November 2005 - Posts
Promoting your RSS Feed
correctly is crucial when trying to grow the number of subscribers to your
site. What extra steps can you take to profit from the whole RSS
revolution? Well, promoting your feed effectively and posting regularly to
keep your content fresh is essential. Below are a few pointers to help you
with the promotion aspect of your feed.
Promotion Pointers:
- Make it simple to subscribe to your feed. Supply
different options for users to add/subscribe to your feed (i.e. My
Yahoo, My Msn, etc.).
-
Explaining what a feed is and how it can be beneficial to your audience,
partition a small section on your website solely for this purpose.
- Write articles and be creative in the way you go about distributing
them. Not only would this demonstrate that you are an expert in your field
but it will also enable readers/subscribers to come to trust you and your
writings.
- Submission- Submission-Submission! Keep up with new
directories and submit your feed. Online directories will always draw in
possible subscribers looking for information that you have to offer.
- Promote your feed using emails! Simply add a small excerpt with
information to your feed in the signature of your email, with this you are
increasing your chances at exposure and possible new subscribers.
- Content! Over and over again you will come across the importance of
adding fresh content to your blog. Fresh content will keep your readers
interested and possibly pass the word to others. RSS feeds need to attract
both new subscribers as well as keep old subscribers interested in what you
have to offer.
Try new angles see what marketing techniques work- always try something new.
Test and see what does and doesn't work. Subscribers are sure to follow shortly.
RSS Feed |
RSS Promotion |
RSS |
blog |
RSS Submission |
A study from the Federal Trade Commission revealed that technology is gaining ground in the battle against spam. While most Web workers can't tell from the deluge of unsolicited email in their inboxes, the FTC suggests that there are additional steps that can be taken to curb the amount received.
The agency studied three aspects of spam: e-mail address harvesting – the automated collection of e-mail addresses from public areas of the Internet; the effectiveness of spam filtering by ISPs; and the effectiveness of using “masked” e-mail addresses as a technique to prevent the harvesting of e-mail addresses.
The study also tested whether using “masked” e-mail addresses prevents the harvesting of e-mail addresses and consequently reduces spam. “Masking” addresses involves altering an e-mail address to make it understandable to the recipient but confusing to automated harvesting software. For example, an e-mail address such as johndoe@ftc.gov could be altered to appear as john doe at FTC dot gov. The study found that masking e-mail addresses was very effective in thwarting harvesting. After five weeks, unmasked e-mail addresses had received more than 6,400 pieces of spam, while the masked e-mail addresses had received only one piece of spam.
The study concluded that consumers who must post their e-mail addresses on Web sites can reduce the risk of having their e-mail address harvested – making them a target of spammers – by masking their addresses. It also demonstrated the effectiveness of ISPs’ spam filters.
If you are ready to save some time from receiving future unsolicted emails, WSM encourage you to start masking your email address today. We've found a great one that works very, very well - the email encoder from West Bay Web.
Email Masking | Email | Website Services Magazine
The Interactive Advertising Bureau has announced its final advertising creative guidelines for Broadband Video Communications online. Developed after a review of industry feedback, the IAB's released a compliance program to assist advertisers in identifying and selecting those publishers and technology providers who are compliant with their guidelines.
Highlights of the creative guidelines include the following:
- In-stream commercials may be up to thirty seconds long for pre and mid-roll commercials. Publishers may offer custom lengths for post roll.
- A recommended minimum of 200 Kbps for encoded bit rates.
- The minimum player controls present should be Start/Stop and Volume On/Off and Softer/Louder Control. Other recommended and acceptable buttons include Fast Forward/Rewind, Pause, Zoom and other Interactive buttons as needed. The following guidance will be accommodated during play. All buttons should be enabled throughout the play, with the exception of Fast Forward.
The Broadband Video Commercial creative guidelines were developed to further enhance the user experience without constraining creative opportunities for marketers and will improve the efficiency and ease of planning, buying and creating online media. These guidelines will allow advertisers and their agencies the ability to develop advertising content that is accepted by many of the leading interactive publishers.
Interactive Advertising Bureau | IAB | Website Services Magazine
Now installed on more than 20 million Internet domains around the
world, PHP is an undisputed leader in web programming languages and one
of the easiest languages to learn and use for developing dynamic web
applications. WSM reviews Paul Hudson's new book
"PHP in a Nutshell" in our Book Review section. It's a must read for those that want to be a PHP programmer or even learn a little about this powerful programming language.
An article titled "Bringing Back the Banner" in
WSM's premier issue met with rave reviews and for good reason. Once in a great
while, technologies are introduced that change the way everyone markets and
promotes products and services online.
Within the article, WSM suggests that one of the
reasons that banners may have fallen out of vogue is because of their lack of
"interactivity" and hence ability to generate attention and therefore
those crucial clicks. A unique technology from Inoventiv however adds some salvation
for those of our readers that just can not motivate themselves to buy a
non-interactive, static 468x60 banner and it's called Search and Display. For the technology to work, the advertiser/client
must have a database that Web users can search. Take for example a site which
features downloadable ring tones - an end user could see the banner on a
network site (even an affiliate or associate site) perform some action such as
searching or scheduling a trip and results are returned from the
advertiser/client's database.
WSM got to see a demo and we have to say it's an
interesting technology whose only limitation is that of the advertiser's
creative. It may be of interest to both advertisers (who can choose between
CPC, CPM and CPA) and their affiliates in the very near future.
The upcoming issue of Website Services Magazine will feature an article
on Website support solutions such as those provided by InQ, LivePerson
and others. What's so important about live site support?
Conversions, plain and simple.
WSM Managing Editor Pete Prestipino had an opportunity to speak with
InQ CEO Bernard Louvat to see how his mission to integrate the best of
offline customer experience into the online arena can help websites
make more sales - and it goes beyond the retail industry.
There will be quite a bit of useful information readers can gain from
the next issue when it comes out - from setting up a merchant solution
to managing an effective online storefront
(a major component of which is support).
While no transcript of the interview will be made available online, WSM
will share some of Mr. Louvat's perspective on using the InQ solutions
when there is a need to upsell, cross-sell and yes, even make more
sales. The
InQ platform is
completely unique and brings full service to a traditionally
self-service environment - something (service) which every website
owner must address in their time online. Stay tuned but sign up for a
free subscription to
Website Services Magazine now!
There is now even more opportunity to get your information in front of the millions and millions of Google users. Previously, site owners and their respective marketing or development teams could use Google sitemaps to ensure that all of their site's content would be crawled by its search engine spiders. Google Base however opens up content distribution to anyone with information they would like to have shared with others. Yes, that means even your mother can submit her recipe for "
cornbread sausage stuffing" and get listed within Google Search. Additional distribution points include Froogle and Google Local.
To get started using Google Base, you need to have a Google Account - sign up is simple and takes just a few minutes. (You may want to consider completing your individual or your company’s extended profile which enables you to market your information with the name of you or your site, a description of the same, your URL and location and contact information)
Google Base users (those that are submitting information) can upload individual offerings such as events and activities, news and articles, job listings, recipes, products and vehicles. If users have multiple items they would like to submit they can use the bulk-upload format where several listings can be integrated into the system simultaneously. In order to use bulk upload, you will need to format your items in a Google supported formats such as a tab-delimited file, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0 or Atom. Google makes it pretty easy to use a tab delimited file and even provides templates for the process.
Take an Instant WSM Survey: What is the most significant consequence of Google Base?
Google Base | Content Submission | Website Services Magazine
There are many technologies available to website owners that help facilitate a greater sense of community among consumers/end-users. Chat, e-mail discussion lists, survey's and forums (weblogs too) are a great way to keep the users you have coming back for more and engaged in your site. While enhancing community experience is essential to your businesses bottom line, boosting membership numbers and website traffic is an equally important facet of developing a thriving online community. New users foster more dialogue which bring in more page views and that means more opportunity to expose your site visitors to advertising and special marketing offers. You may not realize it, but you have a greater network than you may be aware of - the colleagues of your colleagues.
What's one way to open up the lines of communication with the "greater network" of your users? Tell-a-Friend scripts work pretty well if you've developed a niche online community and you integrate the approach into locations of a website where people will be more inclined to use them. For example, you may want to offer a free ebook, white paper or demo account in which after they have registered they can notify their friends and colleagues that your service exists. As there is no greater recommendation than those that come from friends, you will position your offer at the forefront of a user’s email inbox with the greatest amount of legitimacy.
There are many resources available that you can use for free such as those provided by Bravenet or GeekVillage.
That’s the question for many website administrators. While there is no
difference for end-users, determining whether your site or sites reside
on a shared or dedicated IP address is an important consideration – and
it’s not just about the impact on search engine results.
Review "Exploring Shared and Dedicated IP Addresses"
Take an Instant WSM Survey: Do you use a dedicated or shared IP address?
Dedicated IP | Shared IP | Website Services Magazine
Google announced yesterday that it will offer separate content and search bidding within its Adwords accounts. Advertisers that did not separate search ads from content ads (those ads appearing across Google's Adsense network) previously were paying a single keyword bid for both types of advertisements. The minimum bid for content ads is one cent. The development was in response to advertiser requests for additional pricing models and greater control over where ads are placed within Google's content network. Yahoo! Search Marketing has for some time allowed separate bidding on content and search. The move may aggravate some Adsense affiliates (because of lower earnings) to the point where they make the switch to Yahoo!'s new contextual publisher solution when it finally comes out of beta.
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Adwords | Google | Yahoo Publisher | Website Services Magazine
WSM is anxiously awaiting the release of PPC for Dummies - the latest in a series by author Peter Kent which outlines the art and science of pay per click advertising. You can learn more within the WSM Book Review section.
Get a Free Subscription to Website Services Magazine
It looks good on paper. Private domain registrations keep domain owners and their respective administrative, marketing and technical departments from being deluged with unsolicited email and telemarketing calls. Sounds good, right? No need for your accounts payable department to field calls from an overzealous sales person selling the latest Web widget to anyone they can get a phone number or email address for. Before you run off and pay associated fees with private domain registration, it's important to think about the impact that it may have on consumers. Since many website's simply don't put the updated contact information of each and every employee online (for good reason) what if someone really has a legitimate reason to contact you - you may miss out on potential sales, partnerships or opportunities. Many website owners would willingly exchange ten conversations with a sales person for one sale.
Share your thoughts and take our survey on private domain registrations below:Instant Survey: Do you use private domain registration?
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers
(PwC) today announced that Internet advertising revenues totaled a
record $3.1 billion for the third quarter of 2005, making this the
highest quarter reported and the first time that quarterly revenues
surpassed $3 billion. The 2005 third-quarter revenues represent a 33.9
percent increase over 2004 third-quarter total of $2.3 billion and a
4.7percent increase over the 2005 second-quarter total of $2.9 billion.
Based on historical data, the annual revenue run rate for 2005 could
exceed $12 billion, well above last year’s record total of $9.6 billion.
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IAB | Interactive Advertising Bureau | Price Waterhouse Coopers | Website Services Magazine
While most small and mid-level weblogs and sites act primarily as
online journals or opportunities to enhance or secure respectable
placement on SERPs (search engine results pages) there remains a good
deal of room for tools and services which cater to the audiences of
these sites - regardless of size. One such tool,
Swicki from Eurekster,
is a dynamic tool that adds some unique functionality to a website. The
Swicki is a dynamic search tool (search engine) that learns from your
users. Swicki creators (website owners) can customize their swicki to
contain search results of their choosing as well as a "buzzcloud" of
searches that users may be seeking information about. The end-result is
an opportunity for websites to create an online locale where like-minded
users find information about what is important to them by enabling you (the swicki owner)
to harness the collective intelligence of your community. Based on
information provided on Eurekster.com, the ability to monetize your
Swicki is coming soon. The downside of using the Swicki is that search
results are currently limited to those provided via Yahoo.
Swicki | Eurekster | Swickis | Website Services Magazine
Get a Free Subscription to Website Services Magazine
When we speak with Web designers, one major point flaw they see in the design of Web pages is code bloat. You can reduce code bloat and make your HTML much more streamlined by using font families and refining your site design with HTML. Font families will ensure that everyone can see your site and the CSS will help you clean up your HTML considerably.
Learn more about Font Families and CSS
Font Family | Fonts | Fonts CSS | Website Services Magazine
Running an affiliate program without any rules is sort of like running down an icy hill that is covered in cooking oil - you are going down and you are going down fast. In an attempt to reign in affiliate spammers, the FTC is requiring several companies (porn companies for those keeping track) to keep detailed records on their affiliate marketers.
These companies are required to obtain a name, address and a working phone number for each affiliate and sub-affiliate who markets their advertising. In addition to that, one week before a campaign launches, affiliate must certify to the companies how each e-mail address on their list was obtained along with details of the message content.
Affiliate managers would do well to keep their emailing affiliates in check by requiring this information up front (contact or payment information) and limit offers to those pre-established by the company in-house. Doing so may very well increase overall response rates and keep you out of trouble with the fine folks at the FTC.
Affiliate Marketing | Affiliates | Marketing | Website Services Magazine
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to Website Services Magazine
Google recently released its analytics software this week to anyone with a website and much to the chagrin of other analytics providers like WebSideStory. In its most basic form, setup of this product is pretty simple and requires only a few lines of special java script code inserted in the head of the pages for which you need analytics. The system can be set up with numerous advanced features to track different promotional campaigns (not just search advertising), perform A/B and A/B/A content testing, and pretty much anything else you can think of (in the line of tracking email impressions, clicks, conversions, etc.) - WSM will be providing more details about the features in future magazine issues. What's immensely interesting about the product is its ability to track goals - think registrations, downloads, etc. When coupled with features such as the ability to monitor navigation paths and compare different date ranges, Google Analytics is simply an immensely powerful system for gathering information and providing insights into Web traffic - but require some technical knowledge and some work to setup properly.
Favorite feature: GEO, GEO and GEOWhether you work on a global or local level, Google's Analytics Geo Location feature shows in detail where your visitors are coming from. We're not talking country level here. Nor are we talking about state level - that's right - Google Analytics takes it all the way down to the city level. So if you're a spa in Kansas City you can actually see how many people visiting your site are from Bonner Springs and how many are from Wichita. That's powerful.
Least Favorite Aspect: Mr. Brin and Mr. Page, here are my keys.While the information collected is used primarily in aggregate form it's certainly a lot of information (and that means power) in the hands of Google. Not that you would ever do anything to promote your website that was less than one hundred percent ethical, but if you do, I would not
necessarily recommend using Google Analytics to track the results of any Black Hat efforts. Why? Well, without getting too involved, your metrics will stand out like Shaquille O'Neal in Beijing, meaning that it will be that much easier for Google to see the illicit ways you generate traffic.
Overall preliminary rating:
Exceptional, plus one.
Google Analytics |
Google |
Analytics |
Analytics Software
As the Web develops, so do the methods with which we communicate with one another. Whether you administrate a robust online community or are just getting a 'Net presence started, it's more than just a "novel" concept to integrate live features like video, audio, chat, or a combination of them into a website - it is increasingly fundamental to your success. If you're working with content systems such as Mambo, vbulletin or PHP-Nuke (and most recently Drupal) there is a pretty cool plug-in created by UserPlane that you should take a look at -
www.Userplane.com. Userplane's Webchat plug-in module enables developers and administratos to add Userplane instant messaging and chat to their sites which, for blander sites, could work wonders on usability and of course functionality. The plug-in is available for free download and includes pre-written code modules, permitting quick and easy installation. And no one can say that the Userplane folks are asleep at the wheel - they have also released an archiving feature for the plug-in which enables clients to maintain chat histories, logs of user activity and create fill audits on Webchat activity.
Menlo Park, California based EmailLabs released a study which indicated
that the majority of subscribers to business-to-business email
newsletters use the preview pane function of their email client and
nearly half do not enable blocked-images. According to a company
statement "The results of this study are expected to drive many
publishers and B2B marketers to rethink the design of their email
newsletters to better accommodate the significant adoption of preview
panes and image blocking function.
More from the study: Survey data indicated that 49 percent of
email readers only look at the first few lines in the preview pane to
decide if they want to continue reading the message. Whether targeting
respondents who use the horizontal format (75 percent) or the vertical
format (25 percent), survey results suggest it is critical that
marketers design emails that will maximize the preview pane's limited
real estate -- which is typically set by users at 2-5 inches. If
insufficient information is displayed in the preview pane -- due to
blocked images, advertisements or poor design -- nearly 19 percent of
respondents will simply delete the message.
What this means for email marketing: The use of the preview pane and image blocking will drive B2B marketers to rethink their email newsletter design strategy.
Maybe it's a misleading title, or maybe not. The secret of analytics is
not how you gather information but what insights you glean from the
information you collect. That means it depends in great part not in the
software that you choose to do the gathering but the individuals you
use to provide you insights into how you can make adjustments to online
promotional campaigns to make them perform better.
Google's Urchin Analytics has just been made free to advertisers and
publishers, dropping its $200 per month previous cost. The software can
"track the results of any online marketing campaign, including banner
ads, referral links, e-mail newsletters and organic and paid search,"
according to a statement from Google. There are literally hundreds (if
not thousands) of analytics providers on the Web and we encourage you
to look around before settling on one. If you're concerned about giving
access to the very same enterprise that is sending you traffic, rest
assured that you are not alone.
According to information security consulting firm RavenEye, as many as eighty percent of corporate employees will disclose sensitive company or customer information to people they do not know over the telephone and up to thirty percent will do sthe same via email. “Business leaders are largely ignoring this catalyst for information leaks in their companies,” according to Joseph Kirkpatrick, RavenEye’s president. “Human error is the common element in the information theft stories which have been a fixture in the 2005 headlines. Staff awareness and training for this threat lags behind the growing rate of phishing emails, pretext calls and on-site impersonations, which utilize many social engineering elements.”
Businesses will spend $45 billion worldwide on security technologies in 2006, according to a recent study by market researchers at IDC, a global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology and telecommunications industries. But Kirkpatrick said technology alone will not address the risks that face corporate employees who, maliciously or unknowingly, provide access to an outsider seeking to circumvent the complicated security technologies protecting valuable information.
There is more to running a successful website than just driving user traffic. The more you know about programming and the technologies that the Web consists of is in many respects integral to your businesses bottom line. If you are developing your website using PHP, Website Services Magazine has a must read article for you from Dennis Pallett of PHPit.net.
5 Tips to Speed Up PHP Development
Major brands are increasingly adopting authentication procedures. According to a report by the Email Service Provider Coalition, 70% of fortune 100 companies are authenticating email messages through email service providers. Using one of the available authentication protocols on outbound marketing email, these comapnies are helping protect their brand and customers against phishing exploits and are taking an important stand in the war again unsolicited email. "These results are testament that authentication is a key component in the fight against spam," said J. Trevor Hughes, executive director of the ESPC.
Is email a part of your online marketing mix? If so...
Take the Instant WSM Survey: Do you use any authentication protocols in your email marketing?
Using Data To Competive Advantage:
Ad:Tech 2005 - New York, NY
Jeff Einstein and Sunil Gupta's session on using data to your competitive advantage could have had a more descriptive title - but if you're into receiving practical information (as we are) then you could not have attended a better session. A better title may have been "How to get leads and make sure those leads are Great!" but regardless, the information they both provided on leveraging online marketing to acquire customers and what to do with that information once it is in your list is immensely valuable to anyone that understands and sees the value in building and maintaining in-house list files.
Why build your house file?
As a business owner or online marketer you have a few options when it comes to increasing the numbers in your list database. Buy a list, rent or lease a list or build your own. The advantage of building an in-house list is better performance through a higher response.
How do you compile a list?
Well, chances are good that this may be the primary reason this Ad:tech session was packed. As CEO of Prospectiv Online Marketing, Doyle recommended looking beyond using website registrations alone (as most web site owners tend to do) and adopt alternative or additional compiling strategies such as the use of off-line marketing, micro-websites, affiliate marketing, online surveys, dynamic polls, email append, call center, co-registration, list rental and paid search. If you simply cannot afford to compile a list through multiple channels, that's OK! Doyle claims that precision targeting is much more valuable than multi-channel marketing.
There are several critical success factors in compiling lists. If you play on going it alone, select a reliable provider that abides by best practices, provided access to multiple channels and is trusted by major consumer brands. While we don't agree completely with Mr. Doyle in that there are other list compiling solutions that do not cater to the major brands, it is at least important to make sure that the solutions provider use advanced technologies to ensure premium response.
Sunil Gupta, a well respected expert in marketing, took over the reigns of the afternoon session, taking the audience to database marketing and beyond. While you may need a doctoral degree and a marketing glossary to follow along with much of Gupta's segment of the session, he touched on at least one concept that was of great interest to the audience.
Compiling noteworthy in-house lists or building (through third-party acquisition) corporate lists, requires that consumer/customer databases contain information on customer transactations, promotion history, data enhancement and service history and not just contact information. Successful data compilers use this information profitably to manage campaigns and mine data in order to build predictive models used for segmentation and testing. With a quality list, marketers can use such modeling to predict not only general preference and tendency but also go beyond that to assess whether consumers will make a purchase on actual visits.
Overall, an exceptional session - many thanks to Ad:tech, Jerry Doyle and Sunil Gupta!
In the process of developing a brand, every copywriter from Calcutta
to Cleveland has to balance emotional appeals with logical appeals. In
a recent Mobium New Paradigm Series With branding diva Karen Post, it
is those emotional appeals that Post claims make B2B corporate brands
stick in the minds of consumers. Post discussed what makes business
brands distinctive, clear and memorable - and it's not exactly what you
may be thinking (if you are thinking great service and quality
products).
Access video coverage now of Karen Post at the Mobium New Paradigm Series speaking about "Brain Tatoos: Creating Unique B-to-B Brands That Stick"
If
you are looking to develop or refine your existing branding strategy,
the videos are a great start on what makes great brands. Post argues
that it is the emotion and not the logical proofs that you make in
sales, marketing and advertising materials as well as via customer
support staff that establish a brand as credible in the minds of
consumers. Claiming essentially that the four parts to a "bold brand" -
purpose, point of difference, personality and promise - all must
consistently rely on emotional proofs to make a brand brain tattoo, the
reason the majority of companies don't use emotional proofs is because
it's a "left brained, right brained" issue and that leadership teams
are simply attempting to match and not exceed their competition. Since
familiarity breeds assurance, there is simply no motivation to "be
different." But aren't emotions fleeting? Why not rely at least in part
on logical proofs. Is it about the brand, the bottom line or both?
You tell us - take the survey below:
You Tell Us - Take The Instant Survey:
Is your branding strategy reliant on emotional or logical proofs? Do
you tend to tell stories or show and explain data in sales, marketing
and advertising literature?
Brain Tattoos: Creating Unique Brands That Stick in Your Customers' Minds 
Tags: Mobium | Karen Post | Branding
In celebration of our inaugural launch, WSM bloggers will be attending Ad:Tech conferences next week (November 7th and 8th). Listed below are the actual sessions we will attend and report on within the WSM weblog. You can read the session summaries now, bookmark them and return next week to get the run down and insider notes from these sessions.
Monday, November 7, 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Using Data to Competitive Advantage
Tuesday, November 8, 10:30am - 11:30am
Top 5 Alarming Email Statistics: Practical Solutions & Real Life Tactics That Work
Tuesday, November 8, 4:00pm - 4:50pm
Marketing Through Online and Video Games: Many Ways to Play