There has been a lot of conversation recently on the question of web and software project agility – that is, movement from traditional plan-driven methods in favor of iteration. 

Web strategists and developers are moving to agile processes because the technology marketplace demands higher response to change. Specifically, no sooner do you develop a plan document when the scope changes  – causing loss of time, productivity and bottom-line ROI.

A colleague of mine, Brian Molstad of Molstad Consulting summed it up nicely: 

"As much as I am a major proponent of documenting requirements and asking the right questions early on, I recognize that documents and prototypes have a shelf life. When it's time to move on to the next iteration, it's time to move on. 

Unfortunately, some development teams I've worked with get a little documentation, and they ask for more and more.  I've much preferred working with those teams who take the high-level structure I provide and innovate within (and outside of) the box. When other developers/clients have asked for more specs, I prefer to respond with, "can't we move into HTML to get this going?"

Perhaps I have no problem giving up "control" of a project since I don't come from a formal project management background and more that of information architecture, usability, user-centered design, etc., which has always favored designing in iterations. I look at project management as whatever it takes to get the project done and provide the most value quickly. Here's to agile development!"

If you feel you’re  ready to take the ‘agility’ plunge – here are some great resources to get started.

Discussion groups:

Agile Project Management

Scrum Development

Extreme Programmer

Best

Denice MacDonald

You probably know that building links into your site is one of the most important things you can do in your efforts to improve your site's ranking.

A lot of people struggle with this process, especially at the beginning. Many questions also arise as to where the link should be placed on the site you are trying to get linked from, along with what kind of sites should you get links from, and what those links should look like.  Linking is no longer a passing fancy, it is a strategy that is relevant and necessary. Consder the following link building strategies:

Social Media: By submitting your site and content to social media aggregators such as Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon and other niche social news sharing and bookmarking sites, you introduce their audience to your site and build high authority links to your organization.

Advertising: Text Links which are sold or purchased with the intention of advertising a relevant site or service to the audience of the site which is serving the link ads. These links are valued and treated as authority inbound links by the major search engines.

Editorial: Editorial links are links which are earned via relationships with journalists, bloggers or site publishers. By informing writers about your site and services, you persuade them to write about you.

Directory: Web directories classify sites into organized subjects and listings while also sending search traffic to those sites. Directories are a way to increase search rankings and site traffic.

Blogger Reviews: Similar to editorial links, blogger reviews are when you pay bloggers to take the time and write an honest review about your product, business or site - and link to you. Not only will your link be seen by search engines, but also by the readers and subscribers of these high level bloggers.

Privately Solicited Links: Contact site owners and negotiate private linking deals with your business goals in mind.

Blog Comment Participation: By intelligently adding to blog comment conversations, you build your online reputation along with inbound links to your site.

Resources:

• 101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Web Site by Andy Hagans and Aaron Wall
• Link Building - Web Site Resource

Best,

Denice MacDonald

The OMMA Awards celebrate the year's most innovative and brilliant online advertising creative, campaigns and Web sites across 35 categories within these three disciplines.  

The OMMA Awards for Online Advertising Creativity were created in 2006 to honor the brand marketers, agencies and content providers who continue to push the potential of online advertising creative. This year they've added two new categories: The OMMA Awards for Integrated Online Campaigns and the OMMA Awards for Web Site Excellence.

The online medium is the most fertile canvas for innovation and creativity, and the OMMA Awards salute the stars that shine brilliantly among us.

See web site for details and entry form.

View last year's winners here.

Good luck,

Denice MacDonald

You were just notified from your department head or the CFO that you budget for fourth quarter 2008 has been reduced – or worse yet, eliminated. What do you do now?

Like most organizations I consult with, marketing budgets are defined by reactionary initiatives. What can you do to safeguard your marketing initiatives and still get results?

The Power of Three

It is always advisable to do any type of marketing initiative that will yield three defined uses (create it once, pay for it once, use many ways). That is, if you do a direct marketing piece, you may consider an on-line version and an e-mail version to select recipients. If you’re doing a trade show (money already appropriated), consider some type of interaction at the show that will draw visitors to your online presence and a creative way in which to follow-up with trade show leads. 

Maximize Alternatives and Options

In the case of advertising dollars, some media outlets will allow you to ‘refine’ your budget so that you can reallocate resources to other initiatives – in lieu of one costly ad space, consider spreading your advertising dollars to smaller focused banner ads or thru the media outlet's e-mail/direct mail efforts. Staying connected over time and with more frequency will yield a higher return on investment against budget dollars. (Hint: reconsider costly yellow page ads that can't be tracked and are overpriced!)

Get Others to Pay for It

Lastly, collaborate with all departments and determine what channel partners, associations, or vendors you may have that may garner visibility for your organization. Online reciprocal links, shared webinars, speakerships, collaborative user groups and even shared web pages will multiply your efforts and the bottom-line without incurring any additional budget dollars.  You’d be surprised how many organizations within your network are in the same boat and would welcome a joint campaign to elevate marketing efforts.

Best,

Denice MacDonald 

You can trace your family roots, get a daily shot of football or redecorate your apartment. Vote for your favorite web sites and see where they rank on the list: 

Vote Now!

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Here are the Top 10 Essential Web Sites we can't live without:

View Now!

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My pic > SearchMe

View Internet search results through a new lens at SearchMe, an engine that displays results not in the usual text-list format (that's so Google), but as a slick image gallery of actual web pages you can flip through and filter results by topic. A query on Montana, for example, lets you narrow results into categories like real estate, lodgings, weather and fishing. SearchMe isn't the only visual search engine — rivals include the meta-search site KartOO and newcomer Viewzi (which was still in private beta as of June 2008) — but its clean, intuitive interface sets it apart.

Enjoy!

Denice MacDonald

Flash and AJAX are two technologies that enhance the user experience on a web site and are supported by almost every browser and operating system.  Only pitfall -- this technology is not SEO-friendly.

However, in early July, Adobe Systems Incorporated announced the company is teaming up with search industry leaders to dramatically improve search results of dynamic Web content and rich Internet applications (RIAs). Adobe is providing optimized Adobe® Flash® Player technology to Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently undiscoverable by search engines.

This will provide more relevant automatic search rankings of the millions of RIAs and other dynamic content that run in Adobe Flash Player. Moving forward, RIA developers and rich Web content producers won’t need to amend existing and future content to make it searchable — they can now be confident it can be found by users around the globe.

BUT, a few technical bloggers out there say that the technology is not quite there yet:

Flash's New SEO is Over-Hyped by IckyDime

Flash indexing and SEO; Remember testing? by "Dion"

This blogger definitely has some sound solutions for Flash and SEO challenges: 

4 SEO Solutions for Flash by Benj Arriola

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Many organizations are obsessed with volume – measuring success by how many web pages were viewed or how many people visited the site. In many cases, this type of information is meaningless as it is not directly linked to a web plan or strategy.

Whether its web site traffic analysis, search engine optimization or tracking business success metrics, you need to develop a web strategy ‘up front’ to support measurement objectives. This thought process seems so fundamental but rarely exercised. 

Why? A strategic plan for evaluating your website will help you:

1. Collect only the data you need to make informed, strategic decisions
2. Identify priority “action areas” for improvement, measure the impact of those actions; and keep your customers coming back
3. Determine benchmarks and performance goals you should aspire to, and the extent to which you’re achieving them
4. Determine whether you’re getting a return on the investment you’ve made to build, operate and maintain your web site(s)
5. Evaluate how well your web site is performing relative to competitors, your company's brand, mission statement or hiring criteria

How? Develop a plan – a strategy – and review and adjust it regularly by asking these questions:

• What do you need to measure?
• What are your requirements?
• How will you measure it?
• What tools will you use?
• What methodologies are needed to gather the data you need?
• What will you do with the results?
• How will the results help meet the goals for your web site and your company's mission?
• How does the plan fit with your company's overall strategic and performance plan?

Once armed with this process and validation, you will find that your ROI exceeds expectations!

Great Resources:

Coremetrics Web Metrics
Get powerful web site metrics with the leading provider

Web Measurement Data Fast
ClickTracks web measurement shows behavior, conversion, groups, SEO

WebTrends Analytics
Marketing Intelligence Solutions, leading analytic & metrics software

Web Analytics
Compare web analytics products and get a free report sample from CMS Watch

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Writing copy for the Web that grabs attention and gets the results you want takes special skill and attention.

Oftentimes, companies will forgo writing web copy and repurpose brochure copy. Writing copy for the web is remarkably different than writing copy for print. Here are a few tips to make sure your web content is spectacular and resonates with site visitors.

Before any web copy is written, the following information should be available to the web copywriter(s).

1. SEO/SEM Report or Findings – the web copywriter will use the report as a guide to segue words or phrases that will help ‘optimize’ the content web page.
2. Persona or Voice of Customer - understanding the attributes of customers that you want to engage at your content web page will help dictate the impact statements or ‘headings and sub heads’ for the section (different and distinct from navigation or menu).
3. Functional Web Page Elements – understanding what other functionality will appear on the page will help the web copywriter(s) craft content that will work collaboratively with feature boxes, call to action scenarios or other promotional items.  Having a layout or ‘wireframe’ of what will appear on the page will work well here.

Now that the web copywriter has a clear vision of the type of customer, how the customer gets to the page and what the customer will likely experience, they are ready to begin writing.

1. Headings and Sub Heads - On the web, you can ‘make or break’ interaction to your web pages with headings. A good one makes it easier for readers to understand the significance of the content and will likely get them to read more. Headings and sub heads should be short, clear and concise ranging from 7 – 10 words.
2. Amount of Content – Begin by envisioning a ‘picture paragraph’ – that is, content that is solid and clear enough to get the point across and fall ‘above the fold’ (fits within the visitor window). Remember that shorter is better – paragraph length should be no more than 50-60 words.
3. Editing – It is always advisable from both a quality assurance perspective and from a visitor’s view to have someone review and edit web copy.  Reason simply, diverse users to the web content may not interpret or understand what has been written and may need some ‘dumbing down’ for the content to resonate. 

Whether you're trying to sell products or services at a business or commercial site or if you just want to let people know the latest at your personal site, content is just as important as any of the other elements that constitute the overall brand strategy for your web site – chose wisely.

Resources:

Net Words: Creating High-Impact Online Copy by Nick Usborne

Content is King! Evaluating Content Management Systems

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Viral marketing, also referred to as word-of-mouth, is defined as a strategy or set of initiatives that encourages individuals to pass on, communicate or influence market messages and brand to others.

In the old days, you either had to buy expensive advertising or entice the media to tell your story. Unfortunately, many organizations create viral marketing campaigns based on the old rules. The best viral marketing efforts promote your organization and its products and services by delivering great online content (video, a great blog post, discussion forums, an interesting photo or graphic) that is directly tied to your products, services, and company brand. Successful viral marketing campaigns sell your ideas in a creative way that people want to share with their friends, colleagues, and family members.  

According to David Meerman Scott, this isn’t the same old marketing and PR you’ve tried before. 

DON'T:

>Obsess about being “on message.”

>Break the bank with expensive advertising.

>Beg mainstream media to write about you. 

DO:

>Tell your story directly to an interested market.

>Make it easy for people to share your content with their friends, colleagues, and family members. 

Viral marketing can also be applied to recruiting efforts and employee communication.  Reason simply, it’s great to hear about an organization through individuals who have direct experience to share. 

Viral Marketing Resources: 

The New Rules of Viral Marketing by David Meerman Scott 

Six Principles of Viral Marketing Copyright © 2000, 2005, Ralph F. Wilson, E-Mail Marketing and Online Marketing editor, Web Marketing Today.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

“Web Content Management Systems (CMS) are software toolkits that automate the rapid deployment from multiple sources.  Web content management systems (CMS) are collections of application programs and middleware that automatically organize the content for your website according to rules you set up.”
Tony Freeman at DeepBridge Technologies 

Stay true to the rationale

The benefits for a CMS that is the right fit for your organization can improve brand position, elevate the user experience, aid in customer conversion while providing content that is timely and relevant.

Most times, organizations will agree to a CMS as they think it will reduce the need for IT services and/or eliminate full-time positions.  On the contrary, the use of a CMS will actually require dedicated resources and several defined skill sets.  Moreover, if the wrong CMS is deployed, financial risks can be high.  Be aware that it's not software you're introducing to your company, but change.

What kind of software do you really need?

Defining the exact nature of your CMS requirements can be daunting but a necessary business process.  Sites often termed brochureware will migrate to a CMS that is strictly content-based whereas sites with e-commerce, digital assets, sophisticated collaboration (CRM) or enterprise integration will require a hardier CMS with more functionality. 

Start by drafting your CMS requirements and creating a formal RFP. This should be a project in and of itself, with the appropriate resources and relevant stakeholders allocated to make sure that it is done well. The RFP should include suggested infrastructure and technologies and offer vendors an opportunity to suggest alternatives as long as the suggestions are accompanied with a detailed explanation and justification.

Careful scrutiny should be given to vendors that provide training, yearly licensing and version upgrades, maintenance and support – bundled or unbundled in the fee negotiation. 

If you do your homework correctly, your CMS will have a five to ten year shelf-life and provide the organization with a defined return on investment.

Best Resources:

• CMS Watch Report
• CMS Matrix

My Pics:

Ektron CMS

Sitecore CMS 
 

Best,
Denice MacDonald

Jupiter Research determined long ago that a simple and easy-to-use navigational scheme is key to online shoppers’ satisfaction.

Online shoppers indicated they are likely to return to a retailer’s site if it is easy to navigate, particularly during the registration, log-in, and checkout processes.

Assurances regarding the security of personal financial information are also important for the majority of online shoppers.

Online shopper loyalty is also contingent upon several issues related to site features and overall site performance. Specifically, online shoppers insist on a rapid checkout process, while most stated that quick page loading is critical to their loyalty.

Quick page loading is particularly important to shoppers who have actually made purchases online in the last 12 months. Buyers stated that quick page loading made them loyal to a given online retailer compared with only 34 percent of shoppers who had not recently purchased products, but only researched their options online.

To see who’s really doing it right, check out these great web sites ranked by Internet Retailer as the top 10 online retailers. 

Amazon.com Inc. *  Staples Inc.   *  Office Depot Inc.  *  Dell Inc.   *  HP Home & Home Office Store

OfficeMax Inc.  * Apple Inc. *  Sears Holding Corp.  *  CDW Corp. *  Newegg.com

Denice's Choice . . .  TARGET!

If you are looking for the technology to put your video on the web, the variety of choices can be staggering.  That’s because as web video has flourished, so have the number of companies providing the tools to deliver video across the Internet. Large media companies and individual video bloggers can now choose from among multiple firms when looking for a web video product. Many of the technology providers are quite similar and anyone in the market for a web video platform should 'test the waters' and try out the ones that seem like the best fit.  

Web video technology services can be divided into the following categories:

CONTENT MANAGEMENT: The process of ingesting content, moving it around, converting to different files and organizing video properly before it goes online.

PROGRAMMING AND PUBLISHING: The presentation of the video on the web site, including the player and the playlists.

DISTRIBUTION: Delivering the video across the web, to either the main site or to distribution channels and portals.

MONETIZATION: Making money off the video, by integrating advertising or offering video on a download or pay-per-view basis.

REPORTING: Providing analysis and reports on number of views, length of views and other similar data. 

Check out these vendors and resources: 

Dragonfly (world-class multi-media content delivery network)

Kickapps (great for online communities or any type of 'sharing' portal)

Maven (online video advertising)

Magnify (good for both b2c and b2b)

Does your Web site deserve to succeed? According to Sarah at OneUpWeb, it doesn't if you're not constantly testing to make sure that it is easy to navigate, delivers the right kinds of information and snags conversions (be they subscriptions, lead generations or actual sales).

Hours of SEO work and carefully researched pay-per-click campaigns are practically worthless if the landing page doesn't convert users -- or they get lost in the process somewhere else on the Web site. Sarah suggests testing factors like your site's checkout process (if there is one), conversion click paths, as well as multiple image and text layouts to KNOW which features are working -- not just assume. She also offers a strategy for determining which site factors are most important for you to test, from products, to presentation to channel factors. 

In summary:

Test your site post launch to insure the user is getting to where they need to go (click paths, conversion etc. – including checkout if e-commerce enabled) 

Supplement highly interactive ads with contextual ads (measure both)

Two Word Searches: Nearly 32% of all searchers around the globe use two-word search queries, according to research from Amsterdam-based OneStat

Search engine ‘boxes’ can have both word search and ‘suggested’ search for optimum user interaction to sites 

Read Full Article Here

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Need help - try out these guys:

Charlie Sweet, Web Technology Manager at Aloha Inc. (specialty: full service)

Eric Herzberg, Owner, Linkage Internet Consulting (specialty: pay-per-click)

Denice MacDonald, President, MacDonald Consulting (specialty: link building and search engine marketing)

One of the most important sections of a web site is the web form page. Whether the goal of your site is to get visitors to sign up for your e-mail newsletter, fill out a form for more information, get a quote or purchase a product online, every aspect of your form can potentially impact conversions, and therefore should be carefully examined.

When first thinking about creating web forms, you must think beyond the input fields. When your visitors look at a web form, it’s not just a one-time decision that is being made, but more likely a series of mini-decisions. Does this graphic grab my interest? Does this headline make me want to learn more? Do I want to provide my e-mail address? Do I want to give out my phone number? Should I hit the Submit button? Do I want to refer to a friend?

Anything that is created on the form page, from top to bottom, creates or motivates a decision to act.

Here are some aspects of a web form page you should consider:

Headline - create a sense of urgency in an impact statement that appeals to YOUR customer - cliche one-liners won't work here.

Form layout - less is more here, keep it simple and easy to understand.

Pricing - make it clear what the price is AND include value (free shipping, discounts etc.).

Fields - include only fields that are necessary - too many fields will cause a visitor to opt-out.

Opt-in copy - should be enticing and include privacy/spam language.

Links - ahhh....links will not only entice but also steer customers to learn more about you or your affiliates.

Submit buttons - believe it or not, the size, shape and placement of your submit button can make or break the final step (conversion) of your web form.

How do you know if the web form is meeting a visitors criteria.  Similar to a web content page, layout the form in a wireframe - outlining exactly where fields, graphics and other interactive features will reside.  Compare against customer expectations, demographics and psychographic needs.  In some instances, the web form is the first impression of your organization if it is used in conjunction with trade show lead generation, custom landing page supporting an adword campaign or simply a direct custom URL to a product.  Remember, your goal is to get the customer to act.

Check Out These Great Resources:

Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks by Luke Wroblewski, May, 2008

Creating Wireframes

Optimizing Web Forms

Podcasting complements blogging:

Podcasting is not only user generated content, but user generated content in its most intimate and persuasive forms, it is the sound of your voice, the sound of your music or your captured video. In most cases, podcasting is affordable/free and podcasts are always portable.  Moreover, podcasting is a 'literal voice that complements the virtual voice of blogging" according to Steve Dembo, Teach42: "Why Podcast While You Already Have a Blog?"

If you have something to share – a message, information, or commentary, start with a good podcasting program that can help you create the podcasts you envision. Podcasting software can help you create professional sounding podcasts and facilitates publication to your blog, your web site or a podcast directory. This is more than what audio editing software alone can do; audio editing programs generally do not support tag and feed creation.

Where to start:

I recently completed a podcast software review for a client and found that Podcast Station was the best solution for voicecasting AND professional sounding interviews.  Since the Podcasts are meant to be shared, the publishing wizards help with tag and RSS feed creation. BUT, if you're looking for 'free' open source software supported by Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and GNU/Linux, consider Audacity - recently named in PCWorld's 'The 100 Best Products of 2008'.

Ahhh...try it out here:

Lastly, Podcast Alley is the podcast lovers portal. Featuring the best Podcast Directory and the Top 10 podcasts, as voted on by the listeners.

From Web branding to content development to deployment - who actually 'owns' the success of a Web site?

IT would suggest since they 'house' the Web site - they own it. Operations and Finance will keep close ties to the Web inferring that the site is simply a cost center to them. Sales will tell you that they have a vested interest in securing customer leads. Marketing would argue that they are the face and communication portal to customers. AND, HR would contend that the Web site is a vital recruiting tool for a new global economy. Who's right?

All of them are. It is imperative that all departments, disciplines and vested shareholders collaborate on the daily feeding and transition of the organization's Web site initiative - or else the Web site will fail.

Why? Web sites are no longer ancillary, they are mission critical - adding substantially to the organization's bottomline. Moreover, the combined needs of various departments or disciplines actually enhance the dynamic strategy behind the on-going transition of an organization's Web site by offering various views and points of entry to clients, customers, employees and shareholders.

How? Collobration does not begin by ordering various departments into a conference room for a stratgegy meeting. It begins with defining needs, strategies and business goals. In most cases than not, what the sales department requires is not much different than what the HR department may need. Each are looking to communicate the organizations value and offerings while providing easy 'call to action' scenarios for visitors and on-going interaction to the organization's Web site.

Where to begin? Start with simple site goals that require collaboration against business needs from various departments. Begin the process of determining how the needs intertwine or can be repurposed to satisfy many needs.

Example: HR is trying to hire high end sales professionals in a very tight market. Sales is trying to get a new product to market. Marketing has a tight budget but would welcome PR exposure relative to company growth.

Suggestions: Use Web video to create employee profiles for HR enticing 'like' recruits. Use the same Web video but add additional footage to introduce and email video newsletter to targeted customers and leads who may benefit from the new product. Have marketing dove-tail the email video newsletter AND Web video components to the Web site thereby increasing interaction to the site through video news releases. What will this take? Two or three days of shooting, various formatting of the Web video, simple permission-granted e-mail program and some high end content. The create it once, use many ways concept has leveraged the collaboration of various department intiatives while safeguarding a cohesive web brand strategy.

Online video is more than MySpace and ads – it’s a lot more.