Japanese earthquake and Google trends

Google trends gives you a quick insight of how certain searches have been made on Google over the past.

This is a very important tool if you’re targeting a particular country or city for a product or service. You can find out how much that particular product or service have been searched via Google.

As an example I’d like to share with you the recent earthquake which struck Japan. Follow the link bellow and check out how the line has shot up when you enter words “earthquake Japan” into Google trends. This proves that Google trends results are very much accurate and can be counted on.

http://www.google.com/trends?q=earthquake+japan&ctab=0&geo=all&date=2011&sort=0

Happy blogging and comeback soon for more tips an updates

Farhan Fawzer

March 21, 2011

Tips to get total value from a Web Design Agency

Your Web Designer would have designed a website that have impressed you and will also carry the same impression to your visitors. Therefore it is important to have a website with an eye catching appearance. To achieve this you will have to be cautious when selecting a Web Design agency. You will also have to consider numerous aspects on web designing. If you are looking to get value for the money spent on your web design, these tips would assist you in selecting the right Web Design Agency.

The selected web design agency should be equipped with the necessary web development skills to create and up keep your website. One of the most important facets of the web design agency would be Search Engine Optimisation skills. Many web design agencies have the ability to create impressive website, but they do not implement Search Engine Optimisations to bring your website to top ranks on search engines. Web Design Agency uses on-page Search Engine Optimisation processes when creating your website. Other important elements of your website would be the site map, using keywords at appropriate intervals and a web page that would load faster. This will assist your web page to gain top ranking on search engines. The selected web design agency would also assist you in signing up for small directories to start your search engine marketing advertising procedures. At the same time they will offer your advice on how to market your website using SEO after the contract period ends.

It will advantageous if the selected web design agency has many clients and have experience in creating and developing websites for a long period of time. You have the ability to take a look at these sites that were created for the previous clients. If the web design agency has designed a website for a client in your industry they will be more experienced in creating a website for you. You can also check whether they are willing to exchange banners or other advertising offers between your site and the client’s site.

You may check whether the web design agency has readymade templates for you to choose from. These readymade templates will be of great assistance for you to choose the ideal layout for your website. Once you have chosen a template the Web Design Agency would customise the template to suit your specifications and design requirements.

Apart from web design and development check whether the agency offers content improvement facilities and other website administration packages. This will make your life easy and you will be able to get a complete web design and development package from the Web Design agency. After all you will only have to deal with one agency when you need any amendments to your website.

Your website should be also designed in a way that a person with less technical knowledge is also able to update the site. So you will be able to update company news and the blog without the help of the web design agency.

Farhan Fawzer

February 28, 2011

Tips to run an effective Email marketing campaign

Email marketing is one of the cost effective and time saving methods to market your products and services. As much as the ease you experience with it there are some steps you would have to consider before starting off a campaign. These guidelines will help you achieve your target and bring you more business as expected.

One of the most common issues that any Email campaign can face would be the respective Email being marked as spam. Recent studies have proved that people now do not consider spam as unsolicited email but it is simply the email they do not want to read. To avoid this you have to follow a simple step where you give the option for your consumers to subscribe for your marketing emails on your website. Do not forget to mention that their contact details would not be shared with anyone. This will help you build a target audience for your campaign.

You should also use a transparent email ID when sending out emails. Rather than using admin@yourcompanyname.com you can use nameofaproduct@yourcompanyname.com where as it will not be marked as spam. Then the subject line you will have to type in something that would interest your clients, like special discounts or newest products. Stop using abbreviations, slang and hyperbole. You may check your spam emails and get an idea on how you could improve the appearance and language of your marketing email.

Images should be used moderately but should not include high resolution images which would take a long time to load and remember to label the images you have added. Sometimes users disable images from being displayed. By labelling your images your client would get to know on what they are missing and they would check on your email. A call-to-action should also be included in your email campaigns which would give the client a chance to get involved. Your marketing email should carry a message that would ask the viewer to reply to the email, visit your website etc.

By personalising your marketing email you can make it look very important and appear to know the customer personally. Many online marketing campaigns ignore this but adding an appropriate greeting and ending the email with a signature can add a lot of value and trustworthiness to your correspondence. You should also remember to include your contact details in every marketing email, giving your client an option to contact you by various methods.

Include a message that requests your client to add you as a contact in their contact list to keep them updated and not to miss out on upcoming offers. This is another method that you can save your marketing email being marked as spam. Do not include attachments as most of the time your email would not have the expected open rate. Many people do not open email with attachments to safe guard their computers from potential viruses. Remember to include an option to unsubscribe as well.

Farhan Fawzer

February 14, 2011

Google Search Operators

Many of you who use Google as your preferred search engine might find the following operators useful, efficient and most of all “time-saving”.

You do not need special training to search for the contact number of a leading local bank or the website of a supermarket in town on Google. It’s as simple as just typing in the name of the bank or supermarket and hitting the search button, which will return your required information instantly.

What if you are looking for a particular product of which the name is only half known or not so popular?

On such instances it is not so easy as just typing those words (only if you remember). It may take you hours to find the exact piece of information you are after. Time is precious and you cannot afford to spend hours searching for something which you require immediately.

This is when using search operators comes handy, it is efficient and will save you time, effort and resources. If you find this information useful please email or share this with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon or Reddit. You can also use the print option to get a printout for yourself.

This Search		Finds Pages Containing…
biking Sri Lanka		the words biking and Sri Lanka
recycle steel OR iron		information on recycling steel or recycling iron
“I have a dream“		the exact phrase I have a dream
salsa –dance		the word salsa but NOT the word dance
Louis +I France		information about Louis the First (I), weeding out other kings of France
castle ~glossary		glossaries about castles, as well as dictonaries, lists of terms, terminology, etc.
fortune-telling		all forms of the term, whether spelled as a single word, a phrase, or hyphenated
define:imbroglio		definitions of the word imbroglio from the Web

Google also serves as a Calculator

Calculator
Operators	Meaning	Type Into Search Box (& Results)
*+ – /**	basic arithmetic	*12 + 34 – 56 7 / 8**
% of	percentage of	45% of 39
^ or **	raise to a power	2^5 or 25**
old units in new units	convert units	300 Euros in USD, 130 lbs in kg, or 31 in hex

city1 city2	Book flights.	sfo bos (Book flights from San Francisco (SFO) to Boston (BOS).)
site:	Search only one website or domain.	Halloween site:www.census.gov (Search for information on Halloween gathered by the US Census Bureau.)
[#]..[#]	Search within a range of numbers.	Dave Barry pirate 2002..2006 (Search for Dave Barry articles mentioning pirates written in these years.)
filetype: (or ext:)	Find documents of the specified type.	Form 1098-T IRS filetype:pdf (Find the US tax form 1098-T in PDF format.)
link:	Find linked pages, i.e., show pages that point to the URL.	link:warriorlibrarian.com (Find pages that link to Warrior Librarian‘s website.)

More of these type of search operators can be found at http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html

Farhan Fawzer

February 10, 2011

Optimizing your home page

As you might have heard the saying you never have a second chance to make a first impression, and that the first impression is made within 7 seconds of meeting someone. When it comes to a visiting website it’s even faster than that.

So what does the home page or a landing page of your website say about your website? Does it immediately grab the attention of your readers and make them focus and concentrate on your contents? Or does it do nothing at all and drive them away to another page? Does it load quickly allowing them to see what’s in store for them? Or does it take several seconds to load, making them lose their patience once the page finally arrives?

Your Landing Page Has 7 to 11 Seconds

That’s all you need to impress your reader and get them to stay on your site. Even for the faster sites, 2 to 3 of those seconds are spent downloading the page. So that leaves you 4 to 8 seconds to get your message across and let them navigate through your pages.

There are a many different strategies to make your landing page memorable and keep them clicking.

Navigation Home Pages
Navigation front pages have a lot of information in a small space. They act like a portal to the rest of the site packing in the places your readers can go.

If you have a website with a lot of information, a navigation front page may be the way to go. Often readers do not come to the front page of large sites looking for specific information, they are looking for the “route” to the information they want. While you could argue that having that information right on the front page would be good, for a large site this isn’t feasible. If your readers already know the site is large, they don’t expect to find the information on the front page, so even when it’s there, they don’t see it.
Information Home Pages
Websites with one specific purpose, an informative front page gets that purpose right out where the reader expects it.

Sites that are focused around a goal, such as selling something, or displaying designs, or publishing a family photo album are well suited for an Information Front Page. Make that goal the central part of the page. Engage the readers by showing them an overview of the goal and then drawing them in to the details and extra information that supports that goal.

Home Page Should Fit Your Site and Content

Your front page should suit your site and skills. A site with very few pages would not make an interesting Navigation Front Page. And a novice Flash designer may not make the best Splash Page. But, you should also think about what you are trying to convey with your site. The home page is where people are going to (often) form their first opinion. If you have a solid, cutting edge home page, but your site is about “Choosing a Nanny”, you might scare some of your readers away.

Your Home Page Should Be Clear

Your first page should be the clearest page on your site. If people have to guess what it’s about, chances are they will have hit the “Back” button without even trying. Your readers don’t want to have to work to get their information. We are an instant gratification world, and unclear sites become instant losers.