nextmuffin - digital marketing crumbs

This free flash based drawing tool turns aimless mouse activity into a Jackson Pollock in a matter of seconds. Simple, addictive, fun, and a great way to introduce an artist to a new audience.

Links:
http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

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If you’re searching for a free CMS solution for your website, it might be worth checking out a new offering from Sitemasher. Running the now popular SaaS model, it might not end up being free, but it’s sure to cost a lot less than traditional CMS products on the market.

Like WordPress, Weebly, and other popular browser based publishing tools out there, Sitemasher doesn’t require technical skills. In fact, Sitemasher promise if you can use Microsoft Powerpoint, then you’ll be able to use their simple drag and drop interface to build a website.

But a lot of companies promise this kind of ease of use. One area Sitemasher appears to up the ante is around database support and functionality. Sitting on the ASP.NET framework, it should be capable of interfacing with other systems easily, and will allow developers to write custom apps for integration.

Additionally, based on a model similar to Apple and the i-phone SDK, Sitemasher also intend to open this up as a marketplace where developers can write apps and receive revenue when they are used commercially.

What this should mean for the end business user is a much lower cost CMS, with all the standard CMS functions, plus custom developed applications on hand at the fraction of the price of building from scratch. In addition, it boasts in-built SEO and Analytics tools which are great must haves at no extra cost.

I’ll be testing out Sitemasher over the next few weeks, so may post again with some feedback from a user perspective.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in other free website functionality, read about Free Message Boards and other Social Media Functionality from KickApps.

If you have any experience of designing and building on the Sitemasher platform, we’d love to hear your comments below.

Links:
http://www.sitemasher.com

Sitemasher CEO Presentation:

Sitemasher Comparison Table:


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In preparing an SEO document for a client the other day, I spent some time clarifying why we were not proposing to measure the success of ongoing SEO services to them based on achieving first page Google SERPs for a pre-selected group of 10 keywords.

I’m interested to know if other SEO professionals out there agree, or have a different perspective.

Specifically, I wrote

“Whilst keyword ranking is an important step within the process, it represents part of the journey towards successful SEO (more traffic), rather than a final measure of success (more online conversions e.g. sales).

In essence, achieving high keyword rankings for a pre-defined number of keywords may not necessarily constitute a successful SEO campaign. Valuable keywords may change over time, and our assessment of which keywords are driving the highest volume of valuable conversions highlights new opportunities and sets new priority keywords.

Our focus is instead on optimising the number of valuable online conversions delivered via natural search traffic, and a key strength of this ongoing SEO program will be to take advantage of new opportunities to increase natural search traffic from keywords that are proving to drive conversions.”

Let me know if you agree (or not), or if you have had similar experiences with clients obsessed with selecting keywords that sound right, but are not yet proven to work.

For more SEO / SEM related posts see seo and sem

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Searching for ways to increase comments on a blog, I came across a good article from copyblogger (see link below).

One way I’ve considered trying to increase blog comments is by writing the first comment myself, under the same name as I use on the blog (not trying to fake comments), but so that readers get the idea that the post wasn’t supposed to be the end of the story, and might be encouraged to join in.

Do other people out there do this? Does it work? Does it come across as fake?

I’m tempted to think that done correctly, in a way that genuinely adds to the conversation, it’s an innocent way to encourage other folk to comment. Do you agree?

Naturally, I’m wary of how other people feel about this. So I’ll leave the box below blank this time and see what you think . . .

Links:
http://www.copyblogger.com/more-blog-comments

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If you work in advertising, media, marketing, PR, or elsewhere in the communications industry you may have already come across Brand Tags.

A deliciously simple concept, Brand Tags asks you to enter the first word or words that come into your head when prompted by an image or logo relating to a particular brand.

The result is certainly fascinating. A simple yet distinctive word map of what people really think of a brand.

Probably more representative of what people who work in marketing think of a brand, rather than mass opinion, but cool nonetheless.

Links:
http://www.brandtags.net/

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This question probably sounds like a no - brainer to advertisers with products to sell online. So if you’re ready to go, you could just skip to the LIVE Search Cashback link below and complete the application.

But an announcement like this from Microsoft does raise some questions, and for big advertisers might lead them to question the benefits.

In some circles, LIVE Search Cashback has already drawn derision. As many will note, publishers prefer to monetize advertising space on a CPM basis, guaranteeing their yield per thousand ads (note: this is how Google launched Adwords, before switching to CPC in 2002). And if CPC doesn’t finish the job, publishers will sell on a CPA basis as a last resort in order monetize unsold inventory.

In this scenario, MSN looks out of better ideas, and by sharing the CPA with the end user is effectively nulling any actual revenue for themselves from the transaction (although perhaps they will take a % on each sale as per the affiliate marketing network model).

On the other hand, there is reason to be positive. Advertisers and their digital agencies are sure to jump on board, as a CPA deal is hard to resist. And by incentivising users to join in too, this seems to cover all the bases.

But for me, there’s really just 2 questions that matter:

1) Will LIVE Search Cashback offer users genuinely useful functionality that they can’t get elsewhere?
2) Will it drive additional new sales for advertisers?

The first question is up to MSN to prove. Cashback schemes have been around online for a while, without redefining the way most people search and shop online. Sure, MSN will attract some premium brands affiliate marketing has failed to, but what it really needs to do is offer new and useful functionality that users can’t get elsewhere.

The second question is for advertisers to examine. Signing up to LIVE Search Cashback will doubtless register some sales, but are these sales you would have received anyway? Or to put it another way, how many of those sales are incremental?

This is probably less relevant to most small, medium, and even some large advertisers.

But for companies who are market leaders in their segment, and spend big budgets on brand advertising both online and offline to make sure people know all about their products, will this kind of advertising sell any additional units, or will it just subsidise people who would already buy one?

One example of this could be Apple and the ipod. Is it really conceivable that Apple and the retailers that stock their products will sell more ipods in the next 12 months as a result of listings on LIVE Search Cashback? Or will they sell exactly the same number, but have to pay people a small % in the process.

My advice, as the direct response mantra goes is “test, learn, optimize”. But in this instance, pay particular attention to bottom line sales and see if there is any noticeable shift, or if the source of sales has simply moved from one column to the next.

Links:
How it works for Users
http://search.live.com/cashback/howToUs

Advertiser Sign Up Form
http://advertising.microsoft.com/advertising/cashback

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Writing keyword rich press releases for SEO is a great way to generate content that can help your site receive more traffic from users searching for product / services relating to your business.

However, writing the press release for SEO is just the first step. Now you need to distribute it as effectively as possible by submitting it to sites with the highest Google Page Rank (a well known Google measure of how important a page).

The list of websites available from this link below is a great place to start seeding a press release, but if you’ve found better please let us know as we’re always on the lookout for new options. And for an overview of SEO tools see here.

Links:
http://www.avangate.com/articles/press-release-distribution_69.htm

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Came across this awesome creative 404 error page from Greenpeace whilst researching a client brief the other day.

Isn’t it just great when someone takes that extra bit of time to make something as boring as a 404 error page this much fun. This one manages to communicate the brand essence and key message at the same time.

Have pasted in a screengrab (you can click to enlarge), as the webpage won’t be there forever. If you know any other great examples feel free to let us know.

Greenpeace 404 Error Page:

Links:
http://www.greenpeace.org/uk

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Looking to install free message boards and other free social media functionality such as widgets, blogs, or YouTube style user generated photo / video content on your website? Then KickApps could be the ideal solution.

BTW - if you’ve installed KickApps, please think about leaving us a quick comment below to let us know your experience here.

KickApps looks like a pretty powerful white label solution that allows you to install and manage social media functionality on your website, without paying a cent for costly technical development work. Think Facebook, Myspace and YouTube style functionality, on your site, in your branding, for free.

Running on the fast-growing software as a service (SaaS) business model, KickApps allows you to install free message boards, free widgets, blogs, free video upload tools, and a whole host of community / member building and interaction tools with no entry costs.

Instead, you either agree to let them serve advertising on your site as part of a joint revenue share deal, or ‘buy out’ their share of potential ad revenue by paying based on how much you use their service (from $100 / month up, negotiable)

This is a huge win for smaller publishers that can’t afford the tech development costs associated with building this kind of functionality from scratch. And probably just as useful for larger organizations who don’t have the budget or internal will-power to get ’scary’ new tech work done.

KickApps offer different build options for web developers based on technical ability from a straight-up WYSIWYG for beginners, to custom look and feel via HTML and CSS / Javascript uploads, up to technical integration into your existing CMS, and custom development via API’s.

All of this masked under your own domain name, hosted by KickApps (so no need to worry about server requirements, data costs, or installing updates).

In summary, KickApps seems pretty powerful and throws up a whole host of interesting ideas and questions, particularly about the advertising / revenue model that I’ll probably write about another day.

Or if you are interested in the analytics side of things you can see more information about some free visual web analytics tools here.

Links:
What is KickApps - http://www.kickapps.com
Customization - http://www.kickapps.com/customization
Technology - http://www.kickapps.com/technology
Product Features - http://www.kickapps.com/features

KickApps Video Overview:

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Easy to use free web analytics tools can provide superior insights into what is working on your website, and what to change to make it work harder for you.

Most website managers have something installed in the form of a free analytics package such as Google Analytics, or a more advanced, customizable corporate option from the likes of HBX, Omniture Site Catalyst, Web Trends etc. In addition, these are often integrated with an adserving solution if appropriate. See more on free adserving tools here.

But as anyone will tell you, the real key to driving value from these packages is in generating useful insights from the analysis of web analytics data, that leads to website optimization and better performance results.

To help intepret data in a visual way, there are a number of other free and paid web analytics tools you can use. At the bottom of this post are links to 3 options.

The main advantage of these packages is the visual output, often called a heatmap (see below), that shows where users click most on the webpage. This can be invaluable for improving the ease of use, and for maximizing campaign-based promotions by ensuring they get the maximum attention from potential customers. Also great for boardroom presentations, where senior management want to ’see’ the effect of your work.

Our favourite from an initial review is Clickdensity, which as it’s javascript based, has no specific server or software requirements, and the price starts from free. CrazyEgg, also looks good, so based on your preference for user interface and pricing options could still be a good option. Labs Media seems limited in functionality, requires PHP on your server, but you can’t beat the price (free, option to donate).

If you know of any other good options, please let us know in the comments below.

Links:
http://www.clickdensity.com
http://crazyegg.com/
http://www.labsmedia.com

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