Ads Next™ Local Internet Advertising, Annapolis, Maryland, Internet Advertising Solutions, Search Engine Optimization, Website Design and Integration, Social Media Marketing

Wordpress and Blogger.com are two “self-hosted, blog publishing” software programs on the internet which allow users to posts various “blogs” and discussions on various articles, news or particular subjects. The word “blog” describes a website, which is usually maintained or taken care of by an individual that allows “entries” of comments, descriptions, reviews or any other materials to primarily complete a topic description/discussion. WordPress and Blogger are blog-services that are free, allow users to input text, and are community driven while supplying various privacy features.

In the beginning and for quite some time, blogging was more or less a means of keeping an online journal where individuals would keep a “running account of their everyday lives”. Most of these users called themselves journalist, diarists or journals. However, it was Peter Mernholz who is credited as creating the term “blog” out of the word “weblog”, created by John Barger. The term stuck as it was quickly “adopted as both a noun and verb (“to blog” meaning to edit ones page!).

Blogger (which is owned by Google) and Wordpress are two extremely popular and powerful blog publishing software programs. Blogger was created back in late 1999, and has been credited for “pioneering the format” and other various blogging tools to date. Wordpress first appeared in 2003, initially created by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little to create a “fork” of “b2”, then only later to have the blogging software come to fruition. Blogger was created to have a free format from the beginning, whereas Wordpress required an “invitation-only”, though this was primarily in the beginning and would eventually give way to over 3,500,000 individual blogs in the service. Registration is not required on both to read or comment on weblogs through the site, however registration IS required for an owner to own or post a weblog.

Wordpress is website that provides blog hosting free of charge. It is a multi-user program that allows thousands of blogs to be hosted on a single web server. However, the free hosting does not allow for any “plug ins” or themes, which many users can find irritating. These features may become available in the future as “payable plug ins” which would allow Wordpress to be comparable to traditional hosting pages. The biggest differences between Blogger and Wordpress can be summed up in one word, organization! Blogger, being one of the first and having an association with Google, enjoyed a great following of “bloggers” due to its timely inception and high end relationships and also because of its “toned down, easy to wield user interface”. It would allow for blogs to be edited in HTML, and it was also FREE!

However, as the site grew in popularity so did its content and the ways to/not too manage that content. That is when along came Wordpress. Wordpress offered a blog publishing program which in turn “organized” all blogs and articles, establishing categories for blogs, “blogstats” and an import blog feature so various blogs and articles from other sites (such as Blogger!) could be taken from and placed with ease into a Wordpress blog! Wordpress had also been able to give its participants a much more streamlined “dashboard” for which to navigate and create with. Users also rave about Wordpress’s ability to make “static pages” while providing specific links to a specific article/blog. And to top it off, though not the end of features is the ability to protect bloggers from Spam, or at the very least enough that they do not have to give constant attention to the issue.

Blogger, Wordpress and even LiveJournal are all blog publishing programs with their own audience and dedicated members. Blogger and Wordpress are more text driven, making them more popular when it comes to reviews, articles and such. Where the difference can be in the two major, text driven sites is the amount of organization and features which allow the user to create/expand his or her blog. From reading various reviews online, most come to the conclusion that Wordpress is the best for an “open ended” blog world, allowing an extremely user friendly interface with great organization and a growing list of features to come. Blogger too is also expanding its forum, with a revamped “dashboard”. Both are still free for the most part, so from what I read it comes down to which program you are both familiar and comfortable with using and researching.

I came across this article on ClickZ from Patricia Hursh and thought that she had some very good tips on optimizing a website for Local dominance in the search engine results.

Optimize for Local Search Queries

As with any SEO effort, basic optimization principles apply to local sites. Local marketers must engage in keyword research; develop relevant local content; write unique, compelling page titles and meta tags; implement search-friendly navigation; and build link popularity (to name just a few critical tasks).

But for local Web sites, two of the most important optimization steps a marketer can take are incorporating local search phrases across Web pages and properly utilizing contact information throughout the site.

Incorporate Local Search Phrases

Local keyword research is often less precise than a standard SEO effort. This is primarily due to language idiosyncrasies and local colloquiums. For example, if you own and operate a local shoe store, it’s important to know if searchers in your part of the country use the term “sneakers” or “tennis shoes” more often. If you run a bed-and-breakfast in Philadelphia, do people most often search for “Philly PA” or “Philadelphia”? People search for Minneapolis and St. Paul, but they also search for “twin cities.” They search for “downtown Chicago” and “the loop.” Make sure your Web site utilizes local speak and reflects the way your customers actually talk and search.

Once you’ve researched and identified target keyword phrases, use these local terms and phrases in page text, page titles, meta tags, link text, and other key places throughout the site.

Utilize Contact Information

A business’ address and phone number are instrumental for conducting business locally. But this contact information also provides a critical clue to search engines that a business is local in nature.

How to utilize contact information effectively:

• Display your full address with Zip Code on all appropriate Web pages.
• Include a local phone number, even when a toll-free number is available.
• Give your address and phone number extra prominence on the “Contact Us” page.
• If appropriate, provide information on areas served.
• Provide driving directions and a local map (perhaps on a page called “Directions/Location”).
• Consider placing contact information in the footer of every page.

Nationwide retailers, dealers, and franchises can create individual dealer locator pages optimized for local search queries and display each dealer’s local address as recommended above.

Increase Local Site Popularity

In-bound site links are critically important to improve local search visibility and results. As with any SEO effort, these links are more about quality than quantity.

If you belong to a chamber of commerce, local business association, or professional organization, request a link to your site. These organizations tend to have authoritative and popular Web sites and will typically link to you at no cost or for a nominal fee. If possible, provide suggested text associated with the link and include your target keyword phrases.

Check to see if there are local/vertical online directories or portals that are relevant to your business, such as FindLaw, a portal that provides legal information and helps people find appropriate lawyers in their area.

Dominate Search Results

Engaging in this simple three-step program may enable a small business to literally dominate a search results page. A local business now can show up in three separate places — all on the first page, and all above the fold:

• The main search results page.
• A local result inserted by Google or Yahoo at the top of the organic results (Google calls these One Box results and Yahoo calls them Shortcuts). According to MarketingSherpa’s recent eyetracking study, searchers pay more attention to the Google One Box listings than almost anything else on the page.
• A local PPC (define) ad.

The What’s Up? Publishing Group, a leading publisher of print media serving the greater Annapolis region and Maryland’s Eastern Shore, announces that it has signed a joint marketing partnership agreement with Ads Next™, providers of local internet advertising solutions. Both companies are based in Annapolis, Maryland.

“Technology is having a profound effect on the way we consume content,” says What’s Up? Publishing Group President Veronica Tovey. “With more than one billion commerce-driven local internet searches, it’s imperative that we move into the digital media arena if we are to stay on top. The expertise provided by Ads Next™ is helping us transition into a leading digital media provider.  We intend to provide fresh online content with interactive experiences for our Web site visitors, combined with digital advertising services for our advertisers. One goal for this partnership is to offer combined local print and Internet advertising solutions to local businesses.”

“The local online advertising market is expected to grow 48% in 2008 to 12.6 billion. The What’s Up? Publishing Group has a long standing relationship with local businesses, and now they can offer an online advertising component with their local print ads,” says Ads Next™ President Brian Burns.

Changes to What’s Up? Publishing’s corporate structure as a result of the Ads Next™ partnership include a digital media focus with the launching of a new Web site, www.WhatsUpMag.com, using web 2.0 techniques; a weekly E-newsletter; digital advertising services; Web site development services; E-marketing solutions, and a staff dedicated to digital media. The website will feature a searchable business directory with geography mapping technology; a regional restaurant guide with reader reviews; interactive local events and music section; Blogs and content marketing features; advanced banner tracking, and more.

“I am excited about this partnership. Together, we can capitalize on the tremendous growth in this market and help local advertisers at the same time,” says James P. Burns, an investor in Ads Next™
Company Backgrounds:

What’s Up, Inc. (www.whatsupmag.com)
The What’s Up? Publishing Group publishes five glossy print magazines, including two lifestyle magazines, What’s Up? Annapolis and What’s Up? Eastern Shore that reach 96,000 upscale households in greater Annapolis and Maryland’s Eastern Shore.  Its latest publication, What’s Up? Weddings was launched in February.

Ads Next™ (www.adsnext.com)
Ads Next™ is a local internet advertising company located in Annapolis, Maryland. To help clients succeed in the rapidly changing advertising market, Ads Next™ offers a unique 360° website promotion, tracking, and results solution.

Link Building is an important part of Search Engine Optimization.  It is the process of getting other websites to link to your website.  It is more important to have relevant links from a website rather than have an irrelevant link from a site that has a high Page Rank.  The search engines weigh heavier on relevant links.

It is important to continuously build links to stay on top of the search results for a website’s targeted keyword phrases.  The more links the better.  It is important however to make sure the number of inbound links increase in natural way.  The search engines to do not like it when a new site gains a lot of links in a very short period of time.  So it is best to accumulate links at a steady rate.

If your link text is the same as your targeted keywords then this will have a strong effect on your search rankings for those keywords.  Again however make sure all the link text are not the same.  You should use several different keyword phrases throughout your link text so that the links to not appear unnatural.

Content on the pages that link to your website is another important factor on determining how relevant your inbound links are.  So for example, if your site is a restaurant site then you should have inbound links from a dining guide or a site that has restaurant reviews.  With relevant link text associated with these links they will probably be the links that help your site rank high in the search engines.

Many people search online for local dentists, doctors, restaurants, spas, landscapers and many other local businesses.  Is your business being placed in front of these users? 

It’s not just about how many people make it to your Web site, but whether or not they take action once they’re there. Are they filling out lead forms?  Are they making a phone call?

Phone call tracking is one way to measure the success of your Local Internet Advertising efforts.  Call tracking allows you to place unique local or toll-free telephone numbers on your website, online and offline ads or landing pages. 

Call tracking proves accountability in both online and offline ad campaigns.  It allows you to monitor the effectiveness of each ad campaign and prove ROI to advertisers.  Calls can be recorded for quality assurance purposes and to measure the quality of the leads that are being generated.  You are able to listen to the phone calls through a real-time reporting portal.  Within these reports you are also able to view name, date, time they called and phone number.

Starting an online or offline campaign with tracked phone numbers can drive qualified leads to your business.  If you are running an ad campaign without tracking the results you could potentially be losing money.  It is crucial that you start tracking your local internet advertising efforts.  Find out what ad campaigns are working best for your business and invest more into those campaigns.

I found this article today from eMarketer very interesting.

Here comes the “Precision Shopper.”

Any retailer who isn’t using the online channel to promote offline sales—as well as online sales—is missing a sizable opportunity.”Today, online consumers think nothing of shopping across a retailer’s stores, Web site and catalog,” says Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the new report, Multi-Channel Retailing, “As a consequence, online product research is driving more in-store sales than online sales.”

Last year, eMarketer estimated that store sales influenced by online research totaled $471 billion. Comparatively, retail e-commerce sales were only $136 billion.

Looked at another way, for every $1 in online sales, the Internet influenced $3.45 of store sales.

”Online consumers are becoming precision shoppers,” says Mr. Grau. “They are availing themselves of the wealth of information resources online to discover and evaluate products, compare them and find where they can be purchased.”

Mounting research shows that a significant percentage of store purchases are influenced by online product research.

In addition, the “eHoliday Mood Study,” conducted during last year’s holiday shopping season by Shop.org, showed that 63% of US online buyers made their holiday purchases in two or even three retail channels.

The percent of respondents who used more than one channel would have been even higher if consumers who researched products in one channel then bought them in another were included.

According to eMarketer estimates, combined Web-influenced store sales and retail e-commerce sales accounted for 15% of retail sales in 2007. By 2012, the percentage will nearly double to 28%.

Forrester Research, in contrast, reported that Web-influenced store sales plus e-commerce sales accounted for 27% of retail sales in 2007—almost twice eMarketer’s estimate.

”As much as online shopping is a convenience and the online shopping experience continuously improves, people are not about to abandon stores anytime soon,” says Mr. Grau.

So if your cross-channel marketing capabilities are still in the early stages of development, don’t despair. As Mr. Grau says, “The majority of multi-channel retailers still have work to do to resolve organizational and IT issues that stand in their path.”

Aaron Wall recently posted an article called How Long Does It Take to Rank in Google? He mentions that he gets asked this question quite frequently.  This seems to be the only thing new clients are ever concerned about with their search marketing campaigns.  And I will have to agree with Aaron on this one, “to compete in competitive marketplaces you have to out-think the competition or invest more than they do. When you start from how little or how quickly you have the wrong mindset.”

As he mentioned several things you should be concerned about.  They are fresh quality content, building your brand, and make social connections.  You want to build a site that is informative to your users and that also has a clear message of what your website is about and what product and services you are offering.  This is a huge mistake I see happening all the time.  Put yourself in your target audience’s shoes.  Would you be interested in your site?  Are you finding the information you are looking for based on the keyword phrases you are typing into the search engines?  If not then it’s likely your potential customers aren’t finding what they want either. 

So how long does it take to rank in Google?  Aaron emphasizes several things that effect how long it will take to rank in Google.

If you site doesn’t have much competition in the search results space then it is possible that you may be able to rank highly in a month.

Is your site brand new?  If so and your competition’s site is much older it can take you’re site a year to get in the top position you desire.  However if they aren’t marketing their site well then it may be easier for you to rank in that top position.  You may want to build links over a period of time to gain recognition.  If your site is older you may be able to be more aggressive with the link building.

It is important to continuously monitor how much time and effort your competitors are investing.  You won’t rank above them if you’re not investing the time.

I read this interesting article today on Yahoo News.  The article was written by Michael Liedtke, AP Business Writer.   Will MSN buy Yahoo?  Google needs some competition and maybe this will give them just that.

SAN FRANCISCO - Microsoft Corp. has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo Inc. with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion in its boldest bid yet to challenge Google Inc.’s dominance of the lucrative online search and advertising markets.

The surprise offer of $31 per share, made late Thursday and announced Friday, seizes on Yahoo’s weakness while Microsoft tries to muscle up in a high-stakes battle with Google likely to define the technology landscape for years to come.

In a statement Friday, Yahoo said it will “carefully and promptly” study Microsoft’s bid.

With its profits steadily sliding, Yahoo’s stock slipped to a four-year low earlier this week and a new management team has been trying to steer a turnaround but sees more turbulence through 2008.

The announcement lifted Yahoo’s share price by almost 50 percent in morning trading, while Google fell more than 8 percent, dragged down by a fourth-quarter earnings report that missed Wall Street expectations.

In conference call Friday morning, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer indicated he won’t take no for an answer after Yahoo rebuffed takeover overtures a year ago.

“This is a decision we have — and I have — thought long and hard about,” Ballmer said. “We are confident it’s the right path for Microsoft and Yahoo.”

Besides the question of Yahoo’s acceptance, Microsoft’s bid also faces regulatory scrutiny in Washington and Europe. On Friday, the Justice Department said it is “interested” in reviewing antitrust issues. European Union officials declined to comment.

To underscore its resolve, Microsoft is offering a 62 percent premium to Yahoo’s closing stock price Thursday. If the deal is consummated, it would be by far the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history, eclipsing last year’s $6 billion purchase of online ad service aQuantive.

Since reaching a 52-week high of $34.08 in October, Yahoo shares have fallen 46 percent. Yahoo climbed $8.62 a share, or 45 percent, to $27.80 in afternoon trading. Microsoft shares fell $2.22, or 6.8 percent, to $30.38.

Microsoft publicly disclosed its cash-and-stock offer in hopes of rallying support from Yahoo’s shareholders, making it more difficult for Yahoo’s board to turn down the bid.

In a letter released Friday, Ballmer pointedly noted Yahoo’s financial performance has deteriorated since Microsoft was spurned a year ago. At that time, Ballmer said he was told Yahoo believed it was better off on its own.

“A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved,” Ballmer wrote in his letter.

Microsoft’s previous offer was rebuffed by Terry Semel, who stepped aside last year as chief executive under shareholder pressure.

Microsoft sent its latest takeover offer to Yahoo late Thursday, shortly after Semel resigned as the company’s chairman. The letter is addressed to Semel’s successors, new Chairman Roy Bostock and the current CEO, co-founder Jerry Yang, who is one of Yahoo’s largest shareholders.

In a prepared statement, Yahoo said its board “will evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo’s strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders.”

Microsoft views Yahoo as its best chance to thwart Google, which has leveraged its leadership in Internet search and advertising to emerge as an increasingly serious threat to the world’s largest software maker’s persuasive influence on how people interact with computers.

Google already controls nearly 60 percent of the U.S. search market, and has been widening its lead, despite concerted efforts by both second-place Yahoo and third-place Microsoft. By combining, Microsoft and Yahoo would have a 33 percent share of the U.S. search market, according to the latest data from comScore Media Metrix.

By joining forces, Microsoft and Yahoo also would widen their narrowing advantage over Google in providing free e-mail accounts — a service that helps foster more loyalty with users and create more advertising opportunities.

Advertisers around the world are expected to double their spending on the Internet during the next three years as more people get their news and entertainment on the Web instead of television, radio, newspapers and magazine. The trend is expected to create an $80 billion online ad market in 2010, up from an estimated $40 billion last year.

Despite an aggressive push in recent years, Microsoft’s online advertising expansion hasn’t paid off. Last week, the Redmond, Wash.-based company reported a 79 percent jump in its overall profit, but its online division’s loss widened to $245 million.

And Yahoo has been struggling to attract more advertising even though its Web site attracts one of the biggest audiences. The Sunnyvale-based company’s profit has declined for five consecutive quarters, prompting plans to cut 1,000 jobs later this month, a 7 percent reduction of its 14,300-employee work force.

Besides helping to boost its online ad revenue, Microsoft believes it could mine more profit from Yahoo by jettisoning workers and eliminating overlapping operations.

Microsoft said it sees at least $1 billion in cost savings if it buys Yahoo. Microsoft executives deflected questions about how many jobs might be lost, but the company emphasized retention packages will be offered to Yahoo engineers and other key employees, including some executives.

The fate of Yahoo’s brand also is unclear if Microsoft takes over. Both Ballmer and Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft’s platforms and services division, hailed Yahoo’s strong brand value but didn’t commit to keeping the name alive.

Gavin O’Malley of MediaPost writes about how big brand Marketers are fed up with traditional media channels and are threatening to shift some of their budgets to the internet:

BIG-NAME BRAND MARKETERS ARE FED up with traditional media channels and are threatening to shift the lion’s share of their budgets online, according to Nick Brien, worldwide CEO of Universal McCann.

“If this happens for another year, significant clients will want to walk,” Brien said at an Interactive Advertising Bureau conference on Monday in reference to a general climate of discontent due to increasing viewer fragmentation, disruptive technologies, and the resulting decrease in ROI.
Continue Reading »

Earlier this week Greg Sterling posted an article titled What Does 2008 Have In Store For Local?  He emphasizes that the local market is about a very large number of mostly small companies.  I could not agree more and most of these small companies are not advertising online.  It is important to educate small local businesses on the benefits of local internet advertising.  Currently it is the most cost efficient way to advertise your business.

“Study after study has confirmed that consumers research products before buying (mostly offline). However, perhaps more strikingly, the internet has now surpassed the venerable print yellow pages and newspapers as the primary local resource for consumers looking for services. This is not to say that print newspapers and yellow pages don’t have meaningful usage anymore, but we’ve reached an important “tipping point” of sorts. “

Greg Sterling mentions in the above quote that the internet has surpassed the print yellow pages and newspapers for local resources.  Local companies need to take some of their ad spend from their traditional advertising like print and move it online.  If local consumers are going to the search engines for local information then you need to place your products and services right in front of them.  Consumers are searching on specific phrases that are related to your products so why not purchase these terms and guarantee that they will find you.  This form of advertising seems like the obvious way to go however most local small to mid-sized companies have not caught on to this idea.

In his article Sterling also mentions the rise of user-generated content and the increasing importance of consumer ratings, reviews and recommendations in 2007.  Yahoo and Google have both updated its local search product, expanding its search results beyond just business listings to include local user-generated content.  A local search on Google or Yahoo in any city will now return user-recommended restaurants, events and many other forms of local entertainment.  It will also display what other users in the same city have been searching for lately and list the most recent ratings and reviews. 

Users do not only want to find a business, they want to find out what other users in their community think about the product and services they are looking for. 2008 is going to be an exciting year for Local Internet Advertising.