May 2006 - Posts
Structuring your website is an important part of best practice in search
engine optimization. WSM's Site Of the Day is a free tool to help you visualize
the layout of your website.
Just enter a URL and the site's structure will be displayed within a
(Java-based) graph. Different colors have different meanings; for example,
blue is for links, red for tables, green for div tags, and violet for images.
Click the thumbnail below to see the graph for
WSM's Who's Who Directory.
Most Web-based business don't have an IT person on staff. Sound surprising?
Well, it shouldn't. There are millions of small businesses or second offices in
the US without any computer or Internet support! So what's the solution to
network and computer troubles? Well you could spend the time fixing problems
yourself or you could take a look at managed solutions such as Sereniti, a
security and support provider for home networks offered through a
subscription-based service for the home or second office user. According to the
website, "Sereniti's "all-in-one" bundle of networking hardware, storage,
management software and whole-home technical support, simplifies the user's
experience in the Digital Home." Sereniti offers a menu of around-the-clock
support services that are ideal for users who find themselves in the unintended
role of supporting their home technology. When you work as late into the evening
as I often do, it's good to know that problems can be solved with a quick call
even if it late becomes early.
Sereniti can also provide competitive differentiation, reduce support costs
and increase customer life value for various service providers through a
unifying platform for the delivery and management of broadband services. If you
are a service provider, retailer, OEM, ISV, or VAR involved in deploying home
and wireless networking solutions and are interested in expanding your service
offering to include managed home networking, managed SOHO networking, PC health
monitoring and support, and managed network security, Sereniti is one to watch.
According to the National Retail Federation's Shop.org, online sales will top $200 billion, up from $176.4 billion in 2005. This information coincides with a new Harris Interactive poll that finds 77% of U.S. adults now online. Travel is far and away the top seller, followed by computer hardware and software, then autos and auto parts. Even if your business doesn't sell these items, it's good news for anyone selling anything online.
It appears that Internet users are becoming more and more comfortable making purchases online, and bypassing brick-and-mortar retail locations. However, retail spending at brick-and-mortar locations gets a big boost from Web surfers as well. Check out Website Services Magazine's latest issue for more about retail spending augmented by the Web.
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JumpTap, a provider of mobile search technology, reports an 8% increase in revenues last month for mobile search. They also report click-through rates of 36% and a 4% increase in unique users of mobile search. The JumpTap study reports the top categories for mobile search as music, adult content, games, sports and television.
In related news, Microsoft is looking to acquire Third Screen Media, a provider of mobile advertising and marketing software and services. Third Screen Media has recently signed content providers MSN, USA Today and TV Guide.
This all points to the swelling marketplace of mobile search and advertising - yet another way to promote your Web-based business.
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Most magazines have a “letters to the editor” section. Here, readers are encouraged to voice their opinion on the latest topics and the content of the magazine – good or bad. They should be paid attention to and published, especially the bad ones. And this is every bit as valuable for an online business or publication.
Why would you want to publish a letter that says bad things about your publication, website or business? There are several answers to this question, most importantly: trust, confidence and community.
Trust
When a negative response is published, your readers will be assured that you’re not hiding anything. The credibility of the magazine, business, website or blog instantly rises.
Confidence
Letters that may seem damaging can build a tremendous amount of confidence in your readers, clients or potential customers. Publishing a negative letter or review tells your customers that you recognize the problem and are taking steps to correct it. It goes without saying that correcting the issue in a timely matter is paramount – if indeed a correction is needed.
Community
People love seeing their name in print. When a customer or reader submits a letter or a review, you can be assured that they will visit your site repeatedly to check if it’s been published yet. That’s not to say that you should publish everything in your inbox. But those that are published will refer their friends, relatives and colleagues. Your traffic will rise and the individual that wrote to you will feel that they now belong to a part of a community. They will keep closer tabs on your site or publication in the future.
Encourage feedback. Keeping an open mind to your critics will go a long way in developing your online standing and, ultimately, your online business.
Have an opinion about Website Services Magazine? Please tell us.
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Google has announced a new scheduling feature, to be released in the next few weeks. Essentially, the new feature allows advertisers to schedule when their ads appear. It can be modified to show on weekends only, weekdays only, or any combination therein.
In addition, advertisers will be able to select what time the ads run. They can be scheduled for lunchtime, evening, late at night ... whatever. It's an interesting development that may push advertisers and marketers to dig deeper into their analytics, something that is under-utilized in the online world. Finding the right combinations could prove very profitable.
The May issue of Website Services Magazine features a close look at analytics and how to make better use of your data.
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In the May issue of Website Services Magazine, we feature an article discussing the hazards of having duplicate content on your site. Duplicate content can cause the major search engines to dismiss your site entirely, or pages on your site that are too similar to the others.
Many Web business use verbage found on other sites to "fill in" their content. This will certainly cause search engines to overlook your site, or move it down in the organic rankings. Some website owners may feel that by duplicating content on their pages, it gives thier site a feeling of consistency. However, that strategy could cause search engines to dismiss critical pages on your site.
A new tool has been developed, Site Wide Duplicate Content Analyzer. This tool will crawl your site and look for duplicate content. It is not intended for large websites and it is still being developed, but it can help discover potential problems with your content.
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Personalized search and behavioral marketing are talked about as being the future of search. I could search for "groceries" and get completely different results, based on my search behavior, than if you searched for "groceries". Most experts agree that personalized search and behavioral marketing will lead to an even more competitive arena for SEO than already exists. So how will these new methodologies affect the Web business community?
How many times in the past month have you seen a television or radio commercial that cites their website several times over? How about a billboard or bus stop advertisement that has their website prominently displayed? If you wanted to find Walmart.com, would you search for it, or just type in "walmart.com"? What about your favorite lunch spot, Joe's Diner? Would you search for "lunch in Chicago" or "Joe's Diner Chicago"? I'll bet that you know your favorite Web addresses by heart.
So, while other companies are focusing on keywords, optimization and beating each other up, shifting your focus to brand recognition could pay big dividends. Recent reports state that online marketers are increasingly turning to "old", offline strategies. Television, radio, magazines, billboards, etc. Maybe they are on to something. If your client base knows your site by heart, will they spend their time searching for it, or simply type it into their browser? Instead of bidding on pricey keywords, mabye shifting your resources to advertising your site on the train, on the highway, dare I say ... in the local paper could produce significant traffic?
I'm hungry. I think I'll go to joeschicagodiner.com and see what time they open.
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There seems to be an increase in references to sites having trouble with comment
spam recently. If you're seeing elevated levels of viagra, cialis or tramadol
related posts, then here are a few solutions to help you lessen the time spent
moderating!
Jim Kukral
can't take it anymore, he's installing Akismet
as does
Jim Boykin and many others who are battling the comment spam epidemic. You
could also try other plugins such as
SpamKarma 2.2
if you're on WordPress. Plugin solutions do work well, but there are additional
steps you could take. For example, many bloggers use a rel="nofollow"
attribute on all links (good blog software should enable you to make this
adjustment) or activate user-authentication systems. Both solutions discourage
would-be spammers, but who knows if it prevents legitimate blog readers from
commenting as well. The more complex you make such a solution the greater the
chance you have of alienating legitimate audiences, stifling the communication
that is so necessary in new media.
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Today at the IQPC Web Site Globalization conference, Idiom, whose technologies optimize the globalization supply chain, will be unveiling
a new collaborative industry initiative it is calling “Open Global Web
Architecture.” Based on commonly accepted open standards, the goal of the Open
Global Web Architecture is to provide a framework for how companies should think
about and approach translation and localization in association with Web site
development and management.
In his session, “Taking an Open Global Web Architecture Approach to
Globalization,” Idiom Founder and CTO Eric Silberstein will address the complex
nature of creating and maintaining high quality global Web sites and
applications and how the Open Global Web Architecture can help companies of all
sizes easily develop and maintain a sophisticated multinational online presence,
without years of experience. For more information, visit Idiom’s dedicated
resource site, www.idiominc.com/ogwa.
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Photobucket provides free video
and photo sharing and lets anyone with a Web connection host and link images and
videos to social networks, auction sites, blogs, and message boards. Photobucket
has been one of the Bloglines.com Top Links for as long as I can remember and is
worth a look especially if you've got large images and video you'd like to host
somewhere other than your own server.
Google is announcing the release in the coming days of click-to-play video ads on the content (affiliate) network. Video ads will be available to AdWords advertisers on a cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand impression (CPM) basis. Ad will be supported by both site and keyword-targeted campaigns and geo-targeting will be available internationally, nationally, or locally, although only in the US, Canada and Japan initially.
What is most impressive about the video advertising model is that users will have complete control over viewing the ads. Bismarck, from the Video Ads team, says "
When a page loads, only a static image will be visible; the video will not start playing until the user initiates it. He or she will be able to advance the video, pause it, adjust the volume or click through to the advertiser's site...". Read the blog post at the
Adwords Blog.
As the cost of producing video for Web use is on a continual downslope, it's not just big brands that can use the ad model. While I do believe that "big branding oriented advertisers" will be the first and most prolific adopters, Google's site targeting features enable any online media buyer or marketing planner to drill down to the sites that they are most interested in - what would be helpful for Google to provide is an internal search feature to enable advertisers to locate publishers whose content matches the video advertising they created.
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In certain Ecommerce circles, many scoff at PayPal as a "lesser-than" solution.
Considering that there are millions upon millions of PayPal developers and
users however, WSM's Site Of The Day today is PPCalc - a free PayPal fee calculator to
help you determine the fees you will incur on various transactions. For example,
it allows anyone with a PayPal account to find out what their PayPal fees would
be if they were to receive a certain amount of money online.
Going in reverse: Calculating your PayPal fees in reverse is a way in which you
can calculate in advance how much a person should send you so that you are able
to get the amount of money you really want after PayPal fees have been taken
out.
PayPal Fee Calculator
Inspired by LifeHacker
Ebooks use to be super-hot. Everyone had one, lots of us resold them. If you have an old ebook that you thought might look pretty cool in print, then here is your chance.
BookSurge LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., today announced a new Print-on-Demand (POD) program designed to help book publishers sell lower volume book titles through a more economical supply chain. The new POD program removes the upfront economic barriers associated with traditional book publishing while making those titles available to the tens of millions of active Amazon.com customers. Books are printed as they are ordered, providing publishers an easy and economical way to bring back out-of-print titles and introduce new, lower-volume titles, offering Amazon.com customers a dramatically expanded selection of books to purchase.
For a limited time, BookSurge will provide discounted book scanning services with no upfront investment to the publisher and free setup for titles with POD-ready digital files. BookSurge is also offering competitive manufacturing rates as part of a comprehensive solution. Publishers participating in POD will also be provided the option to enroll these titles into Amazon's Search Inside the Book and Amazon Upgrade programs at no additional cost. Further, these titles will receive the same retail treatment as other book titles on Amazon.com and are eligible for both the Super Saver Shipping and Amazon Prime programs.
"Publishers have told us they are looking for ways to serve lower-volume book markets more effectively," said Greg Greeley, vice president of worldwide media at Amazon.com. "This program offers our customers increased choice and selection while providing publishers quick and efficient distribution of previously unavailable titles without exposure to the risk and expense of traditional methods."
I had the opportunity to see Zunch Communications' new blog platform Sympozeum last week. If you're about to install WordPress, sign up for a Blogger
account or integrate another solution on your site, you may just want to hold
off for a few weeks.
Sympozeum is an enterprise level weblog platform (they
will be offering a 'personal' version at the official launch) to help
companies of any size or type share knowledge, build a reputation and receive
feedback. You may be thinking; how is this different from any other blogging
platform? Well, it's not - at least not on the surface. The real power of
Sympozeum is in the features it offers blog administrators. Besides the
fact that you have one of the premier integrated marketing and development teams
in the Web universe standing behind you in Zunch, the functionality even as a
stand-alone product speaks for itself and will be attractive to all bloggers -
both aspiring and established.
The features most appealing from my point of view:
- Search engine friendly: Immensely important to get your blog and all
its content indexed.
- Ease of management: post management and category management are very
intuitive and simple to administer
- Blog Search: what's really lacking in most blog platforms is a viable
search offering, Sympozeum has it.
Sympozeum is about sixty days away from public launch but you can sign up to
receive notification of its deployment at
www.sympozeum.com.
Links are important to the success of any website, whether you sell ice cream or run an online magazine. And there is one sure-fire way to get more links to your site. Be controversial.
Who wants to read the same old stuff that can be found on millions of other sites? By taking a different approach than anyone else, your site will create a buzz. Links will follow. A competitor may even link to your site. Even if your logic seems terribly flawed to most people, others will link to your site - even if it's only to laugh at your "crazy" ideas. But those links will certainly pay off in the end.
Now, we're not suggesting you destroy your credibility by making up wild stories and making false claims. But go ahead ... step out on the ledge a little. You'll create a stir, get more links to your site and increase traffic. You might even sell more mint chocolate chip or attract new subscribers.
AdSense spiders will crawl your site and search for content when "deciding" what ads to display on your site. Sometimes they can get confused by navigation content, footer content, other ads and other information on your site. AdSense offers a solution.
By using "Section Targeting," the spiders will locate only the content that you select to be targeted. Therefore, AdSense will place ads that are more relevant to your site's theme and content. Use the following HTML tags:
<!-- google_ad_section_start -->
<!-- google_ad_section_end -->
Designate sections to have ignored by adding a (weight=ignore) to the starting tag:
<!-- google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) -->
Yahoo reports that China Mobile, (the country's largest mobile carrier) is in talks with Google to provide an internet search engine for mobile services in China. It's worth noting that China's internet users numbered 111 million by the end of 2005, as reported by eMarketer.
In related news, Japanese Internet and telecom group Softbank has reached an agreement with Britain's Vodafone to develop new mobile handsets, software and content. Both companies will spend about $50 million to turn around the struggling local Japanese unit of Vodafone, which Softbank recently purchased for $15 billion, and will rename "Softbank Mobile." At the top of the agenda is providing mobile users around the world with access to sports footage, games, movies and music.
Why does any of this matter? Because it's a clear sign that mobile Internet usage and mobile search are creeping towards the front lines of Internet business. While the value of mobile search has yet to be fully understood, and China and Japan may be unlikely targets for your business, it's worth noting the advances. For anyone that owns a website or runs an Internet-based business, this is news worth keeping an eye on. Mobile search and marketing will provide yet another consumer base. Local marketers and Web businesses would be wise to begin planning for the future.
Searchers using brand terms at the beginning and end of their search turn in a conversion rate of 9.3%, according to a report from 360i. Searchers using a non-brand term at the beginning of their search and branded terms at the end of their search have a conversion rate of 8.73%. The numbers suggest that marketers who focus largely on branded search terms are spending a large portion of their efforts on only 0.56% of conversions.
While spending all of their efforts on brand terms, marketers are consistently ignoring the "long tail." The half-percent difference in conversions between the two search styles should press marketers to shift some of their focus to this largely ignored group. Perhaps the long tail will get shorter.
David Berkowitz, author of the study, suggests that marketers take a holistic apporach to search terms - managing brand and non-brand terms together to increase conversions as a whole.
Back in November when we launched Website Services Magazine's Daily weblog (which you're reading now -
subscribe to the RSS feeds here), like all savvy web promoters we searched high and low for directories and search engines in which to promote our weblog and our RSS feed. Robin Good's list of
Best Blog Directories and RSS Submission Sites at MasterNewMedia.org proved immensely helpful. During the process of submitting to sites on that list however, we found that some weren't really directories at all, and in fact were actually blog "traffic exchange" networks - not something we're too keen about spending time on. Over time, Website Services has derived its own list (from the original) and we thought it would be helpful if we added in some useful information about the actual quality of the sites providing these gracious listing services. WSM has added the Google PageRank, Alexa Rank and Ranking.com Rating for close to one hundred sites. We're confident that there are many other quality sources to submit RSS feeds, so if you know of one (or two) let us know and we'll update the list. Periodically we will also update the respective rankings and ratings provided by
Google,
Alexa.com and
Ranking.com.Access the Directory of Blog RSS Directories & Search Engines
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JupiterResearch has found that 63% of large companies plan to utilize RSS feeds by the end of 2006. That is a big increase from the current figure of 29%. In addition, 48% of current RSS publishers are spending $250,000 or more to deploy and manage syndicated content.
Meanwhile, Internet users have yet to adopt the syndicated service. There are no definitive measurement standards, but there is no evidence that RSS feeds are being used, or that use will increase anytime soon. Industry experts have yet to decide whether RSS will make any measurable impact in the near future. The allure for publishers is the perception that RSS users are heavy consumers of online media. But, at this point, it's all speculation. It appears that these large companies are attempting to jump ahead of the curve and, arguably, taking a gamble.
Watching the Hatton/Collazo fight on HBO a few nights ago got me thinking about affiliate marketing - late at night may not be the absolute best time to think about those sort of things, but in my punch drunk revelation (it was really late) I started thinking that, all too often, affiliates and partners of big brands don't make "combinations" a part of their marketing arsenal.
Continued below...
At the startup of any website or online campaign, most affiliate marketers either work to bring traffic to their sites through natural search optimization or through paid advertising. Unfortunately, many sites simply don't capitalize on the user visits they have generated. It's like being a professional boxer, training every day and then getting in the ring and not throwing a punch. The most successful affiliate marketers aren't just trying to sell products, they are trying to develop relationships with their visitors and getting the most from those relationships at every opportunity. So how do you do that? Take the plunge; set up a site-wide micro-campaign to collect names and email addresses and maximize the sales funnel that you've established with additional affiliate offers.
Best practice is always to set up separate landing pages for your email promotional campaign and express clearly the reasons why it would benefit them to opt into your email list. I'm sure you hear that advice at every Web marketing site you visit, but statistics show that this practice results in more qualified sign-ups - and who doesn't want that? Now that you're building a quality list (yes, it should be opt-in or double opt-in) you have a great opportunity to share additional offers through that communication - the second part of the one-two combination. While creating an opt-in email list gives you the opportunity to build quality relationships with your 'Net users and encourage repeat visits and repeat sales, using the thank-you page for subscribing (or unsubscribing) is the piece most affiliates simply leave out entirely. When users are presented with confirmation pages they are in an active mode and more inclined to make another purchase at that time. As such, using these pages to recommend products or services that your users will benefit from will increase your sales and make for even more satisfied customers.
And that's a combination every website owner will be happy to see.
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Close to 700 million people worldwide ages 15 and over used the Internet in the month of March, according to a new comScore panel. And that does not include traffic from internet cafes and mobile devices. According to the study, Asian countries now account for nearly 25% of the global online population - 11% more than the U.S. It's a very interesting statistic, and one that marketers should take notice of. Is your company taking advantage of these rapidly growing, international online marketing opportunities?
The Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook has some interesting charts that could prove very useful. They hold comprehensive lists of countries around the world and their total population, number of Internet users, Internet hosts, mobile phones in use and other valuable information.
This data could be key for marketers developing online media plans - particularly when deciding where to allocate resources for geo-targeted marketing messages. The charts can be viewed here.
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Next week, Slate.com (a popular online news publication) will begin providing textcasts, a service for iPod devices which will make available a daily transcript of its “Today’s Papers” news aggregation podcast for download and reading on the device. Downloads will be embedded within a 15-minute silent audio file. While reading on an iPod is challenging at best (the interface is not really meant for text) it's not the first time it's been tried.
There is a product available called Ipod Agent which lets you turn your iPod into an information repository by transferring all kinds of data to the device (including driving directions, contacts, appointments, email, notes, tasks, podcasts and yes, RSS news feeds - without the audio file). It also lets you sync your outlook information as well.
Screenshot -
Information/DownloadIt is the first time, however (that I can remember), that it's been supported by advertising - in this case Lexus.
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Lyris Technologies yesterday unveiled Lyris ListManager 9.0, with what looks
like some pretty fascinating features for an email client:
Here's a brief summary of the features:
Engagement Index: This new Engagement Index evaluates how effective a
campaign has been in engaging its audience. The data provided becomes a
benchmark, providing users a basis from which they can compare different
campaigns. Users utilize this data when creating new campaigns, in order to
optimize their messages for the highest possible customer response. Using data
on opens, click-throughs, un-subscribes, forwards, and resulting transactions,
the Engagement Index uses a formula to weigh each action and generates a
numerical value for how well the message engaged the receiver, based on those
actions.
Report Dashboard: The Report Dashboard provides summary information on
campaign results, showing at a glance the most recent mailings and resulting
metric trends, such as clicks, un-subscribes, and the engagement index value.
The calendaring function allows users to view campaigns by date and date range,
showing the frequency of published campaigns. Data on membership “health” --
opens, clicks, engagement, number of transactions, and dollar totals -- helps
users to evaluate if their list is shrinking or growing and gives other data
regarding recipients’ actions. Features include charts that detail mailings per
month and open and click-through rates, total number of transactions and total
revenue generated, list of top performing mailing (by purchases) and server
performance in terms of bandwidth and messages sent per minute.
Advanced A/B Split-Testing: ListManager’s wizard-driven split-tests
lets users go beyond A/B splits to test up to ten different versions of their
message. Users can test different subject line, content, or offer to determine
the most effective version. Features include randomly generated test segments,
concurrent sending of test email and comparative reporting on a variety of
metrics (subscribes, click-throughs, purchases)
Additional ListManager 9.0 features include a high-powered mail queue, new
navigation, and full support for Microsfot SQL Server 2005.
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I know, most of us shudder at the thought of seeing one more presentation in
PowerPoint. Not sure where I came across this, but here is a neat little add-in
"Thermometer for PowerPoint"
that creates an icon that shows how much of a presentation has progressed and
how much more is remaining.
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Are you still using cookies to track how many visitors you have and how often
those users return? If so, the numbers being used for determining the value of
your ad space may be overstated, way overstated. An article in the NYTimes - "The
Case of The Dissappearing Cookies" - cites a February Jupiter Research
report which found that 41 percent of male Internet users and 25 percent of
females manually deleted cookies at least once a week, adding that the figures
would be higher if they had included people who used anti-spyware programs to
delete cookies automatically.
In 2004, 18 percent of people who knew what cookies were said they deleted
them very frequently, according to a study by Revenue Science, which helps
advertisers find online audiences. A survey in December, 2005 reported a drop in
that figure, to 8 percent.
Does Your Website Use Cookies For Tracking? You tell us...
Take the Instant Survey: Does Your Website Use Cookies For Tracking?
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The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and its Broadband Committee and Measurement Task Force have announced their Broadband Video Commercial Measurement Guidelines today, at the IAB Leadership Forum in New York.
Essentially, the guidelines provide a measurement of the ad itself - when a consumer views the commercial, versus other media that measure the programming or content. It is a step to help streamline the infrastructure of broadband advertising and create standard business practices for this growing advertising platform. Industry analysts believe the new guidelines will provide a new standard of measurement and accountability.
According to IAB's official release, "the guidelines state that 'a valid broadband ad impression may only be counted when an ad counter (logging server) receives and responds to an HTTP request for a tracking asset from a client. The count must happen after the initiation of the stream, post-buffering, as opposed to the linked broadband content itself. Specifically, measurement should not occur when the buffer is initiated, rather measurement should occur when the ad itself begins to appear on the user’s browser, closest to the opportunity to see.' A 'Broadband Video Commercial' is defined as a commercial that may appear before, during, and after a variety of content including streaming video, animation, gaming, and music video content in a player environment. This definition includes Broadband Video Commercials that appear in live, archived, and downloadable streaming content."
It is recommended that the new guidelines be implemented upon the next regularly scheduled auditing and certification cycle, for those companies that have already been audited against the current guidelines.
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