AVL Marketing

Email List Building, Confirmed Opt-in Mind Map – Part 2

Posted on 08. Mar, 2010 by Tracy Sigler in Email

And we’re back. Here’s Part 2 of the Email List Building Mind Map. In this video I show you the actual steps to creating this process on your site. This is just one way to set up an email capture process, but it’s one we’ve seen perform very well.

The five main pieces are the Landing Page, Confirmation Page, Confirmation Email, Offer Access Page, and the Follow Up Email.

Mind Map download link comes after the jump… (more…)

Brian Boggs, Chairmaker – Small Business Brief #14

Posted on 23. Feb, 2010 by Tracy Sigler in Small Business Briefs

Shaky cam strikes again! Too much coffee this morning, or not enough? I’m not sure. But I think you can still clearly see how fantastic this handmade furniture is, by Brian Boggs and company. The barstools Brian shows us in this video are exquisite. They are an interesting juxtaposition of hard edged precision geometry and deliberately visible hand work. And freakishly comfortable.

We really enjoyed our time in the shop today and for a furniture nerd like me it’s hard to not start dreaming up things to make after being around all that creativity and craftsmanship, and tools (covet covet).

Visit BrianBoggsChairs.com for more info.

Email List Building, Confirmed Opt-in Mind Map – Part 1

Posted on 19. Feb, 2010 by Tracy Sigler in Email

Here we go, finally. Mind maps take time! This is one way, just one way, you can approach building your email list. Maybe there’s a better way for your purposes. Generally speaking, we recommend using “confirmed opt-in” (some call it “double opt-in”) and offering some clear incentive for your readers to get on your email subscriber list.

Mind map download link after the jump… (more…)

Collateral Damage in Google’s War Against Affiliate Marketers on AdWords

Posted on 29. Jan, 2010 by Tracy Sigler in Advertising

Yeah, that’s a long headline. But it’s the truth, Ruth. Don’t let the Google Goliath kick sand in your face! Watch the video to hear the whole story. The entire email exchange between Google Adwords staff and me is below.

This is happening to a lot of people. Read Google’s own forums to see how many people are having their pay-per-click Adwords accounts shut down even though they have done nothing wrong. I’m glad they turned this account back on, but I’m disappointed they didn’t address their original, and incorrect, claim that my account was “related to another account, which has repeatedly violated our Landing page policy and site guidelines.”

Instead of admitting that they had made a mistake they said the site had “low landing page score” because it was “down” when they reviewed it. There is no evidence of that. Adwords always indicated a Landing Page Quality Score of 7 or higher.

I waited almost two weeks before asking Google’s customer service to check into it. They replied within a day. Their responsiveness was appreciated, but their response was not. I was going to bold highlights and insert some jokes, but I think I’ll let the emails speak for themselves.

See the entire email thread after the jump. (more…)

Lab Escape – Small Business Brief #13

Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Tracy Sigler in Small Business Briefs

“I— Am— Sil-ho-uette Man, In-ter-view-ing peo-ple as fast as I can…”

First time I’ve used the Flip camera in the conference room at the new office. Now I know. Don’t sit in front of the windows, too much backlight. I had a great meeting with Eric and Trevor at Lab Escape. They are from a software company, based in Asheville, that makes “heat map” products.

“Lab Escape provides information visualization solutions for businesses seeking to better understand their data. Our products include our Tree Map, which shows trends and highlights anomalies, and our Data Map SDK, which provides support for building your own data maps.”

It’s an interesting business with several big name clients. I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say beyond that but when I say big I mean el grande. So if you’re wrestling with great gobs of data, trying to make sense of it all, check out their heat map software.

Heat maps can help you visualize:

“Sales Performance
Risk Management
Market Share Analysis
Asset Management
Market Basket Analysis
Network Monitoring
Investment Performance
Budget Analysis
Portfolio Management
Performance Tracking
Trend Detection
Opportunity Analysis”

That’s all for now.