“Folksonomies” – a New Viral Marketing Tool
A new consumer phenomenon is called “tagging” or “folksonomies” (short for folks and taxonomy). Tagging is powerful because consumers are creating an organizational structure for online content. Folksonomies not only enable people to file away content under tags, but, even better, share it with others by filing it under a global taxonomy that they created.
Here’s how tagging works. Using sites such as del.icio.us – a bookmark sharing site – and Flickr – a photo sharing site – consumers are collaborating on categorizing online content under certain keywords, or tags.
For instance, an individual can post photographs of their iPod on Flickr and file it under the tag “iPod.” These images are now not only visible under the individual user’s iPod tag but also under the community iPod tag that displays all images consumers are generating and filing under the keyword. Right now Flickr has more than 3,500 photos that are labeled “iPod.”
Tagging is catching on because it is a natural complement to search. Type the word “blogs” into Google and it can’t tell if you are searching for information about how to launch a blog, how to read blogs, or just what. Large and small sites alike are already getting on to the folksonomy train. They are rolling out tag-like structures to help users more easily locate content that’s relevant to them.
Although tags are far from perfect, marketers should, nevertheless, be using them to keep a finger on the pulse of the American public. Start subscribing to RSS feeds to monitor how consumers are tagging information related to your product, service, company or space. These are living focus groups that are available for free, 24/7. Folksonomy sites can be also be carefully used to unleash viral marketing campaigns – with a caveat. Marketers should be transparent in who they are, why they are posting the link/photos and avoid spamming the services.
Posted 5 days, 3 hours ago at 10:18 am. Add a comment
30 Simple Ways to Build Trust in Your Website Visitors
Let me start this article by asking a simple question to you. If you give contract to build your home, to whom you will give? Someone new or someone who is trusted by your close friend or relative? Of course the answer is – someone trustworthy person/company –by you directly or by someone in whom you trust (your friends/relatives). As you know that “Trust” is really important in life and that’s what exactly I want to mention here to bring success in your website.
It is absolutely necessary that your website must create the environment of trust otherwise, most of your efforts will be wasted. Have you ever thought – how to create the environment of trust for a website? Don’t be panic, its very easy to build trust for your online visitors.
If you want to know how your site ranks (in terms of building trust online), then visit: http://www.infotrex.com/siterank and know by yourself, where your site is ranking.
As you already know that – you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Building trust for your online visitors cannot be achieved by just a single action. Trust is achieved by many little actions you do throughout your website and when its taken together, give users a sense of stability, honesty and legitimacy for your business and services you provide.
If you want to know how your site ranks (in terms of building trust online), then visit: http://www.infotrex.com/siterank and know by yourself, where your site is ranking.
Another good or bad news is that only few website owners focus on building trust in the minds of their visitors. So, if you do it well, it can become a real and sustainable competitive advantage for your business and you can keep your competitors away.
Here are 40 simple actions you can take to get started.
1. Your website design is the first impression. Make sure it is professional and relevant to the subject matter.
2. Navigation must be intuitive. If visitors can’t find what they are looking for easily, they will question your competence in providing what they want.
3. Make the website personal by giving it its own tone and voice. People buy people.
4. Follow the HEART rule of creating online content. (Reminder: HEART stands for Honest, Exclusive, Accurate, Relevant and Timely.)
5. Use language that is appropriate to the audience. It will build empathy.
6. Regularly add new content to your site. It shows that the business is alive and kicking.
7. Review all links. Doubts will quickly form in your visitors’ minds if links don’t work or, worse still, take them to error pages.
8. Good grammar and spelling matter. Errors give the impression of sloppiness and carelessness.
9. Don’t make outrageous and unbelievable claims, like “Read this blog and you’ll be a millionaire by the end of the week.” People are used to scams, get-rich-quick schemes and rip-offs.
10. Publish REAL testimonials and third-party endorsements. Try to always use real names and link to websites where possible. Some sites show images of letters sent by happy customers.
If you want to know how your site ranks (in terms of building trust online), then visit: http://www.infotrex.com/siterank and know by yourself, where your site is ranking.
11. Publish case studies about customers you have helped, who use your product, etc.
12. Don’t put down, curse or insult competitors. It’s unprofessional. It is better to offer an objective comparison of competitive services or products.
13. Focus on building your long-term reputation, not on making quick sales.
14. Write articles for humans, not search engines.
15. Make your ‘About Us’ page personal and comprehensive. It plays an important part in making visitors feel comfortable that real people are behind the site.
16. Publish your photo or the photos of the key people involved with the site. Again, this reinforces the fact that there are real people behind the screenshots.
17. Clearly identify who is behind the site. Nothing creates more suspicion than a site that tries to hide the identity of its publishers.
18. On the ‘Contact Us’ page, provide an email form, telephone number, fax and address of the company. In Europe, it is a legal requirement for sites taking funds, but even sites driven by advertising will benefit from openness.
19. Provide a telephone number that people can call and talk to a person.
20. Provide Web addresses linked to the website domain, not addresses from free webmail services such as Hotmail and Gmail.
If you want to know how your site ranks (in terms of building trust online), then visit: http://www.infotrex.com/siterank and know by yourself, where your site is ranking.
21. Think carefully about reciprocal links. If your site is about organic food and you have links to Party Poker, people are going to question your integrity.
22. Think carefully about the adverts you display on your site. Ensure that they are relevant to your subject and audience.
23. Write and publish your privacy policy. Be clear about what you will and will not do with any personal data you collect. State that you adhere to all data protection laws. Make it easy to read and don’t use legal gobbledygook.
24. Write and publish a security policy. State what measures you take to ensure that all transactions are secure as well as how well you handle customers data.
25. Ensure that you have a security and privacy policy which is linked from the footer on every page. Make the link more prominent on all the order pages.
26. Clearly publish your guarantee. I would recommend making it a 100% money-back guarantee if possible.
27. Clearly state your refund and returns policy.
28. If you use PayPal, put the PayPal logo on your site. If you have a merchant services account with a major bank like Citibank or HSBC, put its logo on your site.
29. Use Google search on your site for two reasons. First, it is a great search solution which will help your visitors find what they are looking for. Second, having the Google name on your site instills trust.
30 If there are well-known industry associations for your subject, join up and put their logos on your site.
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago at 9:58 am. Add a comment
Adsense is for Everyone
When Google’s AdSense appeared, there were a lot of people who doubted Google’s idea would be marketable and actually generate any profits. Yet as we stand here today it’s probably the most well known pay per click venture in the world.
Yes, all those nay sayers ended up eating their own words in the end. And that is because the folks at Google never go and do something without assessing whether or not it will be profitable, or exactly how profitable it is.
But of course, as you might very well know, AdSense isn’t just profitable for Google. It’s also profitable for the people who advertise via AdWords and very profitable for publishers who use it to make earnings which are sometimes just enormous.
So one must ask himself why this is such a good deal for everybody. And the question in itself is very justified because you hardly ever come across something that’s profitable for everyone in the chain. So why would AdSense be any different.
Well, AdSense is where it stands today, giving benefits for everybody in the game because it exploits a gap in the Internet’s advertising model.
You see, the Internet is a very interactive environment, and its interactions come from the people who are browsing. They choose whether or not to follow a certain link and the term “navigating” is probably the most precise one at describing this situation.
So AdSense is great because it links together buyers and sellers. Yes, you have to hand it out to Google for a brilliant idea. They know there are people out there that want to buy stuff and people who want to sell them what they’re interested in. And Google AdSense helps members of the two categories find each other.
It works for the visitors, because the model is very transparent. You don’t see a huge graphic banner which tries to lure you into buying something. You just see a few words. And if you like what you see you can just click it. It works because visitors don’t have that feeling of someone trying to lure them into spending money. Ironically, however, they’re wrong.
It works for the AdWords advertisers because their ads go everywhere. Not only will they find themselves listed in Google’s search which gets gazillions of hits per day, up front without working as much for SEO and waiting so much.
Their ads can reach any website that deals with anything similar to what they’re trying to sell. Now you must realize they could never pull of such great advertising by themselves. And that brings us to the thing that makes Google’s AdSense a publisher’s best friend.
It comes from the fact that the ads are contextual, that they somehow related to the keywords you deal with on your page. Because people or on your site, which deals with a certain topic, you already know they’re interested in that topic.
But, hey, wait a minute, Google knows some companies which want to sell your visitors something related to their topic. Google wants your visitors, you want Google’s advertisers and the visitors just want to buy stuff. And that is the essence of what makes AdSense a great deal for everybody.
This is by far the most profitable hook-up deal you’re ever going to see anywhere on the Internet.
So you have to appreciate Google for realizing a killer deal. You have to appreciate how well thought out, yet simple this scheme really is. Sure, in practice it has a few quirks but those are minor and, up to this point everyone seems to be enjoying Google’s AdSense.
Posted 2 weeks, 4 days ago at 12:47 pm. Add a comment
