Timely
Tidbits from Media II Advertising, Public Relations, Sales
Promotion
In
this issue:
Search
Engines: Getting On Top, Staying On Top.
You
know how important it is to get on the first page of search
engine results. Few people go beyond this page. Now Overture.com
offers a way that you can ensure that your company's web
site will be placed at the top of search engine listings
for keyword searches on 80% of the web's search engines.
Overture
offers a service that lets you bid for the search engine
keyword rankings on sites such as Yahoo!, MSN, Lycos,
Netscape and others. For example if your company markets
casters, the bid price for the number one spot on all
search engines for the keyword "casters" is $1.47 per
click. You pay $1.47 every time someone clicks on the
search engine link to your site. Is $1.47 too much? You
can get the number 10 spot for $0.40 per click.
The
downside to this is your competitors can use this service
as well to outbid you. Bid amounts for popular keywords
change often and can get up into the $2.00 per click range.
Less popular term on the other hand, go for $0.10 per
click.
To
find out more, go to overture.com. To see current bids
for your company's keywords, click on Advertiser Center
and then on Tools in the top navigation bar. From there,
click on the View Bids Tool to see what your keywords
are worth. You can also see how many monthly searches
have been made for your keywords by clicking on the Term
Suggestion Tool link.
Media
Buying Tip:
Now's
the time to lock in great rates for 2003 ad rates –
like home mortgage rates they are at an all time low.
If you want to lock in low ad rates for 2003, do it by
the end of this week. Publishers are scrambling for new
business and are offering very attractive packages that
may not be available next year as the economy begins to
rebound.
Need
help in negotiating ad rates? Call us today.
Top
Ten Web Design Mistakes
Here
are our top 10 mistakes made by designers of business-to-business
web sites:
1.
Large graphic files that make pages load slowly. Test
your site using a 56K modem, you'll experience what many
users experience.
2.
Inflexible web site search engines. Overly literal search
engines limit usability for novice users.
3.
Horizontal scrolling. Users HATE scrolling from the left
to the right. Don't do it.
4.
Fixed font size. Ninety-five percent of the time they
are specified too small for the over 40 crowd.
5.
Walls of text. A wall of unbroken text is deadly and probably
won't get read.
6.
Javascript in links. A link should be a simple hypertext
reference that replaces the current page with new content.
7.
Infrequently asked questions in FAQs. Too many companies
list questions they wish people would ask, but never do.
And they don't list the questions users really want the
answers to.
8.
Too much Flash animation. All those twirling logos and
exploding photos are distracting and take forever to load.
A little is good, a lot is awful.
9.
Artsy-cutesy navigation. You know the type, where links
are hidden in graphics or photos.
10.
Too much content contained in Acrobat pdf files. Sure
it's cheaper just to add pdfs from your brochures to your
web site than design new pages, but they are often a real
pain to read.
Take
the Poll
As
a user of web sites, how do you rate pop up windows? To
participate in this survey, please Reply to this newsletter
and answer "Agree" or "Disagree" to the statements below.
-
Pop
up windows are informative and helpful.
-
Pop up windows are annoying.
-
Designers
of pop up windows should be flogged. We'll reveal
the results of this survey in the next issue.
Editorial
Call: National Design Engineering Show 2003 Products Deadline:
December
13, 2002
The
National Design Engineering Show and Conference will be
featured in MACHINE DESIGN magazine's February 20, 2003
issue. The issue will contain a special section highlighting
NDES 2003 products. If you will be exhibiting at the show
and would like to be included in this showcase, please
send a product description by Friday, December 13, 2002.
Submissions
should include product specifications, a picture of the
product, company information (name, street address, telephone
number, and Web site address), and NDES booth number.
E-mail
submissions should be sent to kfranzinger@penton.com.
Please type "NDES 2003" in the subject line. Digital images
should be in CMYK tiff or eps format at a 300-dpi resolution.
Submissions can also be mailed to the address below. Please
include a color or black-and-white photograph or 35-mm
slide.
Mail to: Kathy Franzinger, Machine Design, NDES 2003,1300
E. Ninth St., Cleveland, OH 44114
Pros
for Hire
We're
happy to report that several of the Pros for Hire we have
listed in this space in previous months have new positions.
If you are interested in any of the Pros for Hire below,
contact us for a copy of their resume. Or, if you are
looking for a position, let us know and we'll add you
to this section free.
- Marketing
Manager, Telecommunications & Automation Products.
- Sales
& Marketing Manager, Electronic Components / Automotive
Products
- Marketing
Communications Manager
Quote
of the Month
A
computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention
in human history – with the possible exceptions of
handguns and tequila.
–
Mitch Ratcliffe, "Technology Review" (1992)
If
you have a topic you would like to see us address or if
you would prefer not to receive this newsletter, please
let us know. Email roy@mediaii.com |
