Greg's Right FIT #416

Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week. 

In this issue: 

- Thoughts on Gifts
- Being Human
- Random Stuff

Thoughts on Gifts

• Good gift giving says the dollar amount isn't what makes the gift, knowledge of the recipient is. They'll be happy it came from you, and the gift shows some thought into who you think they are, right or wrong.
• If you get a gift, you're obliged to say thank you, but you're under no obligation to keep it forever. A gift is a gesture of thoughfulness not a puppy. 
• When low on ideas, consider stationary. It's my firm belief that if we all hand wrote a few more notes to one another the world would be a better place. 
• In January give an unexpected gift. From experience, I can tell you that receiving an unexpected gift explained by, "I saw this and thought you'd enjoy it," is pleasantly jarring.

Being Human - Shortcuts

"Every man should have aunts. They illustrate the triumph of guess work over logic.”― Agatha Christie

It pays to ask questions about the information you're relying on. Not always monetarily, sometimes it's in hours spent on a task. 

I help a law firm with their new business efforts. Part of this work is advice on their website. Specifically the efforts to attract people who might need an attorney. It's as much art as science, especially now that the biggest search engines are integrating AI and ML to help the searcher get to the right result. In the past, you could fool the search engine (somewhat) and get to the top of a results page, but the old ways don't work as well. Part of the reason is the algorithms Google/Bing use on the back end of their search engines. A bigger part of it is their postioning ad space and attempts to answer search questions to keep you on their page. It's more difficult. It takes more effort. 

This law firm is on the right track by focusing their lawyers on writing short articles addressing the most common questions they get asked. If the people that call them have a question, it's a good bet people are asking the search engines the same question and not calling. The next level of content for their website is where my time-saving tactics help. What are the other questions people ask Google? How do we make content for them? 

The attorneys have been advised to turn to a database of common searches for this. Tools like Google's keyword planning tool, SEMrush/Ahrefs/Moz' databases, or things like Google Trends. These are great, but this is where it helps to question where that information is coming from and what it's there to do. It's a step up from guessing, but it's still a guess. You're asking busy lawyers to make content on something that may or may not work based on how popular the tool says a search is. 

My advice is to skip the tools and buy ads on phrases around the problems you solve. In Google Ad's reporting tool they'll show you about 30% of the actual search terms people are using. It's not much, but compared to applying a best guess via an SEO tool, it's better to use specifics first. It's not like this is a newsroom and the lawyers are writing a new article every day. We're lucky to get six new pieces in a year. Best to make each one relate to specific questions or categories of questions. 

It works. I swear. If you're looking to beef up your website, start with the questions you are asked right now. (Not the questions you wished you were asked, actual questions. They're usually boring, that's how I know they're real.) Then, spend a little money to save some time. With $300 (about what the lawyers charge per hour), you can get hundreds of searches and see dozens of actual search terms. Use the purchased information before you guess. It will save time and work better than you expect.  

Random Stuff

"I've always been famous, it's just no one knew it yet."–Lady Gaga

A lot of people are asking about my favorite time of year. (a lot meaning, no one) I'll tell you. It's this time of year. It's my favorite because a lot happens in spite of the daylight hours being at a premium. My lovely bride and I celebrate our anniversary. There are parties like the winter solstice one we just attended. There's no shortage of chocolate. Plus, we get to see friends and family. What's not to like? 

As I mentioned last week, one drawback is sports. Especially when my teams lose. And they lose a lot. One lost just last night. 

To keep it from ruining my mood, I try to focus on the good things I listed. Oh, and my brushes with greatness. There are a number of times where I've come into close contact with famous people. Vanilla Ice, Steve Miller, Brett Favre, Billy Corgan, Michael Hutchence. I know all the words to "Last of the Famous International Playboys." 

Surprisingly, I don't know many famous people well. I didn't grow up with any. No one from my grade school. A few kids in high school went on to moderate fame, like playing pro sports or being implicated in a white collar crime scandal. One of my college friends married a semi-famous politician. A guy I worked with won both the Showcase Showdowns on Price is Right. Things like that, but no one really famous. Like Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Just think, if you went to a single high school in Boston you could say, 'I know those guys" at every holiday party, every year. 

I know I would. 

Instead, I'll be telling stories about my compost squash and maybe something about how Bianca the cat has discovered the toilet paper roll. She's quite good at destroying them. 

If I don't see you over the holidays, know I'm thinking about you.

(and I'm secretly hoping you become really famous before next year, so I have some good stories to tell)