Latest Buzz on Online Marketing

Blending Social Media Marketing With Search Engine Marketing

2010-03-04T20:46:00.000-08:00

For an online business to be successful, it needs a good search engine optimization (SEO) campaign and good brand marketing through social media marketing. And one of the most effective ways to rank high SEO is to blend it with social media marketing architecture.

This highlights the importance of updated and relevant content. Whenever someone browses your website, they have the option to leave comments and links. In response, you can visit their links and share your own comments in their site while leaving your own link in the process. With the links embedded, you now have a new mechanism that generates traffic.

Social media sites are another platform. Synchronizing your site with Linkedin, Twitter or Facebook will consistently bring clicks to your website. The Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook users will be able to visit your website and share it with there friends and thus increases a referral traffic which in deed is very helpful regarding business sales only if they find the content compelling and interesting.

Now that Google has launched its real-time search features, Twitter tweets have more value which crawls the updated very fast as compare to last year when there was no such methodology.

Use Twitter to Measure Your Social Media Presence

2010-02-23T01:15:00.000-08:00

While running a social media campaign on twitter, we also need to find out the results which we can track to check the campaign progress. If we able to catch the trend of twitter we can easily get useful traffic out from it which later on helps to build up a strong online brand presence.

From Twitter we can measure the social media presence by analyzing the below attributes:

1. Find out the re-tweets of your tweets.
2. Followers profile scanning.
3. Twitter Traffic using Google Analytic or URL shortens tools like bit.ly.
4. Checking the Volume of # (Hash) tag search.

Keep adding your comments on Social Media Marketing strategies and campaigns.

Cheers
Gaurav Sharma

Top Internet marketing Tricks to get traffic from Facebook Website

2010-02-19T01:48:00.000-08:00

Facebook is not the first social network but it is the most popular one. There have been many other social networks before Facebook and while some of them were popular at some point in time, none could reach the popularity of Facebook. In addition to keeping in touch with your friends, Facebook can be (and is) used for business. You can use it to promote your products and services, to acquire new clients, or to get traffic to your site.

Like Twitter, Facebook is just one of the many ways to get some traffic to your site. Many marketers believe that it is just a matter of time for the traffic from Facebook, Twitter and the other major social networking sites to surpass the traffic their sites get from Google.

While this time might come, don't take this as a promise that even if you do everything right, Facebook, Twitter, or any other similar site will do traffic miracles for you. For some people Facebook works like a charm, for others it doesn't work at all. The same applies to Twitter. You can't know in advance if Facebook and/or Twitter will crash your server with traffic. Just try both and see which one (if any) works for you.

Unlike Twitter, which is very simplistic, Facebook offers more possibilities. Yes, you might need more time in order to explore all the possibilities and take advantage of them but hopefully these efforts will have a great return in terms of traffic. Here are some tips that can help you turn Facebook into a traffic monster:

1 your profile is your major weapon

As with Twitter and any other social network, if you don't make your profile interesting, you will hardly become popular. Give enough background information for you and don't forget to make your profile public because this way even people, who don't know you, when they encounter your profile, they might become interested in you and become a supporter of yours.

2 Include information about your site on your Wall and in the photo gallery
Facebook gives you the opportunity to write a lot about you and your endeavors, as well as to include pictures, so use all these opportunities to build interest in you and your products. It is even better to post videos and fill in the other tabs, so if you have something meaningful to put there, just do it.

3 Build your network

As with other social networking sites, your network is your major capital. That is why you need to invite your friends, acquaintances, and partners and ask them to join as your supporter. You should also search for people with interests similar to yours. However, don't be pushy and don't spam because this is not the way to convince people to join your network.

4Post regularly

No matter how interesting the stuff in your Facebook profile is, if you don't publish new content regularly, the traffic to your Facebook profile (and respectively the Facebook traffic to your site) will slow down. If you can post daily, it is fine but even if you don't post that regularly, try to do it as frequently as you can. If nothing else, updating your status regularly is more than nothing, so do it.

5 Be active

A great profile, an impressive network, and posting regularly are just a part of the recipe for success on Facebook. You also need to be active – visit the profiles of your supporters, take part in their groups and other initiatives, visit their sites. You are right that all this takes a lot of time and you might soon discover that Facebooking is a full-time occupation but if you notice an increase in traffic to your site, then all this is worth.

6 Arrange your page

Unlike other social networks, Facebook gives you more flexibility and you can move around many of the boxes. If you put the RSS feed with the links to your blog in a visible space, this alone can generate lots of traffic for you.

7 Check what Facebook apps are available

Facebook apps are numerous and new and new ones are released all the time. While many of these apps are not exactly what you need, there are apps, which can work for you in a great way. For instance, MarketPlace widget/plugin or Blog Friends widget are very useful and you should take advantage of them. You can also use the widgets for crossposting (i.e. posting directly on Twitter from Facebook) because this saves you time.

8 Use Facebook Social Ads

If you can't get traffic the natural way, you might consider using Facebook Social ads. These are PPC ads and starting a campaign is similar to an Adwords campaign.

9 Start a group

There are many groups on Facebook but it is quite probable that there is a free niche for you. Start a group about something related to your business and invite people to join it. The advantage of this approach is that you are getting targeted users – i.e. people, who are interested in you, your product, your ideas, etc.

10 Write your own Facebook extensions

while this step is certainly not for everybody, if you can write Facebook extensions, this is one more way to make your Facebook profile popular and get some traffic to your site.

11 Use separate profiles

unfortunately, social networks do expose a lot of personal information and you are not paranoid, if you don't want so much publicity. Many people are rightfully worried about their privacy on social network sites and that is why it is not uncommon to have one personal profile for friends and one business profile to promote their business. You can have one single profile for both purposes, but if you have privacy concerns, consider separating this profile in two – you'd better be safe than sorry.

Facebook is changing all the time and no matter how hard you try to follow these changes, there will be new and new possibilities for you to explore. That is why it is not possible to compile a complete list of all the tactics you can use in order to drive traffic from Facebook to your site. Anyway, if you try just the basics for Facebook success we listed here, chances are that you will see a considerable traffic increase.

Convert an Effective Newsletter into a Powerful Marketing Strategy

2009-11-09T22:57:00.000-08:00

If you're like most companies, you're not using your newsletter for the marketing tool it is. You see many companies produce newsletters. But after a while, the purpose of the newsletter is lost and so is its impact.

Here are a few tips for turning your newsletter into a powerful marketing strategy.

Determine what your readers want- too many newsletters are used simply to boast. Although your newsletter should promote your business, it's also a time to build your relationship with your prospects and customers. Be sure to discuss topics of interest and value for your customers and prospects.

Personalize your newsletter- there are hundreds of newsletters circulating on the Internet and in the mail. You need to make your newsletter stand out from the crowd. Making your newsletter uniquely you will make a difference. So be real. Feel free to include personality and emotion in your newsletter.

Make it look good- the visual aspect of your newsletter can make all the difference. Make it brief. (You only have the reader's attention for a few minutes.) Use bullets and appealing headlines. And include graphics.

Let your readers give you their opinion- ask your readers to comment on the newsletter. They will tell you what they liked, disliked, or want to see more of. Additionally, the interaction with your readers draws you closer to a sale.
Include your contact information- the ultimate purpose of the newsletter is to get more customers (through name recognition, relationship building, and promoting your products). However, without your contact information, those potential customers will never appear.

Create a newsletter worthy of your company and you'll drive your readers to future sales. Make it simple, make it short, and make it a powerful tool that reflects you and your business!

Cheers
Gaurav

Lead Nurturing and Lead Life Cycle Campaign

2009-08-20T02:26:00.000-07:00

In this blog post, I am going to share the best practices on Drip marketing Campaign. The blog post is refined by going through best articles and my practical involvement in core technical drip marketing project.

Ever look at your pipeline and see some great things developing, but worried that you aren’t going to meet short term sales goals? This is where Lead nurturing Campaigns come in that means listing out the prospects which can be put into sales ready bucket. Lead nurturing Campaigns are used to move prospects along the buying cycle faster by sending various offers at the right time. These campaigns are triggered on prospect activity, like visiting a certain web page, reading a specific email, or searching on specific terms to find your website. These campaigns become even more interesting when demographics are used to further segment the campaigns, making sure that the right messages are sent when an accelerator campaign is triggered.

Some quick tips on Lead Nurturing Campaigns include:

• Start simple and build out these lead nurturing campaigns
• Testing isn't just for email and landing pages - test to improve these campaigns, too
• Accelerate on a combination of demographic and behavioral data

Lead Lifecycle Campaigns are developed to ensure prospects aren’t left outside your organization sales bucket. This is often referred to as ‘cold leads’ or ‘raw leads’, and are typically accepted as part of normal lead management. In lead lifecycle campaigns the goal is to keep leads moving, even if they are not ready to buy.

There are three categories of Lead Lifecycle Campaigns:

• Lead Checking- this is a part of sales and marketing alignment that ensures proper processing of leads to ensure none get ‘stuck’ or ‘lost’

• Lead Recycling- involves putting leads that were passed to sales back in a nurturing campaign if they are not ready to buy. Ideally though, these campaigns are more customized than a standard nurturing campaign, taking into account the information gained by the sales rep during their interaction with the lead.

• New Customers- a sale being closed doesn’t mean that nurturing should stop. Instead, a drip program can be devised to help customers get started with your company and may provide great ways to introduce additional products that may be of interest to these new customers.

Any questions and queries are most welcome.

Best
Gaurav

Corporate Social Media Strategies & Guidelines

2009-07-17T21:39:00.000-07:00

1) Social Media is about people. Customers and Prospects and Partners are connecting, sharing and growing with each other, never forget this. Do it authentically, openly, and knowing the world is watching. Prospects trust consumers more than you, now they are talking to each other using Social Media tools.

2) Communities are the goal, conversations are the verb. Social Media can be used to reach and connect with customers, you can participate in communities. An obvious output of this community are the digital and real life conversations that will manifest. You can read, join, and even measure those conversations, this is your currency.

3) Let go to gain more. The participants of these tools are in charge, typically customers are using these tools long before corporate types do. Thereby, you must participate to be in charge. The more a corporation controls the less effective this will be.

4) Measurement will be important. It will be important to measure the interaction between people. Such terms such as Engagement, Participation, and Attention are rising. Qualitative responses that happen are what is important, not page views or downloads. Teach executives that Web Marketing has left the corporate .com site and has now spread globally and to small islands of conversations. I’ll be on the forefront of this industry need, stay with me, I’ll be your resource.

5) Organize internally. As much focus on internal communication about community should empower a fast, coordinated response. Some employees will be more passionate about one area over others, reward them, and support them.

6) Risk of the unknown. Human conversations are great, you never know where they will turn. For companies that are very logical, planned and methodical there is some elements of the unknown. One thing is for sure, the more you get involved with a conversation in the start, the less risk you’ll have over time.

7) Social Media goes deep in the organization. This tool will change how executives communicate to employees and the public. Support teams will start to engage customers using social media, Middle Management will integrate these tools into program plans, and the rank and file will often be first generation adopters, it’s often bottom up and distributed. Social media is already beginning to be a line item in the 2007 budget.

8) Social Media goes wide in the organization. It’s not just about Marketing or PR, the Internet, Extranet and the Intranet will be impacted. You can reduce support costs, build better products with engineering in near-real time. Decrease the sales cycle through education, and even reduce recruiting costs and attract the top talent. This web by nature is global, there are more Chinese internet users than all of North America, and for some time, Japanese is a more common language in blogs than English.

9) Social Media spans time. Savvy companies are learning how to use these tools across all phases of the customer life cycle. Awareness, engagement, education, pitch, negotiation, deployment, support, product research, customer feedback, market and competitive intelligence, and then repeat. This public conversation will be archived through as long as the internet is accessible. Google is the memory.

10) Social Media is not magic nor voodoo. Use these tools to open and reach out, use these great web tools to reach and connect to customers, everyone can contribute. Learn the tools, experiment internally. This is Web Strategy.

Drip Marketing using a automation system

2009-07-16T00:14:00.000-07:00

Marketing automaton is still a relatively new technology. Many companies overlook the benefits it provides and it is often the last thing included in the budget, especially when the higher-ups making budgeting decisions may not know about the value marketing automation offers. What they don’t realize is that most companies are using multiple tools to do what ONE marketing automation system can do. When it comes down to it, marketing automation can save you time and money.

Here are the top five reasons to start using marketing automation:

Productivity – Marketing automation makes marketing and sales teams more productive. The sales team will receive more qualified leads and can spend less time educating prospects and more time closing deals. The marketing team benefits both from seeing which campaigns are most effective and from automating daily tasks, like email responses and lead assignments, that used to be performed manually.

Integration – Integration with a CRM system continuously syncs data between the two systems and allows the sales team to view updated information of prospect activity from within the CRM system. Integrating with familiar systems means less barriers to company-wide adoption and also makes day-to-day use easier.

Greater ROI – The ability to track a prospect from the point of origination gives companies the capability to see what efforts in converting prospects are working and therefore spend more time and money on techniques that are generating profit.

Simplify – Instead of using sometimes upwards of 10 tools for lead-scoring, e-mail, landing pages and more, a marketing automation system puts it all together in one place. It is much easier because data and marketing tasks are consolidated in a single tool, and you don’t need to worry about what is where and having access to all of the different systems.

Relationship Building – These systems make nurturing easy, helping build the relationship with both current and future customers. They allow you to determine exactly what the customer wants, based on their tracked activities, and enhance that data with tools like a Linkedin connector. Marketing automation also makes segmenting and personalizing emails easy, giving a personal touch to emails that were sent out in an automated blast.

Track Your Online Reputation

2009-07-10T00:02:00.000-07:00

Reputation Smart was born through a need to keep track of my own online reputation and my growing stable of products.

Monitor the your keyword result from below sources:

Sources: Google News* Google Blog* Yahoo News Live Search Twitter Flickr YouTube Technorati Del.icio.us Digg eBay BlogPulse BlogDigger BlogLines IceRocket GoArticles

Find the url and try: http://reputation-smart.com/

Email Marketing Tip - Success in Direct Mail Open Rates

2009-06-25T22:59:00.000-07:00

There are many things that contribute to a direct mail campaign's success and generally they revolve around The Format, The Offer, and The List. Still, at the most basic level, the first obstacle to making direct mail work is to get your piece opened.

Whether you are prospecting a cold list, following up on a sales prospect, or thanking a current customer there is one trick that will guarantee a good open rate—deliver it BY THE HAND hand addressed, hand stamped, hand signed!

We know. In a world where technology reigns, the handwritten direct mail piece seems old fashioned at best and a LOT of work at the least. You'd be right on both fronts.

But we ask you...when was the last time YOU threw away a direct mail piece you received that was hand addressed, handwritten, and/or hand signed?

Never, right? Well, that's the point.

Here's why it works:

It's polite. People are used to throwing mass mail in trash. It doesn't hurt anyone. But a hand addressed mailer. That's just rude. Even when the recipient knows the piece is promotional in nature, they'll open it. They'd never want to be caught having to say to someone..."No, I didn't get your invitation...I threw it away without opening it."

It's personal. Jotting off an email, text, or other quick contact method may be more efficient, but it also lacks a genuine "connection" with a person. The handwritten direct mail piece does take more time, but it says...you cared enough to take the time. And, there are many companies that can help you with it if you can't make it work on your own. XX is one of many!

It sets you a part. The handwritten direct mail piece is old fashioned. But, that is EXACTLY why it works. No one else is doing it. In the sea of mail any one person gets each day, the handwritten piece stands out. It just does!

Try it. You'll see.

SEO Tip: Trust is a major factor in Google's ranking algorithm

2009-05-14T04:24:00.000-07:00

Some websites can get high rankings on Google for nearly any content they publish while other websites cannot get high rankings at all although they have optimized web page content.

A high trust level is crucial if you want to get high Google rankings

The reason why some websites do better than others is trust. Some websites have managed to reach a very high trust level with Google. That helps them to get higher rankings on search engines than you do.

Google doesn't want to list spam sites in the search results. For that reason, it is important to show Google that your website is for real, that you're not a spammer and that you plan to stay in business for a long time.

Here are some things you can do to show Google's algorithm that it can trust your website.

1. Things you should consider about your domain name

The age of a domain is important to Google. When you start a new online business, consider buying an old domain name if a suitable name is available.

If you start with a new domain, buy it with a renewal period of two years and more. You show Google that your domain is not a throwaway domain by doing so.

Check your WHOIS records and make sure that the contact information is correct. Do not use exotic top level domains. If you are in the USA, use .com, .net or .org. If you're in another country, use the official top level domain of your country.

Don't overuse hyphens in your URL. For example, www.keyword-keyword1-keyword2-keyword3-keyword4-keyword5.com might look spammy.

2. Things you should consider about your website content

Make your contact information easy to find on your website. List a full address and not only your email address on your website. The more information about your company can be found on your website, the more likely it is that it will be considered a real business.

Your website should have a privacy policy and terms and conditions (if applicable). Both should be linked from your sitemap.

Don't use doorway pages. They annoy search engine spiders and website visitors. Doorway pages are a clear indicator of a low quality website.

If possible, keep the HTML code of your web pages below 100 KB so that search engine spiders can crawl it easily. Regularly update your web pages to show Google that your website is alive.

3. Things you should consider about your links

Do not participate in automated linking schemes. If your website gets 2000 inbound links on a single day then Google might think that you try to game the algorithm with a link system.

The links to your website should contain your keywords but they should not all contain exactly the same link text. If all links to your website used exactly the same link text then this would be a red flag for Google.

Do not use paid links. Google does not like paid links and they might penalize your website if use them.

If Google trusts your website then it will be much easier to get high rankings. Of course, your website still needs optimized web page content and good inbound links.

Source: IBP

Save Your Time Using Free SEO Tools

2009-04-23T03:28:00.000-07:00

Here are list of Few Free SEO tools, you can try then and make your SEO related work easy and get the good results with less time spent on your website. Beneficial for both SEO experts and beginners.

Basic SEO health check and analysis

1. Website Grader by Hubspot –

Website.Grader.com is a free SEO tool that measures the marketing effectiveness potential of a website. It provides a score that incorporates elements such as website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.

2. Content Duplication finder by Virante –

Virante's content duplication tool can diagnose common causes and effects of duplicate content penalties such as server headers, Google index issues and more.

3. Builtwith by Gary Brewer –

BuiltWith.com is a website analysis tool, providing technical analysis and SEO optimization information to assist in your website's SEO effectiveness.

4. Quarkbase –

Quarkbase.com is the great way to find website information including social bookmarking stats, Alexa ranking, related sites and domain information.
Basic back link analysis

5. Yahoo Site Explorer is a fantastic tool for basic back link information, to view the most popular pages from any site and to dive into a comprehensive site map.

6. Google Browser by Touchgraph - TG Google Browser is a free Java application which you can use to explore the connections between related websites.

Basic on-page analysis

7. SEO Browser by Anduro Marketing and McAnerin International Inc –

SEO-Browser.com is a free tool which lets you see your website like a search engine sees it. Useful to find image with no alt text, to ensure drop downs are crawlable and much more.

8. Image Analyzer by Juicy Studio –

Image Analyzer will highlight images without alt text, long image names and much more. Because image optimisation is essential for successful SEO, image analyzers are an absolute must.

9. Server Header Checker by SEO Consultants -

Server Header Checker allows you to analyze your non www homepage version and other pages to check that the server header is returning a 301 redirect response, 200 OK response etc.

10. Popuri by Xavier Larrea –

Popuri.us allows you to quickly check your link popularity across social bookmarking sites, Google Page Rank and much more.

Do share with me what kind of SEO tools you guys are using these days to get traffic on your respective websites or blogs.

Waiting for few comments !

Regards
Gary

Keyword Tracking and Social Media Monitoring Tools

2009-04-22T03:14:00.000-07:00

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a web service to monitor specific keywords and automatically receive alerts on your Gmail inbox. After registering for a Google account (if you don't already own one), to create a new alert you just have to choose some search terms, set what you want to monitor (news, blogs, videos, groups, the Web, or all of those), when (once a day, once a week, as-it-happens) and choose a valid Gmail address. Google Alerts will then constantly track the Internet and send you notifications accordingly. No embeddable widget available for your site.

http://www.google.com/alerts

Technorati

Technorati is a blog search engine. You can use Technorati to search for blog posts, blog sites that matches your keywords of interest. To let your be indexed just register to the service and submit your URL. You can then publish a small widget on your site which shows your "authority", it is the number of blogs linking to your web site in the last six months. The higher the authority, the more your blog is involved in conversation around the Web. No trend monitoring or comparison features available.

http://technorati.com/

Bloglines

Bloglines is a social search engine that allows you to crawl the Web for mentions, blog posts, and RSS feeds. You can also track selected keywords over time, in a range from one to six months. Auto-updating notifications are available via RSS feed. If you register to the service, you can also access a customizable dashboard where you can compare sources you select for a quick overview over all your search results. No widgets available for your site.

http://www.bloglines.com/

Icerocket

Icerocket is a search engine that allows you to track the Web for mentions of your blog or your social profile. You can search the Web, blogs, videos, images, news, Twitter, and MySpace. You can compare the sources in the result page and access them via RSS feed. The sources can auto-update in a time range you decide. No embeddable widget available, but great feature that allows you to monitor trends on the web selecting a set of keywords and a range of time (from one to three months).

http://www.icerocket.com/

BlogPulse

BlogPulse is a complete solution for buzz tracking, blog searching and blog trends monitoring. You just have to choose a set of keywords and then you can monitor and track citations, referral links, and analyze the trends for a blog. BlogPulse indexes blogs, news, videos and then delivers your results via RSS feed. No embeddable widget available.

http://www.blogpulse.com/

FriendFeed Search

FriendFeed built-in search engine allows you to do ego-searching and buzz tracking among all the conversation created and followed by FriendFeed. Just register to the service, and type your keywords or choose the advanced search options to refine your search indicating if you want to track a specific user, site, language, or more. You can also follow the results stream via RSS feed, but it does not auto-update, so you cannot monitor searches over time automatically. No embeddable widget for your web / blog site.

http://friendfeed.com/search

Twitter Search

Twitter built-in search engine allows you to search tweets for specific keywords. The results page auto-updates to let you monitor your searches over time, even via RSS feed. You can also use the advanced search options to track tweets from a particular tweeter, a given language, hash tags, and more. Twitter search works only with Twitter and has no embeddable widget you can add to your site.

http://search.twitter.com/

UberVU

UberVU is a powerful social media monitoring tool that tracks the buzz allowing you to follow a conversation splintered off on multiple web sites, blog comments, or tweets very easily. Just paste any URL (or use the dedicated bookmarklet), and let UberVU aggregate all the conversations in a threaded stream of data which will automatically auto-updates over time. You can also request the UberVU API to have your readers monitor your social media presence directly from your own web site. No notification like e-mail or RSS feed available at the moment. UberVU is currently in private beta, but is expected to go public soon.

http://www.ubervu.com/

Social Mention

Social Mention is a web-based buzz tracking and social media monitoring tool to do ego-searching on the Internet. Social Mention allows you to track the Web, blogs, comments, microblogging services, Q&A pages, bookmarks, comments, events, images, news, videos and audio. To search, just type your name (or use the advanced options to refine your search), and the service will show you a customized search result page you can follow via RSS feed or download in CSV / Excel format. Social Mention also allows you to see what's your ranking inside social media by telling you how many times you're mentioned online and where. Search results do not auto-update, and no embeddable widgets for your web site is available.

http://www.socialmention.com/

Commentful

Commentful is a comment / follow-ups search engine. After registering for free to the service, you can search, track over time, and receive e-mail and RSS alerts whenever your keywords are mentioned on blogs, social media, forums, Digg, and a few other sources. No embeddable widget available for your site.

http://commentful.blogflux.com/

Trackur

Trackur is a social media monitoring tool that tracks the Web for your selected keywords over time. The service searches social media, news sites, blogs, videos, images, and many other sources. After registering to Trackur, you can search and access your results via RSS feed or set e-mail alerts to hit your inbox. You can also easily set the trend monitoring feature to track your keywords over time. No embeddable widget. Trackur offers a 14-days free trial, and then you can purchase one of the advanced pricing plans starting from $18/month (for individuals).

http://www.trackur.com/

Surchur

Surchur is a web-based service to do ego searching on the Web and track the buzz around yourself, your company, and your products. Surchur can search on social media, blog, pictures, products, video, and news. Your results can be syndicated and will auto-update each time there's something new. No embeddable widgets for your site, nor proper trend monitoring but you can access a "history" of the previous search on Surchur related to your topics of interest.

http://surchur.com/

EgoSurf

EgoSurf is a buzz tracking tool that monitors search engines, news sources, blog search engines, and social bookmarking sites. You just enter your name (or any keyword of your interest), a domain site, and EgoSurf crawls its sources to find mentions about you and your own blog / web site. EgoSurf can also take care of monitoring keyword trends over time, so you can easily take care of your online reputation ranking. You can access the results of your searches via RSS feed. No embeddable widget available for your site.

http://www.egosurf.org/

Samepoint

Samepoint is a conversational search engine that allows you to discover where and when someone is talking about you or your web site on the Web. Samepoint searches social media, news, bookmarks, wikis, Q&A pages, microblogging services, events, images, videos, and many other sources. You can subscribe to an auto-updating RSS feed of your results to follow your conversations more easily. No embeddable widget, nor trend monitoring feature available.

http://www.samepoint.com/

Addict-o-matic

Addict-o-matic is a buzz tracking tool that allows you to monitor conversation scattered around the Web. Addict-o-matic crawls news sources and major social media sites and delivers your results in separate modules for easy comparison between the sources. You can also personalize your page so that it matches your specific interests, by selecting the news sources yo want to search. No RSS feed to check your results, nor embeddable widget to add on your site. Trend monitoring over time is also missing at this stage of development of the service.

http://addictomatic.com/

ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo is a search engine that allows you to find people or companies easily. The service crawls the Web and collects information from different sources, then providing a social profile from the individual or company you were looking for. It is not clearly specified which news sources are used. Results are not syndicated via RSS feed, and no trend monitoring or embeddable widget are available.

http://www.zoominfo.com/

Keotag

Keotag is a social media monitoring tool that allows you to search on popular blog, social media, and news sources like Google, Yahoo!, Technorati, YouTube, Bloglines, Digg, Twitter, and many more. You can access your results via RSS feed or download an OPML file that contains all the feeds of the sources you searched. You can also embed a small button on your site to let people use Keotag for their online reputation searches. No trend monitoring feature available.

http://www.keotag.com/

BoardTracker

BoardTracker is a forum search engine that looks for your relevant keywords inside forums, and monitors their trend over time, so that you never miss an important conversation you want to join. After registering (free), you can search, set e-mail alerts or subscribe to RSS feeds of your results for easy access. New beta version expands the sources you can search to social media, news, videos, images, and more. No embeddable widget available.

http://www.boardtracker.com/

Talk Digger

Talk Digger is a search engine for conversations that take place anywhere on the Web. Unlike other similar services, Talk Digger asks you to search for URLs instead of keywords. The results will show all the sites that link to the URL you entered, separated by search engine. News sources monitored are Google, Technorati, MSN, Yahoo!, BlogDigger, and a few others. Results are conveniently delivered via RSS feed and auto-update over time. No embeddable widget is available from Talk Digger.

http://www.talkdigger.com/

MonitorThis

MonitorThis is a meta search engine that allows you to subscribe to 20 different search engine RSS feeds at the same time. Just enter your selected keyword to get a list of auto-updating RSS feeds in OPML format that you can read in your RSS reader. MonitorThis currently tracks a lot of sources, including: Google, Technorati, del.icio.us., MSN, Flickr, Icerocket, and many more. No embeddable widget available.

http://monitorthis.info/

Yahoo! Sideline

Sideline is an Adobe Air app from Yahoo! designed to help you in your social media monitoring job. Sideline tracks Twitter for mentions of your selected keywords and can also monitor your trends over time. Keywords can be selected depending on the tweeter, her attitude, and other criteria that allow you to refine your search. Your search results will auto-refresh as the Twitter timeline gets updated. No notifications or widget available.

http://sideline.yahoo.com/

Tinker

Tinker is a web-based buzz tracking service that you can use to check the Twitter timeline for keywords representing topics you want to monitor. Tinker "Event Streams" auto-update as new tweets are added, and can be easily tracked over time. Tinker also has an embeddable widget you can add to your web site to let your users know about the trends you are monitoring. Twittering directly from widget is also possible. No notifications via RSS or e-mail available.

http://tinker.com/

New Feature In Google Images Search

2009-04-09T03:42:00.001-07:00

Google developed a new feature in its image search. Now you can now sort the images according to your selected color. A very unique feature introduced by Google. I guess many of us knows that Google has submitted a patent regarding reading the images. Here reading means what actually image is in image, regardless of file name or alt tag.

Now we have more options for image optimization.

Here are the screen shots of this new feature in Google Images.

Showing image Search in Teal Color

Showing image Search in Green Color

Google's Search Lead Growing, Word Searches Getting Longer

2009-04-08T23:46:00.000-07:00

Google’s share of the U.S. search market continues to grow according to Hitwise.

Google’s market share rose from 72.11% in February to 72.39% in March, while both Yahoo and Live Search saw declines. Year-over-year numbers are also in Google’s favor: It’s up 8% over March 2008, while Yahoo and Live Search are down 19% and 17%, respectively.

Meanwhile, search queries continue to get longer, searches of four words and up are on the rise, while 1- to 3-word searches are declining.

What Buyer Want ? Value Add

2009-04-08T22:25:00.000-07:00

As sales and marketing people, we are constantly faced with the pressure to negotiate price. This is especially true for those of you who sell, or want to sell, at the higher end of your market.

There are many schools of thought about dealing with this common sales objection/issue, but the general consensus is to steer the prospect away from the conversation of price and toward a discussion of VALUE.

But, what is value? Technically, value means "the amount of money or relative worth that is considered to be the fair equivalent for what is to be received in return." Should be easy to identify and communicate, right? Ahhh, if it were only that easy. The truth about selling value is that it sounds much easier than it is to actual do.

Why is that? The reason is two-fold:

1. Value is in the eye of the buyer, not the seller (what you think has value, may not have relevant value to the buyer). We see it time and time again. A company believes they have a value proposition that matters to the buyer, but in the end...its not enough. What your customer values, and what they'll pay for it, are often at odds. Don't get caught in the fallacy that what you are providing, at the cost you are providing it, will be considered "value" by your buyer. Survey your customers and define your value proposition based on what you find.

2. Buyers assume value is a given...what they really want is VALUE-ADD. When you look at the definition of value again, you can see that this is true. Buyers come to the table assuming that what they are going to pay for something will be a "fair equivalent" for what they will be receiving. What they are really looking for is a good value. No matter the price point, buyers want to know that what they are buying is worth more than what they are paying. As you define your value proposition, look for things you offer that add exclusive, yet relevant value, but are included in your price. Make those value-add things you a tangible part of your messaging!

So, as you begin to develop your "value pitch," remember these two very important things...your value must be RELEVANT to your buyer and it must be an exclusive (meaning only you offer it) value-ADD.

Ten Ways to Get Web Traffic Fast

2009-04-06T21:35:00.000-07:00

There are several ways to get website traffic fast and free, and I'm going to share ten niche ways with you.

Article Submission

You don't need to be an award winning expert on the topic you are writing about - just pick an area that is related to the theme of your website, do a bit of research using a search engine and before you know it you will have more knowledge on that subject than most. Write in a relaxed, straightforward way. And, of course, when you add your details at the end of your article, make certain that you include your web address as well.

URL Submission

This sounds so obvious, yet so many people overlook it. Website URL submission is about getting more links to your website to help your website get ranked high on major search engines, thus getting more visitor traffic by, well, submitting your website URL to the major search engines. You can buy or subscribe to software that will do this, but it is quite possible to get a good return by submitting manually.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a way for internet users to store, classify, share, search and discover Internet resources that they find useful. Since social bookmarks are saved online, users are able to access them from anywhere - at home, at work or while traveling.

These lists can be accessible to the public by users of a specific network or website. What you need to do first is register with a social bookmarking site which allows you to store and tag bookmarks. Most social bookmarking services allow users to search for bookmarks which are associated with given "tags", and rank the resources by the number of users which have bookmarked them. This means that other visitors and members of social bookmarking sites can search for resources by topic, category, keyword, tags, or popularity to see what others have saved. As a user, social bookmarking sites let you find useful, informative resources through pages that have been tagged because others have found them to be valuable sources. Voila - more web traffic. Free.

Forum Posting

Forum posting is a hands down alternative to paid advertising methods. For just a few hours of work every week, you can capture batches of interested leads everyday. The more forums you contribute to, the more you will gain traffic. If you are an active forum poster, you will also get a good feel about the kind of products that are hot on the market.

Please don't overlook the forum signature or commonly called resource box - it's a powerful free advertising tool for you. What you must do is edit your forum signature. Basically, a curiosity inducing one-liner and a link to your website is great. Once you have edited and saved your signature, it will appear at the bottom of all your comments in the forum discussions. That means, the more you participate in the discussions in the forums, the more people see your semi-ad written on your signature. I promise, this will encourage people to visit your website, and hopefully buy from you.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is one of the best ways to get the word out about your website and can be done with very little technical expertise and therefore is easy to start up. If you have a product or service you believe in, visit a site such as Clickbank and open an account. Follow the simple instructions to gain affiliates - and traffic.

Press Releases

It's a fact that a well-written Press Release can dramatically improve your sales, expose your company to the masses, and greatly enhance the image of your business or products. Publicity is the most cost-effective web traffic building marketing tool there is, and, surprisingly, web traffíc can be generated by ink and paper!

Classified Ads

Again, it's easy to associate Classified Ads with yesterday's technology, but they are extremely cheap and a one line product or service description, together with your website, will pay dividends.

Blog Comments

If you are an avid blog follower, you have to include Blog Commenting in your web traffic arsenal. You will almost always find a "comments" link at the end of each post. Good blog commenter add to the discussion and are known as knowledgeable, informative, friendly and engaged. Join them!

FaceBook

Don't forget that you can use Facebook to its full potential to attract more visitors to your website. You can get away from just interacting with your school or college friends and start interacting with people within your industry or other industries that you want to get into.

An easy way to do this is to join groups that interest you as well as make friends with people that you want to get to know. Fill out your profile (fully) - the best profile on Facebook is a complete one.

Videos

Finally, why not make a video and post to video sites too! This is not a Warner Bros. effort! Your PC or Mac may well have a webcam, or you can borrow a camcorder or Flip. Write a brief script - lights- camera - action - and upload to YouTube. (Just remember to be sure to link it back to you.)

Well - there you are. Not all of the ten suggestions I've outlined may appeal, but if you select three or four, stick with them, and implement them on a regular basis, you will see your web traffic grow significantly.

Marketing Methods That Work Online

2009-04-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

Business owners are facing a harsh reality: A website in itself offers no assurance of business. "If you build, it they will come" is a cliché that has misled many into believing all a company needed was an online presence to succeed. However, without a strategic marketing plan and a tactical approach, you're more likely to fail than to reach your goals. Proper planning will not only improve your chances of success, but it will also keep you from throwing away money on e-commerce fiascos.

The first step of planning is to define your goals in light of the target market you aim to reach. As you classify your target, you should determine the core needs of that group and observe the buying behavior that occurs among your potential purchasers. Characterizing their purchasing habits enables you to position your business to appeal to your target market with compelling information before they buy from another resource.

Several online resources can help you place your business in the forefront of your target audience. The process, however, can be complex because a variety of online vehicles, if utilized properly, can help you yield the results you desire. Also, the key to successful marketing online is in developing a diverse marketing plan which takes advantage of several approaches to deliver your message. Components in your marketing plan should include such elements as search engine marketing, pay-per-performance, ad placement, joint ventures, targeted traffic, e-mail marketíng, media marketing, optimization and copywriting.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing has been one of the most highly visible forms of marketing online. With millions of businesses employing search engines to gather information daily, search engine placement for key terms has been a major business generator for companies who properly place themselves in the search engines under the right terms relevant to their market offering. An obstacle to being ranked at or near the top, however, is that thousands can be competing for the same position. And with the search engines changing their algorithms often, achieving placement on the first page for the terms relevant is extremely difficult without a solid working knowledge of and experience in the search engine marketing field. Consequently, one should not solely rely on ranking.

Pay-Per-Performance

Another marketing technique on the rise is pay-per-performance advertising. This is a method for which you pay per click, impression, or visit a site that refers to your site. The application works best if the placements chosen are locations that directly connect with the target market you desire to reach. Advertisement rates are based on an auction format in that the highest bidder obtains the top placement. If your bid is $1.00 for every time someone utilizes your link while your competitor bids $1.01, your competitor will gain a better placement than you. If 100 individuals click your link, you should understand that you will owe $100 whether they buy from you are not. Pay-per-performance advertising clearly requires a full understanding of your conversion ratio to determine the budget necessary to commit to such a program.

Ad Placement

Ad placement is similar to pay-per-performance in that you pay for advertisements on sites or newsletters. The difference is that you typically pay for impressions and market reach. Impressions encompass how many unique visitors view the location in which your ad is placed. The market reach refers to the number of individuals accessing that website or newsletter over a period of time. However, you have no guarantee of the number of visitors who will follow your ad to your website. The concept is similar to traditional print ad placement in that advertisers have no guarantee that people exposed to their print ads will visit their places of business.

Joint Ventures

Another method, joint ventures, can be highly effective in helping businesses obtain referral customers. Joint ventures can be as simple exchanging links with another website or as complex as assembling a tiered affiliates program.

Targeted Traffíc Marketing

Targeted traffíc marketing is an additional marketing online tool with two main applications. The first involves the purchase of a demographic defined list which will contain individuals that match a specified demographic to whom you have permission to send information freely either through an e-mail campaign or a sales call. The second form of targeted traffíc entails the purchase a specified number of unique visitors to your site who match a demographic. This is a mass marketing or shotgun approach. Using either approach requires a skilled implementation of marketing content or your conversion ratio will be low, meaning you'll be wasting money.

E-Mail Marketíng

The most criticized but still effective form of online marketing is e-mail marketíng. Too many marketers utilized this method improperly by imposing upon individuals who had no interest in their products or services. The answer to marketing effectively using e-mails lies in ensuring you have permission before sending to those individuals.

Media Marketing

A more effective method would be to utilize media marketing in which you write articles, white papers and other content relevant to your industry to be published. Sharing valuable insights and information rather than out-and-out selling helps to validate your company's expertise as you also acquire free brand exposure.

Relevant Content & Copywriting

Finally, marketing effectively online requires the right kind of preparation for your website. Many sites fail in that they generate traffic but they lack the kind of relevant content that retains the visitor, educates the prospect, and/or encourages the prospect to take action. Developing content that relays a clear message to your visitors is critical. Copywriting professional Sallie Boyles states, "Lead with your punch line. Be clear. Be concise. Rather than covering each page top-to-bottom with solid content, use windows and links to provide detailed explanations as needed. When people gather research online for an immediate or future purchase, they want ease and efficiency - or they'll leave the site and go elsewhere."

In developing your next marketing online plan, follow these key steps to success: First, define and research your market. Second, prepare your site for action. Third, position yourself in the marketplace utilizing several marketing methods. Fourth, be prepared to follow up and close the deal. A world of e-commerce awaits!

How Google analyzes the top keywords on your website

2009-03-31T05:07:00.000-07:00

Google recently filed a patent application that deals with the keywords that Google finds on your web pages. Google's new patent filing describes a way for website owners to view the top phrases that Google assigned to their website. The patent shows that Google finds the most important keywords on a website with a phrase based indexing system and it describes a method that could allow website owners to add additional related keywords.

How does Google find the top keywords of your website?

All major search engines index web pages based on the individual words that they find on the page. If certain words and phrases appear together on the same page, search engines assign a topic that is related to these words to the page. For example, the words "Paris" and "Hilton" are associated with a woman instead of a city and a hotel, the words "Tiger" and "Woods" are associated with golf. Google's patent application indicates that Google might plan to tell you what they believe are the top keywords for your website and let you suggest changes to these phrases.

How can Google find the relation between words?

Google has billions of web pages in its index. If Google finds that many web pages contain both the word "Paris" and the word "Hilton" then Google might assume that these keywords are related. The other words on these pages could give Google a hint that this special word combination is about a woman. Words that frequently appear very close to each other could get a tighter connection. Google has a lot of algorithms that allow them to calculate the relation between different words.

What does this mean for your website?

Google does not allow you to suggest your keywords through a form yet. That means that you must use other methods to tell Google for which keywords you want to be listed on Google's result pages. That's why search engine optimization is so important.
Here are some things that you can do to show search engines that your site is relevant to a special topic:

• Use a meaningful site architecture

Use a logical system to organize your website content. Create content sections that deal with different parts of your main topic and make sure that everything that is related to your topic is mentioned on your web pages. Make sure that your web pages are put in the right categories on your website and that it's easy to find the different categories.

• Create web pages that use different relevant search terms

If you want to get high rankings for the keyword "shoes" then it's not enough to mention the keyword "shoes" on your website. You must also use related keywords such as "sneakers", "boots", "sandals", "footwear", etc. to show Google that your website is relevant to the general topic.

• Find out why other pages rank higher than yours

If you ever asked yourself why another page has been ranked higher than yours although you perfectly optimized your pages for your search terms then you should analyze the inbound links of the top ranked pages. The number and the authority of inbound links are important. However, it's also important that the links come from semantically and topically related pages. Optimize different pages of your website for different but related keywords to get the best possible rankings in Google and other important search engines.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) New Trend for Getting Traffic to Your Website

2009-03-31T04:24:00.000-07:00

It’s a common belief among marketers that Web 2.0 as a marketing platform is about to go the way of the dinosaur. This probably isn’t entirely true, but we definitely have to rethink how we use it for getting traffic to your website.

It can hardly be argued that humans are by nature impatient. We like things to be bigger, better, stronger and faster. This is clearly apparent since the advent of the Information Age. Naturally, we have to be on top of the newest and fastest ways of delivering information and able to harness it into getting traffic to your website.

The latest developments in Web 2.0 are the microblogs and live-streaming. Microblogs, essentially, are websites where you can post a one or two-line blog either from your computer or your cell phone. With the same technology, other users can comment on your posts. This is a natural development from text messaging, only now it’s in a mass communication format.

Already, many marketers are hard at work harnessing Twitter and Facebook into getting traffic to your website. Naturally, at this early stage, there are some false starts, as some techniques are getting banned. Once everyone hits a happy medium though, it’s likely to go up like wildfire.

Live-streaming, as well, is enjoying an increased popularity. Essentially, this is the direct uploading of video recorded on a cell phone to the Internet. Currently, this is mostly being used on the amateur level, but some opportunistic marketers are getting the picture. It can be used in getting traffic to your website.

Both formats provide what consumers most hunger for—immediate information. Whether we’re talking mere entertainment, such as a member of Anonymous harassing some Scientologists, or amateur reporting in the case where a police officer was filmed while he shot a restrained man, the immediacy is a major element that can be used for getting traffic to your website.

Another bonus feature of live stream is the “gonzo” nature of it. This gives a raw edge to the video that lends itself well to viral marketing. It all seems real and unscripted. Intelligently used, it’s a powerful tool for getting traffic to your website. How can it work for you?

Promotions are a good place to start. Your script can be just on the other side of the cell phone, but you can convey an “off the cuff” air to your blurb, making it more appealing. Also, it’s a good way to get testimonials. Simply put, a video testimonial is better at getting traffic to your website than a written testimonial. How much better do you think it would be if it seemed candid and unscripted?

Besides the facts mentioned at the beginning of this post, let’s not forget another fact: The search engines respond positively to what users look for the most. Since these media are becoming the top of people’s interest list, do you think that maybe the search engines will rank them highly?

Online Marketing in a Recession - by Elyse Tager

2009-03-26T19:38:00.000-07:00

Came across a beautiful article through my personal emails about a very cost effective and easy to perform article on online marketing in this present recession scenario.

There is no escaping the fact that we are in the depths of one of the worst economies in decades. The media won’t let us forget it, as it dominates the headlines. But we need to keep our businesses growing and healthy, no matter how bleak the prognosis. Below are a few tips for all marketing and media professionals to help get through this:

1. Keep marketing. The tendency is to pull in the corporate horns, and save the money for something solid – like payroll. But if your brand disappears from the radar, so will your customers and prospects when it comes time to think of buying again. You may need to scale back budgets, but keep brand and logo current and on peoples’ minds.

2. Measure everything – accountability for every marketing dollar spend is more important than ever. Are you sure you know where past successes have been? I’m amazed at how many companies minimize the analysis of all aspects of past campaigns for the sake of trying something new. If you have not been measuring all marketing activities, start now.

3. From a media buying perspective, think globally. Within the enterprise can you counter the tendency to silo and cluster as many departments together as feasible? Walking across the aisle or cubie, you may find opportunities to consolidate objectives or at least spends and get much better pricing for any media.

4. Also from a media buying perspective, think long term. If you can possibly forecast 2 - 4 quarters out and make even minimal commitments, you can command much better pricing. The market is soft and softening. Take every advantage of it. We are pounding on pricing and not-so-subtly-nudging our clients to make even the most conservative of commitments past a single quarter and have been able to negotiate some great deals with this strategy.

5. Stay close to your customer. Isn’t the old dictum 80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers? The corollary of that is, in a down-turn, 95% or more of your growth will come from your current customers. Be sure you are emailing them frequently with new offers, discounts, thought leadership whatever is appropriate to your business to assure their loyalty. Are you sure you have captured your entire customer base? Does the training dept, or HR, or tech support have pockets of customers that aren’t consolidated on the main marketing database? Revisit your in-house email strategies, Newsletter schedules – CRM is the cheapest and most responsive marketing method. Now would be the time to start experimenting with Social Networks – to keep the conversation with your customer flowing, and at very little cost.

6. Revisit your creative versions, current assets, and tried and true marketing activities for more cost efficiency. Can you put a new headline on previously used email copy, rework the abstract to a white paper so it appears fresh, and save money on creative?

7. Don’t stop testing – even modest testing. You will still need to find new opportunities when the old successes tire and the economy turns around. The good news is that since demand is down, most types of media are willing to work with you on pricing. Your competition will be marketing in anticipation of that time – so should you.

In fact, all of this advice will stand when we are out of the recession. The marketers that focus on getting the most out of every dollar spent and on demonstrating marketing's impact on revenue will be in a good position to come out of the slump looking like stars.

Optimize Your SWF Applications for Search Engines

2009-03-26T00:22:00.000-07:00

Place SWF content in HTML source

In order for search engines to crawl and index important content that is contained within a SWF file or loaded by a SWF application from an external source, the content must be placed in the HTML source. If possible, utilize XSL to transform your XML source to create both the HTML and SWF content, embedding the text in the HTML source by using the noscript> method.

Here you put the SWF files content (text, links, images, and so on) into a tag that the browser will display if it finds that the user does not have JavaScript enabled (and therefore, could not see the SWF content):

noscript>

-- alternative SWF content -->

/noscript>

The benefit is that since this content is in the HTML source, the search engine can crawl this content and get what it needs to determine what the page is about

Create unique URLs for important sections

In order to be compliant with search best practices, you need each URL to have a unique title, H1, and body copy each of which would contain the keyword for which you want to rank. Establish your site map and wireframes; therefore, make sure to plan for this. Start with the directory/URL planning. Establish a 1:1 correlation between a Preferred Landing Page (PLP) and a keyword and what the SWF content requirements will be.

Give some real text to read

A common mistake is to use an image or a flattened symbol in your SWF application to display text or even creating text with ActionScript. Since Flash Player for Search Engines can read the contents within your SWF application, give it some real text to read and ensure that the same text is available in the HTML source.

Include image viewer and video player assets

With an image viewer or video player, you may have hundreds of thumbnail images that a user can click to see an expanded view of the image or video, along with supporting information such as links and descriptive text

For more information on how to optimize Your SWF Applications for search engines check the link below:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/seo/articles/techniques_ria.html

Rank Your Blog with SEO Power

2009-03-25T02:34:00.000-07:00

In order to rank a new blog you don’t need to go for PPC campaign, look for SEO experts and they will guide you the way how they move the traffic from search engines to your blog. In year 2004 Google search engine crawl 3.1 billion pages as compared to now its 31 billion web pages. You now can see how tough is to compete with your competitors in present scenario. But, if you know the right SEO you can easily come neck to neck to TOP 5 competitors in a matter of few months or week. Below are the methods which need to be practiced in order to rank your blog in top search engines.

Incoming Links: Incoming links are one of the most important factors to implement for a blog to rank well in any search engines. However getting incoming links however much intimidating it may sound is not all that hard. Here are some time tested secrets of getting incoming links for your blog that will enable your site to rank up the search engine in a matter of weeks if not days.
Quality Content : Content whatever said and done is still the king .Write Content on such topics that very few people write or develop a niche is an area which you are an expert in and aim to be the best in your area of expertise , and soon you will see people linking back to you . Remember this simple rule in marketing. Don’t try to be everything to all people .Try to be something to some people

Offer a Tool or Product or service that is hard to resist. This is also called link baiting .Offer a few tools for your visitors to download, distribute or mail to their friends which serves as a value addition to its main business.

Write Articles and Submit in on Article Directories: Writing articles in your specified niche is one of the most reliable and efficient ways to get one way links for your site. The author bio area of your article is the marketing proposition for your site. The Author Bio has the name of the author along with their area of expertise and hyperlinks to their websites. These articles once posted and approved are a great way to fetch one way links .In addition good articles that are relevant and informative also gets re -published by other websites, blogs and ezine sites giving your more coverage, exposure and more one way links since they publish your original article along with the author bio which in turn gives you added links and thereby increasing your link popularity

Enable RSS Feeds For your site: Syndicate your content to other sites. Create a content syndication feed (RSS feed) and include a link to your site. Submit your site and bog to RSS Directories and RSS Feeds. RSS feeds apart from ensuring your content distribution, is also a rich source of incoming links.

Start a Blog :Start a Blog on your vertical, and update it regularly with content and a hyperlink to your main website .Search engines love blogs because of new content that’s updated regularly .Additionally submit your blogs to the blog directories and Blog Feed readers . Also find a authority blog in your niche and comment in their blog with a hyperlink to your blog . Please do not spam their blogs but write something that would interest the owner to come you’re your blog . Try networking with your industry both online and offline.

Write comments: Visits your competitor’s blogs and share your views what you think about their blogs posts and articles. While you are searching looking any idea for in order to write for your blog, you should made a habit of writing a comment to the sources and share your blog links there. It works very fast and great and if you check your referral traffic it will show you the exact picture of benefit of writing comments to the sources.

Comments are welcome
Gary

SEO Tips to Populate Own Website

2009-03-24T05:16:00.000-07:00

Do those 26 things and I guarantee you that in ones years time you will call your site a success. It will be drawing between 500 and 2000 referrals a day from search engines. If you build a good site with an average of 4 to 5 pages per user, you should be in the 10-15k page views per day range in one years time. What you do with that traffic is up to you, but that is more than enough to "do something" with.

The following will build a successful site in 1 year’s time via Google alone. It can be done faster if you are a real go getter, or everyones favorite a self starter.

Prep work and begin building content. Long before the domain name is settled on, start putting together notes to build at least a 100 page site. That's just for openers. That's 100 pages of real content, as opposed to link pages, resource pages, about/copyright/tos...etc eg: fluff pages.

Domain name:
Easily brandable. You want "google.com" and not "mykeyword.com". Keyword domains are out - branding and name recognition are in - big time in. The value of keywords in a domain name have never been less to se's. Learn the lesson of "goto.com" becomes "Overture.com" and why they did it. It's one of the most powerful gut check calls I've ever seen on the internet. That took serious resolve and nerve to blow away several years of branding. (that is a whole 'nother article, but learn the lesson as it applies to all of us).

Site Design:
The simpler the better. Rule of thumb: text content should out weight the html content. The pages should validate and be usable in everything from Lynx to leading edge browsers. eg: keep it close to html 3.2 if you can. Spiders are not to the point they really like eating html 4.0 and the mess that it can bring. Stay away from heavy: flash, dom, java, java script. Go external with scripting languages if you must have them - there is little reason to have them that I can see - they will rarely help a site and stand to hurt it greatly due to many factors most people don't appreciate (search engines distaste for js is just one of them).
Arrange the site in a logical manner with directory names hitting the top keywords you wish to hit.
You can also go the other route and just throw everything in root (this is rather controversial, but it's been producing good long term results across many engines). Don't clutter and don't spam your site with frivolous links like "best viewed" or other counter like junk. Keep it clean and professional to the best of your ability.

Learn the lesson of Google itself - simple is retro cool - simple is what surfers want.
Speed isn't everything, it's almost the only thing. Your site should respond almost instantly to a request. If you get into even 3-4 seconds delay until "something happens" in the browser, you are in long term trouble. That 3-4 seconds response time may vary for site destined to live in other countries than your native one. The site should respond locally within 3-4 seconds (max) to any request. Longer than that, and you'll lose 10% of your audience for every second. That 10% could be the difference between success and not.

The pages:

Page Size:
The smaller the better. Keep it under 15k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 12k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 10k if you can - I trust you are getting the idea here. Over 5k and under 10k. Ya - that bites - it's tough to do, but it works. It works for search engines, and it works for surfers. Remember, 80% of your surfers will be at 56k or even less.

Content:
Build one page of content and put online per day at 200-500 words. If you aren't sure what you need for content, start with the Overture keyword suggester and find the core set of keywords for your topic area. Those are your subject starters.

Density, position
Simple old fashioned seo from the ground up.
Use the keyword once in title, once in description tag, once in a heading, once in the url, once in bold, once in italic, once high on the page, and hit the density between 5 and 20% (don't fret about it). Use good sentences and speel check it ;-) Spell checking is becoming important as se's are moving to auto correction during searches. There is no longer a reason to look like you can't spell (unless you really are phonetically challenged).

Outbound Links:
From every page, link to one or two high ranking sites under that particular keyword. Use your keyword in the link text (this is ultra important for the future).

In site Cross links.
Link to on topic quality content across your site. If a page is about food, then make sure it links it to the apples and veggies page. Specifically with Google, on topic cross linking is very important for sharing your pr value across your site. You do NOT want an "all star" page that out performs the rest of your site. You want 50 pages that produce 1 referral each a day and do NOT want 1 page that produces 50 referrals a day. If you do find one page that drastically out produces the rest of the site with Google, you need to off load some of that pr value to other pages by cross linking heavily. It's the old share the wealth thing.

Put it Online.
Don't go with virtual hosting - go with a stand alone ip.
Make sure the site is "crawlable" by a spider. All pages should be linked to more than one other page on your site, and not more than 2 levels deep from root. Link the topic vertically as much as possible back to root. A menu that is present on every page should link to your sites main "topic index" pages (the doorways and logical navigation system down into real content).
Don't put it online before you have a quality site to put online. It's worse to put a "nothing" site online, than no site at all. You want it flushed out from the start.
Go for a listing in the ODP. If you have the budget, then submit to Looksmart and Yahoo. If you don't have the budget, then try for a freebie on Yahoo (don't hold your breath).

Submit
Submit the root to: Google, Fast, Altavista, WiseNut, (write Teoma), DirectHit, and Hotbot. Now comes the hard part - forget about submissions for the next six months. That's right - submit and forget.

Logging and Tracking:
Get a quality logger/tracker that can do justice to inbound referrals based on log files (don't use a lame graphic counter - you need the real deal). If your host doesn't support referrers, then back up and get a new host. You can't run a modern site without full referrals available 24x7x365 in real time.

Spiderlings:
Watch for spiders from search engines. Make sure those that are crawling the full site, can do so easily. If not, double check your linking system (use standard hrefs) to make sure the spider found it's way throughout the site. Don't fret if it takes two spiderings to get your whole site done by Google or Fast. Other search engines are pot luck and doubtful that you will be added at all if not within 6 months.

Topic directories.
Almost every keyword sector has an authority hub on it's topic. Go submit within the guidelines.
Links
Look around your keyword sector in Googles version of the Open Directory Project (OPD). (this is best done AFTER getting an odp listing - or two). Find sites that have links pages or freely exchange links. Simply request a swap. Put a page of on topic, in context links up your self as a collection spot.
Don't freak if you can't get people to swap links - move on. Try to swap links with one fresh site a day. A simple personal email is enough. Stay low key about it and don't worry if site Z won't link with you - they will - eventually they will.

Content.
One page of quality content per day. Timely, topical articles are always the best. Try to stay away from to much "bloggin" type personal stuff and look more for "article" topics that a general audience will like. Hone your writing skills and read up on the right style of "web speak" that tends to work with the fast and furious web crowd.

Lots of text breaks - short sentences - lots of dashes - something that reads quickly.
Most web users don't actually read, they scan. This is why it is so important to keep low key pages today. People see a huge overblown page by random, and a portion of them will hit the back button before trying to decipher it. They've got better things to do that waste 15 seconds (a stretch) at understanding your whiz bang flash menu system. Because some big support site can run flashed out motorhead pages, that is no indication that you can. You don't have the pull factor they do.

Use headers, and bold standout text liberally on your pages as logical separators. I call them scanner stoppers where the eye will logically come to rest on the page.

Gimmicks.

Stay far away from any "fades of the day" or anything that appears spammy, unethical, or tricky. Plant yourself firmly on the high ground in the middle of the road.

Link backs
When YOU receive requests for links, check the site out before linking back with them. Check them through Google and their pr value. Look for directory listings. Don't link back to junk just because they asked. Make sure it is a site similar to yours and on topic.

Rounding out the offerings:
Use options such as Email-a-friend, forums, and mailing lists to round out your sites offerings. Hit the top forums in your market and read, read, read until your eyes hurt you read so much.
Stay away from "affiliate fades" that insert content on to your site.

Beware of Flyer and Brochure Syndrome
If you have an ecom site or online version of bricks and mortar, be careful not to turn your site into a brochure. These don't work at all. Think about what people want. They aren't coming to your site to view "your content", they are coming to your site looking for "their content". Talk as little about your products and yourself as possible in articles (raise eyebrows...yes, I know).

Build one page of content per day.
Head back to the Overture suggestion tool to get ideas for fresh pages.
Study those logs.
After 30-60 days you will start to see a few referrals from places you've gotten listed. Look for the keywords people are using. See any bizarre combinations? Why are people using those to find your site? If there is something you have over looked, then build a page around that topic. Retro engineer your site to feed the search engine what it wants.

If your site is about "oranges", but your referrals are all about "orange citrus fruit", then you can get busy building articles around "citrus" and "fruit" instead of the generic "oranges".
The search engines will tell you exactly what they want to be fed - listen closely, there is gold in referral logs, it's just a matter of panning for it.

Timely Topics
Nothing breeds success like success. Stay abreast of developments in your keyword sector. If big site "Z" is coming out with product "A" at the end of the year, then build a page and have it ready in October so that search engines get it by December. eg: go look at all the Xbox and XP sites in Google right now - those are sites that were on the ball last summer.

Friends and Family
Networking is critical to the success of a site. This is where all that time you spend in forums will pay off. pssst: Here's the catch-22 about forums: lurking is almost useless. The value of a forum is in the interaction with your fellow colleagues and cohorts. You learn long term by the interaction - not by just reading.

Networking will pay off in link backs, tips, email exchanges, and it will put you "in the loop" of your keyword sector.

Notes, Notes, Notes
If you build one page per day, you will find that brain storm like inspiration will hit you in the head at some magic point. Whether it is in the shower (dry off first), driving down the road (please pull over), or just parked at your desk, write it down! 10 minutes of work later, you will have forgotten all about that great idea you just had. Write it down, and get detailed about what you are thinking. When the inspirational juices are no longer flowing, come back to those content ideas. It sounds simple, but it's a life saver when the ideas stop coming.

Submission check at six months
Walk back through your submissions and see if you got listed in all the search engines you submitted to after six months. If not, then resubmit and forget again. Try those freebie directories again too.

Build one page of quality content per day.
Starting to see a theme here? Google loves content, lots of quality content. Broad based over a wide range of keywords. At the end of a years time, you should have around 400 pages of content. That will get you good placement under a wide range of keywords, generate recip links, and overall position your site to stand on it's own two feet.

Feel free to comment on it.
Gaurav

Word of Mouth Marketing Tips to Enhance Your Business

2009-03-22T04:47:00.000-07:00

Word of Mouth Marketing to Enhance Your Business

When we thinks about marketing our business, things like social media, SEO or article marketing sparks to our brain. This methods are adopted by single person who handles his/her business online. Whereas the word of mouth marketing can be as effective as you promoting your business online.

Alternative marketing is personal. Personal marketing techniques from passing out business cards, to putting up a banner at the mega mall tend to connect with people on a different level than online marketing techniques. In the traditional world, people know there’s a real individual behind that banner. Online, there’s just a computer.

So How Can We Get Started?

There are are many online tips to teach you how to advertise or even good colleges and business schools offers degree in advertising, as i am also going for MBA in marketing. I may not be able to share all of the advice those studies could offer here on my blog. However, I can suggest some simple and converting ways you can get started in your word of mouth marketing efforts:

Share Your Business cards: This is the easiest way to recruit visitors to your company traditionally. Drop your business cards everywhere, on resturarents, hotels, on the bus, at the diner, even in your kids school.

Community news: Most newspapers and public television stations offer free community news announcements. Create a special offer or even host an event to tell people about your services.

Your Networking: I m not talking Facebook or orkut here, I’m talking about old-school networking. Talk with your friends, co-workers and former employers. Give them the details on what you are up to with your company, and recruit them as word-of-mouth marketers.

You will get less traffic from word of mouth advertising comparing to online advertising, but the traffic you do get is more likely to be ready to convert.

Feel Free to comment
Gaurav

KOSMIX - Google Search Engine Rival

2009-03-20T03:57:00.000-07:00

Kosmix is a guide to the Web. The site lets users explore the Web by topic, presenting a dashboard of relevent videos, photos, news, commentary, opinion, communities and links to related topics. Kosmix’s categorization engine organizes the Internet into magazine-style topic pages, enabling people to navigate the Web.

Kosmix automatically arranges each set of results into a magazine-style topic page, giving you a mix of immersive content and new connections.

So far, the biggest online search engine "Google" operates on the following principle to search anything online.
"Finding the best set of documents for an input keyword or phrase"
As a result, Google brings hundreds of results in front of the user and the user can only visit some of them.

Where as Kosmix is a guide to the Web. Kosmix offers you a new way to explore the Web—it's the place to start when you want to browse and discover everything the Web has to offer. Kosmix gathers content from across the web and shows a page after creating a multimedia encyclopaedia entry in real time. For example search for rediff.com and you will get a lot of different content, photos, videos and links. It also has top results from Google, and suggests a list of related topics.

Kosmix gives more information about any subject. For many queries, the results are satisfactory and look as if they have been compiled by a human editor, not a computer.
Try It Now
http://www.kosmix.com/

Google bounces back from a market share slowdown

2009-03-19T19:04:00.000-07:00

Google bounces back from a market share slowdown, but in a down month

With only 28 days, February is typically a low-query month for the leading search engines. This year proved no exception, with query volumes dipping across the board, despite searcher interest in the Oscars and Valentine’s Day.

One interesting result of this dip in query volume was that it actually improved Google’s market share. So while Google’s query volume fell by 1%, its market share actually rose 2.2pts. That move effectively reversed a long term trend we’ve seen with Google’s market share over the past 6 months. Since August 2008, Google’s market share has hovered at 70%. Last month, it hit 72.4%.

While Google benefited from a down month in its industry, others did not fare so well. Yahoo! lost 1.5pts market share on 11.6% decline in query volume. It hit a new market share low of 17.8% last month. MSN/Live also declined 0.4pts and hit a market share low of 6.3% of search queries. Factoring in Club Live, MSN fared somewhat better but still lost share. Ask also lost both query volume and market share. For the past 6 months, Ask’s share has hovered around 2.5%.

In February, Ask managed to increase Sponsored Referrals, or the rate of referrals that drive advertising revenue, by 46% to 6.2% of all referrals. That brought Ask in line with Google and Yahoo!, which have maintained Sponsored Referrals at 6 – 9% over the past year.

The key points for February, 2009 (excluding Club Live from the market)…

Google query volume dipped 1% but market share actually rose to 72.4% on a down market, reversing a share slowdown.
Yahoo! fell to 17.8% market share, a new low. Query volume also declined due to the shortened month.
MSN/Live also fell to a new low of 6.3% market share, with a similar query decline.
Ask maintained 2.3% share, but Sponsored Referrals rose to a healthy 6.2%.
AOL held on with 0.8% share. We’ll see if new CEO Tim Armstrong can bring some of that Google magic.

Source : Compete Inc

Monitor and Manage Your Online Reputation

2009-03-18T22:10:00.000-07:00

As most savvy marketers know, we live in a Web 2.0 world. What does that mean? It means that today...business is done on the web. Customers search for solutions on the web. They talk to each other on the web. They talk to you on the web. And, they can do all this from anywhere, anytime.

With that in mind, it is probably obvious that monitoring and managing your online reputation is important. But, doing so means going beyond the design of your own website. It means knowing when others are talking about you, linking to you, and engaging with them when they do. Still, breaking through the "buzz" of the internet is not an easy task.

Here's what you need in order to do just that:

TOOLS: Unfortunately there is no ONE tool to use...but the good news is there are many GOOD tools. Here are our favorites:

TweetBeep: This is the best tool for monitoring any Twitter buzz being "tweeted" about you. Even if the tweeterer uses the "tinyURL"...if they are linking to you, you'll find out about it. Best of all, it's FREE.
Google Alerts: We've talked about the great uses of this tool before, but it is worth mentioning again. Google alert allows you track when your brand name, URL, or other entered topic shows up on Google (you set the frequency). And, again...it's FREE.
Technorati: A great way to search the blogosphere for what's being said about you (and if anything is being said at all). Technorati indexes in real time, so if someone blogged about you 3 minutes ago...it shows up. And yup...you guessed it...it's FREE.
Trackur: Okay, this tool isn't free (though they have a free trial), but it is a more sophisticated tool than technorati and it emails you updates for your saved searches. And, it's not too terribly expensive ($18/mo).

PROCESS: So, you find out what people are saying about you and when they are linking to you...now what? Well, it starts with setting a process. Schedule time in your schedule every day, week, month, or whatever frequency you can afford. Review your results and where possible...respond. Interact with the users who post comments about you, the bloggers that reference you, and so on. It is through this interactivity that you harness the true power of today's web community--whether that be to fix customer service issues you didn't know you had, promote yourself and your brand more thoroughly, or measure the results of your site traffic building efforts.

What are you waiting for...sign up for the tools above and get started!

Source: http://www.gtms-inc.com/tip_onlinereputation.htm

Google lets you choose your ad preferences

2009-03-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

With the technology from DoubleClick’s acquisition, Google has launched “interest-based advertising,” which will display ads based on the user’s previous searches and page views stored. This will running in beta for sometime and will be open to all. This can be very useful for some users as they can see very relevant ads they want. See video for more info.

If you are a user who shares concerns about privacy, follow below instructions to opt-out of this.

* You can regularly keep deleting your cookies after your browsing session.
* You IE8 InPrivate mode, Google Chrome InCognito Mode or Firefox privacy mode to not save any cookies.
* You can use Google’s Ad Preferences tool to take certain behaviors and interests out of its targeting.
* You can also opt out of targeted ads altogether, although these preferences will be lost if you regularly delete your cookies.

Google India launches Google Noticeboard

2009-03-16T00:43:00.000-07:00

Google Noticeboard is a new service from Google Labs India that intends to improve the way Indian communities share information online.

Google Noticeboard is an application that helps people access and share information over the Internet using public digital noticeboards. Using Google Noticeboard, communities can access a variety of relevant information. People can create text messages or record voice snippets and post them to one or more noticeboards. Typically each digital noticeboard carries publicly accessible messages. Compared to the notion of personal communication using email accounts, the Noticeboard metaphor allows user to engage in public communication with communities.

Communities with access to shared computers can use the Noticeboard for exchanging messages related to community announcements, social interactions, local buying and selling, and information that is of wider interest to the community. The Noticeboard may also be used for the community to engage in a dialog with benefactors, public servants, and other service providers who are geographically distant. For example, residents of an apartment complex can use the Noticeboard for posting announcements, or NGOs who own and operate computer centers in several villages can use the Noticeboard to enable village residents to communicate amongst themselves

Noticeboard uses a Firefox extension and requires to enable IMAP in Gmail to send messages. The service seems to be aimed at people that don't own computer and don't have an email address, but the interface is very basic and limiting. Google Noticeboard's user guide (PDF) has more information.

Search Engine Optimization in a global financial crisis period.

2009-03-05T23:10:00.000-08:00

A very good article regarding “search engine optimization in a down economy” by Mark Jackson. I will be writing my thoughts below each paragraph in green color text to share my views on article.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past several months, you may have noticed that the economy stinks. This isn't just the case in the United States; this is a global financial crisis.
Yes agree with mark now the global financial crisis affected the Asian markets too. I am working in an online marketing services company and now our clients have cut down there income for online market services projects. But there is also good news for online marketing companies because there is now less print media advertising and companies are looking for cheap options.
Even those of us who work in growth industries (as I would classify the SEO/SEM industry) are affected. As a president of a SEO company, I can tell you that I'm receiving more resumes than ever before.

Only the project budgets are gone down, good companies still running their PPC and SEO/SEM projects.

It's been said for many years that you shouldn't cut marketing budgets in a down economy, because cheaper advertising gives you an opportunity to market your services more, and actually gain market share. In all of my years in marketing, I've seen very few examples of companies doing this.

That’s because in today present scenario projects budget are down and competition is high so it’s good for companies to advertise their business online.

When it comes to paid search, you'd think basic economics would come into play (supply and demand certainly affects price). I haven't been able to find much good information on this (please comment below if you can share resources with other readers), but I've seen bid rates for paid search remain somewhat flat (or even increase), while supply is increasing.

This would mean that demand must be intact or increasing. Again, I haven't found any hard studies on the average CPC rates, so I'd love to have reader comments on this. I spoke with my good friend David Szetela about this. He told me that his clients have maintained a pretty steady approach to their paid search efforts. "If we can spend 25 percent more and maintain their ROI, every single one of our clients would say 'go for it,'" he said.

Yes one of friend who handles PPC project told me that the keyword bid rate is same or increased from last 6 – 9 months and the completion search for keyword is increased 10 -15 % more from past.

That sounds pretty reasonable, doesn't it? One would think that marketers would, as we've long thought, come around to moving their marketing budgets into media that can deliver that type of accountability. And, as I've often said, marketers are more likely to move toward paid search than organic search, because it's much easier to understand and can deliver quicker results.

A brief example will help to explain regarding Organic and Paid Search. You are running a bakery shop and if customers come because you bake some good stuff you don’t need to buy a lorry in order to sell your bakery item. In online marketing language it shows if you are getting results through organic search you should opt paid search only if you are in profit and want to grow your business on other part or locations.

How is Organic Search Affected?

Organic search is experiencing "some" growth. Even if it isn't measured in actual dollars quite yet, more marketers are trying to figure out organic search, which is a good thing.
The bad thing may be that as more people begin to involve themselves in organic search, there will be more competition. Plus, more people will try to find loopholes (spam tactics) to exploit vulnerabilities in the search algorithms. Then, the search engines will become smarter and develop methods to address any possible methods of spamming the results.
If your bounce rate of traffic is low the visitor is attracted to your products rest all explain above clearly.

SEO Will Become More Difficult

SEO has always become more difficult, though, over the years. Back in the day, you might have done OK by stuffing your site with meta keywords. The search engines needed a better way of delivering quality results, so those "easy" things don't work anymore.

As searchers, it's great that we no longer have to search 10 pages deep to find what we're looking for. That's a good thing, as our attention spans just aren't as great as they once were.
Because SEO is a much more laborious process (companies must dedicate IT resources, copywriters, PR firms and others), it can be more difficult to get implemented. And, in lean economic times, the average marketer may have less patience.

This could actually be good news for SEO agencies. It would make sense that if companies have to make the difficult decisions to let some people go, they may need to outsource some of these functions.

In many cases, outsourcing the work can save money. The agency is responsible for benefits, costs for office space, costs for computers/communications and the rates that the agency may charge could be less than the employee handling this in-house, and you get a team of people -- each with their own unique skill set -- working on the initiatives.

We already getting benefited through outsourcing, so in present time only that companies will be benefited who will provide good quantity plus good quality will low budget. Gone that days when everyone says we look for quality first then quantity.

What Does This All Mean?

We're living in very interesting times. During the last downturn (the dot-com bubble), we witnessed Google become a leader in their space without much (any?) marketing budget spent. They had a better widget. To me, search marketing (both paid and organic) is the better widget, when it comes to the average marketer determining how to spend their (now limited) budget.

I'm hoping that soon I'll be able to act upon all those resumes on my desk and do my part to help in the economic recovery. Search may be very close to maturing as an industry.

Yes the downtime have made everyone to think different not just to follow paths shown by past leaders but now only who make new easy paths will prosper.

Regards
Gaurav

Basic SEO Tips for Designers

2009-02-07T00:22:00.000-08:00

If you are a designer, here are some tips to consider when designing a search engine friendly website:

Tip 1: Less Images and More Text:

Not all search engines have the full capacity to read or understand images. A lot of designers turn important texts (including keywords) into images. They do it mainly to point the visitor’s focus on something. If you think from an SEO perspective, in such a situation, it is always better to put CSS into play. If it is important to use images, do not forget to use alt attributes. Compare these two websites:

Tip 2: External CSS and Java Script files:

There is no need to make the page heavier than what it necessary. Apart from that, on-page CSS pushes the content further down. In such situations, search engines may not give enough value to the content. To add to this, on-page Java Script often hinders search engine’s crawling. You must make sure that the search engines get a clean and clear passage to read the content. It is better to test your site in Lynx. The result is close to how search engines will see you.

Tip 3: Push Important Links Up:

As far as search engines are concerned, footer links and site-wide links have somewhat lost their importance. Thus, it is important that you link to internal pages from the content.

Tip 4: Straight to the Content:

A lot of websites place a big image on the home page and ask the visitors to click on the image to enter the website. In some cases this technique is justified. For example, if your website caters to both job seekers and employers, you can create such a page to offer a different set of pages. However, if the job seekers are the only target audience of your blog, is there any need to create such a splash page?

Tip 5: No Flash Content and Less Ajax:

Flash designs look great. They can easily communicate with the target market. Some major search engines are also learning to read some parts of flash files. Thus, if you want to get traffic from search engines, it is better to avoid complete Flash designs. The same rule applies to Ajax. Apart from that, Flash takes longer than average time to load. You may loose a hard earned visitor for the reason. And do not put links in Flash (navigational links in flash or JS)

Tip 6: KISS

KISS is the best strategy as far as web product development (design, content, module etc.) is concerned. It helps both visitors and search engines.

Online marketing Now in Indian Politics

2009-01-12T21:15:00.000-08:00

Here is some interesting for an online media. Indian politicians are getting ready to fight election through online campaign. I am not so good observer of Politicians mind but they now started the campaign war online. Recent example is Mr LK Advani Online campaign. They have started the PPC campaign for website www.lkadvani.in and I have captured some adds :) . So now don’t be feel surprised if any Indian Politician approaches you for SEO or PPC campaign .

Cheers! :)

Internet Marketing Tips and Predictions for 2009

2009-01-09T02:22:00.000-08:00

Thoughts, predictions and what you may need to do with your Internet marketing campaign for 2009.

by Esther C Kane

PPC (Pay Per Click) will still be a viable marketing tool but because of the expense, it will be used less in 2009. SEO techniques take longer to take an effect but the cost is much less and the ROI is much higher. So, for anyone using just PPC - look into SEO services and you may just save some significant dollars. And for SEO firms, get ready to see an increase in calls and quote requests from customers outside of your usual target audience.

2) Everyone is looking for the best deals - the most bang for their bucks. So, that means, when it comes to Internet marketing, if your SEO / PPC firm is not providing you with a ROI (Return On Investment) report - they just may lose out. As many companies begin to buckle down on what they spend, they will demand information on what they're getting for their money. ROI reports are the best measure of success not only for the Internet marketing firm, but for the client as well.

3) As I've been saying for over a year now, mobile will begin getting bigger and bigger, and 2009 will be the beginning of that trend, here in the US. If you haven't already begun the process of creating a mobile version of your website, don't wait any longer. Contact your web designer, your Internet marketing firm, whomever you're using to manage your website and get your mobile version going NOW!

4) It doesn't matter if you're selling name tags or if you're a South Florida law firm, whatever you're selling, if you provide a service or product to your local community, then you need to get into the local search engines. That means getting on Google Maps, Google Earth, Yahoo Maps, Google Local, Yahoo Local and the hundreds of other local search engines out there.

5) Look for the search engines to begin experimenting with new revenue streams. As the dollars for PPC campaigns decrease, the search engines will experiement with other methods of creating income for themselves. It will be very interesting to see what they come up with.

6) YouTube.com is now the 2nd most used search engine in the world. It surpassed Yahoo! back in October 2008. Is your audience going to YouTube? I don't know - but - what is the cost of putting a video or slide show commercial on YouTube for your business? Compare that cost with the sales you might get. If the cost equals 1 sale, or a very small number of sales, then isn't it worth it to get yourself on YouTube and Google Video and any other video source? Of course it is.

7) Social Media is not only changing the landscape of the Internet, it's changing the way we all do business. There isn't a day that goes by (it seems) that someone hasn't created a new Twitter application to use the massive database that is now Twitter. Companies are using Facebook to help them "get to know" prospective employees as they review their resumes. Companies of all sizes are using blogs and micro blogging tools to keep in touch with their customer base. There's no doubt about it, love it or hate it, social media is here to stay. Incorporate it into your Internet marketing campaign, it's worth it.

So, there you have it. I should bookmark this and take a look at it in January 2010 to see how right or wrong I was but this is what I think will happen in 2009 - as far as Internet marketing goes.

Risks of Using Skype for Buisness

2009-01-08T03:36:00.000-08:00

With the recession in full force, I am getting more questions from Gartner clients about the security risks associated with Skype. Business executives view Skype as being “free” — they see it as a way to cut communications charges, but most are blind to the security risks. Gartner has highlighted these risks in our research (see Q&A: Securing Skype in the Enterprise), namely the fact that Skype’s proprietary signaling protocol makes it hard to secure, the challenge of managing vulnerabilities in the Skype clients, and the threat from the IM features of Skype. Because of these issues, our position has been that most organizations should block access to Skype, and if that is not possible, that they should take precautions to make Skype more enterprise friendly and secure.

Pressure on IT executives to allow Skype is growing, so it is becoming increasingly difficult (politically) to say not and just block Skype. Since there has not been a widespread, high-profile attack against Skype (save for a 2-day outage in August 2007 that was the result of a bug in the Skype system), it is difficult for IT execs to persuade business execs (many of whom are already using Skype) that Skype introduces security risks to the organization. The politically smart choice for many IT execs is to allow Skype, albeit with the appropriate precautions.

Skype Version 3.8 (business version) provides some enterprise-friendly features that enable organizations to run the application more securely. For example, IT managers can implement version control of the Skype client (so that all users are running the same version). Version control is a huge problem with Skype. One network manager recently told me that he counted 11 different versions of the Skype client amongst their 6500 desktops! The business version of Skype also enables centralized policy configuration and control for the Skype clients. So, most organizations should be able to mitigate Skype’s risks enough to allow it in their environment. But, the process of mitigating these risks involves operational and support costs, so Skype should not be considered “free”

Author: Lawrence Orans

Key Components of Online Marketing in 2009

2009-01-07T04:37:00.000-08:00

Because search engines have been changing and evolving since they were first created, the field of online marketing has been required to do the same. While some online marketing techniques may have been extremely effective a couple of years ago, there is a good chance that they can no longer create the same impact that they once did.

Since 2009 is just getting started for us, I thought I would use this post to look at the components that I think are currently the most important in regards to modern online marketing:

PPC Advertising: If your main focus has always been SEO, there are definitely plenty of benefits that you can gain from adding PPC advertising to your arsenal of online marketing tactics. Just like traditional SEO, PPC is not a magic pill that’s going to instantly cause a website to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. However, if you take the time to learn how to properly create and optimize a PPC campaign, you will most likely be pleasantly surprised by how much additional revenue it allows your website to generate.

Build Quality Links: Notice that I didn’t say “build links,” I said “build quality links.” As you should know by now, there is a big difference between the two. If you are spending your time submitting your site to 1000s of directories, you’re just wasting your time. It may seem like a little more work to get quality links, but the benefits are well worth it.

Create and Develop a Brand: I could tell you why you should focus on creating a brand, but I think it will be more effective to hear it directly from the mouth of Google’s CEO:

The internet is fast becoming a “cesspool” where false information thrives, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday. Speaking with an audience of magazine executives visiting the Google campus here as part of their annual industry conference, he said their brands were increasingly important signals that content can be trusted.

“Brands are the solution, not the problem,” Mr. Schmidt said. “Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.”

Focus on the Quality of Content, Not the Quantity: There was a time when it could potentially be beneficial to pump out hundreds of “articles” that each targeted a specific keyword or keyword phrase. However, things have changed, and you are much better off to spend three hours creating one amazing piece of content that’s going to naturally attract links than spending the same amount of time writing nine “keyword articles.”

Be Social: Whether it generates direct results or indirect results, Internet users are expecting brands and websites to be more interactive, and the way to achieve that is by interacting through a variety of social media networks. “Being Social” also plays a major role in establishing an actual brand and personality for your piece of online property.

Why online marketing needs to go mobile

2009-01-07T02:39:00.000-08:00

Mobile internet is increasingly important in the efforts of online marketers, it has been highlighted.

Online marketing efforts need to be increasingly directed towards mobile devices in order to keep up with technological and social developments, it has been argued.

Mark Watson, chief executive officer of Volantis, has stated that some firms have a presence on both broadband and mobile internet, but establishing a mobile website is becoming increasingly important for those in online marketing.

"If you want to do business on the Internet, you better do business on the mobile web," he advises.

Considering which type of phone the website would be suited to is something which requires careful consideration, as "there are so many different phones and different screen sizes and different browser technologies and different networks and different capabilities - and they are changing all the time".

According to research conducted by the Nielsen Group, mobile internet is currently growing eight times faster than PC-based internet.

E-mail Marketing Tips for Small Business

2009-01-07T02:26:00.000-08:00

Author Carrie Hil latest article on Email Marketing Tips and Tricks

M recent foray into post-click marketing has me studying e-mail marketing more closely than ever. The possibilities of a great e-mail marketing strategy have been spinning in my head.

E-mail marketing isn't necessarily a function of search. Online marketing is about making money any way you can. Any well-rounded Internet marketing campaign must include a strong e-mail marketing campaign.

Search plays a role when you use PPC or organic search to grow your subscriber list. If they don't visit your site, you can't grow the list, which is primary when launching a successful e-mail marketing strategy. E-mail marketing software has become so robust in the last few years that the process of collecting your list, maintaining it, and sending out regular marketing messages is simple.

One of my favorites is ConstantContact. Their great site provides a lot of information before you sign up, and they offer a free 60-day trial with no obligation and no credit card. That's huge for me when I'm trying things out.

Some other companies with great presence and service are iContact and VerticalResponse. I'd love to hear of others you like if you're willing to share your e-mail marketing secret weapon.

Don't Buy E-mail Lists

We never want our e-mail addresses bought and sold. If they didn't sign up for your e-mail list, then they aren't a qualified customer. Buying their e-mail won't make them buy your product. Don't take shortcuts -- collect your e-mail list the honest way.

Collect and Segment Your List by Customer Location

Are your customers walk-ins or Web shoppers? Locals and Web shoppers can be given different deals and coupons.

Invitations to local events shouldn't go to Web shoppers who don't live near your store. It frustrates them when you offer deals they can't use. For example, I get in-store special offers from the Gap, but the closest Gap is 90 minutes away from me. I can't use those "in-store only" specials, so it makes me angry when I receive them.

If I signed up for your e-mail list online, send me online offers only. Don't frustrate your shoppers. The easiest way to sort by location: ask them to enter their ZIP code when they sign up.

Shoppers are Just as Important as Buyers

Ask a shopper leaving your site if they'd like updates on sales and specials. This is a great way to get them to come back and buy. If it's possible to track what item(s) they were shopping for when they left or signed up -- even better. Offer 10 percent off the item they were looking at and they're much more likely to buy from you.

Design Pages for Specific E-mail Campaigns

Bring the e-mail marketing campaign you've spent time carefully crafting onto your Web site. If your e-mail marketing ad says "40 percent off today only," then make sure that message is reinforced when they land on your site.

Add the message to every page. Design a landing page specifically for those e-mail marketing shoppers.

It's also a great idea to give them the checkout promo code in the e-mail and on every page they visit within your site. You can tack a source code onto the click-through that activates a JavaScript ad on the pages they visit that reinforces the discount -- without giving every single shopper to your site the same discount. Reward your faithful e-mail list shoppers.

Don't Push

If they bounce, that's fine. Not everyone is in a shopping mood every time they receive an e-mail from you. Try not to push with follow-ups on the same promotion.

Also, make it easy to unsubscribe, and take it one step further. Occasionally go through your list and look for users who bounce every time you e-mail them. Send them an e-mail stating you've seen they've bounced a lot, and you don't want to bother them if they aren't interested. You'll lose some, but your concern may be the tactic that gets them on board with you.

Segment Your E-mail Marketing List

Mass mailings are ineffective and aren't necessary with existing technology. It's much less effective than segmenting and catering to those segments of users.

Think about having a list for locals, Web shoppers, demographics, repeat purchasers, etc. Market to those separate lists individually. Personalized e-mail marketing is more likely to convert.

If you have multiple stores, remind users which store is closest to them. Also, offer to find out which store has the best inventory with a phone call. Send everyone who bought your best-selling product an e-mail designed to sell accessories for that product. Your ROI is sure to increase with greater segmentation.

Use Your List

Don't collect them and forget them. It takes a lot of work to get a great e-mail marketing list together, so use it when you get it dialed in. Don't overuse it -- once a month or so is great. Too much more is bothersome, unless you have the business that supports sending out new offers frequently.

Your visitors, shoppers, and buyers are a great resource. They can be your brand evangelists, your community bullhorn, and a great way to ensure continued ROI for your online and brick and mortar business. Take care of them by keeping them up to date on what's happening with your business, and they'll take care of you by becoming good friends, great customers, and excellent marketers.

Google Timeline Experiment Seen In Main Search Results

2009-01-06T03:00:00.000-08:00

Google’s “timeline view,” which was previously only available as an opt-in experiment in Google Labs, is now being seen on some queries in the main Google.com search results.

Todd Mintz tipped us to the query ["book of revelation"], which shows the timeline results pictured above at the bottom of the first page. The timeline can also be seen on queries such as [thomas jefferson] and [albert einstein].

Clicking the “More timeline results” in the main search results leads to a page with much more historical data about your query that Google says comes from their News Archive search service:

News archive search provides an easy way to search and explore historical archives. Users can search for events, people or ideas and see how they have been described over time. In addition to searching for the most relevant articles for their query, users can also see a historical overview of the results by browsing an automatically generated timeline.

Search results include content from a number of sources, including both partner content digitized by Google through our News Archive Partner Program and online archival materials that we’ve crawled. Search results can include content that is freely accessible as well as content that requires a fee. Articles related to a single story within a given time period are grouped together to allow users to see a broad perspective on the topics they are searching.

In each example we’ve seen, the new timeline display shows up in addition to the traditional ten search results, and often appears along with news, image, or book results, too.

Source

Cheers

Google’s New Search Based Keyword Tool Tells You What Keywords You’re Missing

2009-01-06T02:17:00.000-08:00

Hi guys,

I know most of you must be thinking that I'm reviewing an old Google keyword tool.

No sir not at all. Here the latest tool that would make all of you happy

Google released a new keyword tool tonight, named the Search-Based Keyword Tool. This tool goes beyond what the other Google tools provide and tells you what keywords you are currently missing out on based on search query data from your site’s content.

Source

No more talking, just check it.

Cheers

Word of Mouth Marketing--Friend or Enemy?

2008-08-09T01:40:00.000-07:00

We all know that word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool. Referrals are often the best sales prospects we can have in our pipeline. And, we also know that bad word of mouth can be even MORE powerful. The adage goes "a happy customer tells five people, an unhappy customer tells 100."

But today it is exponentially worse. With technology...a happy customer may still tell five people, but an unhappy customer may tell thousands, or perhaps millions.

And, perhaps more importantly, today's buyers are turning to these "reviews" in droves. In fact, a study from The Society for New Communications Research indicates a majority of buyers use social media to share customer care experiences and research a company's customer service reputation. The top findings of the study include:

59.1% of respondents use social media to “vent” about a customer care experience
72.2% of respondents research companies’ customer care online prior to purchasing products and services at least sometimes
84% of respondents consider the quality of customer care at least sometimes in their decision to do business with a company
74% choose companies/brands based on others’ customer care experiences shared online
84% of respondents consider the quality of customer care in their decision to do business with a company at least sometimes
81% believe that blogs, online rating systems and discussion forums can give consumers a greater voice regarding customer care, but less than 33% believe that businesses take customers’ opinions seriously
Search engines are the most valuable online tools for this research, according to respondents. Those rated of no value include micro-blogging sites like Twitter or Pownce (39%), YouTube (27%) and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace (22%)

Given these stats, you can see online word of mouth is an important piece to any marketing effort. To make it work for you, encourage your happy customers to talk about you online. And, perhaps more importantly...be sure to monitor your word of mouth buzz and address your unhappy customers quickly and without defensive tones.

Best Principles For Mailer Delivery

2008-07-23T02:01:00.000-07:00

Since mailers are still an important part of marketing campaigns, to achieve the highest response rate you’d like to ensure the highest delivery rate. The principles and rules listed below might help you to increase the delivery rate of your mailers.

Send mailers regularly.
Let your subscribers know when your emails are coming. If you offer a subscription to your mailer from your web site then tell each and every subscriber exactly when to expect your mailer.
Tuesday / Wednesday 2-3pm = Increased Response.
Your subscribers will come to “expect” your email to arrive in their inbox on the same day at the same time every week, meaning that they want to read your content and are generally more receptive to any special offers or promotions you may include. This means that they are less likely to misunderstand your mailer and report it as spam.
Slow down your mailer delivery.
Instead of using tools which boost your mailer through mail servers to achieve “instant delivery” prefer “slow” delivery tools. Avoid sending mails to multiple (dozens or even hundreds) recipients using CC:-attribute. Use professional mailer software or professional e-mail-delivery services. “When ISPs detect a flood of email, it looks like the work of a virus or a spammer.”
Use a tag line at the beginning of the subject line.
Mark your mailers as such. Make it easier for your readers to recognize your mailer. E.g. ‘[SM Mailer] Nr. 297, 16.10.2007 — Usability Glossary — Splash Pages — Big Typography’. Remain consistent. Otherwise your readers might consider your e-mails as spam and report it.
Always insert the current date in the content.
A correct date which indicates when the mailer was sent is more important than you probably think it is. If the date isn’t mentioned or is provided incorrectly, the mailer is given spam score points.
HTML is OK, but only if MIME-Multipart is used.
When sending mailers as HTML make sure that also the plain text version is attached. Messages sent in MIME-Multipart-Format are automatically sent in a way that subscribers without active HTML-Viewer still get a decently formatted e-mail. It is important that both plain text and the HTML-version have the same or very similar content. The percentage of text should be higher than the percentage of HTML or images. Keep your message size between 20 and 40 Kb.
Use CSS sparingly.
In most cases it is better to use inline CSS-styling in HTML instead of referring to CSS-file in HTML. However, referring to external CSS-files is better than sending them with mailer.
Avoid graphics and complex HTML-elements.
Spam-filters consider a number issues related to HTML. For instance, if the mailer has too many closed tags, too many graphic (images) or structural (tables) elements it gets just as many spam score points. Besides, many readers use software (e.g. Outlook) which automatically blocks images; if users don’t understand what the mail is about they’ll report is as spam. Complex HTML (particularly if more than 50% of HTML-code are HTML-tags) is generously awarded with many spam score points — keep it simple. Colorful backgrounds, tables, JavaScripts and web forms shouldn’t be in mailers.
Motivate your users to add you to their whitelists.
To ensure the bulletproof e-mail-delivery ask your readers to add you to whitelists. You can create Email whitelist instructions in seconds — for a number of e-mail applications.
Screen your advertisers and partners.
If your mailer includes a link to a blacklisted web site you might get a whole bunch of spam score points. Verify the sites and e-mails you are linking to; check if they are already blacklisted or were reported as spam (or spam sources) before placing their advertisements in your mailer. Even if the company is legitimate, it is possible that spammers have used their accounts for sending out spam mails.
Monitor new subscribers.
Monitor new subscribers in your lists. Set suspicious “spamflag” addresses such as “abuse@”, “nospam@”, “postmaster@”, “marketerspam@” as inactive subscribers.
Verify your subscribers with signup confirmation.
Always make your mailing lists double opt-in. This means that when a user subscribes to your mailing list, they will be sent an email with a link that they must click on to confirm their subscription. This is very important because many people can accidentally enter an incorrect email address, or even the email address of someone else on purpose. When that person receives a mailer they did not subscribe to, they will assume they have been spammed, and your mailer (and possibly your web server) will be reported as spam.

It also keeps invalid email addresses off of your list, which reduces the volume and percentage of undeliverable messages that you send. Since undeliverable rates also factor into filtering rules, keeping invalid email addresses from being subscribed to your list will help you to avoid content filtering.

Test your mailers before sending them out.
Always check the “spam score” of your mailers with Free Content Checker, SpamCheck, Contactology and further tools (most of them are listed below).

Useful Online Network Tools

2008-07-21T03:01:00.001-07:00

Domain Dossier

Investigate domains and IP addresses. Get registrant information, DNS records, and more.

Domain Check

See if a domain is available.

Email Dossier

Validate and investigate email addresses.

Browser Mirror

See what your browser reveals.

Ping

See if a host is reachable.

Traceroute

Trace the network path from this server to another.

NsLookup

Look up various domain resource records with this version of the classic NsLookup utility.

AutoWhois

Get Whois records automatically for domains worldwide.

TcpQuery

Grab a web page, look up a domain, and more.

AnalyzePath

Do a simple, graphical traceroute.

20 Ways Opt-in E-Mailers Can Outsmart Spam Filters

2008-07-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Assurance Systems estimates that 5% of e-mails are blocked by spam filters. MarketingSherpa found a similar number but estimates that many companies will be instituting filters in the near future.

Filters these days are much more sophisticated than the typical e-mail filters in Eudora and Outlook that can be made to delete an e-mail message that contains a "bad" word. Filters such as SpamAssassin look for patterns and add or delete points for certain factors. Then, if the total score reaches a predetermined level, the message is flagged as spam. By looking at what adds points (bad) and subtracts points (good), I've learned how to construct e-mails that will do better with the filters, if not escape them entirely.

Note: spam filters are a moving target, and my suggestions may not be as useful a few months from now. Moreover, the SpamAssassin defaults listed here can be (and sometimes are) adjusted by over-eager spam-adverse ISPs, so don't count on them. They're best used as a way of seeing what the filters consider bad or good, rather than as a precise measure.

I've found 20 different strategies that can help. Some of these are crucial; others are only of minor importance. But taken together they can help you get more of your legitimate opt-in e-mails through the obstacle course to your recipients.

1. Avoid E-Mail Software or Listservers Used by Spammers

Certain desktop e-mail listserver programs, as well as ASP hosted listservers, have developed a bad reputation for sending spam.

SpamAssassin looks for "fingerprints" of programs on its "bad list," and adds points to your spam score if it detects them. For example, any e-mail address that includes @email-publisher.com costs you 1.00 points. Employing various free web hosting services that are commonly used by spammers can hurt, too.

The desktop e-mailing software used most often by spammers (if it can be identified as such by SpamAssassin) is penalized from 3.0 to 2.0, in descending order: jpfree, VC_IPA, StormPost, JiXing, MMailer (Gammadyne, 2.73), EVAMAIL, IMktg, screwup1, Outlook 3.14159. GroupMail, hash 2. Group Mail (ver 2.0) is dinged 1.84. Other identifiable bulk mailers are penalized about 1.00 points. (Note: While I don't spam, I use Gammadyne Mailer routinely. The current version has no tell-tale headers identifying it as in some earlier versions. I am told Group Mail 3.x does not use such headers either.)

You might study e-mails sent out for any header lines that indicate the brand of mailer. You'll sometimes see this in the user agent and x-mailer header lines. If you find them, disable them or insist that the software vendor remove them. It is better to send e-mail from an unknown e-mail program than one which can be identified as used by spammers. Or use Apple Mail which has such a good record (spammers can't make it work well for them?) that your point score is reduced by 1.78.

2. Use Capitalization Carefully

Capital letters are seen as "yelling" and spammy. Excess capital letters cost you .21. I had been using capitalized titles until I found that I was being penalized for these. Since then, I've stopped using whole lines of capitalized type as headlines in my text newsletters. Instead I limit capitalization to partial lines only.

3. Keep HTML Simple

According to SpamAssassin, if your HTML message has more than 50% HTML tags (that is, has very specific formatting), you are fined 0.31 to 1.78 points. The lesson is to keep your HTML very simple. Highly stylized formats can hurt your score. Here are a few more elements to avoid, if possible:

An HTML table with a thick border (0.41 points)
JavaScript contained in the message (21 to .30 points)
HTML comments "which obfuscate text" cost 2.08 (whatever that means).
An HTML form in your e-mail message can also be costly. An "obfuscated action attribute" in an HTML form costs 1.00 point.

4. Watch Your Hyperlinks

SpamAssassin gives links a good looking over, so be careful.

Links without an http:// prefix cost 1.28. Oops. I've been shortening them, but does that spamify my newsletters? I hope not.
Don't link to URLs using IP address numbers instead of a domain name (3.1).
More on mailto links below under unsubscription systems.

5. Use Color Judiciously

Realize that high art is likely to cost you something. A font color tag that isn't formtted quite right can cost you .21. If you are using special font colors that aren't in the palette of 217 web safe colors, you are dinged .30 points. Hidden letters (same color as the background color) cost you .34 points. Beware the color police.

Black	0
Blue	.21
Red	.32
Gray	.33
Green	.41
Cyan	.41
Yellow	.42
Unknown color	.42
Magenta	.44

Black fonts are safe, but I'm not ready to desert color yet. I'll try to avoid using it in font tags, however. Rather I'll control color with style sheets and see if that helps. Unfortunately, many e-mail client programs don't handle style sheets very well yet. Also be aware that using a background color other than white is suspect, and racks up 0.317 points.

6. Use Large Fonts and Characters Judiciously

Fonts larger than +2 or size 3 (normal) cost you 0.34 points. I don't believe this includes H1, H2, H3 (presumably not), so I'll probably use HTML headers in the future rather than font tags to increase font size.

7. Avoid Suspect Spam Phrases

This list is a long one. Its included it on webpage so you can print it out for easy reference -- "Words and Phrases that Trigger Some Spam Filters," Web Marketing Today, 12/3/02. http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/spamfilter_phrases.htm

Does it help to include * or ^ characters in place of vowels? The jury's still out. I suspect that some spam filters are smart enough to detect this ruse, but I'm not sure.

8. Be Careful with Subject Lines

SpamAssassin is particularly interested in subject lines. Here are a few subject lines no-nos to learn from:

Contains "FREE" in CAPS	0.43
Starts with dollar amount	1.10
GUARANTEED	0.62
Starts with "Free"	0.30
Starts with "Hello"	1.58
To: username at front of subject	2.86
Subject includes a question mark or exclamation point	0.10
Subject contains lots of white space	2.64
Subject is all in capitals	0.48
Subject talks about savings	0.41
Subject talks about losing pounds	0.51
Subject is missing	0.34

9. Carefully Word Your Unsubscribe System

It seems ironic that legitimate opt-in e-mailers are penalized for having unsubscription information. But since so many spammers have bogus systems, it is apparently a spam indicator. For example:

List removal information	1.00
Click-to-remove with PHP/ASP action found	0.30
Claims you can be removed from the list	2.70
Claims to listen to some removal request list	1.00
Says: "to be removed, reply via email" or similar	0.45
Header contains exists:X-List-Unsubscribe	1.11

You need to include ways to unsubscribe, of course, but avoid the phrase "click here to..." and substitute something like "use this link to ...." You're especially hurt by using mailto e-mail links with "remove" -- or anything, for that matter -- in the subject. Make sure that the program you are using to unsubscribe people doesn't have "unsubscribe" or "remove" in the URL.

10. Flaunt Being a Newsletter

Fortunately, being a legitimate newsletter lowers your spam score.

Subject contains newsletter header (list)	-0.22
Subject contains newsletter header (news)	-0.62
Subject contains newsletter header (in review)	-1.00
Subject contains a frequency - probable newsletter	-0.73
Subject contains a month name - probable newsletter	-0.48
Subject contains a date	-1.60

Other words and phrases which may help you include a PGP signature, or something about a forgotten password or a registration system.

11. Use a Signature

You're helped if your e-mail contains an e-mail signature -- since so many spam messages don't.

Short signature present (no empty lines)	-0.30
Short signature present (empty lines)	-2.09
Long signature present (no empty lines)	-3.13
Long signature present (empty lines)	-0.30
Contains what looks like an 'E-Mail Disclaimer'	-0.70
Contains what looks like an email attribution	-1.63
Contains what looks like a quoted email text	-0.83

12. Don't Mention Spam Law Compliance

It's very unwise to claim that you observe all the spam laws. Only spammers say that. SpamAssassin will assess you from .91 to 3.47 points for this. If you mention House Bill 4176 you'll be fined 2.02 points. H.R. 3113 dings you 2.93.

13. Message Size of 20K to 40K Helps

Since so many spam messages are under 20K, SpamAssassin gives you credit for a message size between 20K and 40K (-.71). Over 40K helps you less (-.12).

14. Remove Spam Flag Addresses from Your List

Occasionally, evil-minded people will add e-mail addresses to your list just to get you in trouble with the anti-spammers. Try scanning your e-mail database for an e-mail address that starts with abuse@, postmaster@, or nospam@. Sometimes an e-mail address will be inserted that subscribes you to an autoresponder each time you send out an e-mailing. You might scan for the word "subscribe" among your e-mail addresses (though this one won't affect you with the spam filters).

15. Monitor Your "From" E-mail Address for Challenge Systems

I am seeing a small but increasing number of recipients who use systems that block all e-mails except those that take the trouble to respond to an e-mail message, and perhaps give a name and reason for the e-mail. Thus, it's important to monitor the mailbox for your "From" e-mail address to catch these.

16. Ask Subscribers to Put Your Address in their "Whitelist" or Address Book

Some e-mail client programs such as AOL 8.0 and Hotmail have recently changed their interface to allow users to sort their mail into preferred folders. As people subscribe, ask them specifically to place you in their address book (AOL), "safe list" (Hotmail), or "whitelist" (some spam filters). That way your e-mail will come directly into their inbox. Asking may be a little trouble, but it may make the difference between your recipients seeing or not seeing your e-mail.

17. Monitor Blacklists and Test Accounts

ISPs and spam filter systems often check blacklists of known spammers to help them reject e-mails. If your listserver's IP address or domain -- or yours -- gets on a spam blacklist because of complaints of spam, it will prevent some of your e-mails from getting to their recipients. Your listserver vendor should be actively working with ISPs and anti-spam services to keep an excellent reputation in the e-mail community and resolve any problems. But if they fail to -- or cater to spammers -- your e-mail delivery can suffer.

SpamAssassin currently checks three blacklists, and addresses that appear on such lists cause substantial penalties to any e-mails coming from them.

Razor2 (http://razor.sf.net)
DCC List (www.rhyolite.com/anti-spam/dcc/dcc-tree/dcc.html)
Pyzor (http://pyzor.sf.net)

Some other blacklists that may prevent your recipients from receiving their e-mail include:

Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS, www.mail-abuse.org) maintains the Realtime Blackhole List, an important blacklist, and has many ISPs as subscribers.
Network Abuse Clearinghouse (www.abuse.net)
NJABL.ORG (Not Just Another Blacklist, www.njabl.org)
SPAM Blocking Blackhole List (http://blackholes.bruli.net)

Other anti-spam organizations are listed in Yahoo! Directory under "Email > Spam"

You can check many blacklists at once to see if your domain is on it using a utility from OsiruSoft Research & Engineering (http://relays.osirusoft.com/cgi-bin/rbcheck.cgi).

In addition to checking blacklists periodically, it might be a good idea to subscribe to some of the more important ISPs (or find a friend who subscribes) so you can monitor if your e-mails are getting through. ISPs with the largest blocks of subscribers include America Online (with CompuServe and RoadRunner), MSN, Earthlink (with Mindspring and others), United Online (Juno and NetZero), and SBC/Prodigy. If you find your newsletter blacklisted, contact the service(s) involved and actively work to see the ban removed.

18. Move Immediately to Confirmed Opt-in

As I argued a few months ago in "Why I'm Moving to Double Opt-in Subscription Confirmation," Web Marketing Today, 9/10/02 (www.wilsonweb.com/wmt7/double_optin.htm), the time has come for each company to require the higher standard of confirmed opt-in for new subscribers. If the government doesn't require it, then the free marketplace driven by spam filters may require the higher standard. When you're falsely accused of spamming, it's a whole lot easier to argue your case before an ISP or blacklist when you have a confirmed opt-in standard than if you don't.

19. Use the Habeas Header If You Qualify

Finally, if you do use a confirmed opt-in system and qualify to apply for a Habeas warrant mark (www.habeas.com), then I suggest you purchase a license to use it. Habeas is actively working with the anti-spam community and leading spam filters to have their mark (contained in headers) recognized as certifying your e-mail as confirmed opt-in. SpamAssassin, for example, subtracts 4.00 points from your score if the e-mail message contains the Habeas header lines. For more information on Habeas, read my Review of Habeas, Web Marketing Today, 1/7/03 (www.wilsonweb.com/reviews/habeas.htm).

I wish that I could guarantee that if you took all the above steps, your legitimate opt-in e-mails would get through the spam filters. But I can't. I can't even get all my newsletters through. Another important piece of this problem is to reduce the quantity of spam, and to do that requires legislation.

20. Use a Spam Checker to Test Your Message

We're now seeing some services you can use to test the spam quotient of your e-zines and e-mail offers before sending them out.

SiteSell SpamCheck Report tests your message at no charge using SpamAssassin and sends you a report. Send your test e-mails to mailto:sales-spamcheck@sitesell.net Be careful, however, that you put the word TEST as the first word in the subject -- and make sure it is capitalized. Otherwise, the system will delete the mail, thinking it's spam. Following the word TEST, add the subject line that would appear in the email normally.
Assurance Systems offers three functions as part of a paid service. (1) Message Checker rates your e-mail message for spam. (2) Mailbox Monitor checks test addresses for each of the major ISPs to make sure your e-mail is being delivered. (3) Blacklist Alert lets you know what blacklists you are appearing on so you can work to get your domain or IP number off the list. http://www.assurancesys.com

Time has come for clear federal regulations to prohibit spam in the same way as unrequested faxes are prohibited. State and provincial laws can't really regulate what is a national and international problem. Federal regulations won't stop spam entirely, but they'll certainly put a dent in it. Yes, some spammers will move offshore. But thousands of small spammers who are willing to spam now because it's cheap and legal will no longer spam because it illegal, and the risks are too great.

Monitor Web pages changes

2008-07-15T03:44:00.000-07:00

It is difficult enough tracking down relevant and useful sites, but keeping up with changes to the pages is an impossible task when you have more than a dozen or so to monitor. Link checkers can alert you to pages that have disappeared or that are redirecting users to another site, but changes to the content are equally if not more important.

There are many services that monitor web page content for changes. Some are free whilst other priced services may offer limited facilities as a free taster.

This review looks at two types of services: web based services and software programs for PCs and Intranets.

Web based services

Change Detection

URL: http://www.changedetection.com/

This is a free service allowing you to monitor an unlimited number of pages. The frequency of the alerts can be daily, weekly or monthly and you can choose to only have alerts for "sizeable changes", when content has been added or removed, or for specific keywords. The email merely alerts you to the fact that there have been changes; you have to click on a link in the email to view them in the Change Detection web site.

ChangeDetect

URL: http://www.changedetect.com/

The free trial version of this service allows you to monitor a maximum of 5 pages a week and marks web page text for you with color-coded highlights of what has changed. The free trial lasts for two weeks. You can receive web page change notifications via your email, pager, ICQ or text messaging. The subscription services allow you to monitor more pages and password protected pages. ChangeDetect Personal costs USD 1.95 a month and monitors 10 web pages. ChangeDetect Plus costs USD 14.95 a month for 100 web pages and allows you to set up keyword and phrase notification triggers. ChangeDetect Professional costs USD 39.95 a month for 500 web pages with content checked twice-daily.

ChangeNotes

URL: http://www.changenotes.com/

Free service that monitors up to a hundred pages and emails changes to you.

Feedwhip

URL: http://www.feedwhip.com/

Free service that alerts you of changes by email or RSS. The free Basic service only allows you three page monitors and the free 'upgrade' to BasicPlus limits you to ten.

FollowThatPage

URL: http://www.followthatpage.com/

The free service provides 100 daily page checks and 1 hourly check. You can monitor additions, deletions, Google page rank, keywords, and sections of a page. Alerts are sent to you by email. They say they are working on a paid version of their service that can monitor 1000 pages per day and 50 pages per hour per user.

Infominder

URL: http://www.infominder.com/

Tracks up to 10 pages free of charge and allows you to associate categories and descriptions with a "minder". Within the advanced options you can specify how often, in days, the page is to be checked. The most frequent allowed for free is every 1 day. You can also specify the minimum number of changes that must occur before you are notified and any keywords or phrases that must appear in the changes.

Infominder Professional, which checks for page changes once a day, costs from USD 30/yr for 100 minders to USD 250/yr for 1000 minders. The Premium version checks pages 4 times a day and prices range from USD 65/yr for 100 pages to USD 500/yr for 1000 pages.

The email notification includes the number of changes that have occurred, the number of characters that have changed and the altered text. There is a link to the Infominder page where you can view a copy of the page with the changes highlighted.

Although the prices have been 'updated' on the site, the repeated reference to support for Netscape Navigator in the FAQs and other pages and no reference to Firefox does not inspire confidence in this service and suggests that its owners have put it on the backburner.

Page2RSS

URL: http://page2rss.com

Page2RSS monitors web pages for changes and notifies you of those changes by RSS. Simply type in the URL of the page you wish to monitor and then add the feed URL to your favourite feed reader. Excellent tool for pages that do not offer their own RSS feeds.

Pagehammer

URL: http://www.pagehammer.com/

Free service that allows you to monitor channels, or groups of web pages, containing similar content or pages from one particular web site. Each channel can have different monitoring frequencies (twice daily, daily, twice a week or weekly). You can also specify for each page keywords and phrases that are to be specifically monitored or excluded. The email alerts send you new or changed text and also text that has been deleted.

Track Engine

URL: http://www.trackengine.com/

The free part of this service, which is limited to 5 pages, is a demonstration for the priced version. For each page you can set up an easy to remember name or description and the monitoring frequency (daily, 2 days, 3 days or weekly). The advanced options enable you to select the colour for highlighting the changes on the monitored page, and to track changes to hyperlinks, images, numbers and dates as well as the text. You can request alerts for changes that include specified words or phrases and tell it to ignore certain changes. You can even monitor pages that are password protected by supplying Track Engine with your user name and password. You can upgrade to "Big Breakfast", which costs US $4.95 a month for 50 bookmarks, or to "Just Coffee" at US $19.95 a year for 10 bookmarks.

Watch That Page

URL: http://www.watchthatpage.com/

This is a free service run by ATS Consulting, a Norwegian company that specialises in software development. You can monitor an unlimited number of pages, which can be grouped into folders and monitored on a daily or weekly basis. There is a keyword matching option that filters the changes that are relevant to you, for example if you are only looking for news where a certain term or phrase occurs such as a company or a product name. Channels enable you to divide your pages into groups based on importance or content type. Each channel can have different properties: some can have keyword matching and daily reports whilst others can be checked less frequently and report all changes. Email alerts can include the text that has changed on your pages or just list the URLs of pages that have changed. If you are a professional or heavy user, you are required to pay a fee. Watchthatpage will notify you by email if you fall into the heavy user category.

Desktop programs

Copernic Tracker

URL: http://www.copernic.com/en/products/tracker/

Copernic Tracker is a monitoring program that costs US $49.95. Once installed on your PC it enables you to track any number of pages on external sites and intranets. You can track changed words, new links or images. There is a useful advanced query form for tracking specific words within pages, Boolean and other search operators (AND, OR, NEAR).

Copies of page revisions are stored locally so that you can compare changes that occurred in the past and add your own notes for tracked pages and each of their revisions. There is an option for importing favorites from Internet Explorer so that you do not have to key in lists of sites, but no facility for directly importing Mozilla/Netscape bookmarks or Opera Hot lists.

There are four pre-set tracking schedules: Multiple Times per Day, On a Daily Basis, On a Weekly Basis and On a Monthly Basis. Alerts can be a tray icon, desktop alert or notification message, SMS notification, email report with the tracked page contents and changes highlighted.

Internet Owl

URL:http://www.internetowl.com/

Free program. As well as general changes to a page you can monitor the page for the appearance or deletion of specified text, or monitor selected areas of the page. You can view changes from within the program or in your browser and be alerted via email, a pop-up on your desktop or a sound. The default checking frequency - minutes, hours or days - can be changed as can the frequency for individual pages.

Website Watcher

URL: http://aignes.com/

The full version of this software is available on a 30 day free trial. It monitors an unlimited number of pages and you can choose to ignore HTML tags, images/banners, numbers and dates. You can enter user names and passwords for password protected pages that you wish to monitor. Pages can be checked once a day, once a week, or on a specified day or days of the week. You can even specify the checking frequency during a day either in hours or minutes.

This is the only service that enables you to monitor entire sites without having to specify each page individually (not available in the Basic Edition). As well as web pages you can monitor RSS and Atom feeds, but this feature is not really a replacement for a fully fledged RSS reader if you are a serious news junkie.

Prices are 29.95 Euros for the Basic Edition, 49.95 for the Personal Edition, 99 Euros for a single user Business licence, 1990 Euros for a site license and 9990 Euros for an enterprise licence.

Cause Marketing: It's A Good Thing

2008-07-09T22:30:00.000-07:00

Cause Marketing involves a cooperative effort between a business and a non-profit organization—ultimately for the mutual benefit of both. It is executed in various forms (i.e. a sponsorship of a fund raising event, a co-branded product, or a percent of sales or profits donated to the charity...just to name a few).

Why does it work so well (aside from the obvious good feelings that come from supporting a good cause)? We looked to the 2007 Cone Cause Evolution Survey of American buyers for answers:

83% say companies should support causes
92% acknowledge they have a more positive image of a company that supports a cause they care about
87% are likely to switch from one brand to another (price and quality being equal) if the other brand is associated with a good cause

So, with statistics like these it is easy to see why you should include cause marketing in the mix...but now the question is...HOW? Here are the three elements to consider in your Cause Marketing Plan:

Identify a cause that matters to YOUR AUDIENCE.
The most important element to a successful cause marketing campaign is to choose a charity/cause that truly matters to your target market. Health, education, and environment are the top three causes consumers care about, so choose the one that will have the most impact for your audience.
Make it matter to YOU. What is relevant to your audience is very important, but you also need to balance the audience concerns with what really fits with your business and your company values. For cause marketing to work, it needs to be credible. To be credible, it needs to come across as a real passion. The best way to do that is to make sure the cause fits with your company's culture. Doing so will also help with employee recruiting and retention. 72% of those surveyed wish their employers would support a cause or social issue and 89% of those employees familiar with their company's cause programs feel a strong sense of loyalty to their company.
Promote it EVERYWHERE. Don't be shy about promoting your "do good" work. Make sure all of your customers know about your promotion and integrate it through all of your promotions. This is a mutual partnership, so make sure the non-profit you choose will be willing to promote the campaign too. Remember, cause marketing is for the MUTUAL benefit of the business and the non-profit.

Cause marketing is a great way to build positive brand awareness, customer loyalty, employee pride, and more. So, consider a good CAUSE as you develop your marketing plan—it's a good thing in more ways than ONE.

Five No-Cost Marketing Tips

2008-06-27T00:05:00.000-07:00

Are there ways to market your business that will not cost you a fortune? How can you get the word out without driving your company into a financial black hole?

Truth is most marketing does take money, but there are some low-cost and no-cost options that you can put into action that will help you to get the word out about your products and service. While these ideas will not cost you a lot of money they will cost you time, so prepare for that.

These are fantastic ideas for the company that is just getting started. They also work! Choose two out of the five and move forward on them this week. Once you begin to see that in fact these promotional ideas can bring you business your momentum will build and drive you to pick two more.

Network at events. Go to Chamber of Commerce meetings, BNI Group meetings, and other organizational meetings that will be attracting your "ideal" client.Gather business cards. Get as many as you can and then begin to phone and email to follow up. Do this immediately while you are still fresh in their mind. If they cannot use your services, ask them if they know of someone who can and get their contact information.
Attend public meetings. At every public meeting, make a commitment to say something that could be useful to those that are attending. This is a great way to not only share you knowledge and help others, but it also puts you in the eye of those who could use your services.
Create a "useful" handout. A handout that when given to a recipient they keep because it has value. For example with my business I have one entitled the "Top Ten Marketing Tactics Your Competition Wish They Knew." Make sure that you include your name, phone number, email address, website information and your 30 second commercial that tells the recipient about your business.
Create joint-ventures. Find colleagues and business associates whose business compliments yours and do joint promotions. For example I do joint-ventures with a copywriter and graphic designer. Who could you partner with?
Write letters to editors of local newspapers and business publications.Make them interesting and newsworthy. You'll be surprised at how often a good letter will get printed. Do not forget to include your contact information and website address.

By committing to one of these items on a weekly basis within one month you will see your business gain recognition and business. You can get the word out there without spending hundreds of dollars.

Google's No-Cost Sales and Marketing Tools

2008-06-19T22:17:00.001-07:00

Most of you know about and/or have used Google's Adwords to drive traffic to our websites. And, some of you have optimized our websites to be indexed for Google's organic searches. And, of course we all have used Google to conduct research on prospects, clients, competitors, and partners.

But Google has a slew of other no-cost sales and marketing tools that can help your sales and marketing efforts.

Here are three favorites we think every company should be leveraging:

Google Alerts: This tool allows you to be notified by email when something of interest to you is posted online (provided it is indexed by Google). For example, you may want to get alerts every time your company name, URL, or customer/competitor news appears online. Learn more in Using Google Alerts.
Google Webmaster Tools: Perhaps the most valuable of Google tools is its collection of free webmaster tools. These include:

Diagnostic tools for managing how Google indexes your site (including sitemap submission, page index status, web crawl errors, etc.)
Site analytics to analyze your visitor activity
Code to add search functionality to your site
Developer tools to add Google Maps to your site
And more...

Google Book Search: This tool allows you to promote your book online, while earning ad dollars from Google. Many company's have a spokesperson write a book as a way to become thought leaders in their space. Participating in this no-cost program from Google allows you to get more buzz for your book and even direct searches to your site or a major online bookseller (like Amazon.com) to purchase the book.

There are many more tools Google offers that you can use to boost and measure your sales and marketing efforts, but if you aren't using these three...get started now!

Using Google Alerts As A Sales and Marketing Tool

2008-06-19T22:12:00.000-07:00

The savvy sales and marketing professional knows that those who are "in-the-know"...win. Knowledge is power on so many levels. Knowledge about your industry. Knowledge about your customers. Knowledge about your competitors. And, even...Knowledge about your own company's market presence.

Obtaining that knowledge can be daunting. There are trade magazines, trade shows, networking events, and other ways to obtain the information you need. And, then there is the web...the mother of all data stores. Just keeping up with the information posted to the web every day could be a full time job of searching, searching, and searching some more. Who has the time?

Luckily, Google has a free service..GoogleAlert...and if you aren't already, you need to begin using these automatic alerts as a sales and marketing tool, it's time to get started. Here's how:

DEFINE WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Some examples include:

Link Monitoring: as you know from our Checklist, generating links back to your own site is critical to your search engine results. Set up a google alert for your URL to get reports on when your website is linked to.

Brand Name Monitoring: Whether it be your company brand, product brands, or both...knowing when, where, and how you're being talked about in forums, blogs, or other online sources is of paramount importance to your brand image maintenance.

Industry, Competitor, and Customer News: Keeping on top of the leading news happening in your industry or with your competitors and customers will give you the edge you need to respond quickly.
SET UP YOUR GOOGLE ALERTS

First, sign up for your Google account. Then set up an alert for each topic you wish to track and determine your report frequency for each (i.e. whether you want information from each to be sent to you in real-time, daily, etc.).
MONITOR REPORTS AS YOU GET THEM

Signing up for the alerts is one thing. To be useful, you have to USE the information. So, make sure you set aside time each week or month (depending on your report frequency), to read through your alerts, visit the online links, and absorb the information. Make a determination if the information you receive needs immediate action or long-term monitoring.

Using this tool from Google, will help you have the information you need "pushed-to-you", rather than you having to hunt for it...A HUGE time saver. And, it will not only save you time, it will gain you sales and marketing efforts just the edge they need. Remember, knowledge truly is power!

Essential Google Search Tips for Smarter Surfers

2008-02-17T23:17:00.000-08:00

These ten search operators, when used in the right manner, will enable you to declutter and sort the countless web pages which show up on your search results page.

intitle

If you want to search for something and you know that it would be in the title then you can use this field. Just enter in the title: ”your search item” into Google and hit enter. It will return the search results with the search word on the title of the page. Suppose you want to search for rules for Google search and you vaguely remember some article you once read called golden rules of google searching. You can give your search query as:

intitle:Golden Rules of Google searching

If you put your search words in quotes then Google will treat it as a single word and you will get much better search results:

intitle:”Golden Rules of Google searching”

inurl

Searches can be done for urls using this following operator. If you want to find the search string in the URL of the website, then you enter something like:

inurl:golden.rules.of.google

Please note here that I have put “.” in between the words. “.” This period acts as a wild card and can replace any other symbol such as a hyphen or an underscore. This search will in turn bring all the pages which have both: golden-rules-of-google and golden_rules_of_google.

filetype

This is my favorite operator. Using this, you can search for a specific file type in the internet. Suppose you want to search for a document for linux and you only desire PDF file types. The query you should enter into Google is as follows:

filetype:pdf linux

If you want to search for mp3 music to download, type filetype:mp3 and the artist name followed by that. This search will fetch you any such mp3 file in the pages which Google has crawled.

link

The Link operator is another very useful tool. It is used to find the webpages which have a link to a specific URL. Suppose I have a blog and I want to find out how many pages link to this page. All I need to do in this case is use the link operator. Please note that unlike other operators, we are not going to give a search word for this operator. Instead we are going to give a full URL, something which looks like this:

link:http://www.xxxxx.com

This will give you an indication as to the popularity of the page.

inanchor

The inanchor operator is similar to the URL operator, but it is used to help you find the text which is included inside an anchor or a link. For example, if you want to find out all anchors which have the know-how to do speed squaring using vedic mathematics, then you should type:

inanchor:"Speed Squaring using Vedic mathematics"

This will locate all the anchors that have got a link built up under that phrase.

daterange

Daterange will search for pages which were published between the specified two dates. This comes handy when we have to find out pages which are more recent, but it is more difficult than you might think. The catch here is that we have to pass the dates in Julian format. The julian date is the number of days passed after January 1st 4713 BC. For example, the date September 11, 2001, is represented in Julian terms as 2452164. So, to search for pages that were indexed by Google on September 11, 2001, and contained the word “crash” the query would be:

daterange:2452164 - 2452164 “crash”

This will report all those pages Google crawled in that time frame which had the word crash in it.

related

This is a superb operator which is quite fun to use. Suppose you discovered a very useful website, for example: Dictionary and you are wondering what other sites might be used as an alternative for this one. In short, you need to find out all those sites which are similar to dictionary.com. You can do just that using the related operator. I am going to show you the sites which are related to Google . For that, I am going to write the below query in google:

related:www.google.com

Just have a look which one comes first in the list.

phonebook

There are many operators which I discussed earlier which can be used for evil purposes. I did not cover those operations as I did not want anyone to get into any trouble. This is one such thing. I am covering this because there is a workaround for the problem. The phone book operator can be used to find both the official and residential phone numbers of people. Three operators can be used for the phonebook search: rphonebook, bphonebook and phonebook, which will search residential listings, business listings, or both, respectively. A query such as:

phonebook:abc def ny

would list both business and residential listings for abc def in New York. If you're concerned about your address information being in Google's databases for the world to see, have no fear. Google makes it possible for you to delete your information so others can't access it via Google. Fill out the form at www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html and your information will be removed, usually within 48 hours.

insubject

This nifty little operator will allow you to search google groups by the subject line. Suppose you are facing some problem with the Windows XP startup and you want to see the threads in Google groups which have discussed it. All you need to do is type
in:

insubject:”windows xp startup”

and Bingo, all that information will be presented in front of you. Please make sure that you are inside the google groups search page before attempting this query, otherwise it might not work correctly.

define

This operator can be used if you don't have any dictionary at your disposal and you want to quickly decipher some professional jargon or find the meaning of a rather difficult word that you have never heard before. How about the word abracadabra? Have no fear, just go to Google and type in:

define:abracadabra

And there you are, Google comes up with all the definitions it can find, selected just for you.

Market Monitoring

2007-09-17T23:33:00.001-07:00

Monitoring

The key considerations for the monitoring phase are as follows:
• Understanding business and service-level requirements is vital if the infrastructure is to be optimized.
• A system architecture cannot be designed correctly unless there is a good understanding of the business aims
and the impact caused by downtime or poor performance.
• IT goals and technology need to be tightly integrated with the business objectives and systems put in place.
• The IT infrastructure must be capable of supporting sustained growth, and be flexible enough to react to
changes in organization needs.
• Optimizing the system environment using virtualization approaches delivers a responsive infrastructure
capable of meeting business demands.
• Reports from monitoring tools should be compared with business and IT objectives on a regular basis.
“Monitoring is a key on-going process that should be integrated into
day-to-day IT management activities.”
Before considering Data Center consolidation options, it is important to have a good understanding of the existing
IT infrastructure, which can be enabled by discovery mechanisms and management tools that continually monitor
the IT environment, populate a Configuration Management Database (CMDB), and provide dashboard views of
the relationships with services. Watching the infrastructure for new servers, clients, network devices, along with
deletions, changes, and additions, is essential to determine which elements to monitor and what events are
important to monitor on the respective devices. These automated discovery mechanisms are an integral part of
the SDO solution, as is the creation of a services model to provide scope for the monitoring.

Writing White Papers

2007-09-10T23:33:00.000-07:00

The Big 5 That Make A White Paper

It has been quite some time since I started writing White papers. Based on extensive research, I am putting down a synopsis of my understanding of white papers. An attempt to make the esoteric, simple!

Interestingly, all the requisites for writing white papers can be put into 5 important subheads each having 5 features, inspiring me to give the title The Big 5 That

Make A White Paper.

Writing White Papers

White papers are written primarily to educate the reader while subtly selling our own product/technology. Considered to be one of the most powerful educative marketing tools, White Papers are used to

Introduce a new product/technology in the market
Generate business leads
Reinforce the superiority of the product/technology in the minds of prospective customers.

If targeted appropriately, whitepapers can make an impression on every reader who puts a hand on them.

The ‘Big 5s’ Of White Papers

Every business writer has his own take on writing white papers. However, there are a few ‘must haves’ or what I call the Big 5s, which need to be kept in mind while writing a white paper. These are

The 5Cs-Pillars of strength

Content: A white paper without relevant and well researched content is of no use and only brings negative publicity to the company.
Credibility: The white paper should be persuasive as well as believable. Fictitious data fails to make an impression with audience and generates doubt about the brand.
Consistency: The white paper needs to be consistent in flow .Jumping from one topic to another makes the reader disinterested.
Conciseness: Contrary to the general perception, verbose whitepapers are a complete turn-off for the readers. Ideal length of a white paper is 6-12 sheets
Constitution: The framework of the white paper should be in order and should expand on the title. An oft seen whitepaper shortcoming is that while the title addresses a specific audience, the content talks to generic audience and offers a generic solution, missing the target completely

These 5Cs give the desired strength and foundation to the white paper

However, a well written white paper does not end at 5Cs. Infact, they are omnipresent in a white paper. Next in the plan of action is another set of 5s, the 5Is

The 5 Is-Blueprint of White Paper

Identification of the topic
Identification of the audience-its demographics/knowledge scope
Identification of the objective of the white paper. Is it being written to
- Educate the audience about the technology/ product or
- Reinstate ourselves as the best solution provider
Information assimilation & education about the product
Integration of above knowledge and drawing of skeletal framework – it is your roadmap to success

Google AdWords campaign -2

2007-09-10T23:32:00.000-07:00

Earlier we showed you how to find and segment groups of keywords for your Google AdWords advertising campaign. Now in part 2 we are going to teach you how to write the actual content of your ads. Even if you don’t speak perfect English or have poor grammar, just follow my step-by-step blueprint below and you can’t lose.

Start With The Headline

The headline of your ad is critical to the click through rate (CTR) that it receives. For Google AdWords ads you will ALWAYS receive more clicks if the headline matches the text that the user is searching for. Google has a special feature called dynamic keyword insertion that you can use to make sure the searchers exact keywords show in the headline of your ad.

Ads with “Keyword” will only capitalize the first letter of the first word in the headline

If the users search text is too long then this text will be displayed instead. What should you use for your backup headline? Generally it should be the most popular search term that you found after reading part 1 of this series

Writing the Body of Your Ad

OK, now that’s we’ve got the headline out of the way let’s create the body copy of the ad. You get two lines of text, 35 characters per line. The first line of your ad should be a strong benefit the person can expect to receive after using your product/service. The second line should contain one or more features of your product/service.

Successful copywriters have one thing in common: they can differentiate between the benefits and features of a product. A benefit will appeal to the emotions of a person, such as “Lose 30 pounds in 4 weeks”, or “Reduce the time it takes to close a sale”. Most people buy for benefits.

The “Beat Your Own Ad” Theory

Using the information in this article you should create just two ads for your campaign. Make the ads identical but give them a different benefit or feature. After receiving about 30 clicks for each ad, use SplitTester.com to workout which ad performed better then delete the other ad.

Create a new ad and this time change the benefit AND the way you display the URL. Keep repeating this until you can get your CTR up to at least 5%. It may take a few weeks but it will be worth it.

Things You Must Test

As well as constantly tweaking the text in your ads, tiny changes can result in massive increases in your CTR. Try changing the things listed below if you want a 0.5%-1% increase in the click thru rate of your best ad (after completing the “beat your own ad” theory above):

Finish each line with a full stop or remove the full stop from each line
Separate features with a comma or a full stop
Use an apostrophe where needed or remove an existing apostrophe
Use a dash where needed or remove an existing dash
Capitalize the first letter of every word in your ad
Use a normal headline, such as “Windows Vista Reviews” instead of using dynamic keyword insertion
Register a few different domain names and use them as the URL in your ad. Sometimes this can increase your CTR by 3%-5%.

Conclusion

You should now be able to confidently create your own Google AdWords ad’s.. If you’re running an existing AdWords campaign we guarantee that if you implement the steps in this article you’ll at least double your click thru rate.

Effective Google AdWords Campaigns

2007-09-10T23:31:00.000-07:00

Google AdWords is the most popular advertising platform in the world, making Google billions of dollars in avertising revenue each year. When used correctly, Google AdWords is one of the most affordable ways to promote your products or services.

In this article We are going to explain exactly how you can setup your own profitable Google AdWords campaign from beginning to end. I will only assume you know the basics of Google AdWords. We will teach you:

How to perform effective keyword research, including looking at your competitors ad’s and web sites
How to write headlines and copy for your Google ad’s that will dramatically increase your click through rate and why you must test even the tiniest changes to your ad’s
Why and how you can create multiple ad campaigns for the one product to increase your conversion rate
How to reduce the chance you’ll get “Google slapped” - reducing how much you pay for your Google adWords ad’s in the process
How to write effective landing pages, ensuring you have a “message to market match” and you’re speaking the same “language” as the people who click your ad’s
How and why you should filter your sales process so you can perform follow up pre-sales (via email) to people who click on your adWords ad’s

Our goal with this article on AdWords is to teach you not only what we’ve learnt, but to teach you how we use it to drive significant sales of our software every day.

Sound good? Great. Let’s get started

Keyword Research and Segmenting Based On Context

Before you even start a Google AdWords campaign you need to workout which search keywords you want to show your ad’s for. Not all keywords are created the same, and one of the most important things you need before you get started is an effective, relevant list of keywords.

There are 3 ways to find your keywords and they are listed below. Use these techniques to find the 10 most popular keywords relating to your product/service only. We will only use 10 keywords because we’re going to pay close attention to the performance of our ad’s and we will be creating ad’s specifically for just a few targeted keywords. This probably goes against what you’re used to doing or seeing - creating 1-3 ad’s for hundreds or even thousands of keywords - you just accept the keywords Google suggests when creating your adWords campaign, right? Wrong. Don’t do that.

Here’s how to find just ten keywords to get started:

Grab a pen and paper and just start writing all the keywords and phrases that come to your mind when you think about your product/service. Just ask yourself: “if I were in my customer’s shoes, which words would I use to find my product/service on Google?”. List as many as you can.
Go to a few of your competitors web sites and look at the text on their pages including title tag text, meta tags and text between H1 and H2 tags. Write down the words that you think people might use to search for your competitor’s products from those you see on their site.
Use Overture’s search suggestion tool to find maybe 10-20 keywords/phrases related to your products/services. For example, if you’re selling funny T-shirts online, enter “funny tshirts” in the search suggestion field and click the blue button. You’ll see a list of keywords along with the number of times that keyword has been searched for on Overture in the last month. Because Google has a much larger reach than Overture, multiply each number by about 10 times - that’s how many times that exact same keyword is searched for on Google each month (approximately):Don’t forget long tail search phrases which are search phrases that contain 4 or more words, such as “buy funny tshirts in new york” or “funny simpsons cartoon tshirts”. Most big advertisers ignore long tail keywords and if they are overlooked your ad will automatically show up in first place when people search using these long tail search phrases.
You’ll now have a list of anywhere from 10 to a few hundred keywords or phrases. You now need to rank them in order from most popular to least popular. You should be able to tell which ones are the most popular by using Overture’s keyword tool above and by searching for them on Google. For each search make a note of how many adWords ad’s appear down the right side of Google.If there’s more than one page of adWords ad’s then competition is extremely tough for that keyword so you might want to instead turn it from a normal search phrase into a long tail search phrase, such as “funny beer drinking tshirts” instead of just “funny tshirts”.
Once you’ve narrowed down the list, choose the 10 keywords at the top of your list. We will use these on your first AdWords campaign. We’re going to split your 10 keywords into at least 2 groups, based on context. For example, look at the list of keywords below for “windows vista”:windows vista
windows vista screenshots
buy windows vista
download windows vista
purchase windows vista
windows vista cd
windows vista vs windows xp
windows vista demo
windows vista reviews
should i upgrade to windows vista?By putting the keywords into context I can clearly create 2 separate groups: keywords searched for by people just researching Windows Vista and keywords searched for by people who are ready to buy Windows Vista, i.e. they have already researched Vista, want to install it and are ready to enter the buying phase.Here’s how I’d separate the keywords above:People researching Windows Vista

windows vista
windows vista screenshots
windows vista vs windows xp
windows vista reviews
should i upgrade to windows vista?
People ready to buy Windows Vista

buy windows vista
download windows vista
purchase windows vista
windows vista cd
windows vista demo

By working out the context in which people are searching for Windows Vista we can easily separate our keywords into 2 groups, which will allow us to create 2 different adWords campaigns: one to target people researching Windows Vista and one for those ready to buy.

For people just researching, we’ll link them to relevant articles and reviews on our site. For those looking to buy we’d send them to a page on our site where they can order Windows Vista. Don’t worry too much about where to send them yet though

Conclusion

In this article on creating high performing Google AdWords ad’s we’ve shown you how to perform effective keyword search and segmentation based on the context in which people are searching for your products/services - in our example we used Windows Vista.

Complete the steps in this article for what you’re trying to sell and in the next article we’ll teach you how to write headlines and copy for your Google ad’s that will generate click through rates well above the average of 1%-2%.

Effective SEO Writing

2007-08-22T23:38:00.000-07:00

Steps

First of all we should know the target audience of our page and understand how they search. Title Tags and Meta Tags play a very significant role in the ranking of the page.

While writing the title tags we must keep in mind that we should lead with the most important keyword and our keywords should be meaningful. Every page should have an appropriate title which should contain selected keyword phrase(s). The title should be between 6 and 12 words

Meta tags are non-visual elements placed in the beginning of a document between the header tags. Description Tag is defined as the Phrase or sentence to describe website.
Description tags should contain primary keywords and be readable (appears on search engines to describe site). Keyword Tags: 8 to 10 keywords that describe the particular page (or whole site) trying to include the most popular search terms or phrases

An optimum word density rate for a selected keyword(s) is 8% such that, on the specific page, the keyword is visible (in title, description, alt-text tags and page content) at a rate of 8times for every 100 words, and moreover first 250 words of content are highly valued so the paragraph should start with the keywords.