Need Advice to Re-Develop Branding of 150k/year business

[Leonidas Kaplan]

Hey hey,

I'm looking for some suggestions on reworking my current Internet Marketing Blog at Leonidas Marketing Blog - Travel & Marketing

The website itself consists of 2 things at the moment: Internet marketing training (pay per call), and my personal blog content (book reviews, travel galleries, editorials, etc).

I'm trying to decide whether to split the 2 elements (separate websites), or keep them as one.

The reason for this, is I would like to 'professionalize' the marketing content, and grow it into a larger educational resource (I'm looking at digitalmarketer.com as an example).

Currently there is a HUGE amount of SEO that leads to the site, and as such, it's difficult for me to decide. The majority of the SEO is for my marketing content, and the blog-related content generates zero revenue.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

 

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[100k]

You'll need to hire a branding expert (and probably a UX design expert). As for whether or not to separate the two sub-niches... I'm not so sure about that, maybe get advice from an expert (business consultant).

Quick question related to PPCall.

How do you currently optimize calls for FB ads? i.e how do you track calls and optimize calls from FB ads so that the pixel only fires when someone calls & stays on the line for X seconds (I know you can do it with Google Ads pretty easily, but have not found a easy way to do the same with FB ads and other platforms outside of Adwords).

 

[Eskil]

I think I would split the site into more separate entities, but still keep them well interlinked - referring to each other to show your credibility, show people that you are who you say you are, etc. But the site as it sits now definitely needs a visual upgrade as I am sure you are aware of. The content looks jumbled and a bit disorganized (no offense, lol) so if you can find a clean and good professional theme suited for what you offer - and then build your name around it as the brand, you should see better results almost immediately.

 

[ZeroTo100]

Hey hey,

I'm looking for some suggestions on reworking my current Internet Marketing Blog at Leonidas Marketing Blog - Travel & Marketing

The website itself consists of 2 things at the moment: Internet marketing training (pay per call), and my personal blog content (book reviews, travel galleries, editorials, etc).

I'm trying to decide whether to split the 2 elements (separate websites), or keep them as one.

The reason for this, is I would like to 'professionalize' the marketing content, and grow it into a larger educational resource (I'm looking at digitalmarketer.com as an example).

Currently there is a HUGE amount of SEO that leads to the site, and as such, it's difficult for me to decide. The majority of the SEO is for my marketing content, and the blog-related content generates zero revenue.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

2 things...

1. What does $150k a year business have to do with the problem you're having?

2. You already know what you have to do.

3. My opinion is that people relate to you through your personal content. They sense authenticity and an actual person behind the site, not some commercial brand. It works and it's probably why you've done well. At this stage, I would focus on how you can do less and make more. If you have too much time on your hands, maybe you should rinse/repeat.

Wait that's 3 lol

 

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[Leonidas Kaplan]

Quick question related to PPCall.

How do you currently optimize calls for FB ads? i.e how do you track calls and optimize calls from FB ads so that the pixel only fires when someone calls & stays on the line for X seconds (I know you can do it with Google Ads pretty easily, but have not found a easy way to do the same with FB ads and other platforms outside of Adwords).

Hey 100k, thanks for the feedback.

As far as FB ads and ppcall, you need to have a platform such as 'invoca' (offered by most affiliate networks), to pass back a confirmation once the phone call is complete.

It's a bit complicated, and I cover it within the course itself, but you can find it here: Preview: Ultimate PPV + Pay-Per-Call + Infinite Variables Tracking - Leonidas Marketing Blog

The breakdown is basically:

1. user clicks on ad
2. ad leads to click-tracking platform (such as voluum tracking), which tracks parameters such as demographics, adcopy content, and generates a click-ID
3. user lands on landing page, and a dynamic or static phone number is generated in your call button, which is associated with your click-ID
4. user makes a phone call
5. call-tracking platform such as Invoca tracks the call, and triggers a pixel back to your click-tracking platform (voluum) for confirmation - sending back the click-ID.
6. Voluum then has the ability to trigger the conversion pixel back to facebook

It's messy.

In the other hand, Facebook HAS a call feature on it's ads as well, but no direct way to tracking call conversions.

 

[Leonidas Kaplan]

I think I would split the site into more separate entities, but still keep them well interlinked - referring to each other to show your credibility, show people that you are who you say you are, etc. But the site as it sits now definitely needs a visual upgrade as I am sure you are aware of. The content looks jumbled and a bit disorganized (no offense, lol) so if you can find a clean and good professional theme suited for what you offer - and then build your name around it as the brand, you should see better results almost immediately.

Hey Eskil, I agree with you. The theme hasn't been updated since 2012 (it's functional, which is all that mattered for a while).

I'm looking to implement this theme: Educon Live Demo | Themeum

What do you think of this theme?

And potentially keep all of the content on the same site, but obviously separate it into different sections.

 

[Leonidas Kaplan]

2 things...

1. What does $150k a year business have to do with the problem you're having?

2. You already know what you have to do.

3. My opinion is that people relate to you through your personal content. They sense authenticity and an actual person behind the site, not some commercial brand. It works and it's probably why you've done well. At this stage, I would focus on how you can do less and make more. If you have too much time on your hands, maybe you should rinse/repeat.

Wait that's 3 lol

Hey ZeroTo100,

1. Just indicating that there is already revenue/profit coming in.

2. Still looking for outside advice from the internet mind

3. I agree with the branding aspect, it's worked well. Just debating on how to professionalize it into a million-dollar brand.

 

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[100k]

Hey 100k, thanks for the feedback.

As far as FB ads and ppcall, you need to have a platform such as 'invoca' (offered by most affiliate networks), to pass back a confirmation once the phone call is complete.

It's a bit complicated, and I cover it within the course itself, but you can find it here: Preview: Ultimate PPV + Pay-Per-Call + Infinite Variables Tracking - Leonidas Marketing Blog

The breakdown is basically:

1. user clicks on ad
2. ad leads to click-tracking platform (such as voluum tracking), which tracks parameters such as demographics, adcopy content, and generates a click-ID
3. user lands on landing page, and a dynamic or static phone number is generated in your call button, which is associated with your click-ID
4. user makes a phone call
5. call-tracking platform such as Invoca tracks the call, and triggers a pixel back to your click-tracking platform (voluum) for confirmation - sending back the click-ID.
6. Voluum then has the ability to trigger the conversion pixel back to facebook

It's messy.

In the other hand, Facebook HAS a call feature on it's ads as well, but no direct way to tracking call conversions.

Oh boy does that sound complicated, expensive and messy. And unless you have Invoca you can't really fire the pixel on call duration. And from what I know Invoca costs like $500+ month, so if you are a freelancer looking to help local businesses the barrier is pretty God damn high.

I'm kinda in the development of a software that will allow you track your calls and fire based on duration - without that whole complicated process. Wanted to get some feedback from a real veteran in the sector, to see if there really was a problem and the solution I'm working on would really be solving a real problem (because I did my own research and I have struggled to find a real viable solution out there). Anyways, I won't take up more of your time.

If you are interested, let me know and I can send give you a beta copy when the app is ready.

 

[Inuc]

From the look of your website, splitting may not be the way. Since you looking at branding, first redesign then restructure(that can include, the landing page can be your blog which will now link to other aspect of your business).

Splitting will shift your focus(had similar issue recently), but if you maintaining just one website, you will definitely give it your all and want to make it the best(if possible top).

Lastly, you already have a following which means people can already relate with your blog...just lead them through with some goodies(which can boost your sales to your target)

 

[Leonidas Kaplan]

Oh boy does that sound complicated, expensive and messy. And unless you have Invoca you can't really fire the pixel on call duration. And from what I know Invoca costs like $500+ month, so if you are a freelancer looking to help local businesses the barrier is pretty God damn high.

I'm kinda in the development of a software that will allow you track your calls and fire based on duration - without that whole complicated process. Wanted to get some feedback from a real veteran in the sector, to see if there really was a problem and the solution I'm working on would really be solving a real problem (because I did my own research and I have struggled to find a real viable solution out there). Anyways, I won't take up more of your time.

If you are interested, let me know and I can send give you a beta copy when the app is ready.

Hey 100k,

You can try various platforms that integrate with Google Analytics here:

Apps - Phone Call Tracking Google Analytics Partner Services and Technologies

And thanks for the offer. I might get back to you on that in the future

 

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[Eskil]

I'm looking to implement this theme: Educon Live Demo | Themeum
What do you think of this theme?

Yeah that's a great theme for this purpose, and I can see how you could run both in the same place if done right.

 

[ZeroTo100]

Hey,

I have an honest question about your post since you're new here and posted a link to your blog. I'm not trying to dissect your business in anyway but since you stated in your headline that your blog does "150k" a year, I'm curious to know how you do that with very little organic search. I know you're not running paid search...are you funneling off forums like this one? Just curious since you shared your link, earnings.

 

[Leonidas Kaplan]

Hey,

I have an honest question about your post since you're new here and posted a link to your blog. I'm not trying to dissect your business in anyway but since you stated in your headline that your blog does "150k" a year, I'm curious to know how you do that with very little organic search. I know you're not running paid search...are you funneling off forums like this one? Just curious since you shared your link, earnings.

Hey hey ZeroTo100, if by new, you mean 2011?

The monetary number implies that I'm not a newbie looking for business ideas

Anyways, I've redeveloped the site with another theme: The7 (which is EXTREMELY flexible).

And I will go with the idea of keeping it as a personal blog + marketing blog.

For
- Time management purposes (keeping all the content in one place), and
- for trust/personality purposes as Inuc pointed out

Any NEW digital products will either receive their own website, or keep it all within the same site.

Digitalmarketer.com has a 'lab' subdomain with their paid content.

I might simply go down this route.

 

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