Successful modern businesses know that the best way to cash in on an ever-decreasing post-credit crunch consumer market is to gain trade online. Any entrepreneur who has noted the decline in passing high street trade and dipped their toe into the web market will know that gaining a share of online business is a complex process. One extremely important piece of the Web marketing puzzle is pay-per-click (or PPC) advertising. What is PPC? PPC advertising offers businesses access to an intensely targeted range of online marketing services. Depending on their own needs and the perceived habits of their potential client base, websites can draw in customers using a number of clever targeting techniques. PPC advertising is offered by online giants, such as Google and Yahoo, and by social networking sites like Facebook. It also comes in bespoke form through professional PPC companies, who can place PPC anchor text links in web copy posted on third-party sites and blogs. Choosing a PPC – Read the full article
Online social gaming – or playing games on social networks – is about to go big this year. We’re talking one-billion-dollars big. New York research firm eMarketer reports that the social gaming market is expected to pass $1 billion this 2011 – a 28 percent rise from last year’s $856 million – and that close to 62 million US Internet users will play at least one game a month this year. The rapid rise of social gaming, according to eMarketer, will be driven by three main contributors: online advertising, online lead generation, and the implementation of branded virtual goods. Last year, 53 million Americans played at least one game on a social network, a staggering number that can be attributed to the rising popularity of social games like FarmVille, CityVille, Pet Society, and the Mafia Wars Game, among many others that one would find on Facebook or MySpace. The number is expected to grow this year, along with dollars that – Read the full article
No matter what Facebook says, E-mail is not going to go away. And neither will E-mail marketing: in fact, according to a recent survey, more dollars are expected to be spent by businesses and marketers this 2011 on E-mail campaigns. We certainly hope that some money goes toward studying the anatomy of a great E-mail newsletter. Why? Because E-mail is one way – is still one of the best ways – to effectively capture attention in the age of information overload and short attention spans. Oh, and because 94 percent of all Internet users read E-mail. That’s higher than the percentage of Internet users who turn to search engines to find information. Let’s check out the body parts of a sexy, irresistible E-mail newsletter – the kind that doesn’t go straight to a recipient’s trash folder. Your company name. One of the most common mistakes that E-mail marketers make is the assumption that people will remember who they are. Well, – Read the full article
About a year back we compiled a list of competitive intelligence tools and it turned out to be one of our most popular posts. Well its a new year now and we thought you deserved an updated list. We went through the old list and threw out a few services that are no longer useful and added a whole bunch of new ones for you to check out. Some of the sites are more convenient than others depending on your needs. Some are free and some our expensive. Some of them directly monitor competitors’ advertising efforts while others track social media channels. Some of them offer several services and others only one or two. Heck, some of them aren’t even meant to be competitive intelligence tools, but we think each has something beneficial to offer. It was by pure coincidence that it came out to be an even 40 tools so let us know if there’s more we need to – Read the full article
In my experience with Internet Marketing and SEO, I have come across a multitude of Internet marketing and SEO terms. A lot of these terms usually have very vague or technical definitions that leave you confused and frustrated. I know how you feel, trust me, I have been there. Fear not, I have compiled a list of internet marketing and SEO keywords in layman’s terms for you people that are new to SEO and internet marketing. 1. Anchor text , anchor link – When you are reading content, and a word is clickable and contains a link. 2. Backlink, back-link – a link from an outside website (outside source) that points back to a website. (i.e. all the links that connect back to your blog) 3. Broken link – a link that fails to connect to it’s intended destination 4. Cloaking – When a website presents one version of itself to the user and another version to the search engine. – Read the full article
Looking to get ahead of the social media marketing game? Sure, Facebook and Twitter are still the king and queen of this kingdom – just as reported in a recent StrongMail survey of online marketing budgets in 2011 – but the New Year also heralds a number of new social media darlings that are certainly worth keeping an eye on. Last year, it was Foursquare and Posterous leading the pack. This year is just as promising – if not more promising, thanks in large part to the continued expansion of social media and to the crazy range of new sites, apps, and startups out there. Here are our picks for social media websites to watch in 2011. Quora Last March 2010, Quora reportedly received $86 million in funding from Benchmark Capital (also a Twitter investor). It didn’t make any million-dollar noise the rest of the year, but this 2011 just might be the year Quora really makes waves. As a – Read the full article
Let’s face it: we post a huge amount of information on Facebook. It doesn’t even matter whether we’re using the hugely popular social network for business or for pleasure. They’re all there: status updates, photos, videos, notes, links, messages, apps, etc. Imagine if we suddenly lose all these tomorrow. So much social data, lost in a digital black hole. It would be like Yahoo! GeoCities all over again. Don’t let any unexpected turn of events mark the end of the world – or the end of your Facebook life. Because it won’t be, not with these great ways to download, store, and back up your Facebook data. (Hey, and while you’re at it, make sure you check out our recent guide on how to create a Twitter archive.) Facebook’s Download Your Information feature Not many users know about it, but Facebook has its own information backup tool, which you can access by going to your “My Account Settings”. (Check out – Read the full article
Social networking giant Facebook has passed Google, the world’s most popular search engine, as the most-visited site in the United States in 2010, according to leading Internet research and competitive intelligence firm Experian Hitwise. Facebook received 8.93 percent of all US web visits from January to November 2010, while Google accounted for 7.19 percent. Rounding out the top five were Yahoo! Mail (3.52 percent), Yahoo!, and YouTube (2.65 percent). Facebook ranked only third on the list last year, trailing Google and Yahoo! Mail. In 2008, it ranked ninth, behind sites like Google, MySpace, and eBay. “Facebook” was also the most-searched term for the second straight year, followed by “Facebook login” and “YouTube”. According to Experian Hitwise, however, the combination of Google-owned sites like Gmail, Google Maps, and YouTube still ranked ahead of Facebook properties, accounting for 9.85 percent of all US visits. Facebook received 8.93 percent, while Yahoo! properties came in third with 8.12 percent. The results of the study – Read the full article
