Category Archives: Internet & Marketing
Social Media – Free and Easy Online Marketing
Social media marketing can take on many forms — a blog; a Facebook, Twitter or MySpace page; a LinkedIn profile; or a viral video on YouTube … to name a few.
What Is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is a form of Internet marketing used to generate publicity or exposure via an online community.
Social media sites allow users to become part of an online network, in which they can blog, share photos and ideas, and chat with friends or colleagues. Many marketers recognize the advantage of these online communities, and now use them to target potential (and existing) customers.
And, how exactly are these potential customers targeted? For members of online communities, it’s all about who your friends know. Users can see who friends and colleagues are connected to; this raises awareness of your brand with friends of friends … and beyond.
Why Market Through Social Media?
Social media marketing provides many benefits for businesses:
37 Weblog Directories
Generating quality links for your website or blog is always challenging. Web Directories are most important source to generate long term links and should be an important part of SEO strategy. Earlier i gave a list of 200 general directories, which could help in generating back-links for your website.
Here is another list of Directories specific to Weblogs. If you know about any other directories, please submit comment, as it will help all of us.
Google announces new search tools to counter-fight Wolfram Alpha
Days after Wolfram Alpha was described as ‘Google Killer’, Google upped it ante in the ‘war of the search engines’ and released a new set of tools.
Wolfram Alpha, the new computational search engine, is set to go live on Monday May 15 at 7pm CST. The search engine, which is based on Mathematica and founder Stephen Wolfram’s own New Kind of Science, will provide users with answers to factual questions, unlike Google which simply provides websites which may or may not contain the required information. And far from worrying about possible technical glitches that might disrupt the launch, Wolfram has decided to film the whole process for users to watch. He said: “We hope that it’ll be interesting for people to join us as we work through these in real time.”
Alternatives of Google Adsense
Google Adsense has been the choice of Webmasters and Bloggers to earn some bucks out of web contents while providing rich experience to their visitors. Google Adsense displays targeted Google ads on website’s content pages and earn from valid clicks or impressions. AdSense gives access to Google’s vast network of advertisers, so it can show ads that are suited to visitor’s interests.
With time, lot of other Companies came in battle to provide better and better experience to visitors and good outcome for Webmasters. In my view, webmasters should use a mix of two or three Ad Providers, as it offers more rich experience and better outcome in the end.
Here are some Alternates of Adsense.
Quick SEO Tip: URL canonicalization and 301 re-dirrect
Canonicalization is the process of picking the best url when there are several choices, and it usually refers to home pages. For example, most people would consider these the same urls:
www.example.com
example.com/
www.example.com/index.html
example.com/home.asp
But technically all of these urls are different. A web server could return completely different content for all the urls above. When Google “canonicalizes” a url, we try to pick the url that seems like the best representative from that set.
It does not matter if you pick proper URL canonicalization pointing to the www’s or non-www’s, but you need to pick one and stick to it. I personally always choose the www’s because more people (from my experience) tend to link to you with the full URL.
Why canonicalize?
Its all about SEO. As you know linking is most important SEO activity. If two sites are linking you, one at wisacc.com and one at www.wisacc.com, Google will consider then two seprate pages, and your home page will not reap the benefit of two links. So be sure that any variation of the homepage URL needs to be redirected to one URL, whichever you choose.
Any extension of your URL like:
• http://www.example.com/index.php
• http://www.example.com/index.htm
• http://www.example.com/default.html
• http://www.example.com/default.php
• http://www.example.com/anything (that goes to homepage)
All need to be pointed to the main – http://www.example.com (without any extensions). You also need to make sure that you don’t have any dev links that need to be 301-ed to their new addresses so you don’t have any bad or dead links on the site.
How to canonicalize?
You can handle all these changes via the .htaccess file. Here is a little code that can help you:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yourdomain.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.yourdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
(Make sure your Apache installation has mod_rewrite enabled.)
As long as your Apache installation has mod_rewrite enabled then you should be able to use this fix on almost any host.
Note: use these two lines to redirect all variations of home page seprately.
Activity Based Advertisement By Google
From Today you will see google ads based on your activity history on Internet. Google will show ads based on your Web browsing history. Google action has raised privacy concerns even Google is taking measure to be careful.
The new program, called “interest based” advertising, is being rolled out on a test basis across Google’s network of partner websites and on its video-sharing site YouTube, according to an announcement on Google’s blog on Wednesday.
The move comes a few weeks after the Web search leader’s smaller rival, Yahoo Inc, unveiled its own advertising enhancements, which rely on an individual’s online activity.
While behavioral ad techniques have been around for several years, some past efforts have raised privacy concerns, and Google has refrained from offering such advertising until now.
Until now, the types of text and display ads that Google served to Web surfers were based solely on the content of the specific Web page being viewed by an individual.
With behavior advertising, Google and advertisers will be able to consider an individual’s broader history of Web surfing when deciding which ads to pitch.
“If, for example, your history shows to google that you often search for real estate sites and often visit them, Google could show you more ads for Real Estate.
Advertising based on consumer interest or behavior have the potential to increase consumer response and so-called click-through rates, which translates into higher ad revenue for the sites.
Google said it has three key safeguards: consumers can choose to opt out of the program; consumers can edit their profile of preferences based on online activity; and consumers can click on a button to learn how an ad was pitched to them. But Of course, most users won’t bother to opt out, and they simply won’t care about what info Google is storing on them. Warning signs on cigarette packs don’t stop most people from smoking, which is proof enough that warnings often aren’t enough to change people’s habits. So proper method is that instead of opt-out, Google could have made the program opt-in, by asking users whether they want to join the program or not.
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Off-Page SEO :: Over 200 Directories to increase your link Popularity
Relevant Links with proper Keywords is one of most important criteria Google rank your site high.
Here is a list of over 200 directories and sources that can be used for Link Building. Most of them are Free and with Fast approval rate. However, some directories are paid. Some can also ask you for reciprocal links.
What’s Next?
Don’t rely on in-experienced Web Designers and amateur SEOs. If you are interested in partnering with a firm that understands the needs of a modern website and well experienced SEO then Wisdom IT Solutions LLC is here to help. Feel free to check out our website or contact me today at khuram@wistech.biz to learn about how we can help you meet your goals on the web. We have local support in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE.
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Mothers and Internet
The internet is playing a major role in the everyday life of mothers in the UAE, with many regarding it as their lifeline to the outside world, according to a new survey.
Mums are increasingly using the internet as both a parenting and leisure tool, said the UAE chapter of Living La Vida Rapida, a global survey by OMD.
The study explored online parents’ lifestyle and media preferences globally, as well as how advertisers and marketers can leverage the insights uncovered to communicate with them more effectively.
The global survey was conducted with more than 7,000 respondents, all parents, in 14 countries around the world.
In the UAE, the survey was conducted with a sample of more than 300 online married females with children (87 percent Emiratis and 13 percent Arabs and expatriates) whose primary role was housekeeping (35 percent employed, 65 percent housewives or students).
The survey found that today’s mothers in the UAE are technically savvy and have strong emotional associations with media such as the internet, mobile phones, TV, radio and print media, commonly using them for communication, leisure and even disciplinary reasons.
The survey also found that 62 percent of UAE mothers described themselves as ‘super-mums’ using these technologies to pack several more hours of work into the one day.
More than 70 percent described the internet as a lifeline, as 82 percent turned to the internet in their free time, while 87 percent admitted they could not survive without their mobile phones.
The internet was also an educational tool for both parent and child, with a very high percentage of mums using it to search for information concerning better healthcare and nutrition for their children or general parenting blogs.
UAE mums use email and internet only a fraction less than their US counterparts, with 74 percent as opposed to 85 percent in the US using email or instant messaging.
The difference was more pronounced with looking for news online, 46 percent against 72 percent in the US.
Shadi Kandil, general manager of OMD Dubai, said: “This study has put a microscope on today’s parent and since no two cultures are the same it was important to have results from a UAE perspective.
“The results have been very interesting, sometimes surprising and particularly useful, as they ultimately allow us to maximise an advertiser’s impact on this key target group.”
Email Marketing Continues Rock on
Email Marketing is highly low cost, targeted and result oriented. The tactic’s low cost keeps it popular with marketers. If targeted correctly and message crafted properly, e-marketing can help you deliver the right content to the right prospect at the right time in the selling cycle and continuously achieve high response rates from quality prospects.
E-mail marketing metrics have stayed largely steady during the past couple of years, according to Epsilon data released in January 2009. The company said deliverability rates were almost exactly the same in Q3 2008 as they were in Q3 2006. Open rates and click-through rates dipped during the same period, but only slightly.
“Despite concerns about the declining effectiveness of advertising and the challenging economy, e-mail continued to perform consistently in 2008,” said Kevin Mabley, senior vice president at Epsilon, in a statement. “We anticipate increased reliance on this highly measurable and engaging method of customer interaction [in 2009].”
Epsilon said e-mail drove an average of $0.14 in revenues per delivered message, so e-mail still gets results.
Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer, said marketers should not let e-mail’s low cost and high ROI lull them into complacency. “Those who employ segmentation and personalization techniques to make their e-mails more relevant have the opportunity to significantly increase their response rates,” he said.
E-mail remains a staple of nearly every digital marketing campaign, although its low cost puts it behind other tactics in terms of spending. eMarketer estimates spending on e-mail will rise to $488 million in 2009, up from $472 million in 2008.
What’s Next?
Don’t rely on in-experienced Web Designers and amateur SEOs. If you are interested in partnering with a firm that understands the needs of a modern website and well experienced SEO then Wisdom IT Solutions LLC is here to help. Feel free to check out our website or contact me today at khuram@wistech.biz to learn about how we can help you meet your goals on the web. We have local support in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE.
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Internet Marketing in Middle East
Regional spending in Middle East on online advertising is expected to grow by 25-35 percent as a result of the downturn, according to a study released on Thursday.
The region will witness a greater shift from print to online advertising as budgets are slashed, according to “Game Not Over”, a report by global management consultant firm, Booz & Company.
Online advertising spending in the GCC-Levant countries remains below 1 percent of the total globally, according to Madar Research.
According to the report, around 90 percent of marketers are focused on campaigns that are cross-platform and inclusive of digital media while 80 percent believe insights into consumer’s digital behaviour will become more important to their brands.
Growth of online advertising, will increase every day as Internet Usage is increasing at the speed of light in Middle East.
Popular online offerings [in the Middle East] are Google, Yahoo and Facebook which are still taking the top spots in terms of audience. We still do not have a compelling offering in the online space.
We need the media players who are in traditional media to create new digital brands across key offerings such as sports, music and games.
Just 25 percent of marketers consider themselves savvy enough to capitalise on opportunities in online advertising, said the report.
Key concerns include the efficacy of digital metrics, the need for greater education and new models so they can build a more effective advertising presence online said the report.
What’s Next?
Don’t rely on in-experienced Web Designers and amateur SEOs. If you are interested in partnering with a firm that understands the needs of a modern website and well experienced SEO then Wisdom IT Solutions LLC is here to help. Feel free to check out our website or contact me today at khuram@wistech.biz to learn about how we can help you meet your goals on the web. We have local support in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE.
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