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a look into my sentbox

ninja challenge fb ads

nice dude - looks pretty good. few thoughts:

1) your gyms campaign looks like cpcs are coming in really cheap (see 


View on screencast.com ») may try increasing the budget or bid there. generally increasing the bid gets your more penetration (e.g., you "reach" for of the total target) and increasing budget just increases frequency (e.g., # of times your ad is shown to a single person).

2) the other key thing your missing right now is some way to track conversions from an ad. you should talk to your brother to see if he can set up some way to tracking referrer tags. for instance w/ udemy on our ads we do something like this udemy.com/?ref=ads.facebook.campaignname.adname

then whenever that link is clicked it's stored in our system and we can track conversions back to it (e.g., we can look at people who clicked that ad and then see if they signed up or if they made a purchase, etc, etc).

obv that's more advanced stuff, but w/o that it'll be tough for you to figure out which target group is actually converting the best. 

3) tracking conversion to your site is actually less relevant though given that most of your ads are running at your facebook page (because you can see how many people like the page in the "connections" column on facebook. so i guess you could just keep the ads running their, try and build a big facebook page and then re-market to them by posting to the page. it's a very typical strategy a lot of folks follow and if you do it right you can often run ads that will get you likes on your page for as cheap as 10 cents.

if you do follow that route i would also suggest making sure your custom landing page on your facebook page loads quickly (it seemed to be loading really slowly for me... maybe the image is too big...) and I'd also modify it so that you point at the "Like" button. It's really key to drawing the users attention - see http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/how-to-create-a-facebook-page-and-landing-page-updated-with-code-psd-files/

4) it looks like some of your ads need modifications. e.g., your "other running events" or "young professionals" are running at a really small target groups (see 


View on screencast.com ») may need to either expand the target group or increase the bid.

5) your CTRs are generally really high though which is awesome... so i wouldn't worry too much about changing creative (you really only change creative to increase CTR). 

hot startups

nice - yeah lets definitely try to chill when you're in town. you going to be coming up to SF at all? can try and schedule some lunch / porch-chillin.

jobs wise, not gonna lie man - going to recommend against doing any consulting / finance. consulting is def a waste of time in my opinion - you learn how to think in a structured way (but you already kill it on that front)... everything else in bs. finance is ok and you make a ton of bank, but unless you're really into finance I don't think it's worth it. a lot of kids get sucked in as it's a typical path to go down after school. unless you're really into it, I think you could be doing a lot cooler sht that still has big upside (via equity).

obv gonna push startups and sf tech scene. companies that are growing really fast and doing cool shit:

dinesh

online marketing / startup reading material

hey man - here's a list of good stuff/sites to dig into:

http://andrewchenblog.com/ (andrew chen's blog - the essays are very solid though info isn't always as tactical)
http://okdork.com/ (noah kagan's blog - very sharp marketer)
http://startup-marketing.com/ (sean ellis blog - good stuff)
http://startupdigest.com/ (sign-up for their email newsletters -- partic the reading lists & event lists)
quora.com (q&a site with a wealth of tech & online marketing related content)
http://venturehacks.com/ (bit more funding related, but still good)
http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/ (great general online marketing advice... more for blogs than startups, but still really good)

dinesh

job descriptions

Yo - So Udemy job decriptions are here - http://www.udemy.com/static/jobs.html. I basically wrote these.

Key things I tried to include:

1) 1-liner on the role
2) About Udemy - I think it's important to lead off with this section and really have it pack some punch. Ultimately you're selling people on the company (not just the job) so I tried to write it such that it gets folks amped about Udemy, our mission, and the success we've had to date.
3) Position Description - Most of this I just pulled from other startup job descriptions that I liked. Tried to talk up the aspects of the job that make it really exciting (e.g., you're one of the first business hires) and then have a "requirements" section that gives the resume base-line we're looking for and an "expectations" section that more hits on cultural things that we're looking for.
4) Compensation & Work - I keep this a bit vague, but state where the position is based and key aspects of comp (full-time salary, benefits, etc, etc).

When I post this to other sites I also include a "Udemy in the News" section with links to some of our best press so folks can ready more about Udemy and get pumped

Udemy in the News

That's basically the jist. Nothing special or crazy here.

Also, going to make a Udemy plug and recommend that if you're going to do a bunch of hiring you take our course on "Hiring, Attracting, and Retaining the Best People". It's one of my favorite courses and while it's geared more for startups, it's broadly applicable to any hiring. Has all sorts of killer tips on how to hire, where to post descriptions, what to put on your jobs page, how to interview / close candidates. It's good shit (and only $19).

Hit me back if you need other info,

dinesh

online marketing articles to check out

Hey Guys - Few articles worth checking out re: online marketing, guest blogging, seo, facebook ads, etc.

Guest Blogging
http://www.viperchill.com/guest-blogging/

Facebook Ads:

SEO:
http://www.viperchill.com/wordpress-seo/ (particularly good for onpage seo)
http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/the-backlinking-strategy-that-works/ (generally this guys site is excellent for online marketing; this link in particular is for a very powerful backlinking strategy he uses; be smart about implementing, but def works)
http://www.elance.com/s/sarve/ (profile of a dude, Sarvy, who I used to use on Elance to build forum style backlinks [also known as Paul / Angela style backlinks]; He'd charge $75 per 100 backlinks; sometimes this stuff is very bogus, but his were good and I was able to rank for quite a few keywords using him
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal (use this to get traffic estimates for various keywords you're targeting)

General Blogging Advice:

Also, re: Guest Blogging I wrote up this process for a friend a few months back. This is basically what I'd do:

The quick run down on what we tried to do when we were more actively guest posting is as follows:
1) ideally, leave a few comments on the blog and try to interact with the author before hand. A lot of bloggers respond to all their comments, so this is an easy way to get an authors attention.
2) see if they have a section on the site about guest posting. if they do, try to follow those guidelines.
3) get the bloggers email through friends, linkedin, their website, etc.
4) have the article already written
5) email the blogger. follow advice from outspokenmedia article. In the email I would tell them the the title of the article + the word count. I would typically then attach a .txt with the full article already written in html (e.g., using <strong> tags for bolding, etc, etc). This way they can read it right then if they want and it's already set to be posted if they like it.

You are awesome.

Hey Ben - Sure thing. Responses are below in red.

On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 11:47 AM, Ben Rigby wrote:

Hi Dinesh.

This is Ben Rigby, co-founder of Sparked.com… writing to ask for your feedback/input on some new product features that we’re thinking about.

You already know this, but you are awesome. You’ve won an Award of Excellence at Sparked. When we created Sparked, we didn’t know how hard/easy these would be to win… as it turns out, it’s hard. While there are some exceptions, nonprofits have tended to be stingy with these. So, it’s a real achievement to win one.

SO, as a top Sparked volunteer, I’ve love to pick your brain a little bit. We’re thinking about a new set of career/job focused features.

We’d showcase top volunteers and the great work that you do. It’d be like an online resume on steroids… because it’d show your actual work… rather than just a resume of your work. In sum: we’d help you demonstrate how smart you are – and connect you with companies that are looking for people like you.

Questions:

  1. Are you looking for a new job? No, not at the moment.

  2. Would you want to use Sparked as a way to demonstrate your expertise? Not really, for me, Sparked is a feel good thing and I like to do it simply because I like helping people. If I was actively trying to demostrate my expertise it'd feel less like helping people and more like boosting my resume or making myself look good.

  3. Would you want (or not want) Sparked to help match you with a job on the basis of your skills and interests (similar to how we match you with a Weekly Challenge)? This could be interesting. You guys do get some pretty great data from me re: my skills and what niches I'm interested in. If I was looking for a job, I probably wouldn't mind receiving a short-list of jobs you think are up my alley... so long as it was executed well and more of a side-bar.

  4. Any other comments/thoughts? I think the bread and butter of Sparked is something like "enabling people to share their talents and expertise to help others." I think it's a great positioning and a large market and I wouldn't change that. If you're looking into alternative revenue streams, I think you're on the right track re: smart targeting using the killer user data you get. I just wouldn't change your core positioning.

Just reply to this email with your answers. Thanks so much! I really appreciate your time and thoughts.

-ben

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Ben Rigby Co-founder www.sparked.com the microvolunteering network 594 Howard St. #202 San Francisco, CA 94110 TED Talk: http://spkd.us/rigbytedxnasa Book: http://spkd.us/mbgen2

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