SiteProNews |
- 5 Myths About Creating Video Content
- 5 Ways to Beef Up the Content on Your Site
- Are We In Social Overload?
- Seo Friendly E Commerce: Is You Ecommerce Software SEO Friendly? – A SPN Exclusive Article
- 17 Ways to Make Sure Your Website is Working for You
| 5 Myths About Creating Video Content Posted: 17 Oct 2011 09:35 AM PDT 
1. You Need To Spend A Lot: You may have seen or at least heard about companies that will produce your video for you, but charge an absolute fortune to do it (well, what the average person would consider a fortune). It’s not a necessity to get it professionally done – just take a look at the majority of videos on YouTube. Use your friend’s camera, or just record straight into the computer with a webcam. 2. It Needs To Be High Quality: The content of your video is what matters most – as long as this is helpful to somebody then there’s no reason it should look like it cost a million dollars. Don’t worry so much about your poor acting ability (or your friend’s poor acting ability), or whether the picture is too grainy – as long as the sound is okay then just about everything else is pretty trivial. People complain about unclear or low audio more than anything else when it comes to web videos, so keep that in mind. And also, it’s much easier to get away with a poorly produced video than it is a poorly written article – so don’t be afraid of turning your loyal visitors off, since they’ll usually commend you for at least having a go. 3. You Need A Camera: Even if you don’t have a camera or webcam you can still make a video. There are several programs like Camtasia that allow you to record a video from your computer screen, or you could even go much simpler than that and create a slideshow in PowerPoint and export it as a video. I tend not to waste too much time on YouTube anymore, but back in the day a high percentage of videos that went viral were nothing more than slideshows of funny photos chopped together with music. 4. It Takes Too Long: In the time it takes me to finish writing this post, I could probably have recorded a video to tell you the same thing about five times (and had several different takes at it, just to satisfy the perfectionist in me). Shooting a video is much quicker than writing an article. The only thing that could make it take longer is if you do any extensive editing or effects on it, but for most web videos this won’t be the case. 5. They Slow Down My Website: If you’re worried about bandwidth and issues like that, remember that if you store your videos on an external site like YouTube, they won’t have any negative effect on your own website. The other advantage to doing this is you do get some traffic floating in from wherever you post it, and if you use keywords in the titles or tags of your videos, this can add up to be quite a lot. While it is a reality that people in less-developed areas will have to wait a while for your video to load and so forth, most other people should be equipped with a decent enough web connection that this won’t be an issue. If it still concerns you, then you can accompany each video with a brief text description to satisfy the needs of everyone. Some of the concerns that people do have with creating video are, of course, also valid. The primary one is that search engines will not be as fond of video as they are of text – they have no real way spidering the actual content of your video and will rely instead on the title and other text on the page. Having worked in video for most of my professional career (yes, I am a man of many talents) I can definitely say first-hand it is a powerful and entertaining way to send your message. It will give you a break from writing, and give your visitors a break from reading (assuming they need it) – and everyone will almost certainly enjoy the experience. Millionaire Studio is an online entrepreneurship blog that features articles on online business, blogging, marketing and social media: http://millionairestudio.com/ Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
| 5 Ways to Beef Up the Content on Your Site Posted: 17 Oct 2011 09:22 AM PDT 
There is one step that should happen prior to that though, and it’s one that a lot of site owners overlook. Before anything, you need to develop the content on your website. You see, in order to attract readers, you need to have some reason for them to be at your website. What sort of information are you providing? What problems are you solving? How are you helping your readers? You may attract readers when you submit articles, but if you don’t have any “stickiness” on your site, then the increased viewers don’t do you much good. They just show up at your site and immediately click away because they haven’t found the information that they’re looking for. Before starting to market your site, go to the effort of adding content that will make readers want to stick around. Here are some ideas for you: 1 – Create a Blog That is on Your Website With a blog, you will be creating a regular stream of content that is fresh and helpful to readers. New content gives readers a reason to keep on returning. Sites with regularly updated content tend to rank better in search engines as well. You can do this by simply setting up a WordPress blog. After your blog posts are published for the month, then you can rewrite them and submit them as free reprint articles. Making the content you create do double duty is a great time saver and helps you maximize your time. 2 – Create a Page on Your Site That Addresses “Frequently Asked Questions” Now, it depends on what type of business you have as to the appropriateness of this idea, but if you have a service based business, a list of FAQs can be a really helpful bit of info to offer. This also saves you time, because potential customers can find answers to their questions immediately and there’s no need for you to answer the same question repeatedly for each individual person. It may seem counterintuitive to link to other sites (won’t that make people leave your site?), but actually the opposite is true. Your job as the site owner is to provide information that is helpful to your readers. Many times there are websites that provide complementary services to your own that people would benefit from (let’s say you’re a real estate agent, and you provide a link to a mortgage calculator). When you compile these resources for your readers, you are creating a more valuable website. 4 – Add a Web Page That Tells About Your Niche Some people arriving at your website may have very little information about what you do or what your niche has to offer them. It is worth your while to compile some basic information that will act as an introduction to your field. 5 – Create a Web Page That Catalogs Your Articles When you start publishing articles, they will be very helpful to your readers. Why not let the readers of your website know about the articles you’ve written and give them an easy way to find them? You can separate your articles into sub-categories to help your readers find the information they need. This “library” of your articles can be a web page containing the title of the article, a short description and a link to the article. If you want to create a site that your readers love, anticipate their needs and put content on your site to satisfy them. Really, the more you create a website that your readers appreciate, the more you’ll be pleasing Google as well. Google just wants to send their search customers to websites that offer the information that they’re looking for. You can put your website in position to satisfy that need by creating a website full of helpful information. Steve Shaw is a content syndication specialist. Do you own a blog? Need content? Join thousands of other blogs and get free high-quality, niche-focused, human-reviewed content from quality authors sent on auto-pilot – and it’s all 100% free! Go to http://www.autoblogit.com for more information. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
| Posted: 17 Oct 2011 08:58 AM PDT 
Google+’s most obvious competitor is Facebook. While Google+ offers certain advantages to its users that Facebook lacks, a lot of Facebook users were resistant to switching networks for no other reason than the hassle of it. Our friends are on Facebook, our pictures videos, links and info and the thought of having to build all of that up somewhere else didn’t quite seem worth it. Twitter or Foursquare, however, are so different in their offering, setting up accounts with them does seem worth it, depending on one’s interests of course. Between news aggregation, social bookmarking, and social networking sites we are already elbow deep in platforms we have to log into and keep up to date with. Do we really need another one? Consumers and the general public love social networking sites, but with so many available, information is getting lost, their influence means less, privacy issues are being questioned, and our ability to interact face-to-face is slowly diminishing. And while most brands are eager to join social networks, they have yet to see a real return on investment. Just as a brand is starting to become familiar with one platform it seems another one becomes available. And there is this pressure to have a presence on all of them, even though it might not make sense for your company or campaign. Moreover, developing a sound marketing strategy involves time and consideration and half the time brands aren’t even entirely sure how these platforms work and how consumers interact with them. The issue isn’t whether or not Google should have developed a social network – the issue is what are we, consumers and brands alike, trying to prove? We have entered the ‘look at me, look at me’ culture, where everyone is shouting about themselves. They are making Adaptive Consultancy is a London-based digital agency specializing in web development, design, ecommerce and internet marketing. Services include search engine optimization, paid search, email and social media marketing. For more on digital marketing agency London visit http://www.adaptiveconsultancy.com/ Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
| Seo Friendly E Commerce: Is You Ecommerce Software SEO Friendly? – A SPN Exclusive Article Posted: 17 Oct 2011 07:58 AM PDT 
And that is one of the reasons why it is very important for you to find out whether your ecommerce software is capable of attracting traffic from popular search engines like Google, or not. These days we have lots of ecommerce software on the market. Some of it costs a fortune while we even have free software or at least where you can use it for free on a trial basis of 30 days. Sadly most entrepreneurs who purchase this software are just concerned that the very basic functions work. We are talking about functions like the shopping cart and ability to process credit card payments online. Once they satisfy themselves that the software can achieve these basic requirements then they are completely happy about their ecommerce software and will never raise any other questions. However they miss the point completely. The most important function in your ecommerce software is its’ ability to allow your pages to attract valuable targeted traffic from search engines. How else will you be able to achieve and sustain a high volume of prospects landing on your web pages? Like any other business, online enterprise is a numbers game. Meaning that the more people who land on your pages, the higher the number of those who will ultimately purchase something from you. Being SEO friendly starts with your URLs. You will have a huge advantage if your urls can be keyword filled so as to boost you rankings with search engines. Improving your rankings will obviously increase the targeted traffic landing on your pages directly from search engines. The shopping cart is also very important.. Most ecommerce software packages use query string parameters to display all products through a single page. This is disastrous as far as search engine traffic goes. For starters it dramatically limits your Google rankings and indeed rankings with other leading search engines. What you need is ecommerce software that includes relevant keyword text in the separate product pages generated. Ecommerce software that is SEO friendly should be able to automatically generate page titles, meta tags alt text and URL of every page that ensures the best search engine placement. It should also allow you to skip automatic settings. This is the best environment for SEO to thrive and win you ecommerce site valuable traffic directly from search engines. Equally important a function should be an ability to “remove” long control names in the HTML mark up. What this does is that it usually results in a higher keyword to mark up ratio which will definitely impact negatively on your SEO and traffic from search engines. Many online entrepreneurs have experienced the horror of suddenly losing all their traffic. The reason being that Google will always drop all existing links if visitors receive a 404 File not found error when they try and access your pages. You need ecommerce software that allows for easy re-directs. Andrea Berretti – Marketing Manager of eBizzers International. www.ebizzers.net. Taking the trouble to ensure that ecommerce software is SEO friendly is definitely worth the trouble. Try eBizzers Cart for free 30 days, your new Seo friendly E-commerce solution at www.ebizzers.net Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
| 17 Ways to Make Sure Your Website is Working for You Posted: 16 Oct 2011 10:00 PM PDT 
Your website acts as a “storefront.” You should put as much thought and care into your website as you would to the display in your store’s window. Your website needs to attract customers and keep them coming back for more. The following should give you a place to start and a guideline of what a good website should have and what it should do: 1. Where Do Your Eyes Go First? You only have a few seconds to catch a visitor’s attention. That means you need to make sure that you capture their interest immediately. You need a headline that stops them thinking whatever they’re thinking, and think instead: “hey, this looks interesting! I need to read this.” 2. Do You Know Right Away What This Website is About? Don’t have any distractions from the message you are trying to get across. If you start talking about how great your company is instead of what the visitor is interested in, you lose them.
3. Is the Important Information Immediately Visible? Site visitors want to know details as soon as possible. If they have to work too hard to find out what you’re offering, they will likely leave. You need to be clear on what you want them to do. Don’t sell more than one thing from your landing page. Decide on the main action you want them to take, and talk about only that. The best thing to do on your landing page is to provide your client something that will sign them up to your list. 4. Can You Easily Find the Benefits of the Product/Service? Too many websites cite features rather than benefits. Features won’t get the visitor’s interest. They want to know what’s in it for them. Make sure your website makes it clear to them how your product or service will change their lives. 5. Is There a Clear Call to Action? If the visitor likes what he sees, it is important to get him to take action quickly because delaying may lose his interest. Don’t have more than one call to action. This will only confuse them. 6. Are the Colors and Images Aesthetically Pleasing? If your website has too many colors and pictures, it may put visitors off rather than catch their interest. Moreover, too many images will take too long to load, and if visitors have to wait, they will lose interest. 7. Is the Font Easy to Read? Don’t use fancy fonts that are hard to read or colors that are too light. If visitors have to strain their eyes in order to read, they will lose interest and leave. 8. Are There Long Sentences or Long Paragraphs on the Page? Keep your sentences and paragraphs short, and use bullet points. Long sentences and paragraphs make it difficult to read and understand. 9. Are the Menu Buttons Clear? Make sure your site is well designed and that buttons and links are easy to click on. Your page should also have a “contact us” and “about us” page. 10. Is There an Easy Way to Contact the Business? If your website is working well, it should generate inquiries for you. Make sure visitors can find out easily how to contact you. If you are not contactable, your visitors will think that you are not reliable. They want to know that they can contact you in the future if anything goes wrong with their purchase. Prospective customers want to know that they are dealing with a real person. That is why having an “about us” page is so important. Have a photo of you and a photo of your business at least. Make sure the visitor knows what makes your company different. If you connect to your visitors in a personal way, they will be more likely to become customers. Tell them your story and tell them what makes you different. Have a conversational writing style and be honest. Your language should be easy to read, conversational and at about a year 9 level. This will be to your benefit because customers will identify more with you. Big corporations write differently, making customers feel like a number. 14. Is There a Visible Contact Form? A contact form is really the only way to capture the prospect’s details. Make sure you have one with a powerful magnet to help your visitor decide to join you. 15. Do You Have an Irresistible Offer? You should offer a powerful magnet to give your visitor a reason to give you his contact details. This must be a problem you solve for your visitor or something he really needs. 16. Is There Multimedia? Some people prefer watching a video or podcasts to reading. Offering these will make your site more appealing. 17. Are There Links to Social Media? You can connect with your customers in different ways. Perhaps they will not want to sign up to your newsletter, but would prefer to follow you some other way: Facebook, Twitter or some other social media website. Make sure you have these available on your website. Now all you need to do is to decide what needs to change on your website, and plan to implement those changes. For more information on how to design your website to attract prospective clients like a magnet, sign up at Attraction Marketing for your free copy of “10 Magnets to attract clients.” http://www.masterattractionmarketing.co.nz Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
Video is arguably the most powerful way to send your message across to an audience, yet it is surprising that such a small percentage of people use it both for their web content and marketing materials. This is perhaps due to a number of misconceptions that people have when it comes to creating video content, which are clarified below:
When you first get your website up and running, your first thought may be to implement some article marketing strategies to get the traffic pouring into your site. Your sole thought may be to do something “out there” in order to produce the results that you want on your site.
Recently Google’s latest social network, Google+ opened to the public. In an effort to create a little fun around the subject, College Humor created a two minute video about Not Google+, which encourages people not to join Google+ as we have too many social networks already. Do they have a point?
Everybody agrees that ecommerce software is invaluable in any online business. However it can even be more useful to you if it is SEO (search engine optimization) friendly.
Is your website bringing in at least five new inquiries per day? If not, you need to look at its functionality.| You are subscribed to email updates from SiteProNews Recent Articles To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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