Online Promotion Tips

How to make a directory website?

2020-06-13T11:06:00.001+05:30

You can use the following software to create your own directory website:

1. GeoDirectory

JivoChat Review

2015-10-12T16:06:00.002+05:30

Email Subject Line Inspiration

2013-05-03T09:46:00.003+05:30

Email subject lines tend to be boring, repetitive with the same cliché sales words. We present to you few of the rare subject lines that stood out in our inbox.

Inspired by some email subject line, send us a screen shot or forward us the email.

1. 99labels

Use of special characters in the subject line

Email Design Best Practices

2013-04-30T22:13:00.001+05:30

An email newsletter is one of the most effective to ways to communicate to your audience. Considering the number of emails being received by people it is important that your email is designed to ensure the maximum response. These are few tips to ensure that your email is opened and further action is taken.

1. Mail Headers: Many email sending software let you customize the From Name and From Address. It is good practice to use your brand/product/company name for people to easily identify your email and to also build your brand. Avoid no-reply.

2. Subject Line: Relevant & interesting. Use a catchy and short subject line that will induce the recipient to open up the message. Limit the characters to less than 35 (up to 50) and do not use ALL CAPS to avoid spam. Also avoid spammy words like FREE, Call now or Bonus in the subject line. Use UTF 8 special characters to stand out. Use the recepient's name if you have it in the list but be careful to use the correct name.

3. Pre-Header: Include a link to an online version of your email in case the email is not legible to the recipient. A good idea is to include a forward and share link in the pre-header as well.
There are many functional or utilitarian uses for this area. Additional common preheader elements include:

Permission reminder (often phrased as “you’re receiving this email because…”)
Whitelist or add to address book request (i.e. “please add offers@brand.com to your address book or safe sender list”)
Link to unsubscribe or edit subscription preferences
Forward to a friend, Facebook, Twitter or other links that enable sharing
Links to a mobile or text version
Link to mobile-optimized site (especially if you see a lot of mobile web traffic coming from email)

4. Johnson Box: Top 400 x 300 pixels. Header not more than 150 px. Strong headline and maybe a CTA.

5. Mail Preview Snippet: Few email clients like gmail, outtlook, iphone show a preview of the text of the email This usually the first 100 characters or less.

6. Ideal width: 500 to 650 px. For mobile reduce it to 320 to 550 px

7. Vertical prefered over horizontal

8. Use fallback color and alt text for images

9. Avoid background images layered with text.

10. Use bold typrefaces

11. Use bullets

12. Use spaces / lines to divide content areas.

13. Use web safe fonts.

14. Font size: 14px for body and 22px for title

15. Include links to website in footer

16. Give complete contact detailes in footer.

17. Include sharing options in footer.

18. Include a line "Why you are receieving this email?" to reduce SPAM complaints

19. Avoid using videos, flash, ajax or gifs

20. design your email so that if images are turned off the message is still clear and understandable

21. create a text version besides HTML email

22. CTA should be creative, bold, eye catching and in center. Min 44 x 44 for mobile.

23. Mobile template single column

24.

Scalable email design

A scalable email layout is readable & clickable no matter which size environment it is being read in. There is only one version (one HTML file) of the email, but the email scales to look great on both desktops and mobile devices.Scalable designs utilize techniques such as:

A grid system for alignment and proportion
A single column design is must
Larger fonts (at least 14px)
Touch-friendly buttons
Key information & CTA in the upper left of the email

Mail Chimp

Campaign Monitor
Constant Contact
iContact

If you want the best click-through possible, you'll want to make your links in email not only look like links but also stand out. At a minimum, links in your email should always be underlined. Ideally, links will be formatted in a blue font and will also be bolded. If your style guidelines prohibit links from being bold or blue, make sure that they are underlined. Do not ever use images or buttons to denote a link or, if you do, make sure that there is a corresponding text link nearby.

While images do have unquestionable visually compelling results, always remember that in the vast majority of your subscribers email service providers inboxes images will not load. The more you use images, the more that the vast majority of your email subscribers will see blank white space. While you certainly want to include some images for those who can see them, don't rely on images alone to sell your product or convey your message. Be sure that any information that it is critical that your subscriber knows is not trapped in an image. Always use alt and title text behind images to ensure that there is still copy appearing even when your images do not load.

Obviously, your email must contain copy and text. That's the core of any email. However, you never want to include so much text that you may risk going into a spam folder or junk folder, and you don't want to overwhelm users with more text than they can read. User shorter text blocks that link back to full articles or product pages on your website or to landing pages.

As "old school" as it sounds, your email template design is unlikely to translate across multiple email service providers if you code it using CSS. Many email service providers, and Gmail in particular, strip CSS from the <body> and <head> sections of your email template. If you must use CSS to code, make it inline CSS. However, using <font> and <p> tags within your email template will produce a far more consistent design and display.

1. Design for Mobile Usability First

Design the template for scalability on smaller mobile screens
Use a one-column layout, larger fonts, smaller marketing images, and larger CTA buttons
Design content blocks with tables and nested tables
The email width should be 600 pixels or less. Litmus recommends between 320–550 pixels.
Plan for smaller file sizes (JPG or GIF instead of PNG)
Many designers recommend a 14+ pixel font for body text and 22+ pixel font for headlines
CTA buttons should be design for the minimum finger size of 44 pixels in height and/or width or more
Utilize the “Click to Call” feature as a CTA (if applicable) when a phone number is included

Best Practices for your Mobile Email Template

2. Design to Lead the Reader’s Eye to the CTA (Call-To-Action) for Higher Conversions

Balance text and images (60/40 is a good ratio)
Place your first instance of the primary CTA above the fold
Ideally use 1 CTA goal per email (or up to 3), but for each goal try to include more than one CTA (top & bottom) to avoid scrolling for the reader

3. Create an Attention-Grabbing, Action-Inducing Subject

Make the reader want to read more or take action with creative, short (<35 char) and clear message
Use actionable language while maintaining clarity of the purpose
Personalize if possible
Align your Subject copy with the Body copy
Test against spam scoring. Avoid “spammy” words like: free, limited-time, act now, cash, win, test
For tips and examples, refer to StrongMail’s advice on how to write subject lines

Mobile Email Template designed by ADM

4. Use One-Line Preheader Text

Preheaders are usually 1–2 lines of HTML text at the very top of the email
They are ideal for mobile devices to highlight an enticing offer, making it the first thing prospects read before they even consider downloading images
The first 20–40 characters of the preheader text are also visible in most preview panes, so put keywords to the front of the line
You can opt to include a mobile-friendly URL link in the preheader text as a CTA
In addition to the preview lines that appear in web clients, many email clients have a 300-pixel preview pane. Therefore, ideally plan for your primary CTA and most important content to appear within the top 300 pixels.

5. Intelligently Write Email Body Copy

Be short, concise and to the point
Talk about benefits, not features
Keep the main message and its CTA above the fold
Use actionable language in each CTA
The copy in the first paragraph is critical and must be appealing to read more
One important thing to keep in mind if you use small font size in your layout: webkit email clients (iPhone, Pre, and Android) will increase font size on text smaller than 13px, which could potentially break your layout. To avoid your text being resized, define in the CSS.

Mobile Email Template designed by ADM

6. Strategically Use Email Images

Use images carefully and strategically, since many email clients block images unless manually allowed
Don’t use images for your primary headline or your only CTA, since they might not appear
It’s recommended that your first full-width image appears after the headline, so if images are blocked there’s not blank space before your headline
Use ALT text for each image, due to the high number of email clients that block images
Plan for smaller file sizes (JPG or GIF instead of PNG)
Add padding (10–15 pixels) between CTAs or links since the average finger size is 44 pixels

7. Include the Universal Email Best Practices

Always create a plain-text version of the email, and provide a link to it in the preheader area
Provide a link to the hosted version of the email
Include Social Media links. According to Econsultancy, emails that include just one social sharing button have 30% higher click-through rates than those without social sharing options. Did you know that when you offer three or more, the click-through rate jumps to 55%?
For links in the email, use absolute links (full domain and path) instead of relative links (path only)
Use a real, functional REPLY-TO address
Test, test and test again! Your tests should include using different browsers and mobile devices, as well as always sending a test message to your internal QA team and key stakeholders.

Beginners Guide to Google Adwords

2013-04-30T14:31:00.000+05:30

Google Adwords is Google's advertising platform. You can use this platform to advertise on Google's search pages, Gmail, Youtube and various other Google websites. You can also advertise on many other top sites like Facebook.com, Ebay.com, Weather.com, CNN.com etc. using this platform.

Adwords interface might seem intimidating at first but is fairly easy to understand and work with. To start working with Adwords you will need a Google account. Open the Adwords panel (http://adwords.google.com) in a new tab/window in your browser.

Browser for Android Mobile Phones: Firefox for Android

2013-04-03T13:19:00.003+05:30

Firefox one of the most popular internet browsers is now available for mobile devices running the android OS. This is mainly the Samsung, LG, HTC and now even Sony phones.
To download it on your phone click on the banner below:

Web based banner creators

2013-04-02T12:46:00.002+05:30

http://www.bannersnack.com/en/banner-maker/software/#

http://bannernow.com/

http://www.bannerfans.com/banner_maker.php?bnew=1&pses=31edd290

How to find out the most popular websites in the world & India

2013-03-21T20:07:00.000+05:30

There are millions of websites in the world. If you want to advertise or promote your brand on the internet you may want to know the most popular or most visited websites in the world or the market/country you are targeting. There are various market research companies which provide this data. These are:

Alexa.com: Alexa has a updated list of most visited websites in the world. They also have lists by category and by country.

Alexa ranking of most popular sites in India

Hitwise.com: A part of Experian now, Hitwise gives a sample of online trends but the focus is mostly US. An interesting thing to see is the Social Trends section.

Quantcast:

Comscore: http://www.comscoredatamine.com/

Compete

Email Marketing Services

2012-10-12T15:36:00.002+05:30

These are few email marketing services that you can try:

Free mobile site from Google

2012-10-12T14:27:00.002+05:30

You can now create a free mobile website using Google Sites.

http://sites.google.com/mobilize

Select the template, color scheme and you are ready to go.

Select your url and proceed to edit the website in the Google Sites editor.

See an example site here https://sites.google.com/site/dotcreativesmobile/
This is a fully responsive design and will display correctly in any device - laptop, ipad, iphone or any other phone.

See a video from Google

In our opinion everyone should create a mobile site. This is a basic and free service that one should immediately start of with before more moving towards a more complex mobile site.

What is your opinion?

Facebook Cards by Moo.com

2012-10-12T13:38:00.002+05:30

Moo.com, a popular web based card printing website, has started offering Facebook cards for personal and business use.

The card printing is free for a limited time but you will have to pay for shipping.

The best thing about ordering your cards from Moo.com is that you can have different designs for each card. They call this Moo Printfinity.

Details: Moo.com will give you 50 cards free, exclusive of shipping. The design will be preselected and will include cover images from your personal profile or Facebook pages profile. You can select up to 50 different images. If you have less than 50 images then the cards will be equally printed for the number of images you have. For example if you have 10 images, you will get 5 cards of each image. You can modify/add the text to the card to include your phone numbers, emails, website urls, social media links etc. You can also include promotional/inspirational/informational text on the reverse of the card. See the above video above for creative uses.

The sad part: Shipping is not free. If you are in India you will have to pay $4.25 for standard shipping and $56.50 for "Rush Printing". Standard shipping delivers in 34 days and express (Rush) in 11 days.

Worth it? YES, but buy these only if you can wait for the delivery and want to try something creative with your cards.

Link: http://uk.moo.com/products/facebook-cards.html

Facebook Shopping Carts

2012-09-26T13:55:00.001+05:30

These are few shopping cart apps that can be used with your Facebook page to sell anything:

1. Beetailer
2. Payvment
3. BigCommerce
4.

Google PageSpeed Service

2012-09-26T13:19:00.000+05:30

What is Google PageSpeed Service?

PageSpeed Service is an online service to automatically speed up loading of your web pages. PageSpeed Service fetches content from your servers, rewrites your pages by applying web performance best practices and serves them to end users via Google's servers across the globe.

The extent of speed up depends on a variety of factors such as content on your pages, browser, geographic location of access, bandwidth, etc. You can run tests to measure the speed up of your site in a few minutes.

PageSpeed Service is currently offered free of charge to a limited set of webmasters during this trial period. Pricing will be competitive and details will be made available later.

To know more and request access to the service go here.

Incapsula

2012-09-26T13:13:00.002+05:30

What is Incapsula?

Incapsula is a Content Delivery Network or CDN. Through a simple DNS settings change, your website traffic is seamlessly routed through Incapsula’s global network of high-powered servers. Incoming traffic is intelligently profiled in real-time, blocking even the latest web threats. Meanwhile outgoing traffic is accelerated and optimized for faster load times, keeping welcome visitors speeding through.

To know more visit their website http://www.incapsula.com/

Facebook Ads

2012-09-24T20:06:00.000+05:30

Facebook Ads are a great way to reach out to Facebook users, which in today's date in nearly everyone.

Ads on Facebook are slightly more expensive than other online ad options but you get the advantage of very precise targeting not available through any other channel.

To know more about Facebook ads leave a comment here.