| LED Digest 1759: Designing for Different Browsers |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam,led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com ................................................ March 2, 2004 Issue #1759 ................................................ .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Usability ==-- ~ Larry Bohen "Perhaps these pages need more motivating sales copy." --== Search Engine Marketing Company Guarantees ==-- ~ Iris Turner "SEM companies to steer clear of are those that offer a ranking guarantee." ~ Jeff Gores "I would recommend staying away from any company that guarantees top results." --== Mozilla vs Internet Explorer ==-- ~ Roger Holden "...you are probably very affected by the browser that you test with.." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Spam Locking Up System ==-- ~ Mekhong Kurt ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Larry Bohen Subject: Usability > ... the sales have not increased remotely close to the > increase in traffic... This leads me to conclude that there > might be a usability issue here... Does anyone recommend > a usability expert or have similar issues? - John Fallentine, LED 1758 John, I just visited your Website for a few minutes. I like it and will visit when I have a need for window treatments. Regarding why sales haven't increased, if you haven't, analyze your logfiles to see what pages visitors are coming to your site on, how long they stay, how deep into your site they go... If many visitors arrive on one page and leave within several seconds, they aren't finding enough (on that page) to interest or motivate them to explore further. Perhaps these pages need more motivating sales copy. Larry Bohen Audiobooks Online www.audiobooksonline.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Iris Turner Subject: SE Guarantees > Do any of these so-called Search Engine Marketing > companies have contracts with the Yahoos of the world, > or are they simply shilling to the uninformed? - Jim Berry, LED 1757 Jim, Regarding your concerns, the company that contacted you guaranteeing top placement in sponsored or PPC (Pay-Per-Click) paid listings is probably out of business by now. As an SEP/SEM/SEO company, we can help by demystifying the myths, and to further clarify differences in Search services offered. Partner Myth: Unsolicited e-mail received over a year ago alerted us - 1st TechSolveNet - to the very myth of which you speak. Some unscrupulous SEP/SEM/SEO companies have been exaggerating the natural partnership between two parties that conduct business. There is no special relationship or privilege granted by a Search Engine to a Search Engine Marketing (SEP/SEM/SEO) company over another. A call to Yahoo! or Google, for example, should quickly set the facts straight. One of the things I like about Google is their quick response to other related myths: http://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html. Hopefully, Google will have the 'partner' myth listed as well, and soon. Such untruthful and consequently disreputable companies are responsible for the existing mayhem in confused business Website Owners, and Project Managers. A Website Analysis from a reputable SEO company quickly counteracts the damage done by such disreputable companies, and dispels the myth. Service Guarantee Myth: As a company that does provide a service guarantee, our service is geared toward the Client's satisfaction of experience, professionalism, attention to detail, and hours necessary to get the job done over and beyond Client expectations. This includes covering any known marketing variables that may inadvertently result in lower performance of a Search campaign. In essence, experience counts. We are accountable, just as an employee may be, to provide top notch work. We cannot speak for other SEM companies- each has their own service guarantee, and one would do well to ask each one for details. SEM companies to steer clear of are those that offer a ranking guarantee. Ranking Guarantee Myth: A ranking guarantee is by far different from a service guarantee. A ranking guarantee indicates that there is a special privilege between Google (for example) and the SEM company, that precludes any other SEM company from achieving certain top rankings for their Client. For an SEM company to further state that a refund would also be available to the Client should the 'special' or magical privilege fail to deliver the promised rankings, points to the sheer lunacy of the initial claim itself. It should be clear at this point, that a ranking guarantee is not possible. To any company continuing to claim ranking guarantees: hear ye, and heed well. Rankings cannot be guaranteed, as a heavy reliance is made on previous Search algorithms (think Google), and strategies that have worked well in the past based on those algorithms. Once those algorithms change, it is a big rush to 're-mix' the strategies that work, and in the order of importance to their impact on the updated search effort. PPC Sponsored Listing Guarantee Myth: PPC Sponsored Listing advertising is not ranked. Most PPC Sponsored Listings list the most popular listing first. Google AdWords, for example, is both performance-based (popularity of the listing) and cost-per-click -based. The least popular ad is usually shown at the bottom of the Sponsored Listings. We shall use fictitious characters to further clarify how top rankings are gained on Google AdWords (Sponsored PPC Listings): Joe WeSolveYourProblem places a Google AdWord that is targeted and also has a call to action. Consequently, more people click on Joe WeSolveYourProblem's Google AdWord campaign than Andy PlaceQuickAd's. The result is that Joe WeSolveYourProblem's AdWord campaign is placed before Andy PlaceQuickAd's AdWord LISTING. So can a company guarantee high / top PPC Sponsored Listings? A better move would be to provide the Client with past performance metrics that prove a high LISTING is POSSIBLE. Regards, Iris Turner http://www.1st-techsolvenet.com iris [at] 1st-techsolvenet [dot] com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Jeff Gores Subject: SE Guarantees Jim, With their comment of, "...GUARANTEE (or your money back) top placement for your website in the preferred / sponsored area of the search engines for a 'small' monthly fee" it sounds like they are just using sponsored listings of various paid placement opportunities. An example is that I could guarantee, a client top listing on Yahoo! by just being the highest bidder in Overture for a particular keyword phrase. But that could cost the client a ton of money, but that isn't mentioned in their pitch. They could also do that with Google, but using the word guarantee is very strong (and idiotic) in my opinion. No search engine marketing company has a relationship with the search engines that allows them to guarantee a top listing, especially not naturally. I would recommend staying away from any company that guarantees top results. I am confident enough in my work that I know I can help companies receive results that they are extremely happy with, but I won't ever use the word "guarantee." It sounds like you know what yu're doing and hope this helps, Jeff Gores Spark Interactive jeff [at] spark-interactive [dot] com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Roger Holden Subject: Mozilla > Personally I have little concern for which browser is dominant... > If my sites display how I want them to on 95%+ computers... - Steve Marriott, LED 1756 Well, then you really do have concern for which browser is dominant then. You are presumably testing your HTML web pages using IE, and you correctly say that probably 95% of your customers are using IE, so that's fine... and I totally I agree with this approach by the way. BUT... if 95% (or even 45%) of your customers were using Mozilla, or some other browser that behaves differently from IE, then you'd probably be testing your web pages on both browsers. You would for sure notice minor changes (or even major), that would need to be made in order to work satisfactorily on both browsers... or to use the added features that Mozilla might allow. Whether you think you are or not... you are probably very affected by the browser that you test with, and the one most of your customers use.. IE. Regards, Roger Holden ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: Mekhong Kurt Subject: Spam email lockup Adam -- Over the weekend I had a problematic e-mail I'm writing about, both as a heads-up for LEDer's and in the hope maybe one of our many knowledgeable fellow LEDer's may be able to shed light on this. I use Incredimail (the free basic version) for my offline e-mail reading. On Saturday, February 28th, I downloaded my e-mail from my own web site's mailbox, as I do several times daily (several times just to stay on top of the darned spam mail, which constitutes an average of 85-90% of my incoming mail. As is my norm, I started scrolling down highlighting junk mail for deletion. However, when I came to one particular one, my Incredimail program locked up and I couldn't do anything further there, though otherwise I could use my computer just fine. To close Incredimail, I had to use CNTL-ALT-DEL and commaned the pop-up window there to shut it down. I tried the same thing repeatedly, with the same result. I thought Incredimail itself might be the problem, so I used Outlook Express to download my e-mails the next 2-3 times I did so -- and had exactly the same experience there. In both e-mail clients I created new folders, then highlighted and moved wanted e-mails into it, leaving only the problematic e-mails in the Inbox. But the same thing would happen after the wanted stuff was moved and the program returned to the Inbox. I ran Norton Antivirus and AVG; no results. I finally came up with a work-around solution that worked. By late yesterday, I had received the same e-mail (with slight variations in the usernames), e-mails that were mixed in with my regular wanted and other spam e-mails. I moved my wanted e-mails to the other folder, though when they were next one of the offending e-mails, the client locked up. Eventually I was able to get to the point that I left 1 spam e-mail above and below each instance of the problem spam -- it's important to note that means at the top of the list there was 1 other junk e-mail, then an offending one, then *2* more jukn e-mails below it and above the next instance of the offending e-mail -- leaving just 1 in between instances resulted in the client locking up again. In the end, I had 4 instances of the offending stuff, together with 8 other spams. I closed the program, then re-opened it, quickly clicking on another folder than Inbox ASAP so that when that part of the window opened it listed the contents of that folder, not the Inbox. Then I opened my Inbox -- but did *not* select anything there. Instead, I clicked Edit, then clicked Select All, then clicked Delete under the Edit tab. That did the trick. In my irritation (okay, rage -- I admit it!), I foolishly didn't write down all the details. But I do remember the usernames all ended with a single capitalized letter, separated from the rest of the name by a blank space. The subject line included the words "T.E.E.N. sex" (with the "T.E.E.N." written as I wrote it here). I hope that's enough information to help anyone else who gets such an e-mail. And if anyone can shed light on this, I'll be MOST delighted to read it. Thanks in advance to the wonderful LED community, information forthcoming or not. And to you, Adam, as always, a huge thanks for this digest, my single most valuable source of Internet information -- by far. With warm regards, Mekhong Kurt, Web Master Bangkok's Voice On The Web http://bangkokatoz.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2004 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." - Thomas Jefferson |
