments or forum posts, they should be among the hundreds of viagra / pills related links. So easy to find & as easy to penalize.

2. Link Wheels. Would Google expect proper well connected link wheels for sites like Reuters, MSN etc? When you build link wheels, you are telling Google “I’m trying to fool you”. If your link wheel has a pattern simple enough for us to understand, Google can decode it easily as well.

3. Reciprocal Linking / Three-way linking. These don’t work. Google is smarter!

4. Directory Spammission. Avoid directory submission using services like 1000 directory submission for $9.95, or automated tools.

5. Avoid sitewide / irrelevant links. It sounds good to get links from PR5 pages. However it contributes little to nothing if the links aren’t relevant. For eg., a site-wide link for a travel portal from a health blog makes little sense!

6. Avoid buying links from Made-for-PayU2Blog type blogs. While generating links from guest posts on blogs is a good idea, sites like Payu2Blog have given rise to a new segment of “bloggers”. People buy dropping high PR domains, install WordPress & start making paid blog posts.

7. Don’t generate too many low quality links in one go. Space out & schedule your link-bulding. Specifically, if you’re in a competitive niche your site might get sand-boxed / penalized.

8. Don’t try to generate links / word of mouth through negative reviews (AKA Decormyeyes case)!

On-Page SEO

9. Avoid Keywords Stuffing - Stuffing keywords with text matching background color, small font, within CSS etc. Easy for the big G to catch!

10. Avoid Stuffing Keywords on Title – Stuffing keywords on the title would reduce the CTR, which would eventually bring down your traffic as well as SERP position!

11. Don’t stuff the Meta Description with keywords.

12. Avoid trying to create a page for each keyword you’re targeting (mis-spells, notations etc). Google understands the context of a page for a set of keywords.

General SEO

13. Never try to use keywords you “think” as right, or may be your competitors are using. Always research keywords, before starting your link-building activity.

14. Don’t build links before having decent content. Content & Site Structure is the king. Many webmasters focus on link-building before having good content. The order is : Keyword Research – Content & Site Structure – Link Building

15. Don’t waste money on : “Submission to 150 Search Engines for $3.95″ kind of services.

Now, identifying and penalizing the sites/businesses with bad business practices or customer ratings could be tricky. Well, I don’t question Google’s ability to do a “sentiment”-analysis looking reviews & feedback of a certain portal. The question is – how easy it to fake such sentiments: AKA Reverse SEO. And I’d certainly doubt Google’s ability to sort out “fake” sentiments.

For starters, Reverse SEO is the practice of bringing down the ranking of competitor websites (and hence improving ours), by building links from bad neighborhoods, negative reviews on portals etc. From my own experience and what I’ve heard from people, Reverse SEO has been working to some extent – well before Google announced changes to its algorithm claiming to penalize “bad” sites. So, Google was already penalizing the bad boys. However, the problem is identifying the bad boys with confidence and penalizing them appropriately.

Let us the compare this situation with that of social bookmarking sites, which have been doing well through community efforts. Social Bookmarking sites like Digg, Del.icio.us etc have survived despite the onslaught of SEO guys because they have the reputation system. These sites have regular users who follow other users, comment & digg good links. One cannot digg random links with no quality content, and still be a reputed member. It is not easy (though not impossible) to replicate such a system by individual SEO guys. However, in case of negative reviews – which happens through review / complaint portals it is difficult to maintain such a reputation system. You don’t regularly follow negative reviews & complaints. And you don’t keep posting reviews every week!  You tend to buy different products (read it as “random”), and hence can post reviews on random products / services – Something that can be easily emulated by SEO guys.

Hence as Google subtly mentioned in their blogpost, their system isn’t still accurate to weed out the bad boys based on negative reviews. But if Google is increasing its focus on using negative reviews to weed out junk, it gives enough license for the “Reverse SEO” guys to go out and start attacking their competitors with negative links. The purpose of this blog post isn’t to encourage reverse SEO, but to show how Reverse SEO can harm your business. The negative reviews needn’t necessarily be posted by your customers – but by your competitors, for they now have more reasons to do the same. This is something Google wants to avoid – battle of negative reviews!