SiteProNews |
- Tips to Get More Video Viewers
- Blogging – How Often do I Post?
- Niche Marketing Strategies
- Do Trademarks Always Trump Domain Names? Not always.
- The Behavioral Targeting Promise Land?
| Tips to Get More Video Viewers Posted: 18 Aug 2010 05:00 AM PDT 
The following tips are the best practices gathered through the years. These calls to view techniques will hopefully benefit your site conversion: 1. Give visitors a compelling reason to watch the video. The title should be well-thought out and focuses on the benefits. It can come in the form of a “how to” title. Using words like “powerful”, “funniest”, and “best” may sometimes be appropriate as well, depending on the video. If a well-known personality is featured, be sure to mention his/her name in the title as well. 2. Integrate color changes in the border. This is a very simple trick and no one really knew about its impact until some tests were done. By “lifting” the video off the all-white webpage background, the video stands out in itself and it looks more important. Views can increase to as much as 20%. 5. State the length of time. Most people think that videos usually last 3-5 minutes. And indeed, this is usually the case. But there are also web videos that last up to 9-10 minutes or more. People don’t want to open lengthy videos so if yours is a short one, place it on the graphic image. 6. Include the video bar. Finally, the video bar makes people feel in control. Don’t take it away for any reason because it lets the user set the volume, pause, play, and reply as they want. Pilar Torres – Access our Free Jargon Free Web Marketing Strategy videos aimed at beginners at www.pickaweb.co.uk. Check out our Professional Website Hosting Services. We also offer Reseller Hosting and other services such as Dedicated Servers, VPS Hosting, Domain Names, Web Design, Online Website Builder, Web Design Templates, Email Marketing, Data Backup and 0800 Numbers. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
| Blogging – How Often do I Post? Posted: 18 Aug 2010 05:00 AM PDT 
Bloggers need to have a general idea of how often they plan to post. Consistency is more important than volume when it comes to posting. If you start off with great passion and post 5 or 10 postings every day for a month then suddenly lose steam your followers will recognize this and wonder if you are losing interest in your own blog. If you lose interest so will they. How Often to Post – Gain Momentum You are always better off gaining momentum rather than losing steam. Start off your blog by adding postings at a pace you know you can keep up with. On days that you are feeling particularly prolific you should create extra posts and save them in your admin panel without actually publishing them. You can build a stockpile of posts that can be used on days you have nothing to say or are unable to sit down and focus on your blog at all. This is a good way to make sure that you are prepared for any unplanned writing absences. How many posts you start off with per day will depend on your blog’s focus. If you are a corporate blog you can likely start with one very good post per day. If you have an entertainment blog you probably want at least four or five short postings per day. What is my Starting off Point? The best way to determine your starting off point is to look at the competition. See how often they post and how long their postings are. You do not have to duplicate their effort but you do not want to be too far below it. You must also consider quality. Quality should not suffer for the sake of quantity. If you find that some of your posts are not good enough for your blog because you were focused on getting out extra posts you should consider scaling back a bit and sustain a volume that is comfortable for you. The bottom line is you need to keep your blog updated and current with content but you do not want to become a slave to it. Try to find a realistic pace that can grow over time. Frank Breinling is a recognized expert in Affiliate Marketing. Here you can go for Affiliate Marketing Ideas http://bestcommissionsystem.com , his newest Project about Blogging you can find here, http://thebloggingmastery.com. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
| Posted: 18 Aug 2010 05:00 AM PDT 
1. Follow Your Strength Remember in school when you had to do a presentation and the teacher was assigning topics and you got stuck with one you weren’t exactly happy to do research on? Don’t relive those feeling with picking your niche. Select something you are passionate about or at least would enjoy doing research on. It’s important to select a niche you have a natural strength in because following a strength will give you leverage and make your work seem less like work. Selecting a niche you have no interest in will reflect to your customers or clients. Lack luster enthusiasm or information about a niche will equal lack luster sales. Though, when you have a strength in a particular field it shows through not only in your writing and the amount of value but it helps give you an edge over your competition because you know where to find your target audience and exactly what their looking for when it comes time to market to them. 2. Look to Mainstream Media Turn on the TV, open a magazine, and watch talk shows. You can get a ton of ideas of profitable, hot niches just by flipping through a magazine while standing in the check out line at the supermarket or studying television commercials during your favorite show. You can even log onto Google Trends to see what the latest trends are online. There are many clues beyond the internet which will indicate good niches. Many of the advertisers you see in magazines and TV also operate affiliate programs so be sure to check out advertisers you’re interested in. 3. Do Your Keyword Research Keyword research is essential when selecting a niche marketing or any other type of marketing. Do not skip researching potential keywords to target. Research a possible niche with a keyword tool and investigate if your niche will be profitable. Does it get a fair number of searches per month? Are there more searches than there are competing websites? Also, see if there are advertisements running along the side of the search results of your main keyword, that’s another indicator the advertisers may very well be making money in that niche. Look for indicators in a potential niche will be profitable. Keyword research can be fascinating, but be sure not to get too involved with research or you might not get anything done. Niche research can be fun and it should be like anything else you do online. Not only is it fun and relatively easy, but finding the right niche can also create a nice part-time or full-time income. Just remember follow your strength, look for hints of profitable niches from the real world and always do your keyword research with proper keyword research tools. With those three niche marketing strategies in mind you’ll be your way to becoming a niche marketing wizard. Discover 10 in demand niches which are set to grow over the next decade niche marketing strategies. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
| Do Trademarks Always Trump Domain Names? Not always. Posted: 18 Aug 2010 05:00 AM PDT 
There’s a general belief among online start-ups that a trademark owner will always trump a domain name registrant with the same or confusingly similar domain name. That’s not always the result… as two recent 2010 UDRP decisions point out. The UDRP What is the UDRP, and why is it important? The UDRP acronym stands for the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. The UDRP is a set of procedures and rules that are supposed to help determine who should prevail in a dispute over domain name ownership. The UDRP is important because it provides a faster and cheaper way to resolve a domain name dispute than a full-blown lawsuit in a court of law. Instead of litigation, it’s an administrative proceeding where the contestants present written arguments to a panelist-arbitrator who issues a binding decision. In-person hearings (including hearings by teleconference, video conference, and web conference) are permitted only in exceptional cases, and are therefore rare. The UDRP has not been without its critics. Most of the criticism centers on the fact that the UDRP was established to benefit trademark owners in taking non-trademark owners to task in domain name disputes. And UDRP critics often point out the fact the UDRP decisions seem to come out overwhelmingly in favor of trademark owners. There are three requirements for a trademark owner-complainant to prevail over a domain name-respondent in a UDRP proceeding: 1 – the domain name registered by the respondent is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights; 2 – the respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name; and 3 – the domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith by the respondent. The Arizona State Trailer Sales Case This case involved requirement no. 1 above. The complainant, Arizona State Trailer Sales, argued that the respondent’s www.littledealerrv.com domain name was confusingly similar to the complainant’s registered mark, LITTLE DEALER LITTLE PRICES and the complainant’s common law marks, LITTLE DEALER LITTLE PRICES RV and LITTLE DEALER . The respondent argued that it should prevail because its registration of its www.littledealerrv.com domain name occurred prior to the complainant’s registration of its trademark. The respondent won. The UDRP panelist noted that a complainant has to show that the respondent’s domain name is identical or confusingly similar to complainant’s mark. “This provision necessarily implies that Complainant’s rights must predate the registration of Registrant’s domain name”, the panelist concluded. The take-away – the respondent won because it registered its domain name before the complainant registered its trademark. The University of Texas Case The University of Texas at Austin (UT) case involved requirement no. 3 above. UT showed that it owned the www.texassports.com domain name, as well as the following registered trademarks: TEXAS, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, TEXAS LONGHORNS, and LONGHORNS. UT also showed that its TEXAS mark is registered for “Entertainment services, namely, providing college athletic and sporting events.” UT argued among other things that the use of respondent’s domain was in bad faith because it was used as a “parking” website for information related to University of Texas sports and sporting events. The respondent won. The panel found that UT did not prove “bad faith”. The panel reasoned that because the term “Texas Sports” is geographically descriptive, the respondent was free to register its domain name using the term on a “first-come, first-served basis”. The panel also found that UT did not have a registration for the term “Texas Sports”, and therefore there was no likelihood of consumer confusion. Selecting a domain name that will withstand legal challenges is a strategic undertaking for any online start-up. The important lesson is that although the UDRP may help in deciding in favor of a respondent in a domain name dispute with a trademark owner, the recommended approach is to avoid the dispute altogether by undertaking a thorough search of preexisting trademarks before selecting a domain name. Leading Internet, IP and software lawyer Chip Cooper has automated the process of drafting Website Legal Forms www.digicontracts.com for website legal compliance. Use his free online tool — Website Documents Determinator — to determine which documents your website really needs for website legal compliance. Discover how quick, easy, and cost-effective it is to draft your website legal forms at www.DigiContracts.com. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
| The Behavioral Targeting Promise Land? Posted: 17 Aug 2010 10:00 PM PDT 
Would You Like Some Behavioral Targeting With Your Duct Cleaning? My own special hell includes all those newsletters, reports, and white papers touting statistical analysis aimed at directing advertisers to the behavioral targeting promise land. Behavioral targeting refers to the practice of collecting data (that’s data not information) about how people behave. That data is then used to display advertisements that are supposed to be of value to individuals who have shown an interest in that subject matter. From an advertiser’s point-of-view it seems like a very promising tactic for increasing the effectiveness of what otherwise would be a shotgun approach, and I would hazard a guess that at its most sophisticated (as in expensive) it may actually work. On the other hand, if it’s not done properly, it can lead to silly if not downright unfortunate marketing gaffes. It doesn’t take much of an imagination to see how this approach in the wrong hands or set to autopilot by some backroom programmers could go terribly wrong. And then there is the whole issue of privacy. It appears that the Federal Trade Commission in the US is considering a do-not-track browser plug-in that would allow people to opt-out of this hidden form of data collection, something that some fear is the slippery slope to an invasion of privacy. What Does Behavior Really Tell Us? To my mind the issue is far more clear-cut and avoids the whole moral dilemma issue; is behavioral targeting really valid if it doesn’t track motivation? Tracking what you do is not the same as tracking why you do it. And if we don’t consider the ‘why’ of someone’s actions, is that data really valid, and is the money spent on collecting, analyzing, and acting on it worth the expense? It seems to be just another example of how we as responsible business owners and executives want to rationalize what is essentially an emotional and psychological aspect of human nature – we are motivated for the most part by emotion as much as we want to believe otherwise. And it is emotion that drives purchase decisions and sales. It’s A Jungle Out There The notion of the Internet as an information highway is a canard, it is more like an information jungle, a place with no predefined paths to follow, but rather a mysterious dense wilderness in which Web-travelers must meander their way around dead-ends and false starts while avoiding numerous dangers in order to discover something of value, and that is what makes the Web so damn powerful. Efforts to make the Web a cut-to-the-chase environment, miss the point of what ultimately makes the Web so attractive to people. It’s not just finding what you set out to find, but rather discovering all the wonderful information, knowledge, companies, and yes even products and services that you would have never known about without the Web’s most powerful feature – serendipity. Remove that aspect of the Web with so called statistical targeting and we might as well go back to the days when we looked for things in the Yellow Pages. Turning over the Web to behavioral targeting tactics means turning the Web over to Wal-Mart and their ilk, leaving small and medium-sized companies behind. If people wanted to be inundated with pitches and promotions from major advertisers all they have to do is turn on their televisions. The Web’s success has been that it is an alternative; that it’s open and free for all comers, both big and small. It is the democratization of marketing, and it’s not in your interests to mess it up. It may be sloppy, confusing, and occasionally frustrating, but it So What Does This Mean To You If network television is for the marketing big boys with deep pockets, the Web is for the rest of us. It provides an even playing field as long as you don’t allow it to be taken over by mega corporations who will outbid you for ad space and takeover search results. So how do you fight the good fight, how do you help your company succeed and at the same time practice a little marketing ‘rope-a-dope?’ The answer is properly constructed website content, content that matters, content that has impact, and not just a recycled PowerPoint slideshow, or PDF catalog, or even a video filled with platitudes. You can use every trick in the book to attract people to your website in order to sell them something, but if once they get there the experience is lame or the content is confusing then you’ve wasted your money. It’s always nice to attract more people to your site and no one would argue against spending money to do it, but if once people arrive they find it confusing, irritating, ugly, non-functional, or boring then you’ve lost them forever. If you are not getting the conversions you need then it’s time to rethink how you’re spending your marketing dollars. If your website isn’t an experience, if it’s not informative, entertaining, and memorable, you can be assured all those visitors you paid to attract will be on their way to the next stop on their journey. Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design and marketing firm that specializes in Web-video Marketing Campaigns and Video Websites. Visit www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, www.136words.com, and www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
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