Lord of the Rings Onlines introduces Wordpress for character & kin profiles
Last night when I went to login and start battling foes on Lord of the Rings Online a new alert jumped out at me. LOTRO introduced character profiles and blogging system for its members. As any self respecting SEO, I went to check out to see what was going on. After logging I found that LOTRO is using Wordpress to give every member and kinship a profile page.
Without trying to control my urge to test it out, I did a blog on how the Wordpress Dashboard works so other members who many not be used to Wordpress can get a quick run through and seasoned veterans who don’t have an account can get an idea of the capability.
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Taking market share in a downed economy
Economical times can force businesses to make decision they would rather avoid. Typically, though exceptions are rare, companies thrive on sales of good and/or services to get through daily operations. But in challenging economic times companies need to think of avenues to pull in a fresh source of business.
It boils down to advertising and brand/name awareness. Companies that do not posses the leverage to gain and defend market share have a more difficult time drawing in consumers. It’s not because smaller companies provide inferior products or service. But quite the contrary. Small companies typically do not have a war chest to pull from to sustain long stretches of a downed market.
So what is the option? How does a smaller company fighting to stay alive gain market share while the pool of consumers continues to decrease?
Here is how. Get a marketing program together that does not take a continual influx of cash to maintain, a marketing program that takes into account available free time of a downed market and one that, as a business owner, has ownership and expertise.
Outsourcing marketing campaigns to print advertisers is inefficient, high cost and delivers minimal return. Switching to an internet driven marketing strategy will yield long term dividends. An internet marketing strategy works 24/7/365 with no interruptions, well save the intermitted server errors.
Building a Web 2.0 business blogsite is one of the most inexpensive marketing strategies a small business can have. Mapping a plan to dominate hyper local keywords and phrases makes the small business owner and instant expert authority within their realm. Consumers are driven to the website that has the most relevant and comprehensive data regarding a topic via search engines.
This idea may seem new but rest assured it’s not. Online brand building is captivating a large audience across the world and that is why on my Snohomish County real estate website the work continues to solidify the site as the authority. One strategy a site can incorporate, in which I have done (after building a SEO friendly site with quality content), is to get on local authority sites.
CitizenRain is a website built by one of the largest news companies in Washington, King5. They have a real estate page which syndicates local real estate blogs and if you look underneath the advertisement on the left you’ll find a list of those blogs. Number 5 on the list is mine. So every time I publish something it automatically gets the exposure from a trusted website, increasing exposure and decreases search engine index time. This results in a superior website when compared to other local competitors.
Strategies like this take very little time compared to the amount of market life they generate. Invest in great technology, get it exposed and it will work for you.
Why Live Search is failing Microsoft
Everyone who follows online search is familiar with the competitive nature of the industry. The big three, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, compete heavily to deliver the most accurate search results on a given query. That is why Microsoft made the half assed attempt to takeover Yahoo. As it sits, Google controls search, period, and that translates into many eyes balls using search as their online starting place.
With Microsoft the failure has not been due to their Live Search strategy but with the results search queries render. It was actually showed me through a routine search using Live Search. During game play on LOTRO, I tabbed out to a browser for a quick search and instead of using the Google search bar I used the Live Search on MSN’s homepage.
The search term was “lotro maps” (minus quotes) and I fully expected to see query to render highly similar to those found on Google. Quite the opposite actually. Using Google, a listing is generated for a site pointing to a webpage that is hosting dynamic map of LOTRO worlds. The page is everything pertinent for the search term and gives users the best results for the query. On the other hand, Live Search rendered a site that is setup as a gold spam site which focuses on keyword stacking to emphasize authority for the search term.
Search Results
- Google
- Live Search
The top listings display two totally different results. Live Search seems to put to much emphasis on the number of times the keyword are placed on the page. Google on the other hand displays a result that is highly relevant to the query and that result that has minimal keyword density, if any, on the page. I am no rocket scientist but the Live results seem to have no relevance to the query.
Another area to analyze is Microsoft’s correlation between search term and website’s url (also can be viewed in the previous example). This example looks at the search term “click here” (minus quotes).
Search Results
- Google
- Live Search
Google still basis a lot of importance on the number of incoming links coming to a website and as a result Adobe ranks #1 for “click here”. Adobe has so many links to its website with the anchor text “click here” because so many sites link to their download page as a precaution if their users do not have Adobe Acrobat. Microsoft seems to feel the domain name clickhere.com is more important. But like in the first example, more emphasis is being put on the domain name that relevant incoming links.
The last reason why Live Search is not working for Microsoft is that they are over diversified and not focused on solely on search. Windows and Office have been the work horses for Microsoft for many years and the foundation in which it has created its massive empire. But search has never been Microsoft’s primary focus like other tech companies have made it. This over diversification does not allow Microsoft to isolate and focus on the variables that comprise a useable search.
That is why Live Search is failing Microsoft. They cannot get their algorithm right to display the most accurate results for a specific query. The domination of search, or the quest to dominate search, will not end anytime soon and providing more relevant searches is going to be harder for Microsoft if they can not get it together soon.
Brand building basics for every company
Branding is one of the most important items to a companies marketing program because it will be with a company from the very beginning all the way to the end. Branding is an item that is usually over looked as a whole but by default is deployed by small businesses.
Major corporations have spent billions of dollars and many years building the brand they want the public to know. There are three main items to think about when starting to think about how you want your brand portrayed: industry, logo and slogan.
Defining what industry a business works in is harder than it first seems. At first glance a start-up plumbing company would seem to be in the plumbing industry. But that is just part of it. It also works in the customer service industry and the home repair/maintenance industry.
This little example shows that defining an industry is more difficult that first realized. To start off make a list of everything your business does and who it serves. Then think about how are these items affected by other industry they maybe related to and it will give a business owner a better understanding of what their logo might look like.
A logo is the symbol of a company and it is the first thing that can relate a product or service to a company. A logo should convey what industry the business is in and what type of services it provides. Barnett Associates Real Estate, LLC uses a opening door in the middle of its name to convey who they are and what their business does. The opening door also gives the impression they are open for business and/or have a “open door” policy where questions and discussion are always welcome.Â
A logo should be simple in design, effective in its message and have the ability to be used in ever piece of marketing material produced. It is recommended that a logo design company be enlisted or a company purchases some excellent logo building software. After the logo is established then a marketing slogan can be thought of.
A slogan is a catch phrase that when said or read triggers a thought or feeling for a particular company or product. We hear slogans all the time in media advertising and can be highly effective especially when used in conjuction with a well planned marketing program. What do you think of when you hear these slogans?
- Chevrolet, like a rock
- Do you Yahoo?
- BMW, the ultimate driving machine
These slogans are built upon the already established image a company has and as time goes on add more and more value to the company in which they support.One item that affects a brand is time. It take awhile to build a solid and effective brand because a few marketing pieces can’t be produced and be immediately recognizable. This is also contingent on how much money a company may have to throw at building their brand. More money, less time and vise versa.
If a company uses a well planned marketing strategy and makes an effort to build a brand (instead of just getting their name out) it will pay long-term dividends and help increase the success of a small company.