Matthew Watts

Dropshipping: The Future of eCommerce and Product Marketing

Matthew Watts — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 23:26:15 +0000

Looking to sell products online but don’t like to keep inventory, invest a lot of money to test out the viability of a new niche, or have to deal with the hassle of shipping products yourself? Dropshipping is for you. Dropshipping is nothing new in the business world, or online. However, over the last couple of years it’s really taken off since Internet Marketers have been diversifying their income with all the crazy regulations that they’ve started getting hit with that killed off the revenue streams they were using to make money. Why is Dropshipping the future? Zero Inventory Complete Customization Scalability Zero Inventory With traditional eCommerce models, there’s a [...]

Dropshipping: The Future of eCommerce and Product Marketing is a post from Matthew Watts' blog.

PHP Tutorial 2: Advanced Data Scraping Using cURL And XPATH

Matthew Watts — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 01:59:23 +0000

Ever wanted to get a list of information such as URLs, Articles, tabular data, or whatever else that you know is on one website or across multiple websites, then manipulate it to reuse elsewhere? Stop wondering, because we are about to get down to business! There’re many ways to scrape / mine data, but I’ve found that the easiest and most efficient way is to use a combination of cURL and XPATH. cURL is neat because it will easily let you use proxies, manipulate browser information, catch errors, etc. XPATH is great because you don’t need to write a bunch of regular expressions or other functions to manage the data [...]

PHP Tutorial 2: Advanced Data Scraping Using cURL And XPATH is a post from Matthew Watts' blog.

How Well Do Your Landing Pages Convert?

Matthew Watts — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 15:56:53 +0000

Anyone who’s been around the Internet for more than 5 minutes has stumbled across some pretty nasty landing pages. Do any of these look like stuff you’ve done? 5,000+ characters of sales copy with little to no whitespace No call to action immediately visible without scrolling Or Worse – No conversion form immediately visible If you cringed at those points and nodded, then that’s good! Admittance is the first step to recovery. 3 Things You Should Be Doing To Convert Whitespace Is Your Friend Whitespace: the portions of a page intentionally left unmarked by text or graphics. Too many people try and either cram too much into a small area [...]

How Well Do Your Landing Pages Convert? is a post from Matthew Watts' blog.

What Type of Affiliate Marketer Are You?

Matthew Watts — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 02:12:57 +0000

For some reason or another, more and more people seem to be posting on WickedFire that have ethical dilemmas with affiliate marketing. Another one of these threads popped up just before my class last Thursday. Is affiliate marketing ethical? This is the big question these people have. At its core, affiliate marketing is just helping one company get extra business and you getting a percentage of its profits. There are no shades of gray. Like any business model, there are many ways to go about it; not all of them are ethical. Products for the ethically conscious This brings us to the subject of the post. There was a guest [...]

What Type of Affiliate Marketer Are You? is a post from Matthew Watts' blog.

Understanding Innovations in Web Input

Matthew Watts — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 21:10:28 +0000

With all the new innovations happening in the Web every day, it’s easy to just block it out of your mind and stick to what you know. I recently came across a discussion with Luke Wroblewski discussing innovations in web input. It’s pretty slow moving, but there are a few gems. Three Areas of Input Rich interactions with input Input can come from anywhere Leverage already inputted information Rich Interactions with Input An example Luke discussed for this is Google’s Instant Search. A visitor is inputting information and getting real-time results that appear almost magically as they type. This helps the visitor feel like they are really engaged with the [...]

Understanding Innovations in Web Input is a post from Matthew Watts' blog.

Optimizing Website Usability and Conversions with Userfly

Matthew Watts — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:21:33 +0000

Have you ever wondered how users were interacting with your website? Traditionally this is a very expensive and awkward process, because you would need to bring someone in to observe how they use it. Even then, there would be some obscurity because they knew you were watching. What if I told you that there is an easier way? What if I told you that it’s also anonymous? What if I told you that it was free? With Userfly, all of that is possible. Website Usability Testing When designing a website, there’s only so much you can do to enhance the user experience. In the end, each person is going to [...]

Optimizing Website Usability and Conversions with Userfly is a post from Matthew Watts' blog.

Building Accessible Websites with Users in Mind

Matthew Watts — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 02:01:19 +0000

Have you been on a website where the color scheme or text size were so annoying that it made you frustrated to be on it? I have recently. A SERP tracker I am beta testing for swapped layouts for the 3rd time and used a 6px font-size on a white background. That was painful, especially since I was having a migraine at the time and just logged in for a second to check my rankings before taking a nap. Website accessibility isn’t just about building websites for people with physical disabilities – it’s about improving the user experience for everyone. That simple change in font size severely impaired my use [...]

Building Accessible Websites with Users in Mind is a post from Matthew Watts' blog.

Using Web Typography to Increase Conversion Rates and SEO

Matthew Watts — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 03:55:00 +0000

Have a website that just isn’t pulling in the conversions you know it can? How about its SERP rankings? If you’ve done all you can to increase them but just can’t, then chances are you aren’t optimizing your website effectively. Several days ago, someone posted on a WickedFire case study about how of little importance on-site optimization is. In my reply I was discussing how it should be high on your priority list because it not only compounds the effectiveness of your off-site optimization results, but increases your conversion rates if done right. After I posted my reply, I got to thinking about one of my last comments in the [...]

Using Web Typography to Increase Conversion Rates and SEO is a post from Matthew Watts' blog.

Google Instant Search – An Internet Marketing Nightmare

Matthew Watts — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:02:36 +0000

Google’s been rolling out major changes right and left over the last year. First it was Google Caffeine which brought real-time search. Then it was the Mayday update a couple months ago that completely reshaped long-tail keyword searches. It’s been a crazy year for SEO’s and Internet Marketers. Now, what if I were to tell you that Google’s latest change will have an even more profound impact? It’s looking that way. Google’s New Changes Yesterday Google was was testing 20-30 results showing on the first page at a time at varying data centers. Today, Google announced their Instant Search. The 20-30 results being shown by default on the first page [...]

Google Instant Search – An Internet Marketing Nightmare is a post from Matthew Watts' blog.

The Importance of Developing with Web Standards

Matthew Watts — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:46:26 +0000

You know that feeling you get when you’re driving down the Interstate and there are a few large trucks and tractor trailers all around you, the wind is blowing their trailers toward you, and then out of nowhere a car comes within 3 inches of hitting you as it drives up from behind you and passes you in that tiny space between you and the tractor trailers—all without using their blinker? It makes you want to scream because of how inconsiderate it was and could have really hurt your car, yes; you care more about your car at that moment than realizing you could have died in a wreck. I [...]

The Importance of Developing with Web Standards is a post from Matthew Watts' blog.