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3 Ways Anyone Can Use Online Video Immediately

05 2008 Friday

By Jim Edwards in Featured

Tools for making online video get more common every day online. The latest craze, Flip Video cameras, make it simple and fun to snap high-quality video clips and use them for business or pleasure. Despite the widespread popularity of online video, most people think online video is only for the super-geeky set. But, with an influx of free and low-cost tools, online video has never been easier for everyone to get in on the “lights - camera - action!”

Video Blogging. Probably the easiest way for anyone to get started, video blogging or “Vlogging” combines the use of a blog with simple video “posts” on your website. You can sign up for a free blog at Blogger.com to act as your platform for making posts. Then, you can upload your videos (for free) to www.YouTube.com or http://Video.Google.com and they’ll convert your videos for online play. You can then take the copy-and-paste code either site gives you, paste that code into a new post on your blog, and voila, you’re officially video blogging. Blogger.com makes a great, fast way for you to set up a personal video blog, and it really is as simple as I describe.

If you want to put your blog on your own domain and hosting account (which I highly recommend if you operate a business), then you can get the best blogging software in the world for FREE by visiting www.WordPress.org. Once you create your blog on your own domain, you can post video exactly the same way I described above using YouTube or Google Video.

Video E-mail. Video email rates even simpler than video blogging. You can shoot your video using even a simple web cam and then email it to your family and friends. Now, this works great for smaller files, but once you get above about 3 Megabytes (MB), emailing those files becomes a pain for both you as the sender and your friends as recipients. However, you can easily share video files via email with the help of free online file hosting services. Services like www.Box.net and www.XDrive.com enable you to upload a file once, then email a special link to as many people as you want. They visit the link online and download the video file from the server rather than getting forced to download it as an email attachment.

By the way, these two services work great for sharing any large file, not just video.

Attract New Website Visitors. If you operate an online business, you know traffic represents the life-blood of your site. (If nobody shows up, it’s hard to make any money.) Video makes a great way to reach new viewers and get them to your website using FREE online hosting services. At a minimum, you should upload your videos to: YouTube.com, Video.Google.com, Revver.com, and MySpaceTV.com. You can also “announce” your video to multiple sites at once using www.TubeMogul.com (which offers both free and paid options).

If you want traffic, make sure to put your domain name across the bottom of the entire video so viewers can find your website or blog. Also, if you want people to get excited about you and your business, make sure your videos entertain people (no boring content), educate them (teach them something good), and empower them (give them something they can use). Following these simple rules will massively increase the pulling power of your videos to act as “traffic magnets” for your site.

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website, affiliate links, or blogs… Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links? “Turn Words Into Traffic” reveals the secrets for driving Thousands of NEW visitors to your website NOW!Click Here> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

Be Obvious. Be Simple. Be Smart: Tips for Designing a Stellar Website

05 2008 Friday

By Sarah Lamansky in Featured

You have the layout complete. The text is done. Let’s Build! Wait. Make sure you have all your ducks in a row first before throwing up any old website. Stand out, be different, and showcase your product in a stellar setting. Check out these tips for designing a website that will quickly convert traffic to sales! Clean code with a crisp marketing message, coupled with a search engine friendly design might just knock the socks off any search engine that comes crawling your way.

Slappin’ Ya in the Face Obvious

You’d be surprised by how many people say, “…but my phone number is right there!” …But is it, really? Is your call to action on your website so pronounced that it practically hits your potential buyer-customer square between the eyes? If not, you might want to fix that. Studies show five seconds is all you’ve got to captivate your audience with a bright call to action, or a custom graphic to make it obvious. Hook, line and sinker them with a sheer cut, eye popping call to action! Whether it’s a “Call Today”, “Book It”, or “Buy Now” - make sure the Pick ME cue is apparent and obvious to your target audience.

Get Ready to Rumble…

We’re all human. Competition runs in our blood. Everyone wants to be first or “the best”…carry this attitude over your website and you are sure to beat out your competition! Your website is your virtual store, and if you don’t possess this thinking already, you need to. Invest in your website, as its seen 24 hours a day, seven days a week by potential clients all over the world. Be prepared and get educated, as a website is a terrible thing to waste. The good old days of tweaking things here and there and wham! …top ten placements, is over. Invest your time and hire a good SEO firm to help you market your business the right way.

Find out who’s the hottest in your industry and make it a goal to beat them. With over 180 million searches on the web today, it is imperative to research keyword phrases that your competition is going after. What are their marketing tactics and are they working? Do they have an email campaign located on-site? What are their credentials? Does the website offer coupons, discounts or hot deals? It’s the internet my friend, the competition is steep and all bets are off. So, roll up your sleeves, put on your gloves, and get ready to rumble! Or, research an internet marketing firm that specializes in both search engine optimization and website design that can fight the battle for you.

Simple Simon Wins

Being a “Simpleton” ain’t all that bad these days. Just because the world turns at record breaking speeds doesn’t mean your website has to. Too much going on, whether there are words upon words, or graphics up the wazoo, can do more harm than good. Be cautious before slapping up just any old image or using too much text to get your point across. We all know that “Content is King!”, but Optimized Content reigns supreme. By strategically placing the right keywords in your Title Tags, Meta Data Tags and throughout the body of your website, your business will benefit. Clean design, concise code, and fresh marketing ideas that are clear to the end user will help you get the leads and generate the desired sales you are looking for.

Optimize, Optimize, Optimize!

Search engine optimization…what’s all the hype about!? Internet competition is booming -open your eyes and smell the code! If you have a beautiful website, but it’s not converting…you’ve wasted your time and money. A well built website with search engine optimization in mind is a goldmine at your finger tips. What’s the first step in optimization? Researching and determining a list of keywords that will drive traffic to the site and convert into sales. Test out various keywords, find out what your competition is and let it ride. For the keywords that don’t convert, bag ‘em. Expand your focus to reach broad based keywords as well as long tail keyword phrases. The narrower the keyword is, the more likely the user will convert on your page.

Widgets are In

What is a widget? Widgets aid in the process of interacting with your target audience. When your potential customer/buyer installs your widget on their webpage, blog or social media networking profile - you have won a valuable friend! Widgets provide a great way to strengthen the bond between your existing customers and any newbie’s who are interested in your product. Get new customers and provide a widget for them to interact with you. Personalization is “key”. Almost anything can become a widget - from games to stock tickers or audio players - put your thinking caps on and give your customers the option!

Smarty Pants Always Test.

This is true. Successful websites are successful because webmasters test their work. A great way to test your website to see if your design is working is through the A/B Split method. These tests run concurrently, at least for a couple of weeks to gain true results. A/B testing provides real world, data-driven, unbiased results based on your target market. There is now even an easy to use A/B Split testing program through the Google Website Optimizer tool! Check it out and win big. Go ahead - be a smarty pants…you know you want to!

Time to Analyze

Yes, folks - it’s time to analyze. You might think the hard work is done, but it’s now time to see if all your work has paid off successfully. You’ve created this gorgeous website perfectly equipped with clear calls to action, clean code and search engine friendly site architecture - now what? Let it ride and hope for the best? NO! Test, test and analyze your findings.

Does your hosting company offer a stats program? If so, fire that baby up and analyze what is working, what can be tossed out and what needs to be amped up. Focus on unique visitors, time on site, referrals, and what keyword phrases are driving the most targeted traffic. A stat program is your friend, NOT your enemy. Embrace your website’s analytics and learn from them to tailor your website, your search engine optimization and your business model after this information. Google also has a free analytics program that involves placing a simple code before the </body> tag on pages you’d like to track. Fast, effective and proven.

If you are a “do-it-yourselfer”, I hope these tips helped you with the marketing of your business. If you are too busy and are looking for a firm to handle both the building of your website and the marketing - research a good SEO firm. Count on a professional internet marketing company to shine through and get your hard work to pay off. Good luck!

About:

Sarah Lamansky is a Search Engine Marketing Manager at Mannix Marketing, Inc. in Glens Falls, NY. Please contact us for all of your search engine marketing, website design/development and advertising needs. With a positive approach, streamlined goals, and over Ten Years in the search engine optimization industry, We Get You Found On The Web AND increase your sales. For website tips, advertising ideas or a FREE search engine optimization quote, please contact us. Got ten minutes? Let’s talk.

Do This and OWN Google’s Top Spots!

05 2008 Friday

By Michael Small in Featured

Ranking well on Google takes two things, good content and great links. But it’s not an even split. Because Google assumes only a page with good content would get great inbound links it puts about 70% of the importance for ranking on links and only about 30% on content. That little tidbit alone will put you head and shoulders above all those competitors still messing with META tags and spamming keywords.

SiteProNews Webmaster Community

05 2008 Friday

By Mel Strocen in Featured

Within the next week or two SiteProNews will be adding a full-blown social community for all of you who are involved in developing, designing, operating, maintaining, or promoting websites for whatever reason. This sub-site of SPN will permit users to share videos, podcasts, photos, articles and much more.

All of us at SPN look forward to your participation and feedback.