Internet Marketing Strategies

Neuromarketing - Brand Influence on Brain

2010-11-10T20:14:00.000-08:00

Brand Image - How important is it for any company? In a study presented at the Radiological Society of North America, it was shown that when people were presented with known brand images they processed those images with the part of brain associated with positive thinking. Whereas, unfamiliar brands were processed by the negative thinking brain.
According to Dr. Christine Born, M.D., radiologist at University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, this is the first functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study to analyze how a brain responds to branding. In the study, twenty male and female subjects were shown images of familiar and unfamiliar brands while brain activity was monitored by fMRI scanning. The findings of the study were as below:
The results showed that strong brands activated a network of cortical areas and areas involved in positive emotional processing and associated with self-identification and rewards. The activation pattern was independent of the category of the product or the service being offered. Furthermore, strong brands were processed with less effort on the part of the brain. Weak brands showed higher levels of activation in areas of working memory and negative emotional response.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-11/rson-msb112106.php
This clearly shows that how important branding is for people and as further advancements are made in branding studies in Neuromarketing, we will be able to make more effective branding strategies.
by Ashish Kanungo

Don't Waste Money On "Idea" Cellular Connection

2008-05-25T23:34:00.000-07:00

Idea Cellular services in India are useless and end up wasting a lot of your time. I'm an idea user and am not at all satisfied with their services. Recently they disconnected my outgoing calls without even telling me. After I paid the bill they only activated my local calls. I had to face a lot of troubles due to their intolerable act. Now they have barred my STD facility. I tried calling customer service, which is very difficult to get connected to. So, now I'm talking to them and asking for a reason for this act and they just disconnected phone on my phase. I would recommend never to opt for this waste of money service and go to some better service provider....

Share your comments here if you have faced similar problems. This is no to "idea" movement. Surely, an idea changes your time and makes your phone useless.....

Navtej Kohli Blogs

2008-04-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

As I love to browse through different blogs, I came across a guy names Navtej Kohli. He has huge number of blogs, all on different topics. He seems to be a well established entreprenuer. Apart from writing on blogs he also has a career development center that he runs to mentor the career of young and aspiring individuals.
Do read his blogs:
Navtej Kohli Interest Blog
Navtej Kohli Sports Blog
Granox - A navtej Kohli company
A renewable energy project initiated by Navtej Kohli
Hope you have a fun time reading these blogs and profiles.

Top 5 elements that have the most significant impact on SEO

2007-03-15T00:50:00.000-07:00

1. Crawler Accessibility: Search engines must be able to visit the web page. If the site returns an error code when the search engine crawler comes to visit then the search engine won't be able to index the site.
2. Quality content: There is nothing more valuable that proper, well written, relevant and unique content for getting ranking on search engine.
3. Title and Meta data: Though recently search engines have started giving less importance to meta tags (Due to black hat SEO), they still carry a lot of weight. The title of a page is the heading of what the content on the page is and should be relevant and concise.
4. Effective keyword research: Keyword should be selected based on the business. It is very necessary to understand the competition and do effective keyword research that describes your selling points.
After identification of keywords they should be spread throughout the page for e.g. Meta tags, Headers, Content, Alt Tags, Anchor links, etc.
5. Link Popularity: Inbound links should be from quality and reputed sites. It is more valuable when you business specific links. An oil and gas company would benefit more to get a link from Oil and Gas directory than some travel directory. Don't link just the home page, rather links should be deep within site too.
6. Clean HTML and use of semantic markup: Semantic markup is used to understand the document structure. It includes using headings, paragraphs, etc.

Google and Youtube face $1.18 billion lawsuit

2007-03-15T00:43:00.000-07:00

Viacom in February publicly accused Google of copyright infringement. With more and more web 2.0 and free content publishing increasing on web, I believe we will see more such lawsuits in future.

Google going for buyouts

2006-10-31T23:56:00.000-08:00

Recently Google bought youtube for $1.65 billion. But it didnt stop it from going ahead and buying JotSpot, the technology behind wikipedia.

According to times online:
"JotSpot's products, which include an online spreedsheet system, could further bulk up Google's portfolio as it seeks to ramp up pressure on Google. In return, JotSpot, which already has several business customers, will gain access to Google's massive data centres, or "server farms".

Joe Kraus, JotSpot co-founder and chief executive officer, said in his blog today: "We watched them acquire Writely, and launch Google Groups, Google Spreadsheets and Google Apps for Your Domain. It was pretty apparent that Google shared our vision for how groups of people can create, manage and share information online."

Google going for archives

2006-09-06T14:22:00.000-07:00

Google announced today that it is offering a new service to allow people to search the archives of newspapers, magazines, and other materials dating back more than 200 years.

Though Google claims that this move is not meant to make money but I guess it's one more attempt to reach the archives of the popular magazines and newspapers including New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, etc.

It is good move for Google because this way they will be able to increase their visitors database more. The more the information Google has much better it will be for google.

Google Toolbar: What Lays Next

2006-06-22T01:51:00.000-07:00

Wondering whats latest with Google. Google has decided to bundle Google Toolbar with downloads of Adobe's Shockwave. Google's deal with Adobe will help Google to compete with its prime competitor Microsoft which is currently in the process of launching its new Vista operating system next year.

2006-06-12T00:24:00.000-07:00

Google Spreadsheet:

Google launches a test version of a Web-based spreadsheet program that is intended to make it simple to edit and share lists and numeric information online.

Google is on its hype and far ahead in the race of launching new products. Lets just wait and watch whats in the Google bag next.

Wanna generate more profits: Golden Rules for selecting the keywords

2006-05-30T23:49:00.000-07:00

Does your site drive huge traffic but not profits, you need to think upon the keywords selected to optimize your site. A keyword is a search term a visitor uses to reach your site. The keyword you use on your site should be targeted keyword and relevant to your business and the content of your site.

Rule 1: Select targeted keywords
The keywords you select should be relevant to your business and your site should talk about that. If your business deals with spare auto parts, there is no point in optimizing the site on “automobiles” because when a visitor will search for automobiles he will come to your site and not find what he was searching for. Frustrating a visitor is the last thing you want to do.

Rule 2: Select keywords on the basis of geographical location of business (reach of business).
For instance if your business deals with shoes selling of all leading brands, but the reach of your business is across India. You feel that as your site talks about selling shoes, you decide to optimize the site. If you select the keyword “branded shoes shop”, you will get huge traffic, but there are very few chances that traffic will generate profit for you. This is because your business is only in India but the visitors can be from across the globe. So your choice of keywords should be “branded shoe shop in India”.

Rule 3: Avoid generalized keywords.
Keywords should not be too generalized. Broad keywords bring a lot of irrelevant traffic to your site. And especially if you are using pay-per-click marketing, broad keywords can cost you a lot without generating much ROI.

For instance, if you have a shop dealing with cake icing and decoration, there is no sense it optimizing your site on the keyword cakes. You should instead use the term like “cake icing”.

Rule 4: Don’t use too specific terms.
Now you must be wondering that this point conflicts with the above point. Its not so. Imagine that you avoid the general terms and use such specific keywords that are not even searched for. You should look at the search count for that keyword. If the search count is 0 then no point in optimizing for that keyword.

Rule 5: Keyword phrase is better than a word.
A keyword phrase is always beneficial and easy to get ranking on search engines than a single word. For instance, if you have a hotel in California, then you should optimize on “hotel in California” rather than on “hotel”.

Some tools:

There are some good tools than will help you to select the keywords:
Overture tool (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion)
Wordtracker tool [recommended](http://our.affiliatetracking.net/wordtracker/a/12246)
Google Sandbox Tool(https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox)

Page Rank Concept

2006-05-12T03:23:00.000-07:00

Page Rank concept: Is it important for site ranking?

Page Rank is a patented algorithm by Stanford University to assign weighted importance to a web page determining its relevancy on the World Wide Web on a scale of 0 to 10.

Page Rank was developed at Stanford University by Larry Page and Sergey Brin as part of their research project.

The theory behind:
Page Rank is based on the linking structure on a page. The more the links pointing to a page, the more will be the page rank. Google believes that if many links are pointing to a link, then that page must be of value to the searches and it assigns the page a high weighted value.

Page Rank: Google Toolbar
Page Rank can be viewed on the Google toolbar. Google has not disclosed the algorithm for calculating the page rank but it is in simple words measure of the popularity of a web page.

The Google directory page rank is measured on a scale of 0 to 8.

Page Rank Algorithm:

Page Rank of a page is the summation of all the PR’s of the links pointing to that page.

Thus if page A has a 4 links pointing to it then the PR of A will be:
PR(A) = PR(1) + PR(2) + PR(3) + PR(4)
If some page is giving links to other pages also then the PR of that page is equally divided among all the other pages.
For example if page 2 has a PR of 4 and it is linking to 4 pages then each page will gain a PR of 1.

Thus, weighted PR is calculated as
PR(A) = PR(1)/(links from 1) + PR(2) /(links from 2) + PR(3)/(links from 3) + PR(4) /(links from 4)

According to the founders of Google, the sum of all the PR’s to a page is 1.

Conclusion:
Though PR is a good indication of the popularity of the site, but it is not the only factor. The main focus of any one developing the site should be to provide quality content to its visitors and not bother much about PR. If your website is delivering quality data then it will definitely get good PR and thereby online visibility.

Always remember “ Content is the king on Internet. Rest all follow”.

Saba Karimi

Interesting Facts About Google

2006-05-07T20:55:00.000-07:00

Interesting Facts About Google:

Phrase your question in the form of an answer. So instead of typing, "What is the average rainfall in the Amazon basin?", you might get better results by typing "The average rainfall in the Amazon basin is."
T his is an old one, but very important: Put quotes around phrases that must be searched together. If you put quotes around "electric curtains," Google won't waste your time finding one set of Web pages containing the word "electric" and another set containing the word "curtains."
Similarly, put a hyphen right before any word you want screened out. If you're looking up dolphins, for example, you'll have to wade through a million Miami Dolphins pages unless you search for "dolphins - Miami."
Google is a global White Pages and Yellow Pages. Search for "phonebook:home depot norwalk , ct," Google instantly produces the address and phone number of the Norwalk Home Depot. This works with names ("phonebook:robert jones las vegas, NV") as well as businesses.
Don't put any space after "phonebook." And in all of the following examples, don't type the quotes I'm showing you here.
Google is a package tracker. Type a FedEx or UPS package number (just the digits); when you click Search, Google offers a link to its tracking information.
Google is a calculator. Type in an equation ("32+2345*3-234=").
Google is a units-of-measurement converter. Type "teaspoons in a gallon," for example, or "centimeters in a foot."
Google is a stock ticker. Type in AAPL or MSFT, for example, to see a link to the current Apple or Microsoft stock price, graphs, financial news and so on.
Google is an atlas. Type in an area code, like 212, to see a Mapquest map of the area.
Google is Wal-Mart's computer. Type in a UPC bar code number, such as "036000250015," to see the description of the product you've just "scanned in." (Thanks to the Google Blog,
http://google.blogspace.com/ , for this tip and the next couple.)
Google is an aviation buff. Type in a flight number like "United 22" for a link to a map of that flight's progress in the air. Or type in the tail number you see on an airplane for the full registration form for that plane.
Google is the Department of Motor Vehicles. Type in a VIN (vehicle identification number, which is etched onto a plate, usually on the door frame, of every car), like "JH4NA1157MT001832," to find out the car's year, make and model.
For hours of rainy-day entertainment, visit http://labs.google.com/ . Here, you'll find links to new, half-finished Google experiments-like Google Voice, in which you call (650) 623-6706, speak the words you want to search for and then open your browser to view the results.

Disclaimer: It wasn't working when I tried it. (Ditto a lot of these experiments.)

Internet Marketing: The Road Ahead

2006-04-27T02:54:00.000-07:00

Development is ever growing it never stops. Since the Stone Age man has been bringing new discoveries into the world. His greed increased with the advent of new technologies, it never died. When the first computer was created no one had thought that one-day with this small box the whole world would be just a click away.

Nowadays the consumer trend is shifting from the physical market to the online market. People are searching for solutions that can be accessed from their homes. Now, no more searching things in the heated sun. Just log on to the Internet go to an online shopping site and get your product delivered to you at your home. Observing this trend, there is a broad scope for online marketing and online buying/selling of goods and services. So, if your business is not listed on the Internet then you are definitely missing out from the future race.

Internet Marketing is the marketing world of the future. On the Internet information flows rapidly, like a fire in a forest. Thus if you want to sell your product the most important thing is that you make one site know and the rest of the world will find you. A well-developed site that appeals to the taste of its visitors is the winner in the race of Internet domain. So don’t lag behind and enter into Internet Marketing, make yourself known to the world and reach your potential buyers.

Press Release: The Myths and underlying Innovation

2006-04-26T20:56:00.000-07:00

A novice painter one day created his masterpiece. He was very excited and told everyone in the vicinity about his achievement. But, he could not achieve the fame, which he deserved for his great work of excellence. One day he arranged for an exhibition for his collection of arts and the next day he was acclaimed a rising star.

The question arises what was the sudden action that made him famous around the world. Well, the talent was same but the way of making the talent reach the world differed.
The exhibition can be thought of as an analogy of Press Release.

The world is a rat race. There are many people at par with you but what makes you stand out of the crowd is not the quality but the way you portray your quality to the world. The press release is an important vehicle to do this.

According to the advertising “Gurus” Press Releases are becoming the next generation publicity stunts. But the catch is that, if you do not have a story to tell the world you cannot create a press release. It’s about giving to the people what they want to know but in a style.

Here are some of the tips for writing an effective press release:
Every news release is associated with an event, time and place.
The release should include content that is relevant to your business or in case of a story it should have the potential to stir the audience.
Formatting of the release is also very important. Use proper fonts, spacing, margins, etc.
The press release should always end with a signature describing the author or the company. This facilitates authenticity of the release.
For most prominence the news should be associated with a Headline i.e. a concise one-line sentence of the whole news depicting the basic element of the content.
Summary of the release highlighting the most important event.
The body of the release with paragraphs written in their descending importance.

Press Releases are not any junk material. You should take them seriously if you want to make yourself known to the world. A properly compiled release will put you on the road of success with you on the driving wheel.

Remember, “It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and THEN do your best and tell the world.”

Saba Karimi