Search Engine Strategies NYC Prequel – March 23-27, 2009

Hard to believe another year has gone by since the last SES NYC. This terrific show is an action packed gathering of thousands of top online marketing professionals.

It seems like landing page optimization has finally arrived from and center on the SES agenda – my week will be very busy:

• Monday March 23rd  1:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Landing Page Testing Crash Course (1/2 day workshop)

I will lead a half day intensive workshop during the SEM training day that precedes the conference.  Several morning workshops are also available.

• Tuesday March 24th 11:45 am – 12:45 pm – Landing Page Testing & Tuning

Join my friend and moderator Sage Lewis for my solo session on landing page optimization.

• Tuesday March 24th 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – Free Book Signing

Join me at the Google booth on the exhibit floor and get a free signed copy of my Landing Page Optimization book courtesy of our friends at Google Website Optimizer (GWO). Hang out at the booth and learn how you can start using this terrific free tool for A/B Split Testing or Multivariate Testing. Also, the free books are for full conference pass holders only (single day is okay) – but due to the limited supply and large demand we will be unable to give books to Expo-Hall-only pass holders. Better get in line first if you want one…

• Tuesday March 24th 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm – Extreme Makeover: Conversion Edition

Join moderator Christine Churchill, Bryan Eisenberg, Ethan Giffin, and myself for this entertaining 360-degree view inside of landing page testing. We will do in depth critiques of websites and show how they can be improved. After the conference we will actually test our ideas in a head-to-head landing page test and see if they improve performance. Guaranteed to be a great time!

• Tuesday March 24th 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm – OnDialog.com Networking Cocktail Reception

Join us in the exhibit hall for free drinks and a nice way to wind down the day. Preview the new OnDialog landing page creation and management solution (powered by our SiteTuners TuningEngine). This groundbreaking system lets you visually design a landing page test and deploy it with the push of a button – no I.T. involvement or page tagging needed!

• Wednesday  March 25th 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Your Baby Is Ugly – Landing Page Mini-Critiques

Join me in the exhibit hall (booth # 1122) to see websites and landing pages dissected live. You can simply watch or volunteer your site – I promise you will learn a lot either way. This session is open to Expo-Pass -only holders in addition to full conference attendees.

• Thursday March 26th 2:15 pm – 3:30 pm – Google Website Optimizer: Radically Improve your Conversion Rate!

Moderator Bryan Eisenberg will lead a lively discussion with Trevor Claiborne, Kayden Kelly, and me about the best way to leverage Google’s excellent free landing page testing tool.

Hope to see you all there!

Keeping up with Tim Ash – I am now on Twitter

Guy Kawasaki finally convinced me that getting on Twitter actually makes business sense.

I know I am late to the party – but I am a little slow at times… 

In any case, I wanted to share my current contact information with anyone who wants to reach me or stay up on my activities.

Work (PST)     (619) 223-8020
Skype             tim_ash1
Twitter            twitter.com/tim_ash
LinkedIn         www.linkedin.com/in/timash
Facebook        www.facebook.com/people/Tim-Ash/711922881

Company               SiteTuners.com
Blog                       Blog.SiteTuners.com
Book                      LandingPageOptimizationBook.com
Column                  SearchEngineWatch.com
Free Resources      LandingPageDirectory.com

ERA eRetailer Summit, Miami – Recap

On March 2nd, 2009 I spoke and held a free book signing (courtesy of Google Website Optimizer) at the Electronic Retailing Association (ERA) eRetailer Summit in at the beautiful Intercontinental Hotel on the waterfront in downtown Miami. The show focuses on direct response TV (infomercials), which these days means that the traffic is primarily being directed to the Web. So the success or failure of each product largely depends on the conversion rate of the landing page.

I got to meet infomercial superstar Billy Mays!

See the photo album.

The Decision-Making Funnel, Stage 1: Awareness

It is critical to smoothly take website visitors through their decision-making process to maximize conversions.

The so-called “sales funnel” can be broken down into four steps captured by the acronym AIDA:

• Awareness
• Interest
• Desire
• Action

In a recent column on Search Engine Watch, I examine the first stage of the decision making process – awareness (read the article).