Marketing Rock Star | Dan Trapp

I Hope Your Display Campaign Sucks, But Here’s $400.

DanTrapp — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 17:38:49 +0000

If you’re my competition, I don’t want you to succeed, or be smart, or spend more time dialing shit in. No, I want you to suck, then suck some more until you eventually give up in frustration and head back to PPC. I want your first campaign to have a budget of $400 and lose $400. Something that would make you never want to get into display again.

Why? Because there’s millions of dollars per MONTH in it!

I’m not gonna drop names here, but I know a 24 year old that made $1,000,000/mo, yes, a fucking MONTH, in 2010 pushing one offer through display ads. I could tell you the niche and give you more details, but that’s not the point – he’s innovating and you’re likely not – not if you’re the guy that gave up.

And no, it wasn’t a rebill or shady offer.

Answer this. How much time and effort have you been putting into display? I’m not talking about G content, or PPV, I’m talking about 3rd party services like MSN, Yahoo, Adblade, or AOL’s new AdDesk?

$0, $100? I’m willing to bet that’s the average. I also bet you didn’t know you could have $400 for free to play with at AOL’s new AdDesk if you sign up they give you a coupon code 400forFirst (I’ll give you a hint, it’s in limited BETA and you need to sign up via a G PPC ad, you can’t just walk in through the front door).

That’s right, $400 to test your first campaign. If that’s not convincing enough, how about this.

DISPLAY REACHES OVER 80% OF ALL US INTERNET USERS!

If some 24 year old kid can crush a vertical, I think you can pull a profit, or at least practice a little more with $400. Go get it before they pull the offer. Split test ad images, sizes and LP copy, get granular with targeting and focus, because the big leagues will run you a minimum $5,000 and you better be ready to scale when you hit it big.

Good luck, you’ll need it.

WWMZD? – Fire Your White Hat SEO and Hire Mark Zuckerberg

DanTrapp — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 18:54:31 +0000

Picture it. You’re the CEO of a 1 year old startup and so far, lofty revenue targets are not being met and VC’s are breathing down your neck. You have a great web site, and a fantastic service but the only thing making noise around there are crickets when it comes to increases in any key metric. You’ve heard about SEO and need to make a move and right this ship immediately, or the board will make that decision for you. Now is when you need to take a deep breath and say WWMZD?

I’ll tell you what the Z man would do. He’d probably say something like “quit being a pussy and choose a color that brings out your eyes”.

The Secrets of SEO & Why It’s Not Really A Secret
To use one of many possible analogies, do you remember the most popular girl in high school? If you attended, and were sober, you do. Your website essentially has to mimic her. Pretty (People, and ultimately Google, admire it), engaging (people love to use it), and a lot of people talk about her (loads of back links). Now, imagine this. You’re the new girl in school. You aren’t the prettiest but you’re not ugly either, I’d say – plain and that’s nothing a little makeover couldn’t fix. At the moment, there’s already 3 very popular girls and as far as they’re concerned, no room for another. You can’t overtake this regime without a new look and some credibility, can you? You feel you’ve got a lot to offer, people just don’t know it yet – so now you need a strategy.
At this point you have exactly 4 options.

Run away and hide at the geek table, content with an easy victory, knowing a little attention is better than failing.
Identify your competition, let your natural beauty shine, show up to all the right parties and hope for the best.
Quit shopping at the GAP, hit VS and strap on your FMB’s. Make friends with the entire football team and throw all of the cool parties.
Spread rumors about the girls, make a move on the most popular guy (aka, the bf of girl target #1) and expect a short, and very damaging run.

By now you’ve estimated #2 is the only valid option for a company such as yours. You run a company that wants to move naturally to the top, and by god, you’re going to get there on great customer service and steadfast attention to detail. You’ve quickly deduced #1 is a joke because you can’t give up, you would never steal a boyfriend, nor do you think your parents would let you throw parties or pay for thongs. So, your mission is strictly white hat and you hire a white hat SEO to oversee this strategy because you’ve got enough on your plate, and let’s be honest – you haven’t even figured out how to use that new fucking mouse yet.

But you’re wrong, already. Most SEO is a joke, just ask Dave McClure – and you know what? He’s kind of right.

Marketing to Baby Boomers and Why You Should

DanTrapp — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:59:37 +0000

You’ve got that FB campaign dialed up, hitting that 18 – 34 demographic with weight loss, ringt0nes and financial offers and seeing a pretty good ROI. But…what’s missing?

Well, nothing. You’re probably a fantastic marketer promoting the offer to the suggested or “typical” demographic…but that’s just one offer my friend. I’d like to introduce you to the 800lb gorilla of spend, the Baby Boomers – and they’re eating A LOT of bananas.

Baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964, sometimes referred to as “mom” and “dad”) make up an astonishing 78 million people or more specifically 1 in 4 Americans, and an even more impressive $2.9 TRILLION annual spend (aka, “buying power”). It’s not just kitchen gadgets and cruises for these folks, no sir. These Boomers wanna have some fun before they peace, and it’s your job, nay…duty to give it to them. $2.9 trillion in Baby Boomer annual spending makes that 18-34 demo look pretty weak now doesn’t it? Hell, I’d even be willing to wager these Baby Boomers are buying half this crap for the 18 – 34 set!

So, what are you waiting for? The ducks are quacking, time to feed them! I’m not going to give you the answer, or a blueprint because that would be putting me out of a job, but let’s just say there’s a million ways to hit them and you should think like Martha.

If you’re incredibly lucky, stay tuned and in a few months I might just post a how-to on building a baby boomer list…you know, after I’ve had my fill

WIR: BING & Kayak, Google Update, Twitter is #WINNING

DanTrapp — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 02:13:03 +0000

BING & Kayak unite, Google’s Panda Update, Blackhat Link SPAM still in the SERP’s, Twitter #WINNING & More…

Headline: Microsoft owned Bing search engine & online travel giant Kayak.com form search partnership!

The Scoop: In 2009 Bing wanted to capture a bit of that online travel market for itself and in true Microsoft fashion the “if we can’t buy them, copy them – and still keep attempting to buy bits and pieces anyway” mantra rang true, true enough that Kayak publicly claimed BING Travel completely copied their look, feel and let’s face it, technology in their website.

Without going into even more specific detail about that crap, let’s just say BING and Kayak set aside their differences and in the sake of making a shitload of money decided to work together. HOORAY! For…them. It seems this is a bit more of a PR move for Kayak and their soon-to-be-IPO and potential retaliation against the Google/ITA deal (currently under MASSIVE lobbyist efforts and Gov scrutiny!) that could completely transform the online travel industry.

Let’s forget ITA licenses its data to most of the top aggregators (minus Expedia and Travelocity) and lets also forget that at one time Microsoft owned a large stake in Expedia, and just say…”why?”. My guess? Because MSN needs to beat Google at SOMETHING! Google, once it integrates ITA technology will be a powerhouse. Who needs to go to Kayak, or Orbitz or some other cheap flights company? Well…no one. That’s who. Google controls 70% of worldwide web searches (OK, fine, 90% in the UK) and BING needs to get a head start on this or it’s dead out of the gate.

I’m sure they’ll be moderately successful, and people will use it (just like they read their lame articles), but beat Google? Doubtful. Not if Google pushes their service on travel industry searches they won’t. Let’s just hope BING secured a deal a little bit better than 1/2 of $0.50 to $1.00/click

Headline: Google update Farmer defeats content farms!

The Scoop: 1.No, no it didn’t, and 2. Quit listening to Mr. Sullivan and wait for Google to release the official name, Panda. Which is cute and not at all menacing…

Headline: There is no headline, sadly. It’s been a loud scream for about 3 years.

The Scoop: Without going all exposé on this, it’s painfully obvious Google only cares about SERP quality up until the point it affects their margins. You can PLAINLY see the use of blackhat link building on every major high volume search term. I don’t mean, a few shady industries like ph@rm, nooo, I mean EVERY INDUSTRY. Instead of rattling off industries, just use yours as an example. Can you even make it to page 3 without seeing at least 2 examples of link spam? No.

Never fear, help is on the way! Google understands the scourge of blackhat link building and has rallied its huge base of world class developers and after years, dare I say minutes of dev time has released this revolutionary tool to fight spam…that’s right, it’s a fucking comment form.

So, until Google really starts caring about Black Hat SEO tactics, I’m going to say something. This is ridiculous.

The Headline: Charlie Sheen goes crazy, and in the meantime breaks record for Twitter followers.

The Scoop: If you don’t think that this has anything to do with marketing, you’re crazier than he is. The man is a tour dé force of self-marketing and it’s apparent even without a future on 2 and Half Women he’s gonna be aiiiight. Turns out, he set a tiny record on Twitter all while rambling about future gigs, other people being completely retarded and pushing chocolate milk with a porn star. Turns out, even the great Mark Cuban has an angle with promoting Carlos Estevez – and who can blame him? He’s #WINNING and you aren’t.