SocialMarker.com
This was a great find when we started using this a while ago. This reduced a lot of the work for us in submitting to our social bookmarking sites manually but there was still manual work to be done. It’s free though, so who can really complain?

Then we found:

OnlyWire.com
OnlyWire has a fully automated service which I much prefer with a high submission rate. The majority of sites I set up accounts for got my bookmark and they were listed on the site fast.

OnlyWire has 2 options:

1. Signing up for a free account and providing a link back to them on your blog in exchange for using it. That sounds like a fair exchange.

2. Signing up for a paid account where you pay $2.99/month or $24.99/year and you get ad free, fully automated service.

Summary
I chose to use Onlywire’s paid service and it has worked really well for me.

Rafferty Pendery
Internet Marketing Consultant

People searching for information enter specific keywords into the search engines to find what they are looking for about products, companies, services or whatever. Keyword research allows you to see how people are searching for information, what words they are using and which phrases you should use in your content so they are directed to your website. By gathering keyword data, you can gain valuable insight to searchers behavior and ways to create a user-friendly, informational website that converts visitors into customers. So where to does one start their keyword research?

Start by washing away the common misconception that you already know what terms searchers use to find your website. If you are just guessing at what people are looking for, you run the risk of getting it completely wrong. Place yourself in the searcher’s shoes and don’t look for one right answer. Successful keyword research should lead to numerous great answers.

When doing your research, don’t limit yourself. It is easy to get trapped with a specific phrase you have your heart and mind set on. In some situations, starting with a single word can open the door to a much larger range of potential keywords. If you are not sure where to start, select a broad, non-specific term to start your search and discover a plethora of less competitive yet very effective keyword terms to develop your keyword list. Bear in mind, many keywords and keyword phrases are so popular it is almost impossible to get a high ranking for them.

Once you have completed your keyword collection, and it should be a fairly extensive list, the next step is to research the keywords popularity and competition. This can be accomplished through the use of several keyword research and analytic tools. There are many keyword research tools available, like those offered by Overture, Google and Wordtracker. To ensure the quality of your keyword data, analysis should be performed and cross-referenced across multiple tools. There are also web analytics tools available such as those offered by Webtrends, Omniture and HitBox. Using these tools will allow you to identify the most effective keywords for your optimization plan.

It is also important to target locally. Local targeting, including your location in your keyword search phrases, is very successful as many people mention specific locations when searching for services and products. Also take the time to explore all niche opportunities. It is essential to identify what part of a market you’d like to focus on. Don’t forget, getting ranked number one for a term that has nothing to do with your website is a giant waste of time and money.

Keyword research is the first step in the optimization of your website for search engines and to gain greater site traffic. So get out there and start researching. Discover new keyword opportunities and fix existing keyword uses. Keyword research is an ongoing process. Your customers and your website change over time. It is important to monitor your keywords and tweak them accordingly. Although keyword research is a tedious task it is well worth the effort.

Rafferty Pendery
CEO Studio98

The GM Onstar commercials have found a way to market a product that touches our soles with small children saving parents, soccer moms becoming heroes, and Onstar operators being the helping hand to millions of crash victims.GM has done a great job of marketing this valuable automobile and life accessory. But what if you want to watch a commercial again and you didn’t think to record it yourself?

Having searched the Internet high and low, it can be very difficult to locate a GM Onstar commercial. There are plenty of spoofs and spin-offs and I am starting to wonder if it wasn’t in Jeff Gordon’s contract that his are one of the only commercials viewable on YouTube. Although Gordon’s role in the commercials were good, this series did not have quite the heart touching effect as the crashes and emergency situation responses. Why is it that GM hasn’t taken their Onstar commercials to the Internet?

They obviously know they have a great marketing channel open, with the value of realty in their commercials, why have they not taken advantage of the free and many times permanent advertising capabilities of online video services? They could quite possibly save money on advertising and create a pervasive, long term campaign. That’s just a thought, but this service is invaluable to so many and in honesty, some of the Onstar spoof videos could generate a little bad publicity. By launching an online video marketing campaign, GM could make Onstar the most loved and watched commercial in all the land. In turn, more people looking for Onstar in their next vehicle.

Rafferty Pendery
CEO Studio98

(Note: Per their site, Captology is “The Study of Computers as Persuasive Technology”)

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I will go over my view on the 10 guidelines that they cover in the overview of their study.

1. “Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose).” You have an average of 8 seconds to capture your customers’ attention. A large part of this is done graphically or by a major headline for your site. As times change, the design for websites has become increasingly important for web credibility.

2. “Make it easy to verify accuracy of information on your website.” If you make it easy for people to verify accuracy of information, you gain trust and credibility in the eyes of your customers, making it faster to get them sold on your product or services. One byproduct is that it gives people the feeling of transparency in your company.

3. “Show that there’s a real organization behind your site.” Some ideas that come to mind are listing a phone number, showing pictures of the staff or offices or as they mentioned in the study or listing a physical address. You can show pictures and credentials of the management staff.

4. “Highlight the expertise in your organization.” Many companies have very qualified personnel on board, hence them being in business. Don’t hold back from showing the credentials of the staff. As a note, don’t bore people with long list of credentials for each person right up front. List some and if a person wants to know more make it available to them.

5. “Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site” This can be done in many ways. You can show pictures, information and credentials of the people involved. One successful way of implementing this point is giving a little personal information on your staff.

6. “Make it easy to contact you” These are some ideas on how to implement this point.

a. Put your phone number in the upper right hand corner of your website, making it easy for people to find out how to call you if they need to.

b. If you have a contact form on your website, don’t include many fields for people to trudge through, simply include a Name, Email, Phone Number and Notes field. Requiring a lengthy form means people will leave.

c. Having a live online chat. I have seen this used especially well with companies that sell many products. This way your customers

7. “Make your site easy to use — and useful.”

At the end of the day, functionality is more important than design. But I hate when I see people use this as an excuse to have BAD design. There are ways to create a website that is completely functional and that has great design.

One way this can be applied is in the navigation. Navigation should be easy to use and no surprises. I am totally in agreement with having an innovative website, but don’t make the navigation too innovative. That is probably the most important part to have “normal” on a website.

8. “Update your site’s content often (at least show that its been review recently).”

This point is important for website credibility and search engine optimization. Google does keep track of when your website was last updated. So updated it often to keep everyone happy.

9. “Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers).”

I would say the biggest violators on this point are people that have Google adsense or any other such program on their website. In terms of credibility, every time I see ads like that any credibility they had has now dropped in my eyes.

10. “Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.”

It’s worth it to get an editor for the content on your website if needed, just to make sure its perfect. Typos are the biggest example of times people violate this point. They are very much credibility crashers, just don’t allow them.

The same applies to links to pages that don’t exist and things like that.

I agree with these points and could see that they can be expanded as well. My examples of application are not the end-all ways to apply them. You should review them yourself and figure out all the ways that you and your company can apply these to your situation.