Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

October Pop Culture Round Up

by // Leave a Comment

October is always pop culture overload on TV, add in a few rainy weekends to get caught up on comics and a couple of great podcast series concluding AND Stranger Things? I need a sick day to get caught up on my pop culture priorities!

Happy Halloween folks, here’s what’s been keeping me on my toes this month…

Reading

I mentioned last month that I started HRC’s book – What Happened. I finally finished it, and as a (giant surprise) supporter of Hillary’s I liked it. Parts of it (the Russia stuff) went on longer than I would have liked, BUT I learned some stuff I wish I’d learned (or heard through the noise) before the election.

I also had some time to catch up on my comics lately – huzzah! Ms Marvel, Hawkeye and Captain Marvel continue to dominate my comic faves these days. Well done ladies of Marvel. AND I like the new Princess character in The Walking Dead, I think…

I have been fascinated by Rasputin (the crazy Russian monk) since I first learned about him in high school (and that terrible movie Nicholas & Alexandra) so when I saw a new graphic novel about him a few weeks ago I snagged it. It was OK, but not what I was hoping for and seems to have taken some historic liberties…

Next up for the plane ride to NYC – Fierce Kingdom…

Listening

All the usual suspects are showing up in my ear balls, but thanks to an Entertainment Weekly MUST list, I discovered Dirty John earlier this month and it was CRAZY good. It’s a mini-series podcast so you have time for it. If you like Serial or a good long con, this is for you.

I was sad to realize today that Ear Hustle has finished their first season. It’s been a fantastic series and I hope they’re back soon.

And in music (I know…) last week I went to see Depeche Mode last minute with a friend and it was AWESOME. I was never a big fan, not because I don’t like them, they just conflicted with my Dave Matthews listening time growing up. (I don’t judge your musical taste!) Their latest album includes my new favorite song Where’s the Revolution which you should listen to…

Watching

Strangers Things is back and congrats if you’ve finished it – I have made it through the first two episodes so far and really loving it. I decided to savor this season/I had a busy weekend but I promise it’s a top priority!

I’m LOVING this season of The Good Place! The twist last season and the twists this season are fantastic. “It’s Chinese for Japan” is easily my favorite line of television in 2017.

I’m also really enjoying The Mayor, if you haven’t checked it out, fix that. Black-ish continues to be a great family show, the Monopoly night episode was great (also their premiere was Hamilton inspired, so get on it people).

I think Mr Robot is better binged, or else that’s what I’m telling myself because I’m 2 episodes behind, but loved the premiere! I am sorry but This is Us isn’t making the cut this season.

OK, that’s enough pop culture for one month – what’s on your pop culture list task list this month?

6 Things I Look for on My Google Analytics

by // Leave a Comment

6 Things I Look for on My Google AnalyticsAt the beginning of each month I take a few minutes to review my website traffic from the previous month. I look to see how many visitors I had, what days were more popular (new blog post days usually) and where all my traffic comes from. I also look to see what pages people land on.

Reviewing your website’s analytics is an important part of having a website. You spent a lot of money and time on creating this thing, shouldn’t you know how people are using it? This week I wanted to share with you 6 Things I look for on my Google Analytics:

  1. How Many Visitors –  First things first, how many people really come to my website? The number at first glance is GREAT – but the real number comes once you dig into “All Traffic by Source.” This is where you see every traffic source that sent people to your site. If you had a guest blog post or did a Facebook Live you may see more traffic come in from a specific source. This is the most important analytics piece for what I’m looking for.
  2. Goals! – Yes, setup goals on your website. Every time someone reaches out through my contact page there’s a thank you landing page they end up on so I can track that traffic. AND I can track where it came from (thanks Facebook!)
  3. Page Views by Page – This is all about what pages people are landing on. Do people want to know more about my services or do they go to the About page to learn about Norm and me?
  4. Landing Pages – This is different from page views – this is the first page that people come to on your site. For me it’s often a recent blog post that brings them to my site – and then hopefully they look around for a while. And it’s good to see what old blog posts are bringing folks to my site.
  5. Devices  – I setup a “sessions by device” when not all websites were mobile friendly. Since most websites are mobile friendly this isn’t as important to track, BUT still worthwhile. If you realize 50% of your site traffic is coming from a phone – you should take a look at your website and make sure that it’s easy to read and get what they want (your phone number, your address so they can drive there, etc.)
  6. Traffic Type – I like to see where all the traffic to my site comes from. Direct traffic, social media, referral sites, email and organic (search). It’s important to see WHERE your traffic is coming from. If you start to get a lot of traffic from one referral site you may need to figure out what’s going on. Maybe you wrote a guest blog post, or maybe it’s a new company that added you as a referral source. Either way, make sure you know who’s sending traffic to your site.

It’s important to know what’s going on with your website and where your site traffic is coming from. It’s OK if you don’t use Google Analytics, but make sure you’re tracking traffic somehow. If you want to get Google Analytics setup on your website, talk with your web developer to get the coding properly setup so you can get started. THEN, feel free to download my Dashboard. This is not the end all be all, and every marketer and SEO person will tell you I’m missing a lot of things – but I think this is a good place to start for your business.

If you use Google Analytics – what other widgets and tools do you include? Please share them in the comments!

Trusting Your Gut

by // 1 Comment

Trusting Your GutLast week I attended a lunch and learn event about scaling sales and marketing in a startup. It was a great event. AND as per the usual, one of the most common mantras I heard was “Trust your gut.” Every time I go with what’s logical and reasonable but doesn’t feel right, I seem to regret it.

When my business coach suggests I try something WAAAY out of my comfort zone – if it doesn’t feel right in my gut, we talk about it. Sometimes that uneasy-ness is calmed after I have more information, sometimes we decide it’s not the right fit and move on to the next idea.

When I’m networking with someone 1:1 and realize that their core business values don’t mesh with mine, that’s okay, but we probably won’t become major referral partners for one another.

When you settle for content or design work because you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings because they’re the expert? Ugh, I’ve wasted a good chunk of money “trusting” someone.

Why is it that sometimes we don’t trust our gut?

This week my gut is telling me that the big blog post I should have gotten out last week isn’t working at all and needs to be scraped for parts (hoping it’ll get me one or two totally different posts).

My gut is also telling me that I need to set very clear timelines with clients because it seems everyone wants something done this week.

My gut is telling me I need to get a damn blog post out because I can’t ignore it two weeks in a row just because I’M BUSY!

And my gut is telling me that I’m not the only business owner that struggles with all of this. It’s one of the hardest parts of being a small business owner. Knowing when to say yes, when to say no and when to push “it” to next week.

How often do you trust your gut in business?