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In this video interview mobile search expert Michael Martin offers a series of tips on how to make your website easily accessible to mobile devices. He discusses .mobi domains, mobile browser user detection, CSS specifically designed for mobile devices, DOC types, page loading speed, touch enabled pages, Flash, and JavaScript.

I’ve been trying advertising through BuySellAds.com – it’s been very effective. But I’d like to switch to a sponsorship structure, instead. It gives a lot more value for the sponsor, and it frankly lets me earn a bit more money.

It’s also a morale boost. I put about 15 hours/week into Conversation Marketing, minimum. Getting even a smidge of revenue soothes my capitalist soul.

If you want to sponsor this blog, here’s what you’ll get:

1. 125 x 125 banner placement on the right.
2. Mention in a weekly ‘thank you’ blog post.
3. A ‘thank you’ in any screen cast videos I do.

All links will be nofollowed, by the way.

Conversation Marketing is (currently) an AdAge Power150 top-50 blog. I get 75,000 pageviews/month, 36,000 unique visitors and 6700 RSS subscribers.

I’m hoping to get 10 sponsors, total.

Contact me if you’re interested.

Publishing content online is simple; maybe too simple. When you click publish, share or tweet, do you instantly forget about the information you just shared? In a social media culture where the hunt for the next big trend constantly exists, putting aside published content to move on to the next topic is a natural reaction. This mode of thinking makes all of us online publishers often forget one very important thing: Online content is forever.

A notebook can get thrown in the trash, and a digital document can sit in a crowded folder and be ignored forever. Blog posts, tweets, ebooks, Facebook updates, and all other content published online, however, doesn’t go away. It continuously reappears in search results across different sites. Even if you delete content that was previously published online, odds are that it is still cached somewhere on the web or has been copied by someone and placed on another site. While this may seem a little scary to some, it is also one of the key factors that has helped level the marketing playing field.

Why Forever Is Great for Marketers

With traditional marketing like direct mail and print ads, your content was disposable. Once the next trade magazine issue came out, your message was in the trash. Because of this, the only way to keep a constant flow of messages in the marketplace was to keep spending money. This gave the power to large companies with bigger budgets. In online marketing, it is much less about marketing budgets or company size; the main success factor has become agility. In online marketing, you have to be able to create content your customers want and publish it quickly.

This gives the leverage to companies that are agile. If your business takes a month to approve a tweet, then a smaller startup can easily compete in the world of online marketing due to their ability to create content and engage with customers more frequently. Because content is forever, the effect of being able to create high-quality content regularly quickly snowballs and creates more and more leverage as each month ticks by.

3 Steps for Leveraging Forever

When you are a marketer, forever is your friend. The fact that content is forever helps you build a vault of online content that new and existing competitors won’t be able to overcome. Whether you are a marketer who is new to online marketing or a veteran who is looking to squeeze out every ounce of your marketing investment, then consider these three pieces of advice.

1. Conduct a Hard Drive Audit – Set aside some time and look at the documents, videos, and other types of content that are filling up your hard drive or that might be hiding in a marketing folder on a server somewhere. As you are looking through content, think about which items could be posted online that could help you target keywords, generate search traffic, or help answer prospect and customer questions. Odds are, you have at least a few items that can help with this but have never made their way onto the web. Work to add them to your blog or corporate website.

2. Make PDFs Friendly – Marketing departments are PDF-creating machines. The problem is, while PDFs provide some search engine opportunity value, the same content presented in a different way would have a much stronger, long-term benefit. Use content that is in PDF form when possible and move it to an HTML page where you can have control over the page title, headers, and other factors that can improve on-page SEO. You don’t need to do this with all PDFs. For example, if you have a PDF download behind a landing page for lead generation, that is fine. However, if you have a PDF of a product manual, that content would work much harder for your marketing team if it was no longer in PDF form.

3. Promote Past Content – Content that is old to you isn’t necessarily old to a prospect just learning about your company for the first time. We have explained some best practices for promoting evergreen content in the past, but it is worth revisiting the issue. If you write 50 blog articles a year, it is likely that many of them aren’t time-sensitive. Take this evergreen content and reintroduce it to social media subscribers who may have only begun following you in the months following the publication date of that blog post. Promoting existing content is a great way to improve thought leadership and leader generation without dedicating the time needed to write a new article.

How do you leverage forever?

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The short version: Learn to use the TRIM() command in whatever programming language you’re using, so you remove spaces that some poor soul accidentally includes in a data they enter via web form.

The TRIM() command

Every programming language has some version of the TRIM() command. TRIM() removes leading and trailing spaces from any alphanumeric string. So, if you type ‘ blah blah blah ‘, TRIM(‘ blah blah blah ‘) ends up being ‘blah blah blah’.

Use that any time you’re processing data from a web form. It’s good defensive design. And, as it turns out, it costs a whopping $.75 to do it.

That’s the whole lesson. You’re done.

If you want to read the long version, with narration and cost-benefit analysis, though, here you go:

I love Wells Fargo Bank

I love Wells Fargo Bank. In Bizarro world I do, anyway. Actually, I hate them with a passion normally reserved for cat- and puppy-beaters. That’s a long story with which I shall not bore you.

But now and then you can learn something from them, like how not to create a usable web site.

My story begins

Today, I logged on to their web site to pay off my company’s line of credit. It’s a monthly ritual that now strikes fear in my heart, since you never know when you’ll pay off said line only to have some demon at the bank say Oh, you paid it off? That’s great! As a thank you, we’re going to reduce your available credit by 75%. You’re welcome.

But I digress.

I logged in. Their ‘Accounts’ screen shows you balances on credit cards, lines of credit, etc.. If you go to the ‘Transfer’ screen to pay them off, they don’t show those balances. So you have to either memorize them, or copy-and-paste.

No, that’s not the usability snafu I’m writing about here – it’s just the groundwork.

So, I copied the balance, went to the Transfer screen and pasted the balance. Then I clicked ‘Transfer’, and got this dire warning:

I looked at my number. Hmmm. It has a dollar sign, so I deleted it and clicked Transfer again.

Same mysterious error.

I double-checked that I was paying off the right amount, which required that I go back to the accounts screen, then start the transfer over again. I was indeed.

At this point, I start to wonder the amount is ‘invalid’ because it pays the line off in full, and Wells Fargo would like a little interest, thank you very much.

Finally, I realize that my copy-and-paste had included a space at the end. So instead of $999.99 I had pasted in $999.99_ where the ‘_’ is a space.

I deleted the space, and it worked.

Cost-benefit analysis

I wonder how many calls Wells Fargo has received because some poor bugger left a space in a transfer amount?

Let’s do a little math, shall we?

If they get, say, 10,000 people per day using online banking (probably a small number) and of those people, 5% do balance transfers, that’s 500 transfers per day.

If 1% of those people include a space at the end of their transfer amount, because they copy-and-paste, that’s 5 frustrated customer every day.

If those customers call the bank for help (assuming they can reach someone), and they take an average of 10 minutes per call, that’s 50 minutes per day for some customer support person. Having talked to Wells Fargo support, I know they use some pretty cool people, actually – once they drive you crazy they let you talk to a human being – and they’re paying US wages, so figure $27,000/year at the low end.

Total cost of crappy defensive design? $10/day, roughly, or $3600/year.

Total time required to add a TRIM() command in whatever programming language Wells Fargo uses? 60 seconds, if you type really slow.

Assuming Wells Fargo is using highly paid developers who get $90,000/year to drive me insane, total cost of using TRIM() is $.75.

I could have saved you guys $3599.25. You could have used that to, I dunno, get me an anger management counselor after you tried to turf my company. But cash works.

I’ll take my payment in non-sequential pennies, please.

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Online marketing is unique for each business. For large businesses that rely on channel partners to sell and distribute products, the online marketing process can be a challenge. With many channel partners across multiple locations, how can a business make sure that partners have the leads they need to help grow the business?

In a recent conversation with a channel marketing manager I was asked, “What can I do now to get my partners and resellers found?” As with many channel marketing managers, their time is very constrained, but the need to do more lead generation for their resellers is ever present. Additionally, they often talk about how their resellers do a great job once someone is introduced to them, but often their own websites are not helping them bring in new leads. After asking me that question, she said, “I wish I could just give them a few tips to get them started in Inbound Marketing and getting website traction”

5 Tips For Channel Partner Lead Generation

1. Identify Longtail Keywords -  Find 10 keywords that are in the longtail for your services or products and provide them to your resellers and partners to use.  Keywords need to be used in a consistent way on each webpage in the page title, the URL, the page headers and text. By doing the background research and providing a starting point, your partners or resellers can quickly optimize their pages.

2. Provide Partners with Lead Generation Offers -  Create an offer such as a ebook or webinar that can be downloaded or accessed from each partner’s website. Maybe your company provides security software and you have a tool that does a quick, free sweep of their network to test for vulnerability. Another option would be to offer a free assessment that will help prospect better understand which product offering best fits their needs. By creating these downloads, you are giving your reseller network an offer they can give visitors that come to their websites.

3. Create a Landing Page Template – Create a standard landing page that every reseller can put on their main page of their website to both capture lead data, and provide an offer. 70% of visitors to a website are in the “early stage” of buying. They are not ready to purchase, but are starting to investigate. Instead of having them visit your site and then “drive on”, give them an offer in exchange for collecting some of their information, even if it is just an email address. This will allow you to stay in touch with them via email offers or turn over the lead to your sales team for qualification and follow up.

4.  Develop An Email Template and Campaign – Email is an important part of the lead generation mix. Create a great email marketing campaign with an offer that each partner can send to new leads. Maybe it is a free assessment of a website, or an opportunity to attend a free consulting session. This campaign is to help move leads further down the funnel and to help increase a partners lead-to-customer percentages. Often channel managers have the ability to give marketing funds for offers, so why not provide them the email message to use as well.

5. Share Partner Successes –   If one of your partners is finding an offer is converting leads well or a free assessment is leading to more business in the door, let the network know! Inbound marketing may be new, but closing a deal is well understood and anything that drives more business to one partner will help the overall brand and network as well. Share the success!

What have you done to help improve inbound marketing for your channel partners?

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Here at HubSpot, we get a lot of questions around website redesigns. When should they be done, how should they be done and what mistakes not to make. In this three part series, we’ll examine some of the common pitfalls you might fall into and ways to avoid them.

One thing that all of our partners agreed upon, is that before embarking on any redesigns, companies should truly understand their goals and their customers. Without these necessary prep steps, you’ll wind up designing a website in a vacuum and wasting money. Here are just a few of the key questions that you should ask yourself before you change one pixel:

What Are Your Goals?

We also heard from HubSpot Partner Kelly Ward, of Digital K, who believes that “it’s important to take a top-level view of the website. [Figure out] what are you trying to ACHIEVE with your website? Are you trying to attract new customers? Service existing customers? Portray a new image for your company?”

What Are You Currently Doing Right?

HubSpot partner Keith Moehring of PR 20/20 echoes just these sentiments. He says that “Prior to doing any type of redesign … a company needs to look at what keywords are driving traffic and to which pages, and what pages have incoming links…Another area that needs to be evaluated thoroughly is who is coming to the site and what is drawing them in.”

Are You Doing This For the Right Reasons?

Top Line Results’ Todd Hockenberry feels that sometimes website redesigns happen for the wrong reasons. First, there’s the “redesign as part of new management.” He writes “Not having a clear, strategic reason why they are redesigning is one I see regularly. Companies still look internally for that answer way too often – new manager, new logo, re-organization, don’t like the design.”

Todd also thinks that sometimes, companies build a site as a means of fixing all their business issues, without looking deeper at their true problems. He says, “We deal with a lot of small to medium sized manufacturers and there are many who think a new website will be a field of dreams.”

So, What are the “Right” Answers?

This last question is actually a trick question. There is no one right answer to these questions; every company has different motivations and goals with a redesign. However, take the time before starting to make sure that you’re investing your time and money wisely. To ensure that you are being true to your company’s needs & goals, really analyze if a redesign is necessary and what you want to accomplish.

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The four most important social media channels to marketers are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube (See the 2010 State of Inbound Marketing for data). But which one(s) are the most active for your industry? HubSpot recently analyzed 33 industries to find out. An overview of data from our new ebook, the Online Marketing Opportunity Report is displayed below:

So what does this data mean for your business? To begin with, low activity doesn’t necessarily equate to low opportunity; it may just mean that you need to adjust your strategy for that channel.

HubSpot put together a comprehensive guide to applying this type of data to your business, along with a more detailed analysis of all 33 industries. Download our free eBook to read more.

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Do you wonder if it is worth the effort to start a Twitter account or a Facebook page?

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The following is a guest post by John McTigue, Executive Vice President and Co-Owner of Kuno Creative. Kuno Creative is a Certified HubSpot Partner Agency based in Avon, OH that specializes in building brands and capturing sales leads.

Crafting a good whitepaper isn’t easy. Creating one that will capture leads is an even bigger challenge. Although there is no standard definition of what constitutes a whitepaper, most people would agree that they differ from blogs in scope, style and intent:

Scope

Whitepapers are usually in-depth reports on a specific topic, like a research paper intended for publication on the Web. Typically at least 10 pages in length with illustrations, charts and references, the average whitepaper is not designed for casual browsing and usually requires several readings to glean the full extent of its information. Readers expect a high degree of expertise backed by solid research that is fully documented by references. It can take weeks or even months to write and polish a good whitepaper.

Style

Whitepapers are usually serious in tone and professional in appearance. You can expect your readers to include people who are considering purchasing your products or services, so you want to make sure your whitepapers are written well, edited well and formatted to represent your brand on the same level as your brochures and website. It’s a good idea to enlist the services of a graphic designer to layout your pages, images, fonts and colors for best results. Have at least two experienced writers review your document for grammar, spelling and accuracy. Make sure your management team has reviewed it to avoid possible problems with content or strategy.

Intent

Blogs are intended for reaching out to the general public, to update them on your ideas and strategies. More often than not, blogs are opinion-based. Usually blogs are informal and often playful. Whitepapers are for capturing leads – it’s all about business. You are providing something truly valuable for your target audience. Good information backed by well-documented research is worth its weight in gold. When someone signs up for your whitepaper on your landing page they are connecting with you and allowing you to connect with them further, i.e. move them further down the sales funnel. They will gladly do this if your whitepaper provides useful information and insight they can’t get elsewhere.

So what constitutes a great lead-generating whitepaper?

1. Find a topic that feeds a need. You must know your target market, what do they want to know and what’s already out there? You can explore topics in social media and community sites that generate a lot of comments. If you have expertise in one of those topics, get to work.
2. Put your heart into it. Don’t just patch together a bunch of other peoples’ work. Analyze the data and add value by evaluating options and presenting them to your readers in an easy to understand way.
3. Make it substantial. Cover the ground. Make an outline first, and organize it well into chapters or sections. It’s a good idea to make each section a “bite-sized” chunk, maybe one page with charts or graphics that covers a certain point.
4. Make it authoritative. Do your homework and make sure you mention previous authoritative work on the subject. Your mission isn’t to be the only expert in the field – it’s to be the latest expert with the freshest insights.
5. Create a great landing page. Include a summary and topics to let people know what the whitepaper’s about. Tell them why it’s important to them, and with time and exposure, include some snippets from comments and reviews.

Here are some examples of whitepapers on inbound marketing:

• Inbound Marketing Blueprint for the C-Suite (Kuno Creative)
• Inbound Marketing Gameplan (PR2020)
• The 7 Universal Laws Of Pull Marketing (PullnotPush)
• <a title="Internet Marketing Whitepapers” href=”http://www.hubspot.com/internet-marketing-whitepapers/” target=”_self”>Internet Marketing Whitepapers (HubSpot)

Tell us about some great whitepapers you have downloaded and why you liked them.

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A recent report in The Financial Times indicates that Google is in talks with some big studios in Hollywood, to show their movies on YouTube on a pay-per-view basis.

It is believed that users will be charged at the rate of about $5 per movie which they stream.

Google used to offer a video on demand service through Google Video, but that has been discontinued since 2007, and users have been expecting a similar service to be restarted. Google has been considering this move since April 2009, when they announced that they would start a payment mechanism for their video sharing site YouTube. The talks with the studios have however warmed up in recent weeks. YouTube has already run a test of this service in January this year with the Sundance Film Festival

Once the service actually starts, Google will be in direct competition with both Apple and Netflix, as it has been reported that Apple is already working on a new digital video service which may be available on the next generation of the Apple TV.

In the meanwhile Netflix has already made a five year deal with companies like Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate for about $1 billion.

Walt Disney, News Corp and NBC Universal also have an online video service called Hulu which is considering an Initial Public Offering of $2 billion.

While the sources for this information have not been revealed by the Financial Times, it is believed to have come from people who would know about such developments. A YouTube representative says, “We have nothing to announce at this time.”

Results of a recent eye-tracking study conducted at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona sheds light on interesting user behavior on a universal search results page.

The study, conducted by Mari-Carmen Marcos a professor and Cristina González-Caro a PhD student at the university, classifies search queries into 4 categories:

1. Informational – where the user looks for information such as an address or definition of a term
2. Navigational – where the user searches for a website or brand instead of typing its URL in the browser
3. Transactional – when the user wants to conduct a transaction such as booking a ticket
4. Multimedia – where the user searches for a photo or video

58 participants were studied. The subjects were between 18 to 55 years of age. 25 were male and 33 were female.

Heat maps showing user fixations on Google results for Informational v Transactional queries

When searching for information, the users spent 53% of the time on a page looking at snippets, 34% of the time looking at the title and 13% of the time on the URL. These users were found not to be distracted by the presence of images on the search results page.

For navigational search queries, the fixation times were similar to informational queries, with 48% of the time on the page devoted to snippets, 33% to titles and a slightly higher, 15% to the URLs. About 5% of the time was spent on images in these search results.

Most of the attention was centred on the image itself on search results for a multimedia query. 71% of the time on an image search results page was spent looking at the images themselves.

Participants of the study were found to spend much more time looking at sponsored links when the query was of a transactional nature. Nevertheless, the number of looks or fixations on sponsored links was still found to be just 17% versus 82% on the organic results.

Percentage fixations (number and time) on organic v sponsored results

56% of the time on the transactional query’s search results page on the whole was spent looking at snippets, 28% on titles and a surprisingly high 20% on the URL. However, when considering just the sponsored links, the amount of time spent on the title was disproportionately much higher, commanding 43% of the time as against 28% for the snippet and 29% for the URL.

For search marketing professionals this means that a lot more attention should be paid to their ad headlines and display URLs.

Interestingly, that the number of actual fixations was found to be much higher for transactional queries (9.8%) than for informational (2.8% ) or navigational (5%) queries.

Sponsored results placed above the organic search results got a lot more attention (79%) than those in the right hand column (21%), which is not surprising.

Read the full eye-tracking study (Spanish PDF 2.28 MB)