Jul 13
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New SEO Formula

The New SEO Formula

Posted by | Online Marketing, Organic Search | No Comments

I’ve been reading more and more lately about a new formula for SEO (organic search engine optimization) and how it has changed from before, where it used to be calculated based on the number of external links, the use of social media, keywords embedded in all of your content, and how often you publish. The most recent update implies that only the use of great content (relavant content) really drives organic SEO, and all of the other aspects don’t weight as heavily any more. This is exactly right, but this has always been the case.

For years I’ve been teaching clients the importance of content, the roll it plays in your online marketing efforts, and how it can truly be your most important marketing vehicle. The best way for me to explain SEO, and how it relates to your organic ranking on Google is to think of your website as a knowledge base for the type of content you publish. Google is a business, and they want to ensure that everyone who performs a search is presented with the best possible match.

If you think of your website as a knowledge base, you can start to understand why you might rank better for one specific keyword phrase, based on the amount of content you have provided about that term. The more “relavant” content you have on your website, the frequency of your publishing schedule, and how well your content is shared will determine how well you rank organically.

The most common red flag I encounter, is when someone says: “I don’t have enough to write about.” At first glance you might be right, but if you have ever been asked a question by a customer about your service, you have a blog post to write (answer the question). Look over your past 50 customer service requests, identify if your website answers those inquires, and if they don’t, write about them.

Jul 12
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Best practices for post interview follow ups

Posted by | Career | No Comments

Hopefully by now you are at the stage of your career hunting that you could use some help properly following up with the company you are applying to. Every step of your job search is important and deserves an equal consideration before executing best practices. After you’ve updated your resume, found that perfect job, and had your frist interview with the company of your dreams, you’re ready to do your post interview follow up.

As someone who has had many interview experiences, a number of jobs over the past 7 years, and works as a consultant, I’ve come to learn what tends to work as a post meeting/interview follow up. Here are just a few great ideas you can try with your current opportunity:

  • Most people follow up with an email to everyone that was part of the interview process. How about leaving the hiring manager or HR manager a voicemail after-hours? When they arrive the following day, they will be presented with a personal voicemail from you, putting you top of mind when they start thinking about potential candidates.
  • In most interviews, you learn a few of the current challenges the company is facing, whether it’s a challenge for the position at hand or the persons you are speaking to in the interview. If you believe there are some insights you can offer them, take the time after your interview to compose an email, and express your ideas.
  • When the employer starts to contact your references, which typically concludes the first interview (only if you are a possible candidates), have your reference interview the company. Yes, instead of the employer performing their typical review process, have your reference interview them, and ensure they are the right company for you.

Give these best practices a try on your next post interview follow up. You will find quickly that they are going to better your chances as a possible candidate.

Jul 11
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My favourite iphone app #2 – Analytics StatsWidget

Posted by | Analytics, Mobile | 4 Comments

If you’re anything like me, a bit of an analytics-crazed marketeer, you’ll love Analytics StatsWidget app. This was a recent find that I came across on macstorm.net, and I’ve been enjoying it everyday since. I’m currently monitoring over 10 websites at a time, and find myself only mobile accessible more often than not. I’ve tried a number of paid and unpaid Google analytics apps, none of which have really satisfied the need for a quick glimpse at metrics throughout the day via a mobile dashboard.

Here’s why I like Analytics StatsWidget:

  1. Design – It’s simple, clean, and very easy to digest.
  2. Information – It provides the essentials of analytics directly on the opening screen.
  3. Access – Without opening the app, you are shown the real-time daily visitors (shown as the number of notification on the app).
  4. Detailed reports – Knowing how your day over day performance is progressing is a valuable piece of information for any eManager, Marketeer, or business owner.

Even if you only have one website and you’re not getting a lot of traffic right now, use this application to help stay on track with your design updates, content publishing, and other online marketing activities that will directly impact the volume of site traffic.

App link.

Jul 10
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The 3 worst questions to ask in an interview

Posted by | Career | No Comments

We’ve now talked about updating your resume, building your online presence, and 5 great questions to ask in your first interview. Almost as important as the right questions to ask in an interview, are the questions you should never ask – let’s go over three questions you shouldn’t ask in your first interview:

Three things you should ask or say in your first interview:

  1. How many breaks do I get (or how many smoke breaks do you provide)? This implies you are someone who values breaks above getting the job done. Every company has a legal obligation to provide a sufficient amount of breaks throughout the work day, so don’t make the mistake of asking that question.
  2. How much does this position pay? This seems like a no brainer for most, but you would be surprised how many people forget the unwritten rule, whereby you should wait for the interviewee to ask you about compensation before you ask them. Giving the impression that money is your only determining factor can greatly shy a company away from a candidate.
  3. How long until you provide maternity/paternity leave? This is definitely a grey area, and most people will end up being on either side of this fence at some point in their lives. To an employee, this says “this person is only going to provide the minimum required amount of time before taking maternity/paternity, and leaving the company short a person.” The priority of your interview should be how you are going to improve the company if they were to employ you. Of course, everyone deserves the right to maternity/paternity if they have worked the allotted amount of hours, but the fact still remains that if an interviewer senses that you are only trying to bank hours so you can leave, you will find it difficult to get employed by asking that question.

Even if you ask all of the right questions, and you get along well with everyone involved in the interview process, there is always room for error. The lasting impression you want to leave anyone in the interview process is that you are committed to growing their company, and you are looking to better your career skill set.

Jul 06
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How to price your freelance business

Posted by | Branding, Business Development | No Comments

If you’re like most freelancers, you’ll be faced at some point with the challenge of sharing your pricing with a larger audience, and have to decide which route you’re going to take. Is it going to be a set amount (fixed cost) per project? An hourly rate? Or a mixture of both? We know that competitors look to each other’s websites for price comparisons, so it comes down to whether you’re confident in your pricing, and how your competitors match the level of expertise you’re offering.

Most freelancers will hide costs, or ask you to seek them out (by requesting a quote). They will then make the potential client wait too long for them to respond to the client’s request. This might seem like the best tactic to pricing, but making someone wait for pricing on your services (when you know roughly how much each type of project costs) will only result in a large spill in your sale funnel. If you haven’t already set up Google Analytics on your website, try it out so you can get a sense of where your website visitors are going, and how many drop off when they go to your services/pricing pages.

What I’ve learned:

At this point in my freelance business I’ve come to learn a few things:

  • Pricing projects hourly results in higher than expected costs for the client, and time tracking (which no one likes) isn’t a useful way to measure the performance of freelancer.
  • Setting a fixed price for a project can seem great at first glance – until you’ve done more work than you quoted for originally (due to unclear instructions on the project at hand).

Why I list my pricing online: 

After learning the hard way for both fixed pricing and hourly rates, I decided to list my pricing publicly, and indicate pricing ranges based on each type of project. This solves the issue of not setting an hourly rate for a project for which you don’t know the length of time it will take to complete, and gives you room to move your price up or down based on project requirements. Each project you work on is different, but based on the type of work, you usually have a set price and time range in mind.

Consider what you’re asking of your customers when all they are looking for is a simple price range on the work they need completed; you will find that less irrelevant inquires will be submitted, and more pre-qualified leads will be contacting you (knowing they are comfortable upfront with your price ranges).

Jul 05
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5 great questions to ask in an interview

Posted by | Career | One Comment

Now that you have updated your resume, searched and found the perfect job, it’s time to prepare for your interview. It’s always good practice to learn as much as you can about the company you are interviewing with, and if you can go the extra step further, find out who you will be reporting too, and what they are all about.

As someone who has interviewed many people over the past few years, I find it critical that the interviewee asks unique and intelligent questions.

Here are five great questions to ask in an interview (as the interviewee):

1. Tell me something about yourself that I couldn’t read on your LinkedIn profile.
2. What characteristics about the past position holder did you value most?
3. What are some projects I might be involved in, that aren’t necessarily listed in the job description?
4.  What projects are you (the interviewer) currently working on?
5.  What’s the first thing you would like me to get started on? Do you have a list of deliverables for me?

If not to learn more about the potential position, these questions will surely leave a lasting impression on those who are interviewing you, and hopefully push you to the next level of interviews. If you have any other great questions to ask, leave a comment below!

Mar 14
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How to use LinkedIn to find a job

Posted by | Career | No Comments

To add to my most recent post (5 things to think about when building a resume), after you have updated your resume to the point where you feel confident about it’s ability to tell your professional story, it’s time to start thinking about what sources you are going to use to find that perfect job. Like most, you can scour every major job website (monster, job bank, Workopolis, etc.) to find that job, or you can let LinkedIn help you find the best job based on the experience you have published on your profile.

As you continue to update and build your professional profile on LinkedIn, in the background they are starting to match your experience with available jobs in the market (near you), so you don’t need to spend all of your time reading job descriptions that might not match your skill set. By now, you have realized that searching for a new job is almost a full-time job in itself, and being able to find more jobs that fit your experience can dramatically increase your productivity during your job hunt.

Here a few steps to help you get better job suggestions on LinkedIn:

  1. Finish your profile (get it to 100% completeness).
  2. Set your profile so that you are accepting job offers and enable others to message you directly without being contacted as contacts.
  3. Check your job tab daily (or set a cal reminder to check at the same time everyday) or subscribe to daily email alerts for all new postings.
  4. Upload your resume to your profile, this way you can simply click the “apply now” button on the job you are interested in (it will allow you to use the most recent resume uploaded).
  5. If you are set on one particular position, take the time to learn as much about the company as possible, identify who the decision makers are, and try to connect with them before submitting your resume.

Of course, there are always other job websites, but for now LinkedIn is one of the only sites that recommends positions based on your experience.

Mar 12
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A t-shirt company raising money for cancer

Posted by | Ecommerce, Events, Website Development | No Comments

My name is Sean Hurley, I am an Online Marketing Professional living in Toronto Ontario. I started Dynamic Clothing a few years back (didn’t take off as well as I thought), and still have a good amount of inventory left over. I’m currently participating in the Ontario Ride to Conquer Cancer, and need to raise $2,500 to A t shirt company raising money for cancerbe eligible to take part in the ride. To help me reach my fund-raising goal, I’ve decided to use the remainder of my inventory as a way to raise funds. All sales made on dyanmicclothing.ca will be donated to my ride (except the shipping costs), and I will continue to donate until I reach my goal.

About the Cause

Since 2008, The Ride has surpassed all other cycling events to become Canada’s most successful cycling fundraiser. Raising over $60 million in Toronto alone, Ride funds support the work of The Campbell Family Cancer Research Institute at The Princess Margaret, one of the top 5 cancer research centres in the world.

Thanks to The Ride, funding ensures the sustainability of the most promising cancer research that is taking place at The Princess Margaret. Your support of The Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer also impacts hundreds of thousands, as The Princess Margaret is affiliated with and shares its expertise with other cancer centres across Canada and around the world. The Princess Margaret’s vision is to CONQUER CANCER IN OUR LIFETIME.

 

Mar 05
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5 things to think about when building a resume

Posted by | Branding, Career | No Comments

It has become more apparent now, that there are a large number of people looking for their first job (recent grads), and realizing how overwhelming job hunting can be. Having said that, I wanted to offer some of my expertise in building a better resume before you start applying to jobs, and how to stand out among the thousands of other recent graduates.

Here are 5 things to think about when looking for a new job: (resume focused)

  1. Is your resume the best it can be?
  2. Does it read well, or appeal to the jobs you are applying to?
  3. Is the design of your resume out of date, or lacking personality?
  4. If you saw your resume, would you read it?
  5. Have you thought about your intro message? Now more than ever, it’s important that you get the attention of the HR department reading your resume, so put some creative thought towards how you want to describe yourself, in one or two sentences (kind of like your 10 second elevator pitch).

These questions should help you determine if your resume is up to par, or if you need to update before beginning to apply to jobs. Never settle for “It’s okay”; those are the resumes that never get passed the front door. Make every application count! Need some help? Feel free to reach out to me if you need help getting started.

 

 

 

Jan 31
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How to improve email click thru rates

Posted by | Email Marketing | No Comments

With any email marketing campaign, you know that the hardest part is getting your readers to open the email, and the second biggest hurdle is driving click thru’s. Being able to improve better email interaction is a very important component to the success of your email marketing program, and could result in higher sales ROI per campaign.

If you look at a normal click thru rate of 1% you’ll notice that most of the industry is at the same rate, and trying to improve. I’ve seen click thru rates of  3 to 5% on campaigns I’ve sent, and it directly correlates to the message you want to tell, and how your audience perceives it. If you are looking to improve click thru rates this year, and not sure where to start, try the following on your next campaign:

  • Review the last 5 or 10 campaigns, and identify which ones had the highest click thru rate;
  • of the top performing campaigns, look at what the message was, and what links they clicked on;
  • from those top clicked links, what was the language style you used, and could you mirror it with any other campaigns;
  • from the list of successful campaigns, try to look for other winnings and adapt those new principles to your future campaigns.

Try these tips on your next few campaigns, look at what was successful, and what didn’t work. From those learnings, start planning the next updates to your future campaigns. Always be testing your email marking based on winnings from past campaigns.

Feel free to ask me anything, anytime! Contact Me