Thursday 17 November 2011

How They Got Their Names!

Ever wondered about how famous brands got their names from? Here are a couple of explanations.

Article by stocklogos.com

Tuesday 20 September 2011

What’s in a "Domain" Name?


Keys to Selecting the Best Domain Name for Your Website..
When Juliet (of Romeo and Juliet in Shakespeare’s play) posed that question what was she thinking? …Could it be that what matters is really what something is, instead of what it is called? Perhaps in Shakespeare’s time neighborhood stores were called John’s Bakery or Mary’s Flower Shoppe.  A business could be named based on what it is since there wasn’t much competition and no Internet!  That was a great solution then.  Today while it certainly matters what something is, what it is called plays an important role if you want customers to find you on the Internet and not just in your local neighborhood. It all comes down to your domain name.
A domain name represents your online business. What you are called is an essential step in launching your website because you want people to not only easily find you but also to recall your website name.  It’s your internet identity and sometimes it may not be exactly the same name as your business.  Think about Mary’s Flower Shoppe.  That domain name marysflowershoppe.com is not available today.  If you are unable to get the name of your choice you may be wondering how to choose an alternate domain name.   The following tips can help you create a domain name just for you.
  1. Develop 5-7 Top Keywords. Let’s consider what Juliet said:  what matters is what something is — so what IS your business?   If you cannot use your current business name, then a memorable domain name should reflect what you do.  To get started, create a short list of about 5-7 key words or phrases that best describes your business. Having some ideas written down will help reduce frustration when you begin your search..   For example Mary’s Flower Shoppe list could include: plants, flowers by, floral designs, blooming roses , colorful blooms, flower arranger, flower baskets —see what words or phrases you can create that reflect you and your business the best.
  2. Easy to understand. Your URL should reflect what kind of site you are without having the visitor have to think too much about it. If I wanted to create a domain name for Mary’s shop, I would try taking the keywords list and incorporate her name, for example: flowersbymary, marysfloraldesigns, maryscolorfulblooms or marysplantsplus. Note that I’d be careful of marysflowersandplants because it could read as Marys Flower Sand plants.  Are you wondering if there are sand plants?  Yes they exist as this term is used in the Mining & Manufacturing Industries for machinery for sand washing plants!
  3. Easy to Type & Easy to Spell. Try to avoid Hyphens and Numbers if possible– It’s better for your customers if the domain name is easy to type and spell.   People can forget to add hyphens.  And in Mary’s case, I would recommend staying away from using “arrangements” or “occasions” or u instead of you or 4 instead of four/for.  And if marysflowers.com was not available, I would not use maryzflorist.  Yes it’s cool today but think of how many folks will remember to replace the “s” with a “z? And when they don’t they would be visiting and ordering flowers from Mary’s competitor’s website. Maybe the customer realizes they are at the wrong website but can’t find Mary’s and then think she doesn’t have a website!
  4. Try keeping the name somewhat short. You want it to be easy for your visitors to remember it and type it without typos. Maybe you want to try typing your domain name a few times to see if you can spell it without typos and perhaps you can enlist a friend to also help.  I thought of two companies that visitors are probably happy that they don’t have to type these companies’ entire names.   In 1965 a company called Florists’ Transworld Delivery was created, but we get to type FTD.com to order flowers.  What about AT&T? Imagine if we had to type:  amerciantelephoneandtelegraph.com instead of att.com?    And proflowers.com is a nice easy name to type and remember.
  5. Be Original. It can be hard to come up with a unique name but try not to mimic another company’s domain name especially if they are well known.  Before finalizing your domain choice take the time to research your choice and ensure no one else has it. You do not want to infringe on anyone’s trademark. It’s easy to check this out and won’t cost you anything but your time.  The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office enables you to do all the trademark searches you want.  After all, would it have been a good idea for Mary to pick 1800marysflowers.com or ftdmarysflowers.com as her domain name instead of marysflowerbasket.com?
In the end, your domain name should reflect you and your business.  It should be easy to type, easy to remember and most of ail it should be a name you like today and will like tomorrow.  Oh and one last tip! When you order your domain make sure you spell it correctly! Before clicking that order button please check your spelling and be careful of typing too fast and ending up with something like flowrsbymary or maryssflowersbasket. Good luck and here’s hoping you find your rose among all the possible domain name choices available to you!

Article by by Jean Hendricks Networking Exchange 

Thursday 18 August 2011

Victoria's Secret take QR Codes to the next level!

Want A Guaranteed QR Scan ! Well Victoria's Secrets recent campaign is certainly ranking up those Scans!






Monday 8 August 2011

12 Things to Do After You’ve Written a New Blog Post



Your 12-Step Checklist

1. SEO / Keyword integration

Your content may be good as is, but a little keyword research and integration can have a big impact on search engine rankings and traffic. Scan through your content and pick out the main topics covered in your post. Plug those terms/phrases into Google Adwords’ free keyword suggestion tool. Take note of the most popular search terms and variations in phrasing and wording. Go back to your content and try to beef up your post title, content, meta description and tags with those popular terms/phrases.


2. Syndication

One of the most powerful and misunderstood mechanisms of a blog is its RSS feed
This reallysimple syndication method allows you to automatically feed your blog’s content to many different places, including many social networking sites.
Let me say that another way. When your RSS feed URL is plugged into your social networking sites or profiles, hitting “publish” on your new blog post initiates an automatic “push” of that content to those sites. This can significantly expand your reach and save you hours of time versus posting content manually.
Also note that this step is more of a one-time setup. Once you have established RSS connections on your social sites, you shouldn’t have to do it again. To get started, locate your blog’s RSS URL and plug that into the following:
Facebook Business Page – In your applications area, search for the “Social RSS” application and get it set up to publish your content to your Facebook page wall automatically.
LinkedIn Personal Profiles – Look for “Blog Link” or “WordPress” in the applications section on your profile page and set it up to auto-post your content to your LinkedIn profile. Don’t forget to tell all of your employees to do this too. If you have a lot of employees, the increase in your potential reach could be gigantic.
Plaxo – Although not as popular, Plaxo is another great business networking site that makes it really easy to “add a feed” and plug in your blog content automatically.
Ning Community Sites – If any of your fishing holes are built on the Ning platform, you can plug in your feed using the “Add RSS” widget included on your profile page.
Other Social Networking Sites – There are many other social sites that allow you to plug in your blog’s RSS feed. Scour your sites for this option.

3. Shorten your post’s URL

This step used to only apply to posting links on Twitter, but with the addition of analytics (click-through tracking) on many of the URL shortening services, posting a shortened URL on any of your social sites is a smart strategy.
Here’s how it works:
  • Copy your new blog post’s URL, paste it in a URL shortener that offers analytics (Bit.ly, Ow.ly, Cli.gs).
  • Use the shortened URL in any status update, link posting or teaser you plan on executing.
  • Check your URL shortener account for click stats, geographic and referring site data after your link has been up a while.

4. Status updates

While this one may seem pretty obvious, it’s not that simple. Sure, you could just type your blog post’s headline into all of your social site’s status boxes, include your shortened link and call it good. But this might not get you the most clicks.
Realize that each social site is a bit different (environment, social etiquette, audience demographics / psychographics). Tailoring your status/headline for each community could make a big difference.
You also need to remember that when you post your new content via a status update, only a small percentage of your friends/followers will actually be online at that moment to see it. To maximize the likelihood of your followers seeing and reading your new post, you may need to send multiple updates on different days and at different times. You’ll also want to use different headlines each time since you may get banned from Twitter for sending the same post multiple times.
If your content covers multiple topics, create a different status update for each topic and then spread those out over the course of a few days. Don’t forget to ask your followers to share or retweet the link.
Productivity Tip: There are many tools out there that allow you to set up and schedule your updates to go out anytime in the future (Hootsuite, Twuffer, Later Bro). I’ll often schedule four to five updates with different headline variations all at once to post throughout the week.

5. Content teasers on other sites

Most social networking sites and online forums allow content promotion as long as it’s valuable, relevant to the community, and not blatant self promotion. A few examples:
  • LinkedIn group forums
  • LinkedIn Answers
  • Facebook groups
  • Ning community group forums
  • Niche industry forums.
A great strategy is to write a compelling headline or question as your forum post title, then include some thoughtful commentary followed by your shortened URL. Lastly, ask for readers to provide feedback on the forum to continue the discussion.

6. Social bookmarking

While this technique doesn’t have the horsepower it used to, posting your content to popular social bookmarking sites (Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, etc.) can still be a great source of traffic, backlinks and overall exposure. Think of social bookmarking as peer-reviewed content. If others bookmark/digg your content, the more exposure you get and the more opportunity you have for others to link to you or reference your content on their sites.

7. Seek out and comment on other blogs with similar topics

Providing helpful, valuable comments on other blogs can be a great way to generate traffic, develop relationships, build a following and add backlinks. If you’ve just finished a blog post on a topic, now is the perfect time to do a quick search to find other blog posts on the same topic. Are the other posts lacking something that you covered in your post? Add your viewpoint in a genuine, non-self-promotional way. If the comment form asks for your website URL, paste in your blog URL.

8. Seek and assist on Twitter

Genuine assistance is one of the best ways to build a community of loyal Twitter followers. Let me use this post as an example. When it’s posted and I’ve created a shortened URL, I might jump on Twitter and do a search for a phrase like, “need help promoting my blog.” Scanning the resulting tweets will probably offer me several opportunities to help people who are reaching out for help. I reply to them with some genuine advice and the shortened URL. The result is often a new Twitter follower, a new subscriber to my blog and a blog comment. Then I get all warm and fuzzy inside…in an opportunistic kind of way.

9. Email signature

Another powerful little technique is to add your latest blog post headline to your email signature. Many email platforms now have nifty little apps (Wisestamp for Gmail) that will pull your latest blog post headline into your email signature automatically. Do it manually if you have to. You never know when a prospect, vendor or client might read a post that sparks a conversation or creates an opportunity.

10. Share your blog post with target customers

You’ve just created a blog post that you know would be beneficial for certain customers. What are you waiting for? Send them an email with the shortened URL and a note, “thought this could really help your business.” Then check the analytics to see if they clicked on it.

11. Add your blog post to your next e-newsletter

If you have an e-newsletter, you should be incorporating at least some of your blog content. Include a few post headlines/teasers and see which posts get the most clicks. You may just find that you need to do some follow-up blog posts on a topic that received a lot of clicks.

12. Ask other bloggers to mention your post

Building relationships with other bloggers in your space and asking them to blog about or link to your post can be a great way to expand your reach. Reciprocating promotional efforts can have a big payoff in the form of high-quality backlinks and big jumps in search engine rankings, blog traffic and subscribers.
The First Time is the Hardest
As with most tasks in life, the first time through this list might be tough and time-consuming. Setting up accounts and getting to know the interface and functions of the various social sites may make your brain hurt. But it will get easier. I usually dedicate an hour to blog post promotion after each launch. Also note that most of these tasks can easily be outsourced.
The key is to make this promotional effort part of your process. It’s unfortunate when I see companies put so much time and effort into creating a solid content strategy, developing their editorial process and consistently publishing great stuff, but then it just sits there. Said another way, they have awesome bait but they’ve forgotten to go fishing.
Immediate, Trackable Results
If you’re using the shortened URL and have analytics installed on your website/blog, you should see your hard work pay off almost immediately. I typically see large spikes in traffic and conversions on the days I’m promoting a new post. Multiply this by a blog post per day and that activity spike is no longer a spike. It’s now a constant. Moreover, the results should be significant increases in activity, traffic, rankings, reach, opportunities and overall sales.
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Article By CMI - http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/ By BRODY DORLAND