No, I didn’t get a date with Lance – I can’t even meet the guy. I really wanted to interview him about his great marketing idea. He is the director of marketing at Logoworks.

The web site is still there. I haven’t seen the billboard for a long time. As far as I know he’s still single. But that’s beside the point. Last week I learned his last name. He is Jason’s brother – who married my friend Camille (college days). His dad is an exec for a major company. That was completely unexpected.

Since I am co-owner of a dating web site you’re going to hear more about the subject. Plus, I I’m a big fan of internet dating both as a marketer and personally. The internet has everything you need in life. Dating is a lot like marketing actually.

Maybe Lance will let us do a promotion with him to launch our new look. The redesign is coming along slowly but surely. I have the next dating site idea that I can’t wait to do. It will focus exclusively on dating, not on a social network that has dating as an element.

I was teaching a class to some USVC students, (now Utah State University) with Paul Wilson this evening. I demonstrated what it looks like to make a blog post and made a sample post. Then I deleted it. I made the post at about 9:30pm. At 10:20pm I got a Google alert about the post. That means Google indexed my new post (which is really like a web page since each post has its own URL) in less than an hour.

A regular web site that isn’t updated very often (like most web sites) could take days or weeks to get a new page indexed in a search engine. I love blogs. Can you see how this can benefit your business? More pages in search engines. Since around 85% of your web site visitors will use a search engine to find your business, that’s what you need.

It’s hard for me to mellow out – it’s such fun to teach what you love. I’m on a high.

I got an invitation to check out a dropshipping site called Drop Ship Access. I decided to check it out. I’m always looking for companies who will drop ship products. That makes it easy to have an online store without a lot of capital. No need to buy inventory. You make the sale and the customer pays the retail price. Then you call the company and have them charge you wholesale and send the product to your customer. You don’t have to stock products or handle shipping and returns. They have another place selling their products. It’s about $40 a month to sign up.

Places like Doba and Drop Ship Access are another middle person. Ideal if you need products fast to make a web site so you can get accepted by a dropshipper. You probably won’t get the most competitive prices. But the biggest problem here is that you have no access to the manufacturer. You can never develop a relationship with the supplier directly because you don’t have a relationship with them. In business that’s how you get ahead. It’s all about relationships. You negotiate terms and as you sell more you get better prices or arrangements. The best part is just having a good relationship so you know what is happening. The bestselling items. New items. Out of stock items. The more information you have the easier it is to market effectively. Plus, it’s more satisfying to develop relationships.

Drop Ship Access says they have Adidas – you think it’s the shoes, but it’s perfume. It doesn’t have a lot name brands from what I can see. They sell Estee Lauder perfume for $54.29. The same perfume retails on Estee Lauder’s site for $68. That’s not terribly bad. However, the most I could find it listed for in the top Google results was $62.99. The lowest was $47.75. So if you figure that you probably won’t sell it for full retail and that it looks like you’ll have to sell a lot to make much on this item.

I’d like to review more drop ship sites so if you know of any that will give me a free trial, let me know. I would really like to try World Wide Brands. Or, if you retail or manufacture a product that you would drop ship for small to mid-size online retailers, fill out my contact form. I coach a lot of people who are looking for products to sell.

Conclusion: I’m still learning about drop shipping but right now I’m still sold on The Shipper because of the price and selection plus the free trial. They could do a lot more to make the site easier to use, but it’s a good entry level site. WorldWideBrands looks promising though. Higher fees, but a much larger selection.

I went to the first Politic2.0 event with Congressman Chris Cannon. It was held this Spring. They now have a blog, which so far just features a press release.

The tagline of their blog says: “a place to relieve yourself.” If I were a politician I’d squirm at going to an event that had set that expectation. I wouldn’t want people to relieve themselves on me.

I think at times during the first event, Cannon probably felt we were doing just that. He got defensive a few times. Really it’s tough to be attacked by people typing at you unless you’re typing back at them. People can’t really talk intelligently and type at the same time. I wonder how this will go. I want to be more involved in politics but right now it’s probably not going to happen.

I hope the marketing staff changes the tagline – unless it’s supposed to be lighthearted – as in a big joke.

I’ve been watching the A&E Biography interview of J.K. Rowling. I guess I’m most interested in the writer and her journey. She is so straight and charming explaining how things along the way have been both wonderful and terrifying at different times.

When speaking of living poor as a single mom:

People ask, “How did you do it? How did you raise a baby and write a book? And the answer is – I didn’t do housework for 4 years. I am not superwoman! Living in squalor – that was the answer!”

I haven’t read her books yet – I was going to read them to my son but someone told me he is too young. She sold the first book for about $4,000. When she was learned she’d be a published author it was her dream. “That was second to the birth of my daughter, the best day of my life.”

It was year before she could become a full-time writer.

There were about 20 of us this evening. Most of the time we’re silently typing by ourselves but when we get together we are a loud bunch. You pretty much have to yell to hear each other. We’re changing seats to get to talk to different people. I met Mrs. Phil 801, Adria (what’s your blog again?), and was just in awe at how relaxed she seems. I got some tips from Ash and Digital Thom. Rob Merrill is alive. Paul Wilson took some time off blogging to join in. There were 3 women. I got to chat with Laura Moncur about her blogs and Starling Fitness in particular. There were a few new faces but mostly the regulars. Where were you Chris Knudson?

If you don’t know Venezuela is the new India for offshoring. So I think I need to take an exploratory trip there to check it out and find some writers.

Ash was one of the guys who shaved his head for the Seth Godin event. As he was shaving heads, Seth did an impromptu plug for HeadBlade.com. The next day Ash got a call and they sent him some spiffs which you can see on his blog. He brought them to show off. They have great design. Ash’s hair has grown back but interesting enough, Phil 801 decided to keep his head shaved. Ash shared the goods. If you type ““>Seth Godin” on YouTube it’s #4 on the list. I’m standing on stage just out of view, part of the real (not canned) laughter.

If anyone else wants to send spiffs for the next Utah bloggers dinner, you’ll probably get some blog posts and even pictures about your product. Or, if you’re in town and want to attend, send me an email via the contact form. There needs to be an email list. But I’ll let you know about the next one. Seriously some of the smartest people in the state when it comes to new media. But most of all, fun times.

I saw this ad on the bottom of my post.

Your Momma Blogs
And we pay her to. You can get paid to blog and make money too.

This is true. Just ask Paul. Mom, if you’re still reading my blog while you’re on vacation, do you want to blog?

I just added Randall Bateman’s blog to my list of Utah bloggers. This gives me a chance to look at blogs I wouldn’t otherwise know. They are on all sorts of subjects. Utah bloggers or anyone in town can join our monthly Utah bloggers dinner (it’s tonight at 6:30pm at Goodwood BBQ in Draper at 123rd South). It’s a fun group.

I’ve heard of other bloggers meeting up and being disappointed that they aren’t as great in real life as they seem on their blog. I don’t feel that way. I think these are some of the most interesting people in the state. But maybe it’s because I’m a geek?

Here’s what he says on his blog:
“Lunch: Off the Clock and No Bill
Ever want to get a feel for what Intellectual Property Law is about without worry of getting that big bill? Take me to lunch and you can have an hour of my time and we’ll talk shop. You won’t be my client during that time, so there’s no bill and no commitment from either of our sides. Ask what you want and I’ll answer as best I can and as far as I’m allowed.”

This is generous. I have the same offer. Sometimes in the process of lunch – about blogging or internet marketing in my case – someone wants me to pitch to them. I try to explain that I’m pretty booked. However, I will refer them to others I know. Even when I do contract work I prefer to meet in real life for lunch just to see who I’m working with. I prefer to work locally when possible. I like local politics more than national. In my online world I don’t get to see people in real life.

Maybe, like me, he loves talking about what he does and what other people are interested in it too. I love to network and meet others. I also like introducing people whose services or products could be complimentary.

I just LOVE research like this.

MarketingSherpa interviewed an office supply store and learned some things that apply to anyone who has an online or ecommerce web site.

The first principle is that they tested different elements of their site. Different industries and sites will get different results but there are some themes that apply across the board.

I tell people that the colors, sizes, fonts, and placement of your buy button can have a big affect on conversions (sales). It seems minor but it isn’t. Test each element one change at a time. If you don’t know what to test, copy this test study.

> Test #1. The Color of the “Buy Now” Button
o Light blue – the existing color
o Dark blue – that blended with the site
o Red – because it stood out as a call-to-action element. Red should be used strategically on your site generally speaking – too much can overwhelm the eye.

-> Test #2. Color of the “Add to Cart” button (read more about this in the link above)

For this, they tested:
o Light blue
o Green

-> Test #3. Size of the “Proceed to Checkout” button

o 109×19 pixels
o 25% taller, 145×19 pixels

-> Test #4. ‘Add to Cart’ vs ‘Proceed to Cart’

Should you make the words of the button say “add to cart” or should it say “Proceed to Cart”?

-> Test #5. Eliminate the cross-sell step

Does making another option slow things down and hurt conversions, or does a cross-sell help conversions?

RESULTS
The “Buy Now” button: RED converted over 4% more than the other colors.

The “Add to Cart” button: green outperformed (green as in go ahead).

Amazingly, a larger ‘Add to Cart’ button lifted conversions 44.11%. ‘Proceed to Cart’ beat ‘Add to Cart’ by 21.8%. So a larger button that says “Proceed to Cart” is ideal in this case.

Quote from the article: “It was interesting to see some colors having a positive effect at certain stages and a negative effect in other places,” Klazema says. “Green works for one shopping cart button, but not as well for the same function at different point. People are in different states of mind when they go the checkout process. Rather than apply a consistent look and feel across all buttons on the site, our key learning is that we have to continue testing in order to make sure we don’t make false assumptions.”

Removing the cross-sell reduced conversions by 15%. So, in this test the biggest difference was making a larger “Add to Cart” button made the biggest difference. If you have an online store, start here.

MarketingSherpa has excellent materials – mostly for the mid-size or larger company online store. Here’s how to sell more ads and sponsorships for your site and email newsletters
-> Steal smart, proven ideas from 17 publishers:

I recommend Wilson Web for smaller online retailers.

Here’s a tip for you – if you want to rank in search engines you’ll need backlinks from sites in your niche that rank well. One way to do this, which I found out more by accident than anything, is to praise other businesses. I’ve noticed I’m getting traffic from PRWeb (hey guys my last name has an S on it – Meiners). They posted my raves about them on their home page as a testimonial.

Sure contraversy sells sometimes but praise can be even better.

My coworker Brandon got a link on Shopify’s blog for his praise of their site. He let them know and they blogged about his tutorial – which helped the page rank of his new site about Shopify.

Speaking of praise, I’m not as grouchy about my business anymore. Our server just keeps getting spammed because the code is so old. But thanks to Paul and Paul and Roger we’re back up (for now). The server problem will probably be permanently solved in a week or two.