PRWeb announced that customers can now distribute their press releases
directly to hundreds of regional media outlets and trade publications through
its new Targeted Media Digests feature. These "new media digests" will allow
customers of the popular press release distribution service to increase their
media exposure in local news outlets as well as trade publications. Ahhh.... old
meets new - sweet!
"Our aim is to help our customers communicate to as broad an audience as
possible," said Bill Wagner, Chief Marketing Officer of Vocus, Inc. "Now we
can provide our customers with traditional online visibility benefits, such as
search-engine optimization, pick-up on major news sites and RSS and social media
distribution, as well as increasing their visibility within their local outlets
and industry trade publications."
But will it work? Distributing press releases is only half the media relations
battle. Getting picked up is another story entirely. Let's hope that PRWeb has
established formal connections with the recipients of these "digests" to ensure
that what customers are paying for (exposure) ends up as a genuine mention on
the Web and in print.
Customers can choose from four regional digests, North, Midwest, South and East,
as well as from four Industry-focused digests, Business, Information Technology,
Health Care and Travel & Hospitality. Inclusion in one Targeted Media Digest is
complimentary for customers who purchase the social media visibility ($140)
package or SEO visibility ($200) package. Customers who purchase the media
visibility ($360) package can choose two Targeted Media Digests in which to
include their news release. Customers can also purchase inclusion in individual
media digests for $50 per digest.
The
Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the release of some Revised
Ad Unit and Rich Media Creative Guidelines, which is expected to eliminate
"points of friction" in the online ad buying process. The guidelines cover
standard Web applications including e-mail, static and dynamic Web pages and
address ad formats such as banners and buttons as well as transitional and
various over-the-page units such as floating ads, page take-overs and
tear-backs.
“Marketers understand that in the new digital ecosystem, the consumer
expects an enhanced level of interaction and engagement with both content and
advertising,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “By
defining certain ad formats and offering creative guidance for execution, we are
paving the way for even greater adoption by marketers and ongoing innovation by
agencies and publishers—that’s exciting for the industry and consumers.”
Network for Good has partnered with the Case Foundation (aka Steve Case,
founder of AOL) on a contest that challenges developers to build mashups that
make it easier for nonprofits to raise money online. The two best projects will
each receive $10,000 prizes from the Case Foundation.
There are two categories to enter. Developers can either build mashups using
Network for Good's donation API (focusing on enhancing the donor experience) or
use the same API to improve a nonprofit organization's ability to fundraise. In
addition to the 10K prizes, winners are given a one-year license for the Network
for Good API to be donated to an organization of their choice. Learn more about
the DonateNow
Mashup Challenge.
If you're a Web 2.0 enthusiast, strategist, or developer interested in giving
back and using the Web to make it happen for social good, this one's for you!
Every website needs some sort of search funciton - users expect it. And, of course, Google is there to help you out and make a little money in the process. They have announced that AdSense for Search is now powered by Custom Search. This means that when you have the Google Custom Search function in your own website, AdSense ads will be tailored to the specific content searched on your site.
Also, using sitemaps, Google says they are able to now provide even better results through your Custom Search Engine (CSE.) They will look at what sites and URLs are included in your CSE and use all of that information to provide a better search function for your site visitors. Read more at the official blog, and also check out the video below.
 |
Website Magazine is very pleased to announced that our most recent issue
is now online, should be arriving in your mailbox soon, and will be
available in our popular digital flipbook format early next week. I know I
say this every time an issue is completed, but Website Magazine has again
assembled an insightful and talented group of contributors who have provided a collection of information for our readers
that I am confident will positively impact your Web success!
Take a look at the lineup in the
current edition of Website Magazine
now
and if you like what you read, please share it with your friends, colleagues
and throughout the Web on social networks of all kinds. |
If you're not yet a subscriber, please
sign up today to start
receiving Website Magazine.
130,000 readers in pursuit of Web success can't be wrong!
Website Magazine would also like to bring your attention to some amazing
companies and our esteemed advertisers:
GoDaddy.com,
1and1,
IntaBill, CPX Interactive,
Multicast Media,
Quova,
Voxant,
Ezanga,
Search Engine
Strategies Toronto, First Light
Net, DigiPawn,
Rick Latona,
Widget Web Expo,
SMX Advanced,
Business In A Box,
Ad-tech Chicago,
ABCsearch, Web Award 2008,
Easy Anti Spam,
Panama Staffing,
eLocal,
Klein Zelman,
Associate-O-Matic,
GetClicky,
Bulldog Copywriting,
Who's On,
Search Engine Workshops,
eLab,
SitePal, VersoChat,
Engine Ready,
Mission Web Marketing,
Panopta,
BannersOnline.com,
High Speed Web,
Laredo Group,
IfByPhone,
InternetSupervision,
7Search,
Authenticated
Testimonials
The following are press releases that caught our attention today, May 7th, 2008. If you have a news announcement you would like to share with the
Website Magazine community, please
contact the Website Magazine editors.
ISM Announces Winners of 2008 Top 15 CRM Software Awards for Enterprise and
Small & Medium Business Solutions : ISM President Barton Goldenberg
Forecasts CRM Trends: Growth in Business Analytical Tools, SaaS Models, Mobile
CRM Offerings and Web 2.0 Technologies.
Read the Release
:
Visit ISM :
Comment in the forum
Sun Adds Comprehensive Video Capabilities to Ubiquitous Java Platform
with On2 Technologies : Consumers are demanding a rich video experience
across multiple screens and this deal compliments the Java(TM) platform for RIAs
by adding On2 Technologies TrueMotion codecs.
Read
the release :
Visit Sun Microsystems :
Comment in the forum
New, Do-It-Yourself Personal BI Tool Makes BI For the Masses a Reality
: SiSense has developed Prism, an all inclusive Business Intelligence (BI)
software that enables users, novices as well as professionals to build instant
visual, actionable and interactive BI applications within minutes and without BI
infrastructure and programming knowledge.
Read the release
:
Visit SiSense :
Comment in the forum
SplashCast Hits 300 Million Milestone : Sony Music, Converse, and
Even Clinton campaigners help make SplashCast one of the fastest growing
marketing solutions for reaching social networking site users.
Read the release
:
Visit SplashCast :
Comment in the forum
Online Community Unconference is the Cure for a Web 2.0 Hype Hangover
: Forum One Networks' annual west coast Online Community Unconference provides a
forum for online community and social media practitioners to share, learn and
collaborate.
Read the release :
Visit Forum
One Networks :
Comment in the forum
A pretty substantial announcement has been made in the area of email deliverability. Comcast, with support from
Return Path, will be launching a
complaint feedback loop which forwards mail reported by Comcast users as spam back to the enterprises sending the mail.
Comcast offers the Feedback Loop Service free of charge to parties sending large amounts of mail to Comcast members. According to the site, "
the feedback loop (FBL) will forward any mail reported as spam originating from the associated IP addresses back to the listed email address." Comcast recommends the use of a dedicated e-mail address for this purpose.
A feedback loop is a system used by ISPs (Internet Service Providers) that notifies message senders that one of their subscribers has reported that email as spam (often through the 'report spam' button through a client's email interface). The benefits for senders are that 1) they can identify which customers no longer want to receive email, and 2) become able to diagnose problems originating from their networks, such as virus-infected spam-producing machines.
Yesterday marked the first day that .Me domain names could be registered (often called a sunrise period). This top-level domain (TLD) carries appeal for many individuals and businesses and may be something to look into for both professional and aspiring domainers, as well as those that manage their brands carefully.
A little history lesson first. Back in 2006, the nation of Montenegro was assigned .Me as the country's official domain name extension. Not to be outdone, Montenegro chose to capitalize on its virtual real estate by removing geographic restrictions on the .Me domain name ownership. This means that anyone, anywhere can register these by all accounts fascinating TLDs.
I'll let your imagination run wild with all the creative .Me possibilities these domain extensions provide - bu think along the lines of "visit.me," "explore.me" and "invest.me". ".
Me elevates the social networking craze to a new level, as .Me offers real personalization of domains. For instance, why not register follow.me for the born leader? Or perhaps, listento.me for the incessant blogger?" says Thomas Barrett, President of EnCirca, a domain name registrar for trademark owners, small businesses and individuals. "EnCirca is excited to be part of this strategic campaign and we applaud Montenegro for making the most of their virtual resources."
Will you be purcahsing a .me domain name?Log in or register now to post a comment
domain names
domainers
.me domain name
domains
domain name
montenegro
The following are press releases that caught our attention today, May 7th, 2008. If you have a news announcement you would like to share with the
Website Magazine community, please
contact the Website Magazine editors.
Applied Microsystems LTD Leverages the Power of Platform-As-A-Service to
Successfully Integrate WebSource CPQ with Salesforce via the AppExchange :
WebSource CPQ enables Applied Microsystems LTD to stream-line the quote-to-order
process.
Read
the Release :
Visit
SalesForce :
Comment in the forum
'Green' a Long-Term Branding Strategy for Retailers, Survey Finds :
A new survey from RSR Research finds that better performing retailers are
retooling their brands now to meet consumers' desires for more green options.
Read the
release :
Visit RSR Research :
Comment in the forum
Affiliate Marketing Company Pepperjam Network Releases Advanced
Itemized Tracking Solution : Pepperjam Network's advanced itemized tracking
solution allows advertisers to easily track and attribute unique payouts for an
unlimited number of products or actions.
Read the release
:
Visit PepperJam :
Comment in the forum
Right On Interactive, ExactTarget announce partnership : 5Buckets
software allows ExactTarget users to segment marketing messages, increase
customer interaction.
Read the release
:
Visit Right On Interactive :
Comment in the forum
Up to 12% of DSL Broadband Subscribers to Transfer to Fixed WiMAX
Connections within 5 years, According to Juniper Research : A new analysis
of the global opportunity for WiMAX 802.16e forecasts that up to 12% of the
global DSL installed base will be substituted by WiMAX by 2013. The Far East
will lead with over one fifth of the 47m subscribers in 2013.
Read the release
:
Visit Juniper Research :
Comment in the forum
Telephone application company
Ifbyphone has entered into a strategic
partnership with
SiteKreator (
a
'do-it-yourself' service which lets business design and host websites) which
will allow clients to integrate an IfByPhone Smart Click-To-Call account
directly into their website.
Site Kreator users signing up for an account will be able to
place the code immediately into their websites. The IfByPhone solution combines
the best of Web and voice services for the purpose of lead generation, offline
conversion of sales and customer service opportunities. Let's translate that a
bit - it drives Web browsers into Web buyers.
“We’re tightly integrating
a suite of Ifbyphone services with a suite of Web-design capabilities from
SiteKreator in an easy-to-use, all-in-one environment because our
two companies share a mission to bring SMBs the kind of sophisticated
telephone-application platform tools that were only available until now to
enterprise companies,” said Ifbyphone CEO Irv
Shapiro.
Previous coverage of SiteKreator:
So you've got page after page of amazing products/content, right? You
probably also have a few of those widgets to help users share that content with
their friends and colleagues, be it through email or across social networks.
It is your responsibility (the Web professionals) to help users share
information with others. The benefits are that your message, product, etc. gets
additional reach into an audience that by all accounts is qualified as it comes
from a trusted counterpart - their friends.
There are many services which facilitate this sharing - ShareThis being
perhaps the most popular currently. Another which is making the rounds of the
Web this week is Siphs - a Web-based service which enables its users to share
and tag any and all Web pages at your site. It's perfect for template-driven
websites such as WordPress but it can work with pretty much anything if you
don't mind some tweaking.
Siphs works very well - I've tried a few similar services which always seem
to be buggy at best. When a visitor clicks the Siphs "Share" link, they are
directed to an intermediary page with different sharing options (email, social
networks such as Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, etc.). For the Feedburner
folks in the house, there is also a FeedFlare - you can see it on action on the
Website Magazine Feedburner XML page (just look for the 'Email this' link at the end of each post).
So what's all this sharing going to cost you? There is a free version
of Siphs (which is what Website Magazine is using) that enables you to do some
decent branding and receive some helpful reports. If you want to take it up a
notch, the upgraded plans (between $100 and $200) are very reasonable for the
functionality you'll get.
Yahoo! announced the
release of SearchScan late yesterday, a feature which aims to help protect
users from viruses, spyware and SPAM. SearchScan uses McAfee's SiteAdvisor
technology to indicate to users if risky websites appear in Yahoo! search
results. Users in the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, New
Zealand, and Spain will potentially see three types of risks in the Yahoo! Search
index:
Browser Exploits: Those which stealthily harm a computer by installing
malware. Any sites included in the category (based on McAfee data) will be
removed from search results automatically.
Dangerous Downloads: Yahoo! will display warning next to search results
for sites that offer potentially dangerous software, such as viruses, spyware or
adware.
Unsolicited Email: SearchScan will also alert users to sites which send
unsolicited emails or "inappropriately" share email addresses.
yahoo
yahoo searchscan
search scan
yahoo mcafee
mcafee
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)
announced the release of advertising format guidelines for in-stream
advertising. The guidelines focus on ad products such as linear video ads,
non-linear video ads and companion ads.
The guidelines should act to simplify digital video ad buying across multiple
sites through minimum common ad specifications, achieve more efficient
operations through a common set of creative submission guidelines and increase
consumer understanding of ad interactions and environments.
“The interest surrounding digital video is no
surprise,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO
of the IAB. “Consumers have been swift to embrace the
digital video experience online, and marketers have incorporated it just as
rapidly into their advertising plans. With the creation and adoption of these
formats and guidelines, we see no end in sight to its potential for growth.”
To view the formal guidelines, visit
www.iab.net/dv_guidelines
IAB
interactive advertising
video advertising
Hostopia.com, Inc. and Tucows Inc. just signed an agreement for Hostopia to purchase certain of Tucows' shared hosting customer assets including approximately 14,000 Domain Direct, NetIdentity and ItsYourDomain.com (IYD) customer accounts. The companies indicated that accounts involved in the transaction will continue to be served under the familiar Domain Direct brand, which will operate as a managed service by Hostopia.
For those that follow these type of things, Hostopia will pay $1.6 million (US) in cash for these assets, with adjustments to be made on closing. This amount is payable 20% on signing of the agreement and 80% upon the closing of the transaction, which is scheduled to occur on May 15, 2008. The companies plan to migrate these accounts to Hostopia's unified web service platform by July 2008.
"
We are very pleased to have concluded this transaction. We are already hosting some of the Tucows Retail Service Group's users so the impact on customers should be minimal," said Colin Campbell, CEO, Hostopia. "
Our plan is to provide customers with numerous upgrades and additional value-added services to earn their loyalty and continued business. Traditional web hosting is fast evolving to the SaaS (software as a service) model and Hostopia is perfectly positioned to offer these services to these customers."
hostopia
tucows
hosting
web hosting
hosting news
If you're thinking about creating a Facebook application to promote your
website, you should now that most of the popular ones are geared towards having
"fun" reports the
Flowing Data blog. Of the 23.160 Facebook applications, the most popular
were in the categories of "having fun," "gaming" and "sports". "Dating" and
"Chat" are also high on the list. If you are developing applicatins in the
utility or music categories (money, classifieds and file sharing consequently
were the least popular) for promotion on the social network, understand that
what most Facebook users are most interested in is simply having fun.
Tags: facebook
facebook apps
applications
social apps
development
social applications
Related Posts:
Screenwerk,
mathewingram.com/work,
O'Reilly Radar,
Silicon Alley Insider,
TechCrunch,
The Globe and Mail,
BetaNews,
The Chronicle and
Mashable