The Caffeinated Blog

Awesomely Cool Latte Art

I Stumbled this today, and I just wanted to share it with you because I thought it just so cool:

Creative Coffee Art

Here's a sampling of my yummy favorites:

10 Signs that you’re a Social Media Whore

With the evolution of Web 2.0 and social media, we’ve become obsessed with how many views our YouTubes received, how many Stumbles our websites got, how many Diggs our news stories racked up, and what our Authority is on Technorati. Every time a new social bookmarking site launches, we’re there creating new profiles.

Yes folks, we’re becoming social media whores.

Surely not, you say. Just because I like to share videos of my dog howling the theme to Dr. Who doesn’t make me a social media whore.

Or does it?

Let’s take a look at some warning signs that you’re a social media whore:

1. Traffic to your site from social bookmarking sites crashes your server.
2. You post links on niche social sites (that don’t relate to the content of the page you’re posting), just for the exposure. That’s like Paris Hilton doing an interview on the Food Network.
3. You barter for Stumbles, Diggs, Sphinns, etc.
4. You compete with your co-workers, friends, or family over who can build the largest LinkedIn network.
5. You Tweet every time you get up from your computer…
6. …which is maybe 3 times in a day…
7. …although you tend to bring your handheld with you into the bathroom…
8. …and it’s for that very reason that you’ve posted an impressive collection of photos you’ve taken of graffiti scrawled on public restroom walls.
9. You have a Google Alert set up for the term “new social networking site”.
10. You’ve created a social networking profile for your dog.

Should You Still Advertise on Yahoo?

Unless you’re a Neanderthal who’s finally coming out of your cave to speak after 30,000 years, you may be hearing all the brouhaha (or, Microhoo-haha…that was a joke, I’m here all week folks) about Microsoft’s bid to take over Yahoo. We all know that Yahoo hasn’t been doing too well, and Microsoft wants to sweep in like Mighty Mouse to save the day.

So, have businesses started becoming wary about advertising on Yahoo? Turns out, no. They still have the second largest piece of the search pie, and they’ve just increased their share of search advertising dollars, according to a recent SearchIgnite report. Meanwhile, Google and MSN have decreased their shares.

But what about the recent news that Yahoo will be displaying Google Adwords ads in its results in a 3-week test? Is this good or bad news for businesses currently or considering advertising on Yahoo? Well, if you think about it, it’s bad news, since it will increase competition and costs for advertisers.

This is a shame – my personal experience advertising on Yahoo has been good. Their program and platform is pretty solid, and I have gotten better ROI advertising on Yahoo than on Google. If Yahoo becomes flooded with Google ads, costs will rise and ROI will tank (especially since many ads displayed Google, especially through its content network, are highly untargeted – big loss for the people searching on Yahoo).

So, should you advertise on Yahoo?  It's up to you (and your budget), but I would have to say yes.  Despite all the Yahoo drama, it's worth it to test the waters on Yahoo, especially since it's the second largest search engine in terms of searches - it's exposure you can't afford to turn your back on.  Start small, and monitor your costs (just in case the 3-week Adwords test messes with your CPCs).  If it doesn't work, you can always wait until after someone buys Yahoo to test it again.

Do you currently advertise on Yahoo?  Has all the back and forth between Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, et al affected this?  Have you seen any significant increases or decreases in your costs?  Have you increased your Yahoo budget, or scaled it back as a result?

5 Tips for Your First Google Adwords Campaign

Advertising using Google Adwords may look easy to many first-timers, but it's quite deceiving.  Under that deceptively simple facade is a complicated structure of rules, algorithms, features and options that, if not used correctly, can make managing an Adwords campaign a nightmare - costing you money, time, and sales.

So, I've put together these tips to help any first-time Adwords advertiser get the most from their campaigns, without wasting money.  I think the overall theme here is "targeting, targeting, targeting".

Start small:  It can be all too tempting to just start entering tons of keywords when you first start setting up your ad groups, but it's best not to be overly-ambitious at first.  Pick the top 5 keywords that represent your products or services, then do your research around those by finding the best (read: most targeted) keywords you can possibly be on and what they're going to cost.  You can do this before you start setting up your ad groups by using Google's Keyword Research Tool.  Simply type in a keyword that you want suggestions for (you can also choose to get synonym suggestions), and hey presto - there you go. 

After you get your suggestions, be sure to select "Exact" under the Match Type column (more on this in tip #3).  To see your estimated costs, select "Show Estimated Avg. CPC" from the "Choose columns to display" menu, then put in the maximum cost per click you want to pay.  You can also display the "Estimated Avg. Position" column to see where you would be ranked at the max CPC you're willing to pay.   

Now, choose 5-10 keywords for each type of product you sell, and which have a decent volume of traffic and high enough positioning for the max CPC you're willing to pay.

Use Ad Groups to your advantage:  You'll want to make sure that your keywords are grouped in the best way possible, whether it's by product type, offer type, etc.  For instance, if you sell shoes, you may want to set up ad groups around different types of shoes, like women's, men's, and children's.  This is not just a way to organize your keywords, but a way to target your ad copy and landing pages and get the best click-through rate and conversion rate you can possibly get.  The better your click-through rate, the better your Quality Score, which determines where your ad will be placed and how much you're going to pay per click.

Know your Match Types:  Google has 3 different match types:  broad, phrase, and exact.  Here's how they work:

• Broad - when you first add your keywords, broad match is the default option.  The keyword women's shoes, for instance, is simply added to your ad group as  women's shoes.  Your ad would then show up on any searches that contained the word women's, or which contained the word shoes.

• Phrase - Using the same example, women's shoes would be added to your ad group as "women's shoes" (quotes around it).  Your ad would then come up on any searches that contained the phrase "women's shoes", in that order (so, your ad could come up when someone searched for red women's shoes, or women's shoes size 7).

• Exact - Women's shoes would be added to your ad group as [women's shoes] (brackets around it).  Your ad would come up on only searches for the exact keyword women's shoes.

Let me just say this: broad match is evil.  Don't use broad match.  Just trust me on this.

You could use phrase match, but if you're just starting out, the best thing to do is to just use exact match.  Exact match has the least traffic, but it's the most targeted, since your ad will only show up on those exact keyword searches.  Track your results for a month, then you can either start adding more exact match keywords, or you can add some carefully researched, highly targeted phrase match keywords.  Remember: targeting is key.  The better your ad is targeted, the better conversion and return on your investment your going to get.

Target your ad copy: Remember what I said earlier about your click-through rate?  This is how you can improve it.  If you have a compelling ad that speaks to exactly what searchers for your products are looking for, then you'll get a lot more clicks than if your ad was general, un-compelling, or (worse) didn't make sense.  If you've grouped your keywords well, then you'll be able to write a good ad that tells the searcher "I have this exact product you want to buy - come take a look!". 

If you have an ad group for children's shoes, for example, you may want to write an ad like this:

Brand Name {KeyWord:Children's Shoes}
Huge Selection of Children's Shoes at
the Lowest Prices.  Shop Now!

Notice the {KeyWord}...Google has a nifty feature that allows you to dynamically insert your keyword into your ad - use this feature.  Research has shown that ads that contain the keyword that was just searched will get more clicks than ads that don't.  However, make sure that your ad will make sense when different keywords are inserted using this feature.  Your ad may contain the keyword, but at the end of the day your ad will just look strange if it doesn't make sense.

Also notice the ad body didn't have dynamic keyword insertion, but it still hit the target by mentioning children's shoes.  This is why it's so important to group your keywords well in the beginning.

Target your landing pages.  You've placed your ad on the best, most targeted keywords you can buy, you've written compelling ad copy that gets tons of clicks, and you've got loads of traffic coming into your site - where are you sending that traffic? 

This is where your landing page comes in.  Simply put, it's where clickers land after they've clicked on your ad.  Let's say you sell all types of greeting cards.  You're advertising on the keyword [birthday cards], and your ad talks about birthday cards.  So, what page on your site would you send them to?

        A. Your homepage

        B. Your get well cards page

        C. Your birthday cards page

If you chose C, you would be correct (and actually making sales).  And why not your homepage?  While it may convert into sales sometimes, what you don't want to do is make someone go to the effort of searching all over your site for birthday cards (they were just on a search engine, for Pete's sake).  Send them to what they were looking for in the first place - you sell birthday cards, show 'em birthday cards without making them look for birthday cards.

While there's a lot of other things that you will need to know to advertise on Google, these 5 tips will get you started and through the setup of your first campaign.  I'll be posting more (and slightly more advanced) tips in the near future, so stay tuned!

A Portable Espresso Machine?

Hi, my name is Kari, and I'm a StumbleUpon Addict.

Hi Kari.

Anyway, as I was Stumbling today, I came across this:
HandPresso Wild portable espresso maker

It's a portafiler-shaped, portable espresso maker.  No electricity required - just hot water and espresso pods.

Now I'm what you call an "espresso snob".  I like freshly ground coffee (preferably roasted within the last week), and a perfect shot of espresso crowned with dark, golden crema (see my profile pic above - that's what's called a "God shot").  Espresso pods are not my idea of freshly ground or roasted; however, this intrigued me.

I had to see it for myself:

This looks cool!  You can make a shot of espresso anywhere!

OK, I have to have one.  HandPresso - send me a free one and I'll try it out and review it right here on The Caffeinated Blog!

Help your designer today - join the 2008 Gmail Appeal

I was emailed this great video today, which was posted by the Email Standards Project:

Email Standards Project - Gmail Grimaces from Mathew Patterson on Vimeo.

If you're an email marketer, you (and your designer) have probably had first-hand experience with this as well (I know I have).   I personally have had to do the "Make it Work" dance between my boss and my designer ("You mean there's nothing that can be done to fix that header?  But half of our list is Gmail!").  It's frustrating, I know - and we're not alone.   

How can you help?  Check out the Project's "What You Can Do" page.  Stumble it.  Stumble This Post.  Blog about it.  Help me help the Email Standards Project help...uh, you - and thousands of designers and email marketers around the world - to get Gmail to change their HTML email standards.

Thank you for your support.

What South Park Teaches us About Online Business

Sounds a bit strange, I know; but sometimes the most valuable lessons can be gleaned from the strangest places.

I know of course that South Park episodes tend to have some sort of lesson embedded into each one - even if the way to those lessons is outlandish, over the top, and ridiculous - but this was kind of a side lesson that I pulled from last night's episode, "Canada on Strike".

The plot of this episode was about, well, Canada going on strike, because it feels unappreciated on "Canada Appreciation Day" by their more-than-unappreciative neighbors to the south.  The head of the WGA (the World Canadian Bureau - yes, that's not a typo, and yes, the episode was meant to mock the recent writers' strike) demands more money for Canada - from the Internet.

So, our lovable little heroes, in an effort to get their favorite Canadian TV show Terrance and Phillip back on, call the, um, WGA to ask them to stop striking.  The WGA head, thinking he's talking to a serious negotiator, demands money from the Internet.  So, the boys try to think of a good way to make money from the Internet.

This is the part that got me thinking about this post.  So many people go into an online business thinking that "if we build it, they will come".  That's not true - it takes hard work, and a product that thousands of other websites aren't already selling.  It takes research into your market - your competition, your potential profitability, your product's potential demand, etc.

So, what did the South Park boys do?  They posted a video on YouTube of Butters singing a song called "What What - In The Butt".  They then made 10 million "theoretical" dollars off the views their video received.  OK - maybe I'm reaching here, but they came up with an idea for something that was somewhat unique and could go viral pretty quickly - meaning it had enough demand to sell well.

How else can you decide what to sell online?  Here are some ideas from About Online Business:

• light and easy to ship, or
• a digital good that is downloaded (e-book or software) ,
• not perishable or fragile,
• doesn't have to be seen and held (designer fabrics, perhaps),
• has enough demand to make your venture profitable,

• and, has little competition from large online companies (niche products).

So, as Kyle and Stan would say at the end of each episode, "I've learned something today".  I've learned that some pretty good lessons can be learned from some strange places, and also that "theoretical" dollars are not a good substitute for real dollars.  If you want to start an online business (and make real dollars), do your research.