WEB CONTENT, CONTENT WRITING

This requires a different approach to write, than that is done for printing and
publications. Writing contents on the web is altogether a different skill and technique, that has to be tuned into writing articles, or it could be to sell product or service or something personal on your blog.

The 1 thing makes you stand out of the crowd is, which makes people come back to your site again and again, or make them read your article and also recommend others to go through the article. The content has to be crisp, compelling, relevant, interesting, unique content, updating content and timely. One more important information is that, any visitor has to find all that he is searching to be relevant and also easily findable with minimum clicks (or moving to multiple pages). If the content is all plain, then there is no difference in your site and others. So, you have to make is clear that, the important and search-able word has to be search-able or EYE-CATCHABLE. Also that if you have a very huge article that can go on scrolling, then its better either ti use multiple pages or give the gist of the topics and
link them to the article; this makes the article more readable, and you need not put all the content in a single page and make it look cumbersome to read.
The content has to be presented in such a way that, people who have less time / patience or both just scan the content, and have to catch the word immediately that they are searching for. Then we can make the visitor to read our article, else they go to another search.
some important points that has to be kept in mind are:

1. Keywords: this has to be clear, selected, bold, different size
2. clear title: we can make the title more artistic or fun filled. but the visitor may not search for that word, or the spider wont take that word as a genuine word
3. Be short and sweet: As far as possible don't make the paragraph run to as big as a page. Cut them at suitable lengths and make them more clear and use simple language thats understandable by everyone.
4. Sales language: Preferable don't overuse the sales language, which may make the visitor feel alienated.
Another important point is that always scan your contents from the visitors angle. then you can know what others can field.

SEO: PART 1

THE TOP 10 ASPECTS FOR A SEARCH ENGINE POSITIONING CAMPAIGN

1. Keyword selection
2. Content
3. Site structure
4. Optimization
5. Internal linking
6. Human testing
7. Submissions
8. Link building
9. Monitoring
10. The extras


KEYWORD SELECTION:

This is the most important step in the optimization process. If the exact keyword is not selected, then you will not maximize the ROI on the campaign. Keyword is not just about selecting the most searched words (or phrases), but select those that produces a good ROI for time and money. If the keywords that we are using are more scrolled than using what people search for, this increases the rank to a greater extent. There are cases that sites having highest number of searches is not necessarily the best target for your business.
At this point of time comes 2 things SEARCHES AND CONVERSIONS. It doesn't make sense to a business that gets great number of search and very little or no conversions. even if the search is little, and most of them are getting converted makes things working.

tools:
How do you know which phrases are even searched? Fortunately there are a couple great
resources out there to help you find out how many searches are performed for specific
phrases.
Some of them are:
1. The Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool (Here it doesn't recognize between singular and plural, mis-spellings ... are all lumped together)
2. WordTracker (the above disadvantage is overcome,but not mis-spellings)

keyword tricks:
Some of the common tricks that works sometimes are:
1. Think like a layman:
Think as if that you are not familiar with the industry. This helps in finding those keywords that a layman might search for, else we end up in putting those technical terms that a layman may not be aware of on a common platform.
2. think like an expert:
On the other side think like an expert who would search for those words who is in that same industry. There could be some of the words that are not used and can stand apart from our usage.
3. Dont target too many keywords:
Its a good idea to have many keywords in the kitty, but select only the gems, not some ordinary stones among them, else we might miss those that are actually required for our business. keeping focussed on the keywords will help in ranking our site higher always, than having too many and poor ranking.
Its always good to test the keywords through pay-per-click engines. Set up an account with a PPC engine and bid on the phrases that you would like to target. One most important thing that has to be kept in mind is that, these doesn't produce the best phrases, as the way these work is different than a search engine. So its not evident that the top rated keyword produces the best return, or not-so-sought-after word wont produce results.

CONTENT:

The content should have the following properties:
1. Unique and well-written:
2. Articles with links

1. Unique and well-written:
There is no alternate to a very well written content. it not only increases the number of visits, but also can help in bringing more links to your site that will again help increase your rank to a much greater extent. Its more important to put it there what the reader wants from your site, or what he expects. The internet is such a medium where you have to write to a person whom you don't know or his reactions. Here we must not actually sell our product, but must put it in such a way that entices people to come and purchase our product. The quality in the content converts the intended buyer to buy. a buyer if has decided to buy will buy, but with you there are many people who are standing in the competition to sell their product online. Its the content thats presented in the most impressive way that makes the buyer buy your product than from elsewhere. The content should just not speak, but should speak in totality from all angles, the question that the intended person could ask and wants to know. If your site has all these details answered and the best deals that around, be 100 % sure that this click can become a good conversion. With the technology thats getting along every person searching on the net knows what to search for and in multiple sites. once he lands in your sites and if he feels spending more time on your article or registers to your site, be almost sure that this click might turn into a conversion. The more time spent on a page means that your site is instilling a sense of trust, and this turns to your advantage.
If at any stage the visitor feels that he is not getting the information he is searching, or he has to do a research where to find it, he just comes out. The site should be organized in such a way that, its orderly presented, yet searcheable, and is appealing, and the visitor need not crack his head to search the information he wants. If we are keeping all informations grouped, then the grouping has to done is such a way that it indicates what each heading says, and where he gets what he wants. This categorizing is the most critical thing that makes the visitor hover the site for a longer time, else it take no time for him to exit. This planning has to be done more carefully and in a much better planned manner.
Also we have to make sure that at no point of time any page has the same content, or that leads to the same page. There has to be a revamp of the sites once in a while, but not too often, because a sea-change will make the engine spider consider it as a new site than old one, and the rank may vary or fall (chances of rising is bleak). If the engine spiders visit quiet often for the contents rank rises. but on the other hand if it visits for the unnecessary changes made else where, the ranking drop drastically.
One more important thing that has to be kept in mind is to proof read the contents, especially with those who are neutral or in line with the content. this helps in knowing what people want and on the other hand helps refining the content and also earn that extra buck. Along with writing articles to our website, writing articles to other sites can improve our incoming links, earn us a little money, our commitment and efficiency also increases.

ONLINE MARKETING DICTIONARY ( K - Z)

16. Keyword --> Keyword is the term used for words included in a web page that would match words used by web surfers in finding that web page (via a search engine). Identifying appropriate keywords and using them on a web site is important for search engine optimization. Keywords can simply be words included in the body text of the document, or added to the header using meta tags to increase the number of keywords. Using keywords in the title tag is also important. Selecting keywords, that match your target audiences' use of the web when searching your product, is a critical marketing tactic.

17. Marginal Costs --> Marginal costs are the costs associated with creating an additional unit of product. This is similar to variable costs, which are the costs that increase directly with the increase in production (unlike fixed costs). Digital products typically have very low marginal costs, when compared with traditional goods (materials, labor etc.) and if the product is distributed via a web site, then the marginal costs can be zero. The consumer is bearing the distribution costs, and there are no packaging costs. This is why companies are able to market their products for free on their web sites, in order to try to entice further purchases at a later time (in the hopes of creating lock-in perhaps).

18. Marketing Mix --> A Marketing Mix is the combination of product offerings used to reach a target market for the organization. The marketing mix comprises the Product (what the actual offering comprises), Price (the value exchanged for that offering), Promotion (the means of communicating that offering to the target audience, promotional mix) and distribution (also known as Place, the means of having the product offering available to the target audience). The marketing mix is also known as the four P's.

19. Opportunity Costs --> Opportunity costs refer to the costs associated with giving up an opportunity. They are relevant in the marketing of digital products when one considers the value lost to the company when giving away a product for free. Since digital goods primarily consist of fixed costs and often have zero marginal costs then marketing strategy often dictates to give-away a version of the product to encourage consumers to upgrade at a later time (assuming lock-in etc.) The only cost incurred here would be the opportunity cost of the lost revenue from the consumers that would have paid for this version of the product in the first place. To avoid this situation, companies typically segment their markets, and offer a free product, with limited functionality (and no customer support or documentation) to a casual user group, and an upgraded version, at a price, with customer support etc. to a more sophisticated customer. The company will hope the casual users will upgrade to the upgraded version as they become more sophisticated users and more reliant on the product. They also assume the sophisticated user will not be satisfied with the free version, due to its lack of functionality. Eg: blogger and jot.

20. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) --> SEM comprises SEO and search engine advertising. Search engine advertising, in its current model, typically uses text-based advertisements that the marketer bids on based on the keywords the marketer wants to associate with the advertisement (contextual advertising). The business model is typically PPC. Goto.com pioneered the PPC model for search engine advertising. Goto.com was purchased by Overture which was ultimately purchased by Yahoo! Google's Google Adwords is the main competitor.
Both these networks supply advertisements for other sites.

21. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) --> SEO refers to the art of designing a web-site for better listings in search engines. This includes ensuring you have the appropriate keywords in the body text of the site, in the title tag and the meta tags. Google's PageRank algorithm also rewards sites that have inbound links, and even considers the anchor text of the inbound links. Search engines also reward sites with fresh content. Regularly updated blogs therefore serve as a good SEO tool.

22. Shopping Cart Abandonment --> Shopping Cart Abandonment refers to the loss of a customer who is going through the check-out process of an online transaction. Some statistics suggest that this can be as high as 75%. It is principally caused by poor usability of the site and the check-out process (too time consuming, too many clicks), and hidden shipping charges.

23. (Web) Spider --> A spider (also known as a crawler) is used by a search engine to
identify web pages in order to be cataloged in the database of the search engine (web site designers can also submit web pages to be cataloged in a search engine). Spiders therefore help search engines to keep up with the evolution of web content by crawling through the web seeking new sites. To control spiders in terms of cataloging a web site, a designer can include a robots.txt file that instructs a spider to exclude pages that are not to be cataloged.

24. Text Advertisements --> Text advertisements are text links that are paid for by the sponsors of the target page of the advertisement. They are a form of advertisement that can be considered more contextual (assuming the text link is relevant to the subject of the web page), and less obtrusive than other forms of advertising on the web. Text advertisements can also be used for affiliate advertising and the emerging search engine advertising programs from Google Adwords and Overture.

25. underdelivery --> delivery of less impressions, visitors, or conversions than contracted for a specified period of time.

26. Viral Marketing --> Is a marketing technique that takes advantage of a marketer's
customers in promoting the product. This technique was pioneered by Hotmail. Hotmail
launched its free web-based e-mail service with the tag line (at the bottom of each e-mail) "Get your free e-mail at Hotmail." As customers used this e-mail service, and were e-mailing others, they were effectively sending an advertisement for the product. This attracted new customers, who repeated the process. Once a critical mass of consumers were using Hotmail, a tipping point was reached, where the number of new users started to increase non-linearly. Hotmail soon became the fastest growing media company in history.

27. Web 2.0 --> Web 2.0 comprises technologies such as blogs, wikis, podcasting and RSS. It is a term that tries to embrace a participatory web; a web where all can now participate in content creation and consumption. It thus presumes that Web 1.0 was a 'static' environment.

28. Web Analytics --> Web Analytics is the field of data mining the data that is generated from those navigating a web-site. Web Analytics allows a site designer to understand the flow of those going through a site, essentially measuring the behavior of the site's users. Which pages are most popular, which are the entry and exit points, and which are the referrer URLs. Metrics used include page views, hits, sessions and impressions. There are a number of software providers who provide web analytics tools, and a host should also provide this service to its clients.

29. Weblog (blog) --> A blog is a website that is updated frequently by its author, in a standard format, with the most recent entry at the top, and older entries archived. Each entry is a unique URL, a permalink. Entries also include trackbacks and the option for allowing comments. Blogging software (such as Blogger.com and typepad.com) allow anyone the opportunity to be a publisher on the web (no need to know html), thus truly democratizing the process of publishing information (a potential threat to traditional media organizations). Blogs are used to annotate and collect news sources across the web; used as personal journals and for sharing experiences; and used by businesses to reach out to their customers and engage in conversations.

30. Word of Mouth Marketing --> Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) refers to the marketing that can be gained by actively engaging customers to share insights with each other (create buzz that goes viral). WOMM has clearly been around since the inception of marketing, but has gained more prominence with the evolution of the internet, and the ease with which customers can share their stories. Web 2.0 technologies such as Blogs and News Readers are enabling WOMM. Discussion Boards have helped customers form communities. Good WOMM relies on great products that customers willingly evangelize. Marketers have been prone to try to 'effect' this by incentivizing 'fake' customers to talk about their products. This can backfire.

How GOOGLE calculates the quality scores

Google is constantly updating the formula used to calculate your Google Quality Score. The lists below outline some of the core components.

Used to Calculate your Minimum Bid:

* The keyword’s click through rate (CTR) on Google; CTR on the Google Network is not considered
* The relevance of the keyword to its ad group
* The quality of your landing page

Used to Calculate Ad Position:

* The matched keyword’s CTR on Google; CTR on the Google Network is not considered
* The relevance of the keyword and ad to the search query

Used to Calculate Eligibility to Appear on Sites within the Content Network:

* The ad’s past performance on this and similar sites
* The quality of your landing page

Used to Determine Ad Appearance on a Site-Targeted Site:

* The quality of your landing page

B2B : beat round the bush

Quite often B2B search engine marketing involves more complex strategies and requires
marketers to think of strategies with the end in mind. The B2B selling process is more complex and the potential consumers buying cycle can be long and drawn out. As a result, B2B marketers are presented with unique challenges and need to continually build relationships with their consumers.
Establishing a relationship with the potential consumer is key, but understanding that there are different people with their own requirements is the real ticket to success.
While its true that there may be different people in the buying cycle who search using the same key phrases, the intention of each may be different. Each will have their own set of pre-determined keywords that they will use to search for. As a result the importance of revisiting keyword baskets is crucial. The end result of course is obtaining qualified traffic and thus qualified leads.

Here are some other challenges faced by B2B marketers:
• Longer, more Complex Selling Cycles
• Undetermined KPIs
• Need for "traffic filtering" to ensure qualified traffic is turned into qualified leads
• Understanding the Consumer's Buying Cycle
• Measuring success at various intervals of the selling cycle
• Ignoring secondary conversions and missing out on opportunities to intercept qualified traffic
• Tracking leads through sales
• Developing effective on-site conversions that lead to the bigger off-site conversions (ie. the sale).
B2B marketers need to be proactive in tackling these challenges.

WIDGET MARKETING: CAN WIDGETS BENEFIT B2B SITES?

There has been a lot of “buzz” about widgets and widget marketing recently as creative online marketers have discovered the use of widgets. Widgets are simply pieces of embeddable code that can be found on one site, and embedded in another that can be used to promote your own site or blog. Widgets have become popular with users of online communities as a result the business of marketing via widgets is a great way for site owners (including B2B sites)to promote their content and business.
Widget marketing is starting to catch on in the online marketing world. Today there was a great post by Nick Wilson over at Search Engine Land on link baiting for 2007. According to Nick, a major component of link baiting in 2007 will be “widget baiting”.

How Can Widgets Help B2B Sites?

Simply put, widgets are all about providing your users with the tools to promote your B2B business or any business/online property for that matter. For B2B marketers, widgets offer the potential to be a means of acquiring new customers at a minimal cost, promotion of your site’s presence out to the rest of the Web, and can provide a traffic source to help build your external link inventory.
Widgets are a great way for promoting your site and your content. For B2B sites, which are looking to create streaming media channels (combining audio, video, photos, text, and RSS feeds etc) and broadcast them live across their site’s pages or blog, widgets can help accomplish this. Sites like splashcast specialize in just that.

Top 10 Favorite Widget Sites for B2B Search Marketing
1. My Blog Log
2. Mashable.com
3. Widgetoko
4. Snipperoo
5. Reuters Widget
6. Widgipedia
7. Spring Widgets
8. Word Press Widgets
9. Poll Daddy
10. Business Week Widget

B2B MARKETING IN 2007 – EVANGELIZING YOUR CONSUMERS

Given the understanding that most B2B organizations offer high end products or services, we know that the time that it takes to qualify a lead, nurture the relationship and convert the lead into a sale can take months or even years. The thing is, there is one more step involved in this marketing process for B2B marketers to consider and that is to make your customer an evangelist for your organization.If you have done your job and provided a service/product that your consumer truly appreciates, and the consumer is sincerely pleased about the entire experience, the chance of making this consumer an evangelist for your company is great.
Consumer evangelism is simply the process of taking a customer who is thrilled about your product/service and their experience and getting them to become outspoken "evangelists" or glorified promoters for your company. These “greatly satisfied” consumers can become a powerful tool for marketing and growing your business in addition to other leads that you have.
Its all the customer who makes the market. Its not what we want we produce and customer takes. but its what the customer wants and it is he who chooses the vendor, who has offered the service he wanted. If we the selected ones, we are lucky, and cashing on this in the form of evangelizing may not be wrong. Its the advantage that has come your way. Use it.
The fact that they selected your organization means that they understand how your solution works and that it will work for them.Keep in mind that your solution has to provide an extraordinary experience for this to happen.
Having loyal customers is one thing, converting them into influential and enthusiastic evangelists for your organization is another. Loyal customer are not necessarily promoting you to others, consumer evangelists do. Consumer evangelism should be practiced by any B2B organizations that want to grow their company and make a real difference in their industry. It’s been reported that “organizations that focus on building word of mouth (WOMM) into full-fledged evangelism grow faster, are more profitable and have big-picture ideas that somehow change the world.” If this sounds too good to be true, it’s not.
• Consumer Evangelists purchase and believe in your product or service
• Consumer Evangelists passionately recommend you to friends, family and colleagues
• Consumer Evangelists provide unsolicited feedback or praise
• Consumer Evangelists forgive dips in service and quality
• Consumer Evangelists are not bought they “extol” your virtues freely
• Consumer Evangelists feel part of something bigger than themselves