Last week, like every other week, I wrote an article. This time I decided to syndicate it, something I should be doing twice a week, but only get to about 4 times a month, and that's if I'm feeling up to it.
This was one of the biggest traffic draws from a single article that I have had in years. It is still producing a steady stream of traffic, sales and subscribers as I'm writing this.
It's been 2 years since I've gotten that much of an appreciative response, or that amount of attention, period, for an article I wrote that wasn't widely syndicated. In fact, it only appeared in one major publication.
So what's all the hub-bub, bub?
As you may have guessed, there was a controversy surrounding the article. First, there were several typos. Normally I'd edit the article so relentlessly that by the time the article was perfect, it would be a month since I wrote it and it wouldn't fit into my article marketing campaign for that week.
Since I'd been kicking my own butt to get content out on schedule, even when it isn't perfect, I took my own medicine and just sent it out the way it was. And boy were the grammar, typing and spelling police mad!
Two people wrote me that they passed my article around at their meetings as an example of what not to do. Does it count as a backfire when one of the people who sees it Googles you and becomes a client?
(Just had to get in that little dig. Forgive me.)
What else was so bad about the article?
I called my readers "punks" - in the title.
This was a calculated risk - I'd run another version of the article, a blog post, and from sharing on StumbleUpon alone it got over 3000 visitors. In this new version, the article then went on to tell my readers to basically get off their over-thinking butts and do something, then gave them two examples of things to do.
There was, of course, a vocal minority of outraged responses about this too. But, curiously, other, louder, people who read the article - people I haven't ever met or spoken to - came along and defended it.
In the end, my slang-ridden, typo-laden, in-your-face article brought me more profitable traffic and attention than any other article I've written this year. It was written in a moment of passion I had at seeing a friend almost lose her house, and a peer almost lose his business, mostly as a result of inaction.
And seeing this reaction led me to go back and look at my other articles. I write all my own stuff - it's far more profitable for those of us who are at least halfway decent at writing to write an okay article injected with personality than it is to pay someone else to write generic content.
(I still hire writers for certain things though. But I concentrate on the ones with voice and depth, and pay them more for unique, engaging writing - I don't simply outsource to the lowest bidder. I say if you're going to hire a writer, get someone better than you.)
If you have the ability to generate controversy with your content, do it. Not convinced? Here are seven reasons why you should consider it.
1- It's Effectíve
Nothing gets more attention than controversy. That's why reality shows are popular. It's why we read the journalist who we think is making an absolutely backwards prediction about something we care about. That's why people gossip and debate.
Why merely participate when you can be the topic of discussion?
2- Negative Attention is Sometimes even Better than Positive Attention
Nothing spreads faster than outrage. Wide exposure for a controversial view is much better than no exposure for towing the conventional wisdom line.
3- Display Your Skill at Dealing with Diverging Viewpoints
Let people see the smooth way you react to the rude comments from people who take your words personally that WILL follow. I've gained lifelong friends, fans and customers from them witnessing what they call poise under pressure - and I call common courtesy.
You don't have to respond from the same type of energy that's being directed at you. Why let someone else having a bad day ruin your day?
4- It Vets Your Buyers
For example, if you want more clients that will take your advice to heart, get off their butts, and stop making excuses, try making a video that takes a hard line and tells people to get off their butts and stop making excuses!
Yeah, you'll get reamed for it - by people who make excuses. They will be offended and won't ever sign up to your newsletter.
Awesome. Because the people who needed a coach who believes in swift kicks in the butt will take your advice and hungrily seek more of it.
5- It's Fun to Do
What's more fun than seeing something controversial? Being controversial or doing something controversial. It's not for the faint of heart, but if you can take it, boy is that a fun ride!
6- It's Entertaining To Experience
When people are entertained, they buy more. You probably haven't ever noticed the music playing in the background at the grocery store. It's there because studies show that people browse longer and thus, buy more, when they're being entertained.
Now you see more TVs at gas stations and in convenience stores. When I used to live in Vegas many of the Strip cabs had TVs on the backs of seats before I ever saw them in regular cars.
Then there's the classic example of commercials during our favorite TV shows.
7- It Sets You Apart
You know why bigger companies are afraid of controversy?
Me either. If you find out, come tell me. All I know is, I'm not afraid of controversy because I see it as an opportunity. It's another way to connect, to have something to discuss, and in the case of my last controversial article, to help people.
Even if you aren't going to make a controversial audio, video, blog post or article, for goodness sakes, do something different.
No one watches boring shows on TV, invites boring people to parties, reads boring books or listens to boring music unless they have to, for study or evaluation.
Try a little controversy and see where it takes you. If that's too scary, at least risk being extraordinarily passionate. The spotlight can be fun.
Professional website developers know the importance of web design and the role it plays in making a website successful.
Designing a successful website is no easy task, especially for someone who is new to the world of web development. With the help of web development applications many people can and do create decent websites. But decent in most cases is not good enough to make a site successful from a traffic or financial standpoint.
There are five crucial components of web design that you must focus on in order to make a site valuable to its visitors and successful for you.
• SEO -
Getting free traffic to your site.
• Usability -
Ease of navigating around the site and finding desired information quickly.
• Aesthetics -
Visual appeal.
• Content -
Valid, up-to-date, relevant information.
• Graphics -
Eye candy that relays relevant visual information to the visitor.
SEO
Before you ever lay down a byte of HTML code for a site, you have to know and understand at least the basics of SEO and how it fits into the design. SEO is the art of designing a site in a fashion that gives the site an advantage for obtaining free and abundant traffic.
The number one aspect of SEO is selecting keywords relevant to your site. The keywords you select should be based on high usage, low competition and relevancy to your topic. Once you select keywords you can then begin the development of your site. Keep in mind keywords are a critical aspect of the design. The keywords you choose will be applied within the design in strategic fashion to benefit the flow of traffic to your site. To understand more on how to implement SEO you should read and learn more about this important subject. If you don't, your website success will be difficult to achieve.
Usability
Your website must be easy to navigate and designed in a way that makes it easy to find information. Visitors will not stay long if it takes more than one or two clicks to get the information they want or if it takes brain power to figure out how to get the information they want. One of the goals of your site design is to keep usability easy, and simple. To do this, apply the following three fundamentals of usability.
• Provide a site search tool.
A visitor in a hurry can quickly find the info they desire then move on to the action they desire.
• Provide simple, intuitive and consistent site navigation.
This provides visitors the tool they need to leisurely explore their way through your site.
• Provide logical and simple to follow content.
The message of a site should start off in a simple and basic fashion with well defined links pointing the way to more detailed information or explanation as needed.
In the cases above, the goal is to make it easy for your visitor to find the information they want without frustration or difficulty. Doing this well will have a positive effect on increasing the return of your visitors.
Aesthetics
A website has to look clean, uncomplicated and strike a balance in layout that is pleasant to the visitor. Pleasing aesthetics come about when the colors of a site complement each other, the graphics blend and lend continuation of the theme and the layout brings unity and openness to the page.
Often overlooked by novice designers is the color palette of the site. While you can select color in a willy-nilly fashion and still provide a visually appealing site, a better idea for color selection should be based on an understanding of the color wheel and proven color strategies.
Many web designers often view a web page as an opportunity to blast a visitor with lots of information in hopes this will convince the visitor to take action. Usually this results in a quick exit due to the overwhelming visual effect and complicated look. A better approach is to provide less content and open space (referred to as white space) to allow visitors eyes to scan and explore with ease.
Content
An important feature of any website is the quality of the text content. Visitors come to a site expecting to find answers to their questions, solutions to their problems or for entertainment value. The content offered at your site must be well-written and without grammatical or spelling errors. It also has to be relevant to the theme of your site, with valid, up-to- date information for your visitors. Content is King!
Graphics
You can have a functional and usable website without graphic elements. However, if there are similar sites to yours that employ graphics, guess which site will get the most traffic. The necessary companions to any well-designed site are the images and illustrations that grace its pages. The images can't be any willy-nilly graphic that you might think is cool. Graphic imagery has to support your branding, and communicate the message you are trying to convey. Before you incorporate graphic elements into your site, take some time to look around the web. Notice what looks good and how elements are laid out. These same layouts techniques can be used as models for your site.
The Internet is a highly competitive business arena. To be successful with a commercial website, you have to keep these five crucial web design elements in mind. Contrary to what many will tell you, it is rarely possible to have commercial success without the benefit of a professional website. This is not to say that you must hire a professional, however you must implement professional design elements to improve your chances for success.
Building a great landing page should be on top of your priority list if you want your website visitors transformed into customers.
While a great looking website can grab the attention of your visitors, a strong landing page will keep them involved and get them to buy your products/services.
Wikipedia defines a landing page as:
The page that appears when a potential customer clicks on an advertisement or a search-engine result link. The page will usually display content that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link, and that is optimized to feature specific keywords or phrases for indexing by search engines.
Wikipedia's definition sums it up nicely but there is certainly more to a great landing page then relevant and keyword rich content. Here are 10 things that you should be looking at when optimizing a landing page: 
- Relevant Content
A landing page's content should be directly related to organic search results, PPC campaign, anchor text in inbound links and any other targeted inbound advertising, online and offline. If people don't get what they expect, they will be more likely to leave.
- Multiple Landing Pages
A landing page shouldn't necessarily be your homepage. In many instances a homepage is a good landing page. However, for more targeted traffíc and better results, you want a landing page to be focused on a specific offering and specific call for action. To accomplish this, a given website should have multiple landing pages. Create some deep link landing pages that will focus on a specific proposition and your conversion rate will be higher.
- Focus on Functionality
More and more visitors seem to judge the professionalism and credibility of a site by its design. To satisfy this, many website owners concentrate on the design aspect instead of focusing on its functionality. A well-designed landing page is essentially worthless if the prospect can't accomplish anything. While I wouldn't suggest skimping on the design, it shouldn't be your priority. Focus on the exact steps you want your visitor to take and design a page with that in mind.
- Call To Action
You got visitors to your landing page, now direct them to take action. Make it clear and highly noticeable without overwhelming your audience. Whether it's a sign-up form or a "buy now" button, make it the focus of your page.
Send a Clear Message
Keep your landing page clean and clutter free so your visitors stay focused on your message. Emphasize the biggest reasons that they should carry out the applicable call to action with larger text, contrasting colors, images. Make it easier for them to scan the content by using lists and getting right to the point.
- Provide Incentive
Bribing your visitors with freebies and samples is a proven method of enticing them to sign up. Provide more than your competition but don't sell yourself short either. Provide a list of reasons why your offering is better and what exactly the visitor can expect. Provide references and testimonials.
- Make Visitors Stay
Avoid sending your visitors to another page unless it is absolutely necessary. That includes any internal navigation as well as external banners. If you eliminate all distractions and limit navigation options, you stand a better chance of keeping your visitors around.
- Simple is Better
Make it easy for your visitors to complete the action you want them to. Less confusion and decision making for your visitor means better conversions rate for your landing page. Don't provide multiple choices and throw in optional extras. Focus on the pitch the page was created for.
- Power of Freebies
Everyone likes free offers. They are hard to resist and can be a powerful conversion tool. Whether a call to action is free or something free is receíved as a result of carrying out a call to action, it certainly doesn't hurt. If your competition charges for something and you provide it for free, you'll win the customer. Remember, just because you make a free offer doesn't mean that it shouldn't be quality.
- Testing
Testing various text, call to action forms, layouts will give you a true idea what produces the best results as far as conversion.
Using a tool like Google's Website Optimizer you can easily monitor the conversion rate, bounce rate, and tons of other useful metrics found in most modern day web analytics apps. Using these metrics you can easily figure out which version will be your optimal page, one that maximizes the results.
Creating a successful and effective landing page takes a lot of work but should be the focus for anyone involved with a website. Whether you are a website owner, web designer, web developer or a web marketing specialist you must be aware of the components that comprise a solid landing page. After all this can mean a website's success or failure.
With today's website tracking software and services you can find out a lot about the people who visit your website. You can learn where they're from, what kind of browser they're using, how long they stayed on your site, and a whole lot more. But what all this high tech intelligence won't tell you is what kind of people they are, and how likely they are to be transformed by your Web presentation from viewers to customers.
Your ability to convert website visitors into clients depends on your ability to find the soft underbelly of their subconscious desire. After all, if someone is happy with what they've already got, they don't need you, but if they were truly one hundred percent happy, they wouldn't bother coming to your website. Therefore every visitor that comes to your site is a potential client whether they know it or not.
The Setup's The Thing
Your website presentation has to find that annoying little subconscious scab just under the surface and pick at it until it becomes a full blown irritation that fosters discontent and a desire for change. That discontent is your opening to make your value statement.
We refer to this process as The Setup. Like any good presentation you cannot, or rather should not, just blurt out how great you are, but rather you have to set the scene. Like any good story, the punch line, moral, or payoff only works if it is properly setup. Far too many website presentations suffer from premature pitch climax.
The ability to transform viewers into customers requires patience. Entrepreneurial companies tend to view the setup as a waste of time, and they fear losing viewers before they ever get to the so-called "good-stuff." But without a proper setup, an audience is just not primed to accept what you have to say.
You can't sell anybody anything unless they understand they've not been getting everything they need and deserve. That understanding creates dissatisfaction with your competition and opens the audience's minds to what you have to provide. In short, the setup needs to touch a psychological nerve.
The Customer Is Always Right - Not Quite
We've all heard the expression, "the customer is always right." The fact is the customer is not always right, and in many cases they don't really know what they want or what they should have; and sometimes even when they do, they resist it because of a variety of misinformation, misunderstanding, self-doubt, and preconceived notions of conventional wisdom. It's your website presentation's job to set visitors on the right path.
Being The Expert Inspires Confidence
You're supposed to be the expert in what you do, and if you are, you need to have the ability to dig deeper into what people really want, need, and desire. I am always reminded of friends of mine who hired an interior decorator to furnish their new home. The decorator asked them what kind of furniture they liked. They answered that they were looking for Colonial, to which the decorator answered, "No you aren't. What you want is Country French." And after he showed my friends what he was talking about they quickly agreed. The decorator knew his business and understood the clients. Yes the clients liked the idea of the homey Colonial look they'd seen, but not being furniture experts they didn't understand what the options were, and what kind of furniture best suited their lifestyle and budget, while still providing the homey rustic but comfortable aesthetic they wanted. Customer satisfaction is about providing what the client really wants and not necessarily what they say they want.
Learn How To Communicate So Audiences Get It
Let's face it; we all like to read about how the digital revolution has opened up the business world to more audience influence, but the fact is people are influenced and manipulated and desires created through marketing and advertising as much as ever. How many website owners actually benefit in any meaningful way from social networking and search optimization, or do they do it because it's expected and promoted by proponents as the tactic du jour.
If you think a particular song you like is played on a thousand radio stations because it's good, or even because it has a following then you are living in a fantasy world. If you thing the vast majority of viral videos produced by corporations go viral all by themselves then think again.
Audiences are being manipulated and transformed into customers all the time, not because companies responded to what the public says, but rather to how the public reacts to various communication and marketing stimuli. What's truly incredible is how bad companies are at doing it. With all of the television industries' research into viewers, they still fail to deliver consistent quality programming that people want to watch. Every Fall new shows are yanked faster than a Nolan Ryan fastball, but the same crappy commercials live-on for what seems an eternity. Television viewers are a captive audience and if they want to watch their favorite show they have to tolerate the commercials (PVRs aside), but the Web is different. If your website presentation stinks, no one is going to stick around to absorb the smell.
Web Television Convergence Has Arrived
If you think of your website presentation as nothing more than a digital brochure, you're already behind the curve. Welcome to the Web on TV.
All you need is a laptop computer or one of the new gaming consoles attached to your big screen TV to access the Web on television. And as network programmers scramble to get their acts together more and more people are opting to spend their television time on the Web. Kind of makes you rethink what kind of website presentation you should be offering. It's time to start thinking of your website as your business channel and the content on it as programming. It's the future and it's here, now.
Who Visits Your Website?
Before website visitors can be transformed into clients, we have to understand who they are in terms of their mental outlook or frame of mind when they first arrive at your home page.
1. Accidental Tourists
Accidental Tourists are website visitors who find their way to your website by serendipity. Your company's link may have come up in a search for something mentioned on your website, but not something that's a core element of your business. But just because these people didn't really intend to visit a site like yours doesn't mean they're a waste of time. Perhaps they hadn't ever thought of using your product or service, or perhaps they didn't ever realize how much they really wanted what you have to provide. If your website presentation is exciting, meaningful, and entertaining you at least have the chance to plant the seed of desire for your product or service.
2. Brain Pickers
Brain Pickers show up at your site with little intention to buy anything, in fact they're there to pick your brain and find out how to do what you do for themselves. But if you're truly an expert at what you do, you at least have the chance to show these people that what you provide is special, and doing it right requires a company with your skills and resources.
The combination of the Internet, the Web, and technology has democratized business almost beyond recognition. Today the small, nimble, clever adaptor has the competitive advantage over their bigger, slower moving, 'we've-always-done-it-this-way' competitors; but the confluence of the Web environment and digital technology is one thing, how to use it effectively is another. Not every trendy social networking gimmick, user generated irrelevance, and pointless viral voyeurism is a productive business communication tactic.
The Day Dinosaurs Died
Like the dinosaurs that once ruled the world, the giant behemoth corporations that once dominated the business landscape have become fat and lazy, relying on muscle rather than brains, on statistics rather than understanding, and on technology rather than insight.
As these companies got bigger, they became top-heavy, corrupt, and stagnant, throwing their weight around rather than innovating and adapting. Oh yes, the big boys are still around, still doing what they've always done, jumping on every trend 'du jour' promoted by the 'blogosphere' without any real understanding of what it can accomplish, but hell, they figure if they throw enough you-know-what at the wall some of it is bound to stick, or so they hope.
But the handwriting is on the wall, the giant Internet meteorite has already hit these corporations right in their balance sheets and they are tumbling into irrelevance. The list of extinct corporate giants grows, and the march to Chapter 11 continues unabated.
So how does the smart, fearless, innovative thinking, business decision-maker take advantage of the Web's ability to even the playing field? The answer lies in their ability to use the Web as a persuasive communication medium.
Persuasive Communication
The Web is really a very simple concept: it is a place that allows you to communicate your message to your audience. What could be simpler, but like anything democratic, it's messy: a jumble of the very good and the very bad, and a whole lot of mediocre in-between. And in today's overcrowded Web-centric business environment there is little room for the mediocre.
In the final analysis all marketing, branding, positioning, advertising, and public relations is about communicating a persuasive message that attracts attention, generates interest, stimulates desire, triggers experiences, produces memories, and prompts action. And what Web-enabled communication tool gives you the best chance of delivering that kind of persuasive message? Web Video.
Persuasive Web Video Communication
The Web has some of the most effective creative video presentations you would ever want to see, and it also has some of the worst.
Easy-to-use and relatively inexpensive technology has created a plethora of do-it-yourself efforts. Some DIYers do it because of cost, others do it because of ego, and some just figure they're smarter than the people who do it for a living; and in some cases they may be right. Not all professionally produced Web-video is created equal. If your Web-video team is not pushing you to be bold with a focused, defining, differentiating message, then you've hired the wrong people.
Communication intended to persuade is a complex undertaking, one that requires a better understanding of how messages are communicated than it does the technical production issues. When people watch a video, what they see is far more susceptible to both intended and unintended nuance than a simple face-to-face conversation.
Every Move You Make, I'll Be Watching You
"Every move you make; every vow you break; every smile you fake; every claim you stake; I'll be watching you."
- From the song 'I'll Be Watching You' by The Police
Everything a person does or says is a sign, not just a communication of the obvious intent but also of the underlying subconscious subtext. In person, people have a built-in monitoring system that filters-out irrelevant verbal and non-verbal distractions, glitches and eccentricities, but on your website, in a video, those performance issues get magnified and can destroy your entire presentation.
In his book 'Messages, Signs, and Meanings' Marcel Danesi states, "Humans convey over two-thirds of their messages through the body, producing up to 700,000 physical signs, of which 1000 are different bodily postures, 5000 are hand gestures, and 250,000 are facial expressions."
If your website lacks a video presentation, and instead relies solely on text communication, you are handicapping your business's ability to persuade, convince, and convert website visitors into clients. And, if you do have video on your site, but it's not producing the intended results, perhaps the verbal communication is in conflict with the nonverbal message, creating confusion and distrust rather than confidence and understanding.
Forget all the things you think your website should be doing; its most important and most critical purpose is to deliver an effective communication to your audience.
A Recipe for Web-Video Communication
Persuasive Web-video communication is a complicated process that involves numerous creative and technical talents, as well as psychological insight into performance issues: scripting, casting, producing, directing, editing, music, and sound design, all complemented by communication psychology, emotional resonance, and business savvy are required to create effective presentations.
Ingredient One: Attract Attention
Job one is to get people to take their hand off the mouse and pay attention; it's the equivalent of someone yelling, "hey you" in a crowded room, everyone stops and turns to find out what's going on.
Mark Hughes author of "Buzzmarketing" suggests six criteria that provide the hey-you-pay-attention affect: the taboo, the unusual, the humorous, the outrageous, the remarkable, the secret, and the titillating. Which of these criteria you choose to use depends on your brand image, your audience, and your message.
All these elements individually or in combination can produce the stop-look-and-listen effect you want as long as they are appropriate for your target audience.
Ingredient Two: Generate Interest
Sarah Wood of Unruly Media, a company that specializes in paid viral seeding points to high value relevancy as an additional key ingredient; it's what turns the viral-for-viral's sake into a purposeful, persuasive, viral marketing communication.
High value relevancy is based on the connection made through your video presentation. If your video doesn't resonate in some way, you will lose your audience. Resonance can be established through the performers' personality, the delivery of the dialogue, the scenario presented, the subject matter discussed, the point-of-view perspective, and/or the emotional content.
A new microblogging website, Yahoo Meme, similar in style and functionality to Twitter, was soft-launched in Portuguese in May. They have now launched a Spanish version. But what is unusual is that the word "meme" was first introduced by controversial British ethologist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene to discuss "elements of cultural ideas, symbols or practices that are transmitted from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena..." That doesn't sound a bit like Yahoo.
Just as in the 19th century, when Thomas Huxley was known as "Darwin's bulldog" for his tenacious defence of Darwinism, Richard Dawkins has played a similar, modern-day role when talking about evolutionary principles and explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena.
Analogous with the above, you may have noticed that Yahoo's Meme closely follows the etymology of the Greek word "mimema" for "something imitated" and that instead of a sweet little bird tweeting, it has a dog - admittedly not quite the image of Huxley the bulldog, but a dog nevertheless - barking "wow" in Spanish. A dog? Don't you think it would have been more appropriate to have used a cat that could have ruffled Twitter's feathers a little, like Yahoo Sucatash?
According to Wiki, examples of memes are tunes, ideas and catch-phrases. But now, microblogging? Yes, Yahoo has introduced its own version in Spanish and Portuguese offering similar features to Twitter. At first glance it seems like another clone where users can populate with text posts, music, videos, photos and links to MP3 files, and with a repost rather than retweet button, but is it really an exact clone?
According to readwriteweb.com, "After using Meme [see http://meme.yahoo.com] for a while, it doesn't quite seem right to call it a Twitter clone. Instead, Yahoo Meme is really more of a back-to-basics microblogging service that feels a lot more like Posterous or Tumblr than Twitter."
It must be said that releasing the beta in Spanish was a bit odd. However, according to The Summer Institute for Linguistics Ethnologue Survey (1999), the following are the top languages by population: Chinese, Spanish, then English, so to opt for Spanish would appear quite justified. But why was it cloaked in such secrecy? Do they think they are closing in on rival Twitter? Unlikely as yet, as Yahoo's Meme does not have an API, so third-party developers are unable to write any web tools for it.
Perhaps my adherence to the Messrs Dawkins and Huxley analogy was too abstract as Yahoo's description of its new "meme" insists: "Today, a 'meme' on the internet is popularly understood as a fever and became content that is played by everyone."
Not quite what Richard Dawkins had in mind, as in explanations about his original "memes", were that they "propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation. If a scientist heard, or read about, a good idea, he passed it on to his colleagues and students. He mentioned it in his articles and his lectures. If the idea caught on, it can be said to propagate itself, spreading from brain to brain." Does this mean that Yahoo's "content that is played by everyone" is the same thing as an imitation of Twitter? One wonders.
As things go, not everything is well at Twitter. Not only has Yahoo started to imitate its service but there has been yet another DDoS attack and they are said to be in litigation for patent infringement from TechRadium, a Texas-based technology company.
Not that this should be taken as a legal precedent, but it does raise some eyebrows as to how far users can legally tweet. According to TechRadium on the National Law Journal's website: "Alerting the public about a fire, hurricane or traffic accident on Twitter is an unlawful tweet."
So does that mean that the use of Twitter to post hurricane updates will affect Chevron and Shell or that the Los Angeles Fire Department is in trouble for posting alerts about fires and road closures?
George Borkowski, chairman of the intellectual property practice in Los Angeles, said Twitter "is likely to challenge the validity of the patents, claiming that the technology is too generic or too obvious to warrant a patent." Borkowski also claimed that as the technology "was already out there, so there's nothing truly novel about the patent."
These three major assaults on Twitter must have its board a little nervous as, yet again, and for the third day running, the formatting of Twitter was all over the place on all browsers on my Mac. During my various research forays, however, I did stumble upon Yahoo_Meme on Twitter, which is a little cheeky to say the least. It only has one tweet pointing to the Portuguese beta.
However, add to that the already competing services such as Friendfeed, a real-time feed aggregator which consolidates posts from social media/networking websites and RSS/Atom feeds; One Riot, a real-time web search engine used for locating news, videos and blogs; Tumblr, a blogging platform that allows users to post text, images, video, etc, where users are able to "follow" other users; and SPNbabble, which supports the OpenID standard for a single sign-on between many different websites using a common password for each.
Besides the problems with Twitter internally, it seems by coincidence that it is being "hunted by the pack" from all these possible angles. But is it the legal connotations that have confused us in the TechRadium case about what our understanding is regarding the law and what is permissible to microblog? That question seems to be in the lap of the courts (certainly not the gods if Richard Dawkins has anything to do with it) - and alongside it, a process that could potentially take years to settle.
When it comes to getting your website listed at the top of the search engines keyword search rankings, it is essential for you to gain a deeper understanding of the search engine spiders that crawl over your website. After all, it is the spiders that determine the relevance of your website and decide where your site will land in the search engine results page. Therefore, by learning how to control the direction of the spiders, you can be certain your website will rise in rankings.
Gaining Control with the Help of Robots.txt
You may think that gaining control of search engine spiders is an impossible task, but it is actually easier than you might think when you take advantage of a handy little tool called the robots.txt file. With the robots.txt file, you can give the spiders the direction they need to locate the most important pages on your website while preventing them from wasting time on the more obscure pages such as your About Us and Privacy Policy pages. After all, these pages won't do much to improve your search engine ranking and won't help your target market find your website, so why should the spiders waste their time exploring these pages when ranking your site?
Another positive aspect to using a robot.txt file is the fact that it prevents the spiders from indexing duplicate pages. This is beneficial because having duplicate content can actually reduce your search engine ranking. So, while you are making changes to your website or working on an area that isn't fully developed yet, you can instruct the spiders to leave those pages alone until you are ready for them to be crawled. The same is true if you have a blog on your website, as a blog post created in WordPress will show up in the main post page, in an archive page, in a category page and as a tag page. With the help of the robots.txt tool, you can instruct the spiders to look only at the main post page.
With the help of your robot.txt files, you can tell the search engine spiders which pages they should and should not search through and index. It is important to keep in mind, however, that the robots.txt tool is meant to be used to prevent search engine spiders from searching certain pages. Therefore, you will only need to use it on those pages you don't want the spiders to crawl.
Implementing the Robots.txt Tool
To successfully use the robots.txt tool, you first need to determine which pages you don't want the spiders to search. Then, slowly begin making the changes to your site. By using the tool on only one or two pages at a time, you will be better capable of identifying mistakes that you may have made during the process.
To make your changes, you will need to add the robots.txt file to the root directory of your domain or to your subdomains. Adding it to your subdirectories will not work. For example, you may add the robots.txt file to a url such as http://domain.com/robots.txt or to http://privacypolicy.domain.com/robots.txt. But, adding it to a subdirectory such as http://www.domain.com/privacypolicy/robots.text will not work. With just one robots.txt file within your root directory, you can manage your entire site. If you have subdomains, however, you will need a robots.txt file for each one that you need to manage. You will also need separate robots.txt files for your secure (https) and nonsecure (http) pages.
Creating a Robots.txt File
Creating a robots.txt file is a relatively simple process, as you only need to name your text file robots.txt within any text editor, such as Textpad, NotePad or Apple TextEdit. Your robots.txt file only needs to contain two lines in order to be effective. If you wanted to stop the spiders from searching the archives of the blog on your site, for example, you would add the following to your robots.txt file:
User-agent: * Disallow: /archives/
The "User-agent" line is used to define which search engine spiders you want to have blocked. By placing the asterisk (*) here, you are instructing all search engine spiders to avoid the specified pages. You can, however, target specific search engine spiders by replacing the asterisk with the following codes:
* Google - Googlebot
* Yahoo - Slurp
* Microsoft - msnbot
* Ask - Teoma
The "Disallow" line specifies which part of the site you want the spiders to ignore. So, if you want the spiders to ignore the categories portion of your blog, for example, you would replace "archives" with "category" and so on. If you wanted to instruct the spiders to ignore multiple sections, you would simply add a new "Disallow" line for each area you want to be ignored. Just as you can name specific areas that you want the spiders to avoid, you can also list specific areas that you want specific spiders to view. For example, while you may want most spiders to avoid a specific area, you may want the MSN mediabot, Google image bot or Google AdWords bot to visit those areas. In this case, you can use the asterisk to instruct all search engines to avoid the area while instructing a specific spider to allow the same area. If you want Google's Adsense bot to access a folder, for example, you would create the following command:
User-agent: * Disallow: /folder/
User-agent: Mediapartners-Google Allow: /folder/
You can also use your robots.txt files to prevent dynamic URLs from being indexed by the search engine spiders. You can accomplish this with the following template:
User-agent: * Disallow: /*&
With this command, you are instructing the spiders to index only one of the URLs that matches the parameters you have set. For example, if you had the following dynamic URLs:
* /greatcars/details.php?propcode=ANCHORS&SRCH=tr
* /greatcars/details.php?propcode=ANCHORS&vr=1
* /greatcars/details.php?propcode=ANCHORS
Your robots.txt instructions will tell the spiders to only list the third example because it will disallow any URLs that start with a forward slash (/) and contain the & symbol. You can use the same strategy to block any URLs containing a question mark by using the following:
User-agent: * Disallow: /*?
Or, you can block all directories that contain a specific word in the URL. For example, you might create a robots.txt file such as the following:
User-agent: * Disallow: /corvette*/
With this command, any page with a URL containing the word "Corvette" will not be crawled by the spiders. It is important to use caution when using these directives, however, as they will cause the spiders to avoid all pages containing the word you specify. As a result, you may accidentally block pages that you do want to be indexed. If you do want to block all but one or two pages with URLs containing a specific word, you can create a robots.txt file that specifically allows the page you still want to be indexed. In this case, your robots.txt file would look something like this:
User-agent: * Disallow: /corvette*/ Allow: /greatcards/corvettesandvipers/details.html
It is also possible for you to instruct the spiders to avoid an entire folder on your website while still allowing it to access specific pages within that folder.
Back in the days when newsletters first hit the Internet, they were usually published in text format because many email clients did not support HTML email just yet. One of the problems many publishers faced was long URL's being split in half and not being clickable to the reader. To solve this problem, shortening services started to spring up that would take a long URL and cut it down to a reasonable size.
With the popularity of Twitter and the confines of 140 characters, URL (link) shortening services are in high demand once again. When you have such a small amount of space to work with, no one wants a long URL cutting into that precious real estate.
There are a variety of shortening services to choose from, each having their own specific features and benefits. Most of them do work hand in hand with Twitter, allowing you to Tweet the link once it's been shortened. If you're an avid Twitter user this is a useful feature to have.
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Some only provide a basic shortening service, but many allow you to view stats and metrics on your newly shortened links if you register. If you're doing any form of social media marketing, it's nice to be able to see if anyone's actually clicking on all the links you're sending out to the "Twitosphere", or posting on Facebook and other sites. Tracking will give you an indication that you're being heard and that people are actually paying attention to what you have to say.
Another important thing to look for is whether or not the shortening service uses 301 redirects. This is the most search engine friendly, and forces the search engine to look at the destination URL, not the domain of the shortening service itself. A 301 stands for a permanent move, not temporary. What this means is, you want the links you're sending out to be given acknowledgment by the search engines, not the shortening service itself. Make sense?
Many allow custom URL's, which allows you to use your name or company name in the links you create. This is great for branding purposes. Think of it as a vanity license plate. Instead of being just a regular URL it's your special creation.
Let's review a few options:
1) http://TweetBurner.com - A bare bones tracking service which allows you to shorten any link and then share it instantly with your Twitter followers or Friendfeed. Basic stat tracking is available so you can see how many people clicked on your link.
2) http://Cli.gs - A shortening service which includes full analytics. You can create links that include your brand in them. Free to use. It's easy to send your links to Twitter with one click.
3) http://Bit.ly - This is Twitter's default shortening service and used by Tweetdeck.com. It allows you to track performance of your links in real time. Easy to share generated links on Twitter, Facebook, even Gmail. It also offers many extra tools and plug-ins such as a browser bookmarklet and browser sidebar.
4) http://MyTwitterToolbar.com - Free to download and comes complete with a massive list of URL shorteners as well as over 50 Twitter tools. Also includes 100 Twitter tips.
5) http://www.TwitClicks.com - A fairly simple service that allows you to shorten a URL immediately and tweet it. Can also see complete stats. Detailed stats show percentage of browsers used and locations of those who clicked. Check out a short video on how to use it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1ScPeCd6X4.
6) http://www.ExpandMyUrl.com - This service takes a shortened link and gives you the true URL that it points to. Perfect for the paranoid individual who wants to know where the shortened link will send them.
7) http://www.TwitPwr.com - A short URL service which also includes analytics and stats. Their home page shows the top 25 users with the most TwitPwr and also a "hot URL" list of those URL's that get the most clicks. Free to use.
8) http://1link.in - A multiple link shortening service. Simply type in a list of links and get one link back for all. If you click on the newly shortened link it goes to a page showing details of what sites that link points to, and asks if you want to open them all. If you answer yes, multiple windows will open for each site.
9) http://Go2.me - A different type of link shortening and discussion service which creates shorter links which also contain a chat window to exchange comments with your readers. It's also easy to share on Twitter, Facebook or email with one click.
10) http://Tw.itter.me - You can customize the shortened link with your name or company name. From what I saw no stats are available.
11) http://budurl.com - Another popular service which shows you a real time view of your inbound clicks. This free service allows you to track up to 250 Budurl's. They provide 3 pay levels of service from $4.00 a month to $49.00 a month. There is a 21 day free tríal on any paid service. You can start out free and upgrade your account at any time.
12) http://Tr.Im - Trim those long URL's and instantly share them on Twitter. If you want stats, you'll need to register. Offers many different tools and extensions to make for easier sharing, such as a Firefox extension that allows you to view your tr.im stats and tweet your new links quickly.
13) http://short.ie - Keeps all your shortened links in one place. Tracks clicks and allows you to instantly share your list with friends. It can also be connected to your Twitter account for more features. Customization of URL's also available.
14) http://hootsuite.com - Not really a URL shortening service, but has the ability built-in. Hootsuite is a "Twitter Toolbox" loaded with features which are all free. They use ow.ly as their built in link shortener.
If you haven't tried a url shortening service, you'll want to find one that fits your needs and start to really utilize it in your marketing activities. Finding out who's clicking on your links, time of day, where they're from and other information will be very valuable in your ongoing efforts as an Internet Marketer.
Remember, when it comes to social media marketing T.M.I (too much information) is a good thing, unlike when your Aunt Ethel wants you to sit with her and go over every detail of her latest vacatíon [grin]. One is helpful, the other just downright painful.
Think about it; you're in the final stages of writing what you're certain is the best novel since Ernest Hemingway took a crack at it. You can already smell your fortune and taste the Pulitzer. But before you can hit save , disaster strikes. The computer freezes, you lose all your data. Your dream is over.
In 1990, only 15% of American households had personal computers. In 2000, that number had increased to over 50%; there are more than 60 million households equipped with PCs in the U.S.
As practical as they may be, computers require major upkeep. Find out what you can do to prevent a life-numbing crisis with the following tips. But before you continue, keep in mind that the following tips are for novices, and not the computer masterminds out there.
Virus
Computer viruses take many forms. Sometimes they are created by criminal masterminds, other times teenage pranksters just want to impress their friends. But the results are incredibly damaging. On average, it will take $10,000 US and 50 hours for a company to recover from a viral infection. The Love Bug alone had a worldwide economic impact of $8.7 billion.
Prevention
Bypass attachments
Most viruses are delivered through e-mail so it's important that you delete any e-mail that has an attachment you're not expecting. Viruses can often be disguised as other types of files such as pictures or screensavers, and they can even be sent from a friend's e-mail address without their knowledge.
Install antivirus software
Good software, like McAfee or Norton, will allow you to scan your computer for viruses, repair infected files, and catch viruses before they can be installed on your PC. Subscribe to the "update" feature and your antivirus software will automatically download the latest virus updates onto your computer. Since it is automatic, you will always have the most up-to-date virus scanning software, though you have to pay a fee for it.
Kill your connection
If you have access to broadband Internet, sever the link whenever you're not using it. You certainly don't want to make it easy for hackers to crawl into your system and leave booby-traps. Many ISPs give customers static IP addresses. An experienced hacker can trace the IP address to a specific address and use your computer as a springboard to break into other computers.
Password-protect your network
If you are working on a network, shield your station with passwords so that someone on another terminal cannot do whatever pleases them on your machine. It may also keep a virus from spreading like wildfire across a network.
Avoid file sharing
Although a dip in MP3 swapping is occurring with the recent music industry crackdown, it's important that you stay away from these sharing programs. Not only can you inadvertently download a virus, but you make your computer vulnerable to anyone who may want to infect you with one. Many downloads now come disguised as legitimate files when in fact they contain viruses.
Don't share floppies
Disks that have been in other computers may have been infected with a virus. To avoid transmitting the virtual disease on your system, steer clear of other people's floppies.
Dealing with it
Stay calm
If you think a virus has infected your PC, remain cool. Many viruses are actually inoffensive, kind of like worms that have for sole objective to e-mail themselves to other users. They can also be hoaxes designed to make you panic when they are, in fact, harmless. The first step is to come up with a plan.
Don't turn off your PC
Since a lot of viruses can only become active after you reboot, you are advised to let your computer run until you know enough about the infection. Many viruses need a reboot to engrain themselves into your computer's registry. Fire off your antivirus software immediately or visit an online scanner. Call your antivirus software company if you have any doubts as to how to proceed or go online (if possible through another computer) to read up as much as you can on the steps to take to eliminate the virus.
Avoid sending e-mail
Until the virus has been completely eradicated, don't e-mail anyone. The last thing you want to do is pass on the virus on to your friends and colleagues.
Pop-ups
If pop-ups weren't an amazingly convenient way to advertise inexpensively, marketers would have stopped using them a long time ago. Things being as they are, an abundance of pop-ups may overload your system and make it crash unintentionally.
Prevention
Close the windows
The easiest solution is to shut the windows as they appear. If you can't click the "X" in the right-hand corner of the pop-up page because it's outside of your screen, simultaneously hit the "Alt" and "F4" keys on your keyboard.
Adjust your browser
A more drastic measure is to fiddle with the preferences in your browser (Tools/Internet Options for Internet Explorer; Edit/Preferences for Netscape). Disable cookies and JavaScript and this might eliminate some pop-ups.
Dealing with it
Use blocking software
If you can't live any longer in the world of pop-ups, consider installing a program that eliminates pop-ups before they appear. For example, Google.com offers the "Pop-up Blocker" with their toolbar and it's absolutely free.
Crash
While a typical hard drive has a life expectancy of three to five years, your computer may crash sooner than that for a variety of reasons, including overheating, viruses or conflicting software. There's no surefire way to avoid crashes but you can put chance on your side by doing the following:
Prevention
Clean the hard drive
Every once in a while, your hard drive needs to be defragged. Use the cleanup function of your operating system, as well as the defrag option. This will not only remove bits of useless data and reorganize the way it is stored, but will also increase your PC's speed.
Remove unnecessary programs
When we surf the Net, we often download software for immediate use. The problem is we forget to remove it when we're done. These small applications are oftentimes triggered at startup and take resources we could use someplace else. So check the Windows Startup folder and eliminate programs that are not required, like an MP3 player. If you don't know what a specific file does, however, don't delete it right away.
Reboot periodically
A computer is like a gluttonous monster, it will consume all the energy available until there is none left. Each opened application on your PC requires a certain percentage of memory to function. When too much memory has been used, the computer becomes unstable and crashes are very likely. Don't wait for your machine to hit 0% on the resource scale. Reboot every few hours to guarantee optimum performance.
Buy more RAM
It might be a good idea to purchase more RAM chips. Adding memory will give your applications more legroom and your computer will run much faster. The end result will be that crashes will occur less frequently.
Install crash-prevention software
There are some nifty little programs on the market, Crash Prevention Software (CPR) being one of them, that minimize the effects of a crash. For instance, they alert you when an application is about to crash or they attempt to fix the problem without resorting to a crash. The software can even delay the crash, giving you enough time to save your work.
Good physical shape
While most of the activity happens on little silicon chips, the physical shape of your PC is important. Don't let dust invade your machine and ensure that the Central Processing Unit (CPU) fans are unobstructed. And to avoid a power surge frying your hard drive, plug your computer onto an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). This device will remain evenly powered at all times.
Dealing with it
Shut down
When you think your computer's about to crash, hit Alt-F4 to close the program you are using. When invited, save the file to the same filename; selecting a new name will require more computer resources and may precipitate the crash.
See a professional
Depending on the number of times your computer crashes and whether it has generated more serious problems such as the inability to use certain programs, you may want to have an expert take a look at your hard drive. It can be expensive and, sometimes, there may be data they won't be able to recover.
Spam
Spam is, in this context, not a brand of canned meat but rather unsolicited multiple marketing e-mail. With 182.67 million people online in North America, if marketers make a sale to only 1% of them, they're pretty happy campers. Here are some tips to help you avoid spam.
Prevention
Use a spam filter
Most Web-based providers, as well as e-mail readers, except for those with Outlook Express, have the option of filtering out spam. Just go to the Preferences menu to turn it on. It most likely won't be 100% accurate, but it's a good start.
Don't unsubscribe
By law, marketers have to provide you with the option of unsubscribing to their mailing lists. However, in reality, when you click this button, you let the marketer know that your e-mail address is active. This will only encourage them to send you more spam.
Dealing with it
Change your e-mail
What happens if an ex-girlfriend-turned-stalker keeps calling you at home? You change your number, right? If spam becomes such an annoyance that it keeps you from enjoying the Internet to its fullest, you might have to resort to changing your e-mail address.
general tips
Install a firewall
A firewall is like a security gate surrounding your home; it keeps intruders away. A sturdy firewall will protect you from possibly damaging attacks from hackers. Those virtual criminals can cause even more damage than you think -- they could prevent you from accessing your own files or steal your identity.
Don't clutter your desktop
The more icons there are on your desktop, the slower your machine will be (since most Windows computers have Active Desktops, a sort of mini-program that runs on your computer desktop). Create a folder on your desktop and put everything in it. The less clutter there is, the more memory your computer has. Speed equals performance and that means fewer problems for you.
Delete superfluous fonts
PCs are delivered with a smorgasbord of fancy fonts built in. They can take up a lot of space, especially if you don't use them all. So, if you're not in the graphic design business, obliterate the fonts you don't need in the Windows/Fonts folder.
save the day!
Since our lives are now governed by computers in a fiber-optically connected world, it is important to protect ourselves from the more infuriating aspects. By learning these simple techniques, you can outright avoid a disaster on your personal computer.
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