Kevin07 the winner
Posted on Tue Nov 07
Tagged: Marketing | Leave your comments
For my Australian audience you would by now know that Kevin Rudd is the new Prime Minister. For my international readers last weekend Australia had an election, which resulted in the ousting of the Liberal party and John Howard.
What does this have to do with Web Design and more importantly Online Marketing? Well many political bloggers will discuss the pros and cons of each political parties policies, but I have a different view. I believe that the election was won with the advertising campaign.
I believe that the ALP (Australian Labor Party) and Kevin Rudd hired a marketing guru. The marketing guru seized the opportunity to use new marketing technologies like; facebook, myspace, and youtube to appeal to the younger voter.
I mean let's face it the ALP's policies are nothing new. Fix hospitals, education, climate etc... These are all pretty standard policies for a party.
What's even better is the launch of the kevin07 website. It had a current feel about it. It tied in all the technologies mentioned above, allowing the not so Internet savvy to locate videos and pictures along with other stuff like Kevin07 t-shirts.
It is worth mentioning that the kevin07 website is sperate from the ALP website which is nice and well set however it was a wise move to market the kevin07 website as the ALP's site is very corporate.
Now the Liberal Party of Australia's website is terrific. It has the same feel as the kevin07 website yet in my opinion it is highly polished. Yet it was never marketed.
I don't know the full story so the liberal site may have gotten a revamp after the kevin07 site but it missed out on pushing it to the people, which is a pity. The marketing campaign for the Liberals has basically been the same for years and I think it is because of the fresh approach that the ALP took to the problem, that is what got them over the line.
It just goes to show if the new technologies can work for politicians, imagine what it can do for you!
Domain Alert
Posted on Fri Nov 07
Tagged: General | Leave your comments
Several client have rung mentioning a domain invoice for $250.00.
This is not for your current domian. My advice is, that if it doesn't have the Able Net Design logo on it you should check with me, because chances are it is a scam.
On another note, this is a quick reminder to all clients that are wanting updates before christmas. We close from the 17th of December through to the 15th of January. Those who have a scheduled maintenance day don't have to worry. We will still be providing those updates. Those that have just a general monthly maintenance plan, you changes need to be in before the 17th of December or After the 15th of January. Sorry for any inconenience.
Just to recap, don't pay any invoices with out the Able Net Design logo and we are closed from the 17th of December through till the 15th of January.
Is my site ever finished
Posted on Tue Nov 07
Tagged: Marketing | Leave your comments
Well the answer is no.
I might have covered this briefly in another post, but I feel this is something very important forr everyone who has a website to understand. It is not safe to be content with building a website and never improving it further every 6 months or so.
Search engines love it, but most importantly so will your users. The truth is everyone gets bored at some point even your website is the latest greatest thing out. Eventually it will become the norm and you will notice this by your statistics dropping.
The best thing I would think would be to stop this from happening before your readership (site visitors) leave for somewhere new.
It can be the slightest change that can make all the difference.
Things like:
- Photo Galleries
- User participation (ie forums, comments, etc...)
- Podcasting & Vlogging
There are many more but I think you are getting the idea now. It is all about engaging your visitor, giving them the opportunity to contribute about a product or service. A real user review is more powerful then I or any other marketing guru can come up with. It is these user reviews and thoughts that people now read before purchasing most things these days.
Another thing to note is that you will see your visitors increase as your site gets referred. So don't be content with what you have. Work with me and the team so we can increase your sites worth.
Is Twitter good for you
Posted on Thu Nov 07
Tagged: Marketing | Leave your comments
With the numerous amounts of social networking sites around is the simple idea of Twitter any good, and can it help your site or brand.
In short that answer is yes!
I am a Twitter newbie since just signing up around 30 minutes ago. The basic idea is you can let your "followers" know what you are upto within 140 characters. That is the same amount as an SMS from your mobile phone. The beauty of it is that you can SMS, Email and IM your short message for all to see.
Once you start off you don't have any followers like the Able Net Deisgn Twitter however it is a matter of working on getting people to want to know what you are doing.
I mentioned that there are some benefits for your business. Well I suppose the first benefit is simply reminding people that you exisit. The second is, it is a quick way to get the word out about products, specials and anything else happening.
With blogs almost everywhere, having turned into a powerful search engine marketing tool, posts are sometimes quite long. That is great, however sometimes it is hard to post a simple few word update in fear of loseing your readership as they want more substance to a post. Not to mention the loss in search engine marketing gains from such a small post.
That is where this Twitter thing comes in handy. I can alert people of a new post on the blog or a quick update to let them know I am out of the office.
I'll be talking more about this little tool in the next few weeks, as I discover more about it's pros and cons.
Videocasting for the newbie
Posted on Wed Nov 07
Tagged: General | Leave your comments
Videocasting is also known as vlogging or video podcasting. What ever you want to call it, it is probably the biggest step you can take in getting personal with your site visitors.
Most sites by now would have a blog. I know we have developed some sites that are just blogs. The web is changing and site visitors want a more personal website then the old hat faceless sites of yesteryear where companies could hide behind a website.
That is why blogging was created. It was a personal medium which company directors could talk with clients in a personal manner. Well blogging is everywhere now so we are now and they are going to be around for a long time to come.
Those that are really embracing the social side of the website with their blogs and createing company profiles on social networking sites are also now looking for other ways to engage their clients. Some are createing podcasts (which I will talk about at a later date) and others are toying with videocasting (the subject of todays post).
This has all come around because I personally am looking into the videocasting arena. I am looking at not only having the blog but createing a weekly videocast (and maybe podcast) on various subjects to do with web marketing.
The idea behind this is it places a face to Able Net Design.
So if this is something you could be looking at doing then let me run you through a few pointers I have found that could really help you out. I will go into detail about each one but let me first just list them.
- Planning
- Appearance
- Quality
Planning
If you are heading down this road then you are going to have to plan your episodes. For example I am wanting to cast about online marketing so at the moment I am thinking about a series of 8 videocasts and podcasts and what areas I am going to dicsuss.
Appearance
As soon as you cast this to the web you are the face and voice of that company/website. So look good. Now not only do you look good the set and audio need to look good. There are many programs allowing you to create your own videocasts but spend the time making it look simple and professional. There is not point rushing something like this.
Quality
The content needs to be compelling, easy to understand, and leave people wanting more. The other thing to look at is the hardware used to make this. A webcam can be fine but make sure there is enough light. Not the yellow standard bulbs you need to use something like a tungston or daylight globe. Also audio quality, needs to be there. If you aren't some kind of audio mixer/musician the chances are you are looking to use your inbuilt microphone on your computer. Check the levels, make sure it sounds good. You might find you need something a little better the your standard mic.
Anyway I hope this has shed some light on the subject. By the way how do you like the new site header?
PageRank Drop
Posted on Thu Nov 07
Tagged: Google | Leave your comments
For those of you who are doing their own SEO (search engine optimisation) work would have noticed a few days ago now a major drop in your Google PageRank. I personally have noticed on two of my sites a drop in almost 3 positions. This sort of rank change ins happening to some of the largest sites around, and I can tell you they are not happy.
It is possible to say that Google is targeting those who buy and sell text links on their site, for the purpose of boosting pagerank.
This is something that has been coming for some time now. Matt Cutts (Googles Unofficial SEO Spokesperson) has mentioned the idea that Google will eventually catch these fake or paid links. So it looks like it has finally happened.
One thing to note though is that although the sites pagerank has dropped there has been little change in the sites traffic (get these stats from my own sites). This could mean that the Google PageRank is loseing its relevance. Who really knows? There is so much speculation about it all over the net.If you are doing your own SEO then spend time studying your stats. Don't waste it on PageRank.
Also if you are buying and selling text links like many blogs do for revenue. Don't stop! If you are making money out of it and you are still getting traffic, then that is a good thing.
Remember there is more then one search engine, and traffic come from all different sources these days, so don't just focus on one.
