The Ecommerce Blog

Your Largest Investment Isn’t Just Your Home Anymore

When you consider the amount of time, effort, money and energy you put into your blog weekly if not daily, it’s time to look at this as an investment. If you’re working on your blog twenty or more hours a week, consider it a job. While your blog may not be paying you by the hour, the benefits long term could be substantial. In the future, websites and blogs that are established and ‘well built’ will likely see a steady income or nice resale value.

2. Maintenance Is Vital

If you let the roof, gutters, driveway and plumbing on your home go without upkeep, it will gradually turn into a money pit. This holds true with your online real estate. A fresh coat of paint equals fresh content. Cleaning out the gutters twice a year is the same as checking your backlinks and removing dead links on your site. Don’t wait until things start to collapse and die before freshening up and making needed repairs. It becomes too difficult if you do it all at once. Set a maintenance schedule and try to stick with it. Google will love you and so will your readers.

3. Choose The Right Colors

You wouldn’t paint your house pink, blue and red, and you probably shouldn’t paint your blog those colors either. Choose colors that complement your style, topic and personality. Stay away from color combinations that are too busy or don’t match. Stick with a basic three color scheme and accent your call to actions properly. If your blog is too noisy and distracting, guests may be drawn to and pay more attention to your neighbors (The competition.)

4. Location, Location, Location

Those three annoying but oh, so true real estate words. If you’re not on the search engines, you may as well pack up and move. Go watch television or take a sewing class. Successful blogging may not be for you. If you’re just blogging for fun, fine, don’t bother reading the rest of this. You must at least attempt to hone in on a niche. Dedicate a good portion of your blog to one subject and optimize for it. Select the main two to five keywords you want to rank for and go at it. Don’t lose focus and forget about obtaining traffic or you’ll be writing for no one. If you’re not located in the top ten on Google for anything, chances are your traffic will dwindle down to just your cousin and mother. Neat.

5. Widget Filled Sidewalks

When people approach your home, there needs to be a smooth walkway upon entry. Tripping hazards and clutter will detract guests from the true beauty of your home. If you have great content but it’s surrounded by too many ads, widgets and other animated garbage, your visitors may instantly be overwhelmed and focus primarily on the distractions. While you want your ads and fluff to be seen, you don’t want anyone tripping all the way to the big X in the sky. Find a happy medium and don’t bombard your visitors with screaming clutter.

6. There Goes The Neighborhood

Tacky decor, messy living spaces or half naked roommates isn’t what you’d likely want anyone visiting your home or blog to encounter. Not all readers have the same taste. Appealing to all may not be what you’re trying to achieve, but you can likely increase your on page viewing time and return visitors by cleaning up at least some of the smut. If nude images, foul language or distasteful ads are the first thing readers see when entering your site, some may be offended. Monitor and remove explicit ads and surround your anger or harsh language with well written content. Nobody likes a rant without substance. If you’re vulgar and that’s your niche, try to build up to it and let them read a little before getting slammed in the face all at once.

7. Ur Adress Iz Missin’ A Numbah!

There’s this nifty tool online called spell check. Especially if you’re a blogger without a solid English base, you should try to pay attention to grammar and spelling. It’s very hard to capture a sale or serious audience if you sound like a third grader. Drop your post in Word or use your browser to detect errors before publishing. Get to know and become friends with Firefox. Save the text talk for never and use short cuts only while running away from gangs with guns.

8. Interior Looks Great But The Curb Appeal Sucks

“Click Here To Enter.” … Why? I clicked on your link to enter. I typed your keywords into a search engine to enter. I filled the white box at the top of my screen with your URL to enter. Let me enter! I don’t want to click another anything to get to your information. Online users want things yesterday. The least you can do is give it to them now. If your website is well designed and offers great navigation, don’t hide it. Make your homepage deliver right away.

9. Nobody Is Knocking On Your Door

Gee, I wonder why? Let’s see… You have no contact me, about me, phone number or email present. Your call to action is key to being accessible, personable and connectible. This is most important if you’re trying to sell something. If your readers can’t find where to contact you, what’s the point? If you want your visitors to know more about you and trust you as an authority, you have to clear off your porch and give them a place to knock. Some will want to email you or inquire personally. You may be missing out on advertising, linking or networking opportunities. Secluding yourself from the public is a good way to limit your future success, Grizzly Adams.

10. Thou Shalt Not Kidnap Thy Guests

It should be on a blogging commandment list somewhere. I’ll leave that up to the blogging Gods, but if your visitors want to leave, let them! Don’t force them to listen to your music, x out of pop up ads, or register just to read your content or get more information. Remember the golden rule while adding this nonsense-maligarnomy to your site. Author’s Note: The term “Maligarnomy” was specifically designed for use in this post only. Unauthorized usage of the term maligarnomy without prior consent is not permitted. With that being said, don’t borrow content for your blog without properly crediting the author or owner of photos. It’s similar to stealing your neighbor’s flowers directly from their yard. It’s just something you don’t do…

About the Author
Cecilia Sherrard maintains and runs the largest Cleveland Real Estate website and also writes for the Ohio Real Estate Blog A full time Realtor since 2002, the YouShouldOwn.com team of agents assist home buyers and sellers all over Ohio and throughout the country.

Text Format

Important details that you should consider when writing for the Web

When you’re browsing the Web for information, you’re coming across variously structured pages. Some contain the exact information that you need, while others are full of details that prove to be inconclusive. The rule of thumb when writing for the Web is to keep the information well structured, and to respect some basic, very simple directions. Failure to do so will result in web users never attempting to access your web page again.

Theoretical Basis

In 1997, John Morkes and Jakob Nielsen have conducted a study to determine the way users read various texts on the Web. Their conclusion was that people tend not to read the text thoroughly, but they scan it instead. They browse through it, looking for the relevant information at the surface.

Web users are people that want to find information as quickly as possible. They seem to prefer short, right-to-the-point pages, and factual information to the overcharged, insipid and sometimes incomprehensible (due to the hyped language) “marketing fluff” that characterizes most of the writings that populate the Web nowadays.

The quality, credibility and relevance of the information are of utmost importance. Failure to satisfy any of these needs will determine users to never access a web page that has not provided concise, scannable and objective information.

In support of the above, the following paragraphs will attempt to cover some of the most important details that you should consider when writing for the web.

Text Format

• Sections

Since scanning is the universally accepted norm for web texts, do try to make your text short, or, if not possible, split it into sections/chunks with relevant headings and subheadings. Web users are usually in a hurry. They need bite-size information, and fast. Help them and you will also do yourself a favor.

• Headings and Subheadings

The first heading on the page is the most important. It tells the reader why the text is worth reading.
The next headings that you use must have more of an objective value than a stylistic one. They should sum up the content of the corresponding paragraph or sub-paragraph.

• Bulleted and Numbered Lists

The purpose of the bulleted lists should be to make information more obvious. It also contributes to reducing the amount of text on the web page and improves scannability. Information that is obvious is easier to remember.

For example (See our Usability Evaluation Services):
The usability concept
A usable sales website is one where:

• Your visitors can easily find what they are looking for;
• Your answers to frequently asked questions are helpful and easy to locate;
• Your ordering system is easy to use and intuitive;
• Your visitors feel comfortable trusting you, the company that operates the website.

• Tables

A table that contains relevant results of a study, for example, can be useful. It draws the reader’s attention and also adds to the scannability of the text. Tables of contents are also useful, since they give users the opportunity to see right from the beginning if the information that they are looking for could be found in the text.

• Captions

When you write for Web users, include pictures, tables, flowcharts, or diagrams in the page structure to support the text. Make sure that you also insert captions that identify the illustrations or table. Remember though that illustrations need captions only when the context is not clear enough.

• Links

Use links to support the text’s credibility. According to the nature of the text on your web page, you could provide links to glossaries that explain certain terms and concepts that you use in your text or to resources that you have used.

Nevertheless, refrain from using too many links. Users may think that what they read does not have a significant personal touch, and this will affect the credibility of your text. Avoid using terms such as “Click here” or “follow this link”.

If your text is long, or split on several pages, add navigation links to other sections in your text, as this also improves scanning. Always make sure that you have no broken links (either internal or external) and that it is clear enough where the internal links will take the Web user.

• Highlighting

If you want to bring something to your reader’s attention and add to the scannability of the text, highlighting is a good policy. Highlight only key information-carrying words. Do not highlight entire sentences or long phrases because a reader that scans your page is only able to pick 2-3 words at a time, and larger chunks of highlighted words may become tiresome.

Highlight words by using:

• boldface characters
• italics
• colors
• upper case letters

Text Content

• Clarity

Writing for the web means that you have to be a good organizer. The information that you will place on your page for the whole world to see must be carefully organized. Use words that make sense to the audience. Use simple, meaningful language.

Check your spelling (use a spell checker). You wouldn’t want your readers to encounter something like “Our software provides state-of-the-art soultions that “?.

Use correct grammar. Make sure that you know the difference between “it’s” (contracted form of “it is” or “it has”) and “its” (possessive pronoun, 3rd person singular), between “you’re” (contracted form of “you are”) and “your” (possessive pronoun, 2n person singular and plural), or between “they’re” (contracted form of “they are”), “there” (adverb of place, antonym of “here”), and “their” (possessive pronoun, 3rd person plural). These examples may sound a bit “too much”, but you’d be surprised how often they occur.

Avoid word play (puns), euphemisms and metaphors: you could be taken literally. Also, think of your non-native speaker audience. If you have to have abbreviations in your text, use only the standard ones. If you use your own abbreviations, explain them (between brackets), at least once in the beginning.

• Quantity

Since web users are usually people in a hurry, they need information that can be seized easily. Limit each paragraph to only one idea (topic sentences). Be concise: web readers prefer short texts, from which they can extract the information with minimal effort. Studies show that web reading is slower than regular reading by 25%. The information that you offer must be condensed enough to fit in one screen. Users don’t enjoy scrolling too much. They want to get the information fast, so web texts must have half the word count used when writing for print.

• Relevance

Do not overcharge your page with information. Provide only what is necessary. The text that you write for the web page must be relevant for the target audience, organized in an intuitive manner. The short bits of text that constitute your paragraphs must be self-explanatory, so that your readers will understand your point on the spot and will not require much mental effort to do that, or additional information to support them.

• Style
  • Verbs
    Use active verbs (provide, assess, implement, focus, validate, etc.) rather than passive ones (is being done, are solved, were built). Active verbs give a sense of vivacity to the text, which becomes more energetic and powerful.
  • Pronouns
    Use “you” rather than “I”, “we”. Like this you will show readers that they are the target, and your text will have a greater impact on them.
  • Language
    Use easily understandable language, with familiar, everyday words, short and simple sentences.
    Avoid jargon by all means: jargon is usually technical or abbreviated and difficult to understand for people not in the profession.
    Establish a balance between promotional (marketing) style and the useful information that you include in your text. For example, when writing a presentation web page for a product, it is understandable that it is meant to help sell the product. Nevertheless, avoid marketing exaggerations and overstatements. Too much enthusiasm can be a turn-off. Refrain from using (too much) humor. All Web users have different perceptions on humorous instances.
  • Keywords
    Identify the keywords in your text. Highlight them to add to the scannability of the text and to add to the probability of your web page being found much easier when searching the Web.
  • Graphics
    Graphical elements must complement text. Insert only images that have relevance to the text, and avoid full-page graphics, as they can take quite a while to load and this gets users annoyed.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It is not easy to learn how to write for the Web in an appropriate, professional manner. In principle, if you respect at least the most important principles according to which this activity can be performed, you may find yourself on the right track. Whenever you have to write something for the web, remember that people may not want to spend long minutes or even hours to read everything you have to say on a particular topic. They do not have, or don’t want to have, time to waste on reading long, exhaustive paragraphs, as they want only the “cold facts”.

Web texts should be like the instructions for microwave food:

• Insert food in oven
• Heat for x seconds
• Serve

Users prefer summaries or “inverted pyramid” style texts. Start with the conclusion, and then continue with the details. Thus you are sure that if the users gets bored along the way and close the web page, at least there’s something they have already read and from which they could actually benefit.

About the Author
Copyright © 2006, www.avangate.com all rights reserved. This article was written by a Web Marketing Specialist at Avangate B.V. Avangate is an eCommerce platform for electronic software distribution incorporating an easy to use and secure online payment system plus additional marketing and sales tools.

Looking for new ways to get improved search engine placement for your web site? Then maybe you should spend a little more time socializing online!

I’m talking about getting more active on social media web sites like MySpace, Flickr, and Digg.

Sure, these sites might be the online hangouts where people like to goof off during their “down time” at work…

But they’re also extremely popular web sites with high Google PageRank numbers — and if you can get links on these sites to point to your site, it might get driven to the top of the search engine results page for your keywords!

In a recent newsletter, I talked about how creating a keyword-rich article and distributing it on the Web can improve your ranking in the free search engines.

It’s an easy way to get relevant sites linking back to you, and it doesn’t cost you a dime!

Well, posting content on the social media sites is another great way to achieve these same goals. It’s just that the type of sites — and the type of content you post on them — are different.

And the best part about this strategy is that it involves hanging out at fun sites you’d probably enjoy spending time at, anyway!

But before I show you how to “socialize” your way to improved search engine placement, let’s take a closer look at exactly what social media web sites are.

Discover how these popular online hangouts can lead to improved search engine placement!

These days, social media sites are HUGE! In fact, they make up five of the top 10 fastest-growing Web brands on the Internet, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

And this explosive growth isn’t likely to end anytime soon.

So if people are hanging out on these sites in ever-expanding numbers, don’t you want to be there too? Just like in the offline world, “location, location, location” is the key to success!

Now, there’s been a pretty big buzz around the phrase “social media” lately. But what exactly does it mean?

Social media sites are simply online gathering places where people share interesting, entertaining, informative, or just plain goofy content with each other.

This content can take many different forms. It can be…

Personal information in the form of blogs

Useful articles about anything and everything

Photos or video clips that people might get a kick out of watching

Collections of bookmarks to favorite online articles or web sites that people can check out for themselves

Members of these communities can comment on each other’s contributions, engage in discussions, and find other people who are interested in the same things they are.

Hanging out and participating at these sites can be a great way to make new online friends or business contacts.

It’s also an effective strategy you can use to drive more traffic to your business site — not only from the social media sites themselves, but also from the improved search engine placement you’ll get from having more high-PageRank links pointing to your web site!

Social media sites can be organized into a few main categories:

Social networking sites: These sites are basically online communities that connect people through networks of friends.

MySpace is the Internet’s most-visited social networking community. On their profile pages, MySpace users can describe their interests, upload pictures, post blog-style entries, and list the other MySpace users who have become their friends.

They can even post audio and video clips to share with other people!

Independent musicians and bands were the first group to take advantage of the interactive nature of MySpace to get their product out there. They found they could attract devoted followings by posting audio clips of their latest songs and updating fans on their concert schedules.

This has been a big hit with teenagers and twentysomethings, who come to the site to learn more about the bands who are poised to be the next “big thing.”

But MySpace isn’t just for the teen scene anymore! Even professionals like financial planners and lawyers have started networking and community-building on MySpace.

The fact is, people in pretty much any field can gain more exposure by creating a MySpace page. And the great thing is, it’s free!

So set up an account for yourself, start networking and adding other people in your industry to your “friends” list, and make your name and web site visible on these wildly popular sites.

And don’t forget to link to your business site in your profile!

If you’re interested in exploring other popular social networking sites, some of the top ones include: Friendster, Facebook, and Linkedin.

Social bookmarking sites: At social bookmarking sites, people save links to their favorite web sites or articles — just like you do with the “Favorites” or “Bookmarks” function in your own personal web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer or Firefox).

When you save your favorite links at a bookmarking site like del.icio.us, they become public and can be viewed by other members of the site.

You can also “tag” your links with descriptive keywords, so people have a better idea of what kind of content your links are pointing to.

Tagging your bookmarks is useful in another important way: When people use the site’s internal search engine to look for bookmarks on a particular topic, any ones that are tagged with keywords related to that topic will appear in the search results.

The more an article or a web site gets bookmarked by members of these sites, the higher it ranks in the search results.

So if you include an appropriately tagged link to your own site (or to an article you’ve written) in your bookmarks list, and a lot of other members add it to their bookmarks as well, your link will be seen by a lot more people searching for your keywords.

And if your link becomes really popular, it might even end up on the bookmark site’s homepage — which will generate a TON of traffic and incoming links to your web site!

Okay, so that’s the “Holy Grail” of using bookmarking sites as a traffic-generating strategy… and the chances of it happening are actually quite slim…

But even just ONE link from a top bookmarking site like Digg, del.icio.us, Netscape, Reddit, or Furl will boost your site’s value in the eyes of the search engines.

So why not spend the few minutes it takes to create an account on these sites and give it a shot?

After you set up an account, list a few of your favorite sites as bookmarks, making sure to also include links to YOUR web site or articles. And don’t forget to make them public, so others can view your favorites as well.

Media-sharing sites: Have you ever checked out the latest videos at YouTube, or the most popular pictures at Flickr?

These web sites have been taking the Internet by storm, with everyone rushing to upload their favorite cat videos, or photos from their vacation, or latest business conference pictures. But you can also find things like real estate “virtual tour” videos being uploaded and viewed.

So if you’re a real estate agent, a great way to increase your market visibility would be to get an account, upload a video tour of a listing, and then tag it with appropriate keywords.

Anyone who’s searching for video info on real estate in your area will probably come across your video tour — and learn about you in the process!

Online video and photo-sharing sites have been growing by leaps and bounds, and they also show no signs of slowing up.

The top video sites include YouTube and Google Video, while the most popular photo-sharing web sites are Flickr and Fotolog.

Wiki sites: A wiki is a type of web site that lets ALL its users update the site’s content.

Every visitor to a wiki web site can add to, delete, or edit the site’s content, creating a sort of living web page full of fresh perspectives and up-to-the-minute information from multiple users.

Take Wikipedia.org (the Web’s biggest and best-known wiki): It’s an online encyclopedia that allows users to update its database of entries on everything from historical figures, to technical terms, to world events.

So by creating an account at Wikipedia, you can start making changes to existing articles, or add completely new articles related to your industry or area of expertise and grow your reputation as an expert in your field!

Plus, you can look for suitable opportunities to include links to your own web site or articles in the entries you edit.

For example, at the end of every Wikipedia article is a section called “External links.” If you write an entry on a term related to your product or industry, and your web site can help people learn more about this topic, you can include a link back to your site!

One thing, though: Since other users can also edit your entry — as well as the links you’ve included — the link to your web site must be relevant, or else it will likely be removed by another member of the community.

How to attract the most eyeballs by posting attention-grabbing content on social media sites

Take a moment to think about what people do when they’re sitting in front of their computer at work and want to take a quick mental break…

If they’re one of the millions of people who like hanging out at bookmarking sites, maybe they’ll pop over to Digg to see what the daily top bookmarks are.

Now… which headline do you think they’ll be more likely to click on?

“Chirac Urges World Powers Not to Refer Iran to Security Council”

– or –

“How to Roast Coffee at Home With a Popcorn Popper” My bet is on the latter, because it sounds like a fun way to waste a couple of minutes and learn an unusual skill — and besides, what office worker doesn’t love coffee?

Now imagine if you ran a small coffee-roasting business — just think about the kind of exposure an article like this could get you, if it were featured on Digg’s homepage.

The trick to creating fun social media content that spreads through the Internet like wildfire (going “viral,” as it’s called) is to write entertaining articles, that are short, compelling, and eye-catching.

First, write a headline that grabs readers’ attention and tells them exactly how your article is going to help or entertain them. Then keep your piece short, easy to scan, and fun to read.

In fact, lists are often some of the most popular articles on social bookmarking sites. People who visit these sites are usually looking to waste a few minutes online, and they don’t want to read a bunch of heavy text.

That’s why lists are so great! They’re easy to format and quick to read, and don’t waste any time getting to the punchline.

Media-sharing sites like Flickr and YouTube obviously need different content because they’re dealing with video and images. But the same principle of creating short, snappy, and entertaining content still applies.

Many of the most popular videos on YouTube, for example, are short compilations of funny video clips — like you see on the TV show America’s Funniest Home Videos.

But content that’s entertaining AND solves people’s problems can also be effective. “How-to” videos that teach people a specific skill are extremely popular in certain markets.

Now I’m sure many of you are thinking, “How am I supposed to create an entertaining article or video when I sell a boring product like widgets?”

The truth is, there are thousands of ways to create entertaining content for these sites — if you use your imagination.

Here are some examples and ideas to get you started:

Compile an entertaining or informative list related to your industry: One of the most popular September stories on the tech-oriented Digg is titled “112 Windows Run Commands.”

The article is simply a list of shortcuts that will help Microsoft Windows users save a lot of time — and people obviously liked the article, because it’s already received 2,363 “diggs,” or votes, from Digg users!

And just think about how many of these people emailed the article to their friends!

If you ran a web site that sold computer software, can you imagine what kind of traffic your site would have received if you had created and submitted this article yourself?

Take existing content in your newsletter or blog and repackage it for social media sites: You probably already have valuable content on hand that you’ve written for your site’s newsletter or blog.

Simply tweak this existing content to make it short and scannable, and re-use it on the social media sites!

Spend some time thinking up a snappy headline, because that’s the biggest factor in getting people to click on your article. And don’t forget to tag it with popular and appropriate keywords.

Create a funny compilation video: Let’s say you sell a relatively specialized product, like baby shoes. One thing you could do would be to run a contest on your web site where the person who submits the funniest baby video wins a free pair of shoes.

After you’ve chosen a winner, simply string all of the best entries into a single video.

Then upload your video to YouTube or Google Video with the tags “funny” and “baby” — and don’t forget to include information about your web site.

In fact, I just did a search at YouTube for the term “funny babies” and the first video in the search results page has been viewed 67,143 times in the last nine months — and the clip is only 10 seconds long!

If 67,000 people had viewed your baby video in the last nine months — with the URL to your business site clearly displayed at the end — I can guarantee you’d be seeing a LOT more traffic.

Remember: These don’t have to be lengthy professional videos — something filmed with a digital camera or even a cell phone works great!

About the Author
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Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real people how to start profitable Internet businesses that make $100,000 to $2.5 Million (or more) per year. To get instant access to all his most profitable marketing campaigns, strategies, tools, and resources that he’s used to grow $25 into over $60 Million in online sales, visit: http://www.marketingtips.com/emailsecrets/t.cgi/883561
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