Google's guide on SEO

What's an SEO? Does Google recommend working with companies that offer to make my site Google-friendly?

SEO is an acronym for "search engine optimization" or "search engine optimizer." Deciding to hire an Toronto search engine optimizaiton is a big decision. Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site. Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, including:

* Reviewing and providing recommendations on your site content or structure
* Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript
* Content development
* Managing online business development campaigns
* Keyword research
* SEO training

Keep in mind that the Google search results page often includes paid advertising and free organic search results. It costs nothing to appear in our organic search results, and advertising with Google won't improve your ranking. Free resources such as Webmaster Tools, the official Webmaster Central blog, and our discussion group can provide you with a great deal of information about how to optimize your site for organic search. Many of these free sources, as well as information on paid search, can be found on Google Webmaster Central.

Before beginning your search for an SEO , it's a great idea to become an educated consumer and get familiar with how search engines work. We recommend starting here:

* Google Webmaster Guidelines
* Google 101: How Google crawls, indexes and serves the web.

If you're thinking about hiring an SEO, the earlier the better. A great time to hire is when you're considering a site redesign, or planning to launch a new site. That way, you and your SEO can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. However, a good SEO can also help improve an existing site.

Some useful questions to ask an SEO include:

* Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
* Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
* Do you offer any online marketing services to complement your organic search business?
* What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe?
* What's your experience in my industry?
* How long have you been in business?

While SEOs can provide clients with valuable services, some unethical SEOs have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. Practices that violate our guidelines may result in your site being removed from the Google index. Here are some things to consider:

* Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.

Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:

"Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..."

Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for "burn fat at night" diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.
* No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.

Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.
* Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do.

Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or "throwaway" domains, your site could be removed entirely from Google's index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it's best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to "help" you.

* You should never have to link to an SEO.

Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines -- at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.

* Choose wisely.

While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google is one way to do that, of course. You might also seek out a few of the cautionary tales that have appeared in the press, including this article on one particularly aggressive SEO: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002002970_nwbizbriefs12.html. While Google doesn't comment on specific companies, we've encountered firms calling themselves SEOs who follow practices that are clearly beyond the pale of accepted business behavior. Be careful.

* Be sure to understand where the money goes.

While Google never sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEOs will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section rather than in the search results. A few SEOs will even change their bid prices in real time to create the illusion that they "control" other search engines and can place themselves in the slot of their choice. This scam doesn't work with Google because our advertising is clearly labeled and separated from our search results, but be sure to ask any SEO you're considering which fees go toward permanent inclusion and which apply toward temporary advertising.

* What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter?

One common scam is the creation of "shadow" domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a client's behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor's domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO.

Another illicit practice is to place "doorway" pages loaded with keywords on the client's site somewhere. The Toronto SEO services promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious, however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO's other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content.

* What are some other things to look out for?

There are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It's far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away if the SEO:

o owns shadow domains
o puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
o offers to sell keywords in the address bar
o doesn't distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear in search results
o guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
o operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
o gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware
o has had domains removed from Google's index or is not itself listed in Google

If you feel that you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.

Advertising; get out there, and get noticed

Writing a Job Description - Is it Marketing?

Writing job descriptions to post online can be a daunting and even boring task. But why does it have to be? It could be one of the most important things you do. Why? Well, what you're selling is your company rather than the product your company sells.

You want a prospective employee to choose you, over another company, to spend their entire and very valuable day with. Your company can be the reason your new employee gets up in the morning and transports themselves to work. That's a really important decision for any prospective employee to make.

So is writing a job description considered marketing? Perhaps one of the most important forms of it!

Here's a template we use that might help get you started. Before we write about the position we're trying to fill we provide an overview that looks something like this.

Who We Are

Here write about what your company does, how long you've been in business, any awards your company has won, and how fast you're growing. You want your employee to get excited about the company first.

Our Culture

In our case we write about how we "work hard but play hard". You might talk about how fun it is to work in your company and some fun stories about your customers. If your business is a bit more serious you might focus on any employee achievements or how you empower your employees. Either way, you want to give the vibe of what it could be like to work in your company.

What We Offer

Here you can write in generalities about your generous package and the way you promote from within. This is to make prospective employees feel great about applying.

Then we get into the actual descriptions.

Job Title

Provide a paragraph of the overall position. You'll want to get your prospective employee excited about what they'll be doing day-to-day. Here's an example of a posting we have for a Marketing Manager:

The Marketing Programs Manager role is integral to Toronto SEO marketing’s rapidly growing marketing organization and is responsible for driving new customer conversion through email, surveys and postcards. This is a great opportunity for a proven marketing programs professional to gain broad experience across a variety of channels and help drive the most important objective of the company.

Qualifications

Here you'll give your bulleted must haves. It's tough to be sexy here. You'll want some number of years of experience, some education level, someone who is detail-oriented. Just think about all of the things this person must know how to do before coming into the job.

Responsibilities

These are bulleted areas of what this person is going to be responsible for day-to-day. Here you should even try to make the mundane sound hot!

To Apply

Here's where you can have a bit of fun and let your culture show through. Here's an example of that Marketing Position we have open.

To Apply:

* Send a copy of your resume to hiring@verticalresponse.com
* Tell us why you love marketing
* Tell us a funny story or funny joke (yes, we’re testing to see if you actually have a sense of humor)
* Tell us why you’re passionate about helping small businesses grow

Overall you're trying to get a new employee who fits into your culture. You want to match how you position the job opening to the copy you write. So make sure you put a bit of effort into how you market your company to your prospective employees and you'll win in the end.

If anyone has their own template or can improve on our design please share!

Advertising; get out there, and get noticed

Yesup SEO

Toronto, Ontario, January 7, 2008 - Yesup Ecommerce Solutions Inc., announced that it will invest $2.5 million dollars into it's IT subdivision to engage in it's own new innovative Ad Marketplace.
As the growth of online advertising continues to stays strong, we see the liquidity and the demand for a transparent marketplace, and believe that consumers are putting more emphasis on Ad Marketplaces when deciding how to allocate their budget.
The Ad Marketplace will be developed with the mind-set of aligning Yesup Ecommerce Solutions Inc.'s mission of creating simplicity from complexity. As always, there will be innovative ideas to distinguish ourselves from the crowd.

Advertising; get out there, and get noticed

What is email marketing?

E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to:

Sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or old customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.

Sending e-mails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing old customers to buy something immediately.

Adding advertisements in e-mails sent by other companies to their customers.
E-mails that are being sent on the Internet


Advantages

E-mail marketing (on the Internet) is popular with companies because:

The advantage of a mailing list is clearly the ability to distribute information to a wide range of specific, potential customers at a relatively low cost using services.

Compared to other media investments such as direct mail or printed newsletters, it is less expensive.

An exact Return on investment can be tracked ("track to basket") and has proven to be high when done properly. E-mail marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.

It is instant, as opposed to a mailed advertisement, an e-mail arrives in a few seconds or minutes.

It lets the advertiser "push" the message to its audience, as opposed to a website that waits for customers to come in.

It is easy to track. An advertiser can track users via web bugs, bounce messages, un-subscribes, read-receipts, click-throughs, etc. These can be used to measure open rates, positive or negative responses, correlate sales with marketing.

Advertisers generate repeat business affordably and automatically

Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of e-mail subscribers who have opted in (consented) to receive e-mail communications on subjects of interest to them
Over half of Internet users check or send e-mail on a typical day.

Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other messages to be automatically delivered

Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other events such as updating the profile of the recipient to indicate a specific interest category
Green - e-mail marketing is paper-free

Disadvantages

Many companies use e-mail marketing to communicate with existing customers, but many other companies send unsolicited bulk e-mail, also known as spam.

Internet system administrators have always considered themselves responsible for dealing with "abuse of the net", but not "abuse on the net". That is, they will act quite vigorously against spam, but will leave issues like libel or trademark infringement to the courts. Most administrators passionately hate spam, which they define as any unsolicited e-mail. Draconian measures—such as taking down a corporate website with or without warning — are an entirely normal response to spamming. Typically, the "Terms of Service" in Internet companies' contracts allow this, so the spammer has no recourse.

Illicit e-mail marketing antedates legitimate e-mail marketing, since on the early Internet (see Arpanet) it was not permitted to use the medium for commercial purposes. As a result, marketers attempting to establish themselves as legitimate businesses in e-mail marketing have had an uphill battle, hampered also by criminal spam operations billing themselves as legitimate.

It is frequently difficult for observers to distinguish between legitimate and spam e-mail marketing. First off, spammers attempt to represent themselves as legitimate operators, obfuscating the issue. Second, direct-marketing political groups such as the U.S. Direct Marketing Association (DMA) have pressured legislatures to legalize activities which some Internet operators consider to be spamming, such as the sending of "opt-out" unsolicited commercial e-mail. Third, the sheer volume of spam e-mail has led some users to mistake legitimate commercial e-mail (for instance, a mailing list to which the user subscribed) for spam — especially when the two have a similar appearance, as when messages include HTML and flashy graphics.

Due to the volume of spam e-mail on the Internet, spam filters are essential to most users. Some marketers report that legitimate commercial e-mails frequently get caught by filters, and hidden; however, it is somewhat less common for e-mail users to complain that spam filters block legitimate mail.

Companies considering an e-mail marketing program must make sure that their program does not violate spam laws such as the United States' CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act),the European Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 or their Internet provider's acceptable use policy. Even if a company follows the law, if Internet mail administrators find that it is sending spam it is likely to be listed in blacklists such as SPEWS.

CAN-SPAM compliance

Because the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 authorizes a USD 11,000 penalty per violation for spamming each individual recipient, many commercial e-mail marketers within the United States utilize a service or special software that helps ensure compliance with the Act. A variety of older systems exist which do not ensure compliance with the Act. To comply with the Act's regulation of commercial e-mail, services typically: require users to authenticate their return address and include a valid physical address, provide a one-click unsubscribe feature, and prohibit importing lists of purchased addresses which may not have given valid permission.

In addition to satisfying legal requirements, service providers stepped in to help customers to set up and manage their own e-mail marketing campaigns. The services provide e-mail templates, automatically handle subscriptions and removals, and generate statistics on how many messages were received and opened, and whether the recipients clicked on any links within the messages.

This act was recently updated with some new changes which will go into effect July 7, 2008

Opt-in e-mail advertising

Opt-in e-mail advertising or permission marketing is a method of advertising via electronic mail whereby the recipient of the advertisement has consented to receive it. It is one of several ways developed by marketers to eliminate the disadvantages of e-mail marketing.

E-mail has become a very popular mode of communication across the world. It has also become extremely popular to advertise through. Some of the many advantages of advertising through e-mail are the direct contact with the consumer and is “inexpensive, flexible, and simple to implement” (Fairhead, 2003). There are also disadvantages attached to e-mail advertising such as, alienating the consumer because of overload to messages or the advertisement getting deleted without getting read.

Permission e-mail marketing may evolve into a technology that uses a handshake protocol between sender and receiver (Fairhaed, 2003. This system is intended to eventually result in a high degree of satisfaction between consumers and marketers. If opt-in e-mail advertising is used, the material that is e-mailed to consumers will be “anticipated.” It is assumed that the consumer wants to receive it, which makes it unlike unsolicited advertisements sent to the consumer (often referred to as spam).Ideally, opt-in e-mail advertisements will be more personal and relevant to the consumer than untargetted advertisements.

A common example of permission marketing is a newsletter sent to a firm’s customers. Newsletters like this are a way to let customers know about upcoming events or promotions, or new products.In this type of advertising, a company that wants to send a newsletter to their customers may ask them at the point of purchase if they would like to receive this newsletter.

With a foundation of opted-in contact information stored in a database, marketers can automatically send out promotional materials. The marketers can also segment their promotions to specific market segments.

Advertising; get out there, and get noticed

Western Olympic Ads Cheerlead for China

BEIJING — It is becoming increasingly clear which nation global corporations will be rooting for at this summer’s Olympics: China.


Or at least that’s what it looks like from advertisements here. McDonald’s is running a “Cheer for China” television ad. Nike ads feature China’s star hurdler, Liu Xiang, and other Chinese athletes besting foreign competitors. Earlier this year, Pepsi even painted its familiar blue cans red for a limited edition “Go Red for China” promotion.

The campaigns for Western companies are part of an advertising blitz the likes of which this ostensibly communist nation has never seen. Ads are papered over bus shelters, projected on giant outdoor television screens and plastered on billboards. Commercials even flicker at commuters as they zoom through subway tunnels.

China, already the world’s second-largest advertising market, after the United States, is a dream for consumer product companies. “For most international brands here, China is the growth market for the next 10 years,” said Jonathan Chajet, strategic director at Interbrand, which consults on brands.

A record 63 companies have become sponsors or partners of the Beijing Olympics. Olympic-related advertising in China could reach $4 billion to $6 billion this year, according to CSM, a Beijing marketing research firm.

“You’ve never seen the Olympics in a market that has such domestic, commercial scale,” says Michael Wood, the chief executive for greater China at Leo Burnett, the global advertising agency. “When the Olympics were in Los Angeles and Atlanta, the U.S. market was already fully developed.”

The promise of selling a billion bottles of Coke to China’s 1.3 billion people is no longer a pipe dream; last year, 24 billion bottles of Coca-Cola were sold in China. KFC, a unit of Yum Brands, has more than 2,000 stores here. McDonald’s and Starbucks are ubiquitous. And Nokia, the cellphone maker, sold about 70 million phones to Chinese consumers in 2007, racking up sales of $10 billion.

Now those global brands are trying to extend their reach beyond China’s wealthiest cities. But China’s growing economic clout and increasing nationalism among its youth — as well as the newfound strength of its homegrown brands — pose challenges for foreign companies trying to woo its growing middle class.

“For most international brands, this is a double-edged sword,” said Mr. Chajet of Interbrand. “They’re premium, high-tech and status brands. But there’s rising nationalism, and the Olympics is a rallying cry for the Chinese, who are looking for a reason not to buy foreign.”

To win over Chinese consumers, Adidas, which already has more than 4,000 stores in China, has new television and print ads showing legions of everyday Chinese guiding the country’s top athletes to gold medal performances. The campaign won a top award at the Cannes Lions advertising festival in June.

Erica Kerner, director of Adidas’s Beijing Olympic Games program, said, “This is about rallying the nation.”

Gatorade, which is owned by Pepsico, has a television ad featuring Chinese athletes counting down to the year 2008. It concludes with a group of children, around age 7, at what looks like an Olympic training center, hitting table tennis balls in unison and counting down to 2012 and 2016.

A Volkswagen campaign encourages people to “honk for China”; McDonald’s ads say “I’m Lovin’ It When China Wins”; and Nike, though not an Olympic sponsor, is the official outfitter of more than 20 of China’s teams.

But these advertising ventures are not going unchallenged. The Chinese government is pushing its companies to amplify their ad messages to compete with foreign brands. Many are promoting their home-court advantage.

For example, a print advertising campaign by Anta, one of China’s biggest sportswear companies, shows a crowd of flag-waving youths gesturing like wild revolutionaries in a state of Olympic euphoria. Many of Anta’s television ads include the song lyrics “I love you, China.”

Ads by the dairy producer Yili feature young people and the tag line, “I Make China Strong!”

More than a dozen Chinese companies have paid millions each to become Olympic sponsors, including the computer maker Lenovo (the sole Chinese company among the Games’ “global sponsors”). And some companies are hinting that, like the country’s top athletes, they can go head-to-head with the best in the West.

Marketing experts say one downside to the advertising frenzy is the clutter.

In the sea of ads featuring Chinese athletes pitching products as varied as Cadillacs and traditional Chinese medicine — with endless images of the Olympic stadium — is a simple question: Whose ad was that anyway? In fact, Mr. Liu, the hurdler, is in ads for at least 16 companies, including Nike and Coke.

“The sameness of the ads is the frightening thing,” said Terry Rhoads, managing director at Zou Marketing, a sports consultancy in Shanghai. “You have to wonder about the ad agencies.”

The avalanche of Olympic television advertising is compounded by so-called ambush marketing, in which nonsponsors — often rivals of official sponsors — try to grab some Olympic glory without paying the high sponsorship fees. The proliferation of such ads is not going unchecked; China is scrutinizing the ads of nonsponsors, trying to give prime billboard space to the official sponsors.

Pepsico, for instance, is not an Olympic sponsor, but its Gatorade brand sponsors some Chinese athletes. Nike is also not a sponsor of the Games, but it has created some of the most striking television ads, encouraging Chinese athletes to “Just Do It.”

Further blurring the line between official and unofficial, some competing companies have been allowed as sponsors: three beer makers — Budweiser, Tsingtao and Yanjing — will be Olympic sponsors, authorized not by the International Olympic Committee but by the Beijing Olympic committee.

With so many companies eager to market to China’s increasingly wealthy consumers, advertising agencies and China’s sports industry — which controls Olympic athletes and shares in their sponsorship dollars — have already captured lots of gold.

“There’s never been an Olympics with such a big home market,” says Dick van Motman, the chief executive of the Chinese division of DDB Worldwide, the advertising agency. For global brands to succeed, he said, that means “reinforcing your image; aligning yourself with the China dream; and aligning yourself with China entering the world stage. That’s the real game.”

Advertising; get out there, and get noticed

Tips About Internet Marketing

Being an Internet marketer, I get asked all sorts of questions by my friends, family and those outside the field. It’s especially interesting because many of them have absolutely no idea about what is involved with marketing online. It’s just a very new concept for many.

I usually first explain how it depends whether you’re talking about marketing a website, a bricks and mortar establishment, an online store, a blog, an e-zine, etc. Then I start to get complex with it and go into detail, start providing examples, and end up off on long tangents about all the specifics. Many people are fascinated, which inspires some great conversations.

Anyway, that got me thinking how although Internet marketing isn’t an exact science, and every different project offers its own unique set of challenges (and opportunities), there are some good general learnings I’ve had throughout my career of marketing online that could be applied to most industries:

1) There’s always more than one road to success
Internet marketing is many times a big social science experiment. That’s the main reason I find it so compelling, even the top guys in the field can’t really put a 100% guarantee on success in a project. But, there’s always so many different avenues you can walk down to find success, and you can take a diversified approach with most projects and then really concentrate on what is bringing the desired returns. The silver bullet doesn’t necessarily come easy, and there may not even always be a silver bullet online for all companies online. That’s the nature of pop culture, however, and the social web is in many ways just a big extension of that.

2) Open, honest, transparent communication is best
Being secretive or closed-off when you’re marketing online is always a bad idea. You want to be open, honest and true to what you’re doing. To go against this in any part of life is to be put at a major disadvantage and inspire disdain. When marketing online, you want to always maintain open lines of communication with your audience, and always listen to them. It’s the best (and free) market research there is. But you’ll only get it if you’re open. I’d like to hope this translates into most things (except maybe poker).

3) Only work on projects you’re passionate about
Everyone, and I do mean everyone, is vying for attention online. So, if you’re trying to create an Internet marketing campaign and aren’t passionate about it, you’re already setting yourself up for failure. Sorry if this is a cliché, but to not give 100% is essentially to give 0%. The campaigns and projects in this space created with passion are obvious not only to other web marketers, but everyone online. Web users are exceptionally intelligent…they will see through any of your attempts to do something without passion and probably pass you over for whatever is next. It’s true for artists too…especially pop-music artists. The ones with staying power have passion. The ones flacked and exploited around radio, the web and TV by record labels and are purely backed by a fake image and big marketing dollars don’t usually have real success.

4) You have to be unique
Our world is oversaturated with products, services, restaurants, blogs, brands of soda, etc. To create something that is just a little better than something else is still blending in, and will only create marginally better results. You have to be unique and excel in at least one way. You have to create the extraordinary to see big results. Otherwise, you’re setting yourself up for the typical, lukewarm results everyone gets. Be realistic, but be remarkable.

5) Clarity counts
Clearly communicating what you’re doing and promoting on the web is vital to getting the results you want. You can frame something in a way that only a small subset of the population will understand it, that is absolutely fine (in fact, an incredibly powerful strategy is to find an ignored subset of the population, and then speak directly to them). But ultimately, your messages should all be consistent and clear to your target audience. If you can’t explain it clearly to someone in a brief period of time, do you think someone who isn’t close to what you’re doing is going to be able to tell their friend about it quickly and efficiently (or even want to)? Also, never dumb down your message if you’re going after a subset (here’s why).

Advertising; get out there, and get noticed

Google Launches Lively to Create a Virtual World Across Social Networks

Google has just launched Lively, a new social network built around the concept of each user creating an avatar and a personal virtual room that can be embedded anywhere on the Web. In essence, Google is looking to create a massive distributed virtual world, where every Google account can have its own avatar that can be used wherever a Lively virtual room is present – for example, on a blog, a social networking profile, or a Web page.

Here’s a closer look at what Google is launching, how it works, and how it might fit into Google’s larger social networking plans:

Getting Started

To use Lively, you do need to sign up using a Google account and download a browser plug-in. From there, you are able to create your own avatar – starting from a “template” character which then has customizable attributes like skin tone, hair color, and eye colors. You can also dress your character with clothing and accessories. In turn, you’re now ready to use Lively wherever you encounter a room on the Web by signing into it with your virtual account.

Lively Rooms

Similar to avatars, Lively offers several templates for starting your room that can then be customized – for example, a 5 room apartment, or a desert island (rooms can be outdoors). From there, you can do things like add your own background music, insert furniture, pull in photos from Picasa (and other services) and embed YouTube videos on a virtual plasma screen TV.

Once a room has been created, embed code allows you to copy it to any Web page. Each room also has its own URL on Lively, if you prefer to just send your friends to your room directly.


User Interactions

When you’re in a room, there are text chatting options, emotions (angry, happy, say hello, etc.), and you can move around furniture (if the room owner permits it). Some of the emotions are tied to the text chat – for example, if you type “hello,” your avatar will wave. If you enter a room and there is no one it, you can leave a message and a piece of furniture for the room owner.


Monetization Potential

While for now Lively is a free product, there are already hints at the monetization potential Google is looking at with this product. For example, when browsing room templates you can use, it lists the price as “free,” implying that eventually there will be premium versions to choose from. Additionally, with the inclusion of wardrobe options, it’s not hard to connect the dots and see massive opportunities for product placement, such as decorating your character with Nike shoes or a Starter jacket (or whatever the kids are wearing these days).

Advertising; get out there, and get noticed

Firefox 3 and community — How Mozilla used social networking to set a world record

Mozilla is currently deep in the heart of its celebration over officially setting a new Guinness World Record for the largest number of software downloads (8,002,530!) in 24 hours for its Firefox 3 browser. But the company isn’t cheering alone — its enjoying this victory with the community it rightfully credits for helping it to succeed.

Mozilla’s marketing strategy has historically been word-of-mouth engagement, a method that very creatively began with its 2004 Firefox 1.0 launch. As more social networking venues have opened up and expanded to businesses, Mozilla has adapted to putting up appropriate channels and resources.

“Since Firefox is all about the online experience it’s a natural fit for folks who are open to social networking,” said Paul Kim, vice president of marketing for Mozilla. “We announced Download Day with a very concerted plan to leverage multiple social networks and to seed content on those networks that would drive traffic to the download site.”

In doing so, Kim says, it was very important that Mozilla leverage the social applications in a way that was true to its brand, as the company’s engagement with its users has always been very authentic and open.

“Social tools have created a very different era for brand communications, and the thing with social media interaction is that people can spot you a mile away if you’re using the channels like you would a traditional mass marketing technique,” he said. “Social media does no service for existing or future customers if you do not treat it as a human channel with real interaction.”
Mozilla used the following methods to promote Firefox 3 Download Day:

Spread FirefoxThe Firefox community portal started out as the original gathering point for community members. Mozilla created a specific Download Day theme for the site where users could get badges to put on blogs as well as “pledge” to download the software on Download Day. Mozilla received 1.7 million pledges and the affiliate button distribution brought 43 million views to the site.

FacebookThe Firefox Facebook fan page has near 115K members. “We seeded the community with links of articles and other information that pointed to the Download Day site,” Kim said. Mozilla took a very similar approach with social networking sites Bebo and Mixi (Japan).
TwitterKim says that while Mozilla Firefox’s Twitter page was set up in 2007 it grew tremendously (now with close to 5K followers) and was a great complement to its other efforts. “We’re incredibly happy with the level of activity and response we received from our Twitter followers,” he said.

YouTubeMozilla produced a series of feature overview videos that were narrated by some of the designers who worked on Firefox 3. From viewing the YouTube comments and ratings it does not appear that the videos gained much traction, however it was a low-cost alternative to doing traditional video advertising.

Mozilla PartiesMozilla Party Central, a bit of a mashup of Google Maps and Upcoming, is where the company shares news about its launch parties and also gives users the tools to promote and host their own parties. As of last count there have been near 850 parties worldwide, attended by more than 6K people. Mozilla will receive its official Guinness World Record certificate at a party in London this Wednesday.

Mozilla also put energy into traditional public relations efforts, heading on press tour throughout the U.S., Europe, China and Japan. While this was successful as well, Kim says that its Mozilla’s community that truly helped drive Download Day success.

“Social media is not an isolated fad; it’s becoming a pervasive part of many people’s every day media mix and we try hard to participate in ways that are true to the way we’ve always approached our marketing,” Kim said. “We make it fun, we make it easy to participate and we communicate in ways that are authentic — something our community appreciates.”

Advertising; get out there, and get noticed

Need Social Media Success? Don’t Start With Digg

Digg is seen as the “Grand Daddy” or the “Big Kahuna” of Social Media Networks. It has the ability to send an enormous amount of traffic in a given direction.

However, since the major algorithmic update in January, it’s been much harder to get your Digg submissions to the front page. Also, it’s not unusual to see stories in the “upcoming” section with 300 - 400 Diggs and they still don’t hit the front page, and I saw a story today with 1010 Diggs and it was still in “upcoming”! Back in the old days, we could get almost every article onto the front page, now the odds of getting a submission to go “popular” are less than 50%.

Getting your story a significant amount of Diggs is hard work and very time consuming.

Preparing an article or piece that you think will work takes hours and hours of tweaking and can cost a considerable amount of money. All that work will be wasted if the story gets buried or expires, which is statistically more than likely to happen.

Even many of the top submitters have stopped submitting to Digg to protect their high “popular” percentage and continue to appear to be successful on Digg.

However, there are many other Social Networks that can generate large amounts of traffic and are much easier to find success with. I’ve listed the top few other networks you should try:
1) reddit.com2) del.icio.us3) buzz.yahoo.com4) stumbleupon.com5) fark.com6) Propeller.com
Using these networks, you can generate as much traffic - if not more - than an average front page on Digg. Also, it will require considerably less effort and your failure rate will be far lower than on Digg.

Give it a try, submit ten articles to Digg. If you’re lucky, two of them will become popular and send, say, 40,000 visitors. This is basically just an average number that you’ll probably get for a couple of regular stories becoming popular.

Submit the same ten articles to the other sites, and if you know what you are doing, there is a good chance that you’ll have an 80% success rate. I bet you could get at least 100,000 visitors. Getting a hit on Propeller can net hundreds of thousands of visitors too, so that one certianly shouldn’t be avoided.

I’m not saying forget Digg, just focus your efforts on the other networks, as you can have much greater success for less money, less time, and a lot less heartache.

I’ve had a lot of comments asking why I didn’t put Mixx on the list. Here is the reason: I’ve never had a decent amount of traffic from Mixx, the most being around 1000 visitors. It requires much effort to get your story to the popular section of any network, and your effort is best spent elsewhere.

Advertising; get out there, and get noticed

A Win-Win Situation with Contextual Advertising

Contextual advertising technology by betarget allows online visitors to enjoy the content of the website and bring generous earnings to webmasters at the same time. Betarget will pay webmasters up to 60% of the advertising revenue to place contextual ads on their websites or blogs. They also offer the best rates compared to other networks with the help of a control feature. Your website's potential is maximized since the content of every page on the network is identified, thus only relevant ads are displayed. These highly targeted contextual advertisements help to make the most of your advertising dollar and advertising space.

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Free AD Management and Ad Serving Solution!

AdPreference is sincerely committed to providing comprehensive and FREE ad-serving solutions to advertisers, marketers and webmasters! Their ad-serving solutions empower agencies, advertisers and publishers to more effectively distinguish themselves amongst their various clients. Here are some of their features:

• full-featured applications to effectively manage all online advertising
• provide greater flexibility, allowing customers to customize the content, packaging and pricing, and to also gain access to various administrative features
• fully integrated all-in-one system, providing price, payout settings, statistical reports, ad serving and exchange
• enhances ability to handle all account management, business development and network linking through network
• advanced technology support and allows users to generate agencies, advertisers and publishers
• networking enables you to set up partnerships, to exchange ads or traffic with other networks and users
• geo-targeting
• contextual technology
• graphical report tools
• advanced frequency capping

Advertising; get out there, and get noticed

Online Advertising Marketplace

MyAdMarket is a private-labeled, open ad market exchange and is among the most sophisticated, all-in-one solutions available. It is designed to suit your particular needs, whether you are an agency, publisher, advertiser or advertising network.
Advanced technologies enable you to develop your own system, with special features such as:

• full customization of your company logo
• complete integration of domains in ad serving
• multiple dynamic partnerships with other networks

Writing job descritption- is it marketing?

Writing job descriptions to post online can be a daunting and even boring task. But why does it have to be? It could be one of the most important things you do. Why? Well, what you're selling is your company rather than the product your company sells.

You want a prospective employee to choose you, over another company, to spend their entire and very valuable day with. Your company can be the reason your new employee gets up in the morning and transports themselves to work. That's a really important decision for any prospective employee to make.

So is writing a job description considered marketing? Perhaps one of the most important forms of it!

Here's a template we use that might help get you started. Before we write about the position we're trying to fill we provide an overview that looks something like this.

Who We Are

Here write about what your company does, how long you've been in business, any awards your company has won, and how fast you're growing. You want your employee to get excited about the company first.

Our Culture

In our case we write about how we "work hard but play hard". You might talk about how fun it is to work in your company and some fun stories about your customers. If your business is a bit more serious you might focus on any employee achievements or how you empower your employees. Either way, you want to give the vibe of what it could be like to work in your company.

What We Offer

Here you can write in generalities about your generous package and the way you promote from within. This is to make prospective employees feel great about applying.

Then we get into the actual descriptions.

Job Title

Provide a paragraph of the overall position. You'll want to get your prospective employee excited about what they'll be doing day-to-day. Here's an example of a posting we have for a Marketing Manager:

The Marketing Programs Manager role is integral to VerticalResponse’s rapidly growing marketing organization and is responsible for driving new customer conversion through email, surveys and postcards. This is a great opportunity for a proven marketing programs professional to gain broad experience across a variety of channels and help drive the most important objective of the company.

Qualifications

Here you'll give your bulleted must haves. It's tough to be sexy here. You'll want some number of years of experience, some education level, someone who is detail-oriented. Just think about all of the things this person must know how to do before coming into the job.

Responsibilities

These are bulleted areas of what this person is going to be responsible for day-to-day. Here you should even try to make the mundane sound hot!

To Apply

Here's where you can have a bit of fun and let your culture show through. Here's an example of that Marketing Position we have open.

To Apply:

* Send a copy of your resume to hiring@verticalresponse.com
* Tell us why you love marketing
* Tell us a funny story or funny joke (yes, we’re testing to see if you actually have a sense of humor)
* Tell us why you’re passionate about helping small businesses grow

Overall you're trying to get a new employee who fits into your culture. You want to match how you position the job opening to the copy you write. So make sure you put a bit of effort into how you market your company to your prospective employees and you'll win in the end.

Advertising; get out there, and get noticed

Attention Online Advertisers and Marketers!

The ad marketplace has become an increasingly important aspect of internet advertising. At AdOnion, they have innovative features and strategies that create simplicity from complexity, and make their services stand out from the crowd.

AdOnion’s new features include a merchant’s offers marketplace where advertisers can list their offers, and publishers can interact with advertisers. Publishers can retrieve offers, campaign insurance and view their rating system to guarantee an advertiser’s investment as well as to increase the credibility of their business partners.

Another form of marketing

Writing job descriptions to post online can be a daunting and even boring task. But why does it have to be? It could be one of the most important things you do. Why? Well, what you're selling is your company rather than the product your company sells.

You want a prospective employee to choose you, over another company, to spend their entire and very valuable day with. Your company can be the reason your new employee gets up in the morning and transports themselves to work. That's a really important decision for any prospective employee to make.

So is writing a job description considered marketing? Perhaps one of the most important forms of it!

Here's a template we use that might help get you started. Before we write about the position we're trying to fill we provide an overview that looks something like this.

Who We Are

Here write about what your company does, how long you've been in business, any awards your company has won, and how fast you're growing. You want your employee to get excited about the company first.

Our Culture

In our case we write about how we "work hard but play hard". You might talk about how fun it is to work in your company and some fun stories about your customers. If your business is a bit more serious you might focus on any employee achievements or how you empower your employees. Either way, you want to give the vibe of what it could be like to work in your company.

What We Offer

Here you can write in generalities about your generous package and the way you promote from within. This is to make prospective employees feel great about applying.

Then we get into the actual descriptions.

Job Title

Provide a paragraph of the overall position. You'll want to get your prospective employee excited about what they'll be doing day-to-day. Here's an example of a posting we have for a Marketing Manager:

The Marketing Programs Manager role is integral to VerticalResponse’s rapidly growing marketing organization and is responsible for driving new customer conversion through email, surveys and postcards. This is a great opportunity for a proven marketing programs professional to gain broad experience across a variety of channels and help drive the most important objective of the company.

Qualifications

Here you'll give your bulleted must haves. It's tough to be sexy here. You'll want some number of years of experience, some education level, someone who is detail-oriented. Just think about all of the things this person must know how to do before coming into the job.

Responsibilities

These are bulleted areas of what this person is going to be responsible for day-to-day. Here you should even try to make the mundane sound hot!

To Apply

Here's where you can have a bit of fun and let your culture show through. Here's an example of that Marketing Position we have open.

To Apply:

* Send a copy of your resume to hiring@verticalresponse.com
* Tell us why you love marketing
* Tell us a funny story or funny joke (yes, we’re testing to see if you actually have a sense of humor)
* Tell us why you’re passionate about helping small businesses grow

Overall you're trying to get a new employee who fits into your culture. You want to match how you position the job opening to the copy you write. So make sure you put a bit of effort into how you market your company to your prospective employees and you'll win in the end.

If anyone has their own template or can improve on our design please share!

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Advertising; get out there, and get noticed

What an SEO company can do for your business

Yesupseo.com, a division of Yesup Ecommere Solutions, provides SEO (search engine optimization) services that enriches your company’s website with site optimization and web analytics services. Yesup SEO performs services that enable your site to become more user-friendly and search engine-friendly. The benefits of these services are increased site traffic as well as better rankings across search engines, including Google, Yahoo and MSN . This will allow your company to become more accessible to potential customers seeking products or services provided by your business. Highly advanced techniques are employed to ensure that your company's website is fully optimized in order to reap the benefits of having a strong presence on the internet.

Tips on videos:

I was looking at our website Google Analytics statistics the other day and was blown away by a statistic I uncovered. It seems that a large percentage of our website traffic in the last month came from people watching our video tutorials. Even though we have a web-based tool that is very intuitive, it's great to have that step-by-step video of how it's supposed to be used so that anyone can learn quicker than trial by fire.

I thought about it more and realized it doesn't only apply to software companies needing to record tutorials with screen shot flows. If you don't think your business lends itself to adding interactive videos on your site think again! In addition to our video tutorials, we publish other videos as well. PLUS, it's easier than EVER to take one. These days you don't need any high-powered video camera to look like a pro.

Last year the IAB reported that 50% of the US population will watch video online this year alone and they're most likely the same people that are buying your products or services.

Step 1: So, What Should You Take a Video Of?

Restaurants - You can give a 360 degree virtual tour of your place or film a video of your chef making one of your most popular dishes.

Real Estate Agents/Hotel Operators - Host a 360 degree virtual tour of the property or specific rooms.

Software Companies - Stop being afraid of the competition getting "access" to your software. If they really want it they will surely find a way to see it. For the mac check out what we use, ScreenFlow ($100). but there is also SnapzPro ($69), and iShowU ($20). In our opinion, the higher the price the higher the quality. Take a look for yourself. For PC's check out Captivate ($600)and Camtasia ($299).

Manufacturers, Designers - Take a video of your work, how something is made or a story of how a customer uses your products.

Non-Profit Organizations - Take a video of those who benefit from contributions and how it has helped them achieve!

And any business can take videos of your customers talking about your products or services!

Resource: How to take great videos - VideoMaker , Wonder How To, CNET.

Step 2: Get It Out of The Camera and Onto The Web!

The next step is to transfer the video first to your computer, then to your website or YouTube. YouTube let's you have about a 10 minute video so it's plenty.

Resource: How to transfer your video to your computer - Google, Rick Says, Expert Village.

Resource: How to transfer from your computer to YouTube - YouTube Help.

Once it's hosted on YouTube you'll need to add your keywords so you can be found when someone searches on them. Then you can link to it from your site and you don't have to host it at all!

Still scared to take a video? Try out the Flip Camera, it's about $129 and it plugs directly into your computer so you can immediately upload your video to YouTube. Still afraid? Check out Animoto it's fun! You simply upload still photos and pick a song. They put it together in minutes!

Don't forget to tell the world about your video. A best practice is to include links in your email marketing campaigns to your video so that all of your recipients can click to view the video!



Advertising; get out there, and get noticed

Making an Online Presence with a Website for your Business

11 place to need to include your opt-in form:

It's important to collect email addresses to build your email marketing list. We thought it would be great to put together a quick list of where you should include the actual sign up form or a link to one on a web page. If you can include the form yourself, great! If not, hand this list over to your web designer as soon as possible. Oh, tell them to get your already-built opt-in form from your VerticalResponse account.

Your Homepage - If you don't have one on your home page, get one there now.

Your Sub-pages - All of them! If you don't have the space to put an actual form on all of your sub-pages, at least have a "Newsletter Sign Up" link on them.

Your Blog - Not everyone subscribes to RSS to get information from your blog, so you'll need to include an actual form for your readers to sign up, or a "Sign Up For Our Newsletter" link to it. You don't want to lose the opportunity to get email addresses from people who might be interested in knowing about your regular updates. If you use TypePad, you can get the free VR Opt-in Form Widget with just a few clicks.

Your Purchase Confirmation Page - Someone has just hopefully had a great experience purchasing from you, why not ask them to join your list right then and there?

A Pop-up Window - Include a pop-up window when someone leaves your website. You won't be able to use this with visitors who have their browsers set to block them, but you'll surely get some people seeing them. We've had thousands of people signing up through this form.

A Landing Page - If you have a separate landing page you send people to from your search engine pay-per-click campaigns, include a newsletter sign up form on it. If they don't purchase from you, they might at least sign up to your list, then you'll be able to attempt to get them to purchase later on.

The Footer of all Outbound Email Correspondence - Any email you personally send or any email your employees or customer service people send one on one, should have the link to your opt-in form.

Your Email Marketing Campaigns - We have many customers that include an opt-in form image or link inside their actual email marketing campaigns. If the email is forwarded to someone who isn't on your list you might get a new subscriber. You can also use Forward to a Friend links as well.

Offline

Your Counter - Don't forget to put a sign up book at your counter or somewhere prominent in your place of business. Then enter those email addresses quickly and send them a welcome email.

Taking Appointments - If your service business is centered around making appointments with your clients, ask them for their email addresses so you can confirm the times. Also ask if they would want offers from you and make a note of their answer.

Your Tradeshow Table - You've spent a lot of money to be at a tradeshow. If someone doesn't have a business card you don't want to lose the opportunity to add them to your list. So make sure you have some kind of sign up form or book at your booth.

All of these things are super easy to do so don't miss out any opportunity you have to build your email list. Oh and make sure you tell people what they'll get for giving you their information whether it's hot tips, discounts, special offers or invitations. Make it exciting!

Advertising; get out there, and get noticed