Wondering how to evaluate your website?

Thank you Marsha Kopan for sharing this link.

"Is content structurally separate from navigational elements?"
"Are links labeled with anchor text that provides a clear indication of where they lead."
"The fonts should be easily readable, and degrade gracefully.- Should look OK on various screen resolutions."
"Is the website copy succinct but informative?"
Just some of the information provided in this post.

clipped from www.searchenginejournal.com Search Engine Journal 50 Questions to Evaluate the Quality of Your Website February 20th, 2008 by CarstenCumbrowski | 29 Comments Other Marketing Considerations Legal Stuff/Re-Assurance/Legitimization Here is a long and pretty detailed list of questions that a website owner should asked himself about his own website. If the answer to every question that follows below was answered with yes, you can be very pleased with yourself and consider yourself the top of the crop, because most websites have flaws for a number of different reasons, mostly related to the limitation of resources and sacrifices that must be made as a direct result of the shortage. Accessibility Navigation Design Content Security Other Technical Considerations

Subway v. Quiznos

negative marketing reflects poorly on everyone involved

clipped from www.whatsnextblog.com Subway v Quiznos - Nobody Wins in User Generated Content War As you read this post, please keep this question in mind: If your product really is the best, would you have to malign your competitor or invite your customers to discredit them? Somewhere along the line of transition from old to new media, some of the worst practices of old media have been perpetuated. Instead of focusing on how to have the best products and services in their category, or better yet, in the world, companies and their ad agencies still knock the competition. That’s the real bottom line on Quiznos 2007 Meat or No Meat online contest that asked the public to create videos that show why Quiznos subs are better than Subway subs. According to Subways' lawsuit against Quiznos, the legal issue is whether Quiznos should be held responsible for the content of user-generated videos made at its behest. The real issue is whether corporations and ad agencies understand the Internet

Link Relationships

keeping an eye on technology

clipped from www.blogbusinesssummit.com Google’s new Social Graph API means it’s time to start using XFN by Jason Preston | February 1st, 2008 The news is out today that Google has launched a Social Graph API - basically an open tool for charting social connections on the open web. What this means, in short, is that XFN matters now. Google launched with some example tools that let you map out what link relationships they’ve found with your blog and other web sites. This type of link data has existed for a while, and if you’re using WordPress, you may have already put it in. The big holdup has really been that until now there hasn’t been much use for that metadata—if you bothered to fill in all the information about how you’re connected to the people you link to, nobody cared. So why bother? Well now Google is trying to pull the kind of relationship superdata that people are generating in Social Networks like Facebook (which, incidentally, Google can’t crawl like it can crawl the open web) out into blogs and web sites.

Resource for online marketing

clipped from blog.inc.com Following the (Virtual) Crowds Posted by Max Chafkin at 5:11 PM This month’s cover package, “The New Basics of Marketing,” went live on Inc.com yesterday. As the title suggests it’s a comprehensive guide to what’s new in online marketing—covering everything from social networks to text message advertising. In putting together the package, we frequently wrestled with this question: How much technology is too much? Which technologies are worth considering, and which ones should be left to the futurists, bloggers, and your children? Should every CEO of every company spend the next few months building up a presence on Tubearoo, WikiHow, Furl and the 47 other must have networks on the list? Probably not. But, as we wrote in this month’s issue, every company should at least understand what social networks are all about. Read our story to find out why and then check out this sidebar for a guide to advertising on a handful of the top networks.

Resources for ways to market online

List of social networks

clipped from www.insidecrm.com 50 Social Sites That Every Business Needs a Presence on Web sites to help your company network, advertise recruit and more. If your business limits its online presence to advertising banners and blogging, it's missing out. The Internet provides powerful networking opportunities that allow users to effectively target their audience by logging on to social sites like LinkedIn, Digg and more. Take advantage of these tools by asserting your company's presence online and reaching more potential customers, business partners and employees. Social-Media/Social-Bookmarking Sites Professional-Networking Sites Niche Social-Media Sites General Social-Media Sites Job Sites

Social Networks: Ready to Join the Party?

Are social networks right for your company

clipped from www.inc.com Social Networks: Ready to Join the Party? Selling yourself on Facebook. Beyond the simple fact that social networks offer advertisers access to tens of millions of potential customers, they present two clear opportunities for more effective campaigns. First, they promise the ability to target customers with precision. If you want to reach baseball-loving twentysomethings who live in Seattle and have a college education, you can find social network groups that fill the bill. Second, social networks encourage your customers to recommend your company to others. Let's say your company has a Facebook profile, and another user signs on as a "fan" of yours. Facebook will then alert that person's friends, informing them of the connection. Voilà: textbook viral marketing for free.

Facebook Marketing Resources

Lots of links to information about using Facebook as a markteting tool.

clipped from www.insidecrm.com The Facebook Marketing Toolbox: 100 Tools and Tips to Tap the Facebook Customer Base Learn to use Facebook as an advertising platform. By Inside CRM Editors on January 23, 2008 If you're thinking of tapping into the Facebook crowd for some high-profile advertising, take a look at this list of 100 tools and tips that will help you maximize all of the applications and opportunities that Facebook has to offer.

Even large companies identify a niche

clipped from blog.inc.com Find Your Niche and Develop It! And I'd speculate that your business or industry probably isn't that different either. It's a universal truism that all businesses need to find their own niche and align their strengths around it. Aquascape's strength is in its products, training and education, marketing and brand. Our distributors' strengths run the gamut, and it's up to each and every one of them to figure out for themselves how they want to leverage those to service the customer. And the customer, after all, is the only one who truly matters in the end. As for our original distributors who chose to stay on ... so far so good! Almost every one increased sales in an open market, further validating that free market economies work. That is, provided you find your niche!