June 07, 2006
Web Listed as No. 1 Media
What's the surprise here?
The most interesting thing with this news was Pam Hortan's comments about incremental reach. Her idea stressed multimedia. I took this to mean more cross-media channels.
Posted by pgraber at 05:41 PM
December 06, 2005
Networked Messaging Through Weblogs
The weblog is a tool that's being utlized by the masses. You are currently experiencing one right now. Increasingly organizations are relying on them to build credibility, enhance relationships, heighten online visibility and even foster new ideas and collaboration.
I've written previously about Weblogs as Search Hooks in a previous post. I came across a Raleigh interactive marketing company's take on why blogging can be good for the organization.
The core concept seems to be that a blog can be a handy means of expression. Although this is not a new concept by anymeans, its just more contemporary. As information and connectivity continued to pervade every aspect of organizational communication, there's a growing need to structure communications efforts that support an organization's mission, vision and advancement initiatives.
SEO companies love blogs because they enable organizations to publish easily. Overtime, this strengthens their content depth (obviously), but with a long-term plan, can be a very effective way to build 'semantic density' in a defined keyword sphere or space. And if done really effectively, blogs also promote the concept of community building. More and more, web users (and even the public at large) are shifting their attention away from push mechanisms like email, television, newspapers, and preferred pull-oriented communications.
This could account for the decline in newspaper readership, the rise in tools like TiVo, and the rapidly growing nature of RSS. Blogs effective morph into either type and are ideally situated for pull.
The bottom line with blogs seem to be that they appear to be just a new name on old style corporate publishing efforts. They needn't be personal rants or soapboxes, but planned communications channels that can be used to build brand. With foresight and strategy, they can be used as a powerful tool in the new network-centric world we live in.
Posted by pgraber at 03:28 PM
June 22, 2005
New Media and Marketing Communications
During early Summer of 2005, I completed a short study of the effect of new media on integrated marketing communications. The project consisted of a small journal that was developed over the course of ten weeks.
New Media - in my definition - started in mid-to-late 1990s, with the explosion of the Internet and the related networked-enabled technologies it spawned. Almost immediately the popularity of the World Wide Web took hold, new media began to be known as websites, email, then cell phones, the PDA, and networked 'appliances'.
Within each of these categories, sub groups are starting to emerge. Where once you have only static web pages, now you have interactive data-driven applications, vector-based animation, direct-to-desktop communications, interactive gaming, peer-to-peer,
While most of these can be immediately construed as nodes on the information superhighway, there are quite a few other new media forms that run in parallel. These include electronic billboards, portable music players, and interactive kiosks. While these may or may not be 'connected', they still allow messages to be communicated to an audience - a fact they share in common with their network-enabled cousins.
I think that what all of these methods or media have in common is the continued growth and expansion of computer technology. Ever since the personal computers began to be utilized, marketers have recognized them to be able to effectively communicate messages. I see how this concept is being played out daily, both in my professional work and in my personal life.
Professionally, I consider myself to be a publisher and content creator. Having started out with a personal computer in the early 1990's, I quickly realized that tools could be purchased with relatively little money that could enable me to communicate via professional print, and subsequently, online. As such, I have experienced many new media technologies as a producer, a publisher/marketer and a consumer.
Overall, I see many of the new media types I have listed are just different adaptations on existing technologies. As gains are continually being made in the areas of processor speed, bandwidth, and telecommunications, this suggests that marketers and communicators revisit each new media from a different context. The advances provide them with opportunity relative to message delivery that didn't exist previously or suggest an adaptation that wouldn't of been possible otherwise. These concepts drive new adaptations and further growth.
This week's discussion and material regarding design and navigation of websites got me to thinking how important this topic is. Although the materials we were presented in class reviewed the topic from a higher level, specifics on what IMC practitioners can do to evaluate these characteristics was somewhat limited.
One of the most important factors that seems to be cropping up in my research is properly deciphering the 'mode' or experience context in which the user is in when online. After reading An Improved Way to Characterize Internet Users (Rodgers, Sheldon), I attempted to uncover information relative to these situations as far as navigation and design.
The Three Key Navigation Points: Orientation, Metaphors and Depth/Breadth.
Probably the most important element in designing a website's navigational system is allowing the user to quickly determine his/her orientation within the site's info architecture. Too often, a site's page is linked from a search engine or other website, that directs a user to a deeply nested page. Once arrived, the user quickly needs to determine the organization of the site and where the page falls within that. Many times large sites fail to provide users with enough visual clues to orients them effectively. This effect usability creates frustration and confusion and can impart negative feelings towards the site operator. User interface specialists need to be aware of this and design sites with an eye toward assisting users in this regard. Easy access to information helps the user access it, but also provides site designers and content creators a solid roadmap for further development.
In my work as a web designer and developer, it has become sort of a personal preference to gravitate towards designing user interfaces that place main vertical navigational elements on the right side of the page. My theory was that the right side of the page was where a user's mouse would most likely be, and in doing so, would enable faster access and greater feels. While researching navigation best-practices, I uncovered research on the topic that was surprising. In a nutshell, there was no significant difference in usability between left and right-justified navigational systems, but that usability may be enhanced by following common practices. (Nielson, 1999). Although several studies have suggested increased efficiency of right-justified navigation, common practice trumps these. Most sites rely on left-justified schemes. Taking this into account, there may be additional benefits, like expectation and familiarity, that are difficult to be measured but translate into easier usage by surfers.
What much of the current thought shows is that to keep navigation consistent, providing strong relative clues to context or spatial relation, and recognizing that certain situations don't lend themselves ideally to the 'page metaphor' of the web.
Pop-ups, Banners, and Other Web Advertising
The types of web advertising that are available now days are really amazing. In just a relatively short time span, what once only provided a rudimentary means of promotion and advertising has spawned countless ways of doing so. No more is this evident than in the range of web advertising, a realm that now includes banner ads, pop-ups, pop-unders, interstitials and variations using rich media and animation.
To get a better grasp of what's cool and what's not so cool with these media forms, I visited the Interactive Advertising Bureau (www.iab.net). The site lists a tremendous amount of information on the growing Internet advertising market. Along with data, trends and forecasts, the site also provides visitors and professionals with approved guidelines regarding media and usage. On the site are a series of guidelines and best-practice reports. One of them, Pop-up Guidelines' in 2004, provided a lot of interesting anecdotal information regarding pop-ups and pop-unders. I thought it was very telling what I read. Basically the conclusions that we reached is that this form of advertising is a big annoyance to consumers. They listed several common factors that consumers responded to during a 2004 survey. Companies need to take factors such as these into account as they experiment with different online advertising mechanisms.
In reviewing the recommendations they listed for other types of interactive media, I found many of their recommendations consistent with the concept of what I call user empowerment. Basically, this includes thinking about a user's experience and providing the necessary functionality to address their needs and desires. For instance, the IAB recommends that advertisers provide controls on interstitial advertisements that allow the user to skip ahead. Or when audio is used, the ability for the user to mute the sound. I felt these were user empowerment types of issues that always need to be addressed by advertisers. Granted, not all types of interactive ads require such controls, but advertisers need to approach the web from a context that caters to the user. Too often interactive advertising appears as a one-way street. And of course, this is not limited to advertising, but also to website design, copy writing and even the types of information companies provide. Because the web is an entirely new medium that provides altogether different functionality and potential, companies should approach it from a refreshed perspective.
Electronic Mail
At work we used to get a ton of SPAM, but recently engaged a service that filters and flags incoming SPAM, groups it, and sends a message where we can access them if needed. SPAM is everywhere today and is slowly eroding users' confidence in email as a communications source. This begs the question of how effective is email marketing going to be if things continue?
Although I consider myself a heavy web and email user, I don't however, receive a ton of email. I have foregone signing up for mailing lists, listservs and other types of services. I maybe receive 5-10 truly important emails a day. I do proactive things like hiding or encoding my email address if posted online. Even so, the marketing messages I do receive, very seldom do I open them to view them. If so, it is very brief and last about 2 seconds.
With this in mind, if a company uses email to market, what would be the best way to address a user like myself? My answer is that it depends on the circumstances, the message and the response that one is trying to emit.
Professionally, I produce a range of communications that are distributed through email. This includes several serial publications - or ezines - and various announcements. These are produced as either plain text or in HTML. Depending on its nature will determine its delivery format. Plain text email, in my opinion, is perceived as more serious and straightforward, while HTML-based messages less so. They are more marketing-advertising-centric. Generally, if there is an important issue we need to communicate with our members, we use plain text. Our serials use HTML. My point is that the situation determines what type of email is most effective.
There are other important factors to successful email marketing. A crucially important one is the subject line of the message. Spammers know this of course. I find it interesting how some professional colleagues do not, however. A technique I use related to this (and one my organization adopted) is using our corporate acronym as a prefix to any message. Some of our users have commented that this helps them quickly identify our messages, especially for those coming from staff members. Subject lines should be short, discrete. They need to capture a user's attention immediately.
Along with the subject line, many in the email marketing field stress the importance of using some sort of opt-in mechanism. Marketers need to be aware of this. Lately, there is growing interest in double-opt-in mechanism, essentially where the user signs up and has to confirm entry via a separate, but connected process. Opt-in, as well as a quick and easy opt-out method are keys. They help to build credibility and trust with recipients. There are organizations that firms can rely upon for targeted, permission-based lists for email purposes.
Another important aspect of email marketing that is always needs to be considered is frequency. This seems to occur a lot where I work. I get separate requests to email different things and our users are bombarded by messages by our organization. They can be quickly turned-off by such practices. Organizations need to tightly control the frequency with which they email their constituencies. Related to frequency is timing. What is the best time to email your constituency? Myself, I try to send message on Tuesday to Thursday mornings, close to 10:00 a.m. if possible. The optimal time is going to vary depending on your group. Mine was determined based on anecdotal industry info I found at Wilson Web (http://www.wilsonweb.com), a website I routinely visit.
Marketing email should also be tracked in some way. Most email software tools that are used in message construction and delivery provide some way to tracking who is viewing the messages. Marketers need to see what messages are getting opened, read and how much activity they are generating. The days of mass-emailing without regard to metrics is over. I personally used very rudimentary techniques (invisible. gifs) to track our campaigns' activity. Modern software or service providers provide more advanced capabilities.
Web Video and Rich Media
Since my web surfing and browsing days began, I have had little interest in this ever-growing media form. Maybe I have just been polluted in thinking that slow connections and problematic plug-ins make the technology to unreliable. Lately, however, I have been slowly becoming more open to realizing the benefits and potential web video offers.
In addition to web-based video, I also consider audio to be a rich media form. There seems to be thousands of resources available to download or stream the latest songs, music and news. Often, these services provide a venue for advertisers to communicate their message to a targeted audience. Connected to audio - and somewhat the new kid on the block - is using audio is new ways. There is growing use of web audio in portable digital music players. Pod-casting is a means by which web audio is downloaded to iPods for replay and redistribution. While this is still quite new and it's future somewhat uncertain, the lesson here is that organizations must realize and appreciate new opportunities as they are happening. They must look to innovative media forms - however small - and map them to their overall marketing communications strategy. Successfully doing so will foster increased brand awareness and loyalty.
Within the past month or so, I have also noticed that CNN has begun to offer users free web videos of daily stories. My research uncovered that these videos are sponsored by Chase and General Motors. When you queue up on a video at CNN's Video page (http://www.cnn.com/video), you automatically see a short commercial for one of GM's cars. With web video growing - and CNN such a popular site - I think it's a win-win scenario for CNN and their sponsors, and users. It also raises the bar for other news sites to do the same.
In addition to web video, I have also been noticing a growing creative use of Flash animations online. This is allowing firms to provide a more advanced interactive experience to their users. They are integrating compelling artwork and animation into data-rich applications. In some cases this is burdensome to some types of users (like the visually impaired), but it is allowing organizations to re-purpose content in many different ways. At the same time, it is opening up new doors of opportunity and re-defining existing workflows. A good example of this is online training. In the past, many of these types of implementations were a combination on web video, audio and/or standard HTML. Increasingly, I am witnessing providers relying on more unified environments like Flash to do the task. This is changing the nature of the courses and redefining workflows.
Blogs, Chat and Bulletin Board Systems
Seems everyone has a web blog (or blog) nowadays. They are everywhere. You've got thousands of personal bloggers, they're are executive blogs, professional bloggers, bloggers that cover just about every imaginable topic. Publishing on the web has gone decidely small, independent and niche-focused. I think this has an effect of the marketing by enabling more consumers and raising the expectations of everyone for more information and competing viewpoints.
I think as blogs and personal publishing forms proliferate, it is causing foundational changes in the way consumers are influenced. Age old standards like word-of-mouth, Consumer Reports and the trade presses are beginning to be eroded by this 'new' medium. Publishers or bloggers represent a new form of mass media that combines network communication with individual thought and opinion, but without the constraints that might be effect the nature of these expressions. While this can be good and bad, I see it as enabling small independents to carve out highly-respected niches - both big and small - that can achieve authority status. With the credibility that this brings, consumer/user opinions can be shaped through the content in blogs.
While the average web surfer might frequent one or two blogs in an average week, there is a growing sense that their content can serve to be informative, and as such, a user may be inclined to consider a blogs content while gathering info on products and/or services. This could have major effects on corporate public relations and marketing communications. Companies know this. So do bloggers. Blogs are seen to be empowering to consumers because of their independent nature. But they also serve to provide readers with extremely up-to-date information as well. This combination is powerful.
Although I see blogs continuing to expand in popularity, other community communication tools, like online chat and bulletin board systems, also have a place in the online world. While their implementations may be called different things, they all provide companies with an effective way to extend relationship building, offering value-added services and building brand loyalty.
For example, I think its important today for firms to provide expedited, person-to-person communication mechanisms online. This is especially true for large, consumer products and consumer services organizations. More and more, firms are providing online customer support via online chat. It is being referred to as 'live person' or 'live support', but basically relies on very similar technology as chat does. Additionally, for many firms, value can be added to a customer's experience by providing extensive support or knowledge information. Additionally, interaction between users in a place that promotes shared ideas and community also adds value. Many firms are launching bulletin-board systems in ways that help them achieve this. They provide the company with the means to share knowledge, increase brand and consumer awareness and extend relationships.
Direct-to-Desktop and Peer-to-Peer
One type of technology that we really didn't get a chance to investigate was the growing use of peer-to-peer tools and networks, as well as direct-to-desktop tools. Within both of these environments, the classic metaphor of the web browser takes a back seat to custom, proprietary networks designed to connect people to people and organization to person. While their applications may not be applicable to all firms, they do provide unique advantages as compared with more popular methods.
Southwest Airline stands out as a leading pioneer in the creative use of direct-to-desktop technology. The Southwest Ding! tool is a lightweight application that users download and install on their individual desktops. Once installed, it allows Southwest a direct link to each users' desktop, allowing them to communicate with users in a variety of ways. From the user's perspective, it is a tool that is part of their personal desktop environment, and not necessarily 'on the web'. Southwest has used Ding! as the mechanism for offering special, time-sensitive discount airfares. Users who have it downloaded are reminded of offers by an audible reminder - a ding - that gets their attention. The tool most likely provides Southwest with extensive metrics information as well. This type of tool represents a new and compelling media form that takes advantage of the Internet's communications ability in unique ways.
While users may still be skeptical about downloading 'extra stuff' on their computer (especially if it is seen as a conduit for marketing and advertising messages), direct-to-user tools that connect a users' computer with a companies' products or services could effect many things. I see it as a growing trend that is just in its infancy. Another simple example, is that of FedEx Kinko's. User's can download a simple printer driver that enables them to send their copy and print jobs to the most convenient store. Technology like this moves the interaction upstream, away from the web browser and closer to the 'point of need'. It relies on Internet infrastructure in new ways.
Peer-to-peer technology also offers some exciting possibilities. While today it is heavily known for its ability to share files, it essentially enables user to connect with one another in a different digital context. As bandwidth capabilities increase, resources that can be shared among a 'connected community' will multiply. I see this having a big effect on media organizations of all types. On the surface, a technology like this may not be applicable to every type of firm. But once again, the challenge is to creatively map technology to an organization's goals, and to serve and assist customers accordingly.
Search Engines
Just last week I had a client email me with a question regarding search optimization or SEO. SEO has been creating a lot of buzz recently due to aggressive SEO companies and a savvier corporate web public. Companies understand that people are searching for information and products online and it makes critical sense to be found. There's lots of money to be made in the field because it's so nebulous, lacks a long history/track record, and is considered a fast moving target. What works today probably won't work tomorrow. As a web guy myself, I know enough about SEO to know that I know nothing. Of all the disciplines of the web today, SEO is the closest to quack-science and there's a lot of quacks out there.
Search and search marketing is one of the cornerstones of electronic marketing and will continue to be forever. In an effort to locate resources online, people have come to rely on search engines. I don't see this changing. As a result, it makes sense to be able to be found online. Whether it is in the organic results or SERPs (Search engine results pages)or via other means like Paid-Per-Click or even Paid-Inclusion (yuck!), search marketing is huge. Google's sales and profits figures confirm just how important firms think this is. They recently posted record profits as advertising sales continue to explode for them.
I think, however, the days of generic, all-the-web engines, are numbered. While they will never die, I see that due to increasing amounts of information online, there are growing needs for specialized, topic-specific engines and/or services. While current engines like Google do enable this currently to a degree, there is a belief that they also inventory as much of that type of content as possible. This is not the case. I have read that an engine like Google inventories much less than half of the web. Other engines vary, but yield similar results. The bottom line is that because of the amount of information, there is a growing need for more specialized search tools.
Social Click Networks
My nephew clued me into a really neat concept recently. Once I got thinking about it, the more powerful it became for marketing. I feel it is still very new, but nonetheless important. I have named them social click networks. An example can be found at http://www.asmallworld.org.
Basically, they are online social communities that are closed and not open to the public. AsmallWorld forces new members to be sponsored to become a member of the community. In order to sponsor someone, a member needs to attain a certain number of contacts within the community.
While A Small World is just one type of network, other ones like Friendster, MySpace.com aggregate users into a community for networking, contacts and relationship building. Networks like these enable online interaction among people. They provide a means to tap into shared values. Recently, MySpace was purchased by NewsCorp for about $580 million. Social communities like these are increasingly being recognized by major brands. Although MySpace is the 800-lb gorilla and one of the most highly trafficked sites, they all offer a lot of potential.
The reason behind this is because these emerging social communities aggregate a variety of functionality around a social networks needs. The offer users the ability to interact, share files/resources, instant message, view classifieds, and even date. It's these core functions that draw users back - sometimes multiple times daily. This community aspects presents new opportunities for users.
Posted by pgraber at 03:06 PM
May 29, 2005
Pop-ups: More Harm Than Good
A short paper about a few brands that utilize pop-up banner advertising online and why I think it sucks.
Pop-up advertising is annoying. Ask anyone. This was a brief paper I submitted on the subject.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Peter Graber - Week 3
Banners, Pop-ups, Pop-Unders
To begin, I don't necessarily care for pop-ups and pop-unders and rarely click on banner ads. Although I see many of these ads during my online experiences, I seldom do anything to act on their messages. While I enjoy the amount of creativity these employ, I consider putting up with them a necessary evil.
Of these three types of web advertising, I feel the one that is the least obtrusive is the simple banner ad. For this paper, I have attempted to investigate all three types to determine if there were any major differences in how they completed their messaging.
The University of Phoenix
The first website banner that I clicked on was located on CNN Money (cnnfn.com). It was for an extremely popular web advertiser - University of Phoenix (UoP). I’ve seen UoP ads everywhere and they often use pop-unders that I’m constantly deleting. Upon clicking the banner I was immediately taken to the University of Phoenix web site. I landed on a page that was headlined 'The leading University for Working Professionals'. On multiple parts of the page were graphics and banners touting the university's Flexnet, a degree format that combines classroom and online learning. Initially I thought that this landing page was an interior page of the site. There was nothing on the page that gave me any point of reference. I attempted to return to the site's main home page by clicking on the site's logo. It was then that I determined that I was on the home page after all.
Overall, I found the site to be shallow - approximately 5 pages - and one that was designed to get users to 'Request More Information'. Basically a lead generation site. Beyond well-written introductory material, there was little information about the institution. You would expect that such a ‘large institution’ would have a site comparable to what other universities have.
In considering the nature of the banner ad, there was essentially no enticement offered to click-through on the ad, and the landing page as described above, did not offer any special information. From a consumer's perspective this might help the organization's credibility as it fosters the user to take the initiative. But I would think that this would lead to very limited response.
The UoP site was nicely done, but altogether too brief and lacking specifics. I came away feeling that anyone can write pleasing copy and build a small website. It didn’t improve my perception that the organization is a well-organized diploma mill. This may be a touch off base, but the organization should be providing a more robust public-facing presence. With almost all universities now offering electronic distance programs, this is more important than ever.
Verizon DSL
The next advertisement that I clicked on was for Verizon DSL. The ad appeared on another of my most favorite sites - The Drudge Report (drudgereport.com). The headline of the ad exclaimed 'Verizon Online DSL 3.0Mbps'. I clicked and was immediately taken to a Verizon landing page promoting a 'limited time offer'. But to see the latest offers in my area, I was required to enter a phone number. I obliged for the sake of this discussion.
After I entered my Verizon Wireless telephone number, I was greeted with a page that informed me that ' Verizon Online DSL Is Not Available', but that I could enter my first and last name and my email address for more information. The page also communicated that the Verizon network was 'continually being expanded' and that Verizon didn't want me 'to miss the opportunity to get a dedicated high-speed Internet connection...' From that point I was sort of stuck. There seemed no point in going any further. Verizon didn’t offer services in my area. Case closed.
Clicking back to the original landing page, I decided to venture around a bit. What I thought was effective was the information the company provided in comparing DSL to cable access. They presented a link to a JD Power Report on the company, as well as an interactive tool comparing Verizon with a variety of cable access providers. The tool presented a user selection list naming companies like Adelphia, Cox, Earthlink, AOL, Bellsouth and others. When you selected a competitor, their 'ratings' appeared next to Verizon's. As a skeptic of comparisons, the page highlighted that they were based on 'responses from thousands of consumers nationwide. The six categories below (cost, billing, image, performance and reliability, customer service, e-mail) were the factors found to have the greatest impact on customer satisfaction.'
When compared to the competition, Verizon faired extremely favorably. This may or may not be true in real life. Although the 'results' showed them being bested by certain competitors in specific categories, they were always superior in price. Although I was skeptical, I then visited the JD Power and Associates link they provided. The information they provided - namely a quick abstract of their 2004 Internet Service Provider Residential Customer Satisfaction Study - seemed more credible. This worked to buttress Verizon's claims. I thought this was an effective way for them to drive home credibility in their services and their survey results. It appeared to be consistent.
What I thought was most interesting about the banner may have been its biggest weakness. I consider myself a very savvy internet user that's extremely comfortable with technology and as a result of my professional work, probably have a better grasp of technology than most web users. Given this, I felt the ad's headline was confusing. What is DSL 3.0 Mbps? I understand 3.0Mbps, but I'm unsure if the average Internet user would. And besides, for this banner to appear on a site designed for low-bandwidth connectivity, I questioned why anyone would waste his or her time to investigate it. Last, after I clicked-through to the Verizon site, there was no other mention of this feature. This seemed to be a bit confusing. I’m sure the average user would have experienced similar difficulties.
The Online Reward Center - http://onlinerewardcenter.com/
The last ad that I viewed was a pop-under advertisement that appeared on my computer when I followed a news link from the Drudge Report regarding a tourist being shot on Broadway in New York City. The advertisement was designed to simulate an operating system 'System Status' dialog box that proclaimed that my 'urgent attention is required'. This type of ad epitomized the creative, yet sometimes rogue nature of some forms of modern web advertising. I clicked through only for the purposes of this discussion.
From a design perspective, the ad was well done, complete with authentic looking system features. It was only slightly discernable from a normal system. The copy of the ad stated that I had been chosen to 'receive a free* laptop PC' and that the offer was only available online and for a limited time. When I clicked, my browser opened up a new window and I was taken to the Online Rewards Center.
Upon arriving, three types of laptops appeared. These included a Toshiba Satellite, a Compaq Presario, and a Gateway Notebook. There was a form field that required me to enter a Zip Code to determine if the offer was available for my area. Beyond this information, there was clear information that stated that to be eligible for my 'free laptop' my information would need to be validated, I would be required to complete a user survey and I also be required to participate in the several ‘sponsor offers’. Further browsing uncovered customer testimonials, and more specific information regarding what 'sponsors offers' really meant. The information about what this entailed put me a ease somewhat. They stated the following:
" Examples of sponsored offers may include free trial offers, credit cards, free quote requests and other free or low-cost offers. Please note that there are typically a variety of offers presented for your selection - some offers require a small purchase, while others are free trials or free applications which does not require a purchase (and can be cancelled without obligation)."
I felt that this was adequate information and actually intrigued me. Beyond this, they listed other specifics of the program, along with some frequently asked questions. They stated that users could even monitor the status of their progress online. This was another plus.
Taking all of this information into account, I viewed the Online Reward Center in a different light. They seemed very credible. I was almost tempted to try it out, but thought otherwise when considering the time frame (90 days), and the administrative hassles of completing the necessary steps. But even so, this was a plus. I had a different perspective on the nature of the service.
Posted by pgraber at 03:34 PM
March 03, 2005
Quick Back Link Power
A simple run of Nichebot reveals an interesting discovery relative to search engines and web niches.
Take a small keyword nich, for instance. Backlinks help tremendously in helping search engines to determine relevance. This is common knowledge in SEO.
Ironically, however, some niches I'm experimenting with are currently showing very low- to non-existent back link counts. This directly effects initial positioning.
In another niche I've identifed, the 'leader' had 10 backlinks. One had 0 with a pagerank of 6. What?
Regardless of how pagerank is currently used or not, its data.
In any case back links help.
Posted by pgraber at 07:31 PM
February 22, 2005
Identifying Web Niches
I was downtown today and stopped in to say hello at Met-Tech Inc and offer some basic web services. It went great and got me to thinking about niche marketing on the web.
I have a meeting setup for Saturday. I've been wondering how much the Gold Champions are; they're a Brunswick Gold Crown (BGC) replication. The BGC is a top billiard table used in competition and most serious pool rooms.
A bit of secondary research on the market yielded some positive results. All of which may point to a viable niche market on the Internet.
The keywords make up strong traffic on Ebay and a good number of searches. If we can come up with a package - it may sell.
I stopped by on Friday and we chatted. On my follow up, we'll meet next week. He's been working on it.
This could be a niche.
Posted by pgraber at 02:51 PM