News blog
The information designer who became her own boss
by Julie Compton
March 8, 2009
When she was eight years old, Liz Danzico – future information design consultant and AIGA advisory board member – sat in front of the keyboard of her father’s room-sized Hewlett-Packard, slowly typing child-like commands into the system and watching them print out on its archaic dot-matrix printer.
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Chocolatier Mars to sweeten English tongues
March 3, 2009
Mars Candy is trying to put something even tastier than chocolate in the mouths of its customers: Snacklish. If it’s successful, you might find yourself taking a snaxi to the peanutarium or reading an article by Chewart Elliott in the New Nougat Times. Slender waistline bearers beware: this could be a branding campaign that aims to fatten more than your vocabulary.
Read the full article complements of the New Yougat Times.
The difference between SEO and copywriting
By Julie Compton
Feb 10, 2009
Web owners are possessed by the idea of search engine optimization, believing that as long as their website is chock-full of great keywords that produce a high ranking in Google, their site will produce thousands of conversions. Hence many websites receive thousands of hits but few conversions. That’s because conversions aren’t produced by keywords – they’re produced by great copy.
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Narcissistic web copy doesn’t sell or pay
Jan 29, 2009
Many organizations have a tendency to brag about how wonderful they are in their web-based sales copy, according to a recent article from Marketing Today. Like the guy at the party who only wants to talk about himself, narcissistic organizations easily turn off potential customers by going on and on about their “greatness,” rather than focusing on the needs of their website visitors.
How customer-focused is your website? Stalking the narcissistic web complements of Peter DeLegge and Marketing Today.
Expanding your organization through PR, Adervtising, and branding
by Julie Compton
Jan 23, 2009
There’s a saying among marketers that a buyer needs a hundred eyes, the seller only one. But as brands multiply and customers become more selective, the seller needs to get smarter.
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Too much or too little social networking via the web can harm business
Jan 23, 2009
With a flood of social networking tools at their disposal, business owners are spending too much time updating their websites with useless keywords while juggling new social media tools that aren’t necessarily worth it, according to an article from today’s TechNewsWorld. At the same time, many business owners are ignoring social networking tools altogether, falling further behind in the web-based social media craze that’s gripped the minds of millions. It’s not as difficult as it seems, however, to learn how to use social media tools, or to use them effectively.
How to build a small-business web site, Part 4: Web 2.0 Tools by Denise J. Deveau, complements of TechNewsWorld.
Ingredients for effective writing
Jan 20, 2009
As someone who’s worked as a copywriter and technical writer, I agree with Ugur Akinci’s view that each type of writing, despite being inherently different, must share a few fundamental ingredients to be effective. There are two, however, he doesn’t mention.
Google killed beta
January 18, 2009
Once upon a time, “beta” was just a fancy name for the letter B. Then designers started using it to describe websites or software open to continuous updates and improvements. In 2002, Google put “beta” in its Google News tagline and, suddenly, it was popping up everywhere. Since its overuse, misuse, and lost identity, everyone is asking, “What is beta?”
Beta is dead complements of Blake Snow of the NY Times.
Military gets blogger muscles
Jan. 16, 2009
The blogosphere has permeated US military communications, according to an article from this month’s Wired Magazine. Soldiers with blogs have served as first-person narratives to the war in the Middle East - a serious threat to security. But as the saying goes, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Instead of forbidding their soldiers to blog, military commanders are themselves using blogging technology to increase communication down the chain of command, with positive results.
Blogging general reaches out to troops, blows off security fears complements of Noah Shachtman and Wired Magazine.
Twitter blogger first to capture airliner bellyflop in Hudson River
Jan 15, 2009
Blogger Janis Krums, famed US-Airways-Hudson-River-Landing-picture-taker guy, showed the world how important social media tools are to breaking news when he instantly uploaded onto Twitter the now famous image of the floating airliner soon after witnessing its historic plunge.
Twitttering the US Airways plane crash complements of Shira Ovide and the Wall Street Journal.
Farmers markets get digital
January 16, 2009
Why travel fifty miles to the farmers market for a slice of exotic fromage when you can use Foodzie.com? The latest craze in food exchange, food merchants across the universe are making use of its virtual store front to market cool foods to the edible-ly obsessed. The site has used video and social networking tools to unite more than 29 sellers and 43,000 shoppers since it opened its virtual doors in December ’08. And you thought Whole Foods was a treat.
An online farmers market complements of Claire Cain Miller of the New York Times.
Cheap pay-per-click tricks
January 12, 2009
The recession has put a painful squeeze on many-an-online-marketer’s budget. But according to Internet marketing guru Alex Porter, you can avoid busting your pay-per-click budget by analyzing time-of-day for conversions, making best use of negative keywords, updating ad copy, and maintaining hawk-eye surveillance of your competitors.
Problem solver: How can you stretch a tight pay-per-click marketing budget complements of DMNews.