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Archive for August, 2008

Search Engines More Popular Than Ever For Internet Users

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

A new study shows that nearly half of all internet users perform a search query every day.

Still not convinced that getting high search engine rankings is the greatest thing since sliced bread? Here is yet another in a long series of studies to show you just how essential search is in the everyday life of internet users.

According to a new study by PEW Internet the average internet user performs a search 49% of the time on any typical day. That represents a 69% increase since the study was first performed in 2002 when only about 33% of users performed a search on any given day.

Email is still at the top of the heap of daily activities with 60% of users reporting daily email use, but that figure has grown only 15% from 52% in 2002. Additional popular daily activities include checking the news (39% daily), checking the weather (30% daily) and hobby research (29% daily).

The staggering increase in the number of users that perform web searches on sites like Google everyday points to the importance of establishing a strong web presence. With so many people using search to find everything they need, your company could be left in the dark if your products or services are not ranked highly in the search engines or you are not using pay per click practices.

The study’s author suggests that the reason for this significant rise in search engine use could have to do with the number of content and website specific search options now available, an increase in high speed internet connections, or the increasing usefulness of the major search engines.

To learn more about this study, download a PDF copy here.

Tags: Internet Research, Search engine rankings, Search Engine Use
Posted in Industry News, Search Engine Marketing | No Comments »

The Professional’s Guide to MySpace

Friday, August 29th, 2008

By: Dale Knauss, Show Producer

With over 110 million active users worldwide, MySpace is no doubt a huge force in the world of social networking today. It is a way of bringing people together from all over the world to share pictures, news, events, and ideas. It also allows users to stay current and in contact with their entire social network with the click of a mouse.

Despite its advantages, it is seen by many as a site entirely populated by high school and college students. However, a closer look reveals something much different. MySpace Users are largely adults with 85% being over the age of 18. Additionally thousands of companies use MySpace as a way of promoting their brands.

Many also see MySpace as inaccessible to those of us who did not grow up in the internet age. Fortunately, as this guide will show you, MySpace is easy and enjoyable to use.

Signing Up

Signing up for MySpace is easy and it should only take you a couple of minutes to register an account.

At their home page http://www.myspace.com look for a box like the one below and click the “Sign Up!” tab.

You should now be at a page that looks like this one:

Fill in all of the information asked for here and then click the blue “Sign Up” button at the bottom of the screen. You will now need to confirm the email address you provided. To confirm, go to your email account and click on the link in the email that they should have sent you. Once you have confirmed your email address you have a MySpace account! Make sure you write down your password in case you forget it later.

After you log on to MySpace for the first time, you will be asked a few questions to help you get started. You can skip them if you want, but they will help you with setting up some of the basics of your account.

Uploading a picture of yourself allows you to be identified more easily by your contacts in MySpace. If you already have a picture of yourself on your computer, search for it by clicking the “browse” button and then once you have chosen a picture click the “upload” button.

You will also be asked to invite your friends to join MySpace. You can send up to ten invitations by entering in people’s email addresses, but you might want to wait until you have set up your own profile before you start inviting others to join.

Once you have completed those steps, it’s time to start exploring MySpace and making it work for you!

Filling Out Your Profile

Your profile is where you have the chance to talk about yourself and your interests. This can serve as a great self promotion tool.

To edit your profile, click on the “Edit Profile” link near the top of your screen (circled in red below).

From there you will be able to add a number of things about yourself to your publically available profile. The profile sections are broken up into the following categories: “Interests & Personality”, “Name”, “Basic Info”, “Background & Lifestyle”, “Schools”, “Companies”, “Networking”, and “Song & Video.”

Each category relates to a different section of you and your interests, and all are pretty intuitive. For each section, enter in the information it asks for in the boxes provided and click the save all changes button when you are done. You do not have to fill out any information that you do not want others to know.

Also note that you can preview what you have typed in each section by clicking the preview section button, or you can see the whole profile by clicking the preview profile button.

I recommend that you pay special attention to the “Networking” category.

This category allows you to specify exactly the field you are in and what you do in that field. By filling this section out carefully you can allow people who are in the same field as you to locate and contact you. This makes an excellent networking opportunity.

Finding Contacts

Now that you have set up a snazzy new profile, it’s time to find some people to show it to. You probably already know some people who are on MySpace so all you have to do is look for them.

There are a few ways to find your long lost friends, but the easiest way is to click the “Find Friends” link by placing your mouse on the “Friends” tab at the top of your screen (highlighted in blue below).

From here you will be given a screen that looks like this:

Use this page to find people by name or email address, by school attended, by interest category, or by career interest (this is where that networking option in your profile is handy). Enter information in the field required and click find and MySpace will connect you with people meeting your description.

Note that many people have the same first and last names so you might need to look through a number of people’s profiles looking for right person based on their profile picture as well as the information in their profile.

Once you have found the person you were looking for you can add him or her to your friends list or send a message by clicking the appropriate buttons next to their names.

Communicating With Your Friends

What good is networking without communication? Here is how to communicate with all of the friends you are going to have on MySpace.

There are a number of ways to keep in contact with your friends on MySpace, but the most convenient one is a simple MySpace message. To send a message hover your mouse over the “Mail” tab and then click “Compose” (highlighted in blue below).

From here you will go to a very simple email type form with to, subject, and body options. The “to” space is intuitive and will narrow your friends list down after you begin typing a name into the space. This makes it easier to find the person or persons that you are sending the message to.

Once you have finished typing a message click the “Send” button and instantly your friend(s) will get it (assuming they are online).

From this page you can also manage all of your incoming and outgoing mail from the panel on the left side of the screen.

Here you can see received and sent messages, drafts, trashed messages, any pending friend requests and more. You can also manage your address book, post a bulletin (we’ll cover those next), and see any events you were invited to.

Posting a bulletin allows you to tell all of your friends something at once without having to send each of them a message. Unfortunately, your friends will not be told they have a message and will need to check their bulletin page to read your bulletin.

To get to your bulletin page hover your mouse over “Friends” and then click the “Bulletins” link (highlighted in blue below).

From the “Bulletin Board” you can read your friends bulletins or post your own by clicking the “Post Bulletin” link. A bulletin consists only of a subject line and the body of the message. You can also allow your friends to comment on your bulletin by clicking the checkbox next to “allow bulletin comments.” Once you have clicked the “Post” button, you will be shown what your post looks like and will be asked to confirm your posting or go back to editing it.

The final contact option you have is the comments box in each person’s profile. These comments can be seen by everyone who views a profile and are generally quite short. To post one of these, go to your friend’s profile, locate the comments box and click the “add comments” link. You will then type your message and click “post a comment.”

Creating an Event

Creating an event is a great way to keep track of your real life gatherings. Using MySpace you can plan, invite, and get RSVPs quickly and easily.

To create a new event click the “Manage Calendar” link from your profile page and then the “Events Home” link, and finally the “Create New Event” link. I’ve circled all three steps in red below.

From here you will be asked to fill out information about your event.

Fill out the pertinent information and then click “Save Event” link.

You will then be asked to choose who you want to invite to the event, whether RSVPs are necessary, and if you want to send a personalized message to the people you are inviting. Once you are done selecting friends to invite and choosing the options you want, click the “Invite and Update” tab.

You will now be given a page that looks like this:

From here you can monitor RSVP status, advertise your event to your friends, or edit the event.

To access this page in the future click the “Manage Calendar” link from your profile page and then the “Events Home” link, and finally the “Events I’ve Posted” link. Finally you will be shown a list of events you have created and you can click on the one you want to edit.

Final Thoughts

I hope that this guide has provided you with enough insight into the wonderful world of MySpace that you are ready to jump in head first and start using this great networking tool effectively.

MySpace has a lot of really cool features and applications that were outside the scope of this guide but that might eventually be useful to you. Fortunately, these should become readily apparent as you continue to interact with MySpace.

I would like to note that MySpace is constantly changing and as new features replace old, some of this information may change or become irrelevant. If you feel that any of the information in this guide is incorrect, let us know and we will look correct it as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading this guide and I will see you on MySpace!

Tags: How to Use MySpace, MySpace, Social Networking, Social Networks
Posted in Social Network Marketing | No Comments »

The Personalized World of Marketing & Merchandising

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

Can you use personalized recommendations to automatically create the “perfect salesman” for your website? Yesterday’s guest David Selinger from richrelevance thinks you can. Check out this interesting take on customer targeting.

RichRelevance Logo

Futuristic visions of personalized shopping and their place in the everyday consumer experience have been a topic of discussion for some time. In 2002, even a Tom Cruise flick, Minority Report, portrayed the concept in an arguably plausible future (and just a touch creepy!)—Tom cruising through a Gap store where an ad welcomes him back and asks if he enjoyed the shirts he had bought previously.

So how close are we to this futuristic vision of the shopping experience? And more importantly can personalization also be consumer-friendly?

The answer is definitively yes, as exemplified by the evolution of the online shopping experience—rudimentary interfaces have evolved into full-fledged personalized experiences as seen on Amazon, which recommends items to users based on their shopping behavior. With interactive tools at hand and an increasingly savvy consumer base, the online world has been shown to be the best proving ground for highly personalized product recommendations.

So what are the benefits of these targeted recommendations? Until recently, most online retailers have required users to explicitly express what they want—restricting them to direct keyword searches or navigation through the layers of categories and subcategories of products. Unfortunately, this does not serve to elucidate the expanse of inventory available as these methods are user-action driven: the consumer asks for X and hopes to get X or something similar. Personalized recommendations confront this issue directly by bringing online the general appeal of the in-store shopping experience—the natural navigation process by which customers may browse from one clothing rack or department aisle to another. These recommendations not only act as a window into various product categories, they also accommodate each customer’s preferences as demonstrated by their behavior.

Despite this fantastic vision, personalized recommendations of the caliber seen on Amazon’s have been incorporated into only a few sites due to the high cost of development. Fortunately, several companies (including my own) offer SaaS technology so that any retail site can personalize their shopper’s experience—creating an interaction that one might describe as having a perfect salesperson laying out relevant products a shopper is most likely to be interested in.

Let’s further refine this definition of the “perfect salesperson”. The perfect salesperson would put the shopper in charge, enable him to naturally and effortlessly move from one product to another, from one category to another and most importantly, to choose where he wants to go next, but providing relevant input at just the right time. For example, let’s revisit the personalized shopping vision proposed by Minority Report. Tom Cruise strolls into the men’s pants section where he is shown not just one product recommendation but three. On his right, a screen suggests “Better Together” showing particular shirts that go with the jeans he’s just picked up. Simultaneously he’s shown a recommendation for “Top Selling Jeans,” in case the pair he currently has in hand don’t quite do it for him. Thirdly, he’s shown “People Who Browsed the Jeans Section Also Browsed these Shoes” While looking at one product, he’s been given multiple perspectives on the product—comparables, related products and so on.

Rather than assuming that Tom will react to one type of recommendation, this “perfect salesperson” (or salesperson-computer-screen) has taken into consideration Tom’s individuality as a shopper—offering him multiple types of recommendations and enabling him to determine what best appeals to him, right at that moment. Today, it’s the shirt. He’s in and out with a great pair of jeans and a sweet matching shirt. Tomorrow, when he comes back, though, it may be the shoes he pairs with his jeans. Ultimately, there is no single “best” set of recommendations since no two customers shop alike. But, the best salesperson knows to communicate the context of the product recommendations.

This scenario is captured by the technology developed by my company, richrelevance: “ensemble learning”. Ensemble learning is the only technology that not only actively suggests items that reflect each consumer’s interests and behaviors, but uses more than 15+ distinct recommendation types. The approach sharply contrasts the traditional method of adding to every page a box that says—“We recommend these items.” As illustrated above, richrelevance embraces the individuality of a shopper, which describes our job as finding numerous relevant types of recommendations, and letting the shopper decide which recommendation is best for him. Further, ensemble learning is 100% transparent to the shopper, displaying recommendations using clear, crisp messages, empowering the shopper to choose how he wants to shop. To take this a step further, ensemble learning also constantly evaluates its own performance, testing different approaches and checking what works. Based on this closed-feedback loop, the system optimizes in real time choosing the most effective recommendation types for each stage in this shopper’s experience. The result is constant learning and optimization.

So while we probably won’t be seeing the world of the Minority Report in everyday life anytime soon (and probably don’t want to!), we’re now experiencing the benefits of personalization online—an increasingly intelligent and most welcome tool. Customers can trust product recommendations from a system that is obviously learning and approaching them as an individual, offering complete relevance and complete transparency.

Tags: cross-selling, customer targeting, eCommerce, personalized recommendations, up-selling, Upselling
Posted in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Guest Articles, eCommerce Marketing | No Comments »

Retailers See Huge Conversion Rate Improvements Using Live Chat

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

By: Dale Knauss, Show Producer
Live Help

Want to know the secret behind retail giant CompUSA’s ten-fold increase in online conversion rates? How about the methods that internet retailers such as Backcountry.com, WhiteFence.com, and gourmetstation.com have used to increase their conversion rates by 15-20% while increasing their average order by 25-30%? Does this all sound good to be true? It isn’t, in fact many of these results are being duplicated daily by online retailers and e-commerce sellers using live chat programs.

Live chat has recently gained popularity as a way to provide customer service to online shoppers without the need for more expensive phone support or slow moving email support. It allows retailers to give customers that final push to get over any issues that might be stopping them from entering in their credit card information. Customers with questions about the products they are looking to buy can alleviate their fears by talking to a person rather than getting lost in the shuffle of a website.

Another interesting effect of a live chat feature is the trust built by the two parties. An online chat associate essentially replaces in-store sales staff and can make product suggestions to confused customers and even recommend additional products which might be useful based on what the customer is looking at. For instance, someone who has asked a chat provider about screwdrivers might get a personalized recommendation about what type of screws to buy. It is because of this type of interaction that many live chat users report average order sizes to be between 25% and 30% higher for people who choose to use live chat.

In addition to the obvious benefits to customer service and communication that live chat provides, the technology also allows for some interesting techniques which are not possible using other methods of customer service. A great example of this is a company’s ability to determine exactly when to initiate a chat with a client. Using web analytics, the company can determine the usual buying patterns and then develop their chat program to activate and contact a user automatically should they deviate from the usual path. Companies can also use this strategy to only talk to people on certain pages like the checkout page. This helps to prevent potential customers from leaving a site without buying anything. Additionally, chat can be blocked for users outside of the country, or for people who are from organizations who are known to do research rather than buy stuff.

Have a Question?

There are also a number of companies that prefer passive chat and only have their customers contact them. This gets rid of a common complaint about live chat, that people can feel hassled, and it also saves money on the number of customer service reps needed to talk to people.

Another great benefit of live chat is its ability to allow service reps to send useful links directly to the customer. This allows the company to have potential buyers directed to the exact location on the website that was made to answer a given question. Additionally, service people are able to handle up to four live chats at any time.

These benefits all add up to big savings in customer service costs compared to phone service, as well as the huge conversion rates and order rates discussed earlier.

Despite the many advantages to online retailers that live chat provides, a surprisingly low number of e-commerce sellers actually use chatting services. The numbers range from anywhere from 28% to 32% who report currently offering any sort of online chat, however that number represents a significant increase from previous years.

The reasons for a slow adoption of this promising technology are numerous, though there are some common ideas that have prevented many from entering the live chat arena. The costs of chatting, which can range from free for some of the do-it-yourself options to 10% of the sales price for more substantial offerings including trained service reps and customized software, is often cited as a significant barrier to entry. Another big issue is the idea that chats are only viable for big ticket items or for products that generally already require support offline and are therefore ineffective to many online retailers.

While these objectives might have some merit, there is a wide range of software and services based around chat at many different price points available for many different types of e-commerce seller. Additionally, many of these services allow companies to implement of test run of their product for free to gauge results before investing in a live chat solution.

Types of Live Chat Solutions

As mentioned earlier, live chat is not a product that is only accessible to big corporations. In fact, almost anyone with a website and an interest in increasing their conversion rates can afford to implement some form of live chat. The options range from self hosted, low cost software that simply provides a no-frill option for customers to chat with you online, all the way to outsourced sales reps using the latest customized technology to target, communicate with, and up-sell your customers, keeping a commission for themselves of course.

Take a look at the various live chat solutions and find one that fits in with your budget and your marketing plan. Remember to compare not just pricing but also the features and benefits that each solution will offer you. A cheap option might seem optimal at first, but once you consider the savings and increased conversion rates, you might find that one of the higher priced options is actually a better value for your company.

Live Chat Software

This type of solution can be the cheapest option for small online retailers as some programs require only a one time licensing fee rather than a monthly fee. Therefore the only ongoing expense to these companies is the cost of internal customer service reps. There are also some more advanced web-based programs that are more expensive but are also generally more advanced and provide more support.

By choosing to not contract out customer service, companies can save money by using existing personnel to handle chat. Alternatively, many companies simply want more control over their customer service reps so they choose to handle and train them internally.

Here are some of the top live chat software programs:

LivePerson

WhosOn?

PHPLive!

Automated Chat

Automated chat is often looked at as a cheaper alternative to live chat because it removes the cost of customer service people while still answering many commonly asked questions and improving conversion rates. Using advanced scripting software, automated chat interprets a customer’s question based on certain keywords and then spits out the most likely useful answer.

This type of program is often much more cost effective then live chat, particularly for smaller priced items for which companies cannot justify the cost of employing full time customer service reps to sell. It’s silly to spend the $4 to $6 that some companies spend on a single live chat to sell an item that only had a $4 to $6 profit margin to begin with. Once you have written the script for your automated chat system, it requires very little in the way of maintenance and you will generally only be charged a small monthly fee after the initial investment.

Here are some of the top automated chat companies:

ChatRelations

Conversive

Automated Conversions

Outsourced Live Chat

Outsourcing your live chat solutions allows you to trust in people who are experts in this relatively new field of online chat. Using an experienced provider to staff, train, and manage customer service representatives allows you to focus on other areas of your business. The administrative hassles saved and expertise gained by using these companies often more than makes up for the large fees that they charge.

inQ

Talisma

24-7 INtouch

Using Live Chat is an excellent weapon in any online retailer’s arsenal. With a number of pricing and feature options, this proven way to increase conversion rates, decrease shopping cart abandonment, and increase average orders is available to businesses at all levels.

Be sure to thoroughly research all of your live chat options before choosing the right service and provider for your company. These are the people who will be responsible for customer service on your website you need them to handle it effectively.

If you need help in choosing and implementing the right live chat solution for your business RSS Ray can help. We can work with you to understand your needs and goals, select the right product to fit your company, and then create a plan for running your new live chat system most effectively. Contact us today.

Tags: Automated Chat, Customer Relationship Management, customer service, eCommerce, Live Chat, Upselling
Posted in Conversion Rate Improvements, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), eCommerce Marketing | No Comments »

Using Personalized Recommendations to Up-Sell, Cross-Sell, and Out Sell Your Competition

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Online Marketing with RSS Ray and RSSRay.com announces a new episode that you do not want to miss.

David Selinger, CEO & Co-Founder of richrelevance

Show Date: August 27th, 2008 at 6 pm Eastern, 3 pm Pacific

Guest Topic: Using Personalized Recommendations to Up-Sell, Cross-Sell, and Out Sell Your Competition

Guest Info: David Selinger, CEO & Co-Founder of richrelevance

Guest Biography: David “Selly” Selinger first garnered international recognition as an expert in the field of eCommerce data analytics and personalization with his groundbreaking work leading the research and development arm of Amazon’s Data Mining and Personalization team. In that role, David increased the Amazon’s annual profit by over $50 million (25% of US profit, 2003) setting the industry standard for recommendation services. David has decades of experience, from developing the first Javascript-powered ad delivery system for Flycast—the same technology used by Google AdSense, DoubleClick and Overture—to leading Overstock’s personalization efforts as Vice President of Software Development and Data Mining.

Sample Questions:

What are personalized recommendations?
Can you explain the terms up-selling and cross-selling and how they differ?
How do personalized recommendations help to increase sales?

Chris Murch, President and Founder of wsRadio

Guest Topic: Getting Started with Email Marketing

Guest Info: Chris Murch, President and Founder of wsRadio

Guest Biography: In 2001, Chris Murch founded wsRadio.com with 5 shows. Today, the wsRadio network has grown to over 120 shows and is adding additional shows each month. wsRadio is now the largest independent internet talk radio station in the world with 3 million listeners and shows by companies like eBay,The Washington Times, PayPal, the American Marketing Association, and of course RSS Ray.

Sample Questions:

How effective is email marketing compared to other online marketing techniques?
What type of response rate can I expect with email marketing?
How do I avoid being labeled an email spammer?

How to Listen: Live on wsRadio.com or available by Podcast on iTunes or by RSS Feed.

RSS Ray’s Comments: “Up-selling and cross-selling have long been an important part of some of the most successful ecommerce sites. Anyone trying to sell online needs to hear what David has to say about these topics.” stated RSS Ray, host of “Online Marketing with RSS Ray.” RSS Ray went on to say “Email marketing is one of the most profitable methods for marketing online. I’m excited to hear what wsRadio founder Chris Murch has to say about this topic.”

Posted in About the Show, Blogging | No Comments »

RSS Ray to Be Interviewed on Executive Roundtable Radio

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Tomorrow, August 26th at 10:10 am Pacific, 1:10 pm Eastern RSS Ray will be interviewed on Executive Roundtable Radio, a weekly radio show with in-depth interviews of business executives.

In this exclusive interview, RSS Ray will be discussing the best low or no cost internet marketing methods to boost your bottom line with Executive Roundtable hosts Aaron Nelson and Josh Felix.

To listen to the interview go to their website and click on the radio at the time of the show. You can also download a podcast version of the show after it airs.

Tags: Executive Roundtable Radio, RSS Ray Appearance
Posted in Show Announcements | No Comments »

The Professional’s Guide to LinkedIn

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

By: Dale Knauss, Show Producer

With 3.2 million unique visitors each month, LinkedIn is by no means the largest social network around. However, thanks to its unique niche, LinkedIn might be the most valuable network you can join as a business professional.

Billed as Facebook for adults, LinkedIn is a network of over 20 million business professionals from over 150 industries brought together to network, create business opportunities, and make connections. With such a vast network of potential opportunities at your fingertips, you owe it to yourself to register an account and start building your connections today.

This guide was written to help you get started using LinkedIn. I will lead you step by step through signing up, creating a profile, finding contacts, and using many of the other features that make LinkedIn an excellent social networking tool.

Feel free to skip through to the sections that are most interesting to you.

Signing Up

Signing up for LinkedIn is easy and it should only take you a couple of minutes to register an account.

At their home page http://www.linkedin.com/ you should see a screen that looks very similar to this one:

Click the yellow “Join Now” button to get started making your account.
You will be directed to this screen where you are asked to fill out a few bits of information about yourself.

Answer this information as accurately as possible and click the “Join LinkedIn” button. Make sure to write down the password you have chosen as you will need it every time you sign in.

You will now be asked for some information on how you want to use LinkedIn. Don’t worry if you are not sure yet as you can always go back and change your answers later.

Finish and click the blue “Save Settings” button. You should then receive an email from LinkedIn asking you to confirm your email address. Click the link in the email and it’s time to start using LinkedIn.

Filling Out Your Profile

Your profile is where you have the greatest chance to promote yourself. Think of your profile as a sort of resume for the internet age.

To start editing your profile, click on the “Profile” tab on the upper left side of your screen.

You should come to a screen that looks like this:

If you scroll down this page you will also see additional sections to summarize your experience and goals, highlight your specialties, and add additional information such as your websites, your honors, and your interests.

Using the tools on this page, you will essentially be creating a high tech version of your resume for anyone who is in your network to view. In fact, if you have an old version of your resume lying around, you might want to dust it off and use it to help you put together your LinkedIn profile.

Let’s go through what you can do to edit your profile.

This area is for the most basic information about you. As you can see it includes your name, your job title, your company, the area you live in, and a picture of you. This profile does not have a picture added, but adding one couldn’t be easier. Click “Add Photo”, browse for the picture from your computer that you want to use, and then click upload photo.

The “What are you working on?” space allows you to provide a current update about the projects you are working on. Mine currently says “is writing a guide to LinkedIn.”

This section is perhaps the most important as it makes up the meat of your profile. To edit any of these sections you should click either the “Edit” button or, if you have not added anything to that section yet, the link with the green plus sign next to it.

Most of the sections are self explanatory however I feel I should explain a few of them in more detail.

Recommended – LinkedIn allows people you have worked with to recommend you. These recommendations will be displayed on your profile for anyone looking to do business with you to see. Recommendations allow people to know that you can be trusted and do excellent work.

Connections – A connection is someone who you have worked with or know in real life.

Public Profile – This is the profile of you that will be indexed by the search engines and can be seen without a LinkedIn account. Click on the URL link to see your complete public profile.

Scrolling down you will see more sections to fill out to provide people with a more complete picture of you and your experience. The only other feature that needs to be mentioned here is this one:

This allows you to control your completed profile that will be published for the web to see.

By clicking the “Edit” link after “FULL VIEW” you can choose which sections of your profile you want to be visible and which you would like to remain private. The customize link allows you to choose the URL address for your public profile. The final URL should look like this: www.linkedin.com/in/YourName.

Once you have created your public profile you will be given the html code to make buttons for your website and blog to promote your LinkedIn profile.

Finding Contacts

Now that you have set up a snazzy new profile, it’s time to find some people to show it to. You probably already know some people who are on LinkedIn so all you have to do is look for them.

You can start finding contacts right from your home page using this box:

From here you can use you email account’s address book to locate LinkedIn contacts automatically. If you use Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, or AOL just type in your username and password and the system will take care of the rest.

If you are like me and use Outlook or another non web based email account, you will need to upload a contacts file. To do this, click the yellow “Find” button across from “Address book contacts.” Once you come to the next page, it will instruct you on how to create the contact file with Outlook and similar programs.

You can also search for current and past colleagues as well as former college classmates by clicking on their respective “Find” links.

Another cool thing you can do is use the advanced people search by clicking the “People” tab at the top of your screen. This allows you to find people by last name as well as a number of other search criteria.

Communicating With Your Network

Now it’s time to start talking with people in your network. To do that, you are first going to want to click on the “Inbox” tab at the left hand side of your screen.

Once you are there, hover your mouse over the “Compose message” button and it will give you a screen that looks like this:

These are your options for the types of communication you can use.

Send message to a connection – This is you main form of contact with your connections.

First you will want to select the people in your network that you want to send your message to. You can send messages to up to 10 people at once with this form which you access by clicking on the small “in” icon next to the “To:” field.

From here you can locate connections alphabetically, by location or by industry. To pick the contacts you want to send a message to, just click on the checkbox next to their name. Once you are done selecting, click the yellow finished button.

Now just use the form like any other email and click the send button when you are done.

Send InMail or Introduction – These two features allow you to contact people whom you have no connection whatsoever with. Both start by allowing you to do a very specific search for people who you need to contact for whatever reason.

InMail works as a paid introduction service and for a monthly account upgrade fee, allows you to contact anyone you want throughout the LinkedIn Network.

Introductions work a little like the InMail system except you can only contact people two or three degrees away from you by asking your connections to “introduce” you to the person you want to talk to. These are free to use.

Send Invitation – Allows you to invite people who are not part of the LinkedIn network to join.

Send Recommendation – This option allows you to recommend someone else who you have worked with. Recommendations will show up on their profile for everyone to see.

Request Recommendation – This option allows you to request a recommendation from someone who you have worked with. Recommendations will show up on your profile for everyone to see.

Send Job Notifications – This type of message allows you to ask your connections to recommend someone for a job opening in your company. You can contact up to 200 of your connections in one message and provide them with an exact description on what you are looking for.

Creating a Group

Creating a group in LinkedIn is quite easy but requires that you already be an actual group outside of the internet. Most of the groups on LinkedIn are alumni groups, professional organizations, networking groups, and event/tradeshow organizers.

To start creating a group, click the “Groups” tab at the left hand side of the screen.

Next you will want to click the “Create Groups” tab and fill out a short form. Once you are done filling out the form you will need to submit your group for review.

LinkedIn will manually review your group within 1-2 business days and if your group meets their standards, will allow you to start accepting members. Membership in groups is by invitation only and as a group leader you can invite people to join based on previously held membership lists.

Hiring and Getting Hired

LinkedIn works as an excellent recruitment website because of large quantity of information you can obtain about the company or the potential employee.

For the job searcher a good profile and some recommendations from your connections is all you need to start looking for jobs. To start, click the “Jobs” tab at the top of your screen.

From this page you can search for jobs by keyword and location, see the most recent jobs, or go to an advanced search which gives you more comprehensive search options. Once you are ready to find jobs click the blue search button and start browsing.

If you are looking to hire an employee you will want to click on the small triangle next to jobs at the top of the screen and select “Post a Job.”

You will then fill out a form with what you are looking for and pay $195 for the job posting. If you are planning to post multiple jobs there are discounts for packages of five or ten job postings.

Asking Questions

Using LinkedIn Answers is a great way to get free advice from experts who are eager to help. Alternatively you can use this feature to question only the people you know if you are looking for a more targeted result.

To ask a question click on the triangle next to Answers at the top of your screen and click “Ask a Question.”

From there you will be directed to this form:

Use this form to ask your question, give additional details and select which category your question belongs in. It is important to select the right category so that the right type of expert is more likely to see your question.

Once you have clicked the “Ask Question” button, you will be prompted to also send the question to your connections. You can then go through you contacts and select those who you think might be able to help you.

Researching Companies

By clicking on the “Companies” tab at the top of your screen, you now have a whole new way of researching companies.

Using the “Research Companies” search box, you can now get valuable information about the companies that have members on LinkedIn.

Start typing the name of the company you are interested in and a drop down menu will give you all the options for the letters you typed. Click on the option to view the company page.

Company pages contain a number of statistics and trends which can provide valuable insight about a company. You can examine the profiles and job titles of new hires to the company, see who has been promoted, examine the most popular profiles, and find the top locations for employees. Other data provided on the company page includes top schools hired from, gender percentages, median age, top job titles, and expected career path after leaving the company.

Final Thoughts

I hope that this guide has provided you with enough insight into the wonderful world of LinkedIn that you are ready to jump in head first and start using this great networking tool effectively.

LinkedIn has a lot of really cool features that were outside the scope of this guide but that might eventually be useful to you. Fortunately, these should become readily apparent as you continue to network online.

I would like to note that LinkedIn is constantly changing and as new features replace old, some of this information may change or become irrelevant. If you feel that any of the information in this guide is incorrect, let us know and we will look to correct it as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading this guide and I will see you on LinkedIn!

Tags: How to Use LinkedIn, LinkedIn, Social Networking, Social Networks
Posted in Social Network Marketing | No Comments »

How To Get High Organic Search Engine Rankings For Your Website

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

Last night RSS Ray conducted a special webinar for a select group of automotive aftermarket companies titled “How To Get High Organic Search Engine Rankings For Your Website.” It was literally packed full of excellent information for anyone interested in search engine optimization, search engine marketing, link building, and more.

Take a look at the presentation slides here:

Tags: Incoming Links, Link Building, Search Engine Optimization
Posted in Increasing Website Traffic, Link Popularity and Link Building, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

The Complete Guide to Creating Online YouTube Videos for Your Business

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

By: RSS Ray

If you are not already using online video sites such as YouTube to promote your company you could be sacrificing a huge opportunity to get your products and services in front of millions of people online. In fact, it’s estimated that in 2008 154 million people will view an online video. What’s more, you can create, edit, and upload a video today using equipment you already own and have it making your company money as early as tomorrow.

Organizations such as Toyota, Doritos, Nike, and even the United Nations have spent millions upon of millions of dollars working with high cost agencies to create online or viral videos which they have posted on sites like YouTube, sometimes with big success. However, what is so cool about this medium is that many of the most popular videos on YouTube and other online video sites come from individuals or small companies with practically zero budget or video experience.

One such organization, BlendTec, budgeted just $100 dollars for creating a humorous video for YouTube. Their video, Will it Blend, ended up causing their sales to double, a huge boost in brand awareness, and tons of media coverage including a write up in a special segment of the Wall Street Journal.

Another great example of online videos delivering results beyond most people’s wildest dreams comes from a motivational speaker and comedian named Judson Laipply. In April of 2006, Jud released a video on YouTube called Evolution of Dance. Now, a little over two years later, his video has been seen over 100 million times! Needless to say, with that much free exposure, his motivational speaking business has skyrocketed.

Similar results have been seen by a number of other small companies, however, the uses of online video expands far beyond the often hyped viral video.

Some of the best alternative uses that we have found for online videos are:

Product Demonstrations: Create a video that highlights the benefits of your product, website, or service.
Direct Sales Pitch: Use your video as part of a sales page. Film yourself making a sales pitch and have prospects watch the video rather than read copy.
Testimonials: Create a video of your current clients recommending your company. People are much more likely to believe real people then simple words on a website.
Product Tutorials: Use videos to take your clients step by step through how to use your website or assemble your product.
Build your Expertise: Create a video of you giving a lecture or seminar. This way people can see how knowledgeable you are and will be more likely to want to work with you.

These are just some of the creative ways that you might consider using videos online. Each one of these methods, if done correctly, will build your brand and your bottom line. Using a video instead of more traditional media, namely the written word, is an excellent way to differentiate yourself from your competitors and create a better user experience for your customers. Remember that a lot more people go to the movies and watch TV then pick up a book.

Now that we have gone over why creating a video is an excellent decision for your company, let’s look at the video creation process. Here you will find just how easily and inexpensively you can create a well made online video and start using it right now to promote your company.

Creating an Online Video

The first step when creating an online video is coming up with the video concept. We have already been over some of the different ways that you can use online videos to promote your business and, depending on the type of video you are creating, the rules of engagement tend to be quite different. However there are some general rules which you should follow, especially for first time filmmakers.

Make your video entertaining. Even if your video has the best information in the world, if it is too slow or boring than nobody if going to watch it. Emotion is the name of the game; make people feel something and they will be inclined to stick around to watch your video. Humor is the most popular way to drum up popularity, with almost all of the most popular videos generating laughs as their major selling point.
Consider the time limit. A lot of companies think they need to make a commercial and so they make it only 30 seconds in length. Since it’s free to post a video on YouTube, you can upload up to ten minutes of footage. The average video tends to be around 2-4 minutes. Some other video websites allow even longer videos of an hour or more. If you are going to make a longer video, make sure that you can keep the viewer interested for the entire length of the film.
Avoid being too commercial. Most people don’t simply want to watch a commercial for your product. Add value by being funny or providing valuable information to viewers.
Consider your audience. Just like with every other advertising method, make sure that the videos you create are aimed at your target market. Just because a majority of YouTube visitors are teenagers doesn’t mean you should target them if your market consists of business professionals.

Following these rules will help you when writing your first online video. I also recommend bouncing ideas off of friends, family, and your customers to get some feedback on the video you are planning to create. Also you might want to watch the videos that are already popular on YouTube and similar sites so that you can get a feel for what does well. If you are going for a more niche video, like a product tutorial or a sales video, you might want to look at your competitors’ websites or other companies in similar businesses to see what they have done with online videos.

To find the top videos on YouTube right now go to http://www.youtube.com/browse?s=mp or from the home page click the videos tab. On the left you will see a number of categories. Click on the category that corresponds to the type of video you want to make and you will see all of today’s most viewed videos. Above the videos you will see tabs for today, this week, this month, or all time. Click the all time tab to see the most viewed videos ever in your category.

Filming Your Video

Once you are done writing your script it’s time to move on to either the most difficult or the easiest part, filming your video.

I say it can be the most difficult or the easiest part of the process because depending on the type of script you wrote it will be just that. Many people have been successful just talking into a webcam in front of their computer. Using this approach, you can be done filming in the five minutes it takes you to actually deliver your lines into the camera. Others with higher budgets prefer a high quality digital video camera and multiple locations. This is obviously going to take a lot more time and expertise to prepare for and film.

Personally I think that a regular digital camera or a webcam is your best bet for starting to film videos for your company. If you really want to upgrade to something more advanced later on, be my guest, but for now it is probably not necessary.

Chances are you already have a digital camera or a webcam that is more than suitable for shooting your first film. If not, try seeing if you can borrow one from somebody else or buy a cheap one from a local electronics store. I have found that the Sony Cybershot Camera has excellent video quality and it only cost me a few hundred dollars.

Once you have chosen how you will capture the footage, it’s time to begin filming. Make sure you have all of the props, people, and locations available before you start shooting so you don’t have to keep stopping to go out and look for stuff.
When filming it is best to have little to no camera movement involved as it can make the film shaky and look pixilated on the small YouTube screen. Also you should aim to make the film with the most professional production values that you can manage with a limited budget. This means you should aim to cut out an unwanted cell phone call in the middle of your scene, a finger of the camera man interrupting the shot or any other disturbances. Remember, this video is meant to represent your company and so it should be something you can be proud of.

For some tips on filming your video check out YouTube’s Video Toolbox. Here you can find videos with a lot of great tricks for new filmmakers.

Editing Your Film

Now that you have created your masterpiece it is time to really make it shine. The first thing you will need to do if you did not use a webcam is to upload the video on to your computer. This is really easy and can be done by connecting your camera with a computer using the USB, USB2, or Firewire cable that came with your camera. You should then be able to put your video on to your computer and start editing.

Please note that it is not necessary to edit your video before you post it on to an online video site. If you would like to use your video as-is, upload it on to your hard drive and skip to the next section.

Editing a video is considered to be a bit of an art and can be a little tricky if you are trying to do anything fancy with it. There are a whole lot of different software programs available with prices ranging from free to really expensive professional stuff. You probably don’t need anything too fancy right away so here is some of the free software that I recommend for getting started.

Apple iMovie – This software comes preinstalled on Apple computers. Here is the official guide to using Apple iMovie.
Microsoft Movie Maker – This software comes preinstalled on computers with the Windows Operating System. If it’s not already installed on your computer you can download Microsoft Movie Maker here. Here is the official guide to using Microsoft Movie Maker.
Wax – Freeware video editing software. Download Wax here. Here is the official guide to using Wax.

Once you have selected the software you want to use, download it if it’s not already installed and then get started uploading and editing your video. Use the links I have provided above for the official guides on how to use each program effectively.

Just for your reference, here are some of the many features of video editing software that you might want to use on your video.

Creating opening and closing titles. Use these to name your video, add credits, and most importantly list your company and your website so that viewers know where to go to learn more about you.
Cutting and splicing. There is likely some footage you took that you do not want in your video. Using video editing software you can remove this footage, or if you would like, splice in new footage that you took separately.
Add Special effects. Using special effects, you can change the colors in the video, make the film appear to be old fashioned, speed up the video, and a number of other cool options.
Add a sound track. You should have already recorded your video with audio, but if you want music playing the background or special audio effects you can add them.
Save in different formats. Some editing software allows you to save in a number of different formats including .MOV, .AVI, .MPG. These all work well with YouTube and other online video websites.

Once you are done with editing your video it is ready to be submitted to YouTube. However, before you submit it, you might want to compress your videos and optimize them for viewing. YouTube recommends the MPEG4 (Divx, Xvid) format at 640×480 resolution with MP3 audio for the best quality video. The reason for this compression is twofold, it allows you to format your video to the size that works best with YouTube’s video player, and it also saves space which is often useful for meeting YouTube’s 1 GB size limit. This step is not necessary to the success of your video but it will improve your video quality.

Use one of the below converters to convert your video to the ideal specifications. Both are about equal in what they can do and both will work about equally well.

Download the DivX Converter – The DivX Converter is a free trial only and lasts for 15 days. After that the software costs $19.99.

Download the Xvid Converter: AutoGK – Xvid is an open source program and is therefore less polished then DivX. However it is free and has all of the features you will need.

For the best quality of video, use either of those programs to convert your video into either DivX or Xvid and have the program format your video with a 640×480 resolution.

Uploading Your Videos

Congratulations, you now have a finished video and are ready to start submitting it online.

Do not make the beginners mistake of only uploading your video on YouTube. There a number of popular video sharing sites that can expand the audience for your video. Submitting to each site often only takes a few minutes per upload and can result in a lot more people viewing your video.

Here are some of the other video sites you might want to submit your film to.

You will need to have an account set up with each of these websites to submit your videos but sign up generally only takes a few minutes, and best of all, it’s free.

Another option you have is using a service like TubeMogul.com to submit your video to a number of video sites at once. The cool thing about this site is that it also provides analytics for all of your videos and it’s free.

The submission process you will follow for each website is generally very similar no matter where you go. Start by clicking the upload your video button or simply the upload button in YouTube’s case. You will then be asked to fill out some information about your video such as the videos title, video tags, and a description of the video.

Using these options, there are a number of things that you can do to optimize your video so that it will appear high in the search results for the keywords you choose. The most important optimization technique you can use is to place your most important keyword within the first few words of the title of your video. For instance, if the most important keyword for you is banana, then you should make your video title “Bananas Number One According to Monkey Poll” instead of “New Poll Finds that Monkeys Like Bananas Best.”

You will also want to make sure to place your website address in the description of your video as well as reusing your most important keywords for the video tags. Also make sure to select the category that your video fits in best.

Once you are done filling out information about your video, it’s time to actually upload it. Different sites have different requirements about how long or how big your video can be so if you have a bigger file it might be rejected by certain places. You can get around the size requirement by compressing your files using the methods mentioned earlier in this guide. If your video is too long you might be able to get around this by splitting your video up into several parts. Since YouTube only allows 10 minutes per video, many people with longer films use video editing software to make ten minute segments. If you choose to do this, make sure that you label each segment by part in the title.

Uploading your video may take awhile depending on the size of the video and your internet connection speed. When the video is uploaded you will be given the HTML code for imbedding your video into your blog or website. Make sure to use this so that visitors to your site can see your amazing work. Also be sure to pass on a link to the video to friends, family, and any mailing lists you have.

Conclusion

Congratulations, you’ve done it! Now that your video is on the web for everyone to see you can sit back and watch the view count rise. Entering the world of marketing with online videos will likely put you several steps ahead of your competitors but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep learning. This guide was meant to be a basic manual for creating your first online video. That means that there is still a whole lot more out there for you to learn.

Keep looking for more ways to keep your content interesting, your filming top notch, and your editing superb. Who knows, pretty soon you might create the next internet sensation.

Need help creating online videos that get tons of exposure and boost your bottom line? Contact RSS Ray today for a free 15 minute consultation.

Tags: Online Marketing, Online Video, Videocasting, Viral Video, YouTube
Posted in Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Videocasting, Viral Marketing | No Comments »

e-Commerce Marketing in 2008

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

Ready for another episode of Online Market World Radio? Leading up to the exciting October 1-3 Online Market World Convention & Expo, RSS Ray has been joined once a month by co-host Lisa Morgan to discuss what works in e-commerce marketing. Together they grill some of the world’s top e-commerce experts about the issues and ideas most relevant to e-commerce success in 2008.

Listen to the show live, tomorrow at 6:00 PM Eastern, 3:00 PM Pacific on wsRadio.com or get our podcast delivered directly to your iTunes or RSS feed reader.

Tags: e-commerce, Online Market World, Online Marketing
Posted in About the Show, eCommerce Marketing | No Comments »

How to Keep Pace with Online Marketing Fragmentation

Monday, August 18th, 2008

Online Market World Logo Past show guest Lisa Morgan asked us to post this article about the upcoming Online Market World Expo. Make sure to read the whole thing because Lisa has included a special offer exclusively for RSS Ray listeners.

Marketing used to be comparatively easy. There were fewer functional elements, the marketing department had the luxury of working in a vacuum, and there were fewer places to advertise, pitch stories to, and the like. The Internet has changed all that and marketing has subsequently evolved at an accelerating pace ever since.

Getting a handle on it all it tough and managing related disconnects can be just as challenging. At this year’s Online Market World, RSS Ray and a broad range of sought-after subject matter experts are getting together to share actionable strategies that can make an instant difference to the success of marketing campaigns and online selling strategies.

Online Market World covers the entire e-commerce lifecycle from business, marketing, IT, sales, and operational points of view. The most robust and popular area is marketing because it has become so fragmented. Just in the marketing area alone, the event will address the following topics in several sessions:

Social media
Site design
Online advertising (not PPC)
SEO and SEM
Email marketing
Affiliate marketing
Metrics
Branding
Customer empowerment
Mobile marketing
Video
Viral Marketing
Blogging
Reputation Management

And that’s not all. The show is also addressing some of the cracks marketing strategy can slip through.

Like the web itself, Online Market World is highly interactive. The conference dedicates about half of all session time to audience interaction so attendees can ask questions, challenge speakers if they disagree with them, or share personal experiences. After all, it’s the answers to your questions that matter most.

On the fun side, RSS Ray will be broadcasting LIVE from Online Market World and there will be some really fun promotions you can take advantage of. You can win an interview on Online Market World Radio which is co-hosted by RSS Ray and me. And, you can enter the Online Market World Olympics which is sponsored by wsRadio.

If you’ve appeared on the Online Marketing with RSS Ray show this is your chance to win a gold, silver or bronze medal! The top three people who drive traffic to their wsRadio podcast will be named marketing Olympians and presented with medals at Online Market World. Click here for details.

As a friend of RSS Ray, you can get 20% off the published pricing of a conference pass simply by entering “RSSRAY” as a discount code when you register. Or if you’d just prefer to attend exhibits and see keynote presentations by Kathy Ireland, Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com and others, sign up for a free exhibit pass before the show.

Join RSS Ray and I October 1 – 3, 2008 at Moscone Center West Hall in San Francisco. We’d be happy to welcome you personally to the show.

Lisa Morgan is SVP and Principal Analyst at Online Market World, the definitive event for online marketers and sellers looking to drive higher conversions and sales.

Tags: e-commerce, Market Fragmentation, Online Market World, Online Marketing
Posted in Guest Articles, eCommerce Marketing | No Comments »

How to Get Interviewed by Major Media Publications

Friday, August 15th, 2008

Help a Reporter Logo
Ever wanted to get national publicity for your business? Well here’s your chance.

Help a Reporter is a three times daily newsletter where journalists and others in the media seek out experts on topics ranging from social bookmarking to space travel.

Simply sign up for the free newsletter at their website and every day you will receive up to three emails, containing anywhere from 15 to 30 potential queries from journalists that are desperate for your input on a number of topics. Chances are that no matter what business you are in, some journalist somewhere wants to interview you about your expertise.

Here is a sample of what a query might look like:

1) Summary: Online Marketing Experts

Category: Business & Finance

Name: Dale Knauss

Email: dalek@rssray.com

Title: Show Producer

Media Outlet/Publication: Online Marketing with RSS Ray

Anonymous? No

Specific Geographic Region? No

Region: National

Deadline: 6:00 PM Eastern – August 27

Query:

“I am looking for the top experts in Online Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing and Online Performance Analytics to be interviewed on weekly internet radio show, Online Marketing with RSS Ray.”

This free service is a great way to become a recognized expert in your field and appear in a number of major publications, either as an interviewee or as a source. Appearing in any sort of media outlet is an excellent way to gain free exposure for your business and it hardly takes any of your time.

RSS Ray has already found a number of great opportunities thanks to Help a Reporter and we hope that it is as useful to you as it has been to us.

Online Marketing with RSS Ray not in any way affiliated with Help a Reporter; we just think it’s a great resource.

Posted in About the Show | No Comments »

The Best Free Marketing Tools to Improve Your Website Results

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

By: RSS Ray

Ask any contractor what he needs to do a job right and the first thing he will tell you is he needs the right tools. Online marketing is no different. If you want to get excellent results with your website you will need the right diagnostic tools to test, measure, and improve everything you do. Online marketers need tools for establishing a search engine optimization campaign, using web analytics to understand websites, preparing the latest keywords for a pay per click campaign in Google AdWords, preparing email marketing campaigns, and a whole lot more. Here is the best of the best free tools for online marketers.

The usefulness and design of these tools tends to range from downright awful, to absolutely amazing. Price ranges can also vary widely, but thanks to the efforts of a number of innovative companies and individuals, many of the very best tools are absolutely free.

Today we are going to take a look at twelve tools that are the absolute best of the best free tools for online marketers. Thanks to creativity, design, and in some cases a whole lot of money, these tools are the most innovative and useful tools you will find in 2008.

#1 Google Keyword Tool

Drawing from the largest collection of search data in the world, the Google keyword tool has always been an incredibly useful way to discover hundreds of new keywords for your search engine optimization and paid search (PPC) campaigns. As of a few months ago, Google managed to up the ante even more by providing monthly estimates of the search volume for each keyword it suggests.

Anyone looking to do keyword research online would be wise to start by using this tool for keyword suggestions, ad competition data, and information on average search volume. To make things even better, Google allows you to put the keywords you like right into your account so that you can target them with an AdWords campaign.

#2 SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool

Like the Google keyword tool, The SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool provides tons of suggestions for other keywords you might be interested in. However, unlike Google’s Tool, this one also gives estimated values for all three major search engines. Additionally, the tool allows you to easily use a number of other tools from Google, Yahoo, and others to get a lot more information on each keyword it suggests.

It’s unclear how accurate the search data is as it seems to differ significantly from Google’s numbers, however, with the numerous options and many helpful suggestions this tool makes, it should be a part of every serious online marketer’s toolbox.

#3 SpyFu

SpyFu is an incredibly useful tool that might make you wonder “is this even legal?” followed quickly by “how can that be free?” Eventually you will realize you don’t care either way as you dive into the nitty-gritty of your competitors’ ad campaigns.

By entering in the website address of nearly any competitor, you can see exactly what their daily ad budget is, how many clicks they are getting through their ads, and even how their spending has changed on a monthly basis. You can even see which keywords they are targeting and exactly what ad they are using for each keyword.

SpyFu goes even more in-depth by showing every word that a website ranks in organically, as well as that website’s top competitors both organically and through paid search. Needless to say you’ll be hooked.

#4 Compete.com

Compete.com is most often referenced for keeping track of the search engine wars. Those in the know are constantly checking to see if Google is at 74% market share or 78%. Fortunately, that same technology that tracks the search game is freely available to anyone who happens to visit the Compete.com website.

By entering in the URLs of up to five websites you can see monthly or daily graphs of traffic volume, customer engagement, and website growth. What this means is that in only a few seconds you can see the visitor count, length of visitor stay, and growth of your largest competitor in a series of easily downloadable graphs. What’s more you can compare all of this data against your own website so you can see how you stack up.

#5 Quantcast

The depth of demographic information that Quantcast provides about nearly any website is simply staggering. The tool was made as a way for media buyers to discover valuable websites to advertise with based on traffic, user demographics, and ad type offered. Even if you are not interested in buying ads, this free tool will provide you with incredibly detailed demographic information about your own website as well as your competitors’.

Quantcast is able to provide some incredibly detailed data for most well trafficked websites including data on visitor gender, age, ethnicity, parental status, income, and education. Additionally the site provides monthly traffic data and classifies visitors into addicts, regulars, and passersbys.

Another feature that Quantcast offers is the ability to see other sites that visitors like, visit, and search for. This is excellent for marketers doing keyword research or link building.

#6 Xinureturns

Xinureturns is relatively simple compared to some of the other tools on this list but its usefulness should not be underestimated. By entering your URL into the tool you are given a complete assessment of your website in just a few minutes.

The tool starts by checking your Meta tags, your domain info, and your HTML and RSS validations. Once it is sure that everything is set up properly, it starts to check your rankings at various sites and directories, any social bookmarks that point to you, and all of your indexed pages. Finally you are shown the number of backlinks you have with several search engines including a few you might have never heard of.

This tool is incredibly useful for those of us who like to know exactly how our site is doing at every second, and it also allows you to identify any shortfalls that can likely be easily overcome with just a little bit of work.

#7 Google Analytics

What can be written about Google Analytics that has not already been said a hundred times before? In releasing this tool free to anyone who wants it, Google has created a host of super informed marketers who can quickly asses any issue on their website and compare it to the entire past history of the website.

By adding a simple piece of code to their website, anyone can track the exact way that their visitors are interacting with their pages. Google analytics provides traffic data, number of pages visited, average time on site, the location of visitors, and even where the traffic is coming from. The program also allows you to track conversions and a lot of other information about how users interact with your site.

Any competent online marketer should have this powerful free tool on each and every website he or she works on. The information it provides is critical to maximizing conversion rates and eliminating wasted opportunities.

#8 Ranks.nl Keyword Analyzer Tool

The Ranks.nl Keyword Analyzer Tool is the best example of a spider simulator I have come across as an online marketer. In addition to showing you how search engines view your site, this tool breaks down the keywords you are using by density, prominence, and location. The tool also has a keyword cloud that shows you visually the prominence of various keywords on your site.

Using a tool like this one allows you to make sure that you are correctly targeting the right keywords in natural search by including them often enough in your copy. It also helps by showing you some words that you are not targeting well enough or that you had not thought of targeting.

#9 Google Website Optimizer

The Google Website Optimizer is the last of the free Google tools on this list, and also maybe the most important. Using this tool, marketers can test each individual aspect of their website to see how conversion rates can be improved.

The tool makes use of A/B split testing as well as multivariable testing to measure each and every part of a landing page in order to find how best to convert visitors into sales or leads. Marketers can test such aspects as pictures, headlines, text, free offers, and anything else they can think of.

By serving visitors different versions of a landing page, Google is able to demonstrate which features are helping the bottom line and which are hurting it. Marketers can then take this data and create the landing page that will offer them the highest overall sales.

#10 Website Grader

The Website Grader is the like a report card for search engine optimization practitioners. In each of five categories, the tool assesses any website’s success in implementing proper SEO strategy. Each category including on-page SEO, off-page SEO, blogosphere, social mediasphere, converting qualified visitors to leads, and competitive intelligence, receives a score and at the end of the report a final score up to 100 points is assigned. The final score is a fairly accurate measure of how well a website is optimized.

In addition to being aesthetically pleasing and easy to use, this tool is an incredibly useful way to discover any optimization strategies that you might have not implemented. It is also a great way to track your progress in search engines, social networks, and blogs. Thanks to its automatic saving feature, you can compare your current results against and previous website grades you have received from the site. This way you can see how you have progressed after making the changes that it recommended.

#11 Constant Contact

Constant Contact is by many accounts the gold standard of email marketing. With over 300 customizable templates available to quickly and easily create a professional looking email newsletter, promotion, or invitation, the online software is, without a doubt, essential to any marketer looking to increase profits with email marketing.

Once you sign up for an account with Constant Contact, you can easily import an existing email list or you can use their software to begin creating a new email list from scratch. With your list created, you can build a professional looking email such as a newsletter using their template wizard and set it to go out at a predetermined time and date. Once your email has been sent, the program provides you with analytics on open rates, click through rates, and more.

Unfortunately, Constant Contact is not a free tool; however, they do offer a 60 day free trial to get started.

#12 AWeber

AWeber allows you to send out professional looking emails to your email lists; however unlike their competitors at Constant Contact, AWeber also allows you to set contacts into an email cycle that sends emails to specific customers at specific times. By building an email sequence, each new name that you enter into the program is sent a new email every day, month, or however long you choose to set each cycle. This way you can be sure that the right promotions or programs go to the right email address at the right time. For instance a new customer might get a special introductory offer right away while a lifelong customer will receive a special offer for valued customers on that same day.

Where Constant Contact only allows you to send out the same email to your entire email list, AWeber will likely have each of your contacts receiving different emails on different days. It is because of this distinction that Constant Contact is popular for newsletters while AWeber is much more popular for a continued sales cycle.

Unfortunately, AWeber is not a free tool; however, they do offer a free trial that is well worth your time to check out.

If you need help with using any of these tools, or with starting an online marketing campaign for your company, we can help. Call us today at (877) 837-8803 or contact RSS Ray to learn what you can do to skyrocket your success online.

Tags: Email Marketing, free tools, marketing tools, Online Marketing, pay per click, Search Engine Optimization, Web Analytics
Posted in A/B Testing Programs, Competitive Intelligence, Email Marketing, Increasing Website Traffic, Link Popularity and Link Building, Multivariate Testing, Online Marketing, Online Testing Programs, Paid Search Advertising (PPC), Search Engine Advertising, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Tools, Web Analytics/Web Metrics | 1 Comment »

Can Flash Websites Now Be Optimized For Search Engines?

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

By: Dale Knauss, Show Producer

On June 30th, 2008 Google announced that Flash websites, a previously taboo subject among Search Engine Optimization (SEO) professionals, could now be easily indexed and ranked by Google’s search engine. Concurrently with this announcement, Adobe announced that not only Google but also Yahoo would have the ability to index Flash files.

This announcement has caused great excitement from the Flash faithful who have long been plagued with trouble getting high search engine rankings. It has also caused many HTML fanatics to balk in disgust and quickly try to tear apart the effectiveness of such a search.

According to the developer’s website, Adobe Flash is “the most advanced authoring environment for creating rich, interactive content for digital, web, and mobile platforms. [You can] create interactive websites, rich media advertisements, instructional media, engaging presentations, games, and more.”
Its popularity stems from the ability to animate and design interactive websites and videos in a way that normal HTML sites could never hope to. Many designers enjoy the stunning visual interface that can be created in Flash and prefer it over the text based HTML format.

Unfortunately, as anyone involved in search engine optimization knows, Flash has been practically invisible to search engines because the image based content was entirely unreadable by the search crawler. Text and links could not be seen and therefore it was nearly impossible to assign a page rank. Because of this problem, Flash sites were seen as unusable and generally tossed aside by anyone interested in getting high search engine rankings.

Of course now Google has claimed to solve this complicated issue. That means it’s time to start using Flash to generate beautiful interactive sites while also getting top search engine rankings, right? Not so fast.

While Google is now better at indexing Flash, the technology is not yet perfect. By Google’s own admission “Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript.” This means that many Flash pages that utilize JavaScript will still be hidden from search. Google goes on to mention that non-Flash content is indexed separately from Flash content, even if they are on the same page. They also note that the Googlebot is still not able to ‘see’ images and Flash videos.

There are even more not Google related problems with Flash that do not seem to translate well into search technology. For instance, an entire Flash page is generally only one document as opposed to the many different documents in HTML. You will notice that a Flash site stays on http://www.healthdirections.com/ no matter where you go on the website. By contrast an HTML site is made up of many pages like http://www.rssray.com and http://www.rssray.com/blog. Search engines index each page of an HTML website separately, something they will not do with Flash.

Another major issue has to do with tagging a website, a commonly accepted best practice for HTML websites. Heading, paragraph, image, nofollow, and other tags are not available in Flash but are very important for SEO.

Of course, I have no doubt that Google has a team of highly qualified overworked engineers who will eventually solve these, and the rest of the world’s problems. So let’s look at another issue with Flash that should worry us even after Google has perfected this technology.

First and foremost Flash takes while to load, even with hard work by the designer, Flash intro pages are generally slow loading and may turn many visitors away. Likewise many simply do not like Flash for various reasons and will be instantly turned off by a website that uses it. In fact, many computers and most mobile devices do not have the Flash viewer installed so they would not be able to see a website made in Flash.

Finally a Flash site can greatly impair website usability, a very important part of a successful website. Because the entire site is on one page, clicking the back button leaves the site rather than simply going back one page. This can get annoying if you need to delve deeply into a site to find what you are looking for.

While all this technical jargon is all well and good, what we as marketers should care about is one simple question “will using Flash websites make us more money?” And the answer to that is a resounding no.

Flash websites can be incredibly visually pleasing and the interactivity that Flash allows opens up a world of possibilities. It is certainly understandable why many feel that Flash would be beneficial to visitors who have grown tired of HTML.
Google has made significant strides towards making Flash easily searchable but it is obvious that they still have a long ways to go. Creating a Flash based website at this point would be like buying all the expensive ingredients to turn lead into gold before you were sure the alchemy works, it’s simply a bad idea. For the record: that alchemy thing never worked out.

Though even if Google were to perfect their indexing of Flash pages and their ability to rank them correctly, that still leaves the massive usability issues inherent in the program itself. Load times would likely be an issue for the foreseeable future and many will never download a Flash player. Would we as marketers be wise to create our websites in a way that was inaccessible to many of our target customers? Should we risk alienating the vocal minority who dislikes Flash in order to add some small application or graphic? This seems like a completely unwise strategy for an untested search technology.

Let’s all applaud Google for a great step forward in indexing Flash pages and get back to doing what works: Creating highly optimized, easy to navigate HTML websites that have a proven track record for getting results.

Tags: Adobe, Flash, Google indexing, seach flash, Search Engine Optimization, SEO
Posted in Search Engine Optimization, Web Design and Usability | No Comments »

How to Use Behavioral Targeting and Personalization Without Invading User Privacy

Monday, August 11th, 2008

Online Marketing with RSS Ray and RSSRay.com announces a new episode that you do not want to miss.

Meyar Sheik, CEO & President of Certona

Show Date: August 13th, 2008 at 6 PM Eastern 3 PM Pacific

Show Topic: How To Use Behavioral Targeting and Personalization Without Invading User Privacy

Show Guest: Meyar Sheik , CEO & President of Certona

How to Listen: Live on wsRadio.com or available by Podcast on iTunes or by RSS Feed.

Guest Biography: Meyar Sheik co-founded Certona as its CEO & President in January of 2004. Meyar is a seasoned software industry executive with over 23 years of experience. Since 2000, Meyar was an early web analytics pioneer working with some of the largest sites on the Internet in the areas of web analytics, e-commerce, personalization and real-time optimization. Prior to founding Certona, Meyar was CMO & COO of WebSideStory, Inc., a pioneer in real-time web analytics (now part of Omniture). Meyar has a BS in Electrical Engineering from New York Institute of Technology and an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology.

Sample Questions:

Why is behavioral targeting important to online marketers?

How do click through rates for ads using behavioral targeting compare to those without it?

Some see behavioral targeting as an intrusion of privacy. How can marketers avoid this stigma?

RSS Ray’s Comments:

“Personalization and behavioral targeting is an absolutely fantastic way to increase sales and profits. If Meyar has found a way to alleviate privacy concerns while still getting fantastic returns then I can’t wait to hear it.”

Tags: Behavioral Targeting, eCommerce, Guest Announcement, Personalization, privacy
Posted in Guest Announcements | No Comments »

Performing the Impossible: Giving Customers What They Want With the Privacy They Deserve

Friday, August 8th, 2008

Next week’s guest Meyar Sheik, CEO/Co-Founder of Certona asked us to post this interesting article on using self-optimizing behavioral targeting technology for e-commerce success. Be sure to listen to Meyar live next Wednesday at 6 PM Eastern, 3 PM Pacific on Online Marketing with RSS Ray.

Almost from the beginning, e-commerce and Internet marketing professionals have been grappling with two, seemingly mutually-exclusive initiatives: how to personalize online content for each visitor while preserving their right to privacy. Many have given up, relying instead on opt-in initiatives such as newsletters, RSS alerts and social network tools. Others spend enormous time and money to monitor and manually update their sites at great expense and lower profit margins. Neither one of those options delivers sustainable results.

In response, leading technology firms are introducing Web-based “self-optimizing” behavioral targeting and personalization solutions that help firms of all sizes increase online conversions, average order value and online revenues while still protecting the visitor’s right to privacy.

How it works
Instead of requiring demographic or classification information, these dynamic systems automatically generate representations of visitors and products solely from current user interaction on the Web site. Self-optimizing tools leverages the traffic patters of visitors to provide the most relevant Web experience possible without the need for any personal information, third-party cookies or special interaction with the individual. Doing so allows retailers to transparently target each visitor individually, without compromising their privacy.

This process is the most effective way to deliver relevant content because consumers’ present behaviors on the site are the most accurate representation of their interests and needs at that time, not the demographic information that they filled out months ago. As a result, self-optimizing behavioral targeting solutions make it possible to enhance a site’s product cross-sell/up sell and content personalization capabilities while preserving the visitor’s right to privacy. These types of solutions also provide an enhanced Web experience for the customer by not requiring them to fill out annoying pop-up surveys or lengthy, intrusive online registration profiles. Additionally, the more advanced self-optimizing systems do not track visitors’ behavior from site to site.

Case in point – a leading American catalog merchant and online retailer implemented a third-party, self-optimizing behavior targeting and personalization solution just prior to the 2007 holiday season. Since then, the company’s e-commerce site has witnessed a more than 15 percent increase in converted online visitors and a more than 18 percent rise in direct revenue contributions from automated product recommendations and merchandising. Moreover, the system provides higher click-through rates on content as well as increased conversions, site stickiness and repeat purchases while eliminating the tedious, labor-intensive task of manually generating numerous relevant product recommendations and personalized promotions to online visitors.

Other retailers have claimed that such systems account for 20 percent of their online revenues, with the average order value from visitors who acted upon the platform’s automated personalized recommendations being over 60 percent greater than those who didn’t. Such testimonials speak clearly to the value that self-optimizing behavioral targeting and personalization solutions bring to an organization’s bottom line.

Intelligence benefits abound
Furthermore, self-optimizing behavioral targeting and personalization solutions provide significant intelligence-gathering capabilities to any organizations over other personalization methods, such as shopping basket analysis, expert systems, content analysis and collaborative filtering algorithms. By actually profiling the entire individual clickstream behavioral pattern, self-optimizing systems focus on the person-to-content affinities and are not just limited to content-to-content affinity modeling often represented by: people who bought this item also bought these items”.

Self-optimizing solutions are completely data driven as well, and thus able to process large and diverse transaction histories; even across product categories, cultures and languages. Furthermore, these types of systems do not rely upon any knowledge of the content other than the user’s interactions with it. This greatly simplifies integration and unified content profiles across all types, from text to multi-media. Self-optimizing behavioral targeting and personalization solutions can scale to large user bases and catalogs while providing acceptable runtime performance.

Apply to all types of environments
Because of their automated profiling, content neutrality and adaptive content indexing, these types of systems can be embedded into almost any environment that can capture online behavior; including e-commerce, search, content, e-mail, mobile and streaming media. Moreover, self-optimizing solutions allows like-minded visitors to be dynamically grouped together for predictive purposes, providing additional functionality to such applications as community radio, movie guides, gift registries and social shopping.

These types of systems can also be combined with other enterprise data to produce even broader predictive models of customer behavior. Doing so extends their benefits to off-line campaigns, such as direct mail, telemarketing, media advertising and customer loyalty marketing campaigns.

Benefits to any organization
Virtually all types of companies can see value from self-optimizing behavioral targeting and personalization solutions, and usually implement them in of days or weeks. Whether an organization sells products, publishes content or serves ads on its web site, their online customers and visitors want to see more relevant choices with less clutter. Companies that can understand their site visitors’ behaviors without invading their personal privacy and are able to instantly deliver what they need and what they like while building long-lasting, and profitable, relationships.

About the author: Meyar Sheik is CEO and Co-Founder of Certona Corporation, creator of Resonance®, a Web 2.0 optimization and personalization platform. E-mail him at msheik@certona.com.

Tags: Behavioral Targeting, e-commerce, internet marketing, privacy
Posted in Conversion Rate Improvements, Guest Articles, Web Analytics/Web Metrics, eCommerce Marketing | No Comments »

RSS Ray to Be Interviewed on PR 101 Radio

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

Are you ready to learn the best low or no cost internet marketing methods to boost your bottom line?

RSS Ray, host of Online Marketing with RSS Ray will appear on PR 101 Radio this Wednesday at 12 PM Pacific, 3 PM Eastern to discuss this important topic.

PR 101 Radio is the world’s first live, call-in advice show providing insight into Public Relations, Marketing and Advertising.

It’s hosted by Erika M. Taylor, CEO/Chief Publicist for the award-winning PR Agency, Three Girls Media & Marketing Inc. Taylor enjoyed an 18-year on-air career in the San Francisco Bay Area before transitioning to the Public Relations industry. She brings a unique insider perspective to working with the press, launching and marketing a business.

You can listen to the show live on wsRadio.com at 12 PM Pacific, 3 PM Eastern or catch the podcast version that should be available on Friday.

If you have a question that you want answered by RSS Ray on-air you can call 1-877-474-3302 or send an email question to Erika@PR101Radio.com

Be sure to stay tuned to wsRadio after the show because a new episode of Online Marketing with RSS Ray will air live at 3 PM Pacific, 6 PM Eastern. This week we will be discussing what a marketer should know about vertical search engines with Jason Prescott, CEO of JP Communications and TopTenWholesale.com.

Tags: Free Marketing Tools, free tools, Low Cost Internet Marketing, Online Marketing, PR 101 Radio
Posted in About the Show, Online Marketing | No Comments »