Showing posts with label Infinity Website Article. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Infinity Website Article. Show all posts
How to Brand Yourself as a Thought Leader
I get emails like the following almost every day from people who are working as employees in companies and want to become prominent thought leaders:
“Lucas, I love your blog posts and how you are always out there helping others. But I’m not running a business or starting a company. I like being an employee. What should I do to become more of a thought leader in my space? Where do I start?”
These people usually have already achieved a lot of success in their fields. They are professionals. They just haven’t built a platform for spreading their message yet.
I can’t respond to every request individually, but I can explain the process in this post so that anyone can get started no matter where they are in their career.
I will guide you through the process of creating your own branded platform from start to finish. Also, I will leave you with resources to help you take it to the next level.
WARNING: This venture is not easy and will require a substantial amount of time to implement correctly. The payoff can be huge, but if you aren’t going to put in the time and effort to do it right, I will save you time now and tell you to not even try. Half-hearted efforts will lead to disappointing results.
Step 1: Register a Domain Name
Picking a domain name can be frustrating and difficult.
If you are trying to build a blog to be a thought leader, you are your brand. If your personal name isn’t taken yet (like lucascarlson.com), then register it now. It’s easy and straightforward (unless your name is impossible to spell or pronounce).
If your name is taken or impossible to pronounce, don’t despair. Here’s a great domain name picking guide. If you still need help, check out 18 Tools for Picking the Perfect Domain Name and 5 Tips for Choosing the Best Domain Name.
Step 2: Your Newsletter (Not Your Blog) is the Heart of Your Operation
Sign up for MailChimp. Go ahead, I’ll wait. I’m serious. Do it right away. If you don’t have an email newsletter already, you need to start there.
I can hear you now. “But Lucas, I thought you were teaching me the new way to do it. Email newsletters are so old and skeezy. I’m not a spammer. I just want to start blogging.”
Here’s what will happen if you start blogging without a newsletter: you will write your heart out, you will spend countless hours composing the best prose you have ever written in your life, you will eagerly press “Publish,” and… Nothing. No one will come.
At first, this won’t discourage you. You will continue blogging while telling yourself, “This takes time. Be patient.”
But after 10 or 12 posts, you will get discouraged, because after all your effort, you will still be getting only 15 people to come to each of your posts.
So, you will give up and think, “Well, at least I tried.”
Don’t be that putz. Sign up for MailChimp. It’s free. You have no excuse. An opt-in mailing list is the backbone of the whole system. It’s by far the most effective way to stay in touch with your true fans.
Remember, staying in direct regular contact with true fans is your ultimate goal considering all the work you are about to do.
Step 3: Create a Landing Page
Your landing page is like the front door to your personal brand.
Your homepage should be a simple page that collects emails for your mailing list. It should have one sentence that clearly defines the benefits people can expect from signing up (i.e., the selling points of your list).
But what about your blog? Where does that go? We will get to that in a minute. But, until you have over 1,000 subscribers to your newsletter, presenting your homepage as anything other than a simple mailing list opt-in page is inefficient.
A typical blog will convert 1–5% of its visitors into mailing list subscribers. A well-constructed landing page can turn 25–50% of visitors into mailing list subscribers. It is more efficient to use a simple landing page.
Again, staying in direct regular contact with true fans is your ultimate goal considering all the work you are about to do. So, higher email opt-in conversion rates are more important than the discoverability of your blog posts (at least at first).
If you have $37/month to spare, save yourself time and headaches and sign up for LeadPages. They have everything you will ever need: A/B testing, MailChimp integration, and pre-designed pages that look great and are proven to convert.
If you don’t want to pay monthly, you can pay $97 for lifetime access to a WordPress theme/plugin like OptimizePress.
Alternatively, if you are on a budget and want a simple free landing page service, check out LaunchRock.
I’ve used all three, but LeadPages is my go-to these days.
If you need help figuring out what to put on your landing page, check out How to Create Killer Landing Pages That Convert Users and Landing Pages: A How-to Guide and 6 Fantastic Landing Page Examples You’ll Want to Copy.
Step 4: Your Blog
Okay, now you have a mailing list, a domain name, and a landing page. When do you start blogging? Are you getting itchy? I bet you are thinking this is where I tell you to go grab WordPress.
You are wrong. Blogging on your own desert island when getting started is one of the worst mistakes you can make. Why? Because you have no captive audience yet. No matter how incredible your posts are, if you send them to your little obscure slice of the Internet, they will wither and die.
Imagine you are starting a new rock band. What does every new band do to get noticed? One of two things:
Open mic
Opening act for more popular bands
So, where do you start blogging? Currently, the equivalent of an open mic night in blogging is posting on Medium, LinkedIn, and Quora.
If you are writing on technical subjects, Medium and Quora might be better for you. If you are writing business-related posts, LinkedIn and Medium might make more sense.
What’s the equivalent of opening for more popular bands? Guest blogging. If you don’t know much about guest blogging, start with this Free Guest Blogging Cheat Sheet. Then, read How to Find the Best Places to Guest Blog and The Ultimate Guide to Guest Blogging.
I used these exact resources to learn how to write for Inc., Business Insider, VentureBeat, InfoWeek, and many others.
Step 5: What to Write About
Now, you’re finally ready to start writing, right?
No. If you are like many professionals, you think you have a lot to offer just by speaking your mind. You may even be thinking of just blogging about whatever comes to your mind. A personal journal of your thoughts, perhaps?
That is the second most common mistake beginner bloggers make (next to posting on their own blogs).
Why? Well, think about it… When’s the last time you read someone’s personal thoughts about anything? Never. Professionals are far too busy to read the inner monologues of colleagues and friends, not to mention complete strangers.
If you want people to read what you write, give them a reason. Write something that will improve their lives dramatically, something that will help them.
Instead of writing “My Personal Thoughts about Enterprise Sales,” try writing “12 Ways to Double Your Enterprise Sales Deals This Year.”
Offer tangible direct value. Begin with the headline. Then, in the post, deliver as much value as you can. If you need an example of a value-first blog post, take a look at the headline and first sentence of this post.
Need help with coming up with your own headlines? Check out:
Cheat Sheet for Writing Blog Posts That Go Viral by Jon Morrow
How to Write Magnetic Headlines by Copyblogger
Headline Writing 101 by Neil Patel
A Scientific Guide to Writing Great Headlines by FastCompany
How to Write Better Headlines (infographic) by HubSpot
Another, more empirical, way to learn how to write great headlines, as well as study what kind of content you should write, is to look at hugely successful blogs similar to the one you want to establish. For example, I have spent countless hours studying the blog posts/headlines of:
KISSmetrics
QuickSprout
Tim Ferriss’ Blog
Mark & Angel Hack Life
and many others…
A third, cheater’s, method is to copy/paste the format of proven headlines. You can buy reference books on Amazon, like Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich, full of the headline formulas. But, study why these headlines work and back them up with your own research.
I have used all three methods successfully.
Step 6: Your Author Bio
The trick to making the most of your posts on Medium, LinkedIn, Quora, and other people’s blogs is to compose a great author bio.
You are not writing these posts just for fun, after all. The hope is that your wonderful and well-researched blog post will create fans who want more of what you write about.
In other words, you want to direct readers to your landing page. They might discover your post on Medium, but you want to capture their email addresses so you can build a direct relationship with them. You can capture those addresses on your landing page.
Below is a free template of an author bio you can use. It is not a great bio, but it is better than average. In a minute, I will tell you how to make your bio even better.
These Medium posts are just the tip of the iceberg. If you liked this post, subscribe to Lucas Carlson’s Newsletter to get instant access to much more free content.
It’s a good idea to use UTM parameters to carefully track your referral sources. For example, let’s look at this link:
http://www.craftsmanfounder.com/?utm_campaign=medium&utm_source=medium&utm_medium=medium&utm_content=startblogging
Notice ?utm_campaign=medium.
This tells Google Analytics that the post came from Medium. Then, &utm_content=startblogging tells Google Analytics that it came from the Start Blogging post. You can put any words here to keep track of your traffic sources.
Now, how do you turn a good author bio into a great one? You do it by offering something irresistible and free, such as:
Lucas Carlson raised $10 million in venture capital and sold his successful businesses to a Fortune 150 company. You can download the free checklist and resource guide that goes with this post here: 34 Resources to Build a Popular Blogging Platform.
If you are just starting out, you might not have a free opt-in incentive to offer yet, so you can start out with the simple author bio above and work on creating something valuable to improve your bio down the road.
For example, if one of your posts becomes super popular, you could turn it into a PDF, spruce it up with infographics, add a checklist, and offer it as a giveaway. Make sure you give away as much value as possible.
If you need more ideas, check out 9 Irresistible Incentives That’ll Grow Your Email List Like Crazy by Jon Morrow.
Step 7: Build Relationships with Your Readers
What’s your ultimate goal? It should be to build deep and authentic relationships with your audience and turn your readers into true fans.
The blog is just one tactic in that strategy. Social networks and your newsletter are the others. Do you know how to use social networks effectively? Do you know what to say in your weekly or biweekly mailings?
Many people get social networks and mailing lists totally wrong. They use them solely as self-promotional tools. Recently, I started following someone on Twitter. The guy posted a link to one of his own blog posts every 40 minutes! I bet you can guess how long I followed him. It took me 80 minutes to unfollow the guy.
Let’s go back to the band metaphor. The band just finished playing and is having a post-gig cocktail party. Social networks are like that huge cocktail party (thank you Gary Vaynerchuk for the great metaphor). People just want to socialize and get to know you as a person.
If social networks confuse you or if you have fewer than 10,000 followers, stop, and read Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World.
You also can think of social networks as short-form magazines. Pack yours with practical usefulness (with the occasional advertisement, which no one will mind), and you can’t go wrong. Listen to Branden Hampton (31+ million followers) on Lewis Howes’ Podcast to hear from someone who has made his living on social media.
Once you have read the book and listened to the podcast, you might want some tools to start managing your social media content streams. Check out Buffer, HootSuite, and Edgar. In particular, the Buffer Daily app is incredibly useful for coming up with great content to share with your network.
If social media is a big cocktail party, your mailing list is the private reception. Newsletters are more intimate and allow your audience to get to know you better.
Make your newsletter personal. Tell your subscribers about you, your past, your history, and why you think the way you think. Give them the back story, the behind-the-scenes look. This is like the interview with the director.
Just don’t forget to make the newsletter valuable. Every email you send out should be focused on how it helps your readers, not how it helps you. Subject lines like “I’m so giddy to tell you about my new launch” are ignored. Put as much thought and care into the subject lines of your emails as you do your blog posts. Why should people care? Why should they read this email? Let them know.
Treat every email you send like a letter to a close friend. Include one link per newsletter to minimize confusion in regard to your call to action. And, by all means, send people to your guest posts and Medium blogs. That’s what people wanted when they signed up in the first place!
BONUS: Build Relationships with Other Popular Bloggers
If you have gotten this far, you are already light years ahead of most bloggers. People are reading what you write because you are emailing them regularly to let them know about your new posts.
More readers mean more “shares,” which lead to new readers, which lead to new subscribers. It’s a virtuous cycle. This is the opposite of what novice bloggers do when they write endlessly to no one and wonder what went wrong.
But, maybe having a couple of thousand people on your mailing list isn’t big enough for your ambitions. Maybe you want tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of people on your list.
Typically, you can achieve that goal by building tight relationships with other bloggers who already have large numbers of subscribers.
How? By doing favors.
I mean favors like guest blogging for them since they are always looking for relevant content they can share with their audiences.
Or, you can interview those bloggers on your podcast and help them grow their platforms further. Or, you can promote something new they have done recently.
Whatever you do, make sure you keep the integrity of your own newsletter intact. Conveniently, a win-win situation often develops in that your readers want to hear you interviewing smart people and sharing cool new books and services that you are into.
If you add enough value to the lives of other popular bloggers, they will be much more inclined to introduce you to their audiences. Mega platforms get that way only by scratching the backs of other mega platforms all the way up the chain.
That’s It
There you go. I am done spilling the beans. This might have been way more than you expected. I told you at the beginning it was going to be hard.
But don’t worry. If you keep at it, you will find your rhythm. If you stick to a regular schedule, you will find that a few hours a week of dedicated effort will be enough for you to start.
Once you have built your platform, you can leverage it in countless ways. It is a tree that will keep on bearing fruit for many years. Eventually, you too will have people asking you how you did it. Then, you can point them back here instead of spending 20 hours writing this post yourself.
Now, go do the real work.
Author: Lucas Carlson
How Online Marketing Drives Offline Success -Sean Work
Social Media is key for businesses small and large when using the Internet to drive success to their brick and mortar businesses. Considering the fact that brick and mortar retail businesses have been hit hard over the past few years, implementing a smart social media strategy can be more important than ever. Read the case studies in this infographic to spark your marketing creativity.
Click on the this for an enlarged view:
Getting Your Site's SEO Right
You simply must get the SEO part right. Mainly because proper SEO (Search Engine Optimization) will boost your chances of obtaining those all important top rankings in the search engines. Besides, a well optimized site or page, will go a long way in weathering any abrupt changes on the web.
Google Instant is a perfect example of how things can change overnight. While it didn't change SEO per se, it did change how people use Google and how the results are shown. Searchers don't get the same chance to type in their long-tail keyword phrases because they are constantly and instantly being bombarded by suggested links... so much so that getting those top positions for shorter root keywords has gotten more important and this has increased everybody's competition because those popular shorter keywords have always been the most competitive. Probably every webmaster or online marketer knows that in order to get top rankings in the search engines you have to have quality one-way backlinks from other high ranked keyword-related sites. This will more than likely be the main determining ranking factor for most search engines, especially the all important Google. You simply need good quality one-way links and plenty of them to rank high.
However, there are many more SEO factors which come into play, especially if you're in a very competitive niche and targeting highly cherished lucrative keyword phrases which bring in the revenue. Then in these competitive situations, you must get all your SEO ducks lined up proper, if you want to be a player.
Some of these SEO factors may be minor but in very tight keyword races, it could possibly mean you get ranked above your competitor. Believe me, for some very lucrative keywords, just moving up a few notches can make a significant difference in your traffic and sales. The number one spot is what you're aiming for, but even landing or moving up to the top five positions can make a big difference. But you probably already know the significance of getting top rankings for your site and marketing. It can simply make or break your online endeavors. So here are some SEO on-page or on-site factors which you should have in place if you truly want to compéte in the ranking wars.
1. Place your main keyword phrase in your Domain Name and over time you will see higher rankings for that phrase and keywords related to it. With Google going to Instant Search, I believe you will see these keyworded domains playing a much greater role in what is listed first. You still have to get those quality back-links, but having a good keyworded domain will be half your battle.
2. Place your keyword phrase in the URL for your webpage. Place it in the title, description and in the H1 tags on your page. Also place this keyword phrase and variations of it throughout your page, including at the very bottom. As for keyword density, try to keep it under 6%, this is the limit that Ezinearticles puts on their contributed content, go above this percentage and they won't take it. I usually aim for around 2% to 4% but don't get too hung-up on this issue, just write helpful easy-to-read content for your visitors.
3. Place related keyworded interior links on your page. That is, keep all your content and links keyword-related to one another. This makes it easy for the search engines to index your pages and content. I like building keyword-related traffic hubs or sections on my sites, for example I could have a whole sub-directory just on all the "affiliate marketing" info pages on my site. These would be all linked together and back to the homepage.
4. Make sure you have an XML Sitemap which the search engines can use to quickly index your new pages. I also like adding an HTML sitemap which goes into more detail and lists all the pages and their content. This is not only for the search engines but to help your visitors more easily navigate your site; don't ever leave a visitor stranded.
5. Make sure all your pages load quickly. Reduce any large images that you have and break content/articles up into different pages to reduce load times.
6. Make sure your site handles 404 mistakes and your visitors are directed to your sitemap or another page on your site. If you don't know how to correct this problem, just do a Google search for "how to set up a custom 404 file not found page" or contact your web host support to fix this issue.
7. Don't have duplicate content on your site. Do a proper 301 redirect for the www and non-www versions of your site, since this may fool some of the search engines into believing you have two versions of your site, one with www and one without the www in the URL. For Apache servers I simply place this bit of code in the .htaccess file on my server.
Code example from non-www to www:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.example\.com$ [NC] RewriteRule .? http://www.example.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
8. Link out to other high quality keyword related sites. I don't believe webmasters use this very much, but linking out to high quality sites have helped my rankings. Search engines, especially Google, want to see you're connected to quality content and besides, pleasing your visitor is what it's really all about.
9. Keep all your interior site navigation as simple as possible. Make it extremely easy for your visitors to find their way around your site. I usually don't have any pages more than three clicks away from my homepage. All main categories or sub-categories of my site are not only listed on my home/index page but also on every page of my site. Again, don't ever leave your visitors or the search engines stranded.
10. Don't know if this is a ranking factor or not, but I like placing my YouTube videos on my content pages. Sure you will lose some visitors to YouTube, but it also connects your content with this very popular site which is owned by Google. We all know Google says it doesn't promote its own interests, but what publicly traded company doesn't? In that same light, I like using many Google products such as Google Analytics, Google URL Shortener, Google Profiles... and the list goes on. Completely inter-connecting all your pages and content with the countless Google programs will ensure your content won't be missed. By Titus Hoskins
You worked hard to get a new prospect on your email list, but what do you do when someone on the list hasn’t responded to anything in a long time?
Jeannie Frantz, director of Campaigns and Operations at Corporate Visions, believes that dormant leads require more than just thought leadership content.
“A person may have come to your website, checked out your solution, and said ‘you know what, all these solutions are great but they require me to actively buy from you, and that’s more change than I can handle.` There’s more pain in the change than there is in the gain of buying the solution,” explains Frantz, who runs inbound and outbound marketing campaigns.
Corporate Visions has a team dedicated to going after dormant accounts and dormant leads. The team has found success offering a provocative point of view that doesn`t necessarily promote the features and functions of its solution but instead details the danger of doing nothing.
“[This information] tells them exactly why not doing anything today, holding off on that decision and not buying … is not a good place to be,” Frantz says.
Explaining how changes going on in their environment and industry can potentially put their business initiatives at risk is different, and perhaps more effective, than simply sending pertinent information on succeeding in one’s industry. “You have to make them feel that there’s not an advantage to sticking with the status quo,” says Frantz. It’s worth noting that any new solution comes with a lot of change, which isn’t always easy. Therefore, solution content isn’t enough. Information, coupled with industry insight that’s connected to a packaged story explaining why the status quo isn’t a safe place to be and what people can do instead, drives the point home.
Hitting the mark
In addition to this specific, targeted material even thought leadership content should be aligned to the pain people expressed when they initially opted in. Some prospects may become dormant because your content isn’t hitting the mark. Corporate Visions offers the following recommendations:
Grab their attention from the start. Make sure a key insight is at the top of every single email you send out – something that grabs people’s attention and gives them a reason to keep reading.
Be willing to have some personality. A catchy headline or quick insight can get someone to start reading an email. Making the entire email interesting can keep them reading. “The more interesting you can make it, the more clicks you’re going to have,” Frantz says. Corporate Visions has used humor and clips from TV shows, such as “The Office,” to inject personality into its emails to create more personal engagement with its brand, though, of course, the clips are put in context and tied back to its business.
Include video content. “Video is a great way to generate clicks and engagement with your content,” Frantz says. So consider uploading screen casts, whiteboard videos or other video content.
Find ways to stand out. Frantz explains that Corporate Visions has re-designed its unsubscribe page to be entertaining and interesting. Instead of offering checkboxes of newsletters to unsubscribe (or worse, expecting people to log in), the company sets itself apart with an engaging video on their unsubscribe page. “Our unsubscribe emails dropped dramatically after that [the re-design],” Frantz recalls.
Follow up. Once your dormant leads are no longer dormant, make sure someone on your sales team follows up with a phone call, when appropriate.
This post contributed by guest author, Yael Grauer
What’s the difference between Shared Hosting & VPS Hosting?
If you’ve been looking into web hosting you would have come across Shared Hosting and VPS Hosting. These two types of hosting are the most popular hosting services available, but are very different in their application and offering. There are 3 main differences when it comes to Shared vs. VPS hosting, these are listed below:
1. Space
VPS Hosting is built to suit larger businesses with heavy traffic to their website. To allow this continuation of traffic, each VPS is allocated its own resources to continue to operate seamlessly, regardless of sudden traffic spikes. On the other hand, the shared hosting resources (as its name suggests) are shared amongst all the websites on the same server. If one website on the shared server experiences a substantial spike in traffic then other websites will experience slower response time and page loads.
2. Control
Shared Hosting users are given little control when it comes to customised software and installing applications. With a VPS you have full control over your server. This is ideal with websites that use customised software packages or want the ability to install custom applications.
3. Price
Shared hosting is the most popular hosting service around, primarily due to its affordability. Costs associated with shared hosting are divided among all the users sharing the one server. With VPS Hosting, you are provided your own ‘mini’ server therefore, a little pricier than shared hosting.
There are a number of differences when comparing Shared and VPS Hosting. Shared Hosting is ideal for small websites and blogs while VPS hosting is more suited for medium to larger sized businesses that generate high traffic.
By Jamin Andrews
Call us at 8938909 and look for Tina to provide assistance with your web service requirement.
How to Use Web Analytics to Grow Your Business
The referring website and page
The search engine and keyword used
Their location
Their operating system, browser and monitor resolution
Their network
Duration of visit (time on site)
Pages per visit (number of pages viewed)
Bounce rate (percentage of users who viewed only one page before leaving)
Conversion rate (percentage of users who completed a preset task)
If you own a business, chances are you do. But don't pat yourself on the back too quickly.
By now it's widely-accepted that if you have a business card you should probably have a website. It doesn't matter what your company is selling - a website, however modest, has become a standard.
The real question is: what is your website doing for your business? As a web marketer I often put this question to the business owners I meet. Not because I'm trying to lead into my sales pitch, but because I'm intrigued to hear the answer.
Most people get a certain "deer in the headlights" look in their eyes when I ask this question. To be fair, it's not a question we're used to hearing. But that's not all that's going on here.
Traditional advertising mediums - print, TV, radio, etc - are notoriously difficult to track. Sure, you'll know how often the phone is ringing or how many people come in with a coupon clipped from the Sunday paper, but what you don't know is how many people saw/heard your ad and whether they were interested, oblivious or, worse, annoyed.
Business owners are used to this. We all know we need to advertise - it's a necessary cost of doing business - so we buy that half-page ad in the Yellow Pages or the local newspaper, we sponsor an event or a little league team, we have a radio commercial written (maybe even with a jingle) and we hope for the best.
This has been a given in marketing since the beginning. But the web, and analytics, changed the game.
So how should you be using your web analytics to grow your audience, and your business, online? Track Everything
With web analytics on your site you can track:
Where your traffic is coming from by
Your website visitors by
Visitor behavior and actions by
If you're planning on doing any kind of web marketing, be it through search engines, email or advertising on other websites, information on your past and current traffic is crucial. Not to mention you'll want analytics in place so you can properly track the new traffic your promotions will, hopefully, bring in.
Tie Your Traffic Sources to Your Users' Actions
When looking at your analytics data the behavior and action metrics mean little by themselves. If the bounce rate of your site overall is 75%, what does that tell you? Well, this is a pretty high bounce rate - you should at least be shooting to have a bounce rate lower than 50%. But does this tell you exactly what is wrong?
Likewise, if you have secured advertising or a listing on another website, the number of visits coming in from that site only gives you part of the picture.
Tying your bounce rate to a specific traffic source, on the other hand, can tell you a lot. If a given traffic source is generating a bounce rate of 85% or more, for example, this indicates that users are not being satisfied. There are a few possibilities as to why: The users may not be well-qualified - or the site where you are listed or advertising might not have the best audience for your content/offer. The listing/ad may promise something that the entry page does not live up to (or, at least, the promise is difficult to locate once the user arrives at your site). Your site is simply not usable, is unattractive or unprofessional, causing users to leave immediately (and most don't come back) Your users are not connecting with your content/offer. There are other possibilities, but you'll want to find the most likely answer here - and try to fix it. Then, using the same metrics (traffic source + bounce rate), you can see whether things improve moving forward.
Using metrics like these you can also get a sense of which advertisements are bringing you a return on your investment and which aren't. With goal tracking in Google Analytics, for example, a conversion rate is added to just about every traffic metric, including referring websites. If you're finding that a website is sending you plenty of traffic but none of it is converting, re-examine the referring website's audience, how your site is being presented and the user's experience when they click through.
The Point
Your website is more than a brochure. It's an interactive tool for your users. The only true way to find out how they're using it (or not using it) is to get web analytics set up properly on your website (including setting goal points to track conversions).
And the best way to improve your website in the aim of building your business is to use the information your web analytics give you.
The age of blind advertising - of throwing money at the problem and hoping for the best - is dead.
If you aren't tracking everything, taking time on a regular basis to understand what the data reveals about your users and adjusting your efforts based on this information, you're missing an opportunity to optimize your advertising and get a better return on your budget.
In this economy, is that something you can afford?
By Mike Tekula (c) 2009
In Marketing, Perception Is Everything
In Marketing, Perception Is Everything
Influence...Not so much
The mind is a deeply complex organ, at times influenced by small, seemingly trivial things, and at others closed off to any external stimuli. Think of it as an onion, with belief at the center and perception at the outermost layer. Subtle stimuli can alter perception not just more easily than they can belief, but alsocan alter perception in nearly imperceptible ways, as air overtime hardens and dries the top layer, not affecting the layer beneath.
Case in point: Associations with brand logos. No core belief is needed to deal with company logos and associations made with them, thus those associations are more easily influenced. A recent study showed people subliminally exposed to Apple's logo were more creative with their tasks than people exposed to IBM's.
Likewise, as posted on the Today show's website, it's easy to send subtle cues to other people physically in order to get them to associate certain positive traits in their mind. For example: having a picture of a dog on your desk to convey loyalty or wearing a black suit to convey authority. This is what is also referred to as "the power of suggestion."
In short, perception is easily manipulated because people are less likely to guard their perceptions than their beliefs. Changing someone's faith, on the other hand, would be a much more difficult task, as belief is protected at the center of the onion.
Understanding this relationship is important when considering the implications of other studies and how those implications apply to marketing efforts. More than one piece of research has found, for example, that people are more likely to be influenced by friends and families than they are an A-list blogger. Part of that rests with the belief that someone is trustworthy versus the perception that someone is trustworthy. Some, though, take that information and jump to the conclusion that blogger endorsements and celebrity endorsements are over-credited for effectiveness.
The underlying assumption is that it all comes down to how much trust people put into a recommendation. People these days are much less likely to put trust in a celebrity they know is paid to say something. That distrust could extend to bloggers as well, either for that reason, or lack of certainty of the person's identity (especially in light of recent hoaxes), or a myriad other reasons not to trust a stranger.
So, a consumer in the market for an automobile is more likely to trust a friend or relative, especially one with long-term brand experience than a blogger in another state. Yeah, well, when you put it that way, it's not such a surprise, is it?
Veteran communications specialist Shel Holtz doesn't think it should be shocking, either, and criticizes competing viewpoints that trust is the most important metric in marketing:
"Whatever happened to the importance of building awareness?" asks Holtz at his blog. "While the influential bloggers-the so-called 'A-listers'-may not have influence, they do have eyeballs. They are A-listers, after all, because people read them. I may have greater trust in my friend in the next cube, but where did he hear about it? And if he heard about it from a trusted friend or family member, they read about it from a source that gets broad distrtibution [sic]. The information has to start somewhere."
- Jason Lee Miller
10 Best Strategies to Massively Increase Your Visibility Online
Increasing online visibility is the goal of most online business owners. After all, without visibility, you have no traffic and thus no business. However, when you start to research how to improve your online visibility, you discover many options, but find that there is little time for research and implementation. Where does an online entrepreneur turn first to get the visibility (and traffic) to promote an online venture?
New tricks and gimmicks come out every day, but unfortunately, most of them are like so many recording artists and become one-hit wonders. In my business, I've discovered that there are a handful that are able to stand the test of time. Some have been around for as long as websites have been around, while others are newer kids on the block. Here are my 10 most effective strategies to massively boost your visibility online:
1. Press releases. Press releases are a well-known marketing strategy that have worked for years with print and broadcast media. In recent years they have found new life as an online visibility tool. Just like in the old days, your release should carry some newsworthy angle that has been optimized with a select few keywords by which you want your business to be found. Don't waste your time submitting your release to the free press release sites -- the release simply sits on the site and goes no where else. Instead, invest in a fee-based service (I prefer PRWeb.com), which will ensure your release gets the recognition it deserves.
2. Social Networking. A "johnny come lately" to the online visibility scene, social networking now ranks near the top in terms of attracting visibility to your business for a very low cost. If you don't yet have accounts on the two most popular social networking platforms, Facebook and Twitter, today is the day to hop on board and begin to network. Choose 1-2 social networking platforms where your target market hangs out, and then begin to work it by making connections, joining groups or networks, sharing resources, and asking questions. Dedicate 15-30 minutes each day to your effort to begin to see results.
3. Article Marketing. Writing and submittíng articles to major article directories has definitely stood the test of time for online visibility. Article marketing will drive traffic to your site, establish you as an expert in your target market's eyes, and give you valuable content to repurpose into information products. For maximum effectiveness, your article needs to contain a strong resource box (author's bio) that drives traffic back to your site, needs to contain useful content that solves a problem of your target market, and be written in a tips-based fashion, like this one, since it is the easiest format for a website visitor to read and digest.
4. Blogging. Business blogs (a web log or journal), have gained popularity over the last few years as an online visibility tool. Blogs use RSS feed technology to immediately get new posts and updates out to your blog subscribers through a feed reader. Unlike ezines or traditional websites, search engines index blog posts almost immediately, which help you generate traffic to your website. To use effectively as an online visibility tool, you need to post 2-3 times per week to keep your readers interested and coming back.
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Optimizing your site or your blog for organic (naturally-occurring) searches has been around from the beginning of Internet marketing. Use a keyword research tool and create a listing of keywords applicable to your business. Don't forget to add things like "how to", "tips", or short descriptions of your target market's problems to your research. Then, take a look at your page titles, page descriptions, page headlines, and formatted text on a page (bolding, italicizing, underlining) and include your keywords in those areas, as well as sprinkling 1-2 keywords throughout the content of your page. Make the SEO appear to be natural, not forced, and the search engines as well as your visitors will love you.
6. Email Newsletter (Ezine). Regular publication of an email newsletter (weekly is most effective) will enable your prospects to get to know, like and trust you and have you be top of mind when they are ready to solve the pressing problems that fall within your line of expertise. If you make opting into your ezine the primary call to action on your website, you continually build your list with prospective customers. Best of all, if they like what you write, they are more likely to pass along the issue to their contacts, thus increasing your visibility yet again.
7. Signature Teleseminar/Speech. Have you created your signature speech or teleseminar that you can present whenever you're asked to speak to any type of group (face-to-face or virtual)? If not, design a signature speech or teleseminar that demonstrates your knowledge and expertise without giving away the store (focus on the what and the why but not the how) that compels your listeners to visit your website or request your client attraction device and get on your líst.
Then, begin to research groups that contain your target market both in your geographic area and online. Once you've landed a speaking gig, strategize your best call to action for the group -- do you want participants to sign up for your ezine, purchase a product, or book a consultation? Add that call to action to your presentation.
8. Videos. With the popularity of broadband Internet connections, it's much easier for almost anyone to view online video these days. And, with high-quality yet low-cost web cams, video cameras, and screen capture software readily available, anyone can make a video today. You might record a live Q&A session on UStream.com and post it on your site. Or, perhaps you want to record a "how to" tutorial using screenshots from your computer and upload that to your YouTube.com channel. Remember to include your call to action in your video so that you drive traffic back to your site. Just think -- your video may cause you to become the next YouTube star!
9. Expert question sites. Most people conduct online searches to find free information that answers their questions. Many online entrepreneurs are registering as experts on an expert or answers site, like Yahoo Answers or AllExperts.com, in an effort to get visibility online. To be an effective expert on these sites, you need to seek out questions that you can knowledgeably answer as an expert. Your answer needs to be very detailed and as specific as possible. The more thorough your answer, the better chance you'll have of getting chosen as the "favorite" answer, which is the one rated highest on the site and in the search engines.
10. Viral marketing. Viral marketing involves creating a marketing piece (ebook, video, software) that gets passed along free of charge from person to person. Publicity Hound Joan Stewart does this quite effectively each year when she compiles the best tips she's written about in the previous year in a "best of" ebook compilation that she gives away free of charge on her site. She also encourages her líst and website visitors to "regift" it.
You've got two options when you try to get online visibility: the "steady and effective over time" method or the "quick and short and probably get banned" method. I prefer to use methods that have stood the test of time and won't result in my site being removed from the search engines. Use one or more of these time-honored strategies to get you the visibility you deserve online.
By Donna Gunter
10 Social Networking Security Tips
Networking is the biggest thing to hit the internet since it began. The sheer numbers involved are staggering. If Facebook was a country it would be the 3rd largest in the world behind India. It can be a massive force for good, yet it comes with inherent dangers, not least of which is to your security.
So here are 10 Social Networking Security Tips, to keep you safe and secure while chatting with your mates!
1. Don’t Publish Too Much Don’t publish too much information about yourself, your personal life, and your family online. Things to avoid, if possible, are full dates of birth, mother’s maiden name, 1st pet’s name, 1st school, or make sure you lie to these types of things. After all, they are all used by major institutions as “security” questions, so don’t make it easy for someone to target you.
2. Assume Everything is Public Always assume that everything that you post on the internet will at some point become public domain. The rules and settings employed by the service provider now might change in the future. Never post or say anything online that you wouldn’t want your mum, your boss, future employers or future partners to find out about! This includes “chats” with other people and “status updates,” all of which have the potential to be public or become visible to others.
3. The Internet Never Forgets Unlike you and I, who have a habit of forgetting things on a regular basis, the internet won’t forget. That means the embarrassing photos from your stag/hen party will still be hanging around the next time you get married! And, even if you delete images or remove content, there’s a good chance it’s been copied, backed-up or cached by another internet service. This is an important fact that people tend to forget.
4. Don’t “Connect” with People You Don’t Know Don’t accept “friend” or “connection” requests from just anybody unless you’re aware of the risks. Accounts of users are regularly monitored and targeted for malicious purposes with the intention of gaining something – either identity information or more often money in some way.
5. Don’t Trust Even Your “Friends” Remember, unless you can verify the identity of a user account without simply trusting they are who they claim to be, don’t trust them! A genuine friend could have had their account compromised or someone may have set-up an account in their name with the intention of gathering information on you and others you know.
6. Don’t Announce Your Plans to the World If you’re going on holiday to Thailand for a fortnight, that’s great, but don’t tell the world and his wife when you’re going, when you’re returning, which hotel you’re staying in and who’s traveling with you! This information is brilliant for burglars, muggers, identity thieves and anyone else who fancies free board and lodgings in your home while you’re away. Remember points 4 and 5!
7. Be Wary Of “Apps” “Apps” are great fun, what harm could they do, they’re all provided by the site? This isn’t true. Many “apps” are developed by individuals and companies external to the social network you’re using and they often re-use code segments from other apps. As such, there’s no guarantee the apps you’re using are simply there for your enjoyment and aren’t harvesting your data. Now some harvesting is done for legitimate marketing and research purposes, but some of it is also done with not so innocent intentions. Be wary and don’t download/install/add the “app” unless you really need to.
8. Avoid Location Based Services I know they’re the new up and coming “thing,” but I personally don’t like the idea of having my movements tracked, even if it means I save a few quid at Starbucks. Again, like point 6, you don’t know who else has access to the information and who knows if the terms of service might change at some point in the future?
9. Check Your Settings All of the current social networking sites come with some form of privacy or security settings. Now these might seem confusing and a bit pointless, but it’s worth taking some time to go through and understand them to ensure you’re protecting yourself to the best of your abilities. If you need help, then see if there’s an FAQ, speak to someone who understands how they work or simply stay off the site. Either way, make sure you have the settings at the level you feel comfortable with, and that protects your data.
10. Never Post Anything Sensitive The last point is almost the same as point 2, but here we’re emphasizing the need to avoid posting potentially sensitive personal or business information which could cause you or your company/employer harm. This could be something as innocuous as a tweet saying “Off to meet XYZ corp now, back in an hour.” There is the potential that this could be privileged information and might allow your competitors to see who you’re dealing with, or who your clients are. It could provide them with a competitive advantage or it could land you in trouble with your bosses, regulators or courts, depending on the issue at hand. Now all of this might seem a little to paranoid for some of you, but if “they” are out to “get you” surely it’s not paranoia!?
-Lee Hezzlewood
1. Don’t Publish Too Much Don’t publish too much information about yourself, your personal life, and your family online. Things to avoid, if possible, are full dates of birth, mother’s maiden name, 1st pet’s name, 1st school, or make sure you lie to these types of things. After all, they are all used by major institutions as “security” questions, so don’t make it easy for someone to target you.
2. Assume Everything is Public Always assume that everything that you post on the internet will at some point become public domain. The rules and settings employed by the service provider now might change in the future. Never post or say anything online that you wouldn’t want your mum, your boss, future employers or future partners to find out about! This includes “chats” with other people and “status updates,” all of which have the potential to be public or become visible to others.
3. The Internet Never Forgets Unlike you and I, who have a habit of forgetting things on a regular basis, the internet won’t forget. That means the embarrassing photos from your stag/hen party will still be hanging around the next time you get married! And, even if you delete images or remove content, there’s a good chance it’s been copied, backed-up or cached by another internet service. This is an important fact that people tend to forget.
4. Don’t “Connect” with People You Don’t Know Don’t accept “friend” or “connection” requests from just anybody unless you’re aware of the risks. Accounts of users are regularly monitored and targeted for malicious purposes with the intention of gaining something – either identity information or more often money in some way.
5. Don’t Trust Even Your “Friends” Remember, unless you can verify the identity of a user account without simply trusting they are who they claim to be, don’t trust them! A genuine friend could have had their account compromised or someone may have set-up an account in their name with the intention of gathering information on you and others you know.
6. Don’t Announce Your Plans to the World If you’re going on holiday to Thailand for a fortnight, that’s great, but don’t tell the world and his wife when you’re going, when you’re returning, which hotel you’re staying in and who’s traveling with you! This information is brilliant for burglars, muggers, identity thieves and anyone else who fancies free board and lodgings in your home while you’re away. Remember points 4 and 5!
7. Be Wary Of “Apps” “Apps” are great fun, what harm could they do, they’re all provided by the site? This isn’t true. Many “apps” are developed by individuals and companies external to the social network you’re using and they often re-use code segments from other apps. As such, there’s no guarantee the apps you’re using are simply there for your enjoyment and aren’t harvesting your data. Now some harvesting is done for legitimate marketing and research purposes, but some of it is also done with not so innocent intentions. Be wary and don’t download/install/add the “app” unless you really need to.
8. Avoid Location Based Services I know they’re the new up and coming “thing,” but I personally don’t like the idea of having my movements tracked, even if it means I save a few quid at Starbucks. Again, like point 6, you don’t know who else has access to the information and who knows if the terms of service might change at some point in the future?
9. Check Your Settings All of the current social networking sites come with some form of privacy or security settings. Now these might seem confusing and a bit pointless, but it’s worth taking some time to go through and understand them to ensure you’re protecting yourself to the best of your abilities. If you need help, then see if there’s an FAQ, speak to someone who understands how they work or simply stay off the site. Either way, make sure you have the settings at the level you feel comfortable with, and that protects your data.
10. Never Post Anything Sensitive The last point is almost the same as point 2, but here we’re emphasizing the need to avoid posting potentially sensitive personal or business information which could cause you or your company/employer harm. This could be something as innocuous as a tweet saying “Off to meet XYZ corp now, back in an hour.” There is the potential that this could be privileged information and might allow your competitors to see who you’re dealing with, or who your clients are. It could provide them with a competitive advantage or it could land you in trouble with your bosses, regulators or courts, depending on the issue at hand. Now all of this might seem a little to paranoid for some of you, but if “they” are out to “get you” surely it’s not paranoia!?
-Lee Hezzlewood
Internet Marketing Tips to Consider Before Going Online
It's a rarity for businesses to not operate a website these days. Even small mom-and-pop shops that began long before the era of the Internet have gone digital, albeit some were a little more hesitant than others. But while launching a website - whether for a multi-national, bíllion dollar corporation or the local pizza place - may be easy, to have that website actively help grow the business is another matter all together.
Simply having a website (one among the ever-expanding billions) isn't enough to earn a business any attention, promote its brand or grow its profit margins. Search engine optimization, the practice of making changes in different areas of a website so that search engines can help find and deliver targeted audiences to the site, is practically meaningless unless companies first consider several issues.
The first issue to launching a successful site is determining the purpose of that site. Is a business looking to generate leads or sales? Is the site simply a branding tool, perhaps to promote a new line of products? It's critical to decide what actions the site is supposed to encourage visitors to take. Say the website's goal is to encourage visitors to call an office. Are there phones and staff ready to handle the incoming calls when the site delivers them? Having a call to action for website visitors but no follow through on the company side is just as bad as having no call to action in the first place.
Next, a business needs to take a serious look at who its audience is. This should have been decided when first developing a business plan, but maybe the demographic need to be tweaked for online audiences. Different demographics - Millennials vs Boomers for instance - approach the Internet in different ways and businesses should carefully hone in on the best prospects.
Finally, businesses need to realistically determine competition. While the audiences might be the same, the Gap is not necessarily competing with a local boutique in Raleigh, North Carolina. It's important to consider geographic and business factors when determining true competition. Who is directly competing in the same market space, with the same products and looking to target a similar audience. While both the Gap and the boutique are clothing stores, they cater to different clientele and operate on much different budgets. At the end of the day, that local boutique cannot compete with the advertising budget of the Gap, so it should look to be competing with the other boutique across town.
Many of the aforementioned factors should already exist in a business plan or marketing plan. But it is easy to forget the basics when faced with the daunting task of implementing a successful website and SEO plan to promote it. There are several tools that exist to help a business determine the best keywords for its site, provide the traffic sources of its competitor's site and grade the site on its content, trust value and more. Once the ground work is in place, successful, long term SEO and SEM strategies can be created.
Once a business has determined the site's purpose, audience and competition, then it is time to consider website structure and website navigation.
While both of these can be modified over time, based on consumer response and SEO results, it is important to design the website to be as fluid and easy to navigate as possible. The structure and navigation feed directly into the overall user-experience, which is a crucial thing to be aware of.
The website's design should reflect its goals. If the goal is to sell a product, it should be evident from the home page and carry throughout the rest of the site. If the website was designed to generate business, it should have the proper tools to help convert visits into actions.
Perhaps there is a "Contact Us" form on every page, so the user doesn't have to go looking for it back on the home page. Maybe the company's phone number is strategically listed several times on a webpage, pushing the call to action even more.
A business's website should make it easy for the user to conduct business. Pages that are complicated, difficult to navigate or cluttered detract from the user-experience, often causing users to leave the site altogether and finding another company to do business with.
While a site's structure and navigation needs to be firmly in place before even beginning to create an SEO campaign to promote it, it is important to keep SEO practices in mind when developing the website. Creating each page as its own point of entry makes it easier for the search engine spiders to locate specific keywords and direct the user towards that page. If the website is structured appropriately, several pages may rank in the search engine in addition to the homepage. The more pages from the site that rank, the greater chance a business has of getting the interested user to reach its site.
Suppose there is a business that supplies restaurant furniture for chain restaurants. Its website should have a different page for each product that it sells- tables, chairs, counters, etc. Depending on how many products are in each category, the website could delve even deeper, creating pages for the different types of chairs - booth seats, stools, patio seating, etc. As the pages get more specific, so do the keywords. That way, should a restaurant owner be looking for stainless stéel bar stools, the search engines can automatically pull up that page of the website.
Search engine optimization is a long term process. There are many factors that contribute to the success of a SEO or SEM campaign. Some are easy to identify and others require careful analysis. But the first thing a business can do to help itself is to create a website that is well designed, structured and has a clear purpose. -Nick Stamoulis
Twelve Simple Ways to Generate More Blog Traffic
Imagine that you've taken the giant leap to start a blog to bring more brand awareness and exposure to your small business. You've taken all the necessary steps to build your blog platform and now comes the day when you make your very first blog post. You spend hours crafting a post that is educational, inspirational and positions you as an expert in your field. You are as proud of this post as if it truly were your flesh and blood. And, most of all you can't wait to share it with the world. So, you hit "publish" and wait for your readers to react to your nuggets of wisdom. However, the waiting is an endless ordeal. Why aren't you generating any comments? Why aren't people emailing you thrilled that you have shared your expertise with them? It's called "lack of traffic" and if there's no traffic to your blog, no one will ever see it. So, how can you begin enticing readers to visit your blog? Here are twelve quick ways to generate a flow of non-stop blog traffic:
1. Create Great Content Obviously, this goes without saying. But, your content needs to educate, entertain, inspire or provide a solution to your readers' problems. You want to try to accomplish at least one of these tasks with every blog post.
2. Keep Your Posts Short We are living in an age where short attention spans are the norm. Keep your posts under 500 words so that you don't lose your ADD readers.
3. Get Your Blog Indexed in Technorati This is the big daddy of all blog catalogs. Make sure that you go through the very simple process of submitting your blog RSS feed to Technorati.
4. Submit Your Blog Feed to Other Top Blog Catalogs Blog catalogs and RSS feed catalogs are where readers go to find blogs to read. You want to make sure that your blog is there. To make the process even easier, you can use a service such as SubmitINMe to manually post to the catalogs for you.
5. Entice Your Readers to Subscribe to Your Blog Give your readers a free goodie (such as a downloadable ebook, whitepaper, audio class, etc.) if they subscribe to your blog.
6. Let Your Social Networks Know About New Postsbr> Whenever you post to your blog, Tweet it out to your followers, update your LinkedIn status and let your Facebook friends and fans know about it. If it's a good post, they will pass it on to their community as well.
7. Get Involved in the Blog Community Blogging is a social activity. Read other blogs, comment on other blogs and refer to other blogs within your blog posts.
8. Comment Back When your readers make comments on your blog, make sure that you comment back to them. You want to encourage a natural back and forth dialogue between you and your readers.
9. Participate in a Blog Carnival A blog carnival is a blog event that it is dedicated to a particular top
ic and is published either weekly or monthly. Each edition of a blog carnival is in the form of an article that contains links to other blog posts on that particular topic. Blog carnivals can be a wonderful way to produce awareness around your blog. Read the rules and regulations of the blog carnival and get involved.
10. Offér to Write a Blog Post for a High-Traffic Blog Research various blogs within your particular industry. Read the blogs, comment on the blogs and interact with the blogger. Once you've established a relationship, send them an email politely letting them know that you would be willing to be a guest blogger for them at any time in the future. Include a link to your blog so that they can check out the quality of your work.
11. Use Your Blog Posts in Your Ezine Instead of writing a brand new article for your weekly ezine, send out the first few paragraphs of one of your past blog posts. Then include a link for the reader to continue reading the post on your blog.
12. Include Your Blog URL in Your Email Signature Develop an email signature that you use whenever you send an email. Of course, your email signature should include a link to your blog. Once you implement these twelve strategies, you'll certainly notice a spike in traffic and begin generating comments and interaction from hundreds (even thousands) of readers in your particular industry.
By Jessica Swanson
Web Designs Deadliest 4 Mistakes
Some web designs are truly so repulsive that they actually drive people away from the site and prevent them from returning. Both you and your web design company must avoid these situations at all costs. Otherwise you run the risk of allowing your reputation to be diminished or being labeled and avoided by clients and customers.
Web Design's Scariest Backgrounds
The background of your website is one aspect that you have control over and you can easily change or alter to suit your client's needs. You must be aware, however, that some backgrounds are simply not attractive at all. Some of these backgrounds that should be avoided at any cost are:
A completely black background with light or white text superimposed upon it. Even the best web designers in the world have difficulty achieving an appealing look with this type of background. It gives viewers the impression that you are imperious and condescending and does not do anything to encourage readers to stay on your site. Also, some browsers, when used to print a page, also print background color. This could cause complaints from customers who are not happy about the amount of ink they used in order to print a single page.
A completely black background with dark words. This is an even worse background choice than the previous one because the words simply cannot be seen without great difficulty. In order to read the text, visitors to your site will have to first highlight the text, a task that will quickly irritate them.
Complicated, tiled images. Fresh web designers often use this type of background because it is convenient and looks good to them. They should also bear in mind, however, that this type of background can dramatically increase the amount of load time for a website.
Web Design's Scariest Text
The main reason people visit your site is that they are interested in the content contained within your website. If they are unable to read your text, then there is nothing for them to stay for. Your web design company definitely does not want visitors to find nothing worth reading on your site, so avoid the following pitfalls:
Centering all your text. A page with all of its text completely centered is unattractive and difficult to read.
Overly emphasized text. Some designers bold every other line of text and italicize the rest. This is self-defeating because in attempting to make everything stand out, nothing stands out.
Flashing text. Although some people find text that constantly disappears and reappears appealing, it is almost impossible to read, defeating the purpose of even having text in the first place. Text is there to be read!
Web Design's Scariest Content
As a web designer, you should never ignore your content. At the end of the day, the content of your web page is what either draws visitors to your site, or drives them away. You should make sure you include interesting and attention-grabbing content and avoid the following mistakes.
Pages consisting solely of links. Pages where every word is a link on its own do not serve any purpose other than to convince visitors never to return to your site.
"Funny" content. Including humorous content is risky, at best. Some people may not understand your humor and will need to have it explained to them or, more likely, they will simply leave your site in search of something more interesting that they can actually understand.
Web Design's Scariest Multimedia
Many designers find themselves in love with multimedia and attempt to use it in every project that they undertake. The web design company you work for probably does appreciate your talent with multimedia and, when the situation calls for it, you can showcase your talents to your web design company and your clients. However, designing using multimedia tools is a very time consuming process. You should not let your desire to show off your skills with multimedia compromise the work that you eventually hand in to your clients. You should do your utmost to avoid the following traps:
Image overload. Images of all forms, including icons, should not be present in large numbers. As a general rule-of-thumb, anything more than two images is overkill.
Overly large images. The readership of your site will not suffer if your images are not of print quality. Large, high quality images take a long time to load and most readers would not care if you had used a low quality image.
Embedded audio. Audio streams that play constantly while the page is open are very annoying for visitors who simply want to examine the content of your site. Worse, these audio streams are usually impossible to turn off. If you absolutely must include some form of sound with your web page, you must give your visitors the controls required to turn off the sound if they wish.
A scary web design is most definitely not what your web design company hopes that you will produce. The web pages you design should be appealing to readers and help keep them on your site, and not drive them away.
By Moe Tamani
Some web designs are truly so repulsive that they actually drive people away from the site and prevent them from returning. Both you and your web design company must avoid these situations at all costs. Otherwise you run the risk of allowing your reputation to be diminished or being labeled and avoided by clients and customers.
Web Design's Scariest Backgrounds
The background of your website is one aspect that you have control over and you can easily change or alter to suit your client's needs. You must be aware, however, that some backgrounds are simply not attractive at all. Some of these backgrounds that should be avoided at any cost are:
A completely black background with light or white text superimposed upon it. Even the best web designers in the world have difficulty achieving an appealing look with this type of background. It gives viewers the impression that you are imperious and condescending and does not do anything to encourage readers to stay on your site. Also, some browsers, when used to print a page, also print background color. This could cause complaints from customers who are not happy about the amount of ink they used in order to print a single page.
A completely black background with dark words. This is an even worse background choice than the previous one because the words simply cannot be seen without great difficulty. In order to read the text, visitors to your site will have to first highlight the text, a task that will quickly irritate them.
Complicated, tiled images. Fresh web designers often use this type of background because it is convenient and looks good to them. They should also bear in mind, however, that this type of background can dramatically increase the amount of load time for a website.
Web Design's Scariest Text
The main reason people visit your site is that they are interested in the content contained within your website. If they are unable to read your text, then there is nothing for them to stay for. Your web design company definitely does not want visitors to find nothing worth reading on your site, so avoid the following pitfalls:
Centering all your text. A page with all of its text completely centered is unattractive and difficult to read.
Overly emphasized text. Some designers bold every other line of text and italicize the rest. This is self-defeating because in attempting to make everything stand out, nothing stands out.
Flashing text. Although some people find text that constantly disappears and reappears appealing, it is almost impossible to read, defeating the purpose of even having text in the first place. Text is there to be read!
Web Design's Scariest Content
As a web designer, you should never ignore your content. At the end of the day, the content of your web page is what either draws visitors to your site, or drives them away. You should make sure you include interesting and attention-grabbing content and avoid the following mistakes.
Pages consisting solely of links. Pages where every word is a link on its own do not serve any purpose other than to convince visitors never to return to your site.
"Funny" content. Including humorous content is risky, at best. Some people may not understand your humor and will need to have it explained to them or, more likely, they will simply leave your site in search of something more interesting that they can actually understand.
Web Design's Scariest Multimedia
Many designers find themselves in love with multimedia and attempt to use it in every project that they undertake. The web design company you work for probably does appreciate your talent with multimedia and, when the situation calls for it, you can showcase your talents to your web design company and your clients. However, designing using multimedia tools is a very time consuming process. You should not let your desire to show off your skills with multimedia compromise the work that you eventually hand in to your clients. You should do your utmost to avoid the following traps:
Image overload. Images of all forms, including icons, should not be present in large numbers. As a general rule-of-thumb, anything more than two images is overkill.
Overly large images. The readership of your site will not suffer if your images are not of print quality. Large, high quality images take a long time to load and most readers would not care if you had used a low quality image.
Embedded audio. Audio streams that play constantly while the page is open are very annoying for visitors who simply want to examine the content of your site. Worse, these audio streams are usually impossible to turn off. If you absolutely must include some form of sound with your web page, you must give your visitors the controls required to turn off the sound if they wish.
A scary web design is most definitely not what your web design company hopes that you will produce. The web pages you design should be appealing to readers and help keep them on your site, and not drive them away.
By Moe Tamani
Tactics to Draw People Back to Your Site
One of the biggest measurements of a website's success is the stickiness of its visitor base. Generally web masters would rather have 1,000 visitors who return regularly (they are "stuck to the site") as opposed to 3,000 visitors who only visit once or twice. These days the web is massive, carving out a niche for your site and gaining a following within that niche is the key to success.
There are many reasons why you should try to make your website as sticky as possible. Visitors who return regularly are more likely to purchase some of your products or content. If you have a membership site, then retaining your member base is critical for growing your íncome and long term success. Also, a faithful following will encourage viral promotíon of your site.
Search engine optimization can be a costly and time consuming task and your site's listing can be hammered down by the powers that be (Google) in the blink of an eye. If you gain a faithful user base though, they will tell their friends and family about your site and encourage them to use it as well. Viral marketing is the cheapest and most effective type of marketing there is and making your site and content desirable is the only way to achieve this phenomenon. There are "five C's" of stickiness to remember, and they are:
Content
Regardless of the site's design, without good content, the visitor will not come back or stay at the site for more than a few minutes. "Content is King" is a cliché, but true. High quality content is far and away the most important factor in attracting people back to a Web site consistently, and keeping them there for more than a few minutes when they do visit. It is said, in fact, that content is what drives 75 percent of consumers to return to their favorite sites.
In addition to your site being content rich, try to also keep it fresh. At least part of your site will be regularly updated, preferably at least once a month. This is why web sites which resemble online brochures fail. Delivering the same content in a blog, posted in installments, can be much more effective. This will encourage users to come back regularly, as they check in to see what new content you've added lately. This is stickiness in a nutshell.
Community
When a site attracts enough visitors with similar interests it has the potential to develop into a "community." That can be very powerful for the site owner. Providing message forums, chat rooms, podcasts, user profiles, blogs, etc. are all tools to allow your visitors to interact with both you and each other. This also makes your site VERY sticky if you are able to develop a thriving community.
Rather than visiting your site once a month people may begin to visit it multiple times a week. Having a thriving community can be viewed as developing a site which is constantly developing its own content. Rather than requiring you to spend hours developing content, you can instead monitor the postings on your site to ensure they retain the kind of atmosphere you want for your site. As time goes by you may also be able to appoint some of your more responsible members to monitoring positions to do this job for you as well.
Communication
Communication is equally important as content and community. Communication includes building and maintaining your list, reaching out to people on it and interacting with visitors to your site. Try to respond to any question, comments, or feedback you receive promptly. This builds relationships with your visitors and will keep them coming back.
One of the best ways to reach out to customers is to provide quality, free information. This is basically a sample of what your site has to present, and should always help address the questions your visitors came to your site for answers for. The very nature of the web stresses that you consider offering more free content to your customers than most other mediums do. You have too much competition to be stingy. One of the most effective means of providing content to customers and developing a slate of potential customers at the same time is to give a free guide to visitors who provide you with a name and email address.
For example, if you run a site teaching real estate tips and tricks, after your visitors have seen your "foot in the door" content located on your "splash page," provide them the first lesson of your course on real estate for free in exchange for their name and email address. You benefit from this by having names to attach to the IP addresses of your visitors. This provides you with more information about who is being drawn into your site. It is also important you use a quality auto-responder for this step, as communication is a critical part of your site and must be handled professionally.
One last note on communication: Be sure to provide your name and contact information clearly throughout your site. It will frustrate and turn away visitors if they have a question or comment and cannot figure out how to reach you. By providing a name and place to reach you it also helps contribute to the last two "C's..."
Commerce and Consumer Confidence
These are perhaps the two most important things that get overlooked in websites. First, effectively promote your site by using professional marketing and search engine optimization for the niche your site seeks to fill. Provide reliable, safe, and secure means for your customers to purchase your for-pay content. If your ordering method does not look safe, all your efforts working to sell your content to your visitors will be lost if they get to the order page and you look like an unprofessional, fly-by-night operator. Always use a secure ordering form. Offering a monëy back guarantee can be extremely helpful to reassure customers.
Lastly, respect your customer's privacy. Make it clear you will not sell their names, personal information, or email addresses. People hate spam and will be hesitant to identify themselves to you out of fear of having their information sold if you do not provide some kind of assurance against this. A clear and easy to locate privacy policy is necessary.
By Jeremy A Gislason
Branding - For Better or Worse
The point of a brand is to create an instantaneous association in people's minds. The Nike 'swoosh' brings to mind footwear, athleticism, and Michael Jordan. The Toyota 'bull' logo evokes images of compact cars, foreign business competition, and new ways of doing things. The name Budweiser reminds us of everything from the actual beer to those clever talking frogs, and the 'wassup!' advertisements.
These are cases of successful, memorable branding. Michael Jordan is retired from professional sports, the frogs haven't been on television in years, and wassup has almost faded from day to day use in the American pop culture vocabulary. However, every one of these elements remains identifiable, and mentioning them to most people will get the typical, 'oh yeah!' response to memories of clever marketing, cementing the image of the brand in the viewers' minds.
Branding is the creation of these memories. However, recollections of a product being indisputably linked with a particular name, image, or slogan can be a double-edged sword.
MCI Communications was one of the most successful challengers to the AT&T 'Bell Monopoly' consortium between the late 1960s and early 1980s. MCI managed to push through the breakup of the Bell coalition and allow new players to enter into the field of telecommunications. MCI pioneered many telecommunications innovations, such as Single Mode Fiber Optic Cable, when other companies were content to rely on existing standards. They were one of the first companies to provide the now standard idea of 'in-network' calling, where MCI customers got discounts when calling other MCI customers. MCI was one of the big, significant players in the telecom world, so why isn't their name still synonymous with innovation?
Because it is now synonymous with the words Worldcom, Enron, and scandal.
In 1998, MCI merged with another company to become MCI Worldcom, launching a widespread televised and online advertising campaign featuring notable actors such as Sam Neil of Jurassic Park fame. The MCI brand became inextricably linked with the Worldcom brand. Then, on June 26 2002, the Securities Exchange Commission launched a full inquiry into reported auditing and financial irregularities, resulting in allegations of fraud. By July 21st, less than one month later, it was revealed that Worldcom stock was inflated by $11 billion, and the company entered into chapter 11 bankruptcy. MCI was ultimately bought out by Verizon, and the legacy of a once innovative telecom company was left in the same repository as Arthur Anderson, Enron, and the other big financial fraud stories of the early 21st century.
While this is an extreme example, it is a caution worth considering for anyone interested in making a brand name for his or her product in today's market. The world is more connected, more informed, and more critical than ever, and while a legacy of good choices can create a strong brand, a reputation for poor or improper decisions can and will conspire to bury a once successful company forever.
Many times, no one can predict what will make a brand into a particular success or failure overnight. However, every company can take three common sense steps to protect their brand and the products it represents.
1. Promote a Quality Product
Quality talks - if a product works, then it has a certain degree of merit that puts it ahead of competition. If a company puts the time and effort to get a quality product onto the market and markets the brand in such a way that the actual qualities are stressed, people will remember.
As an example, Tylenol is an effective painkiller for post-surgical use. It is not a homeopathic remedy relying on word of mouth and supposed benefits, but has demonstrable, measurable effects on human pain and healing.
2. Be Informed About the Brand's Use
Knowing not just what one is putting out, but what is being done with it in the market, is crucial to proper branding. To continue with the example of Tylenol, many advertisements stress that doctors frequently prescribe it, more than any other over the counter analgesic. Knowing that doctors were using their product allowed Tylenol to make a powerful claim and keep the information in people's minds.
3. Be Prepared to Take Responsibility for the Brand
As seen in the MCI case, scandal led to the irrevocable decline of a once-powerful brand. Conversely, Tylenol managed to take what could have been a public relations nightmare and came out stronger than ever as a result. When Tylenol executives found out that tampering had led to poison getting into the product supply, poisons that killed Tylenol consumers, they pulled every current Tylenol product from the shelves of stores. They investigated each of their production facilities, solved the problem, and then launched an informative campaign letting people know when and why it was safe to come back to their product. This disaster could have led to the death of the company, but the executives' willingness to take responsibility and act, rather than covering up and denying fault, saved-a brand that is still powerful to this day.
Again, these are examples of extreme events. Only a tiny fraction of companies ever take their investments down the path of fraud, and almost no one will have to deal with their product becoming a poisonous vector. However, they illustrate the case that a brand is a powerful association for people to make, and that like any part of a business, it requires information and action in the proper degrees.
What Does This Mean to Me and My Website
Normal advertising just informs the consumer about a product and a company's brand identity. With digital advertising, the consumer can be more involved in the brand image. In this interactive domain, a company can listen to consumers who make comments on their website or blog and act on negative feedback before it becomes uncontrollable. They can try out different advertising strategies to learn which products they should continue to develop and which new features a product should have.
Effective digital branding allows you to identify a singular position and establish your distinctive voice in the marketplace and incorporates all three of the above-mentioned branding points. You'll be promoting a quality product. You'll use social media strategies to keep informed about your brand's image and you'll take responsibility for your brand, to guide and shape it to its best advantage.
Branding takes time and thought. Digital branding takes time, thought and an interchange with your consumers. Engaging your customers in your brand in a relevant way is the key to successful online branding
By Enzo F. Cesario
These are cases of successful, memorable branding. Michael Jordan is retired from professional sports, the frogs haven't been on television in years, and wassup has almost faded from day to day use in the American pop culture vocabulary. However, every one of these elements remains identifiable, and mentioning them to most people will get the typical, 'oh yeah!' response to memories of clever marketing, cementing the image of the brand in the viewers' minds.
Branding is the creation of these memories. However, recollections of a product being indisputably linked with a particular name, image, or slogan can be a double-edged sword.
MCI Communications was one of the most successful challengers to the AT&T 'Bell Monopoly' consortium between the late 1960s and early 1980s. MCI managed to push through the breakup of the Bell coalition and allow new players to enter into the field of telecommunications. MCI pioneered many telecommunications innovations, such as Single Mode Fiber Optic Cable, when other companies were content to rely on existing standards. They were one of the first companies to provide the now standard idea of 'in-network' calling, where MCI customers got discounts when calling other MCI customers. MCI was one of the big, significant players in the telecom world, so why isn't their name still synonymous with innovation?
Because it is now synonymous with the words Worldcom, Enron, and scandal.
In 1998, MCI merged with another company to become MCI Worldcom, launching a widespread televised and online advertising campaign featuring notable actors such as Sam Neil of Jurassic Park fame. The MCI brand became inextricably linked with the Worldcom brand. Then, on June 26 2002, the Securities Exchange Commission launched a full inquiry into reported auditing and financial irregularities, resulting in allegations of fraud. By July 21st, less than one month later, it was revealed that Worldcom stock was inflated by $11 billion, and the company entered into chapter 11 bankruptcy. MCI was ultimately bought out by Verizon, and the legacy of a once innovative telecom company was left in the same repository as Arthur Anderson, Enron, and the other big financial fraud stories of the early 21st century.
While this is an extreme example, it is a caution worth considering for anyone interested in making a brand name for his or her product in today's market. The world is more connected, more informed, and more critical than ever, and while a legacy of good choices can create a strong brand, a reputation for poor or improper decisions can and will conspire to bury a once successful company forever.
Many times, no one can predict what will make a brand into a particular success or failure overnight. However, every company can take three common sense steps to protect their brand and the products it represents.
1. Promote a Quality Product
Quality talks - if a product works, then it has a certain degree of merit that puts it ahead of competition. If a company puts the time and effort to get a quality product onto the market and markets the brand in such a way that the actual qualities are stressed, people will remember.
As an example, Tylenol is an effective painkiller for post-surgical use. It is not a homeopathic remedy relying on word of mouth and supposed benefits, but has demonstrable, measurable effects on human pain and healing.
2. Be Informed About the Brand's Use
Knowing not just what one is putting out, but what is being done with it in the market, is crucial to proper branding. To continue with the example of Tylenol, many advertisements stress that doctors frequently prescribe it, more than any other over the counter analgesic. Knowing that doctors were using their product allowed Tylenol to make a powerful claim and keep the information in people's minds.
3. Be Prepared to Take Responsibility for the Brand
As seen in the MCI case, scandal led to the irrevocable decline of a once-powerful brand. Conversely, Tylenol managed to take what could have been a public relations nightmare and came out stronger than ever as a result. When Tylenol executives found out that tampering had led to poison getting into the product supply, poisons that killed Tylenol consumers, they pulled every current Tylenol product from the shelves of stores. They investigated each of their production facilities, solved the problem, and then launched an informative campaign letting people know when and why it was safe to come back to their product. This disaster could have led to the death of the company, but the executives' willingness to take responsibility and act, rather than covering up and denying fault, saved-a brand that is still powerful to this day.
Again, these are examples of extreme events. Only a tiny fraction of companies ever take their investments down the path of fraud, and almost no one will have to deal with their product becoming a poisonous vector. However, they illustrate the case that a brand is a powerful association for people to make, and that like any part of a business, it requires information and action in the proper degrees.
What Does This Mean to Me and My Website
Normal advertising just informs the consumer about a product and a company's brand identity. With digital advertising, the consumer can be more involved in the brand image. In this interactive domain, a company can listen to consumers who make comments on their website or blog and act on negative feedback before it becomes uncontrollable. They can try out different advertising strategies to learn which products they should continue to develop and which new features a product should have.
Effective digital branding allows you to identify a singular position and establish your distinctive voice in the marketplace and incorporates all three of the above-mentioned branding points. You'll be promoting a quality product. You'll use social media strategies to keep informed about your brand's image and you'll take responsibility for your brand, to guide and shape it to its best advantage.
Branding takes time and thought. Digital branding takes time, thought and an interchange with your consumers. Engaging your customers in your brand in a relevant way is the key to successful online branding
By Enzo F. Cesario
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