Archive for September, 2006

As I’m putting together my new business, one important piece is achieving a higher search engine ranking for my website, www.peggymurrah.com The domain name itself is a couple of years old - that’s in my favor.

It currently has a Google page rank of 3 and an Alexa rating of 2,358,855. This was with rambling copy and only a Title in the META tags. We’ve added some targeted keywords and a nice description to the META tags and a copy re-write will be coming in the next week or so.

This will be interesting to track. I’m the Program Manager for The Product Factory and Traffic School - and these are some of the very basic strategies that are taught. Two years later, I’m beginning to put them into practice <g>.

I’ll let you know the effect these small changes make.

One of my clients asked about split-testing. Here’s what I told her:

Split testing is where 2 (or more) pages are automatically rotated when visitors come. And then visitor activity is tracked… did they click on a link? Sign up for a newsletter? Purchase your product?

After a time, you can see which page generated the best results for you.

For example, you can have the exact same sales page, and just change 1 item - say Page A has a blue headline and Page B has a red headline. After 100 visitors, you find that Page B generated 2 more sales than Page A.

So your next test could be using Page B and changing the wording on your newsletter opt-in. Page B emphasizes ‘Free’, Page C does not.

After another 100 visitors, you see that Page B generates 5 more newsletter signs ups than Page C.

Page B wins again… so you can continue to change and track 1 single element at a time and eventually you’ll have a tweaked sales page that pulls much better than if you just put up a sales page and didn’t test anything.

Another of my clients recently split-tested a graphic cover of her sign up bonus. Yellow vs. White. After 2 weeks, Yellow was the clear winner, generating more than double the opt-ins for her newsletter than the White cover.

The best thing about split-testing is that your market tells you what they like. Who better to let you know what works?

What results have you gotten from split-testing?

One thing about working at home… you don’t always get to take holidays off! When I was in the corporate world, the building was locked up, the markets were closed, clients were unavailable… holidays = no work.

But here it is Labor Day and I’ve been up since 5 AM. I’ve got a backlog of work, so I’ll be here at my computer, taking sporadic breaks to work on the baked beans and potatoes for guests later on today. My husband will be watching over the BBQ pit and working on his work as well. We are an entrepreneurial family. Even my oldest son is becoming accustomed to the freedom that self-employment brings.

The joy of the matter is… this doesn’t feel like work. I love what I’m doing, I love the collaboration with my colleagues, I love working with 98% of my clients (that 2% is for another post!).

How do you spend your entrepreneurial days?

Tonight’s episode concluded the History Channel’s series on How to Make a Name for Yourself. The featured business was Ben and Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream.

Their business history is fascinating, going from a renovated corner gas station to the multi-million dollar business it is today. Their story is built on passion. Whether you agree with their social stance, Ben and Jerry have put their souls, their whole hearts into their business.

They have spread their message in unique ways, from a one-man stand against Pillsbury to their social change messages on ice cream cartons, to the Oreo presentations to members of Congress.

These two men have used creativity and passion to impress their brand on the public.

And that has lead to some soul-searching on my part - how is my passion directing my business?

Today is  my official "launch" day (or yesterday, as I write this!) for my new business: Peggy Murrah and Associates. I’m moving beyond this one-woman Virtual Assistant show to developing an incredible team to support our clients. It’s my vision that we’ll become an invaluable resource to our clients, providing them with fast, professional results. And a network to support each other as each team member builds their individual businesses.

I believe that the internal health of a company radiates to the clients, and happy, supported team members will respond much more positively. I intend to provide that kind of environment to my team.

Where is Passion leading you?