Chris Edwards recently did a blog post about CAPTCHAs, security codes used on websites, and how they help with stopping the flow of spam through web forms. It just so happens that CAPTCHAs are being used to solve problems beyond form validation. By using CAPTCHAs and more specifically ReCAPTCHA, users around the world are helping to digitize books.  And the ideas behind re-purposing CAPTCHAs  has lead Luis von Ahn, an associate professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, to develop a way to digitize the entire web. Luis and his team have come up with a very clever way to make this happen…and all for free. View the movie courtesy of Ted.com

Filed under: Cool Stuff, General, Web Applications by Shawn Retzer Be the First to Comment

2012 is here and it is a safe bet that business owners are optimistic to what lies ahead. This is the year the economy turns around and we can return to normal..or is it.  One key element that will nearly guarantee that you will have a great year is to actively network in the business community. Take a minute and read this article published by Stephen J Kaufman, a local Marketing and Public Relations expert. This article was published in the Small Business Resource Network newsletter just last month and is very timely for the new year. We manage the website for the SBRN and have published this newsletter to their newsletter archive. Have a prosperous 2012!

SBRN Connections Newsletter

Fall 2011

Networking Done Right Leads to Long-term Relationship

By Steve Kaufman, SJK•PR
Marketing Communications Consultant

click to open

View the Full SBRN Connections Newsletter Here

Filed under: General, Internet Strategy by Chris Edwards Be the First to Comment

Have you ever been on a website and encountered a funky looking security code that you’re asked to type in? Sure you have- they are all over the internet.

This technology is called CAPTCHA and web developers put it on website forms to protect owners from being attacked by a mass of spam. You see, malicious programmers build bots, or programs, that loiter across the web and complete every form it can, sending spam and other unwanted nonsense to website owners. CAPTCHA security codes force the submitter to prove they are human. As a program approaches a CAPTCHA-enabled form, they cannot look at the picture to interpret the characters in it. In that way, only humans can complete these forms, and spammers lose! After all, CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart.

While these security codes have become a standard in web protection, they can be improved. A common complaint is they are too difficult to read despite the ability to generate new ones. We hope the technology continues to improve and become more user-friendly without sacrificing it’s spam defenses.

Filed under: Internet Strategy, Web Applications by Chris Edwards Be the First to Comment

Online content is king and will determine the overall success of your website. If your copy isn’t user friendly, speaking directly to the needs of the site visitors it will never be read.

Furthermore if your content is not search engine friendly the search engines will never give you good page rankings. Remember, 70% of all website visits start as a search. Well planned, well written content is the key to attracting and maintaining visitor to your website and is the basis for all Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

For the uninitiated, content writing can be a time consuming and frustrating task. There is an Easier Way, but will get to that at the bottom of the pages.

If you’re going to give it a go then here are some important things to keep in mind.

Tailor Your Message to the Audience

The site’s audience doesn’t care about what you want to say, they care about what they want to read.

Give Users a Summary

Before diving into the nitty-gritty give users a summary of what they are about to read. This will allow them to make sure your topic is worth their time. If you have written your summary successfully they will continue to read.

Get to the Point

If you take away anything from this article let it be this. Online users don’t read they scan. Get straight to the point in the least amount of words possible. Do not beat around the bush

Use Small Sentences and Paragraphs

Using smaller sentences and paragraphs makes your content easier to read and understand. Online readers will read only about half of what they would read on paper.

Limit One Thought Per Paragraph

Attempting to cram more than 2-3 thoughts into one paragraph is just rambling on and will confuse all of your readers.

Use Bullet Points

There are many advantages of using bullet points. Some of which include:

• They are easy to scan.
• Nest to headlines they make it easy to get important points across.
• They break up the flow of the page.
• They draw users in.

Use Strong Headlines

With only 1-3 seconds to grab attention, the goal of any headline is to capture your reader’s interest long enough to make them want to read about and purchase your products and services.

Use Sub Headings

Sub headings break up the flow of your content and provide a very intuitive way for users to scan the page. Not to mention, sub headings provide a great benefit to search engine optimization. The most effective sub headings are descriptive and make use of a few good keywords.

Stay Organized

Ease the user into the content and then keep them reading by staying organized. It is difficult to talk to someone who is jumping from one topic to another.

Stylize Your Content

Using bold and italics are both great for capturing user’s attention and driving your point home. Avoid using underline for anything other than hyperlinks.

Remember Users are Pessimistic

There’s a lot of garbage and hoaxes online so readers are immediately skeptical. Write using unbiased language and avoid the dreaded sales pitches. Build your creditability by being able to deliver on what you say.

Don’t Worry About Contingency

Don’t pad your sentences in attempt to cover all your bases. Keep it simple

Drop Unnecessary Adjectives

There are a million different ways I could express the love of my remarkably smart and beautiful dogs, Hank, Maybeline and Greta. However, none is more effective than “I love dogs.” If your adjectives are not providing any significance or additional information to your content then drop them.

Use Details and Be Specific

No one is really interested that your product or service is “new and improved”. Tell users exactly what is new and improved. The more descriptive you can be and the better explanation you can give, the more likely users are to continue reading.

Use Links Within Your Copy

Remember this is the internet after all and linking from one page to another is expected. Hyperlinks will also standout amongst the other content on your page and help users to quickly scan the page and identify what the page is about.

Use a Personal Tone

Writing your content as if it is a medical document is boring and will immediately put users to sleep. Make your content personal and users will be able to relate, and trust you. Warning, going too far can make you appear immature and unprofessional. Speak to your readers as if they are next to you and you’ll be fine.

Be Unique

Stand out by give your content some personality, make readers laugh, and enjoy reading your content. If you can do this you have struck gold as users will read deeper and even come back for more.

Escape Content Overload

Too much content can overwhelm visitors drive them away from your site. When getting to your home page, users are typically going to scroll down to see how much text there is to read. If it looks like a wall of text then odds are they’ll leave before even reading the first line. Remember, online readers will read only about half of what they would read on paper.

Always, Always, Always

Proofread 3 times

Spell Check twice

And give it to friends for that oh so important final look.

For that Easier Way we mentioned up top:

Contact: Barry Morrow 904.742.8607 bmorrow@elykinnovation.com

“You’ll never realize what a professional content writer can do for you, until you try to write it yourself”

Filed under: Internet Strategy, Search Engine Optimization by Nicholas Pickering Be the First to Comment

How electronic newsletters and email advertisements promote top-of-mind mentality and raise brand awareness

We are proud to announce this article was published in Volume 3, Issue 6 of The Jacksonville Advantage Business Magazine. Read the article below or at Jacksonville Advantage Business Magazine website.

By Chris Edwards

Driving sales, generating revenue, and growing a customer base are key goals to running a successful business. To do all that, consider email marketing as part of your marketing mix of business development activities.

While many business owners already know email marketing can generate new business and retain current customers, it is also important to know that electronic newsletters and email advertisements promote top-of-mind mentality and raise brand awareness.

You undoubtedly have received email from something you signed up for, whether it’s your bank providing a service update, a local sports team listing upcoming games, or your favorite fruit smoothie place announcing a new tropical flavor. That’s the simplicity of email marketing—you target an audience who is generally interested in your product or service.

Begin with a list

All email campaigns begin with mailing lists. If you’re in business, you already have a mailing list—your customers. The next, most common mailing list is your leads, and chances are you’ve got that information available as well. Most small businesses start with these two mailing lists, but as you grow your business and marketing efforts, you may want to employ multiple mailing lists.

For example, if you have a service that is specific to your customers in Jacksonville only and not available to your customers in Tampa and Miami, then you would organize your customers mailing lists based on their location. This control of the relationship between your message and your audience can be critical in maintaining a solid email campaign.

Managing your mailing lists as you expand is important too. You should get permission to send marketing-related emails to your lists whether they signup online or tell you in-person. Providing unsubscribe options and deleting contacts that do not exist or return bounce back emails are more ways to ensure your email campaigns see the best return possible.

Making it count

Your email competes with every email in someone’s inbox, so you need to make it count!

• Introduction. Most people tend to forget this, but the first introduction a recipient has of your email is who it’s from and the subject line. The sending email address should use the same domain as your website, and you should make it so if anyone replies, the emails go to you or a designated email account that you monitor. The subject line should be appropriate in that it’s accurate to the email’s message and it’s interesting.
• Look. The look of your email needs to generate attention and capture interest. After all, the average email user probably runs through several emails every day. Make yours stand out! Colors, graphics, and a well-planned design to boost your message helps grab attention. If you have a solid website design, make your emails look like your website to present your message in a consistent marketing effort.
• Message. The message of your email should be clear. A discontinuous or rambling message will turn readers away while text that drives them to a point or action, such as clicking a link or calling, is the intended goal.
• Links. Links should be available to your website and in some cases, a re-creation of your website navigation menu can be ideal for giving recipients access to your company’s entire website from a single email. If you have a specific page in your website you are referencing, hot link the text or pictures directly there. A recipient that clicks on a link for a coffee mug is more likely to buy that coffee mug if the link takes them to a Web page where they can buy it versus if the link takes them to the home page forcing them to find the coffee mug purchase page.
• Results. With any marketing, you need measurable results. Whatever platform you decide to use, review the performance of your emails to see how well they did and decide on improvements for future campaigns. Emails can be measured based on how many people open then, and better yet, how many people clicked in them. You can also break information further down. For example: If you had links to three separate products in your email, a report indicating which links were clicked and how many times will let you know which product is more popular for that market. Other common reports are bounces (contacts that did not receive your email), spam reports, and opt-outs which will need to be monitored to keep your mailing lists clean and your campaigns doing well. Many programs also report how many people forwarded your email.

Success!

There are many facets to running a business, advertising holding a significant role for many. Within the realm of advertising, email marketing is a relatively cheap method that can be utilized to speak to your market. Like any successfully marketing maneuver it takes planning, execution, and review. Then improve and repeat.

Filed under: Email Marketing by Chris Edwards Be the First to Comment

Almost any business can benefit from a blog or online newsletter, however, many business owners are reluctant to start one because they’re not sure how to keep it up to date or even what to write about.

There is literally no end to the possibilities.  If you need some help picking an interesting topic, see my list of topic ideas to help get you started, or take a less painful approach and call me for some expert writing help.

By choosing great topics, you’ll make your reader think of you when it’s time to buy.

The Basics:

Don’t waste the reader’s time. Always write about things of interest or value to your customer and please keep it simple.

Winning General Topics:

• Write about the common questions or concerns your customers have
• Answer specific questions you’re asked over and over again
• Write about the things that stop your customers from buying
• Write about their doubts in working with you
• Write about “What Sets You Apart”
• Ask for, and reward, new client referrals
• Do a “Client Survey” and report on the results
• If customers are concerned about price…write about value
• Write about “Why Clients Should Use You” instead of your competition
• Establish yourself as “THE INDUSTRY EXPERT” by educating customers

Educate Clients With:

• Problem specific tips and techniques
• Talk about how your new or most popular products/services can benefit the reader
• FAQ’s
• “How To” tutorials
• Industry news that will affect buyers
• New ways to use your existing products and services

Tell Clients About You:

• How you resolved a sticky customer complaint and won over a client
• Updates on your business
• Something funny that happened that proves you are human
• Community awards, events, or projects
• Talk about new customers and current projects

Offer Something of Value:

• Announce a contest
• Offer discounts or special offers
• Send out printable coupons
• Provide client testimonials
• Report on changes that positively affect your clients

General Concepts That Work:

• Create a need and fill it
• Be passionate, write about something that matters to you
• Always keep the reader in mind

Important Stuff:

Create a series of articles in advance and send them out on a scheduled basis. The repetitive traffic will entrench your name in the customer’s mind and positively influence your SEO.

Have FUN writing and don’t take yourself too seriously. Blogs and Newsletter should not only be informative, but also fun to read.

Don’t End Up With Egg On Your Face:

• Use proper words
• Use proper tense
• Use proper grammar
• Uses proper punctuation
• Spell Check – Spell Check – Spell Check
• Proofread – Proofread – Proofread

Or For The Less Painful Approach – Contact Me For Help.

“You can never appreciate what a professional copywriter can do for you, unless you have ever tried to write something yourself.”

Barry Morrow
Experienced Thinker
bmorow@elykinnovation.com
904.742.8607

Filed under: Email Marketing, General, Internet Strategy, Search Engine Optimization by Barry Morrow Be the First to Comment

Google announced last week they made a big change to the algorithms that decide how a website ranks in a search. Not surprising the change is a big positive to websites that have quality content. The move has impacted nearly 12% of all websites indexed in Google’s directory (which is about a gazillion). The goal is to “demote” websites that have poor content quality and promote websites that have quality content. Many low quality websites add duplicate content gleaned from other websites with the sole purpose of gathering traffic based on hot topics. For example, if I wanted to take advantage of a hot topic, I might grab content about Charlie Sheen and post it in my blog (did I just do that?). Seriously, we have been big promoters of quality website content since our inception. We recommend a blog for every website we build and even provide clients training on a solid blog strategy. Quality content will improve your search rankings. In fact, quality content is the foundation of our search engine optimization strategy. The easiest way to add quality content to your website is a blog tool. We prefer adding a blog to a website during design and development, however we can retrofit a blog to an existing website if it was developed within the past 2-3 years. If you would like more information about this topic, go to this article. If you would like more information on internet strategy, website content or a blog strategy, give us a call. 904.998.1935.

Filed under: Internet Strategy, Search Engine Optimization, Website Design by Joe Lemire Be the First to Comment