Online Marketing Blog

Discovery, Insights, and Wonderings On:

Online Marketing – Letting the world know you exist, what you have to offer,and why they should buy it from you
Search Engine Optimization, SEO – Getting higher ranks in Google, Yahoo, Bing
Website Development – Making your website look and work the way you want it to
Online Conversion – Turning visitors into customers

CVC Redesign

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Get All SQL Database Table Names and Fields Using VB.NET

VB.NET Problem You need to see (write out on your browser's screen) all of the table names and field names in your back end SQL database and the application is written in .NET, specifically VB.NET on an .aspx page. VB.NET Resolution Create a page that uses a connection to your database, the database schema, and the tables it finds to loop through and write the results your browser window. Background I came across this need working on a client's site recently and spent too long searching .NET … [Read more...]

Add A CSS Class to WordPress Insert/Edit Link Dropdown

WordPress Situation Note: This applies to WordPress 3.0.1 versions and prior. Newer versions of WordPress use a different insert link box and this solution no longer works. Want to have a way to format a link in the WordPress content editor box using only the "Visual" tab (ie not having to go to the "HTML" tab and manually type in a class for the link. Solution Add a CSS class to the insert/edit link dropdown menu The Reason Although we (developers and designers) tell our clients that … [Read more...]

Get More Twitter Action

14 tips to more tweets and retweets If you're reading this you know a couple of things: It's easy to start a Twitter page It's much harder to get people to follow you and spread the word Here are a few ways to build your following (audience) on Twitter and to reach new people. I've broken it into the basic requirements, the more compelling and difficult, and promotions. Bare minimum tweeting tips Use # hashtags - In the world of Twitter, hashtags (the # symbol) are used to indicate a … [Read more...]

Bing Buys Yahoo Search: SEO Effects

How will Yahoo's search results being replaced by Bing's effect your site? With Microsoft's recent purchase of Yahoo! search, you'll now find all your searches in Yahoo! matching exactly those in Bing. So, if your website ranked 1st in Yahoo! and 10th in Bing for "best burritos in Fort Collins" before the purchase, you'll now find yourself ranking 10th in both search engine results. In one sense, this makes optimizing your site a little easier, reducing the number of search companies you're … [Read more...]

Smaller Companies Are Beating Larger in Social Media

Small companies and businesses can sometimes feel overwhelmed at the idea of competing against big companies and their huge war chests of marketing monies. They wish there was a way to even the playing field a bit. Enter social media. Social media gives companies a way to reach customers cost-effectively. Instead of designing a mailer and paying postage to 10,000 customers at a cost of about $6,000, or printing a newspaper insert at a typical cost of $1000's, a business can open a free … [Read more...]

Social Media and Older Adults Study Released

Social media use by older adults has nearly doubled in the last year. Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project just released a brief report on Older Adults and Social Media. One of the key findings was the huge uptick in the number of those 50 years or more using the social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. "While social media use has grown dramatically across all age groups, older users have been especially enthusiastic over the past year about embracing new networking … [Read more...]

Social Media’s Brand Intimacy Problem

Is "brand intimacy" really the standard goal we should be striving for with social media in business? Image via Wikipedia I read DMNews' article on Billabong launching its "I surf because" social media campaign where Stirling Howland, the digital marketing manager for Billabong International was quoted as saying, "The challenge for any brand is creating intimacy with the consumer. It's so easy to just be a ‘big brand' and assume people all want to hear the same thing.” That made me wonder … [Read more...]

Social Media Site Twitter Starts New @earlybird Advertising

Twitter's Latest Money Making Attempt Image via Wikipedia The massively popular social media micro-blogging website Twitter (http://twitter.com) began another attempt at making money yesterday, starting a feed called @earlybird. "[@earlybird]...are special time-bound deals, sneak-peeks, and events that are promoted by the official Twitter @earlybird account." The idea is that advertisers will pay Twitter to put out an update that links to their product. Twitter states that most of the … [Read more...]

Quick Fixes for Big Search Ranking Improvement: Headlines

Search Engines And Headlines In search engine optimization, headlines are one of the most important factors in letting search engines know what your page is about. Remember, your goal is to get the highest ranking possible for the specific search phrases you're targeting. The search phrases you're targeting should be those keyword phrases that you believe (or have research to support) your customers are using to find your type of products or services. On this blog post you'll notice that my … [Read more...]