Top 5 Reccomendations To Do When Launching A Website

After you have your brilliant idea and are bringing it to the web, there are some critical factors that your website must feature to help you, the search engines and the visitors.
1) Analytics Tracking – It doesn’t matter if you have Google Analytics, Omniture or any other tracking tool. You want to understand where your visitors are coming from, and what actions they are taking when they are on your website.
2) HTML Site Map – This is an HTML page that simply lists all the pages on your website. This helps the search engines know about all of the pages on your site including the URLs that may not be discovered when the bots spider your site.
3) Keyword Research – Make sure you are adding the words people are searching for on the correct pages of your website. Keyword research will help you understand what search phrases are likely to bring the visitors who will take action on your website.
4) Test multiple browsers – Not all visitors will be using one browser. Make sure your website is seen how you want it to in all browsers possible.
5) Monitor errors – Run spider simulators on your website. This will tell you what information is wrong, what links are broken, and notify you of any issues the search engines may have.

3 Easy Steps To Get Your Blog Noticed

So you created a blog, created some posts and you are wondering how people will find it? Well there are a few ways to get your blog noticed.

1. Find some popular blogs in your niche and comment on some blog posts. The blog owner usually reads blog comments and will most likely check out your site because they notice a new reader commenting. Of course, make sure you include your blog URL when leaving a comment.

2. Submit your blog to popular blog directories. There are many blog directories out there, but make sure you submit to quality sites with at least a page rank of 3.

Some blog directories to consider are:
http://blogs.botw.org/
http://www.bloggeries.com/
http://www.delightfulblogs.com/

The sites above all have certain requirements they look for so make sure you read them and meet them before submitting, otherwise you may get rejected.

3. Participate in social networks and forums that are related to your blog content. Start and participate in discussions and link to your blog in your profile or signature (if you are using a forum). That way, when people are reading your informative and useful responses, they will be inclined to read more about you and what you have to say.

That’s a starting point and I think all three are definitely doable if you are serious about getting your blog out there. Happy blogging! ☺

All About Wikis

You may not have heard of Jimmy Wales, but you've certainly heard of his brainchild - Wikipedia. This website is one of the power houses of "social media" websites - where the community determines the content and polices itself. It operates to this day as a non-profit, taking no advertising dollars and run on a shoe-string budget.

What you may not be familiar with is Wales' other project - Wikia. Wikia is a for profit advertiser sponsored website with over 5 million pageviews per month. It's basically a wiki platform, that allows anyone to make a wiki of their own - for free - and some of the wikis on it are massive.

Have a look at the video interview of Jimmy Wales to learn more about this "side project" and better understand how wikis work.

Free and Easy Back Up Solution

Backing up files is one of those things you don't always think about until it is too late. Lately we've been looking for the ideal situation for Ten Golden Rules.

But, if you're just a computer owner who wants to back up your personal files, I've got a tip for a free and easy way to do it.

For any files you want to store, use one of your web-based email accounts to send it to another. So, let's say you have a Gmail and a Yahoo account. Upload the file using your Gmail account and then send it to your Yahoo account. Now you've got the document in three places: on your machine, in your Gmail sent items and in your Yahoo inbox. And since Yahoo has unlimited storage, there is plenty of room.

I hope this simple and free solution helps.

More Work for Google Advertisers

If you are advertising in Google AdWords, you may have a new task at hand. A recent policy change now in effect by Google is disallowing multiple display URL domains within a single ad group. If you currently advertise multiple domains in a single ad group, you will have to go in and change your ads.

This policy change only applies to ad groups that display different domain names. Different subdomains and domain extensions are still acceptable. For example, if you have an ad group with the following display urls:

www.tengoldenrules.com
marketing.tengoldenrules.com
tengoldenrules.com/marketing

You will not have a problem because all of the above urls have the same root domain (tengoldenrules.com).

However, if you have an ad group with display urls like these:

www.tengoldenrules.com
www.10goldenrules.com
www.tengoldendeals.com

The ads are no longer accepted by Google because the root domain differs in each.

Fixing your ads to comply with this new policy could be a large, arduous process, especially if you have a large scale account. The easiest way to find out which of your ad groups cause an issue, you can contact your Google rep or call 1-888-246-6453 and they will be able to tell you exactly which ad groups you need to change.

Google's search refinement operators

Neurologists estimate that people use only 1% of their mental capacity. With that said, it is not a surprise to see that the majority of search queries are quite basic and the power of google search engine for most of us remains undiscovered.

So I am going to give you some search operators that I find quite interesting and useful so that you can spend less time searching and more time learning.

Below are some other great ways to query google and get nuggets of information that will make your search quest easier:

marketing filetype:pdf - will return pdf documents about marketing. You can do the same for swf, word docs, excel files, etc.
cache:www.tengoldenrules.com - display google's cashed version of a webpage
related:www.tengoldenrules.com - List web pages that are similar or related to that URL
marketing site:www.tengoldenrules.com - Search for information on marketing from a particular website
online marketing 2004..2006 - Search for online marketing articles between 2004 and 2006 (remember to put the two dots in the middle of the numbers!)
online marketing services OR tutorial - will return results for online marketing services or online marketing tutorial
"online marketing services" - will return pages with that exact phrase
define:marketing - definitions of the word marketing
allinanchor:marketing - "Marketing" must appear in anchor text of links to the page
allinanchor:online marketing sites - Search for pages that are called online marketing sites by others
Florida agency inanchor:online marketing - Search for pages on Florida agency for which links to the page say they are "online marketing"

The list goes on and you will find more on my next post!

Get Your Business Listed For Twitter

So you’re a small business owner and you’ve heard about Twitter, but you’re not sure how to get your business found? One great way to get your company found is by listing it with Twibbs.com. This free service will allow your company to be found, show the tweets you have put out, and monitor the tweets about your company.

Same goes for those who are looking to see if their favorite company is on Twitter. You can search by brand name and then simply follow them. This has become a great first step to contact the company instead of going through their customer service phone lines.

Color & Marketing for Your Website

Recently one of our clients embarked on a website redesign with us consulting for them. During our first meeting with the website designer, I was fascinated to hear about the science behind choosing a color scheme for the website.

As Internet Marketers, we don't always think about the minutia of design criteria, but the designer had it covered. Through a few questions, he was able to help the client gel his ideas of what he wanted his website to convey and achieve. The end result was an established color palette meant to inspire trust and caring. As a personal injury attorney in the highly competitive New York area, this was an important message to the client.

When you're considering a website redesign or even overall brand and identity creation, get familiar with the science of color - learning how to create an instant impact through color and design. Since you've got about 4 seconds to make a lasting impression on your website visitors, it's a very important exercise. Check out the Color Matters website for more information and to get started in the right direction.

Track What The Internet Says About Your Business

As more and more people realize how powerful the internet really is and how it can impact a person and even a business, we should all be aware of what is being said on the internet. Businesses especially should be aware of this because it can really affect them in the long run. With that said, not only should you keep tabs of what is being said about your company name through Google Alerts, there are other tools that you can use as well.

Social media search tool, WhosTalkin allows you to search conversations that surround the topics that you specify. The website appears to look like a search engine, but once you type in a query, it will list any sites that mention the keyword you typed. It not only looks for blog or website mentions, but video and photos as well. This is probably good site to bookmark and check periodically.

Another site called SocialMention is similar to WhosTalkin but offers RSS (and supposedly email alerts, although I didn't see any option), similar to what Google Alerts does. The site aggregates results from numerous websites such as Twitter, Delicious, Digg, and Google Blog Search, as well as YouTube all in one place.

Yotify is somewhat different to the other two sites in that it can track news headlines, job listings, deals on things you want to buy and even airline tickets. You just need to specify if you want an email alert, or just view the information from the website, a specific keyword and from what source you want tracking from.

Exciting News New Book to launch April 5th "Connect! Marketing in the Social Media Era"

We are very excited to share early news about a new book called "Connect! Marketing in the Social Media Era" that our CEO Jay Berkowitz wrote a passage for.

The project, organized by Jeff Caswell, features 100 Authors with 400 words each with all proceeds to Susan G. Komen breast cancer research!

You can see the SlideShare here to learn more about this exciting project.

Bill Gates 11 Golden Rules

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things students did not and will not learn in school.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Pay-Per-Click Tip: Getting the most out of your ad space

Pay-per-click for search is some of the most targeted online advertising available. The problem with advertising on a search network, such as Google, is getting your message across in a very limited space. Pay-per-click ads, when served on search engine results pages, usually only provide you with 25 characters of headline space and about 70 characters of ad copy space.

Advertisers always want to get their entire sales pitch out there, and could not imagine fitting it in such a small space. Forget about sales pitches and view the ad not as a selling stage, but as a pre-qualifier for your sales funnel. Sell the visitor on the landing page, not in the ad. By pre-qualifying visitors, those who do click on your ad will be more likely to complete an action on your site. This will reduce your acquisition cost.

The golden question then becomes, “How do I effectively use the ad space?” Well, you should try to include the following items in your ads:

· A value proposition (i.e. “Free Consultation” or “Save 25%”)

· An endorsement from a third party (i.e. “A+ Rating in Better Business Bureau”)

· A call to action (i.e. “Sign Up” or “Buy Now”)

Once you get the type of visitor you are looking for from the ads, you can give them a detailed sales pitch on the landing page.

Another way to fit important information in your ad is to use symbols and abbreviations. For example, using the "&" instead of the word "and" saves you two characters.

Netbooks: Redefining Portability

Netbooks are a smaller, lighter, less expensive alternative to laptop and desktop computers. While there are some limitations with respect to running certain applications and memory storage, these computers are great for students, children, the elderly and business travelers. 

The typical netbook costs under $400, weighs about 3 pounds and has a 9 inch screen. This kind of portability and affordability makes netbooks ideal for students looking for a less expensive computer to take to class, parents looking for a kid-friendly computer, elderly people wanting to stay connected, and busy professionals who don't want to lug around a heavy laptop between business meetings. 

Netbooks offer wireless access to the internet and support web-based applications. Online applications allow word processing, database and email programs to run without installing software. There is typically 1 GB of memory and no CD drive, so users often rely on USB and external hard drives for storage. 

With the growing popularity of smart phones, netbooks have become an instant success and outsold iPhones in 2008. 

The recession has also helped the sale of netbooks. These mini-computers were listed in Forbes' "Top 10 Things We're Still Buying" for their affordability and broad appeal. 

Fun With YouTube Annotations

YouTube annotations is probably something that you may have noticed on YouTube videos lately, but never knew they were actually called 'annotations.' YouTube annotations are a new way to add interaction to your videos by using speech bubbles, background information about the video in the form of a text box, links to other YouTube videos or channels, or highlighting a certain part of a video containing text.

Every video on YouTube is able to utilize this feature, and when you are signed into your YouTube account, viewing your own video, you may see an edit feature on the lower left hand side, as well as in the Video Owner Options, called 'Annotations.'

Below is a great example of a video using Annotations. It's pretty neat how even over the internet, through video, you can perform magic tricks.



Here is another video on how to actually use YouTube annotations in your videos.

Learn more about adding YouTube annotations, and include a few on your YouTube video. It will definitely make an impact.

The Problem With Testimonials (and the solution!)

So you've got a website and some very happy visitors. You figure it's a good idea to include testimonials from your visitors on your website. You're certainly in good company, as many websites feature testimonials of all kinds - and many experts believe they increase credibility and therefore conversions or sales. So it's a good idea, for what it's worth - but they may not be worth much if they're not BELIEVED.

There are lots of suggestions for how to make your testimonials believable. I found this top ten list. But, where is the REAL credibility?

Try authenticating your testimonials. Just like authenticating your website secure server certificate, you can authenticate the source and truthfulness of your testimonials. The AuthenticatedTestimonials.com service offers to verify the person credited with each of your testimonials and provides a "trusted" seal for you to display along with the testimonial.

If testimonials are a major part of your marketing mix, it's worth checking out.

Your Blog: Before & After

Here's a tip for the day:

If you made a blog some time ago, you might want to think about updating the look and feel, as well as considering additional content and features. Blog platforms have become more robust, and the number of templates and features available have expanded.

We recently undertook a "blog beautification" project for one of our clients, as they became more active with their blogging.

With a few waves of the "beautification wand", the blog went from this:


To (a much improved) this:



We also added content feeds with top headlines relevant to the blog topic, as well as a blog roll and enhanced links.

The brand is enhanced, the client is overjoyed, and it took very little time to do. Well worth the effort.

Recession Depression Prescription

There is so much negative press about the economy it can cause a personal down spiral unless you shake off the doom and gloom and get rocking and rolling.

I know. I spent the first couple days of 2009 in a state of complete paralysis worrying about what would happen this year. Once I turned my head around, I found out that its much more fun and productive to be moving forward despite any obstacles that might be in your way.

I launched myself out of the negative mental state with the following tools. If you are suffering from "The World is Coming to an End" blues, here is my prescription:


1. Do not, under any circumstances watch the news, listen to news on radio or read the business section of the newspaper. Skip it. It's bad, it'll be bad the next time you look too.

2. Take in some positive attitude. I recently discovered a GREAT podcast called Morning Coach . JB Glossinger does a brief uplifting podcast every morning (make sure you listen to JB other people do the show too, but try 1 of JB's recordings first). This podcast is also FREE on iTunes

3. Do something nice for someone else. Call a friend who is unemployed just to cheer them up. Give $1 to the guy at the side of the road.

4. Attend a Seminar or listen to Anthony Robbins tapes. I know, its corny, but Robbins is the best motivator in the world. I went to his seminar, I walked on fire the first night and after that the seminar really took off.

5. Read the new copy of Fast Company Magazine (March 2009) featuring the World's 50 Most innovative Companies. In the Letter From the Editor Robert Safian promises "You won't find Bernie Madoff, or talk of the great depression, unemployment statistics or the word 'bailout'...It's not that we have our heads in the sand. We know how challenging the business environment is. In fact, that's exactly why we tried to make this issue as upeat and busting with potential as possible. Only creativity and aggressive innovation will fuel a turnaround.

6. Exercise. Nothing beats the blues like a good sweat. See the sunrise. Watch a sunset.

I don't have my head in the sand, there are negative influences in the external environment. If you can manage your internal environment I hope you can take on a positive attitude as I did.

Free Survey For Your Website Courtesy of Avinash Kaushik

What is working? What is not working? Well, guessing is not exactly what you should be doing. Let your website visitors tell you what they think and want.

Avinash Kaushik and iPerceptions created 4Q, a free survey that enables you to ask the most important questions to your visitors:

-How satisfied are my visitors?
-What are my visitors at my website to do?
-Are they completing what they set out to do?
-If not, why not?
-If yes, what did they like best about the online experience?

Not only this tool is free (how you like that for a bailout?), but you will get real-time and complete access to the results.

Now you do not have any more excuses for not digging into what should you have a long time ago. Go to 4Q and begin using your visitors feedback to convert them into customers by giving them what they want and not what you think they want.

Google Maps About To Overtake MapQuest

Although MapQuest is still the leader in the online map space, Google Maps is getting closer and closer to overtaking the market share. Back in January 2008, Google Maps held just over 20% of the market share while MapQuest held strong at over 50%. By February 7 of 2009, however, Google upped its market share to 36%, while MapQuest dropped to 39%. With the two applications now almost neck and neck, MapQuest has been adding new features in an attempt to regain its foothold. With Google maps blended so well in search results, it is not likely that MapQuest will be able to hold on much longer.

What does this mean for internet marketing? Get those local business ads up in AdWords and register your company in Google’s Local Business Center.

Google Content Network - Is It Really A Bust?

I talk to a lot of clients who mention the Google Content Network for their PPC campaigns. While many online marketing professionals are dismissive of this channel, I have found some very effective uses, especially given the enhanced targeting ability that Google provides with the Placement Targeting feature. I was reminded of this recently when viewing a case study of a Levi's and Nike co-advertising campaign.

Google Placement Targeting in their Content Network allowed these two major brands to target extraordinarily nichey websites frequented by young male "sneaker heads", with rabid interest in their special edition t-shirt and jeans collection. Because of this highly targeted campaign, the inventory of 2,300 sets sold out in less than one minute - all with a miniscule budget.

So, next time you're wondering what you can do with the Google Content Network, think again. Then, think a bit harder. For many clients, it's a goldmine just waiting to be explored.

Hilarious version of the Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing from I Wear Your Shirt.com

When we heard about a new social marketing promotion and website launching called I Wear Your Shirt we had to sign up for a day, and February 10th was ours!

Jason Sadler, wore our shirt and produced this hilarious YouTube video:



He also did a live chat on UStream, blogged, a bunch of Twitters and posted some photos on Flickr. Plus we wrote a search engine optimized press release.

We had a 75% increase in web traffic and the results keep coming through the wonder of social media links! If you'd like an innovative type of marketing for your product, act fast, the year is almost sold out. Not bad for $41.