Keynote to YouTube fuzzy text

I've had a go at exporting a Keynote Presentation to YouTube today (see above) so popping by to share my findings. After setting a number of different transitions timings in the presentation, so that the pages fit with the music, on export to YouTube the settings only allow you to set 1 transition length from one slide to another. So that was a bit of a waste of time.

Moving on, the Keynote presentation displays fine on a small screen but the font appears fuzzy on a larger screen. It could possibly be the font that I am using and maybe the colour and the size.

I tried to improve the font fuzzy-ness issue by resizing via QuickTime (320 x 240 size) and then importing into iMovie, but no real improvements and the presentation timings got lost on the presentation into iMovie too.

I need to look into this a bit more to fully understand the potential of Keynote for sending out presentations to YouTube. I will continue to play with the video editing features on my Apple Mac, and one of these days I may even read the instructions !!!

If you have had any experience with Keynote & uploading to YouTube let me know.....thanks ;)

Refocusing my blog & rebalancing

The Blog is back....

Having started as an SEO specialist to move into PPC then Integrated Search Marketing, then Social Media and now Mobile Marketing. I am having trouble digesting all the new trends as well as making sure I connect to the important people around me. Also I have realised that I am spending too much time blogging for others, rather than blogging for myself. This isn’t a bad thing, but I wish to get my own blogging time back. Today is the day that I achieve this, being the 1st blog post since Sept 09!. To kick things off I like to review where I have been, as this will help me determine where I am going.

Refocusing isn’t new to me, for over 10 yrs myself and my closest friends have got together to write individual wish lists each year and then on New Years Day we revisit our lists as a group, to see how we have performed. Some of my friends have stated things like: “have a baby”, “pay of loan” “change career”, things like that. I have decided that I can do a similar thing on my blog/social networking/life, writing out a goal plan / wish list for the next 4 months. This will not only provide me with the focus I need, but it will also help get that work life balance back too.

Feel free to comment on anything than resonates with you.

I have been refocusing since 2001, read my story below. I can’t wait to start blogging again, having written all about the benefits of blogging here in December 09: http://blog.rocktime.co.uk/2009/12/whats-story-with-blogging.html indicating my re-focus to get my own blog back has been a long time coming (well 7 months !! anyway)

Refocus 1: 2001

Refocus 1: 2001 “I’m a creative in an admin world, taking part in a few PR events, need the qualification to be taken seriously”
So I left a very good job, sold the house, went to University to study International Business & Interactive Marketing at MA level..

Refocus 2: 2004

“Equipped with management experience and now the knowledge & theories from University, I am on a mission to find a job that is both linked with thinking strategically & creatively in Online Marketing”
Take temping jobs in PA work, Web Marketing & Project Management for 7 months which feels like an eternity. Find my dream role as an SEO Copywriter moving offline publications online. Mission accomplished and a lot of what I wrote still ranks highly in search engines today.

Refocus 3: 2006

“I have had a sudden interest in social marketing for business with review sites & interest in sites like Yahoo Searching for answers, look for a brand I can help”
Having networked with experts in SEO and now moved into field of Paid Search too, my company relocates to London and I relocate to Jersey. Creating and managing SEO & PPC and directing qualified customers to HSBC International. Mission accomplished.

Refocus 4: 2007
“I have written every offshore banking PPC ad imaginable, looked at Affiliate Marketing, know how to integrate my SEO & Social Media insights into product development and conversions, on reviewing progression, opportunities are limited, I want to give more”
Having several friends who work for agencies, I apply to work for an Agency in Jersey, so I can help more than 1 client, currently my experience in Search was Business, Property, Holiday and Finance. Another plus is that the agency I work with E-Scape Interactive, develop games for the National Lottery and games and gaming is another field I am interested in.

Refocus 5: 2009

“Love working for an agency and the diversity it gives, however feel that I am missing out on networking opportunities in the UK, especially where social media is concerned”
Move back to the UK and work for Rocktime Digital Agency, I am attracted to them as they can do anything web related and design bespoke systems. Set up the Search division and integrated my knowledge of SEO, PPC, Affiliate marketing and Social Media.

Refocus: 2010

“Social media sites, blogs, communities are growing at a fast rate, I am corporate blogging but need an extra place to share my thoughts and network after hours”

Make the decision to re-start my blog, consider starting totally afresh, but keep my timeline as I am proud of it. I am finding so many interesting people via Twitter and need to get organised to follow the ones that are really key to my interests & development. Currently my focuses are heavily on Social Media, Mobile Marketing, Video sharing & Youth Marketing communities. Quite a lot, so I am seeking to re-organise self, use others for inspiration and guidance. I will log my findings on my blog, so that I can free up my mind space for the other area that is important to me in life, my family.

Organising my Spaces

What I don’t want to be is a Jack of all trades but a master of none. I will be using social media to help me with organising the topics and the people that are important to me. I will be using:

Delicious Bookmarks - I have recently set up a http://packrati.us/ which will bookmark every link in a tweet you receive, and every link in a tweet you send. This has been of great help to me already, and I am bit my bit organising my bookmark tagging. Having in the past chosen the recommended tags, I am now being quite particular ie: this isn’t about “socialmedia, social media, social, social networking, social web”, it is simply about “socialmedia”.

Twitter lists - to separate people I admire in the fields I am interested in.
Read about Twitter Lists here....http://blog.rocktime.co.uk/2010/03/we-need-twitter-directory-for-twitter.html

Blog Directories - I will be submitting my blog to more directories with the hope that people will find me and share their information, rather than me seeking out information.
Read about Blog Directories here:
http://blog.rocktime.co.uk/2009/10/increasing-blog-traffic.html

Google - I will be using Google Documents a lot more to keep my blog post plans, store useful white papers and articles. I will also be seeking to organise my mail box a lot better, having interest in E-Marketing, I subscribe to many and general use them as inspiration pages - so need to label appropriately.

Networking - Before relaunching this blog, I wasn’t as keen to comment on blogs as I had nothing (apart from corporate blog and twitter) to give back. Having a more updated blog, will allow me to share with others that I have learnt from, perhaps re-blogging blog posts I really admire.

Home - My boyfriend / manfriend whom I hope will put a ring on my finger soon!! has been a total star in making his home, my home. He has decked out the garden, painted the lounge, kitchen, the overall aim for him was to get me home more, rather than working late at the office. He understands that I don’t have the average job, and I need to research and keep on top of new trends, and I love it that he is trying his very best to get me to come home on time. He blogs too, so understands the need to find time to blog, and that some days you can feel inspired, some days you don’t. I am at home today, in the garden, and blogging, so his plan has worked ! !

My new focuses till November 2010 is as follows:

• Get up early to exercise rather than to blog - use Wii Gaming & review progress
• Read one book every 2 months -at the beach rather than on the bus. This includes Crime thrillers and not just books focused on Marketing & Business.
• Organise my twitter lists, delicious bookmarks, youtube subscriptions once a week when my manfriend is at work
• Aim to write just 5 blog posts a month any extra is a bonus.
• Focus my networking & blog writing on particular topics to save time & learn more
• eg: Focuses for the next 4 months include: Youth Marketing, Mobile Marketing & Onsite Engagement
• Continue to thank all the people who help me with my focuses along the way.
• Produce the refocus for the next 4 months - make sure I am on track.
• Before re-focus kicks off, make plans in July to Organise: email, blog, delicious, twitter - into similar lists / labels / tags. No pressure in July but a clear focus on personal delivery.

All the best,

Sarah

Key considerations: Affiliate Marketing

Recent Affiliate Marketing Statistics

The UK market for affiliate marketing grew by an estimated 45% in 2007, taking the total value of online sales generated through this channel to more than £3.13 billion. [Econsultancy, January 2008]

– Commissions and fees paid out to affiliate networks (covering payments for both networks and affiliates) amounted to £186 million in 2007, up 40% from £133 million in 2006 (and compared to £83 million in 2005).

The UK affiliate market was worth £3.82bn in 2008, a 22% increase from £3.13bn in 2007. An estimated £227m was paid last year in commissions and fees to affiliates and networks. [Econsultancy Affiliate Marketing Buyer’s Guide 2009].

What is Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is a practice where other sites advertise your products or brand. These are called “affiliates” and in effect can be classed as an ‘online sales force’, a secret army to increase your conversions. Should a user then click through to your site from an affiliate site and make a purchase you pay the affiliate a commission on that purchase. Commissions vary from sector to sector, but I would expect to start at 2% to 5%.

Management, tracking and payment to affiliates can be handled direct with the affiliates but it is best practice for management to take place through an independent 3rd party; an affiliate network.

Affiliate networks handle all of the day to day tasks involved with operating an affiliate program. Along with you they make sure the ‘online sales force’ are happy.

They usually operate on a tiered management system, where you decide the level of involvement you require, from “basic” where they host your product information feed, pay the affiliates, provide an online management control centre, and then leave you more or less to it, to a managed account where they also provide an account manager who will dedicate time each month to optimising your program, acquiring high quality affiliates for you, Basically, actively promote your program.

There are a number of Affiliates networks out there each with a varying number of Affiliate clients. They all perform a similar function to a greater or lesser degree. They are generally judged or measured by the number of affiliates they have, the commission level they charge, and the service they provide to you.

Set up Costs:

Networks usually require a one off setup fee – usually £1,000 to £2,000.

Operating Costs:

Commission - Starts at around 5% - this is what is paid to the affiliate site and is percentage of the sale value.

Override fee - This is paid to the affiliate network – usually 30% of the commission paid to the affiliates.

Management – Depends on level of service required and network, but for a reasonable network £220 per month for basic package and £500 for managed.

Affiliate programs take time to become established but in the long term can be a highly cost effective method of customer acquisition.

Affiliate Marketing campaign goals

Consider the purpose/aim of your affiliate campaign:

• Bring new customers to the site• Deliver incremental business• Compliment existing advertising for brand recognition.• Build relations with your secret sales force

Choose approach

• Incremental sales and brand awareness – campaign structureUse Affiliate marketing to fit in with current campaigns, offers, top sellers. Maximise HALO effect of other marketing media

• Steady sales – flat structureProvides consistent volume of traffic from the affiliates based on small number of ads. Disadvantage of this is that Affiliates can become complacent and tiered commission level remains the same even if products become uncompetitive.

Compliment existing advertising

When using Affiliate marketing to integrate with other online activity and when looking for incremental sales, consideration needs to be given to the below:

• % AD spend: Fixed budget versus unlimited
• Channel conflict: Agency PPC vs Affiliate PPC
• Brand Management: Volume v Control
• Measuring effectiveness: Cost per acquisition and Return on Investment

Monthly reporting can include

• Success of creative and changes required, creative held on central hub
• Sales funnel analysis
• Review quality of customers by each affiliate
• Long term profitability by individual affiliates
• Maintain creative consistency across all affiliate sites
• 30 – 90 day review of affiliate sites.
• All the above working to a 90 day plan from launch – and into the future, be ready to surprise your Affiliates with some great offers.

Organic and PPC: selling tool

Four steps to sale

Qualification stage: Keyword
Selling phase 1: Adword ad / Organic ad
Selling phase 2: Landing page

Very simply organic and paid search ads are just another way of selling a product. They are small text, sometimes image ads which are clicked on by a qualified visitor. By qualified the potential customer has gained their qualification as they typed in a key-phrase in the search engine which relates to your product or service group. The adwords or organic text ad, is part of selling phrase 1 – on click / arrival to you site, it is time to get their interest by providing the customer with all the information they need.

If I was buying a shirt offline, checked out the spec; it fits, I would want to know if it was available in other colours too, same as if I was online. Other things online are of interest to me ie: I may need to find out about delivery details, as I need the shirt tomorrow, I could consider the sale as being a great deal and look for a ‘recommend a friend to this site’ offer. I then make the purchase and on leaving the checkout I was made aware what else was available after I left the checkout. I have re-qualified, next time I enter could be via the site name; thus I will be taken to special offers appearing on home page straight away. This is why the home page should appear on search for company name.

When picking up potential customers at the qualification stage, prominence should be given to the longer key-phrases, rather than single keyword, as these potentials are more likely to convert. Bear this point in mind when setting up PPC campaigns and Organic strategies.

What potential customers look out for in Selling phase 2.

Selling point 1 should be confirmed
Can they clearly find product or service looking for?
What other info could they need – can they find it?
If ready to buy are you providing them with a clear call to action?
Also consider who they are new v existing customersReview the image what is this portraying to above audience – does it match ad in selling phase 1.

Web Analytics for you

Help with Web Analytics

We can help you verify, analyse and interpret your web site data in line with your business goals.
At the first stage, we will help you define who your customers are, reviewing what they are searching for; what's important to them (voice of customers online community). This process helps us work with you to idenfity your key areas for growth, which will help set your overall goals and a clearer understanding on how to deliver to your online customer base.

Analytic implementation

Correct implementation of your web analytics will help you answer critical business questions of your websites effectiveness and highlight to you how your website is interacting with your customers.

Hint: The structure of the website should be driven by both the company and the customers.

Establishing a successful Web Analytics Framework

Clever use of your web analytics can help you and your company release the insight from the numbers. It will assist with future site design, architecture and indicate clear product / service drivers which will lead to development of a more profitable company site.

Analytics makes your site changes more meaningful and in line with customer habits.

Where to start

Pretty simply, start by defining your business goals and the goals for your website. Should you have separate product-managers speak to them, as each product-group will potentially have different targets / outcome & audience groups. Working with the project managers or solely, it is important to make sure you document and prioritise your goals and that the metrics being focused on can be actionable.

For example if you find an issue in your shopping cart, make sure you have the necessary back up / help to correct this.

Make use of the features in your web analytics package to assist you in reporting. For example; custom reporting and tracking via the use of tags on and off site.Consider how the analytics package can report on both high and medium level goals.

This may involve you setting up separate profiles in your analytics utilising use of filters –ie: you may just want to track success of organic traffic to the site.

Time to Analyse

The general rule is that you should spend 80% of your time on analysis and only 20% on reporting. Hint; make sure you keep a project list of all developments on your site ie: new banner, new page, new tracking – this will help clearly identify results.

Some areas of particular interest to me in analytics is reviewing the paths visitors took around the site, reviewing how they reached the product page and what creative on or off the site led to a purchase.

If you find that a high % are visiting a particular product page and leaving straight away, then, this may be due to your pricing strategy or they could have arrived by accident (see you organic keyword report).

A complete review will allow you to decipher:

1. How you can make your site better (navigation)
2. What customers particular like (engagement, page views, time in category)
3. How you can use the information to devise retention strategies
4. Whether you can make improvements to your calls to action
5. Look at particular market segments coming to your website, think about how the site
can be optimised for that segment. (ie: Review site traffic, build 'compare us' table)
6. etc, etc, etc – read Web Analytics an hour a day by Avinash Kaushik

Room to improve?

Remember analysis may not always indicate room for improvement, at these stages you could test things on the site to see if performance can be enhanced. This may mean moving a call to action button, or change creative (A/B testing), test different copy, give more prominence to certain benefits.

Hint; If there is a problem and you just can’t seem to fix it, speak to a usability company who can lead insight into the cause of the problem the web analytics has defined.

Analysis Paralysis

Don’t get carried away with the review, always consider how what you are finding will effect your overall business goals. If what you are reviewing is not related to overall business gain, then exclude this data. You don’t want to fall victim to a condition known as “analysis paralysis”.

Keep things focused

Develop scorecards of key business metrics, indicating where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow. These are also helpful when sharing the information with other members in your company. Ongoing review is critical, to obtain a clearer insight into the need and behaviour of your online customers and will help you identify business opportunities as your customers needs evolve.

Four step process

1. Outline your business metrics
2. Set up your reports in relation to business metrics
3. Analyse
4. Optimise the site / take action

WikiPedia thoughts

Why WikiPedia

Did you know that WikiPedia add “nofollow” on all external links, so that no link gain passes from Wikipedia to an external site. This policy does change the motivation of spammers and SEO professionals to add information to the site, which is a good thing in my opinion.

However just because you can’t get link quality score from WikiPedia, shouldn’t mean that it should be forgot about: as there is still traffic to be gained from having a Wikipedia entry.

The Wikipedia Ethos

The ethos of Wikipedia is that anyone can add and edit anything quickly and easily: however they do have a stringent and high level amount of quality and accuracy checks. It is against Wikipedia external linking policy to add links to sites you own, maintain or represent, so it’s best to add a WikiPedia account that can’t be connected to you. Seems like a dodgy tactic, but it’s true, and based on experience !!

What’s good about having an entry

Having an article mentioned or company entry on WikiPedia can only indicate one thing credibility. Also if you are a new start up, having an entry here could provide the impression that your organisation is bigger than it actually is (more legitimate). In a way having an entry on Wikipedia could be classed as being reputation management, its better to be there than not be there.

A few Wikipedia Tips

Because external links are so hard to add consider adding reference links.

If you do have problems adding an entry – make sure you contact the person who disapproved it, to find out what you could have done differently. If you are not getting anywhere fast, move on.

Make sure you meet the “notability test” and have added a reference to back your entry up, these could be online press releases. Check out Wiki-news, see if anything has been written in there.

Make use of categories, you can place the entry in more than one category via the use of category tags.

Contribute-yourself, to other WikiPedia posts– and build up age history in WikiPedia.

And if all the above fails, become BFF (best friends forever) with a Wikipedian (Editor on WikiPedia).


Good Luck

Benefits and Pitfalls of Adsense

If you are a niche site and you are yet to start generating revenue, Google Ad-sense would be a good move initially. Later date could look at sponsorship directly with advertisers.

How Adsense works:

Google use their sophisticated algorithm to determine the content and context of your web pages, they then match Google ads to each page.

Before they send out their robot with its algorithm rule book, Google will firstly look at your URL to determine which ads to display, if the site has yet been cached.

There is help to specify what adwords ads you don’t want to appear, just in-case it displays something which doesn’t suit ie: if local food directory focus on organic food – and ad for “Pizza takeaway local delivery” or one of the sites competitor would be unprofitable choice.

Benefits

Easy to set up, inexpensive and accessible – good for short term cash flow

Useful to identify other related sites – ones to contact in the future – possible collaboration to help each other increase traffic to your sites – help identify new
Marketing routes in future months.

Google does offer a higher % of payment to the website owner than other similar sites, the mode of payment is via EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer) directly into your bank account

Disadvantages

Could appear that you need extra income, harm credibility with viewers

No guarantees that ads will result in income

White space isn’t always a disadvantage – see the white space which surrounds this page:
www.google.co.uk