BY Dave Guindon
You may have heard that ebook marketing is old-school stuff and no longer works ..
BUT, that is totally wrong!!
One of my top Joint-Venture partners,Vic Johnson, has actually made $221,000 in a single 24-hour period from one ebook that he didn't even write!!
He describes his method of writing ebooks including how to use wordtracker.com to get subject ideas.
In fact, Amazon recently announced that they sell more ebooks than print books!.. and when you consider they have nearly 10 times more print books than ebooks ..
it's a HUGE opportunity with a lot less competition! .. but that's just the tip of the iceburg ...
http://www.daveguindon.info/recommends/vicbooks.php
ebooks are DEAD... or are they?
New Software Shows How To Publish On Kindle Faster
BY Chris Guthrie
I gotta admit, I was a Kindle skeptic for a long time.
I never wanted to be a best selling author, I wanted to be a marketer. But things changed when I saw the results that people were having. Now I have several books in the works and today there's a brand new tool that makes it possible to more quickly and easily format and publish books on the Kindle.
In fact, I was just about to release my latest brand new Amazon Wordpress plugin this month, but I'm actually going to give you a chance to get it as a free bonus.
Check out this video of this new Kindle software here:
As with anything I recommend I've spent some time using this software and it's a huge time saver because it helps you more easily format and publish books on the Kindle.
How To Write A Kindle Book
BY Chris Guthrie
I published my first book on the Kindle at the end of September about how to make money as an Amazon Associate. Now after nearly 2 months I wanted to share what I learned from the experience, how many books I’ve sold since then and other advice I’ve learned along the way.
How To Come Up With Book Ideas
The first Kindle book I wrote was on how to make money with Amazon’s affiliate program. Amazon income is what helped me break away from my 9-5 day job in the first place back in 2009 and I already had a solid outline to complete a book on the topic so that’s primarily why I picked it. In my (limited) experience I found the easiest way to pick a book idea was to simply select from a range of topics I already knew a lot about. Having gone this route I’ve since learned that this isn’t always the best idea. Let me explain why…
Are there only a few books competing for your target market? That’s not necessarily a good thing.
I like to draw comparisons between the Kindle book market and competing in Google with SEO because they are fairly similar. When it comes to SEO the process is relatively simple. Find a profitable keyword that is searched frequently and build a website to target that keyword. There’s a lot more to it, but part of what removes a lot of the guess work from this process is because Google provides a tool to determine how many people are searching for a specific keyword phrase; however, there isn’t an Amazon equivalent to see what types of book topics people are searching for. Because no such tool exists you’ve got to look at other factors such as the number of books already published on a topic AND the Kindle sales rank for the books already available:
The problem with my niche is that there simply aren’t enough people on Amazon searching for a book like mine which could be because it’s on a very narrow aspect of the small overall “how to earn money online” market. I’m getting a tad ahead of myself, but simply put I should have paid more attention to the sales data of the existing books within my niche before I decided to write on the topic that I did.
If you’re looking for step by step directions on how to come up with a book idea, analyze what a Kindle book sales rank equates to the number of units sold I highly recommend Steve Scott’s book on How To Discover Non-Fiction Book Ideas.
How To Actually Write The Kindle Book
When it comes to writing anything whether it’s a blog post or in this case a Kindle book I always start with an outline or at the very least a list of all the main points I want to cover. This allows me to simply expand upon the main topics or points I want to cover in my writing. Now when it comes to actually writing the content I like to put in a ton of hours late at night when there are no distractions. I routinely would start writing from 10:00 PM at night and move into 5:00 AM in the morning. This process reminds me of my college years where I’d wait until 12:01 AM at night to start work on a paper that was due that day (and I still got great grades – college is too easy).
If you still have a full time job and are not sure how to make some income on the side I will restate that the best thing I ever did was to put a few hours of work every evening after dinner trying to earn money online. There are probably much better ways to write a book but I have an odd productivity period as a night owl.
How To Format A Kindle Book
You can’t just write a book in MS Word and upload it to Amazon. What I found to be really helpful in the actual book formatting process was following along with this great PDF from Amazon that outlines how to write a book in the proper kindle format here:
How To Format Your Book For Kindle
(You can also watch a really boring, terribly sounding step by step video on that page. They really should have a professional redo these videos).
How To Market A Book
There are books that make money from Amazon by keyword searches (again just like you might try and get traffic from a Google ranking for a website) and this is something you should think about when deciding on what topic to write about as well as the title of your book. With that said, sometimes the most effective way to market a book would be to actually promote it by sending traffic to the book page yourself. For example with my Kindle book I took this as an opportunity to thank all of my blog readers, newsletter subscribers and/or customers an opportunity to download it for free for a limited time. I then marketed to them using my email list and a blog post.
Why Offer The Book For Free At All?
1. Customer appreciation
2. Great way to reach a new audience of readers on the Kindle
3. Helps to get reviews on your book as soon as possible
Overall it’s a really effective marketing tool as well – read this real life case study from a fiction book writer.
Email marketing has always been the most consistently valuable marketing tool at my disposable but the key is to use all of your following (website visitors, Twitter followers etc) to send traffic to your book page.
See the entire article:
entrepreneurboost.com/how-to-write-a-kindle-book
Trust Jacking - New Innovative approach for quick results!
BY Dave Guindon
What is "Trust Jacking" ?
.. the idea is to harness the authority of hot trending news articles or other high-traffic sources such as top youtube videos.
.. and you get paid from strategically inserting an affiliate product over the hot trending web page!
And it's VERY clever .. and VERY effective ...
Basically, you install a new WP plugin being offered on the Warrior Forum called "TrustJacker" .
Then you find a hot trending topic using the Google trends tool. Simply search in Google for "Google Trends" to find it...
Next ... you match an article or video with an offer in a CPA network or any desired affiliate network such as Clickbank ..
Lastly ... you pop that into a new Trust Jacking campaign and you start sending traffic to your campaign link...
As a result, your web visitors are sent to the hot trending page ..
.. but when they attempt to leave the page, your affiliate offer will appear!
http://www.daveguindon.info/recommends/trustjacker.php?t=ibt1
( Scroll down the page to Watch the YouTube Video )
Higher Conversion Rate on Product Price Comparison shared on your Sites
BY Chris Guthrie
I just heard about a new plugin that is designed to help you get a much higher conversion rate on products you share on your websites.
It's called Azon Conversion Pro and the way this software works is that as a website owner you set the products to check a price on from sources like Amazon (and even Commission Junction or
Linkshare) and then the plugin does an automatic search for the best price to display for the user. The best part is that this search for the best price is visually represented so users can see that they're going to be served up the best price.
Scroll down to See The Video Demo Here:
http://www.warriorplus.com/w/a/bv7t4The reason why this tactic is so effective is because most people online are always looking for a deal, so in the past without this software they might visit your website and several other websites checking prices before making a decision on where to buy. But by bringing this functionality onto your website and showing users that your website is searching for the best price they're much more likely to end their search once they reach your blog and go through one of your affiliate links (which in turn will give you the commission)
This is a great pre-sell tactic and will be an awesome way to increase conversion rates.
No Mobile Website? You're Probably Turning Customers Away
BY Jason Fell
If you still don't have a mobile-friendly version of your website you're most likely turning away potential customers without knowing it.
Consider the numbers: Nearly half of all U.S. adults use a smartphone, according to recent findings by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Ninety percent of those smartphone owners say they use the device to check email and surf the web. That's not counting people who use other mobile devices, such as tablets, to access the web.
With mobile internet traffic on the rise, you might think small businesses are developing mobile-friendly websites. But you'd be wrong. Only 26 percent of small businesses have a mobile website. That's a growing problem -- especially for local businesses.
Take, for example, a recent excursion I had with a friend in New York City's Upper West Side. We were on the move, smartphones in hand, looking for a particular restaurant -- which will remain nameless -- to grab a bite to eat. I used my Motorola Droid Razr to look up the restaurant's website but all I saw was a white screen with two links to download PDF files of the lunch and dinner menus.
No contact information. No hours. No easy-to-read menu. Sorry, no business from me.
With more people using their mobile devices to access information about companies, business owners need to think about how their website displays on smartphones and tablets. If content isn't easy to read and access on a smaller screen, customers might go to the next shop down the block instead.
When developing a mobile-friendly website, or a dedicated mobile site, here are some important things to keep in mind:
1. Display your company's most important information at the top in plain text.
This includes your name, address, contact information and perhaps a brief description of what you do.
2. Don't include Flash-based videos on your mobile site!
Many devices don't support Flash. Plus, video eats up data and can take a long time to load.
3. Make information easy to read on a small screen.
Don't complicate navigation across several pages, and don't make users download PDFs. The more straightforward, the better.
Paint Your Own Lush Music Video
by Taylor Hatmaker
With Google's browser-based experiment 3 Dreams of Black is an interactive experience that puts WebGL and HTML5 to the test.
Paint your own lush music video with Google's browser-based experiment A new music video crafted to promote Google Chrome is more than a creative way to flex the browser's muscle — it's also a fully interactive experience that lets you transform buffalo herds into tarantulas and sprout flowers on the fhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifly, all just by moving your mouse. The video, called 3 Dreams of Black, also coincides with the release of Rome, the new project by famed producer Danger Mouse and Italian composer Daniele Luppi. It was http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifmentioned earlier this week at Google I/O, wedged between Google's more gadget-centric announcements, and is now viewable online at "ro.me".
3 Dreams of Black is an experimental web film (created by Chris Milk and Google) that stretches HTML5's wings with a tool called WebGL. The advent of WebGL may not have you on the edge of your seat — it is a programming language, after all — but WebGL is poised to unlock the potential of browser-based 3D graphics. After a bit of a wait in loading time (it's worth it), you can generate blossoming vines and swooping birds of paradise just by pointing your cursor and making it so. Budding developers can even add to the video's third dreamscape with a built-in tool, so naturally you might see some Android and Reddit-themed statues pop up as the song winds down.
ro.me
How To Ethically Bribe Visitors Into Sharing Your Amazon Content And More
Chris Guthrie offers a sneak peak at this new plugin and after seeing how many scenarios it would be useful in, he had to do a video review to explain how useful this tool is and how you can best use it.
This is a great method for getting viral traffic to your website for products you write about. It works in Amazon niches or if you're interested in selling your own products as well.
There are over a dozen different ways this plugin can be used, but in this video review I show you what I plan to do + I'm offering a free bonus plugin if you pick up WP Viral Checkout.
Watch the review:
http://chrisloves.com/wp-viral-checkout-review/
How To Build An Email List 10x Faster
Chris Guthrie hosted a webinar with his friend Spencer Haws and they outlined real life stats from their various methods of email list building through their blog. We also showed off a brand new
piece of software that increased our opt in rates up to 10x higher than other methods we've been using on our blogs:
Watch The Replay Here
You can get the new software here for sale:
Get Welcome Splash Here:
http://welcomesplash.com/webinar/Welcome Splash is a powerful method for building a list that even the President's marketing team is using to build an email list through the White House website.
3 Steps to Creating a Killer Mobile Site
BY Amy Gahran
For many people, mobile devices, especially cell phones, are fast becoming the most popular route to the Internet. They want quick, easy access to information that will help them make decisions on the go -- including whether or not to patronize your business.
Unfortunately not every small-business website functions well on cell phones. Many fail to load quickly, prove hard to navigate and make key information difficult to find.
To make your website more mobile friendly, consider these three steps, which put a priority on usefulness, speed and easy navigation.
1. Test your site on a cellular network.
Turn off your cell phone's Wi-Fi connection so you're using your wireless carrier's data network. Then, launch your web browser and type in your business site's URL.
Now, start counting. If it takes five seconds or less to fully load your home page, that's pretty good. If it's 10 seconds or more, there's significant room for improvement.
If your site first displays a decorative splash page, video or a large image, it isn't mobile friendly. These items take extra time to load and get in the way of useful information. Also, if your home page features Flash animation, it won't display at all in many mobile browsers, and your site might appear to say nothing at all.
If your phone simply displays a miniature version of your complete website, that means mobile users must pinch, zoom and scroll to see what's there. That's more work, plus they're more likely to accidentally click the wrong link or button. Your business's most basic and vital information -- such as address, hours and phone number -- should be immediately visible when your site loads on a mobile device.
To get the most comprehensive results, repeat this exercise on several types of mobile phones. Consider asking your friends to access your site on their phones while you watch. Observe but don't coach them on where to scroll or click.
2. Start with easy improvements.
Depending on the results of your tests, your site may need a major overhaul or just some tweaks. If a redesign seems necessary but is more than you can manage at the moment, you can start with a quick and easy fix.
If it isn't already there, put the following information at the top of your site's home page:
Business name
Brief description, such as "tax accountants," "auto repair" or "fine French dining"
Street address
Hours of operation
Phone numbers for inquiries or reservations
Email address
Link to the mobile version of your site (I'll explain this later)
This information should appear above any background or banner graphics so it loads first. After all, this is what most mobile visitors want to know.
There are several advantages to displaying this information as plain text rather than including it in an image. In most mobile web browsers, simply clicking a phone number starts the call. Similarly, clicking a street address launches the phone's mapping app, and clicking an email address opens the mobile email app. If you make it this easy for mobile users, they're much more likely to do business with you.
3. Build a user-friendly mobile version of your site.
Creating a mobile version of your site can be fairly straightforward. If you built your site with tools that offer a mobile theme layout, then you simply need to select a theme and apply it to your site. WordPress, one of the most popular site-building tools, has many free and inexpensive mobile themes.
You also can build a separate mobile site. There are many inexpensive services that nontechnical people can use, including Mofuse.com and Landr.co. Both let you create and publish a basic mobile site for less than $10 a month.
Mobile sites have a slightly different web address than the full site. The mobile version usually starts with "m." before your regular web address, or ends with the suffix ".mobi" rather than ".com." If a mobile user types in your regular URL or follows a link to your site from a search engine, the mobile version should load automatically.
But that doesn't always happen on every phone. Include at the top of your website a link to your mobile site, and vice versa, just in case.
If you follow these three steps, not only will your business be more attractive and useful to mobile visitors, but you also may become more visible in mobile search results.
4 Low-Cost Ways to Turbo-Charge Your Website
BY Jonathan Blum
Creating the most dynamic and effective business website doesn’t have to break the bank. With reasonable effort, investment and a modicum of Web know-how, you can either build a website or significantly improve your existing Web presence -- for less than $200 in one-time costs.
To do so, you’ll need to know which tools are essential and how to use them. Here are four low-cost ways to get your site not only functional, but attracting customers and helping you close more sales.
1. Get a professional look.
One of the easiest ways to create an effective, low-maintenance website is to combine off-the-shelf content management systems with a pre-made Website template. That way you have a unique-looking site that’s distinguished from basic Web tools such as Google’s Blogger format or Typepad that can also support complex live content.
Among the most popular website hosting services that support free content management systems are WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal. All can manage dynamic content without any tricky or costly coding on your part.
The basic software packages for Joomla, Drupal and WordPress are free. Premium features and extensions, such as e-commerce tools, can be purchased but prices vary. Downloading and installing the basic and advanced versions of these tools does require an understanding of Web software. WordPress, however, offers a hosted version which doesn’t require any software installation.
You’ll also need a professional-looking template for your site that is compatible with your content management system. Options include New York-based Template Monster, which lets users narrow down themes based on business type and website purpose. Templates can cost about $50 each.
2. Analyze your website.
Not getting an accurate picture of how customers use your site might be the single biggest mistake online businesses make. Analytics tools can help you find out how many people visit your website, how much time they spend on each page and what service referred them.
One option is Visistat, which not only offers a number of web analytics services but also tracking of your online marketing campaigns and behavioral data on your site’s visitors. The average package costs about $50 per month.
But the most popular and perhaps the most effective analytics tool is Google Analytics. This free service generates deep, constantly updated visitor statistics. Installation usually only requires you to copy and paste a line of tracking code into your Website code, although some content management systems including WordPress make it even easier through plugins.
3. Get feedback.
Constructive criticism can be key to any business website. While full-on website testing technologies can be effective, they can also be costly.
Southborough, Mass.-based uTest offers access to a global network of 50,000 Web-connected testers and can create custom testing templates for everything from usability to security. Basic usability testing starts at several thousand dollars per engagement.
But there are numerous low-cost online testing services that can provide reviews. For example, Washington, D.C.-based Feedback Army lets businesses post four to six questions about its website, which are answered by online testers. Prices start at $20 for 10 reviews. For $39, Mountain View, Calif.-based UserTesting.com, can provide you with a video of an actual human tester using your website and talking about it as he or she navigates it.
4. Integrate social media.
Your website should link to your business’ social media accounts, but it’s even more important that your visitors be prompted to share your website through their own social media identities.
Most social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, provide detailed instructions for how to insert “Like”, “Share”, “Comment”, and “Tweet” buttons onto your Web page. Depending on how your website is hosted, can be installed as simple as copying and pasting some code into a website template or downloading and installing a plugin.
They also provide feeds showing your Facebook updates, Tweets and other ways people are interacting with your website -- which can be some valuable information when it comes to knowing your customers.
Bottom line: Working through the fundamentals of good design, compelling dynamic content, properly installed social media and user data can be the fastest and most affordable ways to gets results online.
How to Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly With 'Responsive Design'
BY Amy Gahran
Virtually every business needs a website, but these days the web isn't just about what you see on a computer screen. People are using the internet on an increasingly diverse array of devices, from smartphones to gaming consoles. Some experts predict that by 2014, most web traffic in the U.S. will be on mobile devices.
The trouble is, most business websites are still designed with only a desktop or laptop computer in mind. When you view a typical business website on the browser of mobile device, it usually requires pinching, zooming and scrolling just to see what's on the page. And interacting with the site via a touchscreen can be clumsy at best.
To compensate, more businesses are deploying one or more mobile-optimized web designs, or "themes," that the web server sends to a user when a mobile device is detected. That's a first step, but mobile devices come in many sizes and shapes. What looks great on, say, an iPhone may look and perform poorly on a Kindle Fire.
It is possible to create designs for each of the major screen sizes and devices types, but ultimately that's a losing game. New device types will outpace any designer's ability to spin off customized themes.
One solution is something called "responsive web design," which can make your website easier and cheaper to manage, while giving mobile users a better experience. This allows you to create one design that will fit almost any screen and device type, and can also enhance your search visibility. Additionally, it avoids the hurdle of expecting users to type in "m." before your site URL to access the mobile-friendly version.
When a user accesses a responsively designed website, the site senses the constraints of that user's device and automatically "responds" or reconfigures itself to display and function reasonably well. It reorganizes the layout, for instance, swapping out images and navigation features.
As new web-enabled device types become popular, such as Android-powered cameras, you'll only need to tweak your responsive design to accommodate them.
To create a responsive site for your business, you can either hire a designer or use a site-building tool that supports responsive web design. Either way, these five tips can help you make the switch to responsive design.
Decide when to make the change.
Responsive design is a radically different way of managing the elements of a website, which means it's hard to introduce responsive design to an existing conventional website. You'll probably want to wait until you're creating a new site or rebuilding your existing one.
Track your mobile traffic patterns.
Check your site statistics for the number of mobile visitors, plot how that segment of your online market has been growing and project it two to five years into the future. The steeper that growth curve, the more important it is to implement responsive web design sooner rather than later.
Check out competitors' sites on various devices.
Keep a list of URLs for businesses similar to yours. Periodically check them all out on a variety of computers, smartphones and tablets. Which are easiest to navigate and use, requiring the least pinching, zooming and scrolling? Use the best as guidance for your designer.
Hire web designers with responsive design experience.
Many designers serving small-to-medium business clients are still focused on designing sites intended for viewing on computers. Be sure to ask for recent examples of a designer's responsively designed sites. Don't just get screenshots -- ask for the URLs and check those sites on a variety of device types, paying attention both to how they look and how well they function.
Use effective, affordable tools if you do it yourself.
If you decide to create a responsively designed site on your own, consider trying the latest version of Squarespace. It's an inexpensive web hosting service that lets you create a responsive website via a drag-and-drop interface.
There are also many pre-made responsive themes (both free and paid, usually between $30 and $100) for sites built with WordPress, a popular open-source platform. The hosted version of that platform, WordPress.com, is starting to offer responsive themes, as well.
Check out the Beginner’s Guide to Responsive Web Design.
LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
A New Year is upon us and it's time for another issue of "here and NOW!"
I've put together some great articles to help you continue with a successful business. Or maybe you've got a new idea to try out? There is lots here to give you ways to help market your site and drive customers to you.
Not sure about Google AdWords, want to find out more about how to use Facebook for your business, or use your YouTube account as an affiliate stream? Read more about it below!
Happy New Year,
Coach Danny
IN THE WINTER ISSUE
• Keep Your Website Ahead of the Curve in 2012
• YouTube Account Monetization
• AdWords: Local Online Advertising
• Tumblr - New Business Microblogging platform
• Channeladvisor Webinars
• Big Changes to Facebook: What You Need to Do
The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can't do.
-Dennis Waitley
Keep Your Website Ahead of the Curve in 2012
By Lauren Hockenson
Mashable
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
Sure, having a website for your business serves a practical need: to draw net-surfing users to your product or service. However, it's also much more than slapping on a run of the mill two-column template and calling it a day. Nothing kills an online buzz like a poorly designed or drastically outdated website. Dry and boring default templates, broken assets, confusing pages and invasive widgets do nothing but harm a page's style, which in turn reflects poorly on the company.
2012 is heralding a new wave of innovative web technologies and design, and a page that stays in step with these trends is bound to pique interest and lower your bounce rate. Even more, a well done and on-trend website remains effective well after the year is over, reeling users in with thoughtful design and building a design-conscious and taste-making reputation. Keep these tips in mind when you clean up your company's website, and stay ahead of the curve for the new year.
1. Don't Be Afraid to be Bold
Mail Chimp. Instagram. Pinterest. All of these websites are joined together by a commitment to bold designs and layout. Whether it's an exaggerated footer, a turn to minimalism or a bold and new typeface, incorporating a key graphical element to a website speaks volumes about the overall composition of the layout -- and a keen level of attention to detail. Opting for a bold design element is a great way to modernize a website and keep it on trend in the coming years.
A bold design can be obtained with very little money, especially for those who aren't necessarily experienced in coding. For example, webpages operating on a WordPress can find a host of free templates that offer a wide range of customizable options to suit any business. New and exciting fonts can be found via Google's open API font styles and require a simple set of code to be dropped in for compatibility with a website. Inspiration and how-tos for more hands-on DIY upgrades can be found at coding/design blogs like A List Apart, One Extra Pixel and Mashable's Dev and Design channel.
For those with a little more cash to burn on a proper contractor, 99 Designs relies on crowdsourcing to gather great designers for companies looking for a reliable and cutting edge renovation. Companies on 99 Designs are allowed to name their own price, which means a promising design on a budget.
However you choose to go about it, a bold design dusts off the cobwebs on your old page and keeps it fresh for years to come.
2. Use HTML5 ... With Care
For the last couple years, people have been buzzing about HTML5, and it's not just chatter; HTML5 offers a lot of exciting flexibility that can make a website truly interactive. Seamlessly embedded videos, drag-and-drop interfaces and dynamic message posts are all achievable via HTML5, and with relatively little code work.
But it's not enough to just call up your freelance web designer and throw up some HTML5 features. As with any programming language, there's always an issue of browser compatibility. While your new and shiny UI outfitted with dynamic HTML5 might look stunning to a user running on the latest version of Chrome, your high-tech page may look like a series of broken features -- or nothing at all -- to a less tech-savvy user running Internet Explorer 7 (and there's a lot of them).
This issue has been longstanding in the Internet world, but there are precautions to take in order to ensure that every user has a pleasurable experience on your website without you making a major investment. Modernizr is an open-source, JavaScript-based tool that offers feature detection for HTML5, and it's just-as-snazzy brother CSS3. Instead of doing simple browser detection, Modernizr will figure out just what features the user's browser can support and react accordingly. If a user is operating on an incompatible browser, then Modernizr will automatically decide whether to switch to a JavaScript-based fallback of the features or just create a downgraded version.
Make no mistake, this solution shouldn't be implemented by a newbie to code, but it does provide a simple way to implement exciting and revolutionary features while still providing support for the little guys.
3. Cut the Fat
The traditional layouts for websites often call for separate pages that encapsulate the "About," "Contact" and other informational areas of the website. 2011 saw minimalist designs from multiple websites, and that often translated to cutting these pages in favor of a sleeker overall design (think Tumblr). Some companies chose to forgo nearly everything to produce a strongly graphical one-page website -- blogs like One Page Love and successful networking tools like Flavors.me show that people are drifting towards a bold singular statement that makes a big impact on fellow users.
As we move forward in 2012, further exploration into one-page websites is a given. But a single-page website has both its pros and cons. HTML5 can help create a one-page website that cleverly contains all necessary information via pop-up boxes or other media, but the amount of information that can be on a one-page website is still relatively limited. Do you want your website to make a bold statement about your company and focus less on a blog-style format? If so, a one-page website could be right in your wheelhouse. Are you more interested in showing off testimonials, case studies and blogs from your employees? If yes, then this trend would be worth passing on.
However, that doesn't mean to forgo trimming entirely. Culling the best parts of your website and truncating the rest will result in a sleeker, more intuitive design -- and sleek never goes out of style.
4. Tie in Social Media Intelligently
This tip could also be titled "Quit it With the Widgets." Announcing your social media presence on your own website is an absolute necessity, but it needs to be done with care. Automatically updating widgets that stream in social media presence seems intrusive and outdated, not to mention that they can be a hassle for a DIY designer to install and maintain.
To put it simply, social media should absolutely be a presence on a business website, but it should not be a dominating presence. Integrating social media, whether in graphic links or a social ticker, should be done with the user's eyes in mind. It's simple on paper, but can be difficult to execute. When social media is done intelligently and with consideration, your website instantly will look socially connected and organized.
Are there any other ways you're keeping your website ahead of the game? Let us know in the comments.
YouTube Account Monetization
Your YouTube account might be eligible to earn revenue from the playbacks of your videos.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Making money from your videos is easy. Here's how it works: First sign into your YouTube account. Then review and complete the steps outlined here: youtube.com/account monetization.
If your account is enabled, we may place ads next to the videos you submit for monetization. You will earn a share of the revenue from the ads as long as you meet the program requirements.
AdWords: Local Online Advertising
Analytics tracks the traffic on your website. There's a new way to help you attract more visitors to your site. We just released a version of AdWords that makes advertising on Google super simple for businesses with a local storefront, office, or service -- it's called AdWords Express.
Here's how it works: AdWords Express displays your ads next to search results on Google Search and Maps as users search for the type of product or service that you are offering. What this means is, you reach just the right people at just the right time, whether they're searching on laptops or mobile phones. AdWords Express uses Google's powerful technology and advertising data to automatically manage your ad for you, and you'll see the results in Analytics. Click here to learn more about AdWords Express.
Tumblr - New Business Microblogging Platform
What It Does: Microblogging platformhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Founder: David Karp, 23
Web Site: www.tumblr.com
Based: New York
In 2005, David Karp was running his software consulting business, developing new media for big media companies. He got the idea for Tumblr after becoming captivated by a new form of blogging known as "tumblelogging" that presented material of various formats (such as text, photo, and video) in a stream. While building a tumblelog for himself, the programmer realized other fans of the form would want to use a simple tool that would allow them to create their own. So during a two-week window between consulting jobs, Karp, who first started coding when he was 11, created the first iteration of such a tool designed with speed, ease of use, and customization in mind. Launched in 2007 for general consumption, the Tumblr platform now has 1.8 million users and has landed $5.5 million in venture capital from two rounds of funding with Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital. Karp, 23, says the 10-person company is not making money yet but will be experimenting with revenue-generating features this quarter. "Goal No. 1 is growth. We're aiming this thing for a mainstream audience."
Channeladvisor Webinars
ChannelAdvisor provides you with access to the top e-commerce channels worldwide. With a single inventory feed, you can access hundreds of online channels with ease.
ChannelAdvisor is changing the rules of e-commerce. We know that behind every online transaction, there’s a real person searching for that perfect product. We make it easy for retailers worldwide to cut through the clutter and be discovered by that person, every time.
These webinars will be delivered to you via email. To view these webinars, you will need the current Windows media player. For Mac users, please install flip4mac to view this video.
Download Webcasts by providing your name, e-mail, phone and company name.
Building Social Commerce with the Facebook Platform
• Principles of Social Design
• Integrating Facebook into your website
• How leading retailers are currently using Facebook
• Overview of Facebook Ads
Gain Better Insight and Seller Tactics with Amazon 360
• New Features Include Amazon 360
• Comparison Shopping Merchandiser
• Buy.com Upgrades
Understanding Google’s E-Commerce Landscape
• How this new functionality will affect your Adwords and Product Search programs.
• What these changes mean for natural search results.
• How this changes search engine optimization and marketing through social media.
channeladvisor.com/webinars
Big Changes to Facebook: What You Need to Do
by Susan Kuchinskas
Facebook is in the process of rolling out three new features that you should know about. Why should you care? Because, early last year, Facebook became the top website in the United States, surpassing Google, and it's remained the most visited site since then, according to Experian Hitwise.
Facebook is where your customers are -- as well as your competitors. Putting up a page is no longer enough.
Here's what's new:
• New design for profiles
• Rolling out Facebook Messages
• Offering deals
Let's take a look at what you need to do right now.
Brighten up your profile.
All business pages will automatically upgrade to include this new feature on March 11, although Facebook has let businesses manually upgrade ahead of that. With the new profile, the most recent photos that you post to your wall or photos that you tag your page in will be displayed in a row along the top of the page. Unlike with personal Facebook profiles, this area will not include any photos posted by your fans.
This feature gives your page visual interest -- but if you don't take the time to post photos, Facebook will automatically grab elements from your page and leave the rest of the squares blank. Your page will look drab and deserted.
Be imaginative and play with this. You can post photos of yourself and your staff, your location, products, book covers, personnel in action, even the office cat.
Don't get lost in the shuffle.
People can now opt for an e-mail address @Facebook.com. Messages, chats and texts all show up in the same place.
Facebook began offering Messages to all users on February 11. And you should definitely pay attention, according to Simms Jenkins, CEO of Brightwave Marketing, a digital marketing agency. The change reflects the way young people communicate, with a preference for texting and Facebook, according to Jenkins.
"They want these messages to read as a thread, rather than in a clunky inbox," he says.
While you now reach most or all of your e-mail subscribers through traditional providers, you should monitor your list for prospects who are using the @Facebook.com domain, he says. You will need to mail to them differently.
"If you get a message that isn't from one of your friends or a brand you're a fan of, it will end up in the Other folder," he explains. "That might as well be a spam folder."
In fact, the Other folder might be worse. Most e-mail applications at least show a Junk folder, but Facebook's Other folder will be automatically hidden from view.
He advises you to segment your @Facebook.com users and encourage them to move your messages from the Other folder; once they do so, future e-mails will arrive in their message threads. You can also ramp up your efforts to get them to "like" your page.
Bring prospects to your door.
Last August, Facebook launched Places, a service that lets people broadcast their locations via an iPhone app or smartphone Web browser. The idea is to let your friends know you're around by "checking in" to a café, restaurant or other venue. The social network followed this up in November with Facebook Deals. The service lets you reach prospects when they're nearby.
"For a small business with a loyal following, for example a café, people checking in there provides free advertising and spreading the word in a way that doesn't cost anything. Others see that so and so is there, and think, 'That's a place I should check out,'" says Victoria Ransom, CEO of Wildfire Interactive, a company that provides simple tools for launching social media marketing campaigns.
If you don't have that loyal following, Facebook Deals may be the answer.
First, you need to claim your Facebook Place, and then sign up for the Deals service. Then, when a Facebook user checks in to a location near you, you can offer digital coupons to lure him or her to your business. Customers do not need to have previously liked your page to take advantage of your deal.
"It's fantastic if you can get people to spontaneously check in to your business, but it's a lot easier if you have a deal associated with it," says Ransom. "Deals opens a connection between the online world and your small business offline."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
