Web Trends Marketing Lab
Measuring online engagement is sort of like herding cats - just when you think you've got everything grouped just so - along comes a whole new herd to bring into the fold.
WebTrends has just this week released the second version of its Marketing Lab product and I had the opportunity to speak with Matt Langie of WebTrends this morning at Ad:Tech.
In the new version of the company's year-old product suite for parsing visitor-level data, user behaviors are assigned points that can accrue to tabulate engagement using a WebTrends Score. For example, a visitor to a travel site will accrue points for conducting searches for particular destinations and visiting associated pages. Post-visit contact, including e-mail, can then target the user with an offer based on recent visits and determined likelihood to convert.
"It helps you look at engagement in a way not defined by some of the traditional parameters," said Langie, Project Manager at WebTrends.
The new scoring system reflects a trend in metrics to measure user activity, rather than just page views. Nielsen//NetRatings recently pushed a metric based on time spent while comScore last week said it would separate heavy from medium and light Internet users. ComScore also plans to make active time-spent data available to clients. The advantage of WebTrends Score is clients can set their own criteria, creating a dynamic metric to guide communications with customers.
A closer look at the solutions shows that users of the platform can combine online behavior with offline customer data to build user profiles over time. The result is that you can rank visitors (interaction scores) over multiple visits to identify the most engaged visitors and then market to their interests specificially. Behavioral tools and solutions enable Web business owners to take action from the visitor intelligence they gather, and in the end that will result in more visitors coming to your site.
Google Unveils Campaign Optimizer
The Campaign Optimizer is a free AdWords tool designed to help you fine-tune your advertising campaigns. When you run the Campaign Optimizer, we automatically analyze your budget, keywords, ad text, and landing page, and create a customized proposal for your campaign. You can then review the proposed changes and accept the ones you want to apply.
The Campaign Optimizer may propose any combination of the following changes, depending on what is appropriate for your campaign:
* Change daily budget. Budget adjustments can affect your ad visibility and bring you more targeted traffic.
* Add new keywords. The Campaign Optimizer proposes targeted keywords that relate to your landing page.
* Delete keywords. If the Campaign Optimizer identifies poorly performing keywords, it may propose removing them.
* Change keyword matching options. The right matching option can help you reach customers more effectively.
* Adjust keyword cost-per-click (CPC) bids. Your CPC bid (in addition to your ad quality) affects your ad position.
* Edit ad text. The Campaign Optimizer may suggest changes to make your ad text more effective.
You can use the Campaign Optimizer as often as you wish. However, to receive an optimal proposal for your campaign, we recommend using it no more than once every two weeks. This allows the Campaign Optimizer to draw upon two full weeks of your campaign performance.
How to Get BackLinks
The one thing that consistently brings in large amounts of traffic and garners
backlinks in the process is the creation of a good tutorial. Make sure the
tutorial is somehow related to your niche. Even the most boring of niches can
come up with some kind of interesting tutorial.
1. Use lots of photographs and/or illustrations. Document every step of the
tutorial with a picture to illustrate the point.
2. Assume the reader knows nothing. Give them details about the process. Doing
so helps the reader, makes your tutorial more linkable, and gives search engines
lots of juicy text to chew on.
3. If possible, include a link at the bottom of the tutorial to another portion
of your site where they can get more information, learn more, or expand their
knowledge of the broader subject.
4. Socialize the tutorial. Once written, get it into the social network mix.
Once you’ve gotten good traction with a tutorial, your mind will begin to
explode with new ideas. I won’t give away all of the ideas my mind came up with.
Podcasting Strategies For Newbies
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/SocialMediaMarketing/~3/139628915/starting-podcast-start-here.html
Personalization Tools For Any Site
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/139857194/
Companies Starting To Get RSS
http://www.webinknow.com/2007/07/sun-microsystem.html
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/typepad/liam/morrison/~3/139225777/promoting-your-.html
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Biznology/~3/139701900/newsletter.html
My Very Favorite Ad:Tech Exhibitor
Maximizing Social Media Participation
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/YPN/~3/139307687/
http://catherineseda.blogspot.com/2007/07/want-more-business-answer-question.html
hCard Microformat
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/08/google-maps-adds-support-for-hcard.html
Comscore Tracking Hardware Configs, Software Usage
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/comscore/~3/139675346/release.asp
Protection for Bloggers
http://news.com.com/House+panel+approves+legal+shield+for+bloggers/2100-1028_3-6200188.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1023_3-0-5&subj=news
How To: Get Invited to Beta-Tests Early
http://feeds.downloadsquad.com/~r/weblogsinc/downloadsquad/~3/138956443/
http://feeds.downloadsquad.com/~r/weblogsinc/downloadsquad/~3/139238375/
Inappropriate Emoticons
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/fashion/29emoticon.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Symantec and Small Business
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20070801/tc_nf/54311
Finding Your Stolen Content
When someone steal, poaches, or even repurposes your content - everyone
loses. That includes you (the original content creator), the site publishing it
(which will be penalized accordingly) and of course the user as they will be
under the assumption that where (the website) they read the article is the true
source of the idea or meme.
If you're concerned that someone may be using your content without your
permission but simply don't know how to find out where, Copyscape is an amazing
resource which makes finding stolen content much easier.
After each issue is published online I routinely check to see who's sending
traffic to this website and then compare it to Copyscape results in a quick side
by side glance. If I find that
http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/11/finding-stolen-content-and-copyright-infringements
If you're concerned that someone may be using your content without your
permission but simply don't know how to find out where, there are a few
resources available which make finding stolen content a little easier.
http://www.webconfs.com/similar-page-checker.php
GoogleSlapped
You may have heard of Answers.com rude awakening last week when they lost a
hefty portion (28%) of their natural search traffic from Google. Of
course, the
Yelp API Great For Local Sites
http://www.yelp.com/developers/documentation/search_api
Product Categories Effect Different Discount Terms
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/sandra-hanchard/2007/08/whats_vintage_vs_whats_cheap.html
http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2007/08/05/hitwise-product-categories-effect-different-discount-terms/?rss1
http://www.webinknow.com/2007/08/8-tips-to-make-.html
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/08/05/tagline-randomizer-for-wordpress/
Tagline Randomizer for WordPress
http://www.hostm.com/css/
When I first
read that, I was a bit shocked — why would a company want to
integrate with YouTube, especially since most are either
considering or have already blocked the website from their
network? After thinking a while, I came to the conclusion that
there are several uses for an enterprise version of YouTube that
could make it worthwhile.
Training Videos
Companies are usually responsible for training new hires and
even long time employees who are simply moving to new positions.
This never ending process takes a lot of man hours that could be
better spent in other areas of the organization. It would be
easy to create training videos once and upload them to your
corporate training application (YouTube) — allowing you to
allocate resources more efficiently.
Corporate Culture
Many organizations pride themselves on their culture. Having a
central place to foster that attitude in a fun and engaging way
could keep things moving in the right direction. Why not give
employees the ability to create their own departmental vlog or
upload their
bonk videos?
Public Relations
A customer facing YouTube could be an interesting way for
companies to get information out the door. Product announcements
with video demos may be the new press release — check out
Google's latest feature in Google Maps on their
own custom page.
http://courtneytuttle.com/
http://profil.es/
internet advertising
advertising
advertising agency
online advertisement
web hosting
web design
create a web site
web site promotion
website design
flash web site template
blogging
blog
programming
marketing
direct marketing
design software
Peek At Yourself
With data showing that 30% of all searches on Google or Yahoo are for specific
people or at least people-related, a number of start-ups have launched looking
to build a search engine built entirely amongst people. While Google has a
breadth of information and indexes a tremendous amount of data, figuring out
which “John Smith” you are looking for can be an almost impossible task. So for
the 99.9% of individuals who aren’t celebrities, sites like PeekYou.com have
sprung up. The new site which recently launched in Beta has already begun
indexing more than 50 million people profiles around the web, utilizing social
networking sites, tagging known online aliases to unite a person’s entire web
profile under a single entity.
PeekYou is the latest in a series of numerous start ups sites that have looked
to develop what they see as Google’s main failing as a search engine, namely the
ability to differentiate and streamline people search. Other players in the
space include Spock, ZoomInfo and Wink.
Business.com vs. OnlyBusiness.com
You may have heard by now that Business.com was sold (or is being sold) to RH
Donnelly for a whopping $350 million. If you're as confused as I am why a
respected company like RH Donnelly would buy a company whose revenue is a paltry
$15 million annually, stop wondering, because as far as I can tell it must be
the summer heat.
While it's true that Business.com is one of the great domain names in the
history of the Web, and yes, they do actually have a business model (directory
listings, PPC listings, probably some content licensing, etc.), you probably
already know (or should know) that there are alternatives.
One such company is OnlyBusiness.com.
"As a collarborative, web-based business and community platform, the goal of
Only Business.com is to provide all the products, services, features and
functions that a typical business would need to build a financially
successfulonline channel for their organization," explains OnlyBusiness.com CEO,
Daniel Keyerov. "With this platform, even a non-technical person can build n
online business, and manage and market it in minutes, without any of the high
costs and massive time requrement tyupically associated with building an online
business."
1) What are "Private Label Rights"
3) The Adsense Exodus - 5 Reasons Publishers Are Leaving Google
3) In Pursuit of An Online Mentor
4) No Shortage of "Local" Portals
5) Pownce, Jaiku and Twitter
When I first read that, I was a bit shocked — why would a company want to
integrate with YouTube, especially since most are either considering or have
already blocked the website from their network? After thinking a while, I came
to the conclusion that there are several uses for an enterprise version of
YouTube that could make it worthwhile.
Training Videos
Companies are usually responsible for training new hires and even long time
employees who are simply moving to new positions. This never ending process
takes a lot of man hours that could be better spent in other areas of the
organization. It would be easy to create training videos once and upload them to
your corporate training application (YouTube) — allowing you to allocate
resources more efficiently.
Corporate Culture
Many organizations pride themselves on their culture. Having a central place to
foster that attitude in a fun and engaging way could keep things moving in the
right direction. Why not give employees the ability to create their own
departmental vlog or upload their bonk videos?
Public Relations
A customer facing YouTube could be an interesting way for companies to get
information out the door. Product announcements with video demos may be the new
press release — check out Google's latest feature in Google Maps on their own
custom page.
Editors Letter: Inside The Online World
In a 2000, New York Times interview, Netscape co-founder Marc
Andreessen said, “At the end of the day the Internet is still all about
software.” That is the focus of this issue — that with all the tips,
techniques and tactics we have provided Website Magazine readers
since our launch, the fact remains that software powers success (or
failure) on the Internet. Choose platforms and applications wisely
based on your needs and expectations and you’ll reap the rewards.
Fail at the research involved in identifying your needs and you will
end up with a program that does little more than take up space on
your Web server.
Not a day passes at Website Magazine when we don’t receive an
email asking our opinion on the best software to choose or whether
we have heard about a specific platform. The feature article of this
issue is “5 on 5” and should act as a guide to choosing some of the
most popular software solutions needed by website owners, as well
as a comparison of some of our favorites. We hope you find as
much value in it as we enjoyed developing it for you, our readers.
But this issue is not just about software. Once again, we’ve brought
in some of the Web’s leading business people to address the issues
that are most important to website owners. Website Magazine has
tackled subjects such as Universal Search, mobile Web preparation,
some legal aspects of Web promotion, social media measurement
and, as always, a whole lot more.
Best Web Wishes,
Peter Prestipino— Editor in Chief
Peter@WebsiteMagazine.com