9th Task

First of all, thank God (Insert your own here) that it is Friday.

Some quick tasks to go through before enjoying the weekend:

Google Plus

Although not as popular as Facebook, Google+ is definitely a more powerful platform for self promotion. Where Facebook seems more like a place to put up baby photos and have fun, Google+ is more serious. Not necessarily focusing on work, but where one can find their niche and promote it, either for gain or pleasure.

Some interesting aspects:

• Text, pictures and Events can be posted up and shared, just like FB
• The difference here is being able to organise people into Circles, groups basically, and can also target them specifically
• Where FB tries to tell the world about everything you do, Google keeps uploads private by default, which then can be shared with individuals or circles.
• A company webpage can be created, where simple contact information can be uploaded.
• As well as a marker within Google Maps
• Both have an impact on your SEO relevance and make it easier for customers to find you

Next point. Seeding platforms are much like hiring a farmer. He spreads your seeds and you get to watch them grow. This involves interaction with online media platforms.

Advantages:

• Can reach multiple popular platforms
• Centralized location to manage different platforms from
• Leads to higher targeting and conversion rates

Disadvantages:

• When an advertisement is given free reign and spreads like wildfire, there is no way to guarantee that a desired effect will be reached wherever it pops up. This means that there is a risk of being flagged as spam, or even decreasing a page's ad rank when backlinks are irrelevant or spam sites themselves. 
• Even more important is market saturation. There is only too many times that you can see an ad, no matter how well made, and then develope hate towards it and eventually the business itself. 

Oh, and just for the fun of it, a QR code:

Task 7 SEO Offpage

The concept here is to increase visibility and worth of a site through its interactions with other sites.

This differs from onpage optimisation as the changes are not made with the site itself, but with the other websites, which interact with it.

A website's worth can be measured using Pagerank, the Alexa Rank or the Google Index. Google assumes that the more links there are that refer to a website, the more important this site is. Links would have to connect to more than just the homepage. Pages with higher rankings that link to other websites, have more worth. So, if a 'serious' website can take the time to link and mention your site, then you must be important!

Two possible tools for Offpage Optimisation are:

1. Linkbird. This is a paid platform. It offers several interesting features, including:

• Notifications when a backlink has been created.
• Can crawl for existing links
• They use their own system to report on Pagerank, Age of a link and Text of a backlink
• Their sitehunter finds thematically related websites for possible connections
• It also provides Project Management tools as well as Budget control tools

The entire package is designed to offer you everything in one place for a complex. but powerful tool to manage where backlinks are coming from and to strategize where one would actually like them to come from.

       2. Sistrix. A well established and SEO focused tool. This was created to optimise information coming on from Google so that the information would be clearly presentable. Interesting features are:

• Notifications of changes within the Google search engine, so that the user can have a clear overview when the search parameters have been changed.
• A special tools is their webcrawler, which is designed to emulate Google's own crawler, but this moves at a much faster rate. This means that users can have access to relevant information before Google itself knows if it is out there. 
• They also look at Twitter, Gmail and Facebook, to provide results on the performance of your site on these platforms, but also allows you to compare yourself with other sites.
• They also have a simple interface where you can overview backlink data, even with percentages from different countries.

Local Marketing

 This looks at how a business, not necessarily an online business, can increase customers by integrating with the web. Here are some examples:

• Google+ This is great for creating a centralised profile. Store locations can be marked on a map so potentianl customers can even plan a route to you. Information like opening times, contact numbers and emails can all be clearly displayed, but the what are more important would be the 'plus' feature and 'follow' feature, where users can promote your own account and then subscribe to your updates. This increases the B2C bond and also works as free promotion for potential new customers.
• Youtube: Using this as a platform for viral marketing, customer engagement or showing off new products works well as Youtube is obviously much cheaper than taking out on ad for TV or Radio. It gives a face to a business in some cases, or, where there is no central figure e.g. Steve Jobs, ads serve to create a business identity.
• Keyword Research:  This is also extremely important. Gone are the days of the yellow pages. People expect to pick up their phones and find whatever they are looking for within a couple of minutes. The more relevant information concerning products, price and location is available, the likelier someone will stumble upon your site.

4th Task

Some important things to watch out for when setting up an AdWords campaign, using the Search Network.

1. Most important when starting, is deciding if the Search Network is the appropraite choice for you. One change is allowed at a later point, but then not between all networks. Changes can also negatively impact a campaign structure.
2. Click All Features to be more concise and exact with how you want your campaign to run.
3. Confirm, which partners will be included (i.e. how wide spread your ads will be)
4. Location, includes countries, cities and even areas with cities to be focused on or blocked.
5. Language: Relevant to the target user
6. Budget settings as well as how often ads will show (affects spending costs)
7. Ad extensions, in order to make an ad more appealing and display more information
8. Set a specific schedule, so that ads are not wasted by showing up when your target customers would not be likely to be home or online.

Target Options for the Display Network

1. Contextual Targeting. Related to relevant keywords
2. Placement Targeting. Select specific websites
3. Remarketing. Ads from your own site will target visitors after they leave your site and go to another site within the Display Network.
4. Interest Categories. Select specific interest groups e.g. Books or Movies, which are shown to USERS who have these interests
5. Topic Targetting is very similar, but these target SITES that fall within the Topic category
6.  Geographic and Language Targeting: Localisation
7. Demographic Targeting: Focuses on aspects like age or gender

Banners usually appear in a rectangular shape, being defined by their size and varying locations.
They can appear above, below, around, behind, or even pop up in front of web content. Some sites have strict rules about how ads are to be displayed, for example, that when they play the volume is muted by default. The ad is supposed to entice someone browsing the net, not annoy them and get rid of them.

Finally, here are two methods for tracking information:

1.  Tracking Software: Installed on a website to see where users click. Some apps integrate with webcams to even see which parts of a site have been looked at more intensely.
2. Tracking Service: A third party can collect information on how users reach your site by looking at which site they were on before.
3. 
   

SEO Onpage Optimisation

10 Things that are needed for Onpage Optimisation.

This entails editing the contents of a website within the web client itself in order a site to rank higher within a search engine's organic results. 

1. Short and unique URLs, using relevant keywords, to subpages allows for them to be more prevalent when that specific keyword is searched for.
2. Having under 6 keywords under meta tags helps Google decide if the content is relevant or not. Too many tags results would not work, as the few tabs selected should refer directly to the company, main domain or the page's content. This means that if someone refers to a company and then specific content related to it, they should be able to find it on the first page of Google Results. 
3. Internal links result in greater relevancy for the site. This increases the likelyhood of users navigating through the site to find more content. Clear and simple navigation options encourage a user to spend more time on a webpage. It could be assumed that the more time spent active on a webpage by some users, the possibility exists that this would apply to other users as well, increasing traffic.
4. The website's structure is also very important. Google will use load speeds of webpages as a criteria for its ranking. Fast load speeds can directly influence how much time a visitor may want to spend on a webpage. Why spend 5 minutes looking at one page, when another gives you access to everything with in 1?
5. Webpages should be constantly updated, or modified in order to keep it relevant. Google will look at older pages, which do not have incoming or outgoing links, and which are not being visited and assume they have lost relevancy
6. A key method in staying relevant is by linking with popular social media. Facebook for direct interaction and promotion with individuals, tumblr to share pictures, twitter to update a large number of people quickly. This also works as very effective and cheap marketing, as these sites also collect data on users, allowing site owners to profile and better target those interested in their sites.
7. Sites that are full of ads, especially pop-ups, are extremely annoying, and full of malware, more often than not. Too many ads on a site can flag your site as just being spam. Google even warns users of certain sites where malware might be present. They also interfere with the user experience. If a user wants to find out about a product, they can simply google it. They do not need a neon pop up flashing around their screen playing music loudly.
8. Creating short and clear Headings and Sub-Headings helps a user to oriente themselves through information, but with applications like Google's Webmaster Tool, different headings, names, dates e.t.c. can be highlighted so that if a similar format is repeated on other webpages, Google will be able to more easily sort out and find if the pages are relevant to a search. 
9. Website upkeep is also essential. Websites with too many 404 errors, or links that do not go anywhere, can negatively impact a website's rank. These should be fixed a.s.a.p. as users these day have no patience on the internet. If something doesn't work, they go find an alternative. 
10. If videos and images are available, then they should be optimised with relevant descriptions and keywords and even linked to other relevant videos or images, in order to increase traffic back and forth and later positively impact site rank.

 Rich Snippets

 These have nothing to do with costs. Google places these snippets underneath a search result and they summarize or highlight key information, which could help a user decide if they want to click on your site or not. The following are categories, which are supported by Google.

• Reviews
• People
• Products
• Businesses and organizations
• Recipes
• Events
• Music

 Under each users can find templates online to quickly enter information, which will then be formatted for them. For example, under Events, you would be able to name it, describe it, state the dates and times of it, as well as list some prices.

Webmaster Tool

Google's Webmaster Tool offers several different methods for website optimisation.

• Once a website has been linked with the tool, Google can scan it and try to categorize Rich Snippets to it. The user can also individually highlight the website layout, so that Google can be sure of where it can safely assume that the content will fall in line with headings, or sub-headings e.t.c.
• This can result in Google creating a site-link, whereby, instead of going to your homepage, Google will direct a user to the page where the most relevant content in relation to their search is to be found. 
• Similar to AdWords, Webmasters also have the opportunity to see how many impressions their website has had, as well as clicks. This helps a webmaster see if their selected keywords and on-page optimisation has been relevant to searchers.
• An overview of keywords is also available. This can help a webmaster create robot.txt where they can give more specific demands to the Google search engine. For example, if links to unimportant websites are coming up, they can be blocked, so that only relevant links will be made visible in a search engine.
• Google uses an algorithm to scan pages and report on errors, summarizing them for the webmaster who then has a clear view of what they need to correct. They use a metaphor of spiders crawling through the 'web'. Ominous, to say the least.

Good things come in Threes

Our Third Task focuses on Email marketing.

This is funny, as I have spent years turning ignoring unwanted emails into an artform.

One of our tasks is how to personalize an email:

• Firstly, we need to have access to emails and personal information.
• When creating a sign up where emails can be captured, it is also possible to include personal information
• If names have been included, a newsletter can be set to display a first name to make it more personal and casual, or even a last name if the newsletter contents are formal, but still giving the impression that the customer is being contacted directly.
• Depending on what information has been provided, other details can be used to specifically target customers. For example offers can be segmented across age groups for lifestyle offers, different cosmetic offers would focus either on males or females, sites like Groupon use location based offers, which are more relevant to customer and even information on salaries or job types can be used to offer different priced offers.
• Personally, I would use a feature to refer to customers by first name, so that they feel more inclined to read a message

Some important things to consider with Email Marketing

• In order to capture the attention of customers, and to avoid being automatically redirected into a spam folder, a good design needs to be adhered to.
• Writing an entire message in block capitals will definitely not gain it attention, even if it passes the spam filter
• Filling a headline with several exclamation points is annoying, not even grammatically correct and will result in someone deleting your email while cursing you to hell.
• Some keywords pop up in so many spam emails that even if your email isn't spam, it will be ignored. Keywords like: free, unlimited, sign up now, limited offer, and hi (Tom) long time no see from unknown emails, are noticeable to the customer, and some of these will be automatically filtered out.
• The email will have to be displayable and readable with disabled images. Many email clients block images, and if the images have been disabled, an email will be unintelligble at a first glance, and very few people will take the time to dig in further
• In order for an email to be seen as being real as well, the header should be short and direct. No one really spends the time to write out several sentences in a header, as most of the information will be in the body of the text. Spam tries to catch a user when they are browsing through their emails.
• Websites can be used to preview how an email will look in different email clients before being sent out. This can ensure that information will be clear the receiver.
• If an email has been ignored, which is quite likely, send a follow up email with reference to the first one, and maybe gain their attention. If you never get a reply, take this as a subtle hint that not everyone wants their mailbox to be filled with messages from randoms!

Second Task - Affiliate Marketing

So, the second class focuses on Affiliate Marketing.

 According to Webopedia, a channel partner is:

The name used to describe a company that partners with a manufacturer or producer to market and sell the manufacturer's products, services, or technologies- usually through a co-branding relationship. Channel partners may be distributors, vendors, retailers, consultants, systems integrators (SI), technology deployment consultancies, and value-added resellers (VARs) and other organizations.

There are two main categories. Indirect and Direct Channel Partners:

Indirect

In this case, advertising is outsourced to third parties who will more actively carry out marketing tasks, but who also benefit from it.

There are four subcategories:

Lead: This is for large companies who want to expand their market. For example, Amazon, with its Associate programme allows for you to put a link on your site for their products. This is especially important for those who blog about books, who after reviewing one, will also put up a link and hope someone will make a purchase, from which the blogger will benefit

Selling: For companies which are incapable of managing a lot of orders by their own, they will let retailers, online stores e.t.c. handle the product and the product awareness so that they both benefit.

Service/ Support: Companies who do not specialise in a field will outsource work to other companies. Siemens, for example, has firms all over the world, but outsources the translation work it needs to local businesses.

Proxy: Applies mainly to franchises. Entrepreneurs would for example set up a McDonalds where they are sure they have a large target audience, and then bring the larger more publicity, while satisfying their own business needs.


Direct

Instead of having a third party helps customers acquite your product, with this method you would be more active in providing a consumer with what you offer.

Amazon can also be used for this, but instead of putting one of their banners on your site, you would, for example, use their store to sell your product. This means that you would put it up and be responsible for customer awareness. Amazon will handle the finances, but you would have to handle the individual orders.

 AdSense

This is one of the many Google tools to make money on a website. Using a hostsite for a blog, an AdSense generated advertisement can be placed within a website's homepage. These paid for ads usually appear within Google Search itself.

1. Setting up an advertisement is free, but costs will only come in once someone has clicked on the ad, known as Cost Per Click.

2. The Ads will only generate in relation to specific keywords, therefore raising their relevancy

3. Similar too the organic results from the Google Searchbar

4. These are not pop up ads, nor are they flashy or distracting.

5. As Google knows everything, it tries its best to tie ads to interests know of the consumer. Increasing the likelyhood that they will click on the ad.

Erste Tag

Eine Zusammenfassung von Heute und auch was es zu sehen gibt.

Unsere Klassenzimmer...ok, eigentlich nur meins...

 Genug raum für meine Beine, aber leider, während der Paus kommt nur einiges Lied im Kopf.

Zusammenfassung von die Inhalt:

Wichtig sind the 4 Ps (auf Englisch) 

Produkt

Preis

Kommunikation

Distribution

Um zu wissen, was genau, für wie viel, wo ung wie was verkauft wird.

Dazu gehört auch eine SWOT analyze 

Hier ist eine Beispiel für eine Schuch firma. Die Stärke, Schwäche, Bedrohungen und Möglichkeiten für eine Produkt werden klar dargestellt um zu sehen ob es sich überhaupt lohnt.  

Produktzyklus = nichts währt ewig

Auch interessant ist eine Analyze von der Boston Consulting Group. Mann sieht 4 möglichkeiten die mit dem Erfolg eines Produkts verbunden sind. z.B. Apple produkte verdienen sehr viel Geld und passen vielleicht als Sterne, und die neue Justin Bieber perfüm passt hochwahrleinlich als Hund...