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Hope you enjoy it!

WordCamp NL Presentation is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

"Us" is a group of highly experienced web marketing consultants. Some of you, especially the Dutch people, might know Ton Wesseling, and of course you know me.

Now you'll ask: what can we offer you?

• An expert review of your site
• Workshops in online marketing (given by Ton and me together)

In both cases, you've got the rare chance of getting not one but two (!!) online marketing experts helping you to make (more) money online.

Expert review

In the expert review we will review your entire site: starting with usability and functionality, up to how you are persuading your customers to buy, and whether your online presence outside of your site needs improving. And best of all, we can do it not only for your site, but your competitors too, revealing your strengths and weaknesses.

Whether you have an e-commerce site, a subscription based site (newspaper, blog, etc.) or a service site, our expert review is sure to give you hands-on tips for improvements.

Workshop more conversions on a lower budget

In the workshop, we'll tell you how to do online marketing in times of recession: more conversions on a lower budget. And we will not only tell you, we will, interactively, create an improved online strategy for you and with you.

Act now!

Both of these are on a first come first serve basis, and since our time is limited, we might be sold out as soon as today, so be sure to react soon by emailing me for pricing & availability details.

More conversions on a lower budget is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

I'll show you what that means. I went to Bol.com and searched for a nice camera, and hit the "Add to wish list" bookmarklet, and got this (click for full picture):

Then I added it to my wish list, by selecting the proper photo and inserting the price, and bam, there it was:

This is truly smart stuff. It gives Amazon the chance of seeing what is popular elsewhere on the web as well as on their own stores, (with the possible chance of starting to sell just that product) and it makes them a hub for everyone's wish list... Truly smart marketing!

[cb type="company"]Amazon[/cb]
[cb type="person"]Jeremy Schoemaker[/cb]
[cb type="financial"]Alliance Capital[/cb]
[cb]Google[/cb]

Amazon Universal Wish List is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Detect ad-blocking software is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Their "handle" online is Conversion Rate Experts, and that's just what they are. I've helped them turn their beautiful new design into a WordPress site, and I must say, it looks absolutely awesome!

When you check out the site, be sure to check out their Google Website Optimizer 101, and their excellent list of online marketing resources. Lastly, their homepage contains a list of "common mistakes to avoid" which is definitely worth a read too!

Conversion Rate Optimization? is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

What I saw today was mostly this though: even though we marketers know how to talk in KPI's and metrics, and we think we know how to set these, most of our clients don't, yet. While we talk about whether we're working on the completely correct data, and how we should attribute parts of a sale to different channels in complex sales situations, most of our (future) clients, would be benefitted more by just starting to measure those sales, and change them from page views to some raw estimate of income.

I've heard weird stories today, f.i. Mieke from Independer openly proclaiming that they attributed every sale to it's last referrer. Even if that last referrer was an obvious navigational search. Now I can say it's wrong, but... it's working for them. And even though I think that Independer should know better, as one of the few companies I know in the Netherlands with their own 5 man strong in-house analysis team, I'm wondering if I'm not being overly arrogant.

If you're a geek, like I am, and love to play with numbers, like I do, you probably have a tendency of making analytics overly complex, of over-analysing. And that's bad.

Why that's bad? Well, because Mieke can explain what she does and how it works to her management, and I, who would probably try to give a percentage of the sale to the search and a percentage to the earlier referrer, would probably have a hard time explaining it to anyone not in our industry...

If you're able to run a profitable business by keeping it that simple, and simply accept that some of the data you're measuring isn't completely correct, aren't you being a lot more efficient?

I'd like to say yes, but in the end, I think it will work against you. Independer works in the insurance business. I think it's safe to assume that people shop around quite a bit before they get a new insurance, going through all the stages of the AIDA process. That means that quite a few people might come to your site from early on in that process. Them seeing your site and your brand is very important at that point.

If you, however, cut costs rigorously, and throw out every campaign that isn't profitable for you, like Independer said they did, you will throw out all of the sites that help people find your site early on in the orientation process. If you stop that campaign, you will see your ROI go up. But will you also see the missed sales? No you won't. You'll be fooling yourself with analytics.

So it might work for them now, but at some point, there'll be a competitor who's better at it, and they'll beat them at what they think is "their own game". Making analytics too simple is a risk, whatever excuse you have.

Web Analytics Congress: the learnings is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

They send you an email every time that happens, apologizing and telling you they're trying to get the book to you as fast as they can. That's fine the first time, a bit annoying but still fine the second time, and becomes really annoying (as in: blog-post worthy annoying), when it happens 3 times within 4-5 months...

These emails are automated, and if I were working at bol.com, I'd start doing something extra for my clients when stuff like this happens. If you know it's happened a few times, and trust me, they keep track of everything there, why not give me a coupon for my next purchase? How would you handle situations like these?

Unreliable delivery times at Bol.com is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

One of the things that keeps amazing me when I look at the SEO community, is how the people who seem to be the brightest of all, and the people bringing in real *-loads of money, are not the same people.

My colleague and pal Roy Huiskes, (who recently started blogging in English) writes about Reactionary vs. Visionary SEO, and sees a difference between reactionary SEO's and visionary SEO's, and though I get what he talks about, I think he's wrong. You should probably read hist post first (and while you're at it you might as well subscribe to his blog, he's a darn good SEO).

If you have the time and resources to do an awful lot of testing, you'll see what's changing in the algorithm pretty soon. If you start to think ahead, and feel that you "know" what's coming, you might be right. But are you serving yourself or your customers well by using that knowledge already?

If you test well enough, you know what works now, and that's what that group of money making people is using. The group of people that probably are the brightest, also fall into this big trap of trying to be too far ahead of the game...

People who stopped buying links two years ago, weren't doing their clients a favor. People who stopped doing that recently, like somewhere in the last 5-6 months, do a better job IMHO: they cut the risk when they need to.

If you become one of those SEO's who dive into search patents and act immediately on those, instead of thinking: "OK, so in two months/years/whatever, I need to make sure that..." etc. Are you doing your clients a favor by acting on those immediately? Of course, you have a defensible story, but really, are you doing your clients a favor? I don't think so.

Knowing what's coming at you in the coming years is very important. As is staying "on top of your game", as it allows you to do the kind of SEO that is currently needed to rank well. But please, please, do not make the mistake, of mistaking the first for the latter...

So, if you think you're a good SEO, and know what to do, but aren't getting the rankings you think you should be getting, it might be wise to turn the clock back a few years in your head: what would I have done a year ago. Try that, and see if your rankings go up! If they do, you owe me a beer.

The difference between being on top of and ahead of your (SEO) game is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Donna, who did a review of the book as well, listed quite a few good other resources, but I have to say, this one is really an easy entry into the topic, and if you really get all Glen says, you can't even be called a beginner anymore... What I like most though, is his first chapter on ethics, as that really is the struggle in these kinds of situations: which companies you help, and which companies you don't...

As it's priced ridiculously low ($19, that's like € 12.30!) I would suggest you go buy it NOW!

Online Reputation Management e-book is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Which books should every online marketer read? is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

I'm involved in the project as an SEO, of course, but they do pose cool and sometimes not so easy to answer questions about social media marketing, web analytics, using video's etc. Basically you all should go and see their current, very funny, pre-alpha site, and I'll keep you updated about it when it goes live!

Snagsta is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Ton Wesseling, another Dutch guy, gave this presentation:

And I have some pics on flickr.

Hubert Diemel and myself have been giving this presentation, which I hope you'll enjoy as well:

quick test:

Pics & Presentations from RIMC 2008 is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Update: So it all broke down... Ah well... What can I say...

Catch me on Strike Point tonight! is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

JasonD on DaveN vs Jason Calacanis is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

The future of the internet. is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Those used to tabbed browsing know why favicons are important. People will see your site stand out of the rest if your favicon is recognizable, after all, a picture says more than a thousand words. Also, some search engines and other sites are starting to use favicons when referencing to a site, and a recognizable favicon would probably increase your clicks from those sites as well.

Now you probably can't measure this in hard cash instantly, but it should make you think of your favicon a bit more. Make sure it stands out, and matches your logo and website well.

[tags]internet explorer, ie6, ie7, favicon, webdesign, online brand[/tags]

Favicons and your online brand is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Marketing-Pilgrim SEO Contest is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Why are companies still investing in large print advertising campaigns, which they can’t measure the benefits from? After all, for the price of just a few of those ads, they can have their complete site optimized and ranking well, generating huge amounts of traffic (and thus revenue).

One of the major benefits of search engine optimization and search engine advertising is the fact that you can measure everything, if you choose the right tools. You can calculate your cost per conversion (the CPC of the future!) every single day. You can see the effects of the order form you changed on your conversion ratio, and don’t have to guess as to what they are.

Because you can create this data, if you have done so, you can quite reliably predict the extra earnings for the changes you want to make. You can run a test on a small sample group, see what happens, and if it works and you’ve set up your tests right, you can tell your client exactly what the business case for this new investment is.

So that’s what I’ll do now as well: I’ll show him the money!

‘Show me the money!’ is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Online Marketing / SEO is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!