Eli the Computer Guy

When I first started using Facebook Ads I was highly impressed.  My cost Cost per Click was between .60-.70, and the visitors that EverymanIT.com brought in from Facebook were high quality.  I couldn’t have been happier.

But then the CPC cost slowly started to rise.  My CPM cost is down to .19, but the once cheap CPC of .60-.70 now averages around $1.50 and some days tops $2.50.  Not only that but my steady stream of new registrations to my site has become a mere trickle.

I have changed my Ads and changed my keyword targeting.  This always creates a boost for a day, or two but then the results start to wane again.

I am left to wonder if Facebook Ads is a good advertising venue for the long haul.  Maybe it is only effective for short burst marketing and then the targeted audience losses interest..?

I still think Facebook Ads can be very effective, but I will have to rethink the strategy that I use with them.

Does Google count Twitter links towards Page Rank?  Does using Google Analytics help your site’s rankings?  These types of questions are asked countless times everyday.  Trying to read the Google documentation can lead to eye strain and complete confusion.  Now I have found a great resource that tells you exactly what Google wants from your website.

Google Webmaster Central Channel on YouTube offers HOURS of 1-3 minute question answer videos.  The presenter, Matt Curtis, is very easy to watch and understand.  Just about every question I have ever had about how Google does Page Rank is answered in a clear and concise way.

If you care about SEO you NEED to watch these videos.  Check them out at http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleWebmasterHelp

I have a new way to definitively tell what phase of life a person is in.  Just ask them one question,”Do you want your parents to be on Facebook?”

It’s a funny thing. As a tech person I follow all the gossip about the hot and not things in the tech world.  Until recently every time any one I knew spoke of their parents getting a Facebook profile everyone would grimace, and fearfully worry about their parents seeing something unseemly.  They would talk about how horrific the idea of their parents “friending” them.

But now as I’ve settled down and Facebook has become more main stream I am finding the exact opposite reaction from my cohort.  We now all desperately want our parents on Facebook.  The reason is is that we aren’t doing any thing unseemly (Or at least we’re smart enough not to post it on Facebook), and that it’s much easier to keep family members up to date if they can simply take a look at your wall.

If the whole family is on Facebook you don’t have to worry about worried parents because you got busy and forgot to return their call. (I’m bad at that). If they’re worried they can just check your wall and see what you posted.  So at least they’ll think you’re inconsiderate, but not dead.

So to determine what phase of life you are in just ask yourself how you view Facebook.  If the answer is:

• You don’t want your family to know it exists.  It means you’re young.
• If you don’t really care. It means you’ve settled down.
• If you desperately want your parents to use it.  It means you’re officially middle aged.
• If you don’t know what the hell everyone is talking about, and you spend time creating drafts of “status updates” to make sure you do it right.  Then you’re old.

Over at EverymanIT.com we ask that visitors become members to the site in order to watch our video classes.  Everything is free, but we just want to be able to tell how many of our visitors are really interested in our site, and how many are just passing through.

To this affect our opening line on the Home page said “Try our Classes for FREE!!!”  in big, bold H1 font.  At the end of the page we had the standard line of “FREE Membership Available”.  It’s a little cheesy, but I figured the two sentences made the point. Apparently I was wrong…

I received a comment from a visitor that was very interested in our site, but was worried that she would somehow have to pay something and she doesn’t have the money for it.  As an older person she read the “Try our Classes for FREE” to mean that it was some type of trial and that she would have to hand over some money at some point. Knowing all of the scams out there on the Web I can see where she is coming from. 

I sent her off an email and modified the line to “Watch our Classes for FREE!!!”.  The question I wonder though is how many visitors were turned off of the site due to that simple wording issue.

This just goes to show that you should try to get a wide range of people to view your site and tell you what they think you are saying.  Although you may know the average 20-40 year old would understand what you are saying the 50+ crowd may not. This may become a real factor if like us you find out that your demographics are skewing to a much older group of people then you originally expected.

Most people do not realize the HUGE amount of emails that are in their Deleted Items Folder in Outlook.  For some reason many people refuse to empty out their Deleted Items Folder.  I’ve even seen some people actually use Deleted Items as a way of sorting their email.

The problem is that the Deleted Items Folder can be absolutely MASSIVE.  I have seen users Deleted Items Folders over 5 GB in size.  Most users do not realize that this effects their Outlook.  All of the data is still kept in the local .pst file and ends up slowing down Outlook and can cause the file to become corrupted.  Additionally when the user migrates to a new computer, or their old one crashes and they need a data recovery, transferring these Deleted Items can take a significant amount of time.

If they decide to migrate their email to Hosted Exchange not only can it take a ridiculous amount of time to upload all of their Deleted Items, but they will also end up paying for storage space just to store worthless email.

Do yourself a favor and regularly empty your Deleted Items Folder.  It seems like a little thing, but not doing it can create a large problem.