Online Marketing Works, But our Web Sites Don’t?

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Online Marketing Works, But our Web Sites Don’t?

The Internet is the world’s biggest marketplace, allowing both buyers and sellers unprecedented access, flexibility and capability to scale the business of buying and selling. Not surprisingly, the amount of money being spent in online business initiatives is consistently registering greater heights. A joint report by The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP shows that Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. continued upward—totaling .9 billion in 2006—exceeding spending in 2005 by 35%! eMarketer predicts that this number will go up to .4 billion by 2010. These astronomical figures highlight increasing significance of Internet and its ability to help firms progressively generate more revenues.

With the size of online retail sales crossing 0 billion in 2006 in the US alone, it is no surprise that Web sites have moved into the center stage for all business activities—in fact, 210 million Americans are slated to go online in 2007. From corporate communication to branding, from lead generation to lead nurturing – the Website has become the most influential and visible touch point. Accordingly, businesses have been busy discovering and harnessing new communication channels like banners, blogs, Microsites, portals, product brochures, pay-per-click online campaigns, and search engine marketing.

Hollywood Store Fronts: Are your content changes lagging behind real time?

On the Universal Studios Tram Tour, the guide will tell you that most of the sets you come across are facades, giving the illusion that there actually is more to what you see. They are also, in a sense, for public use. Similarly, in a world where information changes rapidly, Web sites need to be constantly updated and continuously monitored. Static content cannot not hold users or search engines alike. Wouldn’t you care if customers motored past your sloppy Website—like one of these decaying fronts—on route to your competitor?

The sheer variety of delivery channels gives marketers multiple options to choose from. However, it is also a nightmare if these delivery channels do not complement each other. Like modern banking that have multiple delivery channels to deliver services to a customer, they must manage their services for the telephone, Web, POS or the ATM. Effective communication from a Website can only happen if different pieces of the content landscape such as banner ads, blogs, online communities or pay per click ads work in tandem with each other to engage users effectively.

Similarly, for measuring the success of online initiatives, organizations have to understand and integrate multiple technology tools cohesively for tangible results. For example, you may have Web analytics software that gives you the details about the most popular sections in your site, a CRM application that gives a complete picture about your customer, and e-mail marketing software that blasts out customized mails to selected list of people who have visited or downloaded content from your site. Most organizations see these initiatives as silos of information, and invariably fail to exploit the potential.

So the challenges are multifold. These include continuously updating content, integrating with backend CRM or Web analytics software, ensuring personalization of content according to user types, and leveraging newer concepts such as Wikis, blogs, RSS feeds and everything else Web 2.0.

Changing gears into overdrive

Well managed content can make your marketing campaigns rock. For this to happen, your Website needs to have the ability to perform the following functions:

• Deliver content relevant to your online marketing campaigns

• Ensure brand consistency across various content channels

• Improve brand visibility through increase in quality Website visitors

• Convert Website visitors into qualified leads with appropriate content

• Track effectiveness of marketing campaigns using appropriate tools and technologies.

• Easily update your Web sites based on user feedback

To acquire such capabilities, organizations are obligated to make their Web sites more interactive, relevant and search engine friendly. This is extremely significant as a Web site with inappropriately tagged content or a few missing links can turn away prospective customers and deliver them into the hands of the competition in a matter of few seconds.

Content is paramount to online consumers—far more than search. A recent study by Online Publisher Association (OPA) found that consumers are now spending 47% of their time (up from 34% in 2003) on content as compared to 5% on search. This clearly underlines the importance of customizing the content, and continually keeping it fresh and meaningful.

Manual configuration and content updating on the Web site can take a long time, be prone to errors and can be messy if it involves integration with multiple systems such as a campaign management or a CRM system. Further, as content management involves a host of tasks including usability, design, and information architecture¬¬¬–most organizations find it extremely challenging to put out a Web site that reflects the dynamic needs of the business.

Take a breather! Help is on the way

Web content management systems have emerged to address precisely these requirements. Armed with this tool, an organization can take end-to-end responsibility for streamlining the process of managing and publishing digital content to remove a major impediment in the success of their online marketing programs.

Some key benefits that a Website content management system can deliver are:

• Content as you need, when you need: Your marketing programs need content specifically tailored to the needs of the campaigns. A Web CMS lets you create new landing pages and Microsites on the fly as well as update existing content just as easily.

• Brand Consistency: Website CMS ensure brand consistency across a company’s Web site so that branding and design are controlled to the level desired (style sheets, templates, etc.), regardless of who is responsible for the actual content.

• Improving visibility: Organizations who focus on giving non technical subject matter experts tools that are simple to use, will succeed. Content specialists can focus on creating content and not worry about formatting changes. Website visibility can be considerably improved using search engine optimization techniques. Organizations can use a Web CMS to write search engine friendly URL’s, optimize their directory structure, create individual title and meta tags per page – which when used in combination with each other can significantly improve ranking of a Web site in search engines, as well enhance the usability of Web pages.

• Measuring effectiveness: Centralization allows organizations to measure the performance for different sections of the Web site more effectively. Further, seamless integration with Web Analytics or CRM software means that organizations do not have a disconnected view of their digital assets. Key performance indicators can be set and measured, campaigns can be tracked automatically, and leads can be followed up to closure.

• Ensuring quality and freshness of content: A Web content management system incorporates intelligent workflow automation, ensuring that content passes through appropriate quality gates before being published. Additionally, completely configurable workflows enable organizations to assign tasks to any person, and are scaled when defined thresholds are crossed. For example, e-mail alerts can be sent to content owners of specific sections on a Web site when these sections don’t get updated after a specific time period. This is difficult to do in a manual system.

Icing on the cake…the SaaS way

The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model magnifies the benefit brought in by Web CMS by sparing organizations the high cost of purchasing, installing and customizing enterprise software. As the software is hosted, there is no hardware to buy and no software to install and no infrastructure to manage. The user organization just pays on a fixed monthly or quarterly fee and leaves the task of managing, maintaining and upgrading the software to the service provider.

Organizations save costs as they do not have to invest in resources like templates, actual coding, or a Webmaster that takes care of hosting. By using a SaaS model, organizations can also cut down on their risk, and choose different functionalities as they grow. Further, as billing is on a monthly or quarterly basis, costs are spread across the lifetime of a product’s usage. This is an extremely attractive value proposition when compared to the traditional software model, where costs are paid upfront and the risk of product implementation and adoption is totally on the customer.

In a recent study of support calls over the last 3 years 91% of support requests are unrelated to software. They consist of requests for input and output template edits, config changes, workflow revisions and training. This means that only 9% of your calls to a traditional software vendor for bug fixes and actual software issues will actually result in any assistance on their end without a professional services engagement of some sort, or contacting your system integrator, or Web agency. The reason for this is that the hard part of any CMS implementation doesn’t begin until after the Web site goes live and you actually start using the CMS. This is why players like CrownPeak are providing Lifelong Active Support. This takes the “Services” in Software-as-a-Service to a whole new level with a dedicated account manager for the lifetime of the service, who is the same person who actually implements the CMS for your site, as part of your monthly cost. They are there to answer any question you have about the CMS and how you use it in your organization as well as provide strategic services for Search Engine Optimization, integrations and how you can actually measure the ROI of your CMS.

All this result in a sweeter ROI for businesses who employ SaaS delivered Website CMS to manage their content. Businesses are becoming savvy and demand increasing ROI from their marketing programs. A Web CMS that can deliver superior results at a much lower total cost of ownership (TCO) will fall right in the sweet spot.

Harness the power of your Web site

In order to succeed, organizations try to keep pace with the speed at which business and technology trends are moving. A Website CMS seeks to addresses most of their content challenges by providing a holistic approach for managing and executing content management strategies. By using a Web CMS, businesses can gain real time capability into understanding and measuring results of the marketing campaigns. They can realize significant ROI by injecting these insights into their Web sites to turn them into even more powerful marketing assets.

Being Found Online (the NEW PR) : Inbound Marketing to help drive visitors to your sites

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Being Found Online (the NEW PR) : Inbound Marketing to help drive visitors to your sites

Change; we hear a lot about change today. President Barak Obama spoke widely of change in his lead up to the presidency and as we now know, it was his mission statement and attitude towards his governance of the USA. Amidst political rhetoric, there was change on another scale that was taking place right through the political campaign. Politicians are known for their vast budgets during their campaigns and there was none greater than this. The Obama political campaign not only topped budgets but there was a change far greater in their approach to the campaign itself. This political campaign was the first ever US presidential campaign that targeted internet marketing unlike ever seen before. Some speculate that the personal one-to-one nature of the internet marketing campaigns were part of the driving force in the Obama victory.

Change; there is great change taking place in the internet marketing domain unlike ever seen before. On average a person is hit with over 2000 sales or marketing messages each day. This is almost too much to contain when you think about it. Telemarketing, trade shows, seminars, direct mail / response, TV ads, news paper ads, banners, billboards, etc. clutter our lives so much that meaningful messages are often diluted or drowned in this ocean of messages. The marketing and public relations domains are hard pressed these days to come up with penetrating ad content that reach their target audience. The great change we notice taking place in the internet marketing domain today deals with a concept termed inbound marketing. This strategy deals with the concept of being found by consumers rather than pursuing and hitting consumers with marketing messages.

The concept of being found is like a tropical bird that flutters colourful feathers and dances to a beautiful beat in the hope that its partners hear them and advance in their direction. Being found is all about developing an expert opinion in your industry and attracting visitors naturally to your sites. The concept of being found needs to be applied meticulously as one can imagine, there are plenty of birds making plenty of noise in the jungle.

Being found entails trying to understand who you are trying to attract in the first place. What is the marketing persona i.e. your target market? If you are a hotel based in Leicester Square in London, UK then your target market could be tourists visiting London looking for a central location to stay; or the theatre market with so many production shows in close proximity; or even perhaps the younger tourist club goers catered for in the region.

Marketing for being found in the internet domain carries two basic ground rules – content and engagement.

Without content there is very little value to the consumers you want to bring on to your site. Content could be in the form of a blog site, articles, reports, white papers, press releases, eBooks or useful snippets of information. The critical characteristic of the content should be that it is useful and interesting to the target market. Content is absolutely critical. Let us explore some of these content tools.

Blogging for business is one of the simplest forms of creating content. It is short and if interesting could hold an audience captive. It is important to not only blog about who you are but more so the wider context of your services and products. Consumers are savvy. They know when a business blogs for the purpose of profit. They are not interested in subscribing to product descriptions. They seek unique value. A hotel near Darling Harbor in Sydney, Australia could capture a wider audience by talking about the happenings in its surrounds. For example speaking about tours from the harbor, the opening of the Lindt café close by, the Sydney aquarium and updates on its seal population. Perhaps if one is targeting the Japanese market, the mention of the Sydney Fish Market being in walking distance to Darling Harbor and providing some of the freshest seafood in the world would provide that edge i.e. that unique bit of knowledge which makes subscribing to your blog worthwhile and a true value addition. The key is to make content interesting, non commercial and more so viral in its nature.

Article writing campaigns add tremendous value to your site by the exposure they provide your site through their numerous channels of distribution. They also add fabulous SEO value to your site. eBooks are useful when given out free due the viral nature of the product i.e. people love to share free things especially if its current and interesting.

Speaking of SEO it is critical that the content we spoke of previously follows strict SEO guidelines. SEO is not as complicated as many people make it sound. SEO takes time and it is not a miracle strategy that promises immediate results. It takes time. Once you get your head around that concept it is not that complicated. It involves for the most part using the appropriate keywords i.e. words that your target market are likely to type on search engines in order to find you. A powerful set of keywords used in attractive content is a key step to SEO. Building links is possibly even more important. That is the same as asking other sites or blogs to hold your web link on their URLs. That basically counts as a vote for your site. The more votes you have the more important Google or Bing think you are and the more SEO value you hold. The more SEO value you hold the higher up the search engine results your go. Of course SEO experts would also say that your web URL, titles, descriptions, the use of ALT text, anchor text and the listing of your sites on search engines such as Google or Bing are important and they are indeed. However instead of trying to trick search engines I think what most companies or businesses should do is to try and focus on the most significant element of SEO – content and votes. The more interesting your content and its significance to your target market and other sites, the more likely you are to attract more visitors to your sites.

As much as content is important to the strategy of being found, it is pointless unless the businesses engages with its consumers. The internet has made the lives of marketers simpler and more resourceful. Never before have sales and marketing teams ever been able to engage directly with so many consumers (millions!) using such simple tools. The internet has become social. There are watering holes in every savannah and it is up to marketers to try and find them. Watering holes are where your customers or target market gather. Where the elephants, buffalo and giraffes gather to drink water is where you want to be if you are trying to sell the latest and tastiest varieties of green herbal delights. Social media platforms have made engaging consumers even simpler. Engagement need not be complex but it can turn out to be lifestyle marketing. Hanging around where your consumers hang around to talk is an age old theory. For example where would you hang around in ancient Israel to discuss the latest news – the Synagogues; or where would you go to in old London to discuss politics and trends – Speaker’s Corner. I am sure you understand what I am saying. The internet has made news sharing and discussions even simpler. There are more watering holes available today than any great African grassland holds. Blogs, Google Forums, Yahoo Groups, Yahoo Answers, Linked In groups, Facebook Fan pages, Facebook groups, Twitter, You Tube, Hi5 and MySpace are all watering holes where consumers gather. It is up to you to listen out for topics of interest and engage consumers; or even start new conversations. Do not be blunt, nobody likes a salesman pushing products where value addition is sought after. Always remember to focus on adding value. Make sure your consumers see the value addition and seek out your product rather than have your product pushed at them.

Forums are abundant today. I contribute to and edit a blog spot named www.StrengthTrainingChronicles.com  which engages weights trainers, rugby enthusiasts and gym goers with useful material. In order to engage with my consumers and discuss / learn new trends I Google searched Forums for such watering holes.  The results I received were unmanageable. From specific community / social web sites such as bodybuilding.com to countless numbers of forums focusing on varying aspects of the sport the research results were too many to count. Results ranged from geographic variations from London to LA and sport niches from StrongMan competitions to Nutrition. Finding watering holes is simple. Communicating with your consumers and adding value is what will bring more consumers to your site. This is public relations campaigning and brand building as never witnessed before.

Bringing guests to your home is wonderful for most of the time. But do you let the kids play around the vases or bring the movie crowd into the garden? Having a specific landing page is essential. This welcomes your target market to a target web page. Once found, visitors must be made into leads. Leads are people interested in listening to you about your product or service. Leads must be then converted into sales. Leads sometimes take time and need to be nurtured with emails or promotions together with calls to action   

If it cannot be measured it cannot be managed. Being found must be quantified in order to determine if you are being found to begin with and by the right consumers. There are so many companies that have gone bankrupt in 2009 by paying little attention to ROI (returns on investment) or budgeting their use of internet marketing. ROI is all about making the decision if your course of marketing action was worth it or not. It is important to make note of the number of visitors to your site, the ratios of lookers to bookers and the ratios of those moving onto your landing page and then entering their email information onto forms. These figures are particularly useful when gauging a new marketing tool you have employed such as engaging a certain forum or a press release or article. Google Analytics and other tools make these functions simple.

We spoke of change in the beginning and there is great change in the horizon. We are seeing a convergence of web design companies, sales, marketing, advertising agencies and public relations into one company focused on being found via inbound marketing. The days of effective TV, Radio and advertisements on magazines are shrinking as the number of ads clutter useful listenable messaging. Meaningful, attractive and lucrative value addition to any business via inbound marketing and being found is set to make waves of change in the world of marketing as the internet becomes a necessity for business.

Designing Websites, The Philosophy of Designing Web Sites in Kelowna

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Designing Websites, The Philosophy of Designing Web Sites in Kelowna

Designing websites and the philosophy when designing websites is best summed up with Albert Einstein’s famous quote: “Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler.”

Designing websites is an art of technical consideration which I am well versed in, and a web site is the finest form of advertising available today. Designing websites is the primary task which every web owner will be looking into as their first step to web success. Not everyone is a good designer. Designing websites is a passion for many people and myself. For over a decade now, designing websites and providing people with affordable solutions and real results for their goals and dreams.

An important factor when designing websites is keeping the website easy to navigate. It is no use spending countless hours in creating a website and visitors can not travel easily around the website or web pages.

Designing or re-designing websites is tougher than you might think. One tool that is often used for designing websites is mind-mapping. Mind mapping is a useful technique that improves the way you take notes, and supports and enhances your creative problem solving. A diagram can be used to represent words, ideas or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, structure and visualize ideas to organize and make decisions in designing websites.

The main goal when designing websites is to create the perfect site for each individual. My extensive background on the Internet and over 25 years of programming helps tremendously. Most website design companies do not think about your websites promotional capabilities after all designing websites is their “primary” concern.

Designing websites is a constant challenge for webmasters. One challenge is that web browsers are using many different screen resolutions. A really good idea, when designing websites, is to overlay your design on a real web browser. There are websites that you can visit to test your design and specify a browser size.

Colour psychology, and using yellow as an example in designing websites is an exciting way to make components stand out from the rest of the site, and the colour red is very evocative, which tends to bring a memory, mood, or images, for example, subtly or indirectly to mind. Designing websites is not solely about constructing something captivating. There must be reasoning supporting every single design connected choice.

Designing websites is just like assembling crafts. You just need a few raw materials, the right tools, and your old, trusty creative mind. Designing websites is a creative process and it is not easy at all to get started if you do not have the right ideas, inspiration and tools available. While designing websites is a many faceted endeavor there is one thing that ties it all together and that is HTML. There are two types of website design such as static and dynamic website design. You can design static websites or design dynamic websites where former is based on simple HTML code and latter is developed with advanced and sophisticated technologies based on the information provided in databases with PHP technologies.

Designing websites is very much like designing stage sets, it must look good, but below the surface it has to work so that the search engines and web surfers can find your website. “Playing cards and watching sports are hobbies for some people, but designing websites are the talents and skills of professional programmers and web designers.” Designing websites is an art. Owning and designing websites is an exciting experience. The technology allows web designers to create interesting and dynamic websites.

The philosophy when designing websites is keeping it clean and simple, and all those flashy websites that distract the web surfers from what they are trying to find takes away from you are trying to “do” or “say” with your website.

Look for my many articles on the Internet under James Murray Author for more information and strategies on website design or jjmurray007@yahoo.com.

How online classified sites evolved over time

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How online classified sites evolved over time

Here I am going to discuss about how classified sites are evolving from last ten years. What is classified advertising in news papers and how it has been changing after the evolution of internet? How people are using internet effectively for their classified advertising and how classified sites owners are attracting the user by adding new features and what are those new features and so on…

Classified advertising or classified ads, it is a form of advertising usually contains few lines of text containing details like ad description and contact information. Different from other types of advertisement classified ads do not contain any pictures. It is different from standard advertising in that it allows not only companies or corporate entities, but to individuals as well, to actually be able to reach out to an audience and promote for business.

Classified advertising in news papers:

News paper classifieds or printed classifieds: In the past if a person wants to advertise their product or services in news papers it was a hectic process. First the person who want to advertise may need to take appointment from news paper agent to discuss about his advertisement and if all their terms and conditions are satisfied then they publish the advertisement. It is not cost effective and also time consuming process and users may not see good returns from this.

There are so many disadvantages with printed classifieds and here are some

Cost ineffective

Time consuming process

There is space constraint

Fewer inquiries about advertisement

Do not contains pictures but some times logos may available

These will reach only people who buy the news papers

Only available to small geographical regions

Now we will see how online classifieds changed all this.

Internet has made the world a smaller place rendering it accessible for anyone with a computer to search for anything at their desire. With the invention of the Internet, classified advertising, like many other printed media, has progressed online.

Nowadays internet has become part of our life. Today people are leading very busy life and are not having the time to advertise their classifieds in news papers. Online classifieds it is very easy process to advertise products without wasting time and money. With the explosion of internet, print advertisement is practically dead. Unfortunately, hundreds of classifieds sites are available to list your advertisement but only thing you must know the good classified sites and where to place ad for maximum benefit.

Advantages of internet classifieds:

Free of Cost (Most sites are offering this service with free of cost)

Provide a full page (the size of your monitor screen) display of ads

You can include images, graphics or logos to your advertisements

Internet classifieds are available to entire world (where internet is available)

Less time consuming process

Users are able to sell their products within days after posting their ads (i.e. more inquiries)

Here is list of top classified sites around the globe

1) Craigslist.com

2) Olx.com

3) AdsGlobe.com

4) Kijiji.com

Craigslist.org: Craigslist.org was one of the first online classified sites, and has grown to become the largest classified source, bringing in over million’s of visitors. Craigslist is translated into many languages and has a global focus. Craigslist is offering different zones for those who want to place their ads on different categories. The zones are community, housing, jobs, for sale, services, resumes, personals, gigs and discussion forums to discuss important topics with others.

Without requiring account also you can post listings, but it’s better to create account. After creation of account click on the “post to classifieds” link pick a city or region for the ad and a category to help people find your ad while searching then post into craigslist.

One major benefit is that here you can post your ads for free and thus the entire community is aware about the products and services offered by you. Any kind of ads can be promoted through Craiglists form personal to general, from dating to marriage etc all your products and services that are offered by you.

Olx.com: Olx has become one of the top players in the realm of online classifieds in the past few months. The site has its presence in nearly 90 countries around the world and this makes it one of the largest classifieds sites on the web today. Olx is translated into many languages and has a global focus. Olx is featuring free online

Classified advertisements with sections devoted to for sale, vehicles, real estate, services, classes, personals, jobs and community where users can search or post free ads.

Here are some features of Olx:

OLX offers user-generated classified advertisement service for free. It claims to have reached in nearly 90 countries with 39 languages. Hence, you can post global classifieds as well.
Users don’t need to register to post listing on site. Though, registered users can have many advantages.
The listings can have images and even videos.
The listings can be posted in selected category with targeted sub-categories and location. Hence, posted classifieds can be browsed by topics and locations both.
Listing pages have rich features for replying, commenting and tracking the listing.
Americans are not likely to have heard of OLX because its popularity lies mainly outside of the United States in places like Spain, India, Portugal, Mexico, South America, China, and the Philippines.
OLX is one of the first classified sites to merge Web 2.0 functionality with the ease of use and simplicity of craigslist.
Advanced search functions with sliders allowing searches at variable regional settings.

Hence, Olx is a very useful website for every netizen as it provides a simple solution to the complications involved in selling, buying, trading, discussing, organizing and finding a perfect solution online.

Free ads -Adsglobe.com: Adsglobe.com is a free, feature rich and one-stop online classifieds/ads website serving over a million locations globally, covering over a dozen advertising zones. AdsGlobe.com serves variety of users ranging from individuals to all types of businesses for their unique advertising and marketing needs. Users can post free ads or search local ads in Real Estate/Rentals, Jobs, Autos, Items for Sale, Local Events, Dating/Personals, Services, Pets, Travel and Business Pages.

Here are some cool features of AdsGlobe.com:

AdsGlobe.com serves online classifieds in nearly 142 countries around the globe.
Enhance your Ads with images, video etc.
Option to remain Anonymous and let users contact through AdsGlobe.
Job Seekers/Employers – Submit, receive and manage Job Applications online.
Ad tracking system will capture all statistics for each ad posted like the number of times ad has been viewed, the number of times ad was listed on searches, the number of contact attempts made for the ad etc.
Ad grouping option will help advertisers effectively track similar ads
Ad management and control options like Edit, Copy, Delete, Archive, Activation, Inactivation, and Expiration etc.
AdsGlobe allow users to search in most of the world cities and towns which is a unique feature that can be a huge plus for collectors, job seekers or others needing a larger search query.
Save your frequent Ad searches from one or more Ad zones and search with a single click at any time.
Ad Book is an advanced and unique feature which allows to configure and receive ads inbox.
Link with your social networking profiles (Facebook, Myspace, twitter …) and update them automatically with the posted ads.

Kijiji.com: Kijiji is an online classified service that allows posting of free classified ads. It is translated into many languages and has a global focus. Kijiji is offering sections devoted to for sale, realestate, services, cars & bikes, services, jobs, entertainment, community, Events, Matrimonial and Education & learning.

It is easy to use Kijiji:

Logon to the Kijiji website. The website prompts you to enter your regional location such as the state or province in which you live.
Select the nearest city or town.
Pick a category to post a classified ad and follow the steps in the posting page.
Check your email after you write your ad. Kijiji sends an email to you that include a link to your ad. The classified doesn’t become final and up and on the website until you’ve done this step.
Remember your classified appears in chronological order, so the newest postings are always at the top. You can pay Kijiji a fee to keep your ad highlighted and easy to find. This is helpful if you need to sell your item quickly.

All kijiji listings have a thumbnail photo if provided. The site now has a Gallery View option that allows user to view listings in a larger photo gallery format.

Different from other sites that kijiji show images in the body of the ad, Kijiji users can view an image of an item without having to click on an ad.

The Distance Search widget allows users to customize their search results to a specific ZIP code, or within a certain distance from a location. Search results can be sorted in order of increasing distance, for localization and convenient in- person transactions.

Build a Mobile Presence for Your Web Applications and Sites With New Book on Mobile Web Development

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Build a Mobile Presence for Your Web Applications and Sites With New Book on Mobile Web Development

Mobile Web Development is a new book from
Packt which shows users how to build a mobile presence for their web applications and sites. Written by Nirav Mehta, this book adopts a fast-paced, practical approach to developing for the mobile web.

As more users access the Web from their phones and other handhelds, web developers need to learn techniques for targeting these new devices. Sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google target mobiles with their services and products. Companies use mobile services to provide staff access to their applications while away from a computer.

This book is a complete, practical guide to writing mobile websites and applications. Users will learn how to create mobile-friendly websites, adapt their content to the capabilities of different devices, save bandwidth with compression, and create server-side logic that integrates with a mobile front end. Users will also see other methods for integrating their web application with mobile technology: sending and receiving MMS and SMS messages, accepting mobile payments, and working with voice calls to provide spoken interaction.

The book illustrates every technique with practical examples, showing how to use these development methods in the real world. Along the way this book shows how an example pizza delivery business can use these methods to open up to the mobile web.

The book focuses on solutions, pragmatic tips, and fast results rather than theory. It also provides discussion and reference material to help users apply the techniques to their own projects.

This book is for web developers who want to provide mobile support for their applications and assumes some knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The reader should also know a server-side language. The examples in the book use PHP, but can be adapted easily to other languages. The book does not use J2ME, focusing instead on using the phone’s web browser and other standard features.

For more information about this book please visit www.packtpub.com/mobile-web-development/book.

Internet Marketing Affirmation of Successful Debuts of New Internet Web Sites

admin    Creative Web Advertising     Affirmation, Debuts, Internet, Marketing, Sites, Successful

Internet Marketing Affirmation of Successful Debuts of New Internet Web Sites

Women are cashing in on internet marketing efforts and bringing creativity and customized marketing plans to match desires and needs, anticipating hugh potentials for growth in shopping opportunities tailored for women, as well as the ever present need of trustworthy information delivery required by those who use the internet as a research vehicle.

New launches of internet business endeavors, whether a cottage industry or professional entity, are supported by entrepreneurs who offer educational materials, interactive services, peer support and content, and online access to experts celebrating the power of all women.

Women are seeking to develop internet marketing and web sites to realize entrepreneurial dreams, no longer languishing in dead end jobs, then Internet marketers have a lot to consider with their nonverbal messages as well as the words they choose and finding a highly credible investment of their efforts in web based business starts. The opportunity to develop a web based business is assisting women to move to higher income sectors. Meeting the challenge to satisfy their own job expectations and making strides to squelch gender inequality fears found in other traditional work environs, for more details visit to www.internet-marketing-word.com  women are taking on products they can market and scrambling to meet the desires of those who lead active lifestyles.

Paying more attention to central sources of information is an important piece in solving the mystery of internet marketing business plan development. Something like increasing website traffic by x or increase search engine visibility for specific keywords. If you are specific with your goal, a good Virtual Assistant with Internet Marketing experience will be able to put together specific activities that will lead to accomplishing your goals. The National Women’s Business Council in August of 04, for more details visit to www.forum-marketing-videos.com participated in funding a survey of business mentorship programs for business starts with the American Express Foundation and the AT&T Foundation. The jointly funded study finds higher interest in mentoring projects for women participants to include internet launch business plans.

A 3 year study conducted by the Center for Women’s Business Research, services offered by the SBA, find female entrepreneurs more likely to characterize their business’ rapid growth “2.3 to 2.7 with 4 being the fastest growth.” The study was conducted in 2004. Affirmation of successful debuts of new internet web sites, round out the depth and breadth of opportunities for women in providing for female consumers in particular.

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Social Networking Sites

admin    Twitter Software     Networking, Sites, Social

Social Networking Sites

If you like meeting people online, then social networking sites may be for you. We have all heard of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, FriendFinder, FriendWise.

ClassMates is another one. Here is some information on the websites that are currently popular.

Twitter. Probably the most recognizable name in social sites right now, where people Tweet to their friends and anyone else who is interested. Each Tweet is limited to 140 characters (words and spaces). You follow your friends activities and you have followers who follow yours. It has become inundated with people trying to sell information products and that can be trying at times, but still, you can keep up with your friends, so it is still popular.

Facebook. This network is popular among high school students and college students. With this network, you are required to register with a particular group. You can only communicate with individuals within your network and not with everyone on the site.

MySpace. is where you can search for friends who are members. MySpace is not a commercial organization though it can be used tyo promote your business. It is mainly for socializing and expressing your views. It takes time to build a circle of friends but well worth the effort.

Here is a partial list:

Facebook. General. 350,000,000 Users

Classmates. School, college, work and the military 50,000,000 Users

MySpace. General. Losing ground to Facebook in recent years. 130,000,000 Users

Twitter. General. Micro-blogging, RSS, updates

75,000,000 Users

TravBuddy. Travel

1,588,000 Users

StumbleUpon. Stumble through websites that match your selected interests. 8,822,921 Users

ResearchGATE. Social network for scientific researchers

140,000 Users

MyLife. Locating friends and family, keeping in touch (formerly

Reunion)

51,000,000 users

LinkedIn. General but mainly business

53,000,000 Users

Friends Reunited. UK based. School, college, work, sport and streets

19,000,000 Users

There are many sites of all different varieties and sizes from the very small,

Advogato Free and open source software developers

13,575

users

to the very large:

Facebook General. 350,000,000

users.

Whatever you want is out there somewhere and a little bit of research will find you a group of like minded people that you can interact with.

When it comes to finding a social networking website, you will find that you literally have an unlimited number of different options. Social networks have popped up all over the internet. Of course, you can join as many social networking sites as you would like to, but doing so can be tiring and time consuming. Instead of signing up for a large number of social networking sites or the first one that you come across, you are advised to research and examine a particular site. Doing so will enable to find and join the perfect social networking site, at least the one that is perfect for your needs. So go for it and Good Luck.

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How Do You Submit to Web 2.0 Sites?

admin    Twitter Apps     Sites, Submit

How Do You Submit to Web 2.0 Sites?

The news about Web 2 is not really new anymore but the web 2 environment keeps on changing even in these first few years, it seems like there is just simply to much to learn about communities and social media marketing. Finding some time to dedicate can be difficult.

Maybe you are wondering why you should succumb to the newest internet hype of social marketing. Some conformists believe it’s important to run with the flock. Most often (not always) it is. How else are your customers going to find you? As you know, making changes to your website helped your search engine optimization. Nowadays portable files like PDFs and video files are submitted to social networking sites where the content fits in to help your content’s visibility.

Web 2.0 and social media marketing is about people connecting with each other through social media sites (digg, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Stumbleupon, del.icio.us). These would be among the best known ones today.

Let’s just get straight the question of how social bookmarking functions?

Bookmarking has become a form of socialization that can be valuable to your bottom line by simply storing and sharing links with your online networks. Identifying and saving the page to which you would like to attract more traffic. Social bookmarking sites include del.icio.us, ma.gnolia.com and My Yahoo.

Why share my Photos?

Many of the photo sharing sites make so easy to view others images online. By linking to others images and photos, you also get to know other operators around the world and their ideas can be different and refreshing.

Why share my Videos?

Sharing videos is similar to sharing photos. Sites like YouTube give users the opportunity to copy and paste a code to share on their blogs and websites to complement their content.

Tips to help your Social Marketing Optimization

-Put an hour a day aside to investigate new things on the internet. Make sure you put it into you diary so you don’t forget.

-Join some of the more popular social networking sites like reddit, twitter and digg. Become a part of the community and understand what material suits which one before you start posting your own content, or you run the risk of being seen as a spammer.

-Now is the time to get a blog if you do not already have one. Set it up and add quality content. Join the blogging networks and add their buttons to your blog. This will help to generate links and more traffic to your blog and websites.

-Interact with your audience; make friends, join groups that you have common interests with; even start your own network. Build a reputation for supplying credible information.

-Once you get the hang of this – branch out. Keep an eye for sites that compliment your site or visa versa. For example, if you are a web designer join a community where there are mutual benefits. This is where your information will be of more value than on the larger, more general websites.

-To keep up with the latest social networking and web 2 marketing strategies join a community of specialists.

-Join a remote blogging site so you can put content there you don’t want on your main page. It also acts as another incoming link to your main page.

-Don’t be complacent. It is important to track the results of your strategies. Be realistic. Be sure not to burn up precious time on software and methods that won’t work.

There are so many other ways in addition to this to get your website acknowledged and admired; gaining awareness from people you would like to have as visitors.

Leverage Your Time by “Linking” Your Social Media Sites Together

admin    Twitter Apps     Leverage, Linking, Media, Sites, Social, Time, Together

Leverage Your Time by “Linking” Your Social Media Sites Together

I find that one of the biggest sources of stress for my clients and students when we first begin working together is the belief that you need to be omnipresent.  Fortunately, this is not true—in fact, you could really sabotage your efforts if you started focusing on building a presence on every social site and platform!  Talk about exhausting!

Let me let you in on a little secret: the most successful people in social media, the ones that appear to be everywhere–and connecting all of these “everywheres” seamlessly, to boot—are doing so by way of a few specific, focused strategies.  You could call it “social leverage,” and I am going to share with you exactly how you can do this too—and no, it won’t take up all of your time either!

Here are a few specific methods from my own 6 Steps to Kick Start Your Social Media Success Systemâ„¢ to “cross-link” like a pro:

To send your blog posts to Twitter:
Twitter Tools plugin for Wordpress at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-tools
Import your blog’s RSS feed into Hootsuite at http://hootsuite.com

To display your latest tweets on your blog:
Twitter Tools plugin for WordPress
Twitter’s own widget at http://twitter.com/goodies/widgets

To send your blog posts to Facebook (personal and/or Fan Page):
Facebook’s Notes application
Facebook’s NetworkedBlogs application at http://www.facebook.com/networkedblogs

To send your blog posts to LinkedIn:
LinkedIn’s own BlogLink application or WordPress application

To send your LinkedIn status updates to Twitter:
LinkedIn’s own Tweets application

To send your tweets to Facebook selectively:
Facebook’s Selective Twitter Status application at http://apps.facebook.com/selectivetwitter

To send your Facebook Fan Page status updates to Twitter:
Facebook’s own Facebook to Twitter application at http://Facebook.com/Twitter

To share YouTube videos to Facebook:
YouTube’s own Share button beneath each video
Options→Settings on your Facebook personal profile’s wall

To share YouTube videos to Twitter:
YouTube’s own Share button beneath each video

To share YouTube videos on your blog:
YouTube’s URL or embed code shown to the right of each video

To update Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more at the same time:
http://Hootsuite.com, http://Ping.fm, or http://Hellotxt.com

Finally, to see all of your or others’ activity from around the social web in one place: http://FriendFeed.com

Now, you don’t have to set up every one of these tools all at once, but try out a few and see how much your own productivity soars.  As always, be careful not to automate or delegate too much—social media is still primarily about “live” interaction with others.  But by implementing a couple of these strategies you can look forward to making a bigger impact in much less time.

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Networking Sites for Web Design Companies

admin    Banner Web Advertising     Companies, Design, Networking, Sites

Networking Sites for Web Design Companies

Getting your web design company’s name out in the public, as well as networking with other businesses is a great way to draw in not only potential clients but also new ideas. Every web design company should take the time out to create online profiles on various networking web sites.

A company should not limit their online presence to advertising banners and blogging only isn’t guaranteed to get you too far. Powerful networking tools are available, giving the opportunity to connect with a large mass of people and reach specific target markets. It would be wise of a business to use these tools to build their internet existence.

Below is a compiled list of networking sites designed specifically with web design companies in mind. Review the list to see which ones will work best for you and your company.

Design Sites Up
9Rules
Ads of the World
Behance
Colour Lovers
Designer ID
Lo8os
Flickr
GFX Artist
Kuler
Open Web Design
Pixel Groovy
Typophile

Take advantage of networking because for the most part it is free. Branding can carry a company very far if done well. It is also important for companies to explore forums and write/post blogs. Here, you will be able to link up with other professionals, supporters, and consumers who are most likely to gain an interest in what your web design company has to offer.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com