Sharing what I've learned

I think this week ended up being about sharing what I've learned....

We added Google Analytics to our sites this week and worked on our Adwords campaigns.

I added analytics to my blog a few years (?) ago.  As with all things, I go through phases when I work hard to learn and implement new skills, then I slack off, then I work hard... Kind of sounds like those Nephites hanging out in the wilderness, doesn't it.  (There are more than a few things in my life where I see that pattern rear it's ugly head....) Anyway, I added analytics a while back and periodically I'll go and check to see how people find my blog, which posts/links they are clicking on, how many hits I get, etc., but I haven't done much else with it.

Now that I am moving along on my web design/development education, I am looking at all of these things more thoroughly and attempting to understand them better.  As part of the discussion for class I was able to share some of the things that I found interesting in the stats for my blog. 

And then...

Today, I met a friend at Starbucks to chat about our businesses and blogging and instagram and periscope... and I was able to discuss affiliate marketing and adwords and analytics.  Not only was it great to be able to share what I've learned, but it helped me to realize what I have taken away from all the things we have been studying. 

I know that I've just scratched the surface on these topics and I'll have to continue to study them and implement them in order to gain a better understanding, but it looks like I have a new "geeky" friend to chat about it with.

Ads that work

This week we worked on creating our google ads.  It was interesting to think about how to say what we want to say in just a few characters.  I really enjoyed reading my classmates ads and getting their feedback.  It was interesting to see how different our perspectives are.  It was a great reminder that everyone sees things differently.  We might think our message is very clear, but often, it isn't.

I tested a couple of my ad ideas with my classmates and they gave them top marks, so now it will be interesting to see if they generate hits for my site.

Speaking of my site.... I love it!!!!!  I am having so much fun finishing it up.  I have so much content to add, that I am sure I will be working on it for a long time, but it's really starting to look the way I want it to.  This weekend, I'm taking photos and adding a few more things to my for sale pages, but really...it's pretty much ready to go.

I gave one of my customer groups a sneak peek and they loved it!  They were excited to see that I was incorporating some of the things they had asked for.

Keywords...Keywords...Keywords....

It's time to start advertising our websites.  I am hoping to learn some techniques to help me drive the "right" kind of traffic to my site.

In the stamping and scrapbooking industry it is easy to get tons of hits.  You simply have to post cute projects, participate in blog hops and share on social media.  The problem is, lots of hits doesn't actually equate to better sales.  Many of those hits are from people looking for ideas on how to promote the products to their own customers.

As I move away from a blogging site and focus more on promoting my business, I hope to discover the keywords that will attract customers to my site.

This week we learned

• Think like a customer when building keyword lists
• Good keywords that are short phrases perform best (2-3 words)
• Determine whether general keywords or specific keywords suit your topic better
• Group keywords by themes

I made a huge list of keywords and researched how they performed.  At this point I'm planning to manually manage my budget so that I can adjust where I spend my money, depending on what performs the best.