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How Exact Match Domains Have Weathered the Penguin Storm

September 25, 2012 by Basil Puglisi 3 Comments

Exact match domains have always had the added advantage of direct-type in traffic, giving them certain immunity to algorithm updates. Once an EMD is linked to a website, the webmaster’s behavior has more to do with rankings. Penguin sought out sites with too many exact match anchor text links, but the outcome had more to do with who can get away with it and to what extent. For EMDs, exact anchor text makes up part of the natural link profile.
Brand based anchor text is natural, i.e. www.brandname.com, brandname.com and brand name. When your brand is your exact match domain name, your website is not going to set off those same red flags for your exact match keywords. But, what you’ve done with your link profile beyond that is what does come in to play with Penguin. Is the rest of your link profile diversified with partial anchor text, long tail, and a nice mix of click here, visit this site and straight http: links? That’s most likely what sets apart the ones who were impacted by Penguin and those that were not.

Tier 2 pages

What have the exact match sites done with their tier 2 pages? Chances are, most have targeted different keywords for those pages and not focused on as many brand anchor text links. Natural links to tier 2 pages often contain the title tag. Take a look at your back link profile and look how others linked to those pages. That’s a good indicator of what natural linking to those pages looks like.

Meta Data

Another issue any site could run in to is over-optimized title tags. So, if you repeated your keywords in your title tag in a spammy way, i.e. red shoes, cheap red shoes, not only does that page come across as spammy because of the title tag existing on it, but if a user linked to your site with the title tag, that appears spammy, too.
Keep in mind, if you keep on playing with your title tags, you set off a spam alert. If your title tag is webmaster tools compliant, don’t tweak it. Spammers will often watch if their title tag adjustments results in higher or lower rankings and if they drop, they will go back and revert the changes. This is when you get in to trouble. Your server records the file date every time you make a change and Google uses that data to make an evaluation.
Many exact match domains do continue to rank well in Google post Penguin, but no site is immune to future updates. Moving forward, don’t assume that because your website was not affected that it won’t be. We’ll always be left guessing what the next problematic issue will be.
 
Source:

  • Image

Theresa Happe works with Buy Domains, a leading source of domains for sale, including available and exact match domains.

Filed Under: Basil's Blog #AIa, General, Guest Bloggers, Search Engines, SEO Search Engine Optimization Tagged With: google, SEO, SEO Search Engine Optimization

What is Inbound Marketing? [Internship]

September 24, 2012 by Basil Puglisi 4 Comments

            Inbound marketing is a way of making yourself or your company easy to find and drawing people to your website by producing content that appeals to your visitors. The term “inbound marketing” was coined in 2005 by HubSpot’s Brian Halligan because he believed that traditional marketing was becoming less effective. Inbound marketing includes content like blogs, enewsletters, and the social media network. Inbound marketing is far more favored by businesses than outbound marketing. Outbound marketing includes content such as spam, telemarketing, and fliers.
            The whole concept of inbound marketing is to get the customers to find you, instead of you reaching out to them. It can be broken down into five stages. One, attract traffic; two, convert visitors to leads; three, convert leads to sales; four, turn customers into repeat higher margin customers; and five, analyze for continuous improvement. A company can attract traffic to their website by blogging, for example. Updating your blog more frequently will attract more visitors to your website and revenue traffic. Announce your website via email, and across the social media networks like Google+ and Twitter to garnish social and search traffic. Email everyone you know about your new website, lead with content and the word will travel. Share it on your social media websites. Include keywords that will draw your targeted audience in. Then, you want to make sure that the material on your page is what the visitor is looking for. Your goal is to make the visitor a customer. After your visitor becomes a customer, make sure they will come back by sending them an enewsletter and keep your page updated with things that will attract them to buy again. After you went through the four steps of the process, you want to analyze everything that you have done and make sure you are doing everything you can to satisfy your visitors, followers, customers.
            In order to make inbound marketing completely effective, you want to give your customers your marketing information, and a little something else. This provides a value above and beyond what they are looking for, which creates a value to the customer experience. For example, if you’re a gardening or landscaping company, write a little side story about your home garden and how you personally take care of it in the newsletter. The three key phases are “get found, convert, and analyze”.
            Inbound marketing can be effective if the communication is interactive and two-way, unlike outbound marketing which is one-way. One way to create inbound marketing is by being found on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, YouTube, etc. This is a type of inbound content because someone who is looking for something specifically related to you will go directly to your page. By creating valuable content on your website, your website will rise in organic search results. By rising in organic search results, it will benefit you tremendously because the closer you are to the search engines first page, the more visibility you are gaining for your website.
You can try and get your website higher in the organic search result by pay per click (PPC). PPC is an advertising model used to direct traffic to a certain website. Every time someone’s ad is clicked, the advertiser pays the website owner or publisher. Another way to rank higher in organic search results is to make a well put together press release that is filled with information that your targeted audience will click on when they search on a search engine. Don’t use keywords that are commonly used by your competition; be more creative when it comes to keywords.
            A recently new field that inbound marketing has found its way to is the social media network. Social media sites are the most visited websites on the web. When marketing on social media, identify your target audience. Once you have a targeted audience, think about keywords this audience might use to search to find sites like yours. Facebook for example, has seen a steady increase in its search bar for businesses. A basic principle of a social media site is like using a forum, if there is no activity going on you will leave. To make sure that this doesn’t happen to you on your website, fill it with lots of information and useful content. Finally, another way to use the social media network for inbound marketing is to give your “community” something to talk about. For example, if you own a fitness company and you are now selling a new workout machine, tell your social medic community. This is the “network effect”, when your community creates a “buzz” about what you were talking about, it will bring in other users.
            An easy way to get information out about your business or product is to advertise where they are already going. For example, by putting “like us on Facebook” on your company’s website, this will draw people to your Facebook page where you can advertise all about your business, products and services. Another way to generate inbound marketing is to host contests. By letting your visitors and or customers take an online survey about their experience with your website, offer a chance to win a prize if they take the survey. Also give them the opportunity to go through an easy-to-do sign up for newsletters offering them coupons and sneak peeks into the future.
            Inbound marketing is far more effective than outbound marketing. You can prove this just by asking if you have deleted spam mail without reading it. Spam mail is an example of outbound marketing. Since social media is huge growing field, there should be no question as to why inbound marketing is so effective. In the end, it’s all about finding a new way to generate interest, and inbound marketing is the new way to generate interest and visitors, followers, customers.  
Sources:

  • http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/digital-marketing/curious-needy-website-deliver/
  • http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/13-tools-to-simplify-your-social-media-marketing/
  • http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/start/business-planning/inbound-marketing-the-customer-finds-you/article2079880/
  • http://socialmediatoday.com/feldmancreative/480843/inbound-marketing-works-copywriter-s-success-story
  • http://www.times-standard.com/business/ci_19898286
  • http://www.pamorama.net/2012/03/31/inbound-marketing-vs-outbound-marketing-infographic/#.UFyI1I1mSGk
  • http://smallbiztrends.com/2012/01/jeanne-hopkins-hubspot-interview.html

The content in this article is part of Digital Ethos’s Digital Media Education in the Higher Education Internship Program, the content was created by @KaylaMarzo, a Student at Suffolk County Community college, intern at Digital Ethos.

Filed Under: Authors, Basil's Blog #AIa, Branding & Marketing, Business, General Tagged With: business, inbound, internet marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Visibility, website

Why LinkedIn? [Internship]

September 17, 2012 by Basil Puglisi 2 Comments


                In today’s economy, students and young professionals share a common fear. Their fear is whether or not they will find a job. With the presidential debate currently going on, the candidates for president are constantly promising to make new jobs. This does nothing but make the current students worry that there are no jobs now and may not be any in the future. Fortunately, there are online tools that can help graduates and undergraduates worry a bit less. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking site. It is said to be the best investment you will ever make in your career. It is used by individuals and businesses for networking, job searching, hiring, and much more.
                Recently, I have started an internship with the company Digital Ethos. They have asked me if I was signed up with the website LinkedIn and were shocked when I said I was not. Immediately I signed up after receiving their reaction. I could see how important LinkedIn was right away. LinkedIn is a great way to establish your identity on the web. With 175 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is clearly a striving network that helps individuals and small businesses to large corporations.  With LinkedIn, you can exchange ideas, knowledge, and opportunities with a broad network of professionals. Your LinkedIn account is the first impression someone gets when they google you, this can be a huge benefit if your LinkedIn account is up to date and well put together. Your LinkedIn page can either make you or break you.
                Signing up for LinkedIn is easy. You simply put in your full name and your email address. From then on, LinkedIn gives you step by step instructions on how to get your account up and running. This includes indicating where you are currently employed and what type of job. Another cool feature of LinkedIn lets you indicate what field you are in. It also asks you where you have been employed in the past and for how long. This can give your future employer a general knowledge of where you worked and what your skill-sets could be. Your education also holds a section on your LinkedIn profile, which can include when you were in high school and in college. If you haven’t graduated from one or the other, it lets you select your anticipated graduation year. LinkedIn has a section called “Summary” which lets other users quickly learn about your background and interests. There is a different area for your skills and expertise which helps potential employers find you when they are searching for a specific knowledge-base. Recommendations on your page can carry a lot of weight.  It lets your colleagues, clients, or suppliers speak on your record. Recommendations are just like reference part of your resume. You’re “snapshot” is like your web based business card. It includes your name, location, education, recommendations, education, past positions, and links to your website. Use this space efficiently and you’ll be sure to catch someone’s eye.
                These days, it is so crucial for not only graduates, but undergraduates, to get their foot in the door of the career world right away. It is very important for young professionals to use LinkedIn for many reasons. Young professionals don’t have a lot of experience, so LinkedIn helps them by providing an answers section. This allows a wide variety of professionals to answer any question you might have about your field or any type of field you may be interested in. Asking and answering questions also helps you build your online visibility. This is essential to making your way to the top. This generation of young adults is said to be the “Digital Native” generation since most, if not all, of their life was spent in front of a screen. LinkedIn lets them continue this sort of lifestyle and it makes it a lot more comfortable to be more productive on the network. Young professionals have little to no experience in the work force. LinkedIn gives them a realistic outlook on their field of interest. You should never let one job define your field. With over 175 million members worldwide, it is easy to network and see all kinds of different sides of your field. You can also check out your fields leading players. You can see how they got to where they are by seeing where they went to school, what they studied, what skills they developed, what groups they belong too, and to whom with they are connected. This will help you obtain a better grasp on your anticipated field you want to join.
                The people who are part of your network are called your connections. A connection can indicate that you know the person well or that they are a trusted business contact. In order to become a connection, you need to be invited and accepted. LinkedIn doesn’t support people in adding somebody that they don’t know. When you want to send someone a connections request, LinkedIn asks how you know this person. The options include colleague, classmate, friend, business partner, and I don’t know said person. If you chose “I don’t know said person”, LinkedIn will not allow you to add them. If you chose any of the other, it will ask for the persons email address.
                LinkedIn narrows down your connections into three different categories. They are first degree, second degree, and third degree connections. First degree connections are the people that you have directly connected with because you or the person sent an invitation that has been accepted. Second degree connections are the people who are connected with your first degree connections. You can contact them through something called an introduction. You may ask your first degree connection to introduce you to your second degree connection. Since you probably don’t know your second degree connection, an introduction from your first degree connection would be the only way to connect with them. Finally, your third degree connections are the people who are connected to your second degree connections. If you want to become their first connection, you have to ask for an introduction. An introduction usually sounds like, “Dear Mr. Smith, Let me introduce you to Mr. John from Company X.” LinkedIn shows you which connection a person is by placing an icon which says either “1st”, “2nd”, or “3rd” connection.
                LinkedIn offers a feature called “groups”. Being a member of a group lets you engage in one on one networking between group members. An advantage is that you can send lnmail for no fee. As a member of a group, you can discover the most popular discussions in your professional group. LinkedIn groups also allow you to follow the most influential people in your groups by looking at the Top Influencers board to see all their group activity.
                Looking for a job on LinkedIn is said to be a whole lot easier than going door to door hoping they are hiring. If you know what company you are interested in joining, simply search for them on LinkedIn’s search bar. The company will have their employers listed and you can network with them and see what they did to be able to work with the company. Eventually, you will be able to establish them as a connection. On the other hand, if you have no idea what company you want to work for, you can search a keyword, job title, or location. Even though the search is much broader, you will still get a general knowledge of what you are looking into.
                It is clear to see that there is a lot more to LinkedIn than just looking for a job in a newspaper. Connecting with people and getting your name out there can also contribute to your success on LinkedIn. If you use your LinkedIn profile correctly, it will become a huge benefit for you in the job marketing world.
Sources:

  • http://learn.linkedin.com/what-is-linkedin/
  • http://press.linkedin.com/node/1224
  • http://jumpstart-hr.com/three-reasons-why-young-professionals-must-use-linkedin
  • http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-tips-to-enhance-your-experience-on-linkedin/
  • http://jobsearch.about.com/od/networking/a/linkedin2.htm
  • http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/networks/linkedin3.htm
  • http://learn.linkedin.com/groups/

 
The content in this article is part of Digital Ethos’s Digital Media Education in the Higher Education Internship Program, the content was created by @KaylaMarzo, a Student at Suffolk County Community college, intern at Digital Ethos.

Filed Under: Basil's Blog #AIa, Business Networking, Conferences & Education, General, Sales & eCommerce, Social Brand Visibility, Social Media, Social Media Topics Tagged With: internet marketing, LinkedIn, networking, Social Media, social network

Back to Basics: Why Facebook? [Internship]

September 10, 2012 by Basil Puglisi 1 Comment

Facebook is an important utility in digital communications that helps people connect with friends, family, and coworkers. Facebook can also make networking a whole lot easier. Statistics show that in July 2012, there were 955 million monthly active users. Approximately 81% of the monthly active users are located outside of the United States and Canada.
 From the start of Facebook, the founders wanted it to be free for everyone. Facebook seems to be the dream place for a company or business to showcase their products, services, and links to their own website for no cost.  Facebook is a great way to brand your name or your company. It lets you share information via text, picture and video. The network also allows feedback on whatever you are offering. Nearly 80,000 sites are using Facebook Connect. By doing this, sites are making personal social graphs portable so they travel along online. It is said that one of the best ways to find a new job is through a friend. Therefore, keeping up with coworkers and the business through Facebook is very important.
Facebook gives you many different options to stay in touch and keep connected with your cliental and future clients. For example, if your company has a big event coming up, Facebook lets you share this by creating an event and setting it public. Since it is a public event, people on Facebook who aren’t even your friend or “fan” can see this and RSVP. Networking is also key. When you register for Facebook and start adding friends, your name, company or brand will be out there, which can create additional exposure and generate interest in connecting. By constantly updating on your page, it will keep your friends or fans connected and waiting for more. If you want the connection to be valuable then make sure what you are sharing is interesting and relevant. Facebook is busiest during the weekdays in the morning. Morning posts have a 37.9% more user engagement than afternoon posts, meaning if you post in the morning you are more likely to have more feedback than if you posted in the afternoon. If you are one of those people who are constantly on the go and can’t be glued to their computer, apps such as “HootSuite” and “Tweetdeck” allow you to schedule the release of messages.
With 955 million users, it shouldn’t even be a question to get involved with Facebook. Facebook can benefit you and your business tremendously. The fact that even other countries are close to surpassing the United States with active users is mind blowing. One would say that Facebook is the easiest way to network and get your businesses name out there. Facebook has made it very simple to organize and design your business page.
Sources

  • http://newsroom.fb.com/content/default.aspx?NewsAreaId=22
  • http://blog.socialmaximizer.com/14-tips-for-marketing-on-facebook/
  • http://inspiredm.com/facebook-for-business/
  • http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/11-mind-blowing-reasons-your-business-needs-facebook/
  • http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kimkomando/story/2012-06-08/facebook-marketing-tips/55444700/1
  • http://www.marismith.com/six-ways-effectively-promote-events-on-facebook-case-study/
  • http://allfacebook.com/study-reveals-when-facebook-users-are-most-active_b21314

The content in this article is part of Digital Ethos’s Digital Media Education in the Higher Education Internship Program, the content was created by @KaylaMarzo, a Student at Suffolk County Community college, intern at Digital Ethos.

Filed Under: Basil's Blog #AIa, General, Social Media Tagged With: facebook, higher education, internship, Social Media, social network

Top 5 Social Media Moments Of The 2012 Olympics

September 8, 2012 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

The 2012 London Olympics will not only be remembered for its spectacular venues and amazing athletic performances, but also for the effect of social media on all aspects of the games. Twitter, Facebook, and other online social media were predicted to explode with content during the Olympics, but no one could have foreseen the direct impact these sources would have.
The following are five of the most significant moments that were directly attributed to the presence of social media during the 2012 Olympic Games:
1.  Greek Olympian Barred from Olympics for Racist Tweet
Greece’s top female triple-jumper, Voula Papachristou, was barred from the Olympics by the Greek Olympic Committee because of what they called: a “tasteless” tweet. Her tweet was posted on July 23, 2012 (right before the start of the games) and said: “With so many Africans in Greece… At least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat home made food!!!”
The outcry from Greek social media was immediate and angry. Most of the responders wanted her kicked off the team, including the coalition government partner, Democratic Left. The Greek Olympic Committee responded by expelling Papachristou from the team.
Papachristou did send an apology tweet two days later, but it was too little too late in the eyes of the country – the damage had already been done.
2.  Opening Ceremony Outrage
The London opening ceremonies had a lot to live up to after a spectacular show put on in Beijing. There was so much riding on this that leaders in London felt compelled to give their opinions to the world. The day after the opening, an English political party minister, Aiden Burley, tweeted that the ceremony was “leftie multicultural crap.” Prime Minister David Cameron was asked to comment and he said that it was an “idiotic” thing to say.
A lot of the criticism of the Opening Ceremony was directed at the American broadcast. The hashtag “#NBCfail” became extremely popular after the airing. British journalist Guy Adams was so disappointed in the broadcast of the ceremony that he tweeted out the email address of NBC Olympics president, Gary Zenkel, and encouraged people to email him their complaints.
3.  Twitter Comments Lead to Arrest
The British athletes had more than just the usual Olympic pressure on them. They were performing in front of the home crowd with the reputation of the nation on their shoulders. British diver Tom Daley is one of the best in the world, but during the men’s synchronized 10m platform event he did not have his best day, and the team from Great Britain finished fourth.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, Tom Daley then received a Twitter message saying that he had let down his father. Tom’s father Rob died in May 2011 from brain cancer. The 17-year-old boy who sent this tweet was then arrested on suspicion of malicious communications (think about how full the prisons would be if this law was enforced regularly for Twitter comments).
4.  The Fab Five
Some of the biggest moments on social media were supplied by the American female gymnasts, known as the “Fab Five.” Jordan Wieber was expected to compete for individual gold, but had a disappointing first day. She was able to get past the let down and help them win team gold. After her gold medal in the individual all-around, the whole world was tweeting about Gabby Douglas. Unfortunately, it was not all positive as enough people were tweeting negative comments about her hair that it made national news.
McKayla Maroney was expected to win gold in the vault, but after she fell on her second attempt she had to settle for silver. This did not sit well with the young gymnast and she made disgusted faces during the medal ceremony. A few people got the idea to photoshop the image of Maroney on the medal stand into pictures of famous moments with the caption: “McKayla is not impressed.” If she is a good sport about it, she might be able to combine the popularity of the meme with merchandise and turn a bad situation into a profitable one with the right type of small business shopping cart software.
Surprise star of the team, Aly Raisman, accidentally sent what was supposed to be a private tweet out to all of her followers saying that she was going to a club with the male gymnasts. She quickly deleted it and put out a new tweet about going to bed early, but it was too late.
5.  Lochte’s Mom
The American swim team made a lot of news during the Olympics. Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian of all time, the women showed dominance and a youth movement that should carry over into the next few Olympic Games, and Ryan Lochte came away with five medals. But the story that really took hold in the world of social media was an interview Ryan Lochte’s mom gave where she told the world that her son doesn’t have long relationships, he has “one night stands.” Lochte quickly stated that he was sure his mom meant that he just goes on a lot of first dates, but the Twitter world was already buzzing.
Obviously, social media is still a relatively new phenomenon to the Olympics, but it is definitely here to stay. So if future Olympians take any lesson away from the 2012 London Olympics it should be to remember to re-read all of their tweets and if there is any question they could be taken the wrong way, just hit “delete” and nobody will ever know.
Daniel Brown covers celebrity news and sports from his hometown of Los Angeles, CA.

Filed Under: Basil's Blog #AIa, General, Guest Bloggers, Social Brand Visibility, Social Media, Social Media Topics Tagged With: olympics, Social Media

Digital Media Education Internship Program

September 3, 2012 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

Digital Ethos introduces the Digital Media Education Internship Program  We believe that we have developed a program that might be of some interest to you and/or your students.
The internship program with Digital Ethos is designed for students that wish to learn how to write for digital publications, develop hands on learning in digital media and marketing. Interns learn through the “Read, Write & Share” philosophy in areas of Digital Media, Social Media, Content Development, Brand Marketing and more.
The basic program requires six publications by the intern spread out over three months. During this time the intern is required to conduct research in an area of interest under the supervision of a Digital Ethos contributing author. The Program is administered by the Executive Director to maintain the highest quality standards.
Interns not only learn about conducting research in digital media, but how to shape that content and use sources to reinforce their position. Then we work with them to teach them how to use Social Media and PR to create visibility and develop followers.
Learning Outcomes:

  • Learn How to conduct research in a digital setting,
  • Learn how to develop their personal brand and online reputation,
  • Learn how to format content to develop a reader’s attention and the search engines,
  • Learn how to develop a multi directional social media campaign to drive readership,

Those that complete an Internships:

  • Are invited to Contribute to Digital Ethos as a Author,
  • Receive a certificate of completion and a portfolio page,
  • Have a multiplatform personal social media presence the rest of their career,
  • Are eligible for development funding to a conference of their choice.

Advanced hands on Internships are also available in the Long Island NY Region.
These Advanced Programs are based on the 120 hours of service during an academic symester and include onsite learning both with the organization and in some cases working on a project with an Agency.
These programs where developed from our trial periods with Vanessa Canner, Adelphia University (2011) and Kayla Marzo, Suffolk County Community College (2012).
 

Filed Under: Basil's Blog #AIa, Conferences & Education, General

How to Avoid the Google Sandbox in a New Blog

July 23, 2012 by Basil Puglisi 1 Comment

If you run a web site, which you want to be visible on the search engines, you should know about the Google sandbox and how to avoid it. The search engine giant, Google, implements measures to keep violators at bay.
What happens if you committed errors using Google’s applications and services? Well, if you incurred violations, Google may remove your web site from its search engine result pages. This is called deindexing. To find out if your web site is not indexed, visit Google and key in your web site domain in this pattern:site:yoururl.com
What Is Google Sandbox?

If you can see your web site moving from the first pages to the 10thpage or more of the SERPs, then, you are not yet deindexed. But

c/o seo-jerusalem.com

this is a possible sandbox effect. The sandbox is a place where web sites, especially the new ones, are placed until they have proven their worth in ranking. Sometimes, your web site is thrown into a sandbox if for an instance, your web site ranks for a certain keyword today, and gone from the ranking tomorrow.
What Causes Google Sandbox?

The sandbox happens if you have done something that agitates Google in matters such as SEO and backlinking. Common instances where inviting a sandbox is imminent are when you create myriads of backlinks to your web site in a very short time or create backlinks within poor quality content.
In a way, sandboxing a web site is a punishment done by Google by putting your web site down below the ranking where there is no traffic. But being in a sandbox is not permanent. It can last from a few days to a few months.
How to Avoid Google Sandbox?

Having diverse backlinks is important. If you use hundreds of backlinks by employing ScrapeBox or XRunner, then being sandboxed is very likely. New web sites are more vulnerable to being thrown in a sandbox than older web sites especially iftheir SEOis not well diversified.
For example, if you are running a new web site on diet, and have created two thousand backlinks in its first week of launching into the media buzz, you must ensure that those backlinks are from various sources like comments, articles, blog posts, forums, news releases, to mention a few. For Google, those backlinks could have been generated naturally.
How Should You Plan Your Backlinks?

One sure way to avert Google sandbox is to diversify your backlinks by creating them gradually over time. Rather than rushing in to create many backlinks in a short time, concentrate on creating several backlinks from different sources. While Bing and Yahoo give more value to quantity, Google is giving more weigh to quality of pagerank that each created backlink has.
So, the next time you begin with your SEO campaign for your weight loss web site, ensure that your backlinks are well diversified to avoid the penalty of being sandboxed.
Author:
Richie Richardson is passionate about SEO and SM. He occasionally writes on topics related to weight loss, Bistro MD diet and other diet programs like Medifast and Nutrisystem. Click here to know more about him and his blog. You can also follow him on Twitter @zarrylyms.

Filed Under: Basil's Blog #AIa, General, Guest Bloggers, Search Engines, SEO Search Engine Optimization Tagged With: avoiding google sandbox, blogging, google sandbox, google sandbox issues, how to avoid google sandbox, sandbox, SEO, traffic

This Site Has Moved: DBMEi becomes Digital Ethos

July 20, 2012 by Basil Puglisi 3 Comments

You may have noticed that this site stopped updating this month, wondering why?

We re-branded and re-launched on WordPress.org and in a big way! The Magazine, Education Portal, Events Calendar and Digital Media Week have all been integrated into the evolving mission of Digital Brand Marketing Education & Interactives. We spent months preparing for this, we looked at our mission, our goals, our passions and then thought about our brand. It was decided that the organization needed something shorter, purposeful and memorable, the final decision was found when we were introduced to the word Ethos.

Ethos is a Greek word meaning “character” that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology.

Ethos forms the root of ethikos, meaning “moral, showing moral character”. It is the origin of the modern English word ethics.

While we started the organization as a tool to look at Marketing in the digital space, we believe that at the core the focus should be on communications. Digital Marketing does more then sell products, it creates awareness. While we will continue to place an emphasis on how business, organizations and individuals can use these tools for marketing their brand, be it for personal or business, we see a bigger needs.

  • The need to bring high speed internet and access to digital communications to everyone, everywhere.
  • The need to keep this communication tool free of censorship or limitation for all of humanity.
  • The ultimate need of not only being able to consume information, but the need to provide education and training to empower society (humanity) with the ability to contribute to it.

So we have outlined the next stage of our development below.

What Digital Ethos hopes to accomplish.

Core Initiatives:

  • Demystify how digital media works in order for the public to gain access to information and publically available resources
  • Educate the public to participate in digital communication streams both as consumers and contributors to become savvy digital media communicators
  • Develop outreach programs that bring digital media resources to underrepresented geographic and demographic areas.
  • Generate awareness about the need for high speed internet access in every home, school and business in the world.
  • Provide information and support to keep digital media communications open and free to all without unwarranted censorship or limitation by governments.
  • Provide feedback to digital media agencies, organizations, solution providers as it retains to the access to information and/or dissemination of information that is accurate to the public.

How Digital Ethos will accomplish this.

The Organization uses the following Interactives (programs) to accomplish its mission:

  • Digital Media Daily – Blog
  • Digital Media Monthly – Newsletter
  • Digital Media Quarterly – Print Magazine
  • Digital Media Education – Distance Learning Portal
  • Digital Media Events – Live Conferences, Summits & Workshops
  • Digital Media Society – Organized Campaign of Influencers and Supporters

The content of the publications center around digital communications and tools to provide businesses, organizations and individuals information and support for; Design, Multimedia, Web Development, Search, Social, Mobile, Technology and more. The Organization will use the publications and events to generate awareness in underrepresented areas about digital communications as a tool for learning, economic development and the need to keep them uncensored and without limitations.

What will the benefit be and to whom?

The benefit of the organizations existence is to provide a center (unbiased) approach to communications and information. The organization must balance humanities basic needs for communication. Facilitating content and initiatives that are open and empowered by volunteers, not directed by financial or political needs, provides our society and humanity a voice to preserve the freedoms created by digital media technology for communications & information.

This will benefit business, organizations and individuals by granting them access to resources traditionally limited to those endless means or larger financial resources. Bringing such technology, practices and tools serves as a way to preserve a global economy and a productive and peaceful society.

Digital Ethos’ Digital Media Education Initiative:

Digital Ethos’ Digital Media Education provides Digital Media Communications and Culture support for the development of businesses, organizations and individuals. The understanding of such tools and culture is the key to economic development that creates opportunity and reduces misunderstandings, inefficiency or conflict.

The Digital Media Education program uses two processes to accomplish this goal, Publications and Interactives. The publications follow a “Read, Write & Share” philosophy, while the Interactives use a “Experience, Execute & Interact” philosophy covering subject matter in Social Media, Search Engines, Mobile Technology, Conferences, Networking and Brand Marketing. The Interactives are social experiences that help foster networking and learning. The Interactives are based on communication and can be digital or conducted in real life.

Thos who enter into the Digital Media Education program participate in an experiential learning process that involves content creation, networking and facilitation to develop their knowledge, skills and abilities. The Digital Media Education initiative provides activities and information for society to become empowered and proficient for all individuals and their organizations.

The Digital Media Education program provides professional development support and unbiased content for society to foster better use of digital communication technology and strategies. In doing so, Digital Ethos’ Digital Media Education fosters a climate for successful business development, outreach and personal communications that create a safer and more productive workforce.

Filed Under: Basil's Blog #AIa, General

Over 60% of Forgotten Passwords Result in Website Abandonment

June 25, 2012 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

You’re logging into a website. Uh oh, what’s my username and password? Maybe it’s xyz, enter. ‘Username or password invalid’. Maybe it’s abc, enter. Again, ‘Username or password invalid’. Fiddlesticks. After exhausting all possible username & passwords, do you abandon the website or click ‘Forgot Password’, go into your email, retrieve the confirmation link, return to the site and reset the password only to forget it the next time. This lengthy guessing game is most unwelcome for internet users and not good for the bottom line of companies. This scenario has happened to all of us at one point in time. We were curious to know how often so we set out to better understand the frequency of forgetting usernames & passwords and the probably of site abandonment. The results to our survey are below.
Key takeaways:

  • Online users have too many usernames & passwords to manage
  • Online users forget passwords often leading to frustration or annoyance and possible abandonment, in other words, lost sales… shriek!!
  • Social login has reached a little more than half of internet users
  • Those who have used social login feel that it makes logging and sharing easy
  • Almost half of internet users who have never used social login would prefer to use social login over creating a username & password

What Does This Mean for Marketers?
Every consumer centric company’s goal is to over-deliver on the consumer experience. An unexpected touch, go the extra mile, ‘wow’ the consumer. Evoking negative emotions such as frustration, worry or annoyance in the consumer can have a reverse desired effect on engagement, retention and loyalty. All pivotal elements to the bottom line. Social login eliminates the risk of abandonment, brings a website one step closer to being social with their customers and avoids users having to remember yet another password all the while collecting valuable social data.
Hallelujah! Is social login the answer?
Yes, in combination with the traditional username/password login. There will always be online users who are comfortable using username & passwords or aren’t active on social media. Offering both options is the best case scenario to eliminate all username & password issues.
Learn more about Lanoba’s social login here.
Author:
Beth Thouin is Marketing Director at @lanoba. She is unearthing social profile data and sharing influencers using social login. She loves her customers, all things social and her kids, Lucas and Eliana, the world’s best huggers.
Sources:

  • The Freaky, Forgotten World of Abandoned Websites
  • Revive the Abandoned Website – Warrior Forum
  • Reasons Why Website Visitors Abandoned their Shopping Carts

Filed Under: Basil's Blog #AIa, Branding & Marketing, General Tagged With: LinkedIn, Login, Password, Shopping cart, Social Media, social network, twitter, User (computing)

Will Airtime Re-Humanize the Internet?

June 24, 2012 by Basil Puglisi Leave a Comment

The internet has left some parts of humanity more isolated from one another while simultaneously connecting them in ways we never had in the not-so-distant past. While it has certainly done far more good on the connection end than it has done bad on the isolation side, there are still many things that we are losing in communications with one another when we converse, relate, and communicate through social channels that are limited to text based chat or platforms. Many people who communicate for fun, as well as many others who use internet communication options for business are simply not finding themselves satisfied with the amount of human interaction in their digital communications.

In the Beginning

Long ago now when the internet arrived for public use, IRC, or internet relay chat was the usual medium of choice for those who desired interaction with others in the digital world. It was very basic, but users were able to chat, trade files through DCC sends and connects, and keep in touch, in real time, with users from all over the world. What an amazing experience it was. It still is, however, many vital elements important to human communications are lost in these digital transmissions.

  • Gestures
  • Body Language
  • “Eye- to – Eye” Contact
  • Attitude
  • Character

In general face-to-face conversations with the people in our lives we can see all of these things. Dig a little deeper into the real person they are, grow to understand their gestures and body language to gauge their reaction to the world-at-large.

Now and In the Future

Airtime’s founders, who also met over an IRC in those early days of the Internet, have created an incredible alternative to those stale, distant, disconnected textual conversations online. One-click Facebook integration on Airtime means there is nothing more than the one required click to get users started. Users need only make sure they have a web cam connected to get started.

With Airtime, users are both the audience and the performer. You can chat up your Facebook friends, or pair up with a stranger by selecting filters such as nearby in your city, common friends, or even friends of friends.

Airtime allows users to video chat with one another or drag their own videos in from sites around the web like YouTube, and watch them together. Rumor has it that Airtime is also considering incorporating synchronous music listening and a platform for group chat with mobile apps on the way ‘very soon’ according to Airtime developers.

Although there are plenty of other ways to communicate through video, most of those platforms are tethered to desktop applications such as Skype, that still lacks some of the sharing options Airtime provides. Inspired by his own plight during a distance separation from his own girlfriend,  Sean Parker, co-founder of Airtime, decided it felt pretty distant to have to share a video with his girlfriend and then sit back, wait, and listen to or watch her reaction to it. He wanted them both to be able to watch it together, enjoy it simultaneous. A real-time human connection on a digital format.

Author:

@BasilPuglisi is the Executive Director and Publisher for Digital Brand Marketing Education (dbmei.com). Basil C. Puglisi is also the President of Puglisi Consulting Group, Inc. A Digital Brand Marketing Consultancy that manages professional and personal branding for Fortune 500 CEOs, Hedge Fund Managers and Small Business Owners.

Sources:

  • Face To Face: How Airtime Will Re-Humanize The Internet
  • Airtime
  • Airtime Adds to a Growing Choice of Video Chat Services
  • Sean Parker Shows Up with Airtime

Filed Under: Basil's Blog #AIa, General, Social Media, Video Tagged With: Airtime, Chatroulette, facebook, Internet Relay Chat, Sean Parker, Shawn Fanning, skype, YouTube

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