| First, Web 2.0 Do Practice,
the practical issues of web-2-do-ing, that is, the manifold of
optimizations, from advertising to free stuff, is discussed in this
page, made
mostly of my previous posts in this blog. Second, Web 2.0 Do Theory, and the description of the basic concepts, you can find in the Home Page of this website. Third, the Web 2.0 progress, development, and changes about the theory and practice you can follow in the Web 2.0 Do Blog. And our slogan:
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>> ADVERTISING-1: INTRODUCTION TO ONLINE ADS
>> ADVERTISING -2: WEB 2.0 ADVERTISEMENT OR BE SOCIAL
>> ADVERTISING -3: FROM WEB 1.0 TO WEB 2.0
>> VISITORS-2: SITE OPTIMIZATION FOR CONVERSION
>> VISITORS-3: ORDER PAGE OPTIMIZATION
>> VISITORS-4: ENGAGE YOUR VISITORS
>> VISITORS-5: ACTIVATE YOUR VISITORS
>> SEO-1: HOW TO REACH TOP TEN RANKING
>> SEO-2: WEB PAGE OPTIMIZATION
>> BUREAUCRACY OPTIMIZATION-1: (TROUBLE)SHOOTING
>> BUREAUCRACY OPTIMIZATION -2: PARKINSON'S LAWS
>> BUREAUCRACY OPTIMIZATION-3: MORE BUREAUCRACY LAWS
5. SOMETHING FOR NOTHING OR FREE STUFF OPTIMIZATION
>> FREE STUFF-2: FREEBEE SOFTWARE
ADVERTISING-1: INTRODUCTION TO ONLINE ADS
Let's begin with what is traditional advertising. A copywriter will create a piece of media, text, music image, video or the mix of all, and then your ad will be put up to the appropriate media, and you are waiting for the people coming to you in flocks. A classical state of mind, called wishful thinking.
Nowadays websites are advertised usually on the web, and this is what we will talk about. The fundamental idea you have to get used to that hits on your site, as the results of your advertisement, do not mean buyers. The second half of a sale to persuade an interested onlooker to buy on the basis of your website. And persuading people to buy is the harder enterprise. So, as a consequence of this fact, when we talk about ads, we will talk only about hits, not sales. You can read about how converting visitors into customers in the Visitor Optimization part. Then you are home and dry, especially if the customer won't ask for your money-back guarantee...
The paid-viewer, paid-clicker sites, all of them I do not recommend to use,
could be of interest if you can get real service dirt cheap, and you have a lot
of websites. And your expectations are truly low. How? I have chatted with a guy
once who said he had more than 1,500 websites (Not domains!). He said he gets
services like that for all his active sites, and he feels that one conversion in
one hundred thousand he sees as good. "What is bad then?" I asked him. "Well,"
he said, "one conversion in more than one million, or higher, is bad."
Let's do some math. If you have just 1,000 websites, getting at least one
million views a day, and you get only one buyer a day for each website (one in a
million), than it means 1,000 sales a day. So, the big numbers are working for
you. You only have to get the stamina for that. And the stomach. And the time.
And the money. Etc.
There are other possibilities, like redirecting from unused website, or domains,
and so on, which are half or wholly illegal. Also, we won't talk about popup ads, popunder ads, or hover ads, because they are too irritating, and
easily-irritated
people, like me, end to close your ad without having a look. I can only ask
you never to react to such advertisements. If you absolutely must to react, do
something nasty, like connect them to a virus site.
ADVERTISING-2: WEB 2.0 ADVERTISEMENT OR BE SOCIAL
In the "Web 2.0 Theory" page we talked about forum, blog and social network, so we won't repeat it here. Literally they are not advertising methods, but in Web 2.0, they are used for advertising purposes. I mean you can put your ads onto them, but Web 2.0 advertising means the use the whole body of social media as an advertisement of your company. Like using your whole body when teasing the opposite sex.
The following three social phenomenon are also the three phases of Web 2.0 public relations. We absolutely
recommend their use. Let's just sum up them here:
* a forum is running itself by the visitors
* a company blog needs an active company blogger, who not only writes his own
talk, but actively answers all the people
* to turn your company into a social network needs in fact a group of people -
for example, one of them is needed entirely just for checking out all the more
important social network sites, and presenting the new features to your Web 2.0
group, for decision which features to implement
Let's note that social news sites could be important only if you can make the events of your company or site newsworthy - which is usually on the boundary of impossible, like flying saucers.
Don't forget that Web 1.0 methods can work if employed by the millions, as it was described in the Introduction. Using them on the Web 2.0 way, putting people in the centre, and giving integrated services, then Web 1.0 methods could be successful. If you can change the traditional advertising approach on that way, you had a winner. The size of the price depends on you.
ADVERTISING -3: FROM WEB 1.0 TO WEB 2.0
AD TO NEWS GROUPS
Definition
A news server posts information to forum-like environment. Each theme is referred to as a Newsgroup. The most known net is Usenet, a dinosaur in Internet terms. Their service also want your credit card data in advance, which is clearly a scam.
Opinion &/ Use
* like forums, they hate ads
* must be a member, usually you have pay
* very limited use, because themes are quite specific
NOT recommended for use.
Software Or Webservice
1. http://www.NewsGroupBlaster.com
2. http://solidlabs.com/net/newsgroupssubmitter/
State Of Software/Site
1. just an empty domain
2. it lives
AD TO ONLINE MALLS
Definition
Online malls are what the name says - but the structure is more a directory of goods and services, where each item can have several "webshops" - webpages.
Opinion &/ Use
Tried once majon.com's service, and the hits went up about with one third. They claim to send your ad to 12,000+ online malls. The problem with it, as you can read in the "Visitor Optimization/ Conversion" that hits do not mean buyers.
Recommended to use if you sell something absolute trendy or intriguing, so that you are able to turn visitors into buyers.
Software Or Webservice
http://www.majon.com/malllink.html
State Of Software/Site
thriving
AD TO ONLINE SERVICES
Definition
In the beginning of the Internet it was hard to get all the things you wanted, for example email, forum, your own website, etc, thus the emergence of online services.
An online service is a business that provides its subscribers for a fee with all possible Internet services in a bunch.
The biggest ones are America Online, Compuserve and MSN. Nowadays their structure shows times gone, so people who is new to the web, usually go for the free services.
Opinion &/ Use
*
like forums, they hate ads
*
must be a member, usually you have pay
*
very limited use, because themes are quite specific
*
their members stay because tend to be conservatives, meaning not so open to new
ideas and services
*
on the other hand, these services try to develop into social networks [not a
chance against Facebook]
NOT recommended for use.
AD TO SOCIAL NETWORKS
Definition
The simplest definition of online social network is that it's a website that functions as meeting place, on the first hand with real-life friends, on the other hand, with every human being on the Earth, who joined the site. You can join groups made up by any criteria.
Opinion &/ Use
They truly have an impact and Facebook is already an institution in itself. Works especially well with ads that don't look like ads.
Recommended to use.
AD TO WEB DIRECTORIES
Definition
An online directory is a database accessible on the web. As the traditional directories, it's a wide-ranging guide to a wide range of goods and services. Because it contains links, nowadays there is very little difference between online directories and online malls.
Opinion &/ Use
There are so many web directories nowadays, that it's meaningless to subscribe for money. Just subscribe to some of the top free ones.
Recommended to use.
Software Or Webservice
I can't recommend any. Search and check.
AUTOSURF
Definition
Like Buying-Traffic people and email clickers, AutoSurfers are paid to view pure advertisement web pages for a definite length of time, usually 10 to 30 seconds. When the watcher does nothing, the autosurf timer will move to the next site, and the paid watcher will get her half cent or half penny.
Opinion &/ Use
Like other paid viewer methods, it's a waste of money.
NOT recommended for use.
BANNER ADS
Definition
A banner ad on the web in the form of an image, animated and with sound. They are usually wide and short, or tall and narrow.
Clicking on it, the viewer is redirected to the website which advertised.
Opinion &/ Use
Opinion: The success depend on the feeling of the viewer - if it's fun or intriguing enough, they will click.
Recommended to use.
Use: Be very careful about which company you pay for this service. They come and vanish by the hour. Insist to get a list of sites where you can check your ad.
Software Or Webservice
At the latest revision I couldn't find any SW/site I could trust to mention.
BUYING TRAFFIC
Definition
Usually said to be communities interested in new things. The most honest ones are made up of small businessmen, all of which want only to sell, never buy.
There are two main scams:
[1] With web programs imitate the hit on your site
[2] Real people clicking for a commission of one cent per site. They are absolutely not interested to order anything.
> In both cases you would see the hits on your site without someone ever buying anything.
Opinion &/ Use
I have checked very cautiously a lot of such services. With them I didn't reach even the one buyer of one hundred thousand hits.
NOT recommended for use.
Software Or Webservice
Can't recommend any.
CLASSIFIED TO BLOGS
Definition
Software said to be able to send your ad to blogs that could have similar theme, by the batch.
Opinion &/ Use
As blogs are quite specific, you could guess that the method doesn't work - even if you could get through registration with your software.
NOT recommended for use.
Software Or Webservice
I got from a search the following two, but nowadays none of them works, you get
only redirected to some other scam.
http://www.megapromoter.com/
same as http://www.blog-blast.com/
State Of Software/Site
Must be bad software or scams or whatever.
CLASSIFIED TO BULLETINBOARDS
Definition
Name them bulletin board, discussion list, discussion board, message boards - nowadays mostly forums, usually they don't want your ad. And the software for this just claims to do what they hate.
Opinion &/ Use
Even who people are putting their ads by hand on them can count with meager result, because very soon your contribution will classified as ad, and then you are finished there.
NOT recommended for use.
Software Or Webservice
Most of the links I had don't work anymore. Here is one:
http://www.messageboardblaster.com
CLASSIFIED TO CLASSIFIEDS SITES
Definition
The web imitation of the usual classified pages of a newspaper.
Opinion &/ Use
I have tried both sites and software, but it was only one that worked under $100. You can put your ads to more than hundred thousand classified sites.
I never understood the ravings about craigslists and the likes, when I can spread my ads on this way - free.
Software Or Webservice
The software I like is Power Submitter, not only because you can see directly the growth of hits, but once you bought it, you SW will be updated forever.
Check it out and try to find a better one.
Recommended to use.
http://power.becanada.com/
State Of Software/Site
Alive and kicking.
CLASSIFIED TO EZINES
Definition
In fact, ezine in this case means the ezine's classified pages, so it goes on the same way as Classified 2 Classifieds Sites.
Opinion &/ Use
Have tried the following two. None made any difference in hits. Ezinebroadcast is gone with the wind, while total‑ad‑etc didn't change a letter on their site for at least five years.
NOT recommended for use.
Software Or Webservice
http://www.ezinebroadcast.com/
http://www.total-advertising-network.com/
CLASSIFIED TO WEB DIRECTORIES
Definition
Web directories are the web-image of paper directories. Nowadays there is no basic difference between Ad To Web Directories, and Classified To Web Directories. The only difference is that they are on different places.
Opinion &/ Use
A friend is a yahoo-believer, but even he admitted, there is very rarely he got clients from the yahoo directory.
Software Or Webservice
The usual three sites are google, yahoo and msn.
State Of Software/Site
OK
EMAIL BLASTERS
Definition
The working is the same as at Buying Traffic. The honest ones are made up of small businessmen, all of which want only to sell, never buy.
Opinion &/ Use
Totally thrown-away money.
NOT recommended for use.
Software Or Webservice
There are literally hundreds of these services. They promise you up to one hundred million of your emails will be open - daily! What a fairy tale.
State Of Software/Site
The main scams are:
[1] With web software they imitate the hit on your site.
[2] Real people clicking for a commission of some part of a cent per email. It's called opt-in emailing. They will open your email but they are absolutely not interested to order anything, only getting their cents.
FREE ARTICLE SUBMISSION
Definition
That means free article submission as free site content. If the article is interesting, witty, or stunning, then it will be spread through the web.
Don't forget the link to homepage!
Opinion &/ Use
You should write an article about your goods or service that people won't take as an advertisement. This is hard, especially as different people have different opinions about what they see as an ad.
Recommended to use if you have the ability, stamina and time.
FREE EBOOK
Definition
You write a general-information book about a theme connected to your business. Quite frequently you put in a one-line text ad about your business, with a link to it. Then you put it up to all free ebook sites.
Opinion &/ Use
If your general-information is interesting enough, you win. The job and circulating will be done free, by others.
Recommended to use.
FREE NEWSLETTER
Definition
A company newsletter is somewhere between a free ebook and a blog. It must come out frequently, but you have to make sure that it has interesting content, not only boring press-release watered up.
Opinion &/ Use
Like an ebook, it should be remarkable enough.
Recommended to use.
FREE SITE CONTENT
Definition
Just another side of optimizing your site for search engines. The SE robots are checking new content. If you order a free service, your site will receive automatically new articles in the ordered theme. SEs will be happy, and you will be happy with better ranking.
Usually you just have to put a couple of HTML code into your page, provided by the service.
Opinion &/ Use
OK, use it if you can't do it yourself.
Software or webservice
If you just google "free site content", will get lots of hits. I don't use them anymore.
LINK SUBMISSION TO FFAs
Definition
FFA means Free For All. True, but sending your links to these link pages, is also quite useless.
Opinion &/ Use
I have tried several. Even the "best" couldn't send more than 20+ hits to the test site.
NOT recommended for use.
Software Or Webservice
There are lot of similar services and programs. Find them if you feel like that.
LINK SUBMISSION TO GUEST BOOKS
Definition
Guestbooks are the electronical parallels of the paper ones, made for a site.
Opinion &/ Use
Perhaps it's worth if you know what kind of people are writing in guest books, and what they want to buy.
NOT recommended for use.
Software Or Webservice
I could only find one software, it's much overvalued, and my friend got no hits from that.
http://guest-book-crawler.julia-oswald.alienpicks.com/
State Of Software/Site
OK
LINK SUBMISSION TO SEARCH ENGINES
Definition
Dumb enough, it is also called Search Engine Submission. Naturally we don't submit search engines, but our link.
Opinion &/ Use
It doesn't do any harm, but let me tell you if you don't know already that the web robots of the big ones, google, yahoo, etc, will crawl and get your site anyway.
Software Or Webservice
There is software, but I wouldn't recommend any, as the big ones have submission pages for this, and there are not even ten, which are worth to submit to.
PRESS RELEASES
Definition
There are a lots of paid, and yet much more free, press release services.
Opinion &/ Use
If your news is truly special, you have a chance to reach the higher levels of the press release stack, and you are a winner.
Use if you if are sure your news are newsworthy.
Conversion is the phenomenon when a visitor to your website buys your goods or services. That means from interested onlookers they become buyers. This is the single most important thing that happens on your website. As we have written already in the Web 2.0 advertisement article, a hit is not a buy, and the distance between them could be infinite, like between a date and sex.
Conversion rate means the percentage of visitors who get converted into buyers. The overwhelming majority of a website are visitors, that is, interested people, who has not a thought about buying anything. The actual goal of most websites is to reach a desired conversion rate. It doesn't matter if it's a private website or a company's, the owners make every effort day and night to boost the traffic to their website, but, and it's a big "but", most of them tries to increase the number of visitors. They could as well be visitors from outer space.
What they would work for is to increase the conversion rate of their site. Let's say that a junk preacher, like a television evangelist, can turn one percent of his listeners. So, if one hundred people were truly listening, he can turn one. Let's say there is another preacher who has a conversion rate of two percent. Then he needs only fifty people really listening, and he get one convert, a new slave to his sect. You can multiply it by a million for web purposes, and you see the big difference. The better you conversion rate is, the fewer visitors you need, to get the same amount of conversions.
WHAT IS CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION
I coined the expression "conversion optimization", in the same set of mind that we call site optimization for search engines to "search engine optimization." [See SEO bellow.] Why? This process is also a kind of site optimization for getting more customers. A simple summary is that conversion optimization means how to handle your visitors in order to turn them into buyers. As the Hindus and the Chinese know for millennia, customers are divine. They come to you and give you money. What more can you ask for?
By trying to make yourself into a Web 2.0 company, you are already doing a lot for conversion. But there is more. If you have ever done search engine optimization, the style of the following fifty-plus steps to do will be familiar for you. The trick is to realize them one after one, on such a way, that the creation of one will not ruin another in the list. To stress the importance of conversion optimization we discuss it first of all optimizations. You can get visitors to your site without doing SEO, but you won't get any profit without conversions. Of course this is not an absolute must. If you don't need money, don't optimize.
VISITORS-2: SITE OPTIMIZATION FOR CONVERSION
SITE TECH
* The design of the
website is the first impression to your visitors. Make the website professional,
cool, intriguing, whatever in order to make your visitors come back.
* Navigation on the site must be easy. The visitors need to be able to have easy
access to all the pages on the site with links between the pages. Like in a good
party people should easily find both the bar and the toilet.
* Review all the links on the website. You need to verify they all work so when
the visitors click on the links they are directed to the location of the link.
Any errors of the linking makes the visitors think you are incompetent. Or don't
care. Or
worse.
* Check your grammar and spelling. Any error will make a bad impression
and makes you look unprofessional and sloppy. Okay, I know that this is just a
desire. I used to check the bestsellers, and I always find both spelling and
grammar errors in them. What a malicious joy.
SITE TEXT
* Gurus talk about site
content but I talk about site text. Concentrate yourself to your text. Fancy
pictures, videos and the like can make visitors come back, but won't make
visitors to turn into customers.
* Develop an individual, unique voice that makes you different from your
competitors.
* Try to develop a voice that shows that you care about your visitors.
* Use your personal tone of voice in the direction of persuasion, but never an
open one, in order to feel your visitors wanting to buy your product. The
visitors should feel your personality and learn to trust your opinion.
* Use suitable language for your expected readers. Four-letter swear words are
good only for sex sites. Right, I admit there are lots of adults fascinated by
them. If they are your customers, by all means, use them. But then your site
would be avoided by "normal" people. Whatever that means.
* Good content makes the visitor to feel a consoling, encouraging sense about
the site, feeling "This chap really knows his stuff... he's an expert."
* Use the rule of content for the site. Straightforward, special, correct,
significant, and appropriate text makes a true impact on the readers.
* Add new content to the website regularly. Rewrite and check every day. Use the
"The Perpetual Beta" approach.
* Write your articles designed for the visitor. Make search engine optimization
on such a way that you won't change the integrity of your text.
* Hold your dialog with your visitors on a human level. (Avoid
corporate-speech.)
* Post interesting stuff frequently and often is needed for holding your search
engine ranking.
To sum up, behave like a stripper. Squirm and writhe mentally around your
imagined metal rod, and show everything you have.
GRAPHICS
* On the first place,
don't use graphics, because as I said above, graphics can make visitors come
back, but they won't make visitors to turn into customers.
* Use the same type of graphics on all your pages.
* If you want use different images on your pages, then at least use the same
type of graphics, because it will give your sites a togetherness.
* If you want to use different types, use low-data graphics. For example, a
small, black and white image will load like a flash, and won't slow downloading.
* Although you can have graphics, if you insist, but your site is not a graphic
novel. Don't be overwhelming, too witty or too sexy. Be moderate, like a banker
in the City of London.
KEEP THE DESIGN CONSISTENT
* Keep the design
consistent throughout your website gives a safe feeling to your visitors.
* Go for simple elegance.
CLAIMS AND TESTIMONIES
Stay away for testimonies entirely, if you
can live without them. The great majority of visitors believe, usually being
right, that the testimonies are false, doctored or simply made by your company
exclusively and completely. There is this negative phenomenon that people do not
want to confirm their testimonies, even if they initiated it on the first place.
So, it's hard to get permission for making public their emails of phone numbers.
Testimonies are like passports at the checkpoint in some countries: They assume
that all passes are bogus. And all tourists are terrorists. Or illegal
emigrants.
If you must have claims and testimonies:
* Try your statements sound true. Just convey the feeling that you are a
trustworthy and first-class lumberjack of your profession.
* Keep away from making incredible statements or claims. You lose the trust very
fast when you use this method. If yo had it in the first place.
* Publish only real testimonies from clients and endorsements. Use the real
names of the people and real links when possible, that could be checked. Usually
there is no way, for this kind of check, so usually the statements are
worthless.
* Publish case studies about your clients that you worked for, showing how your
goods or services helped them. Yet again, they are worth anything at all only if
they can be checked. I gave up such things long ago. It's like smoking, you
don't really need it and you are better off without it.
* Avoid making any negative remarks about your competitors. Just ignore them.
* If you want American customers, you can use false testimonies and incredible
statements, as American public are much more gullible, and anyway, they are used
to the fact that they are making business with swindlers. On other places, do as
above. Or not. There are lot of suckers in any country.
SITE AS A BUSINESS
* Make your focus on
long-term business goal not the quick sale.
* State your guarantee clearly. If it's practically workable, offering an
unconditional money-back guarantee is the best.
* Your return policy should be also simple.
* Add the logos and links of all credit card companies and payment services you
use. If you want to be seen as big, add also all the logos and links of all
credit card companies and payment services you can find on the net. Of course
you also would be seen as crazy.
COMPANY INFO
* Design your "about us"
page to gain the interest and trust of the visitor. [Hard to do nowadays.] They
should feel comfortable with you and your business.
* Add the photos of your staff to the site so your clients will have faces to
put to the business. Don't put nude photos even if you are a stunning woman.
They belong to a special kind of business.
* Identify the publisher of the site. People need to know whom they are dealing
with.
* Design the "contact us" page with all possible information the visitor may
need to contact you such as your phone number, fax number, email address, and
address of the business. This also helps the visitors know it is an actual
business, not only a fancy site.
* Provide an email address that is linked to the website - not a free email.
Make the email address professional and short, like a mini-skirt from Gucci.
LINKS AND ON-SITE ADS
* Contextual links are
such links that are posted on highly relevant and related pages and are high in
PageRank.
* Link building is said to be crucial to search engine success. Nevertheless, in
an experiment I could push a site into top ten with just a couple of dozen
links. So, get as many contextual links pointing to your site as you can.
For example, if you set up 100,000 Internet classified ads, Google would take
none for the ranking. Are you baffled? I was. In this game the link quality
counts, not the amount of links. Like with old cognac.
* Use reciprocal links on your site with caution. The links should be
appropriate to your business. Otherwise the search engines could take the links
as fakes. Sometimes a SE dismiss the whole lot if the majority is not right.
* Choose your anchor text with care. It should be very near the same as your
search keywords.
* This is true with advertising also. AdSense is free to set up, but don't make
people hard to find the text of your site among an expanse of advertisement.
& Now, let's see a good ad. "Parachute for sale, used only once. In factory
wrapping." Whoa.
PRIVACY AND SECURITY
* Create and publish
your own privacy policy that clearly states you will hold for yourself all the
personal information you collect.
* Your security policy should be clear about the security of all your
transactions.
* Link the security and privacy policies to every page footer. Not that anybody
web-smart enough would believe you. But there are always new generation
greenhorns who could be impressed. Hopefully they would be hooked on your site
before they realize that your site are just like any other's.
NEGATIVE WORK
* Do not swindle your
visitors
= for example, if you are selling sexual content, don't put your site up as if
you would sell car tyres [happened with me once].
* Do not distract your visitors
= If you have strewn lots of hyperlinks, references, small frames with side
texts, images, clipart, mp3 and video files, your visitor wouldn't know what is
important, what is expected from her to do.
* Do not confuse your visitors
= it's similar to the rule above - don't clutter your side with ads, especially
not on a way that the visitor wouldn't know what's your site and what are the
ads.
* Do not play God. If a lot of people says what you should do, or want more of a
particular feature of your site, do it. Your site is for your users, even if you
think it's for you.
VISITORS-3: ORDER PAGE OPTIMIZATION
The order page is the source of your profit, so it should be crystal clear for
your customers.
Think about it:
First you turned a net surfer or net searcher into a visitor. A feat in itself.
Secondly, you could turn your visitor feeling like buying from you. That's a
miracle.
NOTE: By Internet statistics, more than 50 percent of online shoppers abort the
ordering process. If your order page isn't easy to use, all other website
promotion efforts will be in vain. They say "Go to the £v(|<," and never come
back.
Thirdly, now, you have to make your order page so easy-to-use, so pleasant, so
simple, that people who now is in the state of mind of a customer, should become
true buyers. This is the never-ending story. Here comes the how-to:
* Put a link to the order page to the top and to the bottom of all your pages.
Name the order-page link on all your pages to the same, simplest "Order."
* I saw it many times that companies hide their price on the pitch page, hoping
that their visitors will fall in love with the product, and buy it for any
price. Some scammers don't even let people know the final price before the
customer enters the credit card details. Many people think that such companies
are swindlers and they think so usually rightly. I sometimes look up this kind
of order page, but never buy. Avoid this ploy.
* Make your visitors clear about costs - packing, shipping, American state
taxes, European VAT and whatever there is to know. For a customer it could be a
shock to see a 30-40 % higher price than your selling price. If you prepare them
for the possibility, you have a chance that they will buy anyway. Early warning
pays. Like when the captain says, cling to your seat because we're falling.
{{ In Europe I've tried to find out in three countries, if the state budget
contains incomes, let's say a couple of hundred million Euros, from the IRS
labeled that it's VAT from European people who bought American goods via the
Internet. A laughable concept for any EU bureaucrat I asked. So, most European
buyers think it's simply an official-sounding swindle. Avoid this scam if you
can. If you can't, well, you'll loose a bunch of buyers. It's your money. }}
* Make sure that your software gives a meaningful message for the customers if
they forget to fill the street name or any other required field. Name and show
it for them clearly which fields they should fill or refill.
* Make sure that your order pages work with international customers, if you
state that you want to have them. The European Union is actually a loose
association of totally independent states. Ignorant American programmers always
make a separate field for "state." American programmers - mostly - are usually
stupid enough not to know that people from Italy or Norway, won't have any idea
what to write there. The order won't work without it, so they just leave. But
there is a big difference for example between the Brit and French postal address
systems. And then comes Asia, Africa, and South America - all with their own
systems. The programmer must allow for anyone to use his or her own postal
system. They should learn that international customers don't mean New Jersey or
Texas.
This must be checked by the owner of the company, meaning YOU... When I lived
in West Virginia, I've talked to many people for whom New York or California
were like alien planets. Count with it that your programmer won't think about
other postal systems, and you would lose customers because of their ignorance.
* Test the order page with your friends or relatives who don't use the web very
often. It should be easy to understand even with one-digit IQ. Or someone who
don't know what's the difference between computer or commuter. Let your grandma
test your site.
* Check regularly your order page, to make sure that it continues to work well.
You can do that also by asking your visitors via a poll, etc. Of course you can
avoid all work, and just pray to get smart customers.
VISITORS-4: ENGAGE YOUR VISITORS
This is the real trick you need to do - get in touch with your
visitors. The important thing is not trying to convert them immediately into
customers. Think about how you you approach someone from the opposite sex. Or
from the same. Flirt. You have to build some kind of relation, and then perhaps
they become buyers or not. But a visitor could be your salesperson, recommending
you to someone, even if remaining a visitor only.
A WARNING: MEANING AT A GLANCE
The first scroll of your
homepage must convey a meaning.
As you'll see later on at Create Awareness, visitors are notoriously quick to
leave a site. Social news site people are the quickest of all. They want to look
up thousands of sites a day, and that means they give only a look at your site,
not longer than a fraction of a second. Many other surfers are nearly up to that
speed too. It's not too hard. This is not mathematics at a glance.
I've seen many sites with a nude, that has nothing to do with sex. At
least for me it doesn't work. Even putting there a stunning young woman could be
wrong. Your visitor could be also a stunning young woman, who wouldn't like your
approach. If I want to buy tools, or domains or sport shoes,
a nude won't persuade me to buy here. For any male with a grain of mind, it's
just meaninglessly distracting. For a female, it could be disgusting. Let's have
everything in their own place. And time. At least, in the Web 2.0 business.
PUT A COMMENT WIDGET TO EVERY PAGE ON YOUR SITE
A comment widget could
be called an instant blog. Usually just a couple of lines in HTML code. Easy to
setup, easy to use, easy to misuse. Your visitors can write their comments
instantly. The drawback is that people, who are too ignorant to write malware,
with this widget can instantly clutter your site, just for fun. But you won't
have fun, when you try to take away the garbage.
The web gives lot of possibilities for people with graphomania. Don't make your
site to a mental garbage place, if that's not your goal.
GRAB THE VISITOR'S ATTENTION
* Put the most important
statement of what your site offers above the scroll; your sales pitch, your
order button.
* Never put top-important bits below the scroll.
* Your bestselling content, goods or services should be accessible from your
home page. Access is as important as a toilet in an entrance hall.
CREATE AWARENESS OF YOUR THEME
in your header already,
make clear what's your theme - by a word, expression or image.
Be very careful what you put into your first scroll of your homepage.
Everything must be relevant; otherwise visitors just leave you, not knowing what
the heck is your trade, and not caring. In the worst case they will be angry
with you and put your site to all kinds of mockery. Sure, you can get famous as
the most stupid someone in your field, but it won't really get you customers.
OFFER HIGH QUALITY CONTENT, GOODS OR SERVICES
* your quality should be
seen just by having a look
* write your text with excellence (Well, at least try. Or give the task to
professionals. You know, many are called, but few are chosen.)
QUI PRODEST? MENTALITY
As already the Ancient
Latins knew, freely translated, "What's in it for me?"
So, don't weave tales about your product, tell the visitors how they will feel
or act after buying from you. Go for the emotions. Think about having a virtual affair
with your customer.
VISITORS-5: ACTIVATE YOUR VISITORS
The gist of this is to ask them, to make them to take some small
action.
TO DOWNLOAD A FREE EBOOK
This is the simplest
thing to do, just a series of clicking. It's good because people love free
gifts. Best to have an ebook relevant to your site. But if you put up
"Descriptive Geometry," still a lot of people would download - see "Something
for Nothing" bellow. But it won't help you to turn a visitor into a customer.
TO READ A SHORT TEXT/ LISTEN TO A SHORT MP3/ WATCH A SHORT VIDEO
These actions mean a
passive partaking so they are the easiest to happen. About as hard as a
download. Well, I know people for whom a download is beyond their horizon.
TO VOTE IN A POLL
A poll is a survey of
public opinion accomplished by putting questions to an arbitrary sample of
people.
The web poll is the same in essence. The difference is that in the web people
choose themselves to participate, by visiting your site.
Nowadays there is lots of free web poll software, just make a search.
Some brain activity is involved; to select the answer the visitor have to click.
Work, some say.
TO SUBSCRIBE TO A FREE NEWSLETTER
Here the visitor must
already fill a form, however simple is it, so that means some typing at least.
More work.
TO TELL THEIR OPINION ABOUT YOUR SITE/ CONTENTS/ GOODS/ SERVICES
This means a step more
engagement than the poll, as you don't give anything to choose among.
The already mentioned comment widget is one solution. Not recommended. Go for
forum or blog. Or go for a walk. Anything is better than having a comment
widget.
TO PARTAKE IN YOUR FORUM / BLOG/ SOCIAL NETWORK
Let's take a forum as an
example. First to make the visitor to fill your registration form, then find the
appropriate thread in the forum, and finally writing an input, means much more
work than a comment widget, and needs active partaking.
The way to engage people is to have several controversial or intriguing
statements in your texts, on a way that they simply would feel that they must
tell their opinion. You need a subtly skilfull handling of text. Dance like an
elephant in high heels.
TO ASK A QUESTION OF YOUR SITE'S EXPERT (WHO SHOULD GIVE A FREE ANSWER)
This is about as hard
for the visitor than partaking in a forum. Sometimes easier, especially when
they ask about a problem they are furious about. Usually you have to describe
the circumstances of your problem, which puts this activity between forum and
story. If your "expert" gives acceptable answers, you can count with at least
one man working in whole time for the public. Is it worth? You have to decide.
It's your budget.
TO WRITE A STORY ABOUT YOUR WAREZ, THEY HEARD OR EXPERIENCED
It's formally very much
like the partaking in forum, etc, but it's a shade harder than just simply
airing an opinion. However short, writing a story is a composition, which needs
at least some kind of concentration for your customer. Make some reward for all
who writes a finished story.
Etc, etc.
NOTE To sum up, activate your visitor means to make acquaintance, make friends
with your visitors. If they allow it.
Always thank them after participation.
SEO-1: HOW TO REACH TOP TEN RANKING
The term "search engine optimization" means of course, not to optimizing a search engine (although it would be good), but to optimizing your site for search engine ranking. It's not advertising in the traditional sense, but actually it is. Meaning we remake our sites for the "taste" of the search engines in order to become more accessible to the searches.
SEO means to push the site in question into a position of Top Ten. On the other hand, there is a principle that you have to keep in mind, and also practice. Many people think to reach top ten means a seat in the lodge of success. It is, most emphatically, not so. Instead, it's the lodge of delusion.
Reaching Top Ten ranking is just one way out of hundreds how people get their links. It is absolutely not a guarantee for success, however many service companies trying to persuade you. There are lots of other things you have to do.
To push a site into the Top Ten position means hard work. Making the site stay
there, is much harder.
You have probably heard a phrase, in the entertainment industry, "Everyone can
get his 15 minutes of fame," which shows nicely what we mean.
There are lots of things to do on a special way, in order to be successful.
These are the steps to lead to the Top Ten ranking.
Step One: Choose The Page
Step One is to choose the page on your site, which you want to push forward.
Usually it's the home page, but not always. I would recommend to make all
your pages Top Ten, separately, one after one. It can be done, I tried.
Step Two: Keywords
Step Two is to find the most relevant search term for your chosen page. This is
so important that if you fail with that, than you will fail overall.
Just to say an example you want to advertise something in the field of
gynecology or obstetrics, you can be sure that the expression "women's problems"
will give you at least with an order of magnitude bigger amount of hits. Even
people who knows and use the professional terms will use the simple expression,
because the professional ones sound too mannered, to posh, and generally not
friendly. And not friendly is bad.
Try to have a search term of at least two words. Why?
* the competition for a one word search is tremendous, and also meaningless,
because the majority of one-word search terms are too general
* most people search in expressions, not single words
* you can make much more clear the gist of your services or goods in two or more
words [preferably not too long words]
* although most people are single-minded, their search terms are usually
multi-word expressions
Actually, it is also true to your business. If you want sell "books" you have
almost no chance. If you will sell "first-edition hardbacks" or "new
trade-paperback," it's better. Of course it's not enough. Sell "first-edition
naval hardbacks" or "new urban-fantasy trade-paperback," and you are much better
off. Get a niche.
If you choose "first-edition naval hardbacks", you can use several more search
terms:
* first-edition naval books
* first-edition naval
* naval hardbacks, etc.
And you can try optimize your site to all of your search terms. That's the
trick. The more is the better. As the song says, Bigger, Better, Faster and
More.
Step Three: Domain Name
Step Three - let's regard your domain name. I would put it as Step One, but I
know that many people has began their business with domain names that took their
fancy, or their family name. If your site is not famous still, then you should
consider to get a domain that is your search term.
Just to show an example how people search, let's imagine that some wants a tool
to make extra holes in a belt he bought on a semester in Acapulco.
They wouldn't know the tool is called an "awl."
The majority wouldn't use even the word "tool" or "device."
They would search for "a gizmo/ gadget/ widget to make a hole in leather"
What domain name? Figure it out.
A search-term example, mentioned above, was "first-edition naval hardbacks."
The domain name: 1steditionnavalhardback.com.
The search engines will get your site into consideration already by it's domain
name.
What if you don't want, or can't give up your existing domain?
* you can concentrate to your existing domain, while
* you can set up a new domain anyway, and forwarding visitors from your old one
But let's add that it's always better to use both sites, and not using
redirection.
Let's notice first, for the case of avoiding repetition, the elements we
mentioned at the other optimizations, we won't mention again here, if there is
no special reason
Make sure your pages will be indexed even by your robots.txt file
What's that? A special file created exclusively for web crawler robots, where
you decide how and what pages you want to be crawled.
Let's add that if you do all kind of optimizations as you should, your website
will be indexed anyhow - look at this file as an insurance for indexing.
Let search engines find your site by HTLM
* have your code updated to the present standard
* using search-term relevant titles, subtitles and sub-subtitles
* using search-term relevant text in your boldface and normal text
* using search-term relevant text in your tags, on the right way [not trying to
swindle]
* and many more
Don't be super-hyper
The search engines ignoring in many cases sites, which have
* hyper-graphics, like Flash pages
* frames: also slow to download, servers don't like it
* dynamically generated web pages, because the pages don't actually exist until
they are requested
* hidden text written in background color
* tricky tags
* special character in your URLs
People won't follow you in many cases
* don't use welcome pages, because many people just wont' follow your link.
They clicked somewhere to get to your relevant page, and if they don't get it,
many will leave
* same for redirection pages
Website content from the SE point of view
* have enough pages, at least three
* have enough content on each page, at least a couple of hundred words
* have your pages relevantly related to each other, with hypertext bookmarks
* have new content on your website regularly, at least once a week [one solution
is dynamically linked texts]
The people who run alexa.com and makes the famous web ratings, has a SEO program
we use and recommend.
BUREAUCRACY OPTIMIZATION-1: (TROUBLE)SHOOTING
This is an introduction to bureaucracy optimization, or (trouble)shooting it. First, what do I mean by writing the word trouble in parentheses? Well, the meaning of it that you should troubleshoot bureaucracy, but if you can, let out the "trouble"-part of it, and simply shoot it. That is erase, delete, eliminate the bureaucracy part that troubles you, if it could be done.
A good solution to shoot bureaucracy is employing software. In contrary to a
living, flesh bureaucrat, software never do the things, bureaucrats do. It
doesn't want to employ another software, it doesn't want to create more
bureaucratic work for its fellow bureaucratic software, it doesn't want to make
more difficult procedures for its bureaucratic work, and so on. To sum up, the
more bureaucratic software you have the less bureaucratic work you will have.
If your company puts up a special team for your Web 2.0 optimization, you will
meet the events described below within a very short time.
Just study first these laws. And then, cope with the bureaucracy with the only
right way: shoot it. Your Web 2.0 optimization should get better as time goes
on, and show better results with less job. It sounds grim for them, but it's
true. Experience make the master, so they would have it better when they become
experienced.
BUREAUCRACY OPTIMIZATION-2: PARKINSON'S LAWS
PARKINSON'S LAW OF BUREAUCRACY
Parkinson's Law was first made public by Cyril N. Parkinson as the first
sentence of a humorous essay published in The Economist in 1955:
"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." (Saying
about bureaucracy.)
Later on It was published with other essays in a book, Parkinson's Law: The
Pursuit of Progress (London, John Murray, 1958). He deducts the slogan from his
long experience in the British Civil Service.
His extreme example was the increased number of employees at the Colonial Office
while Great Britain's overseas empire slowly shrank to nothing. In fact, he
demonstrated that the Colonial Office had its greatest number of clerks at the
point when it was enclosed into the Foreign Office because of a lack of
colonies. He explains this phenomenon by two forces:
* An official wants to multiply subordinates, not rivals.
* Officials make work for each other.
He noticed especially that the sum of employees in his office rose by 5-7% per
year "irrespective of any variation in the amount of work (if any) to be done."
So, The (Trouble)Shooting Is:
* don't let your Web 2.0 group get bureaucratic subordinates
* with every month, try to decrease the number of reports the group should make
Parkinson presents his Law of Triviality with a committee's deliberations on a
nuclear power plant, contrasting it to deliberation on a bicycle shed. As he put
it, "The time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to
the sum involved."
A nuclear reactor is used as first example, because it is so extremely costly
and complex that an average person usually don't understand it, so they presume
that those working on it understand it. Even those with strong opinions often
withhold them for fear of taking for simpletons.
On the other side, everyone understands a bicycle shed - at least, thinks he or
she does - so building one can product endless negotiations because everyone
involved wants to add his or her personal contribution.
While conferring about the bike shed, discussion could be made over whether the
best choice of roofing is aluminium, asbestos, or galvanized iron, and a lot of
other details, while not defining that basically the shed is a good idea or not.
The (Trouble)Shooting Here Is:
* be generous
* realize that usually there is no more than one significant detail in a project
* in a discussion always define beforehand what is important and what is not,
>>>> and let people use no more one to five minutes depending on importance
>>>> don't let discuss unimportant details at all
>>>> immediately cut people who goes off topic
BUREAUCRACY OPTIMIZATION-3: SOME BUREAUCRACY LAWS
STUDENT SYNDROME
If you went to college, you must have experienced yourself, that you postponed a task until the last possible moment. If you felt that for an exam there would be enough three days cramming, you usually began to do that only three or perhaps two days before.
The student syndrome is a form of procrastination, but like in the example
above, it generally contains some planning and genuinely good intentions. For
example, if a student or group of students go to ask a professor to postpone a
deadline they usually explain their appeal by stating how much better their
project would be if they had more working time. They ask for postponing with all
the right intents. In fact, most students would do other tasks, going back to
the project only in the last minute. In the end they end up with about the same
situation they started with, that is, they wish they had more time.
The student syndrome is defended by a layman's understanding of the functioning
of the human memory, most notably the concept that a person's short-term memory
fades over time, and thus studying at the last possible moment (cramming) will
allow more to be remembered during the exam, even though cramming damages
long-term retention and is significantly inferior to a spaced presentation
(which exploits the spacing effect).
This same behavior is seen in businesses; in project and task estimating, a
time- or resource-buffer is applied to the task to allow for overrun or other
scheduling problems. However, with Student Syndrome, the latest possible start
of tasks in which the buffer for any given task is wasted beforehand, rather
than kept in reserve.
HOW TO FIGHT STUDENT SYNDROME:
Don't have buffers. As a team leader, make your project network diagram with no
buffer time at all. When you use for example, Critical Path method, make as many
other task as needed, parallel, so that almost all paths would be critical. If a
task was not ready, remake your network diagram project, and put up a big red
number of the days you are too late, in your conference room. Count with ten to
fifteen percent delay as good.
MURPHY'S LAW
Murphy's law is a proverb nowadays, usually declared as: "Anything that can go
wrong will go wrong."
The alleged malevolence of the universe has been a feeling of humanity for
millennia. The ancient Greek drama had already this attitude. This modern
version came from Ed Murphy, a development engineer at Wright Field Aircraft
Lab.
He was frustrated with an electrical device which was malfunctioning because of
an error in wiring.
"If there is any way to do it wrong, he will" Murphy said, referring to the
technician.
HOW TO COUNT WITH MURPHY'S LAW:
Always try to count with an alternative outcome with everything. For
example, many programmers make their software input on that way they think, they
took every possible answer into consideration. They are all wrong. You should
always program your software on such a way, that you will have an action for
non-anticipated input, instead of letting your software crash, or go into an
infinite loop. Etc.
There are uncountable other bureaucratic phenomenon coming up frequently or
infrequently. Handle them always on an active and positive way, similar to the
example "laws" above.
What I named as Free Stuff Optimization is the well-known, and well-loved
American principle, (let fanfares sound,) "Something For Nothing." - But, from
the side of the giver.
The use
of it is of vital importance.
We can agree with the book title of Brian Tracy. "Something for Nothing: The
All-Consuming Desire that Turns the American Dream into a Social Nightmare."
I've never read the book, but I agree with the title. Although in my opinion, we
should not investigate the conduct and manners of average people, as they always
take their behavior patterns from their rulers.
Totally opposing "Something For Nothing", another saying just sounds as true.
"There's no such thing as a free lunch." If you really look into what you got,
you always can find out, in which way you paid, if with no more, then with your
time, with your attention, with your gratitude, or whatever.
So, there is "Something For Nothing" versus "There's no such thing as a free
lunch." Let's investigate both of them together.
We'll have a look at the first couple of items on the Top Ten list of a freebee
Internet site.
Number One in the free items list is: "Get a free MP3 player from
Company Malintent!"
You click on it, and go to a page that says how to do that.
Step One: Post your review on Facebook.
How can you write a review when you never even saw a picture of the product? You
can make a websearch, and write your review on the basis of them. Or you can
just put together a review, a plain fantasy. Both of them fall into the category
of swindle.
Step Two: Get 50 Facebook "Like" click about your review.
You get advice for that. You can Tweet your review, you can send the link in
email, etc. That is you do some soliciting.
Step Three: Receive a free MP3 player.
Or about, as the number of MP3 players are limited, there is only one gadget per
week, etc. But you can always hope. It's free.
Summary: This is a swindle, where perhaps thousands of people would do the
required job, but only one a week would get something. Even that you will know
only as hearsay, no way to know that anybody would get anything at all.
Number Two in the free items list is: Free crapola.
What's that? Shortly, free crap.
You sign up for a newsletter, and you give your address and other data, and free
crap will just pouring in, into your mailbox. How many times you will be called
by phone and personally by salesmen, is the other side of the coin.
Number Three in the free items list is: Free Starbucks drink on
your birthday.
Create an account at Starbucks.com and get a free beverage every year on your
birthday.
This is so valueless that I don't even try to analyze.
Number Four in the free items list is: Get your complimentary
Gucci fragrance sample.
Give your mail and email addresses, your phone number, and other data and you
will get such a small amount of perfume, that is practically valueless and
useless. For that you will get uncountable calls, so that finally you will
change your phone number.
And so on.
Checking out Real Life, you'll find the same things as on the net.
For example flea markets, garage sales, farmers markets and likes are good
places to find valuables. How can you do that? For example to become an expert
in a field, like in the style of Art Deco. But it will cost you time, lot of
learning, and also money, as you will sure to do some mistakes, even when you
truly will be an expert. So, it's not free.
You can also roam the country and get freebees, like going to the opening of new
stores for free giveaways. Many times it will cost you even more getting there
than the sample is worth.
You can volunteer for all public events, for getting free food, free caps,
T-shirts and other small, useless crap.
The list is long. Of course you can only do that if you don't have any job,
hobby or a family worth to mention.
Sad, but true: you pay for everything on some way. It can be nothing to you, but it is something for the taker.
WEB SUMMARY
Let's get back to the web, this is what this site is about. Many people, and not
a few of them experts, expected the end of the Internet, counting with the
dot-com crash. These experts thought the root of the problem were the free
services. Funny, that most of the goners were companies with a traditional
business model, but without a service desired by millions.
Now the two biggest Web 2.0 companies, Google and Facebook, are totally free and
thriving. Naturally, they also need income. They get their profits on the side
of their services, using a fundamentally different business model.
Whatever your company, your site, will sell, always try to give something free.
Freebies touching some basic cord in the human soul, that you simply mustn't
ignore.
Nowadays it's not some extra; people are actually expecting that.
Give something away for your success.
FREE STUFF-2: FREEBEE SORTWARE
In many instances
freebees are simply worthless. A friend told me the other day that he had to buy
another external harddisk, because the one he used was full. Several hundred
gigabytes, he stressed proudly.
"With what?" I inquired.
"Freebees!" He burst with happiness.
I inquired some more. So, it came out that he was subscribing to several computer magazines, the DVD editions, which meant that for each issue he got a 4,7 GB disk, full with "useful software," as he put it. I was suspicious, so I asked him which ones he was using. He told, that he mostly didn't use any of them. He would try a utility program or a game but he was not really using them. His internal disk was also crammed up with installed free software, which he never used.
Well, all my software could be put onto one DVD, although I use some serious ones, like photography, architecture, math and so on. I'm sure you know people who are storing every object they can put their hands on, with the notice, "I'm sure it would be good to something sometime." They are people with cluttered homes, where you can hardly sit down. They are just harmless hamsters, who drive mad only their families. I was happy for my friend that he clutters only his harddisks, not his flat.