August 2005
Monthly Archive
Are we being ripped of with Google Adwords?
I listened to a webcast recently (a typically long, padded out dialog that Americans seems to love so much - don’t beat around the bush - gimme the facts!) and part of this covered how to delete adwords that had gone inactive and then resubmit them - using the minimum bid amount.
Tried that - a few days later the keywords - AND a whole bunch more had gone inactive.
Now, I’m new to adwords, but to me this smacks of being ripped off
Online Auctions - had their day?
MattE 24 Aug 2005 | : Marketing, Web
As part of my scan for previously untried on-line marketing methods for Caricature King, I have just completed a quick review of a number of on-line auctions sites. The results show that while plenty of people are still posting items, almost without exception, NO ONE is bidding.
I was very surprised to see that even on the Yahoo auction site, in the seven categories I saw only two bids. On another 8 sites visited, I did not find one single bid.
Are on-line auctions dead? or is it just that eBay is seen as the one place that everyone visits.
RapidShare share HUGE files online
RapidShare offers a free service where you can upload files up to 50mb in size, and then share it anyone via a URL RapidShare supplies.
Got some software you want to distribute without using up all of your bandwidth? Or perhaps in your work you have very large image files or datafiles…
We have no affiliation with them, just a good idea!
Project update - Caricature King and Google Adwords
MattE 20 Aug 2005 | : Marketing, Web
Its three weeks now since I started using Google Adwords. They had a slight policy shift in that time, but I won’t go into that.
What I have done is placed bid amounts on some keywords and written a variety of ads. The click-through rates on these ranges from 1.8% down to 0.9%. I have also limited my spend to A$7 per day, because it does not take too long to rack up a bill.
One thing that is obvious for a site that started off from scratch - Google Adwords can deliver traffic. They might not be looking at buying my product, but traffic is flowing.
I guess one of the issues is that there are a lot of people out there looking for free caricatures of celebs etc. We don’t have those. So I have had to ensure this fact is obvious in my ads. i don’t want to be paying for clicks from people who are looking for what I don’t have.
Your website is a reflection of your business
I was asked recently to do a free website appraisal for a small business. To be honest it made me cringe.
Now, full marks to the guy for trying - he was self-taught in html and the site had been done a few years ago - but I certainly would not use his business based on his website. I’m not going to reveal the site, but will touch on some of the issues based on what a site should have:
Web sites need a consistent design
Design = consistency. People are assured by consistency, both with bricks and mortar and on-line. A neat, well organised site provides confidence. Having different font sizes and colours for text on each page, plus a different layout does not reflect well.
SMS traffic grows by 18%
The number of SMS messages sent on the Telstra network grew 18 per cent to 2.3 billion.
While Telstra’s market share may be under pressure, to still exhibit this growth demonstrates the growing awareness of SMS as a communication medium - and not just in the 16-24 market. SMS is becoming more mainstream - a fact that companies wanting to market their products and services have yet to fully realise.
Part of the issue is the slow uptake into marketing strategies by advertising agencies.
Why aren’t ad agencies making more use of SMS? The feedback I have received is “Our clients have not ASKED us for it”. So much for being thought leaders…the one’s that are using it are able to deliver better campaigns, and their clients are enjoying the benefits.
An interesting use of a blog
Here is an interesting way to get minutes of meetings out to interested people. The Portland Shambhala Meditation Center blogs its minutes as can be seen here: PSMC Council Notes 07/28/05
An idea local councils and municipalities should perhaps adopt - right down to the ability of the lkocal community to leave comments.
An innovative fundraising idea
MattE 11 Aug 2005 | : Marketing, Web
You may have read in an earlier post about our new service - Caricature King. Here we present one of our marketing approaches. Perhaps it could work for your product?
Is your school, church group, activity group, scout group or other group looking fundraising ideas? Are you sick of sausage sizzles, car washes and other high-energy activities?
Coming up with new fundraising ideas can be a challenge. However there is now a new fundraising idea that makes it easy – and it can be done simply, easily harnessing your group’s social and work networks and the power of email….a digital caricature.
Google adds news to RSS
MattE 09 Aug 2005 | : Communications, Media, Web
About Google News Feeds might be a great alternative to having lots of feeds from different news sources.
You can get top stories, business etc. If you have not gotten your head around RSS yet - this might be the time (and don’t forget, when you do, you can add this blog to your RSS reader/aggregator
SMS to alert Sydney CBD site managers of terrorist attack
MattE 05 Aug 2005 | : Media, SMS
This item on the ABC (Aust) website) SMS to alert Sydney CBD site managers of terrorist attack.
New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma has released details of the Government’s plan on how to swiftly evacuate Sydney’s CBD in the event of a terrorist attack.
It is broadly modelled on the strategy used in the recent London bombings.
