Dangerous food

Sorry to do this to you, but I want to go off-subject. Even before my recent 'speeding ticket' regarding high cholesterol, I had learned that partially-hydrogenated oils were evil. Now that I am on health kick, I feel I have to impose this information on you. Read more at my new blog.

Oh, and by the way, high-fructose corn syrup is evil, too.

Building useful site navigation

When I built our company's website last year, I knew my most difficult challenge was to create appropriate product 'buckets'. Buckets are the categories used in the product section to help visitors find what they are looking for. Having buckets enabled me to settle on a site-map. A site map led to my most important effort--useful navigation.

I was mentaly walking thru this process again as I read the following articles about navigation that is not only usable, but increases conversions to a lead or sale. These is seriously-good reading for anyone considering site architecture or navigation.

• Fix Navigation to Increase Conversions talks about creating useful categories based on the visitors need. Most importantly, it reminds us that there are two kinds of site visitors: those who know what they want, and those who aren't sure.


• Part two makes the need crystal clear as the writer shops for a 'thingy' to remotely advance PowerPoint slides


• Part three goes into specific discussions about breadcrumbs, site maps, and other details.

A thought to ponder from the end of the article: As Don Norman of the Nielsen Norman Group said, "Usability is not the goal. Honest, it isn't. Usability is always secondary. The goal is to satisfy the needs of the user. Information, functionality... And if you work for a company, one goal is to keep the company profitable.... Would I degrade a product if I knew it would increase sales? Yup."

Not every auction is on eBay or DoveBid

Here's a site that sounds like it is doing something right:

LabX really works! Of the 1252 auctions that have closed in the past 12 days, 713 auctions resulted in $199,983.00 of sales. Currently, over 56.9% of items receive bids.

LabX emphasizes used lab equipment, mostly in the pharmaceutical/chemical vein. Unlike eBay, they don't take commissions, which allows for off-line negotiations and less specific advertising. There are more listing options, including standard 'classified' ads, too.

The site does suffer from lots of smaller blinking ads, but I imagine the active lab shopper is going to actually study these, as they might help in their search for a bargain.

So just because you can't find your products being resold on eBay, doesn't mean that they aren't being heavily traded. I can't find any of our products on eBay right now, but over half-a-dozen units on LabX.

URL Correction

My new blog is here: www.lower-my-cholesterol-blog.com. I originally listed the URL incorrectly.

This also gives me a chance to play with the new Blogger templates and tools. I like them very much. Take a look.

Yet another product directory/search site

Making our company easy to find on the web is of prime importance. While paying for a listing can be of dubious value, a free listing can't hurt, and may even help your PR (PageRank).

So while reading an industry article on a Test & Measurement World's site, I noticed that in addition to offering 'SpecSearch' from Globalspec, their menu had Kelly Search listed. I had heard that Kelly Search was an "engineer's search engine", so I investigated.

Sure enough, our company was listed, so I signed up to update the information. What surprised me is the number of categories you can get listed in. Afterwards, reading the 'about us' info, I learned that Kelly is essentially a UK version of Thomas Register...the internet just caused them to spread their reach. And unfortunately, the number of categories is what makes Kelly Search unuseable. While it has a much better user-interface than TR, a search result with more than a half-a-dozen categories that mean the same thing is not something anyone is going to want to troll thru. Example:

Hardness Test Equipment, Alloys, Brinell Method (11 suppliers)
Hardness Test Equipment, Alloys, Rockwell Method (11 suppliers)
Hardness Test Equipment, Alloys, Rockwell Superficial Method (10 suppliers)
Hardness Test Equipment, Brinell (9 suppliers)
Hardness Test Equipment, Copper, Brinell Method (10 suppliers)
Hardness Test Equipment, Digital, Alloys, Brinell Method (11 suppliers)

They do offer reasonable prices on enhanced listings ($200-450), but I don't see getting any value out of it.

Is a CD a good marketing tool?

Over the last couple months I've purposefully looked at three different CDs that companies have given out, including one by a sister company. Today someone else asked me about my opinion regarding creating a CD. Seems some salespeople have asked for it, thinking it would be cool to give clients.

If you know me, you know that 'just because its cool' doesn't equal a compelling reason to do it. That ranks right up there with webcasting just because you can.

I think a CD is good for a few things:

• Companies that need to make a presentation to explain their products and its benefits


• Companies that have a lot of technical data that customers/prospects need to use
• Companies that have software to distribute


• Cost savings over distributing/printing catalogs (like the huge Digikey catalog I just tossed)

Most likely, if you have had a compelling reason like the above, you have already made a CD. If you haven't done one by 2004, you probably don't need one.

Okay, maybe there is one possible use for me that I've overlooked until now. A CD would allow me to distribute copies of manuals and other detailed product specifications that would be too bulky and expensive to email/snail mail. For now, we don't consider our manual a sales tool, but perhaps a CD would make it a cost-effective one. I would need to make sure the PDF files are ready for wide distribution, which they aren't. They need to be divided into sections, named properly, create hyperlinks, and more.

A new search advertising opportunity

While Industrial Quick Search and Thomas Register duke it out with similar formats and goals, others continue to try to horn-in to profit from search engine ranking. Globalspec seems to be getting better at getting high in the listings.

But now comes along Article Insider, launched by Traffic Logic. The actual sites you'll find in the search engine result pages (SERPs) are market specific, like www.materialstestinginfo.com.

What Article Insider is doing is having experts write articles describing certain products and processes. The experts, from what I can tell, are probably experts in search-engine optimization (SEO). The articles I saw weren't much better than WebPosition Gold produces. Article Insider may improve these articles with better content as this project develops. But original content ranks well with Google. For being very recently launched, there is a significant amount of content and sites published.

Each site then has two sources of advertising. Google AdSense ads are at the top, probably a smart move. Of course the person landing on this site has probably just seen the same ads on the SERPs.

The second source of ads is loading the site with links with for a specific sponsor. This gives more keyword relevance to the sponsor, as well as benefiting from any click-thrus.

This is what Traffic Logic says in its code of ethics, which also stands to help define their business model:
1. SEARCH ENGINE USERS - by providing useful, relevant content which helps people find what they're looking for
2. SEARCH ENGINES - by contributing high quality, helpful content for their users
3. ADVERTISERS - By delivering highly targeted leads to their site

And pricing is fixed but based on one of three performance measures:
* Cost-Per-Click (CPC) - Account is debited each time a visitor goes to your site.
* Cost-Per-Lead (CPL) - Account is debited after a form or application is completed.
* Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) - Account is debited after the visitor makes a purchase.

My analysis:
Search engine results: great
Helpful to searchers: low
Value to sponsors: low

I hated Industrial Quick Search for years because they were cutting in on my turf. But they do provide a convenient service to searchers, so I've come to accept (and use) them. ArticleInsider is going to have to work harder to get me to accept them. More importantly, they will have to get the search-users to find their sites useful. A two or three paragraph article loaded with sentences as bad as this "The organization takes pride in identifying the needs of their customers. They offer comprehensive service to many industries" isn't going to engage the user. And the links to sponsor's sites needs to be convincing, too.

And I don't think that they have enough room to post articles of significance for surfers...and if they are searching for suppliers, this kind of article isn't something they are going to want to stop and read.

My doctor gave me a speeding ticket

He caught me doing 228 in a 200 zone!

My cholesterol level is in the borderline-high range. Apparently he never got back to me on my last check-up, because he said it was over 200 then. For someone who has been over 200 more than once, the goal is to get to 160...in three months...or its Lipitor for life. At 37, that doesn't sound like something I want to do.

So what does a good blogger do? Create a blog about it! Please visit www.lower-my-cholesterol-blog.com to learn how I am taking on this challenge.

Change your script, please

One of the fun parts of running a blog is looking at your stats. The small number of hits (page views if you're picky) allows you to look at each one. Having regular readers use a RSS-reader makes that an even more productive process.

So I know that on a frequent basis someone from Progressive Business Publications reads my blog. Will this someone listen up, please:

I don't mind that your outbound callers have reached me on a regular basis over the years. I've looked at several of your reports, but never kept a subscription. Even today, I agreed to look at "The Marketing Report" just because I don't remember seeing it.

What I do mind is that you continue to use the same script format. "First let me ask you two questions..." It was dumb and contrived the first time I heard it. It doesn't engage me. As your telemarketer read her script mindlessly, my mind wandered enough that I didn't know what the question was. When I picked the answer "other", I heard the same reply I get no matter what I've said over the years "I hear that from a lot of other people." All my answer did was cue her to go onto the next part of the script. If you are going to try to engage the person you are calling, don't pretend.

Your statistics may say this is a successful script, but does it really put your potential client at ease and develop interest?

Disheartening news about PPC advertising

This news from MarketingVox is disheartening for PPC advertisers for myself. Foreign Fraudsters Mobilize Armies of Clickers for PPC.

What the article doesn't detail is who is paying for the results. Is it the advertisers or competitors or agencies? My AdWords charges jumped considerably at the beginning of the year. And I've always wondered how Business.com gets so many click-thrus to my site. My AdWords account allows me to keep control of what countries my ads show for, so I am less likely to suspect such a problem there (although a proxy server in the USA could be as a disguise).

The fact they are posting a news article directly from India says that this hasn't hit the US news yet. Related: See article below about 'trust'.

B2Blog is two years old

Can you believe it? Like my kids or my marriage, its hard to believe that time has passed that quickly.

Its hard to believe, too, how closely I've stuck to the vision expressed in my first post:

My first post. Lets list the current issues on my plate that I want to discuss in the future. Basically, I have several "directory listing services" to pick (or not). ...

Throw those on top of Trade advertising, website design/maintenance, and internal issues to make an interesting blog for like-minded people.

Lately I've been pondering the fact that the history of things I have written goes ignored. But that's the nature of the beast. I do average over 30 visitors a day, plus 200 or so via RSS hits. I have enjoyed interacting with readers and fellow bloggers the most. So, please feel free to contact me about anything, or just to say hi.

A thought about commitment:
My wife is a Girl Scout Brownie leader for a year-plus. She pours a lot of energy to support her troop of about 12 girls. For the girls, what they put into it is what they get out of it, and that's to be expected. And some girls drop out because it doesn't fit them. However, that's not my concern.

My wife planned a nature trip for the girls on Saturday, which she had eight girls scheduled to go on. Three called the day of the event to drop out, and three more didn't show at the rally point. So, besides my daughter, one other scout (and her cousin) went on the trip. My wife was fuming, to say the least.

But what concerns me is the message these girls are getting from their parents--that it's okay to waffle on your commitments. Are these girls going to grow up thinking that they can just do what they like? What will they be like when they are teens? And how will they perceive the value of trust?

The perceptive reader can see how this story would relate to this blog being two years old. Commitment and trust are a big issues in blogging, marketing and life. I'm not one to quote scripture, but this one struck me last week: Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'.