With all businesses, they are in operation to make a profit.  Without customers, a profit is impossible to obtain.  Obviously, if a website is receiving more window closing ‘Xs’ than page browsing clicks, changes need to be made.  And who better to make those changes than the individuals who know what makes a website great – customer friendly web designers.

Internet-based shopping has become the preferred gift purchasing method because of its convenience, free shipping, and twenty-four/seven access.  Multiple product purchases, via the Internet, over the course of multiple websites and its businesses are an indication of its successful web design.  According to Lynnette Montgomery, Vice President of Direct Marketing at online retailers, Performance Bicycle and Nashbar, “Every successful web site design should be based on providing an excellent end-to-end customer experience from the time a shopper arrives on a site until she checks out.”

Do you want your website to be all about the customer?  Do you want your website to make a profit?  If you answered, ‘YES’ to both of these questions, contact Metro Detroit-based Trademark Productions today for all of your web design needs.

One of our personal blogs was hacked and so far we have found two clients with older versions of WordPress that have been compromised.  With regular maintenance and monitoring, this could have been prevented but the truth is that far too many people don’t think about maintaining and protecting their website until it’s too late.

Our blog that got hacked was one of DZ’s personal sites that hadn’t been touched in months (we all have sites like that here…we own a lot of web real estate).  By the time we were aware of the problem, Google and all modern web browsers had blocked access to the website because it had been designated as an “attack site”.  A hacker or team of hackers had compromised the blog software installation and injected code into the website that was downloading a virus onto the site’s visitors computer.

So far we have found two of our client’s blogs that were running outdated software and have been compromised as well but we were able to catch it before any damage could be done.  Why did we catch these two?  Because those particular clients had maintenance contracts with us which means that we regularly spend time on their websites “checking it out” and “tuning it up”.

We have issued a mass email to all of our clients that have older versions of WordPress blogs so that we can get their permission to spend a few hours securing and updating their blog software.  Unfortunately, out of the 20+ clients we’ve contacted, only a few have responded.  Maybe people don’t understand the severity of the situation?

The truth is that all software is susceptible to hacking. The adage says, “If it can be built, it can be unbuilt.”  Fortunately for us and our clients, we use well built Open Source software on our projects which means that there are thousands of developers, all over the world, who have a vested interest in the security and well being of that software…we don’t have to wait for companies like Microsoft to send out a memo, hold meetings and do a bunch of bureaucratic BS to get a security hole patched.

If the software we use is found to have a security hole, it is fixed immediately and the updated web software is available for updating almost as quick.  So how does web software get compromised if it’s always being updated and fixed?  By a failure to update and protect your investment.

If you spent a lot of money on a car, you would take it in for regular maintenance, right?  Regular oil changes, checking the air pressure on your tires, regular tune ups and adjustments to keep it running in top form.  Why wouldn’t you do the same for your online software?

Unfortunately, too many people buy or build a website and think they’re done.  Keeping your website on a regular maintenance schedule, just like you would do with your car, is super important.

If you do not have a maintenance contract with us or haven’t talked to us in awhile, I strongly encourage you to come in and have a chat with us.  If you received our notification about the security of your software and you ignored it, don’t!  Call us or email us with questions.

Not maintaining your website and protecting your visitors is bad for business. Running an unprotected or outdated website is like running a restaurant and not caring if your guests get food poisoning.

My intention is not to scare you or be crass, but I hope that something in this blog post set off a bell in your head.  Be a responsible website owner and take it into the “mechanic” once in awhile.

The video from RTL featured Michael Jackson walking out of the coroner’s van alive. The hoax video was meant to be an experiment to demonstrate how easy it is to spread rumors online. The experiment resulted in more than 880,000 views of the most popular version on YouTube. There have been mixed reviews about whether or not this experiment was necessary, but it just a reminder that people can post anything online and it can become an instant phenomena, even if the information is untrue.

In a matter of minutes people can find out information and spread it to their friends or followers on various media outlets. Since anyone can say whatever they want online, it makes it very easy to manipulate the public and persuade people to think a certain way or believe specific information. Rumors can start to take a life of their own regardless of their accuracy.

This raises concern about what sources people can trust to give accurate information online. Unfortunately there is not a guaranteed way to prove that that any information distributed online is 100% accurate, but a good rule to follow is to always check multiple sources for information. Just like visiting doctor, it is always good to get a second or third opinion. It is very easy to create fake video images and write articles that are completely untrue. If you question whether or not something you hear or see online is real, most likely it is not real.

This is simply a reminder to be extra cautious about anything you read or see online. At TM we want to provide you with the most accurate information we can find. For this reason, we check multiple sources before releasing any news and events we hear about that may affect your business.

“We’re dedicated to providing users with a positive experience, while helping publishers effectively monetize the ads appearing on their sites. We believe you’ll find that more competition translates into better ads and increased revenue in the long run,” states Google.

Over a year ago Google Adsense began to accepting display ads served from qualified third-party vendors. The purpose was to help increase the number of display ads competing on Adsense Publisher sites. The new program from Google Adwords will allow participating advertising networks to bid in their auction to appear on Adsense sites.

The Google Ad network is designed to “connect advertisers with publishers, provide access to additional inventory not currently available with Google Adsense and adhere to Google’s standards for user policy, Ad quality and speed.” The network consists of ad agencies and companies that partner with advertisers and publishers to buy and sell ads on sites they do not own.

The new Google Adsense will help publishers generate the most profit from all ads that appear on their site, whether the ad comes from Adwords advertisers or Google certified ad networks. “Publishers will have control over which networks can show ads on their  pages – they can choose to opt out of receiving ads from specific networks, or all networks completely,” according to Google.

Since we are on the topic of Google News, I thought it would also be beneficial to explain how a News sitemap can help your website be “crawled” and ranked quickly on Google or any other search engine.
Google encourages webmasters to use the Sitemap protocol to create a News sitemap , because this allows them to provide additional information about pages on their sites. A sitemap based on this protocol can be used by all the major search engines. News sitemaps are specific to Google News. They are not the same as our web sitemaps.

Google News outlines the differences between News sitemaps and web sitemaps:

• A News sitemap is more like an XML version of your live news pages. Content should be frequently updated and only contain recent news articles
• In a News sitemap, you need to include URLs for all your articles, but only from the last three days. You shouldn’t include older article
• You shouldn’t use the Google Sitemap Generator to create your News sitemap
• A News sitemap for each article should include a publication date, which refers to the date that the article first appears on your site. Please make sure not to set this to the “current” time.

Google News Sitemap tips are listed below:

• Each URL needs to include the article publication date in W3C format, preferably including a timestamp. The publication date is used to determine whether the article meets our freshness standard. Here’s an example of an article publication date tag in W3C format:

<news:publication_date> 2006-08-14T03:30:00Z </news:publication_date>

Note: Please provide Google with the date when the article first appeared on your site. If the file doesn’t include a date for the article, the article won’t be included in Google News, and you’ll see a “Date not found” error for the article on the News crawler.

• News sitemaps should include a second namespace for the News schema. The urlset tag for a News sitemap should look like this:

<urlset xmlns=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9″

xmlns:news=”http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9″>

• The News sitemap URL needs to be encoded for readability by the web server where it’s located.

• Your News sitemap should only contain URLs for all your articles published in the last three days.

Optional News specific tag: Each URL may include the following tags within the News schema:

• A comma-separated list of keywords describing the content of the article. Keywords may be drawn from, but aren’t limited to the list of existing Google News categories

Example of a News sitemap containing a single article:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>

<urlset xmlns=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9″

xmlns:news=”http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9″><url>

<loc>http://example.com/article123.html</loc>

<news:news>

<news:publication_date> 2006-08-14T03:30:00Z </news:publication_date>

<news:keywords>Business, Mergers, Acquisitions</news:keywords>

If local businesses use Google News Sitemaps correctly, it should drive traffic to their site and increase their page rank. The faster you deliver information on current news items, the more you will become a resource on current events. The announcement about Google News indexing the most recent version will also help you deliver more accurate information and make your articles more valuable.

“In Google’s eyes, if your site is going to rank well for locally-specific searches for your area, there should ideally be a number of the sites in your local “solar system” which are mentioning you and linking to you as you are within the same gravitational pull as the rest of the group,” claims Smith.

Search engines regard news and newspaper sites as trustworthy resources of information. Obtaining links and citations (when a business is referred to without a link) from online newspapers can be very beneficial for your local business. Google does recognize when local businesses are linked to online newspapers. Even if the online newspapers currently have low page rankings, it can still improve your overall search engine page rank. There is also potential for online newspaper growth as they develop themselves more in search engine marketing.

Research shows that Google “favors” blogs, news, newspapers and microblogging sites. Links from these sites prove to increase ranking against local competitors. “Google’s Caffeine, may also indicate that they perceive highly fresh news content and blogging content such as from microblogging site Twitter to be highly valuable,” states Smith.

Listed below are 3 ways you can optimize local search via newspapers:

1. Get listed in Classifieds. Some online newspapers provide free listings or require you to pay for premium features. Online newspaper classifieds can be beneficial for your local business if they aren’t too expensive, are search engine friendly and are popular among targeted consumers. Make sure your ad is updated frequently and includes links, pictures and/or videos if the newspaper allows it.

2. Expand your listing/profile in the newspaper’s yellow pages. Most newspapers have their own yellow page directory, where you can optimize content for your local business. Yellow pages and classifieds typically are outsourced by a parent company for their development and hosting. To optimize your local business you may need to make changes to the parent yellow pages.

3. Pitch stories and content about your business to local news reporters. Develop a media grabbing stunt or response to current news. There is high value associated with links and citations that occur in the content of an article. How can your business grab the attention of local reporters? Develop relationships with local reporters and try to get on a mailing list. Become a resource that journalists can depend on in exchange for a link.

Utilizing online newspapers for your local business can enhance local search from Google and other search engines. When selecting your news site, target online equivalents of the local newspapers in your area. You may not see results right away, but if you stay consistent, over time you will notice improvements.

It is not surprising that Google announced Caffeine right now, due to the recent announcements of Microsoft and Yahoo as well as Facebook and FriendFeed. Although Matt Cutts states Google has been developing this platform for months, I suspect that these recent announcements gave them an extra push to announce Caffeine at this time. The announcement, in my opinion, is Google’s way of declaring that they will remain the top search engine.

The Google Sandbox (where you can try out Caffeine) is currently down, which makes it difficult to draw my own conclusions, but I will briefly go over what Caffeine is and how it could potentially affect your business.

What is Caffeine?
Caffeine is described as “the next generation architecture for Google web search.” Caffeine is a new search platform that Google plans to launch in the near future. The new version will not affect the appearance of Google, since the changes are being made “under the hood.”

How is the Caffeine different than the “old” Google?
According to Google, “Caffeine is the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.”
In other words, they are expanding on their existing platform to produce faster and more accurate results. Caffeine also seems capable of delivering real time search results. The everyday person may not notice much of a difference, but those who specialize in SEO or online business could notice some changes.

Who should care about Google Caffeine?
If you are an SEO or an online business that relies heavily on organic search then you should care about Caffeine because it could potentially result in lower page rankings and require you to change your SEO. It is important for all SEOs to be aware of the new search, since it is not crystal clear what changes will occur when it officially launches. Most likely Caffeine will affect SEO’s that sell “quick fixes” to give their clients higher page rankings on Google. If your site frequently has unique content, applies relevant internal links and applies best SEO practices then Caffeine might actually work in your favor and deliver better results.

Is Caffeine actually better than the “old” Google?
Since I was unable to preview Caffeine for myself, I highlighted the most common themes covered by most SEO experts. At first glance Caffeine does not appear to look much different than the original. In order to see the actually difference, you really have to analyze both searches.

Overall SEOs agree that Caffeine;

• Runs faster than the original
• Relies more on keyword strings to deliver more accurate results
• Is moving into real-time to deliver breaking news faster, Caffeine does a better job of including recent events
• Displays rankings in the same order as the old version, but that could change when Caffeine is officially launched to the public

So, what is the future of Caffeine?
After Caffeine is reviewed by the public and tweaked to perfection, Google will launch it officially. When it will be launched is unknown, but I would say Google is going to push to have it released as soon as possible.

Concluding Thoughts
Some believe that since Google is allowing SEOs and Web Developers to test Caffeine, it sends out a message that their algorithm might change. At this point that is merely speculation. It is difficult to say exactly what will happen once Caffeine is officially launched. I plan to test Caffeine myself and draw my own conclusions, but for now I felt it was necessary share the information I’ve found and shed some light on the subject.

There are a large number of online resources available to help explain how to measure social media ROI. Generally most people agree on what strategies work, but breakdown the information in different formats and explanations. In Mark Hayward’s article, “Measuring Social Media ROI – Does size matter?” he explains how the size of your company does not determine the success of your social media campaign. Large and small companies alike can use these strategies and achieve their desired results.

A blog post by Jamie Lee Wallace titled “Social Media Measurement – It’s like being a great bartender,” compares bar tending to social media measurement.

“A good bartender earns repeat visitors by remembering the names and drinks of the regulars, engaging new visitors in friendly discussion and sharing news and insight about the local scene. It’s not all about how many sales you can make in an hour. There is definitely an intangible “return on chatter” that helps create an image or brand for the bar,” states Wallace.

It is important to realize the difference between Impact and ROI. Impact depends more on whether or not relationships have improved, if messages were communicated the way you wanted them to and if you achieved the type of exposure you wanted. ROI depends more on if your sales or revenue increased, did the right people show up and if your audience changed.

The qualitative benefits of social media support the goal of financial impact or ROI. It is important to focus on what the data tells us and use that to the best of our ability to manage a highly integrated campaign that is not just about “social media,” but about delivering a great message and using smart marketing techniques to do that.

An article in B-to-B magazine titled “You CAN Measure Social Media ROI,” by Paul Gillin pinpoints the best ways to measure ROI and achieve the best results.

1. Focus – Gillin suggests choosing 5 metrics to focus on.  Narrow down your metrics to the ones you think are most important for your business and go from there. Start off with well-defined business goals and ways to analyze the impact. Breakdown the benefits, goals and outcomes you want to obtain.

a.    GOAL – What do you want social media to do for your business?
b.    PLAN – How will the goals be achieved?
c.    IMPLEMENT & EXECUTE – Put your plan into action.
d.    MEASURE – What are the measurable results?

i.    How are people hearing about my business? One way to you can track visitors is to ask them how they found out about you.
ii.    Which of my efforts are bringing the most traffic (blogs, forums, etc)
iii.    Am I drawing the right people? Are people satisfied with my site once they get here?
iv.    Are we closing a sale?

2. Know What Works – Everyone on marketing team should know your 5 most productive referring web sites. A majority of your marketing efforts should go towards those sites.

3. Understand Influence – Is it better to get a retweet from someone who may send 20 to your site as opposed to someone like Guy Kawasaki, who can send over 1,000 people to your website? The answer may seem obvious. Of course Kawasaki may be able to drive more traffic to your site then you at the moment, but over time if your friend can achieve enough referrals and can manage to have them stick around, then they might be more influential then you think. It is important to track visitor paths to see how people get to your site, if they stayed, bought something and if they left, where did they go?

4. Be Unique – The link you use on Twitter should be different than the one you use on Facebook. Know the source of every click and watch where people go.

5. It’s not just about your site – Important conversations about your site could be happening on other websites. It’s all about community relations and establishing your brand and start people talking.

6. Coax conversations back to your site to measure the results – Entice people to actually go to your site. Figure out a way to draw people to your site besides “click here.” What is going to set you a part from the competition?

7. Monitor the Competition – The tools you use to track your progress can also be used to track your competitors. It is important to know what your competitors are doing and determine what is or is not working for them to help determine your own strategy.

8. Net Promoter Score or any big-picture metric -  you might consider using this type of metric to keep track of potential customers. One question provides the best predictor of customer loyalty for the vast majority of businesses: How likely is it that you would recommend (Company/Product X) to a friend or colleague? Using a 0 to 10 scale, you can calculate your Net Promoter Score (NPS) by taking the percentage of Promoters, and subtracting the percentage of Detractors.

9. Time – Successful programs may take 1 to 2 years before showing solid results, so if you are looking for a quick fix for your brand, then maybe this not the route you should be following.

Social media has become a great way to expand your business opportunities. It is not only about using the different outlets that are available, but about discovering what strategies work best for you, which ones are not working and to constantly analyze everything you’ve done to see if it’s on the right track. It is not an easy task, but definitely something worthwhile that if done correctly can have a tremendous impact for your business.

My goal in writing this post is to try to make a contrast of the online vs. brick and mortar world of traditional business so that people not as familiar with the internet can better understand what these three pinnacles of the online world are and how they can have a positive or negative affect on their online presence and success.

For once, I am going to try to keep my blog post concise (I can’t promise anything).  So if you have any questions or if we can help explain any of these better, please let us know.  We’re always happy to help.

Clout and Search Engine Optimization

In case you’re not familiar with the term, clout is the amount of “pull” that you have.  It’s the ability to get things done by knowing people and people knowing you.  It’s a matter of respect, knowledge and recognition and it takes awhile to build.  If you ask me or anyone who has been around business for awhile, clout is the most powerful and long lasting of these three and search engine optimization is much the same.

Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is a matter of being relevant and an authority on the topic at hand.  SEO is organic, or happens naturally if the right seeds are planted and can take awhile to grow.  Much like becoming known as the “go to guy” at city hall to get things done or for accounting issues, you want to become the “go to guy” for [insert your product or service here].  You have to build a name for yourself and it’s going to take time and commitment.  Maybe even a little bit of money to create the opportunity to be introduced to the right people by the right people.

Your goal is long term recognition.  Just like clout, it’s not always the easiest to get, but once you’ve got it, you’ve got it and it’s yours to lose or build upon…start pulling some shady stuff, make a series of vital mistakes, stop giving people what they need, or have someone else become more powerful and respected than you and you can lose it faster than you gained it.  But if you build a solid base, gradually build on it and take care of people, it’s yours forever.

Search Engine Optimization is the strongest of these three, just like clout.  You should put your investment into organic SEO for any of your mid to long term online business goals.

Money and Internet Marketing

If you’ve just opened your business, have a sale coming up or a new product getting ready to come out, you know that you’ll need to invest some money in advertising.  There are also ongoing costs for advertising and marketing for the day to day functioning of your business.  This is where an investment of your money in Internet Marketing comes in.

If you need to get the word out quick to get business through your doors in the online world, you spend some money on Internet Marketing or “Online Advertising”.  Technically aspects of SEO, which that I discussed above, are a part of Internet Marketing.  But because it generally consists of a lower percentage cost up front and has a longer term and relatively stable ROI, I separated it into its own section.  Some other forms of Internet Marketing that you may or may not be familiar with are:

• Pay-per-click, or PPC advertising, also referred to as Search Engine Marketing, or SEM
• Affiliate advertising or banner programs
• Email marketing campaigns
• Link “Building” (Buying)
• Sponsored blog posts
• Sponsored web pages
• Online Public Relations or Press Releases
• And several others

The combination of Internet Marketing tools you use is dependent on your need and budget.  Some of them might not be right for your situation.  But if you have to get a quick result and have some money to spend, Internet Marketing is the route to take for immediate results and the most trackable and immediate ROI.

Internet Marketing campaigns need to be monitored, analyzed and changed on the fly.  If one campaign is performing better for you than another, someone should notice it and switch your spend accordingly or make adjustments to make the under-performer perform better.

Make sure you use the right team if you go this route.  It can be a high stakes and risky game in the wrong hands.  You wouldn’t do a high stakes stock trade with a new broker, right?

Internet Marketing is the fastest of these three, but will cost you a more substantial investment, especially at start up.  You should put your investment into Internet Marketing for any of your short term online business goals.  You can slow down or eliminate this budget over time if you’re gaining clout (SEO) and are getting a sufficient amount of leads by organic or viral means.

Friends and Social Media

With all this talk about Twitter, Facebook, et al. what is the purpose of Social Media and how can it help your online business?  This is where your “friends” come in.  In the real world, your friends are likely to help you move or recommend your business to some of their other friends.

Social Media is much the same way as friends and should be thought of in that exact manner.  They’re friends, be social!  They’re likely to send you some business on occasion, but not oodles.  If all you ever do is talk about work, they’re not likely to be your friends long.

The truth about social media is that it’s not right for everybody, but it’s cheap and a great way to be a part of the “community”.  The time needed to commit to social media is much longer than the other two and I still haven’t seen how to track Social Media’s ROI.  I don’t know about you but my time is worth as much if not more than my money.

If you have a good cause, if you’re a NPO, a “green” company or have a loyal customer base chances are that Social Media will work for you.  If you sell widgets or one particular type of service that people generally don’t think about until they need it, Social Media probably isn’t for you.

If you go the Social Media route, first consider if it’s really for you and your business.  If you do it yourself, there is zero cost involved.  Who wants friends they have to buy, right?

Social Media is the cheapest of these three, free if you do it yourself, but can cost you a substantial amount of time and very little trackable ROI.  Unless this is for your situation, and done correctly and consistently you can end up with a whole lot of time committed and nothing in return.

In Conclusion

I hope I was able to clear up a few things about the online marketing paradigm.  There are a lot of details involved in accomplishing any of these three but I hope that now you can, at least, make a semi-educated decision about which path is right for you and your business.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss anything covered here in more detail, please contact us or email me directly at dean [ at ] tmprod.com.   Thanks!

Did you know that God is even on twitter? http://www.twitter.com/god yup, and he’s kind of funny.  I personally follow Lance Armstrong.  He has some great tweets, especially now since it’s the Tour de France.  Interested in what’s happening at the white House? You can follow it, http://twitter.com/whitehouse.  Just about everyone is on twitter these days

So do you twitter? Are you interested in twittering? Most of us in the office have a twitter account, mine is http://www.twitter.com/avfc13, Dwight’s is http://www.twitter.com/dwightz, Dean’s is http://www.twitter.com/deanduncanjones, Eric’s is http://www.twitter.com/erictm and Christel’s is http://www.twitter.com/christelmurray.  Heck, even our office has a twitter account, http://www.twitter.com/TheTMOffice.  We’re not sure who runs it, as the office is an inordinate object, but he tweets about what we’re working on, the temperature, world politics, or sometimes he’ll share Einstein quotes with us.  Strange, I know.  But if you’re interested in what we do here at Trademark, following our office twitter account will surely let you know.  Does your company have an account? If not, does it need one? Maybe you’re so busy with running your business, that you just don’t have time to run the account….well as you can see, we’re more than fit to do if for you.  Send us a message and we’ll be happy to help you out.

Remember though, twitter isn’t for everyone.  You have to decide whether having your company and it’s image out there on twitter will hurt or help.  Think it will help? or just have questions about twitter? Contact us, we’d be glad to help.