| LED Digest 2602: Lurkers Exposed |
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The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom http://www.WillMaster.com/Master : the LED's Key Sponsor Master Series Software - Get Connected with Your WebSite http://www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ : the LED's Premier Sponsor Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification ================================================== Guest Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. March 6, 2008 Issue no. 2602 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== --== What to Charge? ==-- ~ Nick Usborne "And I have no idea what to charge." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Lurkers ==-- ~ Bev Hanna "I've been lurking continuously for about seven years..." ~ Adam Boettiger "Here are three things that I've found that I think will add value to fellow LEDers." ~ Douglas Bates "I have no basis for posting advice on the subjects discussed on LED." ~ Kym McLaughlin "I was surprised that this subject didn't receive a bigger response from all of us 'Lurkers'." --== Success with Facebook Groups? ==-- ~ Brad Waller "...I'm not sure if there is any real traffic." --== CSS & Web Standards ==-- ~ Tom Aman "We have been in the transitional state for nearly a decade." ========= NEW ===================================== From: Nick Usborne Subject: How much to charge for a text ad I'm a terrible lurker. I have read just about every issue of LED, and only very rarely posted. And now all I'm contributing is a question. I have a weekend hobby site on the topic of coffee, CoffeeDetective.com. It's not a very attractive site, but generates a surprising amount of traffic and income. Anyway, a gift basket company wants to place a text ad on the home page and one interior page. And I have no idea what to charge. They simply want a brief, descriptive sentence with a link. I'll be identifying it as a sponsored message. Is there some kind of equation with which I can calculate the price of the ad? They want to buy placement for a period of a year. Any insights or recommendations would be most welcome. Best wishes, Nick Usborne http://www.nickusborne.com ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Bev Hanna Subject: Lurker > Oh you're out there. Lurking lurkers hiding > in the shadows of the LED... reading every > issue, or just bits and pieces. Sampling > the wares. But never putting a coin in the > box before you leave. Now's your chance to > repay that karmic debt you owe the LED > regulars, and POST something dammit. - Adam Audette, LED 2600 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/2015/190/ Okay, you caught me! I am, indeed, a lurker. I've been lurking continuously for about seven years, periodically poking my head out to post every couple of years. Oh, I am SOOOOO ashamed! (blush) I'm finally putting together my first (very basic) html newsletter for our local arts council, using AWeber, so I have this question. Or rather, an untidy batch of them... 1. Can I use fluid (percentage) design, or should it be fixed? 2. If fixed, how many pixels wide should the html be? (Some of the subscribers may be using phones to access their e-mail.) 3. How many topics are optimal? 4. How many words per article are optimal? 5. How should my web version differ from the ezine, if at all? 6. I plan to archive the newsletters over time, so that people can search the different topics, but as I have no database experience, I don't know how to make them searchable. Is a Google search on the site suitable for this, or do I need to learn database management? 7. How do I learn database management? Is there an online course for rank beginners, or some kind of WYSIWYG wizard that can help? Okay, going back into lurk mode now... Thanks, Bev Hanna Huronia Foundation for the Arts http://www.huroniaarts.ca/ -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Adam Boettiger Subject: RE: Lurkers (Lurker cloaking shield deactivated...) Thanks for the friendly reminder, Adam! Some of us are just so busy that it's enough to digest the digest without taking the time to regurgitate a post or response, but I do try to jump in when I can add value. Here are three things that I've found that I think will add value to fellow LEDers. "Give, then take"...right? 1. iwantsandy.com What it is: Free email reminder/tickler application at http://www.iwantsandy.com/ How I use it: In this age of information overload I'm seeing that it takes more than one touch at times to get a reply by email. No, I'm not talking about cold-emails or sales approaches. Even close friends are overloaded. After I send an email, I'll go into the Sent Items folder and forward the original message to my iwantsandy.com address with instructions like, "Remind me in one week to call Adam Audette if he has not replied to this". Because iwantsandy.com allows me to attach my cell phone to my account, I can specify whether the reminder comes as an SMS text alert or email or both. In one week I'll get sent a reminder that quotes the original email that sent Adam. If I want to get really tricky I'll include his phone number in the reminder so if I am on the Blackberry I can just click the Send button to dial right from the email reminder to connect with Adam. Definitely worth exploring, and it's free. http://www.iwantsandy.com/ 2. Twitter What it is: Twitter answers the question "What are you doing?", and allows you to follow short updates of others and others to follow you. How I use it: http://twitter.com/AdamBoettiger Note that I've branded the account with my name for name recognition and not used a "cute" name, like "HotDogSix" or "Beefaroni55". I use my Twitter page URL in my email signature to give folks a way to connect directly with me. Twitter is great because you're limited to only short updates of 140 characters, which is fast and easy for others to read - far more likely to be read than a lengthy email message. In addition to what I'm doing I try to post useful links to articles and resources, answer questions of others and more. Twitter also can be linked to your mobile phone for SMS text message updating while on the go. Twitter is a new way of communicating and folks are still finding different uses for it - everything from monitoring what's going on at a conference to where to meet for drinks as a group to getting a recommendation for a resource. In order to fully understand the value of it, you must immerse yourself in it for at least a month. Otherwise it may at first glance seem like yet another time suck. It's not. Try it. But brand your name so I know who I'm connecting with. Follow my feed at http://twitter.com/AdamBoettiger Another great way to use Twitter is to follow industry visionaries. There is a wiki set up at http://twitterpacks.pbwiki.com/ that has "packs" of people who you can choose to follow as a group or individually by topic, with packs on Social Media Marketing, New Media, Marketing, etc. 3. Pinger What it is: Pinger is a great find, also free. It allows you to hit speed dial on your phone, speak a name and dictate a voicemail message to someone and have it sent to them without the need to call them and engage in a long conversation. How I use it: With Pinger you can create group lists. For example, if you had a sales force of 200 people, you could create a group ID of "My Sales Team", call up Pinger speak the group name, dictate a message and it would automatically be sent to all 200 people, notifying them by SMS text message that they had a new Pinger voicemail. Or you can simply use individual messages to convey short messages when you are on the run and don't have time to engage in a long email or conversation. When they are listening to your message, they can hit a single key to reply to your Pinger message by voice as well, so it is possible to pinger back and forth just like email. Quite useful! http://www.pinger.com/. Hope this helps! Adam Boettiger Twitter me: http://twitter.com/AdamBoettiger Facebook, LinkedIn: http://www.adamboettiger.com/connect.html Digital Marketing Consulting Help: http://www.adamboettiger.com/ -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Douglas Bates Subject: Lurker I suspect many lurkers are small business owners like myself that earn their living from work other than SEO, web design, web marketing, etc. I have no basis for posting advice on the subjects discussed on LED. I do read the LED Digest daily hoping to learn enough to improve my website, and avoid the pitfalls, by "Sampling the wares" because my business is too small to have a marketing budget. I would agree that some posts "got too personal. Bad vibes." and some "posts seemed selfish (insert my link here) or dominated." but I keep reading daily hoping to learn enough to improve my website, or keep it from being dropped from the SERP. Douglas Bates Handgun Repair Shop www.handgunrepairshop.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Kym McLaughlin Subject: Lurker It has been One year, 5 months and 6 days since my last post. I confess, I am a Lurker! I hide in the shadows, read every (okay almost every) edition. Taking away information, ideas, warm fuzzy feelings and never pay the piper on the way out. Okay, now I will be serious. I thought Adam's "call to action" was clever and witty. I read it as completely "tongue and cheek" with a real request. I was surprised that this subject didn't receive a bigger response from all of us 'Lurkers". > Personally, the digest got too personal. > Bad vibes. Further, the ideas are far too > scattered. Too many posts seemed selfish > (insert my link here) or dominated. - Salem Kashou, LED 2601 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/2016/190/ Yes, the digest can get very personal. That can be expected when you have a gathering of so many with very definite and divided opinions on a subject. However, the first rule of business is: Its business, it's not personal. Bad vibes? Not sure about that. There are, without a doubt, disagreements. Again, this can be a good thing. It shows different perspectives and methods used to reach a common goal. Do we need fresh ideas and new voices? Absolutely, I believe that was the whole point behind the post. Keep up the great work LEDers, and this "Lurker" will try to be a more contributing member to our society <wink>. Kym McLaughlin Advanced Internet Marketing http://www.top20promote.com ========= Begin Sponsor Message ========= Inexpensive Content Rotator Rotate any part of a page. Or even the whole page. ~ Image ~ Headline ~ Leading paragraph ~ Special pricing Content Carousel - http://www.willmaster.com/carousel ========== End Sponsor Message ========== -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Brad Waller Subject: Facebook > Has anyone here had success using Facebook > groups to build traffic? If so, what > strategy do you think worked to build the > group? For those that have groups, do you > favor open or moderated groups? If open, > have you had any trouble for people posting > spam or obscenities? - Anthony Kirlew, LED 2601 Anthony asks about using Facebook to build traffic. I have seen one group that has been a success for the creator. He may even have to spin it out of Facebook because it is over 1,000 people strong and Facebook may cap his notices to the group. The group is "If I can help a reporter out, I will..." and it is a one way group for the most part. The creator already had reporters asking him is he could help out with their story, and his idea was to gather a network of people so that every reporter that came to him would have a number of people who could help them out. In a few months it has grown from zero to quite large and is doing well. But, on the question of building traffic, I'm not sure if there is any real traffic. I think all it is doing is enhancing the reputation of the creator as an even better resource for the press and giving him a possible new venture. Brad Waller Manage and Sell your own site advertising http://adjungle.com -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Tom Aman Subject: Standards > So all you technical gurus out there, help! > Are we stuck in one of those transition > states - damned if you do and damned if you > don't? - Peter D'Aprix, LED 2601 We have been in the transitional state for nearly a decade. A look at the history of HTML and CSS versions shows this: HTML 2.0 - 1995 HTML 3.0 - 1995 CSS 1 - Dec 1996 HTML 3.2 - Jan 1997 HTML 4.0 - Dec 1997 CSS 2 - May 1998 HTML 4.01 - Dec 1999 XHTML 1.0 - Jan 2000 XHTML 1.1 - Feb 2007 And, coming soon, the newly proposed (Jan 2008) HTML 5 and/or (Jan 2006) XHTML 2.0. One of the items of discussion in HTML 5 is what to do about bad code. Suggestions inlcude applying specific rules for "repair" so all browser will do it the same way, possibly displaying an error message (with or without "repairing" the error), or even refusing to display the page. HTML 4.01 was first proposed 8+ years ago but many sites are still using older versions. HTML 4.01 Transitional (allows some features of older HTML versions), intended to bridge the gap between older versions and the latest method using styles, is still being used. Style sheets have been with us 11+ years and some of us (myself included) are just now learning how to use them. XHTML 1.0 has been around for 7+ years. So how long is a reasonable "transitional" period??? Tom Aman Aman Software http://www.cyberspyder.com (c) Copyright 1995-2008 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "When I have to choose between two evils, I always try to pick the one I haven't tried before." - Mae West |
