Good morning and happy Monday. š„°Ā
Got another packed issue here this morning. While also being in the process of brainstorming a few potential changes. Possibly even the name of this newsletter, but we shall see. šĀ
For todayās issue, though, Iām going to try a subtle change. Instead of having one official āarticle of the weekā like we used to, I may move toward a few smaller sections instead. It allows more flexibility that way and makeās it easier to offer something for everybody.
Hereās whatās on the menu for this issueā¦
Still using Google Analytics? š«¢Ā
Is ThriveCart having issues? šĀ
Strategy: Being willing to question the norms (in your business) ā¤ļøĀ
Some tool news and updates you may be interested in. šĀ
So, letās get movināā¦
Featured Article
Still Using Google Analytics?
Google is still in the lead because, wellā¦ it is āfreeā. āFreeā if youāre OK with your site being part of their data mining machine, that is. š But, stillā¦ the way they have forced this āupgradeā to GA4 has been annoying for many.
Are you still using Google Analytics? Do you have any idea WHY? Because most just use it as some kind of default or because big-name plugins like MonsterInsights are programmed to work with it. They havenāt considered that there are other options.
Google Analytics 4 is a pain to use. Are you powering through the pain or have you ditched it for an alternative and if so what?
If you are using something else beyond some of the more common solutions below... what is it #WordPress#webdesign#webdevelopment#Webflow
— Carl Hancock ššØš· (@carlhancock)
Jul 19, 2023
Carl is the founder of Gravity Forms. And in his poll on Twitter, 57% of respondents were still using GA. Fathom (my personal choice) came in as #2 with 20%.
Some other alternatives were mentioned. Plausible is one which looks pretty good. I didnāt even know Cloudflare had one, but they do. Some others were mentioned in the thread.
Point isā¦ there are alternatives. Youāre not stuck with Google Analytics. Most people just use it by default and then donāt even bother to look at the data. It isnāt useful at all if you never look! Plus, GA is so damn complicated that the data isnāt even all that useful to most people.
You want to know whatās going on with your site. But, you also donāt want to get overwhelmed with numbers. I would recommend using the pain of the GA4 migration as an opportunity to re-visit how you track your stats and also which stats are even important for you to bother looking at.
As I said, I personally prefer Fathom. In fact, all my Concierge clients are able to use Fathom, too. And most do.
Being Willing To Question The Norms
More and more, I think times are rife to think a little differently about the way things are usually done. And usually.. in the direction of making things simpler.
See, every trend in online business grows and then thereās a pile on. Then, overwhelm sets in because everybody does the same thing.
When everybody is doing the same thing, thatās a great time to start looking at other directions. And at least re-think it instead of just following the ass in front of you.
A few examples just to get you thinkingā¦
Iāve seen people make thousands of dollars using a āsales pageā that was literally written in a Google Doc. Nothing fancyā¦ just good copy. Call to action straight to a checkout page. Lesson: You donāt need a big, fancy landing page on your website to make sales.
So many people are putting out big online courses with lots of videos. But, people are overwhelmed already and want LESS to do, not more. So, buck the trend and simplify. Maybe skip the videos and just do a written course. Or, make the course succinct and something they can do an hour. Lesson: When others are trying to pack in more, you give less. As a result, better results because thatās what people really want anyway - less work.
So many people starting blogs. Why not start a newsletter instead?
Just this morning, I saw Ryan Lee talking about a āPDF Membershipā. Basically, a recurring membership offer where the deliverable is just PDF files. No videos, courses, or any of that. Justā¦ super useful stuff for your members delivered in PDFs they can print and use. Iām going to ponder that one. šĀ
Think about it. I know I am.
It is too easy to follow the ass in front of you. It is too easy to get overly consumed in āfancyā and fool yourself into thinking that looking ābigā and āprofessionalā online is the key to revenue. But, Iāve seen far too many examples of otherwise. Often, simpler is much better. And doing things differently than the herd is the more effective strategy.
Thrivecart Having Issues?
In the past, I used Thrivecart in my business. I also said good things about it. And to be clear, even though I donāt use Thrivecart anymore, I still think it is a good platform. Butā¦
Over the last few months, it feels as if the community of Thrivecart users have been getting anxious about the platform. And it recently flared up because of some bugs in a transition to itās āenhanced paymentsā. Quite a lot of problems reported. It seems as if it has all been fixed up now, but the perceived lack of communication really flared things up. And there has been an increased level of complaints in their Facebook group.
Weird thing is, the Thrivecart team isnāt very proactive about communication. They go long periods of time without posting any updates. It also doesnāt help that the company acquired ConvertBox and then development on that platform basically stalled. Seemingly forever.
Iām also concerned that theyāve never flipped the switch on their lifetime pricing. It made for a nice selling point, but the idea was always that it was time-limited and eventually theyād move to a recurring monthly model. But, here we are all this time later and nothing has changed. In fact, their homepage still promotes the lifetime offer as a āspecial offerā - with a countdown timer and everything - and it is just outright FAKE.
Not only that, but lifetime pricing doesnāt incentivize rapid development nor good support. Even funding it could be difficult. We have no way to know. We can only judge from the outside.
So, Thrivecart is a good platform. Theyāve done a great job with it and it is pretty solid. But, I have concerns.
Plus, once youāve switched to WooCommerce and something like CartFlows, it is hard to have any desire to use Thrivecart anymore. The flexibility of having your own platform just canāt be beat. You can read more about why I switched away from Thrivecart and to WooCommerce here.
Also, I can help you make this transition if you want. Iāll do it for you so itāll be nice and painless.
Techie Bits
FluentCRM received a nice update that introduces some cool features and two new integrations many people will like. Those integrations are TutorLMS and SureCart. Now, keep in mindā¦ the SureCart integration isnāt going to be as deep as WooCommerce because SureCart is remotely hosted and the data isnāt local. But, this SureCart integration does open up some nice automation possibilities.
TutorLMS 2.2.3 was released with some new features and improvements, such as you can now make your course sidebar sticky and showcase certificates on the course landing page.
BeeHiiv has announced AI integration for newsletter owners. While Iām not a big proponent of using AI to āwriteā content (because thereās no value there for the reader), but the AI image generation right in the editor is pretty cool! I may use it from time to time. It is only for paid plans, of course, and there are usage thresholds depending on the plan level.
The folks behind Learndash have launched their own membership plugin. It is called MemberDash. Thatās an interesting move for them, considering the membership plugin space is already fairly mature and has a lot of options. Plus, at quick glance, doesnāt seem to be any compelling reason to use MemberDash since it is so new and barely integrates with anything. But, will be interesting to see how it develops over time.
WP Fusion has launched a new update to their Media Tools plugin that has full, native integration with the block builder. Functionally, tho, you can now easily tag users as they watch videos on your site. A use case might be to put a webinar recording on your site and tag people at the point in the video where the call to action shows upā¦ using that to trigger followups.
Hereās a live demo and Q&A about the upcoming release of WordPress 6.3.
Whenever youāre ready, hereās how I can help you:
Concierge: Iāll be your āweb guyā, helping to maintain your site for you do you donāt have to think about it. Also includes access to my agency plugin licenses, site analytics, and a massive discount on any potential project work on your site.
Iāll Do It For You: Via my technical services, I can dive into your site and take care of the complex stuff for you. Whether it be just some tweaksā¦ or building out a full membership site and marketing automation funnel, I can ensure your WordPress site is working for you and not the other way around.
Book A Call Anytime. Via a private one-on-one call, Iāll make your businessā¦ my business. Easy peasy.
ONEPass - All Access Pass To Every Course In The Library. For as little as 25 cents per day, you can unlock every course in the Blog Marketing Academy library.
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