Archive for the ‘Web Design & Usability’ Category

Belated Thursday Roundup for the Week of 5/31/09

Friday, June 5th, 2009

Posted by rebecca

Stories, news, and other notable items from the past 3 weeks:

Belated Thursday Roundup for the Week of 5/31/09 (more…)

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Social Cues & Increasing Sales

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

Honesty Tax

The anonymous nature of the web acts as a tax on anyone who is an honest merchant. Sales are driven by perceived value, and many marketers spend 90%+ of their time & effort on front end marketing and optimizing their sales channels, while providing little to no substance to anyone who buys from them. By the time those customers get to people like us, they are already more distrusting, cynical, and jaded due to having been scammed - in many cases multiple times.

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Internet Marketing in the Movies: Are People Starting to "Get" It?

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Posted by rebecca

Since I’m a movie buff and an Internet marketing nerd, I often notice Internet marketing and search mentions in various movies, and I always pay attention to the movie URL shown in trailers (my two recent favorites: the URL for Sacha Baron Cohen’s upcoming Bruno film was www.meinspace.com/bruno, but it looks like now it’s redirecting to MySpace.com, and the URL for I Love You, Beth Cooper is www.iloveyoubethcoopermovie.com, making me wonder why they had to append “movie” to such a specific URL). Recently I came across two examples where the movie industry referenced or directly utilized Internet marketing/social media marketing, and it got me wondering if Internet marketing is finally starting to become more mainstream (meaning fewer people will look at you with blank faces as you try to describe what you do for a living).
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The Next Big Shift In Web Marketing

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

There was an article on TechCrunch entitled “Jump Into The Stream”

In short, the article is about how the internet appears to be going through its next big shift. It is moving towards becoming a stream of immediate information. The web is being organized by “nowness”

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Did Google Change SEO Yesterday?

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Posted by randfish

Search marketers have a good bit of reading to do today. Personally, my list of top articles to read around the changes (and directional focii) Google brought up yesterday is:

Vanessa Fox’s coverage of Google’s Support for Microformats and Rich Snippets in Search ResultsMatt Cutts on Search Options & Google SquaredBoth SELand’s Live Blogging of Searchology and VentureBeat’s Blow by Blow of Searchology are worthwhile for those seeking to parse exact meanings The Google Webmaster Central Blog’s coverage their Design Refresh of Webmaster Tools

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A Brief Letter to Startup CEOs, CPOs & Founders

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Posted by randfish

Dear Startup CEOs, CPOs (Chief Product Officers) & Founders,

I know your time is valuable, so I’ll be brief. If you currently have or are in the process of developing a business/marketing plan that includes the phrase “traffic from search engines,” please peruse the following diagram:

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Blog Launch Check List

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Posted by Lucy Langdon

Blog Launch Check List

Although a lot of a blog’s success comes from the ongoing effort you put into growing and nurturing it, there are a few things you can do to give it the best possible chance from day one. The checklist below varies from very simple actions through to big decisions and longer term strategies.
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Weekend Roundup for the Week of 5/10/09

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Posted by rebecca

Stories, news, and other notable items from the past week:

Weekend Roundup for the Week of 5/10/09

Google crashed between 8:40 and 9:55 ET yesterday, preventing people from Googling to find out why Google wasn’t working. Oh noes! Speaking of Google, they recently overhauled Google News as well as updated their blog search algorithm, and they’re allowing trademarks to be used in US Adwords copy. Geez, no wonder there was downtime. Methinks Google needs a little R&R.Congratulations to Barry Schwartz–he and his wife just had a baby girl. Mazel tov!Now I know what I should work on the next time Rand’s out of town at a conference (wait, that’s next week…*evil laugh*).R.I.P. 3D Realms. Your perpetual release date for Duke Nukem Forever made for a lot of Internet lulz.Ladies and gentlemen, Frankenfrog! It’s alive! It’s ALIIIIIIIIIVE!!!

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Whiteboard Friday - Link Farming

Friday, May 15th, 2009

Posted by great scott!

“Old McSpammer had a farm, e-i-e-i-oh,
And on that farm he built some links, e-i-e-i-oh

With a backlink here, and a backlink there,
Here a link, there a link,
Everywhere a link, link…”

You get the idea. Back in the day, building your own network of sites designed to link to each other and build link popularity was an easy way to help boost your rankings. Nowadays though, link farming is an almost surefire way to get yourself into some big trouble with the engines.
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Upcoming Spring 2009 Search Conferences

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Posted by rebecca

The weather’s getting nicer, the days are getting longer and Rand’s barely in the office. You know what that means: it’s conference season! Since there are so many conferences right around the corner, I thought I’d list some upcoming events in case you’re thinking of attending a show but aren’t sure which one to book.
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