MG Creations

Educating Your Visitors – The Power of Giving and User-Friendly Websites – A SPN Exclusive Article

info@mgcreations.co.za — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:50:09 GMT

I’ve been involved in sales and marketing for over twenty years – half my adult life. And sometimes I still get confused when I browse the Internet and visit websites searching for information, or to make a purchase. I’m absolutely amazed at how complicated some marketers make doing business online.

Let’s talk about searching for information for a moment. After all, most people go online not to buy anything, but rather to search for information to solve a problem they have. Knowing this is important, because if you understand that the Internet is driven by information and information seekers, as a marketer, you can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

1. You can provide information seekers with the information they’re looking for.

2. You can educate potential prospects and turn them into customers.

Educate Your Visitors First

If you visit my website, you won’t see any banners or advertising of any kind. Why? Because I built my site as a free marketing resource to educate my visitors. I’m not selling anything, so the only thing you’ll see on my site is free information… lots and lots of free information.

So how do I monetize my site? How do I make any money? Well, people read my marketing articles on highly-respected websites like SiteProNews, then they visit my website. And between the advice I dispense in my articles and on my site, as well as select small business forums, people can determine for themselves if I know what I’m talking about. Once they become convinced of my expertise, they inquire about my marketing consulting services… become satisfied clients, word-of-mouth kicks in, and voila… my cup runneth over!

In other words, I create content to educate people and help them solve a particular problem. And I do this without an agenda – without asking for anything in return. But a funny thing happens when you educate people – provided the information has value and is accurate. You enhance your own credibility and increase the value of your products and services.

And this method of marketing works regardless of what you’re selling – even if you sell something as nondescript as a glue stick. Yes, a glue stick! Become the glue stick expert. For example, you can create content about the glue stick industry and related products. Educate people about glue sticks. Enhance your company’s credibility, and increase the value of your products and services.

So am I suggesting that you shouldn’t have any banners or other types of advertising on your site? No, I’m not suggesting that at all. Whether or not you choose to feature advertising on your site is a decision you have to make for yourself. I choose not to. What I am suggesting, however, is that you put educating your visitors first – ahead of profits. If you do that, the money will follow… I promise you.

The Power of Giving

“The universe operates through dynamic exchange… giving and receiving are different aspects of the flow of energy in the universe. And in our willingness to give that which we seek, we keep the abundance of the universe circulating in our lives.” – Deepak Chopra

The bible says…

“Give, and it shall be given to you. For whatever measure you deal out to others, it will be dealt to you in return.” – Luke 6:38

In other words, the more you give to others, the more you will get back in return. You’ll find this law is infallible – provided you aren’t giving with the express purpose of getting something back in return. You see, giving disingenuously is both manipulative and calculative. And while you may reap some benefits in the short term, eventually, bad karma will come knocking at your door, and you will have to pay the piper. So when you give, give freely and mean it sincerely.

I think the great Seth Godin put it best…

“Gifts with strings attached don’t make good gifts.”

How To Create A User-Friendly Website

1. Have fast-loading pages. Slow loading pages are annoying to searchers and affects their ability to access content quickly. If your pages load slowly, this may frustrate visitors and cause them to exit your site, never to return.

You can quickly check your page speed at Page Speed Online, a free web application offered by Googlelabs. This tool tests the speed of your page and gives it a score from 1-100, based on the performance of your page. The Page Speed Score indicates how much faster a page could be. A high score indicates little room for improvement, while a lower score indicates more room for improvement. In other words, the higher the score, the better. The Page Speed Score does not measure the time it takes for a page to load – just whether or not it loads quickly. If you score on the lower end of the scale, read “How to Speed Up Web Pages,” to learn what you can do to speed up your pages.

2. Have a crystal clear identity. Have you ever landed on a website and didn’t know what it was about? How did you feel? You didn’t like it did you? And I’ll bet you probably clicked out of there pretty quickly. Well, your visitors don’t like it either. Don’t let your visitors have to try and figure out what your website is all about. Make it crystal clear, right from the beginning. Having a big, descriptive headline on your home page is an excellent way to announce what your website is about. Also, choose relevant keywords for your pages, as opposed to trying to trick people just to get eyeballs. Keep your keywords relevant to your web pages.

3. Keep it simple. Don’t worry about trying to impress with all kinds of unnecessary whistles and bells. (Does anyone really need flash?) Focus on usability, sales and conversions. Simple website designs convert.

4. Stay away from clutter. Have a clean, user-friendly site that makes it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for. Remember, white space is a good thing. Also, if your website has a lot of content and/or pages, add a search box, to make it easier for your visitors to find what they’re looking for.

5. Don’t give prospects too many choices. While variety can be a good thing, giving prospects too many items to choose from can often backfire. Why? Because giving prospects too many items to choose from can confuse them. And confused prospects don’t buy. Limit product options to no more than two or three choices.

6. Make the buying process easy. Make it easy for prospects to get from your home page to the product page or the checkout page. Don’t make prospects jump through hoops, clicking thru page after page after page to give you their money. If you do, they will become frustrated and abandon your shopping cart.

Conclusion

The methods I suggested in this article are not only good business practices, they will make you successful faster as well. How? By making you stand out, that’s how. After all, if all of your competitors feature advertising on their sites and you don’t, you’re going to stand out.

If you have a user-friendly website, as well as educate your visitors, and your competitors don’t, you’re going to stand out. And if you give your visitors something of value, without asking for anything in return, you’re going to stand out.

And if you stand out among your competitors, eventually, you will stand above your competitors!

David Jackson is a marketing consultant, and the owner of Free-Marketing-Tips-Blog.com – Powerful, free marketing tips to help grow your business!
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Tags: SEO,Social Media,seo_tools,Social Networking

Category: Search Engine Optimisation

Category: Marketing

Getting Noticed on the Web

info@mgcreations.co.za — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:09:07 GMT

Website Engagement Techniques: The Caricature Effect

Marketing is all about getting noticed, getting remembered, and motivating people to action. Whether it’s a website, display ad, or video, it must first grab people’s attention, it must stop the viewer from going onto the next website, turning the magazine page, or clicking the stop button. In order to accomplish that increasingly difficult task, you must understand the Caricature Effect.

The Caricature Effect

The Caricature Effect simply stated says that what we notice is variation from the norm. Caricature artists exaggerate reality because that is how we visually distinguish one person from another. Human beings are preprogrammed to look for patterns and variations in those patterns, it’s how we recognize who people are, and it is a basic survival mechanism that helps us recognize danger and distinguish friend from foe.

By distorting an individual’s prominent facial features the caricature artist mimics the human brain’s way of remembering who’s who. Our brains are not cameras that take pictures and file them away for future reference. Our memories are malleable, they change and alter over time and experience, and as a result the things we remember best are the things that stand out, things like Bob Hope’s ski-jump nose or Albert Einstein’s wild white hair. The reason caricatures are so effective is because they emphasize the distinguishing differences that we recognize and remember. So how do we use this fundamental, hard-wired human characteristic to further marketing agendas?

What We Notice Is Variation From The Norm

Getting noticed is job-one of any marketing vehicle, so in order to get people to stop, look, and listen we need to use all the available communication elements at our disposal.

When developing a video campaign we use concepts that demand the mental processing of information by shocking, stimulating, puzzling, or tickling the funny bone of the viewer. These techniques force the audience to think, process, and decode the message, and by generating this mental activity we embed our client’s message in the audience’s consciousness. Depending on the brand and/or product, implementation can range from subtle to obvious with the trick being to make people sit-up and take notice by forcing them to think.

Pattern Recognition – The Same But Different

Human beings have evolved to watch for patterns and when an audience recognizes a familiar scenario they leap to a conclusion. It’s a way of making quick decisive decisions that can either help or hurt communication. Properly used pattern recognition can lead your audience where you want to take them, but if the pattern is too obvious or hackneyed, it can lead to viewers dismissing your message.

Let’s face-it, consumers have become increasingly jaded by too many ads that yell at them like a Billy Mays commercial, or promise improbable results like so many diet schemes, or scare the hell out of people with legal disclaimers warning of everything from headaches to heart attacks like most prescription drug ads. These feeble attempts to standout like a pair of John Daley golf slacks only succeed in reminding the audience how completely desperate, or disengaged the advertiser really is.

If you want people to remember your message you have to alter the pattern by varying from the norm so that it forces people to mentally process your information. It’s as simple as a story with a twist like how a comedian sets-up a punch line, or how a magician sets-up an illusion.

In other articles I’ve written extensively about techniques for using video but here let’s discuss something even more universal – photography. It is one of the most economical ways to create the kind of mental stimulation that makes people remember your site and your message.

Photo-Visual Engagement Techniques

Most every website has photography of some sort on it, but like most video implementations, it is rarely used to its full potential. Obviously, do-it-yourself snapshots reek of amateurism but even professional royalty-free images can be as innocuous as DIY snaps are unprofessional, and as we have stated, bland, featureless images are just not going to stimulate anyone’s memory.

Cinegraphs

Cinegraphs are photographs that move. They are created by combining a series of still images into a gif animation. The best cinegraphs use subtle movement like hair or clothing blowing in the wind to cause the audience to take a second look. What appears at first to be a regular photograph creates a “Did I just see it move?” reaction, and that’s the kind of subtle yet powerful feature that can get people to remember your site, your product, and your brand.

Like any technique you have to know how and when to use it in order to enhance your presentation and reinforce your message. Just parachuting in a technique for technique’s sake is no better than a meaningless royalty free image used as filler.

Sequence Images

A sequence image is a still image that combines a series of images into one photo. Unlike cinegraphs, the image doesn’t move but it does provide a kinetic quality by showing a series of varying poses all combined into one photograph. This kind of image can be very striking and powerful and can cause your viewer to take a moment to decode the story it tells.

Selective Color

Color is another area that often gets forgotten. Different colors have different psychological effects depending on the context in which they are used. In addition to the color choice, using color as a consistent marketing communication element helps enhance and embed your identity and brand image. Many Internet entrepreneurs pay little or no attention to color imaging and it is really unfortunate as it is often an inexpensive but effective way of making a profound impression.

Photographs today are generally full color images but if you’re not controlling the color in your images then you’re missing a great opportunity to make a memorable impression. Of course lack of color (black and white photography) can be just as powerful if used properly. Jack Daniel’s is a brand that uses black and white and selective color extensively in its marketing.

There are several ways to use selective color in your photographic imaging. Jack Daniel’s uses a lot of black backgrounds or B&W photos and copy combined with color product shots of the bottle that has a B&W label but is filled with the golden elixir.

Another effective implementation of selective color is a B&W photograph that has been adjusted so that part of it is in color. For example, a clothing designer might want a black and white photograph of a model but with the dress she is wearing in color so that the garment stands out and not the model.

Illustrated Photos

Combining a photograph with a drawing can be a very effective way to make a unique impression on your website visitors. British film director Alfred Hitchcock used a similar technique for the introduction to his 1950’s television show, where he’d walk on set to lineup with a simple background drawing of his unique and readily recognizable profile. It is a classic example of the Caricature Effect that combines an actual caricature with a photo thereby creating a clever signature style. The image of Hitchcock lining up with his caricature outline is an enduring image of the director that is still recognized more than a half a century later.

It’s The Differences That People Remember

These examples are only a few of the ways Internet entrepreneurs can use the Caricature Effect to enhance their image and embed their brand in the minds of their audience. Whether it’s a display ad, video, a website, or even the design of the product itself, the thing to keep in mind is that it’s the differences that people remember.

Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design and marketing firm that specializes in Web-video Marketing Campaigns and Video Websites.
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Category: Web Standards

Category: Information Technology

Category: Search Engine Optimisation

Category: Graphic Design

Category: Marketing

Sort Through Your Links In Facebook With Ease

info@mgcreations.co.za — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:38:24 GMT

There's all sorts of quality content being shared on Facebook, unfortunately it can be difficult to get to this content. There's all sorts of useless updates from people, and finding a useful link can be a trying task. With LinkNotify, you can have all the links shared on your feed in one easy to browse location.
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Category: Information Technology

Category: Search Engine Optimisation

Category: Marketing

The Explosion of the Mobile Web… Is Your Website Ready?

info@mgcreations.co.za — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:42:37 GMT

Just a few short years ago, it was a good bet that you would read articles like this one on your PC or laptop. Today, it’s just as likely that you are reading this article on a smartphone or tablet computer. So what’s changed, what happened? The mobile web happened, that’s what – and the Internet will never be the same. So, what’s the mobile web?

Loosely defined, the mobile web is a way of accessing the Internet via a wireless network, using a handheld mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet computer.

The Explosion Of The Mobile Web

The mobile web is growing at a phenomenal pace, and is forecast to overtake the desktop web in 2014. In other words, more users will access the Internet using a mobile phone rather than a PC for the first time.

Approximately 900 million people currently access the web with mobile phones, compared to 1.4 billion desktop Internet users. In 2014, mobile web users will outpace desktop users (approximately 1.7 billion mobile users to approximately 1.65 billion desktop users). By 2015, the number of mobile web users is expected to increase to 2 billion.

Assuming an annual growth rate of about 2 percent annually between 2010 and 2015 in cell phone subscriptions (77 percent of the world’s population will have cell phone subscriptions in 2010 and 87 percent will have subscriptions in 2015), about 6.35 billion people worldwide will have a mobile phone subscription and approximately 1 out of 3 subscribers (or 2 billion out of 6.35 billion) will be accessing the Internet on mobile phones. (Source: Wikimedia)

And according to the August, 2011 edition of eMarketer, 33 percent of mobile users are looking to access local content relevant to their GPS positioned location.

Is Your Website Ready?

So, what does all of this mean to you? It means more people than ever will be viewing your website through a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet computer, via a wireless network. It also means that if you want to survive and thrive, you have to adjust and adapt, and make your website mobile web friendly. The good news is, it’s easier than you think.

“Within the Alexa top 1,000 sites, 40.1 percent of all sites are mobile-friendly. These sites represent the world’s most popular web properties, like Google, Facebook and Yahoo!

Beyond the top 1,000, mobile friendliness still holds strong but is not yet as widespread. Of the top 10,000 Alexa sites, 29.7 percent perform well on mobiles. Once the input data is broadened to include the top 500,000 sites, the total number of mobile-friendly sites drops to 19.3 percent.” (Source: mobiThinking.com)

If you haven’t already done so, the very first thing you need to do is bring your website up to speed visually. In other words, you want to make sure that users of mobile devices can view your site optimally.

The quickest and easiest way to do this is to run your site through the MobiReady online testing
site. This is a free service that evaluates mobile-readiness using industry best practices & standards.

The free report provides both a score (from 1 to 5) and in-depth analysis of pages to determine how well your site performs on a mobile device. There are also other tools that will allow you to test your site for mobile readiness. In fact, here are 10 Excellent Tools for Testing Your Site on Mobile Devices.

Personally, I have serious doubts about the accuracy of these types of testing tools. For example, I ran my site through MobiReady, and it gave my site a 2 out of 5 score which, according to their analysis is bad. I got the exact same score before and after I mobil-optimized my site.

Here’s the problem: I’ve had many friends and colleagues of mine, all with different makes and models of smartphones, on a variety of platforms, tell me that my site looks just fine on their phones. So while testing tools may be a useful resource, the true litmus test is what users of mobile devices are seeing – so be sure to ask them.

That being said, there ARE things you can do to mobile-optimize your website.

How To Make Your Website Mobile Compatible

1. Have a fast-loading site. Chances are, most mobile-web users who are using their phones to access the Internet are using a slower 3G connection. You can help these users out by making sure your website code is clean, which will not only make for a faster-loading site, but faster downloads as well.

2. Don’t use flash. Not all mobile devices can see flash? Personally, I’m not a huge fan of flash sites anyway. But if you absolutely, positively have to have a flash site, be both smart and considerate. Make sure you have an alternate HTML version of your site as well.

3. Have a clean, easy to navigate website. Remember, mobile users are viewing your site on a tiny little screen. In addition, there is no mouse and not all mobile devices are equipped with a touch screen. So don’t make it harder for mobile users to view or utilize your site than it needs to be. Clean up the clutter and streamline your content. Simplify, simplify, simplify. If you keep it simple, your site will be user-friendly for everyone.

4. Use HTML phone numbers. Don’t make mobile users have to type in your phone number. Use HTML so that they can simply click to dial the number.

5. Avoid horizontal scrolling. Mobile users prefer to scroll vertically as opposed to horizontally. It’s easier and less of a hassle for them. Always create your content as a single column of text that wraps for mobile users.

6. Use images sparingly. As I mentioned earlier, most mobile users are using a slower 3G connection. As a result, heavier images can take forever to load. To avoid this problem, you should use images sparingly on your website. But if you do choose to use images, they should be lighter-weight jpeg, gif or png format. Also, make sure to compress your images to avoid zooming.

7. Voice Search. Google’s Voice Search on smartphones, has increased voice search usage by approximately 600% in the past year. Since mobile devices don’t have a traditional keyboard like a PC or laptop, voice search makes searching quicker and easier for smartphone users. So you should definitely keep an eye on this trend for SEO purposes. Bear in mind, people tend to search differently when speaking as opposed to typing. For example, while you might type-search “best virtual assistants,” you might voice-search “what are the best virtual assistant services?” Again, it’s a trend you should keep an eye on.

Indexing Of A Mobile Site

Google mainly recommends the following for better indexing of a mobile site.

• Google has a separate mobile bot for indexing mobile friendly pages. So, always redirect this bot (check for user agent ‘Googlebot-Mobile’) to the mobile version of your site. This bot should not see the normal site.

•Use the XHTML Mobile doctype so that search engine bots can clearly identify the page as mobile friendly.

•For each page, there should be a link for the standard view of that page. It will help Google to categorize mobile pages and its corresponding standard pages. (Source: The Right Way to Build a Mobile Site)

Making Blogger & WordPress Mobile Compatible

For Blogger users, it’s a simple 3-step process:

1. Log into your blogger account.

2. Navigate to and click on the settings “Email & Mobile.”

3. Click on the radio button that says “Show mobile template on mobile devices.” Save settings and you’re done.

For WordPress users there are a variety of plugins available for you to make your WP site mobile compatible.

Conclusion

I’m well aware, we live in a society where people would much rather pay someone to do something for them than to do it themselves. Mobile optimization is no exception. If that’s your preference, for a fee of $4.99 a month, MobileWebAmerica.com will convert your website to a mobile accessible site which will display perfectly on thousands of mobile devices. The conversion will make your website mobile compatible by adapting it to the smaller screens of smartphones and other mobile devices. No programming is required on your part.

David Jackson is a marketing consultant and the owner of Free-Marketing-Tips-Blog.com – Powerful, free marketing tips to help grow your business!
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Tags: SEO,Social Media,seo_tools,Social Networking

Category: Web Standards

Category: Information Technology

Category: Search Engine Optimisation

Category: Marketing

Technology and the Invasion of Privacy Snatchers

info@mgcreations.co.za — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:40:41 GMT

On February 5th, 1956, a science fiction movie titled "Invasion of the Bódy Snatchers" was released in the US. The movie is about a small-town doctor who discovers that the population of his community is being systematically replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.

Fast forward to today, and life is imitating art, with a real life version of Invasion of the Bódy Snatchers being played out. But it's not just happening in one small town. It's happening in cities and towns all across America. Only it's not bodies that are systematically being snatched, it's our individual right to privacy.

Where's Waldo?

"If you win this case, then there is nothing to prevent the police or the government from monitoring 24 hours a day, the public movement of every citizen of the United States." Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer

I just read a disturbing article on the BBC News website titled How Much Privacy Can Smartphone Owners Expect?

Among other things, the article discusses how The US Supreme Court could soon make a ruling allowing police to monitor the movements of US mobile phone users without a warrant - which legitimately begs the question, now that most of us carry sophisticated tracking devices in our pockets, how much privacy do we have a right to expect?

Because if authorities get their way, they won't have to ask "Where's Waldo?" They'll know exactly where he is, because they'll be monitoring his smartphone.

The Erosion Of Privacy In America

As American citizens, we have the constitutional right not to be subjected to unsanctioned invasion of privacy by individuals, government or corporations. And while those rights are supposed to be protected by the constitution, the truth of the matter is, the erosion of our privacy has been occurring for decades.

And it hasn't been occurring in a vacuum either. The media has been reporting on invasion of privacy stories for as long as I can remember. In fact, I distinctly remember a huge media story from twenty years ago about a government agency that used thermal imaging devices to locate a marijuana growing operation in Oregon.

On January, 27, 1992, Oregon authorities arrested a man named Danny Lee Kyllo, who was tried and convicted of illegally growing marijuana. Authorities located the marijuana by placing thermal imaging devices outside of Kyllo's home. However, in 2001 in Kyllo v. United States (533 U.S. 27), the conviction was overturned because it was decided that the use of thermal imaging devices that can reveal previously unknown information without a warrant does indeed constitute a violation of privacy. (Source: Wikipedia)

Warrantless Surveillance

After the 9/11 attacks, Congress passed the Patriot Act, which granted the President broad powers to fight a war against terrorism. The George W. Bush administration used these powers to bypass the FISA court and directed the NSA to spy directly on al Qaeda in a new NSA (National Security Agency) electronic surveillance program. Reports at the time indicate that an "apparently accidental" "glitch" resulted in the interception of communications that were purely domestic in nature. This action was challenged by a number of groups, including Congress, as unconstitutional. Disappointingly, the Obama Administration has continued using these controversial surveillance methods. (Source: Wikipedia)

The ACLU Speaks Out

In anticipation of the upcoming Supreme Court ruling on the aforementioned United States vs Jones, GPS tracking case, Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) in Washington, D.C., said the Supreme Court should uphold the Fourth Amendment and protect private lives against the invasion of government probing.

"The court should apply those values so that as technology becomes more and more powerful, those values can be preserved, not erased," Spitzer said. "If the Fourth Amendment is to have any continuing meaning, we think the court needs to recognize that just because technology makes something possible, it doesn't mean it should be allowed."

Spitzer added that the case will have "strong implications" on whether or not the government needs a warrant to track people using their cell phones. (Source: Homeland Security Newswire)

I'd like to focus your attention on one sentence in particular in the above statement:

"If the Fourth Amendment is to have any continuing meaning, we think the court needs to recognize that just because technology makes something possible, it doesn't mean it should be allowed."

That one sentence makes the case for preserving the Fourth Amendment about as well as it can be made.

Where's The Outrage?

But where's the outrage over the continued erosion of our privacy? Where are the demonstrations in Washington and in front of the White House?

Since September, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has been taking its anger to the streets, with a grassroots movement and demonstrations worldwide, protesting corporate greed and the financial inequity that exists between Wall Street and Main Street. And there is evidence the movement is working. OWS recently forced Bank of America to nix its proposed $5 a month debit fee. Several other major banks quickly followed suit, announcing they too will nix planned debit fees and other exorbitant surcharges. Demonstrating once again, the squeaky wheel does indeed get the oil.

Unfortunately, there is no squeaky wheel - no organized protests for the blatant and relentless violation of our Fourth Amendment rights.

Sadly, with very few exceptions, when it comes to fighting for our individual rights and freedoms, we are as passive as a flock of sheep. And unless and until that changes, authorities will continue to think they can simply trample on our freedoms without any consequences. Because as things stand right now, they can.

The Power Of Technology

TV shows like Forensic Files and CSI demonstrate the tremendous power and potential of technology in law enforcement. I am absolutely fascinated by how scientists are able to solve crimes with DNA evidence, animal hairs and insect larvae. It's nothing short of amazíng!

About The Author
David Jackson is a marketing consultant, and the owner of Free-Marketing-Tips-Blog.com - Powerful, free marketing tips to help grow your business!

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Tags: SEO,Social Media,seo_tools,Social Networking

Category: Information Technology

Category: Search Engine Optimisation

Category: Marketing

How Should Webmasters React to Google Fresh?

info@mgcreations.co.za — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:39:27 GMT

It's been an extremely busy year for the good folks at Google, not only did they roll out the game-changing Panda Updates, but now they have increased the stakes by implementing Google Fresh. This recent algorithm update is based on the Caffeine architecture introduced by Google a year ago and supposedly makes Google's listings much fresher.

On the Official Google Blog where this new Update was announced, Amit Singhal states:

"We completed our Caffeine web indexing system last year, which allows us to crawl and index the web for fresh content quickly on an enormous scale. Building upon the momentum from Caffeine, today we're making a significant improvement to our ranking algorithm that impacts roughly 35 percent of searches and better determines when to give you more up-to-date relevant results for these varying degrees of freshness."

However, in an update, Singhal explains this measurement of 35% only applies to where at least one result was affected by the changes. In reality, this update only "noticeably" impacts 6 to 10% of searches.

"Update 11/7/11: To clarify, when we say this algorithm impacted 35% of searches, we mean at least one result on the page was affected, as opposed to when we've said noticeably impacted in the past, which means changes that are significant enough that an average user would notice. Using that same scale, this change noticeably impacts 6 - 10% of searches, depending on the language and domain you're searching on."

Regardless, Google Fresh will be influencing what sites/pages get listed in the top spots in Google. Already, these fresher listings are popping up for keyword searches where products or services are constantly changing or evolving such as in consumer electronics.

How Should Webmasters React to Google Fresh?

For the average webmaster or business site owner, this Update will probably mean they will have to examine how often their content is updated. Adding new fresh content has definitely become more important to your site and to your overall marketing strategy.

However, for the small business owner with limited resources, constantly adding new content is not really feasible. These small sites won't be able to compete with major websites which have hundreds of writers or content contributors. Keeping up will simply be too costly or too time consuming for many small business site owners.

Create Blogs and Forums

Hiring someone or outsourcing your content creation is one option, but in many cases this content is not of the highest quality, which sort of defeats the whole intention. Many SEO experts are already suggesting one way to keep offering up fresh quality content is to run a blog and/or a forum on your site.

Blogs are excellent sources of fresh content and with their RSS feeds broadcasting your news means it is fast and immediate. Blogs are also very search engine friendly so tagging and indexing your content is already built-in and ready to go. They also create a Timestamp with your content so that it can be easily dated and assessed by the search engines.

Having a membership forum or site, where members contribute fresh content, is another viable option for web owners. Appointing moderators to oversee this content is probably a good idea to ensure quality standards and to cut down on spam.

Create Active Online Communities

Along those same lines, another good idea is to create an active online community around your blog, site or any one of the social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or perhaps Google+. Announcing fresh content to these communities, especially if they are large and active, will get your content noticed by Google.

These social networks are designed to quickly pass fresh news or information along to all concerned and can be a great way to get your message out quickly and easily. Google+ has now opened up their service to accept brands, so you can have an account for your site or business.

Create a Current Sitemap

Any webmaster, no matter how small their site, can create a simple XML Sitemap of their site and submit it to Google Webmaster Tools. Make sure when you create any new content or pages, the new URLs are placed on your sitemap. This can be done manually or you can set up a server-side application or program which does this automatically. If you want help creating a sitemap try here:

Google Sitemaps Explained.

Do Press Releases

With the introduction of Google Fresh, having your site or business regularly do press releases is a given. These releases are immediately picked up by Google and indexed. These releases can also be very SEO friendly so you can optimize them for your site's targeted keywords. Places like PRWeb are extremely professional but they are expensive. There are also free press releases sites or services which you can use to get your fresh content out there.

Don't Forget Google News Sites

You may or may not be aware that Google keeps a list of hand-picked news sites which they regularly crawl and index. These sites have passed Google's standards and requirements, so they are excellent places to submit your content. Especially if you have a new site, getting Google to index and crawl your content will take some time, so placing your content and links on any of these Google News Sites may be worth the extra effort since it will help speed up the whole indexing process.

List of Google News Sites

Give Google What Google Wants

Finally, don't forget to keep adding fresh quality content to your site on a regular basis. Regardless of your field, industry or subject matter, there is usually a constant flow of news associated with your topic, so placing a "news" section on your site may also help with Google Fresh. Time and time again, those sites and webmasters who give Google what Google wants, reap the biggest rewards.

About The Author
All views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are solely those of the author, Titus Hoskins, who is a full time search engine marketer. He earns his living by ranking high in the search engines for lucrative keywords. His main site offers Free Guides on everything associated with running a business from Corporate Business Gifts to Online Fax Providers to Internet Marketing Tools.

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3 Ways to Get Readers More Engaged in Your SEO Content

info@mgcreations.co.za — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:33:07 GMT

It's something that you hear all the time - all of the SEO content in the world doesn't do you any good, unless your readers are really engaged in it. After all, people don't purchase products, sign up for email lists, or share links if they think that something is "just OK". If you're not publishing SEO content that really gets readers involved, you're missing out on countless link opportunities, traffic, and sales.

So, how exactly do you create SEO content that's going to engage readers?

1. Don't Overlook the Importance of "You"

Your SEO articles, blog posts, and optimized sales pages are not formal research papers. The best way to get results out of them is to make each reader feel like you're speaking directly to them. Luckily, you can do that by focusing on one little word - "you". Writing in the third person (using "he", "she", or "they") is impersonal; writing in the second person (using "you") brings your SEO content to a personal level.

Take a look at this sentence:

"People have a hard time driving traffic to their websites because they haven't defined a target audience."

It's not a bad sentence. It contains an important fact that is easy to understand, and it's certainly better than some of the gibberish you see floating around out there. Your readers will look at this sentence and probably agree with it. Unfortunately, though, there's no personal investment on their behalf. Instead, they'll probably think, "Sure, 'people' probably do have that problem. So, what does that have to do with me?"

Now, change the same sentence ever so slightly, to:

"You have a hard time driving traffic to your website because you haven't defined a target audience."

You're making the same point and using the same fact. The only difference is that you're not talking about other people. Instead, you're speaking directly to the reader and telling him exactly what his problem is. By phrasing the sentence this way, your reader is much more likely to think, "You know what? She's right. That is my problem! Let me keep reading to see if she has any tips to help me fix it."

Just like that, you've encouraged someone to read your SEO content all the way to the end. Assuming the rest of your SEO content is full of important information, readers will get to the end and think of you with more respect. You can't ask for a reader to be more engaged than that!

2. Get Rid of the "$10 Words"

I don't know about you, but I hate "$10 words" - you know, the words you learned for the vocabulary section of the SAT's and haven't used since. Most of the time, I see big words and the writer instantly strikes me as someone who wants everybody to think he's smart. Unfortunately, it's a terrible impression to give to readers - that you're some kind of stuffy know-it-all. After all, would you do business with a stuffy know-it-all? I sure wouldn't!

Making matters worse, you may have a reader who doesn't know what your "$10 word" means - and now he feels stupid.

Guess what?

People don't buy from businesses that make them feel stupid!

Bottom line - keep the "$10 words" out of your SEO content. You can provide answers, list solutions, and summarize benefits with the same language that you'd use talking to a fríend over lunch.

Remember, the goal is to make the reader feel like the two of you are having a conversation. You simply can't do that with big, fancy words that no one actually uses in everyday conversation!

3. Use Lists Whenever You Can

Internet searchers are a bunch that love to scan and skim. They scan Google results, article titles, and even the body of the SEO content itself - until they see something that catches their eye. Once they think something's worth their while, they'll sit down and read the whole thing. So, the easier you make it for readers to scan your SEO content, the greater your chances of them slowing down to engage with what you have to say.

That's why you see so many numbered lists and bullet points around the web. Successful writers know that they're crucial to catching people's attention. After all, scanning a list to see if it's got some merit is a whole lot easier than trying to trudge through long paragraphs.

That doesn't mean you should try to force lists into every piece of SEO content that you publish. In some cases, they just don't work. In situations where a list isn't appropriate, make sure that your SEO content has short paragraphs. That way, readers won't feel "intimidated" by giant paragraphs that look far too time-consuming to read.

How short are we talking?

If your paragraphs have more than 5 or 6 sentences in them, they're too long. Chances are you're trying to make too many points in your paragraph. Stick to one point per paragraph, so that you don't end up with SEO content that looks more like War and Peace.

Remember - internet searchers want answers and solutions, and they want them now. If your SEO content makes it easy for them to find what they're looking for, you greatly improve the odds of them being fully engaged in what you have to say!

About The Author
Nicole Beckett is a former award-winníng journalist who now specializes in SEO content writing. As the owner of Premier Content Source, Nicole knows how to create content that engages readers and generates results!

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Marketing By Method Versus Vision

info@mgcreations.co.za — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 05:45:20 GMT

The companies that make a real impact in the marketplace are not the ones that produce what people think they want, but rather the ones that produce what people will want but don't know it.

The ability to know what people will want before they know it exists is not a result of intensive market research, focus groups, or telemarketing surveys. Knowing what people want is based on understanding the human condition: the motivating factors that move people from disinterest to action. Steve Jobs was unrelenting in this philosophy and it resulted in changing the computer, music, movie, and telecommunication industries and more significantly how people live, work, communicate, relax, and in some ways, think.

'Make A Dent In The Universe' - Steve Jobs

This is not an approach taught in business schools or self-help marketing courses designed for business neophytes. An entire industry of self-help consultants has exploded on the Internet, all designed to produce mediocrity, all based on rational analysis of what was, rather than what will be. Not many will búy into this alternate approach but that is what makes those who do, so special.

Conventional Wisdom Breeds Mediocrity

Inventing the next big thing in and of itself is not good enough for you to make that dent in the universe. Those who ultimately profit from innovation are not necessarily those who invent it. History is littered with sad stories of entrepreneurs who lacked the ability to implement and communicate their vision to the masses. You have to know how to execute, communicate, convince, and brand your vision in the minds of your audience.

Xerox may have developed the original concept of a graphical user interface and mouse, and they may have had the resources to dominate the future computer market; but they myopically saw themselves as a copier company, and instead chose to turn over the keys to the kingdom to Apple for a relatively small investment stake; much to the chagrin of the Xerox researchers who created the original technology.

The Xerox strategy was textbook business school think - stick to what you do. It's not so much that the concept is wrong, it's that the concept must be reinterpreted for a business environment where traditional corporate culture and methodology doesn't understand, and can't keep up with the pace of new technologies, and the new forms of competition they breed.

History Repeats But Some Nevér Learn

When Xerox realized their miscalculation they tried to capitalize on their original research by creating their own computer, but they failed because they lacked the vision needed to implement something that would spark the public's imagination. Kodak, Polaroid, and the movie and music industries have all succumbed to the same lack of vision.

Where Xerox was run by professional managers who relied on conventional wisdom and traditional methods of operation and decision-making, the Macintosh division of Apple was run by a virtual cult leader who did whatever it took to bring his vision to market.

It's not that Apple didn't have the same corporate managers and engineers within the organization, they did, but their efforts resulted in the failed Lisa computer, leaving Jobs to lead his band of Silicon Valley pirates to something truly innovative. But the genius of Macintosh wouldn't ever have made an impact without Jobs' steadfast focus on excellence, and his Rasputin-like communicative powers.

The Board of Directors, all experienced corporate executives, even tried to kill the famous 1984 Super Bowl commercial that introduced the Macintosh. The commercial is not only regarded as one of the most influential commercials ever made, but just as importantly, it established the metaphorical language and positioning grammar of a revolutionary brand.

The Grammar of Communication

In order to make an impact and create an identity for your NBT (next big thing) you need to develop a written, oral, and visual language that expresses, explains, and describes the fundamental emotional value proposition your brand delivers.

Every aspect of your business from product, packaging, and logo design, to website layout, iconography, and copy, to photographic and video presentation must all speak with the same voice, the same style, and with the same enthusiastic visionary assurance. You need to develop a brand patois that says: this is who we are, this is what we can do to fulfill your desires, and this is why you need us.

Finding Your Brand Communication Mojo

Tom Derresteijn, partner in Studio Dunbar writes on his website visual-communication dot com about a variety of concepts that help focus marketing attention: inside-out thinking, paradox, and fragmentation.

Inside-out versus Outside-in Thinking

What we have been describing thus far is what Derresteijn refers to as inside-out thinking as opposed to conventional corporate outside-in thinking.

Most business professionals have been educated and trained in the pseudo-science of business management, always looking for rationality in how people behave, when in fact people most frequently respond to emotional triggers of psychological desires. As a result most corporate managers do not understand the impact of imaginative design and creative marketing communication.

Corporate executives worry more about next quarter's stock market results than they do about the products or services they provide. As a result they play it safe and give people what they say they want by relying on market research.

Ad agencies are quick to adopt the approach because (a) rationalizing decisions on research was an easy sell compared to explaining clever creative, (b) agencies could charge quite a lot for the research, and (c) if things went wrong they had a built-in scapegoat, the research.

The underlying problem is simple, people don't know what they really want until they see it, so you can play it safe and wait for the competition to bury you with something bigger, better, and cheaper, or you can follow your instincts and work to make a dent in the universe. It's business, there are no guarantees no matter what approach you take, so you can aim for something special, or you can aim for mediocrity.

Paradox

The 'Think Different' slogan used by Apple in the 1990s for the Macintosh was brilliant in its duality. Not only did it position Apple against IBM's "Think" slogan, it conveyed the complex, conceptual conflict found in human nature: the desire to be different and the same simultaneously. The Macintosh was convivial, an easy-to-use machine for the masses, while at the same time it was an alternative to the establishment Big Blue for those who thought of themselves as different or special.

About The Author
Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design and marketing firm that specializes in Web-video Marketing Campaigns and Video Websites.

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Sort Through Your Facebook Links Without The Clutter

info@mgcreations.co.za — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:59:56 GMT

There's all sorts of relevant and fresh links being shared on Facebook. The problem is, there's a whole lot of clutter which can keep you from finding these links. Use LinkNotify, and you can have a list of links on your news feed presented without any additional content to get in the way.
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The Most Popular Social Networks and Who Is On Them

info@mgcreations.co.za — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:07:24 GMT

How much time do you spend online?

According to a time use survey compiled by ComScore Media Metric, the average American spends 33.9 hours on the Internet every week. Depending on age and other demographics, this number can double! And for those lucky individuals whose occupations rely primarily on computers: the Internet commands their lives and they aren't ever not connected.

Computers have drastically changed the technological landscape. The Internet has facilitated efficiency in a number of offline processes. We use the web to communicate with our family, friends and business acquaintances in real-time chats. Books and other multimedia are available for online viewing and instant download. We can even shop for gifts online - often offered at a deeper discount than in brick-and-mortar stores! The Internet has revolutionized the way that we live, as we now spend one-sixth of our lives in the digital world.

Exhibit 1: 100 Most-Visited Websites by category, according to Google Ad Planner

Where are We Actually Spending Our Time Online?

Google has compiled a list of the 100 most-visited websites in the United States. (Being the modest company that they are, Google has chosen to omit their website and statistics from the study.) These 100 websites are sorted into six categories: social networking, search engines, shopping, entertainment, business and software.

The Internet can deliver information instantaneously, so naturally search engines and other information-related websites comprise the most popular category - sites ranging from web portals, such as Yahoo! and Bing, to encyclopedias and other how-to pages, such as Wikipedia and eHow. Closely tailing search engines are online shopping and other e-commerce websites - pages such as Amazon, eBay and Walmart - followed, in descending order, by the categories Entertainment, Social Networking, Business and Software.

Social networks are defined as any and all websites that are personal communities, professional networks, blogs, dating communities, deal of the day websites and other content sharing sites. It is significant that social media occupy the fourth largest category, as these websites have only gained popularity within the past few years. In fact, two of the top three websites in America are "social" sites. The number one site, Facebook, is the largest social network in the world with over 800 million loyal users. YouTube trails behind this social giant as the second most popular social network, and the third most popular website in the US.

Exhibit 2: Total Reach of Social Networks in the US, according to Google Ad Planner

Which Social Sites are Americans Frequenting the Most?

Americans have become fully absorbed in the social networking infrastructure. According to Nielsen, social media has engrossed 22% of our total time online. The chart, "Total Reach of Social Networks," reveals the percentage of Americans that are logged-into the 15 most-popular networks in the country. The most popular social network is Facebook, with a total national reach of over 67%. Close in proximity is YouTube, with 54.7% of the population viewing, sharing and commenting on videos posted by others around the globe. Other social networks are used by less than half of the population - networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn, and blogging websites such as Blogspot and WordPress.

Another sub-category of social networks has made it to the top 100. Within the past year, the deal-of-the-day industry has flourished. There are dozens of competing websites, but the two that have thus far generated the bulk of the traffic and seized the largest marketing share are Living Social and Groupon. Consumers flock to these websites for the great discounts on a variety of products, services and activities. Only 5% of the United States population is connected to these sites. However, in another year it is predicted that the reach of these sites will more than double as the popularity of these sites is accelerating at an enthusiastic rate.

Exhibit 3: Social Media Usage by Gender in the US, according to Google Ad Planner

In regards to age, the correlation shows that younger individuals prefer more active social networks, whereas older individuals prefer networks where there is an emphasis on content retrieval. Senior citizens are most active on deal of the day sites, which provide coupons and other group discounts for those that choose to lead active lifestyles. On the other hand, the media of choice for younger generations appear to be networks where regular, active participation is encouraged. Teenagers and kids flock to social sharing sites such as YouTube and Photobucket, an image hosting website. For yóung adults, blogs and other weblog sites that facilitate comments and sharing are most popular. Overall, the group that has the largest presence on social media is adults. The majority of the users of the 15 most-visited social sites are between the ages of 35 and 54 years of age.

Exhibit 4: Social Media Usage by Age in the US, according to Google Ad Planner

How Important are Demographics?

The Internet and technologies that make the Internet more accessible for us have been strongly embedded into modern culture. Laptops, smart phones, tablets and mp3 players with Internet access are consumed by all age groups. Internet users flee to the web not just for information, but also to shop, communicate and consume multimedia. The rapid growth in Internet consumption has led us to spend more time in the digital world and less time in the real world - one-sixth less time to be exact.

The media patterns of target audiences are changing. Marketers need to redevelop their marketing strategies in order to better influence target audiences and stimulate them to consume. The most successful advertisers are those that are able to reach their audiences through multiple channels. In modern America, this requires integrating an onlíne marketing strategy.

Using the demographics of our ideal buyer persona, we can learn which websites our target audiences are frequenting. These trending websites will prove to be the best online locations to advertise to these individuals. If the ideal buyer is a 35 year old soccer mom, then research shows that it would be useful to advertise on deal of the day websites that women in this age group tend to frequent. Alternatively, if our ideal candidate is a business executive that works long hours for a prestigious law firm, LinkedIn advertisements would be the indisputable way to go.

About The Author
Article by Caitlin Rambo.
Caitlin Rambo currently works as Marketing Assistant for Modern Mail.

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