Site Analysis

Since creating my website a couple months ago and engaging in internet marketing I have had 85 visitors on my site, with 56 of them, unique visitors. I have had 491 page views, with the average visitor viewing 5.78 pages, and spending seven minutes and thirty-two seconds on the site. I realize that in the long run, that Search Engine Optimization definitely outperforms Pay Per Click when it comes to generating visitors to your website from PPC I  generated 41 visits, where SEO generated 44 visits. It doesn’t necessarily generate a lot more visits, but more quality visits. The average time spent on the site for paid search was 15 seconds, while for organic results it was 9 minutes and 30 seconds.

MKTG 470

I would have to say that the most important, useful, and interesting thing professor Theresa Clarke taught me this semester in MKTG 470 would all be the same; making a website. My whole life I always wondered how websites were exactly made and updated. This upcoming summer I have an internship with the mortgage lending firm, Guaranteed Rate. I have already talked with my manager and he wants me to make a personal website for him because he has his own real estate business on the side that he wants to market more. With all the opportunities this class presents, making and maintaining a website has to be the most useful.

My Future in Internet Marketing

My knowledge of internet marketing has sky rocketed from the beginning of the semester till now. I virtually didn’t know any of the concepts we learned this year or any of the jargon that we used. There isn’t anything I would change this semester, I learned so much useful information that I am extremely thankful for the chance I had to take internet marketing. I am only a junior, and already I have been given the opportunity to help develop a website at my summer internship. I’m not sure if internet marketing is going to be a career for me, but if something presents itself, I would strongly consider it. After this class ends I don’t know if I will continue developing my site but I will definitely continue to follow my professor Theresa Clarke’s Twitter account to keep up with current marketing trends.

About a month ago I installed Google’s Webmaster Tools and linked it to my website. It turns out that is a very helpful tool that provides a lot of information. Some of the specific areas it helps in are crawl errors, search queries, links to your site, sitemaps, keywords, and malware.

Webmaster Tools is a must have for online marketers who want to succeed. It is very helpful with your search queries because it tells you how many impressions they have made as well as how many clicks. Another awesome feature is the Site Performance. It provides a bunch of information on how fast your load time is and compares it to other website load times so you know where you stand. And the great thing is, that it doesn’t just give you this information, it tells you how to improve on what you already have so you can become more efficient.

There is no reason if you have a website, why you shouldn’t have Webmaster Tools. It is free, no hassle, and can only benefit you.  By taking advice from Webmaster, your site will most likely gain more online visibility and move up on the search engine results pages.

As far as my site goes, the search queries with the most impressions are; forest,  internet marketing, golf, travel, and sport. The most searched keywords are marketing, twitter, and golf. It’s neat to see what draws traffic to your site and if you want to learn more about Webmaster Tools visit Search Insider, or Webmaster Tools Help.

This past week in my Internet Marketing class, we had the privilege of hearing Deb Van Horn from the Rockingham Group speak to us about online marketing. In her ten years with this company, Ms. Van Horn has accomplished and is responsible for many various areas at the Rockingham Group, from Marketing, IT, Facilities Management, and Operations. It was a very insightful presentation, mostly because it was coming from the backbone of a small organization that was essentially competing against all the big name companies such as All State, Progressive, and State Farm.

It seemed to me that the Rockingham Group knows where they want to go in the future and that they have a solid foundation that will only continue to grow. Ms. Van horn does all that she can to help out the company and, the company itself is already in most of the media outlets. They have a Twitter account which is very interesting and lets you know everything that is going on within the company as well as events they have going on.

Throughout the entire presentation the thing that stuck out the most to me was not all the details about email marketing, click through rate, impressions, and cost per click, but how dedicated Ms. Van Horn was to her employer and how wrapped up in the company she was. There was a genuine concern for the Rockingham Group and it was great to see how much effort and care she puts into her job; because that’s a rare trait nowadays. I just want to say a sincere thank you from the entire class, and how grateful we were to have Ms. Van Horn speak.

Retargeting Ads- the ability of a website to create advertisements and show them while the user is browsing.

Up until a few months ago I never really noticed retargeting ads. I assume the reason I didn’t notice was because it was items that I either wanted to see or was just used to always seeing. However, in the beginning of this semester, I had to do a sales presentation for one of my marketing classes. The assignment entailed the men in the class pitching a women’s product and vice versa.

After debating over countless products I ended up choosing to sell the HANA Elite flat iron (hair straightener). I must have studied this products for hours on end, knowing the ins and outs of the product, how it worked, all the specifications, and all of the companies policies.

Now, more than ever, do I wish I had done my research in a computer lab. For the past two months every Youtube video, google search, facebook page I visit, there is either an ad for flat irons or a small commercial before I watch my Youtube video. Before, I didn’t mind it since it was all related to me, but now I am completely sick of it.

As far as privacy and ethical issues go I don’t view it as incriminating, just simply annoying. I think as time goes on the user will be able to pick and choose which ads he wants to see and doesn’t. Already on Facebook there is a feature which allows users to delete ads from their sidebar, and new ones that are unrelated to the previous one pop up. I do see a future in retargeting ads, but in order for them to be successful they need to be more regulated and more user friendly. Visit Adroll to find out more about Retargeting Ads.

Being an avid golfer, the most crucial part of the game is knowing the exact distance to the hole, to a bunker, or to a tree line. And recent technology has offered up two tools to help us determine those distances. These include the laser rangefinder and GPS units. Which one is better? Well it depends on the person and what they value more, and what they find more helpful.

GPS features typically include a yardage to the front, center, and back of the green, along with a few additional points on the course. The major upside to GPS is that it is faster and helps with pace of play.

Range finders have the ability to measure any distance you can see with the naked eye. You will have exact distacne to the flag, bunkers, and pretty much anything visible.

As far as usability goes, both of these units are very easy to use. With the rangefinder, you just point and go and it takes a couple of seconds. With the upper end GPS units you have a lot of options but for the most part it is very simple. With GPS no line of site is required but with a rangefinder, visibility is essential for usability.

When it comes to cost it depends on how important all the features of each are to you. If you are someone who needs exact distances go with the rangefinder. If you value speed of play go with the GPS. The rangefinder is a little more expensive, but in my opinion the better choice. And the GPS a little less expensive but still a great option. No matter which you choose, you can expect lower scores out on the course.

For more information check out this Youtube video comparing the two

I am a huge golf enthusiast. I love the game and have been playing for as long as I can remember. Over the past few weeks I have been searching for a new driver because I’ve had the same one since 7th grade and I thought it was time for a new one.

Recently I have been paying closer attention to all of the commercials for all the different brands of clubs and there are quite a few things that really bother me. For instance, TaylorMade Golf released their R11 driver early last year and this was supposed to be the best driver to ever hit the market. For the past 9 months there were countless commercials on how the club will last forever and will be superior for years to come. And just one year later TaylorMade commercials are bad mouthing their own company by saying that their new R11S version makes the old R11 look like a child’s toy. They are making their customers who purchased the old R11, potentially 3 months ago, feel as if they made the wrong decision and  that they just wasted $400. I personally feel that this is awful marketing and they will probably lose customers because of it. When you come out with a new product, don’t say that your previous product is terrible compared to the new one, just list features that have improved and go from there.

So, after searching for countless hours and testing close to twenty clubs I ended up going with the Callaway Razr Hawk, which is the previous years model of the new Razr Fit. I think Callaway does an excellent job of leaving all their customers satisfied and happy with the decisions they make since they don’t badmouth their own company’s products.

I am fairly new with Twitter and to be honest still a bit confused about all the hash tags and replying to tweets. I’m sure I’ll get used to it the more I use it. I really like how when you’re viewing someone else’s page it suggests others for you to follow when you wouldn’t thought to of done so beforehand.

I have also come to a realization that by using Twitter and reading all these people’s tweets, that this is a truly amazing tool on the web. This is a much more up to date and more efficient way of finding out whats happening in peoples lives and things that are going on in the sports world than waiting for it to come on the news.

In the business world and especially in the world of marketers I can see huge upside to having access to Twitter because it resembles and spits out all of the latest trends and does so in virtually real time. I have an internship for this upcoming summer with a mortgage lending firm which is not too engaged in social media, and I will definitely make it a goal to get the company fully functional in all aspects of social outlets.

All in all, going from being a huge skeptic of Twitter for the past few years to today, I have completely changed my mind. By spending just a few hours browsing Twitter I have an entirely changed view of the whole concept and will probably continue to use Twitter for years to come.

To learn more about twitter, Check out these sites;

• Twitter on Youtube
• Basics of Twitter