October 2007
Monthly Archive
Gooruze rules
Posted by Celeste Yates on 30 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Hot off the Press, Social Media
A new online marketing community has been launched which promises to be the next big thing in social media. Gooruze is the first online marketing community where content is both created and rated by its members. The platform is the same as the successful Minti.com, which is a community for parents.
The site combines the elements of already successful social media sites, such as Digg, Sphinn, Webmasters World and SEOmoz. They are the first online communities to make online marketing accessible to users. They have merged various social media components into the website.
YouTube targets piracy
Posted by Katia Pereria on 26 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Hot off the Press, Social Media
YouTube released a Video Identification tool last week. This move will help kerb the increasing piracy issues that YouTube faces on a regular basis. Finally, a concrete policy on Video piracy is in the pipelines.
According to Dan King from YouTube:
The system works by creating a database full of abstract images of copyrighted videos that are then matched with videos that are uploaded to YouTube.
YouTube is currently working with Google to filter its technology of identifying the ownership of videos uploaded in YouTube. They are giving video content owners the ability to manage their videos, and the choice on what to do with these Videos once they have been properly identified.
Humour is the defending champion
Posted by Caitlin Smythe on 26 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Copywriting
Before I begin I’d like to point out that South Africa won the Rugby World Cup. I don’t mean to rub our superiority in the faces of the losing roses, kiwis, wallabees or jaguars. I just want to point it out. Okay.
I think that the greatest triumph for a writer is receiving a warm response to his writing. Having many people read your work is like the Webb Ellis for writers. They lust after a Digg frontpage, want to be Stumbled, Sphinned and bookmarked all over the place. There are a few ways to be noticed, and foremost among them is saying something sensational/brilliant, in a sensational/brilliant manner. This involves being the best (like South Africa is, at rugby). If you can’t do that – because it isn’t easy to win the toughest tournament in the world - be funny.
The importance of language in marketing activities
Posted by Sandra Cosser on 25 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Copywriting, SEO Strategy
Marketers use market research as a tool to find their way into customers’ heads. They want to find out exactly who their customers are, what they are thinking and how they identify with the brands in question. One way to gain insight into the way that customers use language is to use search data or search behaviour data, which enables marketers to better formulate their advertising and brand positioning from the customer’s perspective.
Greatest search pioneer shares its power
Posted by Phil Smulian on 18 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Search Engine News
Google is offering up the fruits of its tireless pioneering efforts to the infants of the next computer science generation. They have announced from their Googleblog that they will be passing on their knowledge from their revolutionary work in the world of mass parallel computing – using networks of computers, as apposed to single processors, to process the massive internet-scale amount of data – to the young and striving students of the computer sciences.
The importance of keyword search
Posted by Sandra Cosser on 18 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Common SEO Topics, SEO Strategy
I read quite a lengthy, in depth article on the importance of key word research in understanding site visitors better. The point it, it seemed, was that it contained different information to all the other articles and blogs and pieces written about “traditional” key word searches and the “basics”. It stressed the fact that the most important point about key word research is to understand the site visitor. This is so that you can tailor your site to suit them and lead them directly to what they are looking for.
Social marketing versus organic
Posted by Celeste Yates on 18 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: SEO Strategy, Social Media
Generally, out of the work environment, I associate the word organic with the latest food trend, which supports the local farmers not using pesticides and being free-range. When it comes to the Internet, organic marketing is similar to the food, in a sense.
Just as organic food is better for you in the long run, so is organic marketing. Solid links placed in the right spots with the perfect keyword are more beneficial for you then short-term links. Search engines are still going to be the number one resource for finding sites, regardless of what might be happening in the Social Media industry.
I’m into casual copy
Posted by Caitlin Smythe on 17 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Copywriting
You have definitely heard that “content is king”. But only some content, if it communicates the essence of something efficiently, and conforms to search engine practices, has power. Fat and fancy copy dressed up in embroidered robes rules nothing.
Visitors to a site need to view copy like a conversation. Not an obsequious sales pitch, not a detail-laden stream of techno speak, and definitely not a chunky lecture. Illustrative, conversational copy uses stories, examples, sub-headings, bullets and an enticing headline. Ever stepped into a big river and had your feet swept away from underneath you? Design a great headline and take a strong step – hold your ground. Keep your calls to action short and sweet and in control. Before you write the first word decide what you’re going to say, and account for the first few questions your readers are going to ask. Assemble this stuff, and then write it in a light and skimmable manner.
Media for the eyes and ears
Posted by Sandra Cosser on 16 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Hot off the Press
Most text media, in fact most media in general, which is uploaded to the web, is tagged with metadata. This is so that it can be found easily on traditional search engines. But more and more innovative and creative companies are looking at new ways of uploading and searching for data in order to more fully involve all the senses. They want to make the way in which we search on the net seem more like the way in which we sort through and assimilate the world around us.
Microsoft & Google offering SEO services, is this right?
Posted by Katia Pereria on 16 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Articles, Search Engine News
Microsoft runs LiveSearch, Microsoft is also the parent company of aQuantive. aQuantive owns Avenue A Razorfish, which is a search marketing firm. They are also planning on partnering with another search marketing firm called The Search Agency offering comprehensive SEO services to small companies.
And it doesn’t stop there; Microsoft’s adManager also seems to offer a wide selection of search marketing services.
But its not just Microsoft, Google also owns a SEO company called Performics. Performics is one of the most popular SEO companies around. Is this not a conflict of interest?
