| LED Digest 2393: Building Platform and Buzz |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom www.GetWebContent.com/LED : the LED's Key Sponsor The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. April 20, 2007 Issue no. 2393 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ===================== --== Building Platform and Buzz ==-- ~ Gordon Moe "This project has me scratching my head...building buzz and 'platform' is new to me." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Do Search Engines Check Whois? ==-- ~ R. Neilson "Some SEO companies are going to offer services for this as well..." ~ Michael Martinez "...none of the search engines punish you for operating multiple unique domains." ~ Nathan Holley "If you've been caught spamming with one domain they'll track your other sites as well." --== SEO Standards ==-- ~ Bob Gladstein "Edit some of those valid pages so that they no longer validate..." --== New Trends in Checkouts ==-- ~ Emma Mackintosh "As it is possible without difficulty to offer an 'express option'..." ~ Robert Bassoff "...the information you supply to any website is stored on your computer, not theirs..." ~ Gill Fernandez "The really vulnerable people are the Merchants who are left out to dry..." ~ John Barendrecht "I am not against ordering online, I make my living selling online." =========== NEW ================================== From: Gordon Moe Subject: Suggestions for Building 'platform' and Buzz I have a client who is working to build 'platform' for a new marriage book. The book is fantastic and his agent is pumped about the prospects of its success. To advance his chances of being published his agent wants him to build 'platform' - i.e. a group of people interested in the author, his book and his outlook on the topic of marriage counseling. (neither the author or I are related to Oprah :)) He is about to begin blogging and will maintain an opt-in email list for email subscribers, but this is where I need the help of the LED Digest braintrust. - RSS feeds are for geeks and though we will have that, we aren't counting on it - we've considered a multi-issue auto-responder (marriage tip for this week, marriage tip for week #2, etc), but with the state of email and SPAM filters I am a bit doubtful. Read the troubles of auto-resonders here: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1288/55/ - podcasts? again, mostly for geeks. Thoughts on audio clips in the site, perhaps. This project has me scratching my head. I've done the usual PPC with product-based sites, but building buzz and 'platform' is new to me. All ideas are welcomed. As you might imagine, the author does not have an unlimited budget for capturing attention. http://www.insightfulmarriage.com/ Appreciated. Gordon Moe Comment? ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: R. Neilson Subject: Search and whois > ... will the value of those links be discounted (or ignored) > if the whois information for all the sites is identical? Do > search engines even look at the whois? - Ben Frank, LED Digest 2392 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1795/55/ In another business forum this topic was recently discussed and my understanding is that Google and other search engines are going to start looking at the whois. But I don't know when this is supposed to happen. Some SEO companies are going to offer services for this as well, I have seen some proposed annual rates and wonder if it is another scam to get more money or if it really will happen. They even talked about the option to include more business information in with whois such as hours of operation, map to your physical location, etc. R. Neilson H. L. Supply www.hansons.net Comment? -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Michael Martinez Subject: Search and whois There is no reason not to do this. You will not be penalized, filtered, blocked, blacklisted, or otherwise adversely affected by placing unique content on your Web sites that links to the same new domain. Some people in the SEO community might point to patent application X or say, "Well, Google is now a domain registrar, blah, blah, blah" but none of the search engines punish you for operating multiple unique domains. Michael Martinez http://www.michael-martinez.com/ Comment? -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Nathan Holley Subject: Whois and Google Ben, As long as you haven't had a site banned for spamming you should be okay. The majority of the risk of having an identical Whois snail-trail is with Google. If you've been caught spamming with one domain they'll track your other sites as well. This is precisely why Google is a domain registrar yet doesn't operate the service. Also be sure you redirect the domains properly and don't have them exist as the same site. In other words, if domain1.com points to domain2.com make sure the URL changes in the address bar to reflect that. Cheers, Nathan Holley Comment? ============ Sponsor Message =========== Pirates of the Caribbean, what a great flick. Lots of kids want to grow up to be pirates. Some go into the web content business. They loot copy from one client and sell it to many more. The clients get to walk the plank, because duplicate copy is a big SE no-no. At http://GetWebContent.com/LED our copy is custom crafted for you and you alone. ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Bob Gladstein Subject: SEO standards > In my experience, with all other factors being mostly equal, > the sites that I've optimized *including HTML validity as a factor* > have done better in the SERPs over time than sites that > weren't optimized including that factor. - Jere Matlock, LED Digest 2392 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1795/55/ Here's an easy test for you. Edit some of those valid pages so that they no longer validate, but don't change any of the content on the page. Just throw in a few font tags, skip a couple of alt attributes that would otherwise be empty, and maybe add some nonexistent attributes to a few tags (like <.p fraka="monroe">). Then see if the search engines treat the pages any differently. Bob Gladstein Comment? -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Emma Mackintosh Subject: Checkout > I've noticed a 'new' trend in checkouts these days. It seems > that you can't complete the transaction without registering an > e-mail and a password. This is NOT the way to carry on. > PLEASE, all designers reading this take note. - Roy Williams, LED Digest 2389 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1792/55/ I think Roy has a point here. It is possible to retrieve an email / password combination without too much difficulty (assuming you don't, like me, have 3 or 4 email addresses, any one of which could have been used - and assuming that the site hasn't demanded a username instead of the email address!). However, most buyers want a quick, frustration-less, secure process. Spending that extra time clicking the "forgot password" link, typing in the email address, waiting for the email to arrive and then going back to order is just too much hassle. The internet gives customers a lot of choice over where they buy - any site which doesn't make it quick and easy to do this isn't maximising it's income. Many customers don't see an account as an easy way to manage their information with a particular shop, they see it (at least partly correctly) as a way for the shop to gain information which it can use to bombard them with offers in future. Yes, this information can be gained anyway - but with an account in a shopping cart, it is automatically available in database form for newsletter send-outs etc.. As it is possible without difficulty to offer an "express option" (no registering, no login, just straight to checkout) to those customers who really don't want to leave their details in a database, perhaps this is something more selling sites should consider.. if the site is worthwhile, many if not most customers will actually register anyway! Emma Mackintosh Comment? -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Robert Bassoff Subject: Checkout > I won't deal with any company that gives me the option > to create an account and offers to remember me. Why? > I don't want them to store my credit card information. - John Barendrecht, LED Digest 2391 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1794/55/ John-- You are dead wrong on this issue, the information you supply to any website is stored on YOUR COMPUTER, not theirs, in a cookie. Anyone who accepts credit cards online can tell you that, in fact it is a requirement of having a merchants account with any credit card company. When you provide your log-in information it accesses the cookie on your own computer, and even that is encrypted on your computer so that not even you can read it. Your fears are unfounded and misinformed, the purpose of creating an account is simply to make purchases in the future easier, so you do not have to put in your name, address, card number etc over and over again, a task most people find tedious. Even if I had all your passwords it would do me no good UNLESS I was working on your computer because your IP address is part of the encryption. Now, how likely is that? Now, as for your misconceptions about Paypal. You state-- > As for PayPal, I'm scared to try that. If I buy from > a merchant and he doesn't deliver or delivers a > different product, I can phone Visa and get the > charges reversed. How can I phone Visa and > cancel a PayPal charge when I never bought > anything from PayPal? You can't get any charges reversed just on your say-so. If you could, then half the people who use credit cards would do just that. Not everyone is as honest as you and I. In order to get a charge reversed on any credit card you have to prove that what you say is true. It is no different with Paypal except it is a lot faster. You don't have to answer a million automated questions till you get to a human who will then take down all the same information you just told to the machine. Paypal has a system in place whereby you only need contest a charge online and it is then handled better than any direct credit card purchase. The seller is notified, must prove delivery etc or the charge is reversed by Paypal. Furthermore Paypal offers a buyer protection policy that basically states that if you say the merchant sent the wrong thing, they will ask you to send it to them and then they will refund the charge to you if in fact that is the truth of it. Any of the credit card companies do that? No. But you would still have to prove that you got the wrong thing, or nothing at all, before they will even start an investigation. With Paypal you are better protected either as a buyer or as a seller than with any credit card company. Suggest you go to the Paypal site and read it all there. Paypal is a great idea AND a great company, which is probably why eBay paid over a billion dollars to buy it only two years after its inception. Robert Bassoff, Webmaster www.jewelex.com Comment? -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Gillian Fernandez Subject: Check Out Hi, Quite right too Charles Oertel. A good post. Customers are very well protected when they shop online. The really vulnerable people are the Merchants who are "left out to dry" when a credit card fraud is perpetrated through their site. They lose the product, they lose the money from the transaction and they pay a charge back fee! Time for Mercants to be more vocal with the banks and payment processors about protecting the Merchant from fraud, but I doubt whether it is high on their priority list since they actually make money out of the fraud by from the charge back fee. As for requesting information from the customer - any self respecting Merchant should do this, not only to make it easier for the customer to manage their account but also to protect themselves from the fraudsters. Gill Fernandez ever-so-sexy.com Comment? -------- new post - same topic -------- From: John Barendrecht Subject: Checkout I think, both Charles and Tom are reading much more into my post than there is. I am not against ordering online, I make my living selling online. I (personally) also buy hundreds of products a year online. I am against being forced to create an account with a password for a transaction, which implies (to me) that you'll keep my info until the end of time. The "option" with some companies is create an account or don't order. Just store my credit card info at you establishment until you "cash" my visa or whatever is required by law. Just let me order as a one time customer. I am not against "web customization" accounts, Microsoft and others let me do this. I know the 2 riskiest places to use a cc are in a taxi or a restaurant, and that online transactions would probably be #20 on a list of top 20. About half the restaurants I go to have those portable devices that the wait-staff bring to table. Shipping only to registered address, can be annoying. I recently tried to send my sister a present from a very large US firm. I phoned in and asked the person if they'll ship to Canada (yes) and if they'll ship to a different address (yes). When I noticed the transaction didn't occur, I had to talk to 4 people before someone finally told me the truth. I ordered from their competitor, who did complete the transaction. Some of the products I order are downloadable, so no address needed. Visa seems to be more proactive, both online and offline. If I buy something that seems out of my spending pattern, they'll phone within an hour asking me to confirm the transaction. John Barendrecht Centralhome.com Company Inc. http://www.centralhome.com Comment? ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by GetWebContent.com The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. Free no-obligation proposal: http://GetWebContent.com/LED The Archives: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/126/120/ Subscribe: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/52/77/ Unsubscribe, Change Email, or Hold / Resume Delivery: http://www.led-digest.com/content/category/4/17/86/ (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "He who laughs, lasts." [thanks to Gordon Moe] |
