Brightspark Blog

Read one Irish entrepreneur's blog as she operates a business in Dublin

Best Practice for Email Opt-in?

December 06, 2005

A key aspect of any email marketing campaign is the opt-in (registration) process.
Experts debate what information should be captured during this process and how
it should be used.

The latest trend: Use profile centers to allow customers to opt in
to the content they want to receive. That content is sent. No more,
no less. Great idea? I'm not so sure. Readers don't always know what they're
missing. Relevancy is a moving target that can't be predicted.



What's the answer?

Rely on clients to change their preferences? Send unwanted content mixed with
desired content? Ask poll questions inside the email? Or maybe devise propensity
models to predict reader interests based on profile information?

I solicited some marketers for their advice on how they currently address
this dilemma. Many looked at me as if I had six heads, but a few provided great
insights. Here are some of the results:

• Financial services. "We put three small partner ads
  in our emails every month and sell them as benefits of being email recipients.
  Every quarter, we track which types of offers do best and retain those while
  we test new partner offers. We don't personalise offers by customer, though."


• Telecommunications. "We add in a section on one of
  our emails that's promoted as 'new offers.' If people click on those, we send
  an opt-in email invitation for that group's emails. It works well for us."


• B2B high technology. "We change the main theme of
  our messages every month and lead with a story that we choose (kind of like
  a front-page news ad). This is followed by the customised selections our clients
  make."


• Automotive. "We only send messages based on selected
  preferences, but every quarter we email the preference selections to our clients
  to confirm their interests."


• Entertainment. "Are you kidding? We don't ask for
  content preferences. We send you what we feel is compelling for that time
  period."


• B2B sales. "We tried asking people to opt in to business
  solutions -- and told them how many emails they would get about it -- and
  saw tremendous results in conversions. The problem was, once the deal was
  closed we didn't have a structure to cross-sell them."

What Should You Do?



There isn't yet enough research to back up any definitive best practice for
the email opt-in experience or preference centre usage. But look at your opt-in
and profiling experience from a different vantage point to ensure it performs
as it should.

Three questions to ask:

1. How much and what type of information do you request at opt-in? Is it enough
   to begin a dialogue with a client or prospect?


2. What strategy do you use to learn about other interests? How will you turn
   that into increased loyalty or sales?


3. When you realize your reader has stopped responding, how you do to reengage
   them with your brand?

Even if you don't review your opt-in process or preference centre now, keep
an eye on the topic. It's going to get quite a bit of attention.

This article was written by Jeannie
Mullen on 8 August 2005 for Clickz, a great internet marketing resource.

Google Sandbox

What is the Sandbox?



Before we get too far into an explanation as to what Google's sandbox is, it
must be noted that not everyone even agrees that the sandbox exists. The sandbox
is actually nothing more than a theory developed to explain what many different
SEO experts have witnessed with their listings. Whether or not the sandbox really
exists is actually irrelevant when we know that the effects of the sandbox exist.



Google's sandbox is a relatively new filter that appeared to be put in place
back in March of 2004. This happened after the widely publicized updates of
Austin and Florida, and the implementation of what is known as the Austin update.
If you are not sure what those are, there is no need to worry as those updates
are now for the most part in the past. The sandbox filter seems to affect nearly
all new websites placing them on an initial "probation" status. The
effect of this is that new websites may get into Google's SERP's (search engine
results pages) relatively quickly and may even perform well for a couple of
weeks. When the filter is applied to the new website it is referred to as being
put in the "sandbox". The new website will still show in the result
pages, but it will not rank well regardless of how much original, well optimized
content and regardless of how many quality inbound links the site may have.
The filter restrains new websites from having immediate success in the search
engine result pages.



The sandbox filter seems to affect almost all new websites, with very few exceptions.
It is important to note that the filter is not a punishment for anything the
webmaster did with their new website. The filter is merely an initiation period
for new websites.



The sandbox filter also affects more competitive keyword driven sites more than
sites that key in on less competitive keywords. If your website focuses on very
competitive keywords, you are likely to remain in the sandbox for a longer period
of time than if you focus on keywords that are relatively non-competitive keywords.

Why Does the Sandbox Exist?



There is a lot of debate as to whether the sandbox filter is a good thing for
Google to implement or not. Obviously webmasters who are trying to get their
sites well positioned in Google do not like the sandbox filter as it prevents
them from receiving the huge levels of traffic that a top listing in Google
can bring. The filter was not implemented at random, however, and there is some
good reasoning for the filter existing.

As the SEO community figured out the basic elements of Google's ranking algorithm,
inbound links, original content rich with keywords, and the proper use of anchor
text, search engine spammers began to take advantage of these elements. Search
engine spammers would setup websites that were in clear violation of Google's
policies with the knowledge that eventually their website would be banned from
the listings. This, however, did not matter. If a search engine spammer could
get their website to rank well in Google for even one month, the profits they
could make from that one month would justify the cost of building the site in
the first place. All they needed to do in the future was to rebuild their spam
websites with different domains and slightly different content. The idea for
spammers was a simple one. Capitalize off of Google's traffic for as long as
they can (before they get banned), then do it all over again with a new website.
The method was extremely effective and easy to implement.



What made this all the more easy to accomplish was Google's extremely fast indexing.
While other search engines would take several months to index a new website,
Google could index a website in as little as one month (they are now indexing
sites within a few days). Search engine spammers were living large off of Google's
generosity.



To solve this problem, Google determined that it would compromise. They would
still index websites quickly, attempting to get as much new, fresh content out
to the general public as possible, but they would not trust new websites implicitly
as they had in the past. All new websites that were launched would be put on
probation. As time passed, and as the sites continued to pass any spam filters
they ran, the website will not be held back from performing well in the rankings.
Eventually, after quite a bit of time had passed, a site would be allowed to
"leave" the sandbox and join the rest of the established websites.

How Does This Affect My Website?



If you have a new website, there is a good chance that you will be placed in
the sandbox. This should be expected, but it should not change the way you build
your website or market it. You should use the sandbox filter to your advantage.



Google still ranks websites in much the same way that they had in the past.
Websites are judged on the quality of their inbound links and the quality of
their content. Google will continue to change how they evaluate inbound links
and content, but the basic elements of their rankings will remain the same.



While your website is in the sandbox, you should use this time to build your
traffic using regular traffic building methods such as writing articles, building
a strong community of visitors, and partnering with websites that offer some
synergy to your visitors. During your time on probation, you have an excellent
opportunity to build all the elements that cause websites to perform well in
the search engines. When you finally do leave the sandbox, your website should
be very well positioned within Google.

Is My Website in the Sandbox?

When webmasters learn about the sandbox filter, their first question is always
whether or not their website has been placed in it. Determining whether or not
you are in the sandbox is a relatively easy task to do. First, being placed
in the sandbox is different than having your website banned.



If you do a search for your domain in Google and they return zero results for
your website (and you had been previously listed in Google), there is a chance
that you have been banned. One of the best ways to determine if you have been
banned is to look at your log files to see if

Google is visiting your website. Banned websites typically do not see Google
visit their websites, regardless of who is linking to them.

If you have not been banned, but do not rank well with Google, you should look
at the quality of your content and the quality of your inbound links. You should
also see if you rank well for non- competitive keywords. Remember how the filter
affects competitive keywords more than less competitive keywords? Well, you
can use this to determine if you have been sandboxed. Finally, if you rank well
in all the other major search engines, but do not show up at all in Google's
rankings, you have probably been sandboxed.

Is There A Way to Get Out of the Sandbox?



The quick answer to this is yes, there is a way out of the sandbox, but you
will not like the answer. The answer is to simply wait. The sandbox filter is
not a permanent filter and is only intended to reduce search engine spam. It
is not intended to hold people back from succeeding. So eventually, if you continue
to build your site as it should be built, you will leave the sandbox and join
the other established websites.



Again, if your website has been placed in the sandbox you should use this time
to your advantage. It is a great opportunity to build your traffic sources outside
of the search engines. If you have a website that does well in the search engines,
you may be tempted to ignore other proven methods of traffic building such as
building a community, or building strong inbound links through partnerships.
However, if you establish traffic sources outside of search engines, when you
finally leave the sandbox, you will see a welcome increase in your traffic levels.

Conclusion

Google has been going to great lengths to cut out on search engine spam. Some
have faulted them on the lengths that they are going to claiming that it is
effecting legitimate sites as well as the spam websites. While this is probably
the case, as an owner of a website you need to place yourself in the position
of Google and ask yourself what they are really looking for in a website. Google
is looking for websites that offer quality content. Google still relies on the
natural voting system that was first used to establish pagerank. They may change
the way that they qualify content or inbound links, but the basic elements of
a quality website will always remain the same.



No website owner in their right mind will "like" Google's sandbox.
However, a smart website owner will use the sandbox as an opportunity to build
a website that Google simply cannot refuse.

This article was written by Mark Daoust of www.Site-Reference.com

Internet TV

Below is an abbreviated version of an article by Jim Hedger from StepForth
Placement Inc about the merging of the Web with the Media.

An interesting phenomenon is coming to a monitor near you, perhaps the one
you are looking at right now.



A decade ago, the traditional media set the pace by telling our stories and
providing practical means of mass-communications. Today, the Internet provides
a globally stable transmission line and the Web serves as both production studio
and broadcast medium. The Internet's growth and more importantly, the ease of
access for anyone with a computer, a connection and a bit of talent, has pushed
the majority of traditional media outlets into a period of survival strategy
and planning.

Recent discussions between Google, Yahoo and CBS about distribution, along
with the combined support of AOL and ASK for Internet TV start-up Brightcove
show a definite shift in thinking among the US TV networks.



In an interview with Reuters, Les Moonves, CBS chairman said, "We're
talking to them [Google] about a whole slew of things including video-on-demand,
including video search."



The TV networks have recognised they need to work with the Internet and to do
so they need to work with the Web's core information providers, the major search
engines.



"They need our content, we need their technology," he said in the
Reuters interview, referring to broader discussions with Internet companies.
"We argue about which is more important. I think ultimately my content,
no matter how you get it, content is still the most important thing."

Google, Yahoo, ASK, AOL, et al, view virtually all "open" information
on the web as freely spiderable. Even without formal agreements signed, Google
and Yahoo have both made video search of TV show snippets uploaded by fans available
on demand. Quotes from the shows can be found based on the transcripts of closed
captioning broadcasts.



For producers of Web-ready television content, it's no use producing content
for mass-distribution over the Internet if you aren't in the new-media version
of the TV guide. The problem for both the search-information providers
and the content creators is how to make a profit providing the service.



While Google, Yahoo and the major TV networks will, for the most part, be able
to rely on current advertisers for revenues, three important factors
threaten to challenge the stability of that traditional marketing environment.



1. Ease of access to the industry.

Making video has never been cheaper or easier and with the proliferation of
broadband, delivery of product is virtually instant and universal. In other
words, consumers no longer have to go to an expensive movie theatre to watch
a production that cost a fortune to produce. Access to the market and means
of production is literally open to anyone. In the near future, there could even
be competition for click-through revenues between traditional commercial driven
television production and the increasingly professional but independent amateur
productions.



2. If there is a sudden increase in quality and availability of independent
productions and those independent producers show credible commercial competition,
what is to become of the massive media machines behind the scenes of
most network shows? Someone has to pay the bills and the predominantly
successful model, (pay-per-click or in this case, pay per view), might not provide
sufficient revenues for the highly expensive network shows against popular independent
productions.



3. Handheld, pocket-sized devices such as Blackberrys and mobiles are
increasingly web-capable and can handle video. Content produced for
the web must also be available where portable media users are looking for it.

Internet TV



…soon we’ll see as many video channels as we see websites today…





Brightcove is a US based Internet TV service that “empowers video producers
and programmers to build broadband businesses and gives viewers more choice
and control over their use of video and television”.



Distribution is the major factor that places the Web far above other forms of
media. Taking a page from Google's early playbook, Brightcove is also working
to harness the massive distributive power of the Internet by inviting website
owners to inquire about syndicating video content. “In the world of Internet
TV, we’ll see as many video channels as we see websites today.”



The opportunities for small business advertisers and website marketers are enormous.
The emergence of the Web as the primary means of delivering video information
offers website marketers a new area to present client products and services.

The Internet and the Web, while already remarkably versatile, has become a vital
link in distribution for the largest traditional media companies, including
the major TV networks. The Web is also absorbing a great deal of the advertising
money that was previously spent on print. It even threatens the mainstay revenue
generator for most urban newspapers, the classified ads section.



Over the past few weeks, stories about Google Automat, a service procedure Google
wrote a patent application for nearly two years ago have emerged. The patent
application, which was published in early September of this year, is for "a
system and method for providing online user-assisted Web-based advertising."
The patent application goes on to describe a service that appears remarkably
similar to Google Base.

"Preferably, such an approach would guide a user in the creation of advertisements
describing offerings of goods or services, creatives associated with the advertisements,
and advertising budgets. Such an approach would also help create and host a
Web presence for individual and other advertisers. Such an approach would also
facilitate driving Web traffïc to hyperlinked advertisements through targeting."
(source: Patent Abstract)



The patent shows Google is preparing to enter the collection and distribution
of small, personal sized classified ads, like the ones printed in the back of
your local newspaper. As Google collects them, many industry analysts expect
them to begin distributing them through the online classified sections of those
same major newspapers.

Ho Ho Ho

December 01, 2005

Sporting our cutesy Christmas logo today because it's the 1st December and it's now officially time to get all Christmassy. If only retailers knew that. Happy Christmas to all Brightspark Blog Readers. Wishing you all the merriness of the season, and joy love and happiness for the new year.