Biznology

I have sometimes joked in the last couple of years that I have time to either read books or write books, but not both. The problem is that if I don’t keep up with what other people are saying, it should make you wonder about how I continue to retain what expertise I claim. So, I am making a concerted effort to catch up on the pile of books on my desk, prioritizing books sent to me by the authors first. I’m still busy, but the guilt induced from an author sending you a free copy of his book that I’ve never even read is quite motivating for me. So, Andy Sernovitz sent me a copy of his book, Word of Mouth Marketing, many months ago and I finally had a chance to read it. You should, too.

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In my post this week at Search Engine Guide, I explore how Web design might soon become a new way to attract traffic to your site from search. I know it seems odd that the appearance of your site could affect someone’s decision to even come see it, but some new search engines are showing how it might happen. Find out why Web design might be the next search marketing battleground.

Banking heavyweight Chase has been blanketing the airwaves with a commercial that must be effective for them, because it’s something they’ve used over and over for months. A shopper uses his phone right there in the store to get his credit balance, so he can decide how much to spend for a new TV. My question is whether this kind of advertising is a winning strategy over the long haul, or whether it is a campaign designed for short-term benefits with dire long-term consequences.

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Last week, I wrote about an up-and-coming player in multivariate testing, SiteSpect, which allows you to test almost any aspect of your user experience, unlike the standard JavaScript testing approaches. SiteSpect also eliminates the need to modify your site at all, speeding the test process so you can Do It Wrong (more) Quickly. I conducted an e-mail interview with one of SiteSpect’s happy customers, Seth Moore, the Manager of Marketing Analytics and Testing at Overstock.com.

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I’ve written in the past on multivariate testing, which I believe is one of the most important practices to continuously improve your Web site. Competitors such as Optimost and Offermatica have been joined in recent years by the free Google Website Optimizer, but I recently looked at a newer competitor called SiteSpect, which makes it easier to do multivariate testing than ever.

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