|
|
e_Marketing Blog Twitter Tools and Strategies - Twitter can be a boring waste of time, or a great way to build and enhance a profile, group of followers, online reputation, etc. It's been around long enough now to have an established track record as a useful social networking forum. Not having months of serious Twitter experience I've been surprised at the superficiality of most tweets, and especially surprised at the kind of filler some people use...but whatever... If you are looking for suggestions on how to leverage the "power" of Twitter for your marketing efforts, check out the resources listed here: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR, which includes links to resources like the Big Juicy Twitter Guide (Caroline Middlebrook), Newbies Guide to Twitter (Rafe Needleman) and many more. Different Remote Blogging Interfaces We've been testing our new remote blogging interface for the Link Builder Network called Blogging Central, and while doing that I decided to enumerate some of the alternative remote blogging interfaces I am aware of. These include some very interesting and quite powerful programs. Here are the ones I've looked at: Windows Live Writer - This is a slick program from Microsoft that interfaces with many different blogging platforms including Wordpress and b2Evolution - the two I am most interested in. I haven't actually tested it with other platforms such as blogger.com, but I am assuming it will work. For better or worse it lets you create complex posts that include tables and css elements. As with some others, this program requires you to individually configure each blog account you want to access. When you are dealing with more than 50 accounts, as in the case of the Link Builder Network, this can be a royal pain. Scribfire for Firefox - Scribefire is a Firefox plugin. In other words, it only works with the Firefox browser. Scribefire is a very slick way to interface with many different types of blogs - including Wordpress, Blogger, Moveable Type, and a few others - but not b2evolution. It lets you create relatively complicated post layouts using tables and images, and it even lets you edit previously created posts. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to setup your logins. You will have to manually enter more than 50 blog logins for the Link Builder Network. And you will have to do that for each computer you want to use it with. w.Bloggar - This is another free program that has been around for a while and has gone through a number of versions. It is currently in version 4.03, so you can be sure it is fairly stable. This program will interface with all our Wordpress and b2evolution blogs. It takes a bit of getting used to, and you must set it up for each of the blogs, but once set up it is quite efficient. We have used w.Bloggar for approximately 12 months to make posts for clients, so we know it is reliable. It is a bit more restricted on the formatting side - no tables, for instance - but this is probably a good thing. You can also load all your account logins and passwords by entering them into am .xml file and loading them all at once - a major time saver to be sure. There are other programs like these, but I am not familiar with them. The advantage of Blogging Central is that it is a dedicated system designed especially for posting to the Link Builder Network Wordpress blogs. Once in the system there is no need to login to each blog, and you can send the same post to as many as 4 blogs at once. I will have a Blogging Central video up very soon. Traffic: Why Links Are Important Why are links so important to website owners? I haven't spelled out the answer to this question in a very long time. So here goes... Web Traffic: SEO and Links You want people to visit your website, and one of the important ways to get these visits is from the search engines. By some counts, around 70% of all website visitors come from search engines. So obviously getting help from the search engines can make a big difference to the success or failure of your site. Question 1: To score well with the search engines you need to impress them that your site is worth visiting. OK, so how do you do that? Answer: You have to convince them that your site is an important and helpful resource for specific search terms. Question 2: How do the search engines determine what is an important and helpful resource for a specific search terms? Answer: They evaluate each and every web page in terms of its "quality". Question 3: How do the search engines determine quality? Answer: There are two important factors: on-page content, and inbound links. Question 4: What do you mean by "on-page conent"? Answer: The text on every web page is analyzed to determine what that page is about. The search engines look for "keywords". They assume when specific keywords are mentioned in a page then that is what the page is about. Question 5: How is the "quality" of a page's content determined? Answer: This gets a bit trickier. There are many factors considered by the search engines, but the most basic are the amount of text on the page that focuses on specific keywords, and the presence of specific keywords in critical places that the search engines assume are important places (e.g., the title tag, the main headline, the first bit of text on the page, etc.) Question 6: How else is the "quality" of a page's content determined? Answer: In-bound links. When the search engines see a link pointing from an outside site to a page on your site, they assume that means your page is important enough to be considered a resource worth looking at. The more links you have pointing at your page, the more important your page is considered and the higher it will rank when people search for the type of content your page is about. Question 7: So links help the search engines determine the quality of websites? Answer: Yes. In the eyes of the search engines - especially Google - links are like "votes". When someone links to your site the search engines assume that is like saying "this is a worthwhile resource worth looking at." The more "votes" like this you get, the more likely the search engines are to consider your site a worthwhile resource. Question 8: So is that the whole story on links? Answer: No. Not all links are given the same weight by the search engines. And some links never get discovered because they are on pages that are never visited by the search engines. So you don't get credit for those links. I'll say more about linking strategies in the next post. Resources: |
Review-of-the-week.com features Product Feature Pages — pages dedicated to descriptions or reviews of products or websites. Product Feature pages can include photos and graphics (as long as these are readily available), and can have links pointing back to your (single) site. Product Feature Pages are linked from at least 5 blogs, a number of high traffic article and announcement sites. New Vehicle Websites Rated - Hummer.com is BestJun 28, 2006 - Linknet Online Shopping News Wholesale urban wear - Ice Canada Inc. wholesale clothing, major brand names, designer urban wear apparel. Homecoming Gowns - Prom dresses, nightclub outfits, homecoming gowns, hairstyle videos. Wedding Rings and Wedding Bands - Diamonds come in all shapes and sizes. International Jewelry Trade Show - Jewelry & Gift Trade Show with Thousands of International Buyers New Vehicle Websites Rated - Hummer.com is Best Images, animations showing vehicle features increasing in importanceWESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., June 27 /PRNewswire/ -- HUMMER.com is the most useful manufacturer Web site for new-vehicle shopping, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation Study(SM) -- Wave 2 released today. The semi-annual study measures the usefulness of manufacturer Web sites during the new-vehicle shopping process. New-vehicle shoppers evaluate Web sites in four key areas: appearance, speed, navigation, and information/content. Information/content, which includes vehicle features, specifications, images, equip and build tools, payment calculators and dealer locators, is the most important factor area to shoppers, accounting for 36 percent of the overall index score. HUMMER ranks highest with an index score of 870 on a 1,000-point scale -- a 12-point improvement from Wave 1 of the study, which was released in February 2006. "With nearly 300 different models to choose from, shoppers increasingly rely on the Internet to help match them with a vehicle that not only ideally fits their desired needs but also their image and budget," said Sam Thanawalla, senior manager of digital marketing solutions at J.D. Power and Associates. "HUMMER is an example of a site that has established, and continues to utilize, a logical and user-friendly site design and site architecture that connects with visitors. The increased use of vibrant images, demonstrative videos, diagrams and valuable vehicle specifications, as well as a state-of-the-art build tool, nicely articulate the capabilities and benefits of HUMMER vehicles to shoppers." HUMMER is followed in the rankings by Kia, Suzuki, Pontiac and Subaru, respectively. Across all manufacturer Web sites, the industry average of 838 is the highest recorded in the history of the study. "Manufacturers are consistently finding new and creative ways to deliver information to vehicle shoppers, and the quantity of Web site information is exploding at a rapid pace," said Thanawalla. "However, shopper expectations of Web sites will continue to grow, and shoppers will increasingly expect Web sites to make all information easily and quickly available to them." The study reveals a considerable shift in the importance of vehicle images on manufacturer Web sites and the ability to display the functionality of a vehicle versus simply showcasing its appearance. Manufacturers are benefiting from growing levels of high bandwidth connectivity among new-vehicle shoppers, allowing them to incorporate creative tools to feature the enhancements and capabilities of their products. "More than ever, buyers are relying on their vehicle to be practical, adaptable and exciting," said Thanawalla. "Images can display the flexible function of vehicles, the ease of use of features and accessories, and the ease of reconfiguration, such as folding and removing seats, storage accessories and console repositioning. Educating shoppers about these features allows manufacturers to elaborate on improvements to quality, safety, reliability and fuel efficiency with the use of credible, logical and emotional content on their Web sites. However, as site content becomes more complex, the importance of site speed cannot be taken for granted." The study continues to demonstrate that the more useful a manufacturer Web site is, the more traffic it is likely to drive to dealerships. Offering better online shopping experiences to more shoppers has made manufacturer Web sites a key destination when researching new vehicles. "Looking forward, manufacturers will consistently add more content to their Web site in the form of audio, video, sketches and reviews to accommodate the growing queries and concerns of all shoppers," said Thanawalla. "This tremendous increase in content will require new forms of navigation to access information. This will occur in the form of intelligent search tools and improved universal navigation compounded with relevant navigation links throughout Web pages." The 2006 Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation Study -- Wave 2 is based on evaluations by 11,348 new-vehicle shoppers who indicated they would be in the market for a new vehicle within the next 24 months. Promote your products online with Linknet Promotions.
Linknet Business News provides daily business news summaries in article and RSS format. |
|
|