This and That
Posted On: 2009-03-05
Oh boy I can see that it's going to be one of those days. I've been up since 3am trying to get some work done and all I've managed to do is fall asleep in my chair.
Now that takes me right back to the old days when pulling 24 to 48 hour stints at the computer was considered normal for any adult webmaster. Fortunately it's been a long time since Steve and I felt we had to work like that and I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone starting out these days. The human body just wasn't built to take that kind of punishment and seeing that it's the only body you're ever likely to have it pays not to subject it to treatment like that.
Assembly Bill 178
Remember the New York state tax law that was passed recently that applied sales tax to sales made by online merchants who had affiliates in New York? It's become known as the Amazon tax because that's the merchant that most of the legislators thought would be affected by the tax.
The last time I wrote about it I mentioned that several other states were also looking at applying a tax to sales made by merchants through affiliates that resided in those states. Well now another state is getting ready to turn that idea into a reality. California is getting ready to pass Assembly Bill 178 and it's just as nasty as the Amazon tax in the state of New York.
If you're into affiliate marketing and you live in California then keep an eye on this one because it's going to have an impact on you whether you're selling books or porn. It seems that many merchants were quite prepared to ditch their New York affiliates so the chances are the same thing will happen when Bill 178 becomes law in California.
Google Analytics
There's no doubt that Google Analytics is one very powerful tool but learning how it all works and what some of those pie charts, percentages and terms really mean can be a little difficult. Sure there are plenty of tutorials out there on the Net that can help but sometimes they're not all that easy to understand.
However, now Google has done something to correct that. You can now go to their Conversion University and take quite an in-depth online course that will give you all the information you need to interpret those analytics reports. The course is free and it's definitely worth taking if you want to get the most out of their tool.
You can benefit in another way from taking that course too. For $50.00 you can sit a test that Google calls the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) Test and when you pass you end up with a qualification that you can use to make money. There are lots of people out there who have no clue about what all that information they get from Google Analytics actually means and some of them will be prepared to pay you for help.
Meanwhile in search ...
It seems that a few gurus (or maybe they're legends in their own lunchtime) are now considering the vexing question of whether there is more to life than links and sex. Of course there are some who are saying that people are over sex and it's just not attracting hits and generating sales any more ... and then there are a few genuine gurus who are suggesting that sex sells ... it's always going to sell ... and no matter how much you might try to deny it, sex will continue to sell whether it's politically correct or not.
Yep that's the poor state that search blogging is coming to. While there are still some very good blogs out there that deal with search related matters there's an awful lot of rubbish so be careful what you read ... in the end it could cost you money rather than help you make money.
And on the question of whether sex sells or not ...
A few years ago most people in this industry began to notice an interesting shift away from general hardcore porn sites. It seems that back then porn surfers had seen enough of those sites that simply delivered a vanilla flavor of hardcore porn and they began moving to more niche focused sites.
Of course the sponsors soon followed and these days you can look at a sponsor's site portfolio and find it packed full of niche sites that should appeal to those surfers who want to see a particular type of hardcore porn. These niche sites have been very successful but there's one ingredient missing from them.
Sure they deal with a niche and they really do focus on it and provide the right sort of content but they're usually run by people who don't necessarily understand the niche so they don't quite connect with the surfer. Now, because of that lack of connection we may be seeing a shift away from those sites to ones that do connect totally with what the surfer is looking for.
In times like these most people want to get genuine value for every dollar they spend so they tend to look around before they buy and for a number of niche site sponsors that I know ... guys who genuinely understand and even live the niche they're promoting and only focus on that one niche ... that's leading to increased sales. While other sponsors are finding things a bit tough at the moment these guys are finding that sales are definitely going up.
So sex is still selling online ... and everywhere else for that matter ... but maybe not in the way that we have grown accustomed to.
And now I'm off to a busy day of client meetings and site building. See you all next week.