Posts filed under 'Internet Marketing'
While reading Naked Conversations, I’m posting ideas in response.
It’s odd, I suppose, to view reading a book as a two-way conversation but since the book is about blogging it seems justified.
I have been blogging semi-regularly now for more than a year and haven’t always taken the two-way reality of blogging very seriously. I assume I am in good company. What exactly is blogging anyway?
To the uninitiated, a blog is a database application that lets people write diary-like entries. However, there is much more to the democratic spirit of blogging. A blog facilitates a two-way dialog.
I’m beginning to embrace this aspect of blogging as a good thing. I like to keep things tidy; two-way dialog is anything but neat and predicatble. However, it is a way of learning from peers, customers, and detractors.
This blog is now committed to dialog. Thanks Scoble and Israel. You may make a blogger out of this online diary writer yet!
February 5th, 2006
The days of bully pulpit marketing seem to be waning. What these men are proposing is that unless an idea or product has value that excites people and drives them to share it with friends, it is likely to be ignored.
Continue Reading February 4th, 2006
Because I make my living by helping small entrepreneurs with their online marketing efforts, I am predisposed to resonate with the comments of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos as reported in Grand Forks Herald. In his comments at Marketplace for Entrepreneurs in Fargo, ND he said, “You can physically be anywhere as you do it, and you can affect the entire world with what you build.”
Of course, I doubt Bezos said that online marketing was free of risk or of trial and error. What he did say is that a small entrepreneur can have global impact from any location. I like that!
A local organization that is working to connect local businesses to the global marketplace is the Northern Adirodack Trading Cooperative. Though I may be biased by the fact that I have done some work for them, I believe their goals are worthy of support. Let’s support local businesses in their online ventures and see what world changing impact they can have.
Regional businesses that have made inroads online are:
There are too many to mention, some of them among my clients. Let’s support these innovators and see what positive changes they bring to the north country economy.
A Related Article, Can Tech Save Smalltown America? is available on Slashdot.
January 21st, 2006
I learned CSS initially because I was frustrated by the repetitive tasks that the old Web design techniques imposed on me. Removing and changing font tags was not a favorite passtime. As CSS evolved and my ability as a designer improved, I saw other benefits of CSS design. These included simpler code, increased search engine visibility, faster page loads, and even greater accessibility.
Of course, my first attempts at CSS design weren’t always coded with simplicity. I added tags where some simple CSS code would have sufficed. I credit some examples of low clutter templates for WordPress with teaching me excellent semantic coding in XHTML. Though the templates weren’t eye candy, they did get the job done with a minimum of clutter.
My devotion to CSS increased when learned that uncluttered code increased search engine results, provided the content that is on those cruft free pages is actually relevant to people browsing the Web.
Since speed is so important to many people who browse the Web on their dial-up connections, I saw the bandwidth savings of external linked CSS as a great asset. Of course, there is a bit of a frontloading effect. Let me explain. Though CSS in external files is cached in the browser’s memory from page to page, it must be loaded completely on the first page view. Since CSS files do not have to be large to be effective, this is usually not much of a drawback.
Though I do not claim to be a Web accessibility guru, I do see significant advantages to uncluttered HTML code for those on assistive devices such as screen readers. Even for those on small screens, clean code can make a standard page render more usefully.
January 18th, 2006
While I am willing to redesign a Web site any time a client finds it convenient to do so, some planning may help you choose the best time for your project. I’ll keep this short and easy to understand.
Some consequences of redesigning your Web site no matter how well your designer plans and executes the project are:
- Re-orientation of existing customers who have grown accustomed to the status quo.
- Probable search engine results dip for from one week to 3 months, especially on Google’s pages as your new pages are indexed.
- There will be a period of several weeks of bug-testing and tweaking of your Web site post-launch.
Because of these factors, I suggest redesigning your Web site three months before you need the improvements the redesign affords. I often work on much shorter notice, but your stress level and the pressure you experience will be much less with some advance planning. It is always best to redesign a Web site during the off season.
December 15th, 2005
What does this post have to do with online marketing? Any online marketing resulting in a sale requires a payment processing company. Some choose Authorize.net, their local bank, or a third party processor like 2checkout.com or PayPal. Any online payment processing system will expose you to fraud risk because they require you to enter personal financial information online. I hope this post will help you identify scams and become a wiser consumer of online payment processing services.
Recently, several people have sought my advice regarding emails that came to their inbox soliciting information regarding personal finances such as credit cards and bank accounts. The company the email represented was highly trusted and so some responded more openly than perhaps they should have. These unfortunate ones are victims of a clever identity theft technique that has been dubbed “phishing.”
Though the most commonly misrepresented companies are PayPal and eBay, email phishing scams are also attempted for any market that a criminal decides to target.
The scam is, in general, quite simple.
- Gain access to customer correspondence from the target company such as eBay or Paypal.
- Steal the graphics and re-use them in your own email.
- Most importantly, mask web addresses with fake URLs. Here is a simple example that uses PayPal’s address but points to my company’s Web site: http://www.paypal.com
- A variation on the masked URL is the solicitation of financial and personal info in a form contained within the email message body.
Some things to look for then are masked URLs, forms embedded in email body text, and any email requesting financial information the company you are dealing with should not need or already has obtained from you via their secure Web site.
I’ve covered some of the absolute basics here. These guidelines should help you begin to assess risks from email, but more resources are needed.
PayPal has posted an excellent page that offers a great deal more information and very useful visual aids at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/general/SecuritySpoof-outside
December 12th, 2005
Since a big part of marketing online depends on understanding what your customer is doing on your Web site, I am pleased to see that Google has decided to offer the Urchin Analytics hosted service free of charge.
In what seems to be a bid to further control online advertising revenues, Google has tightly integrated the new Google Analytics with its pay-per-click arms, Adwords & Adsense.
Now the reality check. I went to the Google Analytics Web site to sign up and begin registering my clients for more advanced reporting tools (Who wouldn’t want that?). What I found instead of a registration area was a form soliciting my name and email address.
I am now officially on a waiting list for free analytics.
But how long is this free analytics waiting list? Analytics and Adwords are tightly integrated. I am guessing that the companies with the most revenue generation in the Adwords/Adsense program are being offered analytics first.
In the final analysis, this means that the rest of us may have to wait a long time.
December 5th, 2005
Web 2.0 is the greatest thing since Flash made interactive application development possible without waiting for server-side interaction. Or so most of its proponents would have us to believe. I agree that it is an amazing and potentially Web changing development.
But exactly what is Web 2.0? I can’t say “exactly” because it involves many different components. What I can say is that it involves AJAX and other technologies that allow your Web browser to access data that it will need to process your requests before you need it. This way of working with the Web simulates the feel of a desktop application, not a Web site.
Google has been on the cutting edge in this area and there are many others. One of particular interest to me is TransMedia Corporation. As noted in an article in the November 14, 2005 issue of Information Week, this startup is on the bleeding edge of desktop application development. Their suite of basic office productivity tools is available free of charge, and their advanced features can be accessed by subscription. The only real catch is … Glide Effortless hasn’t been released yet!
Look out Microsoft! Someone’s knocking on your door. Whether they can deliver has yet to be determined.
This example illustrates Web 2.0 and the future also of Microsoft office productivity tools. Expect to see them on the Web in the next few years unless there is a dramatic shift in the momentum towards online desktop software applications.
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November 29th, 2005
Though there are businesses out there with enough capital to compete with the eCommerce giants like the Amazon and Overstock one stop shops, it is an inherently risky business venture. The investment and potential for error is steep. The logistics of successful operation are complex. So where does that leave the rest of us?
Alternatives to the Big Box Approach
Fortunately there is a viable alternative to the “we have everything you ever wanted” approach. In fact, it has enough appeal to give the majors a run for their money. The days of the quirky Mom and Pop one stop shop may be gone for good, but something similar has been thriving on the internet for years. What is this hardy business model? You guessed it - niche marketing.
Just like Mom and Pop, these marketers have their finger on the pulse of a demographic group and have done the research to anticipate the needs of pet owners, coffee lovers, candy connoisseurs, and gift givers.
Similar to the Mom & Pop Approach
The Mom and Pop business model segmented its market geographically, offering everything they could for sale; the niche eCommerce entrepreneur segments her market by taste, lifestyle, and personal values while providing a limited product selection. The niche eCommerce marketer retains the quirky identification with this niche much as Mom and Pop identified with the tastes of a local community.
Identifying a Market Niche
If you have ever looked for a product online or in your home town unsuccessfully, you have identified a niche that you may be able to serve via the internet. In fact, the benefit for you as an entrepreneur is that you will be providing a service you care about.
It is also easier to identify keywords and phrases and to target these through Web copy when your product offering is focused on an underserved niche. Trying to sell Web Hosting online is next to impossible via a search engine, but selling a niche product is more achievable because there are fewer competitors.
Next time you are frustrated trying to find a product in the supermarket, perhaps you will see a business opportunity instead of a roadblock. But hurry because good niches are disappearing daily!
October 26th, 2005
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