Follow the below simple steps to add a Paypal donate button.
Adding a Paypal donation button to your blog will give your loyal readers a chance to support(encourage) you by donating a few bucks.
Summary:-
1) Need to create a paypal account (It's Free)
2) Add a credit/debit card to it (They will make a transaction of 1.95$ , just for validating purpose, after 4,5 days you will be getting the transaction details online with 4 digit code)
3) Provide the 4 digit code into the paypal account.
4) Once you provide that the 1.95$ will be added back to your account.
5) You can go thru the below process and get the Donate button.
If you don't have a paypal account yet,.. you can get a Free Paypal account here.
so,let's see how to put a Paypal donation button in your blog...
1.First,Log in to your Paypal account.
2.Click on the 'Merchant Services' tab (see at the top of the page).
3.Scroll down the window and you will see an option "Donations" in the right sidebar.Click on it!
4.Now,you will see some options like Donation name/service ,donation id,etc etc...
The first field (Donation name/service) is the only thing that is required and all the remaining fields are optional.
Enter that first field,choose a button style,scroll down the window and click on "Create a button Now"
5. Now,you will see some html code... Copy it and sign in to your blogger dashboard »» Click on the layout »» Add a Page element »» html/javascript »» and paste that html code and SAVE THE CHANGES.
Here is how the button will look in your sidebar
Complete Web Design Templates
To get a clear idea on how to create web templates/ you want to have a look at the how world is getting on with the layouts and styles, there are 1000's of web sites which offers you a wide range of web templates for free and for sales as well.You can select various varieties from them such as Flash based templates, CSS templates, DHTML templates with source code in PSD, JPG formats.
- TemplateNavigator: The largest catalogue of free website and flash templates, along with quality preview shots.
- TemplateBox: Over 300 freebie website, logo, banner, and flash templates to complement their collection of paid offerings.
- Template Monster: A small but very high-quality set of web, flash, and blog templates.
- Art for the Web: 75 freebie templates. Pretty good place to look if you’re looking for something slightly out of the ordinary.
- Free CSS Templates: A 206 template strong resource which is frequently updated with new submissions.
- Effex-Media: Free website templates designed by designers, this massive list is categorized by website type and includes user reviews of many of the templates.
- DotcomWebDesign: Hundreds of free templates, some of which are really top-notch. However, the categorization is a little arbitrary so be ready to spend some time manually searching.
- Themebot Design Templates: This site has some design templates, but not very many. There is a good amount of free themes.
- Groovy Lizard: Personal page templates (commercial use must buy a license)
- Interspire: Freebie web, Frontpage and Dreamweaver templates
- Joyful Heart Designs: Personal page templates generally with floral designs.
- OpenSourceTemplates: Free CSS and xhtml open source website templates and Web 2.0 designs.
- Ricky’s Web Templates: 50+ freebie templates, graphics, and buttons.
- Free CSS Templates: A dozen full-featured fully functional CSS based templates.
- FreekTemplates.com: A collection of business, cars and bikes, and hosting templates.
- Template Perfection: 200+ freebie templates with quite a few non-english oriented templates.
- TemplateWorkz: 48 freebie web templates, along with some basic logo and newsletter templates.
- Zymic: 80 freebie templates (HTML Pages + CSS + Images + PSD Files + Blank Images Files).
- OpenSourceTemplates: A community-driven CSS and xhtml open source template design showcase.
- Freelayouts: HTML and Flash templates.
- FreeCSSTemplates.org: Over 100 freebie CSS templates.
- Free Layouts: Complete list of hundreds of HTML, flash, and CSS templates.
- Free Templates Online: Dozens of easily customizable templates categorized by theme.
- Free Website Templates: A large collection of templates that don’t require a reciprocal link.
- Six-Shooter Media: Free CSS and xhtml open source templates.
- Free Flash Template: Web templates and intros with tons of special features.
- Layouts4Free.com: Free web layouts with search capability.
- Solucija: Free XHTML / CSS website templates already setup and sorted by commercial use.
- MasterTemplates: Professionally designed free website layouts along with PowerPoint templates.
- TemplateWorld: Free, tableless, W3C-compliant web design layouts designed by Template World designers.
- Painted Pixels: Free web page templates, buttons, and background tiles for non-commercial use.
- CSSFill: A selection of CSS / XHTML based layouts and templates by Michael Strand.
- ThemesBase: Templates organized by popular content management, blogging and forum systems.
- Arcsin Design Templates: 22 Freebie XTML and CSS Templates
- Snakeye Web Templates: 20 templates with a focus on Dreamweaver and Fireworks.
- Steve’s Templates: Dozens of templates, free with link back.
- GordonMac.com: Free CSS templates along with some freebie PHP scripts.
- Web Design Helper: Full page templates including the graphics and code.
- Webmaster Resources: 25 free web templates.
CSS Layouts
If you’re looking for the freedom to create something entirely original but just want some of the basic layout taken care of, this section is for you. The templates below are pure CSS, leaving you a clean slate from which you can add the design, graphics, and text as you see fit.- Layout Gala: 40 CSS tri-color layouts to help you pick a format.
- AndreasVilkund.com: Free Templates by designer Andreas Viklund.
- CSS Template Directory: A collection of CSS formatted page templates, developed and distributed by different designers.
- BenMeadowcroft.com: Top-notch web design templates by Ben Meadowcroft, mixed in with a few spoof pages and experimentation.
- Mollio: A set of basic CSS templates that that also have some sample basic content to speed things along.
- Real World Style: CSS layouts organized by format type.
- Little Boxes: CSS template arrangements with quickly accessible code.
- The Layout Reservoir: Simple, straightforward, and manipulable 2 and 3 column layouts.
- Protagonist Web Resources: A list of 43 tableless layouts to go along with the other protagonist resources.
- Glish: CSS Layout Techniques by Eric Costello which have been stripped down to the bare essentials.
- FU2K: CSS layouts designed for Netscape 4 compatibility.
- Position is Everything: Tableless design resource with CSS bug workarounds.
- ThreeColumnLayouts: The ultimate 3 column layout resource list.
- ssi-developer: Two column CSS template samples with recommendations.
- MIS Web Design: Fancy Paragraphs with CSS.
- Ruthsarian Layouts: Freebie-CSS layouts ranging from basic to complex arrangements.
- A List Apart: CSS: Practical CSS Layout Tips, Tricks and Techniques
- Code-Sucks.com: Creating 1, 2, 3, and 4 column layouts.
- Particle Tree: Dynamic resolution dependent layouts.
- Project Seven: Fluid CSS Layouts
- MyCelly: A collection of 16 basic layout templates.
- Ideas: 12 free CSS templates.
- CSS Library: Dynamic drive’s tableless CSS layouts.
- IntensiveStation: A collection of all new basic CSS templates.
- IronMyers: A collection of layouts with full Grade-A browser support for IE6, IE7, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and more.
- The CSS Playground: Cutting edge CSS demos by Stu Nicholls’
- Wordpress Theme Viewer: Collection of searchable themes organized by columns, colors, rounded corners, and other categories.
- Fluid 2-Column Template: A fully usable “fluid” template, meaning that the design expands and contracts with the window size.
- Avinash 2.0: 12 Free CSS Templates
Automated CSS Tools and Generators
This set of resources isn’t for those that want to create something entirely unique. But if you aren’t a strong coder and just want to get the job done, these automated CSS code tools will let you create CSS at the push of a button.- CSS Creator: Select the form colors, number of columns, html version, and press a button. Presto, a CSS template for your page.
- Inknoise: The layout-o-matic: fill out the form and out pops your CSS.
- Strange Banana: Simply refresh the template generator until you get the style you like, then save the page which has your CSS embedded in the header.
- Nidahas: A CSS-based form template.
- Maketemplate: A PHP - HTML - CSS template generator for two column layouts.
- IBDjohn: CSS template generator for three column layouts.
- TemplatR: Another easy CSS template generator.
- PsycHo: Your own psychogenesis, your own web design template.
- Firdamatic: Tableless 2 or 3 column layout generator.
- Wordpress Theme Generator: Online generator creates custom unique Wordpress themes.
Blog Themes and Templates
Designing blogs has become so popular as a subset of web design that we thought they deserved their own separate section. In this section, we highlight some of the best open source weblog template sources.- SmashingMagazine: 83 Beautiful Wordpress Themes You (Probably) Haven’t Seen
- Kaushal Sheth: Elegant WordPress themes.
- ErraticWisdom: Textpattern templates
- Scribez: 10 Best Wordpress Templates.
- pinkdesign: Free diary / blog templates
- Textgarden.org: The official site for themes designed for Textpattern.
- Blogger Templates: A collection of Blogger templates on a wide variety of themes.
- Blogfashions: A collection of free Movable Type compatible blog templates.
- FinalSense: High-quality templates for Blogger.
- WP Themes: WordPress themes all designed by Sadish Bala.
- Drupal Theme Garden: Showcase of themes available for Drupal 4.7x and Drupal 5.x.
- Weblog Design: A small number of high-quality web blog templates.
Does Bounce Rate affect your Site Statistics ?
You are a blogger and you analyze your statistics from time to time. One point this software tracks is the ‘bounce rate‘. The bounce rate will tell you how many visitors click through to another page. The lower your bounce rate, the higher your pages views and the more people will come back for quality content.
If you have a high bounce rate, it might be a good idea to improve your website or blog. This question might rise to you: What can you do improve the bounce rate of your blog?
In this post, I will give you some pointers you should look at to keep visitors on your website and lower your bounce rate.
1. Structured navigation – Usually, people looking for a tutorial, search Google and they want to find the needed information as fast as possible. If they can’t find it right away, they leave and look for another site. If you have a structured navigation, you might seduce those people to click through to your homepage, about page or another article interested to them.
2. Uncluttering your sidebar – You should make sure your blog homepage contains the most useful information. Stop using those funny and useless widgets; instead you should use a ‘popular article’ widget or a ‘tag cloud’. People will more likely click on an article if they can find it right away, without looking through all kind of mess first.
3. Related articles – Your blog has a niche, meaning you have more tutorials and articles on the same subject. Why not make it easier for your visitors to click through a ‘related article’, at the end of your post? A nice plugin is available to do this called ‘Yet another Related Posts Plugin’ and will add a bunch of related posts at the end of your post.
4. About page – Some weblogs noticed new visitors navigated to the about page after they’ve read an article. It is important to make that information easy to find. People are lazy and if they can’t find it right away, they will leave. Help them and help yourself. People might stick around faster if they see there is a real guy or girl behind the weblog.
5. Surveys and polls – Interacting with your visitors is always a good idea. Eventually you could add a poll or survey to your blog and see what results they bring in. When people see an interesting question, they might reply or vote and stick around.
The Importance of analyzing your Statistics at regular Intervals
A starting blogger and stats
In the beginning of a blog, the blogger likes every visitor that took the time to visit the blog. Therefore every time you visit your stats you will have a great feeling and that is awesome, but, but you should not forget: checking your statistics will not get you any more visitors!
We will do a little math. Let’s say you check you statistics 5 times a day for 5 minutes. That is 25 minutes a day, 125 minutes a week and 500 minutes a month. 500 minutes is 8 1/3 hour a month! You can write yourself many quality articles in that time, and that will increase your visitor base!
Why a title Plays an important Role in Stats?
It is simple. As soon as you are receiving some traffic it is from great importance to analyze your statistics. That’s something else then just looking to some numbers. For example, with a great statistics program like Google Analytics you will be able to learn almost anything about your visitors, with the result you can optimize your blog with your findings!
The importance lies in the knowledge you gain from the stats about what visitors do on your blog. You will know where they are coming from, what the keywords were they’ve entered and found your blog through and you’ll know how they are navigating through your site. I guess you are interested in that.
What is important in statistics analyzing?
In this example I will use Google Analytics, because that is the program I use myself to analyze Object-web blog site statistics. Of course, if you look for the same pointers in other stats program, it will work via the same principle.
Important Pointers
In your program, look for the following points. These can help you to improve your blog:
- Referrer logs - People who visit your blog usually come from websites that link to your site or link to some articles you have written. If you know where these people come from, you know which sources work for your blog. You can use that to promote articles in the future.In Google Analytics: Traffic Sources > Referring Sites
- Search engine traffic - Get to know on which keywords your visitors get on your site. Try to optimize those pages some more and try to get higher in the listings, because it might become your most important traffic source.In Google Analytics: Traffic Sources > Search Engines
- New vs Returning - Very important in the long run. Do you have many people just coming for one time, or will many of those visitors return some day to check for news? This point is important if you want to build a community around your blog (which I think is the most important thing in blogging). In Google Analytics: Visitors > New vs Returning
- Bounce rate - Bounce rate is important as it tells you the percentage of people who view only 1 page of your blog. If your bounce rate is very high, you need to optimize your layout, you need to give visitors more reasons to stay on your blog (to let them navigate easy, related articles, popular articles. Learn more).In Google Analytics: Visitors > Visitor trending > Bounce Rate
- Browsers - If you check this part of the stats program once in a while you get to know what your visitor base is browsing with. If you see some new browsers pop on that list, you have to try your website in that browser and see if it displays properly.In Google Analytics: Visitors >Browser Capabilities > Browsers
So what about you? Are you analyzing?
Do you analyze your statistics? What are you looking for when you analyze? Or do you think it doesn’t really matter where your visitors come from? Please comment to tell me what you think on the Stats. I am very interested in your opinion regarding this subject!
Web Presentations Made Easy with 280 Slides
Create beautiful presentations, access them from anywhere, and share them with the world. With 280 Slides, there's no software to download and nothing to pay for – and when you're done building your presentation you can share it any way you like.
The Awesome features are:
- Take it With you
We store your presentations securely on our server so you can take them anywhere in the world where there's an Internet connection. - Download to Powerpoint
With a single click you can download a copy of your presentation in the Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 format. - Built-in Media Search
Add photos and movies to your presentation directly from popular web services like Flickr and YouTube. - Publish to Web
Put your presentation on SlideShare, e-mail it to a friend, or embed it directly on your own website, all with just a few clicks. - Run in your Web Browser
280 Slides runs right in the browser, with no download and no installation, and it works just like the desktop applications you're used to.
Watch out for this coool Presentation creator right away on your Web browser!!
Google Gears
There are several technologies coming in the Web world and creating a huge difference in the Web technology Market trends. Recently we have seen several new revolution software tools such as Javascript API's, FLEX, Silverlight, etc.. In the Same way, A new Innovative tech-idea from Google is Google Gears. Recently they have launched this tool, this will be very useful for web browsers as we can work offline with our websites having browser interacting with the local databases and with little bit Javascript running in the background.
Gears is an open source project that enables more powerful web applications, by adding new features to your web browser:
What was the Idea behind Gears?Gears is a plug-in that extends your browser to create a richer platform for web applications. To install Gears, visit http://gears.google.com
Gears was designed to be used on both Google and non-Google sites. A number of web applications currently make use of Gears, including two Google products: Google Reader and Google Docs. Additionally, Zoho and Remember the Milk have been using Gears since its original launch. If you're running Windows Mobile on your cellphone, Picasa Web Albums also makes use of Gears.Gears has basically 3 Modules:
They are :
1) Local Server
2) Database
3) Worker Pool
Local Server: Where as Local Server Cache and serve application resources (HTML, JavaScript, images, etc.) locally.
Database: Store data locally in a fully-searchable relational database
Worker Pool: Make your web applications more responsive by performing resource-intensive operations asynchronously.
This will a great news for Web developers. Now we can do what ever desktop related stuff.
Type of work we can do using Gears:
1) You can save the data in the local database and can access whenever you want.
2) Save information locally and access anytime.
3) Create Desktop Shortcuts, Can work very easily with Desktop Applications such as saving the settings at runtime etc..
If you're a developer interested in making your site available offline, we recommend visiting the Gears developer site for more information.
In the Recent Past google conducted some sessions on the Google Gears and other few technologies to discuss. Luckily they have all the videos recorded and posted in Youtube. So guys, Dont forget to watch the videos online. Watch here...Key Points:
Google Gears Support WINDOWS, LINUX
Supports Mozilla Firefox 3.0
One more API into this Widget World - ASTRA
ASTRA - ActionScript Toolkit for Rich ApplicationsASTRA, the ActionScript Toolkit for Rich Applications, is a collection of Flash and Flex components, code libraries, toolkits and utilities developed by Yahoo! for ActionScript developers. These libraries available under the terms of the open source BSD license.
Yahoo is offering Several ASTRA Components which can be directly customized for your work and are re-usable.ASTRA Components we have in FLASH CS3
Yahoo! offers the ASTRA Flex components for use in your Adobe Flex 3 applications. These Flex components are designed to work like any other components for Flex with familiar properties, styles, and events. They're fully documented, and each component comes with multiple examples that demonstrate its various uses.
the Components and API.We have several ASTRA Components available for FLEX 3 as well.
ASTRA Components for FLEX 3
Components: FLEX Astra Components and API.
As anyone who has had the pleasure of doing web design and development through marketing agencies knows, Flash tends to be wildly popular among clients and wildly unpopular among, well, pretty much everyone else. Part of the reason for this is because Flash is so inherently un-Googleable; anything that goes into a Flash-only site is basically invisible to search engines and therefore, the world. That will no longer be the case, however, as Adobe announced today that it has teamed up with Google and Yahoo to make Flash files indexable by search engines.
This announcement has been a long time coming, as Flash developers have been wishing for ways to make their content searchable for close to a decade. Adobe acknowledges this in its announcement, saying that although search engines are able to index static text and links within Flash SWF files, "[Rich Internet Applications] and dynamic Web content have been generally difficult to fully expose to search engines because of their changing states—a problem also inherent in other RIA technologies." This announcement may also result in some major usability changes (for the better) for Flash on the web. In a post to its Webmaster Central Blog, Google wrote that it can now index all kinds of textual content in SWF files, like that included in Flash gadgets, buttons, menus, entirely self-contained Flash web sites, "and everything in between."Google can now also follow URLs embedded within Flash files to add to the crawling pipeline. This new indexing technology does not, however, include FLV files (video files that are found on sites like YouTube) because those are generated as videos and don't contain any text elements like an SWF file does.
Google says it's able to do this by developing an algorithm that "explores Flash files in the same way that a person would," by clicking buttons and manually going through Flash content. "Our algorithm remembers all of the text that it encounters along the way, and that content is then available to be indexed," wrote the company. "We can't tell you all of the proprietary details, but we can tell you that the algorithm's effectiveness was improved by utilizing Adobe's new Searchable SWF library."
Of course, Google (and eventually Yahoo) won't be able to index everything embedded within a Flash file—at least not yet. Anything that is image-related, including text that is embedded into images, will be invisible to the search engines for the time being. Google also noted that it can't execute certain JavaScripts that may be embedded into a Flash file, and that while it indexes content that is contained in a separate HTML or XML file, it won't be counted as part of the content in the Flash file. These are all issues that are being worked on, however, and are likely to change in the future.Yahoo is also working with Adobe to index SWF files, but doesn't appear to be as far along as Google just yet. One player that is noticeably missing is Microsoft, though. From Adobe's announcement and the language used by Google, it appears as if each search engine has to work with Adobe to make this possible—meaning that Microsoft has either been excluded by Adobe for this round or has decided to voluntarily sit this one out. Either way, with searchable SWF files down, usability experts can now focus all of their attention on other Flash-related concerns, like blatant design perversion and excessive animation abuse.
So in the coming future we can have more flexible searches with Flash pieces as well. Hope this will create a new revolution in the web world and provide more market shares for Google and Yahoo as well.Post your comments. Subscribe to get latest info to your mails.
Now a days, UI (User Interface) has lot of demand in the IT Industry.
Software Development work:
Just think of the Project structure. Take Waterfall model as an example and find out where UI is required.
Analysis ----> Design----> Coding -----> Testing ------> Implementation.
So Management will be using UI for Design phase and nothing more than that..
Web Designing:
If thats a traditional Web design work then we have a major role here, Like Designing the Mockups once approve we proceed with the development work.
Web Development:
If you take Javascript/AJAX development work, we will be having major role there as a web developer to prepare the UI Mockups for the project and once it got approved we can go with the development phase.
If you go through all the above we have 2 significant roles. They are
1) Web Designer
2) Web developer
Web designer should has complete exposure to the mockup creation, creating UI's , Interfaces, and other stuff such as Logos, vector shapes, banners etc.
2) Web developer is another kind where in he should be capable of dealing with all types of web development environment tools such as Dreamweaver, Javascript, XML, AJAX, PHP, CGI, Flash, Actionscript, Flex and should have complete knowledge on these tools.
These days Web developer has a high demand when compared to web designer. Because if you see the no. of people required for designing and development obviously we require 1 or 2 designers and more no. of developers for a project.
So Web developer has better options than a web designer.
Do you want to know what are the better options for a Web developer? Wait for the next post... :)
Write down your comments..
Hi Guys,
How UI technologies are grabbing opportunites in the world. what might happens to UI in next few years. Go through the article below and let me know your feedback.
These days most of the MNC companies are not depending on Web designers / web developers to build their websites/to maintain their sites. They are simply purchasing some API's and implementing the functionality with very few web developers.
What is an API??
An application programming interface (API) is a source code interface that a computer system or program library provides to support requests for services to be made of it by a computer program. An API differs from an application binary interface in that it is specified in terms of a programming language that can be compiled when an application is built, rather than an explicit low level description of how data are laid out in memory.
What are the APIs popular now?
Yahoo API
Google API
EXT JS
Prototype.JS
etc.
Now a days, EXT JS is becoming very popular.
What is EXT JS?
Ext JS is a cross-browser JavaScript library for building rich internet applications.
- High performance, customizable UI widgets
- Well designed, documented and extensible Component model
- Commercial and Open Source licenses available
Do you want to go ahead with some R & D stuff on EXT JS API's?
Here are the best resource links for you
http://jackslocum.com/blog/
http://examples.extjs.eu/
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A Complete List of the Many Forms of Web Marketing for 2008
The Many Forms of Web Marketing:
1) Corporate Domain
This has been a standard since the late 90s, nearly every company, mom and pop boutique now has a web presence. The primary purpose of this is to provide the public with information about your company, it’s products, and anything else they may need. Corporate websites often compose of several features that are listed below.
A) Corporate Site
Large to small companies have established a websites around their brand, the content is around marketing products, support, and corporate information. Despite the massive efforts to perfect the corporate website, much of the content is irrelevant as prospects shy away from marketing content and start to use social media.
B) Portal Strategy
Widely popular in the late 90s this strategy was intended to serve up all user information on one page, and keep users on one’s domain. A few well known portals now exist such as MyYahoo which is a form of a feedreader. Most modern marketers realize that content is now distributed.
C) Microsites for Segmentation
Typically deployed around new product launches or campaign focuses, or specific market segments, these often short term websites are used for calling specific attraction. They typically have a unique URL and are tied to an integrate campaign. See Microsoft’s Origami microsite. Caution: some companies overly deploy these microsites and end up with a distributed and unfocused web strategy.
D) Interactive Web Marketing
The web is more than a ‘read only’ medium, unlike other mediums, companies can make the website interactive, encouraging a new dynamic of engagement. There’s a variety of technologies to use from uses of Javascript,
E) Intranet
The web isn’t just for communicating to prospects and customers, similar strategies apply to your employees. You can get more information by joining the Intranet User Experience Group, or find other online resources to this specific field..
F) Extranet
Used for communications with partners, or customers, extranets are secured websites that companies grant access to. Features could include dashboards, updates, support information, and detailed product information.
G) Regionalization
In today’s global web, websites are translated, reformatted and segmented by region, culture, class. Be sure to focus on
2) Search Marketing
Ever heard of Google? Many prospects use google in the ‘hunt’ phase for a product. By paying a third party or a search engine directly you can obtain a strategy to get your website listed in search results. I’ve heard a variety of stats demonstrating success of natural vs paid results, however the ROI is usually positive. It’s likely your competitor is also present on the Search results page. View my few posts on Search Strategy or contact Andy Beal, David Berkowitz or Brian Keith.
A) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Many web groups at large corporations have a document, a process, or even a dedicated resource who’s goal is to make sure web content is easily found, indexed, managed and correctly served in search results. There’s been some recent discussion the state of the SEO industry.
B) Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Frequently, companies will hire a specialized search company to purchase keywords that will help drive contextual links in search results. These ads are contextually displayed based upon the search query. There’s a growing and sometimes controversial industry focused on these techniques.
3) Out Bound and Syndicated Web Marketing
Used to help ideas spread off the corporate website, this list of tools extends reach by direct channels, and as well as ‘pull’ techniques where users opt-in. Be savvy when using these tools to respect the best interests of your customers, otherwise it’s one-click to unsubscribe or spam.
A) Email Marketing
While certainly not completely native to the web, they certainly are tied. Modern email campaigns (sometimes even direct marketing) involves barely personal emails blasted out to indviduals on a mailing list. These modern versions typically have the option to be HTML based, and have hyperlinks brining users back to the corporate site or Microsite. I hear the conversion rate for these are 2-5%, and typically deploy a positive ROI. Having spoken with many Web directors and Marketers, this is a task best suited for an outsourced vendor. Be sure to read the research on the growth for this industry in 2007.
B) Invasive Marketing
“Pop-ups”, and “Pop-Unders”, trojan and tracking software are both disruptive methods to obtain the attention and data of users. Research indicates this form of marketing is diminishing, use with caution, or not at all (ask your Ad Agency if they are doing this without your knowledge) remember the market can associate your brand with the way you reach them, and users are now in charge.
C) Syndicated Content and RSS
I lump Syndication into this category as I see it as being an evolution as marketing shifts from Push to Pull. RSS is quickly becoming a method where users can opt-in for additional content.
4) Brand Extension
This is not a new concept, it’s simply been applied to web properties. The strategy is simple: where your market is, so should your brand.
A) Web Advertising
I’m sure you’re all familiar with the banner, tile, or skyscraper advertising (IAB) model on websites. This age old strategy simply suggests that if there are eyeballs your brand should ‘impress’ upon the users. Click through rates are typically in the 1% or lower rate, sometimes success is measured by brand impressions, (visitation by traffic). These ads are static and do not change even if the content on the webpage changes.
B) Contextual Advertising
These targeted ads will be served up on the webpage depending on the content that’s on the page. This is a more ‘intelligent’ and therefore more relevant than Web Advertising, which may not be targeted at specific content. This form of advertising can be text, images, media or other form and are common on websites, blogs, and are now appearing on web based emails sites. (Submitted by David Berkowitz: Feb 13th. 2007)
C) Sponsorship and /Cross branding
This is a method of promoting your brand with the right audience in which the property is rewarded for integrating your brand. This can occur on content sites, shows, media properties, blogs, podcasts, and just about everything else.
D) Social Advertisements
Having just appeared this year from Facebook, it uses contextual information from users, then ads are severed to their network, in an endorsement. This has been highly controversial, and the return on investment is not yet known.
E) Widget Advertising
Having just appeared this year from on containers like Facebook, Bebo, LinkedIn, and Friendster, widgets have proliferated at an amazing growth rate. Expect advertising networks to form over the next year, where a brand can purchase space on any number of widgets across different social networks and communities, groups such as: RockYou, Slide, Widgetbox, and Watercooler to start with.
F) Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing programs compensate partners and alliances that bring referrals, leads, or sales. While it overlaps with other forms of web marketing, the goal is to provide the right content or products to the target demographic. Examples of this include placement on comparison shopping sites, loyalty sites, and product review sites.
5) Community Marketing and Social Media Marketing
eMarketer’s research indicates that this is the fastest growing area of growth for Web Advertising and Marketing is in the Social Media space. In my experience, the awareness rate is around 30% and deployment 10-20% for most corporations. Some of the tools listed below are not new, while some become critical in how prospects find information about products. Remember this section is less about the tools than it is about the end result: people connecting with other people.
A) eCommerce/Rating Sites
For most consumer products and a majority of enterprise products, there’s a variety of websites that rate products both by expert (sometimes called analyst) or peer review. The most popular site that has done this in the text industry is CNET reviews which deploys both editorial reviews, video demos, and user ratings and opinions. Content can be both positive and negative about your company as well as your competitors. Ratings and voting has evolved with popular news voting sites like Digg.
B) Social Networking, Forums, Wikis, Collaboration
I’m tying these two together as both features are starting to merge in many modern versions. While founded from early usenet days, forums allow for communities to form around similar ideas and collaborate. Approximately 33% of companies deploy forums. Wikis have also been used to tie industries together as well as. Savvy marketers are starting to also realize the power of social networking sites in every flavor of focus, including image sharing sites like flickr for marketing.
C) Syndicated Marketing
See section 3C above.
D) Podcast Marketing
Many corporations are reaching their community though on demand content on mobile devices, the key to this medium is certainly in the ‘pull’ strategy. I’ve listed out my recommendations in a recent post called Corporate Podcasting Strategies for 2007.
E) Blogging
I estimate about 30% or less of businesses are considering blogs (web logs) as forms of business communication. The subject has been talked about quite extensively, I recommend reading Naked Conversations, the Weblog Handbook, and the Corporate Blogging Book. To learn about all the forms of businesses blog. If you’ve not yet deployed a Corporate Blogging program, I reccomend learning from my experience as a corporate blog evangelist.
F) Widget Marketing
Widgets are light weight web applications that are being embedded in websites, blogs, forums, and social sites. Flickr badges, MyBlogLog, and in ways even the Firefox community marketing campaign are companies that are engaged in this way. This isn’t anything new, I noticed this trend before the term gained popularity, and called it Viral Chicklets, to learn more there’s a growing list of examples on Widgetbox.
G) Online Video and Live Streaming
While Online Video has existed for many years on the web, it’s most notably been gaining traction from the video blog, or video sharing sites of great popularity such as Google Video, or it’s recent acquisition YouTube. This also includes live streaming where participants can webcast video in real time, often accomplished by chat features,
H) Instant Messaging, Presence
Clever marketers are figuring out how to involve real time conversational media using Instant Messaging tools, presence, and status tools, such as Twitter. These tools tie to online and mobile devices. My experience with Generation Y is that they are using IM as their primary way to communicate over all other mediums.
I) Tagging, Collective Tools
I’ve discussed how tagging can be used to harvest marketing intelligence as well as help your SEO results. Properly tagging content as well as researching how tags are used will help communities find your content.
J) Voting Features
Popularized with the website Digg, members submit news stories and they are voted up by the community. More representative than democratic, there’s criticism that only a few hundred users can control the content that makes it to the front page. This has also been deployed in corporate extranets, such as Dell’s IdeaStorm where customers can vote for future products or features. Expect this feature to appear in other websites over the next year.
K) MicroMedia
These microblogging tools allow users to share bite sized information with their social network or from mobile phones. With the launch of Twitter spring 2007, it started to gain traction, as well as Pownce and Jaiku. Expect this form to be a major form of communication for 2008, as it starts to gain hold.
L) Infinite Other Flavors
The list of potential applications can go on and on, from Toolbar plugins such as Delicious plugin, Alexa Plugin Attention recorder, etc, to web based mobile applications. User voted news sites are rapidly appearing such as Digg. There’s a whole another category on the many different forms the above tools create when they’re combined, from Community sites like Microsoft’s Channel 9 to real time Conversation indexes like Techmeme or Technorati’s WTF, new ways to find, sort and harness information will emerge over the year. The notable attributes include a ‘community’ or ‘viral’ and ‘conversational’ tone to them.
6) Virtual Worlds
Tied both to online gaming and social networks, the virtual world emulations have gone from experimental to a haven for some immersive communities.
A) Virtual Worlds
Second Life is being trialled by large companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Sun, Sears and a variety of retailers, although there are many other virtual worlds such as ViOS, ActiveWorlds, Entropia Universe, Utherverse (
B) Online Massive Multi Player Games
Also popular are Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG for short) are appearing online such as World of Warcraft (WoW), and Club Penguin a growing online game for kids, teens, and some adults. XBox 360 has IPTV capabilities and most console games have online components, so there are multiple experiences to tap into. Opportunities include content cross-over, branded experiences, and external social networks on the internet.
C) Online Games
Gaming networks have started to create mini-flash games such as mini-clips, Yahoo Games, and other networks. Supplemented with advertising or sponsored branding, these can be embedded and spread to other websites.
7) Related Mediums
The web will be a platform and will extend to other mediums as well as create new ones.
A) Internet TV (IPTV)
While still emerging, the web will marry the TV and content, communication will evolve to a new form of media we’ve not yet seen yet. I doubt it will be as simple as ‘TV content online’ or ‘Reading websites in the living room’. Something new will appear, and it will impact your web team.
B) Mobile Content
Websites are already being viewed on mobile devices, either full browsers, or fast load browsers. Many executives, decision makers, road warriors and techies are accessing the web using mobile devices, so a strategy to deliver correctly to this medium is necessary.
8 ) Experimental: To Watch
While not yet here, here are some following forms to watch this coming year.
A) Portability of the Social Graph
Currently, social network members have to add over and over new contacts, and inaccuracy between networks is common. Expect the social graph (the online representation of your network) to be separated from the social networks. Websites will soon have members interacting with each other as the social graph extends to static websites.
B) Vendor Relationship Management
Purely conceptual, expect a systems to rely on the intents of prospects or buyers to emerge, which will anonymously signal to vendors to bid for the needs of customers.
Putting it all Together
Whew, that’s the major families, but remember for many corporations, these elements will not be successful in a vacuum, the opportunity for momentum happens when they are combined and used strategically. At least one person or group should have full knowledge of how your brand is being used online and in other mediums.