In case you’re new to the internet, Groupon is a service that offers huge discounts for products and services offered by local businesses. If enough Groupons are purchased (so that the business can cover their margins), the deal becomes active.

By being featured on Groupon, you get immediate exposure to your local market, and you only pay for sales that are made. However, it’s not for everyone.

Here’s how to tell if Groupon is for you:

Dip in Services

If you run a service-based business and things have been slow, Groupon is a good way for an immediate pick-me-up. It’s not uncommon to get several hundred sales through a single Groupon, so you must be sure your business can handle a spike in traffic.

Excess Product in Stock

If you have excess inventory of a certain product, you can run Groupon specials on just one item. You can definitely see items fly off your shelves if you heavily discount a particular product. Just make sure your discount covers your product and marketing costs.

Come Up with a Plan

There have been several horror stories about small businesses using Groupon, only to get overwhelmed with customers demanding to immediately redeem their 90% off deals.

Be sure to avoid worst-case scenarios. Set a minimum order so that at worst, you break even… and at best, you make a large profit due to the volume.

Be sure that the timing is right, too. Typically, Groupon takes six weeks to get a deal together and published to their subscribers.

When done right, you can see a big impact on your business’s bottom line with Groupon. However, you need to put plenty of thought into your offer to make sure your efforts are profitable.

That’s why I got so excited after reviewing my latest round of usability testing. This past February, instead of observing users on my own ecommerce store, I sent them first to Google with prepopulated search terms. Then, I observed how they interacted with the Google results pages.

My findings resulted in yet another discovery in AdWords where you can become more effective than your competition while spending less.

Now, it’s the Product Listing Ads (found in the top right corner of highly commercial searches.) that is begging to be expanded in your AdWords account.

It’s not too hard to set up, it’s just that most advertisers don’t know how or want to set up these ads.

There’s a huge advantage for accounts with Product Listing Ads. In our own specific usability tests, we’ve found that these ads are often the first thing that a searcher notices on their Google search. Combine that with the opportunity to pay less per click than regular PPC ads, and this becomes a huge area that allows you bury your competition.

Here’s how to get started

Product Listing Ads requires that you create a product feed through Google Merchant Center.

Usually this is just a simple export of your products from your shopping cart in a TSV spreadsheet. Then, just upload your spreadsheet into your Google Merchants Account.

It usually takes just a few minutes for it to accept and verify your feed. Be sure to follow the Merchant Center editorial guidelines for the best exposure to your products. This will get you plenty of traffic through the free Google Shopping Results, found in the organic rankings.

Once you do that, you’ll need to link your AdWords account to your Merchants account. You can do that through your ad extensions tab in your AdWords account.

When your accounts are linked, you’ll be able to create new Product Listing Ads from the “New ad” dropdown menu.

You have a field for some text- I recommend using some text from one of your best converting ads in your most relevant campaign. This is especially important if your product images match up with your competitors… any way you can differentiate your ads from all the others, the better.

Now, after your ads are created, it’s time to optimize your ads, and the first step is with your bids. Typically, your bidding will have a different strategy than typical text ads, and your bids will typically be less for the top spot (which is where you want to be). Therefore, you’ll be saving money while simultaneously dominating your PPC market.

Results

By expanding into extremely targeted Product Listing Ad campaigns, you can see an drastic increase in traffic, while also observing a decrease in cost per visitor. Not only that, but this traffic seems to be converting at a better rate, too, because you’re getting more qualified traffic.

There is also a positive impact on your account’s quality score. Since your Product Listing Ads demand so much attention, they will have a high click-thru-rate, thereby increasing your QS and decrease your minimum bids for top ad placement!

Avoid this catastrophe, save face, and look like a marketing rockstar by creating a targeted AdWords campaign that brings in a healthy ROI by cutting out unnecessary spending.

Here’s how…

First, be sure you exhaust the Google AdWords Tool. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it is a Google-sponsored resource that gives you direct search data.

Say for example that you sell red roses online. Type in the keywords you’re bidding on in the Keyword Tool to get all different variations that are being searched on Google.

Be sure to log in to your AdWords account while using this tool, or your data will be limited to 200 suggestions.

Also, when getting keyword suggestions, be sure to click the checkbox next to “Only show ideas closely related to my search terms” for the most relevant results.

Google displays all the searches conducted in the past month relevant to the terms “red rose” and “red roses”. Thus, by association, if you bid for these terms, your ad will also show up for all these suggested terms.

Browse the list. See terms that you don’t want your ad to display for? Of course you will. Not only will displaying your ad for non-relevant terms burn your PPC budget, but it will also drag down your Ad Group’s Quality Score, which will force you to bid higher on terms you do want to trigger your ads.

For example, if you’re selling red roses online, do you want to be advertising for the terms “roses are red poems” and “Roses are red poem”?

Of course not. So now, you enter the negative keyword –poem into your negative keyword list, preventing your ads from being displayed for these terms.

When logged in to your AdWords account, you’ll receive 800 keyword suggestions, many of which will be good negative keyword suggestions that will trim your budget.

Another excellent way to see where you’re wasting money is looking at terms that are triggering your ads, but are obviously not going to lead to sales.

To do this, simply log into your AdWords account, click on the Ad groups tab…

and sort in descending order by cost.

This will bring up your most active Ad Groups, and the ones most likely in need of maintenance and attention.

Click on your top ad group, click on the “Keywords” tab, and then select “See search terms -> All”.

This will give you all the keywords that you have spend money on. Go through the list, much like with the Google Keyword Tool, and filter out any terms that would make good negatives.

By following these tips, you’ll be able to trim the fat off your AdWords campaign. It will also increase your ads’ click thru rates, which will increase your keywords’ quality scores, allowing you to bid less for the top spot than your competition.

Life is good when you know these secrets and your competition does not.

From my own personal experiences, I have created my “Ultimate User Testing Cheatsheet” for you to use as well.

Happy converting!

Scenario:
You’re new to (insert your industry here), and you’re looking to (insert goal here). You’ve made similar purchases locally, but this is your first experience with buying this product online.

Task 1:
Look at the website for five seconds. Then look away and answer these questions (without peeking!): (1) Say the first thing that comes to your mind about the layout and design of the site. (2) What do you remember? (3) What do you think the site is about?

Task 2:
Purchasing on a website is much different than buying at a local store. What concerns would you have about buying online versus locally?

Task 3:
When shopping online, how do you typically search for a product on a website? (ex- clicking on the top navigation bar, left navigation bar, search box, or clicking through the center of the index page, or another preferred option)

Task 4:
Search the site and find three products you’re interested in. Add them to your cart. Continue to checkout. Provide fake info until you reach the credit card information section of the checkout process. Was it difficult to enter any of your information? Were there any steps that seemed difficult to complete?

Task 5:
If this wasn’t a test, would you have made a purchase? Why or why not? What did you like about this website? What did you NOT like about this website? What would you change? What did you like/dislike about the buying process.

Task 6:
Now that you’ve gone through the checkout process, do you have any more concerns about buying online versus locally?

Task 7:
What unanswered questions do you have about the following topics (list any specific concerns you think a potential customer might have)

Task 8:
Did this website leave any other questions unanswered?

Task 9:
What would be the best way for this website to provide the information you’re looking for? (please provide suggestions)

Task 10:
Imagine that you aren’t sure if you want to purchase these products from (your company), so you want to do more research. Naturally search the internet- however you would normally do research on the web- and see if you would still buy from (your company). What research do you do on a company before you purchase from them online?

If you want your e-commerce site to be successful, you’ll want to keep these five resolutions for your website.

Resolution #1- Test Your Product Pages

If your site is like most other e-com sites, then your product pages bring in the most traffic. This is mostly because they are targeted and optimized for many long-tailed keywords.

Minor changes can mean big changes in your conversion rates, revenue and bottom line profits.

Resolution #2- Test Checkout Process

The biggest differences you can make in conversion rate are tests you conduct closest to the conversion page.

Small changes in your checkout process can lead to a huge increase in conversion. Just by improving your checkout funnel by 2-3% can give you a big boost in your bottom line.

Go here for ideas on what to test on your site.

Resolution #3- Engage with Your Visitors

“Engage” is a buzzword that’s been floating around since the social media boom hit. However, that’s not what we’re talking about here.

No. We’re talking about seeing where potential problems are in your site. Using sites like UserTesting.com, where you actually see visitors engage with your site, can give you great ideas on what to test.

Resolution #4- E-Mail Your Database with Offers

If you asked what the quickest way to double your business, I would immediately suggest that you begin emailing your existing customers with offers.

Think about who your ideal customer is. It would be someone interested in your products who is comfortable ordering things online. Well, that is, of course, people you’ve already sold to.

Promote a new deal, like free shipping. Email your customers with any new products you’re offering. Clue them in on anything that would bring them back to your site and buy.

Resolution #5- Test the Prices on Your Best Sellers

This is another potentially huge breakthrough for your business. You might be selling your products for too little.

Go here for more information on how to test your products’ prices.

However, if you aren’t paying attention, you could be missing out on massive profits.

Here are a few things that you must do this holiday season:

Bid High on PPC for “Gift” Terms in Your Niche

Since it’s the holiday season, visitors are highly motivated to buy. That’s why you’ll see a high spike in gift related searches in your industry.

If you aren’t already, start bidding on your most popular search term, but with the word “gift” in front if it. Yes, the CPC will be high, but the conversion rate is astronomical. Be sure to tailor your landing page to someone looking for a gift, and not just a regular product page.

Discover the Most Popular Gift Products You’re Offering

Talk to your sales people to see which products are being ordered as gifts for other people. The answers may surprise you.

Once you know your most popular gifts, begin to bid high on those terms in your PPC accounts. Like before, bid on “gift” related search terms as well.

Email Your Existing Customers with Gift Ideas

Don’t forget about your existing customers! They have friends that need gifts too, y’know.

Just like PPC, gift-related emails have incredible conversion rates.

Be sure to include your most popular gift items in your email.

Email Your Existing Customers with Gift Certificates

Gift certificates are great. If you automate the system, it’s even better.

If someone orders a gift certificate on your site, make sure you email them (or the recipient if it is a gift) instead of sending it via snail mail. If you automate the process, it will become one of the most profitable models in your business.

Test Your Website for Conversion

Since you are experiencing such high volumes of motivated buyers on your site, now is the time to test!

If you aren’t testing already, you need to start. The holidays will give you incredibly valuable data that you can use to grow your online sales. Click here to learn how to get started with testing.

If you do these things, you’ll see a noticeable jump in your profits.

No, what I’m going to share with you is the best way that you can become the editor of the category in DMOZ that you want your site to be listed in.

We all know that in order to get good, free, organic rankings, you need quality links to your website. The more quality links to your site, the higher your rankings, the more traffic your site gets, the more your business grows.

DMOZ, otherwise known as the Open Directory Project or ODP, is one of the most important online directories, which is basically a website dedicated to supplying quality outbound links to various websites.

For new SEOs and veterans alike, DMOZ has been a headache to get into because it is completely run by volunteers. You see, the directory doesn’t charge anything for your site to be included, and because they have no budget, they use volunteers to keep the website up and running.

Well, that’s what makes it such a headache. Many volunteers could care less about their category after they sign up, or they get bored, or they’re just downright malicious with the pages they control.

But… if you were the editor of your own category, you could quickly include your website, get that beautiful anchor text link you’ve been craving, and be on your way.

The trick, however, is to not be obvious about it, and definitely do not be malicious. If you become an editor of your market’s DMOZ page, you control the links to a lot of your competition… but do NOT sabotage them. Not only is it unethical, it can get you banned from DMOZ anyways.

And the idea is to use this to your advantage. Submit your money site. Include all other websites you can in this category that are under your control as well. Create a quick blog that is devoted to keeping the public informed on any charity work your company does and include that in your category. Then, once the link juice is passed from DMOZ to your blog, link your blog to your money site, more link juice flows to your money site, giving you better rankings and more traffic.

You can do this over and over and over. But please, do it under the radar.

So how do we get in? Well, we’re here at the home page of DMOZ.org, to start, navigate to the category that best describes your company or website.

In this example, we’re going to be selling Dog Toys, so let’s navigate to the appropriate page. If the category you want is taken, don’t worry, just find the next closest category that’s available.

To see if your category is available or not, scroll down to the very bottom of the page. If it’s open, you’ll see “Volunteer to edit this category”.

After we click on volunteer, DMOZ lays down the rules.

They make it clear that you don’t have to be an editor to submit your site, but you can submit your site all day, and it doesn’t mean it’ll be included.

They suggest applying to a small category for newbies, and then working your way up. That’s actually good advice, it’s less suspicious that way.

You must login to your account at least once a month, or they’ll kick you out. This is their quality control on their volunteers.

DMOZ also says that you should proofread your application. If you’re misspelling everything, or you don’t know anything about grammar, have someone double check your work. If it looks bad, you’ll have no chance at getting approved.

You’ll be asked to submit three sample submissions for your category, so they can get a feel for your writing. Find sites that aren’t already in the directory, but also aren’t in direct competition with you. Remember, you don’t want to help your competitors to get into DMOZ.

Be sure to write impartial, third party descriptions. No hyped sales copy or promos. Things like “Pet Toys Online sells rubber chew toys for dogs of various sizes.”

The next page is where we get to the nuts and bolts of our application. Enter your first or last name, real or fake, a display name you’d like, an email address- I always setup a Yahoo account- and a password.

They even ask you if you’ve ever been an ODP editor before? Select no we haven’t.

Next, you’re asked about your internet experience. I wouldn’t go out and say “I own a website that fits this category and I’ll submit it if you guys let me in.”

Instead, we want to appear as harmless as possible. Say you own a blog in a similar category- one that would draw your interest to this category, but different enough that it won’t seem like you’d be interested in submitting it to your category.

DMOZ also asks why are you interested in volunteering. I recommend taking the altruistic route. I always like to say that I’m tired of all the spam out there, on the web, in my junk mail box, that I want to help clean up the web, and this was the first place I could think of.

You’re also asked to elaborate on your interest in the category you’re applying to edit. Remember, try to be genuine here.

In the section that asks which websites you’re associated with, I would put “none”.

Towards the bottom we include our trial website submissions. Remember to remain impartial here. No hype or pitch fests. Just boring, third party descriptions. Poke around and read some descriptions to get a feel for what they’re looking for.

And that’s it. Click “submit application” and they’ll send you a confirmation email that you’ll have to respond to. Then, you get an answer within three days.

You know, for taking months, even years to include sites in their directory, they’re pretty quick at accepting and rejecting volunteer editors.

Again, throughout this entire process, appear to be as harmless as possible. Watch yourself as if you were DMOZ- would you let yourself be an editor of this category?

Within a few days, you’ll have your answer. And after you’re in, you can casually begin submitting and accepting your websites into your category.

I have done this with some of my own websites, and I’ve seen immediate SEO benefits. If you’re lucky enough to get in, you’ll see a huge increase in your free rankings… and with it, a healthy bump in traffic!

You see, a lot of companies are carbon copies of each other. They see one company making money, so they jump in and grab a little market share.

But to make a successful company, you not only have to duplicate your competitor’s efforts, but you have to convince your customers why your company is their best choice.

When it comes to ecommerce, there are just a few options that can set you apart. A few of them are:
- Superior customer service
- Quick shipping
- Lowest prices
- Free Shipping
- Customer Loyalty Programs
- Superior product

If you are a local business providing a service, consider these:
- Superior customer service
- Low-Price Guarantee
- Free Support & Maintenance

When marketing your business, be sure to mention these attributes in your ads, your home pages, and any other forms of media.

If you’re the only business to provide this value added proposition, be sure to mention that as well.

By setting yourself apart from the competition, you become the frontrunner in the race to win more customers.

It doesn’t matter if you sell physical products, provide a service, or sell information products… you can still test your prices.

In a recent price test that I personally oversaw, we tested our bestselling product’s price. We had our control (regular price), and we had our variable price, which was marked up 25%.

After weeks of collecting data, we saw no difference in conversion between the two prices.

I was flabberghasted. I thought I was going to have to plug all sorts of numbers into a spreadsheet to see if this new price affected our profit margins at all.

Instead, we saw an increase of 25% in revenues, of our best seller no less!

And that increase went straight to the bottom line.

Even if we saw a slight decrease in conversion, we would have been ok with that. If we end up selling less of our bestseller, and revenue is equal, our profit is still better with the higher price. This is because we had to ship out less orders, which means paying less in shipping costs and fulfillment overhead.

Be sure to check your bottom line when testing the price points on your site. You’ll be surprised that even if you make less sales, you can make more money.

No, we tend to congregate to the other end of the spectrum, where questions are asked, markets are analyzed, and traffic numbers are plugged into spreadsheets.

This isn’t your typical 40-hours a week, stable salary liefestyle.

No… with the internet, pay comes in waves. There are big bonuses, and little bonuses. Big waves and little waves.

So what keeps you going?

It’s a little different in each case, but every entrepreneur has that unique blend of inquisitive nature and drive that pushes them to be different.

To feed that interest, you need to work on yourself. I always suggest finding times in your day where you waste time and effort without even realizing it.

For example, one of the biggest time-thieves out there is your daily commute.

Sure, 15 minutes to work doesn’t seem too bad, but look at it more closely.

That’s 30 minutes a day you’re in your car… doing nothing but driving.

That’s two and a half hours a week. Over 10 hours a MONTH!

What could you accomplish if you were given that time back?

I suggest that you use that time to invest in yourself. It’s quite easy to download an audiobook, put it on your phone, and listen to it through your car speakers on your way to and from work everyday.

Here are a few books I suggest you download to get you started:

The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss

This book has changed the way I view everything. The author, Timothy Ferriss, asks a simple question- What if you could remove yourself, the biggest bottleneck in your company, from the day-to-day work grind?

He then explores ways to outsource tasks to experts who are smarter and better equipped at handling these tasks then you are.

After listening to this audiobook, I went from working with two people under me to effectively managing a team of ten.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis

This book outlines the story of the cash-strapped Oakland A’s, run by GM Billy Beane, who always felt uneasy with “business as usual” in professional baseball. He’s been quoted as saying “if everyone is thinking the same thing, then no one is really thinking.” He then set off to search for new baseball knowledge, and applied it to his own team.

His efforts led to multiple playoff appearances (despite being one of the poorest teams in Major League Baseball), revolutionizing the way front offices operate through professional sports, and even a major movie starring Brad Pitt.

Now, I’ve been told that you don’t need to be a baseball fan to enjoy this book (which I recommend over just watching the film). I wouldn’t know, since I’m a huge fan. But this

I know for certain: the spirit that author Michael Lewis captures in this book leads to out-of-the-box thinking.

The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First by Jonah Keri

I told you I was a fan.

Like Moneyball, The Extra 2% brings you in Major League Baseball. This time, it outlines an improbable worst-to-first story of the Tampa Bay Rays.

It was bad enough that the Rays were the laughing stock of all of baseball… but to be expect to compete in the same division as the powerhouse Yankees and Red Sox seemed ridiculous.

You’ll hear about how the Rays went from last place in their division in 2007 to the World Series in 2008… and since then, they’ve had four consecutive winning seasons and three playoff appearances.

You’re a rare breed, internet marketer. Invest in yourself. Even if you don’t listen to these audiobooks, I highly recommend you spend your daily commute learning.