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YouTube Marketing Tips

Doug Williams @ 5:19 am

This blog entry was posted on July 30, 2009.

YouTube is a worldwide phenomenon and according to Alexa, it is the third most visited website in the world after Google and Yahoo. Businesses are promoting themselves using informative, human interest or humorous videos to attract a viewership. Still others will embed videos in their blog to add visual impact to their posting.

When you post a video onto YouTube you want to post something that people  find interesting or useful and will therefore watch. You do not want to post blatant infomercials about your business. How to videos are especially effective with a subtle watermark of your website URL where people can explore your offerings if they are interested.

Tips for planning your video

  1. Concept: Develop the core concept of what message you want to present. What will your video teach? Develop an outline.
  2. Keyword research: YouTube marketing revolves around attracting as many visitors as possible. YouTube itself has its own built-in search feature. Find out which phrases have the most searches related to your concept. Use free research tools such as Wordtracker or the Google Adwords tool.
  3. Competition: Check out your competition for the keywords you selected. Look at the top videos. How did they tell their story in a compelling way?
  4. Plan / Production: Plan your script and shoot in pre-production. Consider casting, special effects and shooting locations. A good plan will make shooting go smoothly and editing go smoothly.
  5. Optimize: Use your keywords in your video title, tags and description. The description should be benefits driven answering the consumer question of “What’s in it for me?”

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,Social Media Marketing



10 Guerilla Marketing Tips That Promote Your Website Offline

Doug Williams @ 5:26 am

This blog entry was posted on July 28, 2009.

Few people realize that promoting your website offline can generate significant traffic to your website. The key is to be creative and you won’t have to spend much to get great results. The more exposure your URL receives the more traffic you will send to your website. Try these low cost ideas for your business.

  1. Voicemail message: As long as someone is going to your voicemail, why not give them a humorous and memorable advertisement for your business. While you are at it, direct them to your website.
  2. Email signature: Add a link to your website and advertise with every email you send.
  3. Business cards: If you have business cards make sure you include your web address on them.
  4. Marketing materials: Direct people to your website for additional information. Add your URL prominently on brochures, flyers, door hangers, postcards and newsletters.
  5. Promotional items: People love to receive gifts. Use inexpensive promotional products such as pens, calendars, mouse pads, coffee cups, etc. Always include your website URL on each.
  6. Press Releases: Spread your company announcements and news using services such as prweb.com or prnewswire.com. There are free press release services available too. Include your website URL in the release.
  7. Vehicle Ads: Create a decal or painted graphic for your car that will promote your business while you drive or even when you are parked. Your website should show prominently.
  8. Yard signs: Place a sign in your yard or anywhere else in your area that your community will allow. You can promote your website to passersby with little effort.
  9. Money saving coupons: Create $10 off discount coupons and distribute them to community bulletin boards or as door to door flyers.
  10. Radio interview: Find a compelling reason for your local radio to show an interest in you. Pitch your idea to your local station and you can reach a wide audience. Many times your website will be announced in your introduction.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,SEO Strategies



Top 15 most Popular Websites in the World

Doug Williams @ 4:58 am

This blog entry was posted on July 26, 2009.

It is always interesting to see which website are the most popular on a global basis. This is according to Alexa Information taken from their top 500 sites list on July 26, 2009. Websites are listed in descending popularity.  China has two entries, Germany, India and Japan each have one in the top 15.

  1. Google: google.com Enables users to search the Web, Usenet, and images. Top keyword phrase driving traffic is “gmail”.
  2. Yahoo!: yahoo.com Personalized content and search options, chatrooms and free e-mail. Top keyword phrase is “yahoo”.
  3. YouTube: youtube.com YouTube where you can upload, tag and share your videos worldwide! Top keyword phrase is “youtube”.
  4. Facebook: facebook.com. A social utility that connects people, to keep up with friends, upload photos, share links and videos. Top keyword phrase is “facebook”.
  5. Windows Live: live.com Search engine from Microsoft. Top keyword phrase is “windows live”.
  6. Microsoft Network (MSN) : msn.com Dialup access and content provider. Top keyword phrase is “hotmail”.
  7. Wikipedia: wikipedia.org An online collaborative encyclopedia. Top keyword phrase is “wikipedia”.
  8. Blogger.com: blogger.com Free, automated weblog publishing tool. Top keyword phrase is “blogger”.
  9. Baidu.com: baidu.com The leading Chinese language search engine. Top keyword phrase is “baidu ” (in English characters).
  10. Yahoo!カテゴリ: yahoo.co.jp Yahoo Japan Top keyword phrase is “yahoo” (in English characters).
  11. Myspace: myspace.com Social Networking Site. Top keyword phrase is “myspace”.
  12. Google India: google.co.in Indian version of this popular search engine. Top keyword phrase is “google”.
  13. Google Germany: google.de This is the German web search engine owned by Google. Top keyword phrase is “maps”.
  14. QQ.COM: qq.com. The most popular free instant messaging computer program in Mainland China. Top keyword phrase is “qq”.
  15. Twitter: twitter.com Social networking and microblogging service. Top keyword phrase is “twitter”.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



Multiple Website Marketing (MWM)

Doug Williams @ 5:21 am

This blog entry was posted on July 24, 2009.

Should you launch multiple websites for your business or focus on a single comprehensive site? Is it worth the cost to create and manage a network of domains, hosting accounts and websites? Multiple websites are more costly to optimize and build up link popularity.

Product focused website: If you sell a wide spectrum of products, then creating highly focused websites minisites or microsites for that product would make sense. Your primary website would include your full product offering. Creating highly focused product sites with in depth product information, advantages, benefits, how to use tips and product comparisons would be helpful for your customers. Very focused websites are much easier to get top rankings for with the search engines.

Segment focused website: If you market to multiple market segments or customer types  such as businesses vs. consumers. You may want to create websites that focus on the needs of that market segment. Segments could be geographic, types of customers, industries or different demographics. You can increase your credibility and conversion rates by focusing on the specific needs and requirements of each market segment separately.

Reputation management: Use MWM as a reputation repair strategy to dominate the SERPs for your brand name, company name or name of a company official. Each site should have unique content that is focused on the one or two keyword phrases you want to protect.

Duplicate Content: Avoid using duplicate content on each website. If you are going to invest in multiple websites, then it is important to write unique and original content for each website that presents a compelling marketing message specific to the goals of that website.

Link Popularity: The biggest downside to multiple websites is the increased time and cost to build up the link popularity of multiple websites. It is not just enough to create links between the sites.

Multiple focused websites make search engine optimization easier, increases conversion rates, but is much more costly to deploy. You need to weigh the cost vs. benefits of having multiple websites to market your business.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



Tips on Launching Your Own Ezine

Doug Williams @ 4:13 am

This blog entry was posted on July 22, 2009.

Using an effective online magazine, email newsletters or ezines can be a powerful marketing tool to stay in touch with customers and website visitors. Before you begin publishing your own email publication, start by planning what you want to accomplish.

  1. Purpose: Start by planning your purpose for your ezine. This could be to develop your email list, regular customer communication or engaging potential customers. You could also sell advertising or use it to promote your own brand.
  2. Readers: Understand your readers, their demographics, what they are interested in reading, their interests. You will want to present information your readers will consider valuable.
  3. Content: What do you want to talk about? Develop a content plan to give a focus to your newsletter. This could include how-to tips, product reviews, latest industry news, resource links, question and answer, contests, top 10 lists, surveys, etc.
  4. Format: This is the measure of quality of your ezine. Is your writing style informal. engaging and in an active voice? Is your layout text only, in columns or have a standard “look”? Are you delivering consistently and using automatic management of your email list (add subscribers and opt-out)?
  5. Template: Your ezine can be plain text only to reach the widest possible audience or you can create your own distinctive brand with HTML newsletters. Or you can offer both by allowing your subscriber to choose their preference.

Usually it is best to use one of the standard platforms such as Constant Contact or AWeber. Using their system gives you templates, list management and other email marketing tools such as measuring open rates.
Find more good ideas for marketing at e-zinez.com

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



How to Design a Better Blog

Doug Williams @ 4:52 am

This blog entry was posted on July 20, 2009.

Blogs are simple websites where designs are more subtle with much of the focus going to the content. Blogs should be organized, graphically simple and designed for maximum usability. When a visitor arrives, they should instantly understand the topic and be able to quickly find their way around your site.

  1. Purpose: Make your purpose clear. Choose a blog title and perhaps a subtitle in your blog header that makes it clear who you are and what you are writing about.
  2. Audience: Consider your audience when designing your blog. A highly technical audience will be focused on the technical content and much less on design. Here a more plain and simple design would be best.
  3. Platform: Choose which blogging platform you want to use. Blogger and WordPress.com are free and easy to set-up. WordPress.org gives the best results if you host it on your website. WordPress.org can be highly customized.
  4. Layout: Place key information “above the fold” so it is immediately visible. This would include navigation, search functions, any calls to action, info about you and your latest blog posting.
  5. Simple is best: There are many possible options, widgets, categories and more. Add too many and you end up with clutter that detracts from your content which is the meat of your blog.
  6. Top header: Avoid large header graphics that would push your content down the page. Your top header should include the name of your blog and perhaps a photo of you.
  7. White background: Use white backgrounds behind your text for easy reading. White fonts on colored backgrounds may look trendy, but are very difficult to read.
  8. Search: Add a search box above the fold. People navigate around blogs in different ways. Some click on links, others browse categories and others will search using keywords.
  9. About the author: Include a brief page about who you are, your credentials and why you are writing the blog. . Your readers will want to know who you are to build creditability and trust.
  10. Author picture: Include your photo as part of your personal branding. Blogs are usually written by individuals and this helps build your blog as a recognizable and trusted source of information.
  11. Blog footers: When a visitor get’s to the bottom of a page, make it easy to navigate from the bottom of the page with navigation links. The about us and contact links are most often used.
  12. Categories: Have clear and understandable categories. Readers will search categories to find related blog postings. Adding a category cloud widget allows readers to pinpoint your main topics at a glance.
  13. Blogroll: Providing a blogroll of related industry links will encourage people to bookmark your site. The blogging community is great at reciprocating with links. Your blogroll and regular commenting on other blogs builds a relationship with the blogging community.
  14. Browser check: Check your blog in different browsers. Every browser displays your blog with differences. It is always a good idea to look at your blog in different browsers to make sure that it looks the way you want it to.
  15. Comments: Turn commenting on. It is OK to moderate to prevent Spam comments, but interaction with your readers is what makes a blog effective.

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Filed under: Blog Marketing



The Evolving Internet and the Speed of Change

Doug Williams @ 6:16 am

This blog entry was posted on July 18, 2009.

Dealing with change is one of those things that will either create fear or excitement in a person. It really depends on your outlook. We live in an age where technology affects every aspect of our lives. We live in the information age.

The information age started with computers becoming popular around 1980.

In late 1992 the Internet went public with just 50 websites. Today there are over 238 million known websites on the web. The Internet has become an important part of everyday life in just 17 years. We shop, research, communicate and socialize online.

A brand new culture has emerged through social media. Blogs, social networks, wikis, social bookmarking has created the social values of collaboration and participation, relationships and engagement. Technology combined with the human needs to interact has created today’s culture.

Consequences of online communication travel the world at the speed of light. Post the wrong photo or say the wrong thing and it is online for all to see forever. People who are fired for what they say in their blog have been “dooced.”

Unhappy with how you are treated by a company, your complaint or bad review will be easily found by other consumers. This has caused businesses to become very customer focused and resolve issues immediately or suffer a loss of reputation.

Internet usage is much higher in younger generations than the older baby boomers. As of 2008, 74.7% of the US population was online . While 95.7% of all college students will go online at least once a month. This has caused companies to shift and refocus their marketing to online methods to reach their customers.

How businesses advertise has quickly been moving from traditional media such as newspapers, printed magazines and broadcast TV to the new media. Yellow pages are moving from print to online versions. Newspapers have to redefine themselves more broadly as news and information providers or become as extinct as the buggy whip.
The normal human reaction to such rapid change is to be overwhelmed, stressed out, anxious and fearful. The best reaction is to embrace it and make it part of your life. This is the information age we live in.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,Social Media Marketing



Where to Get New Blogging Ideas

Doug Williams @ 3:11 am

This blog entry was posted on July 16, 2009.

One of the biggest challenges facing bloggers is to regularly come up with new ideas for interesting blog posts. Blogging ideas may come easily when you first start blogging, but where do the ideas come from month after month? Effective blog marketing requires innovative and engaging topics that create conversations.

Each blogger will create ways to trigger ideas for the next blog post. For me, blogging is part of my own self improvement program and I use blogging to keep current on trends and technologies. The writing is an outcome of regular reading and researching. I dedicate about one hour a day to the process, usually in the early morning when it is quiet.

Where do I go for my ideas?

  1. Questions from clients: As I work with my clients, I field many questions. Many times I will find myself saying, now that is a good question. This may become the topic for a new posting.
  2. Read news press releases from your industry. Some of my favorites for Internet trends are comScore, Pew Internet and Forrester Research.
  3. Regularly read other related blogs and the comments made. This will give me ideas of what I would like to write about.
  4. Digg: I have a keyword plan for my blog. I will go to Digg.com and search for my keyword phrases and see what comes up as popular pages. I will use one of these as a basis to create my own posting.
  5. Other social bookmarking: I will do the same type of search on StumbleUpon and Delicious to give me ideas.
  6. Search Technorati and Google blog search using the same keyword plan to see what comes up as interesting to me.
  7. Comments on my blog. My readers will make comments or ask questions that spark ideas. I also track the number of readers each blog posting receives.
  8. Track blog traffic stats. I will take the most popular topics that attract readers and create another posting around the same topic.

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Filed under: Blog Marketing



Legal Issues in Web Marketing

Doug Williams @ 4:42 am

This blog entry was posted on July 14, 2009.

The Internet may still feel something like the Wild West, but there are US laws enacted and interpreted that affect its use.  There can be legal issues associated with any form of marketing. Web marketing has copyright, trademark infringement, CAN-SPAM Act, cybersquatting, false advertising, defamation issues and more.

Copyright: when you create content for your website or post on your blog, you are creating a copyright protected work. Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States.  Don’t use photos, video or website content from others without permission. Even if you credit the original author, there would still be copyright infringement.

Images: It is NOT OK to modify a copyrighted image and then call it your own. Modifying a work, say by cropping, coloring, distorting, enlarging, etc. is not a way around Copyright laws. It is OK to use royalty free photos. You are then licensed to use these photos and images and do not need to pay a royalty each time a photo is viewed.

Cybersquatting or domain squatting refers to registering, using or selling (with the intent to profit) someone else’s trademark. Cybersquatting complaints are usually resolved by filing a dispute with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) or by filing a court dispute. Courts can overrule ICANN decisions.

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003: This is short for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003. CAN-SPAM laws are meant to control junk email with rules enforced with fines to violators. Each email should allow an unsubscribe or opt out method.  Subject lines should accurately reflect the message and not mislead.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



Website Security: Tips for Securing Your Website

Doug Williams @ 5:40 am

This blog entry was posted on July 12, 2009.

Securing your website means defending your web business against threats. Hackers concentrate their efforts on web-based applications such as shopping carts, forms, login pages, dynamic content, etc. Website security not only protects your data, your client’s information, but also your SEO rankings.

If your site is hacked, your website can be quickly dropped from the search engine results. Even a temporary loss of traffic can be painful. There is no way to know how long it can take to recover lost SEO rankings. Your website security policies should be considered as part of your website traffic strategies.

Tips for securing your website:

  1. Passwords: Use strong passwords with 8 or more characters and include a mix of capital letters, lower case, numeric and special characters. You can still make them memorable such as this secure version of the word password: Pa55W0rd!
  2. Upgrade: If you use third party web applications such as WordPress, pay attention to new releases. When they include patches for security vulnerabilities, upgrade as soon as possible. By the time a security problem is fixed, there are hackers already exploiting it.
  3. Vulnerability Scanning: There are services and tools available that will scan your website for known vulnerabilities and weaknesses. This feedback can give website owners and administrators the knowledge they need to tighten up web applications, firewalls and other areas.
  4. Backup: Keep backups of your website and databases. If your website is hacked, you will need a recent copy to restore your website from. Better website hosting services maintain daily, weekly and monthly copies of websites on file.

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Filed under: PHP Database Development,Web Usability



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