Public Domain Profits

Web 2.0 is Interactive

2009-04-15T00:46:00.000+08:00

Unless you just emerged from your cave a few moments ago and stumbled upon this post, you’ve heard all about “web 2.0”. There’s a pretty good chance that you’ve heard so much about it that seeing it in print again has irritated you a little bit.

Don’t get too upset. And don’t worry. This won’t take long. I just want to hammer home the one big thing that’s really come out of the web 2.0 “movement”.

It’s not gradients or semi-minimalist design preferences featuring oversized sans serif fonts.

The one big takeaway from web 2.0 is interactivity. Today’s most successful sites have an interactive component. Instead of strictly separating readers from publishers, it blurs the lines. Any reader can comment. Any reader can determine whether it’s worth expending a bit of his or her time to share what’s been found with others.

Not only does this offer some real potential, it also creates some expectations among users. Make your online publishing sites interactive and you can reap the biggest benefit to grow out of web 2.0.

How Not to Use Social Networks

2009-04-07T15:33:00.001+08:00

Here’s the scoop. Social networks are big right now and they’re online going to get bigger and more important in the coming years. If you don’t know how to use them to your advantage, your online publishing business is going to be at a competitive disadvantage.

There are a million and one detailed tips for the effective use of social media but the most important thing to understand is what not to do. Don’t, under any circumstances, enter the social media space armed with nothing more than a sales pitch and a desire to share it with everyone.

The crowds at these social networking sites are not very receptive to advertising. They appreciate authenticity and sincerity. They’ll make the effort to find your products and even to ask you about them if you enter the social media space the right way. Be social. When you’re working with social networks, you need to do so without scaring people away or embarrassing yourself with an out-of-place sales pitch.

Brush up on every tip for effective social networking you can find. There’s no reason not to be informed and many good reasons to figure it all out. Just remember that being a marketer is okay, marketing (in any obvious way) is not.

Twitter for Online Publishers

2009-04-05T19:20:00.002+08:00

If you’re going to start trying to ramp up your online publishing business, you should be using Twitter. This little micro logging platform is gaining members at a breakneck pace and it’s rapidly becoming one of the best ways to “be seen” and to get your message in front of a huge group of interested people.

Account set up is free and using the service, on a “mechanical” level, is dead simple. You’ll want to learn a little bit more about how to make the best kinds of comments and how to generate the most truly interested followers, but overall the whole thing is very simple.

The one thing you can’t do on Twitter if you hope to make it work for you effectively, is to spend your time engaged in heavy-handed marketing. Twitter and social media works when it’s authentic and social. Those who enter the space with nothing more than designs on selling more of their product rarely find a way to utilize the options successfully.

MySpace versus Facebook versus LinkedIn

2009-04-02T23:17:00.002+08:00

The web is becoming more social and networking sites are one of the hottest things going. If you want to get the most out of your online publishing plans, you’ll find a way to tap into at least a few of the many social networking sites online.

There are many of them, too. More than anyone probably really knows. However, a handful of sites are much bigger and more frequently trafficked than others.

MySpace. MySpace boasts millions of members and can be a great way to forge some connections and to spread the word about what you’re doing. However you should realize that MySpace trends toward a younger demographic and appears to be developing a resistance to straightforward marketing.

LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the networking site for professionals, although others use it, too. This is the site where you make connections more than you spout off opinion or add comments. It’s a quiet site (by comparison) that seems to be more serious than others.

Facebook. Somewhere between LinkedIn and Myspace is Facebook. And it’s rapidly becoming the biggest option of all. It’s easy to use and gives you a great chance to make additional business connections. Facebook is currently the king of social media. While the New York verison of the show airs this week, I am going to take a little time to find a front row seat up there to watch the festivities. You wanna go?

The Web is Becoming More Social

2009-03-30T22:17:00.002+08:00

The web is becoming more social. The Internet isn’t just an information source, it’s an interactive space. People want to make connections and to forge relationships.

For some time, the web tended to model the traditional offline world of information disbursement. There were publishers and there were readers. The two groups were separate and identifiable. The web provided readers with a chance to see things placed on the worldwide web by publishers. Hopping on line was sort of like going to an electronic library in that sense.

That’s no longer the case, though. Today, the Internet is about connectivity just as much, if not more, than traditional top-down publication.

Think about what this means in terms of setting up your own site and promoting it. Where should you be? How should you reach out to others who are looking for a social experience? Your answers may very well play a large role in determining your success.

What Your Opt-In Box Needs

2009-03-27T23:54:00.001+08:00

You want people to sign up for your list. In order to make that happen, they’ll need to provide you with the information you need by filling out the form in your opt-in box. This is where the rubber meets the road. All of your work to get those sign ups boils down to a moment of truth. Will the visitor fill out the box.

There’s no magic way to get everyone sign up to your list, but there are a few things you can do with your opt-in box to improve your odds.

First, make the form clear and as brief as possible. If you want more information than a name and an email address, you’re risking a lower completion rate. If you’re requesting more personal information like an address or a phone number, rates of submission will continue to drop. Some of that is the reluctance of people to part with personal information Additionally, people just aren’t interested in taking the time to fill out a longer form in full.

Second, your opt--in box should contain a reassurance of how the information gathered will be used. Let people know that you won’t sell their addresses and that you have no spammy intentions. You might even go an additional step, telling them just how often you do plan on keeping in touch.

If you do those to things, you can have an opt-in box that will really assist your online publishing business to acquire leads.

Generating Leads with a Squeeze Page

2009-03-23T02:52:00.001+08:00

So, you’ve made the wise decision to start building a list as part of your overall online publishing strategy. That’s a great decision. There’s no better way to leverage your efforts than with good list marketing.

However, in order to tap into that power you’re going to need something. Can you guess what that something is? That’s right. You’ll need a list.

And one of the best possible ways to start collecting those email addresses is by utilizing a squeeze page. A squeeze page is a page that basically offers the reader a single choice. The visitor can either sign up to be on your list or s/he can back up. That’s it. No third choice.

If you combine a solid squeeze page with the appropriate pre-sell, you can start generating leads in a hurry. People have found that squeeze pages are very effective with site visitors.

Put those information-hungry readers in a position to sign up for your list. Put them in a situation where they simply must provide you with contact information to get to the “other side” of the page. Give them a reason or two to sign up for your list, too. List marketing is a form of marketing, after all, and that goes for recruiting a list just as much as it does to marketing to that collection of interested parties.

How Many Times Do You Need to Hear "The Money Is in the List"?

2009-03-20T14:56:00.001+08:00

I know you’ve heard it before. You’ve read it a million times. There’s a good chance that you’re going hear or read it at least a few more times today after you read this article. Nonetheless, we’re going to repeat it here.

The money is in the list.

If you aren’t already building a list, you are making a huge mistake. If you’re considering a list building effort but aren’t sure, you’re wasting your energy. List marketing is one of the best ways to efficiently improve your bottom line. If you’re not making and building a relationship wit a mailing list, you’re committing what should be the cardinal sin of Internet marketing.

You work hard to get traffic. Why let those visitors walk away after one trip to your site? If you’re working a list, you can make contact with those same visitors again and again.

Meanwhile, research shows that most marketing doesn’t produce the desired result until the audience members are exposed to it many times. There’s no better way of making that happen than by running a list.

You smart choice is obvious and you shouldn’t have to hear it again. But, just in case you weren’t listening, let’s do it one more time.

The money is in the list.

Why “Dot Info” Isn't Your Best Choice

2009-03-20T14:53:00.001+08:00

It’s hard to resist buying a .info domain for your online publishing site. The extension seems germane to a content-heavy and information-rich type of site. Plus, .info URLs are so incredibly cheap. You can generally get them for less than a buck.

Resist the urge. The .info extension is not your best choice. Here are a few reasons.

First, people see .com and even .org or .net extensions as more credible. You want to exude credibility and authority and you work against that objective with a .info selection.

Second, people think in terms of .com addresses. So, when they think about your site they’ll automatically think the URL in terms of a .com extension. No one is going to remember to type in www.yoursite.info. Type-in traffic is going to go to www.yoursite.com whether you like it or not.

Finally, spammers and other not-so-nice people like to buy .infos because they are so cheap. When you share that extension it forces an association with those spammy sites in people’s minds and, perhaps, in the eyes of search engines who might be a little more concerned about those who are staking claims with .info URLs.

The .info domain is not your best choice. Go with the .com. Go with any other extension, for that matter.

Do You Really Need a Dot Com

2009-03-19T14:59:00.002+08:00

Do you really need a .com address or can you get by with a .net, .org, .biz or .info URL?

The search engines claim they don’t care about the extension and, in many cases, you’ll find that you can get the domain name you really want with every extension type except the “picked over” world of the .coms. However, unless you have a really good justification for picking a different extension for your TLD, you should be going for a .com.

The world still sees .coms as the most credible type of sites. It’s also more memorable. There’s also a risk that the search engines might not be telling you the whole story. So many people use cheap .info domains for spammy sites, for instance, that there’s a chance using one will throw you in with a “lesser” crowd of people.

Sure, you might be able to save a few bucks and get a slightly better domain name with the alternatives. In the end analysis, however, the .com is still king. When you buy a domain for your online publishing endeavors, go for the .com.

How Long Do You Want that Domain

2009-03-19T14:57:00.003+08:00

Depending on your registrar, you can usually lock down a domain for several years if you’d like to do so. The question is, “do you really want to do that?”

In most cases, the answer should be “yes”. Generally speaking, there’s a discount associated with a multi-year registration and it can be rather substantial. If you’ve done your homework and have a good plan for your online publishing business, you should be confident in your ability to produce a winning site. Besides, locking in your domain for a long time decreases the risk of forgetting to renew it as necessary.

If you’re not completely sure about the success of your plan and you’re short on cash, a one-year registration might make sense. If you’re doing things the right way, however, you should probably be locking in your control of the domain for as long as you possibly can. Besides, even if your plan goes south, you’ll probably be able to recoup your costs by selling the site. There are times to scrimp to save a buck. This really isn’t one of them. The money just isn’t that significant.

Picking a Domain Registrar

2009-03-18T14:08:00.003+08:00

You’re ready to buy a domain. The question that’s now on your mind is who you should buy it from. There are a number of legitimate and well-recognized registrars out there and you need to choose someone.

Before you do anything else, check to find out how much your host will charge you to register the domain name. This can often be the best option because hosts frequently give fat discounts to their customers. It’s also efficient and makes renewing both the URL and your hosting “on time every time” easier.

Now that you have an idea of what it will run you with your host, start doing some comparison shopping. Don’t mess around with fly by night operations or those that don’t have a relatively high level of visibility. This is one area where a few dollars can make the difference between big money and constant disappointment.

Here are a few things to look at while you’re shopping for the best price. Take a good look at renewal charges, factoring that into your decision.

You can go with a cheap registrar. Just make sure it truly is cheap. Compare that the other options and find the recognized registrar that will give you the best possible deal.

Reading Web Hosting Reviews

2009-03-18T14:05:00.002+08:00

You want to choose a good host for you online publishing efforts, so you go and do the most logical, rational and responsible thing possible. You hit Google and you go searching for reviews of web hosting outfits.

Good thinking. Good intentions, too. The problem? It’s probably not going to work. Here’s why:

If there’s one online industry that runs on the back of affiliate marketing more than any other, it’s web hosting. Almost everyone who’s been online for more than fifteen minutes is an affiliate of some hosting operation, it seems. So, when you read those really positive reviews of any given host, the odds are that you are actually reading some thinly-veiled advertising written by one of the host’s affiliates.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t any honest web hosting review out there. If you search hard enough you’ll probably find a few. Most of them, though, are written with one objective in mind: to sell hosting.

As such, you need to read those web hosting reviews critically and with a sense of whether the author’s ulterior motives may have trumped his or her desire to provide truly accurate information about the company at issue.

Domain Names: Keywords vs. Brandability

2009-03-17T14:14:00.004+08:00

When you choose a domain name, should you worry about whether or not the site’s name will contain relevant keywords or should you be focused more on the possibility of having a memorable URL.

Let’s say, for instance, that you’ve isolated the keyword “blue monkey cages” for your site. You know it will be easier for the search engines to put two and two together if you buy www.bluemonkeycages.com.

On the other hand, it’s unlikely that www.bluemonkeycages.com is going to be a memorable URL. People will forget it. Plus, it has that almost cheap look of a domain chosen only on the basis of appealing to a search engine.

That’s why many people advocate choosing a name that lends itself to long-term impact. You might be better off using a domain like www.bluemonk.com, for instance. It doesn’t have the keyword magic, but it is more memorable and seems, somehow, more legitimate.

When you’re picking a domain name, ask yourself whether you are planning to use the URL for something big and important or for a minor side project. If it isn’t going to be a key component of your online publishing approach, you can probably go with a keyword-based URL. If it’s a big part of business, however, you will want to focus on a catchy name that has real long-term potential.

Really Long Domain Names

2009-03-17T13:50:00.002+08:00

Really long domain names are a very bad idea. Before you even consider registering www.buyingtrainedmonkeysinoxnardcalifornia.com, take a look at these reasons to avoid long domain names.

First, they look cheap. Sorry, but it’s true. If you have a long domain name it sends a message to users that you’re more interested in stuffing your domain name with keywords than you are in providing real information or value. It also makes your site appear “new”, which may cut against its credibility.

Second, it crushes any hope for type-in traffic. Someone might be willing to type www.buymonkeys.com. They may even be willing to type www.oxnardmonkeysforsale.com. However, they’re much more likely to type-in www.oxnardmonkeys.com. You get the idea. Shorter is better. Part of that stems from a tendency toward efficiency among users. Another reason is the fact that it’s just hard to remember really long domain names.

When you’re registering a domain for your self-publishing business, try to secure something that’s relatively brief. Bigger may be better in some situations, but not in terms of domain name registration.

A Sneaky Domain Name "Prefix"

2009-03-16T17:05:00.000+08:00

You may have noticed some Internet marketers using a pretty sneaky domain name trick. It’s usually done by those who are copycatting existing products, but sometimes it’s used by affiliates who are selling a product with a memorable domain.

Let’s say you’re an affiliate for a product that’s called “Super Duper Product”. Super Duper Product has its own website at www.superduper.com. Obviously, you can’t get that one for yourself. You might get lucky enough, however, to register www.www-superduper.com. See the difference?

The second one integrates “www-” in front of the recognized text, which might convince some people that the site is somehow “official”. When people use this technique, they usually build links to their site without using the”www” in the URL. Instead of promoting www.www-superduper.com, they promote www-superduper.com.

This can be a way to get a few more people to your site by appearing to be an official product site. It can also help with SEO because it gives you a way to get the product name into your site and page titles.

I’ll leave the ethical debate about “www-” out of this post, for the most part. Suffice it to say that there are ethical matters to consider and those who do notice the trick when using the site will probably consider you more of a copycat than a visionary.

Hyphens in Domain Names

2009-03-16T16:44:00.001+08:00

So, here’s the million dollar question with respect to choosing a domain name. Which is better: choosingadomainname.com or choosing-a-domain-name.com? To hyphenate or not to hyphenate, that is the question.

And the answer is “it depends and it may not really matter”. It might not matter because there’s very little evidence to suggest that search engines prefer one option to the other in any measurable way. It also might not matter to those who plan to rely almost exclusively on search traffic and who don’t really plan on worrying about whether their domain name is readable.

The “it depends” part revolves around the specifics of your site and strategy. If spelling the domain name out without hyphens makes it utterly unreadable, for instance, you might want to use at least a single hyphen to aid in the translation. If you want to secure consistent type-in traffic, you won’t want to use a hyphen--users rarely remember to type them in.

When making the hyphen decision, weigh the probable value of increased domain name readability against the potential cost in terms of type-in traffic. You might also want to consider the fact that most of the domains featuring multiple hyphens belong to lower quality sites. You might not want to cast your lot with that bunch.