CTR, or Click Through Rate, is key.  The higher the CTR the greater the chance for a sales conversion.  Awareness alone is not enough in advertising.  The ultimate goal is to create a legitimate sales conversion by matching customer needs to your product or service.  Advertising revenue will be a key aspect of the new Facebook IPO.  See below for one benchmark investors will examine:

Many of the keys points center around patience, attention, and value.  How often we ignore, either through omission or commission, those attributes of life and marketing.  He says it so well I need to stop and just let you read:.

Thanks, Seth.  You hit gold:

How to make money online, by Seth Godin:

1. “The first step is to stop Googling things like, “how to make money online.” Not because you shouldn’t want to make money online, but because the stuff you’re going to find by doing that is going to help you lose money online. Sort of like asking a casino owner how to make money in Vegas…
2. Don’t pay anyone for simple and proven instructions on how to achieve this goal. In particular, don’t pay anyone to teach you how to write or sell manuals or ebooks about how to make money online.
3. Get rich slow.
4. Focus on the scarce resource online: attention. If you try to invent a way to take cheap attention and turn it into cash, you will fail. The attention you want isn’t cheap, it’s difficult to get via SEO and it rarely scales. Instead, figure out how to earn expensive attention.”

Hungry for more gold?  Read all 21 tips on Seth’s blog link below:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/05/how-to-make-money-online.html

“What’s a keyword,” you might ask?  Keywords are specific phrases and words that individuals type to find your website.  An internet search is a conversation going on inside the head of a person. Google keeps track of all these searches, organizes them, and then matches word and phrase trends to your website.  You might guess or think you know the best search phrases.  You don’t.  However, Google knows by keeping track and then indexing search content by categories and websites.

Remember: typing in your company name reveals little to nothing in a Google search.  You know your company name, but a prospective customer does not.  They search by product categories not company names.  Keywords are exactly those specific categories and descriptors.

Google won’t consider your website home–a place it likes to visit–without relevant keywords.  When Google visits, it remembers and tells its friends.  Once you grab Google’s attention with targeted keywords and weekly new content, Google comes back for more.  That’s the benefit of a blog integrated into your website.  There’s just no substitute for content using the right keywords.
You can discover targeted words using Google’s Keywords Tool.  It’s free.  Simply Google, “Google keywords tool.”  Then explore.  Below are some tips:

• Click on the tool link and then enter a keyword or phrase relevant to your business.  Now click, “Search” and wait for Google to gather your keywords list.
• Focus on words with the highest local searches.
• Focus on words with a balance of lower/medium competition yet higher search frequencies.
• Pick five to fifteen leading key words.
• Add these words to your website’s page content using a natural, not robotic writing style.  Bullet point descriptions are often helpful.
• If you have a Google Adwords account, the keyword tool gives even more detail.  Use it.
• Watch Twitter hash tag (#) search trends to locate relevant keywords.
• Consider advanced keyword analysis tools such as Market Samurai or WordTracker.  You pay for these so try the Google tool first.

Open doors.  Don’t lock customers out.  Keep your digital doors & options open through the effective use of dynamic content and relevant keywords.

This circle of learning works well.  It’s an “edu-business” model.  Clients and students both learn.  The real world blended with the classroom.  It’s a triple win.  And, if you integrate digital and social media marketing with this mix it continues to win.

Harvard and MIT are adding an online element to their educational marketing mix.  Brilliant.  The transition, or should we say, addition, is from campus to computer.  I love their new “EdX” partnership.  They bring the best in education to the online classroom.  It’s both disruptive and innovative at the same time.  Think of it: one can go to both Harvard and MIT at the same time in the comfort of your own computer.

Take a view of this video for more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6ELdIRkRU

Don’t be late to class…

Central to Patricia’s speaking secret is one concept: the story.  If you can tell a good story you can connect with both yourself and your audience.  A good story shortens the message and accelerates the punch.  There is simply no substitute for a good story.  None.

Watch this short video of Patricia Fripp in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvQqSSxzJkQ

So the next time you speak, find the story to enhance and drive home your  point.  As she notes, your audience may not remember your content, but they will remember your story.  A good story is the antidote for forgetfulness.  The perfect story creates the perfect memory.  The perfect story creates action.  So the next time you speak, tell a story.  Not just any story but the story that tells itself and drives home your message.  And remember, stories don’t just tell–they also sell.