Asheville Home Automation - As an example

Last week, one of our clients that does Asheville home automation released a new website.  I thought it would make for a nice example of how a few things should be done.

Most importantly, you should take a look at the writing of the website.  They had a little help from some local Asheville marketing professionals, but you will note that it’s not just a bunch of technical information.  It’s not just that the words just flow nicely, they speak to the target audience in a way they can easily understand.

Also, take a look at the Title tags.  As most of you know, I teach classes on SEO just about every month.  The one thing that seems to surprise a lot of students is that it’s not necessary to stick as many keyword phrases as possible into the title tag.  It’s not worth it.  Don’t bother.

Lastly, notice the ease of navigation and simplicity of the site.  Usability is important.  We encourage our students to keep the choices down to about 5–7 options for each page.  Of course, we encourage building lots of pages.  But if you have seven options which lead to seven more, you have 49 pages – and that’s only one level deep.

Now, before you start tearing this site apart with content and SEO recommendations, please note that we have barely gotten started.  There’s obviously more that needs to be done. 

We know that.  And we’re working on it.

I just wanted to point out these few important points as examples for your site.  (And in the process, give these guys a sorely needed link).

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Once again, Google takes on Microsoft! Why?!?

Yes, today we get yet another attempt by Google to try to be better than Microsoft.  The latest announcement is that they are going to create their own open-source web browser named Google Chrome. 

• For a basic rundown, see the TechCrunch article. 
• We should be able to download “Google Chrome” any minute here.

Is it just me, or is most everything they do aimed at Microsoft?  Take a good look at the cartoon they created to show off the “new product”.  Doesn’t practically the entire thing try to poke fun at IE?

Anyone remember the Netscape browser?  Way back in the day, that was THE browser.  But Microsoft was smart enough to give their browser away for free and IE started gaining traction.

Anyone that actually looks at their web logs will know that IE is still a very popular browser, yet Firefox is gaining steadily.  Those of us that use Firefox know why.  It’s a great browser.  It’s quite a bit better.

So why can’t Google just let Firefox naturally take over and win the browser war?  Because they want it to happen faster.  They want to “stick it to Microsoft”.

Is it just me?  Or is this just way too transparent?

Come on, Google.  Stick to organizing the world’s information and putting ads on it.  You do it well.

Can’t you just let IE and Firefox fight it out on their own without getting unnecessarily involved?

Thoughts?

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Meet the Charlotte Internet Marketers

If you are looking to find out who does Internet marketing in the Charlotte area, you have to check this out!

Last week we posted a new meeting for the Charlotte SEO Meetup.  You can learn about it here.  The general idea is that we are giving anyone who does any form of online marketing three to five minutes to explain who they are and what they do.  They can also talk about what they are looking to hire out and/or subcontract.

The response was incredible.  We only have room for about 20 to 25 people.  But we got 25 positive responses in about 24 hours.  When we raised the total number of possible attendees, we got five more within the next 24 hours or so.

One of the things that makes this so amazing is that we are broadcasting the entire thing live on UStream – Click here.  In fact, we are planning to record the whole thing and break it into clips that can be downloaded into an ipod.

I’m thrilled to see the excitement that is building for this.  I came up with the idea only because I constantly wonder who I can send clients to when they want something specific that I don’t offer.

I hope it serves this purpose for many others.  There is no shortage of work for online marketers.  It’s time we work together.

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New Media Expo 2008 Wrap-up

I attended the New Media Expo on August 14–16, 2008 in Las Vegas. 

Below are links to the various posts I wrote regarding the conference…

Start here

• Top 10 Observations from New Media Expo 2008
• What I want from New Media Expo 2008
• Objectives I met from New Media Expo

Keynote addresses

• Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV
• Lessons from Blendtec VP “Will it Blend”

Other sessions

• Developing an Engaged Community
• Use Wordpress for Podcasting
• How to Grow Your Audience Online
• Getting Started in Podcasting

Vendors

• Interesting Vendors I met

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Top 10 Observations from New Media Expo 2008

Looking back at the three day conference, here are the top ten fundamental principles I learned.

1.  The real media giants in the online world have not yet risen yet.  But they will.  Almost anyone can rise to the top in any niche at this point.

2.  To succeed online you need incredible patience and tenacity.  Don’t try to hit the homerun.  Just make steady progress.  Yet, do it as quick as you can.

3.  It is extremely important to listen to your audience.  Don’t just listen to them.  Care about them.  Show them you care.

4.  The larger your audience, the more important it becomes to give your audience what they want.  Do not make decisions based on what management wants.  Base changes and improvements off what your audience wants.  Ask them regularly.

5.  Be EVERYWHERE.  Use all forms of social media.  Put your videos on all video hosting sites.  Find ways to do so efficiently using aggregators.

6.  Do what you love.  Otherwise, you will not have the patience and energy to succeed over time.

7.  Finding the balance between selecting the right techology, creating good content, and marketing your content is extremely important, yet a huge challenge.  Many neglect one or two of the three.

8.  Most “successful” podcasters are basically geeks.  The true content and thought leaders may not have emerged yet.  So far, the geeks are winning.  They are far from rich, but they are winning.

9.  Everything on the web is basically commerce or media (e-commerce or new media).  At first, the two seem to be very different.  Yet the basic principles are actually very similar.

10.  Very few people “get it”.  It is amazing how few people attended this conference.  The field of New Media is very much on the cutting edge and is taking over traditional media, yet no one else seems to realize it, especially big corporations and traditional media.

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Objectives from New Media Expo 2008

So the expo is now over and I fly back home first thing in the morning.  It’s time to reflect back on if I reached my goals that I wrote out earlier.

Here’s how I did…

1.  How to Podcast – SCORE!  I totally figured this one out.  I’m ready to get the things I need and do my first podcast very soon.

2.  Community Monetization Concepts – Not so well.  But then again, I may have gotten a shift in thinking on this one.  It’s much more important to grow your community.  The monetiztion comes later.  (Not so easy to explain to my financial advisor – also known as my wife.)

3.  Add “Answer-People” to My Network – I got a few contacts.  Not as many as I would have liked, but I got some.

4. Learn How and If I Should Do Video – Big SCORE on this one too.  I have some definite ideas and know the tools I should use.

5. Increased Motivation to Create Content – Definitely!  I’m charged and ready to go.  I also signed up for a podcaster/blogger magazine that may help throughout the year.

6.  Enhanced Strategic Understanding of how to use New Media for my clients, students, and community.  This is another big score!  I learned a ton and can’t wait to share it.

Looks like I did extremely well in 4 out of 6.  I did moderately well in the other 2.

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Interesting Vendors at New Media Expo 2008

A great reason to attend trade show conferences is to meet the vendors in the expo hall.  It’s not just about getting free pens, t-shirts, and cool pens.  (Really Ty, it’s not!)

Personally, I like learning about new companies I’ve never heard of.  In fact, I try to gather materials the first day and research them on the Internet when I go back to my hotel the first night.  If anything is interesting, I go back the next day and talk with them.

Here are some of the interesting companies at New Media Expo 2008 this year.  I have added my comments for each.  I bolded the ones I found to be the most noteworthy.

TechSmith – They make Snagit (screen capture) and Camtasia (screen recording) software.  They are the best at what they do.  Their latest project is Jing (beta).  Check it out.  It’s free.

Shure – They make great microphones.  Their catalog is extremely insightful and helpful.  They have a nice online guide to podcasting.

Tubemogul – The provide online video distribution and analytics.  In other words, you upload your video to them and they send it to YouTube, Viddler, etc.  Several presenters spoke very favorably about them.

All voices – An open global community of reporting news from anywhere in the world.  This is amazing.  They aggregate video worldwide from all news channels, both amateur and professional.  They then have a proprietary system that ranks which ones are best. 

NOTE:  Allvoices is like NPR meets Google meets Digg.  Amazing stuff.  You have to poke around the site a little to really get it.  But when you do, it’s cool.

Noble Transcription Service – They transcribe your podcast.  (Check Google, I think several companies do this.)

Mogulus – They give you everything you need to launch your own 24/7 television station.  You can have multiple cameras recording in different locations and switch between them online.

These guys are working with Qik so that you can have multiple users with streaming cell phone cameras and switch between them to create a seamless program.  Incredible!  Oh, and it’s all FREE!

Story Bids – They auction off product placement in-video advertising.

Sound Dogs – Their website may be a little weak, but they have a tremendous amount of sounds available.  They gave us free CDs.

Stickam – Live broadcasting over the web.  (This is what Leo LaPorte uses for TWIT live.)  They have a great new service called PayPerLive which allows you to record a live event and collect a ticket price for users to watch it online.

UStream – Live broadcasting over the web.

Veotag – This is a great idea for instructional or information video.  It allows you to outline what is in the video so that anyone can skip to the section they want.

Blog Talk Radio – An easy to use web-based service that allows you to use an ordinary telephone to create free, live, call-in radio shows.  They are then archived as podcasts.

Viddler – I don’t know that I saw them at the expo hall, but they were one of the most talked about companies there.  Use Viddler to show your videos on your own site.  They allow you to brand with your own logo and player.  But don’t forget to also distribute using tubemogul (see above).

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Getting Started in Podcasting

Here are some more miscellaneous tips I learned about getting started podcasting. 

These tips mostly come from sessions and conversations while at New Media Expo 2008.  But I’m also including some facts I’ve gained in my research over the last few weeks.

Microphone/Hardware

When you are just getting started, just go get a USB microphone.  Most everyone starts this way and it’s easy and quick.  It sounds “good enough”. 

Most everyone starts with a Plantronics DSP-400 and they say it worked great, especially if you are doing phone interviews.

Editing

Use Audacity to edit your program.  Note:  Close Audacity whenever you make audio settings adjustments in your operating system (Win XP, Mac, etc.) 

Use Soundsoap 2 to remove any background white noise.  (Record 5–10 secconds of blank air time before and after talking for this purpose.)

Use Levelator to even out the volume of your entire program.

Filing

Be sure to setup a good file system for all files you use in creating your podcast.  Save all your original recordings.  Don’t change your folder system.  Backup all files periodically.

Recording Interviews

Use Skype.  It now works as good as being in person. 

Ideally, the participant will use Skype and a USB headset.  In fact, I recently read that Leo LaPorte (long time popular podcaster) asks his other participants (on TWIT) to use Skype and a Plantronics headset ($40) and will even mail them one if they don’t have one.

If your participant just wants to use the phone, that will work too.  Just use SkypeOut.  It is very inexpensive.  This sounds good, but not as good.

Note:  Brandon Uttley recently pointed me at a great video to watch if you really want to get into the absolute best setup for Skype.  It involves setting router settings for optimum results.

You can use CallBurner to record Skype calls.

You should have your participants review a waiver/release.  Here’s a good example.

Other configurations

As you get more advanced with podcasting, it is advantageous to have a slightly more complex setup. 

The SM-58 microphone is highly recommended by many for quality and durability.  Several other styles and varieties of microphones are available.  But don’t bother spending the money until you are sure you want to do this long-term.

Recorders, such as the Marantz PMD-600 will allow you to record without being worried about having your computer crash.

Edirol makes some nice portable digital recorders.

Resources

Some great resources for podcasters include Podcast Academy, the Podcast Answer Man and Podcast 411.

The new Podcasting for Dummies was highly recommended as well.

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How to grow your Audience Online

The first session (after the keynote) for this morning is from Rebecca Weeks from Real Girls Media.  She is clearly a tallented and professional lady with a strong background in advertising.

She started with a nice fundamental principle of New Media…

• Content leads to Traffic
• Traffic leads to Branding
• Branding leads to Monetization

Your current followers are your best and cheapest source of new readers.  Find out who they are and what they like.  Thank them.  Ask them.  Find out what other sites they visit and partner with them.

Interestingly, she is talking extensively about what I wrote about last week, namely Generation V.  Good stuff.  I agree.

She shared Hitwise information on which websites are the hot ones for social news sites.  Yahoo Buzz is taking over Digg in terms of traffic.  You need to be pre-approved to get into Yahoo Buzz.  She got 500,000 visitors in about an hour by getting onto the home page of Yahoo.  Of course, if your site crashes, you will never be invited back.

She spoke extensively about a site she works with called Divine Caroline.  It was launced about a year and a half ago and competes with big powerhouses such as iVillage, Martha Stewart, & Glam.

Below are the results of her working partnerships and social marketing. 
NOTE:  All of her marketing techniques were free.

February 2007

• 100 daily unique visitors
• 1 advertiser

August 2008

• 2.4 million monthly unique visitors
• 25^th largest women’s community on the web
• Users stay on the site for 5+ minutes
• Users visit 6 to 8 pages on average
• Advertisers pay over $15 CPM
• Chevrolet, conAgra Foods, Disney, Starbucks, Shutterfly, etc all advertise.
• 219 partners

Important points from some other sites:

• Befriend the people you admire online.
• Research the success stories and the advice from influential leaders on the Internet.
• Create weekly round-ups of what others are saying.  The other bloggers will note the referrals.
• Reach out to other blogs and websites that you can partner with.  Simply email or call them.
• She partnered with other successful online players in her field as “advisors”.  They provided insight in exchange for being mentioned in the About Us section of the site.  No cost.

The best part was the final question.  Someone asked how she got such an incredible looking site with so many features.  She mentioned that she started with excellent connections in the advertising world.  She also had a connection with a tallented and professional programming team.

She also admitted to having funding.  How much?  6 million!

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Lessons from George Wright - Blendtec VP of Marketing

Today’s opening keynote was from George Wright.  This guy is basically a celebrity in this world of New World Media.  He saw an opportunity to do something fun and post it on the Internet. 

Since then, the “Will it Blend” series has gone absolutely viral and has become the ultimate success story for New Media and Internet Marketing.

Below were some of his comments..

“Will it Blend” is basically a branding campaign.  Blending an iPhone was the most popular video.  As of right now, it has 5.2 million views in one year on YouTube alone.

Blendtec is located in Utah.  They create high-performance blending and dispensing equipment for restaurants, etc.  Their good quality products are used in coffee shops and other commercial locations.

Their cornerstone product is the Total Blender.  It is a comercial grade home product but had weak branding.  Weak brand meant weak sales.  So they needed a “big idea” to get it more attention.

One day, George was walking through the “demo room”.  He had only worked there a couple months and found wood chips.  The CEO had put a 2 x 4 into the blender to see how strong it is.  Everyone in the company thought this was normal.  LESSON:  The next big video might be right under your nose.  Keep an eye out for it.

What happened next?  It started with $50.  George bought a lab coat, six-pack of coke, a rake, and a domain name.  He got with the CEO and recorded him blending unusual things and posted the videos online.

The resulting media value is estimated at $40 million.  His marketing department now generates revenue.  (Amazing!)

Key Components

• ENTERTAINING: Their videos are engaging and fun.
• DEMO:  It demonstrates the product in each video.
• OWNERSHIP:  It is created and branded by Blendtec.
• REAL:  This is based on real people, real situations.
• INTERACTIVITY:  They take comments and suggestions.
  (Note:  Originally, the suggestions went to his phone.  It broke because it vibrated so much.)

Results

• YouTube has 58 million views.
• Total Will it Blend views are 101 million.
• They have 150,000 subscribers.
• Sales have increased 7 times over since the campaign.
• The sales has grown in commercial products as well.
• Brand awareness has grown.
• Traditional media picks up on it with very little effort.
  (National TV, local media, blogs, Newspaper, you name it.)

They now use phrases that allow them to rank on Google for popular terms (Google “chuck norris” and you will get their video.)

NOTE:  Small companies can have a BIG online presence.

Advertising is now content.  It needs to be compelling.

To end the show, he blended a rake and a cell phone from someone in the audience.  Pretty cool.

(Extra comment worth noting:  use Revver to distribute videos.  It pays.)

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