Making your site more search engine friendly is a fairly simple matter. If you understand search engines and what they are looking for, then all you have to do is implement the right aspects on your website. Follow the steps below and you’ll be well on your way to a blog that captures attention from search engines and, therefore, web surfers.
Step One: Learn What Search Engines Want
Each search engine will work a little differently. They scan your website in different ways so it is important to learn as much as you can about the most popular ones. Google and Yahoo are the two you should be really concerned about; usually if your site follows their SEO (search engine optimization) requirements, the smaller search engines will follow.
Step Two: Write Good Content
Your textual content is what the search engines are scanning through. Colors and graphics make your website look nice, but they will not bring you up on a search. You should have at least 5-10 pages before you even begin a blog.
Step Three: Include Keywords
Learn what keywords will drive the right kind of searchers to your site and use them. Include them in the top portion of your pages as some engines don’t scan past the first third of the page. The more you use the keywords, the better chance you will have of showing up.
Step Four: Make Your Web Page Titles Unique
Having unique page names is imperative. This is a huge step towards optimizing your WordPress blog. Choose a different keyword for the beginning of each page title and you will increase the likelihood of being found. Also, make sure the url of each page is simple and if possible includes the keyword, such as www.blog.com/category/title-of-blog-article.
Step Five: Link Your Blogs Together
Whenever you reference a previous blog entry, you should link the two together. By connecting past blogs with current blogs, you increase the visibility of your blog. You will also increase the effectiveness of your keywords. You may also want to go back and edit your previous blogs so that they link to newer ones as well.
Step Six: Submit to Search Engine Directories
Submitting to directories with a WordPress blog is welcome by search engines. First check your site for errors and get a description ready. You may also need a list of your site’s url’s/addresses. Now you can submit, but do not do so too often. Once a month is more than enough.
A few last tips: keep in mind that your keywords should have their own page and that you should mention keywords 3-5 times for every 150 words or so of content. Also, don’t forget to place keywords in the Tags section of articles. And do not stop with these steps. Once you’ve accomplished the tasks above, do more research until your blog is at the top of the search list on Google and Yahoo.
As you may know, red is a color full of powerful emotions: anger, passion, desire, love. Red is associated with power and strength, danger and war, determination and energy. And in advertising, red can be used to compel customers to take action, if used correctly. Here are some tips for using the color red in your advertising, whether it’s for brochures, TV commercials, or postcard printing. Continue reading »
You know that you need to make your product stand out from all the others. The question is how. How can you make your product more appealing? How can you make poster printing more trustworthy than your competition’s? The answer is simple. Choose one or more of the following principles to beating the competition through product differentiation. Continue reading »
Commercials for the Super Bowl LXIV have reached new levels of stupidity, controversy, and hilarity this year. Many of the ads poked fun at topics under serious debate on news channels, and many featured celebrities such as Betty White, Oprah, Jay Leno, Brett Favre, Danica Patrick, Tim Tebow, and more. And then some ads made you wonder why a company would place it in a million-dollar commercial slot. Here are some of the best (and not so best) ads from the 2010 Super Bowl.
Downright Hilarious
Betty White’s snicker ad was voted by most viewers online as one of the funniest super bowl commercials this year. And the “Don’t touch my Mom” Doritos ad was close. Of course, Simpson’s Super Bowl Coke Ad was a brilliant take on the over-the-top “life is better with a coke” theme. Bud Light aired quite a few commercials with some of the more laughable, maybe even slightly on the stupidity side, being the Bud Light Human Bridge and Bud Light Party ads. Loved the Coke commercial though.
Slightly Shocking
The “I Wear No Pants” Dockers Ad although very funny could be seen as somewhat shocking with men in underwear parading around a field. But the Career Builder Ad with an employee passing gas on a co-worker was so, um, childish? that it topped the Dockers Ad. Most everyone would probably agree, though, that the Sexy Danica Patrick Go Daddy “Spa” Commercial passes the “slightly shocking” label and even soars into the censured status.
Making a Statement
Several commercials this year seemed to be either trying to laugh off issues from this past year or promoting a cause. The Audi 2010 Green Car ad was a hilarious ad that poked fun at censoring not-so-green living. The Ed Begley Jr US Census Ad seemed to be trying to make citizens aware of the upcoming census or poking fun at themselves — it was hard to tell which. Tim Tebow and his mom starred in a Focus on the Family Ad that encouraged viewers to visit the site for more information on pro-life.
More Celebrities
Some of the ads were simply memorable because of the celebrities involved, but not all of them necessarily made sense. For instance, the David Letterman Show ad included Oprah, Jay Leno, and David sitting on a couch watching the super bowl together, and not much was said. And was Hyundai comparing itself to Brett Favre in its Brett Favre Hyundai ad? Kia Sorento’s Toy Joy Ride featured famous figures from children’s programs, such as Yo Gabba Gabba, having a night on the town, which was slightly disturbing at the least. The truTV ad showed Troy Polamalu being pulled out of a hole to see his shadow and predict more football.
Waste of Money or Just Plain Stupid?
Some commercials wavered between being a complete waste of money and so stupid that it risked annoying viewers. Denny’s Screaming Chicken may have been one of the more annoying commercials with a bunch of chickens screaming at each other. The Monster Jobs ad showed a beaver searching for violin jobs and eventually rising to fame and fortune — why a beaver? And what was up with the Kool & the Gang’s Honda Commercial? Nice choice of music but why the animated animal?Volkswagen Ad in that they were like any normal prime time TV commercial. If it wasn’t for the reliable ones such as Budweiser, those of us who watch the game for the commercials may have taken a vow to never watch another super bowl again. Here’s hoping that next year, advertisers will step it up to the level of ingenuity expected for million dollar TV commercials.
Honestly, the between-game entertainment was somewhat disappointing this year. Most of the ads seemed to be like the Volkswagen Ad in that they were like any normal prime time TV commercial. If it wasn’t for the reliable ones such as Budweiser, those of us who watch the game for the commercials may have taken a vow to never watch another super bowl again. Here’s hoping that next year, advertisers will step it up to the level of ingenuity expected for million dollar TV commercials.
Creativity – the process of generating new ideas or concepts
Design – intentional planning
Democratic change – the process of generating new ideas to be imposed on societal behaviors through intentional planning – government of the people
Republican change – the influence of societal behaviors on the process of generating new ideas through intentional planning – government by the people
The combination of the three definitions of culture, creativity, and design somehow became political presented here in two different ideological thoughts. Government contains all of these elements but it is the implementation of the government that makes it more or less conducive to an individual’s life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. The basic difference between the two most common schools of thought in the United States is whether citizens have the ability to accomplish these on their own or if they need the government to step in and help them.
The big debate right now is health care. While some may take offense at the Democratic change definition above, it is a fact that if health care becomes nationalized we will not be able to choose whether or not we will participate in it. It will be imposed on all Americans. Therefore our government will have decided once for all citizens of the United States.
What about the citizens who oppose a national health care system? To draw some more from our Constitution, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” These statements are taken out of the discussion of the reasons for seceding from Britain but they still state the premise for our government. Our conflict comes when two parties have divergent ideas on what will effect the safety and happiness of our citizens. Is one more right than the other? Citizens who are currently without health care may say that nationalizing health care will greatly increase their safety and happiness. Citizens who are currently able to participate in the health care system may argue that the nationalization of it will decrease its efficiency and effectiveness, while all feel sympathy for the plight of those desperately in need of health care but who are unable to afford it.
The true challenge of our government is that in order to reflect the views of its citizens, the citizens must participate. Citizens should be behind the creativity the government is showing in their design that will affect our culture in this democratic republic in which we live. Our government needs to hear from its constituents in order to correctly represent their desires. We need to be active in elections and communicating with our elected representatives in order to have our beliefs and ideas represented in our government. Even then, the majority will win out, so we must also be active in our communities educating our fellow citizens to the benefits or perils of the issues being decided by handing out pamphlets, becoming involved in debates, hanging posters, and more. Then when a change comes along that we disagree with, we can accept it more comfortably knowing we have done our part.
User centered design can be a controversial subject. It is a philosophy and process of design that evaluates the needs, wants, and limitations of the end user throughout all stages of the design and tailors the design to fit those needs, wants, and limitations. This sounds like a reasonable system of design for software interface systems since not all of the people using the software are designers or even expert-level users of computers or smart phones. The controversy results, in my opinion, from the implementation of user centered design.
During the process of user centered design, engineers are geared toward COULA attributes when designing software; these are: Compliance (to standards), Operability, Understandability, Learnability, and Attractiveness. Ideally these attributes are monitored and improved through early focus on users and tasks, software evaluation, and iterative design (repetitive design – various user interface points are as similarly as possible to minimize the learning process).
User interface evaluation examines the software’s functionality (recording of user actions, eye movement, and/or UI events), development of prototypical UI components, and performance of formal usability tests with humans. This is where designers especially begin to have problems and complain that the evaluation methods are inadequate. The testing phase of a user interface is probably not the area developers wish to spend more money and increasing the quality of evaluations would mean more frequent testing during design and lengthening the testing period to gain data from experienced users.
I recently realized that I use promotional items as a method of “accessorizing” my office space. My coffee mug, my notepads, my calendar – they all give the space in my office a little touch of me. Then it struck me. Why not give my customers more choices when giving away promotional items? You can actually get customers excited about choosing which promotional pieces they want.
If you think about it, the opportunities are pretty limitless. Instead of printing one type of custom calendar with cute kittens or big cars, give your customers several choices. With printing becoming more and more affordable, there really is no excuse to not give this one a shot.
Sizes First of all, even if you don’t want to take the time to develop several different promotional pieces, you can easily adjust the size. Small and large notepads, big desk calendars or the smaller picture calendar, give the customer a choice, and instead of passing up your offer, you might see them grabbing several different pieces.
Graphics Another set of options you should consider is to give the customer several color schemes or designs from which to choose. Not everyone wants cute kiddos on their wall, but they might reach for the calendar with a landscape scene.
Types Don’t limit yourself to one type of promotional item either. Bookmarks, calendars, notepads, and posters – you have lots of options for giveaways. Don’t limit your customers to one or two items.
The goal is to transform the experience of accepting your promotional items into a shopping experience. By engaging in the process of choosing items that reflect a piece of their personality, the customer takes ownership and enjoys promoting your company for you.
FileTransferIsGreen.org found that using an FTP (file transfer protocol) site to upload printing files is much more eco-friendly than sending an overnight package. The organization compared the carbon footprint of an online file transfer and the carbon footprint of sending an overnight package.
Overnight Mailing Carbon Footprint FileTransferIsGreen put the following scenario to the test: they pretended they were going to send a printed document weighing 2 pounds overnight from Atlanta, Georgia to Salt Lake City, Utah. They listed all of the elements that would need to go into the overnight package:
The shipping paper for the envelope or box.
Paper for the address label.
Driving the package to the dropoff box.
The carrier picking up the package and driving it to the distribution center.
The package being driven from the distribution center to the airport.
The airplane flying to its destination.
The package being driven from the airport to the distribution center.
The package being delivered from the distribution center to its destination.
FileTransferIsGreen admits that certain factors are impossible to calculate, like the paper needed for the envelope or how far the carrier drives to or from distribution centers. But, they did calculate what they could, including:
Package Dropoff: 2.2 pounds of CO2 (for two miles roundtrip) Carrier Trucks: 2.2 pounds of CO2 (for another two miles roundtrip) Airline Travel: 60 pounds of CO2 (for a Boeing 737-300 to travel 1585 miles)
TOTAL: Approximately 64 pounds of CO2 for one overnight package, not counting the paper used in the packaging.
FTP Carbon Footprint FileGenius, one of FileTransferIsGreen’s sponsors, estimated the power used to service one of their customers on a FTP upload. They estimated that each one of their servers uses 400 watts, or 288 kWh per month. And since each server can service 50 customers, each customer’s monthly portion would be about 2.88 kWh per month. (Is this correct? I’m not great at math, but I would think 100 customers would equal 2.88 kWh per month. Anyway, this isn’t my study, but I’d appreciate a more broken-down calculation!)
Using a CO2 calculator (the same one used to determine the CO2 used in the overnight delivery), it comes out to each customer being responsible for 8.6 pounds of CO2 per month of FTP usage.
That’s a pretty big difference—note the 64 pounds is for one overnighter and the 8.6 pounds is for one month. And as FileGenius pointed out, the $40 spent on overnighting a package will add up to much more than paying for an FTP service.
Another Example An architectural firm needed to get plans to 24 corporate and branch office locations of its client. If mailing the plans, 24 packages would have had to go out in shipping tubes, overnight. Transporting the packages through truck and air would cost the firm $100 per package. However, the firm saved $2,400 just by uploading the plans to an FTP site where all 24 client locations could download the plans and view them offline.
This example doesn’t come with CO2 emission numbers, but we can assume from the previous example how much 24 packages would amount to if one package sent overnight amounted to 64 pounds of CO2 : 1,536 pounds of CO2! That’s crazy. The money and the carbon footprint savings would easily pay for the FTP service for months.
FTP seems like a win-win for companies and the environment.
Advertising, which was well developed by 1900, has changed a lot over its lifetime. Obviously because of changing products, changing societies and changing values, but also the theories in and of themselves have changed a lot. I think it’s important to know how something started and its history to have an inkling of knowing where it’s going.
By the early 1900s, although advertising had blossomed, marketing was still in its infancy. That makes the marketing function only about 100 years old. Compared to economics, accounting and other business areas, marketing is still a little kid! That means there’s plenty of room to grow and try new things. Prior to the early 1900s, issues that are now filed under the marketing realm were just business or economics (e.g. setting prices, advertising). Many concepts that make up a huge chunk of marketing, like customer purchase behavior and distribution partners, weren’t even a glimmer in marketing’s eyes.
Marketing as we know it really grew in the 1950s – before that it was basically a “sell, sell, sell” mentality, with little regard if any, for what the customers wanted or what they customers felt. Companies would just push the “sell,” figuring people would want it because the companies were basically telling them to want it; no customer research needed! Doesn’t that sound absolutely ridiculous nowadays?
Scholars from universities started studying marketing before 1950 and realized that by using certain strategies that took the customer into mind, they could actually alter and benefit the seller/buyer relationship. Instead of thinking of new strategies that focused on selling more products, they started using strategies that included getting to know the customer. Of course, heightened competition in many industries helped this new marketing shift, as customers were getting miffed at being sold at, instead of sold to. So the whole idea of consumer research – finding out what the customer wants and then developing a marketing and advertising plan – started in the ’50s. That makes modern marketing a teeny tiny baby!
The ’60s ushered in a humorous movement in ads – no one had equated persuasion with humor before this time, apparently – and big names like Volkswagen, Avis and Levy’s bread used humor in their ads. One Levy’s bread magazine ad showed a boy enjoying a sandwich with the headline “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s real Jewish rye.”
This humor has continued on to this day, with commercials from Wendy’s “Where’s the beef” to a recent Bud Light “Breath of Fire” commercial during 2008’s Super Bowl.
And the marketing mantra of getting to know your audience is first is, of course, still going strong. So what have I learned from this very brief history lesson? Research your audience’s sense of humor, and then use that info to create a humorous, successful ad.
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