Warmest Greetings,
:: Saturday, October 18, 2003 ::
Guess what she did? Poll: Should I take tomorrow off or not?
Who the hell knows what Google's doing now? Google has changed Ranking Algorithms Today - No Update
Nailing down the perfect strategy >>> All About Using Multiple Domain Names - A member wants to build a FAQ. Input encouraged.
Way cool!
"We are all aware that the moment we publish something on the World Wide Web, it is immediately accessible to anyone anywhere in the world who has an Internet connection. Yet we continue to build sites that service our local markets, when for a few dollars more, we could be servicing the entire world. I’m sad to say that, on average, U.S.-based firms are the major offenders. Many cannot even see beyond the border to the north and south, and build commerce and information sites that simply ignore these potential nearby markets. Why would a company based in Detroit, Michigan offer a promotion (e.g., “fill out our customer survey and receive valuable coupons for our store”) that says “offer good only to U.S. residents?” By this simple statement the company has excluded potential customers in Windsor, Ontario, who may live fifteen minutes away, but included customers living in Miami, Florida. Which of these two potential customers is more likely to take advantage of the local promotion? What would it have cost this company to investigate and adjust the promotion to include their next door neighbor? Perhaps a few hundred dollars in legal fees." Run! Don't walk to read Think Beyond—Think Global
Coming soon...a How-to book on usability for your websites by yours truly. It's being edited now.
:: posted by Kimberly Krause on 10/18/2003 04:47:23 PM
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:: Thursday, October 16, 2003 ::
Killer question of the day.
Punishment. - "On one of my gaming sites, I added around 50,000 keywords to the bottom -- now my question is is it possible to get punished for spamming?"
It must be killer because it was asked again, in a different way, with different answers. Is this Spam?
Down on my luck. I've tried for days to put up a Google Ad, but Google won't let me. This is what I get: "We apologize for the inconvenience, but we are unable to process your request at this time. Our engineers have been notified of this problem and will work to resolve it. Please note that using your browser's back button in AdWords can increase the likelihood of errors. If you think this was the cause of your error, please try again without using the back button."
I'm not sure why businesses choose to ignore usability issues on their websites during this time of the year, but that's what they do. Ecommerce sites are scrambling for your dollars during the holiday season. How many of those websites actually get sales is largely determined by how easy it is to navigate the site, find products and make purchases. (That is, once they're even found!) For good customer service, I prefer smaller businesses, but the drawback is often their sites aren't user friendly.
*** If you own a small business website (home-based preferably), I'm conducting discounted usability evaluations specifically designed for ecommerce for $120. ***
If you can't swing that fee, email me and we'll work out something that you can afford that focuses on what you know you need checked. A little task analysis might be all you need.
For totally free Do-It-Yourself help, visit The Cre8pc Website Usability Testing Center
Not to be left out. (Everybody will be linking to this.) SearchDay #639 - A "Fireside Chat" with Google's Sergey Brin.
You saw it here first, right?
:: posted by Kimberly Krause on 10/16/2003 10:27:50 AM
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:: Wednesday, October 15, 2003 ::
For those trying to access Cre8asiteForums, you're seeing a database error. The forums host and our Tech Admins are working on the problem. Please bear with us...
Detective Chris is prying into the PageRank underworld in Uh huh. So PageRank is dead huh?
"As much as I read I cannot find any real evidence that is suggestive that PageRank is dead or indeed reducing in weighting."
If you advertise with them, here's news: Google enhances AdWords program
Even corporations have a "back button". TimeWarner Drops AOL from its name
How to stump Google. Blog noise achieves Google KO
"A "Trackback" is an auto-citation feature that allows solitary webloggers to feel as if they are part of a community. It's a cunning trick that allows the reader to indicate that they've read a weblog entry, or as the official description from MovableType has it: "Using TrackBack, the other weblogger can automatically send a ping to your weblog, indicating that he has written an entry referencing your original post."
The original blog then sprouts a list of "trackback" entries from other webloggers who have read, and linked to the original article. Kinda neat, huh? Except for one unforeseen technical consequence: the Trackback generates an empty page, and Google - being too dumb to tell an empty page from the context that surrounds it - gives it a very high value when it calculates its search results. So Google's search results are littered with empty pages. "
Isn't a "Longhorn" a cow? Bill Gates: 'Longhorn is going to be late'
"Bill Gates yesterday confirmed that there is no official release date yet for the next version of Windows, named Longhorn. "Longhorn could be 2005 or 2006," Gates told a small group of journalists yesterday at the TechNet/MSDN seminar in The Hague. "This release is going to be driven by technology, not by a release date. Which probably means it is going to be late."
What does it matter? Microsoft relies on public QA testing after launch to see what works and what doesn't. They either crash our systems in 2003 or 2006, right? Guess this means we're going to live with MSIE 6.0 for awhile longer since Microsoft announced there will be no more free browser updates for MSIE. Instead, to get their newer browsers, you will need to update your entire operating system. Blech. (Long live Netscape 4.7!)
Let them eat usability! Web users want usability, not personalisation
"Consumers are more likely to visit or spend money at web sites with fast loading pages and good navigation than those which make personalised offers, according to a report released yesterday by Jupiter Research."
Okay. That's it for today. If I find anything else fascinating, I'll let you know.
:: posted by Kimberly Krause on 10/15/2003 09:49:29 AM
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:: Tuesday, October 14, 2003 ::
I've spent some time playing with the samples of really cool, fun, innovative forms at Quask.com. They offer free trials and reasonably priced forms for feedback, polls, surveys, brochures, and marketing. But, what's such a pleasure is that they're fun to use! From a usability perspective this is critical because often people are more inclined to fill out a form or rate something if the tool to do it is fun to use. Go ahead and visit their site and play with their demos. For getting user feedback, this company offers some great ideas for how to do it.
When you need ideas for questions to ask your website visitors, I can help with that. See Usability Testing Center
One of my most favorite people in the world, Bill Slawski, points out in his blog, Bragadocchio that some Sesame Street songs have been released. I LOVED this show because of the skits performed by famous musicians, actors and comedians. Check out Musicians have learned that cartoons are cool.
"The venerable PBS show has led the airwaves in using well-known artists to promote the show's educational or cultural messages, often with cleverly re-written lyrics adjusted to appeal particularly to kids. R.E.M.'s "Shiny Happy People," for example, became "Furry Happy Monsters" in one of the show's more memorable parodies."
Ah, R.E.M. I was fan back when they toured colleges and universities, before they hit the planet full force. I used to walk to work wearing a walkman cassette player playing "Radio Free Europe" over and over and over....I was obsessed.
Usability article find:
Usability, Accessibility, and Profitability in Information Week covers a lot of ground, including pet peeves. It's a good read if you need reminders about how to make improvements to your own sites.
Here's other great links that I can't take credit for finding. Again, it was my friend Bill who nabbed this one. It's Link Law by Tim Berners-Lee and Link Myths.
"I received a mail message asking for "permission" to link to our site. I refused as I insisted that permission was not needed. There is no reason to have to ask before making a link to another site but by the same token, you are responsible for what you say about other people, and their sites, etc., on the web as anywhere."
For the record, I love everybody and their links.
:: posted by Kimberly Krause on 10/14/2003 12:13:18 PM
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:: Monday, October 13, 2003 ::
Another one of those declarations has been made - this time it's about reciprocal linking.
The article is called Reciprocal Linking is Dead!
By Mike Banks Valentine, OCT. 13, ISSUE #395
"The latest scam is cloaked reciprocal links URL's that redirect to affiliate program sales pages."
"Email used to work. FFA pages used to work. Reciprocal links pages used to work. Free classified ads used to work.
What still works? Content works and I am reluctantly going to insist on content from anyone who wants links from my sites or client sites. I've got to like what the contributor has to say and I've got to agree with their article before I'll publish it and link back to them from that article, press release or news."
Personally, I've always found the practice of reciprocal links and sending out emails to get them to be tacky and unprofessional. I wanted my website to rank well because of the work I put into it, not how many people I exchanged links with.
Nevertheless, there are few options available for small and home businesses with limited budgets to compete with corporate company websites. If a small company found success with this practice, I was happy for them.
The abuse of every popularity/rank-puffing scheme to come along robs good people with ecommerce sites of their income.
Do you rely on reciprocal links as a promotion tool? Do you know what works and what doesn't? Do you agree with the article writer that reciprocal linking is dead? Cre8asiteForums asks Is Reciprocal Linking Dead?
SEOs fight back
The popular UK Internet marketer, Ammon Johns, has issues >>> Implied associations. He speaks out and so do others...
"I've seen this situation many times over recent years, where a company implies a level of association with a third party that simply doesn't exist. One such is the well known one where certain SEO firms have implied a direct relationship with the search engines that was not as implied.
Now this site has taken public statements from several well known SEO types and placed them prominently in the left-hand column. That it has taken the quotes without (to my knowledge) any permission is itself of some minor concern, but not a great issue. That it has placed these quotes between images of people that could be misconstrued as being representations of the people themselves is perhaps more serious, but again, isn't my immediate concern."
Chris Ridings jumps on it with his An Open Letter to CPM Links. Subtitle: When an endorsement is not an endorsement. Chris, I'm glad you're feeling better and it's good to see you back in the saddle again.
Google-Watch.org has insight into A good description of PageRank?. The whole Cre8asiteForums thread is an excellent update on the status of Google's PageRank.
"Since February, I've become much more aware of the pervasive presence of blogs in Google, which I believe is a function of link popularity in Google's ranking algorithms.
And as everyone on this forum knows, since about April, Google has stopped the old style of deep-crawling, and calculating PageRank for the entire web, and updating the data centers."
For my usability friends
A book review by Boxes and Arrows. The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness by Steve MacLaughlin.
"Whether you have been paying attention or not we are living in an age of aesthetics. So says Virginia Postrel in her latest book, The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness. Postrel examines how the role of aesthetics and style are transforming our culture and economy in a variety of ways. In the process we get a better understanding of what this new age means for designers, decision makers, and the customers they hope to reach."
Save time by clicking here for further book information:
:: posted by Kimberly Krause on 10/13/2003 09:29:36 AM
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