From About.com:
I love Jennifer Kyrnin. She knows how to keep her readers interested by motivating feedback.
It seems like a pretty straight-forward question at first glance: How long?
Interestingly, it's easy to see that the more experienced web designers said it took them longer to make a web page.
Inexperienced page designers will simply layout a page, insert a few graphics and set the text layout to suit. Concerns such as SEO - many inexperienced page designers avoid the head tag altogether - keywords, and competition can be forgotten.
(The worst is subcontracting to someone who has sold a web page/site design to a client from all Flash, but that's another post..)
Experienced page designers are aware that every page is in competition with other pages all over the Net with the same topics and similar content. A good designer will keep this fact in mind and research competing pages from keywords and search listings.
To ignore the basics of SEO when designing a web page is hardly fraud but it comes close. At best, it's unprofessional. Without SEF considerations, a web page is just a prototype or mock-up. If that's what the client is paying for, good. But an ethical designer will tell them they don't have a functional web page no matter what widgets or devices are included.
27% of the poll respondents indicated they could make a web page in 'an hour or so' or less.
46% indicated it took 'half a day' or 'a day or two' to design a web page from scratch. If the page is in XHTML using good software, that sounds about right.
Now, if there are other considerations, such as scope creep (Client or designer keeps adding new things and ideas.), or the page is intended to work with a CMS or embedded devices that are integral to the presentation, a page can take longer.
It's a good rule of thumb that you can add the number of scope creep plus the number of devices as a percentage to the increased cost of a web page. Any total over 10 means the cost doubles - which often means adding a new page or two.
Pricing alone quickly becomes a sticking point, especially when there is a wide disparity between the skill level of the designer and the client. Price and useability (as the client understands it) can quickly push the time required into the 'a week' and 'more than a week' categories from the poll.
A better professional position for the designer is to avoid adding to the scope creep, even if it's hard to manage the creative juices burning inside. Somewhere between the unhappy knot of understating "Give the client what they want.", and those creative juices is a happy compromise for all.
It's a paradox of human nature that the web pages that take the longest are probably those where the designer is given free reign, - no matter what the price!
Designing for oneself is probably the worst example. The designer cannot keep the scope creep under control.
Designing for someone who has already paid - even if it's a small price - with freedom of design is a close second. The showmanship of the designer comes into play. S/he cannot avoid the tendency to want to show what they can do. Time constraints be damned.
It becomes a no-sum game between the goal(s) of the page and the skills of the designer.
Next comes the situation where it is the first work done for a large, prospective long-term client. The designer has to remember that the work follows the bureaucratic model: Whatever you do becomes expected, and you have to build from there (- which may be impossible...)
These situations take the longest.
Then there is the undiscovered technology page, where the designer wants to use a new technology and the client has no idea what is happening. Oh well.
SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey.
Sphere: Related Content
Monday, October 1, 2007
Polls: Should you extend credit to clients?
From About.com:
The question isn't as simple as it sounds. There is no web designer/services programmer who has not been burnt by a client. Sometimes it seems like the clients we are most willing to do more for are the ones most likely not to pay. That's some sort of psychological twist built into the creative-technical syndrome (-Did I just invent a new topic for the DSM VI?).
But getting a contract from clients who are woefully unaware of the goals of their own site can be impossible.
In Australia, the level of client awareness is woefully behind the rest of the free world for many reasons. Australians have only had broadband access for a couple of years for anyone outside the central business districts (CBD). Even the best of promised access speeds coming in the next few years are only barely considered 'broadband' by the rest of the world.
Through no fault of their own, the vast majority of Australian businesses have no concept of the power of the Internet.
94.6% of registered businesses in Australia are small businesses. Following the ancient maxim/rule of internet marketing, 70% (or more in a developing market) of sales from a website will be within 20 miles of the physical address of the business. That's approximately 35 kilometers.
The rule applies to about 85-90% of the 3.8 million Australian business owners.
In plain English, these folks just don't see the reason for a website.
At best, the business owner sees that their clients expect some sort of website. Their vision for the website is more along the lines of a business card or brochure. Monetizing the site, or even making it SERP-friendly, is far beyond the mindset.
Extending credit to such clients is risky - with or without a contract.
The poll on About.com is not a good representative sample because of the small number of respondents; and possibly the make up of the respondents, but the message comes through loud and clear: Credit is very risky.
A useful compromise to put everyone's mind at ease is a staged payment system.
Once the goals of the site are outlined and sketched out as webpages, a baseline cost can be determined. This price has to leave some room for a little scope creep, but not too much.
Suggested features should be fixed price alternatives - defined as clearly as possible - and not more than 3-5 listed.
A base rate of some sort has to be agreed upon, either as per-hour, per-page, or some combination.
When the price is agreed upon, at 1/3 to 1/2 is paid up front. An alpha point is determined by the satisfaction of the contracted goals of the site. If there are a large number of pages/features in the site, another payment point should be based on the estimated number of days to complete pages or features.
Like most of us, web designers/programmers like to see pay packets fortnightly or monthly. That's a good rule of thumb for how to break up payment schedules.
Finally, the last payment should be substantial - 1/4 to 1/3 of the completion.
If a client can't agree to partial payments as the goals of the site are satisfied, it's time to find another client. The web designer has already put in hours of research and consultation at this point that s/he will never be paid for; and the 'client' has gained from the free education.
It's nearly impossible to get full payment up front from a contracted project, but we can all hope for somedays..
SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. Sphere: Related Content
The question isn't as simple as it sounds. There is no web designer/services programmer who has not been burnt by a client. Sometimes it seems like the clients we are most willing to do more for are the ones most likely not to pay. That's some sort of psychological twist built into the creative-technical syndrome (-Did I just invent a new topic for the DSM VI?).
But getting a contract from clients who are woefully unaware of the goals of their own site can be impossible.
In Australia, the level of client awareness is woefully behind the rest of the free world for many reasons. Australians have only had broadband access for a couple of years for anyone outside the central business districts (CBD). Even the best of promised access speeds coming in the next few years are only barely considered 'broadband' by the rest of the world.
Through no fault of their own, the vast majority of Australian businesses have no concept of the power of the Internet.
94.6% of registered businesses in Australia are small businesses. Following the ancient maxim/rule of internet marketing, 70% (or more in a developing market) of sales from a website will be within 20 miles of the physical address of the business. That's approximately 35 kilometers.
The rule applies to about 85-90% of the 3.8 million Australian business owners.
In plain English, these folks just don't see the reason for a website.
At best, the business owner sees that their clients expect some sort of website. Their vision for the website is more along the lines of a business card or brochure. Monetizing the site, or even making it SERP-friendly, is far beyond the mindset.
Extending credit to such clients is risky - with or without a contract.
The poll on About.com is not a good representative sample because of the small number of respondents; and possibly the make up of the respondents, but the message comes through loud and clear: Credit is very risky.
A useful compromise to put everyone's mind at ease is a staged payment system.
Once the goals of the site are outlined and sketched out as webpages, a baseline cost can be determined. This price has to leave some room for a little scope creep, but not too much.
Suggested features should be fixed price alternatives - defined as clearly as possible - and not more than 3-5 listed.
A base rate of some sort has to be agreed upon, either as per-hour, per-page, or some combination.
When the price is agreed upon, at 1/3 to 1/2 is paid up front. An alpha point is determined by the satisfaction of the contracted goals of the site. If there are a large number of pages/features in the site, another payment point should be based on the estimated number of days to complete pages or features.
Like most of us, web designers/programmers like to see pay packets fortnightly or monthly. That's a good rule of thumb for how to break up payment schedules.
Finally, the last payment should be substantial - 1/4 to 1/3 of the completion.
If a client can't agree to partial payments as the goals of the site are satisfied, it's time to find another client. The web designer has already put in hours of research and consultation at this point that s/he will never be paid for; and the 'client' has gained from the free education.
It's nearly impossible to get full payment up front from a contracted project, but we can all hope for somedays..
SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. Sphere: Related Content
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Oh, those competition-crazed aussies
SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey.
Competition-crazy Aussies hain't got no chance (already)
Leith Campbell makes a legitimate point though: "..The political will to invest in broadband isn't there..." Political will? Australia has politicized a fear of the Internet. Internet-phobic as become a syndrome of every election.
Helen Coonan has illustrated repeatedly that she is lost when it comes to understanding the Internet. The numbers seem meaningless to her. Even easy ideas such as the rest of Asia, US and Europe already enjoying broadband speeds of 100 times or more what is available here, seem to just make her eyes glaze.
Telstra went out to the addresses the Minister complains about, and found broadband available. One city she mentioned had been funded for broadband through her own Communications Ministry!
And, the raving debate, - like hyenas to a corpse - rages on: the ACCC has been accused of retarding investment in infrastructure by imposing upon Telstra to share its infrastructure network cheaply.
Sheesh, how am I supposed to make a peddling websites in Australia? Folks gotta be able to see them first. Sphere: Related Content
Competition-crazy Aussies hain't got no chance (already)
IF THE race has started to develop really fast broadband in the Asia-Pacific area, Australia has already all but lost, a leading telecommunications analyst says.No kidding. Most of us in the technology and media trades have been saying that for .. 5-7 years?And if that situation is to change, the Government has to encourage investment in taking optical fibre cables not just to street corner nodes, but all the way to homes, he says. (The Age)
Leith Campbell makes a legitimate point though: "..The political will to invest in broadband isn't there..." Political will? Australia has politicized a fear of the Internet. Internet-phobic as become a syndrome of every election.
Helen Coonan has illustrated repeatedly that she is lost when it comes to understanding the Internet. The numbers seem meaningless to her. Even easy ideas such as the rest of Asia, US and Europe already enjoying broadband speeds of 100 times or more what is available here, seem to just make her eyes glaze.
Telstra has called on the Minister for Communications, Senator Helen Coonan, to cease and desist distributing misleading and incorrect information, and is demanding she put the record straight.
In letters being sent out to 500,000 households throughout the country spruiking the Government's OPEL sweetheart deal, the Minister is incorrectly claiming there is no wireless broadband service in areas where Telstra's Next G™ wireless broadband service is clearly available. (07 Sept)
Telstra went out to the addresses the Minister complains about, and found broadband available. One city she mentioned had been funded for broadband through her own Communications Ministry!
And, the raving debate, - like hyenas to a corpse - rages on: the ACCC has been accused of retarding investment in infrastructure by imposing upon Telstra to share its infrastructure network cheaply.
The ACCC's justification for giving competitors cheap access to Telstra's copper lines was the "stepping stone" theory - allowing new entrants to gain sufficient marketshare to invest in their own infrastructure as they step up the "ladder of investment". That theory has been completely shot down - if the evidence of the low levels of telecommunications investment in the chart below wasn't enough.The fact that government leadership failed for years to cause the problem doesn't seem to be a popular topic. Or is just that soppy-eyed leadership is taken for granted? Maybe a little more coffee will help...
Sheesh, how am I supposed to make a peddling websites in Australia? Folks gotta be able to see them first. Sphere: Related Content
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Spinning WiMax in Oz
The SNAKE TALES shows a red biplane burning out as it swirls one way then the next. The snake and the doggy look up. "Spin doctor!", says the doggy.
Obviously a political commentary, it could as well describe the problems of the Howard campaign as the debate about WiMax technology in Australia. 'Course, it's alll sorta tied in anyway.
Howard caught flat-footed
The Internet caught the Howard government. In the last year, Labor candidates Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard used FaceBook to kick off their team candidacy for PM. Rudd and Gillard are far more attractive onlne than Mr Howard, who seems to have a very hard time giving a straight answer.
In 2000, John Howard resolved all of Australia's questions about the Internet with: "The Internet in Australia is just fine." --and that, was that.
In those days, only 30% or so of Australians had access to the Net; and nearly all of those were on dialup. Dialup over phone lines that needed to be replaced, either because they were old or because they were poor quality when installed.
NBT
The NBT (next big thing) in Australian politics is always either the 'Bush' - referring to regional Australia -or the Aboriginies. References to anything positive in those directions are good for a short polling bump, at least.
Internet access to the Bush is an active debate right now because big name competitors are looking to supplant Telstra's highly politicized and outdated efforts.
Behind the scenes, a lot is going on.
Telstra wanted in 2002 to dismantle its CDMA and HSPA systems without offering the 3G alternative. That would leave millions in the outback without reliable access to the Net. For once, the regulators stepped in for the consumers and forced Telstra to keep the old system running until NextG was available.
Telstra owns about half the exchanges in regional Australia; the rest belong to AusStar.
OPEL (Optus-Elders consortium) has won the $959 million tender to provide WiMax to the Bush, and urban areas. Telstra was pointedly forbidden to be part of the bidding, and has launched a public campaign against WiMax.
What is WiMax?
Confused yet? You should be. Seems everyone else is.
Intel will introduce chipsets for WiMax in 2008. When something has been committed to mass produced hardware, you gotta think it really is "coming." ('Scuze the sarcasm, pls...)
Chinese techs call WiMax "4G". They're installing it all across the country.
Is it WiMax?
Technically, WiMax is not 802.11n. It is 802.16e. Another source of confusion is 802.11n - incorporating advances for wireless networking devices - covers a similar radio spectrum (bands 2.3GHz, 2.4GHz and 3.5GHz, and 5.8GHz.) Experts are all over the Net saying 11n will make all cabling, even fibre optics, obsolete - and many writers are calling 11n 'WiMax.'
Further complicating the issue is that all of the radio spectrum is regulated in Australia. In the US and Europe, many countries leave these frequency bands open for public use.
Then the fine print tells us the proposed Australian WiMax rose will only encompass the 2.3GHz, 2.4GHz and 3.5GHz bands.
That dog bites both ways, Ms Coonan. Ignoring the technology for spin is not a decision-making process. Someone in the government has to understand the technology and make the right decsions.
Last year, the raging debate over who would provide FTTN (fibre to the node) only served to disgust the public with the whole process. In the end, no one could decide. Telstra and OPEL-lite were further undermined in their submissions by a German company that had already done FTTN for a decade.
Best answer
No matter what technology is employed, it will still mean shared bandwidth. Shared bandwidth means congestion at times. It doesn't seem too hard to see that whatever system is chosen it has to provide for expansion and for high peak traffic.
The fact is no matter what wireless protocol is pursued, it will have to be supported by a reliable connection, and that connection is obviously a fibre optics cable system. This simple fact seems to have escaped the debate somehow.
If dear reader, you want to delve deeper into this morass, I'll give you the link to my search on AustralianIT. Enjoy the great white cloud.
Before Australia can be competitive in the Asian or US-UK markets, the country needs reliable access to the Internet at speeds that make the Internet more than an aggravation.
SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. There is too much room for spin in this debate. It really is like a swirling old biplane about to crash. Sphere: Related Content
Obviously a political commentary, it could as well describe the problems of the Howard campaign as the debate about WiMax technology in Australia. 'Course, it's alll sorta tied in anyway.
Howard caught flat-footed
The Internet caught the Howard government. In the last year, Labor candidates Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard used FaceBook to kick off their team candidacy for PM. Rudd and Gillard are far more attractive onlne than Mr Howard, who seems to have a very hard time giving a straight answer.
In 2000, John Howard resolved all of Australia's questions about the Internet with: "The Internet in Australia is just fine." --and that, was that.
In those days, only 30% or so of Australians had access to the Net; and nearly all of those were on dialup. Dialup over phone lines that needed to be replaced, either because they were old or because they were poor quality when installed.
NBT
The NBT (next big thing) in Australian politics is always either the 'Bush' - referring to regional Australia -or the Aboriginies. References to anything positive in those directions are good for a short polling bump, at least.
Internet access to the Bush is an active debate right now because big name competitors are looking to supplant Telstra's highly politicized and outdated efforts.
Behind the scenes, a lot is going on.
Telstra wanted in 2002 to dismantle its CDMA and HSPA systems without offering the 3G alternative. That would leave millions in the outback without reliable access to the Net. For once, the regulators stepped in for the consumers and forced Telstra to keep the old system running until NextG was available.
Telstra owns about half the exchanges in regional Australia; the rest belong to AusStar.
OPEL (Optus-Elders consortium) has won the $959 million tender to provide WiMax to the Bush, and urban areas. Telstra was pointedly forbidden to be part of the bidding, and has launched a public campaign against WiMax.
What is WiMax?
Confused yet? You should be. Seems everyone else is.
Intel will introduce chipsets for WiMax in 2008. When something has been committed to mass produced hardware, you gotta think it really is "coming." ('Scuze the sarcasm, pls...)
An information sheet issued by the government says: "WiMax chip sets will be incorporated in a range of electronic devices, including PCs, cams, personal music devices and PDAs.
Chinese techs call WiMax "4G". They're installing it all across the country.
Is it WiMax?
Technically, WiMax is not 802.11n. It is 802.16e. Another source of confusion is 802.11n - incorporating advances for wireless networking devices - covers a similar radio spectrum (bands 2.3GHz, 2.4GHz and 3.5GHz, and 5.8GHz.) Experts are all over the Net saying 11n will make all cabling, even fibre optics, obsolete - and many writers are calling 11n 'WiMax.'
Further complicating the issue is that all of the radio spectrum is regulated in Australia. In the US and Europe, many countries leave these frequency bands open for public use.
Then the fine print tells us the proposed Australian WiMax rose will only encompass the 2.3GHz, 2.4GHz and 3.5GHz bands.
On Friday, (Communications Minister Helen) .. Coonan tried to downplay debate over standards, saying people did not care about the technology, only the service they received.Too true.
That dog bites both ways, Ms Coonan. Ignoring the technology for spin is not a decision-making process. Someone in the government has to understand the technology and make the right decsions.
Last year, the raging debate over who would provide FTTN (fibre to the node) only served to disgust the public with the whole process. In the end, no one could decide. Telstra and OPEL-lite were further undermined in their submissions by a German company that had already done FTTN for a decade.
Best answer
No matter what technology is employed, it will still mean shared bandwidth. Shared bandwidth means congestion at times. It doesn't seem too hard to see that whatever system is chosen it has to provide for expansion and for high peak traffic.
The fact is no matter what wireless protocol is pursued, it will have to be supported by a reliable connection, and that connection is obviously a fibre optics cable system. This simple fact seems to have escaped the debate somehow.
If dear reader, you want to delve deeper into this morass, I'll give you the link to my search on AustralianIT. Enjoy the great white cloud.
Before Australia can be competitive in the Asian or US-UK markets, the country needs reliable access to the Internet at speeds that make the Internet more than an aggravation.
SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. There is too much room for spin in this debate. It really is like a swirling old biplane about to crash. Sphere: Related Content
IT daws fewer students
The news is always a conversation.
This morning, the Herald Sun reports half as many VCE students have chosen IT compared to last year. As an Internet/IT proselyte, that is disappointing. I can't help feel these decisions are shaped by the government's Internet-phobic attitude in national advertising.
IT less attractive
There is no question IT has become a less-certain path professionally.
Since the dot-com bubble burst, job listings have become miniscule. HR departments are listing jobs requiring a laundry list of skills for much lower pay scales. (Some of the listings are comical: requirements for years of experience in technologies which have only existed for months, or a year or two.)
The media has given a lot of coverage to out-sourcing to India and Pakistan by large institutions and banks. It's a discouraging job market. No one seems to be reminding these banks and financial institutions that there are no privacy laws in those countries. Reports have reached Australia of CDs full of credit card and bank details being sold in open air markets!
TAFE enrolment drops
The same article reports "TAFE colleges are failing to meet the nneeds of the private sector and should be overhauled," according to Federal Vocational and Further Education Minister Andrew Robb. -- It's bloody well about time, Mr Robb.
TAFE enrollments dropped 13% between 2001 and 2006.
Australia's institutionalized vocational training has been centered in the TAFE (Technical and Further Education) system. The system was a good idea initially. A fast-track public-private partnering to produce the skills Australia desperately needed. But the TAFE system has become bureaucratic, unweildy, and political -- incorporating the worst of Australia's mateship and corruption.
TAFEs take on the affects of colleges and universities. The names chosen for these for-profit businesses are at best deceptive. There may have been the intention to encourage entrepreneurship originally, but by putting 70-85% (depending on source) of government funding into the TAFE system as opposed to spreading the funds around for small, better-focused organizations, the TAFEs have become as much a hinderance to flexible learning as examples.
Because large TAFEs are publicly well-funded yet remain private businesses, these institutions become competitors in the open market with an inordinate advantage.
Projects which would be funded on their merits privately are subsidized by using (not employing, using) students. Instead of paying for skills on the open market, the TAFE lets the government and the students pay for the right to develop entrepreneurial projects.
The result quashes new ideas and entrepreneurship, especially for Internet entrepreneurs.
TAFE means business
Public funding 'initiatives' are formed based on the submissions from TAFEs to suit the TAFEs. TAFE executives and employees sit on the decision-making boards, and direct the funds from private initiative to the TAFEs. (e.g., WiMax technology is planned to provide broadband speeds for regional Australia in 2008.)
Business entitites are formed specifically to take advantage of this public trough feed.
SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. Sphere: Related Content
This morning, the Herald Sun reports half as many VCE students have chosen IT compared to last year. As an Internet/IT proselyte, that is disappointing. I can't help feel these decisions are shaped by the government's Internet-phobic attitude in national advertising.
IT less attractive
There is no question IT has become a less-certain path professionally.
Since the dot-com bubble burst, job listings have become miniscule. HR departments are listing jobs requiring a laundry list of skills for much lower pay scales. (Some of the listings are comical: requirements for years of experience in technologies which have only existed for months, or a year or two.)
The media has given a lot of coverage to out-sourcing to India and Pakistan by large institutions and banks. It's a discouraging job market. No one seems to be reminding these banks and financial institutions that there are no privacy laws in those countries. Reports have reached Australia of CDs full of credit card and bank details being sold in open air markets!
TAFE enrolment drops
The same article reports "TAFE colleges are failing to meet the nneeds of the private sector and should be overhauled," according to Federal Vocational and Further Education Minister Andrew Robb. -- It's bloody well about time, Mr Robb.
TAFE enrollments dropped 13% between 2001 and 2006.
Australia's institutionalized vocational training has been centered in the TAFE (Technical and Further Education) system. The system was a good idea initially. A fast-track public-private partnering to produce the skills Australia desperately needed. But the TAFE system has become bureaucratic, unweildy, and political -- incorporating the worst of Australia's mateship and corruption.
TAFEs take on the affects of colleges and universities. The names chosen for these for-profit businesses are at best deceptive. There may have been the intention to encourage entrepreneurship originally, but by putting 70-85% (depending on source) of government funding into the TAFE system as opposed to spreading the funds around for small, better-focused organizations, the TAFEs have become as much a hinderance to flexible learning as examples.
Because large TAFEs are publicly well-funded yet remain private businesses, these institutions become competitors in the open market with an inordinate advantage.
Projects which would be funded on their merits privately are subsidized by using (not employing, using) students. Instead of paying for skills on the open market, the TAFE lets the government and the students pay for the right to develop entrepreneurial projects.
The result quashes new ideas and entrepreneurship, especially for Internet entrepreneurs.
TAFE means business
Public funding 'initiatives' are formed based on the submissions from TAFEs to suit the TAFEs. TAFE executives and employees sit on the decision-making boards, and direct the funds from private initiative to the TAFEs. (e.g., WiMax technology is planned to provide broadband speeds for regional Australia in 2008.)
Business entitites are formed specifically to take advantage of this public trough feed.
SEO/SEM in Australia is a special issue for so many reasons. Join me was we explore. It will be a fascinating and informative journey. Sphere: Related Content
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Australian IT: Bad Form
Sometimes playing with research tools is a little sobering.
I love a good cynical laugh, especially at the expense of some ignoramus in the law around Australia more than most, but this article from AustralianIT is just headline grabbing nonsense. Most of the article has nothing to do with the headline, "Judge says Keep IT simple, stupid". The rest of the article is just loose change about a new MySpace for dogs, Florida electoral machinery, and other fluff.
The excerpt about the judge is taken (supposedly) taken from Annova. Yet there is no link. Annova functions in Australia as a distributor and an eBay store. They are an electronics retailer from the UK.
The story did the rounds in the UK and then got picked up by The Australian and even an aussie student's forum post.
The student's forum post and the AustralianIT story have an important point in common: Neither indicates that this is a UK judge. What is sad to find is this man is also a very learned QC who even writes regularly for medical journals. For a man who doesn't know what a website is, his career is all over the Internet.
This sort of loose journalistic effort only feeds the fires of those who see the Internet as the enemy. And I resent this sort of thing even more coming from AustralianIT, which has been an important resource for me to learn about IT and the Internet in Australia.
Now this is from Annova, picked up by TimmyB on Oreilly, and it is wryly funny.
Just a raw plug for my first SEO clients:
Short Cut Computers belongs to Steve Trim, a friend who actually paid me to learn this stuff and put it to work for him.
And Steve Trim's other business, Barcode Solutions., which will be my second project. Sphere: Related Content
I love a good cynical laugh, especially at the expense of some ignoramus in the law around Australia more than most, but this article from AustralianIT is just headline grabbing nonsense. Most of the article has nothing to do with the headline, "Judge says Keep IT simple, stupid". The rest of the article is just loose change about a new MySpace for dogs, Florida electoral machinery, and other fluff.
The excerpt about the judge is taken (supposedly) taken from Annova. Yet there is no link. Annova functions in Australia as a distributor and an eBay store. They are an electronics retailer from the UK.
The story did the rounds in the UK and then got picked up by The Australian and even an aussie student's forum post.
The student's forum post and the AustralianIT story have an important point in common: Neither indicates that this is a UK judge. What is sad to find is this man is also a very learned QC who even writes regularly for medical journals. For a man who doesn't know what a website is, his career is all over the Internet.
This sort of loose journalistic effort only feeds the fires of those who see the Internet as the enemy. And I resent this sort of thing even more coming from AustralianIT, which has been an important resource for me to learn about IT and the Internet in Australia.
Now this is from Annova, picked up by TimmyB on Oreilly, and it is wryly funny.
Just a raw plug for my first SEO clients:
Short Cut Computers belongs to Steve Trim, a friend who actually paid me to learn this stuff and put it to work for him.
And Steve Trim's other business, Barcode Solutions., which will be my second project. Sphere: Related Content
Telstra takes to the mattresses (or blogs)
Telstra has drecided to join the rest of the blogging world. In the usual Telstra style, the new blogs are professional looking and full of user-unfriendly bugs. A massive array of corporate blogs, all carefully edited to put the company's best foot forward.
Too bad the company's policies prevent most of the country from joining the free world.
Buggy
Most of my customers are small businesses. SME's (Small- to Medium-sized Enterprises to the rest of the world); "small business" to the ATO. Considering that these businesses employ 85% of the workforce and are 96.4% of the registered businesses in Australia, I was particularly dismayed to find the new 'Small Business' blogger was the former soppy 'Lifestyles' blogger.
She goes on and on about her fascination of the insects she calls 'nerds', but the nerds at Telstra have their revenge: neither the RSS feed nor the Comments on her blog work. (She may not want the Comments to work.)
You can almost hear the gnomes chuckling.
You have to read the news like a conversation.
When the person blogging about small business in Australia keeps citing studies done by large retailers in the US; and calling Internet entrepreneurs "nerds", it's not hard to conclude she wishes she lived somewhere else. (Hint: She certainly needs to work somewhere else...)
One thing is certain: She has little or no idea what it means to develop the Internet as a resource for a small business in Australia.
Her first article was for 'Breast Cancer Day' at the Telstra Dome. Laudable, but hardly 'News you can use'. (A leftover from her former project?) She is far out of touch with the needs of small business in Australia.
A few of the other blogs have undefined RSS feeds, too. And Telstra wonders why it's losing money? I did find a useable feed on the homepage.
Comments
There are 4 separate blogs complaining about the regulatory requirement to keep CDMA in place until the NextG network is running properly. The blogs are full of people complaining about holes in service. The chief technical blogger advises getting a magnetic antenna; and one comment says it will make a nice paperweight.
No one dares complain about the fees. (I guess they leave that to the Dodo ad.)
Telstra whinges on to make its case. All Telstra has to do is explain that they want to cripple their competitors and are willing to leave 1/2 the population without reliable broadband.
Strangely, most of the Comments on these blogs seem to be Telstra shareholders. The shareholders want to know why Telstra shouldn't be allowed to make the same obscene profits as steel companies.
CDMA divine
Optus, iiNet, and other carriers in the G9 consortium built their business by sharing Telstra's CDMA network. This was mandated by regulations in order to introduce competition into the market. Only 10 years ago, Telstra was a monopoly. The only game in town.
When Telstra dragged its feet (for 7 years overcharging consumers for piss-poor broadband) on the issue of fibre cabling and then wireless internet access, 9 of these companies formed a consortium, excluding Telstra, and filed a competing proposal to do the work.
Here would be a chance for Telstra to let them know why they shouldn't mess with the Mother Country (..or Mother Nature, or God, etc.)
CDMA will go sooner or later. Telstra probably intended to handle the changeover as they did ADSL: charge heavily for the NextG service as it was grudgingly enabled. This is one case where the politicians should be applauded.
When you read these blogs as a conversation along with the other blogs on these topics, the Telstra gang seems to want to dominate the discussion to put the party line forward. The internet marketing of these blogs seem to be towards Telstra shareholders and employees, too, which skews the tone of the response.
I suppose all's fair in love and war, or business, but as an interested observer, you do get tired of seeing people ground up in the conflict.
Until broadband improves to the point small business can see the efficacy of the Internet, SEO and SEM will only be valuable tools for the privileged few.
Notes:
CDMA -- (Code Division Multiple Access): A technology for digital transmission of radio signals between, for example, a mobile telephone and a radio base station. In CDMA, a frequency is divided into a number of codes. A spread spectrum approach to digital transmission. With CDMA, each conversation is digitized and then tagged with a code. Also known as IS-95A or cdmaOne
Just a raw plug for my first SEO clients:
Short Cut Computers belongs to Steve Trim, a friend who actually paid me to learn this stuff and put it to work for him.
And Steve Trim's other business, Barcode Solutions., which will be my second project. Sphere: Related Content
Too bad the company's policies prevent most of the country from joining the free world.
Buggy
Most of my customers are small businesses. SME's (Small- to Medium-sized Enterprises to the rest of the world); "small business" to the ATO. Considering that these businesses employ 85% of the workforce and are 96.4% of the registered businesses in Australia, I was particularly dismayed to find the new 'Small Business' blogger was the former soppy 'Lifestyles' blogger.
She goes on and on about her fascination of the insects she calls 'nerds', but the nerds at Telstra have their revenge: neither the RSS feed nor the Comments on her blog work. (She may not want the Comments to work.)
You can almost hear the gnomes chuckling.
You have to read the news like a conversation.
When the person blogging about small business in Australia keeps citing studies done by large retailers in the US; and calling Internet entrepreneurs "nerds", it's not hard to conclude she wishes she lived somewhere else. (Hint: She certainly needs to work somewhere else...)
One thing is certain: She has little or no idea what it means to develop the Internet as a resource for a small business in Australia.
Her first article was for 'Breast Cancer Day' at the Telstra Dome. Laudable, but hardly 'News you can use'. (A leftover from her former project?) She is far out of touch with the needs of small business in Australia.
A few of the other blogs have undefined RSS feeds, too. And Telstra wonders why it's losing money? I did find a useable feed on the homepage.
Comments
There are 4 separate blogs complaining about the regulatory requirement to keep CDMA in place until the NextG network is running properly. The blogs are full of people complaining about holes in service. The chief technical blogger advises getting a magnetic antenna; and one comment says it will make a nice paperweight.
No one dares complain about the fees. (I guess they leave that to the Dodo ad.)
Telstra whinges on to make its case. All Telstra has to do is explain that they want to cripple their competitors and are willing to leave 1/2 the population without reliable broadband.
Strangely, most of the Comments on these blogs seem to be Telstra shareholders. The shareholders want to know why Telstra shouldn't be allowed to make the same obscene profits as steel companies.
CDMA divine
Optus, iiNet, and other carriers in the G9 consortium built their business by sharing Telstra's CDMA network. This was mandated by regulations in order to introduce competition into the market. Only 10 years ago, Telstra was a monopoly. The only game in town.
When Telstra dragged its feet (for 7 years overcharging consumers for piss-poor broadband) on the issue of fibre cabling and then wireless internet access, 9 of these companies formed a consortium, excluding Telstra, and filed a competing proposal to do the work.
Here would be a chance for Telstra to let them know why they shouldn't mess with the Mother Country (..or Mother Nature, or God, etc.)
CDMA will go sooner or later. Telstra probably intended to handle the changeover as they did ADSL: charge heavily for the NextG service as it was grudgingly enabled. This is one case where the politicians should be applauded.
When you read these blogs as a conversation along with the other blogs on these topics, the Telstra gang seems to want to dominate the discussion to put the party line forward. The internet marketing of these blogs seem to be towards Telstra shareholders and employees, too, which skews the tone of the response.
I suppose all's fair in love and war, or business, but as an interested observer, you do get tired of seeing people ground up in the conflict.
Until broadband improves to the point small business can see the efficacy of the Internet, SEO and SEM will only be valuable tools for the privileged few.
Notes:
CDMA -- (Code Division Multiple Access): A technology for digital transmission of radio signals between, for example, a mobile telephone and a radio base station. In CDMA, a frequency is divided into a number of codes. A spread spectrum approach to digital transmission. With CDMA, each conversation is digitized and then tagged with a code. Also known as IS-95A or cdmaOne
Just a raw plug for my first SEO clients:
Short Cut Computers belongs to Steve Trim, a friend who actually paid me to learn this stuff and put it to work for him.
And Steve Trim's other business, Barcode Solutions., which will be my second project. Sphere: Related Content
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Success,.. sorta
Just a raw plug for my first SEO clients:I use the excerpt above as part of my signature on this experimental blog to help generate temporal links to Steve's company sites. It's an experiment to see how the rankings are affected.
Short Cut Computers belongs to Steve Trim, a friend who actually paid me to learn this stuff and put it to work for him.
And Steve Trim's other business, Barcode Solutions., which will be my second project.
Steve's main site, Shortcut Computers, had been designed to be easily modified by him and his staff using FrontPage(tm). It had been up for nearly a year when he became interested in what was happening there. -- Nothing.
The site registered about 35 visitors in a year; most of which were probably Steve himself. It was there for him to say he had a website.
After reading a few books on SEO/SEM, we redid the site.
First, it needed to be more dynamic and easier to use. Still experimenting with options, we mistakenly chose PostNuke for the CMS. PostNuke made some things easier, but overall is a programmers' CMS.
Then the overall appearance was reconfigured. The present homepage reflects this step.
It is at least dynamic, but too many of the pages are lost behind long URLs.
Small problems.
During this process, I began researching SEO/SEM.
First step: Wade through a few books.
Second step: Find the resources needed in Australia.
Third step: Apply those resources to accomplish the goals of the business.
I began "internet marketing" back when AltaVista and Lycos were the search engine paradigms. Google and Yahoo in those days didn't exist. The key to internet marketing was, and still is, LINKS!
Step two was an eye-opener. There simply weren't that many directories and search engines. Two industries, tourism and mining, were well represented. Business listings were made on government or telecom sites. The Yellow Pages in Australia had spawned three different access sites; all of whom charged for listings.
Step three was the real challenge though.
The small company's service area was a number of suburbs on the southeast side of Melbourne. Although this area comprised over 1 million residents, it sat on the bleeding edge of broadband availability. Most of his customers were condemned to dial up Internet access.
(Click the 'Melbourne' tab on the iBurst availability map. There are other similar maps - and more timely - but this one tracks very closely and illustrate the point. Then enter 'Dandenong' to see the availability in the company's service area.)
This company, like 90% of small business in Australia, didn't want to market nationally or even citywide.
Links from search engines were good for natural rankings -- "roamers" in SEM-speak -- but to increase business, we needed visitors -- "convertibles" SEM-speak -- who could take use the services. For that, we needed to target a region not commonly defined: PPC advertising.
For Melbournians, the "southeast suburbs" is easily understood. For Google-Aus and Yahoo7, it means nothing.
We established a blog for the company to demonstrate expertise in depth, and to keep up with changes in the business climate of the service area. Fortunately, the changes came fast and furious in the media. Rupert Murdoch announced on a visit that "Internet service in Australia is abysmal." Optus went public with plans to form G-9, excluding Telstra. Then the bubble-heads in Parliament passed archaic copyright law amendments.
Nothing drives Internet traffic like other media.
Avoiding any more of the details, we managed to get 70-90 visitors per day to the site within 3 months. Page ranks from Google (2), and Alexa(about 260,000) gained over 6 months or so. The site rose quickly to SERP positions 1-4 in most of the service area. The blog is cited regularly on other blogs. We even saw visits on the blog from Canberra.
While I was away in Hawaii, things were neglected. The number of visitors held pretty solid because of the natural search. PPC campaigns were abandoned though, and 'convertibles' waned.
Overall, a success. With the caveat that it can only improve with more attention
What was found and learned about SEO/SEM in Australia was to be applied to another of Steve's enterprises: Barcode Solutions. This has to be easier. Its market is national and international. (Hope springs eternal. It wasn't...) Sphere: Related Content
Latest figures just like the first...
Hitwise reiterates the search figures for Australia. These numbers seem to hardly change.
Yes, Google-Aus and Google dominate the search engine traffic with more than 84%. (Google-Aus: 68.45%, Google: 14.81%). If anything, Google has increased its dominance in the last year.
Yahoo7 (Yahoo-Aus and TV channel 7) are really pulling out all the stops to try to gain more interest in their offerings, but for the highly profitable SERP numbers (Yahoo-Aus: 3.03%); they've only managed to fall behind their pricey competitors at NineMSN (8.20%).
For anyone looking to market a website to Australia, Google is pretty much the whole ball game - Or is it?
The sophistication of Google's search algorithm is lost in the shallow Australian market (more on this later), but the power of being the icon of Internet search is overwhelming to the raw Australian user. Ever heard anyone say: "I Yahoo'd it."?
MSN has taken the perspective of becoming the high priced spread to maximize profits from its marginal position. Makes sense. This is really Microsoft, after all.
I don't hate Microsoft. They've made too many smart moves not to respect them. I just wish more people would learn about Linux, and make the whole software marketplace more reasonable.
But pricing an ad on MSN at $20,000 a month is ridiculous in Australia. It limits MSN to only big business in a country where 96.4% of registered businesses are small (under $2M gross with less than 5 employees, as defined by the Finance Minister.)
Lead by an Internet-phobic government, you have to wonder when the Australian public will suss this stuff out. The entrepreneurial search engine industry is already beginning to diminish. No one knows how to interpret the regressive copyright laws, and that has scared many out of the market.
Even some university projects have changed their focus from setting up a search engine to producing the software.
Just a raw plug for some SEO/SEM clients:
Short Cut Computers belongs to Steve Trim, a friend who actually paid me to learn this stuff and put it to work for him.
And Steve Trim's other business, Barcode Solutions., which will be my second project. Sphere: Related Content
Yes, Google-Aus and Google dominate the search engine traffic with more than 84%. (Google-Aus: 68.45%, Google: 14.81%). If anything, Google has increased its dominance in the last year.
Yahoo7 (Yahoo-Aus and TV channel 7) are really pulling out all the stops to try to gain more interest in their offerings, but for the highly profitable SERP numbers (Yahoo-Aus: 3.03%); they've only managed to fall behind their pricey competitors at NineMSN (8.20%).
For anyone looking to market a website to Australia, Google is pretty much the whole ball game - Or is it?
The sophistication of Google's search algorithm is lost in the shallow Australian market (more on this later), but the power of being the icon of Internet search is overwhelming to the raw Australian user. Ever heard anyone say: "I Yahoo'd it."?
MSN has taken the perspective of becoming the high priced spread to maximize profits from its marginal position. Makes sense. This is really Microsoft, after all.
I don't hate Microsoft. They've made too many smart moves not to respect them. I just wish more people would learn about Linux, and make the whole software marketplace more reasonable.
But pricing an ad on MSN at $20,000 a month is ridiculous in Australia. It limits MSN to only big business in a country where 96.4% of registered businesses are small (under $2M gross with less than 5 employees, as defined by the Finance Minister.)
Lead by an Internet-phobic government, you have to wonder when the Australian public will suss this stuff out. The entrepreneurial search engine industry is already beginning to diminish. No one knows how to interpret the regressive copyright laws, and that has scared many out of the market.
Even some university projects have changed their focus from setting up a search engine to producing the software.
Just a raw plug for some SEO/SEM clients:
Short Cut Computers belongs to Steve Trim, a friend who actually paid me to learn this stuff and put it to work for him.
And Steve Trim's other business, Barcode Solutions., which will be my second project. Sphere: Related Content
Friday, August 10, 2007
Here is a handy tool from a US competitor:
If the stuff in this blog makes sense to you, visit my website at AEmeritus Relevant Training because that's where it's all gonna be put in motion.
Just a raw plug for my first SEO clients:
Short Cut Computers belongs to Steve Trim, a friend who actually paid me to learn this stuff and put it to work for him.
And Steve Trim's other business, Barcode Solutions., which will be my second project. Sphere: Related Content
If the stuff in this blog makes sense to you, visit my website at AEmeritus Relevant Training because that's where it's all gonna be put in motion.
Just a raw plug for my first SEO clients:
Short Cut Computers belongs to Steve Trim, a friend who actually paid me to learn this stuff and put it to work for him.
And Steve Trim's other business, Barcode Solutions., which will be my second project. Sphere: Related Content
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Fresh SEM in OZ
Fresh SEM in Oz
by Paul Donley
When I started looking into SEO and SEM, I roamed the Net a little to see what the buzz was all about, then - after realizing that I was lost in acronyms and neologisms again - checked out a couple of books from my online reference library and settled down in front of the computer with a strong cup of coffee for some reading.
It didn't take a long time before I realized that I was looking at some grreeeat stuff -- but it didn't pertain to the Land of OZ.
Fresh in Oz
Australia took to the Internet faster, person by person (per capita), than any other country in the world. In 2000-2001, fewer than 10% of Australian households had access to the Net. Last year, 2005, 35% of all Australian households had access; and slightly more, 41%, of Australian businesses - mostly small businesses.
Of those, 65% were using broadband access of one form or the other.
It's been predicted in 2010 that 70% of small businesses in Australia will be on the Net. The Internet will be the most important advertising resource for small business. And Australia has a lot of small, regional and local businesses.
Googled
At this point, however, Australia is new to the Net - and computers.
There have already been a few marketing surges as Australians moved first to replace their older P1 and P2 systems with P4's in order to run XP, then Celeron made a splash, and the next surge is already underway with the dual-core hardware. Households no longer have just one computer. There is usually a desktop and a couple of laptops in most households these days.
All those new computers need access to the Internet, so .. wireless networking is popular. For most households, the first network they'll see will be wireless - at the home or office.
But all this hardware doesn't mean everyone has instantly acquired computer skills. Far from it.
Driven by their children, who see the latest hardware and software in the schools - because both Victoria and NSW are constantly upgrading the school to fulfill campaign promises - households have spent thousands over the past 5 years to acquire computers that no one seems to really know what to do with.
Even the teachers who are running around with those hot new laptops are a little confused. But they sure look impressive!
Let me use the major search engines to illustrate what I mean.
Internationally, Google and Yahoo are neck and neck when it comes to searches. The last figures I saw put Google at 40% and Yahoo! at 43% of all searches. Google, because its name has become synonymous with "search on the Net"; and Yahoo! because they are the best established portal to the Net.
The International figures look something like this. (I made this chart using an online service for school children called Create a Graph from the National Institute for Educational Statistics. It's a free online service.)
Australia is a little different. Since the aussies are new to the Net, they're more susceptible to the buzzwords. They "google" for things.
While Yahoo! and Google pretty much split the International pie; in Australia, Google-Australia has 65% of the searches.
Since the aussies are new kids on the block, many don't realize there is a Google-Australia. About 13% use the original Google site. -- In Australia, Google commands nearly 80% of all online searches.
That is a commanding position.
If, for example, I want to build Internet presence and recognition for a website - based on keywords - by putting their services before 70% of the web, all I need is Google. They command nearly 80%. I can accomplish my goal easily with a Google PPC (point per click) campaign.
Aussies suss it out
As the aussies suss out the Internet, that will change.
Australians follow the trends from America, especially on the Net. It's reasonable to assume that they'll be moving more towards the International market split for searches soon.
Local Directories
Australian governments have spent to provide every large town and region with its own Community Guide - a local directory of business and events. Even local townships and suburbs have their own Community Guides.
Telstra (with vast government subsidies) has developed the Yellow and White pages, then linked both to a national advertising campaign for Sensis.
There are also a number of entrepreneurial search engines and directories that have sprung up.
Although all this activity will not supplant the dominance of Google Australia and Yahoo! Australia, it will serve to nudge the aussies along to suss out the way to search the Net.
Aussies are pretty clewy.
eBay is going to help, too, over the Christmas shopping season. Australians go to eBay for things almost as much as they do to the search engines. A shopper can have a bit of fun with eBay. If they find something on eBay, but want to see the (approximate) price in Australian dollars, all they have to do is add ".au" to the URL - and the price in Australian dollars appears!
How long is it??
This long!
Aussies are moving fast on the Net. But the question for any Internet Marketing campaign is: How long will it be before they are searching like the rest of the world?
A number of factors come into play here quickly. Aussies are notoriously brand loyal. It takes a tsunami or a good hit of dynamite to make them move from something. Then again, there is that pressure to be like the US and UK, which sorta balances it all out.
We can have a bit of a play with another figure, the loyalty numbers, and fuzzy logic to make a good guess.
Google commands a 74% loyalty. Yahoo! gets only about 47%. Neither bad numbers really.
And remember, MSN already has 13% of the searches within Australia through its affiliation with NineMSN.
Let's see what happens to Google.
We start with 65% - the portion of searches Google had in 2005 - and estimate their portion in 2006 to be 74% of 65%, or -- 48%. That leaves a bigger slice of the pie for Yahoo! Australia and NineMSN, along with all those local and regional directories.
If people know what kind of business or service they want, they will learn to turn to local directories because it's quicker. Aussies are very community minded.
Now, if you assume that the searches done on Google US are gonna stay about the same because those folks are looking for something outside Australia, then Google will enjoy about a (48 + 13) 61% share of the searches in 2006. (I gotta wonder how close I'm gonna be. The figures will be out soon.)
Do the same thing for 2007, and the number doesn't track. 74% of 48 plus 13 is .. 35 percent. In order to track with the 2005 International figures, Google will have to pick up a few from somewhere - probably Yahoo!, which can only keep the loyalty of less than half (47%) of its searches.
But the guesstimate still works. It'll take the aussies about two years to suss out the search options on the Net, which sounds about right.
By the end of 2007, aussies will be searching along like the rest of the world.
Where the community directories and entrepreneurs will come into the mix, we'll have to look into in another article.
If the stuff in this blog makes sense to you, visit my website at AEmeritus Relevant Training
because that's where it's all gonna be put in motion.
Just a raw plug for my first SEO clients:
Short Cut Computers belongs to Steve Trim, a friend who actually paid me to learn this stuff and put it to work for him.
And Steve Trim's other business, Barcode Solutions., which will be my second project. Sphere: Related Content
by Paul Donley
When I started looking into SEO and SEM, I roamed the Net a little to see what the buzz was all about, then - after realizing that I was lost in acronyms and neologisms again - checked out a couple of books from my online reference library and settled down in front of the computer with a strong cup of coffee for some reading.
It didn't take a long time before I realized that I was looking at some grreeeat stuff -- but it didn't pertain to the Land of OZ.
Fresh in Oz
Australia took to the Internet faster, person by person (per capita), than any other country in the world. In 2000-2001, fewer than 10% of Australian households had access to the Net. Last year, 2005, 35% of all Australian households had access; and slightly more, 41%, of Australian businesses - mostly small businesses.
Of those, 65% were using broadband access of one form or the other.
It's been predicted in 2010 that 70% of small businesses in Australia will be on the Net. The Internet will be the most important advertising resource for small business. And Australia has a lot of small, regional and local businesses.
Googled
At this point, however, Australia is new to the Net - and computers.
There have already been a few marketing surges as Australians moved first to replace their older P1 and P2 systems with P4's in order to run XP, then Celeron made a splash, and the next surge is already underway with the dual-core hardware. Households no longer have just one computer. There is usually a desktop and a couple of laptops in most households these days.
All those new computers need access to the Internet, so .. wireless networking is popular. For most households, the first network they'll see will be wireless - at the home or office.
But all this hardware doesn't mean everyone has instantly acquired computer skills. Far from it.
Driven by their children, who see the latest hardware and software in the schools - because both Victoria and NSW are constantly upgrading the school to fulfill campaign promises - households have spent thousands over the past 5 years to acquire computers that no one seems to really know what to do with.
Even the teachers who are running around with those hot new laptops are a little confused. But they sure look impressive!
Let me use the major search engines to illustrate what I mean.
Internationally, Google and Yahoo are neck and neck when it comes to searches. The last figures I saw put Google at 40% and Yahoo! at 43% of all searches. Google, because its name has become synonymous with "search on the Net"; and Yahoo! because they are the best established portal to the Net.
The International figures look something like this. (I made this chart using an online service for school children called Create a Graph from the National Institute for Educational Statistics. It's a free online service.)
Australia is a little different. Since the aussies are new to the Net, they're more susceptible to the buzzwords. They "google" for things.
While Yahoo! and Google pretty much split the International pie; in Australia, Google-Australia has 65% of the searches.
Since the aussies are new kids on the block, many don't realize there is a Google-Australia. About 13% use the original Google site. -- In Australia, Google commands nearly 80% of all online searches.
That is a commanding position.
If, for example, I want to build Internet presence and recognition for a website - based on keywords - by putting their services before 70% of the web, all I need is Google. They command nearly 80%. I can accomplish my goal easily with a Google PPC (point per click) campaign.
Aussies suss it out
As the aussies suss out the Internet, that will change.
Australians follow the trends from America, especially on the Net. It's reasonable to assume that they'll be moving more towards the International market split for searches soon.
Local Directories
Australian governments have spent to provide every large town and region with its own Community Guide - a local directory of business and events. Even local townships and suburbs have their own Community Guides.
Telstra (with vast government subsidies) has developed the Yellow and White pages, then linked both to a national advertising campaign for Sensis.
There are also a number of entrepreneurial search engines and directories that have sprung up.
Although all this activity will not supplant the dominance of Google Australia and Yahoo! Australia, it will serve to nudge the aussies along to suss out the way to search the Net.
Aussies are pretty clewy.
eBay is going to help, too, over the Christmas shopping season. Australians go to eBay for things almost as much as they do to the search engines. A shopper can have a bit of fun with eBay. If they find something on eBay, but want to see the (approximate) price in Australian dollars, all they have to do is add ".au" to the URL - and the price in Australian dollars appears!
How long is it??
This long!
Aussies are moving fast on the Net. But the question for any Internet Marketing campaign is: How long will it be before they are searching like the rest of the world?
A number of factors come into play here quickly. Aussies are notoriously brand loyal. It takes a tsunami or a good hit of dynamite to make them move from something. Then again, there is that pressure to be like the US and UK, which sorta balances it all out.
We can have a bit of a play with another figure, the loyalty numbers, and fuzzy logic to make a good guess.
Google commands a 74% loyalty. Yahoo! gets only about 47%. Neither bad numbers really.
And remember, MSN already has 13% of the searches within Australia through its affiliation with NineMSN.
Let's see what happens to Google.
We start with 65% - the portion of searches Google had in 2005 - and estimate their portion in 2006 to be 74% of 65%, or -- 48%. That leaves a bigger slice of the pie for Yahoo! Australia and NineMSN, along with all those local and regional directories.
If people know what kind of business or service they want, they will learn to turn to local directories because it's quicker. Aussies are very community minded.
Now, if you assume that the searches done on Google US are gonna stay about the same because those folks are looking for something outside Australia, then Google will enjoy about a (48 + 13) 61% share of the searches in 2006. (I gotta wonder how close I'm gonna be. The figures will be out soon.)
Do the same thing for 2007, and the number doesn't track. 74% of 48 plus 13 is .. 35 percent. In order to track with the 2005 International figures, Google will have to pick up a few from somewhere - probably Yahoo!, which can only keep the loyalty of less than half (47%) of its searches.
But the guesstimate still works. It'll take the aussies about two years to suss out the search options on the Net, which sounds about right.
By the end of 2007, aussies will be searching along like the rest of the world.
Where the community directories and entrepreneurs will come into the mix, we'll have to look into in another article.
If the stuff in this blog makes sense to you, visit my website at AEmeritus Relevant Training
because that's where it's all gonna be put in motion.
Just a raw plug for my first SEO clients:
Short Cut Computers belongs to Steve Trim, a friend who actually paid me to learn this stuff and put it to work for him.
And Steve Trim's other business, Barcode Solutions., which will be my second project. Sphere: Related Content
Monday, November 27, 2006
The debate continues about relevant links
A short lament.
It used to be so easy, even if it didn't seem like it at the time. If your business couldn't afford the big budget banner ads on huge portals, to generate links you signed up for an link exchange (which was usually a portal of sorts), webring, and got your site registered on as many directories and search engines as the freebie registration sites could muster. Then started exchanging links.
You did a little research to find complementary services, and sent those sites a letter asking for a link on their site if you'd put one on yours. This was often the fun part.
Because one of the common rules was that 70% of the purchases were from companies and sites that were physically within 70 miles of your company, it became a sort of social program. You had a reason to meet all sorts of people near you!
You exchanged links with them, and made new friends.
While that rule still applies, more and more buyers are willing to purchase from anywhere off the Net. Some significant percentage of buyers only purchase locally still.
You worked this guerrilla style until you made enough money to buy a big banner ad. And usually by then it wasn't traffic and links you were after, it was "transactional visitors", or .. buyers.
Anyway, that's enough of the lament.
Things still work that way. Sorta.
Developments
In the great hunt for links, an changed link with complementary business sites are invaluable but webrings and link exchanges have fallen into disfavor. There is a great debate going on that could cause a lot of change to the Web economy. Not just for webrings and link exchanges, but all affiliate programs.
Affiliate programs traditionally work one of two ways:
If you run your own affiliate network though, you end up with many links to your site - and have to pay your own commissions. It's just harder because you have to administer your own program.
Newer Affiliate Networks
Newer affiliate networks have software, called an "affiliate management" application, that you install on your server to direct the click-through to your site. The program is often sold as much on this capability as on the number of links the network can provide. But if the company doesn't emphasize how their network works, ask. And ask your SEO people to watch for these networks. They can usually tell just by checking the links to the affiliate servers and a couple of their clients.
Google in its infinite wisdom has become aware of repititious wording in links. Google watches how quickly links to a site accumulate in order to avoid search engine spam. Since you submit an ad to a link exchange, often for a fee, the same ad ends up repeated all over the Net. If too many links appear in a short time, Google may penalize or even ban your site.
Google has even gone so far as to make a patent filing.
Google now watches to see if too many links appear with identical anchor text, then checks to see if the links disappear quickly. Affiliate networks are automated inserted text and code which expose your link with others in a round table fashion. If you were to join an affiliate network, the number of links to your site would increase dramatically. But the links will appear, then disappear, from a site within a few minutes.
Since Google is doing this sort of thing, you can expect other search engines to adopt the same practice soon.
Complementary business sites
Sending out requests for links is one of the fundamental functions of marketing on the Net. Will this sort of activity trigger Google's anti-spamming defenses? Search engine marketers will have to be careful of the anchor text.
Another consideration is how stringently Google will enforce its rules against linking to banned sites. If another site in the affiliate network has been identified as using spamming tactics, you don't want a link to or from that site. But how will you - as the owner of a site - or your marketing agenty know?
There is a list of banned sites, of course. It's huge. But that is part of the reason you would hire an agent: to make the right decisions for you.
Interesting bit
This was an interesting thing to find. Recently, when one of my clients was setting up her new site and blog, she accidentally entered her site name into the search window. She entered "www.potsandpans.com". (not her site)
What came back was a surprise. There were 14 links to her site! - But her site wasn't finished and had not been submitted to any directories or search engines. In fact, the link to her domain only showed a non-functional page.
Checking later, there were only 4, then 5 links to her site in the same search.
All of the sites appeared to be different, but they contained the same segment of text from her blog, which included anchor text: "..only quality pots and pans are what we want .." (This is only an example. If it actually is a live link, it's an accident.)
It turned out that someone had set up a number of domains about kitchenware, kitchens, and pots, and pointed them to blogs. The made up pages which only contained a Google Adsense ad, and a little nonsense text.
Every link that showed had been modified as if it were generated by PHP. For example, instead of "http://www.kittykitchens.com", the linked page was "http://www.kittykitchens.com/?goop=nonsense". That last bit might be used to track a session.
If you've ever wondered what happens when a page is generated by a content management program, that's it. The server makes an identical page on the server. The page is called "http://www.kittykitchens.com/?goop=nonsense", but it's only there for a short while.
That's how she found 14 links, and later there were only 4, then 5.
There were literally hundreds of these blogs, with about 70 pages on each. The software just looped through the sites - There were at least 85 of them at my count. - and tried to generate a fake page for every page. (at least 85 X 70 = 5950!)
This was automated blog spamming in a big way!
No wonder Google has become concerned.
Link Quality, not Quantity
Not many people think about it, but many ads on a webpage dilute the relevancy of the content. In the example above, because the webpages contained only random snippets other than the Google ads, there was no relevant content other than the snippet injected into the page to generate the link!
The old days system couldn't help but produce relevant links since there weren't so many ways to produce irrelevant links.
Webrings are usually targeted within an industry or interest. But you don't hear much about webrings any more.
Affiliate networks are still a good source of links, there's no reason to bail out of them just yet. Like all things in business, you just have to know what you're dealing with and steer clear of the dangerous stuff.
Industry effects
Google will find some resistance in being too stringent about these new rules since Ad Words and AdSense are simply a new way of working affiliate networks in the final analysis. The same can be argued for all PPC (pay per click) services.
Google may find itself having to explain why it is trying to run the only affiliate network on the Net.
If the stuff in this blog makes sense to you, visit my website at AEmeritus Relevant Training because that's where it's all gonna be put in motion.
Just a raw plug for my first SEO clients:
Short Cut Computers belongs to Steve Trim, a friend who actually paid me to learn this stuff and put it to work for him.
And Steve Trim's other business, Barcode Solutions., which will be my second project. Sphere: Related Content
It used to be so easy, even if it didn't seem like it at the time. If your business couldn't afford the big budget banner ads on huge portals, to generate links you signed up for an link exchange (which was usually a portal of sorts), webring, and got your site registered on as many directories and search engines as the freebie registration sites could muster. Then started exchanging links.
You did a little research to find complementary services, and sent those sites a letter asking for a link on their site if you'd put one on yours. This was often the fun part.
Because one of the common rules was that 70% of the purchases were from companies and sites that were physically within 70 miles of your company, it became a sort of social program. You had a reason to meet all sorts of people near you!
You exchanged links with them, and made new friends.
While that rule still applies, more and more buyers are willing to purchase from anywhere off the Net. Some significant percentage of buyers only purchase locally still.
You worked this guerrilla style until you made enough money to buy a big banner ad. And usually by then it wasn't traffic and links you were after, it was "transactional visitors", or .. buyers.
Anyway, that's enough of the lament.
Things still work that way. Sorta.
Developments
In the great hunt for links, an changed link with complementary business sites are invaluable but webrings and link exchanges have fallen into disfavor. There is a great debate going on that could cause a lot of change to the Web economy. Not just for webrings and link exchanges, but all affiliate programs.
Affiliate programs traditionally work one of two ways:
- The affiliate network places your ad on either targeted or non-specific sites that are also members of the network that go through their server then are redirected to your site;
- or you set up your own affiliate program, called a "network specific linking network".
If you run your own affiliate network though, you end up with many links to your site - and have to pay your own commissions. It's just harder because you have to administer your own program.
Newer Affiliate Networks
Newer affiliate networks have software, called an "affiliate management" application, that you install on your server to direct the click-through to your site. The program is often sold as much on this capability as on the number of links the network can provide. But if the company doesn't emphasize how their network works, ask. And ask your SEO people to watch for these networks. They can usually tell just by checking the links to the affiliate servers and a couple of their clients.
Google in its infinite wisdom has become aware of repititious wording in links. Google watches how quickly links to a site accumulate in order to avoid search engine spam. Since you submit an ad to a link exchange, often for a fee, the same ad ends up repeated all over the Net. If too many links appear in a short time, Google may penalize or even ban your site.
Google has even gone so far as to make a patent filing.
Google now watches to see if too many links appear with identical anchor text, then checks to see if the links disappear quickly. Affiliate networks are automated inserted text and code which expose your link with others in a round table fashion. If you were to join an affiliate network, the number of links to your site would increase dramatically. But the links will appear, then disappear, from a site within a few minutes.
Since Google is doing this sort of thing, you can expect other search engines to adopt the same practice soon.
Complementary business sites
Sending out requests for links is one of the fundamental functions of marketing on the Net. Will this sort of activity trigger Google's anti-spamming defenses? Search engine marketers will have to be careful of the anchor text.
Another consideration is how stringently Google will enforce its rules against linking to banned sites. If another site in the affiliate network has been identified as using spamming tactics, you don't want a link to or from that site. But how will you - as the owner of a site - or your marketing agenty know?
There is a list of banned sites, of course. It's huge. But that is part of the reason you would hire an agent: to make the right decisions for you.
Interesting bit
This was an interesting thing to find. Recently, when one of my clients was setting up her new site and blog, she accidentally entered her site name into the search window. She entered "www.potsandpans.com". (not her site)
What came back was a surprise. There were 14 links to her site! - But her site wasn't finished and had not been submitted to any directories or search engines. In fact, the link to her domain only showed a non-functional page.
Checking later, there were only 4, then 5 links to her site in the same search.
All of the sites appeared to be different, but they contained the same segment of text from her blog, which included anchor text: "..only quality pots and pans are what we want .." (This is only an example. If it actually is a live link, it's an accident.)
It turned out that someone had set up a number of domains about kitchenware, kitchens, and pots, and pointed them to blogs. The made up pages which only contained a Google Adsense ad, and a little nonsense text.
Every link that showed had been modified as if it were generated by PHP. For example, instead of "http://www.kittykitchens.com", the linked page was "http://www.kittykitchens.com/?goop=nonsense". That last bit might be used to track a session.
If you've ever wondered what happens when a page is generated by a content management program, that's it. The server makes an identical page on the server. The page is called "http://www.kittykitchens.com/?goop=nonsense", but it's only there for a short while.
That's how she found 14 links, and later there were only 4, then 5.
There were literally hundreds of these blogs, with about 70 pages on each. The software just looped through the sites - There were at least 85 of them at my count. - and tried to generate a fake page for every page. (at least 85 X 70 = 5950!)
This was automated blog spamming in a big way!
No wonder Google has become concerned.
Link Quality, not Quantity
Not many people think about it, but many ads on a webpage dilute the relevancy of the content. In the example above, because the webpages contained only random snippets other than the Google ads, there was no relevant content other than the snippet injected into the page to generate the link!
The old days system couldn't help but produce relevant links since there weren't so many ways to produce irrelevant links.
Webrings are usually targeted within an industry or interest. But you don't hear much about webrings any more.
Affiliate networks are still a good source of links, there's no reason to bail out of them just yet. Like all things in business, you just have to know what you're dealing with and steer clear of the dangerous stuff.
Industry effects
Google will find some resistance in being too stringent about these new rules since Ad Words and AdSense are simply a new way of working affiliate networks in the final analysis. The same can be argued for all PPC (pay per click) services.
Google may find itself having to explain why it is trying to run the only affiliate network on the Net.
If the stuff in this blog makes sense to you, visit my website at AEmeritus Relevant Training because that's where it's all gonna be put in motion.
Just a raw plug for my first SEO clients:
Short Cut Computers belongs to Steve Trim, a friend who actually paid me to learn this stuff and put it to work for him.
And Steve Trim's other business, Barcode Solutions., which will be my second project. Sphere: Related Content
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Starting Out
For the time being, this is gonna be a pretty mundane blog. Really, it's a place for me to store the research I'm doing on SEO and SEM in Australia. In time, it may even become an authoritative enterprise for SEO and SEM in Australia, who knows?
Australia is a special problem for search engine optimization, but then Australia is a special problem for everything.
If the stuff in this blog makes sense to you, visit my website at AEmeritus Relevant Training because that's where it's all gonna be put in motion.
Just a raw plug for my first SEO clients:
Short Cut Computers belongs to Steve Trim, a friend who actually paid me to learn this stuff and put it to work for him.
And Steve Trim's other business, Barcode Solutions., which will be my second project. Sphere: Related Content
Australia is a special problem for search engine optimization, but then Australia is a special problem for everything.
If the stuff in this blog makes sense to you, visit my website at AEmeritus Relevant Training because that's where it's all gonna be put in motion.
Just a raw plug for my first SEO clients:
Short Cut Computers belongs to Steve Trim, a friend who actually paid me to learn this stuff and put it to work for him.
And Steve Trim's other business, Barcode Solutions., which will be my second project. Sphere: Related Content
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