Date Archive: February 2007

Could clearer web copy improve your web usability and conversion? Check out the writing style at Simple Wikipedia.

Karl Fisch, a high school administrator in Littleton, Colorado, stirs Thomas Friedman’s flat world into Ray Kurzweil’s exponential speedup to ask how these will impact education. Short provocative video.

The folks over at Wesabe describe a neat idea for protecting private data in a database: they call it the “privacy wall.”

Hadn’t known Excel allowed custom graph types — a real timesaver.

A user will stop and ponder each option presented to him wondering “What is this? Do I need this?” And in that split-second, your offer can lose its grip on that user’s attention.

Taking clear aim at Microsoft Office, Google announced Google Apps Premier yesterday. The real killer app will be Google Apps running inside a corporate firewall, perhaps by year’s end.

Chris Ray of Money Management International shares advice and learnings from MMI’s successful December ‘06 microsite, Regiftable.com.

Inbound links are precious. Not only do they matter to search engines, but they reflect the interconnected relationships of pages and people and ideas on the web. When reorganizing your site, don’t break the old links. Redirect visitors to the new URL.

I highly recommend Charles Fishman’s “The Wal-Mart Effect.”

My Outlook PST file died badly this week. The key steps for me to recover the file was scanpst.exe and using Outlook’s “Export As PST” functionality.

All good movies stand up to repeat viewings. Here are some thoughts after another look at Michael Wesch’s video on Web 2.0.

George Michie on PPC management: “Outsourcing is a great choice for many retailers, but not all outsourcing solutions are good ones, and sometimes the DIY solution is the most cost effective.”

I’ll be giving a DMA Virtual Seminar on increasing site usability and conversion on Tuesday February 20, at 1 PM EST.

Search will play an important role in the ‘08 elections, but the campaigns haven’t gotten into gear yet.

17 ideas for using RSS for online marketing.

Delighted to see our blog named to Todd And’s list of 150 Top Marketing Blogs. We’re honored.

Few online retailers are yet using RSS for marketing. RSS is easier to implement than email. Most retailers should be able to develop RSS marketing programs using in-house IT resources.

I don’t understand why any firm would run advertising they can’t track, or would run advertising which costs more than it returned.

Match types are a critical — but too often overlooked — aspect of paid search. Put time and testing into your match type decisions — you’ll be well rewarded for it.

Ever ask, “How much more or how much less ought I be spending on advertising?” Here’s a simple model with accompanying Excel spreadsheet to help answer this question.

Yahoo Pipes is a beta Yahoo service that allows non-programmers to create RSS mashups.

When I encountered John Chow’s blog last year, I first found his writing annoying. But over time his blog grew on me, and I’ve found John’s advice on generating links and traffic to be solid.

18 assorted interesting links, no particular theme.

Usable websites recognize that “pattern” does not equal “clone” or “cookie-cutter.”

Michael Wesch of Kansas State University on web 2.0.