tips | Internet Marketing Blog

The 25 factors behind brilliant brand / domain names

Last night I calculated that I have spent somewhere in the region of three days brainstorming a domain name for a new web venture. It shouldn’t be this difficult, but it feels like it is something approaching rocket science!

There are two major reasons for this.

Firstly, there is a scarcity of ‘good’ domain names that are available. This typically reduces all of your obvious / immediate options, and leads you into a world of pain.

Secondly, and even more importantly, the domain name is also the brand name (or should be) and as such there are plenty of other considerations to factor in.

So what I’ve done, partly to restore some sanity to the situation (I’m still undecided on my final choices) is to create a checklist of factors that should be taken into account.

by Chris Lake 14 May 2009 15:41pm 24 comments

How to sell your website

It's probably something you've thought (or dreamed) about: selling your website.

Maybe you're simply looking to cash in; maybe you've hit a wall and want to hand your website off to somebody who can take it to the next level.

by Patricio Robles 20 April 2009 13:15pm 3 comments

Tips for improving landing page headlines

A quality landing page is one that reinforces ‘conversion intent’. To achieve this, you need to consider the mindset of your visitor and provide enough information to persuade them to convert, as well as taking care to avoid any unnecessary distractions.

I recently found this list by Online copywriter Nick Usborne, who we interviewed a few weeks ago, with seven tips for improving landing page headlines to increase conversion rates.

Here are a few of Nick's tips...

by Graham Charlton 20 April 2009 10:15am 2 comments

Tips on making the most of product images

While standard photos may be acceptable for items such as DVDs, books and CDs, which are more or less the same wherever you choose to buy them, for most other products good quality photos can make a real difference.

This is especially true for clothes and shoes, and online retailers need to work hard to overcome the web's limitations in this area when customers cannot touch and see a product close up as they would in-store.

I've been reading a post on the Future Now blog where Jeff Sexton explains how effective use of product images can answer questions and ease a customer's doubts about a product.

I've summarised some of Jeff's tips here and added some of my own...

by Graham Charlton 09 April 2009 10:00am 5 comments

25 SEO tips to create trust with the search engines

There's no two ways about this, Google and the other search engines have their favourites. I'm sure you've seen it all before, either working for your client or evaluating your competition. There are a number of sites in every niche, whatever content they publish they rank well whether or not the content is optimised, has any inbound links and without really trying too hard.

You, on the other hand might have worked hard to rank for that content, have got some great natural links, lots of buzz but you've got little to show for it. What you don't know is that these websites have managed to reach a high trust level with the search engines which helps their content rank highly.

by Ran Nir 02 April 2009 18:14pm 31 comments

50 SEO tips for online retailers

SEO for online retailers is the process of improving a website potential in order to gain more organic non-paid traffic from the major search engines. Normally, SEO uplift doesn't happen overnight and it can take a long while to rank well for non brand key terms.

The rule of thumb is this: the more competition a relative term has, the harder you'll find it to rank for the term. With that said, you've got to start somewhere and there at least 50 ways I can think of to improve your SEO.

by Ran Nir 25 March 2009 14:35pm 88 comments

50 swinish ways to annoy web users

I experienced a few issues this morning while browsing around on the web. I’m still amazed by some of the issues I chance upon in an average day, often on mainstream media websites.

As such I’ve compiled, in about an hour and a half, a list of 50 things that annoy me. Some of these things are plain bad design, while others are strategically dubious. One or two are to be avoided like a bad smell.

by Chris Lake 23 March 2009 17:05pm 27 comments

Making the unsubscribe process as painless as possible

If recipients decide that they want to unsubscribe from your emails, it's best to make it as easy as possible as the alternative is having hit the spam button, which can of course be harmful for your sender reputation.

I've been taking a look at some best and worst practice examples from UK retailers...

by Graham Charlton 19 March 2009 12:30pm 8 comments

10 Twitter tips from The Dog Whisperer (kind of)

I love watching the mighty Cesar Millan go to work on problematic dogs on his show The Dog Whisperer. He really understands how to get the best out of a dog. I need at least a two hour fix of this show on an average weekend.

I was thrilled to discover that Cesar is using Twitter to communicate with his fans. I mean, he’s too busy being the pack leader for me to really believe he has time to tweet, but I was almost giddy with delight after Cesar sent me a direct message once I started following him. It read: “Thanks for the follow! Stay calm and assertive!”

Anyway, I started wondering whether some of Cesar’s advice could be applied to Twitter (and social media more broadly). So, at the risk of making a bunch of bad analogies, here’s 10 tips for Twitter with a nod towards - and a wag of the tail at - the Dog Whisperer.

by Chris Lake 16 March 2009 18:16pm 5 comments

29 of your top tips for website optimisation

Crayon Tips by laffy4k on Flickr Last week we invited our Twitter followers to suggest their key marketing and website optimisation tips. Our thanks to all who took part.