A few weeks ago on this blog we talked about why Microsoft might not need to fear Google Docs quite yet. Despite a lot of attention paid among the early adopter press (read: web 2.0 tracking blogs like this one), not many people actually use Google Docs. The free, desktop Microsoft Office competitor OpenOffice.org may have almost 4 times as many users as Google’s suite of web-based tools.

New numbers from Compete suggest that things are even worse than they appear for Google’s hopes of competing with Microsoft in the office. Though Compete reports that the combined number of users for Google’s Docs and Spreadsheets is 4.4 million — peanuts compared to Microsoft’s Office install base and Google’s total traffic, but still a healthy number — more than half of those visitors don’t get past the landing page. 58% of unique visitors to Google Docs and Spreadsheets in September 2008 never actually touched the applications themselves.

Even more disappointing for Google, according to Compete the time spent on site is miserable. One would expect that average time per user would be fairly high for a word processing application — after all, college students spend hours in front of Microsoft Word typing up papers each week. Compete found that visitors to Google Docs and Spreadsheets apps are only spending about 5 minutes per month on the site, and only visiting about 3 days out of each month.

That suggests to us that Google’s tools might be used more for viewing and reading purposes — a way to send documents and be sure they will be readable when they arrive — rather than actual editing and writing. If that’s the case, that’s bad news for Google. Microsoft is preparing to launch their own free web-based Office tools to complement their desktop software. If people are really only using Google Docs as a document viewer and still using Microsoft Office for serious word processing, they may just switch to Microsoft’s online tools for convenience purposes to share and do light editing of documents.

However, we’ve also noted that Google has been rapidly developing its web office offerings and they’re getting better at a quick pace. As Google’s tools become more feature rich, Microsoft may find itself in competition with Google based more completely on the merits of each company’s web office applications. Further, Google does appear to be making a push to get more mainstream users using Docs and Spreadsheets. They just added a Docs gadget to Gmail Labs, and they also booted StarOffice, a desktop office software suite based on OpenOffice.org, from their Google Pack software bundle, prompting us to wonder if the company is planning to replace it with desktop wrappers for Google Docs and Spreadsheets, perhaps linked to their Chrome browser.

If and when all that happens, things will definitely get more interesting. For now, though, Google has a huge uphill battle to climb.

Share This

The following is republished from The SitePoint Tribune #421.

Some time ago in the SitePoint Forums, johnyboy came up with a “mad crazy payment scheme idea” for discussion in the forums. It attracted a bit of interest and some terrific responses.

johnyboy’s idea was to build clients’ sites for free, with payment being a percentage of the sales. I really like how he’s applying alternative thinking to construct a different business model for future enterprises.

But here’s some advice from someone who’s been there: the concept may sound okay, but in practice it might end up being the worst thing he’s ever done.

Several years ago, I took a vastly reduced payment from a client by accepting a percentage of sales instead; this involved developing the site as well as marketing it. The first month was fine and I was paid. In the second month, sales went through the roof so the client owed me quite a chunk of change. Conveniently, the client now failed to see what I’d provided for the money owed, and refused to pay.

The coda to this is that stupid me agreed to a similar deal with another client a year later. Needless to say, I was done over again!

I have never, ever seen this sort of arrangement work effectively. There are too many factors out of the web developer’s control; while measurement is one thing, actual payment is quite another!

Having said that, I’d still encourage anyone to re-examine their business model or billing and payment practices; indeed, anything that might make a difference to your bottom line is worth investigating.

Brainstorming ideas, like johnyboy has done, can lead to innovative practices that help your business cash flow and generate long-term business success.

Share This

I’ve been blogging for the last three years now and one of the most important things I’ve learnt is readers don’t have the time (or attention span) to read through long detailed posts. Concise, attractive looking posts grab the attention of readers and performs far more effectively almost every time.

I figured this out the hard way, spending hours writing up long posts which I perceived as quality content. Unfortunately no-one else agreed! Surprisingly the short and very quick posts which I didn’t think were anywhere near as interesting, seemed to grab the attention of readers, commenter’s and social media audiences.

5 reasons why you should forget about writing the perfect piece of quality content

Image Credit: Flickr

1) Ditch the long paragraphs - no-one reads them!
Is it worth describing point 1 in detail here? Chances are that readers will skim over the title and skip to point 2! So off to point 2…

2) A diagram paints a thousand words
An informative diagram will be quicker to understand and instantly provide an overview of the post. Additional content can be added to back-up the post for users who are looking for more detail, without the need for reading through everything for those who aren’t so interested.

3) A picture doesn’t even need to paint three words!
Images make the page look attractive and can be the difference between a StumbleUpon thumbs up or a user leaving the site before the browser even loads.

4) Spend your time researching a large number of bullet points instead of copywriting
As interesting as the post might be, if it looks long-winded it will probably get ignored. If you have a bullet-pointed list full of useful information or links, for example, users are likely to scan through each item and bookmark to finish later.

5) A boring headline = no-one reads your post
You might have thousands of website visitors or RSS subscribers, but no matter how good the post is, it’s likely to get skipped if the headline is dull. Put more of your copywriting effort into considering the headline and the reward should be far greater.

So there you have it, it’s simple - blogging’s all about headlines, lists & images! Maybe you should try it yourself, drop the hours of copywriting and watch the social media votes roll in!

Copyright SEOptimise. Original article from our Search Marketing News - Search Engine Marketing

The Lazy Bloggers Guide to Quality Content & Social Media Success

Share This

The prevailing wisdom at Google is that their ad-centric business model is recession proof. As advertising budgets are squeezed, some pundits have suggested that ad dollars will move online to advertising methods where it is more easy to measure return on investment. That means advertising models such as Cost Per Action, and Google’s bread and butter, Cost Per Click ads, would see growth while other advertising methods hit the skids.

Further, Google believes that as consumers become more budget conscious, they’ll turn to online search engines to scout out new deals. “One thing that we think at Google is that when there is a recessionary environment, people are counting their pennies, are going to be researching their purchases, looking for bargains, and this potentially has something of an upside for Google, where we referred to this last time I called it the Wal-Mart effect,” said Google’s chief economist Hal Varian during a conference call last month.

But Wal-Mart effect or not, the economic downturn has to catch up to Google eventually, and WIRED Epicenter reports today that is might just be starting to.

“Sponsored ad sales — or Cost-per-click ads that are paid for by advertisers only when people click on them — are softening, according to Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal,” writes Epicenter’s Betsy Schiffman. “[Aggarwal’s] research suggests that CPC ad rates have held up so far because of the number of advertisers bidding on keywords and quality scores demanded a minimum bid for low-quality key words.”

Unfortunately for Google, it looks like the number of bidders per keyword is starting to flatline. As a result, Aggarwal gave his outlook for Google’s Q4 revenue a $110m haircut today. Google had an off day on the stock market as well, closing at a 52-week low of $291 per share.

Image via Rizza.

Share This

Freelancers are amateurs. They’re not as talented as the designers, writers, and programmers who work for major development shops. They’re not as professional, use lower quality tools, and don’t produce the same quality of work. As such, they deserve less pay. Want to save a buck? Hire a freelancer. The work won’t be quite as good, but the cost savings will be immense.

Or at least, that’s how the professional world views freelancers according to designer Arron Lock. “It is unfortunate but as long as there are wannabe designers calling themselves freelancers there will be people that simply won’t take us seriously,” he writes on his blog.

According to Lock, there exists a negative stigma around the word “freelancer.” “In most people’s opinion freelancers are not professional designers,” Lock writes. That’s why when you pitch a client a $X,XXX price tag for their project, they might reply, “Yeah, but my nephew can do it for fifty bucks.” The problem is that freelancers have a reputation of being amateurs and should be paid peanuts as a result.

There are two ways to avoid that negative connotation, though, says Lock. First, stop calling yourself a freelancer. Lock suggests something like “Independent Designer” instead. That might not fool anyone, though — they’ll still know they’re hiring a contractor, so the stigma might continue to apply. Lock’s second piece of advice is to file the necessary paperwork to form an actual business, even if you’re the sole proprietor.

“Trust me, people take you far more seriously when they hear you are a business owner,” he says. That’s a sentiment echoed by my friend and freelance designer Kelli Shaver (who made the freelancer graphic above). She told me that people are generally much more inclined to hire her once they find out that she owns a local computer repair shop.

So our question to you: Should the term “freelancer” be retired?

Vote in our poll and leave a comment below.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Share This

In my ppc for travel post from a couple of weeks ago I recommended splittester for testing ad variations. I got a bit fed up with only being able to test two ads at once and having to type the information in for each test. I though it would be a lot easier if I could do the same thing on a spreadsheet. I emailed Brian Teasley the creator of splittester, to find out what sort of statistical test he used so that I could implement it in my own spreadsheet. He offered to sell me his own spreadsheet for $950. NINE hundred and fifty dollars! Nine HUNDRED and fifty dollars! Nine hundred and FIFTY! For a spreadsheet! Brian, I could buy a bank for that.

I wasn’t going to pay $950 for a spreadsheet so I began to do my own research about statistical testing with the aim of using it for our own ads. Having read quite a few SEO blog posts on the subject I think that quite a lot of people don’t really know what they’re talking about when it comes to ad testing. Throughout this article I’m talking as if you’re optimising for CTR. The procedure for optimising for conversion rate is very similar; for impressions read clicks, and for clicks read conversions. Here are 5 of the most insidious errors:

1. You must have x clicks (mistake 1).
It isn’t a higher number of clicks that makes a result more statistically significant; the important thing, your sample size, is the number of impressions. Think of it this way; if you had an ad with 1,000,000 impressions and no clicks you wouldn’t wait for it to get a certain number (30 seems popular for some reason) of clicks before deciding it was a bad ad. In my own model I treat each impression as a Bernoulli trial with a click being a success. Then I estimate the binomial parameter p, the variance of which gets smaller as the number of impressions increases.

2. You must test two ads.
People only talk about A/B testing of adverts. You can still get valid results if you’re testing 1000 ad variations at the same time. The main problem with this is that your test would have to run for a long time to get significant results. It is also hard to say why the best ad might be best which makes it difficult to write your next ad variation.

3. Use a two-tailed test.
Some of you might not know what a two tailed test is. Imagine you have two ads called A and B that you’re testing for CTR. To test the hypothesis “A and B have different CTRs” you’d use a two tailed test to sum the probabilities that A was better than B and that B was better then A. If the test tells you your hypothesis is true what do you do? You’re no further forward because you already thought the ads would have a different CTR otherwise you wouldn’t be testing them.  To establish how sure you can be that ad A is better than ad B you must use a one tailed test. Telling someone that “You are approximately 99% confident that the ads will have different long term response rates” is useless.

4. You must have x clicks (mistake 2).
It is true that if the test runs for long enough then it will be obvious which ad is actually the best. But how long is long enough? Waiting 6 months to see if an ad with an apparent CTR of 0.5% is going to have a late surge to beat one with a CTR of 4.5% just causes your business to miss out on clicks. To solve this problem and know when a split test has been running long enough you must use a statistical test. I’d say there are three possibilities to choose from:

• The simplest test to use is known as a z-test. To use a z-test you must assume that CTR is normally distributed and your sample size must be big enough so that the sample CTR variance is a close approximation to the true variance.
• For small sample sizes use a t-test. Or more specifically, Welch’s t-test. This test does not assume that you know the population variance so it is a better test than the z-test. For large sample sizes the t-distribution matches the normal distribution (used in the z-test) so for large samples, since the t-test is more complicated to use, I’d use the z-test.
• For the above two tests there is an implicit assumption that CTR is normally distributed (on a bell curve). I think this is actually the case but if you disagree let me know why on the comments below and then start using the Mann-Whitney U test. Wikipedia says that for normally distributed data a Mann-Whitney U test is 95% as good as a t-test and it is less likely to give spurious results based on outliers. I would consider using this test when the CTR is small since then anyone who clicked the ad could be considered an outlier.

5. Any difference in CTR is because of the Ad.
I haven’t seen this view all that much but its one I believed myself until quite recently. I thought that any difference between the CTR of the ads being tested must be due entirely to the difference between the ad texts. I didn’t think that one ad might’ve been shown on slightly more relevant keywords or at a time of day when it was more likely to get clicked. How do you compensate for this when you’re testing? For a useful campaign ‘in the wild’ I don’t think it is possible to completely avoid this problem; it is impractical to have only one exact matched keyword per ad group. Instead do the best you can by following AdWords best practice and using tightly grouped keywords in each ad group.

I hope to blog a bit more about ad variations and statistical testing; I’ve had some pretty weird things come up as being statistically significant. Put any questions or comments in the form below and I’ll try to address them in my next post.

Copyright SEOptimise. Original article from our Internet Marketing News - Search Engine Optimisation

5 Common Ad Testing Mistakes

Share This

A friend of mine recently told me that his new boss refuses to market the firm’s website because she thinks internet advertising is a ‘flash in the pan’.

When my poor friend eventually got a word in edgeways, he said he understands the value of the internet as a marketing platform but needs to explain this to his employer.

Therefore, to help him and any other people whose bosses need a little encouragement I have compiled a list of what I consider to be the most compelling recent sector information. This collection of research should help anyone making a case for internet promotional work.

If your boss still won’t take their marketing online, I would recommend looking for an employer with more longevity!

Growth
The numbers vary slightly from analysis to analysis but the trend is always up. Even within the current economic climate, it is widely held that the amount spent by companies (tell your boss that includes competitors!) will continue to rise.

A report released by Research and Markets forecasts growth in online advertising of 31.4 per cent this year, following high expenditure in 2007. According to the analysis, last year the internet was the fastest-growing medium for advertising.

The Internet Advertising Bureau reports that spending on web advertising rose to £1,682.5 million in the first six months of the year. This is growth of more than 20 per cent on the same period in 2007.

Research by the European Interactive Advertising Association reveals 81 per cent of advertisers say they have increased the amount they spend through online promotions this year. Those questioned forecast a further 16 per cent growth in spending levels next year and 17 per cent in 2009.

Effectiveness
Research agency eMarketer suggests the web is so useful because it engages with consumers by encouraging interaction. Furthermore, it explains, internet marketing allows firms to communicate with prospects through the entire buying cycle.

A study by the Internet Advertising Bureau finds web-based advertising is the main source of consumer brand engagement for retailers. It suggests online marketing creates 40 per cent of consumer relationships, compared to just 19 per cent for TV adspend.

Numbers
The web is becoming increasingly popular as a marketing platform because results can be measured and consumers engaged, but also because of the rising number of people online.

Analysis conducted at the start of the year by Nielson shows more than 85 per cent of the world’s web-accessing population have made at least one purchase online. This, it noted, is a 40 per cent rise over the two years to January.

In July alone, these consumers spent a whopping £4.8 billion, according to the IMRG/Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index August 2008. That is an incredible £79 for every single person in the UK.

Copyright SEOptimise. Original article from our Internet Marketing News - Search Engine Optimisation

Important Studies for Online Marketing

Share This

The Washington Post is reporting that a US host allegedly responsible for a whopping 75% of the junk email sent out globally on on a daily basis has been knocked offline. “For the past four months, Security Fix has been gathering data from the security industry about McColo Corp., a San Jose, Calif., based Web hosting service whose client list experts say includes some of the most disreputable cyber-criminal gangs in business today,” writes the Post’s Brian Krebs.

According to Benny Ng, director of marketing for Hurricane Electric, which was one of the major backbone providers for MyColo, after being contacted by Security Fix, the web fraud blog at the Post authored by Krebs, the company decided to shut down the rogue hosting provider. “We looked into it a bit, saw the size and scope of the problem [Security Fix was] reporting and said, ‘Holy cow!’ Within the hour we had terminated all of our connections to them,” Ng said.

In addition to controlling spam-producing botnets, MyColo’s bad practices extended to other illegal activities, such as hosting child pornography, sites that managed payment processing for spam and child porn, and a Trojan horse operation that apparently swiped banking and credit card information from hundreds of thousands of people. Suffice it to say, they won’t be missed.

However, don’t expect the level of spam in your inbox to decrease — or not by much, and not for long. As we reported earlier this week, spam is still a vastly profitable endeavor, and spammers are very resourceful. They won’t simply disappear now that one of the largest spam hubs is gone — they’ll just find a new place to blast their spam from.

“With McColo gone off the air, I do not suspect I’ll find little to do in the coming weeks, months, and year, the badness they hosted will simply move,” wrote Jose Nazario a Arbor Networks, a web security firm.

One major question is why MyColo has taken so long to be stopped. According to security experts, they’ve been a known offender for quite some time, but authorities have been slow to act.

“There is damning evidence that this activity has been going on there for way too long, and plenty of people in the security community have gone out of their way to raise awareness about this network, but nobody seems to care,” Paul Ferguson, a threat researcher with computer security firm Trend Micro told the Washington Post. “It’s a statement on the inefficiencies of trying to pursue legal prosecution of these guys that it takes so long for anything to be done about it. Law enforcement is saying they’re doing what they can, but that’s not enough. And if law enforcement can’t address stuff like this in a timely fashion, then the whole concept of law enforcement in the cyber world needs to be readdressed, because it’s hardly making a dent at the moment.”

Share This

Web Design for ROI is a book that had huge impact not only on myself. It has changed the way the SEO industry approaches web design and finally made people embrace usability to it’s full effect. Sadly the web developer community wasn’t impacted to the same extent yet. Many web designers and developers, especially of the “failed artist” kind seem to assume that web design is more about flashy animations, fancy graphics and beautiful decoration than real business value or ROI/Return On Investment.

“One of the most striking and true tidbits of web design for ROI is the notion that not the homepage of a website is the most important part of it but the forms. Yes, forms, the most hated and neglected part of web design are the crucial part of the website which determines your business success. It depends on the form whether your potential customers will subscribe, apply, buy, check out, contact you etc.”

This collection of 50 must read web design for ROI, usability and SEO articles also embraces the philosophy behind designing websites for the ROI of it not the looks. It  contains a few all time  favorites from the eraly days of the web which still are true as well as mostly current cutting edge articles and resources.

As stated above the list starts with the most significant part of Web Design for ROI, form design.

Intro

• SEOmoz | Web Design for ROI: Chapter 3, Managing for ROI

Forms

• 25 Web Form Optimization Tips
• Effective use of forms on websites (theory, March 1, 2001)
• Getting a Form’s Structure Right: Designing Usable Online Email Applications - Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design
• 7 Shopping Cart Tips That Even Amazon Could Use | Improve the Web
• Pop Upon Magazine: Geek Trends: 15 Outstanding Feed Subscription Displays
• Web Form Design in the Wild, Part I
• Web Form Design Patterns: Sign-Up Forms | How-To | Smashing Magazine

Universal Search and Multimedia

• The Local Search Ranking Factors: Ranking High in Google Maps and Yahoo Local
• 19 Ways to Optimize Your Site for Google Images
• blinkx Video SEO Whitepaper [PDF]
• A List Apart: Articles: Understanding Progressive Enhancement
• Guide to Optimizing PDFs for Search Engines
• mezzoblue § Image Replacement + Google
• Why Web Design Matters : SEO Book.com
• 2009 Google Flash SEO | beu blog

Blogs

• Blog Usability: Top 10 Weblog Design Mistakes (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox)
• Five Winning Approaches for When Your Audience Doesn’t Read Blogs
• How to Blog Design Style Guide | Blog design Blog for Blog Designers
• Evaluating the Effectiveness of Your Blog Theme | Vandelay Website Design
• SEO 2.0 | Blog Suicide: Top 7 Title & Meta Tag Mistakes that Kill Your Blog

Usability

• UX Magazine - Conversion Rate Optimization - Part 1
• UX Magazine - Conversion Rate Optimization - Part 2
• Usability Post » Does Your Website Suffer From These 7 Usability Mistakes?
• Findability, Orphan of the Web Design Industry
• 30 Ways to Increase Readability Online
• 50 Web Usability Tips that Help You Attract and Retain Web Visitors
• Social Proof Optimization: How to Make Your Website Appealing to the Masses

Website optimization

• The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist, Period! - Search Engine Guide Blog
• 14 free tools that reveal why people abandon your website | Conversion Rate Experts
• How To Diagnose Your Site with Google Advanced Search
• The SEO Guide to Information Architecture | AudetteMedia
• Search engine marketing blog - Reseo: Ten steps to higher conversions using Google’s Website Optimiser
• 50 Ways Your Web Site Is Discouraging Conversions — and How to Fix It - Inside CRM
• The Internet Marketing Unlist: 49 Things You Probably Are Doing But Shouldn’t | Internet Marketing Strategy: Conversation Marketing
• 21 Factors that Influence the First Impression of Your Website’s Visitors | Vandelay Website Design
• 10 Easy Steps to Great Website Optimization. | The Wojo Group
• Internal Links - Are You Making the Most of Yours? | SEO Design Solutions

Content

• Reading on the Web (Alertbox)
• How Little Do Users Read? (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox)
• Use Words on Your Site Correctly: The Complete Guide | Improve the Web
• Headline Writing for Google, Social Media and Profit : Condomunity
• 10 SEO and Marketing-Friendly Title Tag Formulas | Internet Marketing Strategy: Conversation Marketing
• Your Content Development Strategy | Datadial Blog

URLs

• adaptive path » user-centered url design
• SEO 2.0 | Top 10 Fatal URL Design Mistakes
• Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Dynamic URLs vs. static URLs

Misc. web design

• SEOmoz | How to Ruin a Web Design - The Design Curve
• 25 Beautiful Minimalistic Website Designs - Part 4 | Vandelay Website Design
• CSS Typography: Contrast Techniques, Tutorials and Best Practices | Noupe

This list is not meant to be all encompassing but it is meant to collect indispensable know how in what I tend to call ROI web design. I’m quite sure I forgot some must read resources so feel to add them in the comment section.

Copyright SEOptimise. Original article from our Internet Marketing News - Search Engine Optimisation

50+ Must Read Web Design for ROI, Usability and SEO Articles

Share This

Google have obviously been clamping down on paid links during the last year, but it now looks like they may also be taking a stance against blog reviews made in exchange for free gifts!

Just in case you haven’t heard of this; a recent popular strategy has been for website’s to offer a free gift in exchange for bloggers reviewing and linking to a product. This appeared to be treated differently from paid blog reviews with many people assuming this to be a tactic considered acceptable by Google.

One website which openly uses this tactic is SumoLounge.com, successfully generating hundreds of backlinks in exchange for a free product, often a sumo beanbag chair.

However, Google now appear to have stripped Sumo Lounge of their Google PageRank (notice the toolbar image below). No obvious ranking penalties have been applied and internal PageRank is still active, but this may act as a warning to website’s looking to offer a similar incentive to gain links from bloggers.

I can understand why Google would treat these type of reviews in the same way as a paid blog post, but it will almost certainly be very difficult to police. Google will need to ensure they only penalise websites where the sole intention of offering a free gift is in order to receive a product review backlink, otherwise how can they differentiate between this and a christmas gift?

So what do you do now?
I think it’s a fairly safe bet that if you rely heavily on one type of link building strategy (whether it’s via directories, articles or blog reviews) you’re likely to create a backlink profile which appears unnatural to the search engines. Having a widespread mix of different type of links is far more likely to have a positive influence towards search rankings. Although entirely speculative, it’s also possible that Google will be more lenient if paid links only account for a small percentage of overall backlinks, perhaps resulting in paid links being devalued instead of a ranking penalty applied.

Copyright SEOptimise. Original article from our Internet Marketing News - Search Engine Optimisation

Are Google Now Penalising “Free Gift” Blog Reviews?

Share This