SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources » Jerry Bader’s Blog

WordPress Security – An Ounce of Prevention is Better than a Pound of Cure

Ben Kemp — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:36:37 +0000

Wordpress STD’s (Security Transgression Defilements) are a common occurrence. WordPress-powered websites are far from being immune to hackers, although the latest release/s address many earlier security issues. WordPress, like other content management systems and forums such as phpBB, vBulletin, is a major target for hackers and spammers. Basic prophylactic measures, or condoms for WordPress STDs, need not be complicated or expensive.

Those involved in hacking WordPress usually want to use the sites as concealed (cloaked) link farms. Its rare that actual damage is done to your site, and often the site owner remains blissfully unaware that there’s been any interference. Some of the link injection systems are extremely sophisticated! Testing for enemy action can be as simple as opening your site and choosing View / Source and reading through the content of the section down to, and including, the tag. The link injections I’ve seen are usually immediately after . Is there a long string of HTML code containing links to dozens of sites you know nothing about? If there is, you’ve been violated, and have a WordPress STD (Security Terminated Deficiency)!

This article is not about fixing security violations. Its about simple prophylactic measures most “non-technician” site owners take. This is not slick and professional security strategy, and there are some who will scoff at using “security by obscurity” as a primary tactic. However, even on a tight budget, the following 12 zero-dollar steps can and should be taken to minimise the possibility of attack.

1 – Always Use the Current Version

Why anyone would persist with an older version is beyond me. Upgrading has always been easy enough, and recent versions reduce the pain to a button click! The community of authors work extremely hard and surprisingly quickly to address known security problems.

2 – Remove Primary Target Identifier

Remove the Powered by WordPress credit details in the footer of your website’s theme – e.g.; /wp-content/themes/the-current-theme/footer.php. This is the fastest way to reduce the chances of the ill-intentioned finding your site in the first place! Try it – do a search on Google for “Powered by Wordpress” and you’ll get the picture… At time of writing, there are 106 million competing page opportunities out there for hackers!

By all means give WordPress the credit they deserve – but you could do it on your links page, or make it a graphic / image link instead of text…

3 – Remove Secondary Target Identifier

A lot of WordPress themes come with an giveaway WP version HTML tag in the section. In View / Source it displays as follows;

Obviously, this immediately reveals the WordPress version used on the site. Since some versions are vulnerable to known security flaws, you’ve just told the hackers where they are best to start their evil work…

Removing this giveaway is straightforward enough. Simply open up /wp-content/themes/the-current-theme/header.php and delete the code that’s outputting the Meta Generator tag.

4 – Remove Tertiary Target Identifier

There is another version identifier tag in the RSS Feed output, e.g.: http://wordpress.org/? v=2.8.4

Removing the RSS version identifier can be done by opening /wp-includes/general-template.php and searching for “function the_generator”

The line immediately below that statement commences with: echo apply_filters(’the_generator’……

Place a # character in front of the word echo, as per: #echo apply_filters(’the_generator’ etc

5 – Remove Lesser Target Identifiers

Doing the above pretty much gets you out of the spotlight and into the shadows. You could also remove links to “Log In” from the current theme’s footer. There are 3.8 million competing page opportunities for a Google search for “wp-login.php” and its probably a good thing to not be in that list either.

Wordpress also adds two easily accessible files in the directory into which it is installed; licence.txt and readme.html. Renaming or removing those is important because they also contain WP version information!

6 – Don’t Use Easy Passwords

Don’t make it easy for the hackers! Use super-difficult passwords that are impossible to guess, and not easy to crack. That applies to the hosting account control panel, FTP access AND the WordPress administration access. Ideally, high-exposure sites should use different password for each of those areas.

Recent versions of WordPress seem to have addressed the issue of directory browsing, by keeping people out of areas they should not be looking. Securing the wp-admin area via SSL is a lot more complicated than it should be. There are no well-written, easy to use plugins available for this – those that do exist appear well past their WP version use-by date. Its also far too easy to end up locked out of your site while trying to make them work!

7 – Don’t Use Default Admin ID

If you recklessly use “admin” as the default user ID, you’ve given the hacker half the pieces of the puzzle and they only have one item left to crack – the password.

8 – Ensure WP File Permissions Are Adequate

File system security is important, to prevent easy unauthorised access. There may be times when you have needed to alter permissions to edit a file, or copy files into a directory. Did you reset permissions to the correct default afterwards? If not, you’ve left a door ajar… Pull it shut and lock it again!

9 – Plugin Integrity

As a general rule, only install plugins from the official WordPress Extend / Plugins repository. There at least, they are in the spotlight, and subject to some scrutiny. Installing plugins from anywhere else leaves you wide open to malware exploitation!

10 – Theme Integrity

Ok, you can go anywhere and get free themes and make them work… but can you trust the source? Can you be sure that no malware is included? Can you be sure that no security breaches are opened by insecure coding? Personally, if I want a theme, I’d rather go to a reputable source and buy one that is coded for the latest version of WP, and where some assurance is implied as to suitability for the intended purpose.

11 – Automate Your Backups

There are backup plugins that automate the process of backing up your WordPress database and emailing the file to you daily or weekly. Install and use one of them! They can be a lifesaver, for a variety of other reasons.

12 – Server, Network and PC Vulnerabilities

Be aware of the configuration of your hosting company’s web server. Is it running old versions PHP, MySQL, cpanel in a shared hosting environment? If so, that places you at greater risk than being on a hardened server with up to date tools and services running.

Never access your WP installation from a non-secure networks such as internet cafes, coffee shop or hotel WiFi systems.

Another commonsense measure is to ensure your PC you post from uses current and reputable antivirus software that also detects malware, spyware and key-loggers.

The SEO Guy, aka Ben Kemp, is a veteran search engine optimisation consultant with a decade of SEO experience and website design accumulated in 20+ years of work in the IT industry. The SEO Guy’s Blog provides advice on SEO and website design issues.

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WordPress Security – An Ounce of Prevention is Better than a Pound of Cure

The web is at war, threatening Web 2.0’s interoperability

John Sylvester — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 07:38:13 +0000

It is now becoming apparent that Tim O’Reilly’s vision of the web being “One Ring to Rule Them All” and “Small Pieces Loosely Joined”, is coming apart at the seams as the big media company News Corp and Microsoft join hands to threaten Google and, in turn, Web 2.0 itself.

In “O’Reilly: The Web is at war, and it’s making me sad” (see http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10399710-36.html), we have seen over the past few months that News Corp has stepped up the stakes in its battle to block Google from indexing content from Rupert Murdoch’s online media titles, and that now Microsoft is said to be willing to pay Time Warner and News Corporation, among others, to make these sources available exclusively through Bing, it’s new search engine.

During this time, and many articles later, Rupert Murdoch has criticised Google for “kleptomania” and has threatened to cut them off from all his online publications. That is not quite as easy as he thinks, though, as nearly a quarter of all traffic to the Wall Street Journal’s website, for example, comes via Google. Microsoft, for their part, is willing to spend up to 10% of its operating income over the next five years, which could add up to a sum somewhere around $US11bn. Tim O’Reilly, who coined the term Web 2.0, questions the war for the control of the web, which directly contradicts his “interoperable platform” concept.

Not all agree though, as the Economist argues that, “a handful of well-funded and powerful platforms, locked in heated competition, could be better for consumers and generate more innovation than Mr O’Reilly’s vision of an internet made of many ’small pieces loosely joined’.”

The bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2001 was a turning point for the web and, with it, the concept of “Web 2.0″ was born. Its web pioneer Tim O’Reilly warned an audience at a recent Web 2.0 Expo that he thinks “we’re headed into another ugly time”, meaning that the corporates are ganging up on Google’s dominance, with Rupert “Dr Evil” Murdoch leading the charge and threatening to pull News Corp’s content carpet from under Google’s feet.

In the same CNet article, it says that: “O’Reilly’s attitude isn’t ‘bring it on, and get me a large popcorn with extra butter, while you’re at it’. Rather, he hinted that at least in some cases, he’s willing to embrace Google as a big, cuddly, benevolent dictator in the midst of it all.” Rather like Stalin dressed up in a Winnie The Pooh fancy dress outfit, maybe?

But with all fancy dress parties there are reactionaries in the mix, as Barbarian Group executive Rick Webb announced: “Setting aside the boo hoo, the internet is becoming a bunch of walled gardens arguments, when rational people have conversations about how to make the web actually usable and not 95 percent piracy, spam, and fraud…”

All this aside, it is becoming clearer by the day that the web is heading into a full-frontal period of bloody competition that could kill the concept of the web’s interoperability as we know it today.

In radar.oreilly.com, Mr O’Reilly clearly states that: “And so we’ve grown used to a world with one dominant search engine, one dominant online encyclopaedia, one dominant online retailer, one dominant auction site, one dominant online classified site, and we’ve been readying ourselves for one dominant social network…

“It could be that everyone will figure out how to play nicely with each other, and we’ll see a continuation of the interoperable web model we’ve enjoyed for the past two decades. But I’m betting that things are going to get ugly. We’re heading into a war for control of the web. And in the end, it’s more than that, it’s a war against the web as an interoperable platform. Instead, we’re facing the prospect of Facebook as the platform, Apple as the platform, Google as the platform, Amazon as the platform, where big companies slug it out until one is king of the hill.”

In a postscript, he predicts that: “Microsoft will emerge as a champion of the open web platform, supporting interoperable web services from many independent players, much as IBM emerged as the leading enterprise backer of Linux.”

————————–

John Sylvester is the media director of V9 Design & Build and an expert in search engine optimization and web marketing strategies.

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The web is at war, threatening Web 2.0’s interoperability

Video Microsites – The Brand Story Campaign Solution

Jerry Bader — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:00:34 +0000

Everyone wants to do more business. Everyone occasionally runs a promotion, a new marketing initiative, a product launch, or a new seasonal lineup. Everyone has a website stuffed with all kinds of content ranging from the important to the useless. But only the truly smart business minds understand that campaigns require their own space and identity if they are to succeed. And when it comes to using the Web as your vehicle for such a campaign, the obvious solution is a Video Campaign Microsite.

What’s A Video Campaign Microsite?

Video Campaign Microsites are websites that employ a series of highly focused video presentations designed specifically for the purpose of promoting a single marketing initiative aimed at a highly targeted audience. Video Campaign Microsites are dedicated to delivering an engaging online experience that compels an audience to act by taking advantage of the marketing initiative’s offer. These sites benefit from removing all the corporate clutter and irrelevant information that inhabits most business websites and generally gets in the way of an effective marketing presentation. Video Microsites are often implemented by means of a direct email campaign or depending on the budget, magazine, television, or radio advertising. You can also channel corporate site traffic by means of a graphical home page link.

There are different styles of video Microsites that you can employ depending on your brand personality and the goals of the campaign.

1. New Product Launch Video Microsites

The launch of a new product or a seasonal line should be an event, and there is no better way to attract attention and generate public and media interest than to create a brand new website environment dedicated to that launch.

2. Promotional Campaign Video Microsites

A sale is just a sale, and today’s sophisticated buyers have seen it all before, so unless you make a big event out of your promotion, all you’ll end up doing is selling your regular customers the products they would have bought anyway but at a lower markup. A big media splash attracts new customers, new media attention, and old customers you’ve lost.

3. How-To Video Microsites

There is nothing more damaging to your brand or your bottom line than customers who hate you, and who tell their friends and colleagues. A surefire way to make people angry is to sell them something they can’t figure out how to use properly, and a buried FAQ, or a complicated list of instructions in twelve languages and 9 point Times Roman is just not going to cut it. A how-to video site can show people how to use and get the most out of your products or services in a way they will understand and appreciate.

4. Video Mocusites

There is one thing that you definitely cannot be on the Web, and that is boring. Boring websites are the kiss of death. The Web is a crowded place and no matter what you’re looking for, there are probably dozens if not hundreds or thousands of other companies doing the exact same thing, the same way, and probably for less money. You may think you’re different but your Web audience won’t, unless you present yourself in a whole new differentiating way; and one way to do that is with a Video Mocusite. A great example of a Video Mocusite was the Chili’s restaurant chain’s PJ Bland’s campaign.

5. Video Docusites

Where the Video Mocusite takes an entertaining, humorous, and satirical approach to communicating your marketing message, Video Docusites takes a look at the history, longevity, innovation, and success of a company in order to build confidence, loyalty, and brand identity. Ford’s Bold Moves Docusite was a good example of this kind of campaign.

6. Concept Video Microsites

A Concept Video Microsite is about presenting an idea. Some products and services are so innovative or different that they can only be sold if you communicate the concept behind them. Other products may be similar to competitors but the way they are sold is different and creative. In these types of instances the Concept Video Microsite is the answer. The SonicPersonality and 136Words sites are examples of Concept Video Microsites.

7. Sponsored Video Webisode Microsites

Sponsored Video Webisode Microsites are a great marketing vehicle for those companies with the guts and foresight to recognize what the Web is all about. These types of campaigns attract an ongoing loyal audience because they are bite-sized mini programs or episodes designed to entertain and/or educate without an overt sales pitch. If conceived and designed properly your program content delivers your emotional and psychological value proposition while the accompanying pre- and post-commercials deliver your direct pitch. Think of it as sponsoring your own private online mini television series.

8. Demographic Video Microsites

When a company has different campaigns for different demographic markets, it should present them separately to avoid confusion, mixed messages, and a dilution of the brand identity, image, and personality.

Microsites Help You Avoid Information Overload

Fashion and apparel companies, for example, all have seasonal product lines that need to be promoted in a current, if not trendy, manner. Dumping such a campaign into your regular corporate Web environment gets in the way of achieving the campaign’s marketing goals: the audience looking for new products and promotions is not interested in your Investor Relations or Career Opportunities, and likewise, the people looking for jobs and investment information aren’t interested in your holiday specials. It doesn’t matter how good your presentation is if you bury it so nobody ever sees its. If website visitors can’t find what they’re looking for fairly quickly, they’re gone.

And why should a fashion or apparel company use video at all? The answer is simple: there is just no better way to present how a garment looks on a real person from all sides and angles, and when they move. Add a little voice-over description and you’ve got your own little fashion show designed to move product whether online or in-store. Too many companies, especially e-commerce companies, still ‘think print’ even when they are using the Web as their main marketing communication vehicle.

Microsites Help You Avoid The Confusion of Mixed Messages

If there is one thing that will kill your marketing, branding, and positioning faster than anything else it’s sending mixed messages to multiple audiences using the same venue or vehicle. Fast food companies are continuously running promotions and they use television as their primary marketing communication vehicle. The problem is television commercials are a shotgun approach: you broadcast a commercial and whoever sees it, sees it. Sure there are sophisticated demographic analyses of those who watch what and when, but even with that knowledge the perception-leakage is substantial.

Just because it’s a football game doesn’t mean there isn’t a substantial female audience, and just because it’s a chick-flick program doesn’t mean some guys aren’t watching whether they want to or not. Television viewing is a shared family experience resulting from direct and indirect group negotiations. As a consequence, if a fast food company runs multiple ads aimed at different audiences, children, parents, and teenagers, all viewed by a demographically diverse audience, the result is a confused mixed message, and a deterioration of the brand personality.

Different Strokes For Different Folks

The Web is a whole different animal. Where television is a negotiated group viewing experience, enjoyed or at least tolerated by different family members, the Web is an individual viewing experience, not usually shared with others. That means different messages can be delivered to different audiences without the concern that each message is polluting the others or the overall brand image.

So What’s The Big Deal With Video?

Why do we stress video so much, well that’s what we do, so what do you expect, but more importantly we do it because it is the most effective and efficient tool you have to communicate your marketing message to your audience. The thing you have to remember about video is that it’s easy to do, but hard to do right.

Delivering Meaningful Content: It’s About Context and Subtext

Nothing exists in a vacuum, especially when it comes to marketing and advertising. The direct marketing message you deliver must exist within a physical and cultural framework, while the indirect marketing message you present must resonate within the mind of the viewer. A properly conceived video microsite takes these things into consideration and communicates a memorable concept informed by them.

Web Video Context is the emotionally relevant scenario created for the purpose of delivering your marketing message, while Web Video Subtext is the subconscious psychological message that strikes a nerve, triggers desire, and motivates action. Together context and subtext create a meaningful, relatable experience that defines your brand personality and leaves a lasting memorable impression.

It all starts with a relatable scenario that draws upon an audience’s life experiences, preconceptions, and attitudes. Done correctly, an audience will relate and identify with the characters presented, the language used, and the performance delivered, with each element enhanced and embedded in memory by visual and non-verbal cues combined with sophisticated sound and music design.

Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

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Video Microsites – The Brand Story Campaign Solution

Web Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Big Business Mistakes

Jerry Bader — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:12:47 +0000

The Wall Street Journal reported today that Chili’s restaurant chain brought back their “I Want My Baby Back Ribs” jingle with a new media campaign. In Canada, the makers of the Coffee Crisp candy bar recently started to rerun an almost twenty year old commercial featuring two very amusing card playing senior citizens with the memorable tag, “How do you like your coffee? I like my Coffee Crisp!”

Unlike the movie and music industries that keep recycling the same tired ideas and overpriced performers because (1) they fear their own self-perpetuating financially crippling business model and (2) because they are at heart, creatively bankrupt, some in the commercial marketing industry have realized what branding is about: a consistent message that resonates in the mind of the consumer. If you have a memorable campaign that penetrates the mind of the consumer, you need to push it for all it’s worth, rather than switching messages like you switch your underwear.

McDonald’s runs so many different campaigns aimed at so many different demographics that it no longer has a brand image. Maybe some overpaid marketing guru will remember “two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, etc.”

Small and medium sized businesses can learn an important lesson from this kind of marketing faux pax: once you hit on a brand message the works, one that people not only remember, but take to heart – do not mess with it.

Jerry Bader
MRPwebmedia
(905) 764-1246

Visit Our Sites
http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads
http://www.136words.com
http://www.sonicpersonality.com
http://www.cacheclosed.com

About MRPwebmedia

People ask, “What do you do?” You could say we inform, enlighten, innovate, and create; you could also say we deliver our clients’ marketing messages in memorable ways using video, audio, webmedia campaigns and websites; all created in-house from concept to implementation, from graphic and motion design to Web-design, from script writing to video-production to post-production, from music composition to signature sound design.

What do we do? We motivate action by speaking to your audience’s real needs. We tell your story so your brand, your message, embeds in the minds of your clients. We are corporate storytellers; we turn advertising into content, and content into an experience.

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Web Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Big Business Mistakes

How-To Videos Convert Viewers Into Buyers

Jerry Bader — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:37:05 +0000

One of the fastest growing areas of website marketing is the ‘how-to’ video business sector. With the epidemic of layoffs, plant closings, and cost cutting, the growth of how-to-material covering everything from how to start a business, to how to improve a business, to how to survive bankruptcy, is assured. No matter what the subject matter, how-to-do-it-better is in demand, and it’s big business.

The desire to be the best you can be is one of our innate needs, but the shear volume of demand seems to be the result of rapid and fundamental changes in technology, the economy, and society. This has led to a massive inferiority complex resulting from an, improve or perish, mentality delivered by a constant barrage of information, metrics, and analysis.

The Web is an ideal environment for using a video how-to-sales-strategy to increase site conversions but as always, the devil is in the details; you need to understand the underlying desire in order to make the strategy work. Whether your approach to sales is to sell-by-teaching or, what you sell is teaching, the fact is, the way you do it is what will make or break you.

About MRPwebmedia

What do we do? We motivate action by speaking to your audience’s real needs. We tell your story so your brand, your message, embeds in the minds of your clients. We are corporate storytellers.

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How-To Videos Convert Viewers Into Buyers

MRPwebmedia Introduces The ConceptCreator

Jerry Bader — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:44:35 +0000

MRPwebmedia is pleased to announce the introduction of ConceptCreator©, a preproduction development process that acts as the initial step in creating an engaging, informative, entertaining, and above all memorable Web Video Campaign or Video Microsite; it is the Campaign Concept that states a company’s differentiating marketing message within the context of its brand story. Using the ConceptCreator© process, MRPwebmedia helps companies define their emotional and psychological value proposition, the key element in building a Web-based marketing communication strategy that creates, enhances, and promotes brand personality, the key factor in converting a website audience from passive viewers into enthusiastic clients.

Toronto, Canada, September 22, 2009 — Toronto, ON. ConceptCreator© is a new preproduction development process that acts as the initial step in creating an engaging, informative, entertaining, and above all memorable Web Video Campaign or Video Microsite; it is the Campaign Concept that states a company’s differentiating marketing message within the context of its brand story.
ConceptCreator© is an exclusive MRPwebmedia creative service used to discover the emotional and psychological value that a company or its products promise; it forms the basis of all a company’s marketing communication efforts and is the key to establishing a brand personality, market position, and corporate image. It states a company’s promise and creates appropriate expectations. It is the missing ingredient on most company websites, and in their marketing communication efforts. It is the key to future marketing success. All a company needs is a willingness to think out-side-the-box.
ConceptCreator© is an inexpensive stand-alone service that puts marketing communication efforts on the right track. There is no further obligation beyond the initial ConceptCreator© stage, but if a company decides to go forward with the suggested Video Campaign or Video Microsite the cost of the service is deducted from the cost of the full project.
ConceptCreator© allows business owners and entrepreneurs to get ad agency quality concept development-work for a fraction of the cost, and it allows businesses to get their feet wet without any additional financial commitment.
Contactl Jerry Bader at (905) 764-1246 or email info@mrpwebmedia,com for further details.
About MRPwebmedia  Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads and http://www.136words.com  Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246

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MRPwebmedia Introduces The ConceptCreator

New Video Micro Campaign Site Summer Promotion

Jerry Bader — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:10:55 +0000

Summer Special

New Video Micro Campaign Site Special designed to promote a particular product, service, or special promotional campaign, includes a basic five page Micro Video Campaign Website with four 30-60 second video presentations using one onscreen actor filmed in studio on a white, black, or green screen background, plus custom signature music all done in MRPwebmedia’s innovative branding-delivery style.

Specifics can be discussed and modified for each client depending on their particular requirements and needs.

Additional videos, video lengths, Web pages, actors, props, and sets are available at additional costs.

If you are interested you can contact us for details, pricing, and an actual client example.

Jerry Bader
MRPwebmedia
(905) 764-1246

Visit Our Sites
http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads
http://www.136words.com
http://www.sonicpersonality.com
http://www.cacheclosed.com

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New Video Micro Campaign Site Summer Promotion

More Google Killers on the Horizon

admin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:25:32 +0000

In the past few weeks speculation has run rampant on the future of search and whether Google might be supplanted by Twitter real-time social search or by Wolfram Alpha, the still to be launched search engine that is billed as a true computational knowledge engine.

Wolfram Alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com/) is scheduled to launch in May and could very well be a major advance in search technology. In brief, ask Wolfram Alpha a question and it supposedly will deliver a specific and accurate response as opposed to a list of related results. Stephen Wolfram outlines Wolfram Alpha’s technological foundation in his blog post at: http://blog.wolfram.com/2009/03/05/wolframalpha-is-coming/ .

Will Wolfram Alpha supplant Google? Not in the short term. Google has become a synonym for search, like Xerox became for copying. But Wolfram Alpha and the search technologies that follow could very well begin to undermine Google’s dominance. Wolfram appears to be a largely scientific endeavor, but with the proper funding, promotion and innovation, it could rapidly find an audience. Search has always been about finding answers. A hundred million search results to a query are impressive, but one specific, accurate and correct result is really all that’s needed for many queries. It might be simpler for Wolfram Alpha to backfill their accurate answer results with related search results than for Google to duplicate Wolfram’s “millions of lines of algorithms”. Then again, success in the marketplace is not always about what’s “best”. Assuming Wolfram does what it claims it can and takes a competitive stance, the search industry could dramatically change in 5 years.

Then, there’s Twitter. Does anyone seriously believe that Twitter search could be a Google killer? Indexing the micro-blogging sphere is not exactly a major technological feat for a search giant like Google. If Google search results can be supplemented with Twitter results using a GreaseMonkey script, how difficult would it be for Google to supplement their own search results with real-time social search results. Then there’s the question of exactly how useful Twitter results are. Mini blog posts are interesting but hardly a resevoir of accuracy and reliability. Tweets have their place – good for rapid communication, breaking news, marketing blurbs, networking, tips, etc. – but they are unlikely to ever be the basis for search results that put Google out of business.

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More Google Killers on the Horizon

The Web Emperor Has No Clothes

Jerry Bader — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:15:04 +0000

If you’re in business, you’re in sales; that’s just the way it is. We are all salesmen; we all have something to sell, a product, a service, an idea, a cause, or maybe just an opinion. And if you’re in business you have a website intended to communicate the value of that which you sell.

So if you’re in the business of selling something, and your website is the vehicle you choose to communicate your sales pitch, then shouldn’t your main concern be how effectively you are communicating that message?

Communication or Analytics

Instead of concentrating on effective communication, many businesses put the emphasis on search engine statistics: how high they rank on Google, MSN, and Yahoo, with the assumption that the higher they rank, the more traffic they’ll generate, and the more traffic they generate, the more sales they’ll get. At least, that’s what we are led to believe.

Here’s the problem: almost all the rank-generating strategies are aimed at search engine spiders, not people, so you have to ask yourself, who exactly is my website communicating to, robots or human beings?

The Secret Formula Doesn’t Exist

Why are today’s business owners and executives so mesmerized by this whole search engine thing? It reminds me of the story of an infamous Hollywood movie mogul and studio head who was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Instead of firing the guy immediately, he was retained for some time for the simple reason his movies made money; and the dirty little secret in Hollywood is that nobody really knows why some movies are hits and others are bombs. So you keep paying the guy you think is making you money, no matter what he does, because maybe he knows something you don’t.

What we have today is a new generation of business leaders who came of age with the Internet. These Internet technology geeks and boffins are the new Web-wizards and wunderkinds: the guys with the secret formula. But like the movie industry, nobody really has a foolproof search engine recipe for success, but since most of the technical stuff is ever-changing, and over most entrepreneurs and business executives heads, they buy into it; that is until somebody tells them the emperor has no clothes.

What’s A Web Entrepreneur To do?

You heard the old expression, “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” well it has never been so true as it applies to website marketing. The simple truth about websites is that success is based on a site’s ability to communicate a marketing message that makes sense, and is understood in an easy to digest format.

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The Web Emperor Has No Clothes

Creating A Successful Online Sales Strategy

Jerry Bader — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:13:28 +0000

You have a website, and perhaps you’re even a professional salesperson, and as such you know that the best way to sell someone something is face-to-face, but have you seen the price of gas lately?

So whether your customers are local, national, or international, the cost of getting to them is just too darn high to make any money. You could call them on the phone or email them, but with voice mail, spam filters, and all manner of gatekeepers, it is literally impossible to get to people, even when they’re waiting for your call.

It’s never been easy to sell, but in today’s jaded, cynical, frustrated business climate, the job is even harder.

Order-takers are next to useless in the field, so don’t expect the tactic to work any better on your website: you know what I mean by order-takers, the guys and gals that service fully developed territories with clients that already use your wares, and who order what they need no matter whether anybody calls on them or not.

No, what you need is a real sales presentation, one aimed at the customers you don’t have, the ones looking for new ideas and products.

Here’s seven website sales tactics to remember:

1. Use The Web’s Video and Audio Capability

Make better use out of your company’s website by adding some face-to-face ingredient through the use of audio and video. Give your audience someone they can relate to, someone who will connect on an emotional and psychological level.

2. Don’t Fall Into The SEO Trap

Unfortunately, many business owners have fallen into the SEO trap of designing their online presentations for search engine spiders not people. Sure it’s great to drive traffic to a website, but if they leave within seconds of arriving without getting your marketing message, what exactly have you achieved?

3. Technology Is Not The Solution To A People Problem

And of course, you’ve got those websites that are nothing more than a shopping cart and ordering system; a technological solution to a human problem that turns whatever is being sold into a commodity, and we all know commodity sales go to the lowest seller.

4. Be Aware of The Paradox of Choice

Some entrepreneurs think by offering everything but the kitchen sink is how to get customers; but they obviously haven’t heard of the Paradox of Choice, a term coined by psychologist Barry Schwartz, whose book by the same name postulates that the more choice you offer, the less likely people will make any decision at all.

5. What Is Required Is A Performer

The Web with its remote, dislocated nature requires very specific performance criteria that few people, even professional salespeople possess. You may be practiced at making presentations, maybe even immensely effective in front of a live audience or in a boardroom, but selling in person is far more forgiving than selling remotely online.

What is required is a performer, someone who looks, sounds, and acts the apart; someone who also knows how to use verbal and nonverbal techniques to deliver a message. Don’t let your ego get in the way of building your online clientele.

6. The Web Is No Place For Overheads Or Flipcharts

Selling on the Web is about building relationships the same as traditional beat-the-pavement sales, but the arsenal of techniques required is far more challenging from a psychological and performance point-of-view. An online presentation that is nothing more than a series of overhead slides, graphs, and royalty-free photos delivered with a tentative delivery will not be taken seriously from an audience that is one click away from accessing your competitors.

7. Treat Your Website Visitors Like An Audience

So what then are the criteria for creating an online presentation that sells? There are four things your online presentation must be: informative, engaging, entertaining, and memorable.

Why you ask? The thing you have to keep in mind when you want to use your website to connect to people and build a business relationship is that you can’t treat them like customers, you have to treat them like an audience, and once you make that leap of faith, you are on your way to a successful online sales presentation strategy.

About MRPwebmedia

What do we do? We motivate action by speaking to your audience’s real needs. We tell your story so your brand, your message, embeds in the minds of your clients. We are corporate storytellers.

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Creating A Successful Online Sales Strategy