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The Mix Tape, Vol. 21

www.matttillotson.co

The Mix Tape, Vol. 21

Matt Tillotson
Oct 16, 2019
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The Mix Tape, Vol. 21

www.matttillotson.co

Welcome! The Mix Tape is 21, and can drink now. Cheers 🥃

This week: Facebook (ugh), the personal growth roller coaster, a new day for small online businesses, a Star Wars book review, newsletter signup tips, the SEO Tip Sheet, and more.


Let me start here:

On this October 16, Happy sweet 16th to Maddie! I can’t believe it.

Happy birthday, Maddie. Very proud of you.


Facebook … just … ugh

Let’s set aside the fake news issues, the rampant disregard for and misuse of user data, and look at new sleaziness by Facebook—video viewership “inflation:”

On Friday, several advertising agencies revealed the details of a proposed settlement with Facebook that would end a class action alleging the social media giant overstated the average time its users spent watching video.

Overstated? Just a bit:

"The average viewership metrics were not inflated by only 60%-80%; they were inflated by some 150 to 900%," stated an amended complaint.

This affected far more than just ad agencies.

Entire businesses pivoted their content strategies, firing writers and moving to or near 100% video content:

Twitter avatar for @profgalloway
Scott Galloway @profgalloway
The viewership metrics were inflated by 150 to 900%. Whole companies shifted their strategy to video. Companies going bankrupt, people losing jobs, FB gets away with 0.18% of annual income ($40M / $22B), a slap on the wrist.
hollywoodreporter.comFacebook to Pay $40M Under Proposed Settlement in Video Metrics SuitAdvertisers would collect the bulk of the money after alleging Facebook inflated the average time users viewed video on the platform.
2:28 AM ∙ Oct 13, 2019
21,132Likes8,664Retweets

Fox Sports, for example, shifted its content model in 2017:

Fox Sports has laid off its staff of online writers and editors, eliminating written content from its digital offerings in favor of more video.

Bloomberg first reported Monday that approximately 20 positions in the Los Angeles office would be eliminated to accommodate the creation of new video production jobs that will better service on-air products.

Facebook is a despicable company dressed up in baby photos and cat videos.


The uneven climb of personal growth

Interesting graphic, from David Perrell’s excellent Monday Musings newsletter:

This applies to far more than just painting.

Those green zones: You hit a plateau. But you can see what growth looks like, which causes you to underestimate—and under-appreciate—your current level.

Green zones can be tough time periods.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve spent plenty of time in the green zones: physically, in my work, and spiritually. All after stagnating for far too long.

I’m grateful for the green zones. That’s where the growth is.


Book review: “Star Wars, Master and Apprentice”

🚨 Nerd alert 🚨

Claudia Gray writes another fun Star Wars novel—and isn’t fun supposed to be the point of Star Wars?

Good Star Wars novels feature an interesting story that generally checks a few important boxes. They will:

  • Deepen and alter our understanding of existing Star Wars canon. By revealing new details or a fresh perspective on existing canon, the book rewards the reader. We learned something new, and are smarter for it.  

  • Center around well-known and beloved characters. 

  • Introduce new characters in service of the main storyline and the well-known characters without dragging the reader off on bunny trails.

Full review here, but to cut to the chase: If you’re a Star Wars fan, this is a good read.


The Passion Economy

Li Jin with a optimistic look at the future of work:

The top-earning writer on the paid newsletter platform Substack earns more than $500,000 a year from reader subscriptions. The top content creator on Podia, a platform for video courses and digital memberships, makes more than $100,000 a month. And teachers across the US are bringing in thousands of dollars a month teaching live, virtual classes on Outschool and Juni Learning.

We are evolving from “The Gig Economy” where, in digital marketplaces like Fivrr, skills are undifferentiated, and wages race to the bottom:

New digital platforms enable people to earn a livelihood in a way that highlights their individuality. These platforms give providers greater ability to build customer relationships, increased support in growing their businesses, and better tools for differentiating themselves from the competition.

The differences, laid out:

The internet was supposed to level the playing field: an individual could have just a strong a presence and voice as the largest corporation.

Instead, the most powerful entities have often used the internet to transfer wealth upward by commoditizing entire industries (taxis or basic creative services, for example).

This analysis is the most encouraging thing I’ve read about small online businesses in a long time. Great trend.


Improving Newsletter signup conversions

I touched on this last week, and this week wrote a blog post detailing all the steps I took to improve (*cough* actually start getting) newsletter signups at my site. (All based on the fantastic Marketing Examples case study.)

I walk you through:

  • Revamping the signup page (simplifying, adding social proof, and new CTAs)

  • Creating a subscription pop-up

  • Creating a a sign-up thank you page

  • Setting up and tracking signup conversions in Google Analytics

  • A bonus: improving newsletter promotion on social media

See how to nail the basics of newsletter signup conversions here.


SEO Tip Sheet

I’m very interested in search engine optimization (SEO)—the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.

Being successful with SEO requires:

  • Strategy

  • Marketing

  • Writing

  • Some tech nerdery

In other words, it’s right up my alley.

You’re also never done learning—also right up my alley.

So what?

I started publishing an “SEO Tip Sheet”—a roundup of links to what I found interesting in SEO over a given week.

But, I’m not sure yet how best to share it here.

Share it all? Some of it?

This week, I share all of it, which follows below.

Think of it as “Side B” of The Mix Tape.

And we will see how it goes.


Why a Google core update affects your site ranking

Twitter avatar for @methode
Gary "鯨理" Illyes @methode
@dr_pete @RyanJones @jonoalderson I think the message got lost: if you're "hit" by a core update, you shouldn't think of it as a penalty. You might not be doing anything wrong at all, it might just be that someone is doing something better. (imma mute this thread fyi)
11:06 PM ∙ Oct 9, 2019
14Likes4Retweets
Twitter avatar for @JohnMu
🍌 John 🍌 @JohnMu
@dr_pete @methode @RyanJones @jonoalderson A part is that sometimes feasibility of business models changes. If it's the Ultimate Keyword Metatag Generator Corp, and it stops showing at #1 for [improve site ranking], no amount of "tweaking/fixing" will make it relevant, if it overall isn't as relevant anymore. Times change
5:08 AM ∙ Oct 10, 2019
32Likes13Retweets
  • The Google update didn’t “cheat” you out of your ranking (if it drops).

  • Instead, the update chose something else as more relevant to users.

  • Sometimes, it’s not about you.


Google’s introduced new link attributes:
“sponsored” and “UGC” 

Twitter avatar for @methode
Gary "鯨理" Illyes @methode
@TrondLyngbo Focus on the other part: nofollow became a hint. Ugc and sponsored are icing on top of that cake, and it's one of those things where you don't have to do anything if you don't want to. If you want to help us understand the web better, implement them. If you don't want to, don't.
12:55 AM ∙ Sep 11, 2019
18Likes10Retweets

A term I liked: “Pain point SEO”

Twitter avatar for @benjihyam
Benji Hyam @benjihyam
@DennisMoons They also make sense for content that is very TOF -- ie. the topic attracts the right person, but has little/no buying intent. Therefore, collecting an email is better than losing visitors. But if you use pain point SEO, pushing ppl directly to the action converts at a higher %.
4:24 PM ∙ Oct 10, 2019
  • Structure content around the problems people are trying to solve—not your own products and services—and you’ll attract a more ready-to-buy audience.


The user is most important

Twitter avatar for @SEOKeval
Keval Shah 💥 @SEOKeval
Something I’ve implemented into my SEO strategy lately is thinking more about my users than Google. Don’t get me wrong, I still follow the general “rules” that are required to rank in Google search results. But when I’m stuck, and am in unknown/uncharted SEO territory...
3:22 PM ∙ Oct 10, 2019
6Likes2Retweets
Twitter avatar for @SEOKeval
Keval Shah 💥 @SEOKeval
I ask myself one simple question: What will benefit my users the most? I then I do just that. In my experience, this has helped me stay ahead of the curve and stay on Google’s good side... Which is always where you want to be.
3:22 PM ∙ Oct 10, 2019
7Likes2Retweets
  • When in doubt, prioritize the user.

  • Actually, do that when not in doubt, too.


Newsletter promotional tip

  • When you promote your newsletter in social media, promote the content creators you link to.

  • Sarah knows what she’s talking about: she’s built her newsletter to over 5,000 subscribers.


Deep resource on many SEO topics 

  • Deepcrawl has a huge online SEO resource called Hangout Library

  • It catalogues video and insights from Google's Webmaster Central Office Hours Hangouts

  • Tons of topics, and numerous entries under each topic


Conducting Local keyword research

Covers numerous tools, including:

  • Google Trends

  • Google Keyword Planner

  • AHrefs

  • SEMRush


On clean web design 

Twitter avatar for @Brian_DV1G
Brian_DV1G🧞‍♂️ @Brian_DV1G
🔥 🔥 🔥 Someone just posted this fire ass post in the forum and im really excited and humbled to be at the center of so many sharp minded individuals who are all capable of pushing each other to new heights You can still get in for free now until November just shoot me a adq
Image
7:49 PM ∙ Oct 13, 2019
7Likes1Retweet

A scam you can ignore

Twitter avatar for @90_shopping
90Shopping @90_shopping
@googlewmc @JohnMu Is there any thing to worry for me? received today, I have got from an other person as well about 2 months ago. Thanks
Image
11:00 AM ∙ Oct 13, 2019
Twitter avatar for @JohnMu
🍌 John 🍌 @JohnMu
@90_shopping @googlewmc That's just spam -- you can ignore it. @MarketingVape if you're sending out these messages, cut it out.
11:33 AM ∙ Oct 13, 2019
  • There’s a new scam going around, where someone threatens to ruin a site’s ranking by hitting it with spam links if the owner doesn’t buy the sender’s products (in other words, pay an extortion fee). 

  • Google says to ignore it, because Google will ignore the spam links.


Thanks for reading!

Do you know someone who might enjoy The Mix Tape?

I’d appreciate it if you’d send them to the signup page.

See you next week!

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The Mix Tape, Vol. 21

www.matttillotson.co
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