Rick R. Duncan

A Flaw in Behavioral Retargeting

Rick — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:58:20 +0000

For those unaware of the term “behavioral retargeting” it’s defined by Wikipedia as a form of online targeted advertising by which online advertising is targeted to consumers based on their previous Internet actions, in situations where these actions did not result in a sale or conversion.

In theory it’s a giant leap forward in trying to get consumers back into the sales funnel. Some people in the industry have reported that a company needs to have seven different ‘touch-points’ with a customer (on average) before they make a purchase. So in theory this sounds like it’s right on target, right?

The Flaw

Before I go into the details I want to admit that I’m a happy subscriber of DIRECTV and have been since 2006.

Here is an example in which I will be driven into DIRECTV Banner Ad Hell due to the current implementation of behavioral retargeting. Last night I saw a television commercial informing me that Pandora has been added to the list of features for DIRECTV subscribers. I grabbed my iPad, opened my browser and typed DIRECTV into Google. I clicked the first link on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) and was taken to a PPC landing page since that link was a paid-link. I searched the DIRECTV site for information on the new Pandora feature in order to figure out how to use the service. I couldn’t find anything so I logged-in with the hopes of finding the information in my dashboard of new features. Ah, there it is. I accomplish my goal and head on over to a few of my favorite websites.

Wait, what is this? DIRECTV ads on every single site I’m now visiting. Why are you retargeting me? I logged into DIRECTV.com which means you clearly know I’m a happy paying customer. Maybe not the happy part, but being a paying customer is now a certainty. Why isn’t the technology available to disable the retargeting ads? As a current paying customer I’m not going to convert so please stop showing me the ads.

The same holds true for after making a purchase. I recently purchased Rackspace web hosting which I highly recommend. After signing up and paying for the service I had to endure Rackspace Banner Ad Hell for about two weeks. Again, I’m a paying customer, stop bugging me.

Show Me Relevant Ads

Remember that I said it takes an estimated seven touch-points before a consumer makes a purchase? With the wasted page views on me there is another advertiser out there losing out on a possible sale. I’m no longer seeing relevant ads and other advertisers who should be in front of me are not.

How much longer must we wait and how much money will be wasted until Behavioral Retargeting is taken to the next step and becomes smart enough to know that a conversion has taken place? Soon I hope.

Weekly Roundup: Week #5

Rick — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:08:26 +0000

Fun Facts

One half of all local searches are performed on mobile devices.
86% of mobile internet users are using their devices while watching TV.
On average, Americans spend 2.7 hours per day socializing on their mobile devices.

Facebook IPO

Facebook again topped headlines this week, thanks to its lucrative initial public offering (IPO). According to paperwork filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg took home about $1.5 million in salary, bonus, and other compensation, but could be worth up to $28 billion thanks to stock holdings.

Social Media Habits; Men vs. Women

An interesting infographic detailing the social media sharing habits of men vs. women. When asked are you willing to share your income; 16.3% of men said yes while only 5.2% of women said yes. Go »

How Much Does SEO Cost?

The article (How Much Does SEO Cost? 3 Analogies To Help You Determine Its Value) is a must read for SEO Consultants and anyone looking to hire an SEO Consultant. The analogies used to help you understand its true value were spot on. It’s rare that I can read an article and agree with everything said. This article is the exception. Go »

Sorry, Most of Your Tweets Are Worthless

While some of your tweets might be of utmost importance to you, most people could not care less, according to a study from a group of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, and Georgia Tech. Go »

Marketing CAPTCHA

Rick — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:00:01 +0000

As a marketer, I never stop thinking of how and where a business can further their reach to promote their brand or products.

By pure chance, or at least I’m assuming it was by chance I think I found a place no one thought of.

Introducing marketing by CAPTCHA!

CAPTCHA for Advertisers

For those that don’t recognize the name CAPTCHA, I’ll define it for you. A CAPTCHA is a program that protects websites against bots by generating and grading tests that humans can pass but current computer programs cannot.

The other day I was conducting keyword research for an SEO project and had to enter a seemingly random string of characters before I could enter into the Google AdWords website. Usually the text is so random you never think twice about what you have to enter in the text-box. This time it was different.

Check out the image below for a real live CAPTCHA that I had to enter.

Now, I’m no math genius but what are the odds of having the string of characters ETrade showing up? Now, dig deeper and tell me the odds of getting it to ask for E*Trade. Notice the asterisk in between the E and the letter T? I would love to know the odds. Anyone care to guess?

I think it’s only a matter of time before we see marketing through CAPTCHA on public websites.

So there you go. If you’re a developer reading this, go build it and get to market first. You just might have a golden egg in your hands. Or, it’s a fluke that I saw it (maybe 1 in a trillion) and it’s a silly idea to think that companies will start promoting their brand using CAPTCHA.

Gravity Forms Popup

Rick — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:32:08 +0000

I recently performed a site redesign using the Genesis Framework on my smoothie recipe website and needed a popup/modal window to work with Gravity Forms. My requirement was to build some sort of Email A Friend functionality using Gravity Forms and a modal window. After fruitless searches for an A-Z implementation, I gave up and started from scratch.

The code I’m sharing is free for the taking but a good working knowledge of PHP, CSS, WordPress and the Genesis Framework is required.

You can see everything in action by viewing this Banana Strawberry Surprise Smoothie recipe and clicking on the link labeled Email Recipe.

Requirements:

A Summary of Steps Involved:

Create a blank page and assign it the template we’ll be creating
Add the Gravity Forms shortcode to the page you just created
Upload the fancyBox code to your site
Reference the fancyBox code from within your website
Create a link to the popup page assigning it a predefined class-name
Click on your link and have a page appear in a modal window

Step 1

Copy the code below into your favorite text editor and save it as Popup.php.




	
		
		
		
		Email A Friend
		
		/wp-content/plugins/gravityforms/css/forms.css?ver=1.6.2.1.1' type='text/css' media='all' />
		
		/style.css' type="text/css" media="screen" />

Now upload the file Popup.php into your child directory. It will reside in the same directory as your functions.php file and your theme’s stylesheet.

You will have to tweak the code/css in order to style it to match your own website.

Step 2

Go to Pages » Add New and create a page named email-a-friend. On the right side of your admin screen, look for Page Attributes. Set the template to Popup.

Add your Gravity Forms shortcode to the page email-a-friend so that your form will appear on your new page.

Step 3

Unzip the files you downloaded from fancyBox and upload the contents of the “source” folder into a folder named fancyBox2 inside of your child theme.

The contents of fancyBox2.

Step 4

Go to Genesis » Simple Hooks and locate the genesis_meta Hook. Paste the code below into the text box and be sure to check the box labeled Execute PHP on this Hook. Now click “Save Settings.”

Reviewing the code below you’ll see settings for the opacity, dimensions of the modal window and other settings. Tweak them for your specific needs.

Step 4

Create a hyperlink pointing to your page/email form. Add a class attribute to the link naming it b3fancyBox. If you followed along and didn’t fat-finger anything, you’ll have a link that points to your page named email-a-friend and it will display in a modal window.

View Popup

View Popup

I’ve included the Gravity Forms Popup code in a .zip file that you can download here.

So there you have it. A Gravity Forms Popup modal window. It was pretty simply once I got it all figured out. Hope you found this tutorial useful.

Weekly Roundup: Week #4

Rick — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:30:31 +0000

Fun Facts

The average American spent 32 hours per month on the Internet in 2010. Persons ages 45-54 set the high bar averaging more than 39 hours online each month. ~ComScore

By 2016, more than 44 billion apps will have been downloaded. If the global population is roughly 7 billion people, that will mean 6 mobile app downloads for every man, woman and child. ~BusinessWire

SEO Experts

Are you looking for an SEO Expert? Some well known marketers from SEO Moz, High Rankings and Raven Internet Marketing Tools offer these 10 tips to help you find the right SEO professional. Check out the Top 10 Things to Look for in an SEO Expert.

Google Webmaster Tools

Top Search Queries – Google announced an update to their “Top Search Queries” feature in Google Webmaster Tools. Previously it reported the average position of all URLs from your site for a given query. Begining January 25, 2012, they’ll instead average only the top position that a URL from your site appeared in. Go »

Sitemaps - Google has made an improvement to their process of submitting a Sitemap within Google Webmaster Tools. Back in the day when you uploaded a sitemap you had to wait to know if it was formatted properly and would be accepted by Google. Google now lets you test your sitemap files before submitting them! Go »

Google+

How Google Search Plus Your World is Changing SEO – SEO in 2012, be it public or personal, is all about providing content that is worthy of being shared, by links or by circles. Now that the context of the search query is the conversation, relevancy is truly in the eye of the beholder … as long as the people or the publication is beholden to Google+.

Marketing on Twitter

McDonald’s learned a valuable lesson this week when their social media campaign went horribly wrong according to all the press. Once you put the numbers into perspective, was it as bad as the headlines read? Go »

Pay Per Click (PPC)

Google earned $37.9 billion in 2011. 96% of which came from advertising. WordStream put out an awesome infographic illustrating the top 10 industries that spent the most in AdWords last year, as well as the top 5 biggest spenders in each industry. Go »

Post Panda World (PPW)

Google has confirmed a data refresh of the Google Panda algorithm. They are reporting that the refresh was performed a week ago. Those of you keeping a close watch of your site metrics should have already seen a change if this impacted any of your sites. Go »

How to Modify Modify Speak Your Mind

Rick — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:30:39 +0000

These days all of my WordPress sites are running the Genesis Framework. Each time I build a new site I find myself back on the StudioPress Support Forums trying to remember how I did something.

Today I was trying to remember how to change the text “Speak Your Mind” that is found just above the comments section. I wanted to customize it to something a little more friendly.

Make a backup of FUNCTIONS.PHP before making edits!
Syntax errors within the functions file could cause your site to explode! If this happens you can take your backup file and FTP it to your site to get things working again.

Follow along to see how it’s done.

Log into your WordPress site
Click on “Editor” within the “Appearance” menu.
Look to the right side of your screen and click on “Theme Functions” (functions.php)
Go to the bottom of the file and paste in the code below.
In my example below I changed “Speak Your Mind” to “Leave a Comment.”

/**
 * Modify speak your mind text in comments
 *
 * @author Rick R. Duncan
 * @link http://www.buildbrandbelieve.com
 */
add_filter('genesis_comment_form_args', 'custom_comment_form_args');
function custom_comment_form_args($args) {
    $args['title_reply'] = 'Leave a Comment';
    return $args;
}

2011 Year End Fitness Report

Rick — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:23:26 +0000

Today I received a much anticipated email from DailyMile. It was my 2011 year end report that details the workouts I’ve logged on DailyMile.com. I have mixed feelings with what I saw.

2011 was a year of firsts for me. Those included:

Running the 2011 Monument Ave. 10k
My first triathlon: GroundForce IT PowerSprint Triathlon

I have Emily to thank for turning my biking legs into running legs. We started 2011 right by joining the Goochland Y 10k training team. Their 10k running program is what got Emily and I across the 10k finish line safely. Without Emily’s encouragement I would have never taken up running nor began participating in triathlons.

After running the Monument Ave. 10k I decided to try a sprint triathlon. I felt I had the running and biking in check but the swimming would be a mystery since I haven’t really swam since I was a kid. Even as competitive as I am, my goal was just to finish in one piece. From the look of the photo of me coming out of the pool, I wished I had wore a one piece… I finished and decided to do another. In 2011 I got to participate in two sprint triathlons and want to do even more in 2012.

In 2011 I purchased a shiny new 2011 Cervelo S2. I’m not saying it’s fair, but as Tom from 3-sports told me… you can buy speed on the bike and that’s just what I did. In my second triathlon I beat all my buddies in the bike portion of the race. The bike is stock except for the aero-bars I installed. Those bars really help me to stay tucked and increase my pace.

2011 Training Stats

Distance: 1,349 miles
Weekly Avg.: 25 miles
Workouts: 133
Lbs. Burned: 25

Mixed Feelings

I have mixed feeling about the above stats. On one hand it’s great that I’ve accomplished so much. On the other hand I thought it would be more which is why my goal in 2012 is 5,000 miles. Even though I wasn’t religious with inputting my mileage into DailyMile.com, I don’t think my total would have even made it to 2,500 miles for 2011. That means I have a ton of ridding/running to do in 2012. Wish me luck!

Cheers!

How to Move the Genesis Breadcrumb

Rick — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:16:32 +0000

A recent article I wrote titled How to Customize Genesis Breadcrumbs detailed the steps involved in customizing the output of the Genesis Framework breadcrumb. In this article I’ll show you how to actually move the breadcrumb to a new location and how to style it to your liking.

Make a copy of Functions.php before making the changes mentioned in this article.

Changing the Breadcrumb Location

Log in as an admin and open up the file Functions.php. Scroll to the bottom of Functions.php and paste the code below into the file. In the example below I’ve located the breadcrumb to be displayed in between the header and the inner content of my site. Click the update file button to save your changes.

/**
 * Move the Genesis breadcrumb
 *
 * @author Rick R. Duncan
 * @link http://www.buildbrandbelieve.com
 *
 */
remove_action('genesis_before_loop', 'genesis_do_breadcrumbs');
add_action('genesis_after_header', 'genesis_do_breadcrumbs');

The image below illustrates the new location of the breadcrumb within the Nomadic Theme.

Styling the Breadcrumb

In my case simply moving the breadcrumb wasn’t enough. Once the breadcrumb moved it was all the way to the left of my page. I needed it to be centered like you see in the image above. To move it to the center of the page I had to create a wrapper div inside of my breadcrumb function named custom_breadcrumb_args found in Functions.php. Simply go to this previous article How to Customize Genesis Breadcrumbs and scroll down to the last screenshot. Look at lines 15 & 16. In that code example there is class named wrap. Now look at lines 15 & 16 in the code below. It’s been updated to add a class named wrap on line 15 and a closing div tag on line 16.

Take the whole chunk of code below and add it to Functions.php. If you prefer, leave out the content you don’t plan to change as it’s not needed. To keep it simple, I would recommend you take all the code and paste it into Functions.php. I’m just sayin…

/**
 * Relocate Genesis breadcrumb display
 *
 * @author Rick R. Duncan
 * @link http://www.buildbrandbelieve.com
 *
 * @param array $args Default breadcrumb arguments
 * @return array Amended breadcrumb arguments
 */
add_filter('genesis_breadcrumb_args', 'custom_breadcrumb_args');
function custom_breadcrumb_args( $args ) {
    $args['home'] = 'Home';
    $args['sep'] = ' » ';
    $args['list_sep'] = ', '; // Genesis 1.5 and later
    $args['prefix'] = '';
    $args['suffix'] = '';
    $args['heirarchial_attachments'] = true; // Genesis 1.5 and later
    $args['heirarchial_categories'] = true; // Genesis 1.5 and later
    $args['display'] = true;
    $args['labels']['prefix'] = 'You are here: ';
    $args['labels']['author'] = 'Archives for ';
    $args['labels']['category'] = 'Archives for '; // Genesis 1.6 and later
    $args['labels']['tag'] = 'Archives for ';
    $args['labels']['date'] = 'Archives for ';
    $args['labels']['search'] = 'Search for ';
    $args['labels']['tax'] = 'Archives for ';
    $args['labels']['post_type'] = 'Archives for ';
    $args['labels']['404'] = 'Not found: '; // Genesis 1.5 and later
    return $args;
}

Style.css – The Final Customization

I wanted my breadcrumb to be centered on the page. The only styles I needed is what you see below. Add the code below style.css and you should be good to go.

#breadcrumb .wrap {
    	margin: 0 auto;
    	width: 960px;
}

As all themes are slightly different a few tweaks may be needed for your implementation. The overall task will be the same for all of the Genesis Framework Themes. Just be aware that you may have to make a few additional tweaks for your own specific use.

How to Rename a Genesis Child Theme

Rick — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:41:44 +0000

There are many reasons why you would want to rename a Genesis child theme. One reason that comes to mind is for branding purposes. Imagine you work from a small web company and you want to give your client a branded theme for WordPress. If you’re lucky enough to be running the Genesis Framework, I’m about to show you how easy it is to rename a child theme on the Genesis framework.

If you don’t have or use the Genesis Framework, I suggest you go get it now! It will make your WordPress development so much easier and it’s SEO optimized out of the box from the fine people at StudioPress.

Note: Please do not have the theme ‘activated’ when attempting to rename the theme. Either deactivate the theme and perform the steps below or FTP the files down to your local computer to make the changes. Once the changes are made upload the files to your WordPress site.

3 Easy Steps to Rename a Genesis Child Theme

In the example below I’m using this site to demonstrate the settings and naming convention.

Step 1: Rename the child theme folder. (B3)

Step 2: Edit style.css.

/*
	Theme Name: B3
	Theme URI: http://www.buildbrandbelieve.com/
	Description: B3 is a two or three column child theme created for the Genesis Framework.
	Author: Rick R. Duncan
	Author URI: http://www.buildbrandbelieve.com

	Version: 1.0

	Template: genesis
	Template Version: 1.8

	License: GNU General Public License v2.0
	License URI: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.php
*/

Step 3: Open function.php and find then edit the line of code that begins with Child theme:

/** Child theme (do not remove) */
define( 'CHILD_THEME_NAME', 'B3' );
define( 'CHILD_THEME_URL', 'http://www.buildbrandbelieve.com/' );

You’re done!

BONUS

If you also want to change the image preview for your new custom skin that’s very easy too:

Simply take a screenshot of your homepage
Re-size the image to 300×225
Save and name it screenshot.png
Place it in your theme folder and overwrite the existing file. Done!

The above code sample is what I used to rename the StudioPress eleven40 Child Theme. It’s what this site is currently running.

Top 10 Weight Loss Tips for 2012

Rick — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:41:21 +0000

Since no two bodies are alike we have assembled a random list of 10 methods to help you lose weight. Your mileage may vary, so read these and apply the ones that work for you.

10. Eat Slower – Are you worried that someone will steal the food off your plate? It’s said that it takes 15-20 minutes for your stomach to signal your brain that you’ve had enough to eat. So put down your fork after each mouthful of food and enjoy your meal.

9. Don’t stop eating all the food you enjoy – Life is too short to not indulge on random occasions. Instead of eating an entire Hershey bar with a glass of milk, break off 3 pieces and eat them one by one, but slowly. ( remember tip # 10 )

8. Stay focused on being healthy, not thin – With time comes the weight loss. Since all of us smart people know that weight loss will not happen overnight, lets lose weight in a healthy manner and not by some ineffective fad diet or diet pills.

7. What’s eating you - All too often overeating is triggered by stress, boredom, loneliness, anger, depression and other emotions. Learning to deal with emotions without food is a significant skill that will greatly serve long term weight control.

6. Get plenty of sleep – 8 hours of sleep is needed by most adults. Getting the proper rest is very important for weight management. With sufficient sleep, not only will you be less stressed, and therefore be less likely to crave foods, you will be more able to resist food cravings.

5. Don’t drink your calories -Juices, pop, cream & sugar in your coffee or tea all add up. Opt for drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day. In addition to providing hydration to your body, it will also help you feel full.

4. Eat breakfast – Eating in the morning will kick-start your metabolism. Think about it; it’s been more than 8 hours since your last meal. ( remember tip # 6 ) So eat when you need the fuel. Your metabolism is higher in the morning than in the evening, so calories eaten earlier in the day are burned faster than those eaten later. Consider a tasty breakfast smoothie for a quick meal on-the-go.

3. Eat fresh foods – If possible, purchase fresh foods and avoid package (processed) and convenient foods such as fast food. Packaged and convenient foods are often higher in sodium and fat content.

2. Don’t skip meals – Eating small frequent meals help to balance your calorie intake throughout the day and also keeps your blood sugar level balanced. Instead of eating 3 big meals, try to eat 5 – 6 smaller meals throughout the day.

1. Exercise – Most authorities recommend 30-60 minutes of physical activity a day to stay happy & healthy. Also try adding weight-bearing exercises at least twice a week. A pound of muscle burns about 60 calories a day while a pound of fat burns 5. That means any growth in your muscle tissue is going to help you burn more calories all day long.

And remember; only a lifestyle change will take off the weight and keep it off. Success is a Choice!