Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/o9ss85L7Ias/explore-historic-sites-with-world.html
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Thursday, May 31, 2012
PHP Autoloading with namespaces
Package:
Summary:
Load classes mapping namespaces to directories
Groups:
Author:
Description:
This class can load classes mapping namespaces to directories...
Read more at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/7515-PHP-Load-classes-mapping-namespaces-to-directories.html
Read more at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/7515-PHP-Load-classes-mapping-namespaces-to-directories.html
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Ch-Ch-Changes! How to Deal with Recent Flux in Google Rankings, AdWords Settings
Color me not surprised at all: I get back from vacation to find that Google has announced yet another change that seems designed to increase profits in Mountain View, not improve results for advertisers.
Ad Rotation Wears Out its Welcome
On Tuesday, Google announced that the ad rotation setting will only be available for 30 days. As Larry wrote earlier this week:
Using the "rotate" setting for Ad Rotation is helpful for A/B testing of ads ? especially because the automated "optimize for clicks" and "optimize for conversions" ad delivery options have a tendency to declare a winner rather early, particularly for small and medium sized advertisers ? As usual, Google claims that the change is to improve the system for both advertisers and users.
Once again it seems that Google is trying to enforce a one-size-fits-all approach to AdWords accounts. As Kristin Pribble commented on Larry?s post (emphases mine):
This will make it even more difficult to conduct an accurate A/B test - especially for small to medium sized accounts. There are adgroups that don't have enough data after 30 days to declare a winning ad text. It's even more frustrating that Google isn't giving advertisers a choice to decide what works best for their account.
Alan Mitchell has outlined exactly how these changes will benefit Google at the expense of advertisers in a post on Search Engine People. True PPC nerds will want to check out all the graph porn and follow the exact calculations, but here?s a high-level overview of what Alan?s post communicates:
- There?s a point after which clicks cost you more than you make (i.e., where cost per click, or CPC, exceeds revenue per click, or RPC)
- Profits (for the advertiser) are maximized where the marginal CPC meets the marginal RPC
- Google?s ?improvement? to exact and phrase match means that revenue per click becomes an average of multiple keywords (close variants, plurals and so forth), and some of those keywords (which are outside your control) might have different levels of advertiser competition and conversion rate
- This change tends to reduce profits for the advertiser, even at the same click volume, while increasing Google?s profits from those clicks: ?Google has essentially increased the average CPC, without increasing the average CPC. Very clever.?
In sum (emphases mine):
By rolling out their 'improvements' to exact and phrase match, Google has essentially removed the opportunity for PPC advertisers to take advantages of differences in CPCs caused by varying levels of competition of closely related keywords, and removed the opportunity for PPC advertisers to take advantage of differences in revenue caused by varying conversion rates of closely related keywords.
Instead of being able to set higher bids for high-performing variants, and lower bids for poor-performing variants, with this new feature PPC advertisers can now only set one bid for the entire group of keyword variants. The opportunity to take advantage of differences between close variants is now removed, and Google's revenue increases as a result.
Kind of a dick move, Google.
Luckily, you can opt out of these changes, though they will become the new default. For now, you can keep running your exact and phrase-match keywords the way you were running them before, if you?re aware of the changes and know to alter your settings.
For more on this change, see Martin Roettgerding?s tips on predicting the impact of ?exactish match? using your search query report.
Penguin Is the New Panda
Has your site been affected by the Penguin update? Are you worried that it might be in the future? Here?s more information on preparing and/or recovering from Penguin:
Penguins, Pandas, and Panic at the Zoo ? Dr. Pete reviews the changes, the impact, what to do and what not to do in the wake of the update.
Penguin 1.0 Initial Findings ? Unnatural Inbound Links Heavily Targeted, Other Webspam Tactics Await Penalty? ? Glenn Gabe takes a look at some of the tactics that seem to have been penalized by Penguin and makes some recommendations and closing points. (Note: You can?t file a request to have your site reconsidered. If your rankings have dropped, you?ve been penalized algorithmically, not manually.)
Google Penguin Update Recovery Tips & Advice ? Danny Sullivan goes over some of the main talking points and questions whether this update has helped or hurt searchers and small businesses ? more on that here: ?Did Penguin Make Google?s Search Results Better Or Worse??
The Google Penguin Update: Over-Optimization, Webspam, & High Quality Empty Content Pages ? Aaron Wall points out that this update has seemingly affected a huge number of sites, given the number of complaints and the petition to stop it. He also calls attention to some of the weirder results of the change, such as Viagra.com no longer ranking for its branded search, and an empty blogspot site coming up #1 for ?make money online.?
Penguin Pain and Forward Planning ? Luke Masters at Distilled explains how to assess the damage to your own site and lists some key points to check, especially surrounding links (link velocity, quality of linking sites, etc.).
Did your rankings and/or traffic drop as a result of the Penguin? Have you noticed any funny business in the SERPs?
More Web Marketing Highlights
I saw a few interesting posts this week about the effects of social activity on search results, including:
AJ Kohn on ?Social Echo,? or the aftereffects of social sharing: ?In truth, it?s not about those specific Tweets, Shares, +1s and Likes. It?s the echo of those events that is meaningful. It?s the fact that someone sees that Tweet, goes and reads your content, finds it valuable and then decides to save, comment, share or link to it.?
Bill Slawski on PostRank, which Google acquired last year as part of its strategy to ?move towards looking at more social signals for the potential ranking of content shared by others.?
Wil Wheaton is pissed that Google is forcing YouTube viewers to G+ videos instead of just giving them the thumbs up or down that was native to YouTube for years. (It looks like it was a test versus a permanent change.)
Have a good weekend, folks.
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
Source: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2012/05/04/dealing-with-google-changes
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Google Alerts: How to Use Them, Why They're Not Working
Google Alerts are a way to monitor the search results for a given query. In theory, setting up a Google Alert is a great time-saver, because you get an email from Google whenever your specified query shows up on the web. These alerts are useful for a number of reasons:
- Brand monitoring ? Keep track of mentions of your brand and products.
- Reputation management ? Respond in a timely fashion to negative mentions and reviews.
- Link building ? Push social traffic to positive reviews of your brand, or ask webmasters to turn citations into links.
- Journalism/Blogging ? Follow media coverage of a topic so you can report on it over time.
There?s also good old-fashioned curiosity and ego-stroking. Maybe you just like to know when people are talking about you, and you don?t want to have to comb the results on a regular basis. No shame in that! (Well, maybe a little shame.)
How to Set Up a Google Alert
It takes a minute or less to set up a Google Alert:
- Go to http://www.google.com/alerts
- Type in the search query you want to monitor.
- Choose what type of results you want to follow (everything, news, blogs, video, discussions, or books).
- Choose how often you want to receive updates (as-it-happens, once a day, or once a week).
- Choose if you want ?Only the best results? or ?All results.?
- Choose the email address you want your alerts sent to, or create a feed.
- Click ?Create Alert.?
You?ll see a preview of your results to the right of the form:
The Only Problem? Google Alerts Don?t Always Work
I set up a Google Alert on my name years ago. It worked well for several years ? didn?t always catch everything, but it caught most mentions. In the past year or so it stopped working. I do occasionally get a Google Alert, but it?s rare and it misses the vast majority of appearances of my name that show up in Google?s index. For example I never get an alert when I publish a blog post. You might think that Google had figured out I was the author of those posts and was weeding them out proactively. But I do sometimes get alerts for syndicated versions of the same posts, which still list me as the author, so that doesn?t really explain it.
It also doesn't explain all missing stuff I didn't author. Again, it's not that my name isn't getting cited anywhere; a simple Google search verifies that it is. If you want to check if you own Google Alert is catching everything, do a search on your chosen query and change the time frame to "Past week" or "Past month." Have you gotten Alerts for all those new results?
I have two theories:
- Low query volume: If your name is Jack Smith, your Google Alert is going to return results more often, but not all the results will actually be referencing you. My name, on the other hand, is entirely unique as far as I know ? I?ve never seen a reference to another Elisa Gabbert. Maybe they changed the algorithm so alerts don?t work very well under a certain threshold of search volume?
- The "only the best results" filter is too restrictive: I don't believe this was an option when I originally set up the alert, but now "only the best results" (versus "all results") is the default option. I just changed my Google Alert from best to all and it already seems to be returning more stuff. If you want to catch more mentions, make sure you choose "all results."
Has anyone else experienced similar problems with their Google Alerts? Did you create a Google Alert in the past that doesn?t work as well as it used to? Share your story in the comments.
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
Source: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2012/04/10/google-alerts
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Senior Product Marketing Manager / Akamai Technologies / Cambridge, MA
Akamai Technologies/Cambridge, MA (MA)Senior Product Marketing Manager
Location: US-MA-Cambridge
Posted Date: 5/10/2012
Cost Center: 536
Category: Product Management
ID: 6207
About the Job
We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced Sr. Product Marketing Manager to help define and execute the go-to-market strategy for Akamai's Terra Enterprise products. This person will be a voice for Akamai's Intelligent Platform as it's utilized to enable businesses and enterprises in leveraging the Internet for delivery of IT productivity to their end-users. This role is focused on representing this $160+ Million dollar product line to the market including customers, sales, industry and financial analysts and media. You must possess a unique blend of business and technical savvy, be familiar with the enterprise IT and application ecosystems along with cloud computing methodologies and associated markets. This individual will possess the vision, skills and the drive to help make Akamai's product goals a reality and be able to build out technical value along with business focused value and messaging to maximize product traction and adoption.
About the Team
The role will work closely with product management, business development, marketing, and sales to ensure the proper market offerings and messaging for the products. This position will work as part of an experienced global team of product marketers responsible for all Akamai products and will gain visibility to products within and outside of the Terra Enterprise portfolio.
Responsibilities:
- Develop and execute Product Marketing go-to-market in line with Terra Enterprise business plan.
*Create whitepapers, sales communications, collateral, presentations, competitive tools and training for Sales.
- Work closely with Sales and Product Management to understand the needs of the marketplace; help to formulate future Product Marketing strategies and tactics.
- Cross-functional collaboration with Global Sales, Channel, Product Management, Marketing Communications, Engineering & Marketing Programs.
- Attend relevant industry trade-shows, sponsorship and customer meetings.
- Represent Terra Enterprise products to media and analyst contacts
- 10-20% travel is required.
Qualifications:
Basic Qualifications
- Education: Bachelor's Degree in a technical discipline, MBA preferred.
- Experience: 7 + years of professional experience.
- 4+ years of Product Marketing or equivalent experience.
- 3+ years of experience working with Internet-related technologies or equivalent experience.
Desired Qualifications
- Understanding of IT and enterprise application eco-systems, including cloud computing technologies for the creation, management, delivery, and reporting of enterprise end-user productivity on the Internet.
*Knowledge of the hardware, virtualization and application industry, and the companies delivering cloud computing and application optimization solutions.
*Knowledge of the technology and the ecosystem of companies for application optimization.
*A proven history of growing revenue through Product Marketing for both new and mature product lines.
*Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to a broad range of technical and business audiences.
- Situational fluency and perseverance to handle challenging business situations.
- Ability to develop feature value and business value focused messaging for product sets.
Other Information
- Is relocation available for this position: No
- Is US Citizenship required: No
- Is a Security Clearance Required: No
If yes, applicants selected will be subject to a government security investigation & must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information.
About Akamai:
No one carries more of the world's Web traffic than Akamai, so working with Akamai means you're helping some of the world's best known brands succeed in bringing any experience to any device, anywhere. Cloud computing, SaaS, eCommerce, online entertainment and dynamic personalized experiences are all fueled by Akamai technology. Join Akamai and you join a culture that's extremely intelligent, strongly supportive and passionately committed to delivering world-class solutions. Some of the best minds in business, mathematics, and engineering work at Akamai �?? leading, learning and shaping the future of the Internet.
Contact us!
If you're excited by Akamai and would like to help change the online landscape please apply. No time to apply? Join our Talent Community.
Akamai Technologies is an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity employer (M/F/D/V) that values the strength that diversity brings to the workplace.
Apply To Job
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Social Media Marketing
From MSNBC's Your Business: Digital DIY:
When Regina Stone, a small business owner in Brooklyn, needed some advice about maximizing her social media experience, she turned to Scott Gerber, the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council. He shared some best practices for marketing her...
Source: http://www.openforum.com/videos/digital-diy-social-media-marketing-1
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Quick Guide to the Google AdWords Contextual Targeting Tool
This is the sixth post in a series that focuses on using the various tools located within the Google AdWords tools and analysis tab. Previous posts have focused on:
- The Google AdWords change history tool
- The AdWords conversion tab
- Google Analytics Reporting within the AdWords Interface
- Google Website Optimizer
- The Google AdWords Keyword Tool
- The Google AdWords Traffic Estimator
- The Google AdWords Placement Tool
In this post we?ll walk through how to get the most out of the Google AdWords Contextual Targeting Tool.
What Is the Contextual Targeting Tool?
In much the same way that the placement tool allows you to find websites that would be good targeting candidates for your display campaigns, the contextual targeting tool allows you to identify good groups of keywords to target within your display network campaigns.
How to Use the AdWords Contextual Targeting Tool
A good way to start with the AdWords contextual targeting tool is to look at a really broad theme and get back some initial suggestions from the tool:
The thing that makes this tool really powerful is that, as you can see in the above screenshot, it?s not just suggesting keywords: its recommending pre-grouped ad groups complete with a proposed keyword list.
As with the other keyword and placement suggestion tools, the tool offers some advanced options that allow you to designate location and language:
Once you?ve executed a search you can drill down on a suggestion by either expanding the suggestion or viewing a predicted placement. When you expand a group by clicking the plus button pictured, you can basically create a sub-group out of one of the terms contained in the initial group:
In the example above the dog 101 group has had the term ?dogs 101 beagle? broken out and turned into its own, more specific grouping. In some instances you can continue to drill down from here to create more and more specific groupings from the tool.
The predicted placements can be called by clicking the ellipsis (?) in the picture above, and you?re then presented with a list of the types of sites this keyword group would likely trigger your ad on:
This is some really valuable information, and as we can see in the case of our beagle group there are some very irrelevant sites that our ads may be showing on (unless aspiring car boosters are also beagle enthusiasts, I guess).
Once you have a group that looks pretty good to you, you can make some last minute edits to the specific keyword list (add one or two, modify existing keywords, remove terms) and the suggested bids:
From there you can either add the new ad groups directly into an existing display campaign or export them as an AdWords Editor friendly file:
Before you add these groups to your campaigns, you need to look at the specific terms they?re including and consider the potential placements, and you should be incorporating any suggestions as part of a larger display strategy. Often these grouping suggestions can be a great starting point and can give you some excellent ideas, but you definitely want to pay careful attention to the structure of the groups that are being generated for you and edit the groups before you turn them on within active campaigns.
About the Author
Tom Demers is co-founder and managing partner at Measured SEM, a boutique Boston SEO and PPC agency offering search marketing consulting services including pay-per-click account management, comprehensive SEO audits, content marketing strategies, reputation management for SEO and link building services for a variety of specific niches such as B2B SEO.
You can learn more about how Measured SEM can help your business by getting in touch with Tom directly via email at tom at measuredsem.com, or by following him on Twitter.
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
Source: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2012/05/24/adwords-contextual-targeting-tool
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RIP Ad Rotation in AdWords
Ad text testing and optimization constitute a key element of PPC optimization and as such, they're a big part of the 20-Minute PPC Work Week, our guided workflow for AdWords advertisers.
AdWords currently offers three ad delivery methods ? the ad rotation settings are illustrated here:
- Optimize For Clicks - AdWords automatically picks the ad that appears to be generating the most clicks
- Optimize For Conversions - AdWords automatically picks the ad that appears to be generating the most conversions
- Rotate Ads Evenly - AdWords will distribute your ad impressions equally among the ads in your Ad Group
Using the "rotate" setting for Ad Rotation is helpful for A/B testing of ads ? especially because the automated "optimize for clicks" and "optimize for conversions" ad delivery options have a tendency to declare a winner rather early, particularly for small and medium sized advertisers.
Ad Rotation to be Discontinued in AdWords
Starting next week, the "rotate" setting for ad rotation will be discontinued. Instead of rotating creatives equally, this setting will only rotate for a period of 30 days. After that, the setting will then revert to the "optimize for clicks" setting. Every time creative is enabled or edited, the ads in that ad group will rotate more evenly for a new period of 30 days.
Read our Article: Rotating Ads vs. Optimizing Ads: Which Is Better?
As usual, Google claims that the change is to improve the system for both advertisers and users - in their words: "because the Ad Rotation when run indefinitely can inhibit advertiser performance and deliver less relevant ads to our users" and that "This change will enable us to provide users with the most relevant ad experience and should help advertisers improve the performance of their AdWords accounts."
(... Or maybe it has to do with increasing Google Revenues?)
This change will forced on all AdWords advertisers in the next week. At that time, ad groups with ads that haven't been added or modified in the past thirty days will be changed to the new ad rotation behavior. Otherwise, this change will begin 30 days after your last creative was enabled or edited.
Do you use the "Rotate" option for ad delivery in AdWords?
What do you think of Google's decision to (practically) eliminate Ad Rotation in AdWords? Do you agree with the way AdWords roll out these changes? Let me know in the comments fields below.
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
Source: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2012/05/01/rip-ad-rotation-adwords
social media marketing website development web hosting seo experts search engine marketing
Dados
Package:
Summary:
Show pagination links to list MySQL query results
Groups:
Author:
Description:
This class can show pagination links to list MySQL query results...
Read more at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/7521-PHP-Show-pagination-links-to-list-MySQL-query-results.html
Read more at http://www.phpclasses.org/package/7521-PHP-Show-pagination-links-to-list-MySQL-query-results.html
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Paid Placement in Search Engines
In the below poll we didn't make any distinction between AdWords & organic SEO investments. If we did I am not sure how it would have impacted the voting.
How do you feel about people paying for placement in search engines?
Nearly 2 in 3 people dislike money manipulating search results.
| response | All�(1201)� |
|---|---|
| I think it is deceptive | 65.4%�(+3.3 / -3.5) |
| It is good if it is relevant | 34.6%�(+3.5 / -3.3) |
Women tend to dislike it slightly more than men.
| answer | Men�(813)� | Women�(388)� |
|---|---|---|
| I think it is deceptive | 63.6%�(+3.6 / -3.8) | 67.2%�(+5.4 / -5.9) |
| It is good if it is relevant | 36.4%�(+3.8 / -3.6) | 32.8%�(+5.9 / -5.4) |
Older people tend to think money influencing search is manipulative, as do younger people who have not had their idealism beaten out of them by the harshness of the world. However the people in the 25 to 34 range who grew up with the web tend to like paid search far more than other groups do.
| response | 18-24 year-olds�(350)� | 25-34 year-olds�(266)� | 35-44 year-olds�(164)� | 45-54 year-olds�(194)� | 55-64 year-olds�(148)� | 65+ year-olds�(80)� |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I think it is deceptive | 61.3%�(+5.0 / -5.2) | 47.9%�(+6.6 / -6.6) | 63.8%�(+7.0 / -7.7) | 72.5%�(+5.8 / -6.7) | 72.8%�(+6.9 / -8.1) | 70.6%�(+9.9 / -12.3) |
| It is good if it is relevant | 38.7%�(+5.2 / -5.0) | 52.1%�(+6.6 / -6.6) | 36.2%�(+7.7 / -7.0) | 27.5%�(+6.7 / -5.8) | 27.2%�(+8.1 / -6.9) | 29.4%�(+12.3 / -9.9) |
People in the south tend to dislike money influencing search than any other region & people out west are more accepting of it. Perhaps the audience from California is more likely to understand how search impacts the local economy?
| answer | The US Midwest�(267)� | The US Northeast�(333)� | The US South�(355)� | The US West�(246)� |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I think it is deceptive | 64.3%�(+6.9 / -7.5) | 66.4%�(+5.9 / -6.4) | 69.5%�(+5.6 / -6.2) | 59.8%�(+7.4 / -7.8) |
| It is good if it is relevant | 35.7%�(+7.5 / -6.9) | 33.6%�(+6.4 / -5.9) | 30.5%�(+6.2 / -5.6) | 40.2%�(+7.8 / -7.4) |
Rural people dislike money influencing search more than urban people do.
| response | Urban areas�(620)� | Rural areas�(109)� | Suburban areas�(460)� |
|---|---|---|---|
| I think it is deceptive | 63.2%�(+4.4 / -4.6) | 70.9%�(+8.9 / -10.8) | 65.3%�(+4.9 / -5.2) |
| It is good if it is relevant | 36.8%�(+4.6 / -4.4) | 29.1%�(+10.8 / -8.9) | 34.7%�(+5.2 / -4.9) |
Income has essentially no impact on the perception of the influence of money in search (though there was insufficient data at the upper end of the income range).
| response | People earning $0-24K�(135)� | People earning $25-49K�(675)� | People earning $50-74K�(307)� | People earning $75-99K�(71)� | People earning $100-149K� | People earning $150K+� |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I think it is deceptive | 65.1%�(+7.4 / -8.2) | 65.8%�(+4.3 / -4.6) | 65.4%�(+6.1 / -6.7) | 66.5%�(+9.2 / -10.7) | Insufficient data | Insufficient data |
| It is good if it is relevant | 34.9%�(+8.2 / -7.4) | 34.2%�(+4.6 / -4.3) | 34.6%�(+6.7 / -6.1) | 33.5%�(+10.7 / -9.2) | Insufficient data | Insufficient data |
Categories:
Source: http://www.seobook.com/paid-placement-search-engines
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Don't Get Deleted: Applying SEO Lessons to Email
Across the planet, over 300 billion emails are sent every day. That's over 2.8 million emails every second, and 90 trillion over the course of a year. No wonder the U.S. Postal Service can't keep up with the competition.
And neither can we. Corporate workers send and receive an average of 225 messages per day. If we gave each email coming through our inbox our full attention, we'd be hard-pressed to get any other work done.
Most of us have adapted to the deluge with a "first cut" strategy. Before even opening an email, we glance at the sender and subject line and determine if it's worthy of our time. If it's a sender that often sends us marketing material we haven't found especially useful, it becomes instinctual to click delete before ever looking at these messages.
Although our personal process of determining a message's value isn't nearly as complicated as Google's search result algorithms, the same principles apply. Your key words, title tag, and links within your message can all mean the difference between being read and being deleted, even if you make it past an email program's automatic spam blocker.
Whether you're sending out a marketing email or just reaching out with an important inquiry, your effort is wasted if the recipient never even reads your message. To avoid being hit with an impulsive delete, remember these strategies.
Perfect Your Subject Line
If you don't get your email subject line right, it's the only thing your recipient will ever see. Of course, if you're emailing a colleague, a title like 'Quick question about Friday's meeting' will suffice.
We're talking specifically here about emails to people that you don't personally know and do not already have a working email relationship with.
Think about what your message is saying. Perhaps you work for a plumbing supply company, and you're reaching out to regional companies to encourage them to upgrade to new water-saving fixtures in their bathrooms.
First of all, don't try to sell anything in the subject line. Words like "Buy" or "Deal" in the email header will immediately prompt resistance (see Ryan Healy's recent post on attention to detail). We're so accustomed to being marketed to that when we have the power to shut it off, like in email, we take advantage.
If you were looking for your own product online, what would you search for? Most likely, you'd key in words like "environmental," "water saving," and "faucet."
Most likely, a straightforward subject line that reads "Local, eco-friendly water fixtures" will get more reads than one that says "Great deal on plumbing supplies."
Personalize Your Message
Let's assume you've gotten past the "click before reading" cut. Perhaps your recipient is even using a program like Outlook, Thunderbird, or Apple Mail, where messages appear without having to individually click to open.
Address your recipient by name. If you're sending a mass-produced, HTML-style email, the program will likely give you this option when you're adding contacts, but the downside is that most intelligent recipients will recognize this as an automatic feature.
If you're actually writing an email (and perhaps pasting it into messages to a handful of recipients), don't skip the quick personalization. A "Hi" or "Hey there" won't grab someone's attention nearly as well as "Hi Adam."
Likewise, close your email in the same way (even if the content is cut ?and-pasted in between). Something like "Thanks for considering this, Adam, and don't hesitate to call me any time if I can answer any questions," will work wonders. Adam may even feel guilty if he doesn't reply.
Apply Keywords Throughout Your Message
Many people have elaborate folder systems set up to sort their email. If you get filed away in a "read later" folder, at least make your message easy to find. Going back to our plumbing analogy, throw those "water saving" and "eco-friendly" keywords wherever they'll fit, and if your recipient goes looking for you, you'll pop back to the top.
Even more important, these keywords are the crux of what you're selling. Using them strategically reinforces your message. (Here's more on keyword research for email marketing.)
Apply the Golden Rule
Spam constitutes 81 percent of email traffic, meaning over four out of five messages sent are generally unwanted. Even emails between colleagues can bog down our workflow, tossing tasks back-and-forth for feedback instead of actually taking action.
Some companies are responding to this by phasing out email entirely. It's not unlikely that "conversation flow" online dialogue will largely replace traditional email in the near future.
With this in mind, think about your own email habits. Check your inbox in the morning, and make a quick note of the emails you opened and those you deleted. Of the messages from recipients you don't regularly correspond with, what was it about their email that led you to read it?
Follow your own intuition. Only send emails that you would read yourself, and you'll find that your messages receive far more replies than when you haphazardly send out marketing email.
This is a guest post by Christopher Wallace, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Amsterdam Printing, has more than 20 years experience in sales and marketing. At Amsterdam Printing, a leading provider of logo pens and other promotional items such as imprinted apparel and customized calendars, Christopher is focused on providing quality marketing materials to small, mid-size and large businesses. He regularly contributes to Promo & Marketing Wall blog.
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
Source: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2012/05/02/seo-techniques-for-email-marketing
search engine marketing sem experts search engine optimization internet marketing online marketing
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Citation Labs Review - Here's Why I Use it
So what are we calling it today? Link building, link prospecting, content marketing, linkbait, socialbait, PR ? Whatever it is and whatever sub-definitions exist for the process of finding quality, related websites to link back to yours is difficult and time-consuming work.
As with most processes associated with SEO campaigns, or website marketing campaigns in general, enterprising folks have built tools to make our lives a little easier and our time more fruitful and productive. A couple of those enterprising fellows are Garrett French and Darren Shaw (from Whitespark.Ca) over at Citation Labs.
Garrett has a suite of link building tools available, many of them complement his flagship tool; The Link Prospector.
Link Prospector Review TOC
To help you navigate to specific sections of the review we've included in-content links below.
- Getting Started
- Selecting a Report
- Customizing Your Prospecting
- Working With the Data
- Creating Your Own Queries
- Garrett's Pro Tips
- Free Credits and Pricing
Getting Started
So let's assume I've been contracted to embark on a link building campaign for SeoBook :) It's very easy to create a campaign and get up and running:
Create your campaign:
Move right into the prospects section:
Start prospecting :)
Selecting a Report
The nice thing about this tool is that it's designed for a specific purpose; link prospecting. It's not bloated with a bunch of other stuff you may not need and it's easy to use, yet powerful, because it focus on doing one thing and doing it very well.
The UI of this tool is right on the money, in my opinion. Garrett has built in his own queries to find specific types of links for you (preset Reports). Here you can see the reports available to you, which are built to help you find common link types:
Customizing Your Prospecting
As you can see, there are a variety of built in queries available which run the gamut of most of the link outreach goals you might have (interviews, resource pages, guest posts, directories, and so on). Once you settle on the report type it's time to select additional parameters like:
- Region
- Web or Blog, or Web AND Blog results
- Search Depth (You can go up to 1,000 deep here, but if you make use of your exclusion lists you shouldn't have to dive that deep)
- TLD Options
- Date Range (Google's "past our, day, week, month, year, or anytime" options)
Try to make your queries as relevant but broad as possible to get the best results. Searches that are too specific will either net to few results or many of your direct competitors. Here, you can see my report parameters for interviews I may want to do in specific areas of SEO (Garrett includes a helpful video on that page, which I highly recommend watching):
Using Exclusions
The use of exclusions is an often overlooked feature of this toolset. Brands are all over the SERPs these days so when you have the Link Prospector go out to crawl potential link sources based on keywords/queries, you'll want to make sure you exclude sites you are fairly certain you won't get a link from.
You may want to exclude such sites as Ebay, Amazon, NewEgg, and so on if you are running a site about computer parts. You can put your exclusions into 2 categories:
- Global Exclusions
- Campaign Exclusions
Global exclusions apply to each campaign automatically. You might want to go out and download top 100 site lists (or top 1,000) lists to stick in the Global Exclusions area or simply apply specific sites you know are irrelevant to your prospecting on the whole. To access Exclusion lists, just click on the exclusion option. From there, it's just a matter of entering your domains:
Campaign exclusions only apply to a specific campaign. This is good news if you provide link building services and work with a variety of clients; you are not constrained to one draconian exclusion list. In speaking with Garrett, he does mention that this is an often overlooked feature of the toolset but one of the most effective features (both Global and Campaign exclusions).
Working With the Data
So I ran my report which was designed to find interviewees within certain broader areas of the SEO landscape. The tool will confirm submission of your request and email you when it's complete, at any time you can go in and check the status of your reports by going to Prospects -> View Prospects. Here's what the queue looks like:
The results are presented in a web interface but can be easily exported to excel. From the web interface, you can see:
- Total Domains
- Total Paths (pages on the domain where relevancy exists, maybe we would find a relevant video channel on YouTube where it makes sense to reach out)
- TLD
- LTS - Link Target Score
- PR of Domain
- Export Options
LTS is a proprietary score provided by Citation Labs (essentially a measure of domain frequency and position within the SERPs pulled back for a given report).
If we expand the domain to see the paths, using Search Engine Land as an example, we can see pages where targets outside of the main domain might exist for our interviewing needs:
This is where Citation Labs really shines. Rather than just spitting back a bunch of domains for you to pursue at a broad level, it breaks down authoritative domains into specific prospecting opportunities which are super-relevant to your query/keyword relationship.
If you are on Windows (or run Windows via a virutal machine) you can use SEO Tools for Excel to take all these URLs, or the ones you want to target, and pull in social metrics, backlink data, and many other data points to further refine your list.
You can also import this data right into Buzzstream (export from Citation Labs to a CSV or Excel, then import into Buzzstream) and Buzzstream will go off and look up relevant social and contact details for outreach purposes.
We recently did a Buzzstream Review that you might find helpful.
You can also utilize Garrett's Contact Finder for contact research.
Creating Your Own Queries
Another nice thing about Citation Labs's Link Prospector is that you can enter your own query parameters. You are not locked in to any specific type of data output (even though the built in ones are solid). You can do this by selecting "Custom" in the report selection field
In the Custom Report area you can create your own search operators along with the following options:
- Region
- Web or Blog, or Web AND Blog results
- Search Depth (You can go up to 1,000 deep here, but if you make use of your exclusion lists you shouldn't have to dive that deep)
- TLD Options
- Date Range (Google's "past our, day, week, month, year, or anytime" options)
One of the tools we mention quite a bit inside the forums is the Solo SEO Link Search Tool. You can grab a lot of search operators from that tool for your own use inside the Citation Labs tool.
Garrett's Pro Tips
Can you give us some tips on using the right phrases?
One objection I hear from folks who test the link prospector is "my results are full of competitors." This is typically because the research phrases they've selected don't line up with the type of prospects they're seeking. And more often than not it's because they've added their target SEO keywords rather than "category keywords" that define their area of practice.The solution is simple though - you just need to experiment with some "bigger head" phrases. Instead of using "Atlanta Divorce Lawyer" for guest post prospecting, try just "Divorce Lawyer," or even "Divorce."
And I'd definitely recommend experimenting with the tilde "~Divorce" as it will help with synonyms that you may not have thought of. So if you're looking for guest posting opportunities for a divorce lawyer your five research phrases could look like this:
divorce
~divorce
~divorce -divorce
Divorce ~Lawyer
"family law"
The link prospector tool will take these five phrases and combine them with 20+ guest posting footprints so we end up doing 100+ queries for you. And there WILL be domain repetitions due to the close semantic clustering of these phrases. This overlap can help "float up" the best opportunities based on our LTS score (which is essentially a measurement of relevance).
All this said there are PLENTY of situations where using your SEO keywords can be productive... For example in guest posting it's common for people to use competitive keywords as anchor text. You could (and yes I'm completely contradicting my example) use "Atlanta Divorce Lawyer" as a guest posting research phrase along with your other target SEO KWs. The prospects that come back will probably have been placed by competitors.
How do you fine-tune your research phrases?
I often test my research phrases before throwing them in the tool. Let's go back to the divorce guest posting example above. To test I simply head to Google and search [divorce "guest post"]. If I see 4 or more results in the top 10 that look like "maybes" I consider that a good keyword to run with. The test footprint you should use will vary from report-type to report-type.
A good links page test is to take a potential research phrase and add intitle:links. For content promoters you could combine a potential research phrase with intitle:"round up".
I find that this testing does two things. For one it helps me drop research phrases that are only going to clog my reports with junk.
Secondarily I often discover new phrases that are likely to be productive. Look back at the list of divorce research phrases above - the last one, "family law," is there because I spotted it while testing [~divorce "guest post"]. Spending time in Google is always, always productive and I highly advise it.
What tips can you give us regarding proper Search Depth usage?
Depth is a measure of how many results the link prospector brings back from Google. How often do you find useful results on the third page of Google? How about the tenth page? There's a gem now and again, but I find that if I've carefully selected 5 awesome research phrases I save time by just analyzing the results in the top 20.
Your mileage may vary, and the tool DOES enable users to scrape all the way down to 1000 for those rare cases where you have discovered a mega-productive footprint. Test it once for sure, don't just take my word for it - my guess is you'll end up with tons of junk that actually kills the efficiency that the tool creates.
Any more expert tips on how to best use phrases and search operators?
You can addadvanced search operators in all your research phrases. Combine them with your research phrases and try them out in Google first (see tip 2) and then use them as you see fit. I use the heck out of the tilde now, as it saves me time and aids in research phrase discovery when I vet my phrases in Google. The tilde even works in conjunction with the wildcard operator (*).
So if you're looking for law links pages you could test [~law* intitle:links] and then add ~law* as one of your research phrases if it seems productive. It's not super productive by the way, because the word "code" is a law synonym... but I wouldn't have known if I didn't test, and if I didn't test I'd end up with link prospetor results that don't have anything to do with the targets I'm seeking.
Any tips on how to best leverage Exclusions (beyond putting in sites like google.com into your Global Exclusions :D )
If you have junk, not-ops that keeps turning up in your reports, add the domain as domain.com and www.domain.com to the exclusions file. Poof. It's gone from future reports you run.
You can even add the domains you've already viewed so they won't show up anymore. Be careful though - make sure you're adding them to your campaign-level excludes rather than Global.
How often do you update the tool and what is coming down the pike?
If you sign up and you find yourself asking "I wonder what would happen if I..." please write me an email. If I don't have an answer for you I will send you credits for you to do some testing. I will end up learning from you. I have users continually pushing the limits with the tool and finding new ways to use it.
We've added PR for domains, titles and snippets for each URL, blog-only search, and fixed numerous bugs and inefficiencies based on requests from our users. We're also bringing in DA, MozRank and an API because of user requests.
Thanks Garrett!!
Free Trial and Pricing
Citation Labs is currently offering a free trial. They have monthly and per credit (love that!) pricing as well. You can find their pricing structure here.
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Source: http://www.seobook.com/citation-labs-review-heres-why-i-use-it
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You've Made the Majors, Now Play in It
by Todd Bailey
If you were a small startup, suddenly becoming hugely popular, would you align with a bigger brand or keep the startup momentum churning? It's somewhat akin to the decision some high school or in-college athletes face when approached by major-league teams. Do you carry on with your innocent talent or do you join the ranks of the bigger and better experienced, hoping to maintain that initial spark?
The Instagram duo played impressively, to the point the performance made Zuckerberg desire Instagram on his 'team.' Was it a good idea? Strictly thinking in monetary terms, with the deal culminating at $ 1 billion (30 percent cash, 70 in stock), it's a no-brainer question. However, there are some looming considerations.
"I hope they didn't agree to this deal because of Facebook's valuation on the secondary markets. It's still unclear whether there's a strong correlation between pricing on the secondary markets and the public market," says a former Google exec.
Facebook, expected to open its financial doors to the public next month, is estimated to value the IPO at $104 billion. The New York Times observes this number is aligned with what Facebook is trading for on the secondary market (shares are selling as high as $40).
It's understood the secondary market 'helped' Instagram execs wrap their head around the Instagram/Facebook deal. If the IPO goes as expected or better, the Instagram team could enjoy some extra benefits. If the IPO is less than grand, the proceeding sentence does an about face.
This is just another story of anxiety. There's no way to know for sure how it will all go until it all happens. What will happen with the Instagram duo? Surely, both young men could retire due to the fruits of their limited labor. Was that their original intention? Were they playing for the love of the game or for the love of the spoils of the game?
Mark Zuckerberg seems to be a player. I'm wondering when Facebook does go public, how he will act; I'm growing bored of speculation. There's no doubt a bit of 'freedom' and 'independence' is lost once a player enters bigger leagues. Zuckerberg explains the Instagram deal is more about improving the quality of Facebook than the quantity of its revenue. "We don't plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo-sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook, and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together."
Hopefully the exchange of funds goes well for all parties involved. More so, I hope all parties involved in acquisitions and IPOs, are well compensated in intrinsic value, being satisfied with their decisions.
Be sure and visit our small business news site.
Source: http://www.searchengineguide.com/todd-bailey/youve-made-the-majors-now-play-in-it.php
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