Kelley Marsh

I make things better. I amuse myself in the meantime.

Author: Kelley

  • Basically right, basically all of the time.

    A whole lot of us go through life assuming that we are basically right, basically all the time, about basically everything: about our political and intellectual convictions, our religious and moral beliefs, our assessment of other people, our memories, our grasp of facts. As absurd as it sounds when we stop to think about it,…

  • Multitasking is just poor impulse control.

    “People don’t multitask because they’re good at it. They do it because they are more distracted. They have trouble inhibiting the impulse to do another activity.” from NPR.org on multi-tasking

  • Female User Interface Problem

    It’s like male geeks don’t know how to deal with real live women, so they just assume it’s a user interface problem.  Not their fault. They’ll just wait for the next version to come out – something more “user friendly.” Microserfs, Douglas Coupland

  • Type-A Personality Disease Transmission Vectors

    Ethan says Type-A personalities have a whole subset of diseases that they, and only they, share, and the transmission vector for these diseases is the DOOR CLOSE button on elevators that only get pushed by impatient, Type-A people.  Ethan pushes these buttons with his elbow, now.  I’m starting to worry  about all of us. Microserfs,…

  • ask not what your website can do for you

    I was talking to an agent friend the other day, and she was asking me about her site analytics, wanting to better understand bounce rate and page views and whatnot.  Like many in the industry that consider themselves tech-savvy, she has a Google Analytics account for her business site and faithfully checks those numbers –…

  • the answer is always more data

    I’m convinced the answer is always in the data.  At least, as far as generating business is concerned. There’s a whole treasure of answers, just sitting there waiting – you just have to have the analysis cycles in place to take advantage of it.  Do you know what people are searching for most often in…

  • how to ensure you’re always worse than you could be

    I’m a little OCD.  I’m a little exacting, and precise. I blame it on my background. I’ve got an engineering degree where I was taught to define and measure systems.  To improve performance, reduce risk, to evaluate alternatives and measure results.  I spent a quarter century in a ballet studio, perfecting the nuances of both…

  • does anyone really get any mobile traffic on their sites?

    I keep hearing how mobile is the next big thing.  And I don’t disagree.  More and more, I do everything I want and/or need from my Blackberry.  So when I hear consistent chatter about an ever increasing wave of mobile users, it makes me think: How do I, as a business, prepare for and capitalize…

  • fun with google analytics

    Two cool things some folks don’t know about You can have Google Analytics email you when you have odd patterns in your analytics You can create advanced segments to look at specific groups of site visitors.   First.  Creating custom email alerts. Ever had a day when your traffic went crazy?  Someone linked to you…

  • your contact form sucks

    I’m tempted to just end this post right here. But let’s dive deeper, just for sport. First of all, I’m probably looking at your contact form because you haven’t published your email addresses in a prominent manner.  I hunted around for your email address.  I tried hard to find it, and I’m good at finding…

  • Tags, Magic, and Hell Bunny

    I was doing some site consulting for a friend of mine today, helping her get more people to the site and purchasing items – it’s a retail clothing store, a basic WordPress site with an eCommerce plugin. In the online store, she had fastidiously added tags to each item for sale because several people had…

  • Rethinking Fancy Flyers

    So I had this idea the other day. Being a data geek, I want to be able to track what does and doesn’t work in my marketing, I want to put as many numbers behind my marketing plan as possible. Take the humble in-home flyer, for instance.  They’re usually a showy display of photos of…

  • Overcoming Fear of the Click – And Learning Curiosity

    I was at a conference last week, participating in a discussion about search engine optimization for real estate agents.  The target was to cover basics – an introduction to the concept of being found online.  It never matters how basic you attempt to make something – there’s always someone who needs it even simpler (and…

  • it’s not about you. it never was.

    An agent emailed me the other day and shared her site with me, frustrated that it didn’t get her any business because – in her mind – it lacked enough information. Her site, in a nutshell: If I were a consumer, a potential client, I’d be gone in a heartbeat too.  I’m sure she’s a…

  • relentless follow-through

    i love this post from The Marketing Minute about relentless follow-through. it is the concept of ‘relentless’ that i appreciate. to do something continuously and conscientiously, in a planned and systematic manner. to demonstrate that you care enough to keep trying, to keep doing what you said you’d do, until a proper end point is…