Viral Marketing & Link Bait Basics: Part IX

Posted in SEO News and Analysis March 30th, 2010 by admin - Be the first to comment

Last week, we spoke about the use of certain types of viral content that can be used for easy linkbaiting. These included blogs, articles, tools, and social networking applications. Today, we will cover the others, in what is one of the last of our 10-week series on viral marketing and linkbaiting. There are still several that can be used, and they are by no means the only ones. Creativity in creating new methods is a basic part of effective advertising and marketing.

Widgets

Different than the standard application or tool, a widget is something designed specifically to be unimportant, or for entertainment purposes only. These are some of the most popular of viral types on the web, especially with the increased ability to post basic codes into blogs, journals, social networking profiles, and onto web pages. They have also increased in complexity over time, and so are easy to make, and even easier for even the more computer illiterate visitor to use.

The trick is making it easily posted onto these sources. Having several code types, for example for forums, HTML, and social networking codes, will allow it to be spread further. A link can be provided for anyone who wants to use the widget for themselves, which will also provide them with a source for the person who created this.

On the other hand, players can be used as widgets. If you have a band, a video channel, or anything media-oriented, a widget can provide an easy way to share your content. It can also be attached to existing widgets, such as in the case of the Myspace media player, which allows users to create a playlist with their favorite songs.

Badges

Badges are similar to a name tags, or perhaps security tags. You can embed them as an image within an HTML code. Not all sites can use badges, but if you can then you really should take advantage of this. Have some really cool badges for your site designed, and encourage people to put on their sites for you.

How effective these 2 options listed above are? Can be quite effective. Recently we released a free cool looking Zencart template, and we asked people to please keep the link back to our site if possible. Not everyone did, but some did leave the link where it is (which we greatly appreciate), and as the result we have seen great improvements recently in term of traffic as well as conversion rate (more potential clients contact us after checking out the site).

New version of CJ Loader released

Posted in Add Ons March 30th, 2010 by admin - Comments (1)

This new version has some major updates:

  1. The browser detection class has been updated to the latest version which will allow you to detect more browsers more accurately.
  2. The Loader class code has been rewritten a bit to make it faster as well as adding more options.

If you are using Ajax OnePage Checkout released by us, when you upgrade the checkout module you will also need to upgrade to this new CJ Loader version.

Link to get the new version has been updated on the original Zencart CSS Javascript Loader post

The worst nightmare of any developer

Posted in Projects March 29th, 2010 by admin - Comments (1)

I have worked with Zencart for years, and have done many projects, so I was pretty confident and sometimes over optimistic when I take on ZC projects. This proves to be my leads to a rather “deadly” error I made recently.

There is a very great looking store with nice design and tons of features (ajax and all, very very nice) built on Zencart, I will not name the store here for many reasons. The owner contacted us a few weeks ago because the site has compatibility with certain browsers (in short, it doesn’t work on most versions of IE, and has inconsistent display on various major browsers). “This is an easy fix, we have done this many times”, I thought, so I gave a very optimistic estimation.

A few weeks from then, and here I’m still working on this site. The person (or rather, a group of people) who coded this site did not give a care about coding standard, browser compatibility, performance, or anything at all. When I first opened the files, I was welcomed into this dark place, where html, php, javascript all live “happily” together in one place, nested together like spaghetti. Once I fixed an issue, another one popped up and on and on…. In the end, it was decided that fixing thing is more time/cost consuming that re-coding them, so now we are still trying to rewrite almost all the pieces of code for the site.

The moral of the story:

  1. For me, from now on I will NEVER EVER try to be an overly optimistic estimator anymore, I learned my lesson.
  2. For you, from now on please check the work of the devs carefully before you approve it. A nice looking apple can be rotten inside. Do you buy a car just because it looks pretty, and don’t give a care about the quality of the engine inside it? If you don’t why do you do that when you have your site developed? Check the code yourself, if you don’t know much about coding ask your friends or a 3rd party company. Or, go with a reputable company that will stand behind its works.

Self-Marketing Versus Marketing Companies

Posted in Marketing March 23rd, 2010 by admin - Be the first to comment

David vs Goliath?

When you run a small business you have very few options by way of marketing, at least in the face of the big guys who will inevitably show above you in much brighter lights. Ecommerce has changed this for the better. It is easier and easier for the little guy to stand on his own and get customers who are specifically looking to avoid the larger corporations who are expensive with little substance or reliability.

But with this new freedom to move amongst a once dominated market comes the issue of choice. It is hard enough to figure out just what kind of campaign to use to create some visibility. But what about the issue of whether or not to do it yourself? This is an important issue, and one that many business owners will gloss over over fear of spending extra money for something they feel they can do themselves.

But the debate can be settled easily, and with just a few facts. Read more…

Marketing in a Bloated Market

Posted in Marketing March 16th, 2010 by admin - Be the first to comment

Marketing isn’t what it used to be. While it used to be a fairly straight forward of advertising versus product demand, the market has become so bloated with the introduction of ecommerce that it is next to impossible for some small businesses to reach their audience. In order to do so one any real level online they have to first trudge through larger companies, endless scams, and the various marketing ploys of individual companies, affiliates, and con artists trying to make a quick buck.

The problem can seem to be insurmountable. For some, it will prove to be. But if you are looking to market online there are ways you can increase visibility that will at least trim the fat and give you some leverage to work with. Each technique will only increase your visibility as much as a company of your size can, so you will want to make sure you follow by the usual small business marketing codes despite these methods.

Beware of the wrong SEO

Search engine optimization is pretty much a must have for small businesses that are working in an ecommerce format. But there is a right and a wrong way, and going about things in a negative fashion will mean negative results. Literally; you will risk losing the customers you already have. This includes spam-style operations that are so common with online ‘companies’ nowadays.

Your best bet is to go with a company that specialized in SEO and marketing solutions for small businesses, and know how to get you started successfully online. These companies will never force you to settle with bad mass-comment jobs, or mindless blog posts with unrelated anchor links. They will provide real search engine optimization for a professional marketing approach. Read more…

Some thoughts about Zencart’s current newsletter subscription system

Posted in Marketing,News & Discussion March 12th, 2010 by admin - Comments (1)

Today I was going through my inbox in my regular routine to clean up the spam/ads mails. It’s amazing how much spam I’ve got so far, my inbox has 3000+ unread emails after just a couple of months (these are all emails I don’t bother to read).

Some of them are not exactly spams, they are newsletters emails from various sources I subscribed to in the past. Just simply marking them as spams can be bad for these authentic news sources since email providers like Google flag the sources as spam sources based on users’ reports(BTW, if you are interested in Googles’s policy, check it here: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=81126). So I opened these emails to find the un-subscription link, and here are the 3 cases I encountered:

  1. No un-subscription -> mark as spam, you DESERVE it
  2. un-subscription requires login, and for 99% of the cases I already forgot my login and don’t want to bother trying to remember it -> mark as spam
  3. un-subscription link allows me to opt out right away, they also have a comment box which I do fill in from time to time when I’m in a happy mode ^_^

So obviously, we all don’t want to be in the first and second cases, we want our emails to the customers who still want them to be delivered in the inbox, not the spam/bulk mail box. We want our users who opt out for any reason at least not filling (more) pissed off, and so I recommend you all checking your current email un-subscription system and see where does it fall in.

As a Zencart user as well as service provider, I also feel disappointed to find out Zencart’s system is falling somewhere in case 2. Perhaps it is time for the developers to fix this issue by providing an easy way to opt out?

Zencart Ajax Search

Posted in Add Ons March 11th, 2010 by admin - Comments (6)

We have just released a new module for Zencart, Zencart Ajax Search allows you to show your customers the results of their search right when they type the keyword which will help your customers to quickly find what they want on your site.

The module is designed to work on all major browsers, and to allow the default search to work properly with or without javascript enabled on the customers’ browsers.

Another great news is that there is a 10% Discount coupon which can be applied for any purchase from now until March 17.
Coupon code: spring5

New Zencart Webdesign (Admin backend)

Posted in Zencart March 11th, 2010 by admin - Comments (20)

If you haven’t known already, we are working with Mano the author of ZenMagick to create a new slick backend for ZM since we are tired of the messy look of Zencart.

Below are some of the designs, we researched several other modern carts to get inspirational ideas, so you will probably see something familiar here and there. Let us know what you think :)

Zencart admin design for backend

This is the very first option we came up with, we decided to move the navigation to the left

Zencart backend design

This is where you will edit your products. Mass product action will be a welcome feature!

Zencart category backend design

We are considering using facebox effect here, but shriking down all other menus is also an option

We are working on the rest of the design, and so suggestions are very welcome ^_^

Marketing a Small Business Through Social Media Part II

Posted in Marketing March 6th, 2010 by admin - Be the first to comment

In part one we talked about the use of social media types like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. But these are all incredibly informal means of marketing, and are often unsuccessful for those who are working as consultant, freelancers, or want to market themselves as a service rather than a whole business.

There are several ways to do this, but your two best bets will be professional networking sites, professional directories, personal (interactive) websites, and blogs. Each one of these gives you an easy way to present yourself to potential clients, customers, and even other employers or investors. Because the formats are specifically created to provide something serious and well made it will give you a great platform for marketing your most important asset: yourself. Read more…

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