PhonePress WordPress Call Tracking Plugin

by Nick Holliday on March 4, 2011

Update:  I’m offering this plugin for FREE at this site:  PhonePress

PhonePress is a very simple WordPress plugin that I wrote to help me figure out what advertising was generating phone calls.  All it does is show a different phone number to visitors who came to the site by clicking a URL with a code in it.

This Can Be Very Powerful.  Especially for Offline Businesses!  It’s also great for CPA cost per call offers.  And really for anyone who has a phone number on their website!

PhonePress helps you make money

PhonePress is ideal for small businesses who make sales or appointments over the phone. If you’re sick and tired of “playing psychic” by guessing how many calls your Adwords or other marketing campaigns are generating, then this plugin is for you.

  • Prove to your clients that your advertising is generating calls.
  • Put Adwords on a Leash: Set up the equivalent of phone call conversion tracking for Adwords and Adcenter campaigns.
  • Quick and Easy Setup – set up PhonePress in minutes. It’s super easy.
  • Your clients no longer have to interrogate every single customer on how they heard about them.  When you have 20 internet campaigns, a customer saying they heard about you “on the internet” doesn’t help much anyways.
  • Measure the effectiveness of anything from a single promotion to an entire advertising medium.  You’re only limited by how many phone numbers you want to buy.
  • Get an Edge: Tracking phone calls is very important and can give local businesses a huge advantage. In the brutal marketplace, this kind of edge can be the difference between success and failure.

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Interview With Tom Hillegrass of SwimmingHoles.org

by Nick Holliday on January 31, 2011

I love swimming holes.  SwimmingHoles.org is a very cool site because it is really the only site providing information on outdoor natural swimming and it does so with an amazing breadth.

When I found out that the entire site is run by a couple of guys who do it for free, I wanted to know more.  So here is an interview with Tom Hillegrass, owner of SwimmingHoles.org and USCampgrounds.info.

Do you run SwimmingHoles.org and USCampgrounds.info both as nonprofits?  If so, why do you run them for free?

That red dot is me at my favorite swimming hole of all time. Click to get a better view.

A.  The SwimmingHoles.org web site was started by me and is operated purely as a hobby.  It produces no revenue and there is no plan that it ever will.   Any promotions that appear on the site are for causes that we believe in.

I now have the help of another devoted swimming hole fan and computer professional – David Hajdasz of Meriden, CT.  David has helped me with lots of information and photos over recent years and is now the webmaster for all the New England states.

The USCampgrounds.info web site is run by me only.

Neither web site produces income.

Here is why we do it:

Everyone has hobbies and for us this one fits exactly with the lifestyle we want to live.  We love to travel, camp, hike and explore.  We keep up with technology: the web, photography, GPS, mapping, communications, etc..  Tom is also a freelance writer and get lots of ideas and material from these travels.

Psychologists will tell you that the urge to collect things is a compulsion that eases some inner anxiety.  People collect Beanie Babies and bottle caps – we feel good that our compulsion results in lots of fun information that other people can use!

Also, we just like sharing information we have with other people so they can enjoy also.   I guess we just like people.

Do you have any for profit web projects?

A.  There is an iPhone/iPad app that uses the USCampgrounds.info database from which we make money.  It’s called “campwhere” and is available on iTunes.

Do you have a favorite swimming hole in North Carolina?  (my state)  How about in the entire US?

A.  In NC, I really like Davidson River Campground [for all these links, go to the page and then use your browser to search for the name of the swimming hole] and Carolina Hemlock.  In the whole US, I really like Treman State Park in NY and Cougar Hot Springs in OR.

Have you ever known anyone to be attacked by a snapping turtle at a swimming hole?

A.  No, I have never heard of this happening.  But I think snapping turtles are a problem in some Florida ponds.  We don’t have any FL ponds on the site.

Do you have any plans for new websites beyond Swimmingholes.org and USCampgrounds.info?

A.  No, they keep me pretty busy.

Have you discovered any interesting new websites or businesses lately?

Here is a great GPS/Mapping web site I use all the time:  Adam Schneider’s mapping utilities.

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Mental Health Therapist Marketing

January 25, 2011

I just posted a new white paper for mental health professionals over at my Lifestyle Practices Facebook page.  The topic is Marketing Strategies for MHP’s:  The View From 10,000 Feet and it will help you wrap your head around some of the more practical and ethical questions that face therapists. After you read it, please [...]

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Probate Real Estate Q&A with Ron Mead

January 24, 2011

I’ve been on the subject of probate recently.  I contacted Ron Mead in the course of doing research on buying businesses out of probate.  He was very knowledgeable and helpful, so I thought that I’d interview him to try to resolve some of my nagging questions about probate real estate investing.  For those interested in [...]

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Buying Businesses Out of Probate

January 17, 2011

Is it possible to buy businesses that are in probate?  What follows is a summary of my research.  This may be the only post you’ll find on the topic. As many of you know, I owned a real estate investment company for more than 5 years and I still dabble with it.  The key to [...]

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A Marketing System for Mental Health Professionals

January 11, 2011

I’ve been working on a new project that I’m very excited about.  Private practice psychologists and therapists are underserved when it comes to practice development.  That’s a shame because there are a lot of them and they serve an important function in the community. I began to address this problem when I wrote Internet Marketing [...]

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A Simply Litmus Test for Information Gathering

January 3, 2011

There is one single skill that is and will be the most important for the 21st century. That is the ability to wade through information and filter out the irrelevant. It is now common knowledge that the amount of info out there is growing at some ungodly rate. Most of it is trash. The vast [...]

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Jessica Mah Talks InDinero.com

July 26, 2010

Y Combinator funded InDinero.com launched less than a month ago, but it’s already gaining traction.  Billed as a “Mint for Small Businesses,” it’s business model is fascinating because of it’s simplicity and the very real problem that it solves. Founder Jessica Mah took time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions about [...]

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My Author Page is Up at Amazon.com

May 28, 2010

My new author page is up at Amazon.com.  Check out Nick Holliday’s author page.

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Review of Rework

April 15, 2010

When you’re reading a book of quotes, you pause after each quote.  Some are insightful, some motivating, and some almost transcendental. But sometimes you get to a quote that contradicts one of the other quotes.  Both quotes are compelling and seem correct.  I mean one is by Aristotle and one is by the Buddha.  But [...]

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