Posts Tagged ‘web’

As a person trying to promote your website, the Google Toolbar can be your friend and your enemy at the same time.

Here are some things to be conscious of. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: google, google toolbar, marketing, search engine optimization, Search Marketing, sem, seo, web, web marketing

Google likes for you to think that advertising on its AdWords platform is simple. Getting started on AdWords is easy enough, but getting great business results from it is not easy at all.

I’m not going to cover the exact mechanics of running an AdWords campaign in this post, but I am going to tell you what you should expect.

Top priority: gathering intelligence

The first thing to expect from Google AdWords is that you can’t predict what’s going to happen until you’ve let your campaign run a little bit. I’ve set up dozens of campaigns and found that some perform wonderfully out of the gate, but some will perform so miserably that it almost seems impossible to get a return on your investment.

Sometimes you enter a space with no competition and get great prices on clicks. Sometimes you enter a space so competitive that it’s very costly to even get in the first 8 spots.

It can take anywhere from a month to 3 months to get enough data to know how to improve your campaign. I like to think of this data as an investment. If you analyze your first 1-3 months’ worth of data correctly, you gain some valuable intelligence for improving your results.

AdWords is not a short-term activity

Like your website, AdWords campaigns need to be optimized. It is not a “set it and forget it” affair. Just letting destiny take its course is going to cost your business a lot of money with nothing to show for it.

Like I said, any intelligence that you gain for the purpose of optimizing your campaign is an investment. Why is that? Once you’ve reached a certain level of optimization, you can just let the campaign run. All of the work that you do to figure out which keywords and ads drive the best business can just run on its own for a while.

With AdWords, there’s always a changing landscape of competition, so you do need to keep an eye on things. But it certainly does feel good to let things run for a while, knowing that you’re getting a much better ROI than your competitors.

Most search marketers don’t know what they’re doing

I know that this makes things tough on you as a business owner. Who can you trust? As a search marketer myself, I’ve tried scratching the surface in conversations with other professionals in my industry. I’ve discovered some awesome techniques for improving AdWords lately, and none of my colleagues seem that interested in putting in the elbow grease to run these techniques and save their companies some serious cash.

Unless you’re set on becoming an expert search marketer yourself, you’re going to have some major trouble. My rule of thumb: if you’re not paying someone who questions Google’s intentions, you’re probably paying someone who’s only interested in collecting your money. If you’re paying someone who is confident that the campaign is going to run peachy out of the gate, then they obviously don’t have much experience.

Technorati Tags: adwords, beginner, google, google adwords, internet marketing, pay per click, ppc, search, Search Marketing, web

I’ve always wondered how some bloggers do it. How do they consistently release stories? For me, inspiration has always come in spurts. When I write one good post, I more than likely can write 10 more quality posts in the same sitting.

If you’re anything like me, then it’s a good idea to write your posts when you have time and inspiration. Before publishing, set your blog to release your new entry in the future. And set the schedule so that your posts are being published at even intervals. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Blogging, internet, web, Writing

I recently came across a widget for creating filler copy. Its purpose is for designers to have some fake text to use as filler in their designs. (It’s not a designer’s job to write the content, right?)

Here’s what the widget would look like if you installed it on your Mac:

The joke is that some people really do write this way. Do you? Maybe it’s time to trim out some unnecessary words on your website.

Technorati Tags: copy, copywriting, Design, marketing, web, web writing, Writing

Most web designers and web developers ignore accessibility. Now that Target is being sued for not having an accessible web site, the bar is going to be raised for your own site as well. Yes, this is yet another thing to worry about. And no, you should not half-ass it.

If you cater to those with visual impairments, then you will also reap benefits from the world’s most famous blind user: Google. I kid you not.

HTML, the document format of web pages, was designed to be consumed by those with vision impairments, not just by those of us with good eyesight. Once again, everyone has gotten lazy and hasn’t learned how to truly use HTML for this purpose. I’m going to point out a few things that should be done to help improve your site’s accessibility. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: accessibility, best practices, compliance, design, google, html, jaws, screen readers, section 508, seo, shockwave, target, w3c, wai, web, web accessibility, web writing, Writing

Over the course of my career, I’ve been obsessed with best practices. Be they best practices for writing code or for separating responsibilities, I’ve always had dreams of running that well-oiled marketing and technology machine.

If you’re just starting out in working with an internet marketer, you may be a little uncomfortable in knowing what your role is vs. what your internet marketer’s role is. You don’t want to come across as a micro-manager, but you also own the work that you’re paying for, right?

From my side of the table, here’s what I see as the line in the sand for responsibilities. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: design, internet, internet marketing, marketing, Search Marketing, seo, web, web marketing

Ahh, the good old saying, “If you can’t measure it, then you can’t manage it.” Google’s FeedBurner service helps solve this problem with your RSS feeds (What the hell is RSS?), and it adds some really cool features along with it. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: atom, Blogging, feed, feedburner, feeds, google, review, rss, Technology, tool, Tools, web

Allurent is taking online catalogs a step further with Flash. Adobe’s Edge newsletter links to a video demo of the upcoming Allurent Desktop Connection software. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: adobe, allurent, catalog, catalogs, e-commerce, ecommerce, flash, internet, internet marketing, marketing, web, web marketing

As a website owner, you will eventually have to make an important decision about your site’s layout. Do you want for the layout to be liquid, so that it stretches to take up the entire width of the window? Or do you want for the layout to always be the same width, no matter how wide your browser window is?

You’d think it would be a simple decision, but it will have major impact over your site in the future. Let’s look at the pros and cons of each approach. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: css, design, html, layout, layouts, web, web_design

When doing internet marketing, it can be very easy to start injecting techno-babble into the conversation. If you’ve worked with an internet marketer, you have probably heard a few words or abbreviations whose meanings you didn’t know.

To help alleviate this, I’ve taken my first stab at writing a glossary of common terms involved with internet stuff.

Guide to Internet Jargon

If you have heard any technie buzzwords and didn’t quite understand them, let me know in the comments so I can add them to the list.

Technorati Tags: buzzwords, Design, internet, jargon, web, web development