Insight in Creating a Profitable Startup Company

Startups.
Have you thought of starting your own business ?
Or have you already started your own business ?

You have a great idea.
You have a great team to start with (Best case scenario)
You are ready to gear up and kick start your startup.
So you have everything in place....
What else is required ?

Idea + team + ? = Profit

In the following video,David Heinemeier Hansson,
creator of the Ruby on Rails framework and Partner at 37Signals
will be sharing his insights in creating a profitable startup company.

Your Turn.
What's your view ?

Tim Ash Interview: Landing Page Optimization

An interview conducted by Sage with Tim Ash on his book: Landing Page Optimization



Highly Recommended book written by Tim Ash:
> Landing Page Optimization

How crawable is your website ?

How does a search engine spider crawl your website you say ?

Here's an analogy of how a spider might crawl your website: Imagine yourself visiting a newly constructed mall down by your town, what might you do when you first find yourself inside the mall ?

• Navigating around ? For something of interest to you ?

• Looking around ? For something of interest to you ?

• Which varieties of stores are available ? Which is / are relevant to your needs ?
  

• Where are the restaurants / fast food outlets / restrooms ?

You decided to locate the restroom but to your surprise.....the door to the restroom was locked when you reached it.

One week later, you came back to the mall and when you went to the same restroom...the door was locked once again.....

Another week later.....history repeats itself.....
Will you still try using the same restroom the next time round ?
Yes ? No ?

Similarly the search engine bot faces the same issue when their navigation is blocked either by your password protected content areas; your graphical images which displays nothing when being blocked by ad block programs, missing images....etc...

So what could you do to prevent such mishaps ?

• Adding appropriate ALT attribute descriptions to your graphical image; Making sure the surrounding copy / text around your image clearly sets the context.
  

• Having password protected content area only for those content that would require registration such as pay-per view content / subscription based premium contents.
  

Your turn.
What could you ensure the crawl-ability of your website ?

Ads on PDF ?

Ads on Adobe PDF ?
A recent partnership between Adobe and Yahoo allows PDF
publishers to embed Yahoo ads in it and earn revenues
based on the ads click through.

To get started, Publishers simply just upload their
PDF files to Adobe for ad registration. After which ,the PDF is
than analyzed and relevant ads will be placed.

Users
So how will this have an impact on the current users ?
Will they be enticed to click onto the relevant ads while reading
through the PDF file ? Or will they find it an intrusion ?
Only time will tell whether this model work or fail.

Advertisers
So how will this have an impact for advertisers ?
How could you tapped into this new ad placement channel ?
How can you better optimized your ad copy and content for PDF ?

Your turn now.
Your thoughts.

A day in Twitter

Ever wonder how Twitter's office is like ?
Here's the video from Technology Review providing us with the peek into Twitter's offices days before they prepared for a move to a more grown-up space.

Search Engine Optimization Daily Digest - Issue 2

• Domain Strategies for Search Engine Optimization
> Are you choosing the right domain strategy?


• 5 Reasons to Not Use Black Hat Tactics
  > Are you practicing Black Hat tactics ?

• Improved Flash indexing
  > Finally Google learns to crawl Flash
  

• Flash May Now Bring More Search Traffic, Does it Matter?
  > How does it relate back to your bottom line ?

• Visual Search The Future? Spare Me The Eye Candy
> Being Cool or being useful to searchers ?

Related Posts:
. Search Engine Optimization Daily Digest - Issue 1

Analyse Your Top Ranking Keywords

What are your website's top ranking keywords ?
Which keyword phrases do you rank well for ?
Which keywords are your competition ranking well for ?
How could you better optimize your website and content ?

Try SeoDigger, a free keyword utility tool which helps you in identifying the keywords your site ranks well to be in Google Top 20. In addition, data showing you the search popularity of the phrase are also determined from Wordtracker and Overture results .

However, this free unregistered version only analyze a single page of your website.Sign up for the free registered version, in identifying the rankings of all the pages on your website.

Take action now: Type in your website URL and let SeoDigger show you which phrases that website ranks for with-in the top 20 results.

Analyze.Test.Optimize.

Related Posts:
. Keyword Analysis
. Competitive Analysis Tool - Part 1
. Competitive Analysis Tool - Part 2

SEO Tip of The Day

Here's a tip from Google Webmaster Central blog:
If you want to prevent search engines from generating
snippets based from the Open Directory Project.

Use the following meta tag to prevent search engines
from using the snippet information for the page's description.

META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="NOODP"
However, do take note that it takes some time for the snippet changes to place.

Google I/O Session: Search Friendly Development

In this Video and Presentation slide from the Google I/O session,
Maile Ohye will be sharing techniques in helping bring your site more users through search engine traffic. She will be covering on how to maximize your site, your content, and your application's exposure to search engines.

Session covering on:
* Make sites with Flash, AJAX/JavaScript, and images better crawled and indexed by search engines
* Create a strong, crawlable foundation through URL and site structure
* Deal with duplicate content caused by URL parameters and dynamic pages (help search engines determine the canonical version)
* Check that your site follows SEO best practices



View the Search Friendly Development presentation slide document

Search Engine Optimisation Myth

"We Will Guaranteed Number One Ranking"
Sounds familiar ?

Ever receive calls from so called "SEO Experts or Companies"
whom are self proclaiming they could help get you to the
Number One rank in Google or any other search engines ?

What they could possibly help you in becoming the number one
ranking is coming up with phrases that wouldn't even be
relevant to / with what your consumers or customers are
searching or seeking for.

Here's a quick question for them, should you receive calls
from them again:

• Does your company own the search engines ?

No one could predict what's coming up next in the various
search engine algorithms except the search engine owners themselves.

If they promise you they could do so, kindly thank them for their
crystal ball predictions and bid farewell to them.

Search Engine Optimization Daily Digest - Issue 1

• 9 reasons why you should be very worried about Buying Links > You better be worried

• How Many Terms/Phrases Should I Target on a Single Page? > Just how much is too much or too little ?

• It Pays to Link Consistently > Are your linking consistent ?

• SEO Is Not Free > You get what you pay for !

• Plural vs Singular Keywords > Which works better ?
  

Optimize Your Email Marketing, Part 2

Have you tried utilizing the last email optimization
tips which was shared in the last post ?

More to share you say ?
Alright let this post be the Part 2
of Optimize Your Email Marketing

Less talk...here's some additional
optimization tips to share:

> Allow your readers to opt in or opt out
from your email communication conveniently.
Yes, you definitely do not want your readers to
labeled your emails as SPAM just because they
felt frustrated of not being able to opt out from your
email offers conveniently .

> Instead of bombarding them with everything at once,
try communicating relevant content with your segments
at different stage of their relationship with you.
Build an on-going relationship with them step by step and
NOT a one-way dialogue.

> Track all the clicks in the emails...be obsessed with
tracking the readers' clicking behavior. Let them help
you determine what works and what don't with your copy,
colors, hero shot to call to action buttons.

> Remember to instill a control and variable group
for your email marketing testings efforts. In order to
track which or what new elements work or don't in the
variable group as compared to the control.

Your turn.
Share your optimization tips with us.

Related Post:
> Optimize Your Email Marketing, Part 1

Optimize Your Email Marketing

Email marketing.
Are you utilizing it ?
If so, are you communicating it effectively ?
Are you communicating relevant content to
your segment of existing or potential customers ?
How could you do better ?

Here's some optimizing tips to share:

> Call to action above the fold
According to research, not many tend to scroll down the
entire email communication offers they receive, thereby missing
out on the call to action found at the end of the email. So be sure to
include a compelling call to action above the fold to entice them in
taking action.

> Reduce graphic intensive email

> Having ALT-text tagging embedded onto your graphic
image in your email helps ensure your readers getting to
read your message even if it's block by the email client.

> Consistent layout
Since readers spent considerable time learning your email
layout and structure, so don't make them having to
relearn your new layout every now and than.

> Test Test Test & Optimize
Conducting A/B testing and let your readers decide for you
what works and what don't in ensuring you are delivering
relevant content to them.
Yes test every element from copy to call to action.
The testing doesn't ends here...
Test...Test...Test...on a on-going effort

Your turn.
Are you taking action in optimizing your email marketing efforts ?
You decide.

Landing Page Optimization Daily Digest - Issue 1

Landing Page Optimization Daily reads will be the first of daily readings.More daily reads covering from Search marketing, PPC to web analytics to come.

Optimizing Your Landing Page Part 1 - Case Studies from Marketing Experiments

Optimizing Your Landing Page Part 2 - Case Studies from Marketing Experiments

Uncovering Site Problems for Landing Page - From landing page expert Tim Ash

Your turn now to suggest any good reads that you
would like to share with us.

Share. Read. Learn. Optimize.

Vinton Cerf talks about Web 2.0 and beyond....

What's next for Web 2.0 and beyond ?
What's the next 50 years for internet development ?
What impact will the internet be hitting us now and tomorrow ?
How are our life intertwined with the technology and beyond ?
Are you ready for it ?

The VP of Engineering and Chief Internet Evangelist of Google, Vinton G. Cerf shared his perspective on the current trend and the future of internet development on an interesting evening held at Suntec City in the Lion City on 23th May 2008. In case you missed the event or just want to recap the fantastic event, how's the video:

“Tracking the Internet into the 21st Century”


Your turn.....
What's your perspective on the future of Internet ?
Are you ready for it ?
Is your company ready to make the leap ?
If not, how could you leverage it into your business / communication strategy ?

A Conversation...

Corporate man X : How could my brand / company tap into
social marketing buzz that is happening now ?

Agency Y: Oh Facebook will do the work !

Corporate man X: (Getting excited) Really !! Get my company
a Facebook page ! What a great idea !

Does the above sounds familiar ?
Without a doubt, Facebook is one hot place where you would want your brand to be in, leveraging the social community within. But in reality, what do you really hope to achieve through Facebook or any social community websites ?

Here's some points to ponder:

• What's your end goal through tapping into the social aspect ?
• How does it relate back to your business goals & objectives ?
• How are you going to measure it ?
• Are there any measurable metrics in place ?
• Is your back end team ready to support it ?
• Or are you just simply following what everyone else is doing ?
  

Next time, when your creative agency recommends you without
considering the above....FIRE THEM !

Now its your turn....
Follow the hype ?
Or ?
You decide.

QR codes embedded on grave stones ?

In Japan, it is common to find QR everywhere and anywhere.
But now a memorial stone maker Ishinokoe in Japan is taking that technology to be embedded onto grave stones soon. So the next time round, the visitors can simply just scan the code embedded on the grave stones with their mobiles and immediately getting information on the deceased.









The decease's family can upload content such as pictures, videos and family information on what visitors can get to view on their mobile through the QR coding. Will this really work in other countries in the near future ? Or will it be widely accepted ? Only time will time.


































Have you thought of how you could integrate the QR technology into your communications ?
If so, how can you better utilize it ?
You decide.

Optimize your Keywords

To begin with today's topic....here's some questions to ponder
How do people land onto your website ?
Where do people land onto your particular web page ?

If they came from search engines;
What is / are the particular keywords that they keyed in that brought them into your website ? Are you finding out about which particular keywords that is most popular among your visitors with regards to your particular product or product lines ?

If its a NO for the above....time to take action
If its a YES for the above....congratulations
Whether its a YES or NO for you.....here's something to share with you today on optimizing your keywords.

Generic Keywords or niche keywords ?
You might be thinking that generic keywords are the best approach. As a rule, it's better to focus on niche keywords related to your product or service. Even though highly targeted and specific keywords doesn't bring in as much traffic as compared to generic ones, however having target those niche keywords you can expect visitors to find what they want and have a higher probability of converting into customers. If someone searches for the specific name of your product, there is a high possibility they are looking to make a purchase. These keywords are too important to be ignored.

Localized search terms
So how does localized search terms helps you ?
Let's say you're a Italian cafe in Suntec, Singapore. Using keywords like "Italian cafe Suntec Singapore" or "Italian cafe Singapore" not only make people easily locate your cafe but also helps search engines refer most people from Singapore to your site.

Here's the recap for this post:

• Finding out what are the general terms with relations to your business, then determining the relevant / specific keywords and optimizing your respective webpages for the most specific search term.
• Localized search terms characterizing your business.
• Don't stop at just one page; optimize all your webpages for localized search terms.
  

Free SEO Analysis Tool

How well does your website or blog fare ?
What's your website or blog score out of 100 ?
Try this FREE tool by Website Grader to find out.

What this tool does is it measures the marketing effectiveness of your website / blog based on 5 broad search engine marketing factors. So what are the 5 factors taken into consideration ?

The 5 factors taken into consideration namely:

On-Page SEO
* Your page titles - What is your website about ?
* Headings - Is your heading relevant and friendly to both human and search engine spiders ?
* Content - Is your content relevant and interesting ?
* Meta tags - What is website about ? What are your keywords ?
* Alt Tags - How do you want the search engine spiders to see your image ?
* Readability level - How reader friendly is your content ?

Off-Page SEODomain Info
* Google PageRank - How well does your web pages fare in Google search ?
* Google Indexed Pages - Spider crawling frequency ?
* Last Google Crawl Date - Spider crawling frequency ?
* Inbound Links - How many other sites are linking to your website ?

Blogosphere
If your website is a blog or you have a corporate blog, this might be useful information for you.
* Blog Analysis
* Blog Ranking - Ranking based on Technorati
* Subscription Methods - How people can subscribe to your blog easily either through RSS feed or an email subscription form

Social Mediasphere
Your web presence outside of your own website is also vital.
* del.icio.us bookmarks - Is your website bookmarked by many ?
* Digg.com Submission Summary - How many of your website articles are being submitted ?

Competitive Intelligence
* Competing Websites
* Historical Data Available

Try this tool to determine how well your search marketing fare.

Optimize Your Organic Click Through Rates

Your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads carefully deployed and optimize.
You are found on the top search rank for the relevant search terms or keywords keyed in by your visitors and leading them to the respective relevant offer/ landing page.

Now you have done all of the above, so what's next you say ?
Are you stopping the process here ?

Are you tracking your organic click rate as well ?
How are you measuring your organic click rate ?
And are you conducting any tests in optimizing it ?
Or are you taking your search optimization driven traffic for granted ?

If you're not taking any action in measuring and running tests to optimize SEO-driven traffic to your website, here's a lab test ran by MarketingSherpa which resulted in a 250% more Search Marketing Clicks which might just get you started:

In the lab test, Search Marketing Benchmark Guide, MarketingSherpa conducted a study with business professionals. Through the test conducted on Google search, it is discovered that executives are 250% more likely to click on an organic listing if it:

(i) had a fairly short URL and
(ii) appeared directly below a listing with a long URL.

So what does this meant ?
Time to optimize by keeping your URLs short and precise.

Time to take action
Conduct a search on your website in comparison with the relevant keywords.
And compare your organic listing URLs with your competition.
How are you faring in comparison with the competition ?

Short URLs ?
You decide.