We have made a few recent launches of cool, clean flash headers.  The flash projects were launched in the “initial” form, but have been built them so that we can add some very complex actions in the future.

The first is Longmont Dairy, we have added a large, clean flash file on their home page.  Version 2, is going to include their whole sales pitch and sign-up form for new customers, with in the base flash file.  The pitch itself will include video and some step by step questions on buying home delivered milk.

The Second is Brithinee Electric (motor repair), which uses a flash file to run some sales slide-shows with voice overs.  The flash has been built so that we can expand on the current information already being pulled into the file, like full video.

Finally, we relaunched our own RedlandsWeb.com header.  This is by far the most creative, and we have tried to capture some cool things about Redlands.  The file itself will include some pretty cool features as we build it out.  We have even had some great feedback already -

“You are right, the new RedlandsWeb header is the coolest online thing I’v seen.” - eRedlands.com

We have long worried about “reach” of a website, and it is important.  In most cases you may think you want a ton of hits, but in reality, does your site even land in a market or niche with any hits?  Clients should always understand what their market really is, how big it is.

For instance, we know just about everything there is to know about “Redlands” and the keywords that are involved.  We have run RedlandsWeb.com, a Redlands Community site for 10 years.  We know that the total number of searches with in Southern California for the word “redlands’ is only about 9000 per month.  So, even if we bought every single keyword about Redlands, there really wouldn’t be more than 9000 searches.  We currently are very highly ranked on words about Redlands, and last month received 5,743 visitors from search engines.  Knowing that our market is only about 9000, we have more than 63% of the market with out having to buy keywords.  But, we go even farther, and pull out the 1,671 searches that are for the University of Redlands, we find that we are pretty close to saturating the market place.

So if we are maxed out on the possible hits to our site, what is next?  Well, we would like to get more hits per visit, or push them to a larger site, like our InlandEmpire.US site, which gets a broader audience.

Are you looking at your “Conversion Metrics” on your website?  For most marketers, converstions are the most important metric they may look at with regards to their online web performance.

We constantly are looking at what “Brand” and “Direct Action” have to do with websites, measurements, and helping us create an experiance for clients.

Here is a great article:
Most Marketers Ignore Brand Metrics Online. Survey: Web has a ways to go to prove itself adept at building brands

If you are using the online Everyone.net email.  You may have noticed it has a great new interface, or maybe you haven’t and are seeing the old look.

In any event, you can change between the two looks if you would like.
You can change between looks, under Options, Preferences, below it he exact question.

Web Interface:
Would you like to enable advanced features for modern computers?
  

Yes, enable the new features.
  

No, use the Classic interface.

 

Below are the “New” and the “Old” looks.

While Chrysler may be going through bankruptcy, and being run by the Obama administration, it did have very successful internal marketing strategy brewing.  They had formed an internal advertising agency called Organic.  Driven by the idea that data generated from the Internet can be tracked,

Chrysler’s digital marketing agency, Organic, has designed a “media modeling” system that helps the company calculate the best ways to allocate its marketing dollars.  The modeling proved very successful, predicting “Jeeps” 2008 sales within 1 percentage point.

Dealerships have been hit hard, online advertising spending has dropped some 30-40%, but for those dealerships that are still around, they should strongly consider keeping their online advertising budgets up.  Chrysler’s agency “estimates that about 70% to 80% of consumers research vehicle purchases on the Web.”  In a tightly competitive market, local online advertising for the dealerships is a must.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124259801821028103.html

by Ronald L. Burgess

“Everybody’s doing it.” Online advertising, that is. With hard times and faltering newspapers, the pyramid schemes and snake oil salesmen have descended on the Internet. Don’t be surprised if you are hit-up to do “Cheap” advertising or linking programs by people you know (even a relative) in the next year.

How do you evaluate the effectiveness of these new services?

First and foremost, deal only with people who have been in the online marketing business for several years. It is way too complex at this time, for those who do not clearly understand the complete subject of Search Engine Optimization(SEO). Many marketers, designers, or ad salesmen have almost no understanding of the technical and performance issues on the subject.

Second, ensure that your site has traffic tracking analytics, and that your webmaster can independently track every click, to your website, before committing to an ad program. You should have statistics available from your website for all inbound visits, or you simply will never know if you are getting scammed.

Online advertising is a great way to extend your advertising dollars from traditional budgets. But, be sure you have professionals assist you with the evaluation before you spend the big bucks online.

Deeping cutbacks are continuing to hit the advertising sectors.  In a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report showed that fourth quarter 2008 ad spending dropped 9.2% from the year before.  The biggest sector to fall back was the auto advertisers, with a 15% decline, totaling 3.2 Billion.

Online Advertising has projected a dropped of 0.4% for the first quarter of 2009, according to a eMarketer study. “eMarketer forecasts that online sales will be virtually flat in 2009,” says Jeffrey Grau.

Sources
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124148609257185819.html
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007068

2008 numbers on the amount of TV ads skipped while using a DVR product reached about 6%.  That means of all commercials, people fast-forwared or jumped over 6% of all ads on TV.  That number is expected to rise to 16% by 2011.  (source DVR Research Institute from the Hollywood Reporter)

For advertisers, what does that mean?  Well it means that there in 2008, there were an estimated $5 Billion  of advertising that went unseen, of the $80 Billion annually.  The number may reach $14 Billion in two years. 

Recently I wrote about the “Death of TV Ads“, which talked about the increasing demand of people wanting to buy there content verses having to see content paid for by ad sales.  The assumption would be that if people are using DVR’s more often, then they will be apart of the trend to get away from paid advertising content.

To purchase your website hosting account with Wild West, first go to the following address:  www.redfusionhosting.com. Next, click on the red “Web Hosting” link in the top navigation. You will see the available Economy, Deluxe and Unlimited hosting plans listed. Choose the hosting plan that is best suited for you website’s needs and click the red “Add” button. You can customize your order on the next few pages, but it is usually okay to skip these steps, as most websites do not require these extra add-ons. On the Secure Checkout page, review your order to make sure everything looks correct, select your payment type, agree to the Terms of Service and click the red “Check Out” button. On the next page you will enter all of your contact information. You will also create a Login ID and Password. It is very important that you remember your Login ID and Password. Make sure that you store them somewhere in your records. You will need these codes to login to your account in the future. Also be sure and enter your correct email address; this is where you will receive all renewal notices and receipts for your hosting account. On the next page, you will enter your billing and credit card information. Once this is complete, click the red “Check Out” now button. This will complete your domain hosting account purchase. On the final page you can print a version of your receipt. You will also be emailed a version at the email address that you listed for your contact information.

Email boxes do fill up.  Servers do not want infinite amounts of mail on their hard drives, so they will lock or stop receiving mail once they hit their quota.

Problems and Solutions.

Virus - Bad Coding - Server issues

It is possible to have virus, bad code, or server issues preventing your email box from receiving mail.  This does not happen often.  You would probably not be able to pull your email down, thus you should notice a failure warning.  Solution: contact your email provider to trouble shoot.

Not Deleting Email from the Server

This is by far the most common problem when we get email bouncing back.  Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express has a setting that allows you to “leave a copy” on the server, after you have pulled it down to your computer.  The parallel to this is, going to your P.O. Box, making a Xerox of your mail, putting the mail back in the P.O. Box and taking the copies home.  Eventually your email box is full.

The solution is simple, don’t turn on the “leave a copy on the server”.

Checking your “Live” email, online.

For the most part, our clients use one of two email services. In both cases, you can go online and check the live email to see if the box is full.

For Everyone.net customers, you should have a link to your online mail, something like

http://companyname.mail.everyone.net. (ask us if you do not know.)

If you are using our RedFusion Media Hosting, you may have our WildWest email service, you can log in here.

https://email.secureserver.net/login.php?clearcookies=1