I can’t login to Google Analytics this morning for some reason (see the reason here) and did a quick search on Google to see what the problem was.  The initial results didn’t show anything, so I tried out the new “Latest” filter to show only the most recent results.  Here’s the SERP:

This was a big help because I easily found other users having the exact same problem at the same time I was.  That immediately ruled out my browser, computer, internet connection or anything else related to me.

So this is pretty useful for me as an individual, but again doesn’t help me as a SEM trying to sell products or gather leads.

There are two domains that have been sitting in my registrar account for quite a while now, but I haven’t done anything with them.  The finished sites are BassOutfitter.com and FanChair.com – they are build using the same process, so don’t expect much difference (it’s just a splash page, rememter).

So why should you take the time to set something like this up?  Several reasons:

• Domain age – the age of a domain is considered to be a small factor for SEO.  All things equal, take two domains targeted for the same keyword, and the older domain will rank higher.  Of course all things are never equal, but every little bit you can do helps when your are trying to rank well in the SERPS.
• Content – I can provide a small amount of targeted content on the site.  It’s just the domain name in an H1 tag, META info, and a couple of paragraphs, but that’s all I need right now to put three good, targeted keywords on the page several times.
• I am collecting email addresses.  Opt-in email lists are a great way to increase revenue for your site.  By building a targeted email list, you can greatly increase your profit per visitor by gathering long-term, repeat customers.
• I’m too busy right now.  Yep, but one site is an extension of work I’m already doing… the next evolution, if you will.  The other is a business idea that I’ve been thinking about for years, and am very excited about once I can get to it.

The Rundown:

Here’s a quick step-by-step to tell you exactly what I did.  Hopefully you can put this to good use on some of your dormant domains.

1. Install Wordpress & do the standard config stuff (permalinks, blog name, analytics & other basic stuff)
2. Install a Theme I like – I chose one that would have a good, strong content page with a wigitized sidebar and footer.
3. Build my “Action Page” – Create a new page and put a little content telling users that visit the site what is is about, when it’s coming, and a call to action.  Mine was sign up for an email when the site launches.
4. Set Static Page – Go to Settings > Reading and set the front page to your Action page.
5. Remove Navigation – You don’t want any other pages on the site – only the one with the call to action.
6. Install Opt-In Plugin – Set up one widget that can collect email addresses.  MailChimp has a good Wordpress plugin.  Then set this as the only widget in the sidebar.

That’s it. Now you have a great looking placement page that will work for you collecting email addresses while you build your site.  Check mine out here:

BassOutfitter.com - Bass Outfitter will carry the stuff that we use personally and recommend. Great fishing gear, killer lures, awesome accessories, and all the stuff you need to catch a lunker.

FanChair.com – Fan Chair will bring you the best stadium seat available.

(And yes, I have to admin that dove season did open on September 1st and I was out for about 24 hours on a fishing/hunting trip.  But can you blame me?  I’m a Texas boy – fishing and hunting are almost like a requirement.)

Now it’s back to business…

I logged into my old Microsoft AdCenter account earlier today because I’ve seen some decent traffic coming from Bing.com lately.  In fact, over the last three months Bing has surpassed my Yahoo organic traffic on at least three different sites.  I haven’t used this old account for well over a year because I wasn’t able to generate jack crap worth of traffic for my niche.  That’s ok, it really doesn’t fit the Live.com demo.  But with Bing.com, the traffic was coming in organically and some of it was converting to sales.  Light bulb, people! Let’s get more traffic from Bing.com using PPC.  And what’s better than an old account that is already set up?

I log in and notice the account is on Credit Hold because my old card on file has been expired for months.  So I updated the card, and was notified that my new payment method needed to be assigned to my account before I could use it.  No prob.  I go to the account settings page and get a “payment method not in db” error or something.  Expected. I change the default billing and save. Done… but no change to the account.  I access the account settings and get the error again. ok, what can I do now?

After digging around a little more I called the customer service and found that my account is dormant and there is no way to reactivate it.  Well crap.  I have to open up an entire new account now.  But why was I able to access add new payment methods to a dormant account?  Who knows?  I was able to take Campaigns and Adgroups active (of course this didn’t show ads because the entire thing was on hold).  It’s a little weird.

It’s just a small setback at this point because I’ve got a good keyword list, ads, tracking URLs, whatever.  So I set up the account, everything is going great, say “ok” to the $5 charge, and BAM!!!! I get this:

Seriously?  I just signed up after not using these guys for well over a year and here’s my first experience.  Let’s hope once they get their errors in order I can generate some converting traffic or I’m out for another while.

“we’ve constantly been adding and updating new features. The result was a set of tools we’re pretty proud of—but also a site that had become pretty unwieldy and often difficult to navigate. That’s why we decided to redesign Webmaster Tools from the ground up.”

Here’s a quick preview from Google’s post about the new look:

My Thoughts on the New Look

I’ve only spent a little time kicking around, but the new site is pretty good. The first thing you’ll notice is a different home page showing all the sites you have verified in your account.  The Sitemaps link and the verify columns have been removed.  Instead there’s a “details” link on the right that takes you to your verification page and also has some helpful information about verifying your site for yourself, for multiple users, and what verification means.  This is helpful because just a few weeks ago I had to dig around Googls help docs to find out how to allow a site in more than one account. (the answer: upload a verification file for each user you want verified and that site will be accessible from that persons account.)   If your site is not verified, the details link is not there, but shows a “verify my site” link instead.

The best enhancement is the Dashboard, which has replaced the Overview, for each individual site.  Following suit with the redesigns of AdWords and Analytics last year, Google provides a dashboard of some common data, specifically the Top Search Queries, Crawl errors, Links to your site, and Sitemaps reports.

The navigation has been redesigned from six top menu items to three collapsable menues.  That immediately speeds up navigation because you don’t have to reload a page to get to a report from a submenu.  Nice.

Most of the reports remain unchanged, although they have been cleaned up or enhanced a little bit.  Still, you’ll recognize most of the same information.  For example, the Keyword report shows the top 200 most common keywords, where previously you could only see the top 100 keywords, and the external links is easier to read and shows more pages at a time.

One item I’m still not sure with is the dropdown menu that switches between websites.  Previously, all websites were shown except the one you were currently viewing, and only a few were shown at a time.  The old menu made it a little weird to quickly know where you currently were and if you wanted to move up or down.  This new menu, though, does not contain all of the sites.  Instead, the new menu only shows up to the last six site profiles you have visited, and a “View All” link that takes you back to the home page.  I’ve got 21 sites in my account, so this requires me to go back to the home page if I’m reviewing more that the most recent sites.  And I do so at least on a weekly basis.  But for the most part I stick to only four or five sites.  That’s why the verdict isn’t in on this feature for me yet.  I’ll have to spend some more time with it befoce coming to a final decision – not that I could change it at this point anyway.

This went down at the at the  when a Papa John’s exec, started griping about their iPhone application and how they were really disappointed in the results.  It’s interesting that Jim pointed out that smartphones account for nearly all their traffic, and the iPhone alone about half.

Wait a minute, did you say “smartphones” were half the traffic from your iPhone app?  Yes. He did.

This guy is Jim McDonnell, the marketing manager, emerging channels, for Papa John’s, didn’t even recognize the difference between his mobile-ready site (mobile.papajohns.com) and an iPhone application!  And he said all of this at a OMMA Mobile conference!

Even better, he was quickly shown up by one of the other conference attendees who specializes in developing mobile apps. Lilly Gold, founder of New York-based Intuwin, quickly listed potential enhancements to their mobile marketing, such as delivering coupons, information on specials, payment systems and options for ordering “favorites.”

Papa John’s has also reported their “iPhone app” (a.k.a. their mobile site) has generated 1 million in sales. That ain’t no soggy dough!

Two lessons to learn here:

1. When you see some returns on a new marketing channel, especially one in a growing market like mobile, and with only ah half-assed effort like this one, then you should dig deeper.  You’ll probably find that you are sitting on a great opportunity.  Papa Johns could really take mobile pizza ordering to the next level, and I think it would be a real hit, but they would have to take a few risks to get there.  Hey Jim, read this post about learning to take risks.  Hopefully I can place an order soon on my Blackberry.
2. Don’t start griping until you have exhausted your options.  Seriously, they put out a mobile site, ran a few mobile banners, and the say it’s a dud.  I doubt that they put much effort into any of it. Guys, always test!  Test new strategy, new technology, new traffic channels, new ways to communicate with your customers.  Lilly Gold probably made this company many more millions with just her few suggestions noted above – if Papa John’s takes her advice. (Oh, and your options don’t run out that fast, so don’t get impatient)

Check ya later.

Download my resume:

Matt Mauldin, VP of Marketing & Marketing Manager (PDF)