Here’s a comprehensive list of ping services that you can use for when you post a new blog entry. Note that there are a few additional ones that we have not included due to the fact that they only work for specific blog software.
Check to see if your blogging tool or software requires a separator (such as a semicolon, comma, etc.) between each item, and if so be sure to add it before pasting into your tool. For example, Community Server requires a semicolon after each URL.
As many of you know I’ve been looking for a decent desktop tool to assist in publishing to my blogs. As you also know I’ve been sorely disappointed so far in the tools I’ve tested to date (Qumana, w.bloggar, and ecto) with most of them getting thrown into the can after a single post. In most cases it’s been due to issues with formatting of the posts as they are pushed to WordPress. The one tool that I’ve stuck with thus far is the Performancing plugin in Firefox. It works great, it has a small footprint, and it’s easy to use. In fact I’ve become convinced that having your blogging tool directly inside of your browser is not only convenient, it also makes me much more productive. But that’s another story for another day.
Well in the midst of all of this testing (and bitching and moaning) Microsoft came along and released Windows Live Writer. Their very own desktop blogging tool. So of course, I immediately downloaded it.
As it gets into the mainstream Windows Live Writer will be found and mentioned primarily by others in relation to Windows Live Spaces, the public blog space on the Live community. But it is also compatible with(untested by me at the moment other than WordPress) Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, and WordPress. Of course since it supports the underlying API’s that those blog platforms use like Metaweblog API , Movable Type API , as well as Really Simply Discoverability (RSD)it should also be compatible with just about everything else.
I’ll be testing Windows Live Writer Beta over the next few days and letting you know whether it’s ready for primetime, as a blog publishing tool in general and for WordPress in particular as that is what this blog runs on. This review is specifically an overview on basic features, etc. The most important part to me though is how the actual posts look once they are published. That will take a little more time to do that final review.
This article by the way is being written in it, my first one. So we’ll see how it goes. In regards to the experience so far I really like the interface, the customizability that you have in regards to creating a template for different blogs and/or posting styles, and the supposed compatibility with various blogging tools (again, haven’t tested on other API’s yet). Another nice item but slightly more controversial is that it can be tightly integrated into the Windows Live toolbar, another item that I downloaded at the same time and actually like. What I don’t like so far is that it appears to be a victim of bloat when it comes to memory usage in the background, but as a beta I’ll hold my judgement on that.
A couple of the more unique features are its handling of inline images and insertion of Live Maps. The images you see in this post where inserted with the tool. The nice thing is that it will automatically manage thumbnailing and resizing for you. The images in this post where resized by the tool with a link popping up the full size source image that I handed it. You’ll also notice that it inserted a watermark for me into the image (lower right corner ‘MSR’). You can choose dozens of options for imagery and it was certainly more powerful than any other tool I’ve used to date, but also extremely simple. In fact it was basically automatic unless you wanted to modify the properties.
You can also insert a ‘Live Map’. Here I have selected the St. Louis Gateway Arch as it always looks cool with its shadow from an overhead satellite shot. You can choose a regular road map, or an aerial map like the one shown here. Zoom level is up to you, you can insert push pins like the one I placed on top of the arch, and also add a title.
The map then links to full size interactive version of the map at the Windows Live site. Not a bad balance of adding a useful feature to a blogging tool while also pushing traffic to your own web properties. I’ve definitely seen more aggregious non-useful uses before. Besides, if you don’t like it just don’t use it. Nothing stopping you from inserting whatever tool you prefer instead.
As far as add-on possibilities are concerned I’m impressed with the openness of the API that they’ve developed for the tool, from the rough glance I’ve given it so far it looks pretty straightforward to hook into and add your own plugin for Live Writer. Should mean some decent gadgets coming down the pipe as the product gets into the mainstream. I should have really said API’s plural as technically there are really two. First, there is the “Application API” – For when you want to launch Writer from other applications to “Blog This” for Links, Snippets, Images, or Feed Items and then there is the “Content Source Plugins” to extend the capabilities of Writer to insert, edit, and publish new types of content, for example:
Images from online photo publishing sites
Embedded video or audio players
Product thumbnails and/or links from e-commerce sites
If you are looking for more general information or assistance I would recommend checking out the authors pages here and here. There is also a RSS feed now that you can subscribe to at http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/feed.rss
P.S. – I’ve been hearing that it’s been difficult for people to find the download location of Live Writer. You can download Windows Live Writer directly from the following link here .
If you’re a service business, then most likely you’re a local business. That probably means you do most of your business with customers within a 50-mile radius of your physical location. That also means, perhaps unexpectedly, that you need to be online.
Consumer research conducted earlier this year by The Kelsey Group indicates that the Internet’s reach is now equal to or greater than any other local medium. Other consumer research has confirmed these findings.
As more and more consumers get broadband Internet connections (now more than 50 percent of online U.S. households), more of them are turning to the Internet, as they once turned to local phone books, to find local business information.
That brings us to the question above: Where’s the best place for service businesses to advertise?
The immediate answer is Internet Yellow Pages (IYP). That’s because, according to empirical data, for every lookup on an IYP site, 50 percent of those references turn into phone calls to local businesses.
Here’s what 2003 research from the Yellow Pages Association revealed about consumer behaviors and response rates following reference to an IYP site:
67 percent made a contact (73 percent of those contacts are by phone)
64 percent made or intended to make a purchase (40 percent actually make a purchase)
65 percent of purchasers were new customers
While that data seems self-serving, it’s accurate. IYP users are closer in time to buying decisions than search engine users, for example. Search engines are used much more broadly and more frequently than IYP sites. So in advertising on search engines you don’t necessarily catch consumers when they’re “ready to buy.”
There are many other online yellow pages sites, and increasingly, newspapers are offering yellow pages on their sites. Access to many, if not most, of these can be purchased directly through local yellow pages sales representatives or indirectly through local online marketing agencies:
Most print yellow pages providers are also now selling search-engine traffic and simplified online marketing packages in addition to IYP advertising. In this way you can purchase both IYP inclusion and search distribution from a yellow pages sales rep. Many of the local marketing agencies mentioned above also sell simplified search-engine packages.
Search engine marketing should not be ignored. Even though it’s less qualified than IYP traffic, search has much more traffic volume than IYP sites. Google, Yahoo and others sell advertising on their search engines and offer free inclusion in their directories:
In addition, Google, Yahoo, AskJeeves, MSN and AOL have “local search” on their sites. As consumers become more familiar with these local search products and usage increase, they will become another important marketing vehicle for local service businesses.
There’s also another, very new form of performance-based online marketing called “pay per call.” This form of advertising offers phone numbers in search-engine ads and drives calls to local businesses rather than clicks to Web sites. Right now, you can buy pay per call from two primary sources (although there will be more over time):
Furthermore, you don’t need a Web site with pay per call; and you only pay when you receive a phone lead. This should be considered for businesses that want and are used to receiving phone calls.
Depending on what type of business you operate, there may also be specialized vertical directories that cater to your industry. Most of these directories have advertising programs. Here are a few examples:
Last, consider placing ads on Craigslist. Unless you’re an employer, listings are free and traffic (if you’re located in a major metro area) is considerable.
Whether your business is new or old, online or offline, marketing is essential. But online businesses can benefit from traditional “offline” marketing, just as brick-and-mortar stores can use the Internet to promote themselves. And using both mediums together can result in even better returns on your marketing investments.
The goal is to have all your marketing efforts supporting each other, working together to promote your business. There are obvious ways to do this, such as including your URL or domain name on every piece of promotional material that you send out, as well as on your letterhead and business cards. Include it in your Yellow Pages ads and on printed promotional materials. Not only will this increase name recognition for your site, it will also give customers an additional way to contact you or make a purchase.
Of course, you need to make sure that your Web site looks professional. If visitors come to your site and can’t find what they need, they are liable to leave and never return. All of your information should be up-to-date, easy to find, and reflect what you are doing with your offline marketing efforts.
Consistency and constancy are the keys to successful integration. You will need to make sure that both your online and offline efforts compliment one another and that one does not fall behind the other. For example, if you send out promotional postcards for a certain amount of savings, and your Web site does not display the same promotion, you will be creating an instant batch of unhappy customers.
You will also need to roll out online and offline campaigns simultaneously. You can achieve this by planning on a specific date for your campaign launch and making sure that everything is ready on both fronts by this date. One easy way to integrate your marketing efforts is by “teasing” your customers about the promotion in printed pieces that direct them to your Web site for more information.
Offering special coupons in your offline marketing that promise special Web-only deals is a great way to get more people interested in your Web site and improve your sales at the same time.
Integrated marketing is a way that you can get the most out of all of your advertising campaigns, whether you plan on a large television spot to drive customers to your site, or even if you only plan on sending out a small mailing. By using online and offline techniques together, you can increase the effectiveness of both methods.
Many of the articles you’ll find, including the one above, tend to focus on eCommerce style relationships (i.e. Business 2 Consumer). But the Business 2 Business benefits are at least as great if not more so, it just requires much more strategic thinking and tighter integration with your backoffice systems so the upfront cost can cause many SMB’s to not take the ‘risk’. From where I’m sitting the only risk is in not doing it. Trust me, your competitor will. And if you do enough research I think they’ll find that the risk they perceive isn’t really there. This is an investment in your business, not a cost. And if you can find an investment that pays bigger dividends by all means let me know.
Whether you call it Integrated Marketing, Wholistic Marketing, Relationship Marketing, or dozens of other names that I’ve heard over the years, the objective is to plan for and then execute your marketing efforts leveraging all of the channels available to you in complimentary ways. Having worked for and developed what was considered one of the founding agencies of this principle, and then in roles as a product consultant to various software vendors developing automation tools in this area, I’ve seen firsthand how 1 + 1 can equal 3. In this case, the sum of the parts is definitely greater than the whole.
The great thing about this approach for SMB’s is that it is one of the best means to stretch your marketing dollars further. On average the marketing programs that I’ve been tasked with integrating have performed 27% better* in regards to the cost/performance ratio of the campaign. It’s rare that you get to hear real numbers like that, not because those of us in the industry don’t instinctively believe it, but because we typically don’t get our hands on a campaign that was done solely offline, and then have the chance to do it in a integrated way for purposes of comparison.
*A limited sample size of 4 campaigns. Well, I shouldn’t call it a ‘sample’ as that’s the entirety of campaigns that meet my criteria in which I could say they were ‘apples to apples’. Regardless, each campaign consisted of a solely offline portion, and a portion in which I was asked to build an integrated campaign based off of the offline one. Other than references to online materials, online ‘teaser’ content, etc. the original graphics, taglines, layouts, and such were kept true to the original campaign. Target audience of both parts of the campaigns was randomly pre-selected from the same pool of candidates. Results stated represent the actual cost of the campaigns in comparison to the intended result. In all cases the intended result was a specific call to action. In two instances the call to action was for the recipient to provide their information for inclusion in a prospect database. In the other two intances the measurements of success were calculated on each of three conversion tiers. Tier 1 was the percentage of recipient who converted from receiving the initial campaign material to viewing further information. Tier 2 was the percentage who converted from viewing the detailed information to submitting a request for more information. Tier 3 was the percentage who converted to an actual sale of the marketed product/solution. For the purposes of this article only Tier 3 was considered as its the most representative of true success of the campaign. It should be noted however that Tier 2 saw just as high a percentage gain, and Tier 1 saw a 215% increase in initial response as compared to the offline campaign. This large discrepancy is easily accounted for in the psychology of buyers but that’s too much to go into here.
A potential way for small business owners to get their web sites found for people looking on the local level. Searching terms like “Toledo fish market”
I have yet to personally test this utility however and compare it to my other toolbox of Search Engine Optimization software but it looks promising.
If there’s demand for it I’d be happy to put it on the short list for doing a full review.
