Man, I need some sleep. As you may recall, yesterday I mentioned that I set up a new web store with tons and tons of items. Well, last night and today, I completed 4 more sister stores. They compliment my classified sites. Their addresses are:
MyAutoMarket.US
MyPetMarket.US
MyCycleMarket.US
MyBoatMarket.US
This makes twelve websites that comprise the DotUSNetwork. I think I need a break.
…well, my family. Ok, my house.
You have to check this out:
UpMyAlley.US
This is a new online shopping storefront. Through some pretty neat technology, created by a very talented company other than mine, we are able to pull in every single item from Amazon.com. This is huge because while being able to offer an extremely large variety of products, I am able to micro-target (you like that?) my classifieds audience. Say for example, if someone visits PetClassifieds.US and is not able to find the dog collar they were looking for, they can easily follow the links to the appropriate category on UpMyAlley.US to make a purchase.
By the way, Laura made up the domain name, so I must give mad props to her.
This post may ruffle some feathers. I will try to keep it short.
I had a conversation with a friend this morning about SEO. I started thinking. Now, you may not know, but one of my favorite pastimes is managing my websites (of which I mentioned in an earlier post). There are many parts to managing these sites…customer service, updates and upgrades, new features and very importantly, SEO.
Basically, SEO is adjusting of website code and content so it consistently appears on the early pages of search results for strong search terms. The key words here are consistently, early and strong search terms. I could go on for hours, but I won’t. Bob has a great post here about the ins and the outs of this topic.
Anyway, much focus has been put on Google PageRank over the years. I read a lot about this on forum after forum and watch as people cheer or sulk every time Google adjusts their algorithm. The minute they see their website’s PageRank bounce around during a Google update, they freak out and start tearing things apart and asking for all sorts of advice. Granted, a lot of people making these posts are brand new to this stuff and haven’t realized yet that Google PageRank is just not that important. That’s right…it’s just not that important. I know this for a fact. My years of experience have taught me a few things. What is important is your rankings in the search results, which are based on…well, read Bob’s post above. If you are into ecommerce, these rankings affect your income.
So, here is a question: With your own website, have you seen a relationship between your website’s rankings and your Google PageRank?
This really has nothing to do with this morning’s conversation. We actually were talking about conversion. That is, getting people to sign up, spend money or do the thing you want them to do after they arrive at your website. We’ll talk about this later.
As I have mentioned a few posts ago, it’s getting chilly in the air around here in the mornings. It feels REALLY good, especially after the summer we have had. There is a lot that comes with the return of chilly mornings…the changing color of the leaves, sweaters and college.
Every so often, I check out my alma mater, Binghamton University and their School of Management. I see they have built a new field house, a clock tower and some new dorms. I am not sure if I would recognize the place if I visited.
I had a very good experience in Binghamton. I transferred in as a sophomore and stayed for two years and then returned a year after graduation for the MBA program. When I went back, the business school had a new Dean and a new direction. I thought it was on the right heading, because things seemed to fit similarly with the reading I have done on MBA programs. The Dean had a tough, disciplined approach. We certainly did learn a lot during that year…some of which I apply every day.
I will always remember the very first day we met each other. It was during an orientation. No classes had started yet. We (the students) were asked to complete a short case study with a few questions to answer. We were so cocky…you know, in the new MBA program and all. We walked with a certain swagger. The Dean was up on stage and began going over the case study and asked a few questions. We were doing alright until the very end, when he asked, “Well, what course would you suggest for this company?” We all had so many useless answers based on nothing but opinion. Really, there was only one correct answer, and it was based on the figures given in the case study. No one came remotely close to being correct. We all learned an important lesson that day…don’t just make stuff up because of certain perceptions. If there are truths in what you are dealing with, rely and base your decisions on them. He knew we would overlook this and I am sure that is why he made us go through it.
Every so often I miss going to college. If you think about it, (and anyone who has graduated will tell you this) life is pretty easy during those years. Basically, you get up, go to classes, come home, study and chill with friends. I always wonder why so many people never leave their hometowns to enjoy this. I know I am over simplifying the experience, because when I was in college, I thought things were much more difficult than what I just described. One thing is true, life is adventurous during those times, with new people, new classes every 15 weeks and new challenges at every turn.
Perhaps I will take another walk through SUNY New Paltz.
I would like to announce my latest website, FeedDirectory.US. It’s a great little site with two fantastic tools.
If you have a database driven website, you may add your RSS feed to this directory. This will allow you to syndicate your content to the oodles of visitors we have (this is good for you). If you have a website and need more content, for any reason, you may place your attributes in some simple form areas and pull a nice piece of code out. Place this code on your website and walla, beautiful page content that continuously updates itself…well, as much at the person who owns the feed updates their content (this is also good for you).
I know there is a business model in here somewhere…hmmm.
So I mentioned earlier that I had a few business blogs, but never gave the URLs for any of them. They hold some really informative content and may be worth checking out. Here they are:
Pet Classifieds Blog
Free Classifieds Blog
Motorcycle Classifieds Blog
Boat Classifieds Blog
Auto Classifieds Blog
RSS Feed Directory Blog
If you are into any of these things, check them out. They all have links to the various categories of the respective classified sites.
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TYSM I read this one and decided to try it out on my ACER (See, its not always HP with the problems)...