Tuesday 30 November 2010

Getting and Staying Noticed on the Web

Getting and Staying Noticed on the Web by Phil Bradley
Getting and Staying Noticed on the Web
Your Web Promotion Questions Answered
by Phil Bradley

Published by Facet, 2002
Paperback, 215 pages
ISBN: 1-85604-455-6

Now that so much information is communicated via the Internet, it has become essential for any library or information service to promote itself on the web.

This book tells you everything you could possibly need to know about how to promote your website so that it really gets noticed. Written by the author of the bestselling The Advanced Internet Searcher's Handbook, it will guide you through all the stages needed to plan a successful promotion strategy for your website, from the initial planning and technical challenges involved in setting up the site right through to the important ongoing tasks of maintaining the website and monitoring its success.

Designed to be dipped into to find the information you want immediately, this easy-to-read question and answer style handbook explains web promotion specifically as it relates to websites in the library and information world.

The author has wide practical experience in this field and knows exactly the right questions that need to be asked, covering such areas as:

* First steps
* Design issues
* Search engines
* Images
* Interactivity
* Using mailing lists and newsgroups
* Banners
* Traditional promotion services
* Press releases
* Viral marketing
* Monitoring success

If you are responsible for the delivery and promotion of a successful website - you need this book!

Labels:

0 Comments

Monday 29 November 2010

Get to the Top on Google

Get to the Top on Google, by David Viney
Get to the Top on Google
Tips and Techniques to get your site to the Top of the Search Engine Rankings - and Stay There.
By David Viney
Published by Nicolas Brealey Publishing (2008)
Paperback, 250 pages
ISBN: 978-1-85788-502-6

The vast majority of searchers never make it past the first two pages of Google or click on sponsored listings, so being at the top of the standard search results can literally transform your business. Search Engine optimisation involves making it easy for search engines to find your website and to boost your position in the rankings.

Get to the Top in Google is the first book to address all aspects of search engine marketing comprehensively through a simple, seven-step methodology, tried and tested with clients small and large, including Amazon and Microsoft.

Designed to be accessible for the beginner but comprehensive enough for the skilled marketer, the book is illustrated with global case studies and covers emerging ideas in Web 2.0, local search optimisation and the future of search itself.

Discover how to attract searchers with phrases that pay, how to court the crawl of Google spiders, tips for copywriting and link building, how to target the long tail, and techniques for tracking and fine-tuning your campaign to make more money online. This book could be the best investment you ever make in your website and your business.

Buy this book at a discount from Amazon.com

0 Comments

Friday 26 November 2010

Increase Your Web Traffic In a Weekend

Increase Your Web Traffic In a Weekend, by Jerry Lee Ford, Jr and William R.Stanek
Increase Your Web Traffic In a Weekend
By Jerry Lee Ford, Jr and William R.Stanek
Published by Course Technology, 2005
Paperback, 400 pages
ISBN: 1-59863-108-X

You might have the most exiting, useful Website in the world. The question is, are you getting any visitors? What about advertisers, so you can earn money from your site?

Marketing your website and implementing strategies to increase your web traffic might seem daunting at first, but in reality there are many low-cost ways to attract readers and advertisers to your site. According to the authors, Increase Your Web Traffic In a Weekend is a comprehensive guide to all the techniques you need to get started.

Now in its 4th edition and designed to present these marketing strategies in manageable chunks spread out over the course of a single weekend, this book covers everything from how to tailor your site for search engines, to how to place ads on other sites without spending a penny, to how to track and analyze your visitors and put that information to work for you. It includes sections on where and how to publicize your Web pages for free, how to increase your Web traffic by making your site search engine-friendly, how to sell your site through e-mail and the methods of creating, tracking and managing banner ads.

Although it could be criticized for taking quite a simplistic approach to website marketing, this book uses a novel format to cover many of the aspects that should be considered and included within a website marketing plan and is recommended reading as an introduction to the subject.

Labels:

0 Comments

Tuesday 16 November 2010

Google Hacks

Google Hacks by Tara Calishain & Rael Dornfest
Google Hacks
Tips & Tools for Smarter Searching
By Tara Calishain & Rael Dornfest
Published by O'Reilly, 2005
Paperback, 304 pages
ISBN: 0-596-00857-0

There's more to Google than most people know. The simple, clean Google interface belies the sheer breadth of its underlying index, raw power of its engine, and flexibility of its search syntax. Google Hacks dives headfirst into getting the most out of Google: finding rather than just searching, performing useful tasks to get the job done, using Google API to automate complicated or repetitive tasks, and tweaking and twiddling all the knobs to squeeze out every last drop of useful results.

Weighing in at over eight billion web pages, Google’s index is almost four times larger than it was when the first edition of Google Hacks was released. As Google’s reach has expanded, so has this book to cover new Google services and new ways to hack older applications. Completely updated and reorganized, this new edition of Google Hacks continues to amaze with what you can do with Google.

• Search Smarter with Google’s flexible search syntax.
• Pull results from hard to reach places using the Google Web API and a little Perl, PHP, Python, Java or .NET programming
• Bring the power and flexibility of Google search to your desktop with Google Desktop and to your website with Google Site Search
• Break down the barriers to online advertising with Google Adwords and make money yourself with AdSense on your site
• Gain a clear understanding of how Google Looks at your site and learn more about Google’s famous PageRank algorithm
• Change your emailing ways with Gmail, Google’s unique take on online correspondence


Press comments:

“Since Google Hacks first appeared, search had, if possible, only grown in importance…There is also a greater need to automate tasks and to locate that needle of information in a haystack that will just not stop growing.”
Craig Silverstein, Director of Technology, Google

Labels:

0 Comments

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing

Pay-Per-Click
Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing
Low Cost Strategies to Attracting New Customers Using Google, Yahoo & Other Search Engines
by Boris and Eugene Mordkovich
Published by Lulu Press Incorporated, 2003
Paperback, 204 pages
ISBN:1-4116-2817-9

Once you've developed a website to sell your product or service, you need to attract visitors. Search engines are a key source of online traffic and as search engine optimisation becomes harder to achieve - particularly for new websites - then pay-per-click advertising is a primary option.

If you're new to this game then the Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing Handbook has all the answers. This was the first mainstream book published on the subject and the authors, Boris and Eugene Mordkovich share their knowledge and experience, from the most basic “Pay-Per-Click 101” information (including how pay-per-click works; why it can be so effective; how to craft an ad campaign that generates sales; and how to know what works and what doesn’t), to the most advanced PPC strategies being used today, including contextual advertising, click fraud, localized search, and more.

The main areas covered in this handbook include:
- Why advertisers should consider using PPC
- How to develop a pay- per-click ad campaign
- How ad trackers save you time and money
- How to pay 70% less than your competition
- How to protect yourself against click fraud
- How to target local customers via search
- Tips and tricks from 14 top PPC experts

Although books like this can date very quickly, this is a very readable and concise introduction to the subject. There is quite a US slant to the book but we would recommend this as a good introduction to anyone wanting to learn about how Pay-Per-Click advertising works and how to use it as a highly effective online marketing tool.

Labels: ,

0 Comments

Tuesday 9 November 2010

Marketing on the Internet

Marketing on the Internet by Jan Zimmerman.
Marketing on the Internet
by Jan Zimmerman
Published by Maximum Press, 2000
Paperback, 476 pages
ISBN: 1-885068-36-0

This best-selling book has just appeared in its fifth edition in as many years and offers a good all-round reference to Internet marketing techniques. It follows the familiar style of a Maximum Press book, providing a well-structured layout, bullet-point summaries, numerous web references and screenshots, a useful appendix and index, plus an ‘exclusive’ website for book buyers where elements of the content are kept updated online.

Jan Zimmerman has written a very practical book for Internet marketers and two aspects in particular make this title stand out from some of the other general web marketing titles that we have reviewed. Firstly, she includes sample checklists and action plans to help guide the user through the stages of planning a website, selecting a web designer and marketing your presence on the web. These are valuable to first-time users who need a quick reference to all the potential issues that need to be considered.

Secondly, the book is valuable for both novice and experienced web marketers because it includes numerous graphs and charts reporting on research related to the issues covered. So, if you like your marketing approach to be analytical and supported by hard facts, this book is for you. Peppered throughout this book are such stats as: what online users do and which type of sites they visit; the main uses of corporate websites; the factors driving repeat usage of websites; the most common complaints of web users; plus many others that add solid support to the approaches outlined in the book.

The book includes a valuable chapter on using multimedia effectively on a website, plus advice on legal issues and privacy policies. The final section of the book uses a selection of sample websites as prime examples of sites that achieve some of the different objectives featured in the book, such as e-commerce sites, ‘stickiness’, effective online marketing techniques and excellent customer service.

This is a wide-ranging book that covers a lot of web marketing issues in some depth, supported by good examples, powerful research data and convincing arguments. If you’re planning a new website, don’t do anything until you’ve read this book!

Labels:

0 Comments