| LED Digest 1492: Do's and Don'ts for Catalogs? |
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================================================== bCentral Daily Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising" ================================================== List Moderator: Supported by: Adam Audette bCentral aa @ le-digest.com http://g.msn.com/0NL48253/532 ................................................. January 7, 2003 Digest #1492 ................................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== -=Do's and Don'ts for Catalogs?=- ~ Yuwanda Black "As we are strictly online, [a catalog] is a different outlet for us which we don't know much about." ==== CONTINUING ================= -=Experience with WhenU.com?=- ~ Tom Campbell "These tools get a major portion of their funding from affiliate relationships via 'redirected' URLs." -=Search Engine Optimization (SEO)=- ~ James Kalassery "The more I read about SEO, the more I get confused about it." ~ Ivan J. Jimenez "I very much pro-optimization however it needs to be done intelligently." -=Defamation and the Internet=- ~ Kurt T. Francis "Is it not time to draw a line in the sand..." ==== BILLBOARD =================== -=How to Create HTML Email?=- ~ Sara Griffith ====== NEW ====================================== From: Yuwanda Black Subject: Do's and Don'ts for Catalogs? Adam: I have a question for Digest Readers. This past spring, I opened an online store selling ethnic home decor products (URL below). Response has been wonderful. Many customers have requested a catalog, which I'm in the process of producing for April / May of this year. My question is: Are there any absolute do's and don'ts for a catalog? As we are strictly online, this is a different outlet for us which we don't know much about. The "catalog" will be more of a multi-page brochure than a full-fledged catalog. We are starting small to monitor cost and consumer response. Any advice from those who have experience in this area, specifically as it pertains to niche (ethnic) markets, would be greatly appreciated. As always, thank you for putting out such a great product day after day. It is one of only two newsletters I read cover to cover every issue. Sincerely, Yuwanda Black EthnicHomeDecor.com ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Tom Campbell Subject: WhenU.com > [WhenU.com] is a program that comes installed > on many new computers that sends pop-ups and > pop-unders whenever certain criteria is entered > in your browser, if a similar company's site is > visited... - Ivan Jimenez, Daily 1490 I would stay away from WhenU, Gator, and all the other tools that come "pre-installed" on many computers. There are four reasons I would recommend this course: 1) This type of software is typically not truly "Pre-Installed". It is actually installed as a hidden add-on to something else someone installed: a PNP file swapping program, a greeting card, some even self-install upon visiting a web site if the user's ActiveX control security levels are set to "low". This hidden type of installation is unethical, and may even be illegal (court actions under review in a few states.) Big names are using this type of service simply because their media buying departments don't understand this new model. 2) Unrequested pop-ups are becoming an even greater aggravation than Email spam these days. Users, previously intrigued, are now becoming aggravated at having their bandwidth and time used without their consent. As with email spam, the company using the service for advertising is associated with the aggravation, not the background tool that is serving the ads. 3) These tools get a major portion of their funding from affiliate relationships via "redirected" URLs. What this means is that many of these products use the API within Microsoft Explorer to identify the user's destination, and for any site that happens to be on their list of affiliate merchants, they re-create the URL to include their own revenue tracking code; redirecting the commision from the originating link site to their own coffers. Worse yet, visitors who go directly to a site (i.e. type in www.barnesandnoble.com) also have their URL modified to add these companies' commision tracking codes. This means the vendor ends up paying an extra commission for traffic that came to them directly and should have been free of commission. Affiliate merchants actually get the shaft when they do business with this type of "marketing" provider because they pay increased commissions. Some of these products have claimed to have stopped this practice, but onging research shows that they have not truly done so. Their methods of performing the redirection have evolved over the past few months, but the net results are still the same. 4) All the above activities are testing the current legal structure, but it's a good bet that the major underpinnings of their business model will be pulled out from under them very shortly. If I were looking for additional ways to reach customers I would stay away from this type of vehicle. The fallout and negative goodwill are not worth the benefits you MIGHT derive. For more information about WhenU and other tools of this sort, see the ABestWeb discussion Forum: abw.infopop.cc/6/ubb.x?a=cfrm&s=548608979&f=591608789 [cut & paste this link]. For an excellent (free) tool that will detect and remove many of these hidden programs (they are not considered viruses by most anti-virus programs), check out AdAware at: www.lavasoft.de/ (Note: That is a .de at the end - but the software and website are in English) Other tools and discussion groups cover the topic in even greater detail, but these are two good places to get the big picture. Tom Campbell ------- new post - new topic ------- From: James Kalassery Subject: SEO I am regular reader of this digest. The more I read about SEO, the more I get confused about it. I really cannot comprehend how even a SEO expert can "guarantee" a placement in the top ten for any keyword on any of the search engines. If there is a proven method for getting into the first 10, won't it be a matter of time before others followed suit? What will the search engines do if they come across 100 sites with equally optimized pages for the same keyword combination? And don't we have to keep tweaking our pages every now and then when the search engines change their algorithm? These questions keep baffling me. I think the best a SEO can do is to optimize the pages and leave the rest to God and the search engines. If a search engine says, "OK you pay us so much, we will put you on top for this keyword", that is understandable. There is some reciprocity in it. "You fill my pockets, I will fill yours". That would be more businesslike. But in such a win-win situation for the search engine and clients, would they allow the SEO experts to dig into their revenue by placing the SEO optmized pages in the top 10 for free? I mean, why should they? After all, they will be serving relevant results, because no one would want to pay a huge sum for somebody else's keywords. Meaning, everybody would buy only keywords relevant to their site. For all known keywords with which people would search my site, I am nowhere in the first 50 pages on any search engine. If we are not in the 1st or 2nd or 3rd page, it makes no difference in which page we are. Most of our pages have some relevant keywords in place. No stuffing. Since ours is a directory site, it is updated very often. One day, while going through the log, I found a link from a search engine and followed that link. To my great surprise, I found that ours was the first listing in about 30 pages !!!! I would consider it a one in a million chance. However, nowadays, I am finding a lot more links coming from the search engines. I didn't do a thing more. By the way, is there any software which can tell us our exact rank in a search engine for a given keyword? My 2 cents doubts. Happy New Year to all. Regards, James Kalassery BusinessDigests.Com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Ivan J. Jimenez Subject: Spamming SEs I'd like to echo David Morison's comment (issue 1484) and re-emphasize that the function of search engines is to make the Internet more accessible, easier to use, and most importantly, efficient. Using spamming tactics to override search engine algorithms will result in search engines changing their main goals from providing a better online experience to policing the Internet... not good. That isn't to say that I'm against optimization. I very much pro-optimization however it needs to be done intelligently. In the Internet world, we not only have to compete with our neighbors, but now the rest of the globe. Just because your directory is better than say Yahoo's, doesn't mean you'll be listed anywhere near them on most search engines. Yahoo has been around for a long time and has a lot of traffic. No new directory would be able to compete without optimization -- regardless of how great they are. The key again is to optimize your site with a realistic approach. Millions of visitors to your site are worthless if they arrived under false pretenses and ended up leaving because they didn't get what they were looking for (i.e.: marketing dollars wasted on people NOT interested in your product). All the best, Ivan J. Jimenez CosmicBreath.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: K Francis Subject: Defamation Hi, Fellow LED'ers -- Craig Herrington made a significant point in LED 1490 regarding this touchy subject, a point with which I agree wholeheartedly. In an earlier contribution to this discussion I mentioned it would be *nice* -- if not practicable -- to have an international organization in charge of such disputes as the one in Australia. Unsurprisingly, a couple of people took me to task on the practicality of such an approach. Is it not time to draw a line in the sand and say we will not let so-called "political correctness" invade the Internet. "P.C." is a bunch of trite garbage. I have a family-oriented website about Bangkok. That site happens to include a few photos no Westerner would ever consider racy, indecent, immoral, etc. etc. etc. It * does* include* a few photos of go-go girls, photos done up in an artistic way making recogniztion of the individual girls impossible, photos of them with their bikinis on. Illegal stuff in some countries. Most of the pics are of Thai ladies with their faces -- and ONLY their faces -- unvelied -- again, illegal in some countries, but not here, not in my homeland (America) no in most of the world's nations. Am I to remove those? I really no longer care what the lunatic fringe wants. Let them go scream at and fight each other. Probably the most significant thing they've done to *my* life is to make me absolutely certain I never, ever, ever wish to live in America again. Heck -- I can go to jail (for pete's sake) just for telling the waitress who poured me another cup of coffee "Thank you, Dear." Staple of my childhood in the American South -- but something I had to have a chat with a policeman in L.A. about a decade ago on a visit to the Land of the Brave and the Free. To say my right of free speech ends where others' noses begin is a fair enough stance. To say my innocent -- unintentional -- crossing of some stupid line is another matter. I live in Thailand. The laws here are considerably more draconian than they are in the developed democracies. I have been formally warned just for REPEATING stuff on my website ALREADY reported in the media here. And that is the way the Australian court decision points us. With apologies to my numerous friends from one of the most wonderful countries on the face of the earth -- Sincerely, Kurt T. Francis Bangkok's Voice On The Web ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: Sara Griffith Subject: Flashy email I use HTML as the default in my email programs, but I've given the advice to others about changing formats. There is one word of advice I have for others when compiling HTML emails... this is particularly for Front Page users... if you use Front Page as your HTML editor, as I do, and you are composing offline, then you need to point your HREF codes to where your graphics reside and in most cases that means publishing the HTML and making sure your refs have the full address. Front Page will default to something like: xsrc="images/xxxx.xxx assuming that you will be publishing to the images directory of the site. In order to be accessible, you need to go into the HTML code and add the www.xxxxx.com/ before the images tag so that it reads: xsrc="www.xxxxx.com/images/xxxxx.xxx or make sure that the images in your email are already published and point to the correct location. Sara Griffith www.pal2pal.com ------------------------------------------------------- The bCentral Daily Digest is edited by a third party moderator, Adam Audette. As such, bCentral does not control which postings are accepted into the digest for publication. The contents of the digest do not necessarily reflect the opinions of bCentral, Adam Audette, or his company, Adventive. bCentral, Audette, and Adventive make no warranties, either expressed or implied, about the truth or accuracy of the contents of the bCentral Daily Digest. |
