Contacts4life - Contact Management Software
I was recently given the opportunity to try out a piece of
contact management software provided by Contacts4life
So how does Contacts4life work?
Once registered, Contacts4life allows you to keep an up-to-date online address book and download Contacts4life
contact management proprietary software which integrates seamlessly with Outlook or Outlook Express. Via regular communication with your contacts by email and text, your contacts will have the opportunity to update their own details; these updates are then inserted into your address book. This means that the records you hold will stay as current as possible.
Address book:
Add new contacts to your Contacts4life address book, edit existing contacts' details, delete them from your records or make use of various other valuable functions.
Download: Here you can download Contacts4life Contact management and Contact back-up software for Outlook and Outlook Express. This enables you to manage, synchronize and back-up contact details which are stored within your Outlook or Outlook Express environment.
Build your cards:
Here you can update your own details and, if needed, inform your contacts of any new changes.
Send / Request:
This function sends a simple email message or text to specified contacts. It asks them to verify the information that you currently have stored in your address book. The replies to these messages are sent back to you, requesting you to accept or decline your contacts' updated details.
Reminder:
Set personal or business reminders to remind you of important occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries or milestones. You'll receive an email or text on your specified date that contains your reminder with relevant gift ideas where appropriate and links to our affiliate websites.
Link-up:
Contacts4life allows you to stay in touch with people in your Address Book without user-intervention. Using the web-interface you can see 'People' icons placed next to names within your online address book. These icons represent contacts that are also subscribers to Contacts4life. By clicking on these icons and opting to link-up, you can request to unite with these contacts and benefit from automatic updates to your address book. Updates are then inserted whenever a linked subscriber updates their own contact information.
Contacts4life provides three optional link-up processes within your preferences on online. The default option for link-up is 'ask me'; this sends an outbound email to the recipient (subscriber) informing them that you wish to link-up. The recipient of this email is then given the chance to accept or decline link-up you. The next option is 'automatic link-up'; this allows a subscriber who has your contact details to link-up without any interception from the Contacts4life system. This is not the recommended option as it carries some security implications. The last link-up preference is 'block all'; this will not allow any subscriber to link-up to you.
SEO News in Brief
Hi everyone,
I just thought I'd post a little news summary of recent activity within the
search engine and digital marketing arena.
Yahoo buys web e-mail firm
"
Yahoo escalated its newfound rivalry with Google by acquiring Oddpost, a San Francisco startup known for its innovative e-mail service.
The acquisition will allow Yahoo to fold Oddpost's Web-based e-mail service into its own Yahoo Mail offering, creating a product that has the potential to draw subscribers away from Google's much-touted Gmail service."
Google plans to list on Nasdaq for IPO
"Google Inc. plans to list on the Nasdaq Stock Market for its impending initial public stock offering, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. [...] Google officials did not specify a date for its IPO or a ticker symbol in the SEC filing Monday."
Google launches a new version of Google Groups
The new beta version looks similar to Google's Gmail service.
In name dispute, it's Googles vs. Google
"The company that owns and operates Googles.com, said Wednesday it has initiated trademark proceedings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office against Google. [...]
The trademark filing is not the only legal problem to surface recently for Google. Last week, Silicon Valley start-up Affinity Engines filed a lawsuit against the search company, claiming that a Google engineer stole software code to create Orkut.com, a popular social networking service."
Lycos strikes deal with eBay
Lycos UK has teamed up with eBay to provide online users a ‘complete shopping experience’. This deal will give users of Lycos’ Shopping Channel links to live auctions alongside the usual product listings. The process has been made possible by EBay software that links searched keywords to auctions on its own site.
Avon Cosmetics and Wellbeing products
For all my followers,
Avon Cosmetics UK has a great Pamper Gift Free with 2 or more Planet Spa purchases - Offer valid until 9th July 2004.
The Planet Spa range can be found within the
Bath & Body section of their shopping site.
Avon are a very famous brand, who recently started advertising on TV again within the UK to promote their Cellu-Sculpt Anti-Cellulite Body Sculpting Treatment.
They currently have a wide selection of special offers that continually change every few weeks so regularly check the drop down menu at the top of the homepage.
MSN's new search engine
This has been in the pipeline for quite sometime however following ASK Jeeves example, MSN have announced recently they are not going to charge for inclusion into their database. I wonder if Yahoo will drop its paid inclusion service, or at least change it so you won't have to pay CPC on top of the review fee.
Danny Sullivan at Searchenginewatch published a more comprehensive article at:
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3376041
Jason Cartwright
GCDM - Digital Marketing Agency UK
Cambridge Beer Festival
I know this is slightly off topic, but there are just 2 days left of the 2004 Cambridge Beer Festival and if you haven't been yet, then hurry on down to Jesus Green, Cambridge and sample all the weird and wonderful beers. More information can be found at
http://www.cambridgebeerfestival.com
The Nigritude Ultramarine SERP Competition
An update on the nigritude ultramarine competition by
Jason Cartwright
With just under 2 weeks to go before the end of the SEO Competition launched by DarkBlue (in association with SearchGuild), who will be ranked No. 1 for the keyword phrase
"Nigritude Ultramarine"?? Performing a search on Google.com for the phrase produces:
Results 1 - 10 of about 279,000 for nigritude ultramarine.
Whoever actually wins isn't really as important as seeing all the different tactics people have been using to rank their site No. 1.
I think this competition is probably the best training exercise anyone interested in SEO could engage in or monitor.
Reasons to contract SEO to a 3rd party
By Jason Cartwright -
Why hire a 3rd party search engine marketing specialist?
Search Engines can be used to reach your target audience when they are looking for your services and are in the best frame of mind to purchase. It is also a very cost-effective marketing technique with minimal wastage.
An effective Search Engine Marketing strategy combines both Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for natural or organic listings and pay-per-click or cost-per-click keyword buying on paid listing networks. The two approaches should be considered in tandem, for maximum effectiveness of a search engine marketing strategy designed to drive highly qualified quality traffic.
The decision has to be at some stage, whether to undertake this element in-house or bring in the expertise of a specialist company. It making this decision, you should consider that whilst limited understanding can certainly be picked up through guides and tutorials, to be truly effective, SEM requires dedicated technicians, knowledge and tools in the areas concerned. A good company will also use different teams for each discipline since different mindsets are needed to optimise a web site for natural listings and effectively refine a pay-per-click keyword buying campaign.
Let us look at the submissions process as another example of where in-depth knowledge and expertise will improve the effectiveness of the overall campaign. A small but crucial element of the overall process, web site submission looks simple on the outset but there are a number of potential hiccups.
Once your site is sent to a directory for review, it is the editors’ discretion deciding when and if it gets submitted. Influencing factors include the submission category, which must be seen as appropriate to you service rather than how you want o be seen. Each directory has its own style of layout, which must be considered and understood (e.g. compare Yahoo! to the Open Directory Project Dmoz.org). Submitting to the wrong category or your site not being deemed of sufficient quality can lead to your submission being rejected. Most directories do not provide a reason why it was rejected and there aren’t any money back guarantees. (See Yahoo Terms of Service agreement 1.2 & 2.2
http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/info/express/terms.html).
Another potential problem is that the site is accepted but the submission (description) is edited to something that isn’t optimised or doesn’t provide a true picture of the site. Getting a directory listing changed is extremely long and difficult process.
What about submission software?
There are numerous companies offering some form of automated submission software that with just a couple of clicks will submit you to thousands of search engines. Firstly, there aren’t really thousands of search engines, only a few primary ones whose databases feed others. Secondly, automated software can’t search through a directory (e.g. Yahoo! or DMOZ) and submit your site to a suitable category with an optimised title and description written for them.
If you are considering submitting using an in-house team member consider that to do this effectively they should have the following characteristics:
An understanding of search engine friendly design and how to integrate this with the usability of the site.
An understanding of how each of the search engines critique and rank a site.
An in-depth knowledge on how to improve a sites search engine visibility – this is only gained through continuous day-to-day researching and understand of the latest techniques and changes in site algorithms
An understanding of the difference between marketing copy and search engine friendly copy with an ability to incorporate the two.
The time and ability to perform effective link building.
The aspects highlighted here are just the tip of the iceberg designed to give an insight into the expertise and understanding needed for just one element. When looking at search engine marketing, consider how much you would pay for a decent search engine marketer and compare it with paying a developer or someone else within your organisation to learn the necessary skills needed to do it effectively. Would you be saving money in the long run or simply selling yourselves short? Depending on which figures you read, search engines generate up to 85% of all traffic and many bookmarked pages, word of mouth referrals and reciprocal links were initially found on a search engine. When you’re ill do you research what illness you might have and try to fix it or visit the doctor who has knowledge and equipment in hand. After all a little knowledge is dangerous.
Is your site ready for the Web?
By Jason Cartwright -
Search Engine Optimisation and Marketing Consultant
It doesn’t matter how elegant your web site is or what special offers you have for people, no one will visit unless they know your site exists. To make sure your web site is a hit rather than a miss, it is crucial that it can be seen in the public eye. Search engines are the best and most effective way to do this with 17.4% of all Internet traffic going to them (Hitwise - Jan 2004). They are a crucial resource for the majority of surfers, and good business sense should ensure your site features as high up in the rankings of all the major search engines as possible. In essence an effective search engine optimisation campaign will help you achieve high visibility but more importantly generate qualified leads. So how do you go about it? Here are 5 top tips to improve your site ranking.
Speak your customers' language
You already know how to describe the service and products your site is offering, but how would your customers describe it? Do a little research into which keywords and phrases your target audience is most likely to use when searching for your products or services and then make sure to include these in your site's copy.
Dress to impress
Check to see if your search engine listings look attractive. Title and description tags with an overly long list of keywords or which include the phrase 'no title’ do not inspire click-throughs. It is great to get a top position for a relevant search phrase, but this is a waste if the listing looks unprofessional. By smartening up your listing you’ll find potential customers are much more likely to go to your site as it will appear more professional even if it’s ranked third or fourth.
Loose the spam
Be careful that you are not inadvertently using spam techniques. Some design techniques can be considered spam by the engines, meaning the search engine may penalise your site. Tiny font sizes, similar text/background colours, redirecting pages and automated submissions can all cause the engines to penalise sites, regardless of whether or not the site owner / or designer included them specifically for search engine positioning.
Flash equals cash??
Even the major search engines cannot index every web site format. Sites with a high proportion of keyword rich html text on static html pages consistently maintain high search engine rankings. Conversely, if your site is written in Flash or java, loaded with graphics and dynamic formats, you could improve your search engine ranking by either designing a static html version of the site, or using acceptable 'workarounds' in order to ensure the engines can access and index the site. A standard flash site designed without search engines in mind will not rank highly and may cause problems for users on non-broadband connections.
Quality and Quantity
Although a strong way of driving targeted traffic to your web site; do not just rely on the search engines. Make sure your site is listed on the major international and regional directories. Listings on Yahoo!, Open Directory (aka Google's directory) are important but don’t forget that your web site can capture traffic from other sites if you set up relevant links. Make sure your web site is listed on relevant trade association sites and industry specific directories and portals. There are authoritative directories, information sites and portals for every industry niche and a listing on them will not only boost traffic, but also your site's 'importance' as far as the search engines are concerned.
According to Nielsen Net Ratings (Sept 2003) search engine’s, portals and communities reach over 90% of home users so this is not an area of digital marketing to be ignored. Web site optimisation is not a dark art, but it can be a time consuming process and is often better left to experts who’s job it is to keep up to date with the current trends. Not all web designers will know how to properly optimise a site for search engines, and are unlikely to have the time required to maintain a search engine optimisation campaign. Be sure to ask if your design firm has in-house dedicated expertise to help your site achieve high search engine rankings.
