May 7th, 2010 § § permalink
Web Design is a practice which requires a collaborative effort and effective communication on many ends.
Tips for Web Design, #1: Effective Planning — Web design is a multi-faceted practice which involves multiple processes and tasks on a number of ends. The mapping out of the different elements of web design is crucial for any web design plan in order to keep not only the organization of the different tasks involved in web design well balanced, but will make any future changes to the site far less likely to run into complications.
Tips for Web Design, #2: Communication/Organization — Often times, certain tasks involved in the creation of a website can cause friction with one another—one example being the work of web development versus that of visual design. In designing the graphics of your website, it is necessary to maintain effective and consistent organization and communication as each task is carried out to ensure that no aspect of the design interferes with the core content, SEO, and overall functionality of your website.
Tips for Web Design, #3: User-Friendly Interface — As important as content is to any business website, no website can take full advantage of its content without an interface which is easily understandable and navigable to the site user.
Tips for Web Design, #4: Consistent Format — The design of each page throughout your website should follow a format that is consistent and straightforward. Maintaining a consistent format for page design helps visitors to your website to more easily find what they are looking for on the page even if they have never visited that page before.
Tips for Web Design, #5: Visibility — In addition to maintaining SEO friendly content to gain rankings on search engines, every page of your site must be kept well-organized—the most important content featured in plain view—must include descriptive text, and must maintain a well-refined appearance.
Technorati Tags: content, tips, web design
May 6th, 2010 § § permalink
Following some basic steps in the process of web design helps to maintain a solid consumer base that will continue to return to your site.
Basic Steps of Web Design, Step 1: Define Purpose — Before all else in the planning process, the purpose of your website must be clearly defined. Having a clear purpose in mind when building your site will have significant benefits in terms of organization down the road when it comes time to update or expand your site.
Basic Steps of Web Design, Step 2: Determine Audience — A greater awareness of who your targeted audience is will prove beneficial when it comes to designing a website that has a stronger appeal to that particular audience—and with which your audience can understand and identify—which in turn is instrumental in making a straightforward and trustworthy impression and solidification of your consumer base. A better understanding of the interests and search habits of your audience will also hold benefits when it comes to SEO.
Basic Steps of Web Design, Step 3: Ensure Compatibility — In order to keep your site working in smooth order for any potential business, it is essential to ensure that all coding, media and file formats are functional with any web browser a visitor is likely to use. Failure to ensure that all technical formatting is up to date and accurate can lead to a frustrating experience for visitors if the site is hampered with technical problems.
Technorati Tags: basic steps, business website, web design
May 5th, 2010 § § permalink
Effective web design can help a dealer of musical instruments appeal more strongly to those who may not be as familiar with differences in products as an experienced musician.
For a dealer of musical instruments, effective web design is essential not only for allowing company website users to easily access the page or listing related to a particular product they may be looking for, but can work to increase customer satisfaction after the fact and lead customers to keep coming back. The site must be kept thorough and up to date in cataloging and providing detail about every product which they sell, and must also be easily navigable for customers. The navigabiliy of the company website must be kept friendly to users who may not know in exactly what category to find a specific product, possibly because they are not entirely familiar with the significance of certain differences between and terms describing a particular instrument or accessory. In addition to helping guide the user to the product in which they are interested, the site must offer information about the products that can be understood by a novice that may help them determine the advantage or disadvantage of choosing one product versus another. When the customer is able to easily find a product and information they can understand about that product, the chance of the customer being highly satisfied with their end of the deal and continuing to do business with the dealer becomes greatly more favorable.
Technorati Tags: company website, music, web design
April 29th, 2010 § § permalink
Internet Marketing
Internet Marketing is a young field and will grow exponentially in the coming years. It has changed the way marketing is done with the advent of Internet Affiliate Marketing, Social Media, Viral Videos, and SEM/SEO. Marketing on the Internet allows for tracking of marketing campaigns and collects valuable client information for later use.
Affiliate Marketing
. Done with very little effort as websites become more sophisticated and search engines allow more options for precise searches.
. Comparison shopping allows exposure to a wide variety of customers while searching for similar products.
. Connect with similar websites in order to reach the target audience.
Social Media
. Capitalize on human nature through such sites as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter.
. Companies tap into a huge pool of clients by being referred through networks of friends and associates.
. The fan feature automatically sends posts.
. Forums allow the exchange ideas and opinions.
Viral Videos
. Viral sharing websites such as You Tube, Live Leak, Job Jab and Google Video provide limitless exposure, if the video is particularly good it will be forwarded.
. Provide comments area for open dialogue, use constructive criticism.
. Create interesting, entertaining and provocative video.
Web Design and Multimedia
. Easy navigation and great content writing will direct the user.
. Images draw attention and explain your product.
. Use short and concise relevant video to attract clients.
. Integrate the brand with interactive features allowing the visitor to be a part of the experience.
. Use descriptive text on the landing page to draw the visitor in.
. Be visible to search engines, use SEO techniques to score high rankings and use descriptive text on every page.
. Advertise on other sites with a video link to your site.
. Statistically people read 28 percent of the words on a web visit, captivate the reader.
Press Releases
. Communicate through blogs.
. Keep client base up to date with just one communiqué.
. Videos can be incorporated or links to other pertinent sites for information.
. Photographs will inform your audience about what you are writing about with a glance.
SEM/SEO
. Utilize programs to help in the selection of keywords or keyword phrases to get high page rankings.
. Well-written, engaging content is what drives people and search engine crawlers to a website.
. Connect with the audience to pull them in.
WordPress/Blogs
WordPress formats posts beautifully and is free and easy to use making it a great tool for blogging. It allows for simple incorporation of images, videos and links to other sites.
. Be brief and provide links, do not add too many keywords.
. Categorize and tag posts correctly.
. Insert relevant large images and videos to convey your message.
. Write about unique and interesting topics. Keep it fresh, current and compelling. Enjoy what you are writing about.
Technorati Tags: internet marketing, SEO, Social Media
April 28th, 2010 § § permalink
Cycle of Internet Marketing
I think the most important aspects of internet marketing are social media, visual media, and real-time traffic monitoring and analysis.
Social media is important because of how well it fits into the budget of any business: if you don’t want to go the free routes of commercial exposure yourself, hire someone to do it. The great thing about is that it doesn’t take much training, and it truly improves the company’s exposure.
These items aren’t ranked in accordance with importance; however, the second significant aspect of internet marketing – in my opinion – is visual media. Along the lines of bang for your buck – nothing beats a low budget video conveying your idea instead of an overpriced advertising travesty. By fixing yourself up with visual media (pictures, videos etc.) you’ll ensure that everyone has something to interest and maintain their attention; perhaps, long enough to make a sale.
Knowing who sees it empowers you, the marketer
The third item is the value of content; by this I mean how much you get out of what you wrote. Spewing empty words and obnoxiously decorative language will force people to lose interest as they trip over five-syllable words, and odd sentence constructions. You may want to impress your audience, you may want to relate to your audience; the beauty of well crafted content is that it will work for itself. What’s great about internet content is that you can actually see what people want to read, and use that knowledge to tighten their focus on whatever you want to tell them. when you are able to know who is watching/ reading/ listening to whatever you are doing, you can extrapolate trends, and learn about your audience. In doing so, you will ensure that they become loyal, once you establish their consistent interest in your work.
So, to reiterate everything; overall, I find that social media, visual media, and the real-time traffic analysis are the most important aspects of internet marketing. Social media allows quick and cheap exposure, visual media ensures that there’s an interest for every type of visitor, and real-time traffic allows the webmaster to concentrate their audience, and learn about their preferences, which could then be incorporated to reflect upon the way business is carried out.
Technorati Tags: analysis, internet marketing, Social Media, traffic monitoring, visual media
April 27th, 2010 § § permalink
News wire sites
One of the more important parts of an SEO press release is the keyword research. Because press releases are time-sensitive, it’s important for companies to use keywords that will make the press release highly searchable even after a considerable amount of time has passed since the initial release. This maximizes company visibility. Another important part is utilizing news wire sites. While a company can be successful posting press releases on their own, being able to link and be linked to outside sites garners higher search engine visibility. Inevitably, the most important part of SEO press releases is the readability. Press releases must be written in a way that engages readers immediately and generates interest in the topic; otherwise, the effort is largely wasted.
Technorati Tags: SEO, SEO press release, seo strategies, seo techniques
April 26th, 2010 § § permalink
A record label would be a great beneficiary to SEO press releases. In the music industry, events such as new artist 
signings, album releases, and sales numbers are vital to a record label’s success. Using SEO press releases, a record label would achieve wider recognition by having press releases on relevant topics link to the label itself. Signing a new band would require an SEO press release, as would dropping an artist from the label’s roster. Big concert events and tours would also be great SEO press release opportunities, since they involve geographic locations across the country; an effective SEO press release would bring the label attention from every state the tour or concert occurs in.
Technorati Tags: SEO, seo music industry, SEO press release, seo strategies, seo technique
April 22nd, 2010 § § permalink
An online flower bouquet company would absolutely require the use of SEO-friendly content. In the short term, the amount of keyword density and frequency for display items would allow for high rankings in search engines. This kind of presence would be vital to business, as competitors would likely utilize the same tactics and would gain the similar rankings. Long tail keywords would be extremely important to the long-term success of the business. By using a well-developed long trail SEO campaign, the company could tap into more selective flower or bouquet types and gain rankings that are higher than the more common searches yield. Cornering niche markets could compensate for profits lost to competitors or drive sales higher than expected.
Technorati Tags: long-tail keywords, SEO, SEO friendly content, short-tail keywords
April 22nd, 2010 § § permalink
Affiliate marketing could attract unexpected customers
The gaming industry could benefit from affiliate marketing by attracting people that wouldn’t normally appreciate certain game genres to their products. Affiliate marketing would spread the word through extraneous sources that may not necessarily have anything to do with the game, but more so to do with the platform or genre of it. By exposing non-gamers to the product, more people may potentially pursue an interest in it, which could result in more sales. By posting ads on websites that have to do with the bands that play on the games soundtracks (for instance) the game developer may persuade hardcore fans to buy a game that their favorite band supports.
Technorati Tags: Affiliate Marketing, gaming industry
April 20th, 2010 § § permalink
Internet Marketing
Internet Marketing contains a few key factors, all of which build on each other. The most important aspect of Internet Marketing is the quest to be seen.
If a website is live, but no one clicks on it, does it really exits? It may as well not exist. The first quest and aspect of Internet Marketing is to increase visibility. All other endeavors are pointless until browsers find the site.
After visibility is attained, all marketing efforts should be focused in, with laser-point accuracy, on generating consistent, timely, quality content. Marketing efforts, be they creative, statistical, etc., focus on refining a website to attain that original goal, visibility. They do this through quality content.
The successful Internet Marketer knows that it is not enough to have a site that attracts first-time visitors, but does not bring them back. We have plenty of information pointing to the fact that most consumers will not purchase the first time they click on a website. In addition, blogs and other content-driven sites are only successful when updated often, with proven track records of being updated on a regular basis with worthy content.
Visibility is achieved through SEO tactics, which force the website owner to think in terms of search engines. What would a potential customer type in to Google or Yahoo to find your site? This information is attained through research, a key step in creating quality content. Internet Marketers who take the time to understand their customers, and understand the Internet enough to know how to draw those customers in and convert them to repeat visitors and eventual paying, committed or loyal customers.
In addition to an SEO-friendly site, Internet Marketers also focus on creating website copy that is informative, free of errors, accurate and timely. If a potential customer visits your site and sees that you haven’t added to your blog since 2009, they know you don’t care enough about the topic or site to update regularly. In effect, you have nothing new to say. And off they go to another site. In addition to current and timely copy, Internet Marketers also seek to provide content that establishes them as an authority on their given topic or product. This creates a trend of being linked to from outside sites, a great tool for increased visibility.
Overall, Internet Marketing is about understanding the Internet and how it’s search engines and users operate. Then creating a specific, focused plan to reach customers in a respectful, intent way.
Internet Marketing
Internet Marketing, like the Internet itself, is a wide open field, ready for harvesters. The web is full of information and consumers have increased their level of savvy in sorting through that information. Because of the wealth of resources, poorly written, poorly maintain, out-dates sites are just looked over. Any given web user can find a wealth of information on any given topic or product, thereby rendering outdated, inefficient websites as completely useless.
Technorati Tags: Important Aspect Internet Marketing, internet marketing how to, internet marketing tips, internet marketing trends
