May 2008 - Posts
One of the main misconceptions those new to PPC advertising have is that
where they place their budget is the source of the traffic. In reality, most
paid search solutions utilize some syndication sources to increase the total
number of searches available. That's pretty much standard practice in the paid
search advertising industry. But how does advertising that is syndicated compare
to pure search referrals?
Efficient Frontier has released some incredibly interesting insights showing
where click referrals are coming from and the ROI for each of the big three
networks - Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.
Interesting to Note:
You've probably heard advertisers complain that using the content network at
Google results in poor conversions, while utilizing the search network alone
yields the best results (especially if you understand match types). This seems
to hold true based on the chart above.
If you've ever had writers block, then today's Website Magazine website of
the day is sure to please. Addictomatic
is a service which searches the best live sites on the Web (e.g. Del.icio.us,
Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Technorati and various other sources.) for the latest
news, blog posts, videos and images. It's a powerful tool to keep track of
specific topics. After a search is conducted, users can personalize the results
dashboard by moving around the source boxes. When you're done, the page can be
bookmarked so you always have quick access to your very own personalized
results. Addictomatic was founded by Dave Pell, who founded
Rollyo.
In the fast paced world of the Web, time is the rarest and most valuable
commodity. That's why managing your time as a freelancer is so important! Here
are a few online time tracking, simple invoicing and expense solutions that you
may want to look into to help you get more out of your virtual day as you head
down the path towards Web success!
Toggl : The free plan offers time
tracking for teams, unlimited projects and team members, unlimited workspaces
for users, unlimited tasks for users and a Toggl "desktop." The paid version
($19/month) enables users to brand their workspace, offers reports, features the
ability to set hourly rates for projects and includes priority support. Toggl
also offers full access to its time tracking functionality through a web service
API.
MyHours : The personal plan offered
by MyHours is a robust solution to track time by projects and tasks, calculate
costs and send report by email. MyHours provides several different tracking
options to let you track work in real-time or enter data when it's convenient.
There are also some "diverse" reporting features including helpful modules for
data analysis. report are print-ready and can be exported to MS Excel or sent by
email - there's even access to basic time tracking through mobile devices.
Harvest : Pricing for Harvest is
ranges from $12-$90 per month, but what you receive for that investment is a
powerful solution to track time, log expenses, invoice clients and keep tracking
of account receiveables and revenue. Attractive visual reporting and powerful
billing tools are just some of the noteworthy features. Harvest works leading
software and services for small business, and the flexibility of the Harvest API
allows you to build on top of Harvest for your unique business needs.
On a related note, Cashboard,
a hosted web application for creating estimates, invoices and time tracking
has announced some upgrades worthy of
note. Improvements have been made to the invoice worksheet to make editing
quicker, custom note fields have been introduced as have preferences to mark all
new time entries billable or non-billable by default. Pretty sweet!
Google is launching a data portability feature (courtesy of Open Social) which could help it compete with the likes of Facebook and MySpace, and potentially render smaller, independent white label social networking platforms and services obsolete.
Google's Friend Connect enables website owners to utilize social features on their Web properties and let users share their social graph, just by adding a simple snippet of code to their site. Website owners receive features many sites don't have such as user registration, invitations, members gallery, message posting and reviews as well as third-party applications built by the OpenSocial developer community.
Perhaps the most significant advantage to website owners is that Friend Connect will do the hard work of encouraging visitors to bring in their friends to interact with the site and for many that will go a long way to attracing visitors. The downside of course is that you've got one more Google solution running on your domain and a deeper reliance on a network that is profiting from the actions of your users.
The service is only a preview release right now and is being made available to a limited bumber of site owners as it approaches general avaialablity. To me it looks like a more open, social and glorified version of Yahoo!'s MyBlogLog, but those interested can
sign up here.
Today’s online culture is about participating in conversations and creating
communities where people can share ideas. Similarly (and more traditionally),
conferences create conversations between people with similar interests and
common goals. As marketers, we spend a lot of time attending conferences – it
seems logical that we should connect these two like items together. There are
many ways to create and leverage event-based social media to generate Web site
traffic and brand awareness long after the conference has ended.
Read Media Trust's Creative Director Christopher Smith guide to
leveraging Event-Based Social Media to generate Web site traffic and brand
awareness.
If you decide to venture into mobile advertising and marketing you better have a
solid analytics solutions in place to help you determine what's working and
what's not.
Mobile marketers can now use the
Bango tool for Mobile Analytics and its new goal comparison feature to see
which mobile ad campaigns and mobile marketing sources deliver the best
conversion rates. Bango claims its User ID technology offers a level of
precision not found with other mobile analytics products by providing a reliable
and persistent identity for every mobile user. It tracks real people as they
enter a mobile website from different sources and reach a defined goal – such as
click to call, buying content or downloading an application. “It’s not the
number of hits on your site that ultimately matters but whether they convert
into value for the business,” said Ray Anderson, CEO of Bango. “Being able to
measure ROI of your mobile advertising through accurate tracking can make the
difference between success and failure.”
Those of you using SharePoint for content management will be able to
spruce up the look and functionality of your portals.
PixelMill.com, a provider
of design solutions for Web site builders and content managers, last week
unveiled a series of new content management system Web templates that gives
users the ability to quickly edit Web site content areas directly from within
ordinary Web browsers.
From the release: "
By combining the professional graphic design
of pre-designed Web templates with the power of Microsoft's SharePoint-driven
content management system (CMS) interface, PixelMill has introduced an
unprecedented level of Web design and content management simplicity. With
support from Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) experts B4Contact to develop the
new Web template products, PixelMill crafted for business professionals a site
building and content management solution that enables virtually any staff member
with minimal Web experience and training to contribute to and dynamically edit
and update a company's Web presence."
"With today's tightening economy and the rapid decentralization of
employees and business partners, establishing a Web presence built on a
centralized collaborative tool like SharePoint makes good business sense," said
PixelMill CEO Jason Reckers. "This new approach removes virtually all obstacles
for businesses to quickly create, deliver and manage a world-class Web
presence."
Evision Worldwide, a Chicago-based search marketing agency,will be offering a series of local Internet Marketing Summits, the first of which will be on May 29,2008 in Jacksonville, Florida.
Two of Evision's founders, Ronnie Soud and Vikram Singh, will lead the first local summit entitled Basic and Advanced Search Marketing Strategies. The seminar is free of charge, and will offer search marketing education and real-world advice to small- and medium-sized business owners.
Check out the events page at Evision for more information.
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
The following are press releases that caught our attention today, May 6th, 2008. If you have a news announcement you would like to share with the
Website Magazine community, please
contact the Website Magazine editors.
New Blog Design Offerings and Free Blog Templates from Logoworks by HP
: HP introduced through its Logoworks by HP unit a set of affordable and
versatile blog design offerings and free blog templates to help businesses ride
the Web 2.0 wave and start building customer interactivity.
Read
the release : Visit Logo
Works :
Comment in the forum
Bizzlr Brings Small Business to 183 Million Users on Social Networks :
Revolutionary application enables SMEs to tap into major social networks.
Read the release : Visit Bizzlr :
Comment in the forum
Twice the Ruby, Twice the Fun: Ruby and Ruby on Rails Bootcamp, July
19-25, 2008 : Big Nerd Ranch announces a new class for those seeking Ruby
and Ruby on Rails training - Ruby & Ruby on Rails Bootcamp July 19-25, 2008.
Read the release
: Visit Big Nerd Ranch :
Comment in the forum
PromoteVideo.com Video Network for Promoters, Advertisers and Those Who Want
to Be Seen : A social video network with the absolutely unique and
innovative concept of video promotion has been released on the Web.
Read the release
: Visit Promote Video :
Comment in the forum
Business Wire Webinar Series Provides How-To Help on Press Releases : SEO
Heroes and Those “Lost in MySpace” Get How-To Help From Press Release Experts.
Read the
release :
Visit Business Wire :
Comment in the forum
Gone are the days when you could develop a list of keywords, place a modest
bid and receive quality visitors. Now you've got geo-targeting, quality scores
and a slew of other considerations to make when in pursuit of maximizing your
paid advertising budget. One of the most challenging aspects of paid advertising
for new Adwords users are the variety of match types available. Understanding
the AdWords match types is crucial to your success, so let's take a look at the
available matching options.
Exact Matching: The most targeted advertising option, Exact Match
keywords are presented in brackets, e.g. [website magazine]. Advertisers will
receive traffic on an exact match keyword when a user searches specifically for
that term. Fewer impressions will be received but it is clearly the most
targeted ad option at Adwords.
Broad Matching: The default ad option, broad match is for those that
want Google to do a little work in their campaign. Using broad matching enables
your ad listing to appear when users enter additional search terms. For example,
if our keyword was 'website magazine', using broad match, our listing might also
appear for 'free website magazine' or 'good website magazine' in addition to
plurals such as 'website magazines'. Think of broad matching as a way to easily
add keyword variations without investing all the time.
Phrase Matching: More targeted than broad match, by entering your
keyword or key phrases in quotation marks, e.g. "website magazine", advertisers
have access to users searching for 'website magazine' and also to those searches
with terms before or after the phrase, e.g. Phrase match is
more targeted than broad match, but has the flexibility for slight variation
that exact match does not.
Negative Keyword Matching: Negative keywords enable advertisers to
ensure that they do not, under any circumstances, appear for certain keyword or
key phrase combinations. For example, if our broad match keyword 'website
magazine' was receiving loads of traffic from the search query 'funny website
magazine' we might want to include a negative keyword in our account such as
'website magazine -funny' we will not be paying for that traffic.
It's important to understand that each of the matching options provide a
different way for users to interact with search queries. With some types, you
will receive many ad impressions and with other you'll get fewer (but often more
targeted visitors). By matching your advertising strategy to your ROI goals you
should come out a winner.
It's amazing how much time I spend going through Outlook searching for emails
- and it looks like I'm not alone.
By 2009, workers are expected to spend 41% of their time managing email.
Receiving thousands of emails each week and organizing them efficiently is a
task better suited to a machine than it is a person. With the average human
brain capable of maintaining only 150 friendships, and with enterprises expected
to spend more than $17 billion on email software in the next four years, that's
why I was pleased as could be when I came across
Xobni, a very "social" plug-in for
Outlook which helps users find email conversations, contacts and attachments in
a much more fluid, natural and efficient manner.
Installation of the plug-in was quick (although it did take a while to
index all of the email in my Outlook). Xobni's features however (powerful
email search, threaded conversations, email analytics, quick attachment
discovery and phone number extraction) made me a believer.
The following are press releases that caught our attention today, May 5th, 2008. If you have a news announcement you would like to share with the
Website Magazine community, please
contact the Website Magazine editors.
In Tough Economy, Large Enterprises Look to Tap Growth Potential in Small &
Medium Businesses : Warrillow & Co. Sees Signs of Strong SMB Optimism;
Announces American Express, Cisco, Covad, FedEx and Intuit as Finalists for
Small Business Marketer of the Year Award.
Read the release
:
Visit Warrilow :
Comment in the forum
JumpTap Selected by AlwaysOn as a Northeast 100 Top Private Company
Award Winner : JumpTap, the leading mobile search and advertising solutions
provider, today announced that it has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the
Northeast 100 Top Private Companies.
Read the release
:
Visit JumpTap :
Comment in the forum
Toll Free Phone Numbers Are Now Available for Small Businesses :
Tollfreenumber.org offers small business owners a convenient and affordable way
to attract new customers with toll free phone numbers.
Read the release
:
Visit TollFreeNumber.org :
Comment in the forum
A Pit Opens for Incautious Online Marketers, Warns XSEO : The news
that major corporations are putting search engines such as Google and Yahoo! at
the forefront of their marketing strategies could herald huge problems for
incautious optimisers, XSEO reveals.
Read the release
:
Visit XSEO :
Comment in the forum
Codejock Releases ToolkitPro and SuitePro 2008 Vol. 1 for Visual C++
and ActiveX : Volume 1 is a huge release for Codejock, and the first major
release of 2008. This release introduces many new key features and enhancements.
Read the release
:
Visit CodeJock :
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AuthorityDomains.com's Bundled New Social Media Services Offer Unique
Marketing Solution : AuthorityDomains.com launches new social media
marketing service, helps people build their brand, increase their site's
rankings and become authorities in their industry.
Read the release
:
Visit Authority
Domains :
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BitNami.org Makes Wordpress, Drupal, and Joomla! Easy to Install on
Solaris : BitNami makes installing blogging, content management and other
open source software on Solaris a snap.
Read the release
:
Visit BitNami :
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Yesterday Intel launched a service called
Business Exchange, aimed at small- and medium-sized businesses. The new service offers a way to find software applications that runs on Intel hardware.
Categories include security, storage, telecommunications and business applications. Along with the software information is user-generated feedback and the ability to request a quote from the vendors. Some of the software includes offerings from Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Symantec and Tripwire and it's all intended to compete with IBM's Global Applications Marketplace.
Social news aggregator and
Digg competitor
Mixx.com has announced the launch of their API, allowing developers to get their hands dirty creating new applications. And that means more attention and more traffic for Mixx and those who leverage the site to their advantage.
The API will allow items to be viewed, submitted and commented on from any other site across the Web. Already,
The New York Times and
Los Angeles Times includes buttons on stories to submit to Mixx and many other large media sites are beginning to follow suit.
Mixx does not see anywhere near the traffic as Digg, but a look at some data shows they are playing a mean game of catch-up. Compete shows traffic booming - soon after launch, in September 2007 Mixx saw about 30,000 unique visitors, compared to over 180,000 in March 2008. In short, quick innovation, fast uptake and the attention of top developers should be enough to convince anyone to start using Mixx in their marketing plans.
Localized Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is another Internet marketing strategy
that you can use to get your business noticed online, drive targeted traffic to
your site, and increase your brand awareness in your community. If you’ve been
looking at the advantages of local PPC or have already been experimenting with
different ads, these tips will help to maximize your investment and boost your
click-through rates!
Local Pay-Per-Click Advertising Tips:
- Use keyword research tools – such as WordTracker, Google AdWords,
and others and see which industry-specific keywords and phrases are most
often used by people looking for things online. This will identify niche
opportunities that you can capitalize on. The quality of your keyword
research is directly related to how successful your local PPC ad campaign
will be!
- Choose multiple keywords – and prepare to be flexible. If your
preferred keywords are highly competitive and will cost more, use your
research and choose other keywords with multiple variations that will still
get results but save money.
- Include the name of your town or area with the keywords – People
are getting better at using local terms in their searches so modify your
keyword selection by including the name of your town or area. These will
probably be less competitive terms which will allow you to get more results
with less money!
- Use town or area nicknames with the keywords – This takes the
idea presented above and expands it further. Choose keywords which include
common nicknames or abbreviations of your city, county, or region.
- Test different ad features – Start slowly and experiment with
adding images, animations, different ad copy, etc. and track the results.
Look for innovative ways that help your ads stand out!
Be prepared to experiment with the look and composition of your PPC ads to
see what works and what doesn’t. If a particular ad is underperforming and not
getting results, you’ll have the option of shutting it off and trying a new one
in its place. Local PPC advertising is all about the response rate and higher
rates means higher sales for your business! These tips will save you money,
drive more traffic to your site, and make your phone ring off the hook!
About the author: Nick Stamoulis is the President of
Brick
Marketing who is Website Magazine's “Local Thursdays” weekly contributor.
The following are press releases that caught our attention today, May 1st, 2008. If you have a news announcement you would like to share with the
Website Magazine community, please
contact the Website Magazine editors.
Press Release Writing Pro Reveals How SEO Press Releases Can Bury Negative,
Unflattering Company News on the Internet : SEO press releases can bury
unflattering news that perpetuate on blogs, Web sites.
Read the release : Visit Press
Release Pro :
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PPC Summit Premier Internet Marketing Workshop Introduces Expert
Insider Tips that Increase Sales : Pay Per Click (PPC) Summit, internet
marketing workshop announces new search marketing agenda presented by Microsoft
and other industry leaders. The new workshop sessions will cover quality scoring
systems, PPC campaign management, keyword strategies, landing page best
practices and many more SEM hot topics at San Francisco May 19-20.
Read the release : Visit PPC Summit
:
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Marigold Technologies Announces New Database Subscription Services for
Enterprise Customers : Marigold's new Database Subscriptions Division
provides enterprise customers with unparalleled access to fresh and accurate
data for market analysis, direct marketing, CRM, and business decision-making.
Read the release
: Visit Marigold
Technologies :
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Web Hosting Community Gets More Social : Introducing the evolution of
the Internet's largest, most influential web hosting community. Web Hosting Talk
announced the launch of its Enhanced Member Profiles -- adding a new layer of
social networking for Web Hosting Talks' community members.
Read the release : Visit Web Hosting
Talk :
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