New Facebook Page Change

Facebook made a huge change this week that now allows you to login to your facebook fan page and act as that user while you go about your business on Facebook.

Really, this is one of two major changes Facebook has ever done; the other being the comment notification change.

Also, the new Facebook page layout has disrupted the flow of traditional “IM” Facebook page templates, so if you made any mods to your page you should check it out to see if it still works.

I think this new change is incredibly powerful from a market leadership point of view. Because the notifications, and interactions that you get to do now with your fans is totally seamless. It just works better.

I have some really exciting changes that I’m going to do on my Facebook page in the coming weeks and I invite you to come along for the ride.

Just like my page and keep checking the blog for all the news about this stuff. – “See what I did there, I got you to like my page ;-)”

And no this is not part of any secret launch or anything weird like that.

Just good ol’ fashion content to help you along.

Facebook is a part of the plan for my niche businesses, and websites this year. It should be a part of yours too.

The reality is it is getting pretty noisy on Facebook lately because everybody is promoting it. So, you really have to be super cool to your fans, and your customers if you want them to stick around and get to know and your company/brand.

I think there will come a time where Facebook is no longer the coolest kid on the block, but for now this platform is where your customers are. And because of that, that is where you need to be.

Talk soon,
Mark

P.S. Be sure to like me and come along for the ride.

Google’s New Algorithm Impacts eCommerce

GoogleAlgo1

In case you haven’t heard Google has changed their algorithm last week.

What this means is they are negatively impacting sites that copy, retweet, steal, or paraphrase content in their SERPS.

They want the emphasis placed on original quality content.

“Man, we’ve heard that before…”

But, Mark you say. Hasn’t this change been here all along? Sort of.

(Really) Brief history lesson.

There are a lot of sites that use content clusters, scrapers, autobloggers, etc to game the Google system using paraphrasing. Period. (Do these still work? Google can’t catch them all.)

Google new algorithm wants to improve the relevancy to the end users. So, they want original content to the top of the SERPS.

What you can do to roll with he punches for your eCommerce store?

The truth is if you are not selling info, there is not a whole lot of change in the buy low sell high market of making a living online.

But to get a leg up on your competition here are 7 things you can do to combat this new change from the Google.

1 – Write Original Descriptions for Your Products.
2 – Create a video for each product. 30 to 90 sec in length.
3 – Update your company blog with relevant information that relates to the product you are selling.
4 – Take original high quality photos of your product.
5 – Create a PDF buyer’s guide for your product categories.
6 – Sell a story. Talk about the story where you received your product.
7 – Be transparent with your stats etc. Top 10 lists every new product updates etc.

The important takeaway from all of this is you have to be actively working on your website to get it climb in the Google rankings. There is no magic pill or SEO tactic that is going to bestow instant rankings in Google. You have to do it everyday. If you are not “showing up” to your business everyday than you can’t expect stellar results. Don’t take my word for it. Look around your industry,who are the ones that are really making it? You know who they are. I guarantee you they “show up” everyday.

Talk soon,
Mark

Beginning With The End In Mind

At a recent surf and fashion show...

I was at an industry surf and fashion show this past weekend and got some decent ideas for some new niches, but more importantly got to see the latest color trends, and what happening in the marketplace.

In case you were wondering vintage colors is big this year. Golds, browns, oranges, and greens. You know, like the 70s. Also, pinks and ocean blues are hot too.

But that’s not what I want to talk to you about in this post.

Its about beginning every project your working on with the end customer in mind.

Sooooo many wholesalers got this wrong over the weekend. They only thought of me the buyer.

But, they forgot they are in. The middle position.

I have to buy off them and then retail to the end consumer. So, really the end customer is not me it’s the customer I’m selling to. They priced like the end consumer is me.

There was one person selling a watch for $8.50, with retail of $20. Advertised their own URL on the product itself. By the way, they sell retail on that site as well. Didn’t know any demographics sales data, or anything that would help me make an informed decision. Rigid ordering like $500 minimums. And further more, they were rude about it. Oh, and no protection.

Needless to say we said NEXT!

What was really horrendous is that this was not an anomaly. A lot of folks were doing this. It must be some weird epidemic or something, because what would posses a company to give the royal shaft to their retailers like this?

What can you learn from this?

There is hope.

There was still buying going on (me included). As long as there is commerce going on you can make a few bucks out there. Also, with all these bad wholesalers (and retailers) you can get in a position to set your self away from the pack by actually thinking about what the end is.

Ask yourself what position am I in? Answer in earnest and adjust your strategy accordingly. A great example of this that was not just based on price (which i hate competing on) is great displays for the product that was geared toward consumers. The display was so clever that it eliminated many of the objections that I had about the product, because it took up less sq ft, and was very inviting for customer to shop from.

Buy the items for a reasonable price, that looks great, and I can get it again and again. Sounds like a winner in my books. This is an example of a company that actually thought about it.

Another was less sophisticated but was very friendly and professional service, great pricing which left a good profit margin for me, and a very competitive price for the customers, offered protection, and the product is hot. Another great deal for me and my customers.

Starting to see a trend here?

What can you do to give value? Beginning with the end in mind you can always see some way to add value to your customer.

Until next time, hopefully you got something out of this post (rant). Leave your comments below!

– Mark

Micro Niche PDF Download

I was putting together a presentation about Niche Marketing for my friend Dan Stojadinovic Hypefree boot camp this weekend and I found this presentation that I spoke on about a year ago.

Now before you say… “You don’t expect me to read your year old e-book?”

Hear me out.

95% of the stuff in there is highly relevant even to this day.

The only thing I would change is more emphasis on YouTube videos. I am generating a lot of traffic from YouTube vids right now. You can expect a blog post about that shortly.

It’s all about the fundamentals, and there are some key tips in there.

Especially if you have just heard me speak over the weekend a lot of the information in there should make a lot of sense.

If not, use it as a jump off point to further your education. Either way it is yours totally free.

You can download it below…

Download the Micro Niche presentation handout.

Hope you enjoy it, and if you like it just tweet or share it along.

Thanks,
Mark