Why Don't People Like Me

Why Don’t The People in Wyoming, Greenland, Belarus, & Mongolia Like Me?

A Report Card on My Blog and Business Performance for Past Six Months

It’s always important to go back and take a honest assessment of how you are really performing

For the past six months I’ve given myself a BWhat’s your grade?

What Are The Metrics I Use to Grade My Performance? 1. Business Revenue • Cash is always King! 2. Blog Metrics • Is my message resonating? • Am I converting traffic into business? 3. Am I Having Fun? • Do I really enjoy what I’m doing?

Cash is Always King • I run a corporate development consulting business • Leverage blogging and social media to get leads • Strong correlation blog/social media performance with my revenues and profits

Monthly P&L

Bank Cash Balance

2009 has been tough but I’ve been able to sustain revenues/profits and build cash.

Blog Metrics

Two Types of Metrics Metrics That Matter to Me • Daily Visitors • Average Time on Site • Visitor Conversion to ‘Money Pages’

Metrics That Are Interesting, but Don’t Directly Drive $$$ • Visitors by Geography • Traffic Sources • Search Terms • Blog Post Popularity

Each web business has a few metrics that are important to them. You have to decide what is relevant for your business. These metrics happen to work for me but probably won’t for most businesses

Metrics That Matter for Me • Daily visitors = exposing my message to new people • Historically 72% New / 28% Returning

• Time on Site = relative interest in my content • Typical post consumed in 30 to 50 seconds • > 1 minute 20 seconds critical in my business • “Money Pages” are pages about me and my services • People that read other content and then read a “Money Page” are my best prospects for new business

New Visitors Come In Here • A “Money Page” contains specific content about my firm’s credentials, capabilities, and experience • Goal of the “Money Pages” is to convert a casual reader into a consulting prospect • On a daily basis, 10% of visitors convert to one or more “Money Pages” • ~2.7% of conversions result in some type of business discussion • Or, 0.27% of all visitors become a new sales prospect for me

Consulting Prospects Come Out Here

Money Page Funnel

Some Fun Metrics

• I’m pretty popular in the United States • Greenland, Belarus, Mongolia, & Most of Africa is a bit tough for me . . . .

Twitter Follower Geographic Distribution

Yes, That’s Mongolia

It’s a little odd to me that no one from Mongolia has read my blog but I have dozens of Mongolian Twitter followers . . . . . . .

• I live in Atlanta, so that explains Georgia • New York is the private equity capital of the USA • Massachusetts, California, Austin are Tech Hotbeds • I wonder why no one in Wyoming likes me?

• >25 Visits from Specific Cities • I’m definitely more of an East Coast vs West Coast kind-of-guy • Maybe my global reach isn’t so big after all . . .

• Google Search is my best friend • TechCrunch is always good for some link-bait • Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn ~10% • SpatiallyRelevant.org is patiently teaching me how to leverage all these tools

A Few Words About SpatiallyRelevant.org

spatially relevant • Alltop 25 Branding Blog • Alltop 25 Product Management Blog • 20+ Speaking Engagements a Year • 200+ RSS Readers • 2,370 Twitter Followers. 2,655 updates • 32,780 people have viewed his presentations on slideshare.net (I’m only up to 973)

Spatially has been kind enough to mentor me over the past six months. Before his intervention I averaged 5 views a day. I would have never gotten the leads that turned into gigs if Spatially had not taught me how to build demand via the web

• Owning a couple of Google search terms is handy • Calculating Enterprise Values is one of mine • Over 1/3rd of My Traffic is driven by people looking to figure out how to calculate the enterprise value of public and private companies

DevelopmentCorporate.com Blog Post How to Calculate the Enterprise Value of Private Companies How to Calculate Enterprise Value Why Google Employees Quit, Why Web 2.0 is Over, & Why Your Newborn Needs A Gmail Account The Cost of Financial Illiteracy Carlyle Group:How the Global Credit Meltdown has Changed the World of Private Equity Harvard Business Review - How to Outperform During This Recession Mary Meeker, Morgan Stanley "Queen of the Net: Economy + Internet Trends" How Much Are Mashable.com, DrudgeReport.com, & Gawker.com Worth? The Hedge Fund Transparency Act or "We have to Disclose WHAT to the SEC!" Cheating the Shorty Awards, Cerberus Layoffs, & Obama's Gatling Gun Suburban John C. Mecke | DevelopmentCorporate About Us | DevelopmentCorporate What Does a Trillion Dollars Really Look Like? SaaS Revenue Primer: Flux Analysis I Wish I Knew How to Monetize Social Media SaaS Revenue Primer: Tiering Analysis Monetizing Social Media: CiscoFatty.com If I were the Twitter Product Manager for a Day . . How to Pitch a VC the Marc Andreessen Way (aka Pitching Hacks at Stanford) Debunking Layoff Myths A 2009 Prescription for Venture Capital & Private Equity

% Page Views 18.6% 17.9% 7.7% 7.1% 6.6% 5.6% 4.7% 4.2% 3.9% 3.8% 2.9% 2.6% 2.3% 2.1% 1.7% 1.6% 1.5% 1.4% 1.4% 1.3% 1.3%

• Here’s a list of my top 25 posts • The two main ‘Money Pages’ are John C. Mecke (resume & bio) and About Us (credentials / experience)

Now for the Last Question: Am I Having Fun?

I am like a kid in a candy store. In the past six months I’ve rediscovered my love for writing and story telling and I’ve been able to use those skills to drive new gigs for my business