What’s Killing the Newspapers?

As ironic as it may be, newspapers are currently topping their own headlines. Well-known newspapers such as The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times are not only downsizing employees, but are also cutting sections and features from their publications. While the newspaper industry appears to be dying, the news itself is actually flourishing in other forms.

What’s the reason for all this? Some blame the economy and expect the government to bail out the newspapers. U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin introduced the Newspaper Revitalization Act to Congress, which would allow newspapers to operate as non-profit organizations if they wanted to. This week, Governor Chris Gregoire of Washington State approved a tax break for newspaper printers and publishers.

Some newspapers blame Google for their struggles claiming the search engine is stealing their content. Search industry leader Danny Sullivan disagrees. He believes newspapers actually get “special treatment” from Google. There are news publications that do not appear in Google news, but so many of the complaining newspapers do. These newspapers also receive a tremendous amount of traffic from Google that many other publications would readily appreciate.

Lastly, some even say the newspapers have created their own crisis. Has the newspaper industry embraced the Internet to its full potential? Could they have approached advertising in a different way that could have produced better benefits for them? Are they monetizing their traffic in the most effective manner?

*Traditional Media Vs. Digital Media *

Although we consider ourselves on board and moving with the digital age, there are some areas that are taking longer to evolve. One such area is the transition of traditional media metrics online. Most marketers realize the need to integrate online, but struggle with the actual process.

In many cases, traditional media forms such as television are the easiest option for marketers and advertisers, even if it’s not the best choice. Some may argue that the proper measurement tools are not available, but Erin Hunter of comScore says they do exist. comScore even has a media planning suite for marketers and advertisers that goes beyond traditional measures.

One significant problem with choosing that “easy” form of media is the consumers that could be missed. Many consumers are now fully reliant on the Web. If marketers and advertisers aren’t taking this into consideration, a large part of their demographic is probably being neglected.

What challenges have you encountered in your online efforts? Have you discovered that you were missing out on consumers before you integrated online?

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Standing Out In The Digital Age

How many websites do you visit each day? Do you even have an accurate number or is it more than you could count? A recent Nielsen study unveiled the average Internet user in the US views 115 different websites each day. That’s a lot of websites!

Oddly enough, many of us view even more websites than that on a daily basis. What type of websites do you view? Is it commerce, community, news, or blogs? For most, it is probably a combination of all mentioned.

In order to get your business noticed in this digital age, Richard Jalichandra of Technorati says companies have to make their brand accessible. Utilizing 2 or 3 portals aren’t good enough. Richard says brands must realize that they have to extend their efforts beyond their comfort zones in order to succeed in the digital age.

Look at the above statistics and then think about your consumption of traditional media sources. How much TV do you watch? Do you get your news from television or a newspaper, or do you turn to the Web to get it? When was the last time you visited a library, or do you simply go to the Internet to find the information you need?

The Web has changed the way we do business and live our everyday life. We should expect this trend to only increase over time. Going back to the point Richard made, this information means that marketers and advertisers have to embrace several digital areas.

Take the Technorati online property BlogCritics.org for example. This freshly redesigned website tries bridge the gap between journalists and bloggers by setting a high quality content precedent. The site provides valuable content, but delivers it in a “community” atmosphere. There are countless properties like this on the Web and businesses simply need to find which ones can be integrated into their business model.

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Social Media Done Right

A lot of people like to give their opinions on how to use social media, but Katie Sween’s opinion is advice that everyone would likely want to hear. Katie is the Head of Marketing at the rapidly growing company, StumbleUpon. She says social media shouldn’t be scary at all but should simply be an extension of other business efforts.

Many social networks were intended to be fun and should still be fun, even though they are now incorporated into business operations. Social media provides many cost-effective opportunities for businesses such as brand-building and reputation management, but websites still need to have quality content.

StumbleUpon comes into the game here since it tries to help the content providers connect with their brands. Katie says StumbleUpon listens and engages with users and also aims to make themselves available to users. The companies and brands that understand this “push and pull” concept are approaching social the right way.

Recently, StumbleUpon announced that is was no longer a part of eBay. The company is now in the hands of its original founders and a few other investors. While under eBay, Katie says the company was able to focus entirely on their product. As a result, they experienced unprecedented growth.

While very thankful for eBay, StumbleUpon is excited to be a start-up again. Katie says the company has more freedom and liberty now that they are independent. To give an example of those new opportunities, StumbleUpon just released a few enhancements to their Web Stumbling function. (Web Stumbling is the act of stumbling without downloading the toolbar.)

With Web Stumbling, StumbleUpon wanted to make stumbling accessible from any computer or browser. StumbleUpon revealed these enhancements to WebProNews:

Fully Personalized Experience - Now you can expect the same high-quality and personalized recommendations that you receive from your downloaded toolbar. And you can access it from any computer, and from any browser… just visit StumbleUpon.com and login to get a personalized stumbling experience.

Web Stumbling syncs with your toolbar activity - Use Web Stumbling to rate, review and share content and all your activities will be saved for you in your profile and will influence your future recommendations. For example, Web Stumbling in Safari or Opera would use ratings given using the Firefox or IE toolbars, and anything you rate will improve your recommendations on any platform.

Enhancements to Sharing - When sharing websites while Web Stumbling, you now have the ability to share with several friends at once, post sites directly to your Facebook profile, and even have conversations about the websites you share with your friends.

For more information, check out Chris Crum’s write-up or visit StumbleUpon.

What are your social media best practices? And how do you see StumbleUpon’s Web Stumbling enhancements supporting your social efforts?

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Brainstorm Your Way into an Effective Keyword List

Mark Jackson is the President/CEO of VIZION Interactive and while WebProNews was in Austin for PubCon, we had the chance to chat with him about building a keyword list and how big brands are beginning to embrace SEO. We all know that building an effective keyword list for your business is essential because those keywords are going to bring people to your site and ultimately bring you business.

Even though people are aware of the importance of building a keyword list, Mark says they tend to leave out one of the first and very important steps to the process, which is brainstorming. In this video, Mark suggests that businesses brainstorm to build a strong foundation of keywords.

He suggests involving the public relations department, customer service department, and even customers in the brainstorming process. Taking these steps can help get your creative juices flowing and can sometimes bring words to the surface that you might have overlooked.

Mark says:

“Many people will get focused primarily on the head of search, and if you want to look at the head of search, then you need to know who you are today; and then find who you might want to be when you grow up.”

Let competitive analysis be your road map. It is important for businesses to be aware of their competitors and the keywords and phrases that are driving people. Using that information, develop a strategy that is ideal for your business.

Lastly, Mark discusses how big brands are embracing SEO and what it means for small businesses and marketers. Mark indicates that smaller players can still hold their own against the big guys if they maintain authoritative sites that have quality content, valuable links, and creative tactics for visitor engagement.

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Maximize Your Online Marketing Campaign to Its Full Potential

At PubCon South, Richard Zwicky of Enquisite gave an interesting history of analysis in the worlds of 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. In this video, Richard discusses the differences in each and what companies can do to take full advantage of all their opportunities.

Richard recalls that in the 1.0 world, the application was the central focus. Users were forced to adapt their work flow to match that application. In the 2.0 world, the application was modified to fit the user’s work flow and needs.

The world of 3.0 is about getting the data to turn into actions and knowing what to expect from data in order to act upon it. In his presentation, Richard listed the following predictions about Web 3.0:

- How we collect data might change
- Channels to reach customers will change
- How we use the data will change (static and dynamic creation, reputation management, social media, etc.)
- What we try to accomplish with the data won’t change (branding/sale)
- How we define value will evolve

Richard emphasizes the importance of acting on your data and realizing its potential. Enquisite now has a product in beta called Enquisite Campaign that looks at your potential and helps you understand it. The product tells you how much value you’re getting from your existing campaign and also allows you to see other opportunities that you should be utilizing. According to Enquisite’s site, those opportunities are:

- The opportunity potential of each keyword
- The keywords with the highest potential in the portfolio
- The best suited keyword candidates for optimization in the portfolio
- Keywords that are driving traffic to the site, but not being targeted
- Keywords not currently driving traffic to site, but with significant potential value.

For more information on Enquisite Campaign, check out their site.

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Speed Up Your Landing Page Testing

Tim Ash always shares the latest landing page optimization news with us, and he didn’t leave us out when he made a big announcement at PubCon South. In this video, Tim reveals a partnership that will make a marketer’s job a lot easier.

SiteTuners.com is partnering with OnDialog in an effort to break down many barriers marketers face. OnDialog offers landing page creation software, which gives marketers complete control. Entirely on their own, marketers can “design, develop, and deploy” landing pages directly from their desktop. The landing pages are then available for immediate use.

SiteTuners has incorporated its very powerful and fully automated tuning engine technology into OnDialog’s software to produce even better results. Marketers can include images, headlines, and remove and update their landing pages. It eliminates any barriers with IT since marketers manage it on their own.

Tim says the product will be in Beta within the next couple of weeks and we can expect a full announcement in a month or so. Stay tuned to WebProNews this week because Mike McDonald will be interviewing Tim at SES New York and we may have an update to the announcement.

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Headlines That Will Knock Your Socks Off!

Do you struggle to come up with witty and clever headlines? I think everyone does except Copy Blogger Founder Brian Clark. In this video, Brian shares some valuable information in regards to writing headlines.

First of all, do you understand how important your headlines actually are? If your content is part of your marketing strategy than your headline had better be good. If it’s not good enough to get people to keep reading, then you are missing out on links, social bookmarking, and sales.

Brian says that people obsess too much about the placement of keywords. While they are important especially for the search engines, what they are “wrapped up in” is more important. Your phrasing ultimately determines how much attention you get which therefore, determines your links, sales, etc.

According to Brian, the headline should be viewed as a “promise.” He says that you are essentially promising the readers that your content is valuable enough for them to invest their time and attention to what you have to say.

The headline has to be compelling, but that doesn’t mean it has to be controversial to prove that it is compelling. Brian actually says the method of being controversial is overused and in order to be truly effective, suggests going beyond being controversial and experiment with other techniques.

As far as length goes, Brian says to make your headline “as long as necessary.” It’s better to have a longer title to encourage the reader to keep reading than to make it too brief and reduce interest. Brian recommends having a headline of 8-10 words as a good rule of thumb to follow.

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What’s Happening with Social Media and Businesses?

Chris Brogan and Lee Odden have been teased about their striking resemblance to each other, so WebProNews decided to feed to the humor and interviewed them together. Both Lee and Chris are a lot of fun, and they are also very knowledgeable in the Internet marketing industry.

In this video from PubCon South, the two discuss social media and where it fits into marketing. Chris says that we are seeing more and more larger companies embracing social media. There are also many people using social sites because they think they can “get rich quick.” As companies determine how to effectively use social media, Chris predicts the number of “get rich quick” people will rapidly decline.

Lee agrees with Chris’s outlook and points out that companies are now discovering exactly where they are getting the most return and capitalizing in those areas. He says social media has now become a natural part of marketing.

There are however, risks involved in social marketing if companies don’t have a solid plan in place when they start their social efforts. Lee’s company, TopRank Marketing, suggests that companies construct a social media road map, which requires them to identify their audience, behaviors, and specific objectives.

After these factors are determined, companies can decide on what their social strategy is, whether it be blogging or social networks. From there, companies need to choose what tools they are going to use and decide how they will track their success. When measuring progress, Lee says it is important to measure goals in actual conversions and not simply by the number of friends or followers the company acquires.

Chris follows up on that point by explaining the importance of putting the “physical connector” back into social media. The overall marketing plan should contain traditional marketing tactics, which includes a physical side, as well as Internet marketing strategies and social media.

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Getting Your Affiliate Marketing Program Noticed

Since Missy Ward is the Co-founder of the Affiliate Summit conference series, we thought she would be a great candidate to get affiliate marketing advice from. As evidenced in this video, Missy offers up some compelling suggestions regarding affiliate marketing.

While there are many rewards to affiliate marketing, there are also a few risks that people don’t always consider. Risks can include fraud, brand damage, and even legal issues. Missy says the rewards far outweigh the risks. A few of the rewards she points out are low start up and customer acquisition costs, driven sales force, and a channel to search marketing strategies.

Now that you know that there are both risks and rewards, you’re ready to continue with your affiliate program. But how do you get noticed? Missy says she gets asked that question all the time. In her session at PubCon South, she gave the following answers to this question:

- Provide tutorials
- Get to know your affiliates
- Get social - Blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- Share metrics
- Attend and organize affiliate marketing events
- Speak and get published
- Establish relationships with journalists and bloggers
- Get listed in affiliate directories
- Advertise to recruit affiliates

Missy also recommends actively participating in affiliate marketing forums such as ABestWeb.

Lastly, before starting an affiliate program, make sure you have the time and resources to invest in it. If you don’t, you will be left with an affiliate program that does not perform.

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Universal Search, Changing the Game of SEO

Universal and blended search has had a tremendous impact not only on searchers but also on SEOs. In this video, Amanda Watlington explains how universal/blended search has pushed SEO into a new position. With all the different forms of content that universal/blended search returns, SEOs have to look beyond the site.

Back in the early days of SEO in 1995, Amanda says that SEOs were classified as soloists. They worked closely with IT departments and in some cases, worked more with IT than they did with marketing departments.

Today, the game has changed. The SEO is, as Amanda calls him/her, a “visibility manager” or a “symphony conductor.” SEOs have to look at sites such YouTube, Flickr, and networking sites and work with videographers, public relations, and content providers in order to adapt to the game of universal/blended search.

In her session as PubCon South, Amanda listed the following steps for SEOs to succeed:

- Inventory the available digital assets
- Look for overlooked opportunities
- Audit current optimization success
- Find the gaps and close them
- Plan an attack based on business needs, not on what you think the engines want
- Monitor the results
- Get smart with the metrics

An important point that Amanda stresses is that even though SEO has changed as a results of universal/blended search, the expectations have not changed. If you expect changes and are prepared for them when they come, you will be able to alter your game and continue your work effectively.

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Google Details Latest Analytics Announcements

Because Google Analytics has made several announcements recently, WebProNews caught up with Paul Botto, Head of Analytics Sales at Google, to catch us up on the latest news with GA. In this video from PubCon South, Paul explains Advanced Segmentation, the Google Analytics Individual Qualification Program, and Event Tracking.

First of all, Advanced Segmentation allows users to segment their visitors according to the specific demographics they want to know. Users can compare segments and key performance metrics side-by-side. It gives a better understanding of your traffic and visitors and could let you know areas that need to be improved.

Just two weeks ago, Google Analytics launched their new skills qualification program, Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ). Google offers an online course that includes Web analytics techniques and GA implementation, administration, and analysis tools. The qualification does require a small fee, but it reflects the knowledge of the analytics user and as Paul mentions, serves also as a resume builder.

The announcement that Paul is most excited about and that directly impacts sites such as our WebProNews Videos site is Event Tracking. Although Event Tracking isn’t completely new to GA, Google has made recent updates to it since its initial release.

As the Internet has evolved, Paul says it is more interactive and provides a movie-like experience. Tracking this performance is more challenging than tracking a typical page-by-page experience.

Event Tracking comes into play here since it allows users to track what is actually taking place on the site. It shows what objects (such as a video on our site) visitors are using, what actions (play, stop, rewind, etc.) they are taking on the objects, and what labels (headlines or titles) they are using the most.

For more information on all these announcements, check out the Google Analytics Blog.

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Making Twitter Work for You

Most people dwell too much on the “rules” or accepted expectations for sites like Twitter. In this video, Michael Gray points out that there is no right way or wrong way to use Twitter. He says the only right way is when you are getting out of it what you want and what you’re putting into it.

What works for one person or business may not work for you. Therefore, it is important to determine your goals early and to do whatever you have to do to meet your goals.

Michael does give some basic tips that everyone could adopt and practice to build their reputation in the community. They are:

- Be polite
- Make friends
- Start conversations
- Ask questions
- Answer questions

Most people prefer tweets that are not self-promoting. Michael says bigger brands have more flexibility in this regard, but even they should not take advantage of it. Twitter is about engagement and most self-promotions do not encourage it.

The value you receive from Twitter is ultimately determined when you identify your goals and work to meet them. It’s not about how many followers you acquire. What really matters is how many of those followers actually know who you are and are helping you meet your goals.

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How Twitter Can Help You Do Just About Anything

You never know what to expect from Chris Winfeld. So it was really a no surprise to know that he let Twitter do his entire presentation for PubCon South! What’s even better and also no surprise is that Chris’s presentation was full of valuable information that people can easily apply.

In this video, Chris explains that the best way to learn about Twitter is to use it, which is why he used the tool to do his presentation. He asked 4 questions and received around 165 responses over the course of an hour. His questions were:

1. How does Twitter help you work on a daily basis?
2. What’s the best thing that’s happened to you professionally because of Twitter?
3. How can you use Twitter to increase traffic and ultimately get more business?
4. What’s your favorite part of the community here?

Some people responded with very serious answers, and others were more light-hearted and funny. Businesses that use Twitter can get instant feedback about what their customers and potential customers think about them. People using Twitter as a personal branding tool can interact with other people that they would have never known if it wasn’t for Twitter.

If Chris had conducted his survey the old-fashioned way, AKA email, he would not have received his results in an hour’s time and also, would not have gotten many of the responses he received. As Chris states, his results show how powerful Twitter actually is. He also proved that Twitter could be used successfully in many different ways.

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Google Introduces Google Friend Connect API

Once again, Matt Cutts broke Google news for us. He introduced Google Friend Connect API at PubCon South in Austin, Texas and WebProNews has exclusive details in the above video.

Matt prefaced the announcement by explaining how we are all publishers now due to YouTube, Facebook, blogs, etc. He went on to say how spam should not be large concern because at this point in time, the focus should be primarily on creating good content. After considering those factors, Google released the Google Friend Connect API to help both publishers and users become more social.

Google Friend Connect API provides more participation, comments, interactions, and also less spam. A couple of people on Matt’s own team produced plugins for WordPress, Drupal, and phpBB.

Matt makes no claim of perfection on this and even strongly encourages others to create better plugins since they are all Open Source.

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Adapting to the Growing Mobile Sector

While there was not a specific session dedicated to mobile at SMX West, it still proved to be a hot topic. As Cindy Krum points out in this video, mobile was discussed in many sessions at the show.

Mobile is being integrated into many areas such as analytics and online and offline business. In particular with online and offline business, mobile helps to bridge the gap between the two.

Mobile has become increasingly popular in the entire industry because it plays a large role in what we can expect. As many people have predicted, everyone will have a Web-enabled device in the future. Cindy explains how this prediction not only means mobile phones, but also indicates Web-enabled devices such as a GPS, MP3, and camera.

Another contributing factor to add to the popularity of mobile is the continuing changes of the mobile search algorithm. As it gets smarter, it can recognize the Web-enabled device and then personalize search results based upon what it knows. For example, Cindy describes how the owners of a Sidekick and Blackberry are very different people and that the mobile algorithm can acknowledge that.

Most importantly, websites need to be ready to adapt to these mobile devices. Cindy recommends that webmasters use a “device independent design” which would allow the site to run on any device. People using mobile devices have an immediate need and a website should be prepared to respond to it efficiently.

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Getting Top-Rated Content With Blogs and Feeds

As search has evolved, so have searchers. They are no longer looking at corporate websites as the authority, but they are instead looking at their peers and other searchers who have had similar situations to theirs. Searchers want reviews, blogs, and social interaction. So why not take advantage of these free digital assets?

In this video, Sally Falkow of Expansion Plus Inc. explains how the use of blogs and feeds is a very smart strategy for businesses to adopt in this economy because it is inexpensive and gets search results. Also, universal and blended search allows the first page of search results to display all these digital assets. It’s not just ten blue links on the first SERP but blogs, feeds, images, video, news, and so much more.

Research shows that a searcher’s eyes are naturally drawn to an image or video before they look at a regular blue link. In other words, if you are not utilizing these assets then “you are missing an enormous opportunity.”

Sally suggests creating a content strategy that allows you to use digital assets that match your brand image. One method for doing this is storyteller marketing. Sally says, “Every brand has a story.”

Determine what your brand stands for, find out how people perceive your brand, and realize whether or not your brand keeps what it promises to keep. You will find a story somewhere among those answers. Strengthen your story using digital assets and you will be amazed at how your content and brand will rise.

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Shopping Search Tactics for the Holiday Season

Although retailers are struggling this holiday season with the current economic issues, recent comScore data shows that shopping search engines are thriving and are performing better than last year.

“Cyber Monday saw significant visitor gains at most of the top retail resources, led by Shopzilla.com sites with nearly 2 million visitors (up 98 percent versus the November base period), followed by Yahoo! Shopping with 1.9 million visitors (up 81 percent) and Google Product Search with 1.1 million (up 59 percent).”

These numbers further prove that consumers are browsing around online comparing prices and searching for the best deal. In the above video Greg Hintz, the General Manager of Yahoo! Shopping, gives four tips retailers need to know as they optimize their campaign.

1. Optimize your data feed.
2. Make sure your data feed provides relevant, comprehensive, and fresh data.
3. Use factual language instead of “marketing” language.
4. Include all product specifics.

When you move on to Yahoo! Product Submit, Greg points out that the primary factor is relevancy. Other factors to look at are merchant rating since higher rating produces a higher ranking. Also, remember to take advantage of comparison-shopping sites.

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Getting Your Viral Campaign Going

Viral campaigns are a current trend that everyone wants to take part in, but launching a campaign is not something that people should take lightly. Not to give off the impression that viral campaigns are difficult, but they do require skillful planning and should not be conducted halfheartedly.

Chris Winfield, the President of 10e20, gives a few recommendations when getting started with a viral campaign:

1. Have clear goals and objectives

2. Promote great content

3. Contribute to the communities

4. Make sites work together

5. Have good hosting

In the above video from SES Chicago, Chris also adds that a viral campaign is not simply about a great idea. It also takes great execution and promotion which can be done through blogs, social media sites, forums and groups.

There is not a specific time table to know if your viral campaign is working, but all experts advise never giving up.

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