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Archive for July, 2010
Web Design FAQ – 10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Designing a Website
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Friday, July 30, 2010
Web Design FAQ – 10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Designing a Website
Many site owners make the mistake of building a website
without laying out a clear plan for their online business.
This is a sure set-up for failure. There are 1000s of
abandoned sites on the web due to lack of careful planning.
Before designing your website you should ask yourself some
questions to avoid making mistakes down the road.
10 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Designing a
Website
1. What Are Your Business Goals?
It’s easy to say, “I want to make money,” however, this is
not a great motivator. Think of a deeper motivation that you
feel passionate about e.g. “I want to have the financial
freedom to spend more time with my kids as they are growing
up.”
2. What’s the Purpose of Your Website?
This is the question most visitors will ask when accessing
your website. Your home page must clearly explain the
purpose and benefits of the products and/or services you are
offering.
3. What Type of Products or Services Will You Sell?
Research the marketability of your products or services by
doing keyword research. Use the free Google Keyword Tool to
find out how many searches your main keywords receive every
month. If there are no searches, it means there is not much
demand and therefore not worth marketing.
If it is a very competitive market (millions of searches per
month), it may be difficult to stand out from your
competitors and create a profitable online business.
4. How Many Products Will You Sell From Your Website?
This will determine how many pages your website will have.
If you’re only selling one product or service, you may only
need 4 web pages e.g. Home, Product (or Services), About,
Contact. If you’re selling 100s of items, you will need a
database driven site to store and manage all of them.
5. How Many Variables Does Your Product Have?
Variables may include size, color, type, sku#, shipping,
tax? Make sure your shopping cart allows you to include
these variables.
6. How Will You Accept Online Payments?
To accept credit card payments online, you will need a
shopping cart, merchant account, payment gateway and SSL
certificate for secure transactions. This means you will
have monthly fees and processing fees every time a customer
purchases something from your website.
A less expensive option for accepting payments online is the
Paypal shopping cart. You don’t need to purchase a separate
merchant account, shopping cart, payment gateway and secure
certificate. For a small processing fee it takes care of all
this in one place.
7. Do You Have a Web Hosting Plan?
Your website needs to be hosted on a server for it to be
available online. Select a hosting plan that has sufficient
space for all your files and bandwidth to receive 1000s of
visitors each month. Make sure you have the flexibility to
upgrade your plan should you need more space and bandwidth.
8. Will You Need to Maintain the Website Yourself?
Asking this question before the design will determine what
software your designer will use to build your website. If it
only consists of a few web pages which don’t need regular
updating, then use software such as Dreamweaver to build it.
It creates clean code and you will have only a few files.
If your website has 100s of pages, consider a content
management system such as WordPress, Joomla or Zen Cart.
They all enable 100s of items to be stored in a database.
The website can be managed (add, edit, or delete items or
pages) by logging into an administration area.
9. Do You Have a Marketing Plan?
To create a profitable online business you must create a
plan to promote it. Some methods may include, search engine
marketing, pay-per-click, article marketing, press releases,
social media, video marketing, etc. Website promotion needs
to be done frequently and consistently to be effective.
10. How Will You Monitor Your Website Statistics?
Check if your web hosting plan includes site statistics
(e.g. AW Stats). If not, create a Google Analytics account
and insert the code on your web pages. It will track how
many daily, weekly, monthly, yearly visitors you receive,
where they are coming from and what keywords are being used
to find your site in the search engines.
If you answer these 10 questions first, you’ll avoid the
pitfalls of designing and building a website and increase
your potential of creating a profitable online business.
Web Advertising’s Future Format: Branded Entertainment
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Web Advertising’s Future Format: Branded Entertainment
How do you deliver a marketing message to a Web-audience that
hates advertising? A few years back I proposed a solution based
on short-form television-style programs: the “120 Second
Solution,” two minute brand-story commercials formatted in a
mini three act Web-video presentation. Today this concept is
called Branded Entertainment: a two to seven minute commercial
that combines content, advertising, and entertainment in a brand
story format designed to attract and hold an audience’s
attention while delivering a memorable core marketing message.
The concept has been a hard sell as it flies in the face of a
lot of conventional wisdom about advertising formats, attention
spans, and content credibility. Like most good ideas it seems
that branded entertainment’s time has finally come. Various
marketing blogs are all a twitter about Orbit Gum’s new
campaign called “Dirty Shorts” featuring its first branded
entertainment effort, a 5:17 minute branded video from Jason
Bateman and Will Arnett. It seems these well-known actors have
enough faith in this advertising format that they’ve formed
DumbDumb, a branded video production company. Their first
effort, “The Prom Date,” was viewed 110,000 times in just
three days.
(http://videos.sitepronews.com/video/2278/The-Prom-Date)
Commitment To A Core Message
Of course not everyone has the deep pockets required to hire
Jason Bateman, but with proper planning and implementation a
branded entertainment video campaign is within reach of most
successful small and medium sized companies.
The single biggest obstacle in implementing this kind of
campaign is not the cost, but rather, the commitment to a style
and format most business owners find hard to swallow: the need
to focus on a single core reason why customers should buy your
product or service and to deliver that message in some bold or
offbeat manner.
All too often entrepreneurs think of advertising in conventional
terms like display, banner, and classified (e.g. Adwords). Even
Web video has been pushed, prodded and crammed into pre-roll and
post-roll television style spots. The Web isn’t television; it
requires a whole new way of thinking when it comes to marketing
presentations.
The Web is by nature an unconventional arena that demands bold
content. You can say and do a lot of things on the Web, but the
one thing that won’t be tolerated is boring your audience. Add
to that the fact that we live in a product placement world where
the line between advertising and content has been permanently
erased and you have an advertising environment that demands
something different.
You must stop thinking of your website as a digital brochure and
start thinking of it as a total immersive multimedia advertising
environment that connects to a target audience using standout,
break-through communication techniques. The goal is quality
engagements not shotgun traffic.
The Goal Is Quality Engagement NOT Traffic
For the average Web business it is important to remember that
huge viral numbers don’t come from clever campaigns alone, but
rather, are the result of great campaigns plus advertising
support, extensive PR, and paid-blog placement. That is not to
say that small and medium-sized companies shouldn’t pursue this
approach but rather, the goal of these campaigns should be
quality engagement not quantity traffic – a far more affordable
and productive objective.
How To Deliver Break-Through Advertising
There are various ways to achieve what ad agencies call
break-through advertising, but in every case those methods call
for content that stands out from the crowd, be it humorous,
offbeat, alarming or just plain entertaining, if it doesn’t
standout it won’t make a connection, and your website
presentation will be instantly forgotten.
The best and most complete example of branded entertainment that
I have seen was the brilliant Shredded Wheat “The Palace of
Light” campaign. It was very funny while delivering a powerful
marketing message. Unfortunately the campaign is no longer
running, but if you can find some of the videos on the Web, they
are definitely worth seeing. They are great examples of how to
turn advertising into content, and content into a memorable
experience.
In a speech about break-through advertising, Chuck Porter,
co-founder of Crispin Porter + Bogusky states the average person
sees conservatively 1600 to 3000 marketing messages a day.
That’s a lot of advertising. If your marketing communication
doesn’t standout in some way, you are probably wasting your
advertising budget.
Two Kinds of Advertising
In response to a question asking whether advertising was
technology and data driven, or creatively driven, Porter
explained that there are basically two types of advertising.
The tech-data driven ad is all about finding that person who
needs what you sell at a time when he or she wants to buy it and
then delivering the message to them. This is the reason why so
much of what you see, hear, and read in marketing journals and
blogs is filled with statistics and analysis of who is doing
what and where. All of which is perfectly fine if the only
customer you want is the one that needs what you sell instantly
or who is motivated by impulse.
This kind of advertising is all about immediacy; the customer
needs or impulsively wants what you offer right now. The key is
instant access. If customers don’t have instant access, chances
are the impulse to purchase will fade, or the prospect will find
it more convenient to get the product elsewhere. In this type of
advertising, timing and immediacy is paramount. The downside is
no long-term relationship is established.
Digital products that can be downloaded instantly seem to be
most appropriate for this approach, however that must be
qualified by the level of cost and sophistication associated
with the product or service: the higher the cost and the more
complex or advanced the offering, the less impulsive the
decision, and the more a client must be wooed. Advertising
theory commonly suggests it takes seven engagements in order to
win over a client.
The other kind of advertising is creative-based; it’s
advertising built around brand awareness and identity. This is
the kind of advertising that creates customers, and establishes
long-term loyalty. This is the kind of advertising that can
benefit from implementing a branded entertainment campaign.
Why Branded Entertainment Works
If branded entertainment is done right, it engages an audience,
it informs and enlightens, it entertains and amuses, it’s
meaningful and memorable and potentially viral. Branded
entertainment is more than advertising, it’s marketing, and it
is designed to influence attitudes, change perceptions, and
prompt action.
SEO Tips to Double Rankings, Traffic and Conversion
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
SEO Tips to Double Rankings, Traffic and Conversion
The only thing better than one search result in the top 3
positions in Google is two search results from a double ranking.
This SEO tip works by pushing a competitor off the first page,
broadening your websites keyword funnel and thereby doubling
traffic and conversions.
Two Results are Better than One
I read somewhere that 87% of search engine traffic for a given
keyword is allocated from occupying the Number 1 position in the
search engine results page. If you understand SEO, then this
post will share a quick method to double your SERP positions and
to improve the likelihood of keyword conversions – once you have
reached the Mecca for a specific search term.
SEO is predicated on one simple premise, rankings; in order for
SEO to be effective, it must produce ranking on the first page
in search engines.
Not only is this the crowning achievement of search engine
optimization, but once you achieve a top 10 position, then you
can pull other keywords into the spotlight as a result of
strategic linking. We often refer to this as the buddy system
for lateral linking.
Search engine algorithms pay particular attention to individual
pages capable of offsetting all of the other inconsistencies of
a competitor’s web pages and deem one page worthy above all
others for any given search term.
Obviously the metrics are unique for each market, keyword or
niche, but the reality is the same, once a top 3 or more
importantly Number 1 or Number 1, 2 and 3 positions are present
in Google. I have mentioned before, the fastest way to get a top
10 position in Google is to get a link from a website already
ranking in the top 10 for that keyword.
It does not matter if that link is provided from your own
website or another website, rankings are by the page and there
is a daisy-chain effect of linking pages together that fuses the
pages through a dynamic give and take relationship (based on
citation). This citation can provide the algorithmic equivalents
of trust needed for the newly linked page to jump in line past
others duking it out for that keyword.
Depending on the competitiveness of the keyword or key phrase
and the thresholds inherent to the barrier to entry; the time
required to initiate a campaign, create all of the necessary
content, inbound links and citation from other web 2.0
properties, RSS feeds and social bookmarking sites divided by
the amount of time you invest managing or outsourcing the
various components involved determine your profitability and
return on investment.
With this in mind, from a tactical perspective, it’s better to
leverage the SERP positioning you already have than to look
outside of your own website for off page ranking factors. If
you understand the power of a Number 1 position, then you can
replicate this next simple SEO tip.
Identify all current Number 1 positions in Google for keywords.
Validate they still exist.
Use Keyword Research to find “related keywords” based on the
Number 1 ranking Link from the page that ranks to a new page
(using similar anchor text or overlapping keywords to promote
the new page).
Let the new page get indexed, then check the SERPs.
Identify: My favorite tool for this is SEMRush, but if you
don’t want to use this, there are other programs out there, or
even Google webmaster tools can show you your website’s top
ranking SERP positions when you log in.
Either way, this is your base, so, identify the keywords which
could represent hub status for your SEO campaign and pass along
the power of ranking to other pages in your website.
Validate: Check to see if you still hold the Number 1 position,
even a top 3 will do, but this tactic works better if you are at
the helm of a particular search phrase.
Keyword Research: You should be able to gauge whether or not the
keyword is profitable for you based on the frequency of hits and
the type of traffic you garner as a result. You can always look
through Google Analytics or whichever analytics package you have
to assess the keywords that represent the highest percentage of
traffic to your website.
Once you know what those keywords are, then use keyword research
to find stemmed semantic variations that also fall under the
same category or keyword cluster. Those related keywords will
become the new focal point for step 4 – linking.
Linking: The closer the shingles (groups of keywords) the more
effective this technique is. You can call this padding the
search results (if you use similar exact match titles, tags or
content), or you can pass this ranking factor along to help
synonymous terms.
Simply go back and edit the page ranking in the Number 1
position and add a link to the new target page (with the
keyword you intend the target page to rank for as the anchor
text). Then, the authority from the page in the Number 1
position will group the new page under its umbrella and pull
that page into the spotlight.
When the new page gets crawled and the old page reveals the
connectivity between the two, typically a double SERP position
occurs or a double position accompanied by jump links,
breadcrumbs or the [+] with additional search results for that
keyword appear in Google to showcase the degree of relevance
your website has for the said term.
You can then build additional deep links from other sites or
addition internal links to the newly dubbed page. As a result,
you should see buoyancy for other pages for multiple keyword
variations related to the parent keyword cluster.
With this simple tip you can double your conversions by
increasing your website’s semantic array of keywords. Obviously
you will know which keywords and traffic is most lucrative for
your business model, but this technique is priceless for
creating controlled keyword stemming if you understand the
implications underlying its premise.
Top 10 Google Search Features for Your Business
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 2:26 PM
Monday, July 26, 2010
Top 10 Google Search Features for Your Business
The people at Google are truly amazing! They are evolving
their search engine into something that can be an incredibly
powerful tool for business. There are a zillion things that
Google can do for different parts of your business and in
this post, I will highlight the top 10 Google search tools
that will help your supply chain.
Since Google is just a click away, I think it’s a very
useful for everyone involved in the supply chain to be aware
of how much easier it can make their lives. Everybody from
traffic managers, to purchasing people, to accounting people
and customer service will likely need to reference what
Google can do during the course of the week. There are a
lot of people who don’t even know all of Google’s
capabilities. So without further ado, here is your:
Top 10 Google Search Tools That Will Help Your Supply Chain
1. Package Tracking – You can track packages by typing the
tracking number for your UPS, Fedex or USPS package directly
into the search box. Some of the LTL and motor carriers also
allow for you to plug in their pro numbers as well. Google
will return results that include quick links to easily track
the status of your shipment.
Example of what to search for: “1Z9999W9999999999″
2. Time – This is huge when dealing with vendors or
customers overseas or across the country. To see the time
in many cities around the world, type in “time” and the name
of the city.
Example of what to search for: “time London”
3. Currency Conversion – This is cool! To use Google’s
built-in currency converter, simply enter the conversion
you’d like done into the Google search box and they’ll
provide your answer directly on the results page.
Example of what to search for: “150 GBP in USD”
4. Unit Conversion – Countries use different metrics for
measuring. This tool is extremely useful. You can use
Google to convert between many different units of
measurement of height, weight, and volume among many others.
Just enter your desired conversion into the search box and
Google will do the rest.
Example of what to search for: “10.5 cm in inches”
5. Calculator – Since Google is right on your desk top you
don’t have to go searching for your calculator. Plus it
uses Excel style equations so it’s really easy for business
people who think in Excel. To use Google’s built-in
calculator function; simply enter the calculation you’d
like done into the search box.
Example of what to search for: “5*9+(sqrt 10)3=”
6. Weather – Weather plays a big role in transportation so
this is great for getting a snapshot of the world’s weather.
To see the weather for many U.S. and worldwide cities, type
“weather” followed by the city and state, U.S. zip code, or
city and country.
Example of what to search for: “weather San Francisco, CA”
7. Maps – Want to see the mileage between a shipper and a
consignee or try to figure out where your vendor is located?
This is great! Type in the name or U.S. zip code of a
location and the word “map” and Google will return a map of
that location. Clicking on the map will take you to a larger
version on Google Maps.
Example of what to search for: “Seattle map”
8. Area Code – This can be helpful in situations ranging
from trying to find where a phone call is coming from to
finding out what part of the country you are calling. To
see the geographical location for any U.S. telephone area
code, just type the three-digit area code into the Google
search box and hit the Enter key or click the Google Search
button.
Example of what to search for: “212″
9. Stock Quotes – Wanna see how a freight carrier or a
vendor is doing in the market? Just type the ticker symbol
into the search box. On the results page, you can click the
link to see more data from Google Finance as well.
Example of what to search for: “MSFT”
10. Earthquakes – I have heard carriers make up some crack
pot reasons why they missed the delivery. In case you are
given the old earthquake excuse, you can use Google to see
if the story checks out. To see information about recent
earthquakes in a specific area type “earthquake” followed by
the city and state or U.S. zip code.
Example of what to search for: “earthquake 90210″
*When entering keyword or phrase into Google’s search engine
with these tools, do not use quotation marks.
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