Peter Butler - 17/34 - Smart Mortgage Marketing

Peter Butler

extremely happy with the look and functionality

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Thank you for the wonderful job you have done in putting together our website for LoanEasy.

Not only are we extremely happy with the look and functionality of the site but we are appreciative of the guidance regarding the marketing side of promoting our business.

Whilst putting our marketing plan together with you we have found you to be helpful, courteous and patient as well as open to our ideas whilst adding your experience to the marketing mix.

We look forward to an ongoing relationship with you as we go forward.

Mark Coonan – LoanEasy, Attadale WA
T: 1300 883 453

New Years Eve Site Soars Up The Search Engine Charts

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new years resolutionsJust a quick update on a site and how, just in one week it has soared up the charts.

This was a domain I bought a week before last new years eve. The plan was to generate a heap of traffic and build a list. I used some PC software to build the site in and graphically it was fine but you can imagine that the competition was stiff and trying to get any decent placement in the search engines was an uphill battle. I had to cut my losses.

True to form this year I left it to the last minute and only just reloaded the site using WordPress along with a heap of very cool plug ins we use.

Here’s the Alexa Rankings climb over the last week.

Remember, Google Page Rank, Alexa Rankings are all just indicators of how your site is doing for relevance, authority, keywords, content and so on. They are not the definitive measures or the be all of whether your site is successful. What determines that? Your bank account.

  • Are you getting traffic?
  • Are you converting visitors into leads and prospects?
  • What’s your sales process for converting them into paying clients?

Anyway, it is obviously beneficial if your site is being recognised by the major search engines because you will show up more in search results for more and more terms that you’re trying to rank for.

Back to the experiment: Here’s the website – www.thisnewyearsresolution.com

And here’s the Alexa Rankings climb over the last week.

  • 23.12.09 – 18,171,379
  • 25.12.09 – 11,748,932
  • 26.12.09 – 6,172,656
  • 29.12.09 – 3,141,721
  • 30.12.09 – 2,785,715

I’m pretty rapt. Frankly I haven’t had time to fill it with as much content as I wanted to, which all helps in it’s ranking and positioning. Plus, the more fresh and relevant content the longer people will stay and the more will be interested they will be in jumping in for the e-series – which by the way is AWESOME stuff for staying on track with Your New Years Resolutions!

Don’t be shy, you can get the “Resolution Ready Reckoner” which is just the coolest tool for helping you actually achieve your goals.

So you can see the power of using WordPress just from the Alexa Ranking perspective.

Like I said before, time is an issue for me, plus I needed top quality coaching material for the e-series so I’ve partnered up with a guy who runs very successful mentoring and coaching programs, he also buys and sells businesses for smart business owners. The stuff that John has available can turn your business around in a year, or sooner. Oh, that would be John Denton of Business Ready For Sale.

I’ve also had some fun creating a Fan Page in FaceBook – you can check that out here, join in the fun and get access to the invaluable content in the e-series.

Join the FaceBook Group “Make 2010 YOUR Year” here.

Get the “Make 2010 YOUR Year” e-series and Your “Resolution Ready Reckoner” here.

WordPress 2.9 Is Available

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wordpress-icon-big-250It has been for about a week or so.

If you visit WordPress.org you will notice that the classic blue download button now says “Download WordPress 2.9?. This is a major upgrade, and brings some really cool new features, including:

  • Trash bin (no more problems with accidentally deleting posts or pages)
  • Built-in image editor (this is very cool and I used it last week)
  • Batch plugin update
  • Easier video integration
  • rel=”canonical” tag support
  • database optimization

The interesting thing is that when I logged into my WordPress dashboard a couple of minutes ago I didn’t see the message “Your WordPress version is out of date. Please upgrade!”. It’s just a “WordPress 2.9 is available Please update now.”

I am guessing that since 2.9 is not a security release they are not displaying that message to users of older versions.

I have yet to upgrade my core site Smarter Websites but I did upgrade to 2.9 on a new site of ours – This New Years Resolution

That’s where I got to play with the new built in image editor. What was really handy was after I had loaded an image I wanted to display it on the right hand side of the page. It would look better reversed and I was able to do that in one single click, awesome.

I also love the trash bin idea, brilliant, no more problems with accidentally deleting posts or pages.

For the Smarter Website clients, we haven’t upgraded you yet. If you’re in a hurry make a comment and I’ll get it done tomorrow.

Different tangent:

We optimised a site last Wednesday, Alexa ranking was 18,171,379 and now, 6 days later is 3,141,721 – and we ain’t finished yet. I’ll update you on that tomorrow.

Who Wants More People To Click On Your Web Button?

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gro_11-250It comes back to my favourite question “Out of 100 visitors to your website how many are you now able to market too?”

Remember, our web visitors might be interested in what we say or sell but maybe they’re not ready right now! And if we don’t get their contact details how can we continue to market to them so when they are ready we’ve hedged our bets and set the scene that they will use us?

Most people think “Oh, they’ll remember us.” Yeah well, good luck with that!

That’s called “hope” and hope is not a strategy.

We all need very clear and defined strategies to build our business. Hey, we’ve busted our gut to get where we are so hoping someone will remember us is not a savvy way to build your business.

Anyone who has spoken to me, seen me talk or is a client knows this is my prime passion – developing lead generating and relationship building machines.

I love testing and trying new ways to convert web browsers into leads, prospects and clients.

If we can make our websites really “work” for us then by the time we actually talk to a lead or prospet we don’t even have to try and do a “sell”. We have already established rapport with them so the trust factor is high because we have started that relationship journey with them.

Closest thing I can compare it to is a solid referral from a good friend or even family.

How easy are these people to do business with? Easy as, simply because the trust factor is at its highest.

Anyway, back to the testing and trying.

I STUFFED UP!

All my clients have an opt in button on their website. Their “call to action” if you like. A solid way to build your business, the more people you “talk” to the more you will convert into paying clients.

Here’s the stuff up. I didn’t make the opt in buttons with a hover function. That means that when people move their mouse over the button it changes colour or shade. It’s good web etiquette to make your clickable buttons with a hover image, it’s just “good web manners”. For some people it can even be a sub-concious action – “hover image – click”. Plus there’s so much to read on websites and buttons, info overload.

Umm, Woops!

For those Smarter Websites clients who got short changed on this feature just make a comment below and we’ll get the button “hover” image created and loaded into your site ASAP. It really will improve your conversions.

Not sure how I missed it but make a comment NOW! I’ll get a notification of that so we’ll get cracking straight away for you.

For those who aren’t Smarter Website clients but you’re struggling with getting your website to generate any leads and actually make you any money maybe it’s time you found out why. If you want to compare your website with a Smarter Website get our Free 17-Point-Marketing-Website-Prosperity-Check!

It’s really a no brainer, not everyone I talk to wants what we do but at least you’ll get an honest “heads up” on what you can do better. Don’t wait, just get the heads up now so you can review your site ever the Xmas and New Years break. Check it out – Free 17-Point-Marketing-Website-Prosperity-Check!

out all manner of

Love WordPress, and the iPhone and WordPress

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On the train with my wife on our way up to the city to do some Xmas retail therapy.

Just love technology. Decided to check out the App’s on my iPhone and noticed the WordPress App needed updating (haven’t used it for a while) and within 30 seconds I was making a post direct to my website from my iPhone. Love WordPress… And my iPhone.

Now, what to make a post about?

The fact that I’m zooming along at 130 kmh passing the freeway traffic with my feet up relaxing on the train with my wife…

Woops… My wife is giving me “one of those looks” so it looks like it’s time for me to put my toy away.

Just finishing my sweet… I can even take a photo’s and upload them straight to my site with the new version. Could take a pic of my wife and the train but the tunnel might cause a connection issue plus my wife’s looking at me again and she might whack me so I’m outa here.

Triple Your Traffic But Halve the Time You Do It In.

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Sorry to post so many tests but we’re going hard for our Smarter Website clients. We don’t do all our tests “live” but sometimes you just need to.

Being a Professional or Small Business Owner means you end up working twice as many hours and twice as hard so who’s got the time to leverage off Social Media Marketing?

That’s what these tests are about. Make one post yet your content gets blasted out to the netsphere and you get triple the traffic.

So please, bare with us as we come up with plug ins that can triple your traffic but halve the time you can do it in.

If you want to compare your website with a Smarter Website get our Free 17-point-marketing-website-prosperity-check

OK techy team, test away!!!