Matthew Un

My Site Traffic

Nearly completing JMU’s Strategic Internet Marketing, I am leaving the class with a different perspective about online advertising and marketing. While analyzing my websites traffic, I noticed different patterns of visitors, traffic sources and content over time. All three appeared to have risen and fallen with the amount of activity I personally performed on my site. The peak times of visits are highest during the start up of my website, and during the search engine optimization and pay per click assignments. Considering half of my visits were from direct traffic, I did not do a very good job of optimizing my searches. Overall, my PPC methods did little to help my website drive traffic. My organic search efforts helped much more, but could have been better through better keyword usage and other off page factors.

Internet Marketing Takeaways

I learned a lot from the internet marketing class and Dr. Clarke. Of all the things I learned, learning how to optimize traffic using organic methods to boost my site ranking was the most important. Learning that 75% of SEO factors are off page really changed my perception of how to make your site for visible.  Before the class started, I had no Idea how much went into creating and designing a page and its copy.

The Future

Before taking the internet marketing class, I never knew how much went into creating and maintaining a site. I learned that you must constantly update and correct any errors your site may have. This is crucial in the business world, as you could lose customers due to non functioning pages and links.. I doubt I’ll keep my website after the class due to my LinkedIn and other sites, but all of this information will be useful for the future.

Google Webmaster Tools is a very useful tool for website owners, and marketers. Like Google Analytics and Google AdWords, the Google Webmaster Tool gives you very useful information about your site and its performance. Webmaster shows you similar statistics such as impressions and clicks, but also goes more in depth about your site. The features that I personally found helpful that Google Webmaster offers are:

• Top search queries that landing my page on the SERP, and which queries resulted in the most clicks
• Links to your site from other web pages
• Malware page to identify and prevent hackers from ruining your site
• Crawl errors page to identify problem pages on my site
• and the HTML suggestions page to help improve your site

As a marketer, Google Webmaster Tools may be the most useful analysis tool Google has to offer. Not only does it give you statistics about your site, it lets you know where your faults lie and how to possibly improve them. Besides the obvious statistics on successful keywords and impressions, Google Webmaster’s Malware page helps prevent disasters. If a hacker were to install a virus or hack into the site, the damaging effects could really hurt a marketers reputation. With the crawl errors page, Google Webmaster lets you know if there are any problems with any of the links or pages on your site. This would help you resolve issues quickly and avoid loss of sales or leaving the site. And finally, the HTML suggestions page helps you improve your page organically and therefore improves in search engine rankings.

For more information about Google Webmaster, click here…

With our Internet marketing professor Ms. Clarke out of town for a conference, our class has a guest speaker. Her name was Ms. Deb Van Horn. Ms. Van Horn spoke about things such as her experiences and background with social media and internet marketing, the importance of social media for both you and your business, the importance of Google AdWords and our personal online presences.

Ms. Van horn is a former student from James Madison University, earning her Bachelors degree in international business and later on earning her Masters. She works with the Rockingham Group, which is a Virginia insurance company and has worked with departments such as HR, facility management, IT, and marketing. She also was former president of SHRM, which is the worlds largest association devoted to resources management.

Another key point Ms. Van Horn mentioned was the importance of social media for both you and your business. From the business point of view, social media could help build relationships with customers, creates an easy medium of communication, and a really good way to develop brand awareness. She related social media experiences with the Rockingham group. Personally, the internet was something that could really help or hurt us personally.  She then went on to stress the importance and convenience of Google AdWords. She showed us how much cheaper it is than any other form of advertising due to the cost. While other mediums such as television and newspaper charge based on impressions, AdWord does not.  The charges are based on impressions.

Some very good advice given by Ms. Van horn was to stay flexible and resilient in life, especially if things are not going the way you had expected. She also encouraged us to not become complacent in where we are, and we always need to stay updated.

How would you feel if your information was publicly displayed and used without your knowledge or consent? Most would feel uncomfortable or even outraged. Today, online marketers are using your information without your knowledge or consent more than ever. They do so by using retargeting advertisements. Retargeting ads is the practice of  keeping track of people who visit your site and displaying your retargeting ads to them as they visit other sites. They use information of  previous sales, personal information of social networking sites, and abandoned online shopping carts to follow you around the web. Many of us see this every day and just ignore it, as we naturally mentally block side and banner ads.

An article from the NY Times from August 2010 shows just how uncomfortable some people are with the concept of retargeting ads. In this instance, this woman searched Zappos to search for a pair of shoes, in which she did not buy in the end. After leaving the site, she noticed ads for those particular shoes in different websites. Retargeting is often compared to as an annoying salesperson who follows you after you leave a store without purchasing anything. They show up to every other store and throw their products in your face. Although the online tracking may be less severe,  it is still as bothersome.  If marketers can use your information to virtually stalk you, who knows when it will end or where the limit is.

Many of these advertisements allow users to opt out of the “list” of retargeted consumers. However, it is often difficult to do so and often it does not work. As a marketer, this is a clever tool to redirect consumers back to the site, but as a consumer, big brother needs to get off my computer.

With all the hype surrounding RGIII (And no, i’m not referring to Rex Grossman the third,)  the Washington Redskins paid a kings ransom for the second overall pick. The pick that will obtain the rights to Robert Griffin III costed the Redskins 2012, 2013, 2014 first round picks and the addition of this Aprils second round pick. Many may argue that this was a necessary move for a Redskins organization that has lacked a franchise quarterback since parachute pants were relevant. While few will argue against the fact that the Rams received the better end of the trade, here are some reasons why the trade was a bad one for the Redskins.

Can RGIII Succeed in Washington?

1. Redskins seem to have short term memory loss. With a history of devaluing picks, the Redskins have often mortgaged away their future. The Redskins have time and time again traded away picks for players or have signed free agents to mega contracts, and never quite seem to pan out.

2. Redskins have lost the ability to build around the player they traded for. When taking a look at the best teams in the NFL (Packers, Giants, Patriots, Ravens and the Steelers,) a common characteristic is building through the draft. Even though the Redskins got the player they wanted, it will be difficult to surround him with talent and protection since they lost all those picks.

3. Redskins have been penalized $36 Million Dollars in cap space. The Redskins had planned on taking the unconventional way of building a team through free agency, then were hit with a whopping $36 million cap cut. They have less money to spend around RGIII, and may potentially ruin the promising career of RGIII.

Maybe they’ll learn their lesson in 2018.

With the economy in a state of recession, the idea of finding a job after college can be a frightening one. Many speculate marketing majors will find the most difficulty in landing jobs in comparison to the other business concentrations universities have to offer. I however, do not find that to be the case. Although majors such as accounting are a safer pick, I feel the job variety is limited. Many non marketing majors view marketing solely as advertising, but couldn’t be more wrong. Marketing has many fields and areas of study. Marketing degrees present many opportunities and a wide variety of careers!

Advertising is a popular area of marketing, but is not the only one. Marketing majors can get into fields such as sales, accounts, market research and forecasting just to name a few. Also, with the emergence of social medias, the field has expanded even more. When I was selecting my major at  JMU, I wanted a degree that offered a wide spectrum of job opportunities. This has become especially important since the amount of jobs have been limited due to the recession. When looking at James Madison University’s Marketing website, I saw more opportunities in Marketing than in any other concentration. With a degree such as accounting, you are destined to be an accountant. This is fine for those individuals, but if you’re like me, I want a degree that presents limitless opportunities.

Job searching may be intimidating but for students at JMU, it shouldn’t be as terrifying. With JMU’s Recruit-A-Duke program listing many marketing positions and openings, job searching has been simplified. There are many jobs for the taking, but don’t expect them to fall into your lap!

After playing around with Twitter for a while, I am beginning to see it’s true value. I still favor the other Social Networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, however Twitter has proven its worth. Socially, It is a great way to receive instant news, keep up with friends, and kill some downtime. Personally, Twitter has become somewhat of an addiction. Being a huge sports fan, I follow my favorite athletes and sports writers. I have discovered this is the best ways to find out about sports moves and transactions. Twitter has also been a good way to socially connect with celebrities and idols. During my first week of Twitter, I had both former NFL wide receiver Torry Holt and ESPN blogger Mike Sando respond to my Tweet and tag me in a post.

As a marketer, it has proven even more useful. Twitter is a great way for both businesses and individuals to communicate to others. As a growing phenomenon, it can help marketers network with clients, partners and prospects. It is a great way to get a company or individuals name out there, and create brand awareness or recognition. It can also help with current customers and clients.  Twitter can help create and maintain long lasting relationships with these individuals.  Twitter is a great way to disperse news and gain attention to others and give these individuals up to minute updates and seem more personable.  Although businesses can’t fully control PR, Twitter is a great tool to help guide relations. Often businesses will use Twitter posts as testimonials for their businesses.  Twitter has slowly become a faster and reliable source of news.

A good majority of my friends are now Twitter enthusiasts, and I may be following them shortly (no pun intended.)

In order to make my site more aesthetically pleasing, I chose the “Bloxy” theme which was created by Arcance. I chose Bloxy simply because of the colors. I found that Bloxy’s colors create a soothing image while maintaining its functionality. The website theme made it easier for visitors to scan the page and find what they were looking for easily. The combination of blue, black and white all contrast each other in a special way and give the site a calming experience.  When thinking of the look I wanted for my website, I looked around at other popular websites. I looked at websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more. All of these websites used the same colors I had chosen, and feel that has contributed to the success of the websites. Also, All of these sites contain the same aesthetically pleasing combination of colors while maintaining a professional look.

After installing the Bloxy theme, some changes occurred. On the website, it appears my Twitter widget was no longer available. The layout changed only slightly, with the pages rising to the top right. However, everything seems to be the same behind the scenes. My dashboard remains unchanged and the functionality remains the same. Some issues i may have to fix are the title appearances of my blog posts. It appears if they exceed a line of copy, only half of the second line appears on my page for internet users.

Besides those minor issues I have with the design, I really like the new look. I believe simplicity takes you a long way, and that is exactly what I am going for. With the pleasing visuals and easy navigation, I’m hoping the site will naturally gain more popularity.