Rich,

I’ve noticed that I have a very high bounce rate on my blog. What would cause such a high bounce rate and how can I lower it?

Bouncing in Bethel

Dear Bouncing,

First off, for those readers who aren’t familiar with the term “bounce rate,” it’s a metric in Google Analytics for measuring the percentage of people who visit only one page on your site or blog before exiting.

I feel blogs will always have higher bounce rates than websites, as very often people are just visiting to read your most recent post. Even if they subscribe to your blog via RSS or email at that point, it will still probably count as a bounce since many subscription methods will take them off site or process their request without requiring them to visit another page.

If you are monetizing your blog with ads or affiliate links, then a high bounce rate may reflect that people are clicking on those affiliate and ad links, which is good news for your bottom line.

If you have a lead generation blog (like the flyteblog), where you’re using your blog to increase your search engine visibility and funnel that traffic to your website, e-commerce site or other online property, then a high bounce rate may be demonstrating that your tactics are effective!

In short, I wouldn’t use bounce rate as a leading indicator of how effective your blog is; visits, repeat visitors, subscribers, search volume and other metrics are going to be much more important to your business overall.

If you are still concerned about your bounce rate, you’ll need to find ways of leading visitors from one post to another. One tool that could help is the Yet Another Related Post Plugin (for WordPress.) It will find 5 related posts from your blog and create links to each one…that can help both your search engine visibility as well as your audience, as they will discover other quality content that relates to the post they’re currently reading.

Rich Brooks
Business Blogger

This year I’ll be teaching not one but two classes at the University of Southern Maine:

Web Marketing for Small Business
In this 4 week course you’ll learn how to build an effective web presence for your small business or non-profit. You’ll learn about search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, blogging, social media, e-commerce, traffic reports, and how to build a web site that generates leads and makes sales. (Please be aware, though: this is NOT an HTML course. You’re not learning how to build a web site, but rather how to make a web site that will build your business.)

4 Thursdays, September 30-October 28, 7-9 p.m.
$215 (8 contact hours/ 0.8 CEUs)
Abromson Center, 88 Bedford Street, USM Portland campus

I’m also teaching a brand new course this fall as well:

Social Media Marketing for Businesses (and the People That Run Them)
Sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are certainly popular, but should they be important parts of your marketing strategy? In this two-class course, you’ll learn how these and other popular social media sites can increase the online visibility of your business, and put you in contact with new audiences.

You’ll learn how to setup and optimize profiles on the most popular, influential sites, how to connect with people in the social media sphere, and how to measure your success. You’ll learn the do’s and don’ts of social media, how to build an audience, and how to listen to what people are saying about you and your business.

We’ll talk about social networking, blogging, online video and all the tools your company needs to master this new arena of marketing.

2 Wednesdays, November 10 and 17, 7-9 p.m.
$115 (4 contact hours/ 0.4 CEUs)
USM Library Computer Lab

Hope to see you there!

Rich Brooks
You Can Call Me “Teach”

Photo credit: Lee Nachtigal

Your conversion rate is simply what percentage of site visitors take a desired action on your site. That might include:

• Signing up for an email newsletter
• Completing a contact form
• Making a purchase
• Leaving a comment on your blog
• or anything else that’s measurable and leads to a sale (or whatever your business or organization goals may be.)

To succeed on the web you need to drive more qualified leads to your web site and convert more of that traffic into business. Too many people focus just on increasing traffic, but without improving your conversion rate those visitors will flow in and out of your web site like water through a sieve. Most businesses would be better served to increasing their conversion rates rather than spending money on advertising.

In this month’s flyte log we take a look at 6 Reasons Your Conversion Rates Are So Low. If you’ve been struggling why your web site isn’t generating more leads or more sales, be sure to check it out. And if you’re still struggling after reading the article, please feel free to contact me. We can take a look at the web site and make some recommendations to improve both your online visibility and your conversion rates.

Rich Brooks
Conversion is King

They feel that businesses that end up on page one of Google results must be practitioners of the mystic arts, or companies that generate leads through Twitter and Facebook must have some powerful voodoo.

Put away your totems, scrying mirrors and eyes of newt. (Actually, hold on to those eyes of newt; they go great in arugula salads.) There’s no magic to increasing your online visibility; it’s all science, and it’s a formula that anyone can learn, repeat and improve on.

In this month’s flyte log, our cleverly-named monthly email newsletter, we discuss The Visibility Formula: How Web Marketing Builds Your Business. In the article we talk about:

• Search engine optimization, both on-page and off-page techniques
• Social media marketing
• The power of blogging
• Email marketing
• Webinars, and
• Measuring and improving on your results.

If you’ve been struggling with how to increase your online visibility, drive more qualified leads to your site and convert that traffic into business, check out The Visibility Formula…and then give flyte a call.

Rich Brooks
Droppin’ Science

Photo Credit: Amy Loves Yah

The first one is Web Marketing for Small Business, a course that I’ve now taught four or five times before. However, just like web marketing, the course changes every time I give it. Over the four weeks we’ll talk about:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Blogging
• Social Media
• Email marketing
• Web design
• E-commerce

and anything else that will help small businesses increase their online visibility, drive more qualified leads to their site, and convert that traffic into business.

The classes will be Thursdays, 9/30, 10/7, 10/21 & 10/28. To learn more and register visit the USM web site.

The second course, Social Media Marketing for Small Business, is all new. We’ll be delving into social media specifically, and how businesses and non-profits can leverage social media to grow, to engage, and to reach new audiences. Some of the topics covered will include:

• Social networking (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)
• Blogging & podcasting
• Online video & photo sharing web sites
• Social news and bookmarking sites
• Location-based apps (Foursquare, Gowalla)

and whatever else appears between now and then.

This course is two Wednesdays, 11/10 & 11/17. To learn more and register visit the USM web site.

Rich Brooks
Maine Web Marketing

Photo credit: James Sarmiento

How can you know if your latest Facebook campaign was effective? Whether your recent blog posts are driving more qualified leads to your site? Or, whether Twitter is an effective marketing tool or a complete time suck?

You measure it.

If you have a Web site you need to be running traffic reports. If you run a business, you need to know what your sales and marketing efforts are getting you. You need to know what’s working and what’s not. At flyte we’re big fans of Google Analytics, a free traffic report system from, um, Google. With Google Analytics installed you can see how people are finding your site and what they’re doing once they get there.

On Thursday, April 8th, we’ll be putting on a Webinar on Google Analytics. Among other things you’ll learn:

• How to set up Google Analytics on your own site
• How to set up goals so that you can determine where most of your online leads are coming from
• Which reports are must reads for any business looking to grow
• How to read and analyze your reports to make changes to your Web site and improve your conversion rates.

Our how-to videos were featured in the official Google Analytics Blog, so we kinda know what we’re talking about. The Webinar will last 90 minutes; 60 minutes of content and up to 30 minutes of Q&A.

Date: Thursday, 4/8/2010

Time: 1:00 – 2:30pm ET

Place: Your Computer

Cost: $50 Wait! Save $20 with discount code “brilliant”!

To learn more and register now, please visit our Web Marketing Seminars page.

Rich Brooks
What Gets Measured…

Photo Credit: AussieGall

As I was looking at the fresh list last night, I realized that although any one of them is powerful, taken as a group they offer a huge competitive advantage. So here’s what I did:

We’re now offering all six Webinars for 1/2 off. This includes:

• Social Media Marketing That Works (Webinar) – 1/14/10
• How to Plan, Build and Promote a Business Blog (Webinar) – 2/11/10
• Search Engine Optimization: Rank Higher, Sell More! (Webinar) – 3/18/10
• Google Analytics for Online Success (Webinar) – 4/8/10
• How to Use Email Marketing to Grow Your Business (Webinar) – 5/13/10
• How to Use Twitter for Business (Webinar) – 6/17/10

Together those Webinars list at $300, but for right now we’re offering them for $150.

But wait, you say. I can’t make all of those dates!

Not to worry. Everyone who signs up for the Webinar Six-Pack will receive the audio and slides from each presentation which you can listen to…forever! And at your leisure!

This is, as they say, a limited time offer. And remember: a six-pack of Webinars makes the perfect stocking stuffer.

Get your Web Marketing Six-Pack Now!

Before they’re all gone…

Rich Brooks
Using the Interwebs to Talk About the Interwebs

Photo credit: bbaunach

• increase their online visibility
• drive more qualified prospects to their site
• convert that traffic into business or membership.

These days, almost everyone will agree that a company's Web site is the hub of their marketing; TV ads, print ads, even billboards, will include a URL to drive interested parties to for more information or to order.

While different people have different opinions of what Web marketing is, I feel there are four major components:

• Attraction: How to you drive qualified prospects to visit your site
• Retention: How to keep the lines of communication open after they've left your site
• Conversion: How to get visitors to take a desired action on your site (buy now, picking up the phone, etc.)
• Measurement: How to track your success and continually improve on your site and marketing campaigns.

There are plenty of tools at our disposal as small business owners and entrepreneurs to accomplish this, including search engine optimization, email marketing, blogging and social media to name a few.

If you'd like to learn more in a classroom setting, I'll be teaching Web Marketing for Small Business at the University of Southern Maine starting this Thursday evening from 6 – 8pm, and three additional classes after that.

Just remember to bring the teacher instructor an apple.

Rich Brooks
Web Marketing for Small Business

Even if you're not quite ready to shop for back-to-school fashions, it's never too early to register for Web Marketing for Small Business, the four-week, eight-hour course I teach at the University of Southern Maine through their Center for Continuing Education.

If you're a small business owner, marketer, or thinking about starting your own business, you can't go wrong with this course. We'll review:

• Search engine optimization
• Email marketing
• Blogging
• Social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.)
• E-commerce tips
• Web site analytics and
• How to build a Web site that sells

If you're wondering why your competitors rank higher than you, or how you can leverage your Web site to grow your business, than you should register for Web Marketing for Small Business.

Just remember to bring your teacher an apple.

Rich Brooks
Checking My Seat for Tacks as We Speak

• Attraction: how to drive qualified traffic to your site
• Retention: how to keep the lines of communication open after people have left your site
• Conversion: how to get people to move down the sales funnel at your site
• Measurement: tracking all of the above for continual improvement

It's that last piece–measurement–that's the focus of The Ultimate Google Analytics Video Guide that we just published at Squidoo.

This is a collection of the how-to videos we created for small businesses so you could put Google Analytics to use, along with some other important resources that will help you measure your growth and success online.

If you'd like more help understanding your Google Analytics, or installing a copy of the free software on your own Web site, just let us know.

Rich Brooks
Google Analytics for Small Business