Truth About Twitter and Best Blog and Launch Lessons

Reporting live from a behind-the-scenes Website Traffic and Sales Conversion seminar today…

…and I’m pressed for time (also on deadline to get out the awesome February issue of Financial Independence Monthly), so I’m getting a lot of help from Nicky Parsons as we hit three big topics:

  •  In-house product launch lessons
  • Truth about Twitter?
  • Battle for the best blog?

Question: Can you take a look at the launch sequence we have planned to release our first product to our own list?

(Detailed launch plan was included with original question but there’s no space for it here).

Answer from Craig: If these people are already on your list, you don’t need a massive pre-launch build-up. Just do a 3 day sale.

The week before the launch you can send two emails to your in-house list hinting about a big sale.

And then have a blog contest where you give away a couple of copies.

But without affiliates, you don’t need the pre-launch phase because these folks are already on your list and have shown interest in your info…and they know, like and trust you.

In a big launch, that’s what a pre-launch serves to do.

You are ready to go directly to the 3-day sale, and it breaks down like this:

  • Day 1 – Fast Action Bonus to anyone who buys this day
  • Day 2 – Add a rapid results bonus (people who bought on day 1 get this too)
  • Day 3 – Deadline

That will get as many people as you would with the longer plan. But if you do get some big affiliates on board, then you’ll need to use the Product Launch plan I outlined in the bonus report I created for Financial Independence Monthly members.

Question 1: Last week you said Twitter was a waste of time, but I’ve been told it is really helpful. What gives?

Question 2: Thank you for telling me Twitter is a waste of time.

Comments from Craig: Twitter, in general, is not going to make anyone a lot of money…or in most cases, ANY money at all.

It’s extremely low in your priorities…although many people bump it up in priority level because it is a fabulous procrastination tool.

But if we examine people who make the big money online selling information products, are any of them really on Twitter for more than 2 minutes per day?

No. Joel Marion isn’t, Mike Geary isn’t, Bedros Keuilian isn’t, Frank Kern isn’t, Ryan Deiss isn’t, Dan Kennedy isn’t, Eben Pagan isn’t, and on and on and on.

The only guy I know who has made some great business contacts and some money using twitter is John Romaniello, and even then, it was just because John is awesome, not necessarily because of Twitter.

Still, you’re thinking, YOU use Twitter, right?

And the answer is yes. I post quotes in the morning, and a random thought in the afternoon sometimes. I also answer questions I get via Twitter (which are few and far between).

The customer service aspect of Twitter has been the biggest impact for my business.

But…

…you need CUSTOMERS in order to have customer service.

So if you don’t have your product done, QUIT Twitter ASAP.

Finish your product, sell some copies, and then use Twitter as a way for people to reach you.

That’s fine.

But also know that you could stop using Twitter tomorrow and your income wouldn’t change one bit.

Finally, what about the SEO benefits of posting links on the ol’ Twitbag?

Well, I have no idea, so I’m letting Nicky Parsons take over the remainder of today’s QnA…first, she shows us the truth about Twitter for SEO, and then she gives me the answer to a question where I almost stumped her…about which trainer has the best blog.

Over to Nicky, reporting from an undisclosed location, in code, translated for you only.

Are you there, Nicky? It’s me, Craiggy. What’s the deal with using Twitter for SEO?

Answer from the one and only, Nicky Parsons: Twitter? Should be called Twloser. But whatever, if YOU use it, then it must be worthwhile. *sarcasm*

Listen, for SEO, here’s how it breaks down:

Twitter is used as a social signal in the search engines, but most people never get all that many retweets of what they say, because most people’s tweets are inconsequential.

The social signal boost from Twitter really only applies to things that really pick up steam online and might be popular for a few hours/days/weeks which may bump the story up.

Currently there are services selling Tweets and Retweets so social signals are now becoming a business just like backlinks services were two years ago.

But unlike link building where you can actually measure results by rankings there really hasn’t been a lot of case studies done showing the effects of Twitter.

In the few case studies we’ve seen in our agency, hundreds and thousands of Tweets and retweets on a topic were able to boost the rankings of a particular keyword – without link building.

HOWEVER, these case studies were done by someone involved in selling the service so the field report was biased and we don’t have actual proof those rankings weren’t raised with supplemental social bookmarks and link building.

So I believe it about as much as I believe the government’s “official” unemployment rates.

It certainly doesn’t hurt to add Twitter to an SEO campaign but the only real issue I see with it is trying to gauge any actual results that are coming from it.

As always, the Big G is leaving everyone in the dark as much as possible on how much these signals affect SEO or what signals actually trigger a ranking increase.

The Big Gizzle just doesn’t want Twitter to be gamed and sold as a service like link building has become.

Bottom line: Twitter for SEO is a waste of time right now.  But stay tuned…of course, as we’re running a new Tweadstone project…with some new agents trying to use Twitter for SEO. Haha, Tweadstone. That’s classic.

Question from Craig: Alright Nicky, time to be politically incorrect…Who has a better blog for SEO, JasonFerruggia.com or Bedros Keuilian at PTPower.com? And what are the reasons why? What features are better on one or the other?

Answer: I’ll give you credit, Craig, you actually asked an intelligent question for once.

After thinking about it I can’t think of any reason one is better than the other. I highly encourage your readers to study them both.

They are both really good for SEO while also having a couple features I like that the other doesn’t have.

Both sites have been extremely easy to rank as well.

On Bedros’ site, I like the thin header, and the homepage section that tells what the site is about while hitting on his 3 main SEO keywords.

His SEO team – assigned from TreadSEOStone – recently cut his categories in half because he had too many keyword redundancies which wasn’t leading to the best user experience or link flow.

On Jason’s site he has the ‘important links’ widget which helps get all main keywords connected right from the homepage.

That is something TSEOStone could probably add to Bedros’ site but they are trying to pass link juice through categories and he has a few of his main keywords in the footer but that isn’t nearly as effective as the sidebar like Jason has.

For SEO, it’s important to have a site that people come to and get excited and stick to. I think the problem with a lot of websites created solely for SEO purposes is that they are too boring.

If a site is too heavily text based, then the stick rate is going to be low – and bounce rate will be high.

The Big G is getting tough on affiliate marketing.

In fact, so tough that we’re getting worried here at TreadSEOStone. Affiliate-marketing sites alone are just not going to survive. There’s going to be some website assasins coming through and destroying their rankings.

Just another reason that adding personality to your page and your own products to your business are essential to long-term success.

Anyways, I gotta go…there’s been someone on my tail for the last 10 minutes…and I don’t like the looks of this.

**********************
Thanks Nicky, stay safe out there.

I’ll be doing my best to smuggle out a tip or two from the behind-the-scenes event I’m attending this weekend.

It will most likely come from the back-alley conversations I have with people who are making it happen.

In fact, today I’m having lunch with the guy who runs a cool “daily deal” kind of site called, www.AppSumo.com.

He was also #30 at Facebook back in the day before getting out of there…really interesting guy…

…more about that next week.

Stay stealth,

Craig Ballantyne

Proud of this guy…living the dream

“Everything we do we choose. So what is there to regret? You are the person you CHOSE to be.” – Paul Arden