Slim Pickings

Something weird is going on at Google Trend: they have removed the last month of data from the graphs since yesterday.

Is it a consequence of the Thirty Day Challenge effect???

Yesterday:

Today:

On the other hand, the trend per language does not seem to have been updated.
Technorati Tags: internet marketing, google, thirty day challenge

Since last week, more than ten thousands 30-day challengers are using the GTrend ratio tool to uncover starving niches. This large number of searches has skewed the trend curve for “male yeast infection” that is used as a calibration standard as representing 500 unique visitors per days.

It came to my attention today that the GTrend number for a number of off-beat niches has severely dropped. For example, a phrase I am using for my own calibration that had a GTrend number of 500 last week has only 325 today. (I will not write this phrase here, in order to be able to use it again in the future to calibrate my own measurements.) It shows that Google has updated its data for “male yeast infection”.

I propose to change weekly the calibration standard to avoid such fluctuation effects. A phrase that has a GTrend number of about 500 should be kept secret to calibrate all the standards. The secret calibration phrase should not be a likely market niche to avoid it fluctuates as more challengers research the markets. Any phrase that has a GTrend of 500 (as measured with the “secret” calibration phrase) can be used as new standard. For example, a suitable replacement phrase for “male yeast infection” is “superconductors” (without quotes) that has also a GTrend number of about 500 (according to my calibrating phrase).

Comparison between the trends of “male yeast infection” and “superconductors”: very close before the surge due to Thirty Day Challengers.

The comparison by language shows a difference, showing that Google is using the more recent data for “male yeast infection”.

I have always been wary of long copies, you know these webpages that go on and on about their miracle solution to your problem. You must have seen some, at least in junk mails.

I found this article about long copy versus short copy by Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero:
URL: Are we still arguing about LONG copy vs SHORT copy?

This lady sells copywriting service. Checking her website, Red Hot Copy, sure enough she used a long copy style, and oh boy, it’s powerful stuff! Check it out - or on second thought, don’t if you are not ready to part with $750 hard-earned cash for an appraisal of your copywriting needs. Yes, it’s that compelling. I guess I had only encountered bad long copies, or long copies for different prospects.

Ed Dale’s Red Hot video of Thirty Day Challenge website that convinced thousands of people to sign up for the challenge - including me, - is his “long copy” take of a video. Of course, he could have made a 10-second video saying “Sign up for the thirty day challenge, it’s free”. But it is not likely it would have performed so well.

Technorati Tags: slim pickings, thirty day challenge, internet marketing

Where is the rabbit’s hole, do you ask?

You cannot see it.

You see, if you are reading this post, chances are you are yourself an inhabitant of the rabbit’s hole.

Believe it or not, I have been running an internet business for years without having ever used or read

- a blog
- an rss feed
- a video on YouTube
- iTune
- a social networking site
- anything related to web 2.0

I have stumbled upon the Thirty Day Challenge (vintage 2007
) that puts all these things together to show how ones can get leverage to increase the number of visitors, the goal of the challenge being to start an internet business and make at least $10 in profit in one month.

I am not going to summarize the challenge here - there are several excellent blogs that do just that, - but I will write here about some insights I get on the journey down the rabbit’s hole.